Retreat

The last two weeks have been very stressful and less than pleasant. So it was with a decent amount of anticipation that I headed out this past weekend to Nebraska City, Nebraska for the Sunflower Knitter’s Guild Spring Knitaway at Lied Lodge. A weekend of knitting and spinning was just what the doctor ordered.

Most of the weekend was spent knitting and spinning in this beautiful lobby.

We also managed to take a detour to Omaha and participate in a little retail therapy. We visited both String of Purls and Personal Threads. I might have died a little in the second. Please excuse the blurry camera phone photo of the wall of Koigu. This might be what heaven looks like.

And I even made a dent in my first April sweater:

Now I just need a weekend to recover!

Christmas 2010

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were awake, but cute as could be,

The cookies left out, plus milk just for he.

Me and my grizzly happy and warm

Another family evening, just one of the norm

Sooner or later we all went to bed
Arose in the morn, barely ‘wake and half dead.

White Christmas we saw, ’bout 8 inches of snow

Ate junk food a plenty, played cards and watched shows

Till on Monday we had to pack up the big van,
Filled with presents and luggage and nuts in a can

Hugged the family goodbye, and bid Christmas adieu
Sadly left little dude, hamming it up here for you!

Weekend trip!

This weekend I packed myself up and headed to Chicago for a quick 36 hour visit with the little sis and a bridal shower for her! I can hardly believe a year has gone by since she and her fiance got engaged and the wedding is fast approaching (the end of the month).

We got to run around and do various and sundry wedding errands and she appeased me by taking me to Trader Joe’s for some much-needed tasty snacks to stockpile at home. (since Kansas City has no TJ’s which is another story for another post!)

One of my favorite stops during the errands portion of the weekend was the Chicago Cultural Center. I hadn’t had reason to go before, but we went to grab some city brochures for out of town guests and Beth showed me the beautiful windows:


Saturday night was the shower. Managed to grab one pic of me and the little sis after the champagne toast!

And really, what trip to Chicago is complete without a visit to Wrigley Field? (though I admit this was just a driveby!)

Who the fuck is Alice?

Back in the summer of 1996, I had just graduated high school, and I was lucky enough to go on a “European Dream” – a thirty-day Europe trip led by my favorite English teacher. We spent exactly one night in Rothenburg, a small town on the German-France border. That night we went into town, and into one of the beer gardens. The place was full of happy Germans, who enjoyed the fact that 25-30 young American girls were joining in their evening. They plied us as best they could with liters of beer and apple shots. All the while a live band played German songs. So the Americans were amused when all of a sudden we heard everyone in the tent chanting an English refrain to an otherwise German song: “Alice, Alice, who the fuck is Alice?”

Well lookee what I found… (this appears to be a version in English, but it still brings back great memories!)

Honey, I’m home!


Wes and I just returned about an hour ago from a great weekend in Chicago. The l’il sis had the starring role in Measure for Measure, so the fam all met up in Chicago for a weekend of theatre, good eats and fun.

Wes and I drove up on Friday/Saturday and checked into our hotel about 4pm. Then we met up with my parents and some cousins for a fabulous dinner at Francesca’s in Edgewater. The food was really delicious, the company was good and the best part is that the restaurant was across the street from the theatre.


We then went across the street and were entertained for two plus hours. The play was really excellent, and we all had a great time. If you’re going to be in Chicago any time in the next few weeks you should catch this one!


Sunday we all met up for brunch, and then the l’il sis went off to her matinee and the my parents, Wes and I went shopping and touring. I caught a few fun photos around the city, and my dad took this one. All we need is a pitchfork!

Now we’re home, attempting to catch up with Mt. Laundry and get ready for work tomorrow. The garden didn’t seem to fare too badly for a few days without water. We’ve moved it outdoors now and we’re seeing some produce! We’re most impressed with our cucumbers:


Some carrots:


And of course, the tomatoes:

Honeymooning.

Well I’m finally back in Kansas (as of last night) and Wes and I are enjoying settling into married life. I’m still catching up on laundry, wedding thank you notes and the like. I have, however, posted our honeymoon photos. We hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we enjoyed taking them!

Find the full set here.

Update Part I: I visited 5 states yesterday, did you?

I’m going to break this mongo update into parts since I have so much to share and plenty of photos to accompany. So hold on to your readers folks… away we go!

Yesterday I visited 5 states, did you? I had a great time in California this past week (more in subsequent posts) but coming home was a wee bit of a nightmare. Wes and I were set to come home on Sunday afternoon. However, when I booked our flights I was unable to get us on flights together. I managed to get Wes the last seat on the direct flight back to Kansas City, but I ended up with a connecting flight to Milwaukee.

Come Sunday night, storms were raging throughout the midwest and Wes was stuck in Omaha and I wasn’t budging from Milwaukee. Luckily Wes managed to get home on Sunday. I was stuck in the airport until they canceled my flight (at 1am no less) and told me they couldn’t get me home until Tuesday evening.

I managed to find a hotel room by 3am and hooked up with a Professor in the airport who knew people from USC – we ended up renting a car and driving home together. Yesterday we drove through Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. And he had to drive back to Nebraska after that!

Remind me to stop flying places in the very near future.

So now I’m home, doing laundry and cooking and cleaning, hoping for some jobs this week, working on my wedding to do list and knitting (of course!).

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