First, you crawl…..

Published on September 22, 2008 at 7:21 pm

Start with yarn news.

The Eastern Shore Yarn Crab-Crawl started on the first of September.  I wanted to start crawling right away, but had to work the first Saturday and watch the grandfellows on the first Sunday.  We left for our week in the mountains on Sept 13.   Not an auspicious start for my crawling.  Didn’t get back home until the 20th.

With a million chores to do, and a disorganized household, I grabbed up my purse and went out – on the Sunday of RACE WEEKEND, no less!!!  Went up to Chesapeake City, Maryland and got my Yarn Crawl bag at Vulcan’s Rest.  I just LOVE that store!!  I bought sheep pictures, AGAIN.  I think I do every time I go up there.  A local artist, Donna Winterling, has some of her works on display there, and they are also made into beautiful 4″ X 6″ notecards.  (The original, full-sized versions are a bit out of my budget; although they’re lovely, I would rather eat for the next couple of months)   I think I’ll frame the wee prints, and put them near where I knit!!  I did not buy the Schacht Wolf Pup, and I really need to stay out of that part of the store. 

I filled out a coupon for every $25 I spent there, for a drawing, and won’t admit to the number of coupons I filled out. 

I bought the Yarn Crawl Bag!  And I think they did a great job with it.  Love the map!

Map of the yarn crawl. I live in the wasteland in the middle

And the back of the bag has all the shops that are participating, with names AND addresses, handy for programming the GPS!   (Even one that’s already dropped out.  Guess this sort of publicity and the influx of customers with money that they are willing to spend, was just too much for them???  Actually, the accounts I’m reading over on Ravelry are that they were nasty old bitches, gave so many such a hard time, that folks just didn’t even want to go into the store.  By mutual agreement, they are no longer part of the crawl – and we get full credit going to 7 shops!)  (I won’t give the shop’s name, cause I’m so nice, but it’s in Easton, and of course, it’s not the talented Sanguine Gryphon.)  Must say that I’ve never been in the shop, and won’t be going this month.  Or ever.

Back of the Yarn Crawl Bag, with all 8 shops and locations. Very damn handy!

The bag is a generous size, too.  And I got my card to carry around to all the shops, getting a stamp at each one.  I don’t know that I’ll get to all of them, because of the time I was away, but there are several that I’m going to try to get to next weekend. 

While at Vulcan’s Rest, I bought merino top in a beautiful plum shade.  Enough for a sweater, I think!  And the Yarn Crawl card got me 20% off!   Yay!!

Came back into Delaware and headed up to the northern-most shop on the map, Stitches with Style in Newark, DE.  Wow!  This store has sure changed from the old place.  New management, double the size, double the amount of yarnie goodness to fondle!!  A group of knitters sitting in comfortable chairs, knitting and laughing, and helping each other – now ain’t that lovely to hear and see??!!  Sock yarn – plenty.  Needles of all sizes and manufacturers, books everywhere, helpful staff that were fun to talk to.

I found two neat buttons.   And I saw a felted bag in colors that were perfect for my sister-in-law!!   Just perfect.  Got the Cascade 220 for that project – and it’ll need one of those buttons!  

Cascade220 for bag project 

And last week, while up in PA, I found a neat pattern, that asked for Reynolds Cricket yarn.  And of course, I forget to check how much yarn it would take.  Seeing the Cricket yarn there reminded me of it, although I didn’t want that yarn.  The store carried the pattern, they were happy to get it for me to read, find out how much yardage I should buy, and gave me 20% off the purchase.  That’s the kind of customer service I like.  That sort of service is worth having to drive almost an hour to get there.

And I got the Wonderful Wallaby pattern.

The Wonderful Wallaby pattern!!! For all of us!
I’ve heard about these Wallaby sweaters for years, and I like that I’ll be able to use the pattern over and over!        

And again, I got 20% off my yarn purchases.

Oh, I got a Stress Sheep, too.

My stress sheep

I’ll just give him a couple of squeezes when I feel the need!  Poor wee beastie.

 


The Marines have landed!

Published on September 21, 2008 at 6:54 pm

I’ve been away on a bit of a holiday for a week, and there are stories and pictures coming.

But, more importantly, my daughter’s husband is safely home.  He has completed his duty in Iraq, and Kate was able to travel to where he is stationed and spend some time with him.  Certainly not enough time!  In December, after he finishes his current commitment at a Marine Corps Air Station, and Kate completes one more semester, they will be together at his next duty station.

 

Kate and Joe in Beaufort

 


The day just gets better and better

Published on at 5:18 pm

Edit to note:     This should have been published before I left on vacation.  I got busy, thought I had, and shut off the computer!! 

Started out as “one of those days.”  Thinking more of vacationing than working, I went to work.  Lucky me – I got “randomly selected” for the full security check.  Not just a “Good Morning,” verify the badge, wave you on.   No, this was “Pull out of line, go over there, and wait.”  And when they got there, it was the full all-over check, mirrors under the car, “sniffer-dogs” going through the trunk and back seats.  Some sniff for drugs, some sniff for bombs.  Maybe some are multi-sniffers.   I don’t know.  They all leave dog hair behind in the vehicle.  And the procedure made me late! 

Then I get to deal with software issues.   The vendor of the main software we use periodically pushes new versions/upgrades with fixes or patches or improvements.   About 3 weeks ago, one of these was available and downloaded for all the users in our department.  Oh, we innocents that believed this could improve our “work experience.”   There was no improvement that I could detect, either visibly or in using the program, but this is often the case if they are improving the security or stabilizing something.  A correction deep inside may not be visible on top.  Fine.  Whatever.  Then I spotted a bug.  Trying to do one procedure, that is not done often,  uh oh, it won’t work.  Tried several times.  No go.   I went out to the others, simulated the issue.  No go for anyone else.   So I go through all the procedures to get Tech Support from the vendor on the line and explain that we can no longer do thus-and-such, and I suspect that it may have been caused from the last update of the program.  “Well, no” say them, “Of course we didn’t cause it, being perfectly perfect” or something to that affect.  Oddly, simultaneously, their upgrade came in and all our machines, every one of them, lost the same ability to do this procedure.  Yeah, right.   Fix the damn things, good sir, sayeth I.  Meanwhile, we have customers who’d like to use thus-and-such, and we’ve got to say – Well, no, not now, maybe never again, until the vendor locates and fixes our bug.  This is going to be days/weeks of aggravation.

But a good thing happened, too.

On this day of aggravation, preceeding perhaps days/weeks of “more of the same,” I came home to a package.

It was from my oldest son, who lives about 90 minutes of driving away from here.  Odd, he hadn’t mentioned that he was sending anything.  And I talk to him often, by phone to Instant Messages on the computer.

There was a note inside.  “Found these at a Pepperidge Farm outlet in Strasburg, PA.  Have you had chocolate ones?   ENJOY!”

That fellow knows I love chocolate.  Suddenly, my really sucky day was SOOOOO much better, and I sure did well with the kids I got!

 

Chocolate Chessmen??

 


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