Go Democrats, Go!

I am in a fabulous mood today.   I have to admit to being a huge moper lately - November 4th was supposed to be my wedding day.  Instead, I spent it in a suburb of Cincinnati, OH, visiting a great uncle and his family.  Which was very nice, but still.   More on that later though.

But why am I in a fabulous mood?

1. The Democratic Party takes over the House of Representatives.  Hello Speaker Pelosi!
2. If Tester in Montana and Webb in Virginia win, the Democrats will have control of the Senate as well!   Its close in both races.
3. I had a lovely evening with the new guy.  He keeps calling me an election nerd though.
4. I’m having a great hair day.   I was wondering why guys kept looking at me - I believe my aura of happiness and great hair is attracting the Men Types.

Okay, on to knitting.   As I mentioned, my Mom, Mike (her partner), Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Frank all flew into Chicago on Thursday.   Originally it was to see me get married, but instead they decided to road trip it to Cincinnati, OH for my Great Uncle Mervin’s 80th birthday party.   Given that my other option was staying at home and bawling hysterically, I decided to go with them.    Plus, I got to drive like 85 and scare the old folks.

What happens first?  Well, a flamingo showed up and insisted on coming along.  He said it was too damn cold in Chicago and he wanted to go south.  I tried to tell him that it was just as cold in Ohio, but he wouldn’t listen.

Actually, I knitted him using the awesome Fiber Trends Flamingo Pattern.  It’s amazingly well written, very easy to follow, and the results were awesome.

The Flamingo (who is now named Pinky by my mom and grandma) made friends with all the stuffed animals in the car.  He got out of the car when we stopped at a rest stop in Indiana and immediately honed in on Mike, my mom’s partner.   Who is wearing the Sweater of Great Boringness I knitted for him last year.

I actually knitted the Flamingo for Mike as a joke.   A few years back, I was desperately shopping for Christmas gifts.  Online.  And in a panic, I bought him a Flamingo Lamp from the National Wildlife Federation catalog.  (They’ve apparently gone a bit more upscale since then.)   Well, I thought it was a small lamp.  It wasn’t.  It was massive.  Apparently everyone in my family thought I had lost my mind (I wasn’t there), but my mom and Mike loved it.   So since then, flamingos just show up around Mike

I personally think its a little big on him, and the neckline is bugging me.  But, he still looks great, and Mom is happy, so I’m happy.

We make it to Ohio.  I don’t really know many of my relatives on my Grandma’s side, so it was great to meet all my second cousins.   Here’s Uncle Merv, my Grandma, and one of my cousins looking at the neato Heritage books that my grandma and Aunt Irma have been putting together.

Okay, Uncle Merv is asleep.  But he had a bad cold, and apparently its a total tradition to take pictures of asleep relatives.  It must run in the family, because I took this picture before learning of it.

Speaking of the heritage book, here’s an awesome picture of my Grandma’s family.  I knew my Great Grandma Leona - it turns out I was the one cousin she managed to teach to crochet.

While I was in Ohio, I found time to go to Lambikin’s Hideway in Hamilton, OH.  It was just a few miles from my Uncle Merv’s house.  My mom begged to come along.  I told her she could, but only if she bought me yarn.

Pictured are awesome ceramic buttons from Sweaterkits.com and two skeins of Naturwolle (Black Forest Yarn) that was 50% off.

Lambikin’s is a really nice shop - I wish I had taken pictures, but I’m always too shy to do that.  They had a lot of basic yarns, with just a bit of froofroo.  They also had their own flamingo, but theirs was much more fuzzy than mine.  Probably because I used Cascade 220, and they used something with Mohair in it.

Well, after partying hardy, we headed home.   One large problem is that Mom refused to order food for Pinky and Vealy, the cow.   She said they could eat leftovers.  Well, we stopped at this scary truck stop restaurant named Grandma’s.   Despite being scary, the food was actually pretty good.   Pinky and Vealy were pretty fed up, and tried to make a break for it.

My mother set that picture up.  I believe it runs in the family.

I’m cheesed off that they are trying to steal my awesome green Coach purse!

So, the trip went well, although I did sort of just throw them out of the car at Midway Airport. I hope they made it home.

Yes, among the 20 million anti-abortion ads in Indiana, I did spy a porn sign.  Which I of course took a picture of.