After working consecutive 10 hr to 14 hr days, I finally have a day off.  I decided to settle in and work on some knitting.  I would love to continue with my sweater, but I need double pointed needle for the sleeves and after driving over 300 miles in 2 days for work, I DO NOT want to even look at my car or think about having to drive 30+ minutes (one way) to find a craft store to buy these things.
Note to self:  stop by Michaels in between store calls so I don't have to do it on my day off!  Yes, I was right next to a Michaels (actually two) over the past couple days, so I only have myself to blame for not being able to finish my sweater this weekend.  So, instead I will work on a super cute little scarf made out of a yummy silk/wool blend yarn.


Well, as I started to settle in I noticed some movement outside our back sliding door.  Now, we back up to the woods so you would think we get a lot of wildlife, but really all we ever see are squirrels, birds and insects - mainly spiders - lots and lots of BIG and UGLY spiders.  Oh, and I can't forget about all the ticks...there are tons of ticks out here.  But today I had a pleasant surprise and I had to run and get my camera:

I really do love living in a home that backs up to the woods.  Views like this almost make up for all the bugs.

KAL

A few months back I was thinking about how much I've learned about knitting but I still haven't made a garment.  I have stuck to accessories, and my most recent obsession passion has been socks - and has been for the past year.  I have not really branched out since I learned how to keep my toes toasty and comfy in hand-knit wool socks.  Then BAM...I stumble across a knitter's blog that mentions a new KAL (knit-along) for newbies.  I'm not really a  knitting "newbie" per se (but I am when it comes to sweaters) but I thought this is what I needed to break the ice on garment knitting.
With very little knitting time invested, I am now over halfway complete and should be done with the body by tomorrow.  

Tonight, Bubba took a picture of my progress --------------->

The top is a bit big (and is poofing out a little, making my chest look HUGE) and I had to do more decreases than called for in the body.  Hopefully the top will tighten up a bit when I add in the sleeves and close up the gap under the arms.  But, overall, I am pleased that I have at least gotten this far.

Yes...with a new camera comes new blog posts.  This blog is my journal, and it gets boring with no pictures, but with my new toy camera we are back at it!


We have been pretty lucky here this fall - beautiful temperatures hovering in the 70's and up into the low 80's.  Hopefully this is normal, because I could get used to this.  I know the cold is coming (and actually it's here this weekend as I type...but this post is for last week), but we decided to enjoy the weather while we could.

Bubba goes in to Annapolis once a week for some shoulder work with an ART Chiropractor.  It's a bit of a drive, and we have to cross the bay bridge to get there.  I'm really not that fond of bridges, but I'm not terrified of them either.  I sometimes think of the stories of bridges collapsing and cars plummeting into the water.  Yes...my mind really does go there, but more when the weather is dismal and the water looks cold.






Oh, but on Tuesday the weather was PERFECT.  So, we stopped at a marina on the way home and enjoyed some time bay-side with a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

After we got home we decided to load up the bikes onto the truck and go down to Trap Pond State Park, about 25 minutes from the house.  They have a great little 5 mile trail loop through the forest and along the pond that we like to ride and it really was a great day for it.  It took us quite a bit longer to get through the loop, but that's what happens when I bring my camera.  It really is beautiful there and I just had to keep stopping to take pictures.  

The colors are changing now, with golds reds and purples mixing in with all the shades of green - it really is beautiful and I'm so glad we got out to enjoy it.  I hope it doesn't get too cold too quickly here...it sure would be nice to have a few more days like this.

There is a bridge right along the road by the park entrance.  The bridge has a couple of built-in benches so you can sit back and enjoy the view.  Every time we have been there, there have been people on the bridge - either just sitting on the benches or standing along the railing trying to catch some fish.  One day we even came upon a man studying the scriptures there.  It truly is a peaceful, beautiful spot, with the most spectacular view. 

We were lucky to have the bridge all to ourselves on Tuesday...and this was our view:

 

Black-Screen-Death...Oh My!

A little over a year ago, I made a horrible, sad discovery... at a very inconvenient time and place.  It was the at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago and we were on our way to Vietnam.  My Canon camera - the one I sold my plasma to save up enough money to purchase - decided to stop working.  I had checked it a few days before leaving and all was well, but once we were on our way it just went black.  What I didn't know is that this model is prone to "black screen death", or at least that's what all the other poor Canon customers were calling this issue.  So I had to lug this large useless  camera  brick halfway around the world and back, and had to settle getting pictures with Bubba's little point-and-shoot Olympus.  After returning home, I tried all the "tricks" that worked for other people on the various forums I trolled, but I still had "black screen death".  Well, at least I still had my work camera if I needed it - except now I'm not working and had to send back all my equipment - so no camera for me...until now!

My mom and M-I-L both sent $$ for my birthday (the best present, in my opinion) and I went camera shopping.  I really wanted a digital SLR and I was going to take photography classes and become this fantastic photographer.  Um....yeah....when will I do this?  So I decided to settle on a cheap little point-and-shoot camera, but one with a better zoom than Bubba's (his is not that great).   I came away with a not cheap (but reasonable) Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V.  This is Sony's top of the line Cyber-shot...but I went in for the lower end one that was on sale.  I love how they totally up-sell you on these things, and I was an easy mark, an easy, easy mark.  E-Z...really.  I love gadgets, and the more something does the more I WANT it!  LOL  This thing does everything but cook me breakfast (and I have Bubba for that).  I still have not figured out everything - but I'm having fun with it.  It does sweeping panorama shots in normal mode, HD and even 3D.  It does impressive macro shots and you can blur the background like the more expensive D-SLRs.  It also records movies in full HD 1080.   It has a 16x zoom and the colors translate so well.  I am in love with my little camera - one of these days I will graduate to a D-SLR and maybe even take some photography classes, but for now this is more than enough camera for me.

June

June meant a trip back home to Vegas for my high school reunion...my 25th high school reunion.  Really?  25 years?  When did I get old?!  LOL  Well, I had fun re-connecting with friends from my past, as well as spending time with family.  One of the highlights was staying with family up at the lakes.  Walking out the back door in the morning to sit dock-side, gazing at the mountains in the background and feeding the resident ducks, and then later taking an evening boat ride...a little HUGE slice of heaven in the middle of Sin City. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

The Good:  We are out of Iowa!!  Woohoo!

The Bad:  We live in an area that is a 30 minute drive for just about everything...
you want  have to go to the DMV?  30 minutes
you want to go to a movie?  30 minutes
you need a haircut?  well, 25 minutes...but you get my point. 

The Beautiful:  The view from our back deck...

 

Turning the page...

Okay, so you've hopefully gotten past the first two posts of this series, and you may THINK you know where we are...but you don't, unless I have told you personally. 

Now, why all the secrecy and delay in getting this out there to my friends?  Well, thinking back to last fall when I posted about our upcoming move to Montana, by the next day it had all fallen apart.  I know I may be a little paranoid, but I didn't want any kinks thrown into this already crazy delicate mix of planning we had going on.  Our house was under contract, yes, but not final in any way/shape/form.  The buyer could still back out, and we lived in the "ghetto", so we thought that could be a distinct possibility.  I didn't want to tell ANYBODY ANYTHING, lest something go terribly awry.  

But you know, if something can go wrong, it usually will (at least for us!).  I'm happy to say that nothing went wrong with our house sale - we are no longer Iowa home owners.  What did go "wrong" was the rental house at our destination.  We were set up to live on a farmstead house in the middle of a private golf course, complete with membership (sweet!).  This was "arranged" by Bubba's employer.  It was not, however, actually arranged.  It had been discussed but not finalized...and, in fact, the property was ultimately rented to someone else - someone on the board of the club.  We were within a month of moving with nowhere to move to...and no way of looking around since we were halfway across the country with no personal contacts in the area, or so we thought.  Bubba was relating our woes to his mom (who lives in a tiny town in Nevada) during a normal conversation one day.  By the next day, we find that her best friend in this tiny little town has a daughter who lives 30 minutes from Bubba's new clinic...and they are trying to move to Utah to be closer to family and are trying to sell their house.   Well, as it turns out, they decided to rent their house to us, which gives the market time to jump back so they can sell their house for a profit later on.   Pretty much a win-win.  Things are truly working out for the best, so what went "wrong" with the house really didn't, after all.

Another kink in the whole plan also bubbled to the surface.  It turns out that where we will be living is not a highly populated area with a less than brisk real estate industry.  Needless to say, transfering my job would be difficult, if not impossible.  The only way for me to continue with the company I have worked at for 15 years would be to cover five large counties over two states, including the difficult-to-master resort communities.  After a profitability analysis and risk assessment (really just a sit-down-and-think session to decide if I really, really, really want to do this), and I have chosen to retire after 15 years at the company and over 20 years in the business.  Yes friends, I am retired / unemployed, and I'm having a little difficulty with the concept.  I'm too young not to work, so now I need to decide what I want to do next.  Any suggestions?

 So, where are we?  I know you are all dying to know, right?  Here's a pic from the internet, since my camera is still packed away...

Yes, we live in Bridgeville.  Yes, the sign really does say "If you lived here you would be home now".  Yes, that is a pretty goofy slogan.  But it is home...at least for now. 

Where is Bridgeville, you ask?  In the very small, very flat, very first state of our glorious nation...Delaware!   We have no mountains...which is unfortunate (however we are within reasonable driving distance).  On the plus side, we do have the ocean just a quick 30 minute drive to the east!  We are excited for the possibilities that this area holds and are excited for this new adventure to begin.