The closing on my parents' house was yesterday, so they are officially homeless. Until they find an apartment in Maryland, that is. Apparently the schedule is: drive up to New York tonight and tomorrow to drop off the infamous dining room set, then to Maryland so my father can confirm his job and they can choose an apartment (they're leaning toward an off-season vacation rental at this point, so they hopefully can live on the ocean and won't have to commit to a year lease), then off to the Badlands/Mount Rushmore/Mount Rainier (unless it's closed)/Grand Canyon/various other natural attractions in the continental U.S. They plan to be back in New York by October 28-29, just in time for my brother's wedding. What an adventure!

Speaking of my brother's wedding, I got my bridesmaid's dress in the mail yesterday. It is HUGE, and cut a lot lower in the back than I was expecting... It's not going to be an easy or cheap alteration. I still need to see if I can buy a new longline, since the one from my wedding is pre-BCP, and therefore three letters too small. The only one I've seen online in my size is about $125. I really don't need to be spending so much money on this type of stuff right now!

Blanket news: I will finish the seaming today! I'm leaning toward a double-crochet border, since Mark doesn't want there to be too many color changes. The border has to be about two inches wide, I think--and it won't exactly be portable, so I'm not sure how long it's going to take. I've decided that if I finish in time, I'm going to enter this one in the state fair instead of the Hemlock Ring Blanket--it's so big and cool-looking, I think it will generate more attention (and a ribbon? that would be awesome!!).

To close, a very funny commercial--the coolest ad running in Okinawa, apparently.