Socks

I'm planning to work on the shawl tonight since I can sit in a chair away from dogs and such for a few minutes. The sock is coming along apace though. I had some knitting time today. It was nice and got me through the heel flap, gusset and into the foot.

I really like how the heel flap and turn came out. The colors look so defined. Also that my gusset didn't do any crazy pooling. It really looks like it keeps the stripes intact. That's a really good dye job I think.

Bulldogs like socks

Of course it helps if they think they are going to get to eat the sock in question...

Moving down the heel flap. Chris sitting across the room doing his thing. Both listening to dogs growl, groan, snort, sniffle and act like clowns. No better way to spend the evening.

two things I'm working on

First up the shawl I mentioned yesterday. Knit in Dream in Color Smooshy in Dove. Not so very much farther along yet. I didn't spend much time on it today. Mostly because I was finishing bouquets and doing household stuffs.

Also maybe the two hours spent on this.

Pigs in Mud Sock. Yarn from Sunnyside Ellen in the colorway Pigs in Mud in her Louet Gems base. This yarn was bought because it had pigs in the name but also because I wanted to try out this base. It took me a year to get to it. I don't know why I waited because its really nice yarn and it seems to knit up really fast and it looks like a combo of strawberry and chocolate milkshakes. I didn't realize it was going to stripe either but clearly it is.

Busy Day

I started a shawl this morning. No pictures because I didn't get any before I left the house to spend MOST of the day out on a search for satin ribbon (only found a little bit, what happened to all of it??), pretty fake flowers for bouquets (we didn't figure out how to get fresh ones and keep them fresh and the knitted bouquet is not finished plus then I would be short two), and all the other little parts I needed to put the bouquets together. Then we went to dinner with Chris' mom and her boyfriend (such a silly word). Now I need to go surf you tube to find some instructions for something I want to do for the bouquets.

Present!

You all know I have been doing a lot of test knitting for Erica. Some of it I have shown you, some of it I haven't. I spend half my knitting time working on her patterns and who could blame me for wanting to knit these gorgeous things right up? Now to top off how awesome she is, she's sent me a thank you present!

Gorgeous Saffron colored yarn from Koigu. I love Koigu. I really really really love this color. I'm already dreaming of ways to use it that involve something other then socks. I can't see this gorgeous yarn if its on my feet!

A sweet little matching fat quarter. Perhaps this should become a bag for me before I knit the yarn and I can use them together!

AND some Black Bunny Fibers wool and nylon sock yarn. This is the colorway celery and it seems to be a good match for the celery I bought today. Its soft and pretty and it hasn't actually said what it wants to be. I'll have to wait and see and just admire it in the meantime. Look at that gorgeous texture. This is stunning yarn. I can't wait to see what it becomes. (Almost forgot! Two Christmas' ago at our annual knitting group Christmas gathering someone gave as the white elephant gift some black bunny fibers yarn - well I think it was black bunny fibers - and someone read it off as burning bunnies. So know I won't think of this yarn as anything but Burning Bunnies Fiber and I just tried to type that into Ravelry to find the yarn.)

Thank you so so much Erica! This is such a generous present. I love every bit of it.

Penny Says Hi

25th

This is an excellent year for my sister. Its the year when her day of birth equals her years so surely thats a good sign. Mine happened when I was 5. While I'm sure it was a good year for me, what I remember of it wasn't necessarily so hot. When your 5th birthday is 11 days after your sister's birth, you've been the baby for all those 5 years, and now you'll have to share a room with the screamer, well...

Anyway. Happy Birthday Isidore! I love you! I hope you know that. I don't fault you for anything you may or may not have done as a baby that may or may not have pissed me off. I hope this year is extra special for you.

In honor of the 10 days between us (if you don't count today or my birthday, 5 April) I've reduced all the small bags (that would be the sock project bags) in the shop and the two rovings to $10. I've reduced anything normally under $10 to $3 (that would be the lavender sachets and the stitch markers) AND I've reduced anything normally over $15 to $15 (that would be the yarn and the one big bag that is in there right now). This sale will go on until sometime on my birthday when I have 30 or so minutes to reprice everything back to where it was OR until I run out of stuff, whichever is first because obviously if I run out of inventory the sale can't go on.

(This logo will take you to the shop!)

Now on to the weather. A real doozy of a storm blew in today. We are just barely touching tornado season and luckily there weren't any associated with this one (at least in the northern part of the storm). It did rain for hours quite heavily and the sky was darkened and the thunder rumbled and lightning struck (not sure what it struck cause it was in the distance), but before all that these clouds appeared.

Around 130pm today I looked out my office windows and noticed the clouds. I was so happy to have my camera with me. Aren't they oddly shaped? I understand from a coworker that this is caused by very high speed winds. I didn't verify this fact but we certainly had VERY high speed winds today. I opened the door to step to the balcony to get a picture and nearly blew away. Literally. We jammed that door shut really quickly.

To really highlight the formation I took the image on the right, which is how the sky actually looked and is right out of my camera, and enhanced the shadows and turned it black and white. Its pretty dramatic and you can really see the oddity of the cloud shape. I really like these images.

By 630 any trace of storms were gone though and we were left with a pretty spring sunset. Go figure. Right now Louisiana is being hit with this doozy of a storm. Hopefully Leah isn't getting too wet. Finally one green shot for those missing the green in their lives.

its totally me!

I got home from the ophthalmologist (who found no problems and I'm feeling somewhat better today) and found a package waiting in the mailbox. I didn't figure out from the wrappings who it was from because I couldn't really read the words with the dilation thing still going on with my eyes but I could feel from the squishyness that it had to be yarn. I hadn't ordered any recently so I happily opened the package to find this gorgeous skein.

Its summer sunshine in a skein of yarn! Its absolutely totally gorgeous! Its perfect! And totally my color! Did you see the name? YARNPIG. Yup its totally me. I feel so honored. Thank you Robyn. This is unbelievably cool of you!

The yarn is Robyn's Nest Flock of Feathers Sock. Its 80% Merino, 20% Nylon and oh so next to skin soft. Its a light fingerling weight. Now I just need to find a nice sunny project for it. I'm thinking a wide scarf maybe. It needs to have that same summery feel. I'm so excited. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Robyn!

Migraine

I'm chilling tonight and attempting to not use my brain. Luckily someone beat me to the tutorial (the sock designer actually) so you don't really need me to do that for you. I'm not up to it right now. I woke up just fine this morning. About 930 I had a acephaligic migraine (visual aura) which is usually the onset of a regular migraine or it goes away and there is no onset migraine or after effects. I have fallen into the category of no onset migraine every time this has happened before. Though I get migraines with no visual aura regularly due to my allergies. Well the 930 one chilled with no onset migraine. I had another bout around 11 this morning. I've never had two less then a month apart before. That one chilled with no onset migraine but it left behind tremblings, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. I don't know if I should be happy or sad that I have a migraine that gives me no pain but still gives me all of its side effects. The doctor wasn't particularly thrilled about it since I've never had any sort of after effects before and felt bad enough that I actually went to see her. I'm going to go see an Ophthalmologist sometime soon (next couple of days depending on available appts) to make sure there isn't anything wrong with my eye/eye parts and rule out something other then acephaligic migraine. They are running some blood tests just for more assurance. Mostly though she's expecting all the after effects are just going to pass like any migraine.

Anyway I'm going away from the computer and not thinking anymore tonight...

Pain in the Heel*

Pattern: Tropical Mer-tini - Sock 1 of Sock Madness (my Ravelry project)
Materials: HedgeHogFibers Merino, Bamboo, Silk, Nylon Blend. In the colorway Gobi. 350 yards. I used almost all of this.
Made for: Me
Needle: 2.5mm 40" addi turbos
Start Date: 19 March 2009
Completion Date: 22 March 2009
Size: 11m

Notes: I figure I might well do this part today and do that little tutorial tomorrow seeing as I finished these socks today instead of writing up that tutorial...

I made no changes to the pattern obviously other then to add an extra repeat to the foot so it would fit me, so this little note section isn't that useful this time around. The design on the sock is really hard to see in most of the socks I've seen. I've gotten a decently clear image of it.

I can't say these were my favorite socks ever but they are soft and squooshy and also they are finished. Plus they fit well enough if a bit long due to guessing how much heel there would be. I should probably have done the toes after the heels so I really knew how long those needed to be.

Please check out the afterthought heel flap/gusset. This side of the flap looked decent because this is where the ends were and I was able to tighten it up a bit. I won't show you the other side. I'll not be doing another of these or another afterthought heel (unless sock madness demands it) because I really disliked this method (why not just do it as your knitting and have a real gusset too?) and I dislike short row heels.

* This title I owe to Chris who determined that it took me almost as long to knit each heel as it did to knit the corresponding foot so they must have been a pain. He is not wrong about the time span either.

Getting there

I knit like crazy today around the other stuff I did. I've one pattern repeat on the foot of sock two, one toe, and two heels and these babies are done. Tomorrow an afterthought heel setup tutorial? Maybe I took some pictures today we'll see if I do this tomorrow.

Gus wanted to say hi really really badly. He's over by me doing a wiggle dance right now.

And a stupid video of Gus and Abby "fighting". The funny thing is the expression on her face and her legs sticking up in front of her while she sits on her bum. She's such a goof. Please excuse the mess that is the black comforter. When I stick that thing in the wash I have to vaccumn out the dryer, filter and airvent. Its crazy.

Progress

You'll notice the HUGE gaping hole in the sock? That's where the afterthought heel flap will be going. I'm considering knitting it before I knit the toe, just to make sure the sock really fits. But that's still a bit off as I need to do at least one more pattern repeat before this is long enough to fit me though technically I could put a heel and toe on and call it done based on pattern specs.

This one seems to be a slow knit (shouldn't I be farther along then this?) but that might have more to do with my paying more attention to my book then my knitting. That last book was really really good. The knitting not exciting. This next book will be really good too.

I tried to take an image sort of stretched out so you could see the design. Its a drunkards walk quilt square adapted to knits and purls. Its sort of hard to tell.

Sock Madness has gotten started

I'm feeling seriously blah about this. I mean that totally and completely. The reason probably has something to do with the design. It doesn't fit my aesthetic and as such I'm having a really tough time motivating myself to knit on it. Its going to make it hard to get out of the first round if I don't actually want to work on the project.

Chris told me tonight that if I didn't like it I shouldn't knit it. I'm trying self motivation first before quitting. Below is the sock I started on Monday. It is a second go round of a sock I am designing for a friend. I'm trying to convince myself that if I knit the sock madness socks I can reward myself with this sock. The yarn is very different from what you see in the image, but its more fun to keep it secreted. If it really was this color I probably would have overdyed it. The salmony pink pastel doesn't really do it for me. Now the orange of the madness sock? LOVE this color. Completely. (Can you say bribing myself to motivation??) The yarn is a super duper soft silk, merino, nylon, bamboo blend. Its so smooth and snuggly.

One thing we've been dealing with around here lately? Abby is DESPERATE to play soccer. I can't look at the backyard without her getting excited. Poor kiddo. I think soccer is a long way off, if it comes again at all. We've been walking and doing other fun dog stuff, but soccer is so dangerous for her knees now. We have to be very careful. I don't know that the doc is going to agree to soccer playing again. I suppose I could take that ball out of the backyard but she can still run around with it. Just not chase it down (like fetch which we can't play either but she doesn't seem to be missing as much).

I retook a picture for you guys today. Its almost the same angle as one from a few days ago with so many fewer new leaves. I'm hoping the rainy overcast weather will come back. Its been sunny the last couple of days but I'd really like for there to be a ton of rain this spring.

I'm not feeling very motivated this evening

Mostly I am unmotivated to clean the dishes after I cook tonight. So I talked Chris into sandwiches. Hopefully my turkey still tastes fresh. I don't really like it to be too old.

I meant for there to be more knitting content tonight as well. It wasn't that I'm unmotivated there. Its just that I was reading my book and knitting along and all the sudden its DARK. How'd that happen? Where'd the last hour go?

I think I know why I am not motivated to clean up after dinner messes. I want to be reading this book! I read about 20 pages last night before bed and I'm at 225 now and moving up fast. I can't blame myself. Its a silly historic romance novel by an author I love. Rivals for the Crown, by Kathleen Givens. She's an addicting author if you like your books a bit fluffy. Which sometimes is a good thing.

Its a green green green day!

In honor of St. Patrick's day we have a lot of GREEN. Abby, Gus and I hoped in the car and had a little adventure this afternoon. We ended up at the park near our house. Notice the way the leashes are set up. There are two but Gus' is really short. I had the brilliant idea that I could just slide his down her leash and then he'd have a long one and she would too. This worked really well, but I could have easily just dropped his. He never gets very far from me when we are out.

We walked every square inch of the West side of the pool. Sniffing everything in the path and more. They didn't try to eat anything, but Abby was VERY interested in an old cigarette butt she found in the grass. We stopped by the pool because they were working on it the week before last and I wanted to see what they had done. Truthfully? I can't tell. Looks exactly the same.

This is while they wait for me to take a photo of the pool. Gus has spotted the reason that we didn't go on the East side of the pool at all. The playground is over there, usually we go over there anyway, but today there were 50 or so kids too. Gus doesn't do so well with that many people. He panics and tries to hide between my legs which makes our walking away more difficult. Best to just avoid it.

Then Abby spots the problem. She wastes no time.

Gus and I were dragged a few feet before I stopped her. She doesn't mind people. In fact she LOVES the attention. Needless to say I wasn't sympathetic and made her go the other direction. She got over it pretty quick. This is when she found the cigarette butt. As I was dragging her away from it I decided that I needed a picture of this tree. Gus decided that rather then pictures it was better to just claim it. Why do dogs feel the need to do that? Usually this sort of thing is reserved for our backyard.

We came home to see that Spring has indeed reached our trees in the backyard. This was on one of the bigger ones.

Another photo of the greening in the forest. I love seeing it get greener and greener from day to day. The brown that is left on the ground there are dried leaves from the fall.

And these awesome leaves from the front garden made me happy. The wind that kept blowing the branch and my hair around did not.

I leave you for the day with a final thought on green. Lets just call it Green Beans are BAD.

A Pear

I'm rather fond of pears. Really any fruit and almost any veggie could be said to be in my personal favorites, but a deliciously, perfectly ripe pear is a treat. Especially when that pear comes from the cafeteria at my office. This is a first, in the year of having a cafeteria we've not had pears before. This one was absolutely delicious and so pretty to look at.

Curry Socks*

(The sock on the right has been rotated on my sock blocker so you can see what it looks like down your foot.)

Pattern: When World's Collide by Erica at Dreams in Fiber (my Ravelry project)
Materials: .9 skein Indigo Moon Superwash Merino in the color Pumpkin. This yarn was a wedding present from Dotty. Thank you again Dotty, I can't begin to tell you how much I love it! I think I saw more on their website if anyone else liked it too.
Made for: Me
Needle: 3mm, 2.75mm, 2.5mm all 40" addi turbos
Start Date: 7 March 2009
Completion Date: 14 March 2009
Size: 11m

(I love the imitation bricks.)

Notes: Another test knit for Erica. This one is part of a sock/yarn club (Wizard of Oz inspired) and won't be available on its own for a while. I suspect that Erica will have posted to her blog sometime after its summer release to the club. I'm lucky enough to get to show you photos because it was the winning design for a contest the yarn dyer had so the pattern has been seen already by club members and is up on Ravelry already so you can queue it. If I remember I will let you guys know when it becomes available or you can stalk the Fresh From the Cauldron Etsy shop and see if she's posting club subscriptions. Pretty sure she has a Ravelry group too. I don't really know much about the club ($$ or duration or what type of yarn/patterns) but I've knit another of the patterns that Erica has done for it and that one is really awesome too. Pictures to come at a much later date. That was the green bean project.

(My socks/feet look really really long off the sock blockers.)

Obviously I didn't make any pattern changes since it was a test knit except to add enough additional rows of stocking stitch after the last pattern repeat when I got to the toes so that the sock would actually be long enough. I think I added 8 additional rows, the pattern already calls for 1 row of stocking stitch and a pattern repeat is 20 rows.

I also used a larger needle for the the ribbing (3mm) and used the recommended needle for the first pattern repeat (2.75mm) but went down a size for the rest (2.5mm) because thats the size I generally like for fingerling weight yarn. I used the larger sizes because this pattern only has 62 stitches and I was afraid that wouldn't be enough to get over my heel if I didn't make the ribbing a bit looser. These are really comfortable will be getting a lot of use.

* Thank you Angela for the project name.

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

Here is what Gus did with his afternoon. There was a great deal of very loud snoring. Please note that all that hair was NOT there when he got in the chair. He's shed it since.

This is what Abby did with her afternoon. No snoring on this side. Notice her arm tucked up under her.

This is what I did this afternoon. Four socks with the ends woven in. One pair you'll see as soon as I get some pictures and the other somewhat later in the year.

Plus, a little something with the leftover yellow gold yarn from one of those pairs. This is something that I haven't talked about because as of yet its not significant enough to talk about. In other words I'm not sure what I'm doing quite yet. Its just an idea I have in my head and we'll see where it goes.

Also I totally forgot to mention yesterday that Chris' brothers surgery went well and his recovery seems to be totally on track. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and good wishes for him.

I thought it was going to be close.

I thought it was going to be close considering how small the ball of yarn looked. So I measured the first finished sock.

Then I measured the ball.

Clearly one cannot tell weight just with their eyeballs...

Gorgeous New Roving!

I entered a contest on Chez Plum. She was giving away two small rovings and what you had to do to enter was tell her which you liked best and why you liked it. I said something to the effect of

"I’m in love with the brown and green. I think because it reminds me of how the forest behind my house is starting to come alive with spring. The lovely neutrals giving way to small pops of green."

This forest. Where you'll note that the green is moving UP the trees. Yeah for spring rain, which we've had a TON of this week. In fact it was sprinkling when I took this photo this afternoon.

Sylvie (and the random number generator) awarded me that roving I loved so much. Its gorgeous isn't it? Its a little bat. Its about half an ounce (just a bit more then that) and its a mix of some mystery semi-coarse brown wool and white soft wool, black alpaca, colored wool neps and some green hand-dyed Cotswold locks. Its soft and pretty and I'm already trying to decide how I'll try and spin it and what I would use it as an accent detail on. Did I mention how pretty it is?

Just in case you can't see the forest images and the roving together on screen. I think I was right to say its a perfect match to the forest as its greening.

Thank you so so much Sylvie! I love it so much!

Abby Girlie

I saw this photo today and it just made me so happy that I wanted to share. I'm sure you've seen it before. She really did want the puppy to by sympathetic.

Ozzy on the attack

Roosting on a dog bed on Saturday afternoon.

Spotted something. Gotta go check it out. The long way so not too close to the human. She's the weird one anyway.

Its exactly what I thought it was.

I'll sit here innocently so she won't notice this yarn got away.

Take that sucker! You are mine now!

Spring moving in (much random and a contest link below)

I found these yellow roses on a coworkers desk this morning. I sneaked in her office before the sun was up to photograph them. Here is what they really look like. This picture is for my Mom since she hasn't gotten flowers from me in a while. She is doing really well. If all is well tomorrow she'll actually be going home! Yay!! There is not a lot more too it then that. Her rehab/therapy is going well. She's up and feeling well. She's also totally stoked that tomorrow she the cabin fever is OVER.

Chris' brothers surgery is scheduled for next week. Mostly that is still just a waiting game. He's doing well considering though.

The title of this post refers to a contest that Shelly (Kadezmom) is having. There is no requirement for a blog post or anything you just have to go over there by the 21st and tell her what thing/sound/event means spring is here to you. Some of the things I said I've now got images of. First the coming of the spiders. I spotted my first yesterday. Its a Jumping Spider (don't follow this link if you don't like them because there is a very close-up photo at the top of this Wikipedia page) and yes jumping spider means that it will jump on you but usually it just stays still when large living things are near. Also pretty harmless, if creepy.

The first rose of the season. I talked about the flowers blooming...

...and the trees beginning to leaf. I'm seeing both this week.

One thing I forgot to mention was the melty face dog. They come out in spring and stay all summer and usually into the fall and winter... We had a nice little adventure this afternoon and its made them tired. I came in, changed clothes, hustled them into the car and we went to the nearby park and roamed the grounds. Its really busy over there so this is a real treat because usually we stay away from crowds.

I noticed something else today that I hadn't really recognized as a theme before. I somehow, unintentionally, seem to pick yarn that matches the book I am reading. The is far from the first time its happened. In fact my last pair of socks, which you won't see for a while, matched the book I was reading then too. I guess I'm subconsciously drawn to the book colors because I was reading 1999 before I started this sock on Saturday night. 1999 is the last part of a five book "epic novel" about the last century in Irish history by Morgan Llywelyn. It is historical fiction such that the history is true (to the best of the researcher's knowledge) but the main characters are not real people. They are made up and woven into the history. Its the same type of book that Edward Rutherfurd and James Michener write. I used to devour Michener's book when we stayed with my grandmother when I was a child and teenager. This I think might be my favorite type of story. Rutherfurd and Llywelyn rank as two of my favorite authors (Michener is in there somewhere but I like the more modern writing style of the other two better.)

Yarn Spun Third

My third yarn was actually finished on the Sunday that my Mom got sick. I had nothing on my bobbins so I just picked something randomly and started spinning. A few hours later I had some new yarn.

This is 3.8 ounces of Perendale wool in the colorway Poppy field from Susan's Kitchen on Etsy. There is 168 yards here. Apparently I'm spinning consistently since the last skien was basically the same. It is a two ply and knits to a worsted weight gauge. Its also very rough. I was hoping it would be softer when I saw it online but when it got here I felt it and its really the consistency of Noro Kureyon now that it is all spun up.

I think I'm going to pair it with these two yarns and create a bag or something felted out of it because it really really is WAY to rough for next to skin, but such a pretty color.

The funny thing is that when I was out in the yard photographing it I looked down and realized that it totally matches to my Smooshy Strange Harvest socks. No wonder I liked the color when I saw it because this is one of my favorite colorways ever.

Beauty in my own Backyard

Next week the green will cover the bottom and begin to creep up to the top. Hopefully the rains will come and everything will bloom. It will be a whole different sort of image.

For now we are enjoying the overcast sky and the tree reaching for the sun and just hoping for a little more rain.

And just a reminder that spring is on her way and the flowers will soon be blooming.

PS. Don't forget if you are in the US that today/tomorrow is daylight savings!

Souvenirs and a Wedding Present

I did acquire some nice souvenirs on my trip. There was a really great yarn/embroidery shop called Needle's Eye a little bit off the beaten path from the downtown tourist area of Santa Fe. Chris looked it up on his phone and we wandered up that way after quickly tiring of the generic souvenir shops. I really really wanted a couple of gorgeous hand painted embroidery grids (not really sure what they are called), but man they were expensive. I couldn't spend that much even if I was planning to frame them rather then embroider them. Thereby considering them works of art. Which they totally were! I did get yarn though. I bought stuff that I can't see and touch at home and normally would have to buy off the internet.

Koigu in a candy inspired color. I can't remember what number it is so I'm calling it New Mexico wildflowers. Though we didn't actually see any flowers.

Colinette Jitterbug in Oyster Blush.

Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Leaf. Man this was hard to get an accurate photo of too.

Also I acquired a wedding present the other day from a friend.

Yarnchef Minestrone in Ripe Pear. Yummy! It looks really good with the velvet leaf too.

I'm not very good with knives

That blob in the middle is a hot air balloon. Rough ride that. I was earwigging in the line to the tram and I understand from the guy that was behind Chris trying to impress his girlfriend with his career, that the last requirement to get a license to drive one is to let the air out of the balloon at 1000 feet and safely land it. I assume if you don't safely land it you don't need a license anyway given that 1000 feet up is a long way to just fall. Also the landing on these things is very rough and the flight is not as calm and pleasant as it might look. Its windy up there! Imagine that.

Apparently I decided it would be a smart idea to attempt to cut off my finger tonight. I'm still trying to figure out how I did it. Its not very deep, only about 1/8 inch and the full width of my finger. I've cleaned it really well and put on a butterfly bandage to keep it together and one of those bandages designed for fingertips. If it gets bad or I suddenly can't feel the tip of my finger I'll go to the doctor, but it seems ok right now. Its not like I haven't done this before. I told Chris about it after I'd cleaned it and bandaged it and he says "you know I would have helped right?" That might have made it easier, but it was my left hand index finger and I'm a righty. Plus I'm not at all squeamish. So I didn't even think about it. Its sweet that he's willing to bandage me up when I hurt myself though.

Loved this tree. A stylized version can be seen here. It really amazes me what the different settings on the camera will do to the light. I generally prefer to go natural. I do wish I could make flickr load the higher resolution better. Sometimes it really fuzzes with the images. All the pictures here were taken in a walk on my last day in Albuquerque/Santa Fe. We were actually in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort. Its a really lovely place with excellent service, nice rooms, and wonderful restaurants. I totally recommend it to anyone. It is a "resort" though so it can be on the pricey side as you get "in season" which I think is May to October? Also probably sometimes its pricey out of season too. February is a gorgeous time to go (and the only time of year I've been there), but I understand May is gorgeous too. I'm becoming convinced that its probably gorgeous any time of year.

Mom's therapy is going well. My sister thought she might be in a wheelchair for a bit but shes up and walking (with a walker) and it looks like she won't be needing that for long. She is getting a bit of cabin fever though. I'm hoping my sister has supplied her with something fun to do. Books or knitting or something. So all this means that I feel comfortable making wedding plans again.

Chris' stepbrother is doing well. Mostly he just has a long wait ahead of him. His valve replacement (doesn't that sound like a car?) is next week. So we are just playing a waiting game. I'm wondering if his wife has anyone coming to help with the kids. Apparently the baby they just had that I thought was one baby is really twins. How did I miss that? Also there are two older little boys from his first marriage. I know that's got to be a handful for her since I bet he isn't lifting or doing much right now.

Gus fancies himself a turtle. You know that thing a baby does when they are on their back and they put their hands together in front of their face and also reach for their feet to pull them closer? Well Gus is doing exactly that. Only he gets stuck when he tries to flip over and there is a lot of leg flailing until he figures it out and manages to flip over. If we try to help him he'll just get right back on his back. I did have to separate him from Abby because he was determined to lick and sit on her and frankly she just really really really wants to sleep. He doesn't seem to mind. I can tell from the sleeping that she definitely doesn't mind.

This is the Rio Grande. I had to speedily take this photo because Chris' mom's boyfriend decided to scare away the birds just as I was lining up my shot. He was whistling at them. Apparently they don't like that because they got away as fast as they could. I specifically took this walk (with Chris' Mom and her boyfriend) because I wanted to get up close to the river. I took some cool stylized images of it earlier crossing the bridge in the car, but while they are really pretty they are so far from the real thing I wanted to try again. Go look at them though because that second one is one of my favorites from the trip. It reminds me of one of the paintings/drawings/photographs from a history book or an old periodical.

Plus what's better then a pleasant early morning walk?

Everytime we drove over the river the smart alecks in the car would say something to the effect of "Look! We're in Mexico now because we crossed the Rio Grande!" and then going back. "Wow! Thank goodness the border guards didn't get us crossing the Rio Grande into the US!" It was a running joke the whole time because of course either side is still New Mexico and still in the US. We were a long way from the border. Its stopped being funny pretty quick.

PS. Do we like the bigger font? I messed around with it. I know the writing has always been small and I wondered if this was a better size?

Albuquerque Tram

I have a couple more posts that I wanted to do about the trip to Albuquerque/Santa Fe. Thats ok because I can't show you what I am knitting right now. One of the things was the tram in Albuquerque which goes to the top of Sandia peak and is the world’s longest passenger aerial tramway. And takes about 15 minutes to run its 2.7 miles to the top of the peak. Sometimes the thing is going so slow that you can't believe its even moving any more. Especially after the second tower where it is supposed to be the longest stretch of continuious cable in the world. Crawling along. At 1000 feet up from the land you see below you. Something like 9000 feet above sea level and then up to 10000. (I guess that's why they didn't have another tower. It would have had to be too tall.)

(Mountain going down the non-Albuquerque side.)

Its an AMAZING view from the top in either direction. It was about 28 degrees and windy up there and we tried to stay out as much as we could to photograph it but Chris was in short sleeves so we didn't stay out long.

(There are notes on this picture on the flickr page.)

And gets even better as the sky darkens. I did keep going out later and later while we were at dinner to get progressively darker shots. I don't recommend the restaurant at the top but I would totally say if you are in the area and not scared of heights or enclosed spaces that this is totally worth the fee.

And finally Albuquerque blazes in the darkness.

One of my favorite shots, which probably took me several dozen attempts to get is this one. I just love a good color blur shot. More photos can be found in my flickr set.

A belated thank you!

We got back to the hotel on Friday from our excursion and found a present waiting on the dresser. A wedding eve present. Doesn't it look yummy? We were full from dinner so I stuck it in the fridge and we ate it cold the next day. The chocolate sauce was actually still perfect for dipping even cold. And let me just say the whole thing was tasty. Thank you so much Chris and Erin. It was a huge surprise and we totally appreciated you thinking of us.

Little update here at the bottom. I don't think we've heard anything about Chris' brother. He was supposed to see the surgeon today. I'm also waiting to talk to my sister who I think is working tonight about how mom is doing. She should be in the rehab hospital by now. I'd call but I know Dad is in bed and I don't want to disturb him because he gets up so early. Plus a thank you to everyone that left me such nice comments about Mom and Chris' brother. I really appreciate the good thoughts, wishes, and prayers headed our way. I've answered many of them but don't have email address for all of you and I wanted to be sure to thank each and every one of you for your support and caring.

Back from the vet?

He walked himself into this spot and hasn't moved but to lie down or sit up since we got home 2 hours ago.

I'm not terribly pleased with this boarding thing. It looks like the dogs got a cup of food each day when my instructions were one in the morning and one at night because a LOT less dog food got used then I expected. Also they weren't allowed the comforter or toys (the cats didn't get their towels) that we brought for them so I think they were probably laying on the crate bottom. How much trouble would it have been to throw the thing in there with them and let them organize it for themselves? I would have done it if they'd let me back there to begin with. It doesn't seem to have been good for Gus' hips or Abby's knees to lay on the crate bottom. They are used to padding and they NEED it. She's limping a LOT on that second knee. We are going to give it a couple of days and if she isn't better I'm going to reschedule her knee check-up to this Friday instead of next Friday. Gus is having trouble with standing back up. I've given him an anti-inflammatory and a pain pill. I hope it helps some. I think being stuck in the crate for 4 and a half days has degraded their muscles some? Neither really is walking normally or wanting to do much but sit around. They are tired, probably from too much going on around them at the vet to get enough sleep. Penny was still in the e-collar when we got there. I suspect it hasn't come off at all for the week because no one was going to watch her enough to make sure she didn't scratch that spot before it was totally healed.

I guess we just need to make sure we have a pet sitter available whenever we go away or make sure we can bring the dogs. (Cats can stay home for a while by themselves. The longest I've left them with no one to check on them is four days and they did just fine.) I just don't like how the animals look coming home from the vet like this and I don't feel like they got the care they need. I wonder if I know anyone with a college age kid that is trustable enough to stay at the house and care for the animals the way we want.

Also Ozzy has gone insane and keeps meowing at the bedroom door. Its closed but its always closed because we don't like the dogs to wander in and eat shoes or cram themselves under the bed or whatever. Meowing in general is weird for him but this is just over the top craziness.

Yesterday was post 666

Updates all around. We are back home. Its nice to be home but quiet because we can't pick up the animals until tomorrow. I'm ready to see them tonight because I miss their craziness but all in good time.

My mom will hopefully be going into rehab tomorrow provided there is a bed available. She's up and moving mostly, but will be in a wheel chair for a while until her strength is fully back. She's apparently lost a lot of strength from her 4 days on the respirator and the two days before she was really moving around again.

Chris' stepbrother went into the hospital Friday due to shortness of breath and numbness in his arm. Apparently he has a defective aortic valve and it needs to be replaced. This is most likely genetic because his mother has incredible bad luck with genetic type illnesses including heart/cardiovascular I think. She's sick 85% of the time as far as I can tell and in pain almost 100% of the time. He is going to see the surgeon about the replacement on Tuesday and they will most likely be doing the surgery in two to three weeks. I'm not sure that he is out of the hospital and resting at home yet or not, but he's been sending Chris text messages with crazy jokes so I would say boredom/cabin fever has set in already. He's in good spirits which is always a plus.

So that's what's up. I'm ready for bed now. I'll show some more cool images of Santa Fe tomorrow. (Also since I'll be getting a dog fix so I'll try and give you guys one too.)