Miles Behind

Today is a momentous day. This morning, I ran my first ever race. A 5k at the Captains Stadium. My free time in the last month has been eaten up by the training for it (as well as the knitting, of course) so it's left little time (or energy) for the blog. So, sorry about that.
Me and Liz, in the parking lot after the race. Unfortunately, no one was available to come to the race and take pictures, so we asked a stranger when we got back to the car.
And here's my reward for sticking with it and doing well (32:18, in case you were wondering). A skein of Destination Yarn called "America the Beautiful" - it's a-mazing. And with perfect timing, it arrived today. We also treated ourselves to IHOP after the race (which was fantastic - do much real butter and sugar, yum!)

Running isn't the only thing I've done this month. Going back to the last post, Tommy and Sarah came to visit for Memorial Day weekend, where Mason fell in love with Sarah.
It was so funny. Then I managed to finish that spinning I was doing:
Love it. I went to the Riverfront Irish Festival with Bridget and Clan:
Sadly the weather was hot, steamy and slightly rainy - which did not make for good pictures, so that's the only one I took. Kaylee in front of New Barleycorn on stage.

Last weekend, I watched the girls.
In honor of the World Cup (which I'm currently watching - USA 0 - Ghana 1 -- not so good).
And there's nothing better on a hot day than the breeze created when you swing. Can't believe how big they're getting - even though I say that every time I post about them.

This week, Elliott turned 4. How crazy is that? And to celebrate, he wanted Chik-Fil-A (who wouldn't?) so with Uncle Charlie in for a business trip, we went to dinner.
A few presents - birthday bash is tomorrow. Then Aubrey showed us some of her style:
So cute! A diva in the making. And in the parking lot, we ran into....
Iron Man! Elliott's favoritest thing right now is the helmet. It talks.

Alright onto the knitting, as I think that's everything else caught up. I've made very little progress this month - due to that whole running thing, and work. But I finished a very pretty shawl:
Gail (aka Nightsongs). With some very pretty prize yarn from the St. Patty's project. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the yarn before I started knitting it - very hard to photo, it's a mixture of grays and light purples called "Carraig" which is Gaelic for "stone".

I started a little sweater, but haven't gotten very far, hoping to get a bunch of it done this week after the sekrit projekt is done for tomorrow.
Using that lovely pink bamboo/wool yarn I got from KNOTS a while ago. And the pattern is Spring Garden Tee. Love it, just haven't had the time or energy to devote to it.

And then I started another spinning project -
Also not so far as I would like. Roving is called "Verdigris", and I'm planning on keeping it a single. I've been putting in a little time with those socks I showed last time, but not much, so I'm not bothering to show them. Next time. And it will be sooner than a month, I promise.

Off to furiously work on the sekrit projekt, and randomly do a happy dance for doing so well in the race today (can't help myself!)

PS - Tommy and Sarah also got engaged in the last month - congratulations!

Mid Month Report

How is it the middle of October already? And why does it feel more like the middle of November weather-wise?

Last week was rainy and chilly, this week it's been rainy and cold. There's a difference. How can you tell the difference? This week, the fire got turned on. That's the difference. Last Friday was was chilly and rainy, so what better to do than go apple picking?
Miss Kaylee is an excellent apple picker - I really wish I had taken video so that you could hear her, "I can twist and pull! I did it! I put it in your bag Aunt Annie!"
She also picked a lovely pumpkin. Can you tell that she's a bit of a ham? Perfectly posing herself for the camera.

Last Saturday was homecoming, and... first football win! Boys soccer also won that morning, as well. Football plays again tonight - in Ashtabula. Might be a bit rough. My best two linemen are injured. One isn't playing at all, and the other one is going to try - he's promised to take himself out if his elbow (which requires micro-fracture surgery, that he's putting off until after basketball season) hurts too much. Which we all know won't happen, so if he reverts to his, I'm-not-moving-my-arm-while-playing pose, I'll sit him. All 6'7" of him. Good times. Did I mention that there's a chance for rain/snow mix tonight? Can't wait!

But having the game tonight means that I've got tomorrow to myself for knitting and college football! Good games tomorrow - Texas/Oklahoma and then the big one, ND/USC. Fingers crossed. Before football though, I'm supposed to go apple picking again, with my nephews - keep your fingers crossed that the weather permits the outing. I'm hoping to up the adorable pictures with some in the pumpkin patch...

Speaking of pumpkins, I finished the first Kleine Kurbisse sock.
Here's the stitch pattern unstretched - doesn't look like much right?
But when you stretch it out, you really see the pumpkins. I love it.
I also finished up a pair of slippers for Aubrey - why is it that anything knit in baby sizes is automatically cuter?
They are to match the slippers I'm making for Peggy (her birthday present, as requested) which are currently in progress:
I've started the second one, hoping to go to Ellie's sometime this weekend or maybe Monday to felt them so I can finish them.
That picture was just for scale, the mama slippers are seriously ginormous. I got an order in from Webs yesterday, which means that after the second slipper is done, I can start another project, which is (hopefully) going to be awesome. In my head it is awesome, which sometimes worries me, other people tend to give me the "crazy look" when I think a project is this awesome.
Very excited about that pattern booklet too, it's awesome as well. Especially for this sweater - can't wait to make one. That photo, btw, gives no hint to the awesome project. You'll have to wait on that one.

The last project I though was particularly awesome - still to be featured on the blog, it hasn't been gifted yet - earned me a prize on the Harry Potter Rav group, which arrived in the mail yesterday (it was a good mail day!)
Stitch markers that are inspired by Professor Trelawney (crazy Divination teacher from the books) and are themed on tea leaf readings. Very cool.

I've been slowly adding to my Tapestry Cowl this week. It's such a time suck, just to get the 3 rounds a day. It doesn't help that I'm easily distracted while knitting it. Need to not watch anything interesting on tv while knitting on it.
But it's really pretty, and so soft, I'll be happy to wear it when it's done. I need to get going on some spinning this weekend as well.
Pretty Fire fiber. Hoping for a 2-ply DK to worsted weight yarn out of this. We'll see how it goes. This is the order that the fiber will be spun, attempting to spin the 2 halves in the same order, so there's another four bits that look just like this.
Going to be really cool, and very season appropriate. Good for football watching - because Sunday is Browns/Steelers, followed by Halloween card crafting with Meagan - it's going to be a good weekend! Hope everyone else has a good one too - especially the Jersey folks, Mom is visiting this weekend for Miss Sarah's birthday party! So jealous!

Part 4: The Road Home

So, time for the trip home. That Saturday, after the shopping on Main Street, we attempted to leave Cape Cod. And 2 hours later, we were successful. Yeah, traffic out of Cape Cod was way worse that the traffic we had in NC last year, and we had next to none on the way in. After driving for a while, we found our favorite exit and stopped for Pizzeria Uno's and Coldstone, totally not on WW's plan, but after traffic like that... and we were still on vacation. Anyway, I had been hoping to make my pilgrimage to knitting Mecca - aka WEBS, and was worried that the traffic had put us far enough behind that it would be closed, but miraculously we got there with 30 minutes to shop.
So not enough time, but power shopping can be fun. I hope to go back someday, if only just to wander a bit more slowly, you know, savor and enjoy the experience, at least as much as the back warehouse can really be savored and enjoyed, it's a bit overwhelming.
The acquisitions - at least most of them. Some are being knit into something that I can't show you right now, but you'll see eventually. So, that's a skein of Sheep Shop Sheep #3, like the stuff I knit into my Serpentine Mitts. The red stuff in the plastic is a sweater's worth of the WEBS brand, Valley Yarns Williamstown (fun tweed!). And a skein of Wisdom Yarns Poems Sock. It's 75/25 superwash/nylon, with long color repeats like Noro, but so much softer, and superwash so no felting! Close up of the colors, which are not well represented, but what can I do?
Yeah, probably should have photographed in natural daylight, but I wanted to post now. Hopefully the colors will be better when I get around to knitting and photographing. So, we left WEBS, and continued on into NY. Stopped at the Albany exit where we stayed on the trip in, so to visit the Christmas Tree Store, Ellie is hoping they will progress westward to Ohio soon. Stayed at a round hotel in Syracuse, yet again swanky.
Sunday morning we headed out, hoping to find a Dunkin Donuts or like place for breakfast. Didn't manage to have much luck, had a long drive off the highway to find one in the Finger Lakes district, but DD is always worth it. The weather was a bit funky, but we were hoping to stop in Niagara Falls. And by the time we got close, it was clear blue skies so we headed north.
My first view of the water of Niagara.
Working my way up to the falls.
Look, it's Canada, eh! Where can I rent one of those barrels?
Lots of self portraits were taken that day, this one with Toronto in the background.
That one shows just how windy it was, we let curls fly, no restraints whatsoever!
And just the majesty of the Falls themselves. This was my first visit, and it was so gorgeous. Next time we'll do the Maid of the Mist and hang out in Canada, maybe do the wine tour... Guess that means I need to get my passport. But there's some great yarn shops in Toronto...

So, we set off again. Hoping to find a Wegman's for dinner - we'd been thinking about it since the trip going the other way. And even though no one was around to help us find one via the internet, we found one. And the chicken finger sub is still so good. So good that I couldn't eat a cookie because I was so full (don't worry, I had one later).

After Wegman's we were really on our way, no more stops. Had the camera ready for the Indian though:
And in PA, we had this rainbow chasing us for a while.
All in all, a really good vacation. Now that two-a-days are over, I think I need another one!

Part 3: More Rain and Twilit Beaches

I apologize for the long silence, but it's August, and I am an athletic trainer. Football practice from 8a-6p does not make for coherent blog posts. Not to mention I spent more than a week dog sitting, and had no access to the vacation photos. And why blog if there are no photos?

Picking up where we left off...

It rained, alot, Thursday night. Bad storms. Rain/drizzle/mist continued on Friday. The Jersey folk were off to... somewhere I can't remember the name of right now. It had a carousel, and they met up with some of Rachel's family. Ellie and I headed off in a random direction to sight-see and maybe shop a little. We ended up driving in the direction of Sandwich, and happened upon a yarn shop! Out of nowhere, had no previous knowledge of it's existence. So we stopped. And shopped. This is what I walked out with:
Some Cascade Heritage handpainted sock yarn, and some fantastic Plymouth Mushishi, a yarn that I had never seen before. Yay fun vacation yarn!

Anyway, we continued driving and driving and driving. Crossed the bridge to Cape Cod a couple of times and decided to stop and eat. Found the cutest little place, The Bee Hive Tavern. It was so the quaint little inn that I pictured New England to have, with the low beamed ceilings and cutesy decorative touches. I could totally see George Washington stopping there for some ale, although I did not notice a sign saying that he had. Then we stopped at the cute shops we had seen when originally working our way into Sandwich. Found a quirky little shop that had some really cool glow in the dark hand-blown glass ornaments, but we didn't buy any. Eventually we made our way back to the house.

It being Friday, it was Date Night. And so the children were left in the hands of the Aunts. We opted to go say good-bye to the beach, in order to get more beach pictures, as you've seen we hadn't had many to that point. So we went to the beach that saw our first night, but didn't visit because of the sign posted about a "Residents Only" sticker thingy. Psht. It was after prime beach hours, who was going to care? (You'd think that was foreshadowing wouldn't you? But it's not, we only got a snobby look from the teen aged guy on his cell in the car next to us when we parked)

This beach had some great views (photos taken by Ellie, on my camera):And we managed to get a couple of okay shots with people in them before we had to leave.
Not because the we weren't allowed to be there, but because the smell was so icky. And there was about 8 ft of seaweed washed up along the water line from the bad storms the night before. My nephew was unimpressed, and none of us really care for seaweed, so we opted to go back to our beach.

There was still plenty of seaweed at our beach, but with a bigger beach to begin with, there wasn't as much, and it didn't have the smell of dead fish - always a bonus when near the ocean. So we tried t0 get some good shots of the kids, and did, kinda.
C4 seems to think he needs to hold onto his sister for every picture. Not sure why - probably has something to do with her being quick to run off, or that he had to do it so often when she was more of a baby and immobile. Anyway, they're still cute as all get out. But C4 didn't really want a photo shoot, he was more interested in tag, so we didn't have long, and the light was fading fast. So we squeezed in the obligatory photo "Feet in Sand".
Sarah isn't quite old enough to understand the concept yet but I think that makes me love that picture more. Then C4 got some tag, while Sarah dragged the writing stick around.
And then we shot some more photos, not all of which were exciting enough to make the blog, so here's one of the good ones.
And then I climbed up onto the life guard chair (kids, please don't try this at home, or without adult supervision).
And then we took my most favorite picture of the whole trip.
Seriously, could it get any better than that? We then said bye-bye to the beach, and headed into town for some ice cream. Where we promptly crashed Date Night (of all the ice cream joints, they decided to go to that one at the same time we did!). The kids were then unwilling to leave with the Aunts, (why would they when Mom and Dad are right there?) so we really ruined Date Night, and from there all headed home.

Saturday dawned early for packing. The Jersey folks were on the road early. Ellie and I were a little bit later, doing the last of the cleaning and laundry. And wouldn't you know it, but it was a most perfect beach day! Sunny and 80. And we were leaving town. Boo. But first we went back to Main Street for a last little souvenir shopping. Picture frames, t-shirts, car decals, and some seriously good pb cups. Sadly the coffee shop that we had been wanting to go to all week was closed. It was just that kind of vacation.

So we climbed into the car and headed west. And I think that's enough for tonight. One more vacation post to go. And then a really big catch-up-on-EVERYTHING-else-that-has-happened-since-so-I-had-better-hurry-up-and-post-it-so-that-it-doesn't-get-too-long-and-I-fall-behind. Again.