Update with animals and children

Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  This has been an animals-and-kids kind of week.  It kicked off with a fun Mother's day, at which I mostly got to appreciate my offspring at a distance, which was the way I loved spending Mother's Day when they lived with me, so that kind-of continues the tradition.  Thanks for the texts and cards, y'all!  

Cow planters that Inkling didn't get me for Mother's Day.
Don't be too jealous; she didn't get them for you, too!

And also, I got to entertain Other People's kids at church, with Little Animals in Little Bags.  This was a nice bookend, because at the end of the week, I got to entertain kids at a doctor's office by making jumping frogs (but that story comes later).

Little Animals in Little Bags, with frog material to one side.

During the middle of the week, I had lots of math fun.  This was very good for the psyche, but not as exciting to write about, unless you really want to know about static dynamics of funicular diagrams (I'm guessing, no?).  So let me just share a trophy instead:  my husband said that I really ought to include a picture of the trophy I won at the Peep Diorama display earlier this spring.  

I asked the organizers: 
"We're going to do this next year again, right? 
So I can give the trophy back to someone else?" 
And they just chortled and said, "Oh, no no no."

Since one of the most excellent things about doing math is that it pairs well with random physical activity (for example, the final idea for my PhD thesis came to me while I was scrubbing a floor in Oxford, England one summer), I got to spend a bit of math time while working on my yoga mat, and I am very, very happy to say, it is done.  

A completed Denim Yoga mat, still on the frame.

This means that I've been able to take the frame/loom apart, disassembling this baby back into smaller pieces, which makes moving around in my command center a bit easier.

The Yoga mat crumpled at the food of the frame,
cuddled up with a braided denim rug I'd made long ago.
The frame is now ready to be disassembled
and put back in the basement.

Now that the project is done, I have to say it's perhaps not the most pragmatic of the projects I've undertaken.  For one thing, I don't actually do yoga.  For another thing, this baby is substantial -- it weighs 10 pounds -- so, it's probably not a great gift for other people who actually do yoga.  But making the Yoga Mat really was an enjoyable project while it lasted, and I like the way it feels underfoot.  I've decided to use it in my bedroom (since I don't do yoga, I might as well not do yoga next to my bed), and the mat is a lovely thing to put my feet on as I head to bed in the evening or as I rise first thing in the morning.  

But back to kids and animals.  On Tuesday, Prewash did her annual visit to the vet.  She has a frugal owner, but she's not at all a frugal dog, and her vet visits are pricey, due to her sensitive ears, stomach, and kidneys. Yeesh.  I'm glad our vet is right around the corner and that she's overall strong, thanks to the vet plying us with Many Meds.

Nelson had an interview Thursday with a gas station.  Rumors are, he got the job.  (Yes?  Somehow, I didn't get in touch with him).   

The day after Nelson's interview, I did a series of workshops with local gifted-and-talented school kids, whose confidence is admirable: I described some cool geometry stuff, and they tell me they know it all.  They completely get right angles, they tell me.  They then proceed to draw lines going every-which-the-heck-way, and the drawings just thrilled them because of their prowess.  These were happy, happy kids.  

The next day, I got to spend the day with my three grandchildren.  In the same vein, it was fun to see how Achild and Bchild are so confident and adventurous. We had a great time climbing and swinging and drawing things on the playground. (Achild declared, "I am really good at drawing fairies!!") .  

C-child hanging out in a rare moment of quiet and calm.

While I was there, I kept hearing a telephone or doorbell ringing in the distance, and then I realized the ringing was actually in my ear.  My left ear in particular got more and more stopped up and sore (and kept doing the feedback ringing thing), and so after I left the kiddoes and did a few other visits to people I'd made plans to see, I went to urgent care where I (1) got to make jumping frogs for two different random children who were likewise waiting, and (2) learned that I have seasonal allergies.  

Here are some random weird things about my allergies.

• Flonase is apparently a wonder drug (says my doc); it'll take about three days for it to kick in, but then it'll be like magic.
• Flonase and Flomax are very, very different medicines.
• If I stick my finger in my right ear, I get a dial tone in my left ear.  
• If I call out or sing, my left ear rings like church bells or distant telephones.   
• Although this feels a little bit like a cool magic trick, I'll be ready for it to stop soon.
• I don't have a runny (that I can detect; the doc says I do, but you could have fooled me) or itchy eyes or sneezing or anything else that I would associate with allergies. Bodies are complicated!

And that's the latest from our neck of the woods, where we continue to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.