Monday, October 25, 2010

Christmas

I'm coming to realize that I really want a nice Christmas this year. A tree, gifts, decorations...

I don't know if Merrie will be at home, and I can't control (or even affect) that, but I think Geordie and I aren't going to England this year. I want to make the holiday something that he and I can look forward to, with little traditions and joys just for the two of us.

I have a door wreath I made last year, but I think I'll make some garlands (paper snowflake ones would be pretty, don't you think?), find a good spot for a tree...

I want us to be cozy and happy, and I think I can start here.

For those of you who are in smaller families, what traditions do you find most meaningful? What about most fun?

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Daily Random


I had to go to Joanne's Fabrics today, because I've lost my can of spray basting for quilts. I bought a can right before we left on the trip and now it's gone. *argh*

Whilst there, I bought a wooden footstool for the kitchen; the sink is a bit too high for me and washing dishes with my boobs resting on the counter is, well, not entertaining for me. The stool is a little high, so I might try taking a bit off each of the legs, but probably not. I will, however, be covering it with a piece of photorealistic scrapbook paper with an image of river rock pebbles on. I'm painting the sides of the stool grey (to match the pebbles), and the legs in two different colors of yellow. I'll probably use grey on the legs as well. I'll take pictures, I promise.

I also got a sharpener for the blades of my fabric cutter; I use a rotary cutter (which is, essentially, a smaller pizza cutter) and the blades seem to get dull really quickly. I figured that a $15 sharpener, assuming it works, will save me lots of money on new blades.

Anyway, in body image and shape news, I'm shifting to a 1200 calorie a day diet. Yes, I'm paying attention to nutrition - I'm not interested in dying of nutritive deficiencies! (I was talking to Kam about it and joked that I could drink two small lattes (about 100 calories each) and 5 Snickers bars and be set (calorically) for the day, but I wouldn't be able to finish a second Snickers bar in reality. I can't eat that much sugar all at once.) I'm also trying to drink more water and I'm going back to trying to get onto the bike every day. For my height and size, 1200 calories/day isn't really unreasonable, either. Given that I'm 4'9" tall, one of the standard calculations doesn't even go down far enough to determine my base caloric need, a realization that caused much amusement in my Nutrition class. (It gave a variable based on inches over 5'... and I'm not.)

Anyway, the correct way to do this is to calculate your Base Metabolic Rate, then multiply the given number by a ratio dependent upon one's activity level (I put Sedentary; let's be honest, shall we?), which will give one the number of calories one should eat to maintain one's current weight.

That site's BMR calculator says I have a resting metabolic rate of 1366 calories; dropping my actual intake closer to 1200 will certainly get my weight down. I'll be exercising and eating a multivitamin, and I'm not crazy, so if I find that I'm terribly hungry, I'll eat. This is an attempt to get to a healthier weight, not a desire to become anorexic. However, if my BMR is 1366, the fact that I wasn't losing weight before, when I was just exercising and trying to "eat better" (but without conciously restricting my calories), is less confusing.

We've also been trying to cut out things like high-fructose corn syrup, so I've been on a label-reading kick. Breakfast cereals have astronomically high calorie loads, did you know that? And the nutrition information on the side of the grits box differs from what's online, unless the grits box is using dry (uncooked) measures and Teh Intarwebs is using wet (cooked) measures. (Which makes sense, given the difference in quantities.) Protein is good at every meal, and salads are always fun to eat. I'm giving myself something of a pass on the caloric count in things like strawberries and cherries - sure, they're sweet, but they're seasonal, delicious, and, well, I love fresh fruit. NOM.

So anyway, I've done okay for the past couple of days, but I'm probably over. I am drinking a lot more water, and I'll be on the bike tomorrow for the first time since coming home. I hope I remember how to ride. *grin*

I found a blog where someone talked about doing something similar to this - she had originally been thinking of trying one of the programs that sends you food, but wasn't willing to cook for her family and not be able to eat what she'd worked so hard on. She did very well on a low-calorie diet, and switched to drinking only water. Now, see, that's something I'm NOT going to be able to do. I can't give up coffee! *clings to coffee*

I'm hoping tomorrow will be busy and productive. I'm still not finished with the damned quilts, I have some other sewing I need to get done, and there's the inevitable laundry to deal with. *sigh*

Merrie's working now, four hours a day, five days a week. She's a locker attendant at the pool near her school. I'm glad she's got a job, even though it's working with her (idiot) boyfriend. I sort of wish it were a heavier retail sort of job, so she could see just how awful retail can be, but I guess this is the best we can get for now. Plus, any sign of responsible behavior from her is a big positive thing.

It's very late, so I'm going to bed. I've made Geordie's lunch for tomorrow, I've done a bit of embroidery, I've laughed with Geordie at the stupid questions people ask on Yahoo Answers - time for bed and snuggles, I think.

Oh, for dinner? I made chicken thighs breaded with cornmeal and spices, steamed green beans, and pan dry-steamed garlicy collard greens. The chicken thighs turned out very well - baked in the oven and delicious. The collard greens, unfortunately, were very bitter; I'll have to find a way to deal with that. They're not always this bitter. Sometimes they taste more like broccoli. I'm hoping it's just the batch of collard that I got. (The dry steaming? Heat a pan, toast some garlic slices, then toss in a bunch of roughly chopped collard greens. Cover the pan and let the collard cook down - it's a remarkably watery vegetable. If I add liquid to this, it turns out mushy and horrid.) Fresh strawberries with a little whipped cream for dessert.

Okay, time for bed for me. G'night!

SongBird

Friday, July 9, 2010

Random post

So, there are things in my life I regret, and I'm not going to talk about them, because regret makes me crazy. Only, sometimes I am forcefully and directly reminded of what I've lost, choices I'd re-make, if I could, and I ... regret, with the dark and bitter finality of futility and despair.

In other news, I'm out of black sharpie pens. How can this happen? I have a bunch of pretty colors, but no black? Argh. Relatedly, it turns out that the picture frame I wanted to use the black sharpie on ... won't take sharpie, so I'll have to use paint. *sigh*

I've printed out a cute image of a bunch of pots and pans to put into a frame so I can keep track of what I've planned for dinners. I bought a good frame for it at IKEA yesterday, when I went to buy fitted sheets (how is it that I have previously purchased only flat sheets - yes, I know IKEA has pictures of flat or fitted on their damned sheets, I know. I know. Every other time, I swear, I've looked at the pictures, then bought the wrong ones. This time I said the words "Fitted Sheet" outloud to myself as I picked up the ones I wanted. They remained fitted sheets all the way home, and now there's one on the bed. *sigh*).

ANYWAY. Frames. I bought three, one pink, one blue, and one black - the pink is for the kitchen, the blue for me for something and the black is for an embroidery project I haven't started yet, but will. The embroidered state maps, if you remember me mentioning it.

The thing is, the pink frame looks, well, plain and I'd like it to be prettier. I thought I'd just draw on it with a black sharpie, but lo, no black sharpies. I found a nice dark purple one, but lo, it doesn't stick to the frame. Lo, I will be using my fine line paintbrush and some black paint.

I slashed the middle finger on my left hand with the metal tabs of the frame - just at the inside crease of the knuckle closest to the tip. Argh.

I have pictures I want to upload from my camera and I can't find the card reader thing. I'd thought I'd brought it with me to New Hampshire, but I couldn't find it there and now I can't find it here. I'm sure it IS here, but I'm too cluttered to find it. Argh.

I still have to take a shower, finish the donation quilt, work on a quilt square for an online quilting bee I'm in (I have ideas, but I'm not sure I can make them work. I'm looking forward to trying, though.) and finish picking out some knitting for a friend.

I also can't stand the clutter in my craft room any more. I'm DONE with it. I was in there yesterday, and ... well, I don't use most of that stuff, so why am I keeping it? If it's in the boxes, and I never open the boxes, I probably will never use/need/want it. An old friend of mine, I mean someone I was friends with years ago and have now fallen out of touch with, saw my cluttered storage space and asked if I knew that free space has a value as well, and that I was wasting money by storing things - often it cost less to replace a thing than to store it forever. I think I'll go through each box, just to make sure there's nothing I do need but that got stuck in there in my last minute cleaning panic, then give the boxes away wholesale to the local art re-use place.

And I agree with that, except I don't have room for my mother's furniture. I don't have much of it, but the pieces I do have are ones I know I want to keep. While we were in New Hampshire, we idly looked at houses for sale. There wasn't one under 2K square feet of living space and most have at least 2 acres of land. I need to hurry up and finish school!

I think that's it for now. There's more in my head, but I need to get started.

SongBird

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Getting back to the real world

So, I have to get back into the swing of things. I've been trying to make a list of things I want to get done, but I've now misplaced the damned paper I was making the list on!

*facepalm*

Yesterday I started knitting the Laminaria blanket for us, and I started working on a quilt for a charity thing that Downy is doing called Quilts for Kids. It's very straightforward - all I have to put in is my own time, batting and the return postage. I'm thinking of using some of the fabrics I have but don't want any more to make more quilts for them. Also, to find out if there are local places that would be interested in kid's quilts. It's a better use for the fabric than just donating it to the Depot for Creative Re-Use.

Also, yesterday, at the yarn store, one of my friends gave me some qiviut fiber - a bag of unspun, uncarded random qiviut fiber! It still has guard hairs and everything! I'm sort of delighted out of proportion to what it is, but it's very very amusing to me.

I haven't eaten anything yet, so I think I'll go make something to eat, then get back on the bike. I'll make it once around the island, then get back to work. I do wish I could find my list, though.

SongBird

Monday, July 5, 2010

School Stuff

So, in order to bring my gpa up (it's 3.5; the school I want to get into typically accepts people at 3.7), I've enrolled in a basic Physics course. I anticipate much amusement, learning, and fun. Geordie's looking forward to it as well, I think. I have to get an A, no matter what. What's the ballistic curve of a flying A?

I'm trying to find a way to bring my non-English language skills up to mediocre. I can get an additional 5 points towards acceptance with foreign language skills. The way it works is the applicant gets a teacher/authority to sign a form that states the applicant has achieved a minimum level in their chosen foreign language. This is done with a scale ranging from 1: doesn't speak the foreign language, to 5: fluent native speaker. In order to get the five points, any applicant must rate a 3 or higher. Thus, I need to achieve mediocrity in my chosen language.

Given the timing of the physics course, I think the only class I can get into is a French 1A course, which is ... really going to be a brush-up and reminder course for me. I'd wanted to do Spanish, but there aren't any classes into which I can fit. Spanish is more useful, in my area, than French, but I've previously been a fluent native-level speaker in French, so it should be easier to re-achieve mediocrity. American Sign Language is only offered at the one campus with no parking and in a difficult urban area to get to. Arabic, Chinese and Japanese have similar issues, and I'm not sure I can achieve mediocrity in them in time anyway.

French it is, I guess. I'd sort of like to use my friend Kam's copy of Rosetta Stone Spanish, but I'm not sure I can. Anyway, my Tuesdays and Thursdays are now fully scheduled, from 9am through 1:50. Tuesdays will then continue to the yarn store at 4 through 6pm.

I should also re-take the TEAS test. This is the test which I'd scheduled, then forgotten and for which I didn't study at all. It's basic, and I didn't get 100%, which is somewhat humiliating. In some cases, I think it's that I disagree with what the test thinks is correct. (I'm pretty confident in my understanding of sentence structure, but I didn't do well on that part of the test. Hmmm...) Regardless, I can take it a second time, and the school takes the higher of the two scores.

I think I should also talk to the community college and find out how to get the AA degree I have all the credits for. At this point, I should start putting letters behind my name, right?

I still haven't gone grocery shopping. Hmmm.

SongBird

Home and Happy

Well, apparently, I shopped a bit too much. (It was all craft supplies, which will be lovely souvenirs, really! I'll take pictures to show you!) I got all of my stuff into my bag, but was over-weight by 10 pounds. We ran out and got a new bag (*sigh*), so we could bring home the delicious smoked meats and could spread out the weight from all of our luggages.

Anyway, our flight home was two flights; we flew from Manchester, in New Hampshire, bounced at Chicago Midway (spending that 40 minutes eating a quick meal), then flew direct to Oakland, which is less than 10 minutes from home. We got in half an hour early, which was nice. We mostly unpacked our clothes and general stuffs quickly, so I feel like we're a bit ahead of the game there. (I have a terrible problem with unpacking - if I don't do it quickly, I ... do it glacially slowly. Geordie's better about this, so maybe he'll rub off on me.)

The kitties were pretty muchly hysterical with delight to see us. (It's kind of funny to see cats actually get excited - they're usually so deliberately blase about things, but BC and Butter have both been clingy and talkative. I wish I understood Cat; I'm sure they're telling me important things.) BC spent some of this morning sleeping on Geordie's lap, which she hasn't done much since we brought her home from the pound (she prefers to be on the couch next to us, rather than ON us.) She was quite distressed when we went out last night to get milk, eggs and bread.

We're slowly seeing things that need to be caught up on, or dealt with. The hummingbird feeder is empty. We need to go grocery shopping - we're out of vegetables and general food supplies. I had to test my fishes' water; they're showing signs of stress, which I assume is too much nitrite in the water (it was!), so I've put in some nitrite remover. And, for good measure, some ammonia remover as well. I'll give it a day and see how they're doing. I also gave them some of the shrimp pellet food, which they love, even though it makes their water cloudy. I still have to clean out their filter.

There are other things I need to get done soon, but I'm finding that I'm easily distracted, so I'd better start a list. (Yay, lists!)

Anyway, I think I'm going to go make a list now, and maybe see about doing some all important final relaxation before the week starts. How was your weekend?

SongBird

Friday, July 2, 2010

So we went to a local touristy maple place, Parker's, for a late brunch, then idled about on the way to Concord, where Geordie had seen, a few days ago, a place that does professional bra fittings. Zoe & Company is filled with a variety of lingerie, ranging from full-coverage sorts of plainer bras to fancy corsets and matching bra and undies sets. They had some things that I liked, that were pretty, but a couple of other things that I've seen, but wouldn't wear unless you paid me an awful lot. This, for example.

That link is NOT worksafe. Just to let you know.

So, I actually am wearing the right size of bra, but Merrie was ... not. She's wearing a very different size! She's a mixture of embarrassed and amused. She has two new, expensive bras. I got one, just for camaraderie, and for prettiness. I tried on a longline thing but it made my boobs look like 1940's forward pointing cones. Amusing enough to take a picture for Geordie, not amusing enough to buy (or to show you the picture. I see you looking interested, there in the back! *grin*).

When we got back to Jack and Amy's house, Amy was finishing up her third coat of paint on the bits of (plastic) siding they're about to put onto the house. I helped move things around with her, then came in and started making bits of dinner. She'd put a chicken in her counter-top rotisserie (which is a pretty cool trick) and I made roasted mini purple potatoes, sauteed onions with mushrooms (which needed more flavor. I think I overcooked them. *sigh*) and steamed broccoli in the microwave. Chopped fruit with cream for dessert and then we rolled ourselves to the livingroom to watch another two episodes of Band of Brothers.

I've gotten lots of work done on a Random Circles embroidery piece, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'll see about doing that tomorrow, okay?

I think we're going to the Shaker village tomorrow. At the very least, we're going to eat there - Geordie and Amy both say the restaurant is excellent.

I'll be doing a lot of cycling when we get home. We're leaving in just a couple of days. How did three weeks go by so quickly?

SongBird
Well, I'm days behind, aren't I?

Three days ago, we drove down south, to Newburyport, (Wiki link) on the coast of Massachusetts. It's a cute town, with an oddly packaged feel. We didn't go too far into the town, just poked about the central area, but it seemed like a town built around tourist trade only. I did find an unexpected needlework shop, Uncommon Threads. I stuck my nose in - it's mainly needlepoint and cross stitch, neither of which I do much (I prefer needlepoint, even though many people find filling in the background part tedious. Counted cross stitch just frustrates me.), but it was worth checking into. The woman behind the counter seemed lonely and tired, but she perked up with Merrie, Geordie and I in the shop.

I picked up a miniature cross stitch kit for a "needle nanny". It's a magnetic holder for needles, which will be useful, I'm sure. However, the real reason I picked it up is to reverse engineer it. The whole kit fits into a tin the size of an Altoids tin! I can so TOTALLY make stuff like this! The kit is in my purse now, with the magnet part removed so it doesn't interfere with any of my electronica (the magnets are rare-earth ones, so they're very strong), and I'm amused to know that I now have craftwork with me at all times!

After poking about in Newburyport a bit more, we drove slowly up the coast again, watching the water and the towns and the area, until we ended up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We ate dinner (delicious fish and chips for me and Geordie, pasta with tomato sauce for the teen) at a restaurant that sits directly over the water. It was lots of fun to eat and watch the different boats rush by. The only complaint I have about that restaurant (I've now been several times) is that their tables are miniscule. Seriously, I'm a small woman and I can't sit comfortably next to someone at what the restaurant considers to be a four-top.

We ate dessert at a local place - Merrie wanted to get a popover from a cafe called Popovers, so we went there. She got her popover, Geordie got a Napoleon, and I got a Lemon Angel thing. Oh, and Geordie and I got coffee, of course.

Home after that, stuffed to the gills and happy.

I like Portsmouth much more than Newburyport. It feels more like a real town, a place where people live and work and do things that don't have anything to do with tourists.

Two days ago we did something similar, only we went north, into Maine. We started at, um, Kittery and drove up the coast, through York, Ogunquit and ended up at Kennebunkport, where the candy store is surprisingly inexpensive and fun. The staff were friendly, the candy was very well priced (Merrie bought herself some amusing things, including some GIANT gummy cola bottles), and they had some suggestions on where to find good maple candy.

The more I see of this area, the prettier it gets. The drive was littered with beautiful views and interesting trees and amusing little towns...

Yesterday, we drove to Mount Washington. We picked the fastest way to drive up, so the views were less exciting, but we got a good long time on the peak itself, which was pretty cool. On the way, we stopped for breakfast at a place we'd been to before; the Corner View Cafe is someplace we heartily recommend. Really, if you can go, do so. The food is good, the portions aren't insanely sized and the staff is invariably friendly and helpful.

Mt Washington is nifty - it was sunny and clear at the foot, but the peak is in cloud most of the time. It's pretty to watch the fog (cloud) shift and expose bits and snatches of views, then have the strong wind blow all the cloud away and see for miles and miles in every direction. It was quite chilly up top, though, so Merrie was cold. We'd told her to bring her heavy sweatshirt, but she ... didn't.

Anyway, we ate dinner at an absolutely amazing restaurant, in a town called Meredith, on Lake Winnipesaukee. It's one of The Common Man restaurants; this one is called Lago. The food was excellent, the service was delightful and the view, looking across the lake, was wonderful.

Home late again, and to bed.

Today we spent in Boston, with my friend Ruth, visiting Old Ironsides, but Geordie's asleep over there and I'm very tired, so I'll tell you about that tomorrow. I know there's more I wanted to tell you about the past few days, so I'll write about that as well.

Good night.

SongBird
Oh, I didn't report about the quilt show! It was great. It was full of beautiful quilts, a bewildering array of fabrics, threads, and accessories, full to bursting with women fondling fabric and chattering animatedly about sewing and other interesting things. I've been doing more and more quilting and I read the current quilting blogs, so I know what quilting looks like now. It's very different from the traditional look, which can, now, look dark and plain. So on the drive up to Essex Junction, Mary had been telling me about a historical American quilt exhibit that had come to somewhere near her in England; many of them had been quite antique.

Anyway, as we walked into the vendor floor, the first quilts on display were antiques - all of them plain dark red, creams, dark greens, browns. We looked at them, interested, and Mary said that these were exactly like what she'd been expecting to see. They were just like the ones in the exhibit.

Then we turned the corner.

The rest of the floor was covered in brilliantly colored, fantastically shaped and sewn quilts, all of them glowing. The look of sudden surprise and wonder on her face was a great joy.

We took pictures of so many different quilts! She really liked the pictoral ones - she wants to make one that shows her trip here. She'll make one square that's the plane, then one square for each big event. One for Mt Washington, say, and one for eating lobster, and another for seeing the tides at Hopewell Rocks and so on. I loved seeing her light up like that.

We bought, of course, some fabrics (although we were quite restrained, really), and she bought a bag kit that she'd seen in the quilting shop in Portsmouth and which they hadn't had any kits available. They very nearly made us walk away from their booth without the damned kit, but I insisted that they look harder when the first woman said (without looking), "Oh, I don't see that. We must have sold out." Sure enough, they had bunches of kits, stored in plastic bins under the tables. Ugh.

Anyway, Merrie and Geordie stayed outside. While we were inside, prowling through fabricy art, they were prowling through Burlington, finding interesting dams, a salmon LIFT (I know what they've described to me, but all I can picture is an elevator with a button for the salmon to push with their little fishy fins.) and a practically abandoned bit of freeway.

Just as we got home, we heard from Amy that we should meet them, Jack and one of Jack's friends down at a local restaurant for dinner. Dinner was quite good (Merrie and I split a biggish filet and some shrimps, with steamed asparagus and a salad), and Jack's friend was very friendly. The food was good and Mary and Edward's last dinner here was good, so that's what counts.

Today was Mary and Edward's last day - they left at about 4. We went out for breakfast, then came home and they finished packing. She seemed sad about going back home, but it's always hard to leave a vacation. At least Edward has Monday off, so he won't have to go to work immediately upon landing!

We had leftovers (and pizza for the guys) for dinner, which was sort of a welcome relief. I'm not used to, or really happy with, going out for so many meals for such a long time. I really like cooking and eating at home; I'm sort of making mental lists of foods I want to make again as soon as we get home. Bread, and leeky rice (with the crust that Geordie can put onto it, yum), and chicken with more garlic than anything else, and Merrie has requested a nice, fresh bright stir fry and Geordie wants some green olives stuffed with bleu cheese ...

The four of us (Merrie sat in the other room) watched the first four episodes of Band of Brothers this evening. It's very good - realistic in many of the portrayals of things, with interesting story lines and depth of character.

Anyway, it's nearly bed time.

I finished my two-socks-in-one and I didn't quite do it right. I crossed over my yarn a couple of times, which sucks, but I cut them apart and tied the strands and they work just fine as little socks. I'll have to try again and pay closer attention. And not do it in a rush.

I think I'll spend some time doing embroidery. I've been doing an awful lot of knitting the past few weeks. I do have a couple of lace shawls to work on, though, and my cabled sweater.

*hugs you all*

G'night.

SongBird
Well, I went to bed last night, then realised I'd forgotten my Daily Post! *eek*

Okay, so. Yesterday we didn't do much. I've been hoping to try the double-knit socks (the ones I've been taking pictures of, one sock inside the other), but I didn't have yarn for them. (This isn't precisely true. I brought sock-weight yarn for the project, but of course, if I want to show Mary, I'll need bigger yarn. MUCH bigger yarn. So.)

I poked about online and found a yarn shop in Derry that got very good reviews. The Yarn and Fiber Company turned out to be closer than it looked to me on the map and really good. It's huge, filled with interesting sample garments (as well as swatches of each yarn), many different gauges from cobweb weight lace yarn to yarn as big around as a quarter. Really. There was locally hand-dyed yarn, in a wide range of fibers and weights (I got a 400 yard hank of thin cashmere. It's an amazingly pretty color, all greens and rusty golds. I have no idea what I'll knit it into, but it'll be for ME. *is selfish*

I also got two balls of Noro Kureyon in a mix of blues, purples, greens, and browns. I have nice bamboo short double pointed needles - and I'm halfway through turning the heel of the socks.

We drove down to the coast just south of the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border after that, then drove up the coast, looking at the pretty little towns and watching the sea and sky. After stopping off at the bakery just over the state line into Maine, the Beach Pea (we got oatmeal bread, cheese loaves, some ginger and lemon cookies and the last four lemon bars), we came home. I started the socks immediately, of course.

Today we did similar things - we heard that there was going to be rain and thunderstorms, which Geordie loves, so we brought my socks and drove about until we found RAIN. At one point, the heaviest and rainiest point, we had to pull over on the little road to wait out the rain. We ate a late lunch at a nice little beachside place, sitting outside and watching the boats.

Mostly today was spent driving around and spectating - looking at the pretty views and the tall trees and the different shapes of waterways and lakes that surround everything in New Hampshire. It is a pretty state.

Mary made dinner tonight - I think it's my turn tomorrow. I wonder what I should do.

I think we're going to the quilt show in Essex Junction, Vermont. Essex Junction is at the tippy top of Vermont, which means we're getting up early tomorrow, I think, to make it there in time. I'm sort of excited. I've been to knitting and yarn shows, but not a quilting one yet. Mary is coming with us; there's a bag kit she wants to buy there. Plus, she says she wants to look at the fabrics.

I'll take pictures, but I'm pretty sure that the show will say that pictures aren't allowed.

Anyway, it's time to work on the socks more. I'll see you all later.

*grin*

SongBird
We had set our alarm for just before 8 and were up and moving by 8:20am. Not bad, all things told. After a slightly slow start, we made it to breakfast at Karen's Kitchen in Bedford. Then, we stopped off at Starbucks and the bank and drove like the wind to the museum. Even though Edward and Mary left before us, we got there first.

The museum was quite good - a very good example of the type. There was a LOT of grounds, and the houses were well lit and well shown. The rooms in the houses were furnished, but they managed to make them look realistic rather than over-filled or under-filled. The different exhibit buildings (glassware, fire-arms and textiles, clocks) were all well organized, well labeled and interesting (not too long, not too short). The interactive exhibits (the blacksmith in particular) were very intelligent and the people working in them were clearly interested in what they were showing as well as the historical aspects and connections. I was very impressed.

We got there at about noon-thirtyish and stayed almost until they closed, at 5. We could, if we'd gotten there earlier, have stayed longer - we missed an entire part of the museum; the farm and barnyard.

The thing I missed most, actually, was barnyard animals. They had what their paperwork called "nearly six-month-old oxen-in-training". Or, you know, calves. They were pretty damned cute ones as well, but one of them was barely at the 6 month mark, if that, and they can't be put to plough for years yet, so they'll be 'in-training' for a while yet.

We drove home taking the rural, small-town roads, enjoying seeing the tiny little places one never gets to see on shorter vacations. Now we're sitting in the annex on the house listening to the rain come gently down.

There's a house that's for sale, just up the road. $275K for 2 acres, loads of parking, a big 3-bedroom, 2 car garage with over-garage room, gabled house, with a flat drive, set back from the road... I'm sort of in love with it. I know we're not moving here (yet) and we wouldn't want to move in so close to his friends (just to allow them privacy, really), so we wouldn't be getting that house... but it's so pretty. *sigh*

Anyway, the rain is lovely and I have pictures to sort out. I'll talk to you tomorrow!

SongBird
Well, I think we're planning on going to Old Sturbridge Village to spend some of the day doing Historical Things. As usual, I'll take pictures and put them up days later. *grin*

I think it's time to go, but the others are still sitting. Maybe they're waiting for me. I'll go see.

Bye!

SongBird
So, Mary and Edward went to the big mall here (Mall of New Hampshire) so Mary could get her hair done. She's an old-fashioned sort. Anyway, they left, so we took off for breakfast at a restaurant we've tried before. It's in Goffstown, right on the river. Very pretty, and I took pictures to show you. (No, I haven't uploaded them yet. I'm a few days behind.) Then, we started just driving, to see what the little towns look like and to just look at New Hampshire.

We passed an interesting bridge and turned around to see it. Here's a shot of it as it was: 1861-1871?. We, of course, took tons of pictures. I took enough to make a panorama of it like this: Panorama On Steroids. Merrie climbed along the bottom of it, along the river, then turned halfway along to look back and saw a ginormous fucking spider and had to go all the way around to the other side and back over the top to rescue her camera and other things she'd left on a rock so that they didn't fall in the water if she did. (She didn't.) Geordie took some pictures of the spider. I'll share those, if you guys want. It was black and white and as big as her palm.

Keene was pretty, and filled with college age kids. It's a college town, apparently. Interestingly, the girls were all mostly well-put-together and neat, but the boys were all slouchy pants and sloppy t-shirts. What is that about, anyway?

Anyway, we drove from Keene to Hillsborough (which the sign spelt Hillsboro). In Hillsborough, we stopped for ice cream at a local shop. The ice cream was very good (they use fresh real ginger in the ginger ice cream, which reminds me that I have to use our ice cream maker when we get home!). The girl at the shop was an interesting mix of adventurous (she's a downhill skier and her boyfriend does moguls; they're both instructors.) and inexperienced. The furthest west she's been is Pennsylvania. She goes to North Carolina on a sort of regular basis, but hadn't flown until about a couple of years ago. She also doesn't drive because she was in an accident just after finishing Driver's Ed. Well, it was unclear in her story if she was the driver or the passenger. She has a long list of things she won't try, including foods she doesn't know the taste of in advance. Fruit flavors are her favorites, as she always knows what they're supposed to be.

Anyway, we came home from there; turns out Hillsborough is only a few miles away from where we're staying.

When we got home, the bunnies were out. Amy has two rabbits - a grey Flemish Giant, and a white and brown lop. They're very funny together, bouncy and happy, but Luffy, the Flemish Giant, is HUGE next to the lop. They love being outside. Amy's set up two big, stiff cardboard tubes on a stand so the bunnies have some place to go hide and play.

It's time to make dinner now - I think we're having pasta with garlic bread! Yum.

SongBird
We slept late, which seems to be our pattern. I think we'd like to start getting up earlier, if only so we can get more done. I don't know what we're doing tomorrow, but I think we should find something interesting and out of the house.

I'm almost done with my ribbed shrug, which I'm looking forward to wearing and not enjoying the knitting of. It's not exciting knitting and I've restricted myself from starting any other projects while this one is so close to being done. I'll post pictures of it when it's done. I should take pictures of it whilst it's partially done, huh?

We ate a nice breakfast in (eggs and bacon and toast and jam), and I've re-learned how uncomfortable sharing a kitchen makes me. I don't mind, precisely, and I like being in one cooking together with people I know well (especially if there's room), but I wasn't at all sure how to go about it with Mary, and I don't know the kitchen perfectly so I didn't know where anything was, and I'm still a little anxious around Mary. Anyway, all in all, it was a good breakfast.

Afterwards, we hung out inside for a while (it's pretty damned hot out); this time I sat in the main living room with Geordie and his friend Jack while they watched online tv shows about geekery. Jack's wife Amy made plans to meet their children for a Father's Day dinner at 6, which is much earlier than we've been eating dinner. Finally, we went out - everyone else wanted to go to lunch. We went with them and ate, but we weren't particularly hungry. After lunch, everyone else went off to grocery shop and we drove around just looking at the interesting houses and trees and changing views of the different tiny towns. Eventually, we went to Barnes and Noble to spend a half hour in strong air conditioning. Dinner was fun but very loud; ten people at one table make a lot of noise.

When we got to the restaurant (we got there first), it turns out that they were expecting to seat a party of ten at a round table that sat eight and have two people sit alone at a small separate table. I explained that we were here as ONE party and we wanted to sit together. They seemed annoyed at having to make other plans, but they weren't full or even busy, so making them put three tables together to seat us didn't seem too much of a big deal. We tipped well at the end anyway. (We've been to this restaurant once before, when we were here in winter. We got to the restaurant about half an hour before closing. They made it clear that they were very upset that we wanted to be seated and that they expected us to order, eat, pay, and leave by closing time. Which seemed odd to me, as I've only had that happen in coffee shops and retail stores - I've never had a restaurant expect the clientele to leave directly at closing time. I've certainly seen restaurants with people finishing eating at least half an hour after closing.)

Home again after dinner, to watch a movie. They picked A Perfect Getaway, which was more fun than I expected. I thought it was going to be a horror style slasher type movie, but it turned out to be a puzzler. Tense and twisty, and violent ohmyyes, but not as bad as I expected at all.

Bed soon, I think.

We should make plans for tomorrow.

G'night!

SongBird
We got up while everyone else was still rushing around to get ready for the Lupine Drive, but since they were still around, we stayed in bed. Mmmm, cuddling. Once everyone else was gone, we showered and went downstairs to poke about online and relax.

Finally, Geordie and I got hungry, so we went out to see what was available for lunch. Merrie stayed home - she's been dying for a chance to do nothing but talk to her friends online and draw for a whole day. (We're such awful adults to make her go and do interesting things outside the house and offline.) We tried a mexican restaurant that had been somewhere else a while ago, then poked about in Best Buy. We came home, but the house was warm, so we went upstairs to the bedroom, where there's an air conditioner. Geordie snoozed and I cuddled up to him and read.

*grin*

I was reading Octavia Butler's Bloodchild and other stories, which I heartily recommend. I've read Bloodchild, the title story, before, but the rest were all new to me. The sheer luxury of lying in a comfortable room, curled up inside the curve of Geordie's body, reading stories written by a brilliant woman... I paused several times in my reading to just experience how wonderful it felt to be there and then.

Anyway, we went back out to try to find Tofutti Cuties for Mary. She's lactose intolerant, and the rest of us keep eating ice cream. We tried the local Hannaford's, but couldn't find any. Their website says they have them, so I'll look again. The rest of the group got back at about 7:30, so we cooked steaks on the barbeque (for ourselves - the rest of the group had eaten so much for lunch so we ate alone.). Now they're in the other room watching ... the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds. It's not a very intelligent film, is it?

Regardless, it has been another delightful day. Spending a day doing not much of anything feels marvelous.

I just asked Geordie to find the card reader, so I can start uploading pictures!

SongBird
So, we got up, um, not as early this time. The room was pretty amazing - part of what had taken us so many tries the night before was that we needed to find suites. There are five of us, but only two share a bed, so we need a separate room for Merrie, and Edward and Mary don't like to share a room. Given that they're mother and son, you know. The first couple of hotels had "suites", but they were two beds in one room, or a bedroom and a living room, but the living room didn't have a pull out sofa-bed. This hotel had suites which were two rooms - one room with two queen sized beds and a bathroom and a deck (just like a regular hotel room), with a door to the adjoining room which had a living room with a sofa-bed and a kitchen and a bathroom and a tiny little dining area. And the rest of the deck.

It was pretty spiffy, really. Merrie was delighted. She did have troubles getting online, but we just shrugged and let her get to it on her own.

Anyway, we checked out of the hotel, ate breakfast (blueberry french toast for me), then drove through Acadia Park. I took loads and loads of pictures - it's a glacial island, so there are lovely fingers of land with amazing views from every different angle. We drove up the road to the top of Cadillac Mountain; it's only about 1500 ft high, but again, the views were stunning. There was a cruise liner in the harbor; I didn't know it was deep enough to take anything that large.

Afterwards, we stopped in Bar Harbor for ice cream. The place we went to had lobster ice cream! I meant to try it (it was vanilla flavor, with real lobster bits mixed in), but got distracted by peppermint and strawberry. Geordie got Moosedroppings (chocolate and chocolate and, um, chocolate) and rum & raisin. Finally, we followed Merrie into a shop she wanted to look at - they sold knives and swords. I don't have a good sturdy sharp knife, so as a final birthday present, Geordie got me a Benchmark knife. I'm now Very Well Armed.

After that, we picked up Edward and Mary's rental car, which we'd left in the hotel's parking lot, and drove the rest of the way back to New Hampshire. I took some pictures of the drive, but really it was just more opportunity for the alphabet game (which Edward is amusingly good at) and a chance to get more knitting done. I'm almost done with the shrug I bought yarn for!

I have a pattern for socks that get knitted with one inside the other. I'm thinking of getting some inexpensive wool-blend yarn to make a quick pair with!

Anyway, we had dinner at a sea food restaurant in Concord, with Geordie's friends and I came home to yet another present (by this time, I'm feeling more than spoilt - this is the most attention that anyone has paid to my birthday in, well, years. It's a little overwhelming!). Now I'm over-tired and stiff.

Geordie's friends, and Edward and Mary are going for a drive up in northern New Hampshire tomorrow, but I think Geordie and I are sitting it out. Fast cars on windy, twisty roads sounds more fun that it would be with me feeling sick to my stomach. Plus, we're a little driven out, so to speak. We might find someplace local to go, or just stay home and relax. Maybe I'll work out something to cook for everyone for dinner.

Good night all! I'll see about more detailed descriptions and maybe even photographs tomorrow.

*hugs you all*

G'night.

SongBird
We started out earlyish, ate a quick "breakfast" at the hotel (toast with, um, cream cheese and marmalade for me), stopped into a Tim Hortons for coffee, then drove to see the Giant Tides of Doom. Seriously, it was more cool than I expected. The walk down to the sea floor is green and lush and beautiful, then you walk down (and down) a set of metal stairs to a pebbly beach. The tide is waaaay over there, sort of far away, sloshing about doing whatever it is that tides do while waiting to turn. I took loads of pictures, but I don't have the right reader, so I can't show you. I think I brought it, but if I did, it's at the house in New Hampshire.

Anyway, after exploring all over there (and meeting the mud and the whelks, and managing not to laugh at the dude who fell into the mud with his expensive camera and pretentious attitude, we drove to Alma, a cute little harbor town, to have lunch. The restaurant was directly over a fishing harbor, which was, when we arrived, full of sand and, um, beached boats. We wondered if the tide would come in quickly enough for us to see the boats get any water under them whilst we were eating lunch.

By the time we finished lunch, there were boats leaving to go fishing! Seriously, in under an hour, the tide went from too far to walk out to, to filling the harbor!

Then, we went on to St Martins, another pretty harbor town, to see high tide. We also drove over two cute covered bridges. After this, though, we drove straight through to Bar Harbor. Merrie, Geordie and I played a rousing couple of rounds of the alphabet game, which I hadn't known about until a friend told me. I think we're on J right now - for the third time around the alphabet.

The border guard gave us (well, Geordie) some flack - he asked some pretty irrelevant and nosy questions, but we're all on the up and up (and we lied about buying souvenirs), so it's all good.

It took us four tries to find a hotel in Bar Harbor; we had a delicious dinner (lobster for me, as it's my birthday dinner. I'll go back to being sensible tomorrow.) and now Geordie's snoring and sleeping over there, so it's past time for bed.

I'll post something with links and images later, okay?

*hugs you all*

Thank you so much for all of your good wishes. It's been a great day.

Oh! OH! I nearly forgot to tell you!!

Geordie's mom, Mary? She KNITTED ME A SWEATER!!! I don't think I have anything knitted for me by someone else! It's a pretty, goldy, browny, short sleeved slightly cropped shrug thing, with interesting bobbly-lace panels. I'm beyond delighted.

Bedtime! G'night.

SongBird
I AM 40 NOW! We've spent some of the day in Canada, looking at interesting things. Tonight we're staying in Bar Harbor, ME. What a nice birthday!
So, we got up early, for us whilst on a lazy vacation, at about 8am. We were out of the house by 9:15. We stopped off at Dunkin' Donuts (we prefer other chains, but this was on the way) and then started the long drive north. Up through New Hampshire to the bottom of Maine, then through Maine to Canada, then we took a right at the Canadian border and headed directly east, until we got here, to Moncton.

On the way, we stopped off to find something for Merrie to eat for lunch (she doesn't like sandwiches or ham, so the ham sandwich Geordie's mom, Mary, made for her (one for each of us) wouldn't work.) We also stopped just past the border (very pretty views, very friendly lady, lots and lots of maps), and Merrie and I played on the swings like little kids. We got Geordie onto a swing, just for a minute.

We didn't stop again for hours; the road is amazingly boring. Really. I didn't take pictures, because there was nothing but trees. Well, towards the end of the hours and hours long drive, there was a pretty river. But, seriously, I think there's more to look at in Nevada - at least there the light moving over the scrub and desert makes the colors change and the distance shimmer and the mountains in the distance are always shifting. We deliberately took the fastest, most boring route, because the point of this part of the trip is to be up here, in New Brunswick to see the tides and other nifty things at the Bay of Fundy.

Tomorrow is my birthday - I turn 40. I'm sort of excited! Geordie got me, as I mentioned, the sunglasses. I'll show you pictures, if I can get that organized.

Anyway, I'm exhausted (from doing nothing but passenging on the long drive), so I'm going to bed. G'night.

SongBird
So, Geordie and I slept in, wonderfully and luxuriously, then ate a delicious bacon sandwich breakfast his mom and brother Edward cooked. Afterwards, we hung out together for a while, entertaning each other and being amusing. Finally, Geordie kicked us out so he could finish up his work, so his mom, Edward, Merrie and I went to a local Barnes & Noble to get books. Geordie's mom had only brought one! She'll run out of reading before the end of the trip. After that, we stopped into AAA for maps (I got two of the Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine map - one for me, one for Geordie's mom), ate lunch at Panera Bread, then trotted to the shoe shop next door and amused ourselves for at least an hour trying on ridiculous shoes and laughing at how silly we looked. Merrie found a pair of thigh high boots she fell in love with, and I think the slutty red peep-toe pumps with the floppy bow would have been (terrible) a great idea.

We stopped into Starbucks, then a CVS, then a grocery store (we needed potatoes and came home with potatoes, corn, creamer packets for Geordie's mom, grapes, and bananas), then home.

While everyone else was cooking dinner, Geordie and I trotted off to the sunglasses store - my birthday present this year is good quality sunglasses. My contact lenses are getting much easier, so sunglasses are important. The first store we went to was staffed by an asshole, so we tried a second and got cute glasses with amazingly clear polarized lenses. I have 90 days to return or exchange them, no questions asked, in any condition, and we bought them from a national chain, so if it turns out that they're not right, I can just try another pair.

(The asshole? I knew you'd ask.

I'm a small woman, with a roundish, smallish face. The second we went into the first shop, the guy greeted us and asked if he could help us with anything.

We said, "No thanks, we're just looking."

He replied that we were in the Fashion Glasses area and he was sure I could find something I liked there. Like these, except the Wayfarers

I said, "No, those don't look good on me. The shape's all wrong."

He said, "That's not true. I bet I could find a pair that you'd like. Want to see them?"

After blinking, I said, "No. I don't want to see them. I don't like those."

He got very huffy, so we looked at a couple (there was one pair we even liked...) and left.)

(ETA: Read this way, he doesn't sound quite as awful as he was in person. His attitude of disdain and snotty assumption was certainly part of the problem.)

Anyway, dinner was delicious smoked, barbequed, roasted ham (only one - but cooked three ways!), brussels sprouts, green beans, carrots, potatoes and mince pie for dessert.

Tomorrow we're driving up to Canada, to see the Bay of Fundy and other points thereabouts. I can't wait.

SongBird
Geordie had to do work, so he stayed home while his mom and brother, Merrie and I went out for the day. We went to the yarn store in Concord. I bought four balls of 2nd Time Cotton and a needle to make a ribbed circular shrug-thing. Turns out that this was a good thing, because lace shawl I'd brought along to work on is being defiant, so I pulled it out. Then, I realized that I hadn't brought the right part of the pattern, so I couldn't re-start the shawl.

However, I don't need a pattern for the shrug; it's just an easy ribbed thing. So I started it in the car and I've already done about 7" of the back. I can't wait. I think it'll be fun to finish it while I'm here and wear it.

While still in Concord, we stopped into a Best Buy so Geordie's brother could buy a new camera, then we drove to Portsmouth for lunch and poking around. We got a little lost on the way, but had fun regardless. We ate lunch at a restaurant which is right on the water and got to see the draw bridges draw up and a HUGE barge pass through. It was being pushed by three really strong tugboats. I had fish and chips, which was especially good here. Light and fresh, with moist tender fish.

Afterwards, Geordie's mom and I spent some time in the quilt shop nearby (she's hoping to go to the quilt show at the end of the month with me), then found another yarn store and a really good coffee shop/candy shop. Finally, we stopped into a great local bakery in Kittery, Maine, which is just over the river from Portsmouth. We bought some delicious meat at the butcher's next door then came home.

Geordie had become frustrated by his work by then and had gone out, but discovered too late that I had the house key, so he sat outside in his car until we got home.

We barbequed all the meat, Geordie and I ran to the grocery store to get veggies, and we had a big dinner with all sorts of tasty meats, delicious corn on the cob, fresh salad and locally made ice cream for dessert.

After dinner we sat around, computed and poked about on the 'net, half watched a movie (The Invention of Lying) and now we're going to bed soon.

I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow, but it looks like it'll be fun.

SongBird
The flight(s) yesterday were, well, longish. We left Oakland Airport at 10 minutes to 9am. We got seats a little early; Geordie paid a bit extra for the early boarding so we could get seats in the Exit row. Really, we wanted the extra leg-room. The only thing is, in exchange for the extra leg-room, you have to agree (out loud and verbally) that you are willing to open the emergency exit in case of emergency. The door has a little pull-tab, weighs only 50 pounds and, well, I'd love to be first out of the plane in an emergency, why yes, thank you. So we agreed and relaxed into our lovely seats. Merrie sat in the row in front of us so she got a window seat of her very own.

The first leg of the trip was to Burbank; about an hour's flight. In Burbank, we picked up a kid who looked about 18 to me. He sat next to Geordie, and when the flight attendant asked him if he was willing to open the emergency door in case of emergency, he stared at her, his face a study in horrified confusion. The area of the plane we were sitting in started to quiet down. The flight attendant explained that sitting in this row meant he'd need to open the door. His response?

"Um, that sounds really intimidating."

The nearest eight or so rows all fell silent. The flight attendant didn't miss a beat, though; all she said was, "I'll have to ask you to find another seat then."

The kid ended up spending the trip sitting on the aisle end of Merrie's row. When there was a tiny bump of turbulence, he turned to her and asked, "Will this make the plane fall out of the sky?" She reassured him that we were, in fact, perfectly safe. It's just a bus. (In the air, of course, but a bus.)

He got off in Phoenix, and we flew the rest of the way to Manchester, NH. We landed, about half an hour late, at 8:30ish. Picking up the car took a few seconds: read the sign for our name, find the car, delight in getting one we haven't tried before and are interested in trying, toss our stuff in, flee the airport.

Dinner out with family and friends, then pretty much to bed.

We slept in until 9 or just a bit after, then trundled downstairs to hang out. Geordie has some work to do (still!), so he poked around on his computer for a while. At about 11 or so we went out to breakfast, discovered our regular yarn store is closed on Sundays, drove to a pretty gorge (Quechee Gorge), then poked about in Woodstock. There was a store selling antique lace and other fiber stuff that had the most amazing things. Really beautiful old quilts and bunches of lace collars and old hats and antique clothes... I got 11 pieces of pretty antique lace, much of it clearly handmade, for ten bucks!

We ate tasty ice cream, stopped into the local yarn store, then to a cool pet store in ... Lebanon. We got separated from our friends, so we drove to Manchester to get me a robe, then met up with our friends again for Japanese food (delicious!) for dinner.

Now we're home, comfy on recliner seats, and computing. They have four recliner chairs and two recliner loveseats. It's incredibly relaxing and luxurious.

I'm going to go back to knitting now. I'll talk to you later. I hope you have all had a good weekend.

SongBird
So, the shawl is easily big enough to be half an afghan, and I love the pattern, so I'm thinking I'll make an afghan with it. I'll cast on in the center and work the whole thing in the round, starting on double pointed needles and working up to circulars. Pretty?

I have five skeins of Wildfoote sock yarn in color SY06, Forget Me Not, which gives me 1075 yards of yarn. The shawl's edging takes about a third to half the yarn, so I'm hoping to work through the first two balls, maybe three, then seeing where I am.

Also, I want to make another shawl (what? I can't have 8 zillion? I've not made one of the super big lacy ones for myself yet. I've made myself smaller ones, sort of 'stand ins'...) - I like this one - Aeolian images. Here's the pattern: Aeolian on Knitty. The question is, of course, what yarn do I use and do I have enough? I'll probably want the biggest size (really so I can knit the most), and I'll certainly want to bead it... I"ll have to go check out my yarn stash.

Which reminds me, I pulled my Wildfoote from the stash I have in the storage space. Whilst there, I took pictures of the yarn I have. Um, I have a lot of yarn. I shouldn't buy more until I get rid of some of what I already have. Also, I should make the projects I have the yarn for. I have a goodly amount of sock yarn, enough of a discontinued color of Naturespun (a very interesting olivey green) to make a sweater for myself, enough of a beautiful rich burgundy Mission1824 wool (I think it's Raspberry) (the best color for me) to make another sweater, enough yarn left overs from two versions of the Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Afghan in Water Lilies colorway (both for my uncle for him to give as gifts) to make one for me, lots of random shawly yarn...

I'll see if I have something pretty in my stash here.

*facepalm*

So, obsessing about knitting much?

Time to put together leftovers for dinner!

Then, I'll draw out the embroidery patterns I want to bring and put them into ziplock bags with the threads for each.

SongBird