Life's a Beach

Vacation Day 1
Daughter and I arrived in Paradise about midday. We grabbed a quick bite of lunch then headed to the grocery store. We were able to get back to the villa and relax a bit before Husband/Dad arrived for a tasty dinner of home made jerk chicken.

Vacation Day 2
We visited the LYS since we'd not been to this particular one in several months. It was a delight to see how many more natural fiber yarns they have and how few novelties! In fact, one of the owners told us they are clearing out the novelties and will put them on sale later in the week. I have no desire for novelty yarn, but I certainly fell in love with a Lantern Moon bag. It came home with me. Picture to come.

Vacation Day 3
Unfortunately, this also spelled the last day of vacation for Husband/Dad. Poor dear has to go hold down the fort. Daughter and I enjoyed our first ever bicycle ride on the beach. We've always talked about renting bikes to ride here but never did. We had our own bikes but didn't want to get them in the salt water. There are so many places here that rent bikes!

We spent the evening with movie marathon. We currently are recommending Mrs. Henderson Presents (rated R, but only because of nudity--full frontal male and female, but nothing exciting!) and The Family Stone.

Vacation Day 4
Shop til you drop was the mantra of the day! We had a great, leisurely time shopping. Daughter is now ready to start school in style, and I have clothes that fit to wear to my work meeting next month. I'm also very pleased to announce that Gap has clothes that fit me--in fact, they have clothes that are too big for me. This is a big deal!

Tempus Fugit

Time does seem to fly, and that's even more true the older I get. I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted to this blog. Is anyone still out there? LOL!

If you want to see where I was and what I did yesterday, please get on over to Vera's blog. We had the pleasure of meeting Vera and her wonderful husband Pat yesterday. She is every bit as sweet in person as she seems on her blog, and Pat is just a delightful guy. They are the kind of people with whom you feel instantly at ease and as if you'd known them forever.

It seems that Pat caught the spinning bug thanks to the ladies at Knit. Fortunately for us (and maybe for Pat and Vera) we had a spare wheel sitting here needing someone to love it. They bought our Ashford Kiwi, and I think that it will give Pat (and maybe Vera!) many happy spinning hours. Go take a look at some of the yarn this man is already cranking out.

It was most entertaining talking with Vera while the guys spun. I also enjoyed watching the other patrons of the Barnes and Noble coffee shop try to secretly watch the guys spinning! One lady kept pretending to read her book, but every time I glanced her way, she was staring at the spinning.

Pictures coming...eventually. We have a new computer, and I need to get acclimated to it. Our old computer stopped reading the card reader, so I have not had any way to get photos onto the blog.

Which Way is Up?

Wow, what a busy work week, and it is only Tuesday. Our company has a summer policy allowing us to work extra hours in order to have Friday afternoon off. I'm having no problem at all getting those extra hours!

I've been knitting in the evenings--it keeps me sane. I'm still plodding along on that damnable Picovili. I'm really getting tired of the thing. It's time to start the waist increases, so looks like I'm at least in the home stretch.

I also have started a project using very special yarn. I won't tell you what the project is or what the yarn is, but I will try to post a photo at some point this week. I'm using my Knitpicks Options needles, and they are fantastic!

Daughter and I enjoyed a Sunday afternoon of World Cup Knitting. Did anyone else watch the soccer match? We really enjoyed it and are pleased that Italy won!

Daughter is also working on a special project, again, with special yarn. She's become a bit knitting obsessed with this project, and that's a good thing!

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday, we said good bye to my mom's uncle, my great-uncle, and my grandma's brother. He was 81 and passed away a year to the day he was diagnosed with leukemia. If a funeral can be nice, then this one definitely was. One of my cousins is a minister, and she preached her daddy's funeral. I've never heard a more heart-felt sermon than what was shared yesterday. My uncle's son-in-law (the husband of his younger daughter) also shared some words as did a former teacher who worked with my uncle. (He was a retired elementary school principal.). They all shared such wonderful stories of a truly wonderful man. All my memories of Uncle Ben and Aunt Lea are happy ones. I remember the times we spent with them when we were kids. We always had a good time, and they were always so glad to see us. I haven't seen them as often as an adult, and I wish that I had. That 2 hour drive isn't all that far. I'm hoping to go forward by visiting more and getting to know my cousins again.

Uncle Ben was retired from the Army. He served in WW II and won many medals for his service including the Purple Heart. He had military rights at the cemetery with the 21 gun salute and a bugler playing taps. It was quite a moving service. I didn't want to go, but I'm glad that I did.

Independence Day

We are enjoying a nice long weekend. We just got home from the beach yesterday afternoon but continue on in rest and relaxation mode. We had a great time at the beach, and the weather was perfect. We also found a wonderful place to buy fresh seafood (raw). If you are ever in Hilton Head, check out Barnacle Bill's. We bought some wonderful shrimp and oysters from them.

I took a lot of pictures during our trip. I'll share some later this week. I was so pleased at some of the portrait type photos I took of daughter.

I'm givng the new Knitpicks needles a good test drive. They are superb! I am anxiously waiting for Knitpicks to re-stock so that I can order more cables (the longer lengths than come with the kit) and more tips (the larger ones). Looks like July 7 is the expected in stock date, so I don't have long to wait. I must say that this is my favorite interchangeable needle set so far, and I've tried them all. They are as slick as Addis but pointier. I liked the sharper tips on these because they are not too sharp. They are also more light weight than the Boye needles. I also like that the joins are very secure. That's always a big issue with interchangeable needles, I think.