The Weekend Wrap-Up

Pia and I are safely home from our knitting weekend in beautiful Whitefish, MT.  A few observations:

• Whitefish is close enough to drive to.  As opposed to going on the train.  Which departs Whitefish at 9 pm and arrives in Spokane at 1 am.  Note to self: look at a map when planning a trip...
• Good Medicine Lodge is a wonderful B&B.  Even though I'm not a good candidate for staying at a B&B (that whole communal breakfast thing makes me sweaty), I enjoyed our stay.  The hosts (formerly from Alexandria, VA!  Hey Virginians!) were so nice, and let us hang out at the inn all day Sunday waiting for time to go to the train.  And even packed us cookies for the train ride.  Plus it's right down the road from Big Mountain, something to consider for future winter ski trips...
• Thank god Pia came with me.  She was by FAR the liveliest person at the retreat.  I was the second liveliest.   Which tells you all you need to know about how lively the weekend was.  Seriously, both nights P & I were the last ones up.  At 9:00 the place emptied and knitters went to bed.  Lame.  
• This was the quietest group of women I've ever seen.  NO raucous partying.  NO knitting in PJ's.  NO swearing or mean comments.  Snooze.  Cannot wait for the Northside Knitters Retreat in a couple of weeks.  Those gals know how to have a good time while knitting.
• I was by far the most experienced knitter at the weekend.  One other lady had been knitting as many years as I have, but she was so quiet no one even knew she was there.  And the most popular project was this:

 a ruffled scarf made with some kind of crazy yarn.  The ladies were CRAZY over this project.  Not my cuppa tea.

• Pia finished TWO hats, while I finished NOTHING.  

Guess those are the "highlights" of our weekend.  Now to get caught up on work, and start getting ready for fun retreat coming up at Lutherhaven!  Another Note to Self: pack booze

Knitting Retreat, Here We Come!

Pia and I are boarding the train (at 1:30 am for the love of god) tonight to head to Whitefish Montana for a knitting retreat weekend!  We are staying at the Good Medicine Lodge, and I'm really looking forward to a whole weekend of relaxing with my Rotchie and knitting like a crazy woman.

Pia will be taking pictures.  I probably will not, which is a good thing as you know if you've seen any of my photography.

X-C!

The boys are doing Cross Country, and I got to watch them run in a meet today.  Mike is out of town with his mom so it was the 3 big boys:

 RJ qualified for All City!  Yay!

 Alex and Liam, the twin terrors with Jon in the background

 Liam tearing up the course

An impressive finish for Alex considering he was running in full camo

We are real  proud of the boys for working hard in XC.  This is the first year the twins have participated successfully in a team sport, so bravo!

Cutie Patootie!

Baby Brooklyn (Sean and Beena's little girl) at her first swim lesson.  I think she looks a LOT like her Grammy Judy!

Lulu and Me

today's comic "Off The Mark" was totally the story of Lucy and me:

An Update

Pia & I had dinner last night with Jon, Liam and Alex.  I gave Jon his birthday gift, the "Fornicating Deer" hat I knit for him.  As expected, he loved it, and was also horrified by the fact that I made the deer gay:

Sorry, Sliver!  He was planning to get some White-Out and do a little editing :-)

The twins are doing great, they've been in cross country since school started and haven't been kicked out yet, which is a VAST improvement.  Both are doing well in class, and not getting booted out there either.  Yay!  They showed me their latest favorite book series: "Beast Quest", so I'm trying to track down some of those to add to their library.  Riveria was at youth group at church so we didn't get to hang out with him.  And Mike & Mom are in New York this week visiting the grandparents.  So Jon's in charge.  Everything looked pretty ship-shape, he's a good dad.  He did mention that Lorraine is dying to have a baby girl, but he's resisting.  Too old now for new babies.  I think Lo is doomed to live in a houseful of boys.

A Date with Pia

Pia and I had a fun date last night (Katie & Lulu were at camp, we missed you gals).  We hit the bookstore (Yes, P found a new YA novel and I opted for the latest Laurie King Mary Russel/Sherlock Holmes novel), Pia got a new winter jacket at North Face (just opened in Spokane), we had dinner at Twigs, and we went to see "Moneyball".

Excellent movie, I really enjoyed it.  Brad Pitt was great as Billy Beane, I always love Jonah Hill and I was impressed with the movie's storyline.  BC I wasn't sure there WAS an interesting story line to be had, even though I love baseball.  I figured if nothing else, I could just watch Brad.  But there actually was a plot and interesting characters.  I kind of hated Brad's hair though.  Too long.

No signs of mice when we got home.  Nothing in the traps.  YET.