I am incredibly fortunate to be able to reduce my work schedule to half-time in the summer. I used to have two months off completely, and miss that, but actually like the reduced schedule better as the shock of going back in September isn't so ... shocking. Either way, I LOVE having the time -- the trade-off in pay is so worth it to me.
This doesn't sound exciting, but the time allows me to get things done that I've been putting off for months -- like calling to see about getting the number display panel on the microwave fixed, getting our new-last-fall fence straightened up, cleaning out the linen closet (which I did last summer and is actually in pretty good shape a year later -- the blessings of an empty nest), and taking the cats to the vet for their annual check up.
More exciting is the chance to visit with friends and relatives. I had dinner with a friend last night who is doing an internship of sorts in Portland. We had a relaxed saunter through the Old Port, a two-hour dinner and conversation in a quiet restaurant, and an ice cream dessert. It was lovely. Next week I hope I'll be able to take my bike down for a ride with my sister. You get the idea -- slow, relaxed, and not dictated by the 8-5 schedule.
Even the steamy hot weather hasn't got me down the way it often does. We've got an air conditioner in the sewing room/our bedroom so I have a retreat where there is plenty to do, and we can sleep in reasonable comfort. Again, I'm so fortunate.
Don says I have good karma. I prefer to call it an abundance of blessings. Whatever you call it, I'm basking in it for now.
ON MY NEEDLES
Same as last time -- it has been too hot and sticky to knit. Instead, I'm working on finishing one quilt for one of my sisters. I cut out the binding pieces yesterday and hope to make headway this afternoon when it is too hot to be anywhere else in the house. I'm also working on a pinwheel quilt for my Mom in various pastel florals on a white background. It is coming along quite nicely. I'll upload pictures later -- now it is time for lunch!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Back Home - With a New Tent
We just returned from what, at times, felt like a marathon road trip vacation. The first five nights were spent camping. First we camped with all of my siblings and their partners, spouses, children, and some friends in a group site at a nice little campground in West Granville, Massachusetts. Aside from sharing food, campfire stories, and general good times, we also attended the annual Tanglewood appearance of Prairie Home Companion. It was a lot of fun with only a little rain -- just during the performance where we sat on the lawn of the music shed, each with an umbrella (after I went and purchased a pricey but VERY nice one in the gift shop), handing around good eats and beverages. Our favorite part is going into the shed after the show goes off the air and joining in a sing-along with Garrison Keillor -- well worth the time spent in the rain!
Then we headed west to Niagara Falls, Ontario, where Don had found a lovely little private campground (selected over the other options -- KOA and a Jellystone mega-campgrounds) just off the Niagara Parkway south of the tourist areas. I had been to the American Falls some 25+ years ago, but always wanted to go back and see the Canadian falls, so Don indulged me with this side trip. We spent two nights camping there -- one with a wild storm that was so noisy, flapping our tarp wildly, that we got very little sleep the first night. We had a lovely day as tourists, doing the "Behind the Falls" and "Maid of the Mist" options, eating frozen yogurt, and visiting a greenhouse to wait out another rain storm. The second night was much more peaceful.
From there we headed to Meadville, PA to visit our son who is working at his college for this summer between sophomore and junior (hard to believe) years. Instead of camping, though, we stayed in a bed and breakfast. We met the new men's basketball coach who was in town with his wife, new baby, and mother-in-law to look for a house to rent. Also, under the category of "small world," we realized after looking at the guest book that another person staying there used to work at Colby and we knew her! She was there to interview for a job and the first interview of the day was over breakfast at the B&B so I also met the person interviewing her, who happens to know my son quite well.
We visited a couple of hot spots -- lunch at Eddie's Footlongs (Don loved the "sauce"), wine-tasting at Conneaut Winery (bought a few bottles to bring home), and bread from Creative Crust. Then we enjoyed having our son and his friends cook a lovely dinner for us, followed by a visit to Hank's frozen custard stand on peanut-butter night. The nicest part of the trip was seeing how happy he is with his summer job and to meet his very interesting and pleasant friends.
Then, off to Rhode Island where we intended to spend a night or so before heading home. The drive, however, took several hours longer than anticipated due to traffic in Connecticut (note to self: avoid Connecticut) and we were truly exhausted when we got there so stayed for two lovely full days of lounging on the deck and around the pool before driving home today. The traffic was a breeze (either yesterday or tomorrow it would have been a beast), and the trip went really fast due to our coming to the climax of the book on tape we were listening to: The Water Room (a Bryant and May mystery - also known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit).
We stopped in Freeport and replaced the tent we've been very happy using the past ten years or so. We'd started having problems with the zipper at the bottom of the door last year, but this year the problem spread to the side zipper. We were able to finangle it throughout the trip, but it was clear that something needed to be done before our next camping trip. We were given the choice of trying to fix it (not clear whether it could be fixed or not) or taking a credit to be used for a replacement tent. My first inclination was to fix it -- we had a lot of great memories tied up in that tent -- but elected to go see what would be the replacement tent (the model we had was discontinued several years ago). The dome tent that would be equivalent had some significant design drawbacks. Looking around the camping department, we found ourselves looking at a tent with a screen "porch." Long story short, we decided to take the credit, put it toward the new tent along with a couple of Bean coupons and some more money. All in all, we calculate that, if this tent lasts at least 10 years (like the last one), it costs us less than $20/year (between the two tents) to own a tent -- and if we further amortized it over the number of times we camp it is even more cost-effective (yes, we justified the cost and got the roomiest tent we could find!). Let's just say that we will be looking at the calendar to see how soon we can go camping in it!
Oh, and the queen size AeroBed mattress I bought for the trip was another good investment. I've been fine for years on the thin self-inflating camp mattresses (we had the thick version but they are really designed for backpackers), but in the past few years have found them less and less comfortable and wasn't looking forward to 5 nights on one. Even Don ended up thinking it had been a good purchase :)
All in all it was a lovely trip. And the nice touch at the end was stopping to visit my parents and discovering that my Dad had just whipped up the ingredients for strawberry shortcake! I was afraid that I was going to miss strawberry season entirely while away on this trip. But, we did get back just in time to start harvesting tart cherries off our 2-year old tree. I've got about 10 cups picked tonight and there are plenty left on the tree to ripen a bit more for picking over the next few days. I'll be bagging most up for freezing, but plan at least one pie first!
Nice to travel -- nice to be home.
ON MY NEEDLES
Of course, traveling provides a wonderful opportunity for knitting and this one was especially good.
I started the MapleWing Shawl in the purple/grey laceweight from Woolen Rabbit that I purchased at Spa Knit & Spin in the spring. I've made this pattern once, but didn't end up loving the color that friends encouraged me to choose, so I'm making it again and this time I'm making the larger version of the pattern (more repeats of each section). I got through section A and am almost half-way through section B of the pattern. The really nice thing about this pattern is that you start at the bottom, so the rows get shorter as you go along, instead of the other way around.
I also brought the green lace shawl I had started two summers ago and knit on when we were taking the boys to start college. I had a number of problems with this project (see very early blog posts for more on that) and ended up putting that shawl in "time out." It was really my first attempt at a lace shawl, so, having completed a number of other lace projects since then I shouldn't have any problems with it now. But, it is a pattern that requires concentration, so can only be worked on without distractions. And, it gets bigger and the rows get longer as you go along -- it will be a slow project to work on.
I brought my Skew socks, but didn't touch them -- I was too enticed by the lace, as usual.
Then we headed west to Niagara Falls, Ontario, where Don had found a lovely little private campground (selected over the other options -- KOA and a Jellystone mega-campgrounds) just off the Niagara Parkway south of the tourist areas. I had been to the American Falls some 25+ years ago, but always wanted to go back and see the Canadian falls, so Don indulged me with this side trip. We spent two nights camping there -- one with a wild storm that was so noisy, flapping our tarp wildly, that we got very little sleep the first night. We had a lovely day as tourists, doing the "Behind the Falls" and "Maid of the Mist" options, eating frozen yogurt, and visiting a greenhouse to wait out another rain storm. The second night was much more peaceful.
From there we headed to Meadville, PA to visit our son who is working at his college for this summer between sophomore and junior (hard to believe) years. Instead of camping, though, we stayed in a bed and breakfast. We met the new men's basketball coach who was in town with his wife, new baby, and mother-in-law to look for a house to rent. Also, under the category of "small world," we realized after looking at the guest book that another person staying there used to work at Colby and we knew her! She was there to interview for a job and the first interview of the day was over breakfast at the B&B so I also met the person interviewing her, who happens to know my son quite well.
We visited a couple of hot spots -- lunch at Eddie's Footlongs (Don loved the "sauce"), wine-tasting at Conneaut Winery (bought a few bottles to bring home), and bread from Creative Crust. Then we enjoyed having our son and his friends cook a lovely dinner for us, followed by a visit to Hank's frozen custard stand on peanut-butter night. The nicest part of the trip was seeing how happy he is with his summer job and to meet his very interesting and pleasant friends.
Then, off to Rhode Island where we intended to spend a night or so before heading home. The drive, however, took several hours longer than anticipated due to traffic in Connecticut (note to self: avoid Connecticut) and we were truly exhausted when we got there so stayed for two lovely full days of lounging on the deck and around the pool before driving home today. The traffic was a breeze (either yesterday or tomorrow it would have been a beast), and the trip went really fast due to our coming to the climax of the book on tape we were listening to: The Water Room (a Bryant and May mystery - also known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit).
We stopped in Freeport and replaced the tent we've been very happy using the past ten years or so. We'd started having problems with the zipper at the bottom of the door last year, but this year the problem spread to the side zipper. We were able to finangle it throughout the trip, but it was clear that something needed to be done before our next camping trip. We were given the choice of trying to fix it (not clear whether it could be fixed or not) or taking a credit to be used for a replacement tent. My first inclination was to fix it -- we had a lot of great memories tied up in that tent -- but elected to go see what would be the replacement tent (the model we had was discontinued several years ago). The dome tent that would be equivalent had some significant design drawbacks. Looking around the camping department, we found ourselves looking at a tent with a screen "porch." Long story short, we decided to take the credit, put it toward the new tent along with a couple of Bean coupons and some more money. All in all, we calculate that, if this tent lasts at least 10 years (like the last one), it costs us less than $20/year (between the two tents) to own a tent -- and if we further amortized it over the number of times we camp it is even more cost-effective (yes, we justified the cost and got the roomiest tent we could find!). Let's just say that we will be looking at the calendar to see how soon we can go camping in it!
Oh, and the queen size AeroBed mattress I bought for the trip was another good investment. I've been fine for years on the thin self-inflating camp mattresses (we had the thick version but they are really designed for backpackers), but in the past few years have found them less and less comfortable and wasn't looking forward to 5 nights on one. Even Don ended up thinking it had been a good purchase :)All in all it was a lovely trip. And the nice touch at the end was stopping to visit my parents and discovering that my Dad had just whipped up the ingredients for strawberry shortcake! I was afraid that I was going to miss strawberry season entirely while away on this trip. But, we did get back just in time to start harvesting tart cherries off our 2-year old tree. I've got about 10 cups picked tonight and there are plenty left on the tree to ripen a bit more for picking over the next few days. I'll be bagging most up for freezing, but plan at least one pie first!
Nice to travel -- nice to be home.
ON MY NEEDLES
Of course, traveling provides a wonderful opportunity for knitting and this one was especially good.
I started the MapleWing Shawl in the purple/grey laceweight from Woolen Rabbit that I purchased at Spa Knit & Spin in the spring. I've made this pattern once, but didn't end up loving the color that friends encouraged me to choose, so I'm making it again and this time I'm making the larger version of the pattern (more repeats of each section). I got through section A and am almost half-way through section B of the pattern. The really nice thing about this pattern is that you start at the bottom, so the rows get shorter as you go along, instead of the other way around.
I also brought the green lace shawl I had started two summers ago and knit on when we were taking the boys to start college. I had a number of problems with this project (see very early blog posts for more on that) and ended up putting that shawl in "time out." It was really my first attempt at a lace shawl, so, having completed a number of other lace projects since then I shouldn't have any problems with it now. But, it is a pattern that requires concentration, so can only be worked on without distractions. And, it gets bigger and the rows get longer as you go along -- it will be a slow project to work on.
I brought my Skew socks, but didn't touch them -- I was too enticed by the lace, as usual.
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