Settling in

So... we're here. Settling in nicely. Or at least we will be when our stuff arrives, tomorrow. It'll be great to have furniture again. Right now we have a blow-up bed but no chairs, so we eat sitting on the floor. With paper plates. :)

Our temporary apartment is wonderful: Very large, very open, with tall ceilings, a fireplace, and a cat window. Within 2 miles we have not one but TWO Fred Meyers (think Target + grocery store), Home Depot, Target, a great yarn store that carries roving, and Uwajimaya (sort of a Japanese Fred Meyer)... and it's half the rent we've been paying! It'll almost be a shame to move when we find our house.

Even better is reuniting with our friends. Nicole, Stephen, and Tammy have made us very happy. I went to a big social event this weekend and was surprised to see so many old friends from my previous life here. We've all evolved... gained and lost weight, or hair, and one even changed gender. I'm also busily making new friends. :) The one thing that hasn't changed is the love... I feel so at home and comfortable here. *sigh* It's good to be back.

I do have to make a quick trip back to Philly this Friday. The transport company finally admitted they had failed to even pick Wensleydale UP - they were supposed to collect her on the 10th. So I am flying back and will drive her home.

Diane, this pic is just for you. :)

5 years of fun

To celebrate 5 rolicking years of marriage, Matt & I went north to an adorable isolated B&B with a hot tub and a fascinating assortment of wildlife.
Knoebel's, established 1926, is an old-fashioned amusement park with wooden roller coasters. Friday there was was cool and rainy. Absolutely perfect, although a dino chased Matt for his chocolate mint fudge. Click on that skyride pic.




On Saturday we visited the Pioneer Tunnels, a hokey but informative tour of a coal mine, including a ride on old mine cars and a steam train. I always knew in a vague sort of way that coalmining was a rotten job, but wow... Let's just say that I'm even more grateful to be an acupuncturist now. We didn't actually get to ride the steam train, since it threw a seal just minutes before we were supposed to get on and they substituted an electric engine.

Centralia is a nearby town that no longer exists, because there's been an underground coal fire burning since 1962. The government offered relocation packages and even rescinded their zipcode. There are still 6 people living there who refused to move. Video here of steam rising from the ground.

Today we took the long way home along the Susquehanna River and hit a few antique dealers. I found a terrific milk bottle, just starting to turn purple, for $5. It'll look great in my art room holding the few straight knitting needles I keep for teaching.

We had lots of yummy food, Matt saved a baby bunny from a semi-feral cat, and we stumbled on a friendly gay bar out in the middle of nowhere. Northern Central PA turns out to be beautifully lush and green. The people are sweet. The roads are smooth. Everyone takes excellent care of their lawns and cars. It was much more civilized than the Main Line, in some ways, and certainly prettier. :)

Seattle

Part two of the PacNW Tour: On Sunday I rode up to Seattle with Emma (Dragonfibers), Shannon (Sobeknofret), and Christi (Turtlegirl). That was fun although we were all a little loopy from exhaustion and wool fumes.

The next few days involved some attempted purse making (pics if it ever gets finished), but mostly aggressive lying around at Heather's place. We had a beautiful picnic at Gasworks park (more pics here) and were joined by a surprise guest - Shawn, who was a classmate at OCOM and a witness at our wedding.

I spent one night with Holly (orange hair) which meant taking the ferry to Poulsbo. Click to embiggen - you can see one of the seagulls that love to follow the boats. She and her sweetheart have a little farm out there. Llamas and ducks and cats, oh my! We made megachunky cookies for her shop, Monster Art and Clothing, which is chock-full of locally made, well, art and clothing. Really fun unique stuff. In the pic of the two of us, I'm wearing a prototype "wolf" hat she made on custom request.

Through the whole trip (starting on the flight out to Portland, actually) I worked on my witchy socks. Here they are so far... You can see just the hint of a lace pattern starting on the back. I'll publish the pattern when done.

In other leg news, Matt collided with a bench in the EMP's Jim Henson exhibit. At first we thought it was just surface damage but now it looks like separated the periosteum or even fractured the tibia. He gets an x-ray tomorrow.

Sock Summit & Portland

Portland, Portland... how I love thee... let me count the ways...

It was so great to see the kids again. I forgot my camera was working again (thank you Camera Fairy!) until after we parted ways so no new pics of them, but they are gorgeous and scarily grown-up (13 and 16)! :)

We ate at Burgerville. We looked at houses (Craftsman!!). We reveled in ambient temperatures compatible with human life. We saw our friends Stephen and Nicole, and they introduced us to Rock Band.

This is a game I did not want to play. I thought it would be stupid and auditorally painful. Instead, it was an awesome adrenaline rush and really really really fun! It actually made me think about taking up the guitar again, until reality resurfaced and I remembered I was "playing" a guitar-shaped Simon Says, not an actual instrument. The funny thing is that I screwed up on the easy parts but kicked butt on the trickier high-speed bits (well, on the Easy setting). I loved doing vocals on "Spiderwebs," too, but afterwards Stephen handed me the guitar back and told Nae "You should keep singing. It's really hard to find good singers." Hmm. Message received.

I had to check out Yarnia! They have racks of cones - you pick the combination you want, and they wind them together for you into a custom yarn. I made "Money," something Rach and I were thinking about dying but we couldn't find bare sock yarn with glitz in it. I blended sage, forest, and black wool, with just a hint of green glittery nylon. 450 yards for $8! It's pictured here along with some delightfully squishy Madelinetosh yarn. 2008 was all about the autumn shades - 2009 seems to be the Year of Green. I've been trying to upload a video but Blogger is being cranky, so it's here on Flickr instead.


at the Sock Summit, I continued my calling as Bodyworker to the Knitting Stars. Hanging out with Amy, Heather, Charlene, Tess, Jasmin, Gigi, and tons more wonderful people was just the cat's meow. I took a class on vertically stranded colorwork (design ideas are exploding in my skull) and learned more about what Knitty wants. I am submitting at least one pattern: Lips sealed and fingers crossed for now...

Other snapshots of the hectic fun: Brian knitting 7 pairs of socks at one time on one ginormous needle. Rachel and AJ at the Ravelry party (AJ is a skater chick and has a superawesome new tattoo, but I didn't get to spend enough time with her). Rachel and me at the Rav party, after dark, taken by Wondermike. Replica of a 1500 year old Egyptian sock. I'm not going to bore you with tons of pics from the Sock Museum but looking at how things like heel construction changed through time was really cool.

Gettysburg, yet again

Me, Matt, friends Derek & Jari, their kids Jared & Jalane, and my Mom all converged for a fun day. The new Cyclorama exhibit is terrific! Crazy rainstorms evolved into dramatic skies.

Fun News / Sad News

Matt & I flew down to Tucson for his mother's surprise 80th birthday party. I love his family, and it was great to see them, including some new ones who had shown up for the big event. I finally met cousin Sabrina, a charmingly quirky girl who not only speaks Knitter (yes, she's on Ravelry!) but is returning to her home of Portland, OR this month! Now I'm even more eager to get back. Mom was indeed surprised - her expression when she saw us through the front door glass went Stunned... Confused... Elated!

She was thrilled to have us there, but even more astonished when we arrived at the country club for dinner and BAM there was nearly her entire extended family, past business partners, old neighbors from decades ago, etc. Even her brother was there, after her daughters told her he couldn't make it. My sisters Mary & Nancy did an incredible job with the flowers, cake, etc. Brother Greg showed some serious talent editing together a century's worth of photos and music. We all stood up and gave Mom our stories and best wishes. I told the story of putting needles in her bum 5 minutes after meeting her the first time (she was hurting from a hip replacement) as an example of her openness. Some people teased her about her early cooking misadventures, while other spun tales of her incredible brain (she worked with some of the best minds in Nuclear Physics, but her beautiful knit Christmas stockings somehow went unmentioned).

The down side: All the excitement of planning the secret shebang took a toll on Matt's Dad. He had a heart attack and missed the party. That was a real disappointment, but between dinner and the slideshow we got him on the phone and passed him around so he got to speak to nearly everyone from his hospital bed. We visited him Sunday before we flew back out and looked better (pink and smiling). Amazing what O2 can do.
He should be getting a cath today. Updates when I have them.

The Delaware Beaches

Patient-turned-friend Andy (channeling Liz Taylor) invited me and some other girlfriends down to her week-long beach rental last month. Peggy (blue windbreaker) and Susan (white hoodie) became instant friends. We were up all night watching the VP debate, talking politics and men and laughing our butts off. Also, there might have been some chocolate-dipped potato chips involved. And maybe smores. But I'll never tell.

I could only get away for 3 days, but WOW did we pack a lot in. The house itself was in Lewes, right on the water. The entire area is peppered with adorable Victorian houses in a all sorts of fun colors. There's a cute little shopping district there, and some great seafood restaurants of course. We ferried over to Cape May, NJ and did more shopping. We did Rehoboth Beach, too. I was highly restrained, and purchased no shoes at all. A small quantity of fudge did come home with me, but I was clever enough to giftwrap it for Matt so I had help eating it when I returned to him.

All in all, a much-needed break and quality girl-time. As I told Matt, it was like Sex and the City, only with real women I actually wanted to spend time with. :) Thanks, Andy!

Taste of Britain

Matt, Denise, Gwyn and I took Preston out to collect Shaun from the car vet (Thanks Trevor!) and spent the day at the Taste of Britain car show. Preston has a lovely new interior, which I got terrible pics of so you'll have to wait. We did that ourselves last weekend. Which means Matt did it, except for me cutting carpet, screwing and unscrewing panels, and holding stuff while he sweated and cursed.

Shaun is running beautifully now, despite a rather alarming Windex-bottle-sized spray of diesel under the bonnet. It's a wonder we made it home without running out of fuel or bursting into flames. I think his new fuel pump isn't seated properly. We'll do some diagnostic work tonight.

Gwyn spotted the "food entry/exit" opportunity and snapped pics of a lot of car butts. She'd never been to a show before and was properly entranced.

Denise rode with me and captured the oh-so-pretty Amish countryside as we passed (barely) the horse-drawn buggys.

On to Maine!

Next we took the girls up to Maine for the annual Rose Family Reunion. This featured incredible cooking (by Matt's sister Nancy and her Andre) and tons of tiny children and pets running rampant.

We toured the tall ship Friendship. I was remiss in my picture-taking (it's hard to hold a camera while cracking a open a lobster) but at least I got Yanna (short for Juliana, Nancy's gorgeous daughter) and Mom.

We also played around with a metal detector and found some old blacksmith nails in the yard. Unfortunately the real motherlode - the colonial trash heap - was back in the woods behind a deer fence and we couldn't get at it. Next trip?

RoadTrip Beyond Ridiculous

The girls (Maddie, 15, and Gillian, 12) came to visit from Oregon and holy cow have they grown up. Both have teenager bodies now instead of being the stick kids I saw last. Gillie in particular has really changed. Both girls have a distinctive clothing style that makes me wish I were cooler. Oh well, at least I have my blue hair. We celebrated by throwing them in the back of the taxi and driving all over the country.

First, though, we had an awesome sleepover party with Denise and Pheobe involving Cherry Slush, chocolate cake, and pulled pork. G (right) & P served grog in the pirate room.

Then, off to Gettysburg. I took this pic of Matt and Gillie from behind (aka Lopey) because of the contrast with this one.