And that was the week that was!

May I sincerely say that I'm glad last week is over? Is it time for Sea Socks 2009 yet? Please?!

Let's see, since returning home on Friday, May 16, I've attended a funeral, worked a party dealing roulette in a virtual sauna (Union Station with no AC or fans qualifies, trust me), worked at the shop, had my car broken into, gotten the car repaired (the glass anyway), dealt with league payouts for bowling, ordered a new Toyota Prius (it's red and due to arrive by June 1), worked at the shop again, transcribed, and oh, yeah, slept and knit a little.

Geez, see why I need another vacation?

I promise that cruise reports and pictures are coming soon. There are LOTS of pictures that you can see in their rather raw form over on my Flickr account. I'll pick and choose a few for here.

In the meantime, here's some evidence that I actually have been knitting a bit. This week is definitely when one of these shirts. (Click the image to go buy one for yourself. NAYY)

Seriously, it's been a trying week and I don't feel like I got anything very producive done. I still haven't unpacked everything from the cruise. I barely got the pictures uploaded to Flickr. The only reason they're available online at all is because Margie was kind enough to take all of her pictures and mine and burn them onto a DVD, which made it easy to upload them rather quickly.

But I did manage to finish one sock that I started on the cruise. It's made with some Blue Moon Fiberarts Socks that Rock in medium weight in the colorway Calico. I bought it at Churchmouse Yarns on Bainbridge Island, Washington, the night before we set sail. I hadn't seen this colorway before and I guess it's discontinued, since it's not on the Blue Moon Web site. I love it! I used US1 needles, so this is a tightly knit, heavy sock that will be uber warm in the winter. I did my standard top-down sock pattern with a 3x3 seed stitch rib. I've started its mate, but not gotten very far yet.

One of the things we got on the cruise was a clear plastic bag filled with a ball of yarn and a pattern for a chemo cap. The idea was to knit the chemo cap and give it to Patrica by the end of the cruise. All the caps would then go to charity. Well, I tried to knit with the yarn they gave us, but it's one of those fussy novelty yarns and it drove me nuts. So yesterday at the shop, I picked up a couple of balls of Oh My! from Plymouth yarns and made a chemo cap with that instead. I'll send it to Patricia for the cumulative donation, since I committed to making one and failed to do so on the cruise itself. The yarn is so soft! If you want to make something very, very soft for a baby, I highly recommend it. Of course it makes a great chemo cap, too. This took slightly more than one ball to complete.

So that's my week in a nutshell. I have a ton of transcribing to get done, but decided to take a break and give a brief update here. Stay tuned for tales from Alaska!

Thieves suck

Yesterday, my homeowner's association had work done on our street (a glorified shared driveway) to put a new sealcoat on the blacktop. This meant that we couldn't put our cars in our garages, but had to leave them parked on the street. In my neighborhood, the street is narrow and parking is only allowed on one side. When I got home last night, the only place I could find was down at the end of the street, across from what they call the tot lot (a small park), right next to someone's house.

This morning, it was raining. I remembered that the sun roof was in the vent position, so I walked down to the car to close it. Got close to the car and hit the unlock button on the remote and the alarm went off. This is not a good sign. Going around to the driver's side, there it was.

Glass on the ground. No glass in the rear door window.

Great.

How no one noticed/heard something going on is beyond me. Chances are, they did hear something, but ignored it. So much for car alarms being useful.


Here's how the inside looked. I had gone to Costco before I came home. Didn't want to schlep all the stuff down the street for three blocks, so I left a few things in the car. I even remarked to a neighbor that if someone wanted to steal my cereal, Kleenex, deoderant and sunscreen, so be it.

Note to self: Stop taunting the universe!

Note to thieves: Hope you enjoy the face plate to my Alpine stereo. I doubt you'll get much reception, since you only got the faceplate and not the stereo itself.

Oh, and enjoy the subwoofer and amp, too. I hope it blasts a really loud, low boom into your rotten ears. And by the way, the Clarion N.I.C.E. GPS head unit you stole isn't much use without the wiring that goes with it. Since it was disconnected and hidden behind the driver's seat, I guess you didn't notice you might need that part. You also didn't seem to notice the case for it that had a few other cables inside.

Thanks for leaving my main amp under the driver's seat. At least once I get a new faceplate for the stereo, I'll have a working system.

Oh, sorry you don't like my taste in music, but I'm glad I still have my CDs in their case on the floor.

Mostly this is just a pain in the butt. I was supposed to work at the shop today, but instead I have to deal with insurance and police reports and cleaning up the mess.

Yep, thieves suck!

ETA: I do believe that in all things there are ways to see positives. So here are the positives in this experience:

1. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the car itself, other than the broken window. This minimizes expenses for repair.

2. I didn't have a house key with me, so I had the garage door opener in the house. Had it been in the car, they could have stolen that and gained access to the house.

3. This serves to remind me that the car is just a car. If economic conditions mean that I need to get something with better fuel economy, so be it. Having the break-in occur is a good way to start to return the car to its "normal" state in preparation for possibly selling it.

But I'm sticking with the assertion that thieves suck! :)

Resuming the grind

I'm back from Sea Socks '08 and I need a vacation!

The cruise was marvelous. We had a grand time, despite a few hiccups along the way. I'll post more detail when I have more time and can get the pictures uploaded (there are a LOT of them).

Weather in Ketchikan and Juneau was as you'd expect in that area -- foggy, wet, and chilly. Perfect! By the time we got to Victoria on Thursday, the skies were clear and the temperature had risen considerably. When we hit Seattle on Friday morning, it was already getting hot and when we arrived back in Portland, the thermometer was reporting sweltering temps in the area of 97 degrees F. UGH! Any time it gets over 80F, I'm roasting. I am not cut out for the desert, let me tell ya!

Sadly, while I was gone, a friend from my car club lost his battle with cancer. Saturday was the memorial service and it was lovely. The reception at the Elks Lodge afterwards was very nice and afforded an opportunity to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. Cruise on, Don, we'll miss your zany antics and questions!

Sunday found me running a few errands and working on the final bowling league results and payouts. The season-ending banquet is tomorrow night, and being secretary/treasurer means I have to get all the prize money figured out and put into envelopes in the right amount for each of the 38 bowlers. I think I'm ready after a trip to the bank this morning to get bills in the right denominations. Whew!

Today I'm working at the shop, tomorrow, too. Somewhere in all of this, I need to do some transcription.

Did I mention that I haven't unpacked everything yet?

Pictures from the trip and of the hyoooooge stash enhancement that resulted will be forthcoming. Suffice it to say that I really have no logical reason to buy yarn again for quite some time.

Oh, by the way, Margie and I already signed up for next year's cruise. Patricia said sign-ups would be open to everyone towards the end of this week. If you want to have a great time, learn some cool stuff, and hang out with "our people" while seeing some beautiful sights, make sure to sign up! Details will be on the Sea Socks blog.

Ciao for now, kiddos!

Sailing the ocean blue!

It's time to go! Can you hear the sound of me shouting for joy? I wouldn't be surprised if it came over the Internet and through your speakers! LOL

In the morning, my friend Margie and I are loading up the PT Cruiser and heading north to Seattle. There we'll check into the Sheraton and then meet fellow Sea Socks cruisers in the lobby around 4:20 to head for the ferry to Bainbridge Island. That's where the fun begins, with a visit to Churchmouse Yarns.

On Friday, we'll load all our stuff into the belly of a bus. Margie will spend the day visiting with her mom while I board the bus for a yarn crawl around Seattle. We'll meet up again at the pier for boarding the Celebrity Infinity for our cruise!

This seems to have been such a long time coming and now it's upon us and I feel very unprepared. I did manage to finish my felted slippers last night and got the leather soles and embellishments (such as they are -- I'm sure they'll pale in comparison to some of the other ones that will be on display) attached this morning. They're still pretty wet, but the contest isn't until Tuesday night's pajama party, so they will be dry by then. In case you can't tell from the picture, they are embellished with scrapbooking brads that spell out the words "cruising, knit, purl, felt" and there are some stars thrown in for good measure. Yarn is Manos and Cascade 220 with greyleather soles added for durability.

The iPod is charged and loaded with music and podcasts. The camera and memory cards are ready. The spinning wheel is packed into its carrying case. I have a tote bag full of needles and other notions for the classes. The swift and ball winder and scale are ready to go. There's yarn for the classes, too, and some fiber for spinning. The only WIP I'm taking is one pair of socks since I know I'll be buying more yarn and starting projects on board. I still need to go to the bank and put gas in the car, but will probably do those in the morning before we leave.

Now all I need to do is figure out what clothes I'm packing! Yes, that's the last thing on my list because it's the easiest to do at the last minute. I'm going light here. Jeans, a few shirts, slacks for dining, and shawls to dress things up. And, of course, my new Mr. Greenjeans sweater! I'm grateful that we're not changing climate zones. What I wear around here should be good up there, especially since we still aren't seeing much of any weather resembling spring. Okay, we had one day, but that was about it! The folks coming in from places where summer clothing is already in full use are the ones who will have a tougher time of it.

Anyway, "see" you in about a week! I should have LOTS of blog fodder and pictures at that point.