The Rimes Times

This may very well be my last post from Geneva, depending on how much time I can carve out of our graduation day on Friday, so I thought I’d make it a first, for both piggie and me!

I’ve never been much of a connoisseur of seafood. Sure, I enjoy a nice fillet, and the occasional pot of muscles, but I’ve tried to stay clear of oysters. There’s something about the idea of putting a raw, slimy, slug-like object in my mouth that has kept me from enjoying them…until last Saturday that is! I enjoyed several very salty, yet slightly sweet, soft yummy oysters, fresh out of their shells. If you’ve never had fresh oysters in a sunny farmer’s market in Southern France, I highly recommend it

As for piggie, he enjoyed his very first “Swiss Day” fireworks. The first of August is the Swiss equivalent of the 4th of July in the U.S., and they certainly know how to party here in Switzerland. Just a bit down the hill from the John Knox Center, piggie and Daddy R traveled down to the festival square where we enjoyed fries, soup, and sausage (although piggie not so much on the sausage). Afterward we hung out with a group of friends to watch a fireworks show that would have been far too close to the crowd in the U.S. for litigious reasons, but close enough that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Enjoy the pictures!

While Natalie was here, as a thank you, I took her to the local yarn store, Ivelise’s.  She had a great time looking at ALLLLLL the yarn and the books for ideas.

While we were waiting, we had some yarny fun of our own.

That’s my mystery knit* with Ducky on the big round table. Can you see all the yarny goodness hiding in the background?  To the left are wound up scarves in a cute little crochet pattern.  When wound up they look like little heads of broccoli or something.

Miss R and Ducky show off a bright pink flowered headband that she would like me to make for her.  Only skinnier.  And with rainbow yarn.  And a bigger flower. And stretchier. So really, it won’t look anything like that at all.

A stealth shot of Natalie picking out some yarn. She took FOREVER to pick out yarn But she got some really great stuff that made her happy.  Plus a new book, 60 Quick Knits for Cascade 220.  I’d like to get a copy of that book.  Lots of fun little projects in there!

I can’t wait to see what Natalie is up to with all her yarn and new patterns, but since she was doing some stealthy holiday knitting, I think I’ll just have to wait.

More updates coming!

In other news, Ben is still in Switzerland.  But he’s sick.  Say a quick prayer, light a candle, cross your fingers, slaughter a pig** or whatever it is you do to pass on the good luck he needs to finish his class, graduate on Friday, and make it home without the flu.

*More on the mystery knit later.  It was finally released, so I’ll show it off to you later.

** Ok, don’t really do this unless you are a trained professional who will later eat the pig, please.

A quick update for those of you NOT following me on Facebook:

There is a dead something hiding UNDER my cabinets.  It stinks.  I can’t find it and it stinks.

There are no pictures of this stinky dead thing, thank goodness.  But I do promise to update very soon with some cutie patootie pictures of kids, birthdays, and other crafty goodness!

Ducky helped Miss R and Natalie make Pirate Jello this week.  It was Pirate Jello because of the marshmallows and blueberries they added-you know, hidden treasure.

Arrrr!  Ducky is worried he may have to walk the plank!

Donut got some jello too!  I don’t think he really cared for it too much-a little too sweet.  But he did enjoy playing with it.

We needed a bath after this.  Surprisingly, the red dye number4 that was all over his hands and elbows came right off in the bathtub.  No long lasting red baby!

Ducky also went back to ceramics class.

I designed a bowl to be used with yarn while knitting.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to put the yarn in the bowl, run the string through the loop and be able to knit while the yarn stays put in the bowl.  We’ll see how that turns out!

Then, Ducky went to visit the girls at knit night.

Here’s Ducky with everyone! There was lots of coffee and ice cream around this table along with the wools, alpacas, cottons, and acrylics.  I left Natalie with the group last night because Ducky was so tired (and so were the kids).  They had a great time, and now Natalie is looking for her own knitting group.

In other news, my super crazy busy week is now coming to a close, and I only have to do eleventy seven things this weekend instead of eleventy eight.

Daddy Rimes has been trying to live a bit more frugally than I did last year while in Geneva, and thus I’ve been eating my own homemade dinner of delicious cured meats, yogurt, and other goodies from the fancy French supermarket nearby. That is, until Wednesday evening, when I just couldn’t take another homemade sandwich. So piggie and I ventured out with a group of people from the grad program, and headed out to Fifty-Fifty, one of the BEST Italian restaurants in Geneva. The Pizza Capricciosa was fantastic, complete with the fried egg in the middle, but piggie thought the Salade Nicoise was quite delectable.

The gruff-voiced owner was even nice enough to bring a special ice cream treat for piggie, complete with a cute little cowboy hat. On the way home, piggie felt like it would be fun to play some pool, so we stopped at a local sports bar (plastered with Spanish flags from the recent World Cup victory), and played a game of billiards while enjoying a nightcap.

This is why I made a pony for my boat.

While Piggy was in Geneva, his cousin Wapiggy came to visit us.  He’s not exactly the friendliest little pig, but he’s cute.  He went with Miss R and Donut to a birthday party this weekend.

It’s a little blurry, because little girls don’t hold still for long.  But you see that little girl who is not Miss R?  She asked to hold Wapiggy.  Little did she know what a scheming little pig he is.  After a few minutes, he convinced her to run away with him and take him far far away.

There they go!  And that was the last we saw of Wapiggy.  Sorry Piggy, but your cousin is on the run.  I don’t know when we will see him again.

However, our friend Ducky stepped up and promised to help us out.

He went to the library with us.

Ducky likes to read Elephant and Piggy books with Miss R.

He also likes to read Scooby Doo.

But unfortunately it was nap time.

Then, Ducky went with me to my clay class.

Ducky helped Nettie throw a bowl.  It was a very big bowl.

Here’s Ducky modeling some of my finished bowls and a pony.  The pony goes on the boat.

Here’s Ducky sailing the boat.  There is a series of three boats that go along with the idea of Lake Michigan’s Invasive Species.

Ducky is looking forward to more news from Switzerland soon!

It’s late July, the humidity in Michigan is stifling, and families everywhere across the Northern Hemisphere are vacationing in the sun. Which means Daddy Rimes is spending three weeks away from his family in the Swiss town of Geneva. Doing what you ask? Being a geek, talking about games in education, computer programming, web development/coding, and many other forms of geekery.

Why then would my computer hate all this as the title implies? Because yesterday, in an attempt to strike fear into the rest of electronic devices, I flung my laptop from my backpack onto the floor; the stone slate floor, from quite a considerable height. Apparently zipping your backpack closed is a good idea before slinging it onto your back, and while the laptop suffered quite a nasty blow, you have to give Apple a HUGE amount of credit for making such excellent hardware, and then wrapping it with a sturdy aluminum shell. Thus far, my laptop has continued to function admirably, and I have my fingers crossed that all of the damage is purely cosmetic.

Piggie has full faith that my laptop will continue to perform above and beyond it’s normal call of duty given it’s harsh treatment.

Daddy left for Switzerland yesterday.  It was kind of a hurried goodbye.  We picked up Uncle Kyle at the airport and sent Daddy off all in 30 minutes.

And after Daddy went off to fly for  78 hours (or maybe something a little less) we went off on our own adventure.

Miss R had a class at Sarrett so the Donut and I enjoyed some of the animals and nature.

Look who we found! It’s Wapiggy, Piggy’s evil cousin.  He was trying to tell Donut that Bunnies are not cute fuzzy little friends, but instead they are terrible baby eating fiends!  Donut proved him wrong and petted Bun Bun the nature center Bunny.

We had time for a quick nap and then it was off to dinner with Uncle Kyle, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandmother and George and Peggy.  It was a busy night!

We look forward to hearing from Ben and Piggy in Switzerland!

We visited the Butterfly Garden on Mackinac last week.  I do so love a butterfly garden.  Most of the time they are very quiet and peaceful places.  This one was full of children, so it wasn’t so much quiet and peaceful.  But the butterflies were out in abundance and it was fun.

Miss R liked trying to catch them on her finger.  None of the butterflies decided to land there, but she was very patient (as patient as an almost 5 year old can be).

She got very close that time!

This one is one of my favorites.  I had to wait forever for this silly butterfly to open his wings. He was really into his lunch on the hibiscus flower there.

Even the Donut had a good time.  He never actually saw the butterflies I think.  All the other kids were fascinating though.

One last try!

Goofy face.  Behind him were about a dozen butterflies.  He totally missed them.  But no matter, he still had a great time! As did we all.