SWAGgering

Wednesday night I got an email from an old friend and sorority sister, Nancy. She and her family, who live down near St. Louis, would be driving through town Thursday . . . would I have any time to get together? Well, the workday was out with as busy as it is there, so we drove out to her brother-in-law's house for a few hours last night. Mind you, I've not seen her in about 9 years!

Simon came with me and did a great job of playing with the younger bunch of her 9 kids. Yes, 9 kids! Ranging in age from 16 years down to 16 months. Here is Si drawing for Susannah, and regaling her with stories. Susannah is 11 ( I think). She and her slightly older brother were adopted from Guatamala a little over a year ago.

Here is Nancy's husband, Tim, with their daughter Elizabeth.

. . . and another of Simon drawing for the kids. Now he and Susannah are joined by Samuel and Jubilee. It sure was great to see them all! 2 hours isn't NEARLY enough, though! Hopefully Nancy will be back through town for GCC Homecoming!

On to knitting . . .

In bragging about the great swag I got at the KC last week, I starting wondering what SWAG really meant. I found a site that gives a brief modern definition of the word as "stuff we all get", but my good friends at Wordcraft found a much more authoritative, reliable sorce at Michael Quinion's World of Words, and I thought all y'all would want to know. It's a great word with a long and fascinating heritage!

I haven't done much knitting this week. Ironic after breaking the bank on yarn last weekend, eh? It's been too busy at work, and I've really just come home and collapsed in a heap every night. It's Summer now, in full swing, and all the little darlings are coming to the library in droves. I'm going to KnitWits this morning, though, so I'll knit and maybe even start a new project, and I'll update you later.

Finally more Chicago Pics

I can't believe I've let this go so long! Sorry, loyal readers! Now - here is Simon at the Field Museum - one of our favorite places on Earth. He was happy as a clam to be there again!

One of the things we did with our Wordcraft friends was celebrate Bob's birthday. Bob is from England, and it was the first time we've met him face-to-face. He collects Alice in Wonderland books and stuff, so I got him some bunny ears (and a book). Doesn't he look happy to be in the US?

I have a whole series of pictures of our group taking turns wearing the bunny ears. This is Ken (from Chicago). Simon refused to wear them (and in fact was trying quite hard not to appear to be part of the group at this point).

The last night we were in Chicago, Nancy and Ken had us all over for a Seder dinner. It was cool to commemorate Passover with them, doing their traditional religious and familial things. Here you see, left to right, Margaret (from UK), Ken, Simon, Me, Tony, Scott.

That evening we got a good picture of all the Wordcrafters who got together.

Front row: me, Nancy (Chicago), Anita (Columbus, also), Richard (UK), Bob, Ken.

Don't we look like a fun bunch?

Today is a busy day - we're celebrating Simon's graduation from the Thurber House Docent Training, and then we're helping to celebrate the Main Library's Centennial. I'll try to get pics up soon for those things!