Tuesday, April 20, 2010

One thing after another

Had a wonderful weekend at Desert Mesa Retreat...weather was good, we even got to sit outside for a couple of hours... we are losing our Managers, they are retiring.. so we hope that the new managers will be as considerate as Carol and Orst...Everyone had a great time.. we laughed so hard, my jaws hurt...i even got a couple of cheques for the fall retreat..
Before I left for the retreat, my dishwasher wasn't working.. Larry didn't have time to look at it while i was gone, but he checked it out on Monday, and of course these new dishwashers are not easy to fix... so i am washing dishes by hand... and while Larry was under the house shutting off the water, he noticed that the hot water tank was leaking.. of course being a OLD mobile, it has fibre board on the floor, and it was soaking wet.so he had to take out the floor and replace it before he could put in the new tank... a simple tank replacement has turned into a real renovation..he had to take out one wall of the closet.. he is not a happy camper.. I did get the bird cage mucked out today... we have two cages for him.. one outside and his inside cage.. he gets it so dirty... i had to use the pressure washer to get then clean... Yankee has been yelling at Willy (old cat), willy has a bad habit of howling when he is lonely, hungary, thirsty... and we yell at him... Willy, shut up.... well that silly bird yells at him while he is howling.. and tells him.... Willy  shut up.... really makes me laugh as he does at the right time....    the trees sure came into leaf while i was gone for the weekend.. even my peach tree make it thru the winter... cherry trees look good, and both my apple trees are getting ready to leaf out... hopefully my crapapple trees will get fruit this year... two apples on two  trees last year...
i am not looking forward to tomorrow... all the clothes from the closet need to be put back..i had to put them on the picnic table on the deck as Joe is in the spare room.... which i would have used if he wasn't there..oh well... he did pick up the hot water tank for us, so that saved us a trip to town..  I made Amish cinnamon cake, sure didn't turn out like it was suppose to... but it does taste good..  I need to start walking and riding my bike soon... need some excerise..  well i had better go see what the hubby is doing and if he needs any help

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Spring Retreat

Our Desert Mesa Spring Retreat is just around the corner.. Friday... i can hardly wait...a weekend just for me.. I never get one... yah right... Levi and I went to our first agility trial last weekend in Cloverdale.. We got down there Friday afternoon, as Denise had to run "PiP' on Friday night..Levi did well for his first trial.. he even "Q"ed.(ran the course with no mistakes, and with in the set time).  much to my surprise.. and came close to a second "Q"... but it was taking a "Country dog" to the City... lots of noise, and people and other dogs... but he did well... although it did take him some time to settle down. there were 12 of from Iron Mountain Agility there... and everyone did well and everyone "Q"ed, .We will be back in Cloverdale May 7th weekend..and i will do things a little different..I will take him out to the bleachers and get him used to the sights and sounds..on Friday nite..
I sure haven't been sleeping well lately... i wake up at about 3 am and then can't go back to sleep..old age i guess..
The weather was beautiful today... the sun was so nice and warm... i have to wash the truck tomorrow, it is so dirty...also have to make the carmel corn for the retreat...I had even forgotten to get a gift for the gift exchange.. don't know where my mind is these days... CRS... can't remember shit... and i am so tired... will write again after the retreat, and hopefully i will remember to take some pictures.... nite..

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter

Time sure flies as one ages.... seems like it was just Christmas...
I have been thinking about all the shawls i have made in the last few years... I think the first one i made was for me, feather and fan, out of hand spun Shetland from Carol Arthur i think it was, I have since found out that the correct name for that pattern is "Old Shale"...read an item about comparing the two similar patterns... so when i started that one, my criteria was that the 'pattern' be no more than "4" rows of pattern...and that was a good one, cause actually it was only 1 row of pattern, and then 3 rows of knit and purl rows... so i handled that one okay, the next one was "Charolottes' easy shawl", again not a whole lot of rows of repeat... but lots of counting as one row had more stitches than the next... ended up doing two of those, one for my now ex daughter in law, and one for me... then i did one for a friend turning 60, and she was very ill and her family weren't sure she would make her 65th birthday, she is not 65 yet, but is still with us... and that one again was a really easy one "garter and lace" the body of the shawl was garter stitch, and then the lace was knitted on... again a simple one, but i just couldn't figure out how to add the lace.  I checked with my knitting guru, Louisa (Dameslfly), she wrote me a very detail email explaining it to me..but i still couldn't figure it out, so we made arrangements to meet at Fibres West?? and she proceeded to tell me that i was trying to put the lace across the top of the shawl instead of down the sides... her patience won out and i finally got IT... so over the years now i have made lots (last count i think was 18) of shawls, and my plan for April is to show you pictures of them all, the ones i have pictures of... have to go dig them out of "my pictures"... anyway the main reason I started thinking about the shawls, is i started knitting a cute little summer hat for a friends Grand baby... and after about 15 rows, I got BORED... i am going to finish IT... I am knitting a shawl for Toni..(she will be 60 in November), and would you believe   "there isn't two ROWs the same thru almost 300 rows of pattern... and I am winning the battle... I am at row 254... but no pictures of that one until OCTOBER..haven't had time to look for shawl patterns, and i have to go find a picture of something for the blog...  Went out for supper last night... turkey, nice not to have to cook it... Matt is coming up tommorrow, so i will cook up a half a turkey for us... so we can have left overs...
Levi and I had a good class yesterday... Maureen our instructor makes us run tough courses, we are just Starters, so when it comes to our trials, we should have an easy time of it... we have 7 runs next weekend in Cloverdale..the first one will be tough as i will be nervous and that will affect Levi... so I just plan on donating $$ for the first run(we will screw up)... I know we won't do well till my nerves settle..and then the weekend after that is "Desert Mesa"  which i am really looking forward too..two weekends away... poor Larry but he enjoys a nice quiet weekend with out me...  have a great day...  hopefully i will get some pics of Levi next weekend............. sheila