Re-Entry

On August 9th, my honey and I began our second backpacking adventure by hopping on a plane and landing in Europe.

Gorgeous sunrise as were landing in Rome at 6:25 a.m.

The first nine days of our trip we stayed in Italy. We visited Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii Ruins, Capri, Florence and Venice. We then hopped on another plane and spent the last 10 days of our trip in Greece between Athens and Chios.

Just like our trip last year, this one was fabulous (even despite the fact we both came down with terrible colds 5 days into the trip) and truly felt like we had been gone forever. It was a sad day when we headed back to the States on August 30th.

Well it was a sad day for one of us!

I did major photo dumps on Instagram, Facebook and Flickr every night I had WiFi access. Because of the incredibly late nights, I didn't get to post any here. I really was hoping to, but I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to post what I did elsewhere.

For those who don't follow me on Instagram or Flickr,  I am planning on dedicating a few posts to share some of my favorite photos from the trip. I'll be including some that didn't make it to my other social media platforms during the trip. So there will be some new ones for those who've already gotten a peek at my pictures.

There was also some knitting action happening on this trip. I wanted to come home and say I had finished a pair of socks in the three weeks I was gone, but on my second to last day of the trip when I thought I finished them, disaster struck and I realized I had made a huge mistake on sock number two.

Houston We Have A Problem

The disaster entailed either a little bit of frogging to kind of fix it or a lot of frogging to fix it the way it's supposed to be. By the way, my honey voted for the little bit of frogging which I have done, but am not sure if I am happy with that choice. Any hoo, I will share more of that adventure in another post as I feel my knitting stupidity deserves a post all on it's own.

So for the past week, I have been working on getting back to reality. Thank goodness Monday was a holiday and I did take an extra day off from work to deal with jet lag. Last year I was a complete mess so I was anticipating the worst. To my surprise this year has been a pretty smooth transition back to east coast time. I can honestly say I feel like a normal person now.

So Much To Catch Up On

I have been MIA from my poor old blog, but I have very good reasons! So much has been happening during the past month that I have barely had time to catch my breath. Where do I start? Well, this is what I have been up to:

End of July I was recommended for a different position within my firm and 3 days after my surprise interview I was offered the position! I have been back on days for over a month now and am so happy!!!! I have paid my dues of working nights and will never ever do it again. I am in love with my new position and am thrilled to have a normal life again.

I have only been home for 1 weekend in August. The rest of the time I have been traveling. I did turn 40 on the 17th and Manny and I went to San Francisco to celebrate. It was the best week ever. I am in LOVE with California. I have so many pictures to share but that will have to wait. The trip needs a post all to itself.

I spent last weekend down in Georgia visiting my parents. I had the trip planned for quite some time so it turned out to be a perfect weekend to be away since the Hurricane came through. I was worried to death about my apartment flooding ('cause it did for like the 4th time while I was in San Fran) and was relieved it was ok when I got home on Monday evening. If the storm had been what they were originally predicting I could have been totally flooded out of my home.

Now that September has arrived, I am turning my focus back to my running. I am trying to run my 2nd NYC marathon this November. I was on track, but since I have been so busy for August my training has taken a hit. I am not giving up though. We will see how things are at the end of the month if I still think it's realistic.

I am hoping to also get my attention back to my knitting. Rhinebeck will be here before I now it and at this moment I will be naked. Can't let that happen.

Until next time...

Sugarloaf Heaven

Oh Sugarloaf Mountain. How I long to be back there with you. It's been three weeks since our snowboarding trip and I still find myself looking at Sugarloaf's daily photos and snow report on their website. It was so hard to leave such a beautiful mountain. Manny and I had a wonderful week together, even with my only being able to snowboard for 2.1 days (I still count the 1 run I did on the 3rd morning).

I wanted to share some of the photos from the trip (all of them are on my facebook page). So of course, this is a picture heavy post.


A small part of the Village with the slopes in the background. You can see the snowcaps at the top of the mountain. Manny went down them.

We arrived during the night so I didn't get to see the mountain until we opened the curtains of our room in the morning. I was mesmerized.

These are our happy faces before we head out to the slopes on Day 1.

I needed a rest from the walk up the bunny slope.

Lets make a snow angel while I'm there.

This is my "I survived day 1 dance!"

Bonding with my board on the morning of Day 2.

Watching Manny leave for the lift by our Inn on the afternoon of Day 3 because I couldn't snowboard anymore. At this time I had a severely bruised tailbone from 2 really hard falls and we didn't want to risk injuring it anymore.

I loved watching the Snowcats climb the mountain every night.

Our lift tickets gave us free access to the Outdoor center. On the afternoon of Day 4 we decided to try our hands at snowshoeing. We covered 4 miles in just under 3 hours. It was a beautiful day to be trekking through the woods.


"Can you hear me now?" It's amazing just how well Verizon service works. Nothing like being in the woods, looking at all the animal tracks and then hearing your cell phone ring and it being work.


Once we emerged from the woods at the end, we came across this awesome view of the slopes at Sugarloaf.

We also had access to ice skates at the Center. Manny hadn't been on skates since the 5th grade. I wanted to join him but again, we didn't want to take the chance of falling on my tailbone again. So I stayed on the sidelines and enjoyed watching my honey.

I am really looking forward to getting back on the board. Hopefully it will be this season. My tailbone is much better but still sore if I hit it just right. I want to be able to finish what I started on this trip. We shall see!

VIR Raceway

Our regularly scheduled programming of knitting has been interrupted to bring a long overdue recap of mine and DB's trip to VIR Raceway from July 31st - August 4th. This is a picture heavy post and I tried to narrow them down to some of my favorites. We had an awesome time and I love going and supporting DB in his hobby!

This sign greets you when you enter the South Course track.

DB spent 2 days riding on the South Course and 1 day on the North Course.

A huge achievement in track riding is getting your knee down in a curve to where it skims the pavement! It takes some riders a long time to do this. Your body positioning has to be perfect for it to happen and not crash off the course. I was so proud of DB when he experienced it for the very first time after only track riding for just over a month.

His face says it all!!!

Close to the end of Day 2 DB decided to change the brakes to racing ones. I even got my hands dirty helping him!

DB getting some pointers from one of the coaches.

Day 3 was extremely hot! We both were exhausted. DB took advantage of some down time to catch a few Zzzz's.

It wouldn't be me if I didn't snap a picture of the two of us!

Throughout the 3 days I tried to capture some shots of things that caught my attention.

This little guy belonged to one of the coaches. He is treated very well as you can see.

While waiting for DB's group to take off on the track, I noticed this on the back of one of the coaches bike.

Very nice trailer. I loved what it said. A sport for all ages.

Lots of people bring their canopy's way down to block the sun. These guys even had recliner camping chairs with footrests.

Tire barricades.

It was quite funny to see this on the back of one riders bike.

Our faithful transportation.

I was obsessed with getting shots of the clear blue sky. This is just one of many!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my dinner plate after the first day of riding. A perfect heart!

DB and I are heading back down to West Virginia next weekend for 2 days of riding at Shenandoah again. Can't wait!

MIA

So I've been MIA since the end of July. Some of you may have noticed, others may not have. This doesn't mean I haven't been productive though.

This past weekend I took an extended weekend to take a little trip. For those of you who called me, you now know why I wasn't returning your calls. I wasn't avoiding you. I promise. Anway, I visited Indiana for the first time in my life. I have a friend who lives there and had a fabulous time. It was wonderful to escape the city and be in the country (and I truly mean country). Farms everywhere, lots of trees, green grass, stars and the moon at night....heaven to me.

We even ran a race while I was there. Friday night we headed to Madison, IN for a 4.3 mile race at 10pm. The course was actually along a golf course and was lit by candlelight. What an awesome experience! This was the first time I have ever run a race at night and I will never forget it. Of course my finish time wasn't great for me, but that's ok. I had to remember I ran a 13.1 mile race just 5 days earlier. My friend however, knocked it out of the ballpark. He finished in roughly 32 minutes and placed 2nd in his age category. Too me that was fantastic! I've never placed in anything other than in my own mind.

What was really nice about this trip was that we drove around alot and I got to see the sights of several towns, even spent a day in Indianapolis visting with my friend's family. I had a nice relaxing time and had a hard time getting on the plane to come back to NYC and to the daily grind of city life.

I didn't bring my knitting with me on my trip. The week leading up to it though, I did make good progress on my 5th SOS08 sock #1. I had worked halfway through the heel flap before the trip and yesterday morning I finished it and started sock #2. It will probably be a couple days before I finish it and share it with ya'll. There is no point showing a photo now when I know it will be done soon.

Leaving The Beach

Sigh.  I am sitting here at the Myrtle Beach airport waiting for my flight back to NYC.  Where did the past 8 days go?  While I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, I will miss my sister and all the fun we have together.  We knitted, we scrapbooked, we sewed, we lounged at the pool. We just did all that we could during the past week.  Always a lot of fun.  

I will have lots to share over the next few posts. For now I leave you all with one of my favorite pictures from the week.  I took this pic at knit night on Thursday and Knit N Purl.  Lots of fun!

Thanks Mary Beth for everything!  Lots of love to ya and I can't wait to bring you up for Rhinebeck in October!

Gone To The Beach

Where: Myrtle Beach, SC

When: Friday Morning at 11am

Why: Cause I need a vacation and fun time with my Sis!

Plus I need my fill of some Mellow Yellow!

Will try to blog all the fun as it happens, but no guarantees.

I'm Not Monkeying Around

So it seems to me that I am back on a roll with my Monkey sock. The picture I posted yesterday was of it back when I last worked on it. Which was I think Monday of last week. My knitting karma was off while I was on vacation and no matter what I knitted, I had issues. It seems I was doing more frogging that anything. The pic of it here was were it stood as of Monday afternoon. I am ready to start the foot.

As you can see I have chosen to complete these socks utilizing two circular needles. I have to say that I am loving this technique so much better that trying to works with four double pointed. I got this technique from Cat Bordhi's book "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles". She basically shows you how to do this. It is sooooooooo easy. What I love is that I can easily try on this sock for fitting. I am hoping to have this sock done by this weekend and cast-on the mate.


Besides knitting I have also been trying to get through the last Harry Potter book. I usually always read on my train ride into work, from work and right before I go to sleep. I am known to plow through an excellent book in two days. Unfortunately as much as I am loving and wanting to finish "Deathly Hallows", it is taking me longer than expected. I started a new work schedule a few weeks ago where I get up at 4:30am to be in work for 6am and it took me a few weeks to adjust to the schedule so when the book came out I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough at night before bed to read more than one or two chapters. Then I left for my vacation and forgot my book next to my bed. So it sat for a week without being cracked open. I have been really good about avoiding any spoilers anywhere so far and I hope it stays that way. I'm up to page 522 right now. I'm almost there!

Isn't this crab so cute? I bought it as a souvenir for myself from my Myrtle Beach vacation. My sister had this crab hanging one of her bathrooms at the house she just moved out of. When I spotted it, I fell in love with it. It just so happens that one of the places I did a little shopping was were her crab was bought from. I got it at a place called Lazy Gator in Murrells Inlet, SC. This place is awesome! There are so many cute and cool things in this place. I had a hard time deciding what to buy for myself. When I saw the crab sitting in a basket I knew it was going home with me. Right now I have it hanging on my cork board above my desk where I scrapbook. I find the colors very cheery to look at and it puts a smile on my face.

I would like to thank Shameka for the yummy tasty treat she gave me from Financier today at lunch. The Raspberry Chocolate Mousse was to die for! It definitely made my yucky day better. What scared me a little was that Kim took one look at it and knew what it was even though by the time she saw it there were only a few bites left. She knows her yummy treats!

Lastly, I received my Secret Pal 11 match last night! I am so excited. I can't wait to do some spoiling!

I'm Back!

Ahhhhh. I have returned from the land of Sand and Sun! Let me tell you it was very hard to leave the beautiful sunshine of Myrtle Beach, SC this afternoon and return to icky ucky rainy 66 degree weather here in NYC. I truly had a wonderful relaxing time visiting my family. Mary Beth and I as usual did our sisterly bonding fun stuff. Ya know knitting, scrapbooking, sunning and partaking in our Mellow Yellow habit. Thank goodness I can only get Mellow Yellow in the south. I'm an addict.

So now that I have returned to the northernly lands, and an unflooded apartment, I need to do that nasty chore of unpacking. Uggghh. I got lots of knitting stuff done and can't wait to update you all with lovely pictures. I will say that last night MB and I did felt my two tote bags and they are lovely. Can't wait for them to finish drying so I can use them.

I'm off for now. Gotta get stuff done so I can rest up for my 5K race tomorrow morning at Shea Stadium!