A trip to meet……

the girls. Sunday was a pretty lazy day. After returning from church I pretty much just hung around until it was time to leave for Seattle and dinner with the girls and Christina’s boyfriend Robin.

We picked up Anne at her new apartment and headed up the hill (via car) to meet up with Christina and Robin at a local Pizza restaurant, Via Tribunali. We had a very nice meal and interesting conversation. After dinner we headed up the hill (again with the car) to a small park that gives the best view of the city. It was fun seeing all the mansions on the hill and imagining who might live there.

The big adventure happened on the way home. We got lost. It didn’t look like you could get on the freeway heading south at the Mercer on ramp so we turned right and that’s where it all became a mess. I won’t describe what ensued but it took over an hour for a 25 minute trip home. Oh well, it was an adventure.

Lightening and thunder about midnight last night sent the dog into a tail spin (remember 4th of July and the fireworks). Poor thing. Today it’s overcast at 9:30 AM but promises to clear up. Still haven’t decided what we’re going to do. If it clears up perhaps a trip over to Poulsbo and Bainbride Island.

Here are pictures from last night with the girls.

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Family reunion………

out on Vashon Island. Actually we were on Maury Island that is attached to Vashon by a spit of land. Visited SIL’s parents Jeannine and Russ at their beach home. The have lived there at least 60 years and Jeannine’s parents lived there before them. Very relaxing afternoon on the island after a ferry ride over from the Tacoma/Pt Defiance dock. We wound up getting there earlier than the Seattle contingency as there were street closeurs getting on Higway 5 from where Mike and Suzanne live. Wound up going to a  U-Cut Lavender farm a couple of blocks off the main road in Burton (located at the first stop of 4 on the Island). Then we met everyone in Vashon town at the Saturday Farmers Market. It was great to have Fran from Chicago with us with her 2 year old grandson Harrison. We finally timed it right with Fran and us to be here at the same time. After a trip to the Thrifty Market (which isn’t thrifty but more like a whole foods) we were off to the folks.

The day was speni visiting, sitting on the front porch waiting for the tide to come back in! Lots of great converstion and history about the area from Jeannine and Russ.

The funniest thing happened however when we went to leave. Mike and Suzanne had rented a Zipcar for the day (they don’t have a car). When we went to leave, the car wouldn’t start. Suzanne pulled out the book and was trying to figure out why. Mike finally called the 800 # (about a half hour of trying to figure it out). The customer service person told him to scan his activation card on the bar code on the windshiled and then try to start it. Voila! Seems that since he didn’t lock the car, the car automatically de-activated the ability to start the car. It’s a really cleaver system.

Sunday has been lazy. I went to the local Presbyterian church where I attend each time I’m here, we went to the market for a few things and then have just been hanging out. Going in to Seattle to have an early dinner with Anne and Christina.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, maybe a trip down to Olympia or over to Poulsbo.

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It’s still warm…..

and we’re wearing shorts!!

Actually got a little sunburn today as we visited the Zoo and Aquarium at Point Defiance.  Hadn’t been there since the girls were little. Most of the animals were out so we got to see them. I’ve been there before when no one was out because it was too cold!

They have a carousel there that is very pretty. I got shots of some of the animals after the kids got off.

Tomorrow we’re going over to Vashon Island for most of the day. SIL Suzanne’s parents live there. We’ll take the ferry from Pt Defiance and Mike and Suzanne will meet us and we can follow to the folks house. Cousin Fran from Chicago arrived this afternoon and is bringing her 2 year old grandson over as well if all works out.

Christina just called and is trying to work out for us to visit her and Anne on Sunday afternoon. Hope that all works out.

Life is good here and we have more plans for next week. The weather is supposed to be nice through at least next Thursday. Hurrah!! Enjoy the pictures of live and carousel animals.

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It is so pretty here…….

woke up to a beautiful day. After a pretty loud 4th of July celebration that had Charlie the dog pretty upset, today is very quiet. Since it doesn’t get dark til about 10 PM here the fireworks didn’t start til then. Our mission was to keep charlie calm. He pretty much stayed on the couch (oops, don’t tell my SIL) hiding under our arm our behind our backs. Since we couldn’t go out to see a  live fireworks show we watch the show on TV from Gasworks Park on Lake Union. HDTV is so cool. Probably the best fireworks, even better than live, that I’ve ever seen. Such a beautiful show and unique fireworks displays.

This morning we actually slept in. Our niece Anne was home (she came home for a party last night at a friends and spent the night) and took care of the animals so we could sleep in. After hanging around this morning we finally left around 1 for a short day of sight seeing. Our goal was to visit the town of Proctor and go to a used book store. Mission accomplished, a cute town with a small downtown. We did find the bookstore and some cute shops. The fish sculptures(see photos)  are around the town. I like the Blue Mouse sign and found it is a theater.

On the way back we stopped for Happy Hour at The Cliff House on West Marine Blvd , just about 1/2 mile from the house. Nice HH menu. A couple of beers, a plate of antipaste and some fried calamari and I don’t have to cook dinner tonight!! Great views of Mount Rainier and the channel that leads to the docks. Lots of sail boats out on the water today.

Tomorrow we plan to go out to Pt Defiance and the Zoo. We want to make the best use of these beautiful days. It should be warm through to mid next week.

The photos of Charlie next to my leg and foot are taken on the 4th before he started cowering on the sofa trying to hide.

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Happy 4th and We finally made it!!!!!!

We are finally in Tacoma. Bit of a hassle flying standby. Actually, we have never had this problem on previous standby flights. I know it had something to do with 4th of July being mid week and the kick off for family summer travels. We were supposed to leave on a 3pm flight Monday but it turned it we watchd flight after flight leave full with a couple of standbys and military personnel ahead of us. David got the last seat on the last flight on Monday. My dear friend Carrie came back to the airport on Monday night to take me home and picked me up Tuesday morning at 5 AM!! I got on the 630 AM flight and finally made it here.

Tuesday was spent hanging around while the Russo’s (Brother Dan, SIL Linda and Niece Margaret) got ready for their trip to Iceland on Wednesday. Late Tuesday afternoon we took a ride down to Point Defiance and drove around to all the sight-seeing points along Commencement Bay. Saw lots of raccoons. When they saw us they all froze in exactly the same pose, like maybe we wouldn’t see them! After a lovely dinner, including shrimp that Dan and a friend had caught in the Bay I pretty much called it a night. I had been up since 330 AM and was ready for bed by 9 PM.

This morning we were up early to get the Russo’s to the airport. We’ve spent the day hanging around. Being the 4th, Dan was worried about fireworks (which are legal here) scaring Charlie (the dog). and asked that we stay here with him for the day and evening. We’ve been hearing the planes from McCloud AFB flying almost all day. There is a big street fair down on Ruston Way (the other  side of Commencement Bay from where we are) today culminating with fireworks tonight. Since it doesn’t get dark til about 10 PM here, I’m not sure what time they’ll do the show.

Tomorrow’s plan is to go downtown Tacoma, out to The Proctor neighborhood and just checking out the area. The  LeMay Auto  Museum that we plan to see while we’re here  is near downtown but I’m not sure we’ll see it omorrow. I should mention that we’re not car people but the museum looks really interesting.

Here are pictures of the cats (Cassie and Louie), flowers and views of “The Old Man” as Mount Rainier is often called. Keep in mind we are 66 miles from the base of  Mount Rainier and you get this view.

I’ll post again with more adventures from the Pacific Northwest so I hope you’ll drop by again.

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I learned an important lesson……………

Don’t Try to Knit A New Complicated Knitting Pattern when you’re coughing, sneezing and taking cold medication!!!!!!!!!!

I started coming down with a cold (or what ever this is) on Thursday night. Friday I felt under the weather and stayed home and didn’t do much. Saturday I was board so I searched Ravelry and I found a new pattern (I’m kinda tired of working on Zigzag Wanderer) that looked like it had an interesting stitch in two rows of the pattern and thought I’d try it out. I spent about 6 hours trying to figure it out, including time spent on Ravelry reading notes and comments that others had made about the pattern. I finally gave up. DH said my confusion was due to coughing  and sneezing that caused me to lose my place. Maybe, but I just wasn’t getting it.

Sunday brings a new day and I’m actually not coughing like yesterday so I pull out the pattern, read Ravelry notes again (still don’t get it) and start again. WoooHooo, I got it!! Not sure what clicked but I got it.

Here’s the swatch (2 repeats), the pattern cover, and the chart and the explaination of row 3 and 9. You can also see the pattern here if you are on Ravelry. (You can also click on one of the pictures and it will enlarge the photo and let you see the swatch and instructions better)

You can also see on Ravelry that the designer posted pictures of how to knit the 6 stitches in question and what they should look like. I think the “what they should look like” picture is what triggered me to figure it out.

Whew, knitting shouldn’t be tis hard! I do have yarn for this  project but really think I should fo back to ZigZag Wanderer before starting this new pattern but I’m afraid I’ll forget how to do this stitch!!

Hitting the yarn jackpot!!

I went to a yard sale preview sale last week that a friend was having and scored some beautiful yarn at about 75% off retail. I have S.A.B.L.E aka Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy! Have to finish 3 projects before I can start working on this yarn (or anything else in my stash)! Going to Tacoma on Monday for 2 1/2 weeks to house/pet sit. Hope I get some stick time and work my way through some WIP’s.

2 skeins Aussi Wool

2 skeins Cascade 220

3 skeins STR Blue Moon (one is silkie)

1 skein colinette jitterbug

1 skein Dream in Color Smooshy sock

1 skein Art Yarns Kid Mohair/Silk

1 Skein Araucania sock

2 skeins Panda Silk

2 skeins Regia Design Line Kaffee Fasset

Sox in A Box, 20 sock patterns

1 1/2 9” circ

WIP……………

I finally have a WIP to post! I love this project but find myself “tinking” often because I can’t count. Before I knit the next repeat I think I’ll “write” the chart. This is from The Sock Report and is called Zigzag Wanderer . It calls for 440 yards but my Tosh Sock only has 395. I thought I’d get away with one skein but that is obviously not going to happen. Even if I had 440 yards I don’t think it would be enough. Can’t wait to see how much it takes. I got the first skein at Stitches West at WEBS and paid less than retail. The second skein I bought last weekend at my LYS  is making this a very expensive project.

I also went to a “preview sale” at my friends yard sale last week and purchased S.A.B.L.E (Stash Acquisition  Beyond Life Expectancy), but at a really good price (75% of what she paid). I’ll post in another post soon.

Going on vacation next week and taking a few WIP’s and hoping to get them finished before I start anything new but there is always another new project waiting for me on the horizon!

If you click on the pic’s you can see the stitch definition better.

Thanks for stopping by

Catching up…….. (really long post)

I guess my blog has turned into a “what I’ve been doing” rather than a philosophical look at life. That’s fine since Im not sure I have a philosophical opinion of life!

Since I last wrote two events I mentioned have transpired. First the Mad Hatters Tea Party at church on May 19th. In the May 11th post I mentioned the RSVP’s were at 60 and that I was working on getting the Queen of Tarts recipe to work. Well, we had 85 women attend and the Tarts didn’t turn out!! It was a lovely day and we had just enough food. The ladies of the church were very generous with bringing food and even though the tarts didn’t work out we had tons of cookies. The men of the church did a great job of serving and my friend Shari saved my life by helping me the whole day setting up, arranging the food and keeping me calm. The only thing that didn’t work the day of the Tea was the tea. A few days before the tea someone asked if they should bring their teapot. Teapot?! I hadn’t planned on that. And then, the water I heated in the coffee urns wasn’t hot. Who knew that the heat turned off and didn’t keep the coffee (water in my case) hot. That makes sense in that you wouldn’t want the water to keep perking the coffee if you were making coffee. One of the “older” members told me after the fact that in the past they heated BIG pots of water to brew the tea in individual tea pots. No one told me that! As it turned out it was 85 degrees and everyone wanted either iced tea or lemonade and I had both. All in all it was a great event.

The May 26th event, the Emmaus Walk Kitchen reunion, was attend by me, Kathleen, Monica and Val. Most people didn’t even RSVP. A little discouraging but “where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there”. We had good fellowship and planned to get together again in July as Helen is having a Community wide event for women in June.

WOW, June is almost half over and it’s been busy. I worked at Sunset Celebration Weekend (Sunset Magazine) on the 2nd and 3rd. It was fun getting back together with people I have worked with the last 5 years. It’s hard work for good pay and fun to be with everyone. I met another knitter on the crew and we had a great time talking knitting while we worked making sandwiches for Orowheat bread.

This weekend was the start of WWKIP week. The Wednesday night knitting group went to the Morgan Hill Farmers Market for a few hours of knitting on Saturday and then went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.

Two other things happened in the past month. The day after the tea I was asked to meet Pastor Tom in his office. All I could think about was “who did I offend at the tea”. Turns out the Session of the church had nominated me to be an Elder for the next 3 years. Whew, I just joined this church and already they want me to be an Elder. I didn’t know if I could do this again. I was an Elder at Immanuel and it was really stressful. However, it just so happen we were studying Moses in the Old Testament where God asked Mosses to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land and after all of Moses’ excuses God said he’d be with him and Moses agreed to lead them, so what could I say! This morning after worship I was commissioned an Elder. The other thing that happened was I was asked to be Kitchen Boss for the Walk to Emmaus in November. After praying on that I said no, not this time but that I would work in the kitchen on the team again. Then the Kitchen Boss called and asked me to be the Assistant Boss. After praying againg (and remembering Moses) I agreed to be the assistant.

David and I did go see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and really enjoyed it mainly because of the cast and the locale. The story was a bit choppy but all and all a good movie.

David and I also went to Half Moon Bay at the end of May for the day. It was great to see my friend Ruth at the HMB Wine and Cheese store.

Whew, it’s been a bust 30 days. I have several things on the calendar between now and when we go to Tacoma for 3 weeks (July 2nd-18th or 19th).

Of course knitting is always happening. I’ve completed a few projects and have a few projects in the works.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing my world.

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So many things………..

going on. Where to begin? I’ve had coffee with Kathleen K. twice since our Emmaus work weekend. We have planned a get together on the 26th of May for those who worked who would like to get together. I used Evite for the first time to invite everyone. We’re planning a light breakfast and sort of a planning session to see what folks would like to do with this group. Found out the Helen is planning a get together in June with a similar plan. She is including all who worked the Walk.

The Mad Hatters Tea Party is a week from Saturday at our church. I hope we’ll have enough food. I heard that the RSVP was over 60!!vToday I scoped out the serving pitchers and platters in the church kitchen. Went to a couple of places to see about plates, plastic ware and didn’t get anything. Tomorrow I’ll just go to Party City. Several folks said go to the Dollar Store but I didn’t like the quality (or lack of really) their things.

Right now I’m try the recipe for the Queen of Tarts tarts. So far the cookie dough shells aren’t working. Maybe my dough wasn’t cold enough. Will do another batch in just a bit.

Tomorrow night there is a Emmaus Community potluck. I’m going because it is being held at my church here in town and not 30 miles away. Going to make Pioneer Woman’s Olive Cheese Bread.

Tomorrow David and I plan to see the new movie with Judy Dench The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The review this morning was only two stars and not well like. But with the huge cast of legends I’m sure it will be good.

I wanted to make a sweater for Kathleen’s grand daughter for a christening gift but didn’t like any of the yarn at Michael’s. I’m such a yarn snob. I’m going to see if I can find the called for yarn at one of the local shops this weekend. The pattern is Burnett from Berroco.

Well, guess I better go check the cookie tart shells and figure out how to dow it. I’ve got 5 other women making them and I want them to be successful!