Last Saturday's Adventure

Last Saturday, bright and early (well, overcast and early), I got on the bus rented by Loop to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I had spent all week hoping it wouldn't be a rainy day, since it was a really rainy week, and it poured rain here on Friday.  Saturday it was overcast and misty, but as we got closer and closer, the sun actually showed up.

So, no it wasn't rainy.  But wow was it muddy!  It made me glad that - after much indecision and angst about what to wear - I wore my hiking boots.  The mud was the kind you sink into, and there were still some major puddles around.  But it was not too cool, and not too hot, and didn't rain the whole day, so that all worked out.

I didn't buy any yarn.  I decided beforehand that unless I saw something that I could only get there, and that amazed me, I wasn't going to spend the money.  I saw lots of really lovely yarn, but none that fell into that category.  I did buy some buttons, and a teensy felted gnome, as well as a couple of antique prints I want to frame.  Never fear though - everyone else on the bus seemed to have bought enough yarn to make up for what I didn't get!

It was a fun day, mostly because I love seeing all of the animals.  I'm sure you have seen variations of this on other blogs, so I decided to put my animal pictures together into one big one.

I always find the guy who makes brooms fascinating to watch.

And these needle felted items were amazing - look at the R2D2!

And then the booth where the artist makes whimsical pictures involving animals.  This was my favorite one for this year, called "Kilts on Stilts."

It's always a treat as well to see what everyone is wearing - both handknits and otherwise.  I have to say, I didn't see nearly as many "interesting" outfits this year as I have in other years, but I did see some really beautiful things that people were obviously wearing to show off.

My very favorite though was this sheep, who reminded me of Dug.  Not only did he come to the fence to see everyone, but if you petted him at all, he leaned into you.  My friend Andrea took this picture of the two of us, and it's one of my favorite pictures ever.

When I posted this picture on Facebook, one of my sisters commented that it looked like we were soul mates. :-)

It had been a couple of years since I'd been able to go to Maryland Sheep and Wool, and I think I enjoyed it even more as a result.

Who cares about mud and puddles when you are having such a good time?

Let's Just Start Again

Ugh.  These past few weeks have just been awful.  Fortunately, I'm still here, but I just have had a really bad time of things lately.  My work has  become pretty unbearable.  They have recently increased our hours, and though that does mean more money, it's not really a raise because our hours are increased.  I am now making $10 less an hour than I did.  Which would be different if I liked where I worked, but it's just made everything worse. I've felt just stuck and not really able to do much of anything once I get home.

Enough of that though.  Fortunately, we had planned a bit ago to go to Baltimore this past weekend and visit one niece and her husband, and also get to see another niece and her family.  After a few weekends in a row when the weather was just terrible, this weekend the weather was lovely!

This guy went with us, and had a great time!

We got to see my niece Amanda's kitties. They are both black kitties, named Clancy and Yuri.  Unfortunately, they are not impressed with Dug ...

This is Clancy - she is extremely talkative!  Yuri is very shy.

On Saturday, we got to go to my great-nephew Zach's basketball tournament game.

Here he is after taking a shot in the warm-up.  It was a good game, but they lost in the last 9 seconds by one point.  There is another game on Wednesday night, and if they lose, they are out of the whole thing.  If they win, they play in the finals on this coming Saturday.  It's amazing the variations in height among fourth graders.  :-)

And then later in the day on Saturday, we took a walk in my niece's neighborhood, and visited a [new to me] yarn store there, That's the Point.  It's a lovely little shop the sells yarn and also needlework materials.  I didn't spend much time there, since everyone else was waiting for me outside, but I did buy a skein of yarn produced from a local alpaca farm.  I figured I wouldn't be seeing that anywhere else.

We made our way back to Philadelphia yesterday after brunch, and spent the day catching up with laundry, etc.  I had taken today off work (thank God!), so it's been a lovely day at home.  I treated myself to a manicure, and signed up for the Loop bus to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May.  I'm so glad that they decided to take a bus, now that Rosie's is gone!  I've missed going the last couple of years, so I'm really looking forward to it.

So that's the news from here.  I'm going to try to post more regularly, because I do enjoy it, and it helps me keep some perspective.  I have a couple of things to show you, and some other updates on some things.

Have a great week, and thanks for sticking around!