Mini Vacation

The kids went camping and we took the opportunity to take a few days off ourselves to go to Hammondsport and watch the sun come up over Keuka Lake. We left after church on Sunday morning and arrived in time for the Crafts Fair on the village green. Even though it was hot, hot, hot (in the 90's) we wandered the stalls for a bit and bought this:

a really pretty ceramic cup to hold sponges and that scrubber thing that is always getting misplaced.

We walked around the beach and had dinner at The Village Tavern which was excellent, salmon for me , Maryland Crab cakes for Pat. in the middle of wine country we chose beer! It was hot and we were thirsty. Walked around the village which is cute as a button and got some ice cream at a new place that was advertised as "homemade". When we asked about how it was made, we find out it is actually made in Florida. Huh? So instead of Perry's ice cream available at the really cute 50's Crooked Lake Ice Cream Parlor and enjoying ice cream made from local Upstate New York cows, we were suckered into "foreign", who knows what cows it came from, ice cream.

We lazed around reading and on my part knitting by the water for the rest of the evening. On Monday we went to the Glenn H. Curtiss aviation museum. It was amazing to see all the things this local boy invented and developed, from motorcycles to the first airplanes to land on ships, to the first travel trailers. He is known as "The Father of Naval Aviation".

This is the DH looking at the trailer.
Also a picture of a rebuilt Curtiss "America", the first flying boat that was rebuilt, flown and landed in Keuka Lake last year. We talked to some of the volunteers who put in thousands of hours rebuilding the planes, making them as authentic to the originals as they can. Amazing.

We left for Elmira and had a nice visit with the sister and brother-in-law and dinner at the Olive Garden. We really like to go to one of the local restaurants but being Monday, they were all closed so our only choice was a chain.

Left for home on Tuesday morning. It was nice to get away and just relax. Even though you think you relax at home, there is always something calling you, you are constantly looking at all the projects that need doing.

Sock Journal: I took a plain vanilla sock with me and knit as I travelled. DD#2 saw it and loved the colors, so I will be making these for her. My first gift socks!

Reality Check: Serena's bat and leg warmers are ready to be sent out today. Not much else done from the stash.

Catch-up

So, it's been such a long time since I posted an entry, let's play a little catch-up.

I did finish Amused and it was really a quick knit, even though I am really not a big fan of top down raglans. I noticed a funny spot on the sleeve after it was done, so I want to rip it back and reknit that sleeve before I wear it.

It has been a funny sort of time here and one of the reasons I haven't blogged is due to the plane crash that happened on Feb 12 as a plane was coming in to land at the Buffalo airport. It crashed a few miles away and the whole community has been caught up in following the cleanup efforts and mourning the dead. So sad. Although I didn't know anyone affected, it was still a shock to the whole area.

As far as knitting goes, I took a class on sock making at Have Ewe Any Wool yarn shop in Snyder. Miss Maryann was a wonderful, knowledgeable teacher and I have made two pairs of socks. Although the class was using two cable needles she let me use the magic loop method and I really liked doing them that way. I also have purchased enough sock yarn to keep my whole family in socks for a long time.

I also got the yarn for the two dinosaur afghans. I will start them after I finish Nathan's afghan.

We had a knitting weekend at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island this past weekend, so I now have 4 new projects to add to my Ravelry page: a Fair Isle purse (which I frogged because I didn't like the way I placed my colors), a pink bunny (which still needs two legs and two ears), a cowl (which I'm halfway through) and an entrelac scarf (which is just on the second row).

There were 15 of us. We stayed over Friday and Saturday nights and left after our entrelac class. Very good food and great company. Its nice to spend time with other people who share your passion!

We also got a dog. We've been missing having a dog and have been looking at the SPCA and rescue sites. We found a beautiful two year old dog at the SPCA. She has a very calm disposition around other dogs and the kids. The only problem is she is an escape artist. Even though we have a fully fenced in backyard, she found all the spots it is breachable on her first go round of the yard. Each of the corners have a slight gap and there is a spot under the pine tree that the next door neighbor's cats have been using to sneak in and chase the birds at my bird feeder. DH reinforced all the spots, but it seems she doesn't need a very large gap to get through.

While I was enjoying myself on Saturday at my Knit weekend, she spotted one of the cats and gave chase in the blink of an eye, according to DH. He spent 4 hours looking for her in a pouring rain storm. When he got back, there were two messages on the answering machine. One from NOCO and one from the police. They had the SPCA pick her up, because no one was home here. She got bailed out this morning and has been sleeping ever since.

When DH was looking through her papers, he came across her pedigree. She's a coon hound and when we looked up the characteristics, she was just acting naturally. So it's fence mending time here. Joel is coming over with some fencing and they are going to try and fix all the gaps.