Pieces of Crap

So, I have a blog post ready to go and I am getting an error saying that Blogger is not found. There is no amount of convincing Blogger they do exist and that Live Writer has talked to Blogger for YEARS. Nope. So I went to the damn help forum and this is what they said yesterday--

 May 29 Nick - Google Guide said: UPDATE Hello again everyone, We just want to let you know that we are working in partnership with Microsoft to come up with a quick resolution for the issue with Windows Live Writer and Blogger. We will provide you with more information as soon as we have it. Thanks, Blogger Support Team

(Hey thanks Nick--think you could maybe give us a hint when that might happen???)

 I can't repeat what other bloggers are saying because, well, it's kinda not printable and, well, there's some serious anger issues over there. I thought I had a work around but my pictures don't load and I don't know enough code to make the magic happen. If there isn't a work around by next week I may have to consider a different source for my blog---

 Stay tuned---

Rest Stops Across America

You know, there was a part two to the last blog post but I’ve lost interest in it now.

I’ll recap the highlights just so you know.

I left AZ the end of March and the next day flew to Washington because Grampa was in the hospital and delirious. It was a great adventure. We had to do a lot of complaining and watching and keeping on the staff to finally get him out of there. After 21 days of inpatient, most of that in a severe delerium, he went to the rehab facility. He didn’t like that at all but still stayed about 10 days. He’s home now, who knows if that’s the best decision but he’s there and happier. I think. It’s hard to tell when you are still a little confused. Between him and his wife, well, wow is all I can say.

Lucky for me I can work while I am out there and didn’t have to use all my vacay time. I still got to use some for the hours I had to go over to the hospital to meet with the doctors every single day. I don’t know what happens if you don’t have someone watching all the time. I guess they just kill you and are done with it.  At least at the hospital grampa was at.

I stayed out a week and then came home. Home for  three weeks. Cause April was a busy month AND sort of a wash as far as keeping up with anything at all. I am way behind on my Paradise in Blooms and am working feverishly to catch up. In May I work 3 out of 4 Saturdays and the 4th is my Paradise in Blooms class. I will be over at Pine Needles a LOT this month. But thinking that’s probably not a bad thing….Although I may get a little behind on my sewing and knitting. Dang it.

In keeping with the last blog and my travel woes, I would like to add one picture from my return trip. Seems like my plans I had made to stay up at my sister’s house and catch a ride over to the airport at around 8ish changed mid week. I ended up catching a ride with Nina over to the airport at 4 AM for my 10 AM flight. I did a lot of texting. And kind of a lot of judging. Hey-don’t say if you had six hours of time to spare you wouldn’t maybe do a little people judging watching too. Yeah. It was a long, long day.

Home away from home. I forgot to say I was too early to even check in for like, two hours, so I got to sit and keep control of my bag until I could finally get through the gate. This is me waiting. I’m not even close yet.

Martha came out at the end of April for Yarnover. The travel Karma held on, but not quite yet.

I picked her up at the airport and we came down to Rochester. She finished this HUGE project that she started last year.

That is a lot of knitting. But it’s beautiful.

Close up of the fabric. Wow. Definition of mindless knitting.

We left the next day to go to Yarnover in Minneapolis. We signed up for the dinner and the talk by Amy Herzog who does the Custom Fit web site. She was an excellent speaker. And I am signing up for the website too. Maybe I can finally knit a sweater that fits. Finally…..

We ate with my friend Lorri who is also an organizer of the event. She is so much fun!

Check out the knitwear around me!

Terrible pictures. Ugh, but that’s us. And may I say dinner and wine was delish??!! Cause it was.

(This was the beginning of “Diet? What Diet?” week)

Our travel Karma followed us and was potentiated by the two of us. I had called about getting a room with two beds and was told I would get that when I arrived. Wrong. We had one king. They did give us our choice of floors so we chose high, but they put us next to the elevator and ice machine. Gawd.

View from room-Nice but---

--this was in our bathroom-

Oh hell no. I asked my friend Ashley who the hell would sit on this comfortably. She called it with Spongebob-who probably would find comfort in this. I did not. Not that I spend a lot of time here but still. And forget it if you have a child—that kid is taking a dip for sure.

AND-the next morning when we were eating breakfast a huge leak sprung up in the restaurant. Not where we were sitting (we were out in the bar seating area) but it did manage to drench a few diners and their table, then moved up towards the reservation and seating desk. I was like-wow. That’s crazy but what was even crazier was that when we got to our room on floor 16 (that’s a lotta steps) Martha discovered we had no water. Now, we weren’t too impacted (I obviously didn’t shower) but I can’t imagine what those in the shower did when the water just suddenly went off mid shampoo. I would have been so very unhappy. We did get some free bottled waters out of it though-we weren’t paying the three bucks drink water when we had no water-jeesh.

When we went to check out we wanted to split the bill which any other hotel does with no problem but apparently the Marriott can’t handle. We had a Marriott number (thanks to my brother in law Tom) which we applied (it didn’t work for the free wifi though). After struggling with trying to get it straight, and my comment about not being able to take a shower, they just comped us the room. Comped. It. Like, a free night. My distain of the Marriott was suddenly lessened by a great deal. Win. Win.

We went by the Yarnover market and Martha got some yarn but I held back. I just can’t add to the stash right now. Right. I’m just a little broke from the unexpected trips I have been taking.

We wound back down to Rochester where I packed up to return to Tacoma—this trip was the planned trip. Really. However, because I had a one way ticket I lost my sweet pre check status and had to go through the TSA line with the masses. Ugh.

I spent the week in Tacoma working, having more than my share of wine (Wine Down Wednesday didn’t help—but I did try Port for the first time and I deem it delicious).

I finally ended up at my sister Debbie’s house Thursday night to have an early celebration of Martha’s birthday (it’s a big one!).

  Yum, Ice Cream and Cake

We are sort of tired, btw, having dealt with Grampa all week long. Well, not me but Martha and Debbie. I had to fun of taking him to the doctor on Monday, visiting, his care conference, and then his discharge, which was the next day after this. Good times.

Anyway, the cake was sooo good—really, it was beyond heavenly. And the bottle of wine was a plus too. I think this was about pound 7 in my week of eating and drinking with no limits.

Debbie’s massive pillow collection in the guest room--

Sunrise on the island at Debbie’s

Martha and I took off from there and stopped at Fancy Image where my yarn diet was also busted. Yep, I had to buy the Yarn Crawl Special.

Sadly, we weren’t able to meet up with our friend Julie. We had to change our plans about a hundred times and ended up just staying in Tacoma because Grampa was discharging that day. We did, however, make it to Nordstrom and I blew the rest of my budget. Damn that place. Seriously. I did get some new work pants that I needed though. Just saying. The other stuff, maybe not so much but so cute. Time for a closet purging…again.

Oh, and while I was at Debbie’s I packed up a couple of boxes of books and antique silverware and some teacups to bring home. Not sure why but I did. There is just so much stuff……so I guess it’s time for a house purge too. When I add things that tips the “stuff the house can hold” balance I must purge. (I have an idea that I can send some stuff with Blane and Melanie when they get here for a visit in a couple of weeks-but that’s another blog post. And I think Melanie might read this sometimes so I don’t want her to start thinking of excuses to not take some stuff. Seriously-you have to strike when they are weak and unaware..I’ll post some pictures of the weird stuff next time)

Friday, after all that with Nordstrom and Gpa and all, I picked up Dave at the airport for our drive home. Yes—our drive home. I have come into possession of Gpa’s Beemer and we are now bringing it back to MN. Where it will be parked in the garage for most of the time. Except for when we need a sweet ride to the cities or something. Cause it is a sweet ride.

The open road--

Oh, and do you notice that spot on the picture—That one right in the middle? Yep. That would be dirt in the lens that we didn’t clean out until we were well into day three. Because that is just how we roll. Gawd. I couldn’t believe it when we looked at the pictures after we got home.

Then again, I should believe it.

So you can tell which pics came from the big camera and which ones I took with my phone or little camera….

Selfie at the gorge-

There’s the bridge! No spot-phone camera

First of what seemed like hundreds of rest stops-I was at this one with Laura too! (this was before the gorge-out of order sorry)

Horses at the Gorge-

No spot-different lens

The Gorge with spot—jeesh.

Cour D’Alene

Skipping over Idaho!

And that’s where this happened--

See that orange light??

That would say Service Engine Soon. It’s not supposed to be on. At the beginning of the drive.

We kept going and discussed mortgaging the house to pay the dealer in Rochester for the repairs.

This light kept us from deviating too much from our route as we didn’t want to have to call the tow truck from some remote outpost viewpoint. Which was a little disappointing. Thanks car and travel Karma.

I don’t even want to travel with me anymore.

Montana in the morning.

With spot

Me driving but not looking….

Dave sleeping….

Hahaha. I was trying to get the open mouth shot but he kept waking up and then saying—don’t post that. Like he ever reads my blog anyway.

Open road in Montana

Beemer takes a rest in S Dakota…

..at the scary as hell rest stop.

We stopped to get coffee in Mitchell and were going to go to the Corn Palace to get a corn hat for Laura who took care of the cats and bird in our absence. However, we were about 45 minutes early so we didn’t go there. We did stop for coffee and the girl who waited on us was the person who did my hair in Winona back in the day. She actually did my hair when Dave and I were married.

That was a bit of a small world moment.

Haha-In MN but how can you tell because the spot is covering the sign. Perfect placement.

And it was about 2 hours after this that the Service Engine Soon light went out. An hour from home. Because the car was just messing with us a little. Just a little.

Dusty roads and almost home-

We arrived around noonish, unpacked, had a snack and then got into the other car that also has a “Maintanance Required” light on (needs an oil change—no biggie but we are used to warning lights now and don’t really want to live without them) and went and picked up the dogs.

We are back home now for May. Dogs have peed profusely on the carpet and pooped on the kitchen floor as a welcome home. Yay for us.

Maybe we need another vacation. Very soon.

Dreaming dreams of indoor bathrooms…….