It's hot

It is definitely hotter today than it has been. Kia Ora agrees:
Gwilim thinks it's kind of fun, because the birds are so active. He wants to play with them.
I don't know why it suddenly got hot, since this past weekend has been warm and humid, but not hot. I'm glad it wasn't too hot, though, because we had a busy weekend.

My parents came in from out of town for a visit, which was great fun, especially for the girls, who love being spoiled by Memere and Grandpa. On Friday night, Tess went to bed early so that we could go to the midnight release of Harry Potter. She's a little young for it, but I figured she's read them all (multiple times), and this is the last one, so we went. My friend had picked up our ticket, but since we hadn't reserved the book in advance (I dithered about whether to take her until the last minute), we were in the last group (First Years). I was sure we'd have to bail and pick one up on Saturday (but figured it had still been fun for her to see the spectacle), when my friend, who had been in the second group, came out of the crowd at 12:30, waving not one, but TWO books. They'd let her buy and extra for us, and we were outta there. Talk about happy endings.

Tess finished the book on Saturday, and I finished it at midnight Sunday (way too much to do this week to be distracted). No spoilers here. We can talk about it later when everyone who is going to read it has done so.

On Saturday, we had a relaxing day (with a mandatory recovery nap for the girls), and then headed down to San Diego to go see the pops symphony play a concert, part of which was to accompany some of the performers from Cirque du Soleil (absolutely one of my all-time favorite groups). It was amazing. The music was beautiful, and the performers just blew us away. I can't believe the things that they can do with their bodies while making it look so easy! It's unreal, and makes me think that I should go to yoga classes more than once a week (lol). The San Diego symphony is really quite good, and after I hear them I always wonder why we don't go more often. The last piece they played was Ravel's Bolero, which I'd never heard performed live before. Y'know, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there's a reason why some pieces are so famous they're almost trite. It's because they're brilliant. Bolero's one of them. I loved hearing the theme get handed off to a new instrument while the old one took a turn at the underlying rhythm; music like that is so tremendously engaging, and it's fun to listen to the whole symphony for a while, then focus on one instrument, then pan out again (auditorally speaking) to the whole.

On Sunday we went to the beach. A good time was had by all.
(This last one is Tess headed for the waves with a boogie board in hand.) It was so humid on the beach that the water actually started falling from the sky. I believe they call it rain, but we haven't seen any in so long that I'm not sure. It certainly cleared the beach off quickly though, and we repurposed our sun umbrellas quickly.

I got quite a bit of knitting done on the beach, and finished the first modified Jaywalker. I started the second Sunday night while we watched an episode of Planet Earth -- talk about amazing nature photography! We also watched the Tour last night, which was some serious knitting time. So I've turned the heel on the second sock, and am gusseting away madly.
I'm happy with them after all; I wasn't sure after messing with the pattern like I did, but now I am. I also got the yarn for Tess' Millicents. I ordered the yarn from The Loopy Ewe -- I love them! They're so very nice and speedy, and their yarn selection is amazing. I don't know how they do it, but they always put a personalized note on the order slip, too; they must never sleep.
The color doesn't really quite come through here, but it's a perfect navy blue for school socks. I'm thinking that I'll not start these until we leave on our trip to the U.P. next Friday; I'm guessing that knee-socks might be enough of a knitting project to last the week. Although with two eight-hour drives and flying time to Chicago in the offing, maybe not. OK, now I'm reconsidering. But I don't want to bring along Kiv's sweater; it's bulky and will take up WAY too much room. Maybe more socks? Then when I get home, I'll be ready to dive into sweaters? Maybe I could start Bianca's jacket? That yarn's light. Hmmm... Decisions, decisions.

All right, I'm off to try to get inspired to work in spite of the heat. Wish me luck!