No camping misadventures to report since my last post, I'm afraid. :) Busy as hell, though. I had a lesson last Tuesday, then the long-overdue recording sessions were Thursday and Friday--I had quite a bit of anxiety over them, but I got some pretty good stuff, especially Friday. (I wasn't able to listen until today because we got one of those Trojan viruses, who knows from where, and it took some time to eradicate it and restore our settings. I had to play in the registry, which is a bit nerve-wracking.) I had several social obligations over the weekend (including a KIP), which was welcome after all the self-inflicted recording drama.

On Sunday I'm headed to Seattle for work--promoting my journal at a symposium. Luckily Mark is coming with me. He has family there, so we'll be able to visit with them when I'm not at the symposium. It's really a pretty good deal. I've never been to Seattle, and my obligations are pretty basic--sit at a desk during the day, talk to whoever comes by--plus I'll have a laptop with Internet access, and I'll work on my first Monkeys with the green yarn I bought in Denver. (Speaking of Denver, regardless of who you support for President, please do not wear these. Ewwwww...) I should have time to blog during the symposium, though I won't be able to upload photos while I'm gone.

Speaking of uploading photos, look what I did:


Nupps! There are a bunch of them in the second pattern of my Estonian shawl, and I was putting it off. (I have all Susan Bates needles, and the points aren't nearly sharp enough to pull off nupps.) I ended up using a size K crochet hook as a quasi-cable needle to increase for the seven nupp stitches, then slipped them onto the other needle. Not the best alternative, but it works. (Yanno, I just remembered that I inherited a really large cable needle with my great-aunt's stash. I should give it a shot.)

And this I just finished about an hour ago:


I did finish this in about a month (and was by no means monogamous), but it still seemed to take forever. I guess size 4 needles will do that to you... It's so comfortable. It's not nearly as see-through as the picture would indicate, but I do need to make sure I don't wear the pink bra with it. :) And once I wash it, it should be less of an issue.

A few days after we return from Seattle, Mark and I are driving up to Michigan for a week-long vacation at his friend's house on Lake Michigan. (Well, it's on one of the subsidiary lakes, but it is right on the water.) We're both really looking forward to it--we're making this trip instead of going up to Cleveland in June for Mark's college reunion, and Mark's best friends from college will all make it up at least for a few days. They're good guys, and one of them is coming for the weekend with his wife and two small children. For some reason, though, I'm thinking less about the relaxation part of the trip and more about buying local produce. I know cherry season will be over, but I still have this fantasy about buying fresh cherries...

To sign off, speaking of long drives, my parents are currently in eastern Maryland on an exploratory trip to possibly move there or to Delaware. (I know! So strange.) They have some concern about being a thirteen-hour drive from my grandparents, since their health is not good. That, and they want to be a day trip away from any and all grandchildren. Grandchildren who are not yet a gleam in their parents' eyes. Yes, my mother is a little nutty. Anyway, my father will be checking out Toyota dealerships (he's a master tech), and my mother will presumably be loading up on those glossy home advertisement magazines. She really loves those things...