Friday, August 15, 2008

Blogging groove....

I think its back and its in place of my knitting mojo. Hahaha, now thats a real laugh. I seem to do either or the other ~ go figure. Anywho, I thought I'd tell you all what I did on vacation since some of you seem interested ~ why I don't know. ;)

Warning ~ this is very boring so read at your own risk or skip to the bottom for the current stuff. ;)

Tues Aug 5th ~ my day began w/work that allowed me to leave after only being there for 1hr. Yeah me! Then I began to take a long look at my vacation plans to Tx, they were looking very bleak. At this point, it didn't look as if we were going to make it and then I discovered that if I rented a car on thur it would be almost half the costs so I booked it for 3days at the reduced rate ~ knowing I had 2 free day coupons and went to bed around 3a. ;) Not much knitting but feeling better about getting away for a few days.

Wed Aug 6th ~ did some errands, found a hotel for dirt cheap and planned my projects for the Ravelympics and went to bed early.

Thur Aug 7th ~ wake up late, go figure and leave to p/u rental at 7:45a (pick up was for 8a). Stop at Wally World for snacks and then meet hubby at Sbux for some road brew. Sent dh to get breakfast at McDs while I grabbed a bargain on pb at Walgreens. We finally get back to house at 9:15a and pack up and leave at 10a. Now please note this is about 1hr later than planned. LOL Drive thru OK to TX ~ lovely drive with lake scenery and all. Pics are on dh's cell, I'm driving and no one takes out the camera. Arrive in Dallas about 2:15p and head over the Purple Cow for some grub ~ really wanted a purple vanilla milkshake. The burgers and fries were awesome as usual but the shakes were disgusting ~ watery, pale and tasteless. Now folks I must tell you this is not a Purple Cow milkshake, this is....I don't know what it was but it was gross. I was not happy to spend $55 and get a bad shake. Oh where is my Va Beach PC when you need it. We then left and arrive at our hotel at about 4:45p ~ can we say not good. Remember I said the hotel was dirt cheap, well there was reason. It was a very old hotel (note: old and shabby, rundown are two different terms but for the sake of those who may love this hotel we will just say "old"). Our first room was really bad and they upgraded us to a suite which was much better. Dh was ready to leave but being as late as it was we'd end up paying for the night and still have to find something else. However, I must say there were 2 good features ~ 2 a/c units and access to all major highways ~ 30, 35 & 75 right at our door w/o the noise, now that was nice too. The girls and I left dh to enjoy the a/c to attend our conference in Fort Worth which was not a 36min drive as predicted by mapquest but an hr w/traffic due to construction on 30. Wow ~ we arrived about 15mins late and had to find a parking space. Not too bad for me but for Riley who wanted to go to youth ~ she wasn't happy about arriving late. LOL After this we all went to get some food from Jack in a Box but that wasn't good either ~ no one likes being overcharged do they?! We went to 7-11 for drinks and back to the hotel. It was nice to sleep in a cold room for a change.

Fri Aug 8th ~ Shabby SheepRavelympics begins today, I'm up at 6:30a to c/o at 7a but end up in the shower, pampering myself and not casting on until 10:00a. ;) Everyone got up around 9a and we left for Sbux at 10:15a. We stayed there for about 2hrs ~ maximum time allowed in parking space then we went looking for a yarn shop. The GPS directions turned us around, I left the mapquest ones in the room but we found it finally in a little quaint section of downtown Dallas. Shabby Sheep was really nice, we loved it and will definitely visit again. There were yarns from locate spinners that I'd love to have. Above pic of the place ~ very nice right?! After visiting for about an hr everyone was ready to eat so we had lunch at Pot Belly's recommended by our new friends at SS ~ its a sandwich joint and it was good especially the pickles! We returned to the hotel for a break then decided to go find the QT (Quik Trip) and after about 1hr 1/2 we found it (don't ask, just know it wasn't pretty or cool, well maybe the lake we found was pretty ;D) ~ purchased regular priced 32oz drinks (they are .49 at home but .89 here) and gas. We stopped off at Wally World Neighborhood and returned to the a/c'd hotel room. I relaxed while knitting and watching cable til dh mentioned dinner. We all got dressed and left for dinner at 9p. We couldn't decide what to eat and finally ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings were we watched the opening ceremonies of the olympics, the yankees, and tennis ~ all at the same time. We didn't make it to any of the conference mtgs but that was ok since I got to buy some lovely lace yarn in a beautiful red, pics later.

Sat Aug 9th ~ Ripley's Believe or NotSk8Chick and I went to the morning mtg after arranging for late checkout. We then checked out and started our journey back home. We took dh to run an errand then to Wendy's for lunch. After lunch we went back to the nice Sbux in Highland Park and stayed the maximum 2hrs ~ I think thats funny but its a strip mall next to SMU and you'd never be able to park if people stayed too long. Then I found out that the other yarn shop I wanted to see was no longer in busy and found the Woolie Ewe in the phone book. The only problem was they were only open til 4:30p and it was 2:30p and we didn't know where they were. Dh's GPS worked this time and they were 12m from where we were so we hopped in the car at 3:15p and arrived at 3:30p ~ who know it would only take about 10mins (I missed it and had to turn around). It was really a nice store ~ warehouse like. They had yarns I'd wanted to touch and feel for a while plus yarns I only have 1 or 2 balls of but now can get more if I want. It looks as if they have every color of Cascade there is along w/the handpaints ~ I was lovin' this visit. I sat in the floor at the clearance books ~ bought myself several but no yarn. I'll have to return another day when there is more time for that. I became friends w/one of the workers on Ravelry and I will definitely be going back. We left for home at 5p after a quick stop in Albertson's. Dh had to drive most of the way since I started to fall asleep. We stopped off at a roadside fruit stand which had lots of signs pointing them out on the road ~ delicious cantaloupe and peaches. We got peaches and cherries ~ Sk8Chick's fav. Off again and arrived home about 9:45p.

Sun Aug 10th ~ Returned rental car at 8a and returned home for a nap. We went to our sbux later but didn't do much b/c it was still vacation. ;)

Mon & Tues ~ normal days off, started packing for upcoming move, updated ravelry stash after finding yarns I forgot I owned; wind some hanks and label bags and boxes ~ really boring stuff but relaxed nonetheless. End of vacation.

Told you it would be boring but now you know. I think the best part was the decision I made on Friday to allow myself to relax no matter what we did. I am more relaxed and I don't feel the need to be doing something every minute. Though my knitting has turned into a slump ~ frogged that sock I was working on b/c I lost several sts but didn't recover them LOL, life is good and I'm taking control of it. If I had to sum up my vacation I would say:

I needed it more than anyone will ever know ~ I learned to be myself again ~ I learned to drive like a texan ~ I made new friends at lys and sbux ~ I enjoyed my family ~ I'm ready to do it again like next week and just might.

I just started a new One Row scarf using some stash I swiped from my dd ~ she just found it while packing up her room. It will be a nice skinny one for her and maybe she'll give me mine back. Ha...I know I'll never see it again as something for me but I can dream.

Well, I think thats enough rambling from me. I'm off to read others thoughts on life today. Have a wonderful weekend, I will since I don't go back to work until tues and have plans to knit and maybe a road trip ~ I'll keep you posted. Good nite!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you had some fun on your vacation! I love going to new LYSs while in different towns. You never know what you'll find and almost everyone is nice!