July 23, 2004
Crankie Frankie
I know some of you come to the blog to read about knitting, some to see what inane Gratuitous Story of the Day is going to come burbling out of my brain, some for the gardening photos, some for the natural dyeing, some because we’re fambly (hi, Big Sister Wonka, Cousin Sal, Cousin Tom, any other fambly members out there!), some because we’re—ahem—“family”…and some because you are big fans of our Frankie.
Well, Frankie Fans, this picture may make you change your minds:
I’m betting on the dog; how about you?
Actually, there is a lot more to this photo than meets the eye but you’d have to know The Mysterious K and MizzFrankie to suss it out—but, fortunately for you, I am, as always, more than willing to spill the beans.
First, in between running her own business, gardening, woodworking, being The Best Cook Ever, swimming, biking, reading, video games, managing her pestiferous diabetes, and fawning over my knitting when I shove it in her face and say “Look! Look! Look!,” TMK is now taking photography lessons, and this is one of her first photographs using her newly acquired knowledge. I think it’s a fantastically dynamic and expressive photo myself, especially since the ball seems to be floating in the air even as it moves along at a fast clip. And then, of course, there’s the loving and amiable expression on Frankie’s face.
Secondly, despite appearances, there isn’t an ounce of this kind of meanness in this dog. The vicious grimace is a by-product of her thinking that if she opens her mouth wide enough she can actually get ahold of the large, smooth, stiff, slippery, fast-moving ball. She is wrong. (And she will continue to be wrong until that inevitable moment when she shoves the ball against something sharp and pointy, the ball makes a sudden, sad “pthththth” sound, and quickly and mysteriously becomes much more pliant.)
Thirdly, since infancy, Frankie has been trained not to go into the flowerbeds. (She has taken this rule so much to heart that one time she stopped so abruptly at the edge of one of the beds that, although her sturdy front legs stopped and stayed firmly planted, her hind end flew six or seven inches into air with the sudden loss of momentum. And when you are only 12" tall, you're talking borderline doggy handstand.) All by herself, however, Frankie decided that the inviolable Flowerbed Law applies to All Things Except Her Two Mommies. If another dog heads toward the flowerbeds, Frankie will race around in front of it and herd it away. And she does the same thing with balls. In this picture, Frankie has just made a sharp u-turn in front of the ball and is blocking it with her body to prevent it from going into the bed. I suspect her motives for doing this are more selfish than altruistic since, if the ball does make it into the bed, she's up a creek until Mommy or Mommy retrieves it—which may or may not happen, depending on how lazy we're feeling and how many dadblasted times we've already gotten the ball out of the bed.
And, lastly, if you’re wondering, yes, that is a SpongeBob SquarePants ball. And no, Anne, this does not make anywhere near as good a Victorian gazing ball as last year’s ball did.
Knitting Knews
It's perversely satisfying to report that I have already lost one of my beaded stitch markers. Took them to Guild, put one on the Janine Pillow, drove home, retrieved the pillow from my knitting bag, the stitch marker was gone. See? See? See?!
Wednesday night's Guild was a mixture of blah and fantastic. The "blah" part came mostly from the fact that we were in a temporary location, which turned out to be a cramped, hot and musty church basement. Personally, I was amused by the sign pointing into the room which said "Casual Worship Breakfast." I envisioned a bunch of congregants shlumping around in shorts and t-shirts saying, lackadaisically, "God. Jesus. Heaven. Salvation. Whatever."
But the "blahness" was tempered by the opportunity to mingle and chat with Feralites, Soirettes, a kind and dear neighbor who was a first-timer, and the usual assortment of other fun and funny knitters. And things got even better when, after the meeting, another first-timer, Jessica, who recognized me from the blog, came up and introduced herself—always a brave thing to do. I was tickled. After we had shot the breeze for a while, I got wind of the fact that Jessica and two other women (one of whom, Marti, I already knew) were going to continue knitting together at a local bookstore and all of a sudden, manners be damned, I found my hand waving frantically in the air as I begged to be invited along. I think if I had been a puppy I would have peed on someone's shoes in excitement. But they graciously invited me to join them and we spent another nice hour getting to know each other, knitting, eating, and laughing. The perfect Knitter's Evening Out!
(Side note to my Texan Dear Readers: 95+ degrees here today and tomorrow. Difference is, no air conditioning. Ack!)
Posted by Ryan at July 23, 2004 09:34 AM