Begosh 'n' begorrah ...

... and that's all the Irish you'll be getting from me today, though I have to admit, the quilt I'm making for Lily (above) does - quite coincidentally - have a sort-of St Pat's Day air about it. Hmmm.
I have to make 96 of these 'flying geese' blocks for her single bed quilt, and so all the massed triangles look good, I am taking great pains to ensure that all the points and angles and measurements are accurate. So this bit of the process is a little slow.
I am loving it upstairs in my little work-room (Mack's bedroom while he was here), and I have started a couple of other projects up there in the peace and quiet.

:: Yes - it's an afghan rug! And yes, these are old-fashioned grannies. The true retro thang. And it's so much fun making them (and keeps me awake when the telly's on)! I'm a bit worried about the white borders, though - do you reckon, when it's all sewn up, they'll get grubby in a house with teenagers and two dogs?


:: And this is the start of the socks I'm knitting for my dad's birthday. When I told Mum I was knitting socks, I think the words "war effort" sprang into her mind. Anyway, she cracked up and told me, "Yes, that's the sort of thing you start to do when you get to your age!" Cheek!
However, I reminded her that when Dad retired, he said that he wasn't going to wear boring socks for the rest of his life but would be bright and adventurous from then on.
Mum reckons he's mad too.

:: The state of Colorado has adopted John Denver's old, old, old song, Rocky Mountain High, as its official song. But that's only after it got lots and lots of advice and reassurance that it wasn't about taking drugs.

:: David and I went out and about today, exploring parts of downtown San Diego we hadn't been to before. We had in our minds the thought that one day - in a year or so, when Will's finished high school - we'd probably buy somewhere to live rather than shell out $2700 a month to rent the house made out of ticky-tacky that we live in now, way out in the 'burbs.
Our whole immediate neighbourhood is governed by the local Home Owners' Association, right down to the colours the houses can be painted, the way you do the front yard, and even the letterbox you have. So the areas we are looking at are full of houses that are all shapes and sizes, and colours!
And this is what the drive downtown is like from up here:

With all the warm weather we've been having lately, we've been experiencing these thick 'marine layers', dense fogs that waft in from the sea (about a mile to the right of this picture) and hang about until the sun dries it off. This morning's layer did make the freeway look particularly uninviting!

:: Oh - U2 are on the telly - it must be St Pat's Day! I must turn it off before the odious Van Morrison lilts his way into something maudlin.
Dave's gone to check out the crowd in the Gaslamp (including the crowd at the Bondi) and Will's gone to yet another party. So I'm going to warm up some soup, crack open a slab of Ghirardelli's mint chocolate, and watch Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember (thank you, Netflix!).