Nebraska Vacation

Our vacations in Nebraska are always a lot of fun, interspersed with occasional days of boredom. I told my husband yesterday that I didn't think we had been doing enough, something I complain about every year. He proceeded to list the numerous things we've done, and almost convinced me that despite the fact that he isn't as adventurous as I'd like him to be when we're here (guilty son syndrome--can't hurt mother's feelings by venturing too far away for too long while here), that we've still had some great experiences. My brother-in-law, Wayne, is a hardcore fisherman and knows how to fry fish like no one I know. I didn't know that I even liked freshwater fish until I tasted his walleye and crappie..

My sister-in-law, Ann, is always fun to be around even though she's obviously a ham (LOL)
Paige and her cousin Sam are just one week apart. They only see each other once a year, but fall into their usual routine of arguing half of the time and loving each other the other half.

My sister and her family have moved back to Omaha, so we've gotten to spend time playing with little cousins reacquainting ourselves with the joys of children's books, water balloon fights, and babies..and yes, my eight-year-old niece is knitting. She has managed to hide her irritation when her aunt picks up her knitting "just to add a few rows."

Russ and I love good coffee, and our whole family is also pretty adventurous when it comes to food. So, wherever we travel, we always looks for coffee and unique food experiences. Our favorite coffee house in Lincoln is called Cultiva This year, we were happy to discover that they have expanded to the Haymarket District where they share a space with a wonderful bookstore, named Indigo Books.

We also enjoyed drinking numerous cups of coffee at my sister's. They like good coffee too, but we have to be careful not drink too much of her specialty.."candy coffee," our name for coffee with excessive amounts of cream and sugar. She, of course, is careful about the number of calories she puts in her own coffee. Russ has to use his faavorite "Batman" cup when we're there, which was my brother-in-law's cup from when he was a kid until Russ broke the original ten years ago messing around with it for my nephew. He was pretending to fall asleep with it in his hand, and then actually dropped it. We still remember my little nephew saying, "Why you do that, Uncle Russ?" Anyway, Russ found a replacement on Ebay and bought it, and I'm kind of surprised they still let him use it.


We eat a lot of Middle Eastern food at home, so when I saw that Ahmed's Restaurant in the Old Market in Omaha had good reviews, we checked it out after going to the Imax at the Henry Dorley Zoo.

Kitty's Summer

Every year, when we go on vacation, we take our dogs to stay with some good friends, who dote on them for two weeks; but we leave out kitty at home. One of the kids' friends come over to feed her and water the lawn. I always feel a little guilty because she's used to having a lot people around. I made her Wendy's a Pi Kitty Bed with some Brown Sheep wool I ordered from the The Sheep Shed a long time ago, just before we left. This is how she looked on Tuesday morning as we walked out the door, and she'll probably be in the same position when we get home in a couple of weeks!

Plums

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I want to remember how perfect our plums were this year. It may have had something to do with Russ fertilizing our fruit trees this year and with me watering them a lot. I'm not too big on plums for cooking, but we all enjoyed them right off the tree, eating tons of them ourselves and sharing bags and bags of them with neighbors for several weeks.

I remember reading this William Carlos Williams poem in college, which I thought was kind of stupid. Now, I've decided I like it. I'm thinking that if he was talking to his wife, she should have been really torqued because there's nothing like a nice, fresh juicy plum...except for a fresh, juicy peach, but that will have to wait until next month!

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Beachy Break

I can't say that I've been in need of a break since I've been on vacation for two weeks, but I have been working a lot around the house. So, when one of my friends invited me and another friend to spend a couple of days with her at her family's beach house, I was very excited. We've really enjoyed each other's company this year, occasionally going on "extreme knitting" excursions to Bakersfield or relaxing at each other's home with a knitting project and a glass or wine or sometimes cappacino or coffee. We had a wonderful time on Thursday and Friday, complete with a fun evening at the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market, a great bike ride, several memorable meals, and a trip to Yarns at the Adobe. My friend, Janet, had been there before and raved about it, and she was right in thinking that my other friend, Denise, and I would too. It's right across from the San Luis Obispo Mission in an old adobe building that was built in the early 1800s. It's not only a cute looking shop, the owner is friendly and helpful, but not a "hover-er." We're already thinking of going back to possibly take one of their " beer and knitting" classes, not a combination that I'd usually think of, but we really should take the "Unibroue/Allagash and Scrap Yarn Project" class on November, especially since Janet is from Maine and Allagash is brewed in Maine! I only had my camera phone to take a picture of Denise and Janet in front of the shop, but I think it came out cute. As I've said a million times, I don't need any more yarn, but I bought some silky, soft Panda Silk, which is a blend of bamboo, silk, and merino. I'm knitting a table runner with it, using a pattern from the Spring/Summer edition of Debbie Bliss Knitting MagazineM. I love how soft it is, and it doesn't split like Panda Cotton does. I also bought a skein of Manos de Uruguay silk bland yarn.I felt ever so slightly guilty leaving my family behind, but they seemed to have inexplicably survived just fine without me...my little basil plant seedlings that were just coming up in my garden and which I forgot to tell anyone to water didn't, but I'd say that's a small price to pay to have such a great time with friends.

Yosemite Summer Kick-Off

For the past four years, we've our begun summer vacation with a trip to Yosemite. We go with a large group of friends and share meal responsibilities. Most years it's been very warm during the days, and we've loved hiking up to some of the falls so that we could cool off in the mist. This year, it snowed part of the time on the way up, and drizzled much of the time that we were there, but it didn't matter because it was Yosemite, and Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world!
The view from our campsite was incredible. I had visions of sitting by the Merced River, knitting away, but that didn't happen this year.We did go for a little walk up to the Ahwanhee Hotel. The cheapest room in the Ahwanhee is over $450, so we can only enjoy pretending to be guests. Russ and I did stay there once before the kids were born. My school paid for a two-day stay for me, and Russ happily tagged along. There was a big English conference at the Yosemite Lodge that year, but the rooms there were sold out, so my generous school approved the Ahwanhee stay. I still remember that the room was $315 per night, and that was back in the early 90s. It was such a memorable experience. The rooms are actually quite rustic with few amenities, but that's not what you're paying for. We also walked to the Visitor's Center and watched a movie since Kai had a cough that kept getting progressively worse.Throughout the day, Kai kept coughing and coughing. We finally decided to admit that we weren't going to have our typical Yosemite experience with loads of hiking, and headed home a day early. Kai was in good enough spirits to play with the water pump at Wawona, but he was pretty sick by the time we got home.


I did get to finish a pair of Loksins on the way home. It wasn't quite the same as sitting and knitting by a river, but it was still knitting!

Hanging On!

Lately, I've taken to checking my blog to see if possibly it's just updated itself since I know there's no way that I've done it. I'm not that sympathetic to people who complain that they're soooo busy. I always feel like much of that is just a choice, and I include myself in that. However, the reason that I stay so busy during the school year is about to arrive! I teach extra college classes because I hate worrying about money during the summer. The two of us make more than enough not to have to worry about making it through the summer, BUT I want to splurge on travel, eating out, and shopping during the summer..so I work extra. My college classes are finished...except for the final grades and my high school classes will be over in two and a half weeks, and then summer will be here!
Maybe then I'll have more than a little, lace doily thing that I knit after discovering Vintage on Ravelry. Of course, now I can't find the exact pattern, but flacon is the one that I was first drawn to because it is an old Danish pattern. OMG! I've just bragged that I knit a doily. What's next? Toilet paper covers?!!!

Big Sur Marathon

My team: My friend, Kathy has run in the Boston Marathon, and ran the leg of our race that was pretty much seven miles of up-hill running. Thanks to her I had a lot of downhill.Most of my run was in-land, but I did get a couple of nice views of the ocean. My friends, Dave and Pete took this pic from the bus as they were being taken back to the finish line. They're usually pretty dignified, but they both hung out the window of the bus yelling at me.The mile before the finish line was great with crowds cheering and bands playing...and lots of people walking, ha, ha.Travis describing his hand-off to me.

So...this pretty much has nothing to do with knitting except that I knit in the car on the way to Monterey and back last weekend. Why? Because I ran in the Big Sur Marathon....four miles of it, that is. I was in a relay with some friends from work and an ex-student, who now lives in Monterey. It was great fun....really, except for the part where I got up at five and waited an hour for a school bus to take me up to the beginning of my leg, so I could wait another THREE hours for my part of the marathon, which was the last four miles of it. It really was a great weekend with a quick visit to the Monterey Aquarium and a walk down Cannary Row with Russ and Kai since Paige was at home at a swim meet. We placed 57th out of a 137 teams in the Mixed Relay, but that was because of Travis, my twenty-eight-year-old, ex-student who prevented us from running in the Master's relay. We would have been fifth if we had done that. I'm thinking we'll ditch Travis next year. I'm kidding. He was a great kid who has not surprisingly become a fun adult, complete with a beautiful wife who works as an oceanographer. It was a wonderful "outside the box" time.