Showing posts with label Family Tales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Tales. Show all posts

19.10.07

Looking forward . . .

There will be wine tomorrow! I'm pumped.

My mother and father in law announced this morning that one of the things they wanted to do this weekend while they were here was scope out a winery or two. Sadly, as this is not a greatly winery rich area, too coastal, too flat, we lack many wineries from which to choose that make a good day trip. But we do have one! Williamsburg Winery here we come! From the looks of things, they have a lovely tour and tasting. And if we're feeling up to it, we may go check out Colonial Williamsburg for a few hours.

It's going to be a great day - it might be a bit warmer than I'd like, but I'm excited.
Hopefully, pictures tomorrow.

22.11.06

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It's also Nov. 23. Dad would be 59 tomorrow. In honor of the fact that Thanksgiving is also Dad's Birthday, the ENTIRE family and assorted friends are gathering with us for Thanksgiving dinner - and since it's been a family tradition since long before I was born, we're having chocolate cake with chocolate icing for dessert. It's different, definitely not your typical pumpkin related pastry, but it's us. And with a crowd of 30ish, I'm making two of them.

Sadly, and perhaps ironically, I really don't like chocolate cake, but this is for dad's Birthday, and we didn't grow any collards this year, so we had to do something.

Happy Birthday Daddy. We love you.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I'm thankful for you, and all my other blessings.

Q

10.11.06

Big Ball of Yarn

A few weeks ago the boy's parents came to visit us for a few days. I took them on a tour of the station, and we went down and had Rally's with the boy at the shop. They had fun checking out where we worked, and all in all it was a great visit. Thankfully for us, they didn't want to be kept entertained every minute of every day, so we could just relax and enjoy each other's company. It was really good to see them.

Now, about my title. The mother in law decided one afternoon that the fact that she'd been here three times now, and hadn't been to a thrift store was a crying shame. So I took her down to my favorite thrift store. We had a great time. She found 20 some odd Records (you know, that vinyl disc that our parents played music on??) straight out of the 80's for the sister in law to use for the upcoming spirit week at school. There was some great stuff in there. I on the other hand, knowing that I had $10 in my wallet, and that I could spend it, but not much more, decided to look for wool sweaters. I got three - none of which were big enough for me to wear, but that's not the point. We were going to unravel them.

Well, I came to find out, that two of them were made from such a fine gauge of yarn that trying to get them unraveled was a losing battle. Bless her heart, the mother in law worked to unravel one body section, but it came out in so many pieces, I'd be felting them back together forever. So I decided that that sweater and it's twin were a lost cause. Since we haven't touched the twin, I'll take it back as a donation, so someone can at least wear it.

But the larger of the three had a thicker yarn, and came apart beautifully. When I left for work Saturday night we'd undone the front and the back and one sleeve, and had three quite sizable balls of yarn. When I got home, the boy had finished unraveling the last sleeve, and had decided to take his new found knowledge of felting yarn together and make a GIANT BALL O'YARN!!!!



Isn't it cute? I'm thinking of knitting a pair of slippers for myself, and felting them so they're sturdy and warm. Whatever's leftover I'm going to save for a sweater project, when I find some more yarn for the illusive hooded sweater.

It's much thinner than the yarn I use alot right now see:



So it will knit up into a thinner, drapier fabric, and that means that the comparitive size of the ball makes for way, way, way more yardage. I'm excited. I will have to play this game again. The small green ball is about $3 of peruvian wool, nearly 200 yards. The big ball is about $3 of blue merino, unknown yardage.

18.10.06

A visit

The boy's parents are spending a few days with us this week. We just hung out this morning, as all of us were feeling restful. They got in pretty late last night, and they were not happy because some of their luggage hadn't made it here with them. We got that today, so now all is well.

Tomorrow I think we're going out to lunch, and then I'm going to show them around the station. Then later we're going down to take the boy some dinner, and have a mini tailgate party down at the shop.

It took us a little work to get the apartment back in to "company" shape, but it's nice to be all neatened up now. Hopefully, I'll have good tales to relate after the visit.