"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

2/28/09

WOW! Entry February 2009

I have missed 2 months of WOW!. How did I do that? Anyway, we shall start with this for 2009.


It's a yarn distributed by S.R. Kertzer called On Your Toes. I saw green and purple in the same skein. My two favorite colors! It feels a lot like Opal, so I suspect it's probably made by the same mill.

I think it's true. Spring is coming early. I'm sure of it. This morning my bird buffet was visited by some fellows I haven't seen in months. The Red Crossbills are back. They're a full month earlier than last year. The Junco's and Flickers are back too. I am so excited! Though the Junco's and Flickers wouldn't stand still long enough to get a picture, I did get pics of some of the other diners.

Red Crossbill (male)


Downy Woodpecker (female)


Hairy Woodpecker (male)




Last night I finished the first of the many flowers I'm making for Sarah's bridal bouquet. My first carnation.


The stem is too thin, so I'm going to have to add some strength to it. But other than that, I think I've got it right. Sarah and Frank love it. So I know I'm on the right track any way.

Tomorrow will be the 2nd anniversary of this blog. I am going to have a contest just like I did last year. So tune in tomorrow for the contest info.

Have a great day.

2/27/09

What I've Been Up To

In no particular order, here's some of what I've accomplished this week, so far-in no particular order.

I have finally reached the point where I've edjumacated myself enough that I feel confident to start making the flowers for my daughters wedding bouquet. I'm starting with the carnations.
These are just the first pieces for the first flower.


I have about 5 more pieces to make and I can put it together. I am planning to make 5 carnations at the moment. However, I've been asked to make flowers to put on the wedding cake too, so a couple more may be in order.

Finally, after tinking the heel no less than 5 times, I got it RIGHT!


Now, after getting the gusset going I've discovered I made a mistake in the stitch pattern back about 3 inches after the ribbing. There's an extra row in it. ARrrrrrrghh........ I am not tinking that heel again. The mistake is now officially a design element. I may even put it in the second sock just to be ornery.

I went grocery shopping. They had fresh raspberries. In February!! This is a first for my favorite local food foraging center. They're one of my most favorite fruit in all the universe! I could not leave without enough to make a pie. I emptied the checking account for this pie.



It didn't even come pre-baked or anything. I had to make it myself, from scratch. So add the cost of labor Although close, this is not the most expensive pie I've ever made. I just wancha to know that.

Yazi shots earned so far-4.


Baby sweater is coming along nicely. I'm almost to the armholes.

My days are getting busier. Especially Wednesdays and Thursdays. It's a good thing. I get to interact with other humans. One of my projects in the works is a weekly knitting class that will be held on Thursday mornings, 10:30am-12:30, at CDA Yarn and Fiber. I'm aiming for the class to start near the end of March.

I'm thinking of naming it Workshop with Linda Jo. Basically it will be a class where students can learn anything they want about knitting. You want to learn how to knit socks? Come to the class. Tell me, I'll teach you. Cables, fairisle? I can teach you that. Never knit a stitch before? I love teaching beginners. Wanna do some bead knitting-come to me baby. Bought a kit and need someones hand to hold? Come see me. I'm really good at hand holding. Everyone will probably be working on something different, but I've done that sort of thing before so I know how to handle it.

When I had my own store, these were the classes that I had the most success with. Trying to get a class going for a specific subject is hard. This way if someone asks Andrea if she has a class on a particular thing she can say yeah-we have this one.

I will make an official announcement here on the blog when we get all the details ironed out.

Oh look! Sunshine outside." Hello my lovely. Long time no see......"

Have a great day.

2/24/09

Another Beady Beaded Bead

They're addictive!



Made some modifications on this one. It fits my 20mm bead much better. Look at that nice square hole on the end.


All three at once.



Can't decide which one I like best. By the way, I've acquired some new knowledge about my photo editing program. Frames are fun!

Have a nice day.

2/22/09

Beady Beaded Beads

I am thoroughly hooked on making beaded beads. I'm participating in yet another beaded jewelry exchange. The project is to be violet and green and a necklace. It's supposed to be something spectacular. Showing off our skills and whatnot. I've decided to also take the opportunity to use it to learn some beaded beads. I'm going to do a necklace with beaded beads in it.

Here we have the first one I've made. It's got a bit of herringbone stitch in it.

It's about 1 1/4 inches wide. I've used size 11's in 2 shades of purple, metallic silver, and pale metallic green. Also some size 15 metallic silver, and 4mm pale lavender glass pearls. For a first try, not too bad. When you look at the ends though, not so good.


So I made another one.


I used 2 shades of brown, turquoise, and metallic silver in the Japanese size 11. Also metallic silver in size 15, and some matte transparent turqoise 4mm druks. I wanted to use crystals, but do you think I can find any in a turquoise blue? I will have to remedy that. I know, it's not violet and green. This one is for me.

As you can see, I've improved considerably. A nice square hole.


I am going to make another violet and green one with better ends.

Though I made some major adjustments to it, the inspiration for this bead comes from this pattern:

Scaph's pg1 Scaph's pg2 Scaph's pg3

It's in french, but the graphs are very very good.

Finding this pattern led to me finding other blogs and eventually to a French beading forum, which I've gone and joined even though I know very very little French. I took a year of it in high school but most of it did not stick with me. Probably because I've not had any use for it. Now I do, and I wish it would all come back to me. For now I'm depending on the Google translator which is working very well. I'm hoping it will help me regain some of my French. I'm having fun. I guess that's what's important.

Yesterday was me and Sweet Hubby's 27th wedding anniversary. We had a fun day. First, we slept in and goofed off. Doug cooked me breakfast. Then we went and did a bit of shopping in Coeur d'Alene picking up some necessities.

After that we went and saw the movie Taken. If you like lots of action, Liam Neeson, and a fair amount of gratuitous violence, you will like this movie. I hardly breathed through the whole thing it was so intense. All in all, I enjoyed it very much.

We went to Wolf Lodge Steak House for dinner after the movie. I don't know why we haven't been there sooner. It has quite a reputation around this area-a well deserved one I might add. I had the Ribeye steak, with baked potato, tossed salad, bread, and the best baked beans I've ever eaten in my life. I had White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert. It was all very tasty.

Have a great day.

2/20/09

We Need a Small Rodent Sacrifice

All that I have put my needles to do has ended in disaster this week. I've had to frog it all way too many times, a few times over and over on the same project. Take, for example, Wednesday and Thursday. I worked on my Kimono jacket and the Mexican Waters socks. Today I find I have to un-knit all that I did those two days on the jacket-literally. I managed to forget to start the armhole decreases way back on Tuesday.

I'm trying to do the heel on the sock. So far I've knit enough heels for at least 2 more pair, but none of them turned out correctly. So here I am, heelless again. These aren't hard things to do. If you've read this blog any time at all, you know how many pairs of socks I did last year! I know how to knit sock heels!

It's not just me either. My friends are suffering the same thing. Patricia, who is trying to knit the same sock as me (I'm writing the instructions for her as I go) couldn't get past the first inch of knitting. We finally figured out she was knitting the sock inside out and backwards-somehow. We both still aren't sure how she did it. Lest you think she's a beginning sock knitter, let me just point out she's been making socks longer than me-since the days when double pointed needles were the only tools for sock making.

Andrea is working on a baby sweater-only to miss that the hem is supposed to be 7 rows of garter stitch, and then when she finally got past that one discovered she was knitting with the wrong size of yarn (she carry's both weights in her shop). Or was it the wrong sized needles?......curse you elderly brain cells!

Anthony is trying to knit a hat in 2x2 rib. 5 inches into it looks really pretty, but it ain't looking right. By this time, it's decided the pattern he has-which spirals rather nicely but doesn't in the least bit look like 2x2 ribbing, is better. We advised he just keep going.

Who angered the knitting gods? And what did they do to cause it?

By the way, I found this funny cartoon. I can so relate.



Off to do some beading instead.....

Have a nice day.

2/19/09

Peaches and Grapes

I finished it. Took days for me to get around to sewing on that button. I hate sewing on buttons.



Pattern: Super Natural Stripes by Fawn Pea

Size made:
6 to 12 months.

Yarn:
TLC Heathers in Grapevine. Unknown acrylic worsted in peach.

Needles:
Size 7 Addi Turbo Circulars.

Cast On:
January 12, 200

Completed: February 14, 2009

Comments: I made this for Knitwits. A fun and fast knit. I left out the stripes along the hem and cuff. Just being a bit lazy. There were a couple math errors in my print out of the pattern, but I see she's fixed that now, and added a larger size. Cool!


I also whipped up a matching hat with some of the leftover yarn.
I winged it on the hat, so there is no pattern.


Have a great day.

2/18/09

WIP Wednesday 2/18/09

This weeks WIPs are a beaded bead I'm learning how to do in herringbone stitch. I'm doing it in violet and green because I'm in another beadswap and that is the theme-violet and green necklace. I thought I'd do something in beaded beads of some sort.


Let me tell you, I am lovin' this project. I think I've found my niche in beading. Beaded beads are a LOT of fun. By the way, the tutorial for this bead is here: Scaphs. It's in french (which I know just a tiny bit), but the diagrams are wonderful.

This is a new knitting project I started over the weekend. One of my daughters best friends just had a baby girl so I thought I'd make a little cardigan with a ruffled hem for her. I've chosen a yarn that's been in my stash for awhile called Candy DK from King Cole yarns in the Cinder Toffee colorway.

Unfortunately, I'm finding the pattern to be incredibly booooorrring. It started with casting on 274 stitches. Thankfully, that was the ruffle, so I've since decreased down to a much more reasonable number of stitches. Still, I'm having a hard time not nodding off. A lot of stockinette stitch does that to me. I need to get this sweater done so today I purchased a bottle of Yazi ginger vodka and I will reward myself with a shot on the rocks for each day I work on it. This has worked for me before, so it should work again.

While I was at the liquor store I found a bottle of this:



With a name like Sheep Dip, it has to be good, right? Actually, I first heard about it on someones blog a few weeks ago. That got me curious, so I did a bit of research and found it is getting good reviews. It's a scotch blend of several (18, if I remember correctly) high end single malt scotch whiskeys. Since I was at the liquor store for Yazi, I figured I'd see if they had this in stock. They did. I took a little sip as soon as I got home. I had to know! It is very very very good. Nice and smooooooooooth, and not expensive either-as good scotch goes. I'm so glad I've discovered it.

There's a reason for that silly name. Back in the days, when the British farmers made their own whiskey out back behind the barn, they hid it in barrels marked sheep dip to avoid paying taxes on it. There's an interesting history lesson for ya.

Have a great day!

2/17/09

I've Included the Fringe

Last night I put myself through the wringer of learning a 'new' computer program and drew (drawed?) up a chart for the fringe on the little peyote amulet necklace pattern I posted on my pattern blog yesterday. I asked folks in one of the Yahoo beading groups I'm in if there was a program for doing this. It was suggested that Microsoft Powerpoint could be used for this purpose.

Me: "Hey Doug, what is Powerpoint?"

Doug: "It's a program for making slide shows for presentations."

????????

Hmmm...oh, look, I have it! It came with the MS Office Home I bought a couple weeks ago. Open program......... "It's for making slide shows?" (How in the heck will this help me?)

Doug: "Yes."

I prowled around the program, clicking on menus and tools and whatnot. Yes, it can be used to create slide shows for presentations. But it works very similarly to the way MS Word works (which is what I bought MS Office for in the first place). I 'know' Word. I'll do this there instead.

HA!

You see, I'd upgraded my MS Word 2000 to the current version two weeks ago. Now tell me, why is it that programmers have to change and/or move every. stinking. thing. when they upgrade a program? It took me HOURS to figure out how to draw that chart. Not because I didn't know what actions to take to do it, but because I had to figure out where all the tools for those actions were. Most of them were hidden! And who's idea was it to put the 'Help' online??? Geez, I wouldn't want to be on vacation somewhere where there is no wifi or I'd be up .... well, you get the idea.

I miss the days when manuals were books, written on real paper, that I could hold in my hand.

So, I hope y'all who use that pattern appreciate the torture and pain I went through in order to provide it for you, free of charge. (Unless you want to count reading this rant as payment.)

Have a nice day.

2/16/09

It Needs a Name

I hope y'all had a nice Valentines day. I did. Sweet Hubby and I chilled for the day. I did a bit of knitting, a bit of beading, watched some tv, watched a couple DVD's, read a goodly portion of the murder mystery novel I checked out of the library, ...you know...chilled. In all that chilling I managed to finish this peyote stitched amulet necklace.


This will be the project for the peyote amulet class I'm scheduled to teach next Saturday. I used size 11 Japanese seed beads in dark purple and transparent matte lime for the peyote part. I have made the chart for this bag and posted it on my pattern blog.

I saw a robin last Friday. It's early. Last year I saw my first one on March 9th. Maybe we'll get an early spring this year? I can hope.

Have a great day.

2/13/09

Tommy Gets His Comeuppance

So, yesterday morning I'm drinking my coffee, checkin' the email, and doing the usual 'getting myself to wake up' routine. Sweet Hubby is in his favorite chair, laptop and Tommy in the lap. Tommy is snoozing.

From the side of my eye there is movement. I turn and look. A moose is just a few feet from the living room window, looking at me.

Me: Oh, whoa! Where's my camera? Look at that?

Sweet Hubby: Look at what?

Me: There's a moose right there.

Sweet Hubby: Your camera is right here on the table.

I grab it, stand up, and Tommy raises his head. Then it hits me-and before I can finish this thought: "Oh no! The doggy door is open!" Tommy has shot out the door and is in the front yard doing his best rendition of a large pack of Rottweilers protecting their territory. I panicked. My brain just froze as I watched it all out the living room window. I had no idea what to do. This moose was not gonna back down. No way. No how. My doggy is dead meat!

He's barking his head off, and attempts to nip the moose's leg. The moose takes umbrage.

It charges at Tommy. The front hooves come up....I wince-here it comes....my doggy is gettin' stomped! Aaaauughhh.....

Much to my total surprise and shock--Tommy yelped, turn, and ran screaming all the way to the back yard and in the doggy door. The moose chased him the whole way.

I could not stop laughing. The truth is out Tommy!

I am so glad he ran, or this would be an obituary post.

The offended moose
(My apologies to the animal rights folks, but wouldn't he look great wrapped up and in my freezer?)


I have proof positive that Doug is the best and sweetest hubby in the universe.


Just delivered this morning. My favorite color even! I'm so full of the warm fuzzies I think I'll burst!

Have a great day.

2/12/09

Happy Darwin Day!

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, scientist extraordinaire. Thus, Darwin Day!





Have a good one.

2/11/09

WIP Wednesday 2/11/09

Better late than never. That's what I say. I have Knit group on Wednesday mornings now, so posting this in the morning like I normally would is out of the question. When I got home-after 4pm (errands to run after the meeting), I was so tired I just sat and chilled until Sweet Hubby got home. Besides, my back is killing me today. Must be a change in the weather coming.

The Peaches and Grapes cardigan-still needing to be blocked and the button sewn on. The matching hat is almost done.


The model for the peyote amulet class is coming along. In fact, I finished the amulet part last night-after I took the picture. I still need to fringe it and put on a strap of some sort. Something simple is in order. The dark beads look black in the pic, but they're actually dark purple. I'm in a lime and violet mood.



This is the status of the fringe bead I've been working on. It's so pretty, but--and that's a big one-- I am not finishing it. In fact, I'm frogging it. It's too big, or rather, too heavy. All those crystals and druks and 4mm cubes and whatnot are weighing a lot and I'm only halfway done. So I'm going to do it smaller. Note to self-20mm is too large a base bead to start with for this kind of project.


Knit meeting was awesome. We have 3 new members. One of them is----oh my Gosh---a man! Whoo! We have a man knitter in our group! All us chicks are so excited. Anthony is a young single guy with huge muscles. Heck, he's huge all the way around. He was a football player in high school and looks the part. But, as is usually the case with the big tall guys, he's sweet as can be. He's been knitting a year now, and doing very nicely. He has a passion for ribbing. Loves it, can't get enough of it. He has asked me to show him how to make cables at next weeks meeting. I am stoked!

The other two new members are gals, of course. One is named Peggy. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the other gals name. I'll get her next week. All in all a fun couple of ladies.

I took some homemade banana bread to the meeting. I was in a baking mood yesterday and there were two bananas about to rot on the kitchen counter. The solution to the problem was very yummy.

Speaking of knitting groups, if you live anywhere near Rathdrum, Idaho a new knitting group has started there. They meet at the Rathdrum Public Library on Tuesdays, 2-4 pm. I'm told it will be twice a month rather than every week. Next meeting is on Feb. 17. I'm going to check it out. The library is walking distance from my house (and my sister-in-law works there).

Tommy chased a moose out of his territory yesterday. I was surprised it actually ran away from him. Silly moose! Anyway, it was too quick for me to get the camera.

Sweet dreams tonight.

2/9/09

A Party

How was your weekend? Mine was fantastic!

On Friday a basket of flowers was delivered to moi from Sweet Hubby and my daughters.


Then in the afternoon daughter Ruth showed up home from college. When I asked her why, she said it was because it was my birthday. Cool!

Friday evening Hubby and Ruth took me out to dinner to celebrate. We went to the Outback steakhouse. Yum! It was a good meal.

Saturday was the party. Hubby and Ruth put up decorations of black balloons, crepe paper, and a banner that said Over The Hill. Large quantities of family showed up bearing side dishes and gifts. Even though Hub told me there was going to be a party, I didn't really believe it until people started showing up. We had a good time. We barbecued steaks, there was 3 kinds of potatoes, and salad and veggies. My niece, Heidi, made the cutest birthday cake in the shape of a beehive. It was very tasty too. There was much eating, conversation, and laughter. I had a wonderful time.

Sunday we just chilled. I knitted, did a little beading, surfed Ravelry. To be honest, I had to recover from the party. Did just a tad bit too much celebrating.

I am pretty much done with the peaches and grapes baby cardigan. I just need to block it and sew on a button. I'm currently knitting a matching hat to go with it. It's almost done too.

I also got started on a peyote amulet bag. I'm scheduled to teach a class on the subject so I thought I better make a model of the pattern I came up with for it. Students have an easier time understanding the goal of the class if they can see it in real life.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Have a great day.

2/6/09

It's My Birthday

"and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to....." A song that's rolling around in my head this morning. Today I am officially 50 years old. Wow! I'm impressed.


For the first time since I was 21, someone is having a party for me. My Sweet Hubby told me last night a bunch are coming over Saturday to celebrate. I am speechless. He's never voluntarily done anything for my birthday before-unless you count taking me to dinner because I refuse to cook on my birthday. My last birthday party was when I was 21, given by my college friends. I am stoked!

Turning 50 I find myself reflecting on my life. First of all, the fact I'm still alive is wonderful because I've had 3 occasions when that might not have been the case. You appreciate life more when you've been as near to death as I have been. I appreciate it very much.

I am not anywhere near what I wanted to be when I was a young person. I'm not playing my violin in the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, or for the Queen of England. Yup! That is what I wanted. That and a nice music teaching job in a school on Whidbey Island (Puget Sound, Washington state). Sheesh! I haven't even touched my violin for 2 or 3 years now.

My life did not go in the direction I had hoped, or wanted. But, you know what? That's okay because I'm much happier with how it did turn out than I would have been if I'd got my naive young wish. I mean, can you imagine the stress involved with playing for the Queen of England???

What I do have is the most wonderful husband in the universe, two awesomely fantastic daughters, in laws that are more fun than a barrel of monkeys, fantastic friends, a small house that I love, a huge backyard full of wild animals, I don't have to worry about the basics of food shelter and clothing, and I can have all the beads and yarn I want. What more does one need? I learned in my 40's that I do not want to be rich. Just comfortable. Rich is not what makes happiness. Love, family, friends, pursuing my passions for fiber and bitty bits of glass makes me happy. Blissfully happy with my life. I'm content, comfortable, satisfied, and very glad I don't have to play my violin for the Queen of England.

Have a great day! I know I will.

2/4/09

Spring for Sale

Hello! I've been really really busy this week, being the first week of the month and all. Yesterday was Coeur d'Alene Yarnies and my Knitwits meeting. I had a ball at both. Yarnie type people are so much FUN!

It was my turn to take dessert to Knitwits. I made a fantastic, if I do say so myself, Velvet Spice Cake with cream cheese frosting-all from scratch. I even used real butter. It's my birthday week. I'm treating myself with good things. I promised Sweet Hubby he could have some after the meeting (it's just not proper to take a cake somewhere with a slice missing). The cake was such a huge hit I got afraid there would be no leftovers! Gals were goin' back for seconds. As women know, that just doesn't happen amongst a group of women! Especially after I told them I'd used real butter and all manner of decadent ingredients. I had a good case of the warm fuzzies because of it though. There were 3 slices left to take home. I gave 2 to Sweet Hubby, and I ate the last one after dinner.

Tuesday I met with a couple online beading buddies in person at Bead It to help them figure out what they were doin' wrong in their bead crochet. I had a good time. It's so fun to put faces to the email addresses.

Monday I ran errands in Coeur d'Alene, and met some of my awesome friends for lunch at Bonsai Bistro. They paid for my lunch and heaped luv on me cos it's my birthday week. The food was SO good!

I bought some spring at the Safeway grocery store this week.


Between that, the Burpee seed catalogue that came in the mail, and my pics of Mexico, I should be able to get through the 2 to 3 months of dreary winterness that is left.

I also had some internet SEX. That would be Stash Enhancement eXperience. This is my birthday week, so I've been buying me presents cos, well, the sad truth is, I'm the only one who ever does (buy me birthday presents, that is).



Isn't it purty? I wanted some plain chocolate brown to make a pair of socks for my future son in law, and I want to try making a pair of mittens from my recently acquired Sulbovetter book. Lorna's Laces-yum! I'd forgotten how nice a hand this stuff has. I was expecting the variegated to be less yellowy, and more beigey as brown goes. But this will do.

I found a wonderful article on the web by Miss Manners, you know ,the lady who knows all things proper, on the subject of everything, including KIPing. I quote it here.

"Dear Miss Manners: At a condo association meeting consisting of about 60 people, there was a head table with six people, facing about six rows of tables, about five feet away. In the front row were two ladies — not sitting next to each other — doing their needlework.

Is it proper to do needlework while at an event such as this? I noticed that the speakers were distracted (and so was I) by their movements. Between reading the directions and rearranging their work, one couldn’t help but turn their way to see what was going on. I say it is rude.

Gentle Reader: But what if they don’t have hand-held devices that enable them to check their e-mail, text message and play games while the committee is droning on?

Not that Miss Manners condones failing to pay attention at meetings, or rather, failing to look as if one is paying attention. She merely wants to make the point that there are worse distractions available. Needlework at least has precedent behind it. For centuries, ladies sat quietly doing needlework while gentlemen conversed around them, and didn’t miss a thing of what was going on."

Yay!

I found this awesome little cat video that made me laugh. Thought I'd share it with y'all.



Have a great day!

2/1/09

Pics from Mexico

I got my pictures off Sweet Hubbies computer. I've uploaded both his and mine to a Picasa album. That would be located here:



Here are a few of my favorites.

This is the crew that went.


Top row: SIL Sue, Neph Nate, BIL Dan, Neph Shawn, Neph Brendan, soon to be son-in-law Frank, Neph Tyler, Sweet Hubby.

Front row: Niece Holly, Niece Heidi, SIL Diane, daughter Sarah, Me, BIL Chet


Casa Caribena-front


Casa Caribena from the beach


Sarah and Brendan making a sand castle


I found this little guy in the house, on the cold tile floor. He seemed to enjoy being on my warm hand. I finally took him outside and let him go in the flower bed.




This bird, and it's mate, hung around the lanai all day long. It was quite fearless, hopping around our feet picking crumbs off the floor. (No, I did not use my telephoto lens. It wanted to pose for the camera up close.)


This is Lalani. She lives at Casa Caribena. She is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met. She would spend hours just staring in the water, trying to catch the little fish and hermit crabs.


There were a lot of iguanas and lizards around the house, and pretty much everywhere we went.


There is a funny story that comes with the pic of this Pelican.

One of our excursions was to spend a day at Xel-Ha, a Cenote park. It's basically a water park, but instead of being a bunch of slides and a floating river for tubes, the water features are natural lakes, water holes, a river, etc. It was a lot of fun, and the snorkeling was great. This pelican was hanging out on one of the many bridges. Just hangin'. Watching us tourists stroll by. I got out my camera and it took quite an interest in me. Posed for many pictures. While we were doing our Pelican fashion shooting session this woman walked up to watch us. She walked right into my photo. Pelican didn't like that-so he turned around and bit her in the leg to make her back off. Then he returned to his pose. I laughed so hard I about fell off the bridge.

Feeding lettuce to some Manatees at Xel-Ha


Hangin' in the hammocks (drinking Margaritas) in Xel-Ha


Dan, Nate, Sue, and Sweet Hubby in Xel-Ha


Our second excursion was to visit the Mayan ruins at Coba. They were fascinating.

Part of a sports arena. The players had to throw a very heavy ball through the hoop. Winner got to be sacrificed to the Gods. (Not much of a motivation to win by our standards.)


Exploring a tunnel that ran under one of the many Mayan temples. I love this picture of Chet.


This is a Blue Jay I saw while walking through the jungle of the ruins. I found it interesting that it's black and blue, like the jays are in America. Just a different layout for the colors. It's voice was every bit as obnoxious.


All the little carved rocks and tablets in the ruins had these little thatched roofs over them to protect them from the weather.


Sarah and Frank in front of another carving being protected.


Most of us wanted to climb one of the tallest Mayan pyramids in Mexico. Sweet Hubby is the bright red shirt in the middle, on his way up. I didn't climb it. There's no way my gimpy leg could have handled it.


Waiting for the stragglers to get back down the pyramid.


Our last big excursion was a drive. Sweet Hubby, Chet, Diane and I went for a little road trip (while the rest of the family went off to hang themselves on the zip lines) driving this gravel road down a thin spit of land (you could see the water on both sides) to a tiny fishing village at the very end called Punta Allen. It was a beautiful drive, though definitely bumpy.

Driving through a thick Palm forest.


Upon arriving at Punta Allen, we found a nice little restaurant to have lunch.


The tables were literally in the sand on the beach. Our view as we ate a delicious meal was spectacular. I had the Chicken with mushrooms and it was to die for!


The restaurant still had their Christmas decorations up. This was their version of a snowman.


As we were getting into the car to head back to Casa Caribena, I noticed this palm tree out in front decorated with Christmas ornaments.


The last sunrise I got to see at Casa Caribena.


Coming home was truly a difficult thing to do.

My daughter has written a rather humorous account of her arrival and first day of our trip on her blog (yes, it's all true). Visual Violation

Have a great day.