where have I been?

Oh the joys of computer ownership, the swift advance of technology and how quickly a beloved machine can become a boat anchor. I have been limping along my internet journey dragging behind me an 8 year old dinosaur...namely my computer, for some time now. I knew it's days were numbered though each day as I set out onto the internet highway it would still rouse itself from it's own internal dialog (it ran almost continuously) to follow me on my world wide web quests. Slowly my journey would go, gently and with much leisure. It would be so gracious as to allow me enough time to make a pot of tea while it loaded a file. Eventually I had enough time to cook an entire meal, until....the screen went black. Thank goodness that I live across the street from a fire department, they heard my screams and rushed right over with a tranquilizer gun and a net.
Fast forward to the next day. The dinosaur agreed to wake up, if not connected to the internet, long enough for me to download all of my photos and important files (knitting patterns) to an external hard drive...my family was spared, Huzzah!
I went into the computer store, got an employee and said "I have $600.00 and I need a computer, what is the best deal for that price?" I left with a new, highly evolved computer life-form, now all is well and we can sleep soundly once again. fin.
Here we have two photos, one of the dinosaur and one of the new godlike black box that tethers me to all that is good and wonderful. Oh the joys of computer ownership....sweeeet.

a cloche

I don't really even know how to pronounce this word, but I made one! A cloche. A green cloche. A green cloche with a flower. A green cloche with a big purple flower. Crocheted. I like it quite a bit, though I will never wear it. Hats like this one just don't work in Southern California, especially right now, it is so hot! October is a strange weather month here. We have had such a mild summer that this late season heat is difficult for me to handle. I don't have air conditioning in my house, it was built in 1921 and at that time there were few homes here so the breeze from the ocean did not have to work so hard! I hope to get this little cloche up on my etsy site soon. Look for more of these darling toppers as I plan on making many of them, they are just yummy!