It is always something

With any luck I will wake up in Toad Lake MN tomorrow. It is not the end of the earth, but you can see it from there. But you know how it goes, it is always something. Today it was the dog, Dax. When I left for soccer last night (btw they won 6-1) Dax just seemed to be in a cuddly mood. When I got home at 10:30 the husband and GBT were very concerned about his health. He was apparently in quite a bit of pain. So first thing this morning I called the vet. After a 2 hour $375.00 visit, we brought Dax back home. He has a form of Lymes disease that causes an inflammation in the joints, it has settled in Dax's lower back. Between 3 of his discs he has calcification and that is bad. He is on 3 different meds, no stairs or jumping for 2 weeks. Try telling a shitztsu that he can't jump. This back issue is something he will have the rest of his life and could cause him major problems. I feel sorry for the little guy as he lays in his bed in a drug induced haze (probably thinking of light blue sweaters and shiny credit cards---oh wait that was me)

Despite that little complication and expense we are about 80% packed and ready to leave for Toad Lake. See you Guild girls after the 4th.

Tomorrow

Here's hoping this will be my sunrise. Chicks off in many directions for the next several weeks. Family vacations and trips. May we all travel safely there and back, and have a wonderful time with our families! See you soon.

Bon Jovi

So Bon Jovi is coming to Country Jam. When I heard this I got really excited and thought, oh this year we will get tickets and go. I was jumping up and down to tell the husband about Bon Jovi coming to the big EC town. He said, oh huh. I will go if I have to. So since then I have been resigned to the fact that Bon Jovi will be in town and I won't get to see him. So today MMT and I were running some errands. I was listening to the radio, but clearly not actually listening. All of a sudden MMT rifles through my purse to find my cell phone. She hurriedly dials the number for I94, "mom I am going to win us VIP tickets for Bon Jovi!" she exclaimed. She must have dialed the number 52 times before the nice person at the radio station said " we are on the line with the winner now". I turned up the radio to hear what lucky person had won VIP tickets to Bon Jovi.
The DJ was talking to the winner and asked if she was excited to see Johnny Rivers at the No. Wisc. State Fair. Johnny Rivers! Who in their right mind would want to see Johnny Rivers??? What if we had won----Yikes. Thanks goodness crisis averted there.

Oh, right, this is a knitting blog, not a blog about my children. I have tried to work on the Koigu sock the last couple of days. The second one (which is going as slow as the first one) is striping very different than the first. I am starting to wonder if I "pulled a Harlot" and grabbed 2 different hand-painted skeins of Koigu.

Right, Privilege or Obligation?

Is applying sunscreen a right, privilege or obligation? I checked with Webster's dictionary and I believe it is an obligation. An obligation we should not take lightly or be hostile about. Something we must do and unfortunately, do well. Because if we don't.........

Let's just say that now I may have lost the privilege to apply sunscreen independently, just like NK. We took the boat out yesterday for the 1st time this summer. It was a beautiful day on Lake Wissota (although I did not get to spend much time actually in the boat, I spent 3 1/2 hrs of the day in the blazing sun on the sand bar---perhaps I should stop there, I am still quite cranky about the whole affair) the kids enjoyed tubing and the day in the water. But due to my in ability to apply sunscreen and MMT's inability to apply sunscreen to my back (and the ordeal on the shore) I have several areas that are torched. Oops. So next summer on the Island, CB and ASJ will be quite busy applying sunscreen to NK and I.

After we finaly got home and cleaned up, I did try to knit during an re- run of Deadliest Catch, I was too fried from the day. I put the vest down and dozed off.

Part 3 "Is There an Intersecting Street?"

"Ummm . . . No Tim, there is no intersecting street. We are on an ISLAND with a view of the lake. There is only one road running in front of the cabin!"

In true Lake Superior fashion, a fast and furious storm blew in on Sunday after noon. OMG. Chaos ensued. Let’s see. Gee, it looks like a storm is coming. I am not too worried because when a bad storm is coming, Cousin Buddy puts he vehicles in the garage. His vehicles are out. Hmm . . . getting a little windy. I will call Ron; have him check the radar for me, see how long this is going to last. Then it hit. The worst storm I have ever experienced on the island. Yikes . . While on the phone, “Ron trees are falling; pray they don’t hit the vehicle. There goes another tree. Are you checking the radar? Check it faster! There goes another tree. Put The Girl on the computer (our 14 year old daughter) she is faster on the computer!” I should mention I was shouting into the phone at this point. (The photo was taken from inside before the storm hit, please note it is not a setting sun, it is 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon).

CT . . . “CB you have to look at this, there are trees all over down here in the back, trees are falling.” I should mention that CT was racing from one end of the cabin to the other looking out windows watching trees fall as though Paul Bunyan was waving his mighty axe.

ASJ . . . “Okay ladies I think we all need to get into the hallway where there are no windows and assume the position.” Yeah right . . . we all ignored her and ordered her to grab the chocolate, the yarn and go to the hallway by herself. She ended up opening the peanut M&M’s (my choice) as the melee of the storm swirled around us. Annie also was the one who noticed that it was raining so hard (horizontal I might add) that the rain was shooting in under the door in the back hall. NK and ASJ threw towels down and kept the flood waters at bay.

NK . . . The quiet one said nothing too much. She watched as the rest of us raced around and ate M&M’s. She looked and nodded as she went from window to window following CT. She very quietly helped Annie wipe up the water.

Storm over . . . As you can see we have a situation. The cabin is surrounded by trees (we may have to re-evaluate that) and no there is no way out. BTW did I mention that this particular tree also took out the power? ACK! Yeah, now what. Three phone calls to the power company (we did manage to get Tim twice), and a very nice man stopped by and said “the line is dead you can cut up the tree.” Umm, that would be a 50 foot tree lying across the driveway. By this time Cousin Buddy’s chain saw blade had broken. Yeah, right. Good thing we have food because we could be here for awhile. Next thing I know while I am conferring with Buddy, and CT and NK are down the road watching the Power Man trying to get the trees off the lines farther down the road, ASJ, our intrepid little friend had wandered down the road a little farther and found another Hero in our midst. Our new best friend Tony Sackett. Tony’s line of work is trees, and the removal there of. “Sure no problem I can have that cut up for you in no time!” (I should mention that Cousin Lorraine needs to be nicer to Tony, her neighbor. Tony was a Good Samaritan in the truest sense of the term.) Tony cut up the tree, we hauled it off (mostly CT & NK, they were awfully good sports about the whole thing) and WaLa . . . we were free (still no power). No I know that this sounds like this went fairly quickly. Not so much. We are talking hours, storm was at 1:00 in the afternoon, and tree removal was at about 6:30 or so. We then went straight to town and the bar. Had a couple of drinks and nachos and went back to the dark cabin. Sat in the porch and waited. The trucks finally came, and by 12:05 a.m. had power. And I should note that the young man who went up the pole had a very fine booty.

And so ends our trip . . . we did leave early Monday morning. I did not even try the pump again. (My friends were awfully good sports about the whole storm thing, they had to use the out house. And are looking forward to going to the cabin again next year! ) We did stop at Pine Needles on the way home and the Dairy Queen in Hayward. As we now as we contemplate our next trip, we will just have to sit and knit in NK’s new backyard!

NK the needle felter

Look at what NK did!!! The beauty of the bag speaks or itself!!!

Part 2 of the Knitting Retreat

Lupines

The lupines were in full bloom. And this particular hillside was blanketed with them.

Senior Citizen Sex
Let it be known that CT does not want to watch movies with Senior Citizen Sex. The movie “Something’s Gotta Give” was not, I repeat, not a hit. Next year we will have to screen all the movies a little more closely. And we will have to finish watching "The Quiet Man." There was a power outage and missed 1/2 of the movie.

Lawnmower Lullaby
Most morning we had our morning knitting session out on the porch. It was beautiful. Sitting in the porch, sunshine, waves lapping at the shore, birds singing. Friday morning the lawn boys showed up to mow. Soon dust was flying, so we decided to eat an early lunch. ASJ stayed out on the porch to knit a bit more. After we had everything on the table CT went to get her and she was sound asleep. It seems that the sound of lawn mowers is very soothing to our friend ASJ and it puts her right to sleep! She slept a little bit and then came and joined us for lunch.

The Frugal Knitter
ASJ’s new nickname. He Indian Name as you may or may not know is “She Who Knit’s Twice.” Due to her propensity to rip and re knit. We decided while she was ripping the sleeve off the pullover AGAIN, she is a Frugal Knitter. If you don’t have much money, just knit it, rip it, and knit it again. This works well for process knitters. However I do feel I should mention that since ASJ did not think that she would be able to gain ten pounds only in her arms, ripping it out did seem to be the correct choice.

To Koigu or Not to Koigu
CT never thought much of the socks she knit. She said it was not her forte so to speak. While on our little day trip to the cities she vowed to knit one more pair of socks, and if it didn’t work she was done with socks. She them proceeded to by sock yarn for two pairs of socks (yeah I know). Any way . . . I convinced her that good sock yarn is a must. “Steph says knit a pair of socks with Koigu.” I say it’s addictive. Sock in progress. She finished it at home yesterday . . . . she loves it. Need I say more?

Alcohol Consumed

Sangria, Parrot Bay Wine Coolers, Margaritas. And all of the knitting still looks good, no gapping holes!

Projects Completed
Annie finished a beautiful pair of socks. I completed a rib warmer! NK ran out of yarn to finish her last two rows of her Teddy Bear Jacket. Not too worry . . . she had more yarn at home! And as soon as it is done it will be on the blog!

Part three . . . tomorrow!

Deadliest Catch

Speaking of Sig and Edgar, yesterday NK informed it was a DC marathon on the Discovery Channel. After mowing the lawn, I settled in for a much needed knitting and rest break. How fun! Daughter #2 MMT had yet another soccer game (home thankfully) and while there lots of other parents were as excited as I was for the DC season finale! We are not the only fans---can you believe that! We dashed to Wendy's for fast food, gulped it down and drove home so we could get in place for DC. In the first 2 minutes I realized I had MISSED an episode! Last week before the big trip, I missed the episode to attend a soccer game for MMT (grrrr). Now I have to hope they rerun it and I can catch it this summer. Heaven forbid one should miss an episode of the DC.

On the knitting front, I concentrated on the sock yesterday and refelted the bag for NK to needle felt tonight at the debriefing meeting of the Guild.

Mmmm….this could be quite long! Part 1

Lot’s of ground to cover, and many photos. I am going to try to go in order.

Pottery!
For the last two years NK has wanted to stop in Shell Lake at the Pottery Shed. Wow! I had never been there. I had no idea what to expect. We ended up purchasing some loveley mugs to drink our morning coffee, diet coke and margaritas from. They are truly beach mugs! Each one has footprints as though they were walking in the sand, blue for the water, and purple for the lupines that were in bloom. As we were checking out, CT and were checking out a photo on the wall. CT to me "hey that looks like a Memorial jacket." Me "it is a Memorial jacket." Upon looking a little more closely at the photo, who should appear . . . the daughters of NK herself! Seems that the girls were on a field trip to the Pottery Shed and the photo was taken and placed on the wall. Unbelievable!

Pine Needles
And we are off! A quick stop in Hayward to the local DQ . . . did we mention ASJ is an ice cream addict? Yep, the petite little friend of ours stops at every DQ. What I want to know is how she keeps the weight off. Back on the road headed to Cable and our new friends at Pine Needles. This lady has a lovely store! If you are in Northern Wisconsin please stop in and see her and tell her the CHICKS sent you. CT picked up the most beautfiful Cascade 109, a bulky yarn in a gorgeous rich claret colorway.

I Hate To Purl
While traveling the mantra from the back seat from NK and CT was “I hate to purl.” Apparently purling slows NK down and she does not like that very much. CT knits like the wind so it’s not too much of a big deal for her. BTW, these two sitting together is much like having two children sitting together. It was difficult to drive I was laughing so hard.

Yarn Stops Plus
Back on the road, we stopped at Quilting Essentials in Washburn which also has YARN, and in Bayfield we stopped at the Bayfield Quilt Company (YARN)! A quick stop at Andy’s grocery in Bayfield (ASJ needed ice cream). Down the street is Harbor Wear . . . I recommend this lovely little store. The young man who runs it is a way nice person. Last year I bought a bag there (June 06), it did not hold up well at all. He told me to pick out a new one. It’s all about customer satisfaction. I will be going back!

Ronbo to the Rescue!
On the island, and I managed to get the water on but it was not behaving very well at all. If fact it was being damn difficult. I called Ronbo several times, trying to figure out what the problem was. I ended up having to turn off the pump. Grrr. I don’t camp, I cabin. And I cabin with running water thank you very much. Well Ronbo to Rescue! Ron took off Thursday, left home at 5:00 a.m., drove 180 miles, took a ferry ride, I picked him up in LaPointe. He fixed the water and was back on the ferry by 12:00 noon to go home (another 180 miles). Ronbo wins the Hero of Chicks Award. Thank you sweetheart!

We Have Scenery
Okay, so now we have running water! We are off. The sun is shinning, we are at the beach knitting! Yippee. We did find out by the end of the day the NK must be supervised when applying sunscreen. She did an absolutely shitty job of it and managed to get sunburned! The fair-haired chick was quite red by the end of the day. Hey get a load of this sunrise! Very pretty!

Wild life?
Glad you asked! Let’s see . . . Camels (1), Lamas (1), Emus (1), Ticks (10) and wait for it . . . . snakes (0)! Yeah CT. If you have read this blog at all you know our friend CT’s aversion to snakes. Trust me . . . no snakes is a very good thing. Oh, and deer, but no bears. We call the camel "Habieb," the Lama "Cascasde," and the emu (sorry he was not cooperating with the camera) "Hudson."

Deadliest Catch Knitting
Evenings were filled with great conversation and wonderful food! Way too much food, but hey, it was a vacation. Every evening was started off with a DVD of the first season of the “Deadliest Catch.” Go Northwestern. We did manage to make it thru the whole first season. Next year we are hoping to make it thru all of season two. And if Sig and Edgar would like to anchor off the beach we would not mind at all.


Okay . . . not finished but that's all for now . . . the best is yet to come!

Back to reality

Ok, so we are home, and it felt really good to take a shower. But there is just something about the Island. I came home to a tidy house and dinner in the crockpot. I also came home to all my children out and about doing their own thing. I truly enjoyed the couple of hours I had home alone before reality really set in. Back to being a mom and wife. Thankfully, I don't have to return to the world of work (sorry NK and CB). I even knit a bit on my sock, but it just was not the same, nor was any of my family as impressed with my sock as the Guild. Again, back to reality.
I am going to get busy with my chores for the day, no morning session for me!

We're outta here!

I thought I was the crazy member of the guild, I was up at 6 the last 2 mornings getting things organized for the big trip to the Island. I fretted about my last day at work and getting everything done, but I did. I fretted yesterday about and getting the Island stuff ready and the housekeeper and the soccer game and the food service training. But I got everything done. So now it is time to enjoy the Guild and the Island. What a sweet combination.
All I have to do is remember to take my pill so I can sit in the back and ASJ can have the heated seat for the trip.
Let the knitting begin!

Shhhh , , , People are sleeping

I woke up at 3:25 a.m. with a slight headache . . . slept fitfully until 4:30, and then thought to myself “screw it” and got up. Ronbo was up and getting ready for work so I might as well get up, take some Advil and get the day started.

So far so good. I did remember to take the olive oil and vanilla. The olive oil I need for Knitorious’s smashed red potatoes. I think the chicks are going to like them. The vanilla for stuffed French toast. Of course at 11:00 last night lying in bed I got up and pulled the olive oil off the shelf, because I had forgotten it. The vanilla this morning. Working all day yesterday was a mistake . . . I needed way more prep time for packing and such. (CM the bug spray and sunscreen are already there!) :-)

Ronbo washed the vehicle and filled it up. Vacuumed it out (what a sweet heart). The coolers are in the kitchen ready to be loaded. Check, check, check.

I tried to call NK last night, first she was at work, and then she was at the Express Game! CT was in Hudson at Daughter Two’s soccer game. ASJ I did not hear from, I hope she went to bed early and slept well!

My daughter was trepidatious at best about being left alone with her brothers. So she opted to go to a friend’s house and spend two nights. Ronbo will be off for a long weekend so she will come home on Friday morning. Just as long as the boys remember to let the dog out, I think we are covered.

The LYS called last night, apparently they had called sometime ago, my order was in. Unfortunately the message did not get to me. And thankfully it is not something I needed for the trip. I ordered a new needle felter. Pretty cool little tool. I already have one, but this one looks like there would be a lot less opportunity for self injury if you know what I mean!

Gotta go dry my hair! Happy Trails!

Too (TWO) Much of Everything?

If you could see my suitcase you would totally understand. Going to the lake on Wednesday, returning on Monday. What to pack? Well let’s see, it is after all only June and we are talking Lake Superior. If the wind comes in from the Northeast, it will be flipping cold. So jeans, (1) sweats (2), sweatshirts (2), long-sleeved T’s (2) fleece, socks, slippers, and warm p.j.’s. Then again, it could be warm; there have been some warmish days up there in June, so that means shorts (2), T.’s shirts (2), sandals, and summer p.j.’s (total number of p.j.’s 2). Okay, then a towel, wash cloth, movies, shoes, jacket. Sleeping bag, swift, MY KNITTING STUFF and food. Hmmmm, times that by FOUR. Could be someone will need to ride on the top of Yukon.

Cabin keys, can’t forget those. At least they don’t take up a lot of space, and they are fairly crucial to the success of the trip (Cousin Evie has extras in case I would forget). TP I discovered was on no one’s list, I added it to mine, also crucial since I don’t plan on knitting TP. NK is bringing body wash and tooth brushes . . . what am I forgetting? Do I have room for anything else? Am I taking too much.

Weather Forecast Updates 6.11.2007

• Jun 13 Wednesday-Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid 50s.
  Jun 14 Thursday-Considerable cloudiness. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
  Jun 15 Friday-Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid 50s.
  Jun 16 Saturday-Isolated thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid 50s.
  Jun 17 Sunday-Partly cloudy with a stray thunderstorm. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
  Jun 18 Monday-Some sun with a few showers possible. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 50s.

Nine Days Left!!!!!!