knitting and vacation

I drive to the park and ride and take the bus to work.  I drive our van to the park and ride and take the bus to work.  The park and ride is five minutes from my home.  I don't turn the a/c on because in the morning I don't need it and in the evening, it is only five minutes and I roll down the windows and open the air vents and by the time the a/c would be up and running, I've parked the car in my driveway. 

So about three weeks before we are scheduled to leave for vacation, my husband says that we should have the van checked out and have I run the a/c.  So, off to Sears I go.  The a/c compressor (?) isn't cycling so they cannot test the a/c and I need to take it back to the dealer.  Sears didn't charge me for that wisdom, not even a service charge. 

The very first appointment I can get at the dealer is the Monday before we are leaving (we left on a Thursday for Orlando).  The dealer calls around 10:00 a.m.  First of all, for them to look at it, the cost was $95.  They call back and hour or so later.  The lines for the a/c need to be replaced and there are a couple of issues with that:

1. They won't have the parts probably until Thursday or Friday and maybe not until next week.
2. They aren't sure that it will be the final solution but just a starting point.
3. The cost for running new lines is $1,245 + tax, but they will apply the $95 service charge to that
4. The design of the van (now you have to understand, I was "hot" for this van.  It had stow and go, it had auto windows, driver side doors and an auto hatch lift thing (all important considering that I am 5'), it is a Chrysler Town & Country extended whatever and it cost a pretty penny when we bought it new in 2005 . . . it also only has 60,000 miles on it and that is only because we have done things like drive to California and back (9,000 miles), to Florida (2,100 miles) and to upper Canada (1,500 miles).  Anyway, back to the van design, the tech said to me (and I quote):  "The van wasn't designed to withstand Ohio winters."  Excuse me . . . I bought the stupid thing in OHIO.  You dolts. 
5. And, just for the fun of it, the final payment for the van was made in July.  Yep, two days before the service call.  Go figure.

Anyway, so given our options and the fact that I told them that I wasn't going to be paying $1,245+tax for something that may not work and may not be done in a timely manner, we decided to drive our Kia Rio to Florida.  Yep.  We went from a mini-van with stow and go to a small sedan.  We had to seriously downsize the amount of "stuff" we were taking.  In many respects, it wasn't a bad thing.  Our entire gas bill for driving to/from Florida was $132.  In the van, it would have been closer to $300. 

But, I had to downsize the amount of knitting I was going to take.  I have this very nice, boxy zipper bag that fit between Zachariah and I in the back seat (and yes, I sat in the back, Lindsey sat in the front and it was a design to keep me sane!).  But I had to rethink what knitting I was going to take.  My sister had just spun me some wonderful alpaca/silk/wool blend stuff and I took it and A scarf pattern.  I brought the buffalo to make Kyle's socks.  I have enough to do the feet in the buffalo and do the cuffs in wool, which I also brought, along with a toe-up pattern.  And I brought one skein of peaches and creme cotton and a pattern.  and a variety of needles etc.

Does anyone see the problem here?  One scarf pattern.  One sock pattern.  One cloth pattern.  I have nothing done.  Did I bring a scarf pattern that I had done before?  No.  I brought a new one, which I have decided is rift with errors.  I got it from my sister (actually ripped it out of her magazine and will have to wait to see if there are fixes for it in this month's magazine).  ALL the way to Florida, I putzed with the stupid pattern.  I ripped it out. 

Men's socks.  Are.  So.  Boring.  Buffalo is nice but not excitingly soft or pretty.  I started it with size 7 dpns.  Too big.  Rip.  Size 6 dpns.  His feet are big but not THAT big.  So, on the way home, I continued knitting on the stupid sock, up to about Akron and then I decided that it was not only boring and blah and big, the sock is too big.  Maybe I'll make him a hat out of the buffalo.

So two weeks in Florida and no knitting to show for it.

Vacation pics (minimal) and some finished things

Some pics from vacation, taken by Zachariah at Niagara Falls. The day was beautiful but he also did a really good job, especially with his really cheap (I mean inexpensive) camera

Saturday, July 5, 2008,

The Horseshoe Falls from Goat Island

Friday, July 4, 2008,

The American Falls from the Canadian side

Actually, shortly before he took the pic of the American falls from the Canadian side, he had been pouting about it being hot and there was nothing to see . . . then I dug out his camera . . . after I took this one with my camera:

And here is the lace scarf that I did while on vacation.

And while I was adding photos to Ravelry, I realized that I never posted a photo of the complete Fetching. It is done in Kaleidoscope by Dave Daniels. This isn't the best photo of the completed project but such is life

Vacation . . . knitting . . . Learning how to block

Finally, we have returned. It has been a wonderful vacation. Beautiful weather (actually, mostly hot weather). We were in Collingwood, Ontario. There were only two days that it rained during the day. On the first week, it rained on Thursday afternoon (around 4:00) and on July 1, Canada Day, it rained and was cool in the morning but was about 75 degrees by 1:00 p.m. and the sun was shining. In fact, it was soooooo nice so much of the time by Tuesday evening (July 1), I told Dave that I would really like a day that was gloomy and rainy so that we couldn't go swimming or practice our putting or play on the playground or shuffleboard. So he said, tomorrow you can pretend. So Wednesday, I stayed in all day (I did put a beer bottle in the recycle bin which was right outside the front door . . . but I'm not counting that).

Anyway, I did manage to finish some lacy stuff . . . I also have a bowl mostly finished and ready for felting . . . and I finished the clutch which needs to be sewn up and felted . . .

When we got home on Saturday, we unpacked and sat on the back porch sharing some brews with Cortney's parents. (Cortney is Lindsey's friend who went on vacation with us).

Yesterday, Lindsey and I went shopping for fabric so she could sew up a bag. We spent HOURS in Joann's. Lindsey is very artsy and saw a bag in Canada that she really really wanted and "Gee, MOM, what a deal, it is only $75!" It was nothing. A square tote with 4" quilted squares and the whole thing was absolutely nothing to write home about. So we bought quilting fabric (in various shades of blue), a Vogue pattern (regularly $20 on sale for $3.00). I also bought mucho other things (they had Debbie Munn yarn regularly $5.99 on sale for $2.00) and another pattern for me (regularly $15 on sale for $2.00). The store is doing inventory today and they always have great sales before inventory.

When we got home, I cut Zachariah's hair, plopped him in the tub, cut Lindsey's squares and started blocking the lace. Zachariah wanted to help . . . and here he is learning how to block knitting . . . he kept dropping the ruler and finally informed me that if he keeps everything lined up with the lines on the mat, he doesn't need a ruler, thank you very much.

some other time I will post the photos of the vacation! It really was great fun and very relaxing.