Month: August 2004

I’m sitting at the computer watching the rain pour down outside. It looks wonderful! We Pacific Northwesterners love our rain and it has been a really dry summer. I’m so anxious for fall to come. It’s hard to knit when it’s hot and humid.

This week has really been a tough one for us. Neither one of us has bounced back from our jet lag very well. Just getting old? It could be too that we spent more time there and our bodies were more adjusted to London time. But we’re getting there. We can actually stay up until 9:00 p.m. now! Just like the grown-ups. Bill still hasn’t heard about his early retirement. The deadline was supposed to be the 16th, but this is the federal government, so what can you expect?

On the knitting front I’ve been plugging away on my Making Waves socks. I was distressed to discover that I am running out of yarn, even though I supposedly bought the right amount. Fortunately a speed run to the yarn shop yielded the last two skeins in the right dye lot. Do those of you with a LYS nearby really appreciate it? I hope so! I have to go off island – not a terribly long trip, but can be dicey if there’s an accident on the two lane road. Which there was today. Coming home I barely got onto the island when I got caught in a several mile long backup due to an accident. But I got a few rows of knitting done while waiting and was grateful I wasn’t actually in the accident – thank goodness it didn’t look too bad. But even a fender bender can tie traffic up for an hour.

School officially starts Monday, so my knitting progress may come to a screeching halt. For those of you who don’t know, I am currently, at the belated age of 54, working towards my bachelor’s degree. I am a junior at Washington State University, but have been plugging along for about six years now. I figure by the time I graduate it will be a ten year process. But there’s only so many credits I can take and continue to work full time. However, by the end of next semester I should be a senior!! I’m hoping that I will be able to keep up on my blogging, at least on a weekly basis, but we shall see.

And, no knitting photos this week, but this cute picture from our vacation. Three worn out little boys! The one without fur is my husband.

My namesake was right – there really is no place like home. I just wish I had some ruby slippers to click together rather than traveling the traditional way. Maybe I’m just getting older, but this trip home really wore me out! It was fairly uneventful – except for horrible traffic in London that turned an hour and half trip into almost double that. Fortunately we had left ourselves plenty of time and got there with just the right amount of time. The flight was long and boring and by the time we collected our baggage and got across the Canadian border to home, we had been up almost 24 hours. Neither one of us can sleep on planes. Kirby was ecstatic to see us – if you can imagine a dog crying with joy, I could swear that was what he was doing.

And now comes the job of easing (or jumping) back into the fray. We were both up at 4:00 a.m. this morning, but that’s an improvement over 3:00 a.m. yesterday. At this rate it will only be a couple more days before we are back on track. Today Bill finds our whether his application for early retirement has been accepted. Scuttlebutt around the fire station is that all applications have been approved. Financially it’s a good decision for us because it comes with a huge bonus and no reduction in retirement benefits. But it is a huge change and I think we’re both a little nervous about it. Even good change can be stressful!

On the knitting front I haven’t touched a thing since I got home. Probably a good thing because with the jet lag fog I’m in, I’d probably end up frogging anyway. However, here is a progress photo of my Making Waves socks.

I like them well enough, but would probably not make them again. A little too slow going for me with all the cables. I like my socks to be quick, whip ‘em out projects. I’ll save the cables for Aran sweaters and the like.

By the way, it probably was just as well that I didn’t finish the Mediterranean Shawl for the wedding. It was so hot and muggy in London that day that I wouldn’t have been able to wear it. Now that I have some distance I’m really considering ripping out the border and just starting over with new yarn, providing I can find a close match. It’s pretty generic off-white so that shouldn’t be a problem. But it will have to wait a few months. School starts next week and then I’m really off and running!

Well, we survived the wedding! It was a wonderful, exciting, fun and exhausting day. Everything went off without a hitch, and the ride on the Eye was a piece of cake. It was so smooth and slow, with no sway at all, so you really didn’t feel the height. I even walked over and looked down! The ceremony was beautiful and we were all doing great until Abby started crying. That loosened up everyone’s tear ducts and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house (or in the gondola, as it were).

And here is a picture of me with the lovely ladies of the wedding party:

For more pictures of the wedding and our travels in England, look in the photo albums in the sidebar.

Yesterday we spent touring Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. Today we are relaxing and tomorrow we will spend the day in St. Alban’s. Then Saturday it’s home and a whole day to recover before going back to work. That’s probably rather poor planning on our part – we should have had an extra day in there to get over our jet lag. I guess the positive thing is that at least we won’t have any trouble getting up to go to work. We’ll just be ready for bed as soon as we get home!

I have accomplished some knitting while I’ve been here. I finished Blue’s sweater and started on my Making Waves socks. With all of the waiting time during our trip home I may even get the first one done. I haven’t found them to be a particularly quick knit, but I am using a cable needle and that slows me down. I tried doing the cables without, but the stitches are so tiny and my yarn is a little slippery and I kept dropping stitches. At least with the cable needle I’m not constantly picking up stitches.

After 5 days in England I think I am finally starting to get over jet lag. I still tend to fall asleep about 2:00 in the afternoon, but I’m not up at the crack of dawn. We’ve had a wonderful time visiting with our kids and doing touristy things. Yesterday we went to London and visited the London Eye and talked to the wedding planner. Afterwards we took a lunch cruise down the Thames. Tomorrow is the big day and I think everything is ready! A limo will pick us up here in Harpenden and drive us into London to the Eye. There we will be escorted onto our own private gondola where the ceremony will be performed 400 some-odd feet over London. On the way down we’ll celebrate with champagne. From there we walk to a French restaurant where we’ll have a celebratory dinner. The limo will then take the newlyweds to a hotel and drop us off back at home. It should be a fun day!

While sitting around visiting with the kids, I did finish this project:

Doesn’t he look elegant? I think Blue is quite pleased with himself. It was kind of fun knitting something so small – it went very quickly. Who knows, I may knit another one while I’m here, although I’m kind of keen on casting on for the Making Waves socks. Hmmm – I’m sounding like a Brit already. Hopefully sometime tonight my kids will help me set up a photo album where I will post all of our England and wedding pictures.