The Real Reason

 The picture below is the real reason we went to Flagstaff for vacation.  I would like everyone to know that I showed great restraint in my purchases.  I really, really did. I could have bought so much more.  Knowing full well that I could have filled 3 or 4 booths with my stash alone.  So here is my list.  

1. A small Takai Spindle and bowl from  The Natural Twist in Albuquerque,New Mexico 

2. Hand-Dyed Fiber by Kimberly Perkins of Colorado. A pack of minis and a skein to go with for a shawl.  You can find her at yarngalleryonline.com

3. Some Hematite balls from a shop near a restaurant we ate at.  I might need some squares or rectangles to properly play with them.  

4. Some lovely comb covers by Mrs. Aragon, mother of Artie Aragon who made the weaving needles.  From Dine Weaving Textile & Looms  From Farmington, New Mexico 

The whole lot fit neatly into one bag.  

Vacation Part 1

We were to busy having fun to take many pictures. We took more on our second part in Sedona Arizona.  This was our first vacation since the end of 2019.   I lost 5.5 pounds because I was limited to outdoor dining, low fat and carbohydrates meals. I hope that I can keep the trend going.  We also walked an awful lot.  No days of less than 10,000 steps.  

Weaving While Driving

To answer the obvious question, no I was not drinking and driving, rather John was driving while I was weaving on my on my Purl and Loop loom. I even figured out how to get the mudd rug off the loom without the weaving unraveling. This is hard enough to do at the kitchen table let alone while driving at 65 miles per hour on the freeway. It was very simple, I just cut the mudd rug like I always do,but instead of taking the weaving off the loom, I just flipped the Ioom right back over and started tying the ends.

Its funny too, I had a heck of a time spinning this yarn. I hated the finished yarn. It was so awful that I would not even consider selling the skein. Yet it turned into this wonderfully soft and pretty mudd rug.

Sorry for the very very fuzzy picture. It's hard to take a good picture while driving down the freeway at 65 mph.

The Party is Over

We dropped the kids at the airport this morning.  They have arrived at their destination safely. We then headed to Costco to pick up a few items. We put everything away and finished the leftovers for lunch.  Laundry has seemed to have grow exponently today. 

Now that everything is back to quiet, I plan on finishing the rest of the of decluttering. Most is in Teri's room. The down side of decluttering today so far has been finding more partial yarn skeins that I am using for hats.  So I guess I will be making a few more hats.  By the time the house is done, I hope it will be warm enough to work in the garage.  

Eric's Staycation

This was the second day in a row that Eric got up at a very early hour. Yesterday it was 4:25 am and today it was 5 am.  I am really getting tired of the early wake up calls. I think tomorrow I will let John get up with him.  We did manage to get out of the house for a walk and knitting today.  Eric and I got annoyed at the same person as we were trying to take our walk. She was whining about how bad my life was, because of Eric in her opinion , which was so uncalled for. Eric and I were enjoying a very nice walk, and I did my best to ditch her and go on with our walk.  Really if you don't have anything nice to say, just don't say anything at all. 

Eric was asleep before I finished lunch, so I took a nap too.  It was not the most productive day that I have had recently.  Eric only has 2 more days off before his summer vacation is over.  I think I am more than ready.  It has been a very long week. I am beginning to feel my age creep up on me.  Now I just have to unwind enough to get some sleep.  

So it's time to run the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. 

Busy

Last week Eric had a 5 day vacation from his day program. All he wanted to do was rest in bed and watch tv. My plans included going to a movie and a haircut for Eric. Guess who won? Did you really need to think about that?

So I spent my days spinning, weaving and knitting. I think I should have spent a little more time cleaning.  Well there is always what is left from this week to clean. 

This week I also started the initial shopping for a kitchen re-do. There are so many decision to be made.  I think the hardest part will be is finding a glass top cooking surface that is compatable with my LeCresut cast iron cookware.  Other than that I seem to be drawn to the less expensive appliances.  

It seems my eyrpy boy has settled down for the night. So I think it is time to call it a day. 

Vacation?

Eric had a week of vacation from his day program. We did a lot of hanging around the house. So as a result I got a lot of knitting and deep cleaning done. I did manage to run away to the spinnings wheel a couple of times. Speaking of spinning, my fluff which does not have a permenant home yet is on a tour of the house right now. In this week aline it has travlwd to 3 different  rooms.   With a little more deep cleaning I am sure that a permenant home is not to far away.  well it is almost 11pm and I think it is time to wind down for the night.

Eric's Vacation

Today was Eric's first day of vacation. So we went to see the movie Dark Shadows. The acting was very good. I really liked the movie. The sets were awesome. I would not reccomend this movie for younger kids though. I did managed to knit 1 1/2 scarfs during the movie, yes size 17 needles and garter stitch. I am not silly enough to try knitting a pattern in the dark during a movie.

Afterward there was the promised 2 laps around the mall that Eric managed to turn into 3 1/2 laps. He enjoyed his outing very much. My only complaint about the walk was getting stopped by 2 different people who said the "knew" Eric. Why is it that every child/young adult in a wheelchair is the same gerneric person and not the individuals I know them to be? Turns out that they had never even meet Eric before but he looked like a kid in a chair at their schools. Yes dear world there is more than 1 child/young adult in a wheelchair in this world. Sigh, I wish there were not any.

Well Eric is being fussy so I am going to take my knitting to his room until he falls asleep.

Eric's Vacation Day 1

Today was Eric's first day off for fall break. So we went to the grand opening of the New Nordstroms Rack in town. It was too crowded to do any real shopping. In my humble opinion Disneyland is less crowded during winter break then the store was. I literally had people falling over the wheelchair so we cut our visit short and I will go back another day. We then went to Jacobs Park to play on the fantastic wheelchair accessible play structure. I was pushing 90 pounds of boy and 100 pounds of wheelchair up and down the ramps of the play structure. I gave out after 20 minutes.

We had a brief break and got to watch some Dinosaur Train, Barney and Sesame Street. When the aide came Eric decided to that mommy needed more exercise so off to the mall we went for a 2 mile walk. Eric is taking a break now so I am catching up on chores before spinning.

More vacation adventures to follow tomorrow.

Hi Again

I know it has been a while since I last blogged. It was Eric's first day of summer break. I have been very busy with Eric and John, both guys were off together so I was a bit too busy with the boys to sit down and write. There was also the hand issue, but I am happy to say both my hands are feeling better after almost 2 weeks of very light use. This should be read as no knitting and very minimal spinning, but mostly doing nothing but ice packs and splints.

We did go to a movie this week. Eric and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2. We both liked it a lot. I am hoping that the last scene in the movie is alluding to a third movie in the series. I would recommend this as a family movie although most dads will want to go to a comic book action movie.

I do have a quick question for everyone. I have 5 skeins of yarn which is enough for 3 small projects. I was wondering if everyone was up to a contest with between 1 and 3 winners or if you think I should find a local knitter for the yarn. Your input would be nice.

Well it is getting late and we have another full day scheduled for tomorrow.

Home

I had a great visit with Teri. I am now home.

On a sad note I had to frog everything I brought on vacation with me. But on the bright side I get more knitting time out of the yarn.

Happy to be home. I miss Teri already.

Enjoy your families.

Vacation So Far or My Adventures with Teri

Yesterday we started off the morning at an awesome donut shop not far from Teri's place called Physico Donuts, I kid you not a real place with really wonderful vegan doughnuts and the others doughnuts looked pretty awesome. I will post their address in a vacation summary when I get home. Then it was off to the mall for some serious shopping and walking. After dropping everything of at Teri's place we went to an awesome Art and Wine Festival that Teri found. We had some really fresh  fruit to start lunch off. Followed by so fresh roasted corn. We found a fish and chips booth that served fish and chips and the fries we covered with fresh garlic. I have never had anything like that before, but they were wonderful.  I wonder if it has anything to do with being so close to Gilroy, but I will definitely have them again and find a recipe to post on line. Yes the were really that good.

We had a great time walking around the art festival and saw a lot of incredible arts and crafts for sale. Since this is really a brief summary I will blog about the artists we found in a later blog.

After a 4 hour nap Teri brought in sushi for dinner at 9 pm. After a little girl chat it was off to sleep.

Today was another wonderful day. We started out at an impressionist art exhibit in Golden Gate park. with some great and not so great paintings. I think I like the Monet exhibit at the Phoenix Museum of Art is slightly better and they seem to have a better flow to their traveling exhibits. But I digress a little bit. The Original picture of Whistler's Mother was great, along with Monet's flag line street and a few others. Please try to go to this exhibit if you are in San Francisco during the show. A little pricey but worth the money.

We had Tea and sweets at the Japanese Tea garden an did walk around a little, but I was on the tired side and even with a snack in my tummy I really wanted lunch. Teri took me to a wonderful Dim Sum place for lunch. I shall also post the name and address of the Dim Sum place in my summary. We walked around the newer China Town in San Francisco.  We then headed off to a factory tour but I did not get good vibes about the neighborhood it was in so we drove by and left. We then headed to a place called the Embarkadro. We had some local tea from Pete's tea and did a little shopping.

It is now 7 pm so I think I will wake my driver up so we can go and get some dinner. Did I mention how nice it is to be chauffeured around by a daughter who drives. The boys seems to be have fun at home also. I hear that they went to Miss Saigon's and Frost yesterday. Well have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Fab Break

We had a fabilous winter break with Teri and she has arrived safetly back at school. I am trying to work off the 3 pounds I put on and am half way there. Did I mention that we went to all her favorite places and ate out a lot. we also stopped by all her favorite desert spots, some like Frost more than once in a week.

Just waiting for my phone to charge so I can finish packing. I am soloing out to see my family for 2 days I hope to have fun with everyone. I have not seen them for 1 year. It will be nice to leave work behind for 2 days.

I have packed 2 skeins of sock yarn so hopefully I will have I pair done by Monday afternoon.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your families.