Celebrating, POTUS Style

DH and I celebrated our victory on August 14th by heading to Iowa on August 15th. 

We stood for about an hour, watched by this fellow and others...

then the bus finally arrived...

the occupants disembarked...

his wife introduced him (with an impressive speech of her own)...

 and he gave a stirring speech which highlighted just how important this election will be.

I can't seem to find the words to tell you just how meaningful and special it was to be a part of the crowd. 

But Helen and Margaret have the words to tell you, in their own feisty, inimitable way,  just why this next presidential election is so important. Especially for women. I mean it. Really.

The Long, Hot Summer

It's been a long time...too long...between posts.

So there is much to catch up on.

First, the reason for my temporary absence from blogging was explained here. Without going into too much detail, I can share that I was successful in my endeavors in the August primary and that I will be the only person on the ballot for this position come November. This means I'm still on a leave of absence, still campaigning but not at the same frantic level.

Since May, there has not been much knitting happening at the Haus, especially in July. With no air conditioning and temperatures in the high 90s-100s (that's about 32-39 celsius for those of you overseas), the stickiness of wool in sweaty hands is just intolerable. These high temperatures mean the house is just as hot as outside - and sometimes hotter, especially on the second floor where our bedroom is located. Thank goodness I have no access to state secrets - a little sleep depravation and I'd crack like an egg dropped on the floor. Our home has become the boneless chicken ranch - and our female cat has placed herself at the front door, as if in warning to others who would enter this sauna.

While I haven't been a prolific knitter,  I used up some single skeins of yarn I had in order to make some dryer balls. I was very pleased with the outcome. Now I just need to get some essential oils to scent them with. I need to make a few more so that I have enough for a trip to the laundromat when I fill more than one dryer at a time.

And I've found that, at least in my mom's front loading washing machine, Paton's Classic Wool felts better than Cascade 220.

Now that the primary race is over and the temperatures had cooled down (until today), I've been catching up on knitting in between cleaning the house, which had been generally ignored for the last month.

You can imagine which I'm enjoying more.