Cool green thoughts to everyone being heat-stroked

I wandered around campus on Wednesday and got some photos for my friends to rest in. Green is healing and soothing to the spirit. The temperature was about 68 degrees when I took these, and the sky was covered with a thin gray blanket of clouds.


This interesting hardscape is tucked back behind the physics building. You have to walk clear around the building to get here, and it faces a corner of the woods. It would be a marvelous place for -oh- poetry reading on a warm summer night. I have no idea why it was constructed.
The birches are mossy and often lichened over. There is a myth that moss grows on the north side of trees. Around here, it grows on the outside of trees. And rocks. And buildings. And cars if you don't wash them often enough. And winos. (They don't ever wash often enough.) That's why things are so very verdant around here.

On the knitting front, I started the sweater sleeves today.

On the writing front, the artist who is working on the cover for my second Sanna book is just about done, and the picture is SO COOL!!!!

Thanks to everyone for the advice and input about cashmerino baby jackets. I'm gonna do it. I'm getting some silk indigo dyed to knit a tuxeudo vest for DH. I have been looking for dark silk all over town and not only does no one carry it, they can't be bothered to order it for me. I could go online and order it, but there is a woman who does dying, lives about a mile from me, and has three adorable children to support. I figured, why not keep the money in the neighborhood? Her youngest is an darling two-year-old who would look good enough to eat in a nice stripey sweater. so much to knit, so little time!

The server is back!

Yesterday I spent wayyy too much time trying to get on line. No e-mails, on blogs, no net surfing. My world had come to an end. I offered to make sacrifices to the Powers that Serve, but they were deaf to my pleas. But today, everyithing is up and at'em. So I have spent my morning feasting on everyone's new postings, and reveling in some e-mailing, and now, when I get around to posting, I realize I have to bolt out the door to get my hair trimmed. It took me almost a month to get this appointment, so I'm not going to blow it off.

but I have to share my treats! Amy Lane was kind enough to read the rough draft of my western romance novel, and when she sent it back, it came bearing gifts! The photo doesn't show it, but her dear daughter, "Chicken" also included some swell drawings for my delight!

Amy sent me soft, luscious yarns of the kind I never buy for my self. I am already making plans for some of them.



Is it just too silly to use Cashmerino for a baby jacket?

Cat-rich posting

There's an antique store near my local bookstore. I noticed one of the full-time employees taking a bath in the front window!




I got home to find dear old three-legged Jack enjoying the view from the dining-room table.






It was one of the warmest days we have had in a long time (clear into the upper 80s) so I took a blanket into the yard. Soon, Fly came to keep me company. What a handsome boy he is!



I had spent the best part of the day out and about running errands, ending with my annual physical. Today I am fasting till I get my blood drawn. How do people stand this? I'm ready to gnaw the keyboard! I know lots of people who don't eat a thing untill ten AM or so, and I'm dying here! Arrrrgh! Blood draw at 7, work at 8. I have to go pack breakfast and lunch and not eat a bite!

And now for some color

On Friday, MJ and I visited Aurora, a local historic village. (This is the left coast. We think houses that were built in 1888 are OLD!) Naturally, this is also a prime area for antiquing. (Stuff from WWII is antique?) and we fell in love with - of all places - the architectural re-cycling shop. Very nice from the outside, with lots of Black-eyed Susans in front.








Inside it was full of posts and columns and moldings and bannisters and iron fences and . . .well, you know. Also, they had a whole case full of handles and drawer pulls. My inner magpie went freaking nuts!! Stuff from the 1920s with flowers and swoopy lines and swooning maidens all embossed on the drawer-pull for cry-sakes! For $9 each. And my inner accountant had to wrestle the magpie down and sit on it or I would have gotten ten of them to re-do my dresser even though I don't know how big the existing pulls and handles are. The magpie is still sulking, and the inner accountant is cranky about all the bites and scratches she picked up.


Here's one of the oldest buildings in the area - real Pioneer stuff - 1849 I think. A woman's average life expectancy then was 40 years. I think they were so worn out by the grueling labor of survival that they were grateful to die. And as far as pioneering goes, this place was luxury. At least she had neighbors to talk with. And windows! Can you imagine living in a one-room cabin with no windows and no other women around to talk to? The husband comes in from 16hours of chopping down the encroaching wilderness and all he wants to do is eat and fall asleep. You're lucky if you can get him to wash the sweat off before he falls into bed. No computer or TV or radio or anything to amuse or entertain you. Small wonder they wrote long and chatty letters! Introvert that I am, I still think I would grow melencholy and pine away for lack of contact. I already know I go a bit crazy if I don't get out and talk to people at least once or twice a week. History makes me so grateful for the life I have!!

And I am so grateful for the friends I have! Dave's interview with me was a wild success and I sold a whole bunch of books! thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your wonderful comments!
On the knitting front, I am this far along on the sweater for my beloved sis-in-law. It helps to stand back and look at the whole work in progress. I'm starting to get bored with it. I don't like having to pay attention every row. Much rather put it on auto-pilot and just knit, or be constantly creating as I go along. This making-things-match is teeedeeeusss! I'd better knit both sleeves at once, or I'll hate the second one with a bitter, lasting, and totally undeserved passion.

I've been interviewed

Dave Daniels http://www.cabincove.com/did an on-line interview about my book, Sanna, Sorceress Apprentice. I am just soaring with excitement! He is such a wonderful guy and dyes such gorgeous yarn! During the interview, I forgot to mention that the book includes a pattern for self-heating mittens. And if anyone from Canada wants to buy a book, they can send $16 direct to me and I will eat the shipping cost.

Off to walk with DH before breakfast. Diet and exercise are good for diabetes control AND for weight loss. (I''m down 16 pounds since I started with Weight Watchers!!) Then he's off for breakfast wit th boys, and I off for mischief and excitement. More later!

Blogger was bad

Blogger was bad and wouldn't let me on this morning. Just a quick post to stay in touch before DH drags me off for our Friday night date.


Wanietta, the fastest knitter in North America (Whatswaniettaknittingtoday.blogspot.com) had a contest and I won two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Cranberry. omigawd this will make wonderful socks! I can see them with cables, and contrast-colored toes and heels to accomodate the cable take-up. But look, if you will, at how well this color works in my living room. Isn't it just about the most perfect color match you ever wanted? We are not throw-pillow people. What else could I do to keep this lovely yarn on view and enhancing our living area? Aside from putting it in a basket and petting it often, that is.


Meanwhile, the current knitting project - the turquoise sweater is almost done in the back. Yayyyy!!!



Catch you on the flip-flop!

titilating blossom

I got your flower p-rn right here. Would you like a Walnetto? Heh, heh, heh.(Artie Shaw from Rowan and Martin;s Laugh-in. Remember?)

I was good today. After getting up and reading all my favorite bloglines, I put clothes on and walked a mile to the grocery store, bought Postum, a box of tea, and two pounds of carrots, and walked home with it all in my knapsack. Good girl, Roxie! Of course, our foremothers would have thought that was a gentle and self-indulgent stroll, but if they could have driven to the store whenever they needed something, they would be just as lazy and flabby as I am. Then I folded Mt. Washingdone and put much of it away. Good for me!

Yesterday I had two hours between proctoring GED at the jail, and attending my writer's group, so Iread Casting Off with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee AKA the Yarn Harlot. Light, thought-provoking, inspiring and amusing by turns. More power to her!

The blue and white sweater for my dear Sis-in-law is up above the armholes on the back. Petite knitting isn't exactly instant gratification, but it's close. It would go faster if I didn't keep stopping to pet and admire the pattern stripes. As the Harlot says, "I must be simple to be so enchanted with this." As the song says, "Tis a gift to be simple . . "

Dogwood-day afternoon

I took myself and my camera out for a break after fighting the good fight with the computer. The sun is shining (in Western Oregon, in June, this is a remarkable event!) The dogwood is burgeoning bountifully. In fact, Dh had to clip a branch that was so weighted down with blooms that it had sagged into the path of my car as I entered and exited the driveway.




The hostas are happy and home to small arachnids who will, I hope grow to be large, bug-devouring mother-spiders!


Grow, baby spider, grow and prosper!







The oriental lillies are beginning their run and aren't they luscious in the sunlight? What rich, delicious saturated color!






I keep saying that roses grow like weeds around here. This rose has grown from a bit of root stock that was left behind when we moved a fancy tea rose. (Often, tea roses are grafted onto hardy rosa rugosa stock. ) This way, we get two roses for the price of one. I may try making rosepetal jam. (Thank you Norma!)

Today, GED at the jail.

trying to link

No pictures for this post. Instead, I am girding my loins and bravely going where everyone has gone before, and figuring how to get a link for my book onto my web site. Thanks be to MonicaPDX for pointing out that blogspot has a help section. How dumb can I be? No - it's not lack of inteligence. It's lack of knowledge. I don't even know what questions to ask or who to ask them of. I used to get on the knitting b-boards and people kept asking the same completely basic questions over and over every week. (What is a purl and how do I do it?) Of course it was a different person every time, but it slowly drove me nuts. And here I am, asking equally basic questions. Blessings on the patience of all of you!

My book is Sanna, Sorceress Apprentice - available from Authorhouse Press for $11.95 plus shipping and handling. That shipping stuff gets wildly expensive when going overseas. It's also available from Amazon for 15.95 and shipping is a lot more reasonable for overseas.

It's about 15 year-old Sanna who is sent from her rustic mountain village to attend the Thon Academy of Magic for Young Ladies of Exceptional Talent. Sanna definitely has exceptional talent - all tied in to the fiber arts. she can knit waterproof hats, and she can knit together broken bones. She can re-embroider damaged nerves, and she manages to embroider a bag that's bigger on the inside than on the outside. She uses this bag to rescue a handsome slave from a fate worse than death. They fall in love at first sight, touch, kiss, and when he leaves Thon to return to his home, he promises to return for her.

Sanna was raised around her father's racing stable with her six older brothers, which makes it difficult to fit in with the elegant Young Ladies of the Thon Academy. Oh, and she managed to tick off an evil renegade sorcerer who is out for vengence.

Anne McCaffrey (yes, THE Anne McCaffrey) said "It's a great book . . funny, well written, with great plot and characters. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it."

I've had it shown to the big presses, and they all enjoyed it, but they say that it isn't dark and serious enough for the current market. So if you would like a sweet romp with lots of fiber magic, and a pattern for self-heating mittens, buy my book. Heck, buy two and give one to a knitting friend!

I have started production of Sanna and the Dragons and hope to bring it out before Christmas. Sanna meets Dauntless Swiftsure has been written and is waiting till I can afford to print. And Sanna Goes South is fermenting in the back of my yeasty brain. And there may be more to come. We'll just have to see.

Much later, after brain-busting agony (I am NOT a detail person! I am a big concept person!) Look at the sidebar!

at last, a FO

Ok, it takes concentration and a flat surface to properly complete the shoulder strap extension. After knitting the piece in, you then cut off a long, long piece of yarn, thread it onto a needle, and weave it into the remaining bottom row of stitches on the border. Then pick it up along the edge of the newly knitted piece, and, using the needle, weave it in at the far side, then weave it back, knit it across to the other cut edge, and repeat. If I was going to enter this in any sort of contest, or give it to anyone with discrimination and a keen eye, or even if I was working with a solid color edge, I wouldn't have considered it. But motley yarn for my own use, sure, why not?

Here is the extension. You can see where the yarn was darned in on the ends of each edge, but honestly, if someone is staring that closely at the back of my shoulder, they need to back off.

And lest I forget, the secret weapon in my arsenal of quick and dirty tricks is a simple needle and thread. I just sew back and forth, back and forth, back and forth through the knitting at the join to secure and stabilize all those loose ends.

Suitable for a thermal layer on these chilly spring days.

Trying to achieve steady-cam capabilities with the bathroom mirror.

On Friday, I didn't blog because I went over to MJ's and helped her with a scrap quilt. MJ is a precisionist, and her scrappy quilt needed a casual hand to get over a few little speed bumps. It's a lovely quilt with lots of interesting textures which tend to make the squares irregular. That bothered MJ. I know how to embrace irregularity and turn it into a design element. And I know the trick of A. standing away from the thing so you can appreciate how invisible those irregularities are, and B. snuggling close to the quilt so you can see that texture and comfort is truely more important than orthagonality. I left her doing the machine quilting on her finished quilt. I also left my sweater.

Then on Saturday, DH and I went shopping. We are trying to find a light-colored zip-front hoody that does not bear the logo of a sports team, school, tourits-trap city,or band on the front. We went to the local outlet mall (If you can consider something thirty miles away as local. We do.) We found a pair of shoes for him, a pair of shoes for me, a pair of pants for me (They're long enough!! Mommy-type elastic waist, but long enough!) with a matching sun-block hat, and finally, a zip-front hoody for him! We also got up and walked three miles before breakfast.
I started knitting on a sweater for my SIL. I made up the stripe pattern with graph paper during the last GED at the jail. Hmm am I in a color rut? No, two turquoise things in a row do not constitute a rut.

Sunday, I didn't get to the blog because we slept in, then went shopping, and when we got back, DH got to the computer first. S'all good. I have complete control of the beast till 3 this afternoon. It's mine, MINE and I can do anything I want!! Hahaaaa!

Yes, I AM easily amused. That means I am often amused and what's wrong with that?

Back to my time

while proctoring the GED tests, I needed something I didn't have to pay attention to, so I cast on this Blue Moon yarn and knit a baby hat. Very natty little topper, don'tcha think? wonder if black and orange means Halloween in Romania?


The Blue Moon yarn was a prize from Tammy of Lavenderknits.blogspot.com. The lucky girl actually gets to WORK for Blue Moon! It knits up sooo nicely!



But I did get a chance to work on the cotton tank top. Here is the extended strap, ready to be kitchnered in.

Then I need to extend the borders, and I can wear it with pride knowing that I am fully stylish, and not at all quasi-modish.

apologies

Sorry to leave you hanging, folks. Yesterday I wound up at work, filling in for a sick co-worker for nine hours. And today, I am rushing off to take GED tests to the jail again. tomorrow, further updates on the tank-top surgery.

Rip and re-knit? Not this old chick!

As before, here is the blended fiber sweater which has, somewhere, "gang agley." Now, if you are squeamish, skip over the next picture. It may cause the overly sensitive to feel all oooky.


Yep, we cut through three vertical rows of knitting and then snip the first stitch of the first row of cotton after the tencel, bamboo stripe. I'm going to insert a couple or three inches of cotton over the shoulder, and extend the rows of vertical knitting along the edges.

Here I am picking out that first row of cotton and picking up stitches as they come free. further photos tomorrow as the work progresses.


On other fronts, DH, bless his princely heart, took me shopping on Saturday because I am going nuts trying to find some black or charcoal grey silk yarn somewhere in the city. Do you know why I can't find it? There isn't any here!! Moreover, no one is eager to order any for me. So, to console my frustration, we made a stop at Lush for a bubblebath fix. They have the most sophisticated, hedonistic bubblebaths, which all come in dry cake form. I'm stingy, so I take a five dollar cake of bubble bath and break it into five or six pieces, crumble my small portion directly under the running water, then apply my wire whisk to the frothing mass to get five or six baths from what is intended to be bubbles for one. The fragrance is blissful, all natural, and cruelty free. I used to be in love with the one called "Hot Milk" which has a vanilla, almond, cinnamon sort of whiff. but now, I am enamored of "Green Day" which is an artfully composed blend of cedar oil, rosemary, maybe a little clary sage . . . I reallllllly didn't want to get out of the tub! So what is my favorite fragrance? Generically, it would be lavender. Specifically, it would be my sleepy DH on Sunday morning. But for comercial fragrance, it would be Lush's Green Day bubblebath.

congratulations!

Yay for Wanietta (http://whatswaniettaknittingtoday.blogspot.com )and the Toronto Spiders, winners of the worldwide Back to Back challenge who took the wool from a sheep's back and turned it into a grownup sweater in 6 hrs and 18 seconds!! Waaahooo!!!Wanietta is the fastest knitter in North America so no doubt had a great deal to do with the team success. Woop, woop! Go Spiders!!

Meanwhile, back on the home front, it is strawberry season again. The local Hood berry is unsurpassed for tender, succulent sweetness. It is much too fragile to travel well, and the season is short. The only way you will be able to enjoy them is to come for a visit in early June. Then we can go out to the farm, buy a couple of flats of berries, eat a few pints on the way home, then make indecently rich shortcake, take it hot from the oven, split and butter it, and pile on the un-sugared berries. It's a tiny foretaste of heaven.

DH and I usually spend Sunday morning with breakfast, the papers, and cuddllng in bed. Here is a shot of today's breakfast. Oatmeal to counter the cholesterol of the bacon. And, since he doesn't care for strawberries, they're all for me!!

I promised to wear my blue cotton tank top to the Harlot on Friday night. When I took it off the blocking board, well, you can see why I didn't. The dark blue is bamboo and tencell. Everything else is cotton. Now there's a place for assymetry, and there's a certain charm to quirkiness, but this looks as if it were designed for a rather chichi Quasimodo. Changes must be made. Tomorrow, I will document them. (Rip and re-knit? Are you nuts? No way!!)

Seeing the Yarn Harlot

Would this face cause you to burst into tears? There was a dear little baby girl at the talk who was fascinated by my hat, but if I made eye contact with her, she immediately began to wail. Her mom apologized profusely and assured me that I wasn't that scarey, really. So I kept the hat on and carefully did not make eye contact with the infant

. There was a lad, about 11, who had been forced to accompany his mom. He came around a corner, nearly ran into me, looked up, up, up - his mouth dropped open and he sighed, "Cooooool!" Many, many knitters admired my hat. The other people in the bookstore - the muggles - well, they weren't so sure.

Stephanie was scheduled to start at 7:30. I got there at 5:30. Half of the available chairs were taken. At 6:30, the bookstore people moved aside some rolling book carts and set up more chairs which instantly filled up. At 7:00, the bookstore people were asking for volunteers to give up their seats to the old, infirm and pregnant. I took myself to the back of the standing area, knowing that I could always see over the heads of the rest of the crowd. Knitters continued to arrive. They sat on the floor between the stacks where, although they couldn't see, at least they could hear. Again, the bookstore seriously underestimated the crowd that would come to see this Canadian who writes books about knitting.

And at 7:30, on the dot, the Powell's team escorted Stephanie to the front amid wild cheers and whoops of joy. Looking quite stunned, the Bookstore representative said, "Gosh, you guys are enthusiastic!" We cheered some more. When will they learn that we are a force to be reckoned with?

Stephanie was a hoot. In the center of the top of the photo you can see a column. Just to the left of it is a person on a podium. that's her!! (And this is about a quarter of the crowd. )Bless her heart, she looks like she has been sleep deprived for the better part of a week. Her people are putting her on wayyyy too many red-eye flights, but she soldiered through and gave us more than our money's worth none-the-less. What a performer! She has brilliant comic timing and such an expressive voice! We laughed ourselves silly. by the time it came to setting up for the books signing, though, I had been standing still on cement in pretty shoes for over an hour and my feet were killing me, so I packed up my kit and made my way home. but, oh, it was a marvelous time!

knit power!!

"The Oregonian" our local paper which covers the whole state, has a picture of Stephanie McPhee in the living section, front page, above the fold! Big and in color. Folks, we rule!! (http://blog.oregonlive.com.knitting/) I'll be wearing my new far-seeing hat (made it yesterday. Hope the eyes stay stuck on the stalks!) and it will totally clash with the turquoise tank top but that's ok since I'll have a raincoat over all anyhow. I'm taking the camera and lots of pictures will be forthcoming. Better charge the batery now while I'm thinking about it.

speaking of pictures, here are those final shots from our trip over the pass last weekend. Crooked River Gorge is a local landmark. There are three bridges spanning the narrowest part.

One is the old railroad bridge which has been there since WWII. On the upper left you can see some of the wayside /rest area/park.

One is the new highway bridge which is strong enough to support triple trailers and thousands of cars a day.

And one is the old highway bridge which had become unsafe for heavy loads and was beginning to suffer metal fatigue from use it was never designed for. It has been retired and turned into a pedestrian bridge.

In spite of the signs and warnings, and a knee-high wall all along the cliff edge, someone manages to die there about once a year. A climber rappelled off the end of his rope about a hundred feet up. Ooops. Drunken idiots try walking the wall and teeter the wrong direction. Lover's quarrells end badly here. The place holds a certain morbid fascination. And, darn it all, it's still right purty!

.

You're not working. Run some errands.

DH needs a glucose meter. And he has a shirt at the dry-cleaners. I need to stick a short-story in the mail for a local contest and with the new postage rates, that means a trip to the post office. As long as I'm out, and about and burning gas, we can use some milk. From there, it's just a short hop to a LYS and a selection of yarn to knit my SIL, Arleen a sweater. My bro bought her a gorgeous new silver, onyx and turquoise necklace, so I'm thinking something is shades of turquoise to show it off. Something to flatter her ultra petite, skinny little shape. Hmmmm. . . Isn't it wonderful how everything leads to knitting?

The tank top is pinned up on the blocking board. I hope to be able to wear it to Stephanie McPhee's book signing at Powell's Books tomorrow night. I'll be the one in the saucy little hat, just starting a black and orange sock, and braying with glee like a jackass in alfalfa.

Meanwhile, Blogger refuses to do pictures. Bad Blogger!

no rain at the moment

Yesterday had some typical(for us) June weather - it was cloudy and windy. Then ir rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Then the sun shone and everything was steaming in the heat. Then more clouds with the little drizzle that mists the windshield, but you can walk through without getting wet. Then hail. A very climatologically unsettled day. At work, we had reserved an extra-large room to accomodate the increased demand for GED tests to get people finished in time to participate in the cap and gown graduation ceremony next week. We could have stayed at the regular testing center. The no-show rate was between 20 and 50 percent! that means 30 people sign up for a test, and fourteen actually show. So I got a lot of knitting done. I should be able to finish the tank-top today.

But in the meantime, I have to get dressed and haul my broad backside off to the jail to take GED tests in to the inmates. Have a swell day, folks!!

some knitting content

Here's the blue tank top in progress. I do love my circular neeles! I'll be helping to proctor GED tests all day today, so should have time to do more knitting. Not much time to blog though. Happy trails!

Sunday fun

Dh and I went to our local farmer's market on Sunday. Here he is, selecting some honest to goodness real tomatoes that were NOT strip-mined in Texas. They were luscious!!










Lots of flower merchants were displaying their wares. This was one of the prettiest.












People always bring their pooches. Aren't these two sweet?












Mom and the kids came on their bicycles. The littlest one will be sharing his trailor with fresh lettuce and some carrots on the way home.


A guy came through with his two Persian cats in a nifty pet-stroller, but being cats,they refused to pose. They curled up in the back of the carrier and snarled, "Talk to the butt."






And there was a Bluegrass muscian playing some truely toe-tapping music. The young lady absolutely couldn't hold still!



As you can see, it was warm and sunny. But, since this IS RoseFestival Week, the mandatory rain system has blown in, and we are looking for showers and 60degree temperatures until after the big Rose Parade on Saturday. I can remember five Rose Parades when it didn't rain, and one of those, in 1980, had an ashfall from Mt. St. Helens. The ash clogged the air-intakes on the floats, and they all wound up being towed. Luckily, there were enough tow-trucks in the city. And everyone watching had to wear particle masks to avoid inhaling the silica ash, but by golly, people STILL turned out to cheer the parade!

Tomorrow, knitting content. I give my word. Well, tomorrow if the computer doesn't break. It's been acting up.

A quick trip home

We drove over the pass to say hi to my family yesterday. On the west side of the Cascades, the land is so green.












Here is a classic shot of the snow-capped peak of Mt. Hood from the south west.











And here, having come through Blue Box Pass (4,500 feet) we come down into the Great Columbia Basin on the East side of the Cascade Range. In the distance we see Mt. Jefferson.

A fire went through this area a few years ago. You can see in the distance how the swampy little creek worked as a fire-break. Burned trees next to the road, green trees across the swamp.











This is what the country I grew up in looks like.








This is rimrock. Yep, this place is a stinkin' desert. The trees you see are juniper. Hardy, stubborn, selfish trees that smell like cat pee and manage somehow to cast very little shade.












And this is the point of the whole exercise. This is my oldest brother, Chuck(69 years) , my mom (who is pushing 90 years old) and my sis-in-law, Arleen (who is a saint!!) I am not standing on a box. Arleen is 4'10".

DH and Chuck went to a gun show but didn't stay long because prices were so high. Mom, Arleen and I chatted a bit. Mom hasn't lost all her marbles yet, but there's a hole in the bag and a few keep slipping away every month. We all went out for lunch, and DH was the only one at the table who didn't qualify for the Senior Discount. (Marry younger men. They last longer.)

After lunch, when Mom started to fall asleep, and Chuck was yawning, I figured it was time to hit the road. And 3 hours later, we were home again! Yeah, it's a long drive for a day trip, but the guest room beds tweak our backs. anyhow, I'll be spending several days with Mom in August when Chuck and Arleen take a few days off. I'm not a good daughter, but I'm the best I can manage to be.