Snakes in the Grass

Back on July 13 I said I had some finished objects without proof. Here's some more evidence. What we have here is one and a half Snake Socks. It's taking me a while as life keeps interrupting hobby. I worked about 12 hours on Monday and was heard muttering "this is keeping me from my knitting, darn it." But I have my priorities - no job, no yarn.

I didn't make it to the yarn store on Saturday to pick up my next project - the Hedgehog, but maybe I can get out of work a little early on Thursday and pick up everything I need. I have to get started before co-workers babies get here.

My friend Peri was here on Sunday for diner, duck watching and blog sharing. She lives in town and we live in what MFB and I call "cottage country". On the menu was chicken breasts marinated with a mixture of diet Sierra Mist with 1/2 a package of Good Seasons Italian Salad Dressing done on the BBQ (trust me this is good). Fresh vegies and new potatoes with a key lime juice drizzled on them folded up in aluminum foil and grilled on the BBQ and some fresh mixed fruit. Here's the thing, with barbequing everything - less kitchen clean up more time for fun. Peri brought sugar free angel food cake, sugar free Cool Whip and fresh blueberries. I hardly ever eat blueberries, but these were delicious. We try to go low carb and no sugar other than natural ones whenever we can, and Peri is in training for the Nike Women's Half-Marathon in California in October so the menu suited us all.

Hope everyone is staying cool. Special thoughts going out to my family in Arizona!! I sure hope this heat wave breaks soon for everyone hard hit.

And finally...
MFB took my Volvo S80 (shown here at it's favorite shoe store on our way home from South Dakota) to the specialist in Harrisburg where it is scheduled to go under the knife tomorrow for the air conditioner injury it suffered in Canada a couple weeks ago. We received the diagnosis today and found out it wasn't terminal after all.

We had some scary moments when we were told that the timing belt might also be involved as it was 20,000 miles past recommended replacement. But when we confirmed with our local General Practitioner that we replaced the belt before our sojurn to South Dakota we were doing a happy dance.

The diagnosis was blown hose rather than blown compressor. This compares to blown ligament rather than full knee replacement. Like the ligament the hose is in a place(where we can't even see it) that would take us at least two hours to replace with skinned knuckles and colorful language. The Freon needing to be replaced like saline solution and in Canada can only be done by the professionals due to the hazardous materials so we decided to leave it with the professionals for the op. They were kind enough to give MFB a loaner of a new S40. Nice car but it's not the S80 which is very well appointed. So far I'm two days without my XM. Withdrawals - Oh the Humanity!

In a nutshell, I don't have to shop for a new car, which I hate because I have very expensive tastes in fast cars. MFB does not provide the necessary grounding in this matter because I love cars, but he is a true sports car enthusiast and he LOVES to shop for cars.