NotScarlett

I cannot resist an animal in need

Are you looking to pick up a special little somethin' for that knitter in your life? You know, YOURSELF? Head on over to the wonderfully funny and talented Alyson's blog and check out her stash sale. All proceeds benefit her sweet pup Bitty who just underwent emergency surgery for um, a bit of a booty problem. She's got some luscious stuff for sale....there is yarn AND roving, if you do the spinning thang. Maybe you'd like some of her handspun gorgeousness? Check it out here at her etsy store.

Leftovers

I love Thanksgiving. Yesterday was a peaceful, joyful, reflective day, full of fun people and delicious food. B and J both have to work today, and J left for Jacksonville early this morning. Nina is still here in town, and she and I have extra-special plans for the afternoon. Due to a complicated series of events our beloved grandparents happen to be in town from Seattle, and we are finally getting a chance to visit with them with no interruptions or distractions. I'm thrilled that we are all going to be together, and hoping B will get home in time to visit for a bit. I wish we all could have been together for Thanksgiving, but am excited about getting to see them no matter what day it is.

There was much eating yesterday, but there was also quite a bit of knitting. After recovering from a tragic accident on my vacation  involving the socks in progress for Miss Kaitie Tee, a kitten, and me forgetting that kittens + yarn = BAD, I'm nearing the end of the Hedera odyssey. They're quite gorgeous, if I don't say so myself. Here's a peek.

Nina was gifted with a pair of cabled house socks I whipped up for her.

After staying at her new place and experiencing the chill of her tile floors firsthand, I busted out a pair of the Cable Footies from One Skein in about, oh, 5 hours total. I'm definitely making more of these; this pair knit up crazy fast and used less than a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. If you're looking for a quickie gift for the holidays, this is a great idea.

I'm off to make a sandwich....one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but this year is a tough one for me. I've been absent from the blog since we got back from our trip due to a situation that only peripherally involves me but upsets me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. I've kind of been hiding under a rock for the past week, and thanks to a few really wonderful people with strong shoulders and excellent listening skills, I'm ready to crawl on out.

I've got lovely plans for today....food, family and friends. Nina and Justin are in town and will be spending Thanksgiving with us. My wonderful MIL will be here, and we're all headed over to the neighbor/landlords house for dinner.

I made the best cake I've ever tasted, which, with my baking skills, is a true miracle. In fact, it was so good, we started eating it last night and I had to bake another one this morning.

I've got a pumpkin pie in the oven (the one thing I can bake), brussels sprouts ready to be roasted, gingered carrots awaiting their turn on the stove, and a few other veggie dishes I need to pack up. B is frying two turkeys, injected full of boozy goodness, and our neighbor is smoking a turkey and a duck. He's also taking care of the dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet 'taters and gravy...we're very excited about this because the guy is a gourmet chef and anytime we get to sample his cooking is a joy. B's mom's arrival is also eagerly awaited-she's bringing collards and a few other "southern" type things. We'll definitely be eating well tonight.

I'm so thankful for everyone who drops by my little corner of the internet. As trite as it may sound, I appreciate everyone who reads and comments, or even just lurks. I think Alyson summed up the way I feel with her post yesterday; check it out, and know I feel the same way. (Minus the eye damage and the Opal.)

I'm thankful for so much today, I don't think I have the space or time to list it all here! One thing  I will share is how thankful I am to have so much love in my house today. I can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy with all the smiles and laughter around me right now.

Cricket is here with Nina and J, and she and Sam have been running around like crazy.

They are both all sweet and snuggly, and I can't help but be distracted from my cooking by their
sweet little faces.

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today, I'm so happy to be surrounded by people I love. Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, or just Thursday, I wish you lots of joy today.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

You're my best friend and the love of my life. I couldn't ask for a better man. Especially since you do dishes and laundry. I love you so much!

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

Yesterday was not a good day.

It started off just fine. I didn't cry like a baby when I said goodbye to my mom at the airport. I totally thought I was going to, but I didn't. Go me!

I got up in plenty of time to have coffee before we left for the airport, so I was feeling great on our first flight to Salt Lake City.

We get to Salt Lake City, and are hurryhurryhurrying because we only have about 20 minutes til our plane boards and we really need to find some food. We find something halfway edible in the form of an eight dollar turkey sandwich that we split. We get to our gate, and our flight has been delayed an hour. The co-pilot had food poisoning, so we were waiting for the back up guy to get in from L.A. Ok, fine. I can knit. I sit there happily knitting away on my Baby Surprise Jacket. We finally board, and this is where the madness begins. B and I are seated next to each other, there are three seats in middle of the plane to my right, and then another row of two seats on the other side of the plane. I was sitting in the aisle seat next to the most obnoxious man alive. I endured his non-stop complaining, whining, and general discontent the entire flight. That doesn't even cover his constant stand up sit down routine, which meant his ass was in my face for about 80% of the flight. Oh, did I mention his constant gas? Or the way he would shout towards the back of the plane to a traveling companion? No headphones, book, or knitting could have blocked this douchebag out. I was in nightmare city.

So. That happened. We FINALLY get to Atlanta. At this point, I am ravenously hungry, very irritated, and just want to go home. I hit a wall, I just shut down. B was great, putting up with my bitchiness the whole time. Just as we are getting ready to board our final flight of the day, to Jacksonville, we're all told that the aircraft would not be leaving the airport because some depressurization had occurred and there was a giant crack in the windshield. Thank God they noticed before they loaded us on the plane and took off. So scary.

We waited. And waited. And finally, they put us on a different plane, and I kid you not, was was supposed to be an hour and fifteen minute flight from ATL to JAX took about 45 minutes. After all our delays through the day, we were only 25 minutes later than we were scheduled to be. It totally could have been worse, but my irritability is what made my day so bad.

Instead of staying at Nina's as we had originally planned, once she picked us up and took us to her place, we gave her the birthday presents we brought her, got Sam, and hauled ass back to Tallahassee. We got home at about 1130 EST, and I have never been so glad to see my house. I woke up this morning in my own bed, with my dog and B, and was very glad to be home.

The only casualty of our trip was my BSJ pattern. I lost it somewhere between SLC and ATL. I'm stuck at a place where I really need to check the pattern, and am now going to have to order it again. But hey, my luggage didn't get lost, and I'm home in one piece. I'm focusing on the positive.

I've got the day off tomorrow and am planning a photo shoot for my yarn purchases on the trip as well as a few FO's. Most of the trip pics are up on Flickr now, so check them out if you are interested.

Alright. That's the end of the vacation posts, y'all. I've re-ordered them chronologically , sorry for the kajillion posts that are coming up on your feedreaders. I'll be back to some actual knit blogging in the next few days. Thanks for reading!

Happy and Sad

Le sigh.

It's time to go back to Tallahassee.

I'm a little weepy; leaving home is always hard for me. I get desperately homesick, I miss my mom, I miss my friends. I know I will be ok though. I just have to suck it up and be a big girl.

B and I have had an amazing experience for the past week. We're both a little bummed about leaving. It's the whole post-vacation reality re-entry burnout thing, but I think this trip has made us both appreciate what we have, and who and where we are in life right now.  I cannot wait to get to my house, to see my dog, to spend so little of my days driving back and forth places. To shop and eat at locally owned places instead of big chains (don't get me wrong, I love me some big chains now and then).  I think I appreciate Tallahassee a bit more now, after spending day after day in traffic here and being unable to see the mountains for the smog.

California, I'll always love you, but it's time for me to go.

I plan on blogging more about the rest of our trip when I get home, and posting more pics here and on Flickr. Writing it all down helps preserve the memories, and I fully intend on a few more California heavy posts. For now, I'll list some highlights that I don't want to forget.

Captain Camry, Go Karts, Mom and the case of the giant pants, Youtube time with the parents, the best milkshakes every at Stephanie and Clint's house (another event I am saving an entire post for), Closeknit, orange acoustic basses, ice cream sundaes, incredible amounts of Mexican food, cool temperatures, chemtrails, tidepools, sunsets, bees,  road rage, "it's brown where you come from", "Sorry, they were all out of Kirkegaard", "Could be a crab leg" , Freakers, the little kitty "remodeling" the guest room, bubblebaths, toll roads, mom's cooking.

We'll be on and off planes, in and out of airports, and thoroughly exhausted tomorrow. Hope y'all have a fantastic weekend, and I'll be back with more vacation posts soon. A few will even have real live knitting content!

Also? Today my beloved baby sister turns 24. Happy birthday, Nina! I love you!

Day 8

Today was the day for last minute shopping. We went back up to Ontario Mills so B could check out the bass he had a crush on. I thought for a few brief moments he'd be bringing it home, but we discovered it was a used instrument and beat to hell....the fact that it was used isn't a big deal at all, it was the beat to hell and shoddily repaired and marketed as new thing that bothered us. We also went back to Downtown Riverside and snapped up a few more items we had seen earlier in the trip. Later in the day, my mom and I spent some time shopping together, which was wonderful, I totally miss just hanging out with her. We all went to dinner at Carino's after tricking Jeff into thinking it was a Mexican restaurant (he hates Italian food.) Went back to the house and started packing.

Day 7

  Saps 
  Originally uploaded by notscarlett7

We went down to Balboa/Newport Beach/Crystal Cove State Park today. We took this pic down in the tide pools at Crystal Cove. It was a beautiful day, we have a fantastic time exploring the beach and the tide pools.

The past few days have been a bit a bit emotional for me...the collision of my past and present has been a little intense. Not in a bad way, just....strange. Being here is really, really wonderful though, and I am thrilled that Brian is here to share it with me.

The time has passed just as quickly as I knew it would, we leave early Saturday morning. Crazy. I'm a bit behind on my updates, but plan on getting a few more up tomorrow morning. I'm trying to keep current on everything as it happens so it is nice and fresh in my mind when I record it, but am also trying not to spend all my vacation time on the computer.

More to come shortly, for now, you can check out a slew of new pics over on my Flickr stream if you're so inclined.

Day 6

We tried to check out the Fender "museum" today since it is close to my parents house, but it was a bust. We checked out a new-to-me yarn store in the area, and were scared off by the nasty employee there. In an attempt to right these wrongs, I took B to Miguel's Jr.

Do I even need to go into detail about that? So. Freakin'. Yummy.

Went to dinner at Don Jose with the parents, had amazing food and a perfect margarita. Ah, So. Cal. Mexican food, how I miss you. Headed over to a go-kart racing place, B and Jeff suited up and hit the track. So much fun. Lots of quality time with the parents today, very nice.

Day 5-Shopping, shopping, did someone say shopping?

B and I are also shoe whores. Just so you know. We spent most of the day Monday driving around, shopping for shoes. We got shoes. I got a new hoodie at the Converse store at Ontario Mills. We almost slipped and fell down, hard, at the Vans store. B fell in love with a Tune bass we saw at a music store. There was a lot of shopping, like I said. 

The highlight of the day though? We went and had dinner with Stephanie and Clint. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time with Stephanie when I was here last time, but didn't get to see Clint since he was at work. I hadn't seen the guy since their wedding, which totally doesn't even count because even though I was a member of the wedding party, I barely interacted with him that day. Anyway, I know B was excited to meet them because he wanted to put a face to the names I kept throwing around. This whole trip I would tell him a lot of stories that started with "One day, me and Steph skipped class and went shopping here and then....."

We headed over to their house where we were promptly greeted as "New Sarah and New Brian." They know a lot of Sarahs and Brians, so in order to explain who we were to their daughter, we became "new" since she didn't know us. I cannot believe how big she has gotten...last time I was here she was about 3 months old, now she's two and absolutely gorgeous. She's a charming, sweet, funny, well behaved kid, Stephanie and Clint have done a great job. I have no doubt their baby boy who is due in March will be the same way.

Seeing Stephanie pregnant in the flesh and not just in a picture was so cool. Does that sound weird? Whatever. The girl is like a sister to me, and I was unable to see her during her first pregnancy when I desperately wanted to be there for her. Seeing her all knocked up was a treat. She looks beautiful as always, and she and Clint have an amazing home. They cooked us chipotle chicken tacos, and B has been asking me to get her recipe for this killer pineapple salsa she made ever since. Clint made us the most decadent milk shakes of all time, with vanilla ice cream, chocolate, peanut butter and banana. I think I gained 7000 pounds just looking at it. I don't even care, it was delicious.

Visiting with some of my favorite people in the world was wonderful. Their hospitality was just as awesome as I knew it would be. My only regrets are we didn't get any pictures and I didn't get to kidnap Stephanie for any alone time.  I totally thought we would have time to get together again before we left, but it just didn't work out that way. I'm disappointed, but so happy I got to see her and her family.

Stephanie, I know you are reading! I love you lots, and thanks again for being so wonderful to us.