The forgotten

First of all, everything is fine with my nephew. He finally showed up -- called his mother Friday while we were in the air on the way home to say that he was there (in Valencia) with her car and he'd bring it over the next morning. He had completely forgotten he was supposed to pick us up!! He doesn't normally have Friday off, but had arranged for the day off so he could bring the car back and I guess he got caught up in plans with his friends and took off straight after work on Thursday to hang out in Valencia. He felt pretty bad after she had told him how worried we all were, calling the police, etc. I'm sure she rubbed it in good. He did call me last night to apologize. The poor kid feels so foolish I was almost apologizing to him.

So here we are ... back from vacation. It was a good vacation but not long enough, of course. The time in Valencia with my sister was so nice. The weather was warm and sunny and we had a lovely hotel. Getting onto the cruise ship on Monday was a hassle because, as I had posted, Mr. M couldn't find his passport. He was sure it had been stolen. I tried to reassure him that it was most likely just misplaced but he was just positive it was gone. I got him onto the ship and when our bags were delivered to our room he went through his and sure enough, it was there and he was finally able to relax. The cruise itself was fine - great weather in Catalina and Ensenada but cloudy on our day at sea. We had decent dinner companions and the food was fine, although I think it was better on the cruise my sister and I took a few years ago. The entertainment was okay -- the comedians were pretty mediocre, but the live band was wonderful.

We got to shore on Friday around 9:30 and we spent an hour trying to get in touch with my nephew. We finally gave up and went to the Queen Mary and toured around her, then had a nice lunch and after a few more calls back and forth with my sister and other nephew, we headed to the Long Beach airport to wait for our flight. We had plenty of time. I got out my knitting and Mr. M got on his computer (free wi-fi at least) and we spent a 2 1/2 hours in a very teensie airport. I worked on the experimental wrap I started with the Kureyon. It is not working out. I am going to have to rip it out and start over. The border needs to be seed stitch, for one thing. And I am not at all keen on the way the colors are blending. I need an entirely different colorway. And finally I am thinking that perhaps Kureyon is going to be too heavy, even knitting it with a 10 1/2 needle. Back to the drawing board.

I got up early on Saturday and got Tinkerbell from the doggie boarding place. She was SO happy to see me and SO dirty!! I brought her home and gave her a nice long walk. I swear, she spent 25% of the walk rolling on her back in her favorite spots. Then it was time for a much needed bath. Mr. M had to work Saturday and I was going to rehearse but Doug has a cold, so I got to spend some good quality knitting time in my favorite chair in the sunshine. Yes, I felt a bit guilty that I should be out in the garden but I gave myself permission to be on vacation for the entire weekend so I pushed that right out of my head. I worked on the Great Gatsby dress -- finishing up the lace edging for the back hem. Oddly enough there is no gauge listed for that but the measurements are there. Luckily I measured before I finished up all 23 repeats and found that at 19 I was a couple inches over the size I wanted to make. I picked up the number of stitches for the size with 19 repeats, the first one. Ah .. and then I realized I had picked up the stitches on the wrong side! I was not about to take out 146 hard to pick up stitches, so I cut the yarn and just started from the front side. It looks perfect! The next stitch pattern, the ladder lace, does have gauge measurements. I did a few rows last night while watching TV. I'll measure it tonight and hope that I can fudge things so that it won't be huge. Oh and I needed a longer needle so I took a deep breath and pulled it out of the Rock Star. Now it is officially frogged.

We got caught up on LOST last night. Now I need to read the blogs to figure out what the heck is all means. I woke up and started thinking about it, of course, but luckily got back to sleep and work up feeling not too bad, considering I had a week off to sleep all I wanted. It is clear outside, and it's been so nice and warm! However, it is still February and it was barely above freezing when I got on the bike this morning. Wow and did it ever hurt going down the hill. It should be a nice ride home though. It is now light enough both ways that I don't need my head lamp.