here, there, everywhere

There's even a contest to name the monkey - zoogoers are invited to submit their ideas. Because the monkey appears to be a girl, Iain and I both submitted "Mikka Jr." I think it has a good shot of winning. Anyway, it's important to vote.

Above: when prompted for an explanation for the suggested name, Iain wrote - since Mikka means beautiful in Japanese - "Because it's a beautiful monkey!" in Japanese. 

There are a lot of other cute animals at Rakujyuen, but they haven't attacked anyone lately and so were less interesting.

Although these goats really didn't like each other for about 2 minutes. Then, inexplicably, they were cool again.

Red panda! 

Also, attack monkeys aside, Rakuyuen is really beautiful, so the free tickets that Iain's student gave us turned out to be especially appreciated.

I've been making my own knitting patterns up lately, so I also used the pretty scenery as a chance to get a few photos of some hand-warmers I'm knitting for Iain. They're not done, unfortunately, so he could only model one, but I'm pretty happy with them so far. 

At any rate, it's rapidly becoming hand-warmer weather here, though it's still gorgeous outside at the moment: 

Although my birthday actually is April 2nd, I was so happy - and surprised! - to receive a birthday package in the mail two weeks ago from my lovely sister Maggie. Inside was the best birthday card I've ever seen in my entire life: 

And, even more excitingly, BOOKS! more books than I know what to do with!

In case you're wondering, no, most of these are not in fact for me. They're for my awesome pre-schooler students, who have already fallen completely in love with the aptly titled "Banana." But the bonobo book - since bonobos are awesome - and the the two graphic novels were very exciting to see, particularly Unwritten. As a nerd who grew up nerdily obsessed with Sandman comics and embarssing epic fantasy paperbacks* whose covers I always hid whenever I rode BART, I've always been drawn to books that approach similar nerdy themes in smart, original, self-referential ways. Unwritten reminded me very strongly in both atmosphere and theme of the Sandman series,  and I probably finished it in about 20 minutes and then spent the day in that weird good-book haze I always have whenever I finish and yet stop can't thinking about a book I really loved reading. Really you should just read what my sister wrote, but the point is, if you're a huge nerd like me, you will probably love Unwritten. So anyway, apologies for the nerdy outburst - it was very exciting to spend a morning curled up in bed reading comics.

Also in the last month or so, I received not one but TWO belated birthday gifts - both yarn! -  from my grandparents. My grandmother has given me yarn every year for awhile now, and this year she ordered me a few skeins from an online yarn shop. Unfortunately, one of the colors was backordered, so it didn't ship until just recently. At the same time, a gift card to the same shop from last year's birthday - that I'd given up for lost in the mail right about the time we left for China - magically appeared in a package from my mom, tucked in with all the other mail I accumulate. I don't know how it got lost in the shuffle but it was tremendously exciting to find it (and to go crazy shopping for yarn online, which is sort of like being in a candy shop except for string!) So now there are piles of yarn spilling out of the closet and books everywhere - it's very exciting. Best moving birthday ever - thank you, Maggie and Grandma! 

 Bugs may have eaten all my basil, and my cucumbers apparently only produce hopeful but doomed female flowers which sprout tiny cucumbers and then shrivel up and die, unfertilized*, but the tomatoes are still doing well in the rainy season heat and humidity. Above are some plum-shaped cherry tomatoes that have just started growing. 

I've been intrigued by the possibility of making your own natural dyes ever since I watched an old lady in Laos dye a skein of silk red with a handful of crushed nutshells. But it turns out, natural dying is a pretty big (and not as safe as you might think) undertaking to set up in a tiny, temporary kitchen, so, after a quick foray around the internet, I decided to go with acid dyes instead, as they seem relatively low-impact and not terrible for your health, provided you don't snort the dye powder, which is why I am wearing this incredibly fetching dust mask below:

After painting, I steamed the yarn in the saran wrap for 30 minutes before rinsing it out. The green skein, above, was a bit too neon for my taste, so I put it back in the dye pot with some dark green dye in hopes of muting the color a bit. 

Afterwards, the green washed out quite a bit - I'm not sure if it's because the green skein is silk (whereas the red was wool) or because of that last-minute decision to over-dye the whole thing darker, or what. But at least it won't stop traffic now and there's a chance someone might want to wear it. 

The red skein came out much more vividly - a bit too vivid and with too many changes in color for my personal tastes. Still, it was a lot of fun - I can't wait to do it again!