Goodness, where has June gone? It seems just the other day it was June first and now it’s June 29 with July first right around the corner. At the end of each month, I tend to think, what have I done this month?

Before I forget, Bryan thanks you for the birthday well-wishes. It was quite a birthday. With some birthday money, he’s anxiously awaiting his big gift of a keyboard that hooks up to the computer so he can compose his own music.

So here’s a bit of a recap (these are mostly things I didn’t blog about before):
My dad turned 65 early in the month and retired a day after his birthday. Although he still had a business trip through the end of the following week, neither he nor my mother seemed to complain too much about having to spend a few days in Savannah, Georgia. Now he has more time than he knows what to do with. I think he’s feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the projects he has planned and just doesn’t know where to start, with each item on his list, there is its own list.

I’ve worked quite a few hours this month, I worked on the trace list trying to find books that patrons had returned but we couldn’t find in the library, not a good thing, but when I found one it felt like a mini celebration.

T was in town for a few days in the middle of the month for her last on-campus day for library school. She’s a full-fledge Librarian with a capital “L” in August. To think she was just starting the program when we got married, boy, time flies.

One of my big accomplishments for the month was reading four books in four weeks, it may not be a lot for some people but it’s an accomplishment for me. I hope to continue the trend into the rest of the summer. Here are the books I read: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, Matilda by Roald Dahl, The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld and Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. I started The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley by Martine Murray on Sunday and it’s quite entertaining so far. In recent months, I’ve become very interested in young adult books. They are a fast read but also there is a part of me that would really like to be a young adult librarian.

I also made a slew of cards for birthdays and Father’s Day. Most of them are posted on my cards page.

When I didn’t have my nose in a book, I was knitting. I feel like I haven’t done a lot of knitting and I’m still plugging away on the Log Cabin blanket (see “artsy” photo above). Looking back at previous posts, I realized that I have knit quite a bit and I’ve actually made some progress on the blanket too. My knitting accomplishments have been on some instant gratification projects such as baby bibs and washcloths, for the count, I’m at four washcloths and three baby bibs for the month. Last week, I finished my third of four baby bibs for two baby showers in July and started a washcloth for Bryan’s birthday. In October, I bought some Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton yarn to make basic washcloths for us. Then after I knitted the other “Ball Band washcloths” from Mason-Dixon Knitting, Bryan decided that he wanted his washcloth to be in that same pattern. I learned quite early on when the yarn broke while I was casting on that maybe this organic cotton yarn isn’t well suited for washcloths. But did I immediately stop knitting the washcloth, nope, I worked with it a bit more thinking that the yarn breaking was a fluke. As I worked with it more I quickly realized, this yarn is definitely not suited for washcloths. Now I have two beautiful balls of organic cotton yarn that I have no idea what to do with. They each have about 150 yards and I don’t want to add another two balls of yarn to the potential scarf pile. I think the organic cotton is better suited to something delicate that won’t get a lot of agitation.

I’ve also gotten a bit back into spinning, the weather seems to effect my spinning mood more than anything else. When it’s too hot to knit, I certainly don’t feel like spinning, which seems like it should be the opposite. There are days that I feel like I’ve been spinning on the pink “cotton candy” yarn for ages but in reading my previous posts, I realized that it’s only been a few weeks. I’m nearing the end of the “cotton candy” fiber so I can start on it’s mate the bright pink fiber. Or if I’m really feeling adventurous, I’ll cable the Lemondrop yarn that I “replied” a few weeks ago.

It’s been cool in the evenings the last several days and we’ve been enjoying them as much as possible by going for walks and bike rides. Last night, I was tired but the mood to bake bread snagged me. So I baked some focaccia loaves with rosemary and olive oil. We haven’t tried them yet but I’m sure they’ll be very good. Even with it being a bit cooler out, having the oven on at 450° made the kitchen unbearable to be in.

Finally, for those anxiously awaiting news on Mrs. Tomato. Her babies are doing well. I found two teeny new ones yesterday when I went to water her, they are about the size of a green pea. The largest baby tomato is getting to be the size of a plum. We should have tomatoes to eat very soon! Our lettuce plants are still producing enough lettuce for us to have a salad or two each week. It’s so satisfying to pick some lettuce and then eat it in a salad.