Friday, July 29, 2005

Today (What are we up to? Day 10? Week 5?) found us putting more miles on the ol' pedometer at Arlington National Cemetery, getting soaked to the skin on the walk back to the Metro, juggling subway lines to find a Cheesecake Factory for lunch, unearthing cool surprises at the National Archives, and finishing up (as usual) with some splishy-splashy fun in the pool. Home tomorrow!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

We went to the Not the Knitting You Know exhibit this morning (Day 6).  One of the Knitting Campers had two pieces in the exhibit, so it was on my must-see list.

We returned to Ford's Theater (Lincoln was still dead), lunched at the Hard Rock Cafe, toured the Museum of American History (I found Kermit!), and walked MILES and MILES to pay our respects at the Washington Monument, the World War II, Vietnam and Korean Memorials, and the Lincoln Memorial (I never realized that the Gettysburg address was a eulogy!), with passing nods to the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and a small memorial that appeared to be for the first World War (we were too exhausted to go see what it said).

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Sister Number 2 met us at the cool new American Indian Museum today (Day 5) for exhibit viewing and native food munching, and then we all assumed secret identities at the International Spy Museum. We arrived at Ford's Theater a half hour too late (Lincoln was already dead).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our loyal house sitter discovered water in our basement. Our fabulous neighbor replaced our sump pump for us, but it sounds like we'll be coming home to a soggy mess. Bummer!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Day 4: We figured out how to use the Metro, watched the space shuttle launch on a big screen t.v. at the National Air and Space Museum, ate ice cream on the mall, and had lunch with the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History.

The Smithsonian rocks (and it's air conditioned!).

Monday, July 25, 2005

It's the end of Day 3, and we're in Arlington VA. Still haven't quite made it to DC, but we'll head out bright and early tomorrow. We ate at the original Red Hot and Blue (www.redhotandblue.com) tonight -- Memphis style BBQ. Yum!

Sunday, July 24, 2005

We spent last night in Cleveland with friends, and visited my parents in Pittsburgh today. Off to Washington tomorrow (Monday) -- finally!

Saturday, July 23, 2005

We're off to Washington D.C. for a week (yay!). 

I'm taking my laptop so I can keep up with my e-mail and daily blog reads.  My blogging software resides on my desktop, so it's not going on vacation with me.  I had this great idea about some kind of remote blogging, whereby I could just leave comments updating you on where we had been and what we had seen, but backBlog, my commenting host, is having problems with their system, so no comments are possible at this time (I wondered why everyone was ignoring me!). 

If the comment issue gets resolved, I'll go ahead and do that.  Otherwise, if you'd like to give me advice on where to go in D.C., please e-mail me (address in left sidebar).  If you'd like to comment on anything else, feel free to e-mail me.  I can post our conversations as a blog entry when I get back home!

Until then . . .

Sarah

Friday, July 22, 2005

Hmmm.  It seems as if my comments aren't working reliably.  You can always e-mail me at the address in my left sidebar (under "It's all about me!").

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Well, I'm still scaling (or descending, actually)  the mountain of laundry that resulted from Husband Number One and Sons Number One and Two being left on their own for a week, combined with the contents of my own suitcase.  I usually do at least two loads of laundry per day, so that may give you an idea of how far behind I was.  The end is in sight, fortunately. 

I think I've finally found the last of the dirty dishes (who put a bowl of ice cream behind the printer?), and I've read through (but not yet answered) all of the e-mail messages that had piled up in my absence.  I need to do some banking and schedule the cat- and gecko-sitter, and then I need to get cracking on my packing.

I haven't had a chance to sort through my photos and organize my thoughts about Knitting Camp.  That will have to wait until my return from Washington.  Sorry!

I do have a little photo essay for you, though.

Remember the burst water pipe under our driveway in late December, which was repaired in mid-January (see December 31, 2004 and January 13, 2005 posts if you're interested)?  Our driveway was FINALLY replaced this week (late July!).  It will cure while we're gone, and we'll actually be able to pull straight into our garage when we return from our vacation.  What a luxury!

Did anyone figure out what Specimen #2 from Wednesday's post was?

A cement mixer!

Here's our illustrious concrete crew smoothing out the gloppy glup that urped out of the truck:

And a day later, putting on the finishing touches!

Now go back and look at the picture in the middle again.  See the guy in the background on the right hand side?  He's from the telephone company, and spent a couple of days restoring our phone service after the concrete guys accidentally cut the telephone cable under the driveway (oops!). 

I missed photographing the township guys who spent most of Tuesday (while I was driving back from Knitting Camp) repairing the WATER PIPE that the concrete guys accidentally cut, which apparently resulted in a five foot deep swimming pool in the middle of our driveway with a corresponding waterfall cascading out into the road.

So let's review, shall we?

The water pipe burst.  The driveway was torn up.  The water pipe was repaired.  The driveway was repaired.  The water pipe burst.

I guess that means we've come full circle, eh?

Thank GOODNESS the pipe was able to be fixed in the same day, instead of in the TWO WEEKS it took this winter. 

Or we'd be packing dirty clothes for our week in D.C.

Sarah

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Had a wonderful time at Camp:

Wish you all could have been there with me! 

I'll post some photos and details in the next couple of days.  I'm currently working my way through a mountain of laundry, which will go right back into the suitcase in preparation for next week's trip to D.C.

Tonight, I'll leave you with photos of two interesting specimens we found in the front yard this morning.  Can anyone identify either of them?

Specimen #1:

Specimen #2:

More tomorrow!

Sarah

Monday, July 11, 2005

Behold Uberimma's sleeves and collar (and a miscellaneous swatch):

And a flash-filled close-up of one of the sleeves:

I'll try to get a good photo of the texture in natural light when the sweater is finished, which will be very, very soon, I hope!!

The pattern is Fern, from Alice Starmore's Stillwater.  An absolute delight to knit.  I was eventually able to memorize each of the different stitch patterns, which made me feel quite intelligent (the credit actually goes to an incredibly well written pattern).  I hope to get the pieces put together on the way to Knitting Camp this week.

I've also made progress on my Kimono, for the class I'm taking at Woven Art:

No, it's not purple, and no, it's not black.  It is, in case you hadn't noticed, a bright, shiny pink, with tutti frutti sleeves (the colors are photographing pretty true, amazingly enough).  Yes, I'm feeling all right.  I'm not convinced it will be worn by me, but I do think it will be beautiful.  You'll just have to wait and see.  And I mean wait.  It is not among the chosen few (ha!) projects that will accompany me to Camp.

That honor is reserved for the following:

• Fern (to be assembled)
• Entrelac Jacket (ends to be woven in, buttons to be sewn on)
• Meg's Fair Isle Cardigan (needs sleeves and a button/buttonhole band)
• Opal Mosaic Socks (one and four-fifths socks remain to be knit)
• Son Number One's Entrelac Pillow (not yet started)
• Diane's Golf Club Covers (not yet started)

Think I'm taking enough to do?  Me neither.  I'd better scrounge up a few more projects . . .

Sarah

Saturday, July 9, 2005

It's me!  I'm home safely!  Call off the (wo)manhunt!

The Serial Killer (hereafter to be known as Uberimma) and her family were delightful hosts, and I had a really, really good time.  We've already made plans to get together again next month -- hooray!

The sweaters we're knitting for each other finally got a chance to meet face to face, or in this case, sleeve to sleeve:

Aren't they beautiful together?

Sigh.

*

*

*

Oh.  Sorry.  I was admiring the pretty colors. 

Coming up next:  Details on the sweater I'm making for Uberimma.  Can anyone guess what it is?  It's the one on the right in the photo.  Karen, you're not allowed to guess, and neither can Tracy, or anyone else I've already told. 

And now I've got to empty my suitcase, wash my clothes, and put them back in my suitcase.  Knitting Camp starts next week!!

Sarah

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Hello, everyone. It's the Serial Killer here, guest

blogging for Sarah, who is indisposed at the moment.

I know that some of you may be worried about her

welfare, and I wanted to let you know that your

concerns are wholly unfounded.

She's fine. Completely fine. Right, Sarah? Sarah?

Well, she's fine. Take it from me.

She's just a little... tied up right now.

SK

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

I'm off to see the Serial Killer for a few days, so if you don't hear from me by, oh, let's say Monday, please suggest to my husband that he might want to call the police.  Thanks!

Sarah

Monday, July 4, 2005

Ooh!

Ahh!

Happy Fourth of July!

Sarah

Saturday, July 2, 2005

The audio book is a glorious invention.

My local library doesn't have a copy of Middlemarch on CD or on cassette, alas, so I'm still slogging through that one "manually" (probably won't be done until Middleaugust or later).

Whilst listening to The Red and the Black, however (thirteen hour-and-a-half cassettes), I got one heck of a lot of knitting done. 

The body of St. Brigid is done.  The sleeves have been started. 

The body of the Serial Killer's sweater is done.  The sleeves have been started.

Hmm. 

The body of Loll is done.  The sleeves have been started.

The body of my Fair Isle Cardigan from Meg Swansen's Knitting is done.  The sleeves need to be started.

(pause)

Egad.  How did that happen?  I've got four sweaters waiting for (at least) eight sleeves (if I'm lucky).

Gah.

I think it's time to start a new project.

Sarah

P.S.  Shhh!  Here's a sneak peak at the Serial Killer's sweater.  Don't tell her!

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