Well first I would like to thank everyone for commenting on my Ravelympics sweater. Some of you I could not respond to for lack of your email address so know that I appreciate your compliments. It's been a long week otherwise, post knitting, as work took it's fair share of my energy.

I had been out in San Francisco prepping for a bid defense of a new study proposal. The time difference, even 3 measly hours, always gets me. Not too mention how my chair was kicked for 5 hours straight on the flight out there. The most annoying thing about it was the parents tried to use the "1....2.....3" method on a 24-month old. Sorry folks cognitive ability to discern right from wrong should be followed with an action, such as pushing your child's feet from the back of my chair while telling her to stop kicking the nice lady in the back. May I suggest a dose of Benadryl 20 minutes before the flight next time, perhaps?

Anyway, I took a mini-break from knitting to let my wrists rest after the Ravelympics and then yesterday I worked in my SIL's "sweatshop" prepping for craft show in Nov.

Today, we took the kayaks out to Assunpink Lake and had a good variety of wildlife in our path on this calm, sunny day.

Usually, these guys take off at a distance as you near them, but this Great Blue Herod, almost posed for the camera.

This pickerel just sat under the surface of the water and didn't even move as my bright yellow kayak drifted next to him.

Here is a Double-Breasted Cormorant, a common lake sighting, doing a little fishing off of a stump in the middle of the lake.
And I caught the cormorant taking off here.
Of course, there are always an abundance of swans, mostly to keep out the Canadian geese.


And I couldn't resist a lily (lotus) blossom, open in full-splendor. All in all, it was a good weekend and I have to prep for vacation this week.

I'm leaving Thursday for Puerto Rico until next Monday. It's great when you can turn business trip into a little vacation too. My friend, Wendy, and I will take in some of the local San Juan sites as well as forest zip-lining and bioluminescence evening kayak tour. I need the vacation, my peeps, trust me.