Me and the dinosaurs are busy cooking, so Happy Easter to all

Among the many things I get roped in to things I volunteer to help with is a fund-raiser for a children’s cancer charity.   So I was down at the local TV station to help with answering phones to do my bit.   The cameraman asked if we liked being on the telly, and I said “I was horrified” (I had forgotten that I am, in fact, that old).  We are there during the entire time when they do the news broadcast, and they spliced us in at random points as filler.  (Sorry there are no pictures of this as I was either busy, or pretending to look busy).   After it was all over I ran an eyeball over the news room.

This is where the newsreader sits while delivering the news.   The news team is a man (so to speak) short because one of the team just had her baby and is on maternity leave.

The cameraman is a robot that runs along this circular track, I presume a human tells it what to do (for now).

This is the weather guy.  Everyone else had buggered off, but he was sitting there still working.  Looks like he was picking weather pictures for the station’s Facebook page.   He is pretty decent at his job, he was the only forecaster who called it correctly.

And this was the weather that morning.   But because it’s spring, it was mostly gone by noon.

I went up to the state capitol to do a little bit of politicking.  And in between the speeches and handshaking, I went on a little jaunt to take a few photos of the icons of this beautiful building.

There were plenty of stained glass portraits of politicians and other notables in the many windows about the place.  This pair of former governors preside in perpetuity over the state Senate chambers.

In the rotunda there is a series of murals that depict the more glorious origins of development and eventual statehood.   The less positive events are not depicted.   But I was rather taken by this ox.

This is the entrance to the governor’s office.  This horse, Scout, used to formerly grace the north side of the public library, atop a giant chair (hey, it’s art, I think).   I’m sure he got tired of the traffic and noise outside, not to mention the weather, and now resides in this choice spot in the halls of power.

This statue of an Indian (I mean Native American) and his dead buffalo sit on the east side of the capitol building.   I have no idea what the camera person was up to.  They were reading a controversial bill later in the afternoon, maybe it was for a two second news spot.

Down in the basement, next to the lunch area, one can also get a shoeshine from this friendly woman.   The politician in the chair assured me that she is the best (as this is an uncommon profession, it is probably true).   This was once a common sight, but I can’t remember the last time a saw a man getting a shoeshine.  I wear German felt shoes, so I didn’t need a shine, but she was please to pose for this shot.

I had an invite to a college hockey game, the local team was playing North Dakota.   M and I used to live in North Dakota, a hockey-mad state, so we often used to come to the games to see them when they played here.  The local team is not very good, there were lots of empty seats and there were definitely more people in the seats wearing green ND jerseys.

My friend and I were sitting behind the home goal, and both teams spent a lot of time at this end.

And it was a tremendously exciting game, the opponents had 47 shots on goal and did not score.  The local team, from an expensive private college, scored in the second period and had two empty net goals at the very end.   The ND fans were stunned by this turn of events, but because they are nice people from a nice place, they weren’t rude about it.   The interesting part about their team is they were formerly known as “the fighting Sioux” (named after a Native American tribe).   Their ice arena was donated to the school, and the Sioux emblem is everywhere.   But the NCAA (collegiate sports governing body) forced the team to change to name to “the fighting Hawks”.  I did not see a single jersey with a hawk on them. 😉

I saw the name on this player’s jersey and I immediately wanted to take his picture.   Pool boys are an urban myth, (like in the movie “Adventures of a Window Cleaner”) but Poolman was real, and there were two of them.

When I was just a kid, I always seemed to get socks and underwear for a Christmas present.  As these are rather utilitarian and mundane objects, it did not seem like it was much of a present to receive.  And then there was the pressure of getting days-of-the week underwear, what if you were wearing the wrong day?  But now that I am old, these things don’t have the same meanings.   Socks and gloves are what one buys when it snows or the weather turns cold, undies whenever the old ones get ratty.   I have been learning to knit socks, a complicated process and somewhat useless skill.

These were the first socks I knitted, and since they are not perfect, I made them for myself.

Once I knew a bit of what I was doing, I made these for my brother, as a present, but not a Christmas present.   Then his wife told me that he loves socks, so she is wrapping them up and putting them under the tree.

I made these ones for her, and she told me that she had gotten socks and underwear for Christmas as a child too.  But she actually liked getting them, so I suspect she may wrap them up for herself.

So here’s a pair in process, they are knit on five knitting needles and it is a bit like wrestling an octopus.   But eventually the beast is tamed and a sock emerges.   As you can see in the photos, the yarn one uses makes a big difference, these are all self-striping yarns.   It would be incredibly boring to knit with a single color: not to say that it is not boring to use these 😉 .

And these are the competition, ready-made socks.   These are knit in an incredibly complicated pattern and cost $7 at the store.  The yarn I use  in hand knit socks costs more than that.   But, hand knit socks are a labor of love, and perhaps that counts for something!

And then again there is the dissenting opinion.