So, so, so busy

I’m so sorry that I’ve not written anything in forever. It’s a sad day when you open your blog and see all the entries have scrolled off.

My excuse is that I’ve been swamped at work. Completely swamped. And I’m taking all of next week off, so I’m trying to get a zillion things done before then. This blog entry is being done in the time it take to upload SPSS 12.0.2 for AIX to the AIX server.

First, here is the current state of knitting.

Its been woefully neglected. Why would such a thing happen, you ask?

Well, I’ve been playing EverQuest II. I do knit on my sock while waiting to zone, but I haven’t had a lot of TV time lately, so my sister’s sweater is still languishing. I’m on the sleeve caps now.

Oh, speaking of my sock, here’s a fairly current picture:

Yup, its a sock.

In more exciting news, Kevin and I went to Iowa this weekend for a quick trip. It was tons of fun.

We stayed in Iowa City, and went to the Devonian Fossil Gorge. It was great - sure, it was freezing, and Kevin almost died, but we got to see deer and lots of fossils. I actually stole a fossil, but then it turned it out that it was illegal, and then I felt really bad, so we went back and put it back.

Who knew that picking up a rock was illegal? But, I guess they want to preserve the area, which makes sense. In fact, I just read that its illegal to take fossils from any federal land without a permit.

We also wandered around downtown Iowa City, looked in the shops, and had dinner at the Brown Bottle.

The next day, we went to Amana Colonies. The actual plan was to buy some of a certain kind of pottery that I really like, but it turns out that the shop stopped carrying it. Darn it. But, I did get to go to the Amana Woolen Mill, which is the only working mill in Iowa. It’s fun to see the looms, and this year, we actually bought a 100% wool blanket. It’s perfect for snuggling under on the couch, and its really pretty.

You can buy left over yarn from their blankets on spools, but its not really suitable for hand knitting. However, oddly enough, they did carry some Patons yarns, and even better, this great Homespun wool yarn.

Can I remember the name of the mill it comes from? Of course not. It is from Michigan I believe, and from what I remember, they mainly sell knitted garments. The wool was in all natural colors, and I picked out 3 skeins of a natural beige/cream color. I think it’ll turn into a toddler aran sweater, perhaps. It was just over 5 dollars a skein for 225 yards, and it is reasonably soft. It probably falls between Cascade 220 and Barlett Fishermen’s wool on the softness scale.

Oh, and while we were in Amana we had an enormous breakfast. It was actually really fun - we wandered into the Brick Haus, and they seated us. Then, our waitress came over, offered us milk or coffee, and told us, in a very german accent, that our breakfast had been ordered.

So, a bit confused, we sat back and waited. It was very very good. It started with fruit, and then they brought out eggs, hashbrowns, a pancake each which was very thin and crispy at the edges, bacon and sausage from Amana, orange juice, and toast. It’s all done family style, so our table was filled with food. I don’t like hashbrowns, and he doesn’t like eggs, so I ate half the eggs, and he ate the potatoes. The syrup was so good, and the sausage was great, and we were so full afterwards. All that came in at under 20 dollars for two people.

We didn’t have time to go into all the shops, but we got homemade fudge, and candles, and cookies.

Kevin drove, and so I got to snooze for large parts of both car trips. I really need to work on getting more sleep, given that I’m doing that thing my mother used to do - as soon as she sat down, coming home from work, she’d fall asleep. And I don’t’ evne have the excuse of working 13 hours a day and having 2 kids. I just have too many hobbies.