Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Vans and VW's

We sold our van. We now have one van and two cars among the five of us. In the very recent past we were trying to park three vans and three VW's in our driveway and along the street with not much success. We usually ended parking four in the driveway and two on the street. Invariably the vehicle that was parked closest to the house had to be the one who had to get to work first. And then it was time for "musical cars". What fun.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Snow and More Snow

Okay I give up. The snow falling here has been incessant. It won't let up. Therefore I give up. So here are my snow pictures for the year. The news says that this will be the first year since 1971 that all of Canada will have a "White Christmas". Except for a little patch of green in Halifax where you would expect tons of snow.



The van on the right has not been driven for awhile, but the van on the left was driven yesterday - last night, actually. So the accumulation is for less than 24 hours. Bruce finally did go out and shovel that snow. You can see the broom on the hood where he left it to tend to more important parts of the driveway. He wanted me to come and help. Hah. I told him that I would when the snow stopped...


Just a view from the back porch going down to the patio:
Not going to be shoveled until the girls come back from CA.




B and I drove by the meeting room yesterday on the way to visit his mum and the parking lot has two feet, if not three feet, drifts. The entrance is totally blocked from the last snow. Last night and now there was (is) another dump. I doubt there will be meeting tonight.

A lot have gone south for the conference so who knows how many would have showed up anyway. We may have had just a handful even if the weather was good.






We took LJ and Heidi to Jacobsens' on Monday night to spend some time with Betsy before they flew out of SeaTac. The J's took them to the airport around midnight where they spent the night since their plane was to leave at 6:10 AM. They wanted to make sure that they didn't miss their flight. I heard they were going to pull an all nighter and not sleep at all. I wonder if the airport Starbucks closed down before they could get that last Venti to get them through the night. They must have done okay since I never heard from them after Emily called to see what flight they were on. She would have called if they hadn't made it.

The temperature went down to -12 degrees on the way back home.






A pair of fingerless mitts made from the GAS yarn LK brought back from Belgium last year. For her, of course. Too bad I finished them hours after she left for her trip south. I didn't think she would need them in Mexico but it ended up she drove down the coast instead of flying because her flight was cancelled on Sunday night. (Snow conditions)

Wasting Time

We're home today. Can't get out of the driveway because of the snow drifts. Bruce has a great idea of "walking" up to the Safeway. He also wants to shovel the front (which we already did on Monday). I say stay home and look at youtube videos on knitting.

Some people have nothing to do. Maybe she ran out of yarn.

what to do with your left over ramen noodles

What she going to do with it? Eat it?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Snow

Every blog that I've visited recently has posted about the weather. This will be no different. Since you all know what snow looks like, I will spare you the pictures. We've had snow and it has "stuck". None of this here today, gone tomorrow stuff as we have had in past years. It seems the Arctic has shifted south.

Our van came equipt with an outside thermometer. It was intriguing to watch the temperature drop by degrees as we drove from Vancouver to home. I don't remember it ever being this cold. Have you ever heard of -11 C much less felt it? And they (the weathermen) say there's a blizzard coming on Sunday.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Knitting Tubes

I found these at knitpicks and knew they were just what I was looking for. My knitting kept sliding off my double pointed needles because the yarn was too fine for the needles. They are actually ingenious.







All you do is grip the needles together and slide them into the blue end.





Then the red end slips over that.



Give the tubes a little twist in the opposite directions and you've got your knitting secure. Works well. The only thing I don't like is the price. Even though I received two sets, cardboard should not be that expensive. But then, they are light weight and if I take care of them, they should last a long time.



Friday, December 05, 2008

Thanksgiving Feast and Fingerless Mitts

Because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in November (when it's suppose to be celebrated!) and because you all live so far away (Union City was far enough to go for the week-end) we often go to Tacoma to "celebrate" (read: eat ourselves silly). This year was no different with no less food and all delicious!

Noah and Heidi















Hannah
I brought my own stash for the trip down:
These are new in Canada. At least I've not seen them before. They are chocolate coated mint kisses. I thought they would be mint flavored chocolate. And with a mocha I was set. To knit, of course.
Here's what I finished on the trip. Don't be fooled. With a mocha to power you and lots of down time you can get some serious knitting in.






Heidi liked them so well she wanted a pair for her birthday. Which happens to be tomorrow!!! Today was going to be my day off to stay home and knit but some problems with our US bank account warranted me coming into Richmond for the day. With that taken care of - at least as much as I can do (including a trip down south) - it was too late to go back home. Thankfully, she wanted Greek food for her birthday dinner and there's a restaurant conveniently located up the street from our house. As for the fingerless mitts? How fast do you think I can knit?

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Chocolate!!!


When we buy chocolate, we buy chocolate!










Monday, December 01, 2008

Games, Yarn and Hot Fudge

Andrew was over the other day. He and I usually play a variety of games (which he invariably wins!) For some reason or another both he and I got up to do something (probably getting ice cream with hot fudge) and Felix took my place. Sometimes I think he would like to be me...It's probably all that yarn.