Roses, anyone?

In these hard economic times, people are always looking for ways to save money. Here's a helpful hint for a good deal (if you're in the market...)

We do some of our shopping at a big warehouse store (Costco), where you'll find multi-packs of many household items: double, triple, even sixtuple the normal amounts of ketch-up, coffee-filters, tampons, or whatever else you might be looking for -- often you get twice of what you need for half the price!

Today the Prof, my husband, saw an announcement that you can pre-order Roses for Valentine's Day. SPECIAL: 35 roses for $65
Who needs 35 roses? A cheating husband, of course! What a deal, we both chuckled and simultanously said that: "Perfect for the guy who has a wife AND a mistress or two!" Only at Costco...

Knitting up a storm

I've been bitten by the knitting bug - this is a common affliction for me during winter. Shortly before heading to the cabin, I was furiously gathering scraps of wool to take along, and the results are a couple of funky scarves made from various types of yarn (everything from shiny ribbon yarn to strange acrylic blends passed to me by well-meaning friends, to Alpaca wool I carried in my suitcases from my last trip to South America). I blended it all together with a very fine mohair, and stayed more or less within a colorway for each scarf. I was actually quite pleased with the results -- esp. considering I could not actually SEE very well by candlelight!
Back at home in "civilization", I've discovered that I sit with my laptop in my lap, catch up on blogs, and knit at the same time!

There is something so soothing -- it calms me down, keeps my fingers busy while the mind can wonder or process: it may be a scary movie (I can look at a sweater I knit years ago and tell you what books or movies I read/saw that year). I love being able to give a hand-knit item as a gift, and admit to secretly enjoying being admired for my skills. Knitting also connects me to generations of women before me who provided for their families by the labor of their hands.

I'm not the kind of girl that likes to go to the mall for clothes-shopping; perfumes and make-up do not interest me, but woe if I get let loose in a good yarn-store (above is the Tangled Skein, our local source where I just happened to have stopped by today) -- I start drooling when I'm standing in front of rows and rows of wool. Ooooh, the variegated wool-silk blends by Noro alone are so tempting! I generally prefer natural colors and genuine wool sheared from sheep, but do occasionally get carried away by something more (I hate to admit it) synthetic -- but knitting is probably where only a small portion of our earth's oil reserves go...


Below a few pictures taken at the Rapids Yurt (just a few miles from the Nature Center where I work) during Spring Break in March a few years back. There I'm basking in the spring sun on the yurt's deck, overlooking some gorgeous mountains in the Chugach Range, and, of course, knitting! That year I was really into socks -- this colorful pair was my first (and only) attempt at japanese toesox. And I hate to have to guess as to how many miniature socks and stockings I've knit for dolls or Christmas tree decorations: doesn't this woman have anything better to do, like clean the house? In my own defense I have to add that I do a lot of my knitting while travelling, camping, or waiting at the bus-stop or dentist's office... Not that my house is ever clean...

Looking at these pictures is also a good reminder to me that in less than 4 months I might be knitting in the sun again. I sure miss sunshine right now -- perhaps that's why I'm so attracted to colorful wool right now -- a girl has gotta have something to get her through the winter!
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Portland girlfriend get-together

On my 48th Birthday, I got to fly to Portland, Oregon for a conference. What a beautiful city, even in the rain!

My good friend Patty (a former Alaskan who, sadly, moved away) flew out to Portland to meet me. We were planning to go shopping, eat out, and just enjoy some kid-free girlfriend time! Did I mention SHOPPING? But the best-layed plans... go oft astray!
She arrived ok, but with a very nasty flu she caught from her daughter -- so poor Patty spend much of the 3 days in bed, with a Kleenex box and coughdrops on the nightstand.

You know a woman is seriously sick when she's within a few minutes walk of GREAT shopping, with a Nordstrom gift certificate burning a hole in her pocket, and never even went to the mall! At least the hotel sheets and pillows were nice and luxurious...
But we still had a wonderful time just visiting, catching up, knitting, laughing, and making plans for our New Year get-together with the whole kit-n-caboodle.
During the days I'd be off to the conference, which I greatly enjoyed, and in the evening we'd venture down the elevator to the restaurant in the hotel lobby, and enjoy dinner and margaritas!
Then back to bed for Patty, and with the coughing getting worse, I ventured out to the mall in search of some nighttime cough syrup. And oddly enough, I was spotted during this outing by none other that the Prof's ex-wife, who happened to be on business in Portland at the same time! She wasn't sure it really was me, so she emailed the Prof asking, by any chance, did I really just see your wife in Portland?

By the next afternoon, the sun was shining and Patty was feeling better, plus we had to check out of the hotel. So across the bridge we went to explore Old Town. In Chinatown we were eating Dim Sum for lunch when I got a call from above-mentioned Wife #1. How funny is that? Was I not only in Chinatown, but stuck in an Amy Tan novel? The prof had received an email, and confirmed that Wife #2 was in Portland indeed, and gave her my cell phone number (Don't worry, the ex-es are all on good terms). It did not work out to get together though, as there was not much time before Patty and I needed to head to the airport...











Next we explored the amazingly fun Pearl District (a world of books at Powell's, yummy desserts at Whole Foods, and scrumptious yarns at knitting stores), and bought a few fun chinese trinkets for the kids back home, then headed to the Airport, with Patty starting to feel worse again. And then -- can you believe it? -- her flight home is CANCELLED! We kept asking "Is there a deeper meaning here -- was this bad luck meant to be?" Maybe the credit card gods were called in by our respective husbands' prayers...?!?! We didn't end up buying any clothes, fabric or wool -- and that's unprecedented for a girlfriend get-together.

Perhaps the cancelled flight was a good turn too: instead of an exhausting late-night flight & 2 hr drive home past midnight, she got to rest in a hotel (provided by the airlines), and finish her trip the next day, rested and a little better (by babysteps). Patty still got home in time to celebrate her son's 11th birthday! And even though no serious shopping got done in Portland, I do hope that she got the recuperative R&R she needed before she had to re-enter her busy family life.