Total Frustration

 I have had a very frustrating day. I have been looking for some specific photos I took on our very first cruise, which was in January 2006, before I ever had this blog. At that time I had a Sony digital camera that used those little 2.5 inch mini CD's. The pics were written on to the disc after taking them. After we boarded the ship, which was the Carnival Miracle, I took pics that have completely disappeared. My daughter and I have looked at every mini disc I could find. All but two were safely in their storage box. I found 2 discs that weren't, but they were empty. I don't know where that specific CD is. Of course, I would lose the CD that has the most important picture on it. 

 It doesn't make sense though because one of the CD's has the pictures I took before this one, and after this one. Just a few are missing. 

We also dug out my two old lap tops and looked through their hard drives for the pictures. Not on them.

I wonder if this was taken on Doug's camera, instead of mine. We were standing by the rail on our very first cruise, before it left port, taking pictures. One of the other passengers walking by us offered to take this picture of us using what I thought was my camera. It's my favorite of all the pics taken that trip. I bet it was Doug's camera. I'll ask him in the morning.

I wanted to print it out on photo paper and frame it to put on the wall. I have a print out, but it's on regular paper rather than photo. I've scanned it, which is the pic above, but it's not as nice as having the original jpeg file. I guess it's better than nothing, though.

Before the picture search, I spent a couple hours stitching the bicycle picture. I got all the non-bead green stitches done for the front basket of flowers. 

This has been my day. I hope tomorrow is better.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Summer Update

As I said yesterday, It's been a busy summer. Here's an update.

The Ocean Spray we transplanted has died. Gonna try again.

My knee is healing, slowly. I have periods with no pain now. I've been getting Physical Therapy which is helping quite a bit.

We went on our annual week long camping trip to Priest Lake. It was a lot of fun. I did a lot of walking, which was hard on my sprained knee, but I think in the long run it was good for me. Despite the knee, I find I'm in much better physical shape than I've been in a long time. For instance, the walk from our camp site to the beach involves a steep hill. I've always had to huff and puff my way up it. This year I didn't huff and puff. That was a surprise.

One day we went on a hike up Lionshead Creek trail. I wanted to go up to my favorite place on this trail.

I forgot my main camera, but I had my phone with me. It took surprisingly good pictures. One of the granite peaks viewed from the parking lot of the trail.

I made it there! I haven't been able to do that hike in several years. It's all uphill to my destination but I managed it just fine. I admit, though, I did use my cane. Here's my favorite spot along Lionshead creek.

Lionshead Creek

 I was so excited when I got there I started to cry. I didn't think I'd ever see it again. Ruth took this pic of me and Zoey by the creek.

The hike aggravated my knee, but it was so worth it. Here is Sweet Hubby looking at one of the small pools made by the creek.

This is a view of the creek downhill. It's very steep so I didn't try to go down.

We hiked back to the truck. Then we went on a drive on the logging roads in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. We went way up in the mountains where the Alpines grow. At one point we got a phone signal, so Sweet Hubby insisted we stop so he could check his email. We got out of the truck and explored the woods around us. There was a tall green plant loaded with green flowers that I'd never seen before. Ruth is standing next to it here. It's just a bit taller than she is.

It's called Indian Hellebore. It's a member of the Lily family. It has long droopy stems loaded with little bright green flowers.

Here's a close up. The flowers are about half an inch in diameter. The plant is very poisonous, so we were cautious around it.

We also found a patch of Huckleberries. They had a few ripe berries on them ,which we picked and I put them in a fruit salad for dinner that evening.

After we got home from our trip I got busy getting all the fair entries ready. The fair is next week.

My husband has officially been accepted to University Idaho. He will be working on a masters in computer science. Classes start next week, I think. Thankfully, he will be attending the Coeur d'Alene campus so we won't have to move. It will be weird having my husband going to school.

I did quite a bit of knitting while camping. I have finished layettes I want to post about, but I will have to wait until after the fair.

We are having very nice weather this week. Perfect temperatures for deck knitting, but the smoke from nearby forest fires is so thick I can't handle being in it for more than a few minutes.  Can't even see the mountains a mile away. My asthma is giving me all kinds of grief, so I'm staying indoors. A day or two of rain would be appreciated.

Our daughter, Ruth, is going back to school today. One last semester and then she'll graduate.

That's the news for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

On Vacation

I am on this ship today. See ya when I get back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

I'm Back

It's been almost a month since my last post. I have my good excuses.

First we went on the Star Trek Cruise. It was fantastic! The trip of a life time. I am working on a post about this event and will post it when I get it done (it's gonna be a long one).

One of the things that was included in our trip was getting our picture taken with our host, William Shatner. Here's the pic.

We only got 15 seconds to be with him cuz there were 2500 fans getting their pics taken with him that day. I thanked him for doing this. He said it was his pleasure. Can you imagine being 83 years old, sitting on a stool all day (he got breaks every couple hours) getting your picture taken with fans? Geez! I don't think I'd do that myself.

We returned home on Jan. 16th. Let me just say, I hate flying. It's so uncomfortable with everyone jammed in tight like sardines in a can. It's ridiculous to torture your customers that way. Urg!

Anyway, the day after we got back I came down with the flu and it hit my really hard. I haven't been that sick in years. Having asthma, the flu then turned into a very bad respiratory infection. I've been sick with that ever since. I've had a low grade fever for days now and I'm tired of coughing and feeling like crap. I'm on my second round of antibiotics and we're hoping it will do the trick. I do feel a bit better today. I did not go to knitting on Tuesday, Knitwits yesterday, or knitting today. I'm staying home doing my best to shake this infection.

I did knit on the cruise. I have set a knitting goal for 2017-I want to improve my stranded knitting skills with small circular projects and get into Latvian mitten knitting. I think I've had this goal before, but didn't get very far with it. In just the first month of this year I've already learned an enormous amount, so I expect a successful year of getting good at it. So, I took the supplies with me to knit a pair of children's mittens in the Norwegian style (starting easy, working my way up).

Pattern: Starfish Mittens by Annemor Sundbø

Size: Childrens 5-7

Yarn: Patons Astra Sport
Content: 100% Acrylic
Color: 2767 and 2783

Needles: Circular size 1

Started: January 7, 2017
Finished: January 23, 2017
Here is a close up of the back stitch pattern.

This is the thumb.

The palm side.

This pattern is in the book Norwegian Mittens And Gloves: Over 25 Classic Designs For Warm Fingers And Stylish Hands by Annemor Sundbø.

 I had some difficulty understanding the instructions for the decreases on the top of the hand. So I just did what I thought looks good. 

Well, that's all I have time for today.

Live long and prosper. \\//

On Vacation

Be back in a couple weeks.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Our Trip

Our camping trip was wonderful. The weather was perfect, though a bit hot. That just made the lake that much more enjoyable. We chilled the whole time there. Didn't feel like going on big hikes, or drives through the mountains, or long kayak rides. I just hung around camp, floated in the lake, knitted, took Cable on walks, and relaxed. Cable was absolutely wonderful the whole time too.

Our trailer was not so cooperative. Before we even left home one of the tires went flat. So hubby got a new one. He got 2 new ones, so we'd have a decent spare. When we left, we discovered the trailer brakes weren't working. The drive to the campground isn't a hard one, though, so we went ahead and drove without them. After we arrived at the campground, we were greatly anticipating a shower. Our trailer has a tiny bathroom in it, and we filled up our water tank at a dump station on the way up. The water heater refused to work. ARRGH! I did not want a cold shower. I went and threw myself in the lake. I washed my hair under the water faucet across the road from our camp site. It was icy cold. My brain actually started to hurt it was so cold, but the clean hair was worth the pain.

A couple days after arriving at the campground my brother-in-law offered to help sweet hubby figure out what was wrong with everything broken in the trailer. Turned out to be easy fixes. The contacts on the brake connectors were corroded, so weren't getting good contact. After some cleaning, they worked fine. The hot water heater has a little circuit breaker switch thingy on it that had tripped. They reset it and it started working just fine. So we did eventually get a nice hot shower. It was delightful!

On Thursday we headed home to pic up our daughter and head to Newport, OR. We took two days to get there because it's a long drive. We spent the first night at the Deschutes River State Park. The drive down the Columbia River Gorge was grueling because the wind was blowing very hard and we were headed IN to it. The trailer bucked and waved the whole way. When we got to the park, we were glad to stop for the night. We had hook ups in the park. Yay! Real electricity in the trailer. That night we went to bed tired, but happy. The next morning we woke up to wet floors. A pipe in the bathroom had sprung a leak. At this point, sweet hubby sat down, put his head in his hands, and said "I hate this trailer." (Yeah. I admit, it's lacking in quality. But I still love it.) We mopped up the water, packed up and headed to Newport.

When we got to Philomath, OR (yes, that's the real name of that town) sweet hubby got hungry and pulled into a McDonalds. While trying to park the trailer in the terribly too small parking lot, he managed to side swipe a truck that was innocently parked in a space minding it's own business. I took pics in case the insurance company might need them.

The truck we hit had paint scraped on (white) and off (orange), and the frame around the head light got a bit broken off it. Our trailer got the worst end of it. The back bumper was bent, and there's a nice long scrape across the side along with a bright orange stripe. Some plastic things got scraped off, a door hinge bent, but really, the damage was minimal. Paint will be the main cost of repairs.

Insurance info was exchanged, phone calls were made, hubby bent the bumper back to it's proper position, and then we were on our way.

Our stay in Newport was good. We parked in an RV park located in the port of Newport. We had full hookups. Sweet hubby fixed the leaky pipe. But the park had nice showers, so we used them instead.

Mac and Alicia's wedding was awesome. It was held in a park near Newport. The weather was perfect for it and everything went beautifully. I adore his new wife and her children too.

Besides the wedding, while in Newport we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and ate in some very tasty restaurants. I ate my first crab. I'd never eaten crab before. It was against the religion I grew up in. I've been missing out. It was very very good. We got to see lots of family we hadn't seen in awhile. Our daughter Sarah and son-in-law were there too, so we got to spend a little bit of time with them.

Phone selfie

It was a hectic 4 days. Through it all, Cable was an absolute angel. The reason we camped in Newport instead of getting a hotel room was because of Cable. I didn't want to kennel her. We needed to leave her alone and since hotels won't let you do that with pets, the trailer went with us. Cable was so well behaved I kept wondering who was this dog and where was Cable? It was one of those occasions where I felt so inadequate with our ability to communicate with each other. I wanted to tell her how so very proud of her I am, but she doesn't understand English. We did get an opportunity to take her to the beach and let her off her leash for awhile. She loved it! She ran and ran and ran and played in the waves and chased seagulls. She was so full of joy!

We drove home in one long 13 hour trip. The drive went much better. No wrecks, but we did have a flat tire. We were glad for the brand new spare. It took us just a few minutes to change the tire and then we were on our way. We were glad to be home. Then, to turn on the kitchen faucet and have water come out? That was awesome!

You may be wondering why so few pics. I didn't take many. I was a total failure as a photographer this time. I had the camera with me. Just didn't feel like using it. I was more into feeling the trip rather than photographing it this time. If it weren't for my phone, there probably wouldn't have been any photos at all.

Next post will be about the knitting I did while away.

Live long and prosper. \\//

The Librarian Project: Parts 3 and 4 or What I Did On My Vacation

Hello Internet! I'm back from my trip. I had a good time, but it also was a rather difficult trip for me. It was extremely hectic, and I was with a bunch of people who are tall and walk very fast. I had a terrible time keeping up with them. We did a LOT of walking too. We went to Washington DC for a week to take in the sites. We visited Mt Vernon, fabulous museums, most of the memorials, the National Mall, toured the White House,

Me coming out of the White House

sat in on the Senate in the Capitol building,

and ate a lot of good food. The capitol of our country is very interesting. We didn't see half of what there is to see, so I hope we can go back one day.

On the day we went Memorial touring, we rented bikes and rode them around. It was so much faster and easier than trying to walk to them all. The National Mall is 2 miles long! Riding bikes really sped things up. I saw the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial,

the Vietnam memorial, the Korean memorial, the Martin Luther King memorial,

the Washington memorial, to name a few. We visited part of the Smithsonian National History Museum, and most of the Smithsonian American History museum, which is just a drop in the bucket of museums on the mall. Did you know there are 19 of them? No way could we visit them all in a week.

We also visited and toured Mt Vernon, which is the home of President George Washington. It was a fascinating place. We toured the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is an air and space museum. It's HUGE. So many airplanes to see. But the highlight for me was the space shuttle Discovery was there.

I finally got to see a space shuttle up close.

Under Space Shuttle Discovery

I actually got to stand underneath it. Wow, what an amazing vehicle.

After a week in DC, we went to New York City. We took the Amtrak train to New York, which was a blast. It's been years since I rode a train and I forgot how much fun it can be. I had to ride in the dining car because there were no seats available in the car the rest of the family was in. It was a packed train, but I had a whole table to myself, with nice big windows. I knitted most of the way.

In New York we walked through Time Square, took in a Broadway show-Mama Mia to be precise. It was wonderful!

We toured the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island,

rode the subway, visited Grand Central Station (a gorgeous building!),

and ate more good food. I learned that it's true-pizza is better in New York.

Unfortunately, while crossing Time Square I was looking up at all the pretty lights while half running to catch up with the family and I tripped and fell. I landed BANG! hard on both of my knees. Oh man, did that ever hurt. The crying and nauseous gonna-throw-up kind of pain. For some dumb reason, I decided to grit my teeth and bear it, rather than stopping right there and taking care of myself. So on to the planned events we went. By the time we got back to the hotel, I could hardly walk. My knees had swollen up to the size of basketballs and the bruising was horrible. I am on blood thinners, so when I bruise, I really bruise. Both my legs were completely black and blue from my knees to my feet. I iced them good that night. But the pain was excruciating. The next day I decided I must carry on and walked, actually it was hobbling, all over Liberty and Ellis islands, then several blocks in New York. Needless to say, the swelling got worse. That's when I started getting to ride in taxi's, which I much prefer over the subway anyway. The subway is crowded, smelly, dirty, and under the ground. You don't see New York under there. I hated it. Taxi's are much better.

After New York, we rented a car and drove to Providence, Rhode Island to visit my daughter Sarah and son-in-law Frank. We stayed with them just a couple days, but I enjoyed it so much.

Grandkitty Meadowlark

Finally, the hectic pace we'd been going at could stop. I just wanted to spend my time with them. No site seeing please! We played games at the kitchen table, talked, went out to dinner, and relaxed. I got OFF my feet and started actually taking care of my poor injured knees. I really enjoyed the visit. We had so much fun just being together.

I finished 2 of the librarian projects while on my trip.

Back side

Twisted Stitch Mitts

Pattern: Twisted Stitch Mitts by Amy McElwain
Size: Ladies Medium

Yarn: Vintage by Berroco
Content: 50% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 10% Nylon, worsted weight
Color: 51191 - Blue Moon

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 4

Cast on: March 17, 2014
Completed: April 2, 2014

Palm side

Margaretes Fingerless Gloves

Pattern: Margarete Fingerless Gloves by Sybil R
Size: Ladies Medium

Yarn: Astra by Patons
Content: 100% Acrylic, sport weight
Color: Ocean Mist

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 4

Cast on: April 2, 2014
Completed: April 9, 2014

On Friday I went to see a doctor about my knees. I was beginning to wonder if I'd broken something in there because the pain has been so incredibly intense. Nothing is broken. Just really really sprained. I'm to stay off my feet until the swelling goes down, while applying ice packs several times a day. I also got a prescription for some pain killing Hydrocodon which is helping a little, but not as much as I'd hoped. The damage shouldn't be permanent, but it will take several months for them to heal completely. The swelling has gone down considerably since I started following doctors orders. I'm gonna be okay.

It's good to be home. Spring came while we were away. My crocuses are blooming, the daffodils have sprouted, leaves are opening up, there are flower buds on the trees, and the grass is green. We had 2 beautiful sunny days over the weekend.

Mostly, it smells so good here. Fresh and clean. The thing that struck me most about New York was the horrible smell. The city stinks something awful. The air is thick with the odor of urine mixed with garbage and exhaust fumes. Everything is filthy and the roads are in terrible condition. It is very much like Acapulco was. I was very disappointed. It's also very crowded. I don't understand how people can live in an environment like that. To each his own, I guess. Washington DC, on the other hand, was beautiful and clean, but so incredibly noisy! Helicopters fly over the National Mall all day, and there's airplanes, and traffic. Police and fire engine sirens were going on every 5 minutes. Just a constant assault of loud noise on the ears. Made home sound downright silent.

Unfortunately, the one thing I wanted to see the most, cherry  blossoms blooming, were closed up tight. The unusually hard winter delayed their blooming by 3 to 4 weeks. So we saw DC in it's winter clothing. That's okay. I can try again some time. I will see those cherry blossoms yet.

Live long and prosper. \\//

I Have Returned

I'm back! You may have been wondering where I've been since I got home a week ago. Well, we came home to broken internet. The modem said we had online access, and even told us we were online, but it lied. It wasn't until Thursday that we could get someone out to fix it. Turned out when, a couple weeks before we left, a car wreck had knocked down a pole down the road from us, they didn't attach the phone lines correctly and managed to cross lines. The technician thinks that may have caused a power surge in the modem which burnt something out. He rewired the lines and gave us a new modem.

In addition, since arriving home I've been extremely busy! I didn't have a single day where I got to stay home until yesterday! This is the first chance I've had to sit down and blog.

I had a wonderful vacation. Our flights went without a hitch. The weather was perfect. Everything went so smoothly. It was so nice and warm and colorful in the east Caribbean and the ship was great! We took the Carnival Dream cruise to Nassau, Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

We boarded the ship in Cape Canaveral. We headed straight for Nassau in the Bahamas. We spent the day exploring the ship. It is HUGE. About a 5th of a mile long. I got lots of exercise while living on it. There was lots to do with pools, bars, shows, and whatnot, and the food! The food was awesome! The best I've had on a cruise ship. Plenty of fresh veggies and fruits and healthy food. I am quite pleased with it. Everything we were served was outstanding in quality, flavor, and presentation. The buffet had a wonderful variation to choose from and the dining room meals were awesome! I was in food heaven. I got cheesecake for dessert every single day too. And it was awesome cheesecake! I enjoyed every single bite I ate on that ship. I also enjoyed not having to cook a single thing for over a week! It has been very very hard for me to go back to cooking meals again.

Our ship (with the red and blue smoke stack) from the highest point in Nassau.

In Nassau we took a ride in a horse drawn carriage. Our driver gave us a little tour of the town. He was very informative and quite a character.

After that we walked up the hill to the highest place on the island where there's a fort and a water tower. We stopped at a little museum on the way and got some history of the place.

Of everything we saw in Nassau, though, this had the biggest impact on me. It's called the Queen's Staircase.

Doug, me, Sue, and Dan in The Queens Staircase

It's a canyon carved out of the solid stone by slaves, with a fountain and staircase at the end. Hundreds of slaves were worked to death to make this canyon for a governor who was afraid of being invaded. He ordered the canyon made to provide a means of escape should that ever happen.  It never did. You can still see the chisel marks in the walls. It was very humbling to walk the length of this place and climb the stairs. Slavery is a horrible horrible thing.

When Britain took ownership of the Bahamas, Queen Victoria freed the slaves. In honor of her, they built a fountain and a staircase at the end. Thus, the name.

After Nassau we went to St. Thomas, which is one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. We didn't stay long for we boarded a boat to go to the island of St. John for our shore excursion. St. John has one of the US National parks on it- The Virgin Islands National Park. One I never thought I'd ever actually get to visit, so this was awesome!

Our tour took us through the park to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world where we snorkeled and enjoyed the sun for awhile. The water is absolutely gorgeous. My sister-in-law, Sue, took this panorama picture of the beach. Yes, I got to swim in that water and it was wonderful.

Click on me to enlarge.

The small island you see there is protected. We aren't even allowed to touch it. I snorkeled for about an hour around it though. I saw so many beautiful fish of every color and shape you can imagine.

After St. Thomas, we went to St. Maarten which is an island divided in two. Two separate countries. One side owned by the Dutch, the other side owned by the French. We didn't have a shore excursion reserved for this island. We thought we'd try winging it. Worked out great. Right off the ship we found a taxi that took us on a very very nice tour of the island. We stopped at a few different places along the way. One of those places was a beach that hubby and his brother wanted to visit in the worst way, so I was glad we got to go there.

On the Dutch side of St. Maarten, there is an airport right off the beach. Planes fly over this beach regularly. It's St. Maartens biggest tourist attraction. You can stand on the beach and get knocked down by the jet wash as a plane flies over to land on the runway if you want. Planes land about every 15 minutes or so. In this picture, we're standing in front of the schedule.

A few minutes later, I decided I wasn't in the mood to get knocked down, so I stayed a safe distance away as a jet came over us.

Sue took this pic. I love the sign.

There's a bar on the beach. We sat and had a beer while we watched the planes land too.

I took this picture when we visited another beach briefly on the tour. It is on the French side of the island. The water is so pretty!

Then our tour guide took us to an open market where we shopped for awhile. Then we headed back to the ship. As we pulled out of the harbor, some clouds had moved in and a beautiful rainbow appeared. It was a great way to end our visit to St. Maarten.

We had two days at sea on our return home. It was very relaxing and fun. I did take knitting with me. I worked on the sweater I've decided to make for my son-in-law. I put aside time every day to work on it. I really enjoyed sitting on the deck knitting. I got a goodly amount done too. Here's the project at it's current level of doneness.

I am at the point where I start the main fairisle part. It has a problem. I got gauge on my swatch, but I'm not getting it in the sweater. It's supposed to be 47 inches around at this point. It's 42. Sigh. I hate it when that happens. So I stopped work on it while I waited for daughter to measure Franks chest. Turns out, it's gonna fit him just fine as is. If it was 47 inches, it would be way too big, so I shall continue on. I'm going to go up a needle size because I tend to knit a little tighter in fairisle.

You may notice I'm doing this in the round. It's one of those patterns with steeks. Yeeks! I have never actually knit a sweater this way. Thought I'd give it a try. You never know, I might like it.

We spent 3 days in Cape Canaveral after returning to port. We went to Sea World first where we saw shows performed by dolphins, whales and sea lions, and all kinds of wonderful sea animals. Enjoyed it very much.

This dolphin posed for my camera.

On the second day we went to Disney Epcot center. I didn't take my camera with me and it's just as well because I was very disappointed in it. I've been there before, when the girls were little and it  has changed quite a bit since then. It used to be very educational but now it's just a bunch of gift shops and restaurants. There are a few rides, but they were horribly lame. I will probably never go back and I wouldn't recommend it. The one highlight was lunch. We ate at an English pub. I had the cottage pie and a pint of ale. Both were very very good.

On the third day we went to Kennedy Space Center. We'd made reservations for a tour of one of the launch pads. What an amazing place. It was very very educational. We met one of the astronauts, J.O. Crieghton, who flew one of the space shuttle 3 times (I think it was the Discovery?).

Copyright 2013 Linda Jo Park, all rights reserved.

He gave a fascinating presentation on his experiences and the process he went through to board the shuttle craft. He is such a nice man. He shook my hand and I didn't wanna wash it after that. I felt like a fan girl.  I shook hands with a real life astronaut who flew in one of the space shuttles! Wow!

After that we boarded the bus for our tour. They took us out to Launch Pad 38.

Launch pad 38

We got to get out of the bus and walk up close to it. This is underneath where all that steam and smoke comes out. The bricks are holding up pretty good despite the heat they are subjected to.

These bricks show signs of melting.

One of the things we heard over and over while we were there was that NASA is not done and over with.  I guess, with the ending of the Shuttle program, people have acquired the idea that NASA is ended too. Not true! They are busily working on their next projects. They are building new heavy payload rockets for both passengers and cargo.

Used rocket lot. ;-)

They are making plans to send astronauts to Mars. They are also making money helping out the private sector and other countries working on space projects. I was quite surprised to find out they are renting out their launch pads to those who have stuff to launch. The pads are already built and perfected so why not use them? I think that is a fantastic idea!

Fire Star orchids blooming at the Kennedy Center.

All in all, it was a fascinating tour. I highly recommend it!

I hope you've enjoyed this essay on my vacation.

Live long and prosper. \\//