Sheep Slippers

I got these cute sheep slippers many months ago and Alisa loves when I wear them.

Gasoline

Gasoline here is down from $4.05 to $3.91 (at the cheapest regular stations--I think Sam's Club is a few cents less than that for members). Who knew that $3.91/gallon could ever sound so wonderful?! When we moved here in July 2006, it was around $2.19 and that was high compared to Tulsa.

Learning How to Knit

A few of us (Rebecca, Cristina and I) from the local moms group took a knitting class at a local shop here. The class was held on the past 2 Saturdays for 2 hours each. We all really enjoyed the class and really liked our teacher. She taught us the basics (knitting and purling) using circular bamboo needles and the pattern for a scarf. The circular needles are good to learn on because you can push your work off the needle and onto the connecting cord. This allows you to take a break without the risk of your work slipping off the end of the needle and getting messed up (since as a beginner you probably wouldn't know how to fix it) or you can more easily count how many rows you've knit if you've lost track.

I found knitting to be awkward and tricky at first and nothing like I thought it would be (though I didn't really know what to expect since I'd never seen anyone knitting up close before). Somehow during the first class, I was adding an extra stitch for each row so my scarf was getting wider. That explained why I was the last one finished with the 1st section. The instructor taught me how to drop a stitch on each row to correct my mistake so that was good to know. She also said it's common for beginner's to knit too tightly and that is certainly the case for me. I don't have a problem stitching loosely when purling though, just when knitting. Since we were using fat bamboo needles and bulky wool, it made it more awkward to make the stitches when things were too tight.

We were supposed to finish our scarf before the 2nd class a week later so she could teach us how to "bind off" and weave in the ends to finish it. I kept messing up when I got back into it at home a day or two after class. I ended up unraveling the whole thing and starting over because something was way out of whack (what appeared to be a missed loop a few rows back and something else in another part) and I wasn't sure how to fix it nicely. It was late in the evening and I didn't want to wait until the next day to go by the shop for help, plus I wanted to start fresh to get rid of the messed up section where some rows were wider because of the extra stitches. I looked in the knitting book I got for Christmas (that I hadn't ever used before) and online to remind me how to "cast on" to start over. This time, I was careful and didn't add any extra stitches. I learned a lot through my mistakes and something clicked by the time I finally got to the 3rd section (where it changed from stockinette stitching back to garter stitching). I totally understood the importance of having the yarn in back for knitting and in front for purling, as well as how to recognize some things with the work that was already done.

The shop is offering a hat knitting class during the next 2 Saturdays but I'm not taking it because I will be out of town one week. That's another reason she gave us circular needles to learn with because you use them to knit hats, which is a common 2nd project. I will try to take the hat class next time they offer it.

Anyway, I didn't finish my scarf by the next class but I was able to practice binding off anyway and the instructor unravelled that part for me afterwards. I will post a picture of the finished product (hopefully soon).

Another Tall One

Today I saw another man that had to be 7 feet tall. He was at a bookstore and was younger than the last one. So crazy that I've seen two now within weeks of each other!

Cat Fight

This morning at about 4:40 AM Craig and I were awakened by the most horrendous hissing, meowing and scrambling sounds. Apparently there was a cat fight on our balcony. It lasted a few minutes and sounded just awful. We couldn't see what was happening because the outside lightbulb is burned out. It sounded so bad that I was creeped out and had trouble falling bask asleep. When I woke up again around 8 AM, I discovered that the main balcony (above ours) had tons of cat crap on it and smelled so foul. It was all in one corner--on the lid of the large ice chest, on 2 of the 4 the pool noodles we had just recovered from a container under the house, on the railing and even on the vinyl siding of the house. It was on top of the railing and down the outside of the railing. Apparently, a cat took a dump over the edge of the railing and it hit the outside of the railing and part of the house as it fell down and landed on the top of our balcony railing. Who knows, maybe the cats fell with it and that's how they got to our balcony. Our only guess as to what they were doing on our property is that a bird recently built a nest in the hanging pot on our main balcony and some baby birds recently hatched there. I sure hope the cats didn't get any birds. When I was cleaning it all up with a hose, Minga was standing there sniffing and sniffing and sniffing.

Snail

This snail has been living on our fountain for some time now. Craig found him on our balcony railing after it rained one day. He spends most of his time on the globe part of the fountain:

Destin

Our friends from Tulsa invited us to hang out with them at their family's beach house in Destin this week. Since it wasn't a weekend, I could only afford to take off work one day for the trip. We made the 2 1/2 hour drive and stayed in a hotel Monday night (since the beach house was jam packed full of their family). On Tuesday, we swam in the pool at their house, then swam in the gulf and played on the beach (2 blocks from their house) and then swam in the pool again while Alisa took a 2 hour nap.

For dinner, all 17 of us went to The Village of Baytowne Wharf (a pedestrian village with shops, restaurants and nightclubs overlooking the Choctawatchee Bay) in Sandestin. We ate on the deck at Poppy's Seafood Factory. It is right by the water so we had a great view of the sunset and could walk out on the long dock to cool off in the breeze while waiting for our food. I had grilled chicken with pineapple mango salsa on top, served with saffron rice. It was the most flavorful chicken dish I've ever had. I loved the rice too. It was well worth the $21!

We said goodbye to everyone after paying our share of the bill and walked around the loop of shops on our way out. As we crossed the wooden bridge over the water to get back to the entrance/exit, Alisa noticed the moon (she was mesmerized by it) and actually said "moon" for the 1st time. We had to wait a few minutes for our car to be brought to us (we had to use valet parking as there was no big parking lot nearby and our friends did the valet thing and we needed to stick with them). We changed Alisa's diaper back at their house and put her in her pajamas for the drive home. She fell asleep in the car after a few minutes of pointing out the window and saying "moooon" in her sweet little voice. When we arrived home around midnight, she woke up briefly when we took her out of the car but fell back asleep after we rushed her upstairs to her crib.

It was our 1st trip to Destin and we want to go back as soon as possible and stay longer. The sand is so soft and white and the water is gorgeous with just the right amount and strength of waves for swimming. There is a water park, recreation park and plenty of shops and restaurants in the area.

Gorgeous beach:


Gorgeous water:

Shops at Baytowne Warf:


The pavement by the shops had big shells embedded in it:

Shops at sunset:

Book Club

In April, I joined the local Meetup.com moms club. My first event to attend was a playground playgroup with Alisa where I met a few other moms. My second event was the book club's first meeting. We met at Borders and 5 moms showed up, which is a good sized group for discussions. We sat outside because the weather was nice and introduced ourselves (2 of us were new and the other 3 already knew each other). We offered suggestions of what books we should read then chose the books for the first 3 months and set the dates for the meetings. For the second meeting, there were 6 of us and we met at Borders again and discussed the first book we had read. We all said what we thought of it and then just talked about other things and got food and drinks. For the third meeting, we met for dinner at a restaurant. There were only 3 of us but we had a great time and mostly talked about our kids (which is always entertaining).

I've never been part of a book club before. This one has given me the motivation I need to get back to reading for pleasure again (at least 1 book a month). Even though we don't actually discuss the book for very long, I still like being part of the club. It's nice to know your friends are reading the same book at the same time as you. And it's nice to get together at least once a month for a moms night out.

Rare Shopping Experiences

I was shopping at Sam's last week and I saw the tallest guy I've ever seen in person in my life. He had to be over 7 feet tall because the top of my head only came up to his armpits. Wow!

Have you ever been the last customer out of a large store like Toys 'R Us? I was tonight. There were a few families in there when I arrived 30 minutes prior to closing, but by the time I got up to the register 5 minutes before closing, I was the only one left. The manager said there should be some kind of prize for being the last customer out, but he didn't give me anything.