Tank's First Big Road Trip

 Wednesday

  I didn't think he would have any troubles on the car ride, as long as he didn't need to use the restroom.  He really liked it when the windows were down because he got so many interesting smells, but otherwise was content to look out the windows.

  When we got in, I put him in his harness and on his leash so my mom could watch him while I set up his new litter box.  My dad was worried that if it was upstairs in that bathroom that Tank would crawl all over him during the night.  I just hoped that Tank would use it and not find a random spot.

  The first night Tank alternated between hiding user beds and exploring the cabin.  My mom was impressed by how much exploring he did on his first night.  Tank also made friends with a screw in the wall by squinting at it.  Not long before bed he completely missed seeing a mouse run out of the bedroom.

  At one point before we settled down for bed, he got very restless.  My parents had decided to sleep in the open area upstairs, so I couldn't follow him when he went up there.  I didn't hear any sounds of him digging in the litter box, so I shook his food until he came back down.  He was still acting very restless and doing laps around the living room, so I tried taking him outside to see if he wanted to pee out there.  He ate some grass, smelled the bush in the corner, and even decided to try a going on an adventure when he found the walkway leading from the front door of the cabin.  Before too long he started to get nervous and lead me back inside.

  I gave him some wet food to eat at Bill's suggestion and Tank spent some more time upstairs before it was finally time to snuggle up in bed.  Bill pointed out that normally when we go to bed we do it upstairs and maybe Tank was just trying to do that here.

  He was in and out of the bed all night, probably based off of the strange noises he heard all night.

Thursday

  Tank went and used the kitty box for my mom in the morning, so now I can hope that he will remember where it is on his own.

  While Tank took a nap on the bed upstairs, I took a walk to check the mail before helping stack the firewood.  It turns out that Jake (the firewood guy) is indirectly related to the Hodges because of an aunt who married into the family.

  I tried to take Tank outside after we were done, but there were too many strange sounds going on for him to want to go out.  I spent some time on the porch sipping on my sweet tea and crocheting.  Tank saw how much fun everyone else was having outside and decided he wanted to come out.  We wondered around until my dad used a power tool and Tank wanted to come in.

  I finished the sage colored shawl with only about an inch of yarn left over.  I wasn't sure that I was going to win that game of yarn chicken or not.  I sprayed it and put it on one of the spare beds to finish blocking.  I went to get the pony beads out of my bag to work on some Worry Worms and found that I had forgotten my main bag of beads and only had the bonus bag I grabbed in case I ran out of the first one.  I was worried that these were going to look a little more unhinged than the normal ones, but I think I did a good job.

  My mom made some random things for my dad to eat before the VFW meeting and the rest of us waited until Bill was done with a work call before we headed to Village Pizza Too!  This time we tried the white pizza with added meatballs.

  Bill started a small campfire for all of us and my mom and I roasted some marshmallows.  The almost full moon was even so bright at times that I had a shadow cast on the ground.

Friday

  Tank decided that even though everyone else was up and even though my mom had already given him his breakfast wet food, that he had to come and wake me up to open the bathroom door for him so he could see what was going on.  His litter box is not in that bathroom, so he was just being curious.  He then guarded the door when I used the bathroom.  He's just proving more and more that I'm his emotional support human.

  Tank got toasty in a sunny spot on the carpet while I had my breakfast, my mom showered, and Bill and my dad put up No Trespassing signs along the road.  So, we all had a pretty good morning.

  The glitter pony beads that I added some nail polish to were finally dry.  I had let them dry for a few hours the previous day before trying to use them, but they were still tacky and I ended up smearing some sticky nail polish onto the yarn.  I don't know why it took them so many hours to finish curing, but at least my experiment worked.  I'll get to use the lighter colored glitter beads easily and use up some really old nail polish all at the same time.

  While Bill was stuck working and my dad went to hang out with some of the neighbors, my mom and I went into downtown Staunton.  I wanted to go check with the owner of Made by The People For The People to see if she's received my emails about possibly selling in her shop.  I talked with one of the managers and she gave me the basic rundown of the rates for sales.  She also took my information to pass on to the owner because she has a different full time job and sometimes emails between her shop and job get mixed up.

  Since we had some more free time, we stopped in at Staunton Books whose hours are "lunch-ish to dinner-ish" on Friday to Sunday.  We then went to the Staunton Olive Oil Company to see if there was anything we wanted to go with Bill's bread.  We got a dark chocolate vinegar and a blood orange oil to go with his lavender bread.  My mom learned about putting vinegar in sparkling water.

  Rick, one of the neighbors, came over for dinner so we could hangout some.  Tank was nervous and hid when we would go back to the cabin to get things to eat in the lodge.  Bill and Rick went over to Tom's to drink whiskey and smoke cigars after dinner.

Saturday

  It's a good thing that I brought the shoelace because Tank's ribbon went missing.  He got hyper after having a bit of breakfast and I couldn't find his ribbon anywhere.  We eventually found it by the side door on top of some bags.

  The guys waited to hear when anyone at Tom's place was awake so they would know when to head over to hangout some more.  My mom and I had plans to have a fun girls hangout.  My mom and I started out by going to the farmer's market in downtown Staunton.  We got there a little later than we wanted, but quickly found a parking spot.  There was even some live music!  We got some Macoun apples.  My mom got chocolate raspberry and strawberry rhubarb spreads at Rachel Jane's Jam & Berries.  I got a hot chai from Chai Dhaba, it was so good once it cooled enough to drink.

  There was a lady who was doing watercolor and she was with Sketch Staunton.  She drew and painted one of the vendors.  For a pre-lunch snack we got the Spiced Red Lentil soup from Bijou, she is planning on opening a restaurant soon and says she will offer soup flights if you can't decide on just one.  My mom got a Beet Watermelon Kale juice from Wind Runner Farm.  We talked with Janice from AbellaPaca Boutique about her alpacas and her yarn.  A couple of the buildings in the area had bubble machines in the window.

  Before we headed to a used bookstore we stopped in at the Thrift & Sips store, it is a combination of coffee shop and thrift store.  I got the Bethel Family Cookery Cookbook from their free library.  The girl working kept suggesting books for us to take and we somehow ended up with a whole bag of them.  She also convinced me to get a Spiced Pumpkin Chai Latte with oat milk, though to be fair, that wasn't very hard to do.

  The owner of the Avocado Pit used bookstore says he does most of his sales online because the shop isn't the best place for a bookstore.  We were able to find the book my dad was looking for though.  The owner suggested we also check out Bargain Books because they have a larger location and a bigger selection.

  We stopped in at the green room to get the green room tots (manchego, parsley, black garlic mayo) and the pate + pickle sandwich.  I also got a Smuttynose sour beer.  This is the kind of place where I could see myself hanging out at a lot.

  Once we got back, checked the mail, and put everything away, I made Tank his dinner.  My mom got us all of our Girls Weekend treats.  We had two kinds of crackers, smoked Gouda with bacon, lasagna rolls, Curry Kitch'n Cook's potato chips (local), orangedew melon, apples, sangria and banana pudding moonshine.

Sunday

  Found out in the morning that one of the guys is a bee guy and he wanted to look at our "bee tree".  He says as long as they don't become aggressive they will be fine.  They would have filled the space they found with honeycomb and don't present a danger to the tree.

  Tank's definitely getting used to a lot of the sounds that happened around the cabin.  It's still scary when someone comes in the door, walks around upstairs, or walks down the stairs.  However, he's started running into the second main floor bedroom and looking from there instead of hiding under the bed.

  My mom, Tank, and I had some snacks while we waited for Bill and my dad to get back from going back to Tom's to help clean up.  A short time after they got back we had some visitors to check out our place.  My dad gave the grand tour to them.

  On the way home we stopped at 7-11 to get some drinks and gas.  When Bill ran in to get the drinks I threw away my ice cream cup.  On the way back to the truck I noticed that the Subaru two cars down was running.  They had a carrier and cat with them too!

  Tank was so comfortable on the way home that he even took a nap.  He also ignored me when I got back into the car when Bill and I were waiting for our food to be made at WaWa, he was having a good time watching the cars drive by.

  It will be interesting to see if he's completely forgotten that the cabin exists when we go back or not.  I'm really hoping we won't have to start all over the next time we take him there.

A Report From the Trip to Wise and Hazard

Pattern: random stitch I saw on Instagram - Yarn: unknown donation - Hooks: 6mm and 5.5mm

  I saw this stitch randomly on Instagram and wanted to give it a try.  It looked different from the post when I used it to make the scarf, so I decided to make a hat out of it as well.  I used the linen stitch to make the brim with the 6mm hook so that it wouldn't flare out too much when I switched stitches.

  Here is how I worked the scarf, for the hat I didn't have to worry about needing an extra place to get a loop from.

  Chain one more than the number of stitches you want.  Chain 2, turn and start row.

  Pull a loop through the third and also fourth chains from the hook so you have three loops on the hook.  Pull the last loop on the hook through the middle loop, yarn over the hook and pull through the two loops.  Put hook into the fourth chain again, pull a loop through, put the hook into the fifth chain and pull a loop through.  Pull the last loop on the hook, yarn over the hook and pull through the two loops.  Repeat until you run out of loops.  Chain two before turning.  Repeat using the chain 2 from the beginning of the previous row so you keep the same number of stitches.

  Here is the report we got back from the most recent trip out to Wise, VA/Hazard, KY:

  We had a great trip (although it did pour rain the whole day of unloading). The teachers/staff at Viper Elementary were astonished at all the school supplies, socks, underwear & comforts, and just kept saying over & over “I can’t believe that people in Northern Virginia care about us”. The Hindman Settlement School (who lost every thing they had in the floods last July) were just over the moon with the weaving looms, art supplies, weaving books, etc. These supplies will enable them to get right back into class teaching. The Care Cottage was absolutely thrilled with all the lap-size blankets we brought them. The teen center could not get over the feminine hygiene products, the toiletries, the socks, underwear. The teens came out & helped us unload their items, then they walked right up the hill to the church that takes our clothing & household goods for distribution, unloaded all in the pouring rain, courteously & so helpful & strong (4 LARGE, BIG older teen guys) – they were such a blessing as we were so tired by then – and when finished they each wrapped us in huge bear hugs & one said “it is so nice to know someone cares”. I have been so struck ever since by them and the teachers using “care” so openly.

  The church that has always accepted the clothing & household goods has asked us to please stop bringing items to them. They have lined up volunteer groups to come and help with re-building/re-habbing homes. They have to have their Fellowship Hall to put cots in for volunteers to sleep on, they have to have their kitchen for the volunteers to prepare their meals. I completely get this – getting people back into housing & out of tents & FEMA trailers has to be a priority as cold weather is coming and these people have been out of their housing for over a year. SO, if you have already collected clothing & household items & can hold them until we find another place to deliver to (we are working on this) that would be great. if you can’t hold on to them, please find a good place locally to donate – we are out of storage space at our house. 

  We are in communication with Wise about the Angel Tree for Christmas – they expect approximately 200 foster children again this year to be on the Angel Tree. I have sewing groups working on making Christmas Stockings, we have some knitting blankets, we have some hand-made quilts, a group is working on toys. Hats & scarves will be worked on.

  We will continue to collect & take to The Care Cottage, The Teen Center, Viper Elementary, etc., we just need to let the church in Hazard prioritize the volunteer groups to work on housing.

  We delivered 360+ hand-knit/crocheted comforts to Viper Elementary – one for each student (about 200) for 1st day, and the rest the school counsellor has for new students, students who have a trauma or some other special circumstance in their lives throughout the year. The school counsellor just cried when she received them.

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Retro Stripe: Is It the Best?

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Retro Stripe 

Overall ratings: 4.6/5 from 441 votes (Amazon) - 4.5/5 from 79 votes (Jo-Ann) - 4.2/5 from 989 votes (Ravelry)

Average Cost: $6.31

  I am taking a slight variance with this challenge and picking out a specific color of yarn.  At one point this colorway was so popular that whenever anyone saw it, they cleaned the shelf of it.  Most of the people I saw doing this were the ones making the double thick knitting machine hats, but I decided to try it out for myself.

 

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Hook: 5.5 mm

Good grief, why is this so popular?

This yarn is wildly popular on Tik Tok so I decided to give it a try. I've never used Super Saver, but I enjoy a good acrylic yarn. This is weird, like spun plastic. There are 100% acrylic yarns that don't feel like this does. I really wanted it to work on my circular knitting machine, but it seems to be impossible. I make a lot of hats on my knitting machine, but I cannot get this to work without slipped stitches. So disappointing. At least it was on sale so I don't feel too bad about donating to someone who might like it.

Angela (7 months ago) 1/5 stars

  I had seen it in stores a few times and thought the colors looked alright, but nothing amazing.  I had even considered buying the four skeins I saw on the shelf to try and resell online.  Though knowing my luck, the craze would have died right before I got them listed.

Pattern: Lucky Bamboo Hat - Needles: US 8

not so good

Some of this yarn is nice and some is rough and not well colored. I wish the ppl who filled these orders would take notice of dye lots. And there seems to be a big difference on quality depending where the fiber is spun. Those lots made in India are nicely colored and soft, those spun in Turkey are a weird tone and rough and almost feel like you could get a splinter from them. I had to re-order several times just to get the same consistency in the skeins to finish a project.

Kind of disappointing. Beware of ordering Aran I ordered Aran and received a dye lot that originally said Soft White and had an Aran sticker over it. It was not Aran.

~ 55 years of crochet (a month ago) 2/5 stars

  The colors you see in pictures and seeing it wrapped in the skein don't do it justice.  I can see why people like it so much.  All of the colors flow smoothly into each other, except for the cool pink, that one is a rather abrupt change.  Though I do think I prefer it in the crochet hat versus the knit.  I don't think I'm going to go crazy over it and buy 34 skeins for my stash, but I might consider buying it again.  Like Angela said, it feels nice for a Red Heart Super Saver, which means that while there are nicer acrylic yarns out there, I don't want to use this to get dried food off of my dishes.  It is also very interesting what 55 Years of Crochet noticed about manufacturing location.  I will have to check the ones I have and see if I notice a difference.

Worm on a Berm

Pattern: random stitch I saw on Instagram - Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable in Earth Ombre dye lots ??, 2019-02-WL 198782, 2019-08-WL205401 - Hooks: 8mm for chain and 5.5mm for body

  This scarf now has three different colorways on it.  The last one was different than the other two and it even had some extra dye and got purple toned dye on my fingers as I was working with it.  I do like how it goes from lightest to darkest.

Worm on a Berm

  Last weekend was the Frankie's Invited Guests yearly showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Maysville.  Since it would cut a bit of time off of the trip, we stayed at the cabin before heading over there.  While there I finished making the sample for my Worm on a Berm I plan to list online, and we had a little photoshoot.

  We were "greeted" by an older lady when we got to the hotel.  It sounds like her son and herself have been here a while.  This Holiday Inn wasn't as fancy as the place we stayed at last year, but it was nice that some of the people who traveled to help with the show stayed there also.

  It was interesting how the shows were run this year.  Last year everyone played the same parts, and we just did the whole thing twice.  This year we had two different crews casting each show.  My plan had been to just be moral support, but I got roped into bringing out a chair for the throne during Sweet-T and being the tank with a red sheet for Toucha.  I also grabbed things off the stage and lower area so no one would risk tripping and falling.

  We decided to do some adventuring before leaving town and headed to the New Riff distillery.  We waited too long to book a tour, but we decided to visit, look around the gift shop.  Bill found some new things he's interested in trying and I found some honey that sounded good.  We got a better discount than we normally would have because the person working the register thought we had been part of the tour.

  We saw a sign for Braxton Labs Taproom and Brewery with an arrow telling us it was to the left of the parking area.  We went that way so I could try a beer, but even though we found the electric car charging area, we didn't find anything that looked like an entrance to the taproom.  When I checked a map, it looks like the actual taproom was almost two miles away.

  I hadn't thought to check for any, but we weren't far from a Skyline Chili.  If we had thought about it before, we wouldn't have stopped for lunch before leaving Maysville.  I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for them more when we are out that way again.

It Turned Out to be Opening Weekend

   The reason Bill really wanted to go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival last weekend was because Jacques Ze Whipper was preforming and that was going to be his only weekend so close to us.  If you haven't heard of him, he used to be a radio journalist who missed the performing life he knew when he was a kid.  His father was a clown in the circus who used a whip in his performances.  If you are too far away to see him in person, he has videos posted on various social media platforms, they are really funny, and he even does tricks sometimes.  In the picture he was showing off how he had already been gifted so much Old Bay in such a short time, there was even a keychain!  We didn't realize it was opening weekend at first, and this is the first time I've been to it so early in the season.  Usually I've gone more mid-season, when it's cooler out.

  We saw two of his shows that day and I got a pin each time.  For the second show we got there earlier because he was on one of the smaller stages and standing room filled up quickly.  The shows were both great and I'd love to see him in person again someday.  We also went to both jousts that day.  The first time we picked a spot with shade where we could see, then later we wanted to be loyal to our knight, Sir Keegan.  I got my giant turkey leg and Felicity (mead and raspberry wine).  I didn't get to check out the venders as much as I did the other time, but there was nothing I was looking to buy this trip anyway.  I'm hoping to get a few things made for myself to wear.  Last time I had the same plan but forgot what I wanted to make.  This year I've made a list of projects I hope to work on for myself.

   You can see the color differences between the first and second skein of yarn.  I've been working on the new skein for a few days now, but I only just noticed the differences at K&CC get together.  Until this outing, I thought the colors were dark brown, copper, and tan.  I didn't even know there was green or blue!  I guess that's what I get for starting a new project in low lighting.

  I had put a poll up to see what shape I should use for my Christmas themed worms and the round shape won.  I then looked online and ordered some 6mm beads.  I also found out that Amazon can fulfill their two day delivery promise out to the cabin.  When they arrived I thought they looked too small for some reason.  I did a quick search and was reminded that pony beads are 6x9mm.  So now I've ordered new beads and will return the ones I got before.

Some Quick Cabin Trips

Trip 1:

  While we waited for my dad and Bill to get back from running some errands, we found out that Jake from LingoNetworks drives an '88 Pontiac usually.  His grandparents have a similar place to ours and when he was 8 years old, his grandparents had deer that would eat from your hand.

  Later that day we met Carol, Rick, and Buddy from the Boys Home Christmas tree farm.  They were very nice, the kind of people you invite over.  Rick offered to let Bill try his thermal scope, but warned him that it'll probably end up costing him money because there will be a good chance he will want one of his own.  They had really good timing because it was just before we started packing up to go out to dinner.  They had seen the new mailbox and had decided to take a chance.  They were hoping that we were full-timers, but we had to disappoint them.  Though with how often Bill and I have been out last month, we are almost there.

Trip 2:

  Got in and then quickly unpacked the car so we could enjoy a fire.  There is supposed to be a big meteor shower on Saturday night, but it got started on Thursday.  I saw about 11 shooting stars the first night we were out there.

  The coyotes were wandering around and yelling at each other.  One was even about 275ish yards away at one point.  Bill confused it with his flashlight.  It seems that either the tree frogs or the whippoorwills get to call to each other.  So far I've heard one or the other, sometimes both in one night, but never at the same time.

  I made some savory oatmeal while Bill did boring work stuff.  On our way out to get some parts to fix the mower, we saw a FedEx and a UPS truck making a delivery at the house with the pony and really cute cows.  We hadn't seen the animals out front lately, but we saw them back again today.

  The first place, Pleasant View Repair Shop, lost their storage facility to a fire at the end of December and are rebuilding it.  So while that would be a good place to go to in the future, they currently don't have any stock.  They do have a very cute cat who came right up to me for pets and rubbed against my legs.  There was also a pug in the office that Bill gave some attention to.

  We tried one other place, but they also didn't have stock at the store.  To make ourselves feel better, we got ice cream at Smiley's.  The Coconut Pie ice cream was really good.  We saw an adult and a young turkey when we were almost back to the cabin.

  Bill played around with his new metal targets while dinner cooked in the slow cooker.  I found a small black snake on and in the big stump by the front door.  From the size, I think it's the one I got the whole shed of.  I was then rude to him and tried to take some pictures with flash.

  We ran out of time to make another fire, but we did manage to play Future Me Problems.  We've brought that game with us about 3 times now and have never played it before.  It was a pretty fun, chill kind of game.

  On our way out we saw about a dozen turkeys.  Some were younger and smaller.  It's fun seeing all the various wildlife.

Rocky Takes the Garden State

Thursday

  Missed seeing Mamma Mia being shadow casted, which sounded interesting.  There will probably be another chance to catch it at another Rocky Convention.

  We stopped in at the big rest area and got some quick dinner that we were all a bit disappointed by.  Steven managed to order from Nathan's Famous hotdogs before their ordering kiosk stopped working and they didn't know what to do.  Wendy's was then swamped and the food took quite a bit of time to get out.

  One last thing we did was that Steven and I used the massage chairs at the rest stop.  All the various delays, including being stopped by a car accident on a bridge, meant that we didn't get in until 12:34am.  The first people we ran into that we knew were Alex and Husband, which is funny because they were the first people we saw that we knew at the last one.  The lady who checked us in used to work at the larger hotel and said she liked doing the event check-ins and that ours was no big deal.

Friday

  While I was curious what all Rocky Fit Club would entail, there was no way I was going to be up and ready to go to be able to get down to the registration table by 9am.

  Our shower was interesting.  The temp was either a bit too cold or a bit too hot.  When you switched it from bath to shower only about half of the water switched over.  At one point I had noticed that the tub was slowly filling up, but once I had finished shampooing my hair, I noticed that the drain had caught up.

  The price of breakfast at the hotel was a bit steep, so we went to Pierce Street Bagel Cafe.  I got the Egg Sandwich with Beef Bacon on an egg everything bagel.  We then saw Alex and Husband again.

  We found out that late last night one of the elevators got stuck with some people in it.  Turns out one of them was claustrophobic, which is why there are signs on there today saying a max of 6 people at a time.  It didn't really help anything because there were many times the elevators would move up and down slightly when the doors were still open and everyone onboard was standing still waiting for the doors to close.

  Since there weren't any panels we wanted to see at the time, we stopped in at Bottle Republic to see if there was anything we couldn't get at home we could get here.

  While putting some Worry Worms out I found out that one group was leaving tiny plastic ducks around and another was leaving 3D printed dicks.  I love the fact that I'm not the only one leaving things for people to find.

  I got to see more people I knew before going to Stateside Tap + Tavern for dinner.  It turns out there were 30 casts represented at this con!  That's kind of crazy to think about people coming from Texas and California!

  It was unsurprising that Shock Treatment was really good.  Everyone always puts a lot of effort into their costumes and performances.

  At one point when I was hanging out in the smoker's area, someone came up to me and told me that I was really cool because I had a cigar.  I hadn't meant to, but I ended up staying up until 3:30am.

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 302 Kaleidoscope - Hook: 5.5mm

Saturday

  Since I got to bed so late, it was a slow morning.  On our way out one of the elevators tried to smoosh me between the doors.  Got a bite for lunch and then hung out briefing before Repo the Genetic Opera.

  It was another great showing of Repo this year.  One of the people who played the grave robber did it again this year and I was really excited to see them do it again.  There were some great callbacks and while I would like to remember them for next year, I will probably forget them.

  Lubrano's Pizza was our next stop before it was time to get onto the bus for the big show.  We took the First Student school bus to The Brook Arts Center.  While waiting outside one of the people in line in front of us went to Tacos Pizza for a quick slice.

  We were told that the theatre has lots of ghosts.  Their prop bags had little poppers in there for the Frank/Rocky wedding scene.  They had a bit of trouble raising and then lowering the screen.  It became everyone's favorite character, and we chanted Screen often.  Sal Piro got one of the Guiding Star awards, it was passed around to everyone so we could all be part of it since he's not with us anymore.

  During Eddie's scene they had 6 Columbias, 6 Eddies, and 4 Franks to then kill the Eddies.  We also learned a new callback of "It stuck to her thigh, like a whole stick of butter" and I might be using that from now on.

  We hung out for a bit more when we got back to the hotel but made sure to get to bed before 3 am this time.

Sunday

  Nothing officially was going on, but lots of people were loitering in the lobby getting some last minute hangout time with new friends or anyone they hadn't seen in a while.

  Since it's a callback we do, and we were near one, we stopped at a White Castle on our way out.  I've actually never been to one before now.  I got the cheese sliders and some chicken rings.  The chicken rings were the best part, though now I've tried it.

  It was so much fun to see all the people I met last year and to also make some new friends.  Friday Nite Specials held a good convention, and I was able to get 30 worms distributed.  I already miss being there, even with the scary elevators.