Vacation

Yes, I was on a “vacation” to Tacoma, so I have been negligent of the blog. And I have to say, when I am on Ravelry, for example, and there is a link to someone’s blog, and then they haven’t posted for a while-really ticks me off.

Anyway, on Nov 22nd, Dave and I took off for Seattle. There was talk of a snowstorm in Seattle, and I tried to tell Dave that in Seattle, if the going gets tough, the tough abandon their cars and run away. What a doubter he was.

We got to the airport at oh dark thirty and this is what it looked like.

Seriously. I love an empty airport. I got the whole body scan too, but alas, no pat down. Dave was really looking forward to the pat down but he just got the regular metal detector. Hmmm.

We flew out without a hitch-

At the very end of the flight I discovered that the little TV in the seatback in front of me also had a moving map-dang if I wouldn’t have watched that thing throughout the whole flight.

Can you see the little airplane? We are almost there! (This might be a picture you want to click on to make bigger-it is really quite cool)

And when we arrived and started driving-this is what happened

People-are we in Minnesota or what? It actually wasn’t like this the whole way, only about the last 10 or so miles. But we arrived unscathed physically. Mentally I was a little on edge. It stopped snowing long enough to get to Safeway. Yep. Thank God for the Safeway. I spend so much time there on vacation, yet I have no pictures of the place. Next year.

Here’s the back yard. There was quite a bit of snow. The Seattle/Tacoma area does not do well with snow.

This sort of says it all-except I really like this one too-

-especially at the end when the car smashes into the cars at the bottom of the hill. Truly awe inspiring. Why people were going up and down this hill in an ice/snow storm is really beyond me. Another reason to live where it’s flat.

This little tidbit, from KOMO news (yes, we watched a lot of KOMO news, and it tickled Dave to no end that it was KOMO news) about the car issues-

“Cars, trucks and buses still litter many roads throughout the area after drivers abandoned them during Monday's nightmare evening commute, and a bitter cold setting in has turned many areas into sheets of ice”

This from KING 5

“The Washington State Patrol reported that in King County alone on Monday, troopers responded to 305 collisions and 405 disabled vehicles, mostly on Interstate 5, I-90, and I-405.”

Disabled-read abandoned. Like-it’s taking 6 hours to go 20 miles-I’m walking. I pointed this out to Dave several times-he is now a believer.

So that was interesting. We stayed home Monday night and Tuesday.

Happy, the cat, was a fun diversion.

 

See the shoe-that’s in there for scale-the cat is seriously giant.

Kate and Cody arrived on Wednesday, but sadly, Blane missed his connection Thursday AM so he wasn’t there for Thanksgiving dinner.

The whole Thanksgiving party started out with this giant bottle of wine.

Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I personally drank out of the normal sized bottle because I am not a fan of the red. The whole family partook of some sort of grape while huddling around the fire. (Did I mention my parents like to keep most of the house at a toasty 52 degrees?)

Dinner was at the country club-very nice. We missed Blane and sent him this by phone.

We were in pain from eating so much-and notice we brought the giant bottle of wine with us.

The next day Dave, Cody, Kate and I went to Seattle to see the Macy’s parade and do a little tourist thing.

Look-giant cakes.

This one made Kate laugh so hard she couldn’t speak. It’s not the dragon, it’s the guy in front of the dragon. Kate thought he was just an old guy who happened to wander in the parade. After a while we realized that he was actually a part of the festivities, but we got a good chuckle out of it.

There were also pipers and dogs. It was a fun parade.

We took off from here and went to the Market (after a stop at Starbucks, of course)

That was fun. Kate got to see a few fish getting thrown. I picked up a couple of things for Mary and Laura, left behind to watch the animals (they deserved much more-I mean, I don’t even like to watch my own animals-know what I’m sayin?)

Saturday night was out to dinner at the Mexican place, about a mile away. Dave drove. Shocker.

Here’s Cody and his look alike cousin Katie.

Really, they look more like brother and sister, and I always think of that theme song-

And of course, Cody and the lovely Kate, the best looking part of our group.

I took them to the airport on Sunday, early, and it was packed. PACKED! I think 90,000 people were through Sea-Tac that day-70,000 of them dropping people off the same time I was.

We stayed home and got ready to go-I untangled yarn by the fire while Dave watched the Alamo

And on Monday, we went back to the airport, and flew the other way, back to MN

I had the briefest glimpse of Mt Rainier.

And by the time we left, all the snow was gone.

We got home to rain. What is wrong with that picture? Flew to Seattle in a blizzard, came home to St. Charles in a rain storm.

Welcome home.

I hear that train a-comin’, comin’ round the bend….

Yep, the sweet ride of the holiday season. I have already explained how it starts, and it is starting day after tomorrow. Blaney is 26 whole years old on November 17th.

When did this

Turn into this?

Ok, this is a little better.

Either way, it’s happening this week.

Last week I worked. Sometimes it can be entertaining. Such as the moment I looked out the window and I saw this.

Who are those guys (and girl)? And why are they doing push ups in the street? Very interesting…..

I also saw Mayo One up close. I wanted to snap it taking off but it would have none of that. I waited for quite a while, kind of a Mayo stand-off. They won.

Last weekend I went to a knitting retreat in Lanesboro. I like Lanesboro, and I have really never been there when it wasn’t crowded. And last weekend, it was pretty quiet.

I met a friend on Ravelry, Jillsknit, and she invited me to her cities knitting group retreat.

Here’s Jill.

There were 9 of us all together, and we stayed at the Cottage House Inn. Very quaint and good prices. We took over the meeting room and made it ours. I was the only one from SE Mn. The rest were from the cities, which got hammered with snow while we were enjoying ourselves.

 

A little glass or two (or three) of the grape didn’t hurt anything either.

The other fun thing we did was go to Austin’s Mohair farm.

It’s very purple. (Here’s the linky, but I can’t get it to work on my computer. )

They have lots of hand spun-right from the source

That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

I bought a little to make some mittens.

Sunday I said good-bye to Lanesboro and headed home.

Jack was waiting for me. I tried to get a picture of him when he was halfway in the washing machine, but he moved and refused to pose again. But the temptation of the machine was much too much, and I found him checking it out later

Jack is Jack.

Oh, I almost forgot-Mary has a new grandbaby last month-

This is Cameron. Very cute and probably more grown up now.

Just in time to hop on the holiday train-

 

The Season Cometh

Well, we are into November. The good news is, no more political ads. Our mute button was about to wear out.

However, the season is beginning. It starts the 17th with Blane’s b-day, then a week later, Thanksgiving (what was I thinking?), then on to Christmas, followed 10 or so days later by Dave’s birthday Jan 4th. A quick breath catch for my dad’s birthday, Jan 27th, with Debbie’s (aka Mercedes) birthday a week or so later on Feb 8th, ending with a bang the next day, Cody’s birthday, February 9th. Poor Cody, because by the time I get to his birthday I am pretty much throwing a present at him and eating his cake. My birthday is in March, but I don’t have to plan for that, and the rest of them are May through July, and by then I am back in the mood. But I always think of this week as the week I have to actually start thinking about it all.

So I took in some activities that would take my mind off of it.

On Saturday, after knitting block of the month, I met up with Laura and Mary, took in the Mayo craft fair (I am so there next year, and Laura and Mary and Cheryl are going to be in on it-Cheryl doesn’t know yet). Then, because we hadn’t had quite enough things Mayo, we toured this-

The Mayo Mansion. It’s all decked out in holiday fare. Various businesses and people around town volunteer to decorate a room. It is very impressive.

Panoramic.

Reliefs inset in the courtyard.

It was really fun to see, and I wish I could live in a mansion.

I am not sure I have the proper respect for the Mayo’s though. I don’t think they were all that God-like, and they came here with money. But maybe the original Mayo’s meant well, and really did want to care for the sick and be innovative with health care…..nah, I think they just wanted to have big mansions!

Regardless, it was fun goofing around with the girls.

Sunday I finished shop quilt #2.

These flower borders took forever!

While I was finishing it, someone decided to help me.

He was sleeping in the window, and I was trying to get a picture of him, and he woke up, and it didn’t go well.

 

I had to untangle him, and then he acted like he wasn’t at all embarrassed by it.

Today I went to the Ellison Sheep Farm, and I saw all sorts of sites.

 

Whoa, look at this goat! It’s a unicorn. And little cats.

Here’s some serious yarn on the hoof.

I have to say, the animal names were kinda funny. I think the sheep above is Chris, because her mother was Kirsten. Or something like that. This is Molly, the chicken.

My cow, Twinkles, would be right at home. Which, by the way, Laura saw last weekend. She was in her pasture, and responds to her name when called. (Genius-I am so proud)

But the point of the farm trip was spinning wheels, and I came home with this one

It’s an Ashford Kiwi, a smaller wheel, but spins smoothly and wasn’t as expensive as all the others. However, my first sewing machine wasn’t that expensive either, and, well, look where I am today. Let’s see what I have in a couple of years. So I am very happy. I have a ton of projects and can’t wait to get going.

I want to have lots of stuff ready for the next year’s craft fair.