Ahhhh home at last!

I can't tell you how happy I am to be home after that meeting! The meeting was good in all ways except the weather. It was absolutely blazing hot, as in high 90s and low 100s, with a dry wind that stirred up so much pollen and dust that I was in agony with hay fever, as were many of the other participants. I could NOT sleep through the night and as a consequence was sleep deprived and, I might as well admit, a bit cranky as well. On the positive side, I did get a lot out of it and have come home with a couple of pretty nifty ideas I am keen on implementing here with the faculty. That's the tough part, of course. But who doesn't need a challenge now and again?

My garden was fine while I was gone, because it drizzled for a few days while I was gone and I had a friend come by to give my flowers a drink. The lawn needs a soaking and I'll have to do that tonight. Weather report is for hot weather the next few days, which is just amazing for us --- to have a July 4 that isn't raining.

Needless to say, there wasn't much knitting going on between meeting sessions. I did get a bit of work done on the front of the Scoop de Jour and last night I worked on another felted bag. I am anxious to get some real knitting done but it's going to have to wait since I've got a focus group tonight and most likely won't feel like doing anything when I drag myself home late.

On our last day in Utah we took a tour in the afternoon up to the Olympic Park in Park City where the ski jump and bobsled/luge/skeleton events took place. This is also where the Olympic and X-Game freestyle ski athletes train year around. We got to watch the freestyle skiers going down their plastic runs and then doing their flips and whatnot and landing in the swimming pool! It was sooooo cool! I wish I had taken video rather than trying to capture still shots, but I got a few which I'll just post here as a slide show. Also in this slide show is a picture taken from the top of the ski jump. It made my stomach flip to be up there. It was rrrreeeeallly tall!

On the way back to our evening get together my friends and I passed this very cool place called, appropriately enough, the SoundGarden. Here are a few pictures of my friends playing the "instruments" and the instruments themselves. Really a nifty idea. Hanging next to each instrument were plastic covered sticks to use to beat on them. The round metal things are old brake drums from different types of cars.

I also took some pictures of a lovely botanical garden where we had our dinner the first night but I think this is enough pictures for one post!