Rock N' Roll!

Wow - two blog posts in one week! Can you believe it? I know it's unusual, but this has been an eventful week here at the Gardiner house. Apart from the usual madness, Bill was in Southern California for a business trip and had much excitement down there. First, he was in the big earthquake (well, not so big, but certainly the biggest they've had in quite awhile). He was eating at In-N-Out Burger at the time and suddenly his chair started shaking and the light fixtures swinging. Big fun!

(I'm actually really jealous, since I am totally obsessed with earthquakes and my secret fantasy is that I get to experience a huge shaker, out in the middle of a field somewhere where there's nothing to fall on me. I would not want to be at the top of First Bank Tower in downtown LA during "the big one". And of course there's all the pesky chance of injury, death and property damage. Setting aside all that, I just can't help myself - I dig earthquakes!)

His second adventure, after recovering from his violent shaking, was to head up to Santa Barbara and get this:



My mom is going to be so horrified. But isn't it amazing? It's incredibly vivid and perfect. He didn't go see Kat Von D (although we did watch her obsessively on Miami Ink for awhile) but instead went to see Pat Fish, who is a Celtic art specialist. He chose the Father Knot design, which "represents the way all family members point inward to the father". It's very, very cool.

We've been talking about getting tattoos for a long time. We originally came up with the idea that we'd go together for our Christmas gift to each other a couple winters ago. Then I discovered that you can't get tattooed while you're still nursing. After that, it was bandied about off and on, but I couldn't figure out what design I'd want to get (I've since found it, and Mom, if you're reading this, take a deep breath...it's really not the worst thing a person can do to themselves). Bill got sick of waiting, I guess, and now I'm totally jealous! If anyone has gotten inked in the Portland area and has an artist recommendation, please let me know! Now that Bill has done it, I'm feeling all left out.

I mentioned the fact that Bill was planning to get a tattoo to my friend Donna when we got together to talk about Gardiner Yarn Works stuff on Tuesday, and her first comment was "But he's so straight-laced!" That's what I thought when I first met him, but I've since learned that although my honey has the exterior of a banker, he's got the heart of a biker.



Speaking of bikers, to make up for the fact that we were missing out on all the excitement down south, the kids and I went to K-Mart (yeah, I know, but it's not as bad as Wal-Mart - at least, that's how I justify it to myself) and got some new bikes.



They've been fighting over the little bike we got for Sydney when she turned 2, so I decided it was time to get them each their own properly-sized bikes. They both started out in tears because those big bikes are a lot harder to get moving than the mini-bike (or their tricycles). Sydney and I had to have a long, tearful discussion about why she was going to have to practice, not give up, and develop those leg muscles so that she could push that much larger bike around. I promised her (when she sobbed "But I just want to go fast") that she'd be able to go faster on this bike than she ever could on her little tiny baby bike. That seemed to appease her for the moment.

And now it's REALLY time to stop procrastinating and get those patterns printed, those draft patterns sent to the test knitters, those submissions sent off, that yarn located... Every once in awhile it hits me like a ton of bricks that both kids are going to be in school in the fall, and I'm going to be by myself much of the day, five days a week! Woo-hoo! I'm not going to know what to do with myself!