Happy Early Holidays!

Kudos to Continental Airlines – after 4.5 hours of mechanical issues they still refused to cancel the flight. I finally did make it to Houston very late last night.

One piece of advice for them though, never say “We’re going to attempt to try to take off now” after almost 5 hours of mechanical issues. I’m an extremely experienced travel (150,000 to 200,000 miles flown every year for the past 11 years) and even I hesitated getting back on the plane last night.

Sometimes it is what you say not how you say it…

What happens when dad's away...

Alex thinks he broke Trouble of jumping on the kitchen counter. Trouble is smart enough to have trained Alex to think that.

30 seconds after Alex left for work...


3 seconds after being busted by mom on the kitchen counter...



My phone rings and I turn my back for a few minutes to then again bust Trouble...



Anyone see the camouflaged cat?

Pictures of Spain!

The Royal Palace in Madrid...

View from the Royal Palace...

Madrid's Botanical Gardens...

The Prado...

View of Toledo...

Barcelona...

The Olympic Stadium in Barcelona...

It's a soon to be mother-in-law blanket!

After much discussion about how to block the Colinette blanket I made for Alex's mom I went head first into the blocking process today. My biggest concern was that by the end of the project my bamboo needles had turned blue from the dye (Colinette kits are hand dyed).

I started by taking a pre-blocking picture for a frame of reference but did not take measurements:

The blanket then went into the washing machine on cold for a 15 minutes bath with vinegar (to set the dye):

The water in my washing machine did turn blue so I am very glad I took the time to set the dye with vinegar. After the soak, I took the blanket between to large towels, wrapped it up and stepped on it to get a majority of the water out. I then took it upstairs to lay it out on my futon (on top of more towels):

It's a huge blanket, has fringe and will be ready for delivery on Thanksgiving day.

My plan is to have a productive week at home. I have sister in law socks to kitchener, laundry to catch up on, a yarn room to reorganize, a suitcase to unpack from our week in Spain(pictures to follow in a few days) and plan a wedding.

Alex and I had lunch yesterday with his mom who bought me the most beautiful vase from Joseph's and Alex a handy man's guide to home repair. I got the better end of the deal but we did use the handy man book only hours after receiving it to take a door off it's hinges (not like there are many ways to do it but we wanted to make sure we were doing it right).

Struggling through jet lag, I barely stayed awake long enough for Alex and I to have dinner with my parents.

Everyone is happy for us and is starting to ask the where and when questions. Our plan is to have a straw man of a plan shortly. Right now, we're still looking at cruises in August.

We're in Spain!!

Margie and I arrived this morning and hit the ground running after a 30 minute power nap. We went to the Prado which was enormous.

Tomorrow we go to the Royal Palace and the Modern Art Museum. Tuesday will be our day trip to Toledo, Wednesday we are off to Barcelona. We have two solid days in Barcelona and then we're heading home.

We named this trip "A Taste of Spain" since it's a running visit and impossible to see too much.

On a completely different note, I received the nicest email from Alex's mom welcoming me to their little family. I hit the jackpot with Alex; he's the best thing that every happened to me.

Having left work behind and with a clear head I have started thinking through the how and where of the wedding plans...

The 5 W’s

I know WHO I’m going to marry.

I know WHY I’m going to marry him.

I think I know WHEN I’m going to marry him.

I just don’t know where and how.

We’re kicking around many ideas – from cruise ships to resorts to local wineries. We discussed pros and cons of each idea and there’s not a clear winner just yet. I would give the edge to the cruise ship idea but I’m not entirely sold on it yet. We even discussed getting married at ICON, Vegas, my backyard, Living History Farms, etc.

We’re accepting ideas if anyone has any.

He asked! He asked!

We’re engaged!!!!

It was a great weekend (ICON) in Iowa City. I’ll out myself as the biggest dork of all time if I describe activities and sights but I will say it was fun and really memorable. It was nice to have a weekend away with Alex as our last few weekends have either been busy or spent apart.

Alex proposed Sunday morning in a very sweet fashion. I’m so unbelievably happy. On the way back from Iowa City we stopped at Jarod’s and picked out the ring, here’s a sample picture:

The ring is custom made and will take 6-8 weeks to create. In the meantime, I get a “training wheels” ring, in which Jarod’s puts the diamond into a different band so I have something to wear until the real band is ready.

We're both so excited - we spent dinner throwing out different ideas for a wedding.

It was really hard leaving for the airport this morning.