what did you do on the 4th?

what a day.....we had plans to go to our friends' house for a picnic and then fireworks. The rain and our schedule of events cancelled out the fireworks.


We're driving along and all of a sudden the battery light goes on..... (mind you the check engine light has been on for about 5 1/2 weeks and nothing has been done about it) a few miles later the ABS light comes on and then the engine starts to rev. I suggested that we pull over... and turn off the car. So DH kindly followed my instructions. Then tried to start the car and it gave that rr, rr, rr sound of a dead battery. So call AAA (thankfully we have AAA+ which tows for 100 miles for free) and I start thinking who can pick the 7 of us up? My brother won my vote and as serendipity would have it (in a bad situation) his van was finished getting fixed, so he just had to pick it up and my nephew followed in his car. They let us have to van to use until ours gets fixed. Mind you, my brother lives 50 miles from me (albeit in the direction we were traveling) but still, he's an Eagle Scout through and through.
We unloaded the car with stuff that we'd need and all the people and parked in someone's front yard along the side of the country highway (a state route... that is fairly busy) and waited for the tow truck, which came pretty quickly once we figured out where we were. Oddly enough after the tow truck took away the car, the people in the house came out and looked a bit puzzled but were very kind in offering their facilities should we need them. My brother and nephew came and rescued us with their van and rabbit (be a better story if they rode in on a mustang, no?) and we continued on our merry way.
I'm curious to know what the problem is and if it's related to the check engine light.

Two of the caterpillars have pupated and one is in the J. The fourth looks about ready. I'd take pictures but the batteries in my camera died and my kids used the rest of the AA batteries in the house, so I'll have to go get more tmrw.

I started this cloth on the way down, finished it at our friend's house and left it for her. I found the idea on ravelry and think it's a brilliant way to use up those scraps of kitchen cotton.

Pattern: Lizard Ridge Dishcloth by Laura Aylor
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Colors: Delft Blue, Red and White
Needle: US6
Made for: Gaby

There's one goof in it, but I left it go. All in all it's a great patriotic cloth and another wonderful use of the Lizard Ridge pattern. Thanks Laura! :-)

I still haven't finished sock #2. There is about 3 inches left to knit. I should get cracking. Tomorrow, OK technically today, starts the Tour de France and with it the Tour de Fleece... I'll spin up what I have in rolags and hope to card more as well.

And last but not least, some pictures from the Philly zoo yesterday. We bought the family deluxe membership so the kids got to go on all the stuff that was available and we'll have to go back again in the next year (I personally could go there every day!) We arrived around 11:30 and stayed until closing. Suffice it to say that there were 7 very tired people when we got home!










The tree house. This is a very cool large room where everything is oversized even for adults. You can climb up inside the tree and look out at the room. There are giant frogs kids can climb inside. A HUMUNGOUS beehive, gargantuan monarch caterpillars and butterflys, Some dinosaur replicas, a flower seat and more. The kids had a blast here.

There will be more pictures after I steal them from my FIL's camera ;-)