Bikes and Ghosts

This bike is on display at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. I had to take a picture of it for mom and Darryl. I think she is named Siren but I could be wrong.





The picture bellow is of the ship in front of Treasure Island. I think it is pretty. Oddly enough the picture above is not TI, I have no idea which hotel it is, I just liked the lighting in the photo.



Trump Tower:



I was playing with my flash when I took this picture of Q, obviously I have a lot to learn about flash photography. I think the image is kind of artsy and ghost-like. I could not reproduce it if I tried.

Birthday Party

This weekend we a birthday party for PJ. She wanted a dance party and invited 8 friends from school. We ended up with 10 kids in total and we had a good time. The kids had a great time.

I was worried about the whole idea of a dance party. It turns out rightfully so, the kids danced for about 30 seconds and then the boys wanted to wrestle another 10 seconds into it and the kids had lost all interest in dancing.

Paul and I were feeling a bit out numbered, we had thought a parent or two might stick around but we were mistaken. We were so lucky to have a beautiful sunny day and we played with kids out in the backyard for a while. We warmed them up with some duck duck goose and some musical chairs (well, musical pillows).



Layne came to the party, it was so great to see her. She has grown into such a beautiful girl and she has a great sense of humor. Cracked me up a few times. Here she is playing musical pillows, I guess she is pretty fast too!



Q was not so thrilled with the whole party. All those kids in the house and he wanted all mommy, all the time. I just had my hands to full to accommodate him. I did not get near as many pictures as I would have liked to have taken either.



We had pizza for the kids and cake of course. These pictures of PJ enjoying her special day make the whole thing so worth it. How often does a girl turn 6 after all?





Exhausting some else's child: Priceless.



I have not knit one stitch all weekend or the week so far for that matter. I was pretty beat after the birthday party so I started a book. I have been struggling with some of our office accounting as well. Normally it takes me an hour to balance the books every month, I worked on them for three hours and got so frustrated I was in tears.

Paul worked on them for another 3 and found the error. All is well in accounting land. I think I deserve some knitting time.

Seeing Red

I could not help myself. The STR socks were screaming my name. The yarn has been sitting on my dresser looking so pretty, so red, I just could not wait any longer.

I needed a carry along project for standing in line to register the kids for Spring Hockey.



I love how the same yarn and pattern knits up so differently for two different people. Shannon's socks came out striped and mine are spiraling. I love them both.



I short and sweet tonight. Paul and I are watching the movie, "Sicko" it is done by the same guy that did super-size me and Farenheit 911 and Bowling for Columbine, and one more that I can't remember the title.

I have been sucked into this movie. You should rent it if you have not seen it. It is shocking how people are treated by insurance companies and the health care system. The movie is based on the HMO system of the US, but I am sure one if you examine any system you will find some shocking, shameful stuff.

Go rent it.

Picture Perfect

After a bit of fussing around I finally figured out how to access my freshly purchased storage space from my blog account. So I perfect in the "I can post pictures now" kind of way, not in the Mary Poppins "perfect in every way" kind of way. Know what I mean?

Now that I have this picture posted I am wondering if I posted it before in feverish post? I love how much Q is enjoying this big Grandpa hug. I bet if we could see this picture from the other side we would see a similar gleeful expression on Grandpa's face too.



I love this picture of Judy, she looks so genuinely happy in this picture it is contagious and makes me smile. Their house is so beautiful, I was going to take some pictures of it to show you, but I just never felt up to it. I came home with a disappointing number of photos on my camera.



Looking through the sunlight at one of the casinos.



Some fearful beast at the Shark Tank. I don't recall what it was, only that I was glad there was 2 inch thick glass between me and it.



I tried to take a picture of a Sting Ray but the flash kept reflecting off the glass. I tried a longer exposure to let in more light. Duh, Sting Rays move quickly and will blur in the longer exposure. I actually like the effect of my mistake and I thought I would post it for fun.



I would be remiss if I did not post a shark, wouldn't I?



I had intended to post earlier in the week, to tell you the truth I got sucked into my knitting. I thought the back of my sweater would take forever as it turns out I might get the back done tonight. I am going to go find out and let you know. Have a good evening.

Vegas

Vegas was not all sickness, sleep and seminars we did make it out for a little fun. We took the kids to the Shark Tank at one of casinos, I can't remember which one. It is pretty neat, there are lots of fish to see and the kids had good time.

Here is Sebass at the tank where you can touch some of the sea creatures. You can see that he and PJ were not quite on their A game yet.



This picture of a lion fish might be one of favorite pictures I have ever taken. It looks so cool hanging out there in the water and giving me the eye.



I have some more fish pictures for you but it seems I have run out room on my account for photos. I remember Shannon posting that this happened to her as well. I bought some more space but it may be a day or two before it goes through.

Are You Tired of It?

I wonder if you are all tired of looking at this sweater yet? I don't know what it is about it but I am enjoying this knit so much. The pattern is simple, smart and well written. The yarn I am using is wonderful. I Am using Mission Falls superwash merino wool and Noro Kureyon. The yarns are completely different textures and I think that is part of what keeps it so interesting for me. Not mention the wonderful colours that Noro is known for.

I followed the pattern instructions and picked up the stitches for the front using the technique suggested. I was not happy with the way it looked:



Because I am changing colours every garter stitch ridge (two rows) I was getting a wonky line when I pick up where the pattern suggests I do:



Here I decided to use a different technique and I am much happier with the way it came out.
This colours are most true to life in this picture.



Here is the front with a few rows done. This project has been good to knit on the go but it has grown pretty fast. I am going to need to cast on for a sock soon so I have something to carry along with me. The thrums are still on the go don't worry. Bit by bit I am going to clean out that project bin.



I have been spinning a little bit as well. I am trying to finish up the rest of the Happiness roving and I have started on some superwash roving I bought a while ago. I have not taken any pictures of it yet.

Purgatory

These two bins sit at the end of the couch. I bought them to use as a table and it doubled for knitting storage. I keep tape measures and other notions in them. As time has gone by they have collected a few projects as well.

These bins have become the place where projects go to wait. They are all waiting for different things. There is a sock in there I cast on for without doing gauge first, if I were to finish it as it lies now I could send it to my favorite basketball star.

There is a little lace number that just seems to take to much brain power for me to knit, counting to 30 seems to be beyond me whenever I pick it up to work on it. Some pretty cascade 220 that is destined to be felted clogs someday. There are two leftover sock balls that I really want to turn into kid socks. A pair of fingerless gloves that only needs two ends sewn in to be complete and wearable.



And these: Remember the thrummed mittens? I only knit one and then spring came along and warm mittens were just not the thing I wanted to work on. They take up a lot of room in purgatory, the fleece, the yarn and the lonely completed mitten. I have decided to chip away a bit on these projects. I am starting with the mitten as it takes up the most room and I have been feeling a bit weighed down by it every time I open the bin. The first mitten only took a week to knit. The second, an entire year. I started it today and I plan to work on it when I need sweater breaks.



I am so pleased with this spinning. This is most of the roving that I dyed with the Kool-Aid. I have been thinking of entering this in the little agricultural fair that comes the Loops in the spring. There is a hand dyed hand spun category this might do well in. It's worth a shot just for fun.





I have about 20 rows and then I am done with the bottom of my sweater. I think the upper half will move along pretty quickly.

Welcome Home

We made it safely home by 6:30 Sunday evening. We had a bit of a longer drive than expected; some of the Highways were closed due to snow slides so we took the long way around.

We all seem to be pretty tired from the trip and are still recovering from the foul sickness that befell us. I slept 10 hours Sunday night and 10 more last night. And to tell you the truth of it, I could curl up in a little ball and go to sleep right now. I think our bodies are still trying to get well.

We had a bit of an adventure this morning. I got a call about 7:45 and I could see by the call display it was our landlord for the office space we rent. He asked me if I heard what happened yet. My first thought was fire or flood, but thankfully things were not quite that bad.

Some one did a smash and grab at our place in the wee hours of the morning. They picked a rock and threw it through the door in the back of the building. Our office is the first door on the right once you are in through this one. Who ever did this picked up the rock again and threw it through the door of our office.



The alarm started beeping at this point I am sure. The siren sounds after a 60 seconds or so. The cash drawer was jimmied open and the $90.00 worth of cash stolen. They left the change and even left behind a $10 bill, you can see in on the counter there if you look carefully. The $10 was taken by the police and will never be seen again by us.



There was not one piece of glass left in our door. It shattered, I can't believe how far the glass went, it was everywhere. To be honest I feel like we got lucky. Whoever did it must have been looking for quick drug money, they did not take or destroy any other property. There are a couple of out dated computers in the office and there was a lap top in plain sight and none of that was touched.



No one was around to get hurt and the glass has already been repaired. The owner of the building took care of everything and is having a police officer do a security consult for him to see what he can do to prevent anything ocurring again. Two years ago someone kicked out the glass on one of the front doors but no offices were broken into at that time.

On The Mend

We are all getting pretty tired of feeling so poorly on our vacation. Yesterday I woke up feeling so badly that I thought about going to a walk in clinic of some kind. We bought travelers insurance so it would have been covered.

Judy suggested I try salt water gargling and that has helped a great deal. I slept almost the entire day yesterday as did PJ. I have been wondering if I have Strep throat I have no voice at all and can't hardly eat anything. Yesterday I felt so tired my sweater was to to heavy for me to knit on. I don't know if I have ever had that happen before.

The kids are feeling well enough today to argue amongst themselves. This is a good sign. We are going to get out a bit today and think that will make us all feel better. We are going to try to hit Old Navy and then come back for a bit of a rest and then if everyone feels up to it we might take the kids for a walk along the strip this evening.

Blogger would only let me post one picture today. I wish I knew why it got so fussy.

Here is Seabass the high roller. He is playing on George's slot machine. Check him out, he is like a little old lady at his machine, he has a box of tissue, a garbage can and a water bottle bottle. The kid is dialed up. He must have sat there for two hours or more and played. He racked up 400 credits, it's a quarter slot so the kid had $100 racked up on there. He is better at it than I am.

Elbow Room

The Eagle has landed.

We are safe in Las Vegas after a bit of a hairy ride in the snow to Abbotsford. We drove the Coquihalla Friday night and it was dumping snow. Paul did a great job getting us to Abbotsford safely. There was at least 6" of new snow on the highway and it was coming down like crazy. He drove nice and slow and took his time and we got there safe and sound.

It was a bit of adventure the following day. Q had the flu on Thursday and Friday and he passed it on to Sebass and I to enjoy on Saturday. If you ever want a little elbow room on the airplane I have a little suggestion for you.

Take your seat, grab the barf bag and look really green and pale. Trust me everyone will walk right by and the seat next to you will remain open.

Lucky that no one puked we all just felt like crap. PJ has it today, but Sebass and myself are feeling a little better. Lots of hot flashes, I am getting a preview into menopause.



Here is the start of the sweater I keep telling you about. It looks big I know. It is the Not-So-Warm -Coat in the knit book, page 90. You will see when it is done that it looks way better in person than it does in the book. It will be great for spring and fall.



I am going to run. Company is arriving at George and Judy's for Superbowl.

Yipee

We had some fog last night and it froze and stuck to everything. I love that someone wiped the frost off this fence on the golf course and summed things up nicely for me.

I love that someone wrote "yipee" instead of using this medium to tell us all off.

We have been getting things together to leave tonight. We decided to drive to Chill-a-whack (he he) tonight so Saturday won't be quite so bad as we had planned. We catch a 2:00 p.m. plane out of Seattle, we would have been out of the house by 5:00 a.m. and worried about time the whole way.

It is snowing now; big fat wet flakes so the drive should be a slow one.

Yipee!