SuperEggplant

No knitting progress to report. Being a tour guide is tiring. It’s much better to lie prone on my mother’s bed and watch the humongous TV that sits two feet away!
Yesterday morning I dragged insane brother out to the Basenji National Convention that just HAPPENS to be happening this week. We saw more basenjis than I have ever seen. They were having lure coursing trials where basenjis chase “rabbits” around a course. All the basenjis were so excited they were screaming. Really. THE SCREAMING OF THE LAMBS. Whoops, sorry, I got a little carried away. Here are a couple at the starting gate:

Another fun thing was riding back to my parents’ house in my brother’s convertible with the TOP DOWN. Yup, the weather in Portland is gorgeous right now.
My parents live across the street from an elementary school. For some years now, a particular type of bird known as a swift has come to gang up before heading south. They come in September and reside inside the school’s chimney before their journey. Every evening they begin to gather near the chimney, and just when it’s about to turn dark, they swirl in tornado-like fashion and fly into the chimney. It is a truly amazing sight, and people come from all over with their lawn chairs and picnic dinners to sit and watch. I tried to get photos, but they came out too dark. Here is a before photo, though:

Can you see any birds? By the way, to the right in the photo you can catch a glimpse of Mt. Saint Helens. Oh, and you can see part of loony brother’s car, too.

So I am here. The teeny airport in San Luis Obispo was totally funny. The guy who checked me in was the same guy who then manned the security counter (where they made me take off my shoes and then wanded every part of my body!) and then took our boarding passes. I swear I saw something like that in a movie once.
Okay, why is airport food so expensive? I bought a sandwich at SFO, and it cost $6.50. I ate the whole thing just to spite them.
I get to my parents’ house, and my insane brother and my mother both hassle me about my eyebrows. They say they are too thin. They’ve been the same thinness for several years now, but you know, I’m getting older, so maybe they are thinning naturally? I really am not a compulsive plucker …

Well, I take off Tuesday evening for Portland! I just printed out the travel advisory sheet that says knitting needles ARE allowed in case I get hassled by some overzealous airport security person.
I started doing a single crochet on the neckline of the Becky Wannabe sweater, but then I frogged it because it was too loose in some parts and too tight in others. I’ll try again tonight. I think it will look okay and will help flatten out the back neckline and the front (one side of the front is sort of curling).
I’ll be blogging from Portland (I have to drive around a van full of Japanese visitors. That should provide plenty of bloggin’ material, though none of it will probably concern knitting).

I’m thinking maybe Dell isn’t so evil after all. As promised, the repair guy called this morning and came by to fix my dead power supply. When I first bought a PC, I was very torn up inside–my brother and many of my friends are militant Mac folks–but a PC was necessary for my work. If you’re going to cross over to the dark side, maybe Dell is the way to go?
New Trader Joe’s discovery, thanks to Chowhound: Green Tea Gelato.
Oh! I need advice! I’m leaving next Tuesday for Portland, and I’m taking my laptop. However, I do not currently own a laptop bag/sleeve. I was planning to make my own, since I don’t want to pay $$ for something I’m only going to use once or twice, but I don’t know if I’m going to have time to make it (plus I have to design it, and that always severely taxes my brain). Should I just try to make it, or should I just pay $50 for this booq bag? Please bear in mind that I have to install all that software onto my now-hopefully-fixed desktop, and that takes a lot of time.