snaps on saturday

All I got??



Is "Not My Dog".

Heck, I didn't even take this photo today. I took it last weekend.
Just goes to show ya' how successful today was in the productivity department, no?

plied

So this morning I woke up and I plied those singles that I had spun yesterday, without even getting out of bed. That's right, I say! I stuck the miniSpinner on a little tv-tray, put the lazy kate on the floor, and viola! I SPUN FROM BED!! Man, talk about being a slacker, though. First, I don't need to treadle...and now....well, sheesh!

Dudes, if I ever end up in a convalescent hospital myself? I am soooo bringing the spinner with me. Whoot!

So this yarn is 4oz small farm Coopworth (that I bought ages ago here), and it has now become about 90yds of a worsted/aran weight 2-ply. I did a long-draw for the drafting, so it's pretty fuzzy-fluffy-squishy. I have a second bag of the same stuff in a lovely dark brown. I took it out today in hopes of getting to fiddle with it, but I never got a chance to.

That's because my cat, MrDarcy, made it his new friend.


No matter where in the house I moved it, he would sit near it.
He would not play with it, roll in it, or even attempt to eat it.
Just just wanted to sit near it.


Or sleep with it.


I moved it four or five times. Every time he'd chase me down.
Weirdo.

eta: I do know the seriousness of what can happen with pets and fiber. The cat was never left unattended. No animals were harmed in the making of this post ;-)

Anyhow, I don't mean to knock the seller of the fiber, because the fiber itself and prep of the roving was great....but the stuff has a funky stink to it! It smells like a box of old crayons (it smelled like that when it arrived in the mail, and it didn't fade with time. Ugh!)

Luckily, I did manage to get the odor out when I did the soaking of the yarn to set the twist. I first did a hot soak in "Eucalan". The yarn smelled just fine after that ....but I did a second soak in cold water using "Soak/Unleash" just to be safe (not to mention that I adore the way it smells).

I'm hoping to do up the dark brown fluff this weekend, and then I'd really like to dig in and knit with these right away, mainly so I can test that I am producing something functional for crying out loud.

I'm thinking a hat maybe?

dyin' to be plyin'

Spent some time today with the miniSpinner. I'm still just putting it through it's paces (well, it's more like the spinner is putting me through my paces...let's be real here). In addition to getting used to the "electric-ness" of the spinner, I am also getting used to using Scotch tension (my other wheels are set up as double drives), and the miniSpinner is also outfitted with a WooLee Winder, which I have never used before. A couple of people suggested that I might have trouble using a WooLee Winder and doing a long-draw, so that's what I decided to play with today.



I didn't seem to have any trouble doing a long-draw with the winder...with the mechanics of it at least....but let's see how this yarn looks when it's finished before we issue a verdict, eh? I might have made something like a fluffed out-fairy-floss that is going to fall apart if I blow on it. Then again, I may have made rope! Who knows. This fiber was a bit strange to spin. I did test the twist while I was working a few times, but I just have a hunch that things are going to shift quite a bit in the plying and finishing stages.

I did two bobbins of singles before I went to dance class, and I'll ply them in the morning and finish the yarn with a good soak and then we'll see. Hopefully it's usable. I guess worst case I can knit it up and felt it into something. And hopefully after a good soak it's a little less sheepy smelling, too! Gah! I can't say I'm diggin' this fiber's particular take on farm-y-ness. And I have another 4 ounces of the same stuff in dark brown!

Either way, usable or not, it's fun playing and practicing. I hope I have a bit more time this weekend to tinker.

who i've been keeping company with

I was a bit bummed to have been on my trip north for the first part of The Tour de France, but once I got home, that's pretty much what kept me company through all of the unpacking and putting away and laundry doings. When the Tour was over, I was all of the sudden....lonely.

Next came watching a bunch of favorite costume drama dvd's. Pride & Prejudice (1995), The Young Victoria (that one was new for me...had not seen it yet), Persuasion (2007, but the 1995 is also in my library). Pride & Prejudice...again (sheesh).

Then I got into watching these:

Drafting: the Long an Short of It (Abby Franquemont), and
Popular Wheel Mechanics & The Gentle Art of Plying (Judity MacKenzie-McCuin)

..and it's been loads of fun. I especially have loved watching and listening to Judith's dvd's.

When I was on the retreat there was one lunch break where Judith and I ended up at the same table and I just found her utterly fascinating...and we didn't talk at all about spinning. She just has so many facets to herself, and so many interesting stories!

She was the teacher I was most nervous about meeting. I had read her books already, and I had developed this huge fear that I wasn't I good enough spinner to take a class from her. It's like I had decided that she was so "precise" and I was so..."wingin' it" or something. I shared this with a few people before going on the trip, and they all told me not to worry and that she was totally down to earth.

On the first evening of the retreat, at the introductory social gathering, I walked right up to her, introduced myself, and blurted out that I was was completely intimidated. She asked me why, and I told her, and she had a little chuckle over that. Then the next morning? When I was in her class...? Well, she proved to me that everyone that I had spoken to was correct. She is totally relaxed and just a pleasure to learn from.

And watching the dvd's is sorta like having her in my livingroom. It's great.

Although I do miss having Fabian Cancellara in my livingroom sometimes...and well, Colin Firth....and of course, Rupert Perry Jones...

I mean, making yarn is pretty interesting, but stilllllllllllll........
;-)

quote of the....

"Silence is so accurate."

~ Mark Rothko (artist, abstract/expressionist painter)

kvetchfest

It seems I am just full of complaints today. I mean, why don't we just start with this one:

It's friggin' JULY, and the weather-lady shows up on-air this morning wearing a TURTLENECK SWEATER.


WTF?!! Gah.
I swear, I can hear my tomato plants outside crying.


Today did not go at all how I how I had it planned, and I should have been prepared for that, because the problems began last night.

MyFavoriteKid was with TheEx this past weekend, and around 6pm or so yesterday, TheEx called to say the drop-off would be later than usual because they wanted to go see the movie Inception. I don't know much about the movie other than it's an action-packed psychological drama involving dream-states. I did see enough previews of it to know that it had the potential to make MyFK's head spin a little bit. But they went and saw it anyway, despite my better (than TheEx's) judgment.

MyFK was up the entire night. He couldn't sleep. His tummy hurt. Could he please sleep in my bed? Could he sleep with the television on in the background?

In other words, TheEx basically did to me the thing that grandparents are supposed to be famous for doing (and he does this OFTEN). And I could have scratched out his eyeballs come this morning. Years of this, I have dealt with. He's the party guy, I'm the parent. He makes the mess, he leaves it on my doorstep. The only good news is that he has reinforced (once again) that I made a really sound choice when I made him AnEx.

(ooo that was mean! see?!! I'm not that nice of a person!)


Another highlight of my day was dealing with my aching back, which has suddenly decided to act up again for some unknown reason (perhaps it's because I shouted out that I "cannot STAND" TheEX, so the Universe has served me up a big fat dish of not being able to stand now. sheesh.).

And thennnnnnn, MyFK and I spent most of the day taking Flash, his leopard gecko, to a vet that specializes in reptiles, because guess who else woke up on the wrong side of the tank today? The gecko. One hundred and seventy dollars and five hours of time invested, and he still doesn't look quite right. He has an eye infection, seems to be having some trouble with his skin due to his last round of shedding, and he might drop his tail (they grow back, though...wish I had his mad skillz).


The plan now is to go to bed and hope that when I wake up in the morning it is all just GONE. I am going to wish it to be warm and sun-shiny, and that my back feels like it did when I was 17 (man that was a good year), and that the gecko is going to wink at me that all is okay in his little world.

All of these things could actually happen.

Wishing TheEx would no longer be an ass?? Well....that would just be a fruitless waste of wishing.

drumroll please!

TheMostImportantGuy officiated, and using a random number generator, we have the winners of the 1000 Posts Contest.

4 ~ bibliogrrl
31 ~ Kathy
11 ~ Dani

For those who won, please shoot me an email with your (postal) mailing address (AmpuTeeHee [at] hotmail [dot] com), and I will get your giftcard out in the mail toot-sweet!

For those who didn't win, fear not! There will another contest this fall for the 5th Anniversary of TheBlog. Stay tuned in mid-September.


Thank you all SO much for your comments and your ongoing support (thanks for de-lurking, too---I didn't even know some of you were out there!). This blog means so much to me when it simply acts as just my journal, but it means so much more when I get a chance to experience how it connects me with the world outside of my own (crazy!) head.

I appreciate you all.

snaps on saturday

long shadows, dog park

So fun reading all the comments on the contest page. Whee!
Last day to enter!
Drawing tomorrow.

do you see what i see

Last weekend TheMostImportantGuy said, "Oh hey! I want you to take this little 'test!"

You might want to click HERE to watch the video, because for some reason blogger
is cutting off half the danged screen

Now, y'all....DO take a moment right here, right now, and click on that video. Do not skimp, dudes. Chances are, most of you have already seen it (or some version of it)....but if you have not, do watch it. Okay?

Come on.

I'll wait.

Alright.

Done?

Ok. Cool.



Now, which fifty-percent were YOU in??

I watched the first section of the video, got all excited and shouted out, "Seventeen!!". Now for starters, seventeen was not even the correct answer....but even more incorrect was that I entirely missed the gorilla. ENTIRELY. That damn gorilla strolled in, stopped in the middle of the room, pounded his chest, and walked back out....and I still missed the damn thing.

I have been tripping out on this news all week long. This is really linked to meditation practice for me. Much of what I attempt to do with my thoughts (as I work on sitting and breathing and just letting thoughts cruise on through without my attaching to them) is to just let thoughts be thoughts. To just see them as they are. To notice the thought, exactly as it is, and then stop right there, and not embellish any further.

And example of embellishing might be...well, okay....let's say I'm sitting and meditating and I hear a dog bark. I can notice the sound of barking. And I can stop there. Or I could also start wondering why the dog is barking. Is that dog on a leash? Is it in distress? Is something wrong? Is there a burglar? Maybe it is sensing an earthquake coming. I wish it would quit barking. I wonder if it's a golden retriever. Hey, that kind of sounds like a golden retriever. Is it hungry? Maybe it just sees a squirrel.

See? Several minutes later and my brain has turned the sound of a bark (which is now looong gone, by the way) into a whole friggin' story. A fictional story.


And so now, having seen this little video "test", I now I have to ask myself:
Am I even assessing correctly that the barking sound I just heard was even a bark??
(ie...maybe it was a gorilla, if you get my drift)

And just how many other things in my life am I not seeing exactly as they are???!! Fifty-friggin' percent??

I have a hunch more.

Ohhh so many "regulars" and ohhh so many of you delurking for the contest!
Yay!
Keep 'em comin', kids...contest is good until Sunday.


Today was super hectic from the moment I woke up, and just because we do things here to their fullest, it's almost midnight and I am just getting home from teaching dance class. Getting home has been a bitch for weeks now because the freeway between the studio and my house is under construction from 10pm until 6am. It's making for some verrrrry long Thursday nights getting home.

Here's a little something for you that cracked me up today, though:

from Failblog.org

Bedtime. Now.

....one thousand !

1000 posts! I can hardly believe it.

Thanks to all (four or five?) of you that still come here for a visit. I know that blogging is soooo "yesterday" and that I am a dinosaur, but I will never be succinct enough to tweet (I'd use up all my characters just on parentheses and elipses alone...hahaha), and Facebook just makes me want to punch myself.
So here I am.
Still blogging.
And I have a little contest for you!


First, let me say, there will be two contests this year. The 5th Blogiversary will be in September, and that contest will be a fun one. There will be a twist to entering, and there will be several neat-o prizes that I am having a total blast assembling already. Keep an eye out for that one.

Let me also say that I have not celebrated any sort of milestone of the blog here since the 1st Blogiversary, and that is because it was a BigFatFAIL on my part.

I started this blog originally as a place for me to track the hilarious things that happen when you are amputee. The blog quickly became the mish-mash of things that make up my life, and the readers of this blog also became a bit of a mish-mash, coming to read for all sorts of reasons. When I did the contest, I said the winner would get a prize that was tailored to them. If they were coming for the gimp, I'd send them one of my AmpuTeeHee T-shirts. If they were coming for the knitting (and most at that point were), I'd send some yarn. Well, it turned out that the winner was the wonderful (and very patient) WheelchairDancer, and she wanted armwarmers like mine...only black, and lacy. Here we are, almost 4 years later, and she still has cold arms (and me, in my shame have not announced a blogiversary since).

~~WheelchairDancer: If it's any consolation, it took me 6+ years to knit one grandma a cozy for her lysol can, and 34 years to knit the other grandma new egg cozies. And my mom is still waiting for a hat to her specifications.
You still have hope.
And my guilt.

*sigh* Embarrassing.
I did just pick out the pattern and yarn for the armwarmers though, so we are a few steps closer.

Anyway, embarrassment aside, I feel possessed to mark these milestones, and for this one I'm going to keep it as simple as possible (and with prizes I already have on hand).

THE CONTEST:

1) Leave a comment.


That's it!
Leave your comment here on this post by 5pm Pacific this Sunday.
I will draw Sunday night and let you know the results.
I would love it if you de-lurked and commented even if you don't want your name put into the hat (just say so if that's what you want---but why wouldn't you want to enter??).

There will be THREE WINNERS,
because I have THREE $25 AMAZON GIFT CARDS to give out.

(which makes a total of $75 in prizes and has nothing to do with "1000" I understand, but WhatchaGonnaDo---I couldn't come up with $1k in prizes--times are tough--and let's be honest: selfish me just spent it on an electric spinner).


***IMPORTANT: Comment moderation is still on, as I still get spam here. Once you comment, please allow me a day to approve your comment so that it will show up. I'm not online all day, and it might take some time. Be patient!
Duplicates will be deleted (1 entry per person, please!)
Thanks, and good luck!


It's 5pm on Sunday & the comments are now closed!
Thanks for entering ;-)

nine hundred ninety-niiiiiiiiine........

psssst...
you really should make it a point to pop in here tomorrow.
It's a big day here on the blog, so there shall be celebrating!

chain reaction?

I did do some knitting today. And a bunch of other stuff, mostly household related. I also went to the zen center for practice, which I have not done in quite awhile.

Regardless of how my day went, I'm feeling a bit unsettled this evening.

I swear it's from watching the Tour de France.

If you have been keeping track, you'll know that they are in the mountains right now, and that today was quite hectic on the last mountain due a shake-up when the leader's bike chain slipped off. He had to play catch up. While first racing uphill...and then racing down the super steep downhill that came on the other side...at over 70 miles per hour...on very windy roads with switchbacks...totally freaking me out...and the maternal core of me is having a heart attack....with me yelling out loud in my livingroom.... that if I was either one of these guy's mother's...I'd have to take a valium.

first yarn on the electric spinner

I didn't sign on for the "Tour de Fleece" this year (where fiber-junkies spin at the same time the cyclists do their thing) because I was in Seattle for the start. But I am watching a whole lot of Tour de France since I have been home, and I have been tinkering with my new electric spinner.

I'm working on spinning a finer lace/fingering weight yarn, but it was killing me. I was really in need of some instant gratification, so I whipped out a bulky thick-n-thin single.




It was 4oz of organic Merino combed top (from Spunky Eclectic; the April '10 Club Colorway "Storms of Jupiter"). I turned it into about 162yds of a thick-n-thin single with some slubs, and then I slightly fulled it when I set the twist.

I'm so glad I did this. I really love knitting with this sort of yarn, and I've been working so hard at keeping consistent and doing fine work that I was beginning to wonder if I could even make something like this if I wanted to.

As for the spinner, I am loving it. The WooleeWinder doing its own thing just makes me giddy, and not having my leg cramp up when I spin is just the greatest thing ever.

And it's so compact, I might even have to try spinning in bed sometime soon ;-)

snaps on saturday

(but it was taken on Monday, so it's a bit of a cheat, eh?)



Those are the various things I dyed at the retreat last weekend, hangin' to dry in the hotel room.

things i did today

* Early morning appointment with the radiology department (doing a little more research on those headaches I've been having).

* Shopping to restock the house with real food as it was void of anything fresh due to being gone for two weeks.

* Laundry, laundry, and more laundry. Whee.

* Whipped out the electric spinner (finally!) and spent some time with this:


* And then this:


* Went to "Friday Nights At The Plaza," where MyFavoritedKid and a few of his classmates got to play some of the mixes they worked on in their after-school electronic music programming class.

* Had a chat with a neighbor and found out that one of my favorite residents here in my 'hood was diagnosed with CancerOfEverything while we were out of town. He is now back home, but with hospice in tow. They are predicting he has a month or two. I'm not even sure what to say about it at this point. My mouth is still hanging open.

* Came home after that news and finished spinning up that second pile of fluff (it's a bulky thick-n-thin, so it was easy peasy), and am now going back to the first pile which I took a break from because it's more of a lace/fingering weight sort of thing....and I was finding myself in need of instant gratification after the CancerNews. It was too dark tonight by the time I finished to take photos, but I will do that tomorrow.


All I have left to say is:
*sigh*

re-entry is such a bitch.

I've been unpacking, crankin' out laundry, cooking, and doing housework since I got out of bed. I have to leave super early for dance class tonight because I have to teach a private lesson before the regular class (so departing I am departing from home at 4pm and not coming back until just before midnight). I have a doctor's appointment super early tomorrow morning.
Whee.
Couldn't I have just eased in slowly??
Apparently not. *sigh*

Well, I guess technically I did have a day of transition between the retreat and home. That was night spent in Eugene.

L to R: ViolinJodie, me, TheBon

I'm telling ya'. I dig these people so much and find their little spot on the planet so lovely, I may just have to retire there.

Jodie and her hubby had us all over for grilled pizzas.


That's me taking a picture of Anthony grilling the pizzas. I think TheBon took a photo of me taking a picture of Anthony taking a picture. If it turns up I will point you to it.

TheBon had done up some of the pizza toppings, and she also did some homemade icecream.


This was exciting not only because it was delicious, but because it was peach ice cream made from peaches from the tree in my yard! Before we left on this trip, MyFavoriteKid had picked a big bag for her and he gave them to on our stop in Eugene at the beginning of the trip. He knows she likes to cook and can. It was very cool to taste the end result on the way back home.



Welp, I'm off to class.
And I'm already exhausted.
And it's like I have the emotional version of road rash.

on the road again

I am home. It was 8-1/2 hours of driving but 11 hours of travel (I made lots of pit stops to stretch my leg).

But hey! LOOK!! Up there!!
That's my ring!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Very last thing I did before leaving the retreat was to load the wheelchair, and when I lifted off the seat cushion...tadaaaaa!!! There it was.
In my bum the whole time. Sheesh.
I am sooooo relieved.

I have some really great pics from the visit with the EugeneContingent last night, but that's a longer post, and I must get some rest now. I'll do it tomorrow. In between upackin'. And warshin' two weeks of laundry. And playing with the new spinning toy :-)

it's morning and i'm hitting the road flat out and emo

Well I was already crying because I have to pack up and leave the retreat...

On the day of the best weather we've had so far...

And I just realized that my ring (the one that is not ridiculously significant in terms of where it came from**, but it's the one that I wear every single day) was lost somewhere yesterday sometime between dyeing class and now and could be who the fuck knows where....

And then Lorena sends me this:



...which is a total cry-frest.
(actually, I do love it...it's one of those emo-arent-people-just-the-best-thing-ever cries)

So I am now going to try to shrug it all off and start driving.
I have a nice evening pitstop tonight with friends and it will all be better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

edited to add:
** Ok, it is significant. I only said that it is not because it's nothing fancy, came from Kohl's, and I picked it out myself. But. I had a ring that I wore on my left ring finger that I bought right after I had my car accident. It said, "Protect This Woman," on it (in other words, I sorta married myself LOL). I swore to never take it off. It was a bit of a talisman, eh? Nine months after the car accident I had to take it off to have a second surgery. I asked TheMostImportantGuy to wear it for me during the operation. He has had it ever since, and he wears it on the same finger. The ring I lost yesterday was two sterling bands that cross-cross, and it was what took the talisman's place. I bought it myself and it was under $30, but that aint the point. These two rings have us "lookin' like we belong together".
So this is a bummer.

***I also broke my sunglasses. Can I go home now? LOL

a good day to dye

Posting a bit earlier than I have been, because honest to god I do believe I'm going to be able to keep myself awake past tonight's closing festivities. Fun can be so taxing ;-)

Today I had the silk dying class with Tina...



...who besides being an amazing artist and business woman is about one of the coolest ladies I have ever met.

As requested, I handed my camera off. Once. So here it is. The one, the only.

I know it looks like I am dyeing something horrid in that photo, but what it turned out to be is this luscious pale grey silk roving that has some very subtle shades of pink and purple behind the grey. It's exactly what I was going for and I love it.

I also did this blues-purples sort of thing...


It's a 3-ply, two of the plies wool, one silk. Fun times.
I dyed some other stuff, but it's too wet for me to fiddle with photos just yet.

One of my favorite moments from today is when I took a little stroll outside after breakfast and spotted an eagle on top of a totem pole.



Not gonna see that at home, that's for sure!

Off to dinner and then a final gathering together, then we all scatter into the wind.

retreat, part...whatever

For Kathy of the comments: No! I have no photos of me yet! I will try to remember to pass my camera to someone tomorrow! Stephanie has a few on her blog, but I'm not in those either. I will do my best to insert myself somewhere somehow LOL.

Today was knitting with silk. Lots of yarns, lots of information about silk and how to work with it, lots of knitting, all resulting in lots of wee cute little swatches.


After the class I set myself down outside on the porch and bought myself a nice cold beer.

And a HansenCraft electric spinner ;-)



NONE of those spinners that you see there are mine (mine is in the bag--DUH!), which is just about as lame (if not more lame) than my not having a photo of myself.

After dinner we took a Trip Down the Silk Road with Judith as our tour guide.

L to R: Judith, Tina, Stephanie

Note Tine & Stephanie cooking up some madness in the background there. They are boiling silk cocoons which we stretched into silk hankies:

that's Beth (aka MrsHansenCraftElectricSpinner) doing the honors

And we also got to do some reeling, too.


This is home style reeling, and hooray for that. I spoke to someone once who was ready to invest in an arse-load of fancy reeling equipment, and MyLadiesOfTheRetreat here made a makeshift silk reeling set up out of stacks of books, coat hangers, and duct tape. Seemed to work just fine, if you ask me. .


Stephanie gifted Judith with some of the end result.


Going to bed now. It's gets so late so fast when you are having fun, doesn't that just suck??

Silk dyeing tomorrow.
All I am hoping for is that I get outta that class without a tie-dyed wheelchair.

more pics. some of people even ;-)

Photo heavy (again). Vacation will do that to ya'.

Here's a shot of Port Ludlow in the morning:


The Inn where we are staying:



All the food has been amazing. Tacky to show you my half eaten oatmeal, but hey.



Today my class was with the amazing Judith MacKenzie McCuin, whom I was totally intimidated to take a class from because she is a fiber genius, and I'm just little ol' newbie spinner me over here. Everyone told me not to worry because she's awesome, and they were so right about that. She was unforgettable. Totally worth the price of admission, and I learned so much.

Here's a pic of the room before we trashed it.



Here's a sampling of the many types of silk we spun.


The highlight of my day was getting to spin on this little ditty:



It's a HansenCraft e-spinner. It's electric, but also can run on battery. It's smaller than a breadbox, and doesn't require treadling. What a godsend for me. Seriously. I love my wheel, but I can only get a small chunk of spinning time in before my knee hurts, and that just sucks ass. It turns out that MrsHansenCrafts is attending this retreat, and she had a few on hand. She also lives nearby, and she also has a couple for sale.

I might be coming home with one. Especially because 5 or 6 people have thrown themselves in line to buy my Matchless from me, and which I would sell to pay for the e-spinner. Kinda convenient to have so many interested parties here, isn't it? Well, I'd still have a "wheel" wheel, because at home I still have (and adore) my vintage Clemes and Clemes. But if this little swap works out, bye bye Matchless, hellooooo HansenCraft! I'll know more tomorrow.


After dinner there was a little dye party outside. Stephanie and Tina (of Blue Moon Fiber Arts)....


....set us up to dye silk scarves.


Here's what I ended up with.


Meanwhile, Judith got a little crazy with the indigo...

...but I do mean the best sort of crazy.

Two people even dyed their hair ;-)


The rest of us just dipped skeins of silk that we will get to take home....woot!


I'm a little worried we are all going to make a wreck out of this hotel.


So I am totally over-saturated. Literally and figuratively (my brain has taken in way too much information today, plus my hands are now blue).



Tomorrow is knitting with Stephanie for me :-)

everything going great, except the photo taking

Woke up bright and early this morning to the sounds of people outside the hotel talking loudly and cars having their horns honked. It turns out that sometime last night three cruise ships made their way into Seattle, and one of them was docked right next to the hotel.


See that little gray and tan building just to the left of the bow of the ship? (I took that later in the day from the ferry--click to enlarge) That is our hotel. Had I put us in a "waterfront" room, I'd be waking up to people on that ship looking over and down into my room--hahaha. So glad we were city-side, except for the fact that all of those cruiseship passengers were being picked up by tour buses and shuttles at 7am.

So I got up, went to go down to have breakfast (included with the cost of my room), but the restaurant was slammed with cruise ship passengers. The hostess was kind enough to take my order and send it to my room (even though what I wanted wasn't on the room service menu).

It sounds like I am complaining. But I am not. Honestly. It was all no big deal, it was just interesting. I really did have a good morning.

So I packed, and was taking my sweet time, when I got a call from David asking me if I wanted to hook up for lunch. Now, we've been reading each others blogs for a few years, but we've never met, and it was a real treat to meet him. He's even more charming in person, and I can't believe he wore a kilt to lunch for me (Maybe it wasn't for me. Maybe he'd have worn one today anyhow. But I did jokingly ask him to wear one when I announced I was coming to town, and well...there he was...wearing one).

Here is camera fail number one. NO DANGED PICTURES WERE TAKEN! Laaaaame.
It's like it never happened, except that it did, and it was great.
LOL

I left lunch, popped into a market to buy some snacks for my time here at the resort. Got on the ferry, a ride which I absolutely loved. They have this whole awesome plan when you park your car and you have a disability. If you ask for it, they will somehow make the stars line up so you can have a little wiggle room around your car to get your chair out, and then they make sure you are the car that gets parked right next to the elevator. AND they are nice about it. It might sound like no big deal, but there were HUNDREDS of cars waiting in line to board this puppy, and getting me to where they wanted to me to be was just sort of amazing.



See? Picture of a parking garage, and no pictures of awesome knitter guy in kilt. LAME. I did this with Amanda, too. No photos.

So I went up on deck and enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. Took lots of photos of water and boats (because apparently they are more interesting that people), and got off the ferry in Bainbridge where I went directly to a yarn shop.



Churchmouse Yarn & Tea is full of some of the most beautiful yarns I have seen collected in one place, plus some really fine teas, and is owned by some really great people. Just lovely. If you happen upon the chance to go, you must go.

From there I drove to the resort, checked in, was invited by some lovely knitters to join them for dinner, and went to the meet-and-greet/orientation part of the evening with our fabulous retreat teachers...where I also took no photos.

*sigh*

Well, tomorrow is another day. And speaking of which, I should get to bed because breakfast starts at 7:30am and class begins at 9. Eeep! We go until 9:30pm, with only a short break in the afternoon (and breaks for meals). I have a feeling I am going to need a rest by the time I get home!

G'night!