Catching up: super picture heavy

Hi. I haven't posted pictures in awhile, mostly because I've been too lazy to even get them off of my camera. So now that I'm finally getting around too it I have about a month's worth of pictures, mostly non-knitting related, to show.
This is my cousin at the zoo. Isn't she cute? She's standing in front of a giant fish tank inside a cave. I love how the fish looks like it's coming up to give her a giant kiss.

This is the baby elephant. I hadn't gotten to see her yet, so this is exciting. The matriarch of the pack died recently, so the pack is with out one right now. The zoo is wondering who will step up now that she's gone.

This is my cousin and I in front of the hippo tank. My cousin is only 17 so I'm thinking about making a shirt for her that says off limits. She kept getting whistled at while she was here.

I took her to my favorite place in St. Louis, Laumeier sculpture park. This is my dad's favorite piece, Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall! (sorry, RAC's website is down, and they have way better info on the sculpture's at Laumeier then Laumeier's website, so I can't link the actual piece. But it's there if you search. It also has all of the public art in St. Louis listed, so you should check it out). This guy in the picture was running across the top of the piece. Apparently Purl knew that this is not allowed, because she barked and growled at the guy. This may not seem odd to most of you, because that's what dogs do, but Purl does not bark, and she almost never acts aggressively. I always joke that as long as an attacker called her pretty and petted her she'd let someone come up and mug me. She's not very protective (most of the time, this is a very good thing. I don't want an aggressive dog. It would be nice if she was a bit more concerned with my well-being though. I mean, seriously. She's big. And while in most cases an 80lb rottweiler is more then enough of a deterrent, she's a big baby. Good thing I didn't get for anything other then a pet).

Still at the park. This is a picture of Chelsea taking a picture of me.

Actual knitting! This is the gauge swatch I did of Orangina. I finally cast on again yesterday, worked two repeats, and already am short a stitch. Lace does not like me.

Today is my birthday! My parents came up with my nephews yesterday to buy me new running shoes! Both of my parents ended up getting a pair, as well. This place really knows its stuff. My mom and I both have messed up feet. Mom's had surgery twice this past year due to hers, and I have arthritis, so we both need special fits. We found them here. My dad's an avid runner, so he was due for a new pair.

When my oldest neph got out of the car he was so excited to see me. The first words out of his mouth were "Aunt Becca, we got you a cake with your name on it!" My mom tried to remind him that that was a surprise, but he proceeded to tell me all about the cake. He's so cute. The youngest just discover smell, so he likes to tell everyone about it. He will come up to me and say "Aunt Becca, I smell!" while sniffing. He just means that he sniffed, but this cracks me up every time. The first time he did it I told him to go find his daddy, because I don't take care of smelly diapers.
After we got the shoes my dad took me to the opera. This was SO.MUCH.FUN! We saw The Mikado, which was so funny. We also did the pre-show picnic, which was a lot of fun. Next time I go I'm going to bring my own food, though. The provided stuff was really good, but the people who brought there own stuff looked like they had more fun. People brought in these really nice baskets with wine and really great looking food. The people sitting next to us had Red Lobster! There were some crazy looking outfits there. The man we sat next to in the show had on orange pants! And there were so many bow ties! I'm trying to get my friends together to just go to the picnic before hand. We can get dressed up and buy our own wine and just sit out and people watch.
Finally, here is a shot of the Cabo Halter in progress.

Apparently I need to clean my mirror. I now have the bottom section attached. All I need to do is attach the zipper and do the hem. Yeah!
And just in case anyone thought I would pay more attention to what I was doing while sewing then I do while knitting, don't worry. I don't.

I didn't have a seam ripper, either. I got to pick that seam out with a pin. I'd even gone over the stitch a few times, due to tension issues with the machine. Shiny. My mom gave me a seam ripper for my birthday. She thinks she's funny.