back in the saddle again

Cheers to new cameras and birthday money! My recent camera loss coincided with my birthday, so I was able to use my birthday gift money to fill the gap. So I shopped around, and found that I was pretty lucky to have had the little Canon that my kids picked out for me 2 years ago, and to make life simpler I decided to stick with that brand and just get an updated model. Plus I found a good one for a good price on clearance at OfficeMax when I was buying paper. So I am back in business this morning! New pictures for you!

This was a fabric souvenir from Fabrications in Healdsburg, CA.

Just a nice little whimsical print from Japan.

And this was my yarn souvenir from Balls & Skeins in Sebastopol.

A couple quilts have made it onto and off the quilt frame during my photo-impaired time period. One of them was lots of red and black and white flannel with a center like this:

This quilt belongs to Greg, son of my friend, Leisl. Greg is leaving in a few days to start at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Their team name is the Utes, taken from the Native American Ute tribe. I did a little readingabout the school, since the only Utah school I had known was BrighamYoung. Looks like a good place for Greg, I hope he is happy there. Interestingly, this is a campus that bans alcohol but allows guns!

On my quilt frame (to be finished today):

Your basic log cabin quilt, which never goes out of style. I'm stitching this spiral square pantogram, a repetitive pattern that I really like because it has a nice rhythm to it. Also on the schedule for today, work on cleaning out a closet full of lots of knitting and craft stuff. My goal is to empty it out, repaint (sorry Brita, the glitter and grafitti of HS has to go), and install proper shelving. Ideally, this would be done in the next 3 days so I can accomodate a special guest for the weekend. But unless a crew shows up on my doorstep in the next hour or so, that won't be happening! Oh well, we'll make the best of it!

so much fun

We are just having such an excellent adventure on this trip, I wish I could prolong the pleasure somehow! The entire (supposedly) purpose of this trip was to be present for the running of the marathon yesterday (7/25/10), so we were up to witness the start on the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building a little after 6AM. There were thousands of runners, released in waves, and we luckily saw Ben, Brita and Molly at the start. Then Dan, Bob and I made our way over towards Golden Gate Park and with the help of the tracking system on the Marathon website and some quick math, managed to time it to see all 3 run past us again. Then on to the next place we planned to see them, about mile 22, but had trouble getting there so ended up at mile 25 and got to see them again. Molly was a few minutes ahead at this point, and smiling! Brita and Ben were kind of in a fog at that point, and not the typical morning fog over the city. But even with their struggling a bit, they got through it together, and were all smiles soon after!

In my eyes, they are Olympic gold medalists!

Today finds us up in wine country, staying at a little rental home on a small creek near Cazadero, not far from Guerneville. We drove a little back road this morning to go to Healdsburg and I was so taken with the beautiful scenery around every curve (and there were lots of curves!).

In Healdsburg, we walked around the square, found some fabric (YAY!), and had lunch at a wonderful place recommended by Brita and Ben--Willi's. It was so delicious, I had to take a picture.

What they did to this bacon-wrapped scallop should be illegal, it was that good! Topped with pumpkin seeds, who knew? All those wasted seeds from jack o'lanterns, I should have been cooking gourmet delights!

Wine tastings at 3 vineyards have rounded out the day, and now we are ready for a little hot tub and grilling on our deck overlooking a creek. It's a wonderful life!