Rolling Thunder re-cap.

  I have my memory card back with all of my pictures and I feel like I can give a better recap now that I have had some time to calm down.

  This little guy was on my shoe.  I thought it was some dirt, but then he stuck to my nail when I tried to brush him off.  Then I realized that it wasn't dirt, but was a snail.  When we were done with our photo-shoot I put him closer to the trees and bushed so hopefully he wouldn't get smooshed or fried in the sun.

  First time seen on the blog!  This is the newest project I have been working on.  I wasn't able to decide if I wanted to do a color-work cowl or a brioche cowl.  So I found some pretty variegated yarn and did both.  I also brought some healthy snacks.

  Remember Meg with the painted nails from last year?  This is her bike that she is riding this year.  It didn't take her long last year before she got her motorcycle license (even though her mom said no way at first).

  Santa was also there!!  He rolled in and then asked me if I knew who he was and then went "Ho Ho Ho!"  It was awesome! His license plate also let everyone know that he is Santa.

  Meg was trying out the bike from one of our new friends.  He was super impressed by her and had to rub it in to his friend that a 17 year old girl was riding her own bike in Rolling Thunder and he wasn't.

*~* WARNING: STOP WATCHING AROUND 4:01 IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THE ACCIDENT *~*

  I was glad I didn't actually see it happen in real time.  Meg was right next to them and she was a lot braver after than I would have been.  When I saw the wife she was moving around some, but Bill said she was unresponsive by the time he ran over to her.
  I will be writing a good commendation for the officer on the scene who was taking the evidence and testaments.  She was very good at making it feel like she understood how we felt and that we shouldn't feel pressured.
  As of the last I heard on May 30: both of them are doing okay.  It seems that no news is good news.
  Here is a link to another YouTube video that got a better shot of the helicopter come in and take her out.

Now some happy stuff!!

Picture from the internet

  Do you remember the "Saluting Marine" from my video last year?  His station looks a bit different than usual this time.

Picture from the internet.

  He got married!!  They got married on the 29th and she stood next to him the whole time.  The Daily Wire did an article about the two of them.
  I wish I had video of them, but I am interested to see if she stands next to him again next year.

I know I was excited, but it wasn't supposed to be THAT interesting.

  As usual, a few bikes showed up for Rolling Thunder.  It was way too sunny for my taste, but some people like that sort of thing.  They were even giving out some bandanas, but they had been died red in a less than through way, so they leaked pink when they got wet.


  Here was supposed to be the super fun footage of out trip in HD and showing Meg's first time riding her own motorcycle in the parade.  Too bad things were too exciting.
  When we got to the bridge where people would spread out and get to speed up.  This was all going fine until someone in near the end of the bridge slowed down quickly.  No idea what it was, but this caused a lot of the people to have to stop quickly.  The people next to Meg braked a little too hard and locked his back wheel.  To try and avoid hitting the person in front of him he went to move to the side to go around them.  Somehow the bike ended-up flipping and rolling over them after she went flying over his head.  I didn't see it happen since I was trying to not body-check Bill while we slowed down.  I only saw them on the ground and the only thing I could think to say was "Oh no!"
  Bill pulled over and hopped off to help them.  He helped make sure that no one tried to move them or anything.  Other people helped moved the bike out of the way, and some others stopped the traffic.  It was nice how everyone's first thought was to go help them.  A helicopter was flown in to get them help.
  I reviewed what I had been recording and I had gotten it on tape.  I turned in my SD card so police could have the footage.  A bunch of other people gave their account and SD cards.  I was glad I could help, though I sort of hope to get it back with the footage.  The first part is of Meg's first time pulling out of the North parking lot.  I know it is a silly thing, but it's my way of dealing.

There are so many things going through my head, I just hope they are both going to be perfectly fine.

Bike Weekend

 

  This is us getting ready to leave.  Most of us were riding on motorcycles down to Myrtle Beach for the first weekend of Bike Week.  It was going to be about an eight hour trip and I was really nervous because I had never ridden on the back for that long before.  Luckily some of the ladies were taking a car, so I had another option in case I couldn't make it.

  During the ride I was thinking it would have been cool if I could have gotten some pledges for the ride.  That way I would have had extra motivation to stay on.  The ride was nice until the last hour and a half.  While we were getting some lunch we heard someone say that a bad storm was on the way.  There were reports of hail.  We waited around and while there was a lot of rain, there was no hail.

   She was hanging out and crocheting a water bottle holder near where we stopped to get some lunch.  I was too shy to go and actually go talk to her though.

  Some of the things I learned on my long ride was that the back-rest made a ton of difference, the wind will move your helmet a little over time, and lifting your butt off the seat a little will definitely help.

   This is the first thing you saw when you walked into the house that most of the group was renting.  I thought it was funny that the house was telling you to escape the second you walk in the door.

  The whole weekend was spend looking at a ton of cool and pretty bikes, hanging out, and trying new things.  It was the first time for me, but some of the other people in the group have already been before.

  At one of the places we stopped for lunch two of us got interviewed and then we got to see some of it on the local news later.  That was a lot of fun too.

   This bar was really interesting.  They had some funny signs on the outside seating like "What goes up, must come down. Don't feel the birds." The bar is called Dead Dog Saloon and the pictures on the wall of the inside are all of dogs who have passed away. I think that is very sweet.

   Another very interesting place we went to was called Suck Bang Blow.  They have a booth with clear sides so you can see what is going on in the inside.  The gimmick they have is that you suck down a beer, throw your bike into first gear while your front tire is touching the back wall of the booth, and then you go so that you make tons of smoke and noise.  There is one blind guy who works there.  He gets it going and will regularly blow out the back tire to try and get more people to do it.  The joke is that his bike is the only one to have 80,000 miles on it without ever leaving the pit.

  I had brought some knitting with me, but I never had it with me when we had our few moments of down time.  I think I will bring something small with me next year, that way I can have it with me most of the time and won't have to worry about not grabbing it at any point.

  There are a few things I have finished, but it has been so rainy and gloomy that I have not been able to get any good pictures of any of it.  Hopefully those will come soon.

Bees and boobs.

 

   I made a new little friend!  I was getting ready to head out for the day and I saw this little guy standing on the driveway.  When I walked near him I saw he wasn't moving around very well.  I got a dead leaf and he walked right onto it.  Then I popped him over onto this dandelion and he started climbing around.  He also buzzed his wings a few times but did not take off.

  When I got home I didn't see him anywhere in the area, so I hope he was just over-heated and flew away to live his little bee life.

  Something I heard about recently are knitted knockers.  They are for people who have had a mastectomy but do not qualify for silicone implants for what-ever reason.  I think these are great.

  There a few free options on Ravelry if you want to go and make some to donate.

Water

  I know there are a lot of things that are fads and people go on and on about them until they become more hyped-up than they should be.  Most of those are about drinks or meal replacements that will help you become thinner faster than anything else ever could.  I have been hearing more and more about people drinking rose water.  That is pretty much a tea made with rose petals.  I was starting to do some research on if any of the claims are true about the benefits when I found this article.  Soma and Juice Served here are putting their efforts into their own Rose Water that also helps a worthy cause.  I wish I lived closer to the L.A. area and could get some in store.

   I also finished the first in the set of fingerless mitts that I'm testing the pattern for.  They are not done in the picture, but I finished them soon after I took it.

   Knitters and Crocheters Care used to meet here at Uniquities every 4th Saturday of the month in the classroom space above the shop.  Then the price of the extra room started to outweigh how useful it was so they let it go.  It has now turned into The Heartfelt Craft Shop which seems like a really cool idea.  I hope they stick around for a while.

  I still need to find buttons for the baby surprise jacket.

Almost my Birthday!

 My birthday is on Sunday and usually I know where I want to go, but this year I was having some problems.  I then thought it would be a lot of fun to try somewhere new and remembered where I used to love to go. I talked about it in my old post Buffets Everywhere.

  In this picture you can also see that Super Buffet has also changed names, though a peak in the window shows that their food hasn't changed.

  You can see in this picture that AnnanGol isn't opened.  Their sign says they should be, but I didn't see anyone inside and the doors were locked.  I hope they aren't closed forever.  Guess I will have to pick somewhere else.

 

   I am still working on things, I swear.  I took this picture after realizing that I missed how to do row 40 on these mitts.  I noticed after I had done another 6 rows on top of it.  I was putting off having to rip back, so I took a picture of my stuff at the waiting room while my car was getting serviced.

  I got all the rows taken out and started back in the right direction before my car was done.

Kitties are live!

 

  I feel kind of bad since I was so excited to get these done and then I didn't finish them in a very timely manner.  The January Kitties Fur a Cause are now listed in my Etsy shop.  I know I have a secondary Etsy shop I made just for selling things to raise money for charity, but it has been inactive for so long that I don't know if anyone would notice them or not.
  I'm also thinking of having more fun, but not distracting colors for background when I take photos.  So many on my Etsy shop have plain white backgrounds and I feel they are so much more boring than some of the other shops I browse.
  I am also not going to list all three months at once.  I have read many times that really successful Etsy sellers list a few things at a time instead of everything all at once.  It gets your items listed in the "new" area more often and some new people might see your things for the first time.
  Let's hope lots of people get to see these cuties.