Of tree-climbing and realizing one's age...

Hawai'i was so great, anywhere you point your camera is a great shot :) This was a roadside view I photographed while we were moving! We were driving to the airport and I took pics all along the side of the road...I think in desperation because I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE. Most of those pics turned out great, I only had to toss about 5 blurry shots (I'm surprised my camera did that well! It continues to surprise me!)

We had a couple of rainstorms blow through yesterday, the first came with high winds. We had noticed that our pear tree now has branches a little too close to the roof and chimney, so have been planning to trim. DH had just left for the store, and the wind started whipping around so much overhead (I was on the patio) that I decided I'd better cut down the biggest offending limb before it caused damage. I got out the hacksaw he had been using earlier in the day, removed said limb by myself and then cut it into hunks after the storm passed, about an hour later. Feeling successful, uh-huh.

Then, I was surveying the tree for more to trim, and noted one other limb that needs to come down. Unfortunately I'd have to be standing on the lowest limb of the tree to reach it. So I pulled a chair over, and stood on it and contemplated for the longest time that I am no longer a skinny teen who has been in every tree in the neighborhood. I weighed that against the thought that the limb-removal would have to wait, and thought "what the heck" and swung my leg over the tree limb. You guys would'a laughed so hard; I hung there by one leg while my arms were screaming, thinking about it for 5-10 seconds, and then got back down, with lots of leg abrasions. I'm sure my 76 year old neighbors were watching, they are always glued to their picture window. Hah. 'The day the 46 year old learned her age...'

So the branch removal awaits a more limber person with perhaps more upper body strength! Or, a ladder, heh.

I soaked a bag of garbanzos overnight, and they are now simmering away on the stovetop. I hope to be adding them to a variety of things this week; first I want to make hummus. I love that stuff. I may make bean-cheese salad, too. I'll toss a handful onto my lettuce salads over the week, and probably freeze the rest. It feels nice to be able to potter around the kitchen again.

I was trying to make a crumbcake this morning, and found our eggs are a month old. Eeeeeew. So now my half-mixed cake is waiting for me to run to the store. I so wanted to go to church, it's been a month, but am not sure I'll make it. I started another course of antibiotics yesterday--this is dragging on too long. Sigh.

I started another knitting project yesterday, while sitting in the shade on the patio. The ADD is hitting hard...I have seen photos of some really fun 'wonky squares' blankets on Ravelry, and I really wanted to make one for a while. The pattern is available here, and it is so cute....I have been sitting on some single balls of each color Debbie Bliss Cashsoft DK that I had collected last year whenever I saw another color. I was thinking of doing a fair isle item, but started on this instead...

and I'm playing with the technique. I did not purchase the pattern, but had a pattern square similar to it in my Great American Afghan book, so have been experimenting with the colors and the technique. This is fun and relaxing, and the Cashsoft feels so good running through my fingers! I'll put a pic up soon.

Have a good weekend everyone, it's getting ready to rain here again.

Hellooooooo everybodeeeeeeeee!

Remember Grover?!


Hello, I'm back. Now I feel ready to resume my "normal" life.


Our last day in Maui...roadside pics on our way to the airport, and a dolphin alongside our catamaran the previous day!

I became a changed person during my visit to Hawai'i, and DH too. So it's been slow getting back into the groove again, though I HAVE been knitting :) But there hasn't been much time (my usual complaint) because the last two weekends were WASTED--I was really sick. Today, I'm still getting over a nasty bronchitis/sinus thing >: And, my boss is out of town again, so my workload has increased exponentially as it always does when he's gone. Sigh. Whatevah...

Went to knitting last night, and had a great time! I was so bummed to miss out the week before (due to illness) but it was really nice to be back with my chicas! And chicos :) I love to see what everyone is making, and it was fun to get such great comments on my lace sampler project. Thanks guys!

I am ordering some yarn from my LYS for a Christmas present I have planned. I'm making a masculine version of the Moderne Log Cabin blanket. I'm excited, because it's not going to be made out of cheezy acrylic (I'm on that rant again). I'll be making it out of superwash Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted. I just placed the order, so I should be able to cast on in a couple of weeks. Yay, more garter stitch! I'm going through garterstitch withdrawal after finishing Meinstein Coat in April. That was a great go-to project for mostly brainless knitting.

I promised pics of the Haekelbeutel:
This bag is super-huge, I have to get a pic with it on my shoulder. It reaches my knees! I guess it'll be for swimsuits and towels on our way to the beach, cuz if I try to put heavy groceries in it, it will be draggin' on the ground, heh!
I have loads of housework and yardwork to catch up on today and tomorrow, but I will try to add pics to this post later today. I finally feel like the time is now right to deal with my Maui photos. (Plus, I have to empty the digital card before next week: my grampa is celebrating his 95th birthday on the 4th of July, and a huge family reunion is scheduled around it for the whole weekend!)

I hope everyone's summer is going well. Negativity alert: We are having the most awful humidity. Ever since we disembarked from the Maui plane, I have been uncomfortable. It feels like an Amazon jungle outside--I let the dogs out at 5:30 AM usually, and the humidity hits me like a rude slap! It's awful, and incubating so many illnesses; we are seeing waves of people with diarrhea, sinus infections, bronchitis, and of course allergies!!! I really feel for those who have breathing problems to begin with, this weather STINKS.

I want to get back to blog-reading soon, and regular blogging. I'd like to see what everyone is up to. I miss you all!

But, I won't be blogging (or surfing) next weekend due to the grampa-party (in another state)...y'all have a great Independence Day :)

Swimming with the Nose-Fish

That's what I thought the moment I put my mask into the water while snorkeling off the coast of Wailea, Maui. I was in the middle of a small school of these nose-fish!! I just looked them up and found out their actual name is unicornfish and that they HAVE SHARP SPINES. Good thing I didn't harrass them, heh.

(This photo is from Maui Ocean Center's website... ) I still haven't done anything with my photos, though I have looked over DH's shoulder while he's uploaded his pics. He got some really great shots, and I'm so glad he was able to document my scuba adventure success :)

Knitting? Well...I have been working on the Summer Sampler Study, as noted previously. I am having a lot of fun doing this, but Wednesday I messed up >:( I messed up because I went to a bellydance show for 1-1/2 hours at a martini bar, had a dirty martini, and then came home and tried to knit lace from a chart. DUH! So now I'm not sure if I'm gonna leave it as-is, insert a lifeline and rip it back, or what. It's not too obvious, but is noticeable. Maybe I'll save it to remember the dance show by....like a tree growth-ring that shows the year there was a fire in the forest. I'll be sure not to drink and knit again on this project :)

I am really stuck lately. I want to start on a plain old garterstitch project like the log cabin blankie, something "brainless" to work on, but can't seem to get the yarn and the needles and the pattern to line up for any one project in particular. I should really get going on my Ballerina, which I stopped 3 rows into due to ridiculous pattern writing. But that is not going to be brainless to decipher... I have so many partially finished projects, like bunnies and kitties and hats that it is making me crazy. I need to finish them and 'get them off my back.' I don't have a monkey on my back, I have bunnies, kitties, and bears (oh my).

Well I'm back to work two weeks and now have bronchitis. Sigh. My job is really awful that way. So I need to buy stock in antibiotics I guess. I didn't make it to knitting tonight because of it, and I'd been looking forward to that all week. Grrr.

I would like to spend this weekend organizing my stash, and it'll be a good one for that if it keeps raining. I hope to get back to blogging more regularly now. I've also been a slacker moderating my Ravelry groups. So sorry :)

More works....

Oh yeah, I'm also going to make one of these, though it's not cast on yet....So handy, I get really tired of the tubing knotting up in my hair throughout the day. And I can take it off and wash it when needed.... :D Maybe I could do a stranded version spelling out my name? Hmmm.

I have yet to do anything with any photos since vaca. I even have the Japanese Tree Lilac blooming up a storm, more blossoms than ever before and they smell just like gardenias wafting into my house, and glow at twilight--and have not gotten out my camera. I guess I took enough photos in Maui to burn me out on the camera !!!

But I promise, they're coming.

New works...

I started the Summer Sampler Study KAL...I am about 3 weeks behind everyone else, so am working to catch up! I have never completed a lace knit project yet, so this is really exciting to me :) I am just ready to start chart #1, and need to place a lifeline first. I've never done that before either, but I like the suggestion for newbie lace knitters to do that after each section. I really like the comprehensive approach bad cat designs is giving to each post on this. It is taking me through the lace step by step....

I told you I made a Haekelbeutel. No pics yet, but I thought I'd at least post the link. And the Sweet Pea Shawl can be found in "SNB The Happy Hooker" book or purchased separately...Those are my knitting updates!

WIST: for a christmas gift (one of the only 2 gifts I'll make this year) I will be making the moderne log cabin from mason dixon...It will be just perfect. I need to pick out the yarn and get it started soon, but it may languish until September when it cools off around here. We'll see. I need something braindead to knit while socializing, so I may start it sooner. And that's all I have to say about that :)

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

That is our new favorite word! It is the name of hawaii's state fish, and we love it! We love Maui, the pacific ocean, the sea-life, the island pace, the flora and fauna, the people, the glimpse of brotherhood we got as mere tourists while there!!! We are totally in love with our 50th state! Upcountry rocks, we liked Kula....

Enough time later to reminisce about our trip. Suffice it to say, DH and I are intensifying our plan to move there. He is already applying on-line for jobs, heh! What was once my dream is now becoming a crystallized plan!!! I am so excited that he is as in love with Maui as I am....I feel great knowing there are not too many more snowy winters in our future!

While in Maui, I made a shawl. I started it the moment we boarded the plane for the 8-1/2 hour flight. And I worked on it for probably 7-1/2 to 8 of those hours! I finished it 2 days before our anniversary dinner cruise and wore it then. Yay! And I had time to block it too, in our condo's kitchen, LOL....

I tried to work on Jaywalker, but honestly, having to wear magnifying glasses while dealing with the fussiness of the heel, ripping back and starting again on the heel gusset, having needles re-named in the middle of the pattern, and that kind of crap took the fun out of it so I shoved it into the bottom of my new Hello Kitty knitting bag (from Long's Drugs on Maui) and started a Haekelbeutel. Which I just finished yesterday while lounging on our home patio which is overgrown with weeds after 1 week of neglect, and trying to pretend I was still on our amazingly private lanai 4 feet from the waves at high tide....I want to be in Maui. DH and I are going through major sunshine withdrawal, and man do we miss Maui. We are already saving up for next year's trip....

So you can see, I'm not quite myself yet :) Maybe that's for the best--I don't want to go back to that overworked, stressed out, depressing maniac I was before. Pics to come, my friends :)