What a week

It started with a birthday party for the 5 yr old paleontologist. Not surprising, most of his gifts were dinosaur related, as was his cake, both of them. His day stared with a playground party with his friends. DD said it was the easiest party ever. Note that the cake is made of cupcakes, so easy to serve. DD#1 was there, having ridden her motorcycle in from Jacksonville, Florida. She's staying with them for the week.

My gift to him was a Stegosaurus hat, similar to one I had made for his brother at the same age.

Sunday night my nephew from Hawaii arrived in Ohio. Luckily for me, he was staying with my sister. His plane actually arrived at 1:00 AM Monday morning. The 5 hour time difference was in his favor. My sister and her DH went straight to bed. We had dinner with them Monday night. It made for a long day for me, since it's a 2 hour drive each way. I left work at 12:00 and had a nice afternoon with them. My bookworm granddaughter went down with me. She'll be a high school senior this next year, so it wasn't like herding cats, which I'm out of practice at. Nephew C is at the center. He hasn't been to Ohio for 25 years, since my mother died.

The photo was taken on Tuesday. My sister gave me a trunk load of plants for my yard on Monday. She noticed that my yard was sparsely planted and she had lots fo things that needed thinning. I spent Tuesday in the yard, in the heat, mowing, edging, weeding and planting. I also had bought more solar powered lights, which are now installed. Note to self - get a picture when they are lit. I also bought some dragonflies for the front yard. Half of them aren't dragonflies, but still pretty. It took me four days to notice the difference. They change color; red, blue, green. I am so tempted to buy some more, but I'm resisting so far!

Wednesday, I ate left overs from Tuesday. DD#5 flew into Ohio, but had a business meeting at Kent. She booked a hotel room and invited me to join her. The hotel room gave her peace and quiet to make notes and digest the meeting. She was treated to dinner, so I came down after work. We hung around for the evening , swimming in the pool, sitting in the hot tub, etc. I was knitting a sock for her DH who has a birthday in early August. The hotel is in Cuyahoga Falls, right on the falls. I had to get home quickly in the morning to let the dog out. DD had rented a car, so she came shortly after. She stayed with me Thursday night.

Thursday we were back at my sister's house for a baby shower. Her youngest daughter is due in September and it was a good time for another family gathering. It's a large family with all my kids and their families. At least one advantage of not being able to get everyone at one. Dear Nephew got to meet them gradually. Monday's dinner included DD#4 and her 3 kids. the kids stayed home Thursday. Those attending were Me, my son and his daughter (same as Monday's gathering), DD#1, DD#4, and DD#5. The shower was held in the garage, due to a 70% chance of rain. Of course, in thei drought stricken area, it didn't rain until we were driving home. Yes, I missed getting a picture of the mom-to-be.

Friday we gathered at DSon's house, just my family, so out of town daughters had a chance to spent time with siblings.

Saturday was a high school graduation party at DSon's. Sister came with nephew and her older daughter B. B had just arrived from New Yiork city. More getting to know each other better. She's becoming a teacher, and spent much time talkingtalking education theory with DD#5, a social psychology professor at Florida State. Phone numbers and e-mails were updated as well ad snail mail addresses. This is the year of more communication. One of the benefits of having my DH die. We realized that we needed to connect more with each other.

TNNA and travel

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Sunday, June 8 I went to Columbus, OH for the TNNA show. I'm not a yarn store owner, but when it's a couple of hours away, it's a good time to meet and greet suppliers, yarn suppliers, and other bloggers. I saw Lucy Neatby, the rainbow lady. I talked with Lily Chin, Margaret Fisher, Lynn H. Franklin Habit, Annie Modesitt, Chrissy Gardiner, Joan McGowan-Michael, Helene Rush. Shannon Okey, Kristin Nichols, Jackie E-S, Beth Brown-Reinsel, and Sheila Ernst.

I also talked with Chris Blysma of Knitting at Knoon, Katerine Cade of South West Trading Company, Joe Antal of Oasis Yarns, Interweave Press and XRX. It is a trade show after all. I'm hoping to do more designing and teaching in the coming year.

I got home around dinner time, and late that night, got on Amtrak for Chicago and then San Francisco. We have traveled by train before. We start at dark-o-clock in the morning, after staying up half the night, because that's when the train comes through. We then go to sleep and wake up in the Chicago area, where we change trains. We take the sleeper from Chicago, so have a nice lounge to wait in and a couple of hours to go outside and see the area near Union Station. Here's a picture of the Chicago River from last trip.

It was gray and overcast this time. There had been a lot of rain in the area. Here's the Mississippi as we passed over it. We didn't come back this way becasue of the flooding, but that's a story for another day.

We passed lots of farmland .(no pictures) When we got into Denver, we were told that we were going to miss the most spectacular part of the Rockies with the Moffet tunnel because of track work being done. We've seen it before, but still... The scenery can still be boring, but a lot different from home. There is bleak desert in Nevada. In the Denver station was a piece of railroad history. These cars are called "private varnish." We saw a different private cart last time through.






When we got into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, there was still snow.



The Reno station has is now finished. The trains were blocking traffic, so they dug a ditch and ran them under the streets. The work had started when we stopped in 2005. Now it is finished. This is a
"smoking stop," where you can get off the train, but not leave the platform.



We saw a spectacular sunset in Utah and an equally awesome one in Nevada.




The train portion of the trip ended in Emeryville, CA. We then took a bus across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.


The entire trip took 3 days. We got off the train late Wednesday afternoon. We had a wedding to attend and family to spend time with. Much knitting was done on a purple sweater. It wasn't finished until the trip home. and still needs a good bath before its formal portrait.

I actually packed 5 projects, including 2 pairs of socks. This is excessive for the amount of time available, but actually was a good thing. Just before we left, DH decided to have the 3rd floor of the house insulated. When you hire a professional, he has his idea of the right way to do things. This meant that all plaster and lathe needed to be removed and the "living space" insulated, rather than the roof. We will have plaster board for the walls, damaged plaster will be gone. Unbelievably, 1/4 of all our belongings were moved in a little over 24 hours. A teenage grandson and daughter with strong husband did the work. DH couldn't help because of medical problems and I was at work and TNNA. We have stuff piled in much of the house and in the garage. There is a dumpster in the driveway, so we are a 1 car family for now. My yarn stash is not available! Even many of my summer clothes are buried. The ideal time to tear apart the house is when we aren't there, but even without construction debris it's a mess. Even the dog was a dog camp for the duration.