Q

Q is one of those letters that make you think. For instance, if you are playing Scrabble, and you draw a Q tile towards the end of the game, you have to be ready to either sink or swim. If you have a U tile, and there are any Triple Word or Triple Letter Score spots left, you can really clean up on points. But if all of the U tiles have been used, you're pretty much screwed ...

And remember being taught that Q *always* requires a U with it? Well, what about IraQ - huh???

I had kind of a hard time thinking of what I could use for Q in the ABC-Along 2008. Since we had just been on vacation, I tried to think of something I ate, or saw, or a place I visited. But sadly, Quito is in Ecuador, and I was in Puerto Rico ...

There are plenty of Q words, just nothing that grabbed me at first. And then I was doing something that made me decide what to use!

Q is for Quiz!

I love quizzes! Especially word quizzes, and of those, especially the kind where the words are hidden and you have to find them.* I can spend hours working through those. You know how some restaurants have paper place mats with word quizzes on them for children? Well, that's the only time I don't mind waiting for my food ... of course, then I get irritated because they are too easy, at which point The Tim will remind me that they are geared towards children. Well, excuuuuse me!

Then of course there are those goofy Blogthings quizzes, that tell you so much about yourself:

You Are an Eyebrow Piercing

You are unique, quirky, and more than a little eccentric. You cultivate the weirder sides of your personality, and you don't mind sharing them. Ever since you were a kid, you've had strong opinions. You've never been like everyone else, and you're okay with that. And you've always been able to tell people exactly what you think - even when they don't want to hear it. You love to create, dream, imagine, and communicate. You live in your own universe. And unlike most people who live in their own little world, you're happy to invite anyone in! **

What Piercing Are You?

*The word quiz on the left is from http://www.puzzles.ca/wordsearch.html; and I don't own the book on the right, I just found the image of the cover on Amazon, and used it for illustration.

**As long as they remember that I'm in charge ...

Look - knitting!

Myrtle, get out the smelling salts, I'm actually going to post about a finished knitting project!

Pictured above are the completed Blueberry Waffle Socks, served up with butter and pure maple syrup. I thought of all the amusing things I could say about fiber in the diet, breakfast of champions, and the like, but in the end I really just wanted to show you how well these turned out.

Here are the details:

Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks (a freebie!)
Needles: US 1.5
Yarn: Socka 50, Colorway 9420, 2 skeins
Modifications: The original pattern is written for worsted weight, but I just forged ahead, using the pattern with the yarn I had. I am really, really pleased with the way they turned out, and found the pattern to be interesting enough to keep going, but not so hard as to need 150% concentration on my part.

If you long check the info on my projects page on Ravelry, be my guest. I would encourage you to try this pattern, the resulting sock is not only attractive, but feels very cushy. The end result also looks more complicated than they are to knit.

Here they are, all by themselves, without additional props:

They are a Christmas gift for my nephew Chad, who lives in Arizona. He is not very adventurous as far as clothing, but I figured these were a color he could wear with jeans if nothing else. I actually finished them at the end of July, and I posted about them on the Year Long Gift-A-Long blog, but forgot until today to show them off on my own blog!


Oh, and just in case you've been wondering (who am I kidding, of course you've been wondering!):

The Recipe For Bridget

3 parts Craftiness 2 parts Ambition 1 part Instinct Splash of Understanding Finish off with a little umbrella and straw

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

I don't know about the rest, but the little umbrella part is my favorite ...

Time to 'Fess Up ...

Well, as of approximately 8:00 p.m. last night, we are back in Philadelphia, doing laundry, going through stacks of mail, and putting things away. Fortunately, the weather is truly lovely, with pleasant sunny days, very little humidity, and cool nights. Because the end of vacation is depressing enough, without coming home to crummy weather *and* going back to work!

I will of course ramble on and on about our trip and my niece's wedding for quite a while I'm sure, with many pictures to show (but I promise not all six bazillion of them!), but for today, here's one of some of the flower girls, and the ringbearer:

These girls are all nieces of Keith (Julie's new husband), and the two with their backs to the camera are Eve (on the left) and Maddie (on the right), who are sisters, along with their cousin Sara, who was the oldest of Keith's nieces and nephews, and was responsible for making sure that the ringbearer walked down the aisle appropriately.

You may be thinking, "I don't see anyone who is a ringbearer, I just see a small dog." Well, that is Biggie, Jules and Keith's chihuahua, complete with tux, who served as ringbearer! So you see, it really was a family affair for everyone ...

But on to some catching up, and as the title of the post says, 'fessing up. The catching up is my next two letters in the ABC-Along 2008, which have to do with where we were, and what we saw.

So without further ado, I will say that O is for Ocean!

In this case, the Atlantic Ocean. Now, we go to the Jersey shore quite often in the summer, and so we are used to the Atlantic. But the Atlantic in this picture is quite different from our version in the northeast. This water takes absolutely no time to get used to, as it is nearly as warm as bath water. (Whereas, at the Jersey shore, a touch of the water can often send shivers down your spine!) You probably thought you were seeing an ocean in some of the pictures from last week, but those were pictures of the Caribbean Sea ...

Which leads me to the letter P. Originally, I was going to say that P was for Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, and I had pictures representing the three Ps. But I decided that something else was more appropriate ...

I had such fun reading all of your comments and guesses as to where we were, but I will tell you now that P is for Puerto Rico!

This is a shot looking east from the tower of the Castle/Fort of San Cristobal in Old San Juan. Towards the end of last winter, The Tim and I realized that this coming October would be our 30th wedding anniversary (I'll pause while you all say, "ahhhh" ...), and that we should take what we call "a big trip" - meaning, going somewhere completely out of our normal experience, and not staying with friends or relatives. For our 25th anniversary, we had gone to Ireland, so we thought we might do something tropical this time around. We were looking into going to Costa Rica when Jules and Keith decided that they would get married in Puerto Rico. So we added time on to the weekend of the wedding, and decided that would be our big trip.

It was absolutely wonderful, magnificent, beautiful, fun, nice - well, I could go on but I'll stop. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to be, and it was a good combination of relaxing, sightseeing, exploring, and having a good time with family.

You all had some good guesses, but dmaxi figured it out right away! (The Tim was quite impressed.) As it turns out, she is a blogging friend who lives in Ireland, which seems like the perfect combination - a person who lives where we last visited, guessing where we just were! And, since last week was the 2nd anniversary of this blog, I have decided that she gets a prize. Now I know that for those of you who knew all along where I was going, that is not really fair, but I trust that you will somehow survive ...

So tomorrow, it's back to work which just, well, sucks. The only bright spot is that The New Evil Boss is at a conference this week, so I won't have to deal with her (at least not in person - I'm sure she has sent me plenty of "helpful" e-mails to give me advice/instructions while she is gone).

However, it will already be a Wednesday before a long weekend ... thank God for small mercies!

Why in the world ...

are we wherever it is that we are????

Well, one of the biggest reasons was for my niece Julie's wedding!

Julie and her father before the ceremony

Tropical blogging

It certainly is different, writing a post while watching the palm trees sway in the breeze ...

Well, the last couple of days have been busy ones. We left our first destination, to travel to another spot, where we stayed in a great bed and breakfast. We had a wonderful walk along the water, and a great dinner. The next morning, we had company for breakfast on the patio next to the pool:

He was quite fond of melon and oranges. However, he didn't seem all that thrilled to be spoken to - go figure. (Lorraine, be sure to show his picture to Zelda!)

From there, we headed to our next destination, and I took this picture from our hotel room.

Hey look kids - it's a rainforest! (As a matter of fact, we just returned from hiking there earlier this morning, and it was incredible.)

Maybe next time I'll have pictures to show you the main reason we are here - wherever it is that we are ...