Elephant is ready for his big trip

Whew, finally finished making the elephant for Aidan and he is adorable, if I say so myself. Next stop for little elle is San Antonio to be drooled upon by the birthday boy.

The hardest part of elephant was seaming all the pieces together, I thought I was done when I finally finished knitting up the 2 sides and 2 bottom pieces,, oh no, it took almost as much time to seam all those pieces together. I am not a patient person by nature so I kind of jammed through this process and although it looks OK from a distance, the seams are sort of misaligned and uneven. I don't think the little one will notice : )

Bizarre bug identified as "House Centipede"

The weird bug has been identified as a House Centipede thanks to the helpful people at BugGuide.com. This insect is considered beneficial as it is a voracious predator of other bugs of a similar size like roaches, earwigs and I hope ants (we have ant infestations on weekly basis). I was a little concerned that it was poisonous, but the info says:

"House centipedes are aggressive predators to things their own size but are not considered dangerous to humans. Their small jaws (actually modified front legs) cannot easily pierce human skin. In the rare event you were bitten, pain and swelling may result, but it would probably be no worse than a bee sting."

Bizarre bug

Does anyone know what this is? I found it in the bathtub this week. After careful examination and mastering my "willies" I performed a capture and release to the backyard, I certainly hope this guy is a harmless native. Currently waiting for some help with the identification from the BugGuide.net website

The Great Pumpkin Carving

Another great gathering of friends for the annual Pumpkin Carving, which we missed last year because we were in Africa.

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nerd alert, power tools, calculators, and most tellingly the actual use of a compass!

proof that Blair does indulge in something other than Budweiser.

love the look of utter concentration on her face.

Once again Giacamo wowed us all "The best free hand design", clearly inspired by Mary's beehive.

Witty Diane took the "Cleverest design" category hands down with her Pumpkin Pi carving.

Christian's children (ok, really Christian himself) did a great job carving not one, but two pumpkins and won the "Happiest design" category.

We had to create a new category (truth be told the categories are always completely random anyway) for Sean's amazing alien creation, the "Best Indoor design"

The full line-up

Safari West

Went with a couple of friends early this week for a "girl's getaway" to Safari West in Santa Rosa. M and I went to Tanzania last year, so D thought we wouldn't be interested, but heck we always like hanging out with wildlife so off we went. My favorite part was the newborn zebra.

We stayed at the Calistoga Inn and Spa for the most likely the last time as they are closing soon for renovation and probably will become all "chi chi" and too expensive like the rest of the places in Calistoga.
We had a fantastic lunch at the Greystone Restaurant, which is part of the California Culinary Academy in Napa. The place looks like some kind of fancy french chateau or castle. We dined on the outdoor terrace with a superb view of the vineyards. The meal was good, not really knock your socks off good, but the atmosphere was really incredible, it felt like we were in an episode of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The young waiters were actually students and amusing in their naivete, I asked one where the Sterling Vineyard was and he didn't know, which really surprised my as 1) Sterling is quite possibly the best known tourist winery for the tram ride and 2) I would have thought one of the benefits of attending a culinary academy in Napa would be a required course in wine appreciation and the local wineries.

We wanted to visit a sparkling winery and made our way to Schramsburg only to learn to our dismay that they wanted $35 for the tour and priviledge of possibly purchasing their precious wine, yowza, NO WAY. So we admired their lovely grounds for about 2 minutes then promptly made our way to the more tourist friendly Mumm Napa winery where we thoroughly enjoyed our hour long FREE tour and then tried some very good champagne, whoops, make the "sparkling wine" as we learned that the term champagne is really reserved for wine originating in the Champagne region of France and made by a very particular method. Now since this agreement among the world's wineries was actually made while America was enjoying Prohibition, we didn't sign it, but out of respect for Mumm's parent winery in France they only use the term sparkling wine to refer to Napa's appellations. No matter what it's called, it's goooood!
We also had a unique opportunity to hear a dinner talk by Dr. Laurie Marker who is the founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. It is quite appalling to hear yet another version of how ALL THESE DAMN PEOPLE are ruining the earth. It is very rarely spoken directly but it seems to me the root cause of all our environmental issues is the sheer number of humans on the earth! I certainly do not have the answers, but we really do need to breed less and find ways to tread lighter on this earth.

Elephant progress

I am finally done with knitting the many pieces of the elephant. It took longer than expected, especially the weaving in of the many loose ends. Now he is getting "blocked" after which comes the final sewing together and stuffing. Looks like I am on track to get this done by the end of the month.