Staycation

First off - sorry about the bad picture. While I was driving this week I noticed the car was about to roll over to 50,000. I grabbed my cell phone and managed a picture while driving in rush hour (do not attempt this at home!) . However - in the process, as I took the pic a car decided the 1/2 car space in front of me was his and I had to hit the brakes. Result - bad pic.

50K miles later I still love my "car". It's a Saturn Vue (SUV) and I was very worried during the GM trauma this past year when they talked about Saturn going away. Luckily it was sold and will still be around for us. People who own Saturns tend to be loyal. Just ask my cousin (on his 2nd), my Aunt & Uncle, my Dad (well- you can ask but he wouldn't remember), or other friends who have Saturns. We love them. I loved my L200 and when I got a good deal to trade up - I jumped on it. Here's to 50K more years.




Today I went for a ride over to the area St Paul . There's a spice store (Penzey's) over by the Yarnery and I decided a road trip would be fun. Penzey's is about 4-5 blocks east of the Yarnery so I headed over there first. Easy parking (15 minutes) because it is a bit away from the main Victoria/Grand shopping area. I didn't plan on being in too long so 15 minutes worked well.

I ran in, browsed for spices, grabbed a catalog as they have great on line store, and left a few minutes later with some needed spices. I don't know if I'd ever make a special trip there again but, I'm on staycation and it was an adventure.

Somehow on the way back I ended up on Summit Ave. (one block off Grand) and found a few homes for sale that I thought might be big enough to hold my stash and other junk (precious bits of life memories).





What do you think? Would you be able to find enough room here for the stash? Just think - top floor could be all crafts. One room for the stash, a room for a knitting retreat, one for sewing, one for the knitting machines..... I'm sure with today's economy the price would be nice and low and easy to finance. Maybe you like a stone house instead.





This one is for sale also. That front jut out area on the right - looks like a great place to have a knitting group meet. Just saying....


These pictures were also taken with my cell phone while driving. I discovered its much easier to take pictures while driving if you are going under 30 MPH and nobody is trying to cut you off!





You may have noticed- no mention of what I got at The Yarnery. Well.... after driving down Summit I turned right toward the freeway and after I was partway home I realized I didn't go back to Grand and stop at the shop. Guess I'll have to make another trip sometime this week.





Knitting Pictures



There are no knitting pictures.
I started making the Bella Mitten and decided I didn't like the look I was getting. RIPPED.
I started knitting knitting the Fake Fair Isle Hat - didn't like the 2 colors I picked out - RIPPED.
I started a sock-Bloomin' Socks . The yarn is OK for the pattern but there's so little knit that I didn't bother to take a picture.

So, of course, when there's no knitting pictures - throw in a cute kitty picture.
For some reason Bert has decided this week that he loves to sleep on the humidifier. It can't be comfortable, can it?
The only thing he likes better is in the winter when the humidifier is running and he tries to attack the source of the mist.

It's my special place and I WILL protect it! - Bert

Oh - FYI - work managed to go 6 hours without calling me with a problem. This was after I told them I would not be available cause I was going up north where the cell phones dont' work. Small lie but I really want to ignore work for a week! The reason for calling - they couldn't find the password to the voice message on the phone. That would be the post-it note that was left attached to the side of the phone right where I showed them it would be. Oh - nevermind.....

When in doubt - tell an embarrassing story

My knitting can't be shown right now and Bert & Chief are sleeping under the bed so no cute kitty pictures. That leaves me with telling you a "I can't believe how stupid I was" story.

Monday when I left work my car told me it needed an oil change. Yeah - my car talks to me with all the On Star, extra information type stuff. It even has it's own phone number. I never use it because it's WAY too expensive but - go figure - cars need their own phone numbers. I don't know it but, if I felt like it, I could ask the car and it would tell me.

Anyway- back to the oil change. Knowing how much I can procrastinate I decided I would go get it changed right then or I'd forget and end up blowing up the engine or something from lack of care. Headed over to the dealer a mile from work and less than an hour later I was getting back in my car. It was happy with all its fluids topped off and I headed home. Sort of.

Whoever drove my car to the front put my seat back. I have long legs and normally have a seat all the way back but my SUV has a very long seat length. Right then it was back a couple notches from my "sweet spot". I could drive but it didn't feel right. I felt under the seat and no bar to move it up. I haven't changed the seat since I bought it over 3 years ago and, well, I couldn't find how to do it.

Since it was OK to drive I headed out and pulled out the manual at the first light. Found the section on the seats and it said change it using the bar. Again - no bar. In the front there's a knob to change the lumbar seat pressure. On the left side is the usual lever to change the back of the seat forward and backward. There's also a flat bar that tilts from its center clockwise or counterclockwise. This tilts the seat so my butt or legs are higher or lower.

Still no bar. No way to move the seat forward. I looked I really looked. I looked Monday night. I looked Tuesday morning. I looked Tuesday on the way to lunch. I gave up. I called the service department and admitted I had a stupid, embarrassing question. I told the guy what happened and he says

- There should be a lever on the side that can be pushed forward.

- Well, on the side there's the normal lever that goes up and down for the back of the seat and there's the bar that turns clockwise and counterclockwise for the tilting of the seat and that's it.

- Then you must have a bar in the front.

- Nope. I can clearly see the bar on the passenger side. Nothing like that on my seat.

- Then it's a lever on the side that moves forward.

We were back at the beginning of our conversation so I said I'd look again and if I couldn't find it I'd be in after work.

After work I couldn't find it but I didn't drive over, I was too embarrassed. This morning I tried something radical - I tried to move the tilting bar forward and as if by magic - my seat moved forward.

So my question is: if the manual can have a page to show pulling the manual bar up, it can show tilting the bar to change the seat, it can show the lever to change the back of the seat, it even shows how to use the seat belts (because none of us have ever used a seat belt) - why can't it show the tilting lever being pushed forward and back to move the seat?

That's it - nobody is ever allowed to change the seat in my car again!

Lots of Knitting - No pictures

Interesting that it would take me 11 days after a post on procrastination to post again. Told you I put things off...

I spent the past week finishing up a secret project. Don't you just love it when people talk about secret projects they can't show you. After a while you start things maybe they're just making it up to hide the fact that they aren't doing anything. Well - there really is a project. It's done and heading to its new home tomorrow. Once I know its been opened I'll post pictures and the story behind it.

Beside the secret project I've had a pretty busy knitting week. Tuesday was MN Knitters Guild meeting. The topic was Aran knitting and there were many beautiful items to enjoy. I haven't joined the guild but only because I used my last check and keep forgetting to put a new bunch in my purse. Next month....

Thursday was my regular knit group - NW Twin Cities Suburb Knit Group. We started through Raverly and our group just keeps growing. We started once a month and now meet twice a month. It's amazing how many stories you hear about groups starting up because of Ravelry. I brought the project to work on and others brought socks, afghans, sweaters and all sorts of fun projects.

Since spring is officially here I've been looking at the yard (minus snow) and realized how little I did last fall before the snow fell. I put off racking because we have some late leaf droppers in the area and I didn't want to have to rake twice. OOPS! Now I have a really icky looking yard and a lot of work ahead of me in a week or so when the yard dries out enough to be able to handle a raking.

The next month will also be busy knitting wise. Knit Out, my knitting group, MKG, and we'll see what else comes up. Next post will have pictures - I promise!