Great (Cat) Balls of Fire!!! November 2, 2009

A couple of nights ago the hubby and I were setting up for an invigorating game of scrabble (I know, we are the most boring couple on the planet!!) and we had lit a few candles on the dinning room table.  Now, I’m not sure what Jiji thought that I was doing up there, but food (her usual motivator to do anything that requires, you know, moving [Jiji is our personal incarnation of Jaba the Hut {but without the hot, ill-fitting metal bikini clad Carrie Fisher on the end of a chain}]) wasn’t part of the package.  So, she hops up on the table to nose around and, well, not to put to fine of a point on it, sets herself on fire.  Now, something that I learned from watching the fire woosh up her side is that cat fur does not have the same flame retardant/resistant properties as wool!!! She wasn’t hurt at all, just had a bunch of her hairs singed which caused her to clean herself for hours after we brushed the cat fur charcoal off of her so that she wouldn’t ingest it.  Ahhhh, the smell of burning cat fur right before bed….

Tomorrow night is Yarn Therapy here in lovely Ivinghoe Aston.  I know I haven’t mentioned it too much of late but it seems that everyone decided to join a knitting group while I was traipsing around the US and Canada.  So, to that end I will be in the pub two nights in a row as tonight is Quiz Night!  Woo hoo!  On the first Monday of each month we have these down at the Village Swan.  Neither Tech Support nor I are any good at them usually, sort of a cultural relevancy issue mostly.  What I mean is that people who are famous here are quite often not the same famous people as in the US.  That, and we didn’t really learn Prime Ministers in the US:-)  Anyway, it’s a fun night for us as we usually learn a great deal about recent the history of our village from one of our team mates as well as it being a really good time to pump people for information about, well, stuff around here as most everyone in the village without small children tend to attend.

I also want to give a great big shout out to my friend Terri Pike who got a huge mention on Cast-On today!!  Go check out her very cool website with tutorials on how to felt.  Just remember Terri, we were on Cast-On first

I am sending to the pond once again, the gray sock.  Not only does it not fit my feet but while traveling home from the US an entire needle slid out dropping all of the stitches which, pretty bad on it’s own, was then compounded by the motion of the baggage being moved around and such making all of the dropped stitches run like wussies back down the foot of the sock until they came to the heel.  This sock is not only being frog-ponded but it will have the added pleasure of being put into the time-out corner as well!  Since that left me sans a sock to knit on, I got out the Krafty Koala sock yarn that I got at Woolfest this spring.  It’s called Tui Sock and is a Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend in the colorway “Undergrowth”.  To say that I nearly had a yarngasam just balling it (get your mind out of the gutter!) would be an understatement.  This stuff is so soft and smooshy I really would love to knit a pillowcase out of it.  The color is a dark green with just hints of blue-ish in it.  I will post a picture when I find a time that I can stop fondling it.  Until then, I have some yarn to molest

Latitudes October 28, 2009

Have you ever really looked at a map?  I mean really looked at one?  It’s fascinating the things that you tend to notice when you really sit down and take a good long look at a map.  When I got back to The Old Chapel I noticed that the sun was in the sky a significantly shorter period of time than it had been even in the middle of New York.  Being sometimes less than quick on the uptake it took me about a week to figure out that this must mean that England is further North than even my dear progressive Iowa.  Now, in my defense, I was seriously asleep for nearly a week, I wasn’t joking about that.  Still, I hauled out the atlas and checked it out to satisfy my curiosity.  The area of England that I live in is about 10 degrees further North than most of the contiguous United States.  So, not only am I living on an island off of another continent for the first time in my life but I am also living significantly further North than I ever have in the past.

You know what Jimmy says, “Change your latitude, change your attitude.”

I am so there.

Insanity Wrap-up October 27, 2009

I’m sure that some of you have noticed that I haven’t been on here in a while.  That is because, my dear readers, I have been asleep or catching up on things that needed catching up on here in The Old Chapel.  Mostly sleeping though to tell you the truth.  I turned into sleeping beauty without the spinning wheel (or being a teenager for that matter!!!).  The hubby had to leave for France the morning after I got home which was probably good for him in all reality as I was a very boring person to be around for the first few days back, I don’t even snore (I just always look a bit angry when I sleep for some reason [I think it's really a look of concentration, I take sleeping very seriously!]).

Anyway, I realize that I haven’t posted about the tail-end of my trip so here it goes:

While in Florida still, I had sort-of a crazy last day getting to see everyone that I hadn’t seen up to that point.  I was booked for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Wednesday.  It was sort of insane but very fun to get to see everyone.

On Thursday I flew out from Orlando to White Plains on AirTran.  Everything went well though I lost my sunglasses somewhere in transit (it was ok, the weather in New York was less than sunglass weather!).  I met my roommate Malin at the White Plains train station after a few navigational delays and we headed North towards Rhinebeck.  Once again I am super happy that I used Ravelry as a way to share room/rides as Malin and I hit it off amazingly well.  Well, I guess that isn’t too big of a surprise since we both traveled thousands of miles to go to a sheep and wool festival (crazy likes crazy).  The drive-up to the Hudson Valley was not as pretty as in years past as we had first rain, then sleet, then (I kid you not) snow.  As I have not driven in falling snow with insane New York drivers passing me like I’m road kill in a while (read: ever) it was a sort of disturbing drive for parts of it.  Also, because of the weather, the beautiful fall colors the area is known for were obscured.  However, we made it to our hotel without incident and went shopping.  Yes, you read that right, we went shopping.  Malin had never been to a T.J. Maxx or Marshalls or any store like that before so we went to the Marshalls nearby and she liked it (a lot).  I got a few things for home as well.  We also went to Target where I checked-off a bunch of things on my very odd list of things to get in the US including 2 extra value sized bottles of Pepto (it’s really expensive here).

On Friday Malin and I both had workshops that went all day.  It was nice to be there before the whole festival opened up as it gave both of us a chance to see just how really big the place is.  We checked-in and went off to our individual workshops.  This year they had fun goodie bags for all of the workshop participants with a pen and a button that featured Leicester Longwools, this year’s breed of sheep on it along with some candy bars and coupons for various booths.  My classes were both with Annie Modesitt who is an awesome instructor.  She’s a really fun teacher that I highly suggest that taking her classes is a must to anyone even if you think you already know everything!!!  Annie battled the noise in the building all day long and mostly kept her temper about it (I would have been about 10 bajillion times more bitchy.  I would have turned into a fire breathing knitting Godzilla of doom!!)  Malin’s class was a little less, uh, good.  The instructor for the class was ill  (a very common thing I found as I traveled, the flu was early this year) so a replacement was found a half an hour prior to the class starting.  Now, trying to set up a class on designing lace patterns on the fly cannot be easy.  I’m hoping that the committee will refund the folks in that class their money like they discussed.  Though, from what I gathered, the lady that stepped-in to teach it did as good of a job as possible on such short notice.  Anyway, at the end of the day I bought two of Annie’s books and had them signed by her.  If you haven’t already checked them out, I would totally suggest it.  They are: Knit with Courage, Live with Hope and Confessions of a Knitting Heretic.  They can both be purchased in the normal channels or via Annie’s Website.  The first class of the day I also got a copy of one of her awesome flip books detailing how to do “Grandma” knit and purl increases.

Friday night we went out to eat with a bunch of the other Rodeway Inn Raveler’s at the restaurant that is right by the hotel.  It was surprisingly nice with several birthday parties and, I think, a wedding reception going on.  The group was super fun and the food was excellent.  I got a calamari pizza that was surprisingly tasty, even cold the next day!  We left the restaurant full and pleased and really ready for bed!

 

Most of the "Rodeway Gang" on Friday night.

 

Saturday was the opening day of Rhinebeck.  Malin and I got up early and got a great parking spot close to the 4-H gate.  I can definitely say that this year wasn’t as busy as last year was.  There was only really a couple of hours that you had to fight the crowds off whereas last year it was the majority of the day.  I think that the fact that it was not the nicest weather this year had something to do with it all.  It was overcast and cold and constantly feeling as though it was going to to break into a storm at any minute for most of the day.  However, it was still the glorious insanity that is Rhinebeck and lots of goodies were bought and even more were fondled and oohed and ahhed over.   A few really fun things that we both did were knitting on the big sock (they are trying for a Guinness World Record [it’s a FREAKING big sock]) and getting to meet and have her new book “The Knitter’s Book of Wool” signed by Clara Parkes.

 

Still some lovely fall colors despite the rain

 

 

Goats are always fun!

 

 

The Saturday Ravelry Meet-up

Yes, there were even kangaroos there!!!

Aflac!!! Aflac!! A couple of the actual Aflac ducks.

By the end of the day, we were both pretty zonked so we stopped at the grocery store that is near the fairgrounds for some provisions and headed-out towards the Ravelry party in nearby Red Hook.  We got mildly lost (didn’t bring the parking instructions) but it was ok as we were really early still.  The parking lot at the nearby school was pretty empty when we got there and we were on the first bus.  The party was great!  With-out the parking hassles, everything went so much smoother this year compared to last.  The food was yummy the goodie bags were, well, goodie and the company was fantastic.  Malin and I were on the first bus in and the last bus out!!!  Woot woot!! Party girls!!!!  Major props to the Ravelry crew for putting together such an awesome event once again!

 

On Sunday we didn’t get up nearly as early nor were we out the door as fast.  Since we were checking out of the hotel, we needed to make sure that we packed everything and had it all loaded in the car for that afternoon.   Even with the later start, we got an even better parking spot on day two!  It was significantly colder than it had been on Saturday.  We kept hearing rumors about bad weather in the city which made us both nervous about getting home in a timely manner.  Plus, we were both pretty exhausted.  We went around to a few of the places that we weren’t able to get to easily on Saturday.  It was so quiet that The Fold (home of Socks that Rock) didn’t have a line.  At all.  It was amazingly quiet.  We got a few more things and watched some of the Sheep to Shawl competition and did some of the food tastings and left around 1pm.

 

Some of the ladies in the Sheep to Shawl competition

Blue Ribboned entries.

There was a guy there doing these awesome pumpkin carvings!

 

The drive back down to White Plains was pretty uneventful.  It was rainy and blowy but otherwise, no big surprises.  I dropped Malin off at the train station and made my way back to the White Plains airport where I dropped my car off and struggled to get all three of my very large bags into the airport.  I had just gotten into the door after a massive struggle when a very kind lady asked if I needed any help.  She didn’t work there, she must have just seen the look of near desperation on my face.  This kind stranger got me to the United check-in area where something even stranger faced me.  A really nice United gate worker.  He took one look at my face and had me just chill and breathe for a few minutes.  (I must’ve really looked like hell is all that  I can think!)  He then checked me in for my flights and even helped me carry my bags over to security!!!  Going through security was a breeze and I was left to chill in the airport as I was a couple of hours early.
However, as the time approached for my flight to start boarding, there was no notice anywhere.  I went over to the United counter and there was a sign saying that my flight to DC was delayed an hour.  This is seriously not good as I only had about a 50 minute transfer.  Speaking with the girl behind the counter, it pretty quickly became apparent that I was going to be spending the night somewhere that was not in the air London bound.  So, when the puddle jumper finally arrived, I got on it with a sense of resignation knowing that I either A.) would have to run like a bat out of hell for my gate or B.) would have a night in DC.  It was the latter as I missed my flight by about 10 minutes.  So, I walked over to the customer service area and amazingly my luck held as I got another very nice (though harassed) United employee who set me up for the night in a really nice resort hotel on the Potomac.  Luckily, the pub in the hotel was open until midnight so I was able to get some excellent food before going to bed.
My flight left the next morning at 9:30am and since my luggage was still in the bowels of Dulles airport, checking in was a cinch.  Everything left on time and we arrived at Heathrow a little bit early.  Really, the whole thing wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the hubby hadn’t taken the day off to hang-out with me.  I was more upset by that than anything else.  As it ended-up, I got in at around 9pm and it takes a good hour plus to get home from that airport.  The hubby had to leave for a business trip to Paris the next morning at 5am so we didn’t get a whole lot of time to spend together.

 

My nice room courtesy of United Airlines

See, really can't complain.

I then proceeded to sleep for the better part of the week while he was gone with at least 3 animals touching me at all times.

 

 

Milo giving me some love while I sleep

It’s good to be home.

 

Out of Air October 12, 2009

So, this morning, I get-up, ready to tackle some not so fun things that need to be done here (dealing with the move still) and I walk out to the pimp-mobile that I was rented only to find this:

Here is a better shot (I just had to let you all see the expansiveness that is my rental car!):

Happy Monday to you too!!!

Bad Blogger, No Cookie! October 11, 2009

Yeah yeah, I know I haven’t been up here very much in the past couple of weeks.  I have a few very good reasons for this actually.  A.) I was tired of posting all the time.  B.) Internets were iffy a lot of the time C.) Iowa was pretty boring and D.) I have been really busy since I got Florida.

Good excuses huh?

Anyway, since I have gotten to Florida, as I said, I have been busy.  I’ve been booked for dinner or something almost every night since I got here.  Of course I went to the Happy Hookers on Thursday night and it was as great as usual.  However, they decided  it wasn’t enough “Sarah time” and a plan for dinner on Friday night was hatched!  We went to Nonna on Edgewater and it was EXCELLENT!  I would highly suggest it to anyone wanting a great place to eat in the area.  Anyway, afterward a few of the hookers still hadn’t had enough “Sarah time” and kidnapped me (that’s my story at least and I’m sticking to it!) to the Drunken Monkey, a great indie coffee place near Bumby and Colonial.   We hung out until nearly midnight!!  Yesterday I went with Cesar and Pam to IKEA and the millenia mall.  Not a whole lot of time to hang-out and write blogs posts…

So, Florida weather has been intent on reminding me why exactly I’m kinda glad not to be living here anymore.  It’s been extremely freaking hot the entire time that I have been here.  It’s been so hot that even the people who like it hot are complaining.  Hot and muggy have been the words of the day around here.  I feel like I need to grow gills in order to take a walk outside!

There are so many things that I miss about Florida, but the weather is soooooo not one of them.  I miss my friends here all the time.  I miss the ease of, well, everything here.  Want to go out to eat?  Hop in the car and run to what ever kind of food you have a hankering for.  Need some yarn for a project on a Sunday night?  Run to Jo-Anns before it closes.  In England everything has to be planned and plotted before you can really do anything anywhere.  Admittedly, it has made us better at conserving the car and resources but it is a pain-in-the-ass at times.  I don’t miss the aggressive traffic that seems to follow you with the nose of their cars up your tailpipe.  And I don’t miss the HEAT!!!

Honestly, I now know that this trip has been just about 10 days too long.  So, for future reference, if I am ever planning a 60 day trip again would someone remind me of this before I leave?  I’m really happy to see everyone but I’m kinda done.  I want to be home in my own bed with my own pets.

Yes, I’ll take some cheese with that whine.

However, I get to go to Rhinebeck in less than a week.

I know, I suck.

Whale Hunters September 29, 2009

Ok, so if you missed it, I would totally suggest* that you check out Whale Hunters by the National Geographic Channel.  I like that the documentary makers didn’t seem to “pretty up” any of the facts about the lifestyle of the Inupiat Eskimos that hunt the bowhead whales that pass near Point Barrow each year.  Check it out if you can….

*If you are a seriously squeamish sort, this suggestion isn’t so much for you.

Not Go-ing September 28, 2009

Tonight, after watching Micheal the monster mutt wrangle the goats into their pen for the night (that never ceases to amuse me) I came back to my brothers and taking advantage of the seemingly stable internet for once, decided to watch Brenda Dayne of  the podcast Cast-On taking her turn on the 4th Plinth.  It occurred on the 19th of September at 1 o’clock pm (for those of you who would like to look it up for yourselves).  I can’t even remember where exactly I was on the 19th of September to tell you the truth, but I remember thinking (since I knew at least it was Saturday) that I hoped that it had gone well and that she had good weather for it.  Now, I wish that I could have been there!  The weather looks as though it was absolutely fabulous and there was a good bunch of knitters there in Trafalgar Square knitting in support including Lucy Neatby!!!  Holy crap!  How freaking cool is that?!?!  Anyway, be sure to check it out when you have the chance (and good internet!).

Watching her work with needles that she got from Rachel John made me really want to get home and start using the gigantic crochet hook that I got from her back at the UK Ravelry Day back in June.  It looks as though it could use up a lot of yarn in a hurry (and I have a lot of yarn ready to be used up!).

Fall has finally come to this part of the world. My friend Sarah was looking for good ways to use up a lot of basil in a hurry, a sure sign that cold has arrived.  It has not only gotten chilly, but also quite windy here in the Midwest.  The sound of at least a million corn leaves angrily rustling is always an amazing sound to hear.  The wind has dried things out quite a lot so the sound of the corn has more of a raspy edge to it than it even did a few weeks ago.  The wind is so strong that it kept me awake most of last night with its unfamiliar sounds in my brother’s house.  Even Micheal was on edge because of it, waking up several times to bark at the phantoms of wind.

I honestly haven’t been doing a whole lot here in Ackley to tell you the truth.  I read a complete book and have worked on my knitting quite a lot.  Otherwise, I’ve been more or less a bum, which suits me fine.  After the last couple of weeks of non-stop go go go it’s nice to, you know, not go.  Especially since I know that I have a few more weeks of go-ing left before I am home again.

Y’all Know That Captain Kirk is Going to Be From Iowa Right? What More Do You Need! September 27, 2009

Driving up to Mason City today with my mom we passed a large group of wind turbines.  I, of course, had to stop and take pictures.  Be very glad that I don’t live closer to them, as this would probably become the “Look at these cool pictures I took of the wind turbines” blog pretty quickly.  I couldn’t go up close to any of them as there were technicians working on nearly every one of them that we passed.  I will, however, get the shot of one that I want yet; I just need to be patient….

This is probably one of my favorite shots as the juxtaposition of the old-fashioned red barn and farmstead against the towering modern wind turbine is just great.

Somehow, when I wasn’t paying attention, Iowa came along and joined the 21st century in a big way.  Between the push for sustainable energy with these windmills and the fact that Iowa, Iowa, allows gay marriage while that paragon of all things alternative California doesn’t, I have to say that Iowa has definitely made a lot of really major strides forward.  Not baby steps, no sir; these are gigantic leap-frog monster steps!

Way to go Iowa!*
*(This is not, in any way, endorsing the University of Iowa team in any manner.  In that area, if I am forced to choose an Iowa team to endorse, I will of course always chose Iowa State.  However, if I am allowed to choose a team to root for on the national level, of course I will have to say, “Go Gators!!!” [It was nice to finally go to a school that actually won stuff including a few national championships and party school of the year 2008])

The Glory of Love September 25, 2009

As I was driving back from the “20/30 Something Knit Night” tonight at Crazy Girl Yarn Shop (more on that later) I was listening to a Des Moines “Lite” Music station.  Now, this would not be my normal choice for music stations but it seemed that everything else that I could get on the radio was either really twangy country music or heavy metal.  Now, I have nothing against either genre of music.  I been both to a Garth Brooks concert as well as one put on by Metallica.  Anyway, neither were really what I was in the mood for and the “Lite” station fit the bill the closest.  On comes “The Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera and I find myself not only enjoying it but singing/yodeling along to it!!!  I’m not even sure when or where I learned the words to this particular song but here I was busting out with some, “I am a man who will fight for your honor.  I’ll be the hero that you’ve been dreaming of.  We’ll live forever, knowing together that we did it all for the glory of love!!!!”.  I mean, I was born in 1978 and this song was a big hit in 1986.  So did I actually somehow absorb the lyrics to this when I was 8?  How many brain cells has this song occupied for 23 years of my life???

So, besides the self-surprise at my proclivity for 80’s power ballads, my night was really nice.  Like I said, I went to the 20/30 Something Knit Night at Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Cedar Falls with the lace stole in hand.  It was a relaxing evening with the ladies there.  I like the fact that you can buy a bottle of wine there or bring one yourself if you would like.  The Crazy Girl shop is really in a lovely space with brick walls and an impressive wall of Cascade 220.  Leslie, the owner of all 3 of the Crazy Girl shops was there as well as the lovely Bel who I got to chat with quite a lot as she has lived in the UK in the past.   It was a fun night and if you are in the Cedar Falls area on a Friday night, I would totally recommend checking it out!

While I was in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, I also got some shots of the gigantic parts for the wind turbines that they are putting up all over the area.  I think that I have mentioned how happy I am that these are being put in and just how cool (I think) that they look in the landscape.  Anyway, these photos will give you an idea of the scale of these puppies!

I liked this photo as you can see the car for scale next to one of the pieces of the bases of the wind mills as well as one of the actual blades.

A bunch of the blades sitting on what used to be the track.

They are using a defunct greyhound racing park as sort of a staging area for the parts and personally, I can only think of a few things more karmically appropriate for the space.  It’s not that I am against dog racing in general, it’s just that the sport is so very wasteful of animal life.

And folks remember, please, spay or neuter your pets!

In Which I Wrap-Up the Alaska Trip September 24, 2009

I’m writing this from my bother’s house surrounded by gun parts, military uniforms and other manly paraphernalia with Top Gun on the t.v.  It is a seriously far cry from Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

If the Western part of the US has a desperate sort of beauty the Badlands are screaming bloody murder.  Their beauty is stark and cruel.

However, the prairie dogs are cute as hell!!!

We also got to see the other type of bison that once roamed free across our continent.  The bison that we saw earlier during the trip were wood bison, in other words, they live in the forest and these guys lived on the plains.

Say Cheese!!!

We also saw some pronghorn antelope chilling in a bean field.

But the real attraction of the Badlands is, well, the Badlands themselves.

We then moved on to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.  I had visited it many years ago as a very small child and it was, oddly enough, bigger than I remembered it.

All of the designs on the building are made with different types and colors of corn.

We then drove until about midnight to get the rest of the way back to Ackley.  It was really good to get back here.  Being on the road for that long is tough no matter what the circumstances.

So, today I decided to go visit a yarn shop in Cedar Falls that I had heard about and was pleasantly surprised to find now one but two shops located quite close to one another!  The first that I visited was Three Oaks Knits.  The owner, Beckie Scheel, was lovely to talk to and had a large range of different yarns.  I then wandered down the street to Crazy Girl Yarn Shop.  They had a beautiful wall of Cascade yarns as well as large selection of various alpaca yarns.  I don’t know if the knitters and crocheters in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area have any idea of just how lucky they are to have two such great yarn shops!!!  If you are in the area, I would highly recommend that you check out both stores!  If I go back, I’ll try to take pictures!

(Don’t worry honey, I didn’t get much at either place!!!)