Checking things off the list

So in the last post when I said, "Check back tomorrow," I actually meant "Check back next week." Don't know if you picked up on that. Anyway, I've been working slowly on my 30 for 30 list, but have made a start on a few of them, and actually checked one off! Yay! Progress!

These are going to be Forget-Me-Nots. I had some seeds and I picked up these pails at Target in the dollar bin the other week, so I thought they might be nice to fulfill goal # 29 (Give someone a flower in a pot that I grew from seed).

My mother has an extraordinary amount of half-skeins of yarn in bags downstairs. I decided I would use them to make a patchwork crocheted blanket, (#9, Make a homemade crocheted blanket for someone who needs it) and send it to a soldier who's been wounded in battle, thanks to a suggestion from Stephanie. I figure if I do a few of these squares a week, I'll have enough to patch together in no time. They only take about 20 minutes to make, so it's a fairly realistic goal. These are the colors I'm aiming to use; greens, beiges, and browns. If any of you have some half (or even whole) skeins of yarn that match this color theme that you'd like to donate, please, send them my way! I'm using worsted weight, 100% acrylic yarn. 

This is for #7 (Cook a meal for a family with a new baby). My friends Jean and her husband Kev just had a new baby two weeks ago. I decided to visit them last Wednesday before work. I brought them a tuna noodle casserole and some zucchini bread. This doesn't look very impressive, and if I had had time, I would have brought them a few more meals. So this is what they get: a zucchini bread that doesn't look very great (it does taste good, but I still think I won't use this recipe anymore, it's ridiculous how the loaves never actually rise), and a casserole that's in a pan too big for it. Hmm. I may have to bring them something else soon.

Some pictures of the visit. This is baby Ian. He was a little fussy that morning.

But still super sweet! I eventually got him to sleep for a while on my lap. I was pretty pleased with myself.

Here's Kev, trying to get Ian to smile by making silly faces.

They make a cute couple.

Poor exhausted Jean! Newborns are quite tiring.

Thus ends the pictures of my attempts to be kind. Though I did have the opportunity to be kind in ways I hadn't planned this past weekend when I went to visit Brad in Pittsburgh. We had a really lovely weekend together, watching movies, going out to eat, and grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. On my train ride home yesterday, I was one of the first on the train and I picked a nice big window seat to sit in. A bit later, a little girl got on the train with her (incredibly rude and rather impatient) mother, and was very sad because they couldn't find a seat with a big window. So I offered her my seat. I then sat in the one behind me, which had only a tiny bit of window. Regrettably, this seat came with a broken foot rest and a woman directly behind it who had such extreme marital problems that she argued with her husband on the phone for a good hour about whether or not she was lying about what time she left her son's house in Ohio the night before. I know entirely too much about their relationship. She says she hates him and wants a divorce. He doesn't believe her. Unfortunately for everyone on the train, after one would hang up on the other, he would call back not 30 seconds later and (this is what kills me) she would continuously answer. Again. And again. And for the 100th time. All this while the conductor decided to back up for 20 minutes after we reached our first stop. I have no idea why. No one ever told us. When I gave up hope and decided we were probably going to back up all the way to Pittsburgh again, we started going forward. Eventually, I was able to move again to a seat with a large window and a working footrest. At this point, a guy got on and sat in front of me. He asked the woman next to him if he could use her phone charger, but it didn't fit. So I offered him mine, which did fit. He said, "Oh, you're great." Thanks, buddy!

Look at this cute guy in his new bike-riding hat. His head is peeling because his helmet has slots in the top, so he needed this to go underneath.

When he first tried it on, he was messing around and pushed it to the side like a punk, and I tried to get him to do it again so I could get a picture of him, but he wouldn't. He's still adorable, though.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!