Catching Up is hard to Do…

Playing off a refrain from an oldie but goodie (come-a, come-a down, doobie doo, down, down…) This is the part where I tell you about the rest of my vacation and catch up on what has happened since I got home. Well, that’s what I planned this post to be about anyway. So, I have managed to download all of the photos I took while I’m away. I even uploaded them to flickr and updated my ravelry with the knitting related pictures, whoo! Things have actually been sort of busy. I didn’t get much time to regroup before jumping right back into my regular schedule, so I’ve been trying to squeeze things in here and there. I think it’s Tuesday already. Yikes! That means tomorrow is October! So, the rest of the vacation was spent wandering around San Francisco (seeing some of our favorite places) with my youngest daughter Monday and my oldest daughter and her husband on Tuesday, finishing off with everybody meeting up at Giants stadium (aka AT&T Park) to see the Giants play the Colorado Rockies. Let’s just say it was a good night for baseball and the Rockies looked better than the Giants, whose starting pitcher Tim Lincecum had a rough night, but ultimately pitched well enough to set a new team record. The cool thing about the outing was it was my Grandson’s first Major League baseball game which was a fun thing to be a part of. Too bad “Papa” (DH) couldn’t be there too. He was extremely jealous back at home. DD1 and I made up our own stitch-n-pitch event during the game too. I got more of the spring forward sock knit between strikeouts. The only other Giants game I ever attended, despite living in the Bay area over three years was one of the last played at the old “Candlestick Park” so it was also fun getting to see the new stadium. The next day was my departure day, but we managed to pack in plenty of fun before I headed to the airport by going to the Oakland Zoo. I’m not sure who was the most excited to go to the zoo, DD1 or my grandson. Either way, despite many exhibits with animals hiding out from the warm weather, we had a nice time and all too soon I had to go to the airport to come home. I wish I could show you every picture I took, but there were so many! Here’s a quick montage to give you an idea of how much fun we had together… Oh, and did I mention that I finally finished Spring Forward between flights home? Here’s a quick look at the finished pair Since I’ve been home, DH has been naturally needing my attention (and the cats have been a little on the clingy side too). We went and saw the movie “Miracle at St. Anna” and checked out a local “Octoberfest” over the weekend. Since I have several projects in limbo due to various issues, I chose to work on baby gifts and finished this cute set and another blanket buddy for babies born last month to church families. I also attempted to read the book I was supposed to have read already for the book club meeting tonight *sigh* it’s not a good read for me. Monday was sock class and I was having a bad reaction to the latest change in weather and had a little trouble focusing, so my class project sock needed several times of being frogged… it’s currently sitting in time out. No picture as it is a bad knit and does not deserve to be called a sock… Today was catch-up on housework and time to start the project for the class beginning on Thursday afternoon. More on that in another post, as I need to get going and I’m sure you’re ready to go read someone else’s more fascinating blog!

Actually, here's one final picture that is probably my most favorite of all from this trip... god bless little boys! Oh, yeah (GO CUBS!)

Vacation so far...

I can't believe how fast this trip is flying by... but here's a little glimpse of how it's been so far...

Some knitting in the park (and a new friend)

Lots of fun and games...

Food...

(Seared cauliflower with a roasted red-pepper pesto...yum!)

Festivals...

and Family

Oh, and as promised, here's the finished Hey Teach

Did You Miss Me?

I didn’t mention that I might be absent from the blog because I had hoped that there might be internet access available at the resort we were visiting. There was, for a fee, if you have a laptop… (‘nuff said!) So no, I wasn’t able to do an live vacation feeds to keep my readers informed… And you’re wondering… “wheredja go?” “Whadja do?” (right?) Well, wondering or not, I’ll share some of my adventures. So enough preliminaries I guess… DH and I took a little jaunt to Fabulous Las Vegas. Despite the “what happens…” slogan, I can tell you a few things that we did. We stayed at a nice time share resort (the one that Alan Thicke is spokesperson for). We swam in the pool, we checked out the mountains, we ate a lot of good food, drank a few drinks, and of course dabbled in a couple casinos. Most of the stuff people usually do in Las Vegas. We didn’t get to any shows this time because we just didn’t see anything that appealed to us. (And Cher ticket prices cost more than our room!) It was a very laid-back vacation and we were just happy to have a nice place to relax and escape from every day life. We also visited a very nice yarn shop and had fun driving around the area and seeing a lot of different sides of Las Vegas. You can’t really appreciate the city if you don’t get away from the areas where the casinos are concentrated.

If it weren’t for the heat and the current housing crisis, I think DH would still want to move there. The city just has a funny appeal to both of us.

I must be getting old though, because I saw some really young girls all fixed up to go out partying at the clubs and I was really shocked and a little embarrassed/offended by the dresses (if you could call them that) that they were wearing. Since when is it OKAY to go anywhere in anything that doesn’t even come close to covering your cleavage up top or your rear end at the bottom and call it a dress? The thing that I don’t get is they wear these items with really high heels to go dance in? But first they walk a mile or so on the strip to get to the club… it baffles me. Seriously! And don’t get me started on the time we walked into a casino and there were pole dancers in the main area! It’s definitely not a family place, (which didn’t stop people from bringing their kids) but really! Some things still belong behind closed doors – even in Las Vegas! But, it was a fun trip and I actually did get some knitting done during some of it. On the landing/approach to our gate at the airport, I bound off the last stitches of this: Blue T-shirt; Eden Madil, 100% Bamboo; Size 4 needles; Knitting Pure & Simple Neck-down Shaped T-Shirt by Diane Soucy Here’s a shot of me wearing it in front of the Paris Hotel/Casino Then I started this: Spring Forward Sock, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Size 0 needle; Started on size 1, knit cuff + 1st pattern repeat, decided it would be way too big, frogged, started over with smaller needle- adjusted pattern to work magic loop. And I also worked a little bit on the Hey Teach I haven’t made as much progress as the Harlot, but my goal is to get the back done by the end of the week. Maybe then I can show a picture! Both Spring Forward and Hey Teach are from the Summer Edition of Knitty. (Just in case you haven’t seen it). Oh and yes, I did win on a couple of slots, but nothing BIG, here’s a pic I snapped of my big jackpot on a quarter machine. It wasn’t enough to bring home.

Apparently, any money you win in Vegas, does stay in Vegas…