Family Reunion in Tacoma

After a couple of days in Portland, we headed north to Tacoma for Father's Day and to connect with the bulk of Dave's family. The fabulous Sandy was our hostess, she's so awesome! On Father's Day is when we had the biggest group together for a BBQ dinner. Then everyone gathered in the living room for family photos.


This photo has the entire group except Sandy and myself. Someone had to hold the camera. Dave's parents had come up from Yuma, Arizona and everyone else was from Washington except Katie from Portland and of course us from Alaska. We haven't had this group all together since 2006, I think. It was great to see everyone all together again. We hadn't seen Dave's parents in a year and a half, so it was particularly great to see them!
Dave's family is mostly male, so after the group photo, they decided that they wanted a picture of "just the ladies". This time they got me, Dave took the photo. Somehow Sandy still managed to avoid getting photographed, she's an elusive one that Sandy!
We were in Tacoma until Wednesday. On Monday I drove out to Gig Harbor where I had lunch with my Aunt Frances. This is Frances with her truck. Her Chevy truck is a 1983 model, I think, and still running great! It was nice to see Frances, she's a lovely lady. And she's one of only two aunts I have - she's my mom's only sibling and my dad only has one sister.
On Tuesday, we went to dinner at Harbor Lights in Tacoma. It wasn't the whole group, but there were still eight of us, so a decent sized group. It was a very nice dinner! And it was our last night together before we headed down to the next phase of our adventure. Family time is such a gift, we are so glad we got to visit.

Portland & Carbon Leaf!

We started our trip to the Pacific Northwest in Portland, spending a couple of days with Dave's cousin Katie. Katie was able to get a couple of days off of work, which was fantastic, and we spent one day touring around downtown Portland.


Here is Katie at Portland State University, the school that she had just graduated from the week before. Yeah Katie! Finishing that college degree is a BIG step! She showed us around the main part of the campus where there was a farmer's market taking place, it was pretty neat.
One of the things I love about Portland, or visiting most places for that matter, is the houses. Anchorage is such a young city that you don't see houses from the beginning of the 20th century. And the few (I can think of one actually) that exist are not grand, big, houses. This house is just an example of one of the houses in NW Portland that I snapped a picture of. Beautiful!
Here are Katie and Dave awaiting the start of our evening entertainment. On June 20th we went to see one of our favorite bands, Carbon Leaf!! Katie was new to Carbon Leaf, so she didn't know what to expect. The concert was in SE Portland at the Aladdin Theater. Carbon Leaf is a band from Virginia, and they don't make it to the west coast often. They have a new album that came out in May, Nothing Rhymes With Woman, and so they are on tour promoting this new album. We checked the tour dates and were excited to see that they were going to be in Portland while we were in the area, Dave and I knew it was a sign and that we needed to go!
Here's the band performing. I actually filmed a little of the show, but don't feel right about posting a bootleg video, so just a still photo. It was an AWESOME show! It was one of the best shows I've seen! They played all the songs I love and they played more and more. It was just the best!! Great music!!
After the show all the band members came out to meet the crowd. Here I am with the lead singer Barry! All the band members signed my poster! I tried to convince all of them that they need to come to Anchorage and they were interested. A few of the band members like fishing, I think I've found my hook - excuse the bad pun! They are a really nice group of guys, I'm really impressed that they stayed to talk to the crowd and were willing to get photos and sign stuff. I'm going to work on encouraging them to come to Alaska because I'd LOVE to see them in concert again!! This was the best start to our vacation!!

F.O. - Cleopatra's Stockings

Okay, I promised some pictures of knitting. Here is the F.O. I had for June, it is Cleopatra's Stockings. These were knit as a thank you gift for a work colleague who helped me out in a big way last school year. I was trying to get them finished in May before we ended the year, but that just didn't happen. This was finished on June 17th, before I left for vacation, which was my goal. I found that the pattern is pretty, but it was fiddel-ly and not a pleasure to knit. I got really tired of it really fast! The yarn is gorgeous though! I love the purples in this yarn! This was a Rockin Sock Club kit - from May 2008. I have now completed 2 of the 6 kits from being in the RSC last year...I guess I'm not the best at knitting on a deadline.

So, the details:
Pattern: Cleopatra's Stockings
Yarn: Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight - love this yarn!
Colorway: Incredibly Shrinking Violet - great color
Needle: Knit Picks size 1 - 40" - 2 at a time magic loop - toe up
Modifications: I knit the size large and I added the extra rows for the higher arch. I also modified the cuff a bit when it came to having the bands continue into the cuff. By that point I was so ready to be done with the pattern by this point!

I hope that my friend likes these socks and that they fit her well!

Have You Ever Had This Problem?

So, I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything. And I have two weeks worth of photos of all kinds of stuff that I saw and did both on vacation and while attending Representative Assembly of the National Education Association. But all of this will have to get written about later.

Tonight, we were cooking dinner, homemade pizza, it was in the oven. The timer went off and I was at a critical place in the knitting I was working on -- I was in the middle of a cable for goodness sake! Dave looks at me and says, "Are you going to get that out of the oven?" and I, of course, reply, "Just let me finish this...". I didn't get to finish this line because my Darling Husband jumps in with, "just let me finish pushing the plunger of the needle in my arm"! He's equating knitting to IV drug use! Earlier in the evening he said that there not only needs to be a recovery group for knitters, but one for the family and friends of knitters. So, not only a Knitters Anonymous, but a Knit-Anon. Now, I'm willing to admit that I have a passion for knitting, that at times some of my self-imposed knitting deadlines interfere with other daily living obligations, that my yarn purchases can inhibit closet space (and other storage space) in our home, and that I have a knitting queue of projects that I may not complete before I die and that I keep adding on to. But, does all of this equate to a true addiction? Am I in need of an intervention? Is there a support group I should be looking for? Inquiring minds need to know...