Our Night in Rodanthe

Many of you have no doubt seen the movie trailers for or the film “Nights in Rodanthe”.  Our story was a little different and there was no Richard Gere or it may have totally been worth it.

Grandma and Grandpa brought my mom and my uncle to the southern North Carolina coast when they were very young, so we thought it would be cool to go to the Outer Banks while they were here. According to the Garmin it was about a five and a half hour drive from my apartment to Cape Hatteras. We figured, eh thats close enough to go down and back in one day. You know, it might have been accept we decieded to go the day there is a tropical type storm off the coast. Now lets be clear, it was a tropical depression and it wasn’t really a tropical storm, but close.

We left Southern Pines at about 9am and drove through on and off down pours, it was wierd. We’d be driving and nothing, then suddenly it’s a deluge and I can’t see the road. This was the whole trip there on and off.  Many of you have not been to, or know much about the Outer Banks.  Here is a map.

You can see all the Outer Banks really is, is a series of thin islands that protect the NC mainland so to speak. We drove through Plymouth, across a bridge that seemed much to long and much to close to the water to get to Manteo where we stopped for lunch at Hurricane Moe’s so Mom could have scallops! (that was goal number two for the day, if we we’re going to the coast Mom wanted scallops).

Here is the first bridge we encountered. This bridge goes from the mainland to Roanoke Island.

Yes the picture is crappy, but this is what we were driving in going over the bridge….I don’t like bridges… at all so this part of the trip was a lot of fun, and let me tell you there are quite a few bridges and some of them are really really long…… like you get on the bridge and you can’t even see land.

This is one such bridge, we are already on it……and had been for a bit… and it just keeps going…..

We made though and the weather cleared up rather nicely. Once we got onto the Outer Banks there is one road. It goes north and south. If you go north you go up to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, if you go south you go towards Hatteras. Past Hatteras there is a free ferry which will take you to Ocracoke Island where there is another light house. Past that is another ferry that takes you to main land NC or SC. WE went south and about three miles after getting on Hwy 12 you come to Bodie Island Lighthouse.

You want a sign? This one was in the Bodie Island Museum/gift shop. This should have been a clue that maybe we picked the wrong day to come out here.

About twenty minutes further down the road is the Cape Hatteras light house. Not a big deal right? Well this little storm was cause eight foot swells we find out later. Want another sign?

This is what I drove my mom’s Honda Odessy through at Mirlo Beach. Ok Minnesota folk, how often have you been told never to drive though water that is covering the road way. Yea me too. I was seriously about to pee myself driving though this. Mom is loving it. She had said a couple of days/weeks before about how cool it would be to see storm damage….she got her wish.

See all the sand on the side of the road? That was from the morning tide. Us being Land dwellers kind of forgot about the whole tide thing, and didn’t really think again about the water thing. We drove through this at about 2pm. Tide went out at about 10am and we find out later that night that the road had been closed from about 6am until noon that day whilst the equipment seen in the above picture could clear the sand off the road……. you can see where this may be going.

Anyway, we blissfully carry on down the road toward the Hatteras lighthouse. Blissfully in part because the sun was finally out, woo hooo. Following are a bunch of pictures of the light house and the beach. Now at this point knowing he couldn’t climb the light house Tom took off to get pictures of the ocean for us while Mom and I strolled the light house grounds, so prepare for picture-palooza.

So after we got a good look at the light house and the grounds we figured we had better try to get back home. The local radio station had been talking about how the road had been closed in the morning and how the chanced of the road closing again when the tide comes back in was pretty high. In one of the pamphlets we had picked up was a tide calender. Afternoon high tide was at about 530, we left the lighthouse at about 345 thinking we had plenty of time.

We reached Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe and 420 to cop cars blocking off what would normally be the road….. which at that time was a small lake. I pulled up and asked the officer how long he thought the road would be closed. 6 hours, if it re-opened……Great. So here we are a bunch of tourist who have no where to stay and no meds with us….cause we weren’t planning on staying overnight we never thought to bring my grandparents medications with us.

We finally decided we would pull over somewhere and nap for a while then grab food and one of the places that had a bar so it wouldn’t look wierd if we were there for a few hours. So we drove back and forth between Rodanthe and Buxton trying to decide where to stop and where to eat and if we should just plan on staying the night. I wanted to go home…I started to panic. I’m kind of claustriphobic and the thought of being stuck on the island was kind of driving me a little batty.  Seriously. So we pulled into the parking lot of the Froggy Dog and kicked back for a bit. Well apparently somone noticed and the owner of the joint came out to see if we were ok, and I explained what was going on and that we were just nappin for a bit and we would be in a little later for grub and hopefully be able to go home, she was very nice and said that was fine and if we needed anything to pop in.  We did eventually go in and get some food, which would have been really good if I hadn’t been so nauseated. My nerves were a wreck….couldn’t place why then, still haven’t figured it out. So we hung out, ate, took in the atmosphere. They usually have kareoke on Thurseday nights….. but the people that run it couldn’t get on the island…figures.  I went out the parking lot and decorated it with what little iI did eat and we headed out. While we were down that way we check with the local Comfort Inn to see if they would have rooms should we be stuck and then headed back up the road. We got back up to Rodanthe about 930 and saw:

OK so my nerves go completely haywire, I was damn sure I was going to pass out right there. I shakingly walked up to the officers and asked what our chances of getting of the island were, and he told us it should be about midnight when the crews had to road open again. They had big dumpers and scrapers trying to scrape the four feet of sand off of the road.  I asked him how often this kind of thing happens and he goes “oh all the time”….you would think in a world of modern engineering someone could fix that…a bridge, a wall, something! Ok…calm myself….Walk back to the car, pull to the side of the road and prepare to hang for a while. We weren’t the only ones, there was a small line like preparing for a parade along that road. People slowly trickle up the officers and check on the status and about 1030 one person stops by the van and tells us that they aren’t going to be able to open the road. Apparently the equipment couldn’t handle the sand and kept breaking down and the they weren’t getting more equipment in but it wouldn’t be there until five in the morning….crap……more roadside decorating and Tom takes the drivers seat and we head back to the hotel get a couple of rooms and wait until morning. When we got to the hotel there was a Dare County Sheriffs deputy there and he gave me the number for the non-emergency dispatch and told me to call in the morning to get an update on the road status.

We settled in as best we could for the night and woke up about 7 the next morning, called the emergency dispatch who told us the road was open. As we are checking out one of the desk gals was looking at the Rodanthe webcam, and said that it looked like the road was closed again because she coudln’tsee any traffic moving. Using the desk phone I called the non-emergency number again and was told they were just running another scrapping and it should be re-opened in about fiftenn minutes. We loaded up the van and got the He** out of there while we still could. I still wasn’t feeling real great some Tom got the privilage of the sunny and uneventful drive home. The road looked so much different than the night before. The sun was shining and the wind had calmed down so it was actually a nice drive. The big difference was the huge sand piles along the road in Rodanthe.

I had completely sworn off the outer banks after that night but now I might like to go back as long as the weather is going to cooperate and we plan on staying the night somewhere!

A wedding and a flooded road

I know you all have been patiently awaiting this blog post but it took a bit for things to settle down enough for me to form a coherent thought (which is usually fairly difficult for me anyway, yea yea yea I know).  Don and I got married on September 21 on a lovely day in West Virginia. I’d love to say things went off with out a hitch and for many people who were there you would almost think it had. Let’s start at the begining.

Don and I drove up to his parents in Webster Springs WV, on Friday after I had worked a 12 hour night shift. I figured no problem I’ll just sleep in the car on the way up. Yea, that didn’t happen. I was super, super car sick the entire 6 hour drive. Good news was, the Goody’s in Summersville did indeed have his tux. Why am I supprised by this? Well there seemed to be some confusion in the lines of communication. Don went to the Goody’s here in Southern Pines, got measure and had a rush put on his tux so it would be there in time. They told him it would be at the Goody’s in WV by Saturday. Great! Then at some point in the week someone was told it wasn’t for sure it would get there, or something, I heard that part all second hand. So that tux got cancelled and Don was going to try to get one down here. Because of his work schedule he wasn’t able to get in to get fitted at all….Great, I’ll standing in front of my family with some guy in his undapants. I called the Goody’s in Summersville to try to figure out what in god’s name was going and to my suprise they already had his tux, there in the store. I asked what happened and they told me they had overnight shipped it to make sure it would get there in time, but that someone had called and cancelled it the same day it had been ordered…..I’m still not sure what happened but I’m just got we got it. The rest of the trip for us was uneventful. Mom and the rest of the gang had made it to thier hotel in Indiana with out event. Oh yea, but no one had a cell phone signal in the hills….no one…….

By Satureday you could kind of start to tell everyone was starting to feel the stress of things. Late nights getting this done, trying to organize family coming from all over the place. My family made it into Webster without much trouble and from the hotel we went out to the park to help with the set up. Now I don’t know how many of you have been to West Virginia but those roads aren’t flat and they aren’t straight, so just because something looks close on the map, it may still take you an hour to get there. From Webster Springs to the park was about a 45 minute drive for us not used to driving in those mountains. Don’s mom had rented one of the cabins at the park for Satureday and Sunday night and then had rented us one of the smaller cabins for Sunday night. So we go to the park to help with setting up and we get the pavillion all set up and what not and go up to the cabin to see what needed to be done up there. As we are coming up to the cabin, Don’s sister comes out and tells her husband that she needs him in there like now. A couple minutes later Kevin comes out with a small snake in a dust pan….Yea a baby snake…..According to folks in there it fell out the damn ceiling!!!! Guess what….I hate snakes……The worst news of the week came shortly there after. Don’s uncle had been in an accident and killed in Florida that afternoon. Here is a link to the story.  Needless to say we kind of wondered if we should postpone the wedding but everyone agreed to keep on with it. Many of Don’s family were unable to come due to Michael’s death but the number that did come was suprising and really ment a lot to us.

Sunday dawned a beautiful day in Webster Springs, the weather channel had said it was supposed to be 75 and Sunny! We didn’t have a rehersal the night before with everything that happened so we were just kind of shootin from the cuff, which didn’t go real well with my type A personality as many of you can guess. I spent some of the morning trying to get a hold of the gal that was supposed to be doing my hair to find out for sure what time she was going to be at the park. Don’s mom had talked to her and the gal said she would be at the park but Glada couldn’t remember what time she had said. I left a message at her house and shop and still couldn’t get a hold of her. It was starting to get kind of late so we headed out to the park. We got out there and it was a flurry of activity the pavilion looked amazing and the cabin Don’s mom had rented was packing wtih people decorating the cake and getting things finished up to take down to the pavillion. I decieded I would get dressed in the cabin Don’s mom had rented for us to use that night. The cleaning gals were right across the road cleaning one of the other cabins so I asked them how I could get a key. They told me to hang out by the office and the ranger would be back soon. So I drive down to the office and waited….and waited…and waited. I waited long enough the Don and Tom showed up at the pavillion which was right across the dang street! I went back up and asked if one of the cleaning gals would let me in and I would worry about getting the key later. One of them was nice enough to walk me up to the cabin but on the way there informs me that it kinda smells like a dead rat in the cabin and that we may want to think about switching cabins…..great…… I deciede to sniff for myself. She let me in and it really just smelled like musty wood, probably from the fire wood that was in the cabin. I didn’t really have time to take a look a round so we popped open a couple windows and left. I went back to Glada’s cabin to get stuff together and after about half hour or so one of the other gals walked up to our cabin to use the shower and informed me that it was locked again….wonderful. Ok I’ll just get dressed where I am then. The girl who was supposed to do my hair never showed….. The cabin finally cleared out a bit I quick threw my hair back, pinned in some bobby pins and the decerative ones I had, and called it good. Got dressed and Tom, and Haley (Don’s niece) and I hopped in the van and head down to the pavilion. From here things went smooth as glass. I didn’t trip on the rocks or nothing! After the ceremony we did all the pictures and let people eat. There really wasn’t a reception people ate, mingled and we cut the cake and that was about it. No one was really in the mood for dancing and since we had it on a Sunday afternoon people had to get back home to get to work Monday morning. The whole thing had wrapped up by about six or so. I’m thinking awesome we can get cleaned up and still be able to watch the football game (Packers vs. Cowboys). Don and I go back to our cabin so I can get changed out of my dress. Whilst I’m changing Don goes in the bathroom and guess what he finds. A DEAD MOUSE. EW EW EW EW EW EW EW. Ok after the baby snake and the dead mouse this city, yankee girl is offically freaked out!! I pile my bag all up on top of one another so I don’t have any little visitors in them and go out to the car while Don disposes of our little gift from nature. We stop down at his mom’s cabin, tell her about the mouse and head back in to Webster to watch the game. Packers lost…..figures. After the game we go next door to Don’s cousins house and chill there for a bit, and leave to head back to the park at about one in the morning. We get back to the cabin and its almost two. You would expect all the other cabins to be dark that time of night, but I was dead sure we left the outside light at our cabin on. We get to the door and Don’s mom and Aunt Judy had put a poster on our outside door. We didn’t really see it but we knew it was there because they had covered up the door handle. We go in side and the lights won’t turn on….yea no power. I’m at the stage you call freaking out. It’s pitch black, there was a dead mouse in here and I hear scurring! I turned to Don and said I’m not staying here. I’ll write a note so hopefully your mom gets her money back but I refused to stay here. So two in the morning we are loading the car up to head back into town. Just as we were pulling away from the cabin the lights all come back on and Don asked if I’d rather just stay since the power was back and I was like ummm no….drive. I wrote a little note to the park ranger informing them that we didn’t stay in the cabin, and let him no about our little guest and the fact that there as no power and that they should refund the money spent for it (those cabins were like $125 a night….) We got back to his parents about 3am and both just crashed. How’s that for a wedding night! It turns out that the park refunded the money for both cabins thank goodness. In hindsight though we had a beautiful day spent with family and friends with a little extra adventure thrown in!

The day after the wedding we just hung out at Don’s parents house so our families could get to know one another. We sat on the porch, ate, drank a little, shared stories, that kind of stuff. It was nice and the weather was wonderful. Mom, Tom, Grandma, and Grandpa left to head to North Carolina about noon on Tuesday and Don and I left Webster Springs a little after 6 that night. I wasn’t car sick at all  on the way home thank god.

This has gotten wordy enough for one entry I’ll save the flooded road story and the rest of my week with my  family for another post. But here’s the link to some of the pictures from the wedding. I only have a small amount of them. Don’s mom is going to get a hold of everyones camera’s or disks and compile them all and send them to me so once I get those I’ll have many more pictures to share! Click here to take a look!

It’s fall right?

The calender says September, I just watched parts of the first regular season Packer game….but something isn’t right. Oh I know!! How about the fact that it was 90 some degrees here today!!!!!!! UUUUGGGGHHHHHH. ok rant over…..I’m all better now…..seriously……. I’m very jealous of you back in Minnesota, I do keep my eye on some of the news station’s webpages. I want your weather please and thank you.  Mom is supposed to be bringing Honeycrisp apples to me when the come down, but Pepin Hieghts website says the apples won’t be ready for shipping until Sept. 22, but hopefully they’ll have some in the shop or something before then…If not I might cry….a lot.

On to other things that are going on here, the Anniversary Mystery Shawl is done!!! * Cue trumpet fanfare and cheers from my adoring fans* For your viewing pleasure…… A picture!

It was a pain in the butt at times but it turned out to be worth it. I’m sure I’ll do one of these again in the future……just not for a little while!

The wedding planning continues…it is now T minus 13 days and counting.  I will not impart all my stresses upon you but leave it to say that there are times I want to kill people……..or drown myself in a bathtub full of gin……. oh yea……..

Speaking of Booze…..HOW BOUT THEM PACKERS!!!! Eat it Vikings fans, eat it and like it. I’m unfortunatly at work for the game but managed to flip it on in one of the empty rooms, and the best part….wait for it….I wore a Packer jersey to work!!! It beat trying to keep that damn scarf tied around my waist (MB 6BG folks will know what Im talking about).

I think that’s really it kids, my life is so horribly not exciting right now…Lots of work, lots and lots, and lots of sleep… Stay safe kids…OH and go read the Twilight saga… now do it!!! Seriously!

Wedding plans, cooler weather and a trip to the ER

Yes we finally set a wedding date, and not to make things stressful only gave ourself about a month and a half to plan. There is a reason for this really. My family (Mom, brother and grandparents) are coming to visit in September, so we figured we might as well get it done while they are here.  We’ll be having in West Virigina which is nice because my family will be able to meet his family, many of which I haven’t met! We’re having it at Holly River state park on Sept. 21 so the leave will be changing and all that! I have my dress, and now am workign on the specifics up in WV.

I was watching the football game the other night (Panthers, not Packers, so not quite a perfect scene but close) and knitting and I had to look out the window to remind myself that it wasn’t snowing and I wasn’t back in Minnesota! (it doesn’t help that i’m listening to KSTP am 1500 streaming broadcast right now and hearing Twins Cities traffic and Weather!!)

I am almost finished with my Anniversary mystery shawl. I’m finally on the boarder and almost halfway finished with that, and I actually think I’ll have enough yarn!!! Wooo Hoooo I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I have so many projects I want to do, but I have to finish the entrelac shawl I was working on before this shawl. After this lace though that entralac will be a piece of cake!!!

Lastly I got my first major migraine in about three years. Of course it had to hit me whilst I was at work so I couldn’t do a dang thing about it. I spent about 3 hours in the Er getting some meds and fluids, and yea I’m still working a little bit of the migraine hang over. Hence why this entry is a bit short. I need to go out and get dog food and then I’m going back to bed for a bit. Feel free to drop me a line, let me know how things are and what your up to!

Doggie Field Trip

Blossom and I made our first trip to the dog park today! We live not far from an off leash dog part which is convientlly located behind Walmart! I know what you are thinking. It’s not RIGHT behind walmart but its close enough. We went about 7 this morning for a couple reasons. One was that since it was her first time I didn’t want to go when it was super busy with a butt-ton of other dogs. Two I had been up all night and kind of had a feeling by the time I woke up this evening it would be damn near dark. Three was that at 7am it was already 73 degrees and like 90% humidity and I did not feel like sweating myself to death. Both myself and the dog are a bit out of shape you see. All this and Blossom isn’t flee or tick treated yet…..I think Don will be checking her later on.

This is the obligitory rules and regulation sign at the front of the park. You park in kind of a round about then you have to walk back a bit before you’re actually in the park. It says that its a fence area but I really think it must be only fenced on three sides because you don’t have to walk through a gate or anything to get in.

I left Blossom on the lease for most of the time we were there since it was new, and neither of us really knew the place, plus if she got some wild hair up her a$$ I didn’t want to go running through the wood to catch her.

The park is pretty big and goes from having open areas with tall grass……..

To more wooded areas…..Pine cone anyone???

There is a little stream that flows through part of the park but Blossom didn’t really seem all that interested. She never has been much of a water dog.

Neither was I when I saw……. THIS!!!!. ………………………….

I mean what the hell is that thing!!!!!

The other odd thing about the area I live in is the ground itself. It’s not dirt…..It’s all sand, seriously, I almost thought I was at the beach for a little bit! The whole area is like this even the yard in front of out apartment. Just under what looks like grass is sand. If you live off of a paved road you don’t even really have a driveway its just a worn patch of sand.

We roamed around for an hour before Blossom started doing the foamy at the mouth kind of panting and I figured it would probably be a good idea to go home.  We stopped at Panera on  the way home and got some breakfast, I got a breakfast sandwich (they are really good) and Blossom got a couple pieces of bacon!

Now this is the face of a happy dog!

Knitting wise, I’m still working on that mystery shawl. All five pieces of the pattern are out but I’m still working on clue number 4. In my own defense the chart is 100 rows long and each row is 576 stitches!!! I’m on row 49 right now so I’m almost half way done on it. I have so many sock patterns that I want to do and sock yarn I want to order but I can’t, because I know if I do I won’t finish the shawl and I have to finish it. Oh yea and that Lady Eleanor shawl I was working on isn’t finished yet either!!! I’ve also put off ordering anymore spinning fiber until this shawl is done as well. I’m using those purchases and motivation to finish this shawl. Don’t get me wrong It’s going to be beautiful when its done……It’s just a long ways from being done yet. OH yea and another thing!! The yarn I got for it is going to be a pain in the butt to block because it’s cotton/rayon so I’m going to have to steam block it IF I even have enough yarn to finish!!! The pattern called for about 1250 yard of yarn and I bought 1500 just in case i screwed up. Well a few people that have finished have used more that and one woman used up 1700 yards and STILL came up short!!!! Needless to say this concerns me a little bit. Hopefully It’ll work out ok!!!

On the wedding front, nothing is for sure yet but we might be trying to pull a quick wedding together for a weekend in September while my family is down here visiting us. Nothing is set in stone but if anyone is going to be in the Myrtle Beach area say the 26 of September let me know…..Remember nothing for sure yet……kkthnxbai

WWWoooooo Hooooo

I’m at work, and there are tootsie rolls, cookies and pizza!!!!! What more could a girl need!!!!!!

It’s 4am…….

Indeed it is. I just spent I don’t know how long talking to the folks back home in the MICU. I’m home sick. I am very tempted to throw my stuff in a bag, grab the animals and start driving north. I’m sure this is just a normal thing, but it sucks….hard.  It’s hard to go some place new and not compare it to what you’ve come from and I amd having a very difficult time with it because I loved (and love) the people I worked with back in the MICU and can’t seem to accept my new job for what it is only to accept that it isn’t what my old job was. Who knew I’d miss it. I remember lying in bed thinking to myself…..self?! I don’t wanna go to work. I’d never have believed you if you told me I’d miss it someday! I of course miss my family too, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think they would have been as happy to hear from me at like 2 in the morning if all I wanted to do was chat and wasn’t profusly bleeding from somewhere. I save those phone calls for the day time hours. This little picture is for Jolene, and all our military people out there doing what they do to keep our freedom safe!

I’m off orientation now. I had my first shift on my own last night, and then tonight I got put on call. Basically I sit and watch the phone in case they end up needing me. Hence the other reason I’m up at 4 in the morning.

Not helping things is all the Brett Favre crap going on. Good lord. I have kind of just ignored it because it’s so aggrivating I have enough to worry about here, with out that mess!!! I just hope this turns out good in the end. I would hate to see a legacy like his ruined over something like this. It would really be quite tragic.

This is a short post. I’ll have another one coming up with pictures from our 4th of July weekend/Shane’s (Don’s youngest nephew) 4th birthday party. No one was injuried luckly just some very freaked out goats.

My inner Farm Girl flag is showing

I know a lot of you are reading this and going “what in god’s name is she talking about”. This all stems from Plurk. Like I told you before I’ve been on this website called plurk. One of the gals on plurk, the ever enabling Miss Violet started this group called the Plurket Hencircle, which is a chapter group from a site for MaryJane’s Farm. Basically it’s a site to celebrate strong communities, and being aware of were you live. Doesn’t matter if your big city or small town, it’s about getting back to your roots kinda thing. Being a knitter a psuedo spinner I fit in, in that way.

Our first project for the group is a blog post telling the rest of the hencircle about ourselves. So here goes, for most of you this may be pretty repetetive since you know me, but there may be a tidbit or two of information that is new. I’m 27 years old and grew up in a small town in southeastern Minnesota. I didn’t live on a farm but I often tried to turn our home into one. I desperately asked for a pony when I was little (what girl doesn’t ) and was dissappointed when I opened the My Little Ponies box. I brought home a chicken in 6th grade. It was a science project in class to hatch eggs, and people that lived out in the country or had some where to take one in the country were allowed to take one of the chicks home. Well me not being able to turn away anything fuzzy and cute, lied and told my teacher it was going to my Uncle’s place out in the country. IT didn’t. It went straight to a box on my desk, until one night I wanted to cuddle with in before I went to bed. Long story short, I rolled over and killed it. Yea, it was devestating. I remember the funeral for little chirppy out there under the willow tree………Anyway…. I’ve been knitting for about three years and have recently picked up spinning, and now want to adopt a sheep (girls from the micu will get the joke there) but my apartment just won’t allow it.  I now live in South central North Carolina with my fiance, my cat and my dog. I would love to connect with nature and such down here, but the bugs seem to enjoy connecting to me. Working nights makes it a little more difficult as well. It’s kinda scary going hiking at two in the morning. I’m looking forward to the projects the group does to help us down the road to our inner farmgirls. Check the site out, have a look around.

Time sinks and toilets

I mentioned before that my wheel could possibly put a dent in my knitting time, but unfortunetly work is putting a dent a my spinning time, I mean, seriously!!! I haven’t just been spinning though. I signed up for a mystery knit a long. Basically how it works is a part of the pattern is released at different times. In this particular one there are five parts of the pattern, one clue being released each week. This Saturday is clue three. I have no idea what it’s going to look like, all I know is that it is going to be round and 60 inches in diameter. I just finished the second clue this morning and will hopefully get a picture taken some time today if I can get it stretched out so you can see the detail.  I’m still working on the Lady Eleanor shawl in between clues. The knitting and the spinning is my time sink.

The time toliet is a website called plurk. OMG worse addiction type webiste than Facebook or Myspace. It’s like Twitter if any of you know that one. It sets up as a time line and people can post random thoughts and what not and people can respond to thier comments. The more people on your friends list the more people’s postings you see on your timeline. The other part of it is the Karma. There are a lot of different ways to earn Karma but the more karma you have the more stuff you can do on the site. It’s bad addictive…….

Other than that life has been pretty boring. I have two weeks left on orientation at work, even though I don’t really need them. It’s going ok. I miss my folks back at Mayo though. *hugs!* Don’s been busy working and thats about it. Don’s parents are coming down for 4th of July weekend so I’m not sure what that’s all going to entail. We’ll see.

Finally jumped off the deep end!

I finally did it. Many of you thought I was crazy and many thought I wouldn’t do it. But I did. I bought a spinning wheel!!!!!!! I drove three and a half hours to a store dang near, on the coast and dang near in Virginia called The Woolery. Totally worth the drive. The people there were so wonderful and helpful. They answered all my stupid questions and let me play around to my hearts content! I also got with it a free niddy noddy in the matching wood and a free bobbin, so with the three that came with I’m pretty set with four bobbins! Without further ado…..

It’s a Kromski Minstrel. It spins wonderfully. I spun up 3ounces of some fiber that night and I spun up the rest of the roving that came with my spindle kit today. It’s amazing how much faster you can spin on a wheel than a spindle. I’ve gotten a litle bit better figuring out how much fiber to draft to get the thickness I want. I can see this wheel putting a serious dent in my knitting time!

I also finished completly finished my first yarn.  I put it on the niddy noddy I got with my wheel and tied it up, soaked it in the sink for a while then hung it in the bathroom to dry and tada!!!!

I’m not sure what I’m going to make with it yet. It’s 94 yards and about 10 wraps per inch, so I’m not sure if there is enough there for a hat or anything, but I’ll let you guys know when I figure out what I’m doing with it.

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day and I joined the group from Bella Filati which is the yarn store that is just up the street from our place. (when I say just up the street, its a couple miles up the street, but you guys know what I mean.) It was a lot of fun. I met a lot of great people including the owner of the yarn store and some of the staff. Interesting tidbit, the owner’s sister is from St. Paul and she was there that day so I got really excited, I hope I didn’t scare her!!! It was a lot lot of fun. I met a couple people from the Fayettevillie knitting group that I have thought about attending so now I’ll really have to get there on a day off!!! It was nice to get together with other knitter and be able to talk about things and not have people get that really glazed over far away look!