I don’t intend to turn my blog into a “my kid left for college and this is how I’m adjusting” thing but I imagine you probably want to know how things are going. Let me tell you first of all that Hannah is doing great. She is making friends and settling in and learning her way around campus. She has texted and called regularly and knowing that she is happy has made this much easier for me. I miss her but I know she’s growing and changing and learning and that’s what is important.

And so . . .

Monday night I set the table for two. I have done this many times before as Hannah has a pretty active social life and is often not home for dinner. And yet, this time, it felt different. It felt weird. It felt small and sort of pathetic. Family dinners have been such an important part of our lifestyle and suddenly my family (at least the one that I prepare meals for) is only made up of one other person. No more big casseroles and roasts for us, now it’s small portions and half servings and I don’t know what I’m going to do with all those huge bags of spaghetti sauce in the freezer.

So I lit a candle to make it feel special and I reminded myself that I’d be saving money on grocery bills. I thought about how I can cook things like pork chops without having to endure the complaints. We can go out if we want and we can skip dinner altogether if we want and we can even have ice cream for dinner if we want.

Maybe it’s not all bad, this smaller family thing.

Saturday night before dinner

And so, just like that, the big move is done. Hannah is now a college freshman. I am happy and excited for her and hope that she has a wonderful college experience.

As for me, I’m feeling a bit bereft. Like a left this big part of me over there on the other side of Massachusetts – which I sort of did. I’m going to have to learn how to function without this bit of myself and I sure hope it doesn’t take too long because I’m not enjoying this feeling.

Sunday afternoon in her dorm room

I have many friends in this boat with me right now and that helps a whole lot. And I know I have all of you, my dear readers. Many of you have emailed and commented to tell me that you are thinking about me and that helps bunches, it really does.

So, if I may ask, please, continue to think good thoughts for me and for my baby girl.

And especially think good thoughts for Dale – he’s the one who has to deal with all this emotional mother/daughter crap. The poor guy.

As part of our goal to soak up as much summer as possible, we went to a Rox game Monday night. It was hot and sticky, perfect baseball weather.

Although, from the number of empty seats, apparently other people don’t agree. Seriously, I don’t know why the stadium isn’t more full. It’s reasonably priced, the baseball is pretty good, and it’s a beautiful arena. Plus, the beer is cheap and plentiful. I really think the people of Brockton and the surrounding communities need to step up to the plate (get it? step up to the plate? hahaha) and support this place in a much more tangible way.

But I digress and I didn’t mean to rant.

Instead, let’s look at the cute ball players.

And the local Correction’s Officers who carried the flags onto the field for the National Anthem. Speaking of that, it was sung Monday night by the daughter of a friend of my brother’s. I sort of wanted to go speak to him but I was afraid he wouldn’t remember me. My brother’s been gone for 13 years and I’m sure I haven’t seen this guy since then so I chickened out.

And again I digress.

Let me get back on topic (sort of) by showing you a photo of Brockton High School, my alma mater.  This is the view from far right field. Yes, it’s a very big school. I graduated with 1100 way back in 1983. You need a big facility to support that many students. And this is a good one, complete with a swimming pool and excellent science labs, a beautiful fine arts building and not one but two terrific auditoriums. I was lucky to go here.

There’s a lot of digressions in this post, did you notice?

As a final way of getting back on track, let’s look at those cute ball players again.

I love baseball.

You remember my bike, right? She’s a beauty and her name is Betty. I named her Betty because the name makes me think of the 50s and also because it was my grandmother’s name. Well, her name was actually Elizabeth but everyone called her Betty. She was Swedish and I loved her dearly.

Anyway, I bought Dale a bike for his birthday. He’s an Electra Cruiser, too, and his name is Oscar. Dale named him Oscar for his grandfather, Oscar Julius, a professional bicycle racer. Oscar was Swedish, too, and Dale and I are both very proud of our Swedish heritage.

Last Friday we brought Oscar and Betty to the Cape Cod Canal for their first ride together.

It was a beautiful day with very blue sky and a few puffy clouds. The canal was bustling with activity, boats going by in the water, families out biking and walking, people fishing and reading and enjoying the outdoors.

We treated ourselves to ice cream from the store at the Bourne Scenic Park and rested our legs while we ate. It was a great spot for some photos of Oscar, too.

I think we’re going to really enjoy riding these bikes together.  So long as Oscar remembers his place. He’s almost as pretty as Betty. But not quite.

The question on That’s My Answer yesterday was “What is your popular blog post?” I assume they mean “what is your most popular blog post” and it got me kind of curious – so I looked it up.

And it was this Noro Silk Garden post. I have no idea why that post was visited more than any other, but there it is.

That statistic made me curious about other statistics so I kept looking and here’s what I found:

• My most popular referrer is still the old caroleknits.knitblog.com site. I don’t know why people haven’t updated their books marks with this site and still go to that one to be sent here. Weird.
• My most popular search time is “carole knits” and that makes sense. But then there are other very strange search terms like “dining room hutch” and “dunkin donuts uniform” and “vine tattoos”. Very interesting, the ways that people find my blog.
• I have an average of 484 visitors per day and have had 314, 220 visits to the blog since Oct 2008 when I switched to this host. My busiest day ever was Tuesday, March 2, 2010, with 1413 views that day.
• Finally, I have received 41, 296 comments. And I’m pretty sure I have answered every single one. That, my friends, is a LOT of emails.

This examination of my blog stats was definitely informative although I’m not sure what any of it really means. Take a look at your blog stats and see if you find out something new about your blog!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go put on a dunkin donuts uniform and stare at my dining room hutch for a while.

I alluded to it on Tuesday and we did indeed go camping this weekend. And you know what? It was fun but it wasn’t great fun. Part of the problem was the weather – it rained every day. Part of the problem was equipment – our tent leaked. And part of the problem was our age – I think we’re too old to sleep on the ground.

I did manage to do some knitting and spent some time on the beach. And I took lots of photos of the sunflowers I picked up again this week as part of our CSA share.

Next time we have a weekend with no plans, though, I think I’ll suggest a seaside hotel instead of a pondside campground.

Things I did this weekend:

Visited Dale’s sister at her campsite. I mostly sat around at the pond. It was good. (picture inspired by Claudia)

Picked up our CSA share. It included peppers, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, celery, leeks, potatoes, blueberries, green beans and these beautiful sunflowers.

Baked blueberry muffins.

Knit on the Cascata shawl. There’s a story behind this one but I’ll tell you later.

You know what I didn’t do at all? Spin. I think I have completely fallen off the Tour De Fleece wagon. Whoops.

Last weekend Dale and the Duds (yes, they finally have a website) played at the Farmer’s Market in Carver.

The music was wonderful and the produce and flowers were abundant.

I strolled about and took some photos.

Of vegetables.

And sunflowers.

Of lead singers.

And guitar players.

We ended the afternoon with a pizza party at the home of some dear friends. It was a wonderful Sunday!

Last Friday Dale and I had plans to meet his brother, Randy, in Plymouth to go striper fishing on Randy’s boat. That’s not what this post is about, though. It’s about what happened while we were waiting for Randy and the boat to show up.

Dale went off in search of a public rest room and I sat down at a picnic table by the boat ramp. I pulled out my sock in progress and began knitting away, while taking in the scenery. There was a lady sitting on a bench nearby and she was reading a book. There were boats coming and going and people walking around. But the lady on the bench kept glancing over at me. I figured she was just curious about my knitting so I smiled at her. And then she said, “Are you from Carver?” So I told her that I work in Carver. And then she said, “At the library?” And I said yes. I waited for her to say that she was a library patron but instead she said, “You’re Carole, right? I sort of know you. I read your blog.”

Now I have occasionally been recognized because of this here blog but only at sheep & wool festivals – never out in the “real” world so this was definitely a surprise to me. It was a happy surprise, though. We started chatting and she told me that she’s not a knitter but her sister, who lives in California, is and that it was her sister who told her to read my blog. Imagine that? Someone in California was reading my blog and realized that I must live near Plymouth so she told her sister, who does live in Plymouth, that she should read my blog, too. Turns out that she and her family are big fans of Dale’s band, too. It’s a small world, I can tell you that.

So “hi” to Judy in Plymouth! And “hi” to Linda in California! Thanks for reading!

I’m enjoying day 4 of my weekend and I’ve decided that having the 4th of July fall on a Sunday is the best thing ever. And I’m just too busy relaxing and enjoying my time off to write a proper blog post. I know you understand.

See you tomorrow for Ten on Tuesday.