Irene-watch, Day 2

All is well here, with no sign of Irene. Lucy is still sleeping, which is a nice thing for her to do (particularly since she was up several times last night demanding water). After she went to bed, I made spinach-cheese squares (to freeze for later) and some awesome banana bread w/ coconut. Yum. Today we'll try the Carnival Cookies. Updates later. Jake seems to be fine on his ride, which is already well underway. Let's hope it doesn't end up underwater.
More later....

And we're back. It's 2:45 and Lucy is napping. She has a cold and really needs the sleep. We've been crafting up a storm today, sewing up bags and sachets from various scraps (mostly me, with design assistance/direction/demands from Lucy). Here's a tiny tote we made:

She's been stringing buttons together and stickering quite happily. When she gets up, we'll take on the long-awaited cookies.

I've checked in on Jake via my spy technology. There were no updates from about 8 am until 2, so I got a bit worried, but it looks like he's up and running (the phone/tracker/GPS failed in some way, either in battery life or in transmission from the wilds of western Mass). He's roughly around Colrain, MA, where according to weatherunderground, it is overcast but not raining. That's good.

The update from Jennifer & Brendan indicates rain and winds down in Germantown. The update from Carlisle is just hot, humid, and humid. Pretty much the same here.

We'll check in later. With cookies.

3:45: Rain has arrived. Cookies are in the oven. Very strange cookie dough. Reports forthcoming once they're cool enough to test.

4:15 update: I am feeling foolish for over-hyping the cookies. They are a fail. Fail, like Lucy won't eat them. And I think they're pretty lame. Sigh.
They might actually work as chocolate chip granola. Or as a topping for yogurt. But cookies, they ain't.

To make up for the totally disappointing cookies, Lucy got to paint. She loves to paint. She did quite a bit of work. Here she is in action:

And a few samples of her work:

So while she painted (for like a solid hour), I went through some of the various baskets of crafty stuff, which included both supplies and projects completed. I threw out a large box of paper that had accumulated. I realize that perhaps someday, some art historian will be very, very disturbed to hear this, but if keep going with the Lucy archive in its "save everything" mode, we will need a new house. Just for the art. She's a productive child.

5:45 update: Jake has successfully completed his ride, and the rain only just started. Hooray! Now he's off for beer with his fellow riders. I'm sure he'll have some details to share when he gets back tomorrow.

It's raining here. But not windy (yet).