The very best thing for me

that has come from blogging the the past four years? All the friendships I have made and grown! Thanks all for being here, hanging in in my ebbs and flows of life and posts, and for becoming my friends. You really do make my life better, even when I forget to tell you.

With my magical transportation device,

aka "The Internets-a enormous series of tubes", we are going to return to Seattle for a brief visit. Despite Gaylen's worries about finding me in the train station (I just looked for the lady knitting), we connected with each other problem free. We took pictures of each other, though I think she did a better job ( I think those are the only ones we got of each other). Pay no attention to what she says about a messy guest room, there was no mess in there to be seen anywhere. And I did indeed get to see the apron in action.

While we were out and about visiting yarn, some did happen to find its way home with us. Actually, we both wound up getting the same sock yarn, so we'll have matching socks at some point to remind us of a wonderful visit and in-person meeting every time we wear them! There was also weaving seen by her, and I do believe she might be feeling a slight tug in that fibery direction.

Update:
Sorry about the bad "Internets" link before, it should be all fixed now!

Dogs in Seattle

for Dogs on Thursday. Gaylen and JB have two bloodhounds, Beau and Lucy, aka "the big dogs" and two bassets, Dudley and Abigail, aka, "the little dogs." Of course they were all happy to have me come visit (and bring special cookies just for them), happy to have me scratch their ears and show me their tongues (though you only get Mr. Dudley's), happy to rub all over me and leave their smells and slobber for my dogs to find in a couple of days, and naturally the little dogs were more than happy to show me their bellies. I think they were even happier to find out that I know exactly what to do with a up-side-down basset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were much more interested in being touched than photographed, but they were very happy to share their beautiful singing voices with me.

The train ride to Seattle

on Tuesday morning was excellent. Despite Gaylen not having a clue what I looked like, we found each other just fine at the King Street Station. (As opposed to the Union Station that is just across the street, which can be a little bit confusing if you are trying to figure out which one in a hurry when you think you are going to be late picking someone up, but then find out there is nothing to worry about because their train is running even later than you are.) We did a bit of shopping at Pike's Place Market to get tea, then we went to visit some yarn, and then I got to go meet her dogs and husband, JB. There was a lot of visiting and getting to know each other in person to be had, both on Tuesday evening/night and the next morning, as well as dog bellies to rub and ears to scratch. All in all, a wonderful time before heading back to Portland on Wednesday afternoon.
Oh, and a fair amount of sock knitting happened and Vet-Girl's socks are going to hit a heel gusset very, very soon.

Yesterday was a lot of fun,

Pharmaknits picked me up about nine, so we could get an early start on our day. We headed north and managed to fit in a trip to Costco, Trader Joe's, two Half-Price books, and lunch. I was happy with a find of some nuts for granola, mini-peppers, and a few other food items. I also scored on a wonderful cookbook. No, I have never checked this out of the library, I don't think they even have it. Several years ago DTE and I were at a Boarder's books and they had a copy that now belongs to her. DTY really enjoyed borrowing her sister's book and cooking from it, so I obtained a copy for her via ABE Books (I think hers came here from across the pond). Well, I have borrowed said book from both of them and copied recipes on occasion over the years, but now I have my very own!
After lunch, we went to Knitter's Palette for WWKIP. We met a lot of folks, some that were new to us, and at least one that used to be pretend and now she is real! Fortunately several of the new friends are now living in my computer too. It was wonderful to spend a day going to new place with a friend and making new ones along the way. We are all looking forward to WWKIP next year (Hopefully we will see the big city folks before then though.)

 

Of course such a wonderful day with such beautiful weather has a tendency to involve insects. This beautiful little guy had a good time wandering about on my hat

 

and some construction was happening at home while I was away. (There had been none Friday or before I left yesterday morning. I never cease to be amazed how fast they build stuff.) After the activity around it for the evening settled down, I went ahead and sprayed it. I don't usually go for toxic chemicals, but since it is hanging from the molding of my garage door, I wasn't looking forward to the time it would fall down on me if I didn't do something soon.

As you may

remember (well, I guess that depends on how long you've been hanging out here), neither of of the Ds are coming home for the summer. In the past they have been our lawn care service, but since that isn't an option and we knew someone in need of money for vet school this fall, we have a new lawn service. Thus you get a formal introduction:

"Blogland, meet Vet-Girl. Vet-Girl, meet Blogland."

Actually, I do believe that she has met the blog before to see pictures of Miss Oribel and see what DTE might be making noise about from across the room. She was pretty excited to have her very own name here and knew there was a really good chance she would need it. Yeah, she is sweet about indulging me like that, just like the other two.
I think I need to find out her shoe size and favorite colors (or at least if there are any she absolutely can't stand).

Passing it on

The ever wonderful Chan has nominated me for this award. (I guess this means she thinks I am creative. I am glad to know I make her laugh and am grateful to know her!)

Here are the official rules:
1. Copy the award to your site (Check)
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award (Check)
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers (Good thing there aren't any rules about "folks that haven't gotten it already" but I guess I will skip "touch-backs" no matter how tempting it might be.)
4. Link to those on your blog (Check)
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated (Hmmm, Chan may have missed that part, but since she knows I read her blog every day..... Check)

1. Anita She knits some pretty cool stuff and makes very cool stitch markers; right now she has some that look like chocolate chips. (She had an interview with Chan recently and has a great story about being in the Coast Guard here. If you haven't read it yet, you really should.)
2. Gaylen She knits awesome socks and sews beautiful clothes, plus has four great looking dogs.
3. Cass designs her own patterns and is a very creative writer. She also home schools her two teenagers, runs a pet sitting business, and all sorts of other things keeps her from having very much free time.
4. Jessi She spins, dyes yarn, makes bead stitch markers, knits, has kids, and now she weaves! She is also one of the administrators of Whiskers on Wednesday.
5. Jane knits all sorts of stuff (has a goal of knitting 52 items in 52 weeks and is well on her way!) as well as teaches school, spends time with her grandchildren, and runs the WhoDuKnit Group.
6. Nova knits, sews, quilts, bakes, reads, has two beautiful boys, loves books, is there anything creative she doesn't do? I hope she sleeps!
7. Pepperknit designs beautiful patterns, comes up with fun costumes, and knits beautiful garments. She cooks great looking food and seems to have good taste in books.

Cats and their pillows

A while back we sent a catnip pillow to Miss Jasmine, and Yarndemon has been trying to get pictures of her playing/sleeping with it for ages. She is happy to report it has finially happened. You should go look, Jazz is looking pretty happy with it. (Just in case you forgot what Oribel did with hers as soon as I brought it home, you could look here.)
We promise, these really are pictures of two different cats, in two different parts of the country. Poor Jazzy doesn't get to check out the snow drifts.

I know, I know,

I have been MIA for a week now, and no pictures of anything. Well, we have been on great adventures, cooking, knitting like crazy, and packing. Well, only one of us around here has been knitting, but several people have been packing.
The Great Annual Out-Migration started yesterday and will be continuing today. Yesterday I drove Mr. A to the Twin Cities to go home, then Hubband and I took DTY to Winona to catch her train back to Portland. Today I am driving DTE to Duluth and then I will return home tomorrow. Great adjustments are in store, going from a house full of five people to a house with only two; really only one at least half the time as it will turn out. That is another great life change around here that I haven't reported in on. More on that, and all those promised pictures, as well as pictures of finished knitted items, after I get home from the last school delivery.
In the meantime, Chan, Sissy, and the Knight could use some good thoughts. Mugsy will be greatly mised.

How I am not alone, even with everyone gone

My dear friend (and other mom since I was about seven), who still lives where I grew up, has a daughter that lives to the north of us in the Twin Cities area. My friend is visiting her daughter for a few weeks and I got to have her down here for a couple of days. So Monday I went north to pick her up. My friend had decided she wanted to make Hubband and I a quilt for our bed and Hubband said he would leave the whole thing up to me to decide on colors, pattern, etc. (Apparently he really trusts my judgement.) So after we got back home and let the dogs out and back in, we went fabric shopping and hit three quilt shops in two days. We actually went to one the first day, the other two the second, and then back to the first one after determining the second and third shops didn't have what I wanted. We had found stuff that I really liked at the first shop and after thinking it over, I liked it even more the second day. I present the fabric for our quilt.
This is part of the main feature fabric that will be used in various combinations of motifs and sizes of sections.

This is it with most of the accent fabrics laid out with it. (I realize it isn't a very good picture, but it will get bigger if you want.)

This is the backing fabric (please ignore the piece of red lint). It is hard to describe what the quilt will look like as it will be kind of a "design as it is made" deal. It will however be very cool when it is done and a lot of fun for my friend to play with as she is designing and making it. It might be a year or two until it is finished, since she has a couple of other quilts to make for some of her grandchildren as well, but we are willing to wait. She did tell me it could get done sooner if I come out to visit my dad and help her sew it together.
I took her back to her daughter's house Tuesday night, so I am officially without other humans until Friday night. Somehow between two dogs and a kitten I don't really feel alone at all.

Playing With Fire, Part 2

These are the products of DTE's session with fire yesterday. She went out to finish up from yesterday. The beads had to anneal for a couple of hours after they were all made and then cool down. So she went out today to dremel them (cleans out the bead release and smooths any rough spots)and stuff. She had a lot of fun and really wants to do more. She would like to be able to get to the point of making other things as well, since she doesn't make stuff out of beads. Many, many thanks to Judy for opening her glass studio and home to DTE and me. (No pictures yet of what I did while there. No worries Jessi, I promise you get to see my messy work and the mystery soon.)
Hubband update: He seems to be very much on the mend, though is still a bit tired. There has been no dizziness for over twenty-four hours (for the first time in a week or more), and he is able to hear much better. We have been doing trip laundry like crazy and there is a girl's suitcase in the process of being packed. Baring something going terribly south tonight, they are planning on leaving for China Sunday morning!