Survivor, Roadtrip!

We made it back to town without killing each other. Actually, DiscoDame cracks me up whenever we go somewhere together. She's a much better traveling companion than the Plaidman. That may be a bit harsh; before he became 50% hearing-impaired, he was alright as a roadtrip buddy.
I frogged Sis' socks (again...), and was working on them a bit during our downtime at the hotel(s) in the evening(s). I have no idea why I bought this wild lookin' yarn, but Sis admired it so she can wear it.
Oh, yeah...you're curious about where 2/3 of the Plaid Patrol went! We drove up to Kentucky, hitting Paducah about 10 a.m. Thursday. We toured the National Quilt Museum, which is terrifically full of fabric Art (capital "A"!). Go see it sometime. After, we cruised along the Riverfront until our brains started to cook, then decided we'd better get indoors somewhere & cool off. We had a nice late lunch at Doe's Eats. I was getting pretty achy (sciatica strikes again), so we found ourselves a hotel room & just chilled--we'd brought some microwave dinners, and had the appliance in the room, so we didn't even bother to leave the room until the next morning. Free breakfast got us up & out the door by 8:30 a.m., and we found Hwy. 68-80 & the start of the 400-Mile Yardsale! Yes friends, we drove for a while, then plodded around in the sun for a while, then back to the car & do it all again--over & over & over. Lots of sunscreen saved our skin; but we were burning up from the heat. We did this for two whole days, getting another hotel room when we just got too tired & hot to go on. On Saturday, we made it to Bowling Green, with only a few stops along the way. At one rather large sale, we found some items for the Plaidman--he who so inconveniently has a birthday just before Father's Day! Those were my biggest purchases of the whole trip. Sunday, we skipped the free breakfast at the hotel, and went over to Bob Evans restaurant for a great breakfast. Disco said she was about yardsaled out, & could we do something else. Well, I figured the Corvette Museum would be a good diversion, but is it open on Sunday? (Yes) and could I find it again? We'd gone round in circles trying to get to any of the hotels near the museum, Saturday afternoon, so I wasn't looking forward to trying to find the museum again. So...I pretty much decided to just head on home early, and we'd see a movie Sunday evening. We saw THOR, which was kinda "meh", except for the lead's shirtless scene. Speaking of shirtless scenes...many years ago we saw the Conan movie (with AH-nold), the one with the big snakes controlled by the bad guy. Remember when Conan & his team were sneaking into the temple, and Conan wore a loincloth, a headband & some paint? I remember there was a collective intake of breath throughout the theater, followed at once by giggles. Very telling! Anyway, Thor wasn't quite in that league, but he's a lot cuter without than with a shirt. And could the costume/make-up folk not have come up with an actual beard for Thor? His "bad boy" look was laughable--he should have been clean or bearded, but not scruffy. Loki's beardless-ness is more or less explained by his ancestry, at least in this story. No spoiler, I won't say anymore about that!

3 days...

That's how long it's been since I've been on Ravelry. I think I need a fix. I have actually been knitting: I finished another washcloth in the Plymouth Jeannie, and started a muff for a coworker's little girly-girl. The muff pattern is quite easy, although I had to make a substitution in the yarn. The pattern calls for super bulky weight "furry" yarn, of which I had very little. I have combined two strands of a light worsted boucle & eyelash yarn with one strand of sport weight smooth yarn in a complimentary color. The cuffs were to be in a lighter (bulky) weight, so I took the boucle down to one strand & kept the sport weight. I felt it needed something extra, so I'm adding a pocket on the inside of the muff--the little lady can keep a few small objects or photos in there. I don't think she's quite old enough to need a wallet, as she's just started kndergarten. The pocket consists of a strip of stockinette with two purl turning rows and seed stitch ends. I will fold it at the purl rows, so the ends overlap, and stitch the closed side to the inside of the muff. The overlapping ends should hold the contents inside. The pocket is stitched (tightly!) in the sport weight yarn on US sz 6's, while the muff was done on US sz 11's. Once I get the pocket sewn in place, I'll seam the thing, turn it inside out, & work in the ends. I'm planning on giving it to her or her Mom for Christmas, so no real rush.
I've also done some crocheting, still laboring on the FIVE big granny square stockings for another coworker's grandkids. She's keen on having them look kinda hokey & "homemade", so the simpler the better. I usually get a bit creative in the process of putting the squares together and finishing the top. Last year I put a button near the top, and made a button hole in the hanging loop (made rather long too!) which she liked 'coz she could hang the filled stockings on the kiddies' bedposts.
I have been hinting about a certain knitter with a September birthday (ME!ME!), who might like to have a swift & a ball winder. I've thought about it, and decided that if I can have only one it's got to be the swift. I can wind a pretty mean center-pull ball by hand, but haven't yet found a good place to hang a skein for winding. In a very small house with two cats, there may not be a good place to put a skein for winding. I have one chair that will do in a pinch, but the bending & stretching gets old real quick.
We did not go to the movies this weekend, but lately we've seen the Batman movie, and WALL-E (too cute!), as well as Hellboy: The Golden Army. Nifty effects, some wild Del Torre weirdness, kinda sappy story. Speaking of Del Torre, he's acknowleged in a book the Plaidman & I just got done reading, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire. What a ride! The end left me nearly breathless, it's a shock for sure. It's a collaboration between Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, neither of which I've heard of before.
What else has been going on? Well, I saw my doctor last week for a problem, which turned out to be something she wasn't set up to handle, so she referred me to a dermatologist. This dermatologist was supposed to call me to get an appointment set up, but never did. Then, the first doctor's staff left me a voicemail telling me when the appointment was scheduled. Excuse me, I don't have input as to the date & time? Both of which were inconvenient; I called the derm dr's office to reset the date so I could see her on a Friday (my day off from work), but she only sees her "cosmetic" ("Botox") patients on Fridays, and wouldn't see me but M-Th, so I cancelled the appointment. Probably dumb, as it usually takes forever to see a derm dr in this town. Anyway, I start calling around, and find one who'll see me on a Friday in October, to which I agreed. Then, this past Friday, I go see my regular dr again, for fasting bloodwork that was missed in my physical, and have to explain to her that I'm not real happy with being told when I will see another dr, and that I have taken the liberty (with my body, how dare I?) of making an appointment with a physician other than the one she wanted me to see. Well, I hope I survive till the middle of October, I tell you what!
Still haven't had my evaluation from my supervisor. The Plaidman is still unemployed. The DiscoDame still hasn't tried to get work. And I think I twisted my ankle on the way to the grocery store today. Boohoo. What else? I got my driver's license renewed, complete with truly awful picture--I think the photo tech's trained to capture our worst facial feature, which in my case is the HUGE double chin. I look like I have a goiter.