Happy 7th of July!

Not the same as Happy 4th but the sentiment is there. As chaotic as things were back then, we could just as easily be celebrating our independence on the 7th. Pk and I just watched most of John Adams (a biopic in many parts). I say 'most of' because we got tired of John after a while. He was a brilliant man (weren't they all?) but also very arrogant and tiresome. And there was a lot of yelling. We watched the first half of the episodes and enjoyed them. I admire Abigail Adams. What a strong woman.

The lovely blueberries of the 4th became my first ever homemade blueberry pie. I've made apple and peach and lemon meringue and others but never blueberry. I even made the crust and didn't cop out by buying ready made. I added some lemon peel and juice to the berries and it was delicious with some vanilla ice cream. Some of the berries were very tart so it was not a boring pie.

Tomorrow we are taking Em for her follow up visit to the neurosurgeon. She's already seen the thoracic guy and he said all is well. The neurosurgeon is looking for different things. She can't drive yet (and I would worry since she's still taking some heavy duty pain killers) so Pk and I are driving her. She's doing well and is planning to go back to work on August 8th. Boy, that time flew by. It's hard to believe she's already talking about returning to work.

I'm taking her sweater along for the ride. I have finally passed through the black hole that was the back and sides of the top down sweater. I swear I was stuck at 17 inches for weeks. I would doggedly do row after row of stockinette stitch and then measure and it didn't change. I despaired it would ever get finished. Finally, on Sunday, a miracle occured and the tape measured the 22 inches I needed. Woot! Two inches of ribbing was added and last night it was bound off and a sleeve was picked up and is now in progress. After the sleeves, I have to pick up about a billion and a half stitches around the front of the sweater and do three inches of ribbing. I'm optimistic that I'll finish by Christmas. Actually, I am trying to only work on it until I finish it. Except on the train. It's a little too big to cart onto the train. Or if our weather suddenly remembers it's summer here and gets hot. We've been extraordinarily lucky. Once the rains stopped (we're due for showers this week), the sun came out and the temps have been warm but not oppressive. If I could custom order summer weather, this is what I would order.

So, happy July 7th!