Happy Halloween!

I hope that this holiday brings more treats than tricks to you all. It’s been a busy day, but we stuck to our tradition of making Ghostly Sheperd’s Pie! It’s our favorite and soooo easy to make. We used a basic Sheperd’s Pie recipe, then instead of spreading the potatoes out, we piled them up into little ghost shapes with peas for eyes. It’s a really hearty meal that’s great to fill kids up with before sending them out trick-or-treating. I have included the recipe and a picture for you dining pleasure.

Ghostly Sheperd's Pie
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups frozen mixed veggies
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/ italian herbs, undrained
1 (12 oz.) jar homestyle beef gravy
1 3/4 cups water
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 cups instant mashed potatoes
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray. Cook beef and onion over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain.
2. Set aside 12 peas for garnish. Add remaining frozen veggies, tomotatoes and gravy to beef mixture. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies are crisp-tender.
3. Meanwhile, in medium saucepan, bring water, margarine and garlic powder to a boil. Remove from heat; add milk. Stir in potato flakes and cheese. Add egg; blend well.
4. Spoon ground beef mixture into ungreased 8-inch square (2 qrt) or oval (2 1/2 qrt) glass baking dish. With large spoon, make 6 mounds of potato mixture on top of beef mixture to resemble ghosts. Place 2 reserved peas on each mound to resemble eyes.
5. Bake 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are set and mixture is thoroughly heated.
6. Enjoy!

Knitters With Altitude -- Week 3 (The Llama Store!)

Ok, so I know I’ve been a HORRIBLE blogger and I so deserve a digital flogging, but it just hasn’t seemed like much has gone on to write about or take pictures of (which enables the writing.) And when I do have something to write about, I would rather knit or I just don’t have time to write. Ok, ok, ok, enough of the excuses. Well, I solemnly swear, *fingers crossed*, that I will try my very best to at least post once a week…and on time.

Onward and upward!

Well today was another wonderful knit day, but before we get to that, I must recap from yesterday!

(The room turns misty and we go into a typical flashback sequence…)

It was a LOOOOOOOONNG Friday morning and I was starving. I was also waiting for my dearest love to call and say “Its lunch time! I’ll be over in 5 minutes to pick you up. Where do you wanna go sweetheart?” But all I got was “Sorry it won’t be until after 2:00 pm that I’ll get to leave for lunch.”

UGH!

So I decided to go pick up lunch and take it to him, so just maybe, he could come home a little earlier if he got more stuff done….NOT! Anyway, so I went and got Chinese food and our favorite eatery down the street, drove over to his work, walked in (he is no where to be found), placed food on desk, proceeded to waste time and steal some of his food, (still no show), close up food, draw smilies on his food box, take another bite of food, close the food and walk out. I come back to the office with my food and find a plea on the KWA message board from Christie to meet someone for lunch. I make a snap decision to get out of the office early. I wrote to her saying that I would meet her at Pikes Perk on Vickers and Academy in about an hour and a half for some knitterly release. We had such a relaxing time just the two of us and we got to know each other a lot better. I brought all my knitting books that I had got from the library to share with her. We found some great ideas and laughed at a few really ugly patterns. She told me how her husband and her had acquired their house, and about the poopiness at her work with a position she had applied for. We had a lovely time just hanging out, sharing stories, and eating cookies for about 3 hours, with only a slight interruption from my mom and a stupid insurance dude that both called and wanted to talk my ear off. By 6:00 pm we were thoroughly relaxed and decided to call it a night. Christie even let me borrow Guillotine to take home for Chris to try before we bought it (as long as I brought it back on Saturday.)

After an entirely too addicting Friday afternoon of knitting, I wasn’t looking forward to wasting a lot of my Saturday morning doing laundry (since I had skipped out doing it Friday afternoon…of course.) Needless to say, I made it out to Falcon by about 11 am. There were still a lot of people there, but a few were getting ready to head out the door. I had a sandwich and looked through the quilt books that Christie had brought for me, then joined the main group. Everyone was doing well and a few had started new projects that looked rather exciting. I made an announcement about the Birthday Bash/Knit Night Movie Marathon that we will have on November 19th (hopefully I’ll remember to take pictures.) We decided that it would be a snacky-potluck/BYOB movie night, and decided on The Princess Bride! I LOVE IT!! Such kindred spirits. Anyway, that should be a good time.

BEST OF ALL THOUGH… Christie took me to The Llama Store!!! OH MY OH MY HEAVEN!

This is the coolest, most friendly little yarn store on the planet… ok, well definitely in Colorado Springs. But it is a little off the beaten path, so I am very glad that Christie drove. The store is located just off Black Forest Road in a little log cabin like shop. The moment you walk in t he door you are bombarded with fiber treasures.

Though the shop is small (four small rooms), they are effectively packed with yarn and fiber of all varieties, tons of knitterly paraphernalia, and dying supplies. There were so many delicious looking yarns that I wanted to buy. It took so much discipline to resist buying any goodies. However, I did fall in love with some gorgeous recycled silk. I don’t know what I’d do with it, but it had so many pretty colors that once I find something to make with it I’m buying some.

Christie and Brie both found things to buy, even though Brie said she wasn’t going to. EVIL CHRISTIE THE ENABLER! In the end, Saturday was spent with limited knit group knitting, but lots of knit group shopping/browsing. It was such an inspiration to go to The Llama Store. I had visions of great projects that I wanted to do. My list is ever growing, AND I have to wonder if all of it is really “necessary.” (Ahhh! Who cares about that, right?)

Knitters With Altitude -- Week 2

I HEART MY KNIT GROUP!!!

They’re so much fun, and soooo smart! It was great to see everyone again, and meet a few new people. We met up at Pikes Perk on Academy and Vickers, which was great since it’s near my home. I had never been there before, but it was nice. They had super comfy couches and lots of great food and drinks.

Anti-Kathy finished her fingerless gloves (a.k.a. jazz hands) while we were sitting there. She decided to add a few accent lines to help divide the colors, and they turned out great! (Not sure if you can see, but she added the one line of green and yellow next to the middle blocks. She just sewed over the top in a knitting pattern when she had finished.)

One member of the group I hadn't met showed up, MJ, and brought her hubby! He is, apparently, the designated “Eye-Candy” of the group. Heheheheh! Though he didn’t knit, he was very quiet sitting off on a table all his own. MJ was working on this very pretty seed stitched swatch looking thing. She didn’t know what she wanted to make yet, but she was contemplating the idea of making a scarf. (Aaargh! I couldn’t do seed stitch for that long!) Anyway, she was working with the prettiest yarn. She said she was using three really fine yarns to help enhance each of three yarns qualities. Needless to say, it was pretty and I can’t wait to see what she makes. [Note: MJ - No disrespect meant, just poor memory. As you can tell, I have fixed my mistakes...Sorry!]

Christie brought her Pastaza bag that she had finished last week at knit group, and felted during the week. It turned out awesome, and I was amazed at how much it had shrunk. The bag was HUUUUUGGGEEE last week and now it’s, like, the perfect size! Kathy does a great job of modeling the bag in the traditional Knit Group Hat Bag style.

After everyone left, Christie, Kathy, and I stuck around to have lunch (which by the way, they have THE BEST egg salad sandwich and potato salad I’ve EVER had at a restaurant. Really, it was that good. And Christie and Kathy had a grilled 3 cheese sandwich and fruit bowls that were to die for as well.) Anyway, Christie had brought a game to show Kathy, so we decided to put away the knitting and give it a shot.


The game is called Guillotine, and it was so fun! It’s a card game set during the French Revolution where the object is to collect as many point (and thereby heads) as you send nobles to the guillotine. It was so much fun that I’m planning on buying it! Basically there are two decks, nobles and action cards. Everyone is given 6 action cards, and 12 nobles are laid out in a line. Play begins with a person playing an action card (following the directions – i.e. moving nobles in line, removing nobles, adding nobles, taking other players hands, etc.) then collecting the noble at the front of the line, and finally taking another action card. The game continues until the 12 nobles are gone, then 12 more are played through two times and the game is over. Points are tallied and the highest score wins! It was great fun and easy to pick up after a game or two. I can’t wait to order my copy.

Leader Training

Working with the 4-H over the past couple years has been great. Crazy at times, but great! Every year we have a couple really big events that take months of preparation. These events include, but are not limited to, County and State Fair, enrollment time, officer training, and leader training. This months big undertaking was Leader Training. We’ve been preparing for months and months. In fact, the original date set to hold the training was in September, but due to HUGE last minute changes on the state level, we had to reschedule.

Leader Training is an evening when all the organizational leaders for each of the clubs comes to the extension office where we feed them, give them their update packets for the year, and discuss and explain any pertinent information. As part of this process I had a few major roles; 1) to put together these huge update packets for about 50 clubs, and 2) figure out what to feed everyone, get all the stuff, and make it. I got the packets completed a couple days ago, but waited to pick up the food so we wouldn’t have to store it for long. Gay-Leigh, the person that basically makes the office run, and I decided to make pulled pork, baked beans, salad, and cookies. I had found this great BBQ pull-pork recipe that cooks in the crockpot with little or not attention that I thought would be perfect. So I dropped by Sam’s Club last night to pick up all the food stuffs to be prepared in the morning.

I’m pretty sure I pissed off the butcher guy because I asked him for 30 lbs. of pork roast and then asked for him to cut it in thirds since it was soooooo huge! The guy was like, “No, I don’t want to cut my fingers.” Yet I protested, until finally pertinent information came out in the conversation. The package actually contained TWO porks! He thought I was asking him to cut each into thirds, when really I wanted the seemingly one giant package cut into thirds… Sooooo, the guy happily took it back and cut each of the four porks (cuz we had two packages) in half.


So after all the hard work, preparation, and collecting of crockpots (I think we had 10?) the evening was finally here. I showed up early, and trimmed the pork, mixed the seasoning, and placed the porks in their crockpots. Then I went back and decided to consolidate the porks into FEWER crockpots…which was a huge mess. In the end, we fit all the porks in the three largest pots. There was another class using our room during the day, so I had to set everything up to be out of their way (look at all that food!)


Next, Gay-Leigh and I worked on setting up the tables, chairs, and materials in the room. It took a few tries, but we got the setup figured out. People were going to be squeezed in pretty tight, but that’s just the way it was going to have to be since we didn’t have a bigger room. Packets would be picked up in the hall, while additional information was available along the side counter in the room. We set up the registration and food tables out in the hall to create a better flow in the small space.

Then the onslaught began. Crazy early people started showing up at like 3:30 pm for the event that started at 6:00 pm. Thankfully, some started helping with our last minute preparations, like setting out the food, pulling the pork, manning the registration table, and just helping with general tasks and things.

After the few pictures that I dutifully took while preparing, I TOTALLY spaced taking any other pictures the whole evening! (Bad Kyndra…BAD!) Needless to say, everyone really enjoyed the meal (all except one, who knew what we were having ahead of time, but still felt she needed to complain—disguised as a “recommendation.”) We had an incredible amount of pulled pork (damn I wish I had taken a picture…) and plenty of everything else. However, it turned out to be the perfect amount to have enough left over for the office to have lunch the following day and for a few to take a little home.

Though I spent a 15 hour day at work, I was glad that Leader Training was over and had the highest attendance ever! Now we have Officer Training to look forward to in November. Yikes! I better get started, that’ll be even more of a pain since we’re dealing with kids.

Hockey & Secret Pal Surprise!

Woohooo!! Tiger Hockey has arrived!

Tonight we went to the first of the 4 CC hockey games we have tickets to this year. I'd been looking forward to the game all week. I get to spend time with my man, watch a good game, and eat terrible food! Who wouldn't look forward to that! Anyway, CC had lost the night before to Ohio State, so the tension was high, making for a really great game. It was fast paced and low scoring, (1-0 CC Final). And of course, we stuffed ourselves with terrible sporting event food (plastic cheese nachos, rubbery hot dogs, and greasy deep fried mini doughnuts.) We also ran into Maggie Moo the ice cream cow! Apparently they are a new vendor at the World Arena this year. We had pretty good seats in the lower part of the upper deck on the side of the visiting teams goal. It was great fun and I can't wait for our next game in November.

But the best part of all, was when we got home, I had a spiffy gifty from my Secret Pal!

Aren't they lovely!!! They're stitch markers from Zephyr! They're so light weight and they came in such a cute package! I just recently got into using stitch markers and making them. So BIG FAT thank you to my Secret Pal. You're the best and I can't wait to see all my other goodies.

Knitters With Altitude

Well, I FINALLY made it to knit group! Due to one thing or another, it only took me over a month to make it. We met up at a coffee house in Falcon called The Summit House. It was small and not very well lit, but the staff was friendly and they didn’t mind the noise. (NOISE? At knit group? NO WAY!)

There were six of us when it was all said and done… and an infinite amount of personality to match. In fact, even a BOY showed up! It was nice to finally meet the people that I had been chatting with for the last month on the message boards. Crazy peeps I tell you…CRAZY PEEPS!!!

We all shared our current projects, some finished projects, and yarn aspirations. One of the gals had finished a felted bag and passed it around for everyone to see. The only problem with the bag seemed to be most people wanted to treat it like a hat. But hey, we color outside the lines in knit group… or, uh, knit outside the pattern maybe? Oh yah and we knit and dogged on the Knit Picks catalog a little. There was discussion of a date change for the upcoming Yarn Crawl scheduled for November 5. I can’t wait to go see MORE yarn shops… and with people to “get” this obsession we call knitting. Which brings me to a new realization: I can’t knit for long. This saddens me, but it looks like I have some how already hurt myself…PRE-knitting. Anyway, so slow is the way to go…at least for me.

All in all, it was a good time and I look forward to meeting up with them again… Perhaps even next weekend?

Curtain Rods, Curtains, and Screws, OH MY!

So it snowed last night. But of course, we already had a holiday, so its not like we got any extra cancellations. I spent most of the morning typing up a program that just HAD to be done by Tuesday. But I did finish in time to go on a quest for drapery and pick up a few things at JoAnn's with my coupons.

I was happy to find that the yarn I want to include in my secret pals prezzie was available, AND I could use the coupons for it. While I was there, I picked out a lovely curtain rod that matched the rest of the furniture in my room, and talked with a lady about the pro's and con's of making curtains versus buying them. I decided to grab a swatch of a fabric I thought might work and headed to the checkout line. I thought I better look at some pre-made curtains before I go through all the trouble of making them, so I headed across the parking lot to Target.

Target was great, I found another curtain rod AND curetains for Chris' room, and checked the sale rack for my curtains. I found some that I liked, but they were full length as apposed to short little windows like I have. But they were such a good deal (and my room is like in kinda weird colors for curtains) that I couldn't pass it up. I figured I could cut them down and hem them on my own. I got home and immediately put up the curtain rod, which took two tries. (I should have gotten the longer rods.) I also hung the curtains in two ways... 1) folded double so it lays straight on the rod, 2) single layered and bunched. The only problem is I don't know which I like best.... Anyone got any recommendations before I hem them??

The Fall Selection Match

If you've ever lived in Colorado for any amount of time (even just a week), you might have noticed the terribly unpredictable weather patterns of this region. On Monday it was beautiful shorts weather in the mid 70's to low 80's. I wore a tank top and shorts and got a SUNBURN! Not two days later, I was running to the sporting goods store to purchase HEAVY DUTY Long Johns! Then by the weekend it was lovely and warm fall weather again. But its par for the course if you look back, you will find that every Fall Selection Match held in Colorado Springs in October has some stint of adverse weather, and we just happened to get it!

NOTE: For those of you following along, but really lost as far as this Fall Selection thingy goes, never fear, I shall explain...Fall Selection refers to one of the three major national competitions held by USA Shooting, the national governing body for Olympic shooting sports, per year. I compete in an event called Trap, where the object is to shoot a shotgun at a flying clay target and hit it. The general course of fire is to shoot 250-300 targets over a 3 day period, with the top 6 getting the chance to shoot off in a final 25 targets for to decide the winner. Previously, I shot Double Trap, but this event (for women) has recently been taken out of the Olympics. My time on the team has enabled me to travel the world and compete on the International level. I hope to continue my efforts and reach even higher heights in my new event of Trap.

Moving on...

As mentioned earlier, the training days leading up to the competition were beautiful. We had over 115 participants registered to shoot, which meant long days, but a good time would be had by all. (Photo Note: Mary, our head of competitions, and Steve, our match director, run the place with an iron fist...you don't wanna get on their bad sides.) However, the weather took a sudden dive on the official training day. It got SOOO incredibly cold that more people than usual shot only one training round and left....to buy under armour of course!

Day 1: 100 Targets, "Keep the car running all day"-cold.
I started off really strong with a 24/25, then ran into some trouble. To take my mind of things and to keep my hands from getting stiff, what did I do? KNIT of course!!! Please note the ear warmer headband, the under armour, the polar fleece outer layer, the blanket on my lap, and the ski jacket in the back seat. It was COLD. But the knitting was good...and calming. Too bad it didn't really help my shooting. But on the good side, over the three day competition, I got a lot done! Yet I digress...The competition day ended with my buddy Joetta, who by the way just had a baby in May, tearing it up and finishing at the top of the board. I, on the other hand, though giving a strong showing to finish with a 25/25, had two REALLY bad rounds in the middle...therefore, was not really at all near the top....in fact, closer to the middle.

Day 2: 100 Targets, Average cold with signs of warming up.
After an evening spent in a COLD hot tub (yah it was broken, but they didn't bother telling the girl that's been a popsicle all day), I was not looking forward to another cold day. It was, however, slightly more tolerable because it wasn't as windy. Caitlin, one of our new junior shooters, brought her puppy to cuddle and play with. (Isn't he cute!) Again, the shooting wasn't that great, but Joetta continued to give us all lessons. Oh yah, and the knitting continued...on and on and on and on.... This stupid project is never going to end. It's a good thing I was drug up on pain killer or my hands would have killed!

Day 3: 50 Targets, Chilly morning but warm in the afternoon.
It was a good thing that I showed up early, because they switched squading early in the morning so I was on an early flight. I was surprised to find that I wasn't as far out of the top 6 as I thought. If I had a good day and others didn't, then I could possibly push my way in.

(Photo Note: from the left, Mimi Wilfong, Goldie Pippin, referee, Susan Nattrass, Amanda Dorman, Kyndra Hogan, Lynsey Arnold.) Joetta kicked butt again, which was a big accomplishment since a women hasn't beat EVERYONE in quite awhile. (Oh yah, men and women don't compete against each other...they're afraid we'll kick their butt like Joetta did...hehe j/k) Unfortunately, I didn't have as good a showing all around as I'd like. I started to get a little more consistent after the first day, but it was too little too late. We have a good range in Colorado Springs, and despite the weather, scores are always pretty high.

An unusually large amount of people showed up for the finals (probably to watch Joetta steal the show.) And a careful observer could find Lloyd actually sitting for 10 minutes (even if he was explaining something to an over-anxious mom.) All in all, it was nice to see everyone again even if the weather mostly sucked. At least our match didn't go through Monday because it snowed (poor double trap shooters!) I was dissappointed with my performance, but there is always another match to train for. Spring Selection Match here I come. It should be interesting at the new venue in Curville. But for now, let Old Man Winter have his way. I'll snuggle up to my man and wait out the winter. Till next match, keep your head down and your hopes high!

The Invisible Man & Weird Wisconsin Wedding Traditions

Of my boyfriend Chris’ gang of close knit friends, I have only NOT met one, Dave (A.K.A. The Invisible Man) Obviously, that would mean that Dave had never met me either. This whole not meeting thing led both Dave and I to believe the other didn’t really exist, thus the nickname. Every time Chris would talk to him on the phone, playful banter would ensue. In fact, on Dave’s wedding invitation I was only referred to as “guest.” It was all in good fun though, but the time had come to meet the Invisible Man.

This weekend Chris and I flew to Chicago, rented a car, and drove to Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin for this farm boys wedding. We arrived Thursday afternoon with the intention of going to dinner with the Invisible Man. No dice though since he called in sick. (I was really starting to believe this trip had been a waste of money on someone that didn’t actually exist…not really, but sorta.)

Anyway, Chris and I hit the local mall (which consisted of a small strip mall containing about 10 stores) to find a shrug to go with my outfit for the wedding. I lucked out and grabbed the very last one in my size and color, and, oh yeah, it was on sale! After a bit of shopping/browsing, we headed to the Old Country Buffet attached to the mall. Now, I’m not a huge fan of OCB, because even though they have something that will satisfy most any human on the planet, I have found that its generally not the best quality food for the price. However, Chris was craving it (which was unusual) so I gave in, besides, what else were we going to find. So after a hearty meal of a-little-bit-of-everything, we headed back to the hotel to wait for Woody, Krissy, and Alex, who arrived around 11 pm and were sharing a room with us.

The schedule for Friday was to help decorate the chapel and reception hall, pick up tuxes, and attend rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Krissy, Alex, and I stayed home in the morning and relaxed while the boys went off to help decorate. The lack of my presence probably encouraged Dave’s idea that I didn’t really exist, but I didn’t really care. When they finished decorating, the boys went to pick up their tuxes, and then headed to Cullver’s to meet us for lunch. I’ve never been to a Cullver’s, and to be honest I wasn’t terribly impressed with the food, but it was food nonetheless AND I finally met the Invisible Man, his bride to be, her two boys, and two of Dave’s sisters. (Photo Note: They boys gettin' all spiffed up for the big day. It was so funny because Woody, left, had never shaved with a real razor before. So, Chris had to teach him...hahahahah!)

They were an interesting bunch, and I could tell that Dave was a nice guy. Yes, you guess it, he started in on me the moment I walked in with “So where’d you get this one Chris and how much are you paying her?” But I apparently redeemed myself pretty quickly when our food came and I tried to take Chris’ burger because it was bigger. They all laughed and we were fast friends. After lunch we picked up the vans for the wedding party, stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things, and headed back to the hotel to hang out until the rehearsal. While at Walmart, we picked up one of those pre-loaded game controllers that plugs into the tv and played around with the halloween costumes (don't they look great in foam hair?) The boys had a blast playing old games like PacMan and Galactica. For $15, it was a great waste of time in the hotel without the burden of a huge old game system. But sooner than the guys would have liked, it was time to head to the rehearsal.

The wedding ceremony was held in this quaint complex of old buildings that had been collected from all over the state. There was a one room school house, a blacksmith, a

printing shop, a toy shop, a hairdresser, an old mill, and of course a one room chapel. Though they had originally planned to have the wedding in a larger church, the ceremony was still beautiful…and small. It only lasted about 25 minutes, which was perfect because it was so warm out. After the wedding was over the weird Wisconsin wedding traditions begin.

Apparently in Wisconsin, several hours are scheduled between the ceremony and the reception so that the wedding party (and significants) could “bar hop” to the reception location. What the heck were the other people supposed to do between the ceremony and the reception? Why would you want to get your nice white dress all mucky in a bar? Are bars even open at 11am? It all seemed kinda weird to me, but I went along with it. We ended up only going to one bar, and thankfully, it was fairly clean with lots of other activities to partake in besides drinking. Weirdness I tell you, WEIRDNESS! Anyway, we finished at the bar after everyone had had a couple drinks and was thoroughly loosened up from the mornings tense events (you know, the whole getting hitched for life thing.) The reception was pretty average, with food, beer, dancing, and music, and ended relatively early (about midnight.)

Oh yeah, and did I mention the other crazy tradition they do there in cheese country? (This didn’t happen at this wedding, but got talked about, and often does at other weddings.) The groomsmen steal the bride DURING the reception to go to ANOTHER bar for a drink…then brings her back. In the mean time, the bridesmaids to the same to the groom. Doesn’t anyone think that so many IMPORTANT people would be missed???? Again, WEIRDNESS!

On the drive back to Chicago the next day, we hit a bit of rain, but nothing too serious…or so we thought. When we got all checked in and everything, all the flights were delayed. We didn’t get back to our house until 2am when we should have gotten home around 10:30pm. It was crazy! IT’S JUST A LITTLE RAIN PEOPLE!!! (coming from the crazy Oregonian girl sitting in the third row knitting the night away.)

Anyway, so that was my weekend. Chock full of mystery, excitement, and new traditions. It was nice to finally meet the Invisible Man, but I look forward to seeing him at a time that isn’t quite so stressful. It was really great hanging out with Woody, Krissy, and Alex (oh yeah, Alex and I got married for the weekend, but it was short lived. We broke it off cuz he gave too many other girls nookie and I couldn’t deal with that. Isn’t he just TOO cute! See picture below.) I can’t wait to see them all at Jake and Molly’s wedding in the Spring!

Oh YEAH! I knit. I knit on the plane. I knit in the car on the drive to Fond Du Lac. I knit in the hotel room. I knit in the airport during our delay, and I knit at all other knittable opportunities. Though I didn't get a TON done, I moved to another skein, which always takes longer since I have to add the beading before joining. Needless to say this project is coming along. (Really wish I could post pictures, and REALLY wishing I hadn't told my sister about my blog so that I could do so freely. Oh well!) Finally, I leave you with this priceless picture of (my weekend hubby Alex) and the age old Wisconsin tradition of "starting 'em young!"