Visitor and his luggage

That’s Scamp. He was not stressed out in the least this weekend over the impending arrival of a visitor from far away.  Our visiting artist from Japan arrived yesterday afternoon complete with luggage.  He’s been in the states on other business for the 10 days, so "established."  The rest of the visiting artist entourage arrived in Green Bay sans luggage, as it was held up by Customs at the point of entry — wherever that was.  I imagine there were some last-minute trips to Target for toothbrushes and underwear to tide ’em all over until their luggage is delivered.  I hope it’s soon because, dang, it’s only a week-long visit!

On Saturday, I took delivery of an Express package addressed to our new friend, Hiroo, from Tokyo.  I can’t wait to photograph the wonders within…  food!  All the way from Japan!  Pretty little packages of very thin noodles and bottles of liquid and ginger — I think it’s ginger.  It’s in a package, kind of moist, not all dried and shriveled like we have here.  Anyway, it’s all to become a meal for us one night this week.  Woo.  Thankfully, Hiroo (sounds like hero) speaks English well enough.  He’s an architect in Japan — his wife builds the models (wouldn’t that be fun?) — and the father of three sons.  He’ll see how the other half lives at our house — I’m sure he’s seen more curling irons and make-up in the last 12 hours than he’s ever seen before in his life!

I worked like a dog all weekend, but so did DH.  Will you hate me if I tell you that he does not only windows, but floors, too?  I love this old-fashioned window shelf thing — metal supports that hang from the sash and two glass shelves.  And they’re dust-free for a change!  There you see the figural planters that I collect — only yellow chickens, you see, and I’ve only ever found two!  That’s one way to curb a collection — choose something that’s not real common.  Next to them is an old Coke bottle that Mdd dug out of the little dump area up by my dad’s — it’s an oldie and has the mark of a local bottler in that area — along with the two clear bottles on the shelf below (one of them is a Log Cabin syrup bottle).

When the work was done (or when DH left for the airport), Mdd and I went shopping.  She needs clothes.  She keeps borrowing Ai’s and Ai isn’t a happy lender.  I can’t even say out loud the price we paid for one pair of pants she wanted; she offered to pay for half and I accepted, and even half is a bit more than I’d have normally spent.  We found some other bargains (even some for me!), so with cost-averaging and whatnot, in the end, it wasn’t too bad.

DH and our guest are off on an overnight gathering/welcome thing today, and it’s going to be a whirlwind around here, but I’ll try to keep up and share what I can.  Wednesday will be a load of fun as DH has volunteered to walk the runway in a presentation of silk kimono and he’ll be undergoing a few hours of make-up, as well.  Should be interesting and I will most certainly try to get pictures.  There will be a repeat performance in Madison on Friday night.

I did manage to find time to cast on and knit the scalloped beginning of a new sock.  I screwed up and pulled out the needles, providing an opportunity to try it on.  Even though I went up a needle size already, it was still a bit too snug.  I adjusted the pattern by adding another repeat (72 sts rather than 60) and have completed the scalloped beginning once again, and made a few rows’ progress on the leg.  I’m using the green & white Lorna’s from NYC and I have to say that, so far, I like how it knits up over 60 stitches better than 72.  We’ll see.  I’m trying to figure out what works with all this sock business.