My classes this summer have been keeping me very busy. I’m having a lot of fun in both classes, which is how summer classes should be. I’ve also managed to get a little sewing in during my breaks from reading.

My Adult Popular Literature is an online class and I’ve been reading science fiction, fantasy, romance and non-fiction books for that class. I’m in the middle of a romance novel now called Be Still My Vampire Heart. It’s really been a fun read and one that I didn’t expect to like. I still have to read three mysteries and a western.

This weekend I was working on a book talk that I have to do for Adult Pop Lit. I’m doing it on one of my favorite books, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. It’s been two years and after reading over 90 books since then I needed a bit of a refresher. I’m not one to reread books but I reread Prep to refresh my memory and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I read it. As one of my friends said yesterday, “The cover really doesn’t do it justice.” If you like coming-of-age stories and haven’t heard of Prep, I highly recommend it.

My other class is Information Books for Children. It’s basically Children’s Non-Fiction but since there are fairy tales, poetry, plays and literature cataloged in the Dewey numbers with the “non-fiction” in a library, information books fits the books better. We’ve read some great and not-so-great books for the class. The point isn’t to read all wonderful books because we need to learn about the not-so-great books out there too. My instructor is wonderful, she’s the same instructor I had for my Children’s Lit class last fall that I loved.

The last several weeks have been a whirlwind. June has also not been a friendly month for the Lee kitties. My parents lost their second cat, Lucy, last week. She hadn’t been doing well since her friend Milly died on the first of June. My parents were out of town and Lucy was boarding at the vet. She’d been having trouble breathing on Tuesday and just slipped away later in the day. At least she went peacefully and knew she was loved, she was definitely a spoiled cat. My mom made sure of that.

This past weekend, Bryan and I decided to make it a three day weekend to celebrate his birthday and both took Friday off. Friday, we just relaxed and got a lot of reading done. We’d planned to go to Springfield, Illinois but the threat of bad thunderstorms made us rethink our plans. Saturday, we did one of our favorite things – blueberry picking! There is nothing quite as scrumptious as fresh, handpicked blueberries. We thought we’d pick just enough to get us through a week since we’ll probably go back this Friday. We had not idea we’d picked almost five pounds. So we gave some to our friend L and her husband to enjoy since we know they won’t be able to get out there for a while. Then Sunday, L brought us some black raspberries from her garden to add to the berry delightfulness in our house. Even Chloe seems to like the fresh berries, though she can’t eat them. She gets so excited when we open the container of berries. You’d think we had kitty cat food stashed way in those bags by the way she acts.

Bryan also spent part of the weekend getting his Etsy shop and new blog set up.

Once I get some photos of my sewing I’ll post them. I hope everyone is having a good summer.

In the time warp, otherwise known as May, I knit another little Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend’s daughter. I blocked it last weekend but with all of the rain we’ve been having lately it took forever to dry. Now it’s ready to send off to mom and baby. I was glad to finally have something to use with this Cotton 100 yarn. It’s been languishing in the stash for quite a while and is perfect for kids sweaters. I just needed the perfect sweater that fit the amount of yarn that I had.

pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann from The Knitting Workshop
yarn: Berocco Cotton 100 in 9208 (Lavender) from stash
needles: size 7 bamboo
started: April 30, 2008
finished: May 9, 2008

This morning, I finally planted a few plants we bought at the farmer’s market last weekend. With the roofers around for several days, I wasn’t about to go out and try to pot anything for fear of being hurt by falling shingles. I fear we may have lost one of our cilantro plants but the gerbera daisies and peppers are still doing well. The lettuce came already potted so it was just a matter of hanging it up in the back. I was excited to see that the mint I planted last year is doing quite well. Ooh, mint tea!

Bang, bang, bang. That’s pretty much what we heard in our apartment from Thursday last week until Monday this week. Thank goodness the rain made them finish up on Monday evening. They were redoing the roof of our apartment building and didn’t take a day off. I was so ready for them to finish so that I didn’t have to hear the banging any longer or their obnoxious choice of music. The other day when we asked them to turn the music down they told us that it was a bummer for them. It was definitely a bummer for us to have to listen to it in our own house. I was tempted to find some good crazy polka music and play it loudly for them. Now there is just stuff left around the apartment building, I hope they come clean up their messes soon.

By popular request here is a photo of the treasures that I brought home from my grandfather’s house – buttons, a darning egg (which I know will come in handy) and the library cards. There are so many more things in boxes that my mom has stored away. When she scans the photo of my grandparents, I may post it. It’s absolutely priceless. For now you’ll just have to settle for a photo of me that I had never seen before.

I think it’s my new favorite photo of myself.

Our family has lost another kitty family member. Milly, my first cat, who has lived with my parents the sixteen years I’ve been away from home was put to sleep on Sunday. She had been dealing with kidney failure for a while. Her seventeen and a half years were lived to their fullest. I know my parents will miss her dearly and will miss her sneakiness at the dinner table. Chloe sends her love to my mom and Lucy, the remaining kitty in my parents’ house.