The Happy Couple

Are they twitterpated, or what?

Go - in' to the Chap - el......

Early Saturday, Mark and I headed up to Harpswell, ME for Ericka and Chris' wedding. The weather was cold and rainy - didn't bode well for the ceremony, but by the time we got there, the sun was coming out, and it had warmed up a bit.

The church was small, simple, no pretense - perfect. Chris and Ericka were so twitterpatedly cute I couldn't catch my breath - she looked stunning in her red and white gown. And Chris cleaned up right nice! Donna was BEE-yootiful in her beige beaded gown. Hell, everyone was gorgeous.

The reception was at a community center in Cundy's Harbor. Yummy food, good tunes, great WHOOPIE PIE CAKE!!! Cute favors - the rubber duckies were adorable, and offered much amusement during the reception. I think Lora drowned hers. Others were caught on film performing lascivious acts.

We took Monday off, so we could take our time getting home after staying overnight at the Fairfield (Marriott) in Brunswick. Sunday night, we had dinner at the Sea Dog Brewery. Nice place, excellent crabcakes.

Before heading south, I made Mark take me to Halcyon Yarn in Bath. SO GLAD we went. We finally got there after depending far too much on the GPS - we call her Sally, and she is demented. But we got there just as they opened Monday morning. They still have lots of stash bags left from their Open House sale, so I picked up two, plus a cone of cotton for the warp for my loom. No, it's not out of the box yet, but the time is coming. SOON.

Gotta go back there when there is more time. Bath seems like a cool place to wander.

Playing Catch Up, as Usual.

Going to a wedding tomorrow, two knitting buddies are getting hitched in Maine. Looking forward to an overnight - staying at a Marriott in Brunswick / Freeport.

Found an awesome gift to add to the gift I already had for them. Can't wait to see them all purtied up!

Doesn't She Have a Lervely Pair?

I know, I know, Gina - your beloved didn't like the joke, but that's all it was, Mark didn't mean anything by it, and your husband needs to understand that he has a beautiful, sexy wife who is appreciated by everyone she knows. So there. I am posting this. He can deal.

My husband is very proud of his wordplay. Not always fun when I am trying to have a conversation with him and he is searching for the next pun. But sometimes he can be very sweet and silly. We were knitting at Yarn and Fiber two Fridays back, and he stopped in on the way home. Gina and I were sitting at the table, and he marched right up and said to Gina, "You have a lovely pair." And handed her a pear he picked up from the farm stand on the way over. The guy must have been cooking this up for five miles. It's amazing how easily he entertains himself! But it was cute and funny - Gina got a good giggle, and a delicious pear!

Berfday Goodies, Part II

And I quote:

How much id dis?
Fwee!!
Whut?
Fwee!!
Noooo, how MUCH id dis?
Fwee!!!
WHY????
Berfday!
No, not berfday! How MUCH id dis?
FWEE!!


And so it continued until I gave up. Heather is stu-uh-born.

But LOOKEE - if you haven't checked out Heather's goodies (heh heh heh...), stop reading my lame arse blog, and click HERE. You might be lucky enough to find something just like this! I don't know what it's called, I don't know what the fiber is, but all I know is that it is beautiful, my favorite colors, soft, and has an awesome twist to it. I really don't like fuzzy narns much - this stuff is perfectly ME. Not fuzzy, just twisted!!!

ooooooooooooohhhhhhh

Berfday Goodies, Part I

Yeah, I'm a little late. Shaddup. I lost my camera cable for awhile.

Anyway, yes, my birthday was last week. Yippee. Despite my pleas not to make a big deal of it, the babes in my knitting group showered me with narn-y wuvliness. I am truly blessed. And Lora actually made me a bag! I find it hard to believe sometimes, the generosity of spirit that is in this group. Can't believe she found the time to make something for me while juggling kids, a husband (wait - is that redundant?), dogs, a household.

But lookee what I got!!

Socks that Rock, Noro, and narn from Spunky! And a BOOBIE BAG!! And check out the googly eyes on the gift box. Abby demo'd the box, but I saved the eyes - they might come in handy someday! Gina found these gift boxes at Hallmark - go and get yours before she buys them all!!

And I must add, just so that you can have a giggle at my expense, that my AARP card came in the mail. No, I am NOT 50, but my husband just turned 50 and he joined. Now I can get the 5% discount for the 4:00 dinner seating at the Cracker Barrel so I can get to bed by 6:00. Life is a chair of bowlies!

Another Internet Quiz

You're Babar the King!

by Jean de Brunhoff

Though your life has been filled with struggle and sadness of late,
you're personally doing quite well for yourself. All this success brings responsibility,
though, and should not be taken lightly. Life has turned from war to peace, from damage
to reconstruction, and this brings a bright new hope for everyone you know. These hopeful
people look to you for guidance, and your best advice to them is to watch out for snakes.
You're quite fond of the name "Celeste".


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Weird...

Laurin -- [adjective]: Full of bees 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I'm allergic to bees. Don't they know that?

I Was Gina's First!!!

Miss Gina started a new job at Yarn and Fiber, and a bunch of us (Donna, Heather, Jackie, and Sarah) joined her Friday night to keep her company.

Guess who was her VERY first customer!

Doesn't she look proud?

Here's some of what I picked out...the yarn and pattern are for a Christmas present for my favorite izzer...

• a pattern from Cherry Tree Hill - the Making Tracks shawl. Looks easy, maybe I can't screw it up. But then again, I frogged it completely three times before I understood the freaking directions. Sigh.


• a bar of Mow the Lawn!! soap from Down to Hearth Soaps - it smells so good - cleavage worthy!!!


• an Addi Turbo circular 10 / 32" needle for the shawl


• two skeins of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat Alpine, 55% Mohair and 45% Wool. Really nice to work with.


• a bag of pink needle protectors

Gina's worried (and rightfully so) about how much of her paycheck she will actually bring home. After last night, I am more worried about mine! Being able to wander the store every Friday night is going to test my willpower. Damn!

It was such a nice evening. Sometimes knitting at Barnes can be tough - the group grows to as many as 20 people, you can barely hear yourself think. But Y&F is comfy, quiet, the walls are soundproofed with yarn. What more could you want?

On This Day, Seven Years Ago...

Made it - our 7th anniversary. Both Heather and Lora also celebrated anniversaries recently, and posted some wedding pics to celebrate, so who am I to break with tradition, huh? Are you ready?

Date: September 2, 2000
Location: Back Yard, Kingston, NH
Guests: Oh yeah, 200+ of them.

Caterer: Muddy River Smokehouse

We wanted a very informal wedding, just a few of our bestest friends, so we rented a tent and a dance floor, brought in Muddy River, and planned a day full of music, good food, and a very brief ceremony. Really - it was ten minutes tops.

Bridesmaids were my two sisters Lisa (matron of honor) and Kristin, my best friend-might-as-well-be-sister Lisa, and her bodacious daughter Jesse, who in a few more years would become a slamming roller derby goddess - more about her in another posting.

Mark asked his buddies Paul and Terry and his brothers Chet and Keith to stand up for him. He has already done the penguin tuxedo thing for his first wedding, so we had the guys buy new gray suites, and the girls all found dress / sweater sets in a catalog that were the perfect color. Done. Simple. Comfortable.

But not as comfie as bare feet!! It had rained until just about a half hour before the ceremony - people were walking into the backyard under umbrellas. It was clearing a bit, and we could mop up the dancefloor, but I didn't want to risk slipping in my dress shoes, so it was a perfect excuse to ditch them. It was worth the look on my mother's face when she realized I was going to go barefoot. And the guests seemed to be amused as well. After the ceremony, all the girls ditched their sandals too. Had to get a piggies picture.

And, the blissful couple. Awwwwwww.

Honeymoon: Paradise Stream, Caesars Pocono Resorts. Plunge pool in our room, jacuzzi, fireplace, perfection.

Scattergories

SCATTERGORIES ... and it's harder than it looks!

Here are the rules:

* Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions.
* They MUST be real places, names, things ... NOTHING made up!
* If you can't think of anything, skip it.
* You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
* If your name happens to start with the same letter as mine, sorry, but you can't use my answers!

My name: Laurin
1. Famous Singer/Band: Lisa Loeb
2. Four letter word: Lust
3. Street: Lonely Street
4. Color: Lilac
5. Gifts/Presents: Lipstick
6. Vehicle: Lincoln Continental
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Lighters
8. Boy Name: Lance
9. Girl Name: Lisa
10. Movie Title: Lost in Space
11. Drink: LaLa's Dirty Martini (all ya have to do is ask....)
12. Occupation: Lawyer
13. Celebrity: Lauren Tewes (oh, I am OLD...)
14. Magazine: Lowrider Magazine
15. U.S. City: Lowell
16. Pro Sports Teams: LA Lakers
17. Fruit: Ligonberry
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Lazy Ass
19. Something You Throw Away: Lint
20. Things You Shout: Later, Dude!!
21. Cartoon Character: Lisa Simpson

If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged to add this to your blog. Let me know you did!

First Pair of Socks - DONE

Finally.

Harlot Simple Socks, in Trekking XXL.

Frogged at least 8 times, but finally finished.

Was going to give them to Gina, but oranges reds and blacks just don't seem Gina-ish, ya know? So I started another pair.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in Hawaii colorway. Beautiful colors, although I am not thrilled with how it pools. But Gina likes the way they are knitting up, so on they go. Jaywalkers, this time.

Ravelry - the great and mighty time-suck

I got into Ravelry a few weeks ago, and have mostly been lurking, checking out other Manch-Vegas knitters project queues and stuff. I have a feeling that the very minute I start to use this thing in earnest, I'll have to quit my job. It is a fantastic site, with the compelling lure of organizing your knitting life and joining a community of folks all trying to do the same thing.

But man - I spent two hours on it today. Without a whole hell of a lot to show for it. But it is soooooo cool.

I'm in trouble.

The Next Day at the daSilva Spa and Resort

The story starts the night before. After all the ManchVegas chicks (and Chris) left, Mark thought the pool has lost some water, and decided to bring the level up. So, he put a hose in the pool, came in, and made his first mistake.

Rule #1: Don't ask your tired wife to remind you to shut off the water, and then expect she will stay awake longer than you do.

I fell asleep sitting up in the living room by 8:30 - and he went to bed. No, I did not remind him. Can you see where this is going? Hmmm?

He got up to pee about 3:00, and he was confused to hear what sounded like rain outside - but it wasn't raining. Except pool water through the skimmer opening, of course. Eroding the stone fill around the base of the pool. So he went out in the dark with a flashlight, probably blaming me - still comfortably snoring in my chair - to shut off the water.

Rule #2: If you are going to backflush the pool to drain off some water, make sure you rehouse the pump valve back to normal when you are done.

He didn't. When he checked the pool the next morning, it had continued to drain off water until the level was below the skimmer. Bad.

The hose went back in. Ice cold water from the well. So now he is convinced that we are never going to be able to swim in the pool again - we might as well drag out the ice skates. And man was he UGLY about it.

So here is where the daSilva Spa and Resort came in. I was telling Lisa this story and she invited me over. Done deal. She has a pool. And a spare bedroom. What's not to love?

Went over for a day of relaxing drinkies, knitting, swimming. Lisa runs a three star establishment complete with crazy puppies and an even nuttier husband. He thought Mark's pool mishaps were so funny that he called him and said "at least MY woman doesn't have to go to another man's pool to go swimming.." This would have really cheesed my husband's shorts except that Chris is Brazilian, and was so excited about his little joke that his accent got in the way and Mark didn't understand a word. I had to translate for him the next day.

Lisa and I thought it was hysterical, though!

Poolin', Knittin', Drinkin' and Foldin' - OH YEAH

August 4th - OK, so only a few weeks behind here. Invited the Manch-Vegas gang to my house for a very long day - at least for some of us. From about 9:30 to noon, whoever showed up put their heads down to the task of folding as many origami cranes as we possibly could, to decorate Gina's house for Ericka's shower. She loves bright red, so most of the cranes were red, but we also used white, gold, and a few very pretty printed papers.

I have to admit this is not a strength - I find it really hard to follow origami instructions. So I devoted myself to the first few folds - the others grabbed my starters and finished them up. Luckily Gina's husband Ian was there - he was a whiz at it. He helped the others get going, then took Ben out to the pool so we could get to work. Sarah, Heather, Caroline, Marion, Gina, Lora, Melissa - they all kicked butt cranking out the cranes.

Then, at about 1:00ish, we broke out the drinkies, started getting lunch out, and drifted to the pool. The whole day was a blast - perfect weather, perfectly crazy and funny guests. And perfect frozen margaritas. What else could you possibly ask for? Except for my frog back, maybe. But he is in a good place. His wife misses him, though. Maybe she will meet a nice newt and forget all about him.

Ericka and Chris finally dragged their asses over about 3:00 - I remember the good old days when I could lounge around in bed till noon with no one to nag me about it - days long gone when married to a morning person. (Should have run when I had a chance.) They brought chicken wings that would grow hair on a rock. The minute they lifted the lid on those suckers, it went right to my throat - like gargling on hot, vinegary razors. But damn were they good!

Catching Up, PART THREE

July 1st Update: Forgot to mention that we also celebrated Rob's 21st birthday - Lisa brought all kinds of Hostess cakes and stuck a candle in them. Kiddie crack - gotta love it!

He did.

Dude - happy birthday.

Catching Up, PART TWO

Ok, so I am cheating a bit, and skipping several weeks.

So, instead of having 4th of July on the 4th, we had it on the 1st. Invited Cris and Lisa, and my sister Lisa, and brother in law Keith over for drinkies, charred animal flesh, and assorted nummies. Pretty much like the Knitting Pool Party coming up on August 4th. So if you are coming, here is a little of what you are in for....

I put a dozen turkey legs in the smoker at 5:30 that morning. They were almost done by 2:00ish - had to put them in the oven for a hour or so to finish them off. Low and slow, but come on!!! But they were faboo.

I just wish that it had been warmer. I was the only one brave enough to go in the pool, and that was because the half pitcher of Caipirinhas that I had managed to kill off. Oooof - that's an awesome little drink.

More from NH Sheep and Wool 2007

Some more sights from the Sheep and Wool.

So what else did I pick up? Well, I got a kit to make some winter boot socks for Mark - as usual, I find that if I buy something for him, he is much more agreeable about anything else I buy. Men.

Also picked up Jackie Fee's Sweater Workshop. Meant to get it at SPA, but wasn't able to get back to her table. Luckily, she was at Sheep and Wool. Very nice lady. Have I looked at it yet? Nope. I need to clone myself to send one of us to work, and then the other one can do what is really important.

So Little Time, So Much to Blog PART ONE

My bad. Between house sitting, total lack of ambition, and assorted other excuses it has been too long since the last post.

So much to catch up on.

So let's go back to early May - I have several installments about our vacation up at Weirs, but nothing much about our trip to the 2007 NH Sheep and Wool.

What a fantastic day, huh? Perfect weather. No rain - after the past several years of rain, including the Mother's Day floods last year. But this year, warm and sunny.

Of course, ManchVegas Knitters showed up en masse, including Gigi, Gina and Jackie doing their best Charlie's Angels imitation. Alpaca bandits, beware! And Chris and Ericka, Heather, Lora, Vicki, Melissa, and Spunky Eclectic (an honorary MVK, I spose) joined us for lunch (and to compare treasures).

I didn't have any purchasing goals - wandered through all the vendor displays and drooled. Mark was fascinated by the ancient drop spindles and insisted on buying me one. We picked an interesting one from Peru, and some Icelandic sheep's wool to spin. I warned him - I was perfectly happy NOT picking up yet another craft - was perfectly happy to buy yarn all nice and neatly wrapped in an informative paper band. Had no desire to learn to spin. But if he was going to enable, he better be prepared for the day to come when a real spinning wheel comes into the house. You know it's going to happen...

So someday, I'll have a monster spinning wheel, and spin my own wool sheared from a sheep living in my backyard, and then weave the yarn into something on my loom. No, before you ask, the Kromski hasn't come out of the box yet. Shut up.

Sock n' Roll

I GET SOCKS, PEOPLE!!!!!

Did you hear the light bulb go one with a "bink"???

That was me figuring out the freaking mystery about socks. I almost finished the watermelon sock, as you already saw, but check this sucker out! This is the first of two socks for my sister, done in Trekking.


She has huge feet, so I have a ways to go, but I turned the heel, did the decreases (CORRECTLY this time!!) and am close t0 a finish.



Next, I will take up the Jaywalker pattern again and re-read it with an air of "been there, done that..."


What did pride goeth before? I forget....