Friday, August 04, 2006

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We just got back from visiting family in Indiana (ok...maybe not just, but some time this week!), and we've spent the rest of the week recovering and catching up on things around here. We're still no where near caught up (but when am I ever?), but it's been nice having hubby around for the whole week.

Indiana was great. HOT, but great. It was hot everywhere, I think. We went to Lake Michigan on Sunday and it was so hot that we were sweating even in the water. A storm put a halt to our family reunion (as did a major lack of parking), but I did get to spend lots of time with my mom and had enough food left to feed us all for the next week. We still have salami and cheese left.

The trip out to Indiana was fun-filled. The trip normally takes just over 5 hours when we stop for one gas/potty break. Because of my current state, I have to stop every hour or two to get out and move around, which slows progress substatially (like to a screeching halt). We made a detour to Tony Packo's in Toledo for easily the best chili-cheese dogs and chili-cheese fries I've had in a looooong time. This place was sort of made famous by M*A*S*H character Klinger who was a Toledo native. Toledo even has a Jamie Farr Park named after the actor who played him. During a couple of episodes, he mentions the place as having the best Hungarian hot dogs. They have vacuum-sealed hot dog buns signed by the famous folks who have eaten in the restaurant, and they line most of the walls there. Pretty nifty. The hot dogs are definitely worth the detour. Liam liked the place so well, he requested a stop on the way home (which we didn't do after a trip to Schoop's for handmade burgers on the way out of Indiana...thought it might lead to a little indigestion!).
Just after a good meal (J-rock still needs a nap)

The boys with a few of the buns

I even managed over the course of the trip there and back to come through with an FO!! Look!

Sock off the foot

Sock on the foot

Ok. Maybe you can't because Flogger isn't letting me upload pics at the moment. Those will have to be edited in later (pics now added, obviously). At any rate, the second one has already been cast on for and will be a fraternal twin rather than identical since the stripes were too much of a pain in the fanny (and wasted a sick amount of yarn) to line up. Because they're 100% cotton, they don't have a whole lot of give to them, but they actually fit, and I love the blue stripes! The last pair of socks I made from this pattern, I dove in without swatching. I know, I know...bad idea. So not only did the socks not fit me or the hubby (too big!), but then I also had a hard time getting the two socks to be the same length. I chalk it up to inexperience and overexuberance. I really wanted to do these as a toe up, but a certain craft store rhyming with blow-man does not carry bamboo (heck or even metal) double pointed needles in small diameters and lengths in more than a 4 pack (and even the 4-pack was nearly impossible to find and they had NO bamboo or wood needles in the 0-4 range, which I suppose makes sense since they also didn't have squat in sock weight yarn), and I really wasn't crazy about buying to packs of aluminum needles when I really didn't like them to begin with. So I only bought one pack of 4, meaning that I couldn't do a toe-up. I should have enough of this yarn when I'm finished to do a pair of toe ups (which means a trip to the LYS for brittany sock needles--wheee!).

Today we celebrated Liam's 6th birthday. Hard to believe that my little man is getting so big. He's gotten really good at riding a two wheeler, improved his drawing and writing skills, and learned to whistle this year. We celebrated with a late lunch at Hartville Kitchen so Liam could have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes 'n' gravy, and hot buttered rolls. Yum!

3 comments:

Andi said...

Sounds like you had fun. The hot dog story made my mouth water and I just had a tomato sandwich for lunch. Happy belated b-day to young Liam. I start the knitting class on August 23rd. Taking the evening class after work. I had planned also to take the part 2 knitting I think that starts late Sept Through October. Yes a sock buddy class would be great! I've always admired other's making them... Did you hear ? The SP&P is having a 25% birthday sale on the 26th of August! WOO HOO! Maybe I'll see you there. :) P.s. I'll check for the pic on the FO. I've had problems too lately with the pics.

Kat said...

Happy Birthday, Liam!

From your other Hoosier fans
Liam, Maddie, Isabella and baby Jackson

Andi said...

Bunnie! Come look on my blog... I did it! I did it!