Scotland Day 6: Stanes! Stanes Everywhere!

  A much better of a morning as we got ready to leave Archiestown.  I really like this little town and would not mind visiting it again at some point.  Charlie even let me pet him after we checked out.

  I made sure to have both colors of yarn with me because we had about a three hour drive to get to the ferry we had vouchers for.  There were also a lot of pheasants standing on or next to the road.  They are pretty but kind of dumb.  Tank would love chasing them, they are everywhere.  We had to slow down and go around them, other birds get out of the way when you get within their sight and they see you approaching, but these would glance over and meander away.

  As we were traveling to the ferry and looking at possible stopping places for interesting things I kept thinking that I wanted to keep an eye out for yarn shops.  The only problem with this is that the prices at the mill would be hard to beat.  I know the ones I got at the mill were at least half the price I would have seen at my local shops.  I also don’t know if any of the prices near me are because they are imported goods, or just because it is an actual store.

  As we were going Heather spotted something on the map that was the Hill o’Many Stanes.  I was excited because I take more pictures of sheep.  These had babies with them!  I wished I had had a bit more zoom, but I think they were cute.

  The stones were not easily visible from the road, so we had to take another winding one laned road to them.  They are 27 stones just standing there on the side of a small hill in a fan pattern.  Very perplexing and mysterious.

  On our way to lunch we passed the Carn Liath off of A9.  It was a fun looking thing.  A ring of rocks with a doorway and grass on the top.  No one deemed it something that we needed to stop for, but I am glad that I got to see it.

  We stopped for lunch at John O’Groats which is one of the ends of the End to Enders.  It is a popular thing for motorcyclists to take pictures of their bikes a both ends within 24 hours.  It seems like a lot of cyclists also like going from one end to the other, they just tend to take a bit longer.  While Bill thinks it would be fun to do it on a motorcycle, he also doesn’t want to try it in the 24 hour limit.

  The Castle and Gardens of Mey were the only ones actually owned by the Queen Mother.  She had many places to stay at, but this was the only one she owned.  She owned some tacked tacked-wellies so when it rained and she took her corgis out she would have traction going up the hill.

  There was also an animal center and I have to say that was my favorite part.  In pens there were a bunch of different animals.  A few kinds of chicken, sheep, a mule, pigs, and a few kinds of geese to name a few.  In the barn there were some lambs, birds, a rabbit, and eggs incubating.  I was so happy to get to see the lambs up close!

  The cage of chipmunks really threw us off though.

  Winding country roads are not the best to try and fix knitting on.  It seems that at some point I decided that one of the rows of slipped stitches didn’t really need to be slipped and I would just work it like all the other stitches on either side of it.  The front looks a fine and though the back looks a bit funny I am only on row 12, so I am not too worried about 

it.  They are long rows and to completely fix it, I would have to go back to the set-up row.  There was another one where I was slipping until about four rows ago, then I decided to just work those plain too.  So I need to remember to pay more attention when working the wrong side row.

  Dunnet Bay was another fun detour on our way to find the ferry.  We had allotted a lot of time to get there, so all these stops were only sort of planned in.  There were a bunch of sand worms and the sand dried out a little as you stepped on it and then rehydrated when you stepped off of it.

  We got to the ferry nice and early but still weren’t first in line.  Someone who arrived after us checked in first and queued up before we did.  The vouchers said that we needed to turn them in and get tickets in their office that was about 18 miles from the actual ferry.  A quick call told us that we just had to show our voucher to the person when we checked in before getting in line.  We had enough trouble finding the ferry, who knows what would have happened if we had to find another office as well.

  I had to borrow Heather’s sweatshirt because my suitcase fit the best in the car with the zipper facing inward.  The boat was pretty windy and got really chilly because of it.  It was a fun ride though and I even got some hot chocolate to help fight off the cold.  I am looking forward to when we do it again, but I am not in a hurry to leave.

  A lot of where we are on the island of Orkney closes fairly early.  The only place we found to try and eat at was an Indian place called Dil Se.  We weren’t the only ones in there for that same reason.  Luckily they had some good food, though I wish it had been a bit spicier.

  There are currently some guys driving their modified cars around town again and again, but hopefully they will get bored before I want to go to bed. 

Scotland Day 5: Naughty Kitties

  Mornings have not been my friend.  Yesterday I didn’t sleep well, and this morning I had to locate a missing contact.  I remember putting it in and pouring the solution on it, then I didn’t put the top on right away.  This morning I went to open it and all that was in there was solution.  Bill asked if I checked the lid (I did) or if I forgot to take it out (I didn’t).  I found it as a dry crumpled thing stuck partially inside the lid of my toothpaste tube.  No idea how it got there, but once it found it I put it right in some new solution.  I was so worried since that had been my back-up pair and I have no idea how you go about getting contact lenses when in another country.  Bill’s sight is about -1.25 off from mine and I don’t think it is advisable to only use one contact when you need two.

  While my contact was figuring itself out after an hour soak we went to see a bridge.  It was very picturesque but I have not looked up anything about it.  Craigellachie looked like it had been a drivable bridge at one point, but definitely not any more.

  Macallan was our first distillery.  I tried a bit of their Amber.  It wasn’t as bad as some of the other general scotches I have had.  The visitor’s center opened at 9:30am, but they couldn’t serve any alcohol until 10am.  This explains why most of the ones we were looking at didn’t open until 10.

  There was also a lot of construction.  Seems that they are working on making a whole new distillery and plan for it to be open by next spring.  Bill kind of wants to come back once they open the new areas.

  Though we passed 3 Bags Wool on the way to Ballindalloch castle, I had a feeling that the mill we had planned might have better prices, so I wanted to hold off until after we went there.  The mill was planned for lunch since they had a cafe, and it was still too early, so here we are.

  We took the tour and it was interesting, but didn’t feel like a castle.  The general consensus was that it felt more like a manor or an estate house.  It is also still partially being lived in.  There had also been many signs warning of red squirrels.  We didn’t see a one!  I was interested to see how differently they looked.

  We did see two alpaca, two ponies, and two mules.  There were also a bunch of sheep when we got in and some cattle as we left.

  We also ran into one of the Camper Dogs RVs.  They had their website on their camper.  I didn’t know they existed, but once I saw the website and heard the dogs barking I got curious.  It is an RV rental company that is dog friendly.  Their website is also in German.

  Down the road some the castle also has a distillery and a golf course.  The distillery seemed to only have tours by appointment, so it was our fastest one so far.

  The Pictish stones were both hard to find and underwhelming.  First you had to look for the name of the Church to find them on any GPS searches.  Then they were also on the porch of the church.  While they were interesting, they weren’t as interesting as we were hoping.

  Knockando Woolmill had a fun drive to get to having us pass many pastures of sheep.  We had actually passed it a few times in our other travels.  I was hoping that there was going to be a field with some fluffy (or recently made not fluffy) sheep with some cute babies that I could take pictures of.  There was none within sight, but that didn’t stop me from perusing the yarn.  I also got a sandwich with tomato, rocket, and mozzarella.  Since we had to pay for our lunch back in the gift shop, I decided to get more yarn.  I have at least 2 cowls and a few hats worth.  I didn’t ask, but I do wonder if they ship.  Their prices were quite nice, so I definitely didn’t feel the need to try and go to 3 Bags Wool.

  We didn't get there in time to see Leslie or Margaret.  I hope they had a lot of fun and bought a bunch of wool.

  Cardhu distillery was pretty much across the street.  The tour price wasn’t bad and they had spots available.  Since I have never been on one, I decided to go too.  Before our tour we were told that there was some “hairy coo” in the field within view.  Diesel and Harry were the closest to the fence(right), and Treasure and baby Hector (who was 2 weeks old) were hanging out a bit farther in.  It also turns out that they really like digestive biscuits and Harry wandered over for one.  I feel like this trip is more complete now.  We later found out that another baby had been rejected and it had looked like Diesel had recently had one.

  To get them to come closer a guy who works there got out of his truck and threw them some treats.  We saw that he was tossing them some McVitie's Digestives.  They are round biscuits that are slightly sweet.  Hairy was nosing the ground to see if more could be found.

  Our tour ended with a tasting.  I enjoyed the nosing test at the beginning and I liked the scents from some of the ones we tried, I was not a fan of the taste of any of the ones I tried.  The first and the third I tried weren’t horrible, but I probably would never drink them on my own.

  They didn’t let you take any pictures while in the buildings, but that makes sense.  You don’t want to make it easy for anyone to steal your secrets.  I thought Molly made our tour really fun.  She was excited when other people liked her favorites.  Some of the rooms for the various stages smelled really nice, one like bananas and one was like raisins.  It was really fun to see how the stuff was made and they really like the American bourbon casks.

  The boys wanted to stop by the Balvenie distillery, but it turns out they don’t do tastings or sell anything on site.  We took a driving tour of the buildings before someone looked it up and found this out.

  Balvenie Castle was a fun one.  Many places to go up and down stairs that lead to similar places.  The second floor had a bunch of rooms and I had a lot of fun exploring.  I went up some more floors and some guy was ahead of me.  His wife called up asking if that was as high as it went.  He called down that it went up four more floors.  He mouthed a ‘thank you’ when I said “At least” to his comment.  She did not come up.

  We were starting to run out of time to visit things that closed before 5pm.  There was the option to just go back to the hotel or to try and make it to one more distillery.  Of course this means there was franking map searching so we could get to one more.

  Glenfarclas was still open when we got there.  It smelled at lot like all the other ones we had been to.

  Since we were done with all of our adventuring early and had an hour before dinner I decided I wanted to walk down the road and take some pictures of the sheep we saw.  There were no babies in this group, but I did interest them with my camera click noises.  I would get close and they would wonder off a little, then they would hear the click and come back a little.

  Before dinner we got a visit from both Archie and Charlie, who had turned one in July.  I found out that the reason they were in so much trouble the night before was because they managed to get into a bird’s nest.  Hopefully they will be more behaved tonight.

Scotland Day 4: Did Someone Say "Kinder Eggs?"

  The bed in this hotel has a very firm mattress.  This means a bad night’s sleep for me.  However, I got to see one of the residential ginger cats and even took a few pictures.

  This is said cat.  Archie was sweet and Jim got to pet him.  He really wanted to get into the breakfast area, but since that wasn’t an option he went to the back to do some filing.
  We headed out and were going to stop by a grocery store before heading out for the day.  The car’s GPS/Sat-Nav decided we were there.  The only building with an open or closed sign said it was closed.  The grocery’s website said they should be opened.  A quick internet search told us that we were nowhere near the grocery.  It was a cute town with a pathway to another castle.   There was something I did see that was really funny.  There was a small car, a tiny bit longer than a Smart Car that had some conflicting stickers in the back window.  One said “I’m not leaking oil, I'm sweating power” and another said “0-60 Eventually.”  That is a very confusing message.

  Since I’m me, I had to get some Kinder Eggs.  I got one Barbie and one Justice League.  I didn’t know which I wanted more.    They were also only 83P each which is more expensive than the £1 for a three pack we saw in Germany, but it sure beats the $3.49 I find at home.
  It is also true when they tell you that Fanta tastes differently in Europe than in the States.  It tastes more like real oranges in Europe and more like orange syrup.  I've also seen a bunch of people out and about with a bottle of that Volvic juiced and decided to give it a try.  I have not opened it yet, but I will report back when I do.

  Winding country roads are fun to be on (unless you easily get car sick) and lend themselves for some good views, but are not good for pictures.  Especially when you have never been in the area and don’t know when to ready the camera.  I got to see at least two, and go no pictures of, “hairy coo”, they are just so fluffy and are really cute.
  Average speed cameras are also very interesting.  They get two pictures of your plates and time how long it takes you to get from one to the other.  They are also a fairly new thing.

  We spotted a whiskey distillery and decided to make a stop.  Tomatin is the softer side of the highlands.  Bill tried a few and the boys bought some items.  I have a feeling that the one Bill got sounded expensive to him, but was so good that he couldn’t resist.  He had me try one and I did not like it.  There was one I was tempted to try, but they didn’t have it open for tasting and they only had two more for sale.   We also got a fly by from a Gripen.  The fighter jet was low enough that we could identify it by sight.  It was a bit disconcerting and another time that a ready camera would have been nice.
  The one lane roads are interesting.  There is one wide-ish lane for both directions.  Since two cars can’t fit down one wide-ish lane, and the sides usually have fences, trees, raised banks, or some combination of them, there are pull off areas.  So that means that if you are driving on the side with the passing places and you see a car coming from the other way, you have to pull over and let them pass because they have the right-of-way.   There was also a road near Inverness with one wide-ish lane and a bike lane on either side.  The general consensus seems to be that everyone drives in half the road and the bike lane unless there is a parked car or bike in it, then you scoot over.   The Longman roundabout had a few fun things going for it.  It had lights, so you can get more traffic into it without too much back-up.  It was also spiraled.  Bill says he has seen videos of them but the rest of us have never heard of them.

  Lunch was a quick stop at the Oakwood Restaurant before heading over to Loch Ness.  We stopped in at the first pull off.  Nessy didn’t show up, but there were a lot of people there and everyone knows that she is shy.

  Poor Urquhart castle.  Before time and Mother Nature even had a chance at it, the local villagers started looting for building materials.  The lead that was used for roofing was found all over the village later.  It had also been built up over time, so the layout was a bit wonky and with all the looting the historians have been having problems guessing what buildings and rooms were used for what.  They were able to make some good guesses on a few of them.
  We did a quick stop at the Loch Ness tourist trap and got some presents for people at home.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get the change purse or the wallet.  I got both and a little Nessy for myself.  We also got some stuff for a few more people.

  When getting dinner in Aberlour I saw a yarn shop.  3 Bags Wool's website said they weren’t opened at all on Wednesdays, but the gate was open.  I wanted to take a peek at what they had, but we were also all hungry for dinner.  I was curious to see if they had a website or not.  I found it but even though it looked like it had a little shopping basket, it wouldn’t show me any of the yarn.  It was probably a mobile browser problem.  Once we were out from dinner the gate was closed.  There may or may not be time for us to go tomorrow, we shall see what we do.
  The boys are excited about all the scotch adventures they have planned for tomorrow.  They are discussing which distilleries have tours and which they would want to tour and taste versus just going for a taste.  They want to find some expressions that they can’t get in the states.   There are now two ginger cats and we are all distracted.  They are brothers.  Time to do some knitting by the fire and finish my merlot.
  While some of us were sitting there another group came into the sitting room.  One of them noticed that I was knitting and pointed it out to another.  Margaret is a knitter too.  She mostly does hats.  They were going on the guided tour of the mill at 10:30am the next day.  I told them that I might see them there, but I also wasn’t sure since we had our scotch/castle/yarn route planned out and I wasn’t sure when we would make it there.  I wonder if I will see them there or not.

Scotland Day 3: Pear and Toffee are Acceptable

  This morning we headed out and got our car.  This is where it really set in that we were in another country.  There were some worries about being on the wrong side of the road while doing it from the wrong side of the car.  Straightaways were easy but the turns were the real cause for worry.  We didn’t run into any real troubles though.

  St Andrews had an abbey and a cemetery to wonder around in.  There was a tower there.  The sign said there were 160 steps and the person who came down before we went up said it was off by about 5.  My legs were sore and it looked really tall, but I wanted to go and see the view.  The funny part was that even though it was spiral stairs, it was pretty closely enclosed, so I didn’t have any height issues.  Well, until the part of the stairs that were added later and were a more open metal spiral stairs.  It actually didn’t bother my legs as much as I thought.

  The real hard part was getting in.  To get into the tower you had to put a token in and go through a turn style.  To help keep it to only one person, it was a bit tight.  With backpacks it make it even more difficult.  We all managed to squeeze through though.

  In my usual fashion, I took a few pictures of the stone things and a ton of pictures of any critters I saw.  At the St Andrews castle ruins there were some big sea gulls and some other bird that was of a similar size but had different colors.  They also had a different call.

  There were a few more things that were in the plans, but didn’t work out because our next hotel was about a three hour drive away.  We got a lunch at Little Italy and headed out.  I got my knitting out, but didn’t get a lot done.  The back country roads we ended up on were really interesting and I was very distracted.

  All the farm animals in the area seem to have had babies recently.  I got to see a ton of tiny baby sheep, some baby cows, and even some baby horses.  I got a few pictures, but of course missed the babies scratching an itch or frolicking through a field.  One small sheep even managed to squeeze out of the fence and was nervously standing near its mom.  Hopefully it gets back in, there was no room for us to pull off and help it.

  Even with all the winding roads and adorable animals I managed to get a few more rows done.  I am really liking the design of the pattern.  Because it goes from the long edges in, it means that when you are getting tired of working on it, the rows are shorter and go faster.  The one downside is that I know some people who will go until they run out of yarn and that is not possible with this pattern.  I would also consider purling the slipped stitches through the back loop instead of keeping them straight, even if just on the first time you work them again after the set-up row.

  I have been carrying the small ball of the yarn I want to use for the Impulse Scallop Shawl and the needles, but have not had time to cast it on.  It was supposed to be my between car knitting, since I could fairly easily put it down and pick it back up when needed.  Since this is the first day we have had a car, that was not an option before.  Though the pattern is the length of a short story and there are many charts, Better Together is actually quite easy of a knit.  Just so long as you don’t leave in the wrong marker and take out the center marker by mistake.  I totally don’t know this because I did it on the way and wondered why my “center” stitch was only about 100 stitches away from one end.  Nope, not me.  You must be thinking of someone else.

  We had drinks in the sitting room of our next hotel while we blogged, chatted, and waited for our time slot in the dining room.  It was nice and dinner was also awesome.  I learned that pear and toffee is an acceptable topping for cheesecake for me.  I usually hate anything that isn’t straight up.
  Time to hope that later I will get a better night's rest.

Scotland Day 2: An American Restaurant

  It was not my morning.  I woke up and got the salmon with scrambled eggs.  That list I read before also mentioned that Scottish salmon was better than from everyone else.  It tasted a lot like the others I have had.

  I then went to upload pictures on the last post and found it hasn't saved what I had typed out...for the second time.  So while sitting on a bus I tried to re-retype it.  All of this while my right contact was doing weird things in my eye.  I, of course, forgot my glasses as well.

  It was a cool walk to Edinburgh castle.  While wandering around I got separated and did most of the castle on my own.  It seems I missed being in most if the crowds, so that was nice.  But I also missed the changing of the guards.

  We then headed to The Whiskey Shop and the boys tried a few.  Heather and I tried some as well and we found one that I thought wasn't bad.  Bill was shocked.  My contact also decided to settle down at that point.

  Lunch was fish ‘n chips and mushy peas at The Red Squirrel.  How English of me.  The tartar sauce was better than I was used to, I think there was lemon in it or something.

  We also had haggis balls.  They were bits of haggis that had been breaded and fried.  Odd, but good.

  On the way to the bus we stopped by a statue of a bear.  He unloaded artillery shells for the Polish Army.

  We then took the bus to another castle.  We like castles.  Craingmillar didn’t have many roofs left, but there were labeled rooms.  There was a prison with a toilet, a grand hall, a basement, and a wine cellar.  While that wasn't all of the rooms, those were some of the more interesting ones.

  We then hopped back on the bus because Bill and I were going for a tour in The Real Mary King’s Close.  It was a really good tour.  There was a ghost story, but they don't let you lick the green arsenic walls.  I highly recommend it, especially since you aren't allowed to take pictures so I can't show you here.  There are also some Hogwarts-talking picture shenanigans.

  I saw a fabric shop along the bus route and wanted to stop in.  I also wanted to take a break in the hotel because my feet still hurt from yesterday.  We got back and I was going to just drop off my bag and head back out.  Unfortunately they close at 7pm and I found this out at 7:05pm.  If I had gotten off right after we left from Mary’s Close I could have looked around.  I saw some yarn in their window and was curious.  Luckily we have some yarn shops in mind for the trip or I would have been bummed out.

  I also saw a charity thrift store called Cat's Protection.  The money goes to help cats find a loving home and to also help spay the neuter cats so the problem doesn't get worse.

  The other half of our group tried the Italian food while we were looking around Mary’s Close.  I was told there might have been curry.  So it seems that while Germany leans towards Italy when making Italian food, Scotland leans towards India.  They at least start with the same letter.

  When I was more ready for dinner, I wanted to go to The Pie Maker.  They were closed so we kept walking.  We ended up at The Filling Station, which claimed to be an American restaurant.  The universe seemed to want us to go there.  It was starting to rain a little as we neared, then a bit harder, and as I walked under the awning it started to pour out.

  I got haggis cake and a key lime martini.  While haggis is not American, I want to get it when I can.  We also got the Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.  The cake was awesome and had dates in it!

  After we got back we had some of the sherry and shortbread the hotel provided.  Another late night with an early morning to come.

Days 1 and something of Scotland!

  So I got up a little early for me, some time after 8am. I finished packing and even had time to go and check out one of the houses for sale in my neighborhood. I was really hoping to be able to bring something I ordered online, but that didn't happen.
   We got to the airport and got through very easily. We then got some lunch before we waited for our plane to board.  The nice thing about international trips is that they feed you.   These seats were interesting though, there were 4 seats across, you only got 3 offset under the seat storage spaces, but there were 5 cup holders.

  That was my nifty little set up. I really liked the tiny wines.

  I wanted to work on Better Together on the plane because I could concentrate on it. Well, it took me until my third movie to cast everything on and to count to nine 40 times. My problem was that I was counting the one purl stitch and then going on to two when I made my first knit stitch. Silly me!
  When I learned that we were going to have to go through security again and the rest of my bottle of water would go to waste I became annoyed.  We weren't leaving the airport, so where would we have gotten ahold of something we weren't allowed to have?  So I drank the whole thing before we got off the plane.  I felt better about not wasting the water, but I also gave myself a stomach ache.

  While on the flight from London to Edinburgh I knew it was at a breakfast time and I got breakfast food, but my body was just confused as to what time it was.  I got a mini English Breakfast.  I also managed to get one more row knitted.  The middle seats were interesting.  They were more narrow and armrests had been put over them.  It didn't look like they were ever used as seats, even though it has its own tray table.

  It seemed like I was the only one to get food on that flight because soon after getting to the hotel everyone else wanted to get food.  I had read a post about some of the foods you had to try while in Scotland.  One of them was the scotch egg.  Since I was only a little bit hungry, I ordered one.

  It is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage for anyone who doesn't know.  The one I got had a slightly runny yolk and was wrapped in spicy sausage, almost a chorizo.

  Then came the hike to the top of Arthur's Seat.  We were told that even though it would look like we wouldn't want to, we should take the path with the stairs.  Once close we saw a map with some of the paths labeled on it.  None of the actual paths were labeled, so it was kind of hard to tell which ones were official and which had just been made over time.  We saw some steep stair-like things that looked like I wouldn't want to go up, so they fit the criteria and up we went.

  Some of the steps we went up were almost to my knee and at one point there stopped being stairs and were just rocks in an angle.  I did a bad impression of a mountain goat and climbed up.  I'm not in shape at all, so I had to take a few breaks.  It might not look like much from the picture, but the tiny road at the bottom of the picture is a two lane road.

  It didn't bother me that everyone else in the group was faster than I was, but it did bother me when the path got close to a steep hill.

  I also didn't go all the way to the top because it was windy when we were most of the way up and I was cold enough as it was.  I did have fun taking pictures of wild birds and people's dogs.

  We headed back down a different way than we came up.  Along the way I saw a wild rabbit tumble down onto the path, I thought he had just slipped and was going to get up and scamper off, but when he started thrashing around I knew he wasn't doing very well.  I told him that he had been a very good bunny, and while I know he didn't understand me I hope my tone got through.

  There weren’t any people down at St. Anthony's Chapel when we first got there.  However, whenever you are trying to get pictures without people, they all sense your intentions and swarm to where you are pointing the camera.   The rest of the walk down was really easy.  We stopped in at BRGR and I got the Kinder Egg shake.  It was really good and I highly recommend it to anyone who has one near them.

  It is now after 10pm local time and I have been up since about 2pm yesterday so I think it is time for bed for me.

Two Weekends, One Review

  I had planned on talking about each weekend in their own posts, but time slipped away from me when I was done with the first and then getting ready for the second.  You might need a snack for this one.

Saturday 4/29

  It was a nice day and we got done with the New Member Orientation in a good amount of time.  Time for the beer festival!!

  I really like how they gave you this little jar to take with you to get samples.  No worries about small cups tipping over and not very much waste.  I kept mine and plan to use it again, so mine was zero waste.  This was a VA apple cider.

  I was very bad at keeping track of what I had from where...this was a yummy, but I don't remember which one it was.

  This one is also a mystery to me.  I remember they were right next to the cider people and the lady who poured it was very nice.  There were also a few that didn't get a picture taken of them.  Only one of the ones I actually tried wasn't something I liked.  There was a bunch I did like.

   Some of the places had really cool covers for their coolers.

  I really liked their pear lager.  I would definitely have that again.

  A lot of them had really cool handles.  It makes sense for them to do this, that way when you walk into some place you can see if they have your favorite quite easily.

Sunday 4/30

  My mom had debated a while on if she wanted to go see Geraldine or not.  I knew I wanted to go and we decided to meet there.

  There she is in all her yarny glory!  It was so interesting to see once you got inside.

  They had many things to distract you before you even got it.  Do you see those lovely baskets growing from that tree over on the left?  The yarns hung there are also dyed especially for them.  If you see one you like, you better get it, or learn how to dye yarn yourself.

  This is what the inside looked like.  Every where you turned there was something new to see and squish.

  I was thinking that I wasn't going to buy anything, but then I went in and took a closer look at the basket of stitch markers.  Even their logo is too cute to not take a closer look at.

~picture~

  I wanted to get all the cat themed ones, but I thought that was a bit much since they were more than I would usually pay for stitch markers.  I managed to narrow it down to two cards.  I couldn't decide, so I just went with both of them.

Saturday 5/6

  We tried to go to the Virginia Gold Cup last year, but it didn't work out.  I forget why at this point, but I was determined to go this year.  The weather forecast said there was a chance of rain in the morning, but it should clear before too long.
  I woke up to cloudy skies, but it didn't look like much was happening.  When our friends got here it was drizzling a little.  We took that as a good sign since the storm was supposed to be moving from where the cup was towards where my house was.  It was raining on the way there, but lightened when we were almost there.
  When we got there it was drizzling, so we set up the table and brought the coolers down.  We did some browsing while we were waiting for the races to start.  They also had some terrier races, but they were on the other side of the field and they didn't cast it on the giant screens they had.  The one in green won.
  As we waited, the rain would start to lighten, then get heavy again.  The wind was also making it really cold feeling.  I got some fun pictures and we got to stay for one race.  I was hoping to see a second since I knew the path they took, but there is a really long lull between the races.  It makes sense because the race itself was only a little over four minutes, and the lines for betting were insanely long.  They want to let as many people as possible hand over their money.

  Here is the video I put together of what I got to see.  Feel free to go view it on YouTube.


Sunday 5/7

  The plan had been to go to Holi DC with a friend, but because of all the rain, we were worried about mud, and there were reports that it might rain again.  So we decided to stay home.

  When Bill first found this and showed me, my first thought was wondering if that stuff was peanut butter.  Nope, those would be eggs.  This would make sense why the ants wouldn't leave us alone, even when the desk was clean for weeks.
  We got those magazines and stuff outside with as many as we could.  Of course, when Bill started to move them, they panicked and tried to run off with eggs.  This makes sense, but isn't too convent for us.  He says that as long as none of the eggs they managed to make off with were a queen, we should be okay.

  Not a lot of knitting got done since what I'm working on is very cable heavy and I spend a lot of time looking at the chart.  I also still have no idea what to take on our trip later this month!
  Much to do, but for now, bed!