Vans & Roses

On Monday, the Hubs will take possession of this.  And it's about time!  His current van is a 2002 that he bought when we  moved here in 2003.  He has put over 200,000 miles on it.  It's time to retire the beast before it costs us any more $$ to keep going. 

It made us realize that I have had my Tahoe for 5 years, this month.  I don't know what the deal is, but I absolutely LOVE my 'Ho!  I love the looks of it and totally love the way it drives and handles.  My last couple of vehicles in Alaska were Chevy S-10 Blazers and I loved them as well.  I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to have had a Tahoe in Alaska!  The 'Ho is an '03 and I only have 128,000 miles on it.  I am hoping it will last a very long time.  I don't particularly care for the looks of the newer models and it's a good thing!  Chuck checked the prices on them, just out of curiosity,  while he was looking for his van, and they are like $50-$60,000.  I'm not even sure if that was the Z-71 model.  Yikes!  How do people afford payments???  If I recall, for mine, we financed about $30,000 for 5 years and my payments are $468 a month.  It must be that a person buying a brand new one has to decide between a house payment or a truck payment!  LOL

Chuck picked my 1st roses for me yesterday AM.  My favorites bloomed beautifully and the bush id LOADED with buds! This is not a great picture.  These are actually a salmon color, with tinges of deep pink.  Ya' know!  The camera on this iPhone4 that I have really sucks compared to my 3GS.  I'll be so glad when I can upgrade in November!

What a dork I am.  Here is a MUCH better shot taken with my 'real' camera.  Nikon to the rescue!  This shows the true colors.

Anyway, the roses have started blooming early this year.  Last year they bloomed after I went to Alaska and I'm pretty sure it was sometime in May.  This will start my summer of fresh roses by my computer every day.  Chuck will pick me fresh ones, every couple of days :)  He has his moments.  Wonder who he'll pick them for whilst I'm gone??  Susie & Dixie, mayhaps :)

I'm getting down to the serious stuff in getting ready for my trip  I was commiserating last  night with Terri (lovely daughter) as to what knitting projects I should bring.  I have so many projects lined up, it's hard to decide, but I did narrow it down to "the less complicated, the better".  I've only been serious about knitting for a year, and I really don't have a lot of experience or confidence going for me yet.  I'm so easily distracted, that if I can't focus entirely on what I'm doing, I make mistakes.  If I don't catch it right away, it's difficult to fix and often I have had to rip something all out and start over.  But as I was about to say, there will be a LOT of distractions in that house while I'm there.  I can't wait :)

Back to the knitting thing.  For some reason, I am having the WORST time with a baby blanket I am trying to knit!  Its ridiculous.  I'm making it for the gal that works for Chuck.  She is due next week (in fact they are inducing her on Tues.)  I have known abut her pregnancy since the 1st moment she found out.  She helped me pick out the yarn & I got it right away.  I already had a pattern I wanted to try.  So, yeah.....this was about 8 months ago.  I didn't start it right away because I had several Christmas gifts I was making, figured I would start it after the New Year and have it finished in plenty of time.  I was so wrong!

This was when I learned how dangerous distractions can be.  I "thought" I was comfortable with the pattern.  I "thought" I could knit on it while watching TV.  I "thought" wrong!  Twice I found mistakes and had to undo a few rows, stitch by stitch and redo them.  (very slow process)  The 3rd time I screwed up, I took it as a sign that this wasn't the pattern for me!  I found a new pattern that I liked even better and I seemed to get along alot better with it.  In fact, I was zipping right along and had the blanket about 2/3 completed when I went to San Diego.  When I came home, however, that had all changed.  Murphy had pulled the needles out of the knitting, she chewed on the needles making them worthless and she chewed up and pulled out a bunch of the yarn!  It was a mess.  So.....I had to start over. 

I've been working on it every chance I get, but have had a couple of set backs.  A couple of those opportunities happened to be in the middle of the night, when my hip & leg are hurting and I can't sleep.  That's when I get up and take a couple of pain pills.  Yep, you guessed it.  I shouldn't be knitting during those times.  It took 2 screw ups before I finally got the hint.  I do believe I will be taking this project to Alaska to finish & will mail it to her.  The baby will never know the difference.  But I've gotta tell ya'.  It's great yarn and I DID love it, but I am so damn sick of it it's not even funny!!