NO MORE VACATIONS!

If anyone is out there, please forgive my lack of knitting content, as well as my poor posting performance (can you spell aliteration?) (Did I spell aliteration?)
I have made a discovery. You have to pay for vacation.

Yes, I know, vacation is supposed to be a benefit for working tremendously hard during the year. Every year, I look forward to some time off. Every year, I think, "I'm going to do exactly what I wish for two (one, three, whatever....) weeks!" I vow each year to hold firmly that resolve....and fail miserably.

Now I had fun on vacation...but I did exactly what the 10 year old wanted (so much easier!). When I got back, I had accomplished very little knitting, had no pictures to show for what I did accomplish, had two weeks worth of dirty laundry (that I still haven't finished), a filthy house (because the three other adults cannot be left on their own to clean...) and only 4 days left to do it in. I had to ready everyone for the following week.

When I take vacation time, I am actually expected to "make up" my call time....which means that I have 5 call days out of 7 this week! I figured it out and will spend a total of 126 hours in the hospital THIS WEEK ALONE!!! Vacation simply cannot be worth this!

So next time I get the urge to take a vacation, STOP ME!!!

Si Vas Para Chile....

Go visit my socks......

Yes, boys and girls, the socks that I adored.
The ones I ranted and raved about.
The ones I wrote odes to.
I even sang songs to them....
They are gone.

Gone to the far ends of the earth!

At my daughter-in-law's kitchen table, I whipped out the finished product for her to model. (I had actually thought of these as a slightly late B-day present for her, since she is a sock shopper from way back). I had actually planned to post the finished pictures, with the cute little heart buttons on the side. But they were socknapped!



The hermana (sister) of my nuera (daughter in law) began ranting about them...weren't these muy linda (beautiful) and could I hacer (to make) some for her....she loves calcitenes (socks). She apparantly suffers from cold feet (even in the Atacama desert, where she lives)....and so my socks are in Chile. Not only did she admire them so much that I gave them to her, she went on so much about my 10 year old learning to knit, that I had to go to the LYS across the street and buy some Aruncania yarn so that she could knit a scarf for LILI! Not MOM, who taught her, but LILI (who already has mom's socks!) I wish I could do that!!!!

I miss them already!

(Seriously, we love Lili very much, and I am glad she got my socks....I think I've found someone to knit socks for who will love them as much as I do!)

The development where my son has an apartment, includes a small, centralized area for retail shops...including a yarn store!!!!! It's called "Woolwinders" and I've actually ordered something from them on the internet, before. Lovely shop, and very friendly knitters. Yes, knitters are the sales help. In general, you might have to wait until they get done with a pattern repeat, but it is worthwhile, since they are knowlegable in a way that only knitters who have made those discoveries or errors are knowlegable. One of the girl's mothers knits with Annie Modisett, in Jersy...she's going to be there in July, I think or late June. Whenever it is....I'll be in Dallas.....WAAAAAA!

I haven't done much knitting,( having spun into a depression over my purloined piggy warmers) as I have been doing all the driving (They won't let the small one drive, even if she could reach the pedals) and, while I have actually worked on socks in traffic (we were at a dead stop) I am not brave enought to do it on the interstate through mountains! So knitting content is sparse, but should be better later this week!

Stay tuned for the "Tale of the Frogged Scarf....."

Wagons, East!

Rollin'...rollin'...rollin', rollin' down the trail I go...
Rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin down the trail.....

As the summer holiday season approaches, I just wanted you to know that I, too, have joined the ranks of the half-baked, half asheep idiots out on the highways of our nation in search of the elusive SUMMER VACATION.

Not only am I braving the highways and byways of our great nation, I am doing it in a two seater car which essentially has no trunk, with a 10 year old child, and my knitting bag! For two weeks!!! Holy batshit, Batgirls! What the hell was I thinking?!?

We left Dallas on Saturday morning, about 9:00AM (I had actually planned to be gone before 6). We made 4 (count 'em! FOUR!) potty stops before we got to TEXARKANA (AT ONE PM!!!!!) Now, for those of you who don't know this, that's a two to two and a half hour drive, under most conditions (not including ice, torrential rain, tornados or, apparantly, ten year olds!).

The stop in Texarkana included a stop at Best Buy to purchase a small digital camera, so that I could keep the grubby little fingers off of my very expensive digital SLR ("Mom, I WANT TO TAKE PICTURES, TOO! CAN'T I GET A DISPOSABLE DIGITAL CAMERA? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE?") So, now we are about two and a half hours BEHIND. It just kept getting worse.

By the time we got to Malvern, AK, I was to the point of threats. I actually listed all the major airports between our location at that moment and Washington, DC (our final destination), and quietly informed my daughter, my sweetness, my heart, that if she didn't shut up and quit whining I would pop her bony little butt right onto a plane and call her dad or sister to pick her up! And that Hartsfield was less than an hour away! The compromise we eventually reached was that she could say "Are we there, yet?" and "I'm bored" only one time per day.... so of course, she kept asking me "Can I say them yet?" AARGH!

We finally made it to Nashville, TN.....at 10 pm! When I last drove to DC, I left home at noon and made it to Knoxvillle by 10......

Sunday wasn't nearly as bad, thanks to a fully charged digital camera....

And now I have 352 pictures of "The Road"!

By Sunday evening it was all worth it....cause this is what we get to see every day