Graham is done with classes for his masters and is continuing his research and writing his thesis. Rachel is doing her masters at Boston University. Both are real hard workers and while I was visiting I hoped that I didn’t upset the study routines too much! I tried to be out adventuring every day.

Teddy, not quite ready to learn "shake"

Before I left for home I want to teach Teddy to shake. He’s almost there, his left paw goes loose, ready for me to pick it up and shake it. Wait, that’s not right… The reward? A little bit of popcorn. Better treats don’t make him work harder for this skill. I think Teddy is afraid he’s going to topple over if he doesn’t have all four paws on the floor!

Thursday I took the T north to Harvard Square for a coffee at Crema then south, my first stop being Windsor Button. I’d barely walked 10 feet through the door when I spotted their display of Madeline Tosh Sock. I fondled the purple tonal but thought no, it’s too predictable. So instead I picked a wild variegated jewel tone. Also bought a skein of Berroco Campus in a natural color for a pair of mittens.

The rest of Thursday was spent walking all over. In North End I tried to find the place with the Terrone from Avellino but it had gone out of business. I had fun shopping in the tiny Italian markets. Later I walked back to the Trinity Church/Boston Public Library area. (with a little side trip I’ll tell you about later)

Boston Public Library, a treat for the eyes!

Trinity Church reflected in the Hancock Bldg

Friday I spent the day at the Museum of Fine Arts. The place was crawling with school groups and very loud. I immediately went to the top floor of the new wing and worked my way down, against traffic. That plan worked well.

Blue Glass Bowl

Ancient Iranian Glass

Another Piece from Iran

An early Modern glass

Graham at Crema, it was a cold day, the hat stayed on!

Atlantic shore view at Hampton Beach St Park, NH

So Sunday was open. Think think think what to do what to do. ROAD TRIP. We reserved a Prius (Rachel’s favorite) and drove to Maine for lunch. Why you ask? Because it was there. And so was New Hampshire. Even Teddy enjoyed the trip! Beautiful day for a drive and lunch. Noticed that the Kittery Maine area had about a half dozen yarn shops. Road trip with a plan for next time. Or shall next time be a lunch road trip to Rhode Island? 45 minutes!!!

Tune in later this week for the Boston/Cambridge restaurant, more yarn shopping, more coffee drinking, flight adventure report.

I leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow (sunrise 7:01 am, flight 7:05 am) for Boston to visit Graham and Rachel. And the two things that keep whirling around in my head? 1) Am I bringing enough knitting to keep me occupied for 6 hours tomorrow (I can restock for the return trip) and 2) Would I rather sit in steerage with an aisle seat or up front in a middle seat (while I still have the chance to grab that center seat).

I’ve made myself a list of everything and everywhere I want to go for my visit. Came to the realization I need a few more days to do it all in. We have dinner reservations at a few favorites, Trattoria di Monica and Helmund. Tomorrow night is Similans, an East Cambridge neighborhood Thai restaurant. I think my last meal before I leave was breakfast this morning. Gotta make room!

I think Thursday is devoted to the new wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts plus a pilgrimage to the MFA Impressionists collection. And if there is any time left in the day, a trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art. Yep, I’m one of those that appreciates Modern and Contemporary Art. Or maybe just yarn shopping…

Friday might be a walk and window shop day. Knitting at noon is a possibility. And a deep dive into the North End. I’m on a mission to find some Torrone Fratelli Oliviero from Avellino.

Saturday is an all day adventure with Graham. There’s a pen shop we both want to visit. Not that we could afford any thing there. Maybe some ink.

No plans yet for Sunday and Monday will be a half day. I’ll keep you posted of our progress!

Rufus and Ruby are just fine. Older but fine. They spend their days sleeping in nooks cranny’s and the cat tree so no recent pictures.

Juneau is now 15 months old, 33″ at the withers, and a skinny 104 lbs as of yesterday. Juneau and I take Rally class on Tuesdays. We know all the moves but still need to work on shaping. Need to get Juneau to look at me rather than the treat in my hand. The treat does help though… She naps more now so it’s during those times I get small knitting projects done.

Knitting Hubby and I are doing just fine!

Due to the Empire Builder train arriving 13 hours late on our Portland Yarn Crawl day in December, we went in January instead. Great weather, great company!

And the knitting. Took me almost two years to finish my Noro Striped Scarf. Why? Because it was gawd awful boring and since I paid $$$ for Noro Silk Garden I couldn’t get my self to just toss the thing.

During Christmas I knit a few hats for presents. One Felicity and one watch cap. No pictures of those because I wrapped them up before I thought about it. Since then I’ve done two more Felicity, one for Rachel

And one for myself just to see how bad the yarn really was. It didn’t come out too bad.

You notice there are no large knitting projects. I have the yarn and patterns for a few sweaters laid out. (not to mention the ones in knitting bags that I should finish sometime…) But right now between Juneau nap and stop light knitting I’m not doing too bad. I’m at about the 35% mark on a Baktus in Noro Silk Garden Sock. A much better choice than socks I think for that yarn. And somewhere in the house I have a Multnomah shawl. I say somewhere because I had to do a quick hide when Juneau tried to grab it and now I don’t remember where it is. I think it’s about at the 50% mark and last I looked at it I was thinking I should have gone up a needle size or three, thinking of starting it over.

And the biggest and best news of all? Graham and Rachel are getting married! August 26 at a winery on the west side.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2010. That’s about 17 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 16 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 542 posts. There were 59 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 29mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 8th with 56 views. The most popular post that day was Ruby Reporting.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were watsontravels.blogspot.com, maryjanemidgemink.blogspot.com, ravelry.com, heideho.wordpress.com, and biggeekknitblog.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for thumper, olden day cars, kitkatknit, nasty teeth, and biggest maine coon.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Ruby Reporting March 2010
3 comments

Bunny Thumper Challenge January 2008
61 comments

Knitting as an artform October 2007
5 comments

I’ve never felt so old May 2007
7 comments

Pendleton Mill Redeux February 2009
8 comments

How about a play by play on what I’ve been up to since May 25?

May 28: We took the new car, with Juneau in back, to Cannon Beach OR. We made sure we stopped every hour or so to walk Juneau and stretch our legs. The weather at home had been blustery and drizzley for days (which doesn’t really add up in precipitation but does mess up the cars). As soon as we crossed over the coastal range and onto Hiway 101, the rain stopped and we had a glorious 4 day coast vacation.

This was our first trip to Cannon Beach without Graham and at every turn and every silly little sea shell on the beach I missed him! (Graham that now lives where you can take the Metro to like six different ocean beaches in the Boston area…) Good thing Juneau kept us entertained.

She loved the sand and the ocean. She played in tide pools and ran around in water up to her belly. She even got to jump on the bed at the hotel (a new hobby for Juneau). A few times a day she got to hang out with her new friend Bettis. He was a 6 year old Great Dane staying with his humans at another beach hotel. Knitted and spindled all during the trip while Knitting Hubby drove.

June 1: Started a work campaign that kept me out of the office (in the next town over) until mid-morning today. Luckily I had my iPad with me but sure didn’t have much time to use it. I worked a couple 55 hour weeks. Tired by the time I got home everyday, made dinner, walked Juneau, fell asleep in my lounge chair watching TV most nights.

June 17: Black Sheep Gathering with Jess, Kim and Nancy! (good thing I’d put the vacation dates on my work calendar ages ago). Jessica, Nancy and I took the train down to Eugene and Kim drove us back. (Kim took the train last year) We stayed in Eugene this time (instead of Springfield) in a fun old neighborhood just blocks from the fairgrounds. On our walk to BSG we found The Sweet Life Patisserie. It became our mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffee/tea/snack stop.

Our daily breakfasts were eaten at a cute little place called the Keystone Cafe. It’s been there since 1979 and retains that 70′s funkiness. I think they lost money on us though. They sat us next to the serve yourself coffee every morning.

One evening Jessica and I walked downtown to try out VooDoo Doughnuts. Worthy of the hype? Yes.

BSG was it’s usual wonderful self. I spent most of my time in Spinners Circle (since I don’t have much spin time at home without my new assistant trying to eat it). Only bought a little roving, some corriedale that I am hand spinning singles with for a shawl and some polworth that I’m wheel spinning. Of course our last breakfast was at Ye Olde Pancake House. We can’t go to Eugene and not have a wonderful breakfast (pigs in a blanket) there. A fun relaxing fantastic trip! Knitted on Multnomah Shawl and spun to my heart’s content.

July 1: Annual road trip to Spearfish SD. Stayed in “dog friendly rooms” at hotels. That meant they were usually in the back, on the first floor, with neighbors with either dogs or babies. Can’t complain! We did fine, except someone kept hogging the bed. Juneau also figured out how to jump from one bed to the other, back and forth, then have a zoomies attack, messing up the sheets by spinning around it them. She kept herself pretty entertained! Juneau also had a good time shopping for a new collar at the Sturgis Harley shop. We were able to eat at the following restaurants on our trip, with Juneau right next to us. Juneau spent most of her time at each restaurant sleeping under the table next to her water bowl. (except for one very small incident when she hopped up long enough to take a big slurp out of my recently served soup bowl and then went right back to sleep in the shade)

Missoula MT – Wardens. Outside seating.
Bozeman MT – McKenzie River Pizza ->Park bench outside of restaurant and they served our pizza and drinks to us there even though they didn’t have real outdoor seating!
Spearfish SD – Roma’s Restaurant. We had a beautiful outdoor view looking west into the Black Hills and a great sunset.
Spearfish SD – Sanford‘s. Outdoor seating with umbrella shades.
Rapid City SD – Firehouse Brewing Co. I’d called ahead before we left home and was told there was no outdoor seating allowing dogs. When we were in downtown Rapid I decided to try again. Juneau and I noticed there were three tables out on the sidewalk not part of the usual outdoor seating at Firehouse so I asked a server if we could eat out there and she said sure!

Knitted and spindle spun all during the trip. Multnomah shawl is going soooo slow! Maybe I’ll have it done by…Christmas.

Current: work work work. Tried to start the mower several times since we returned home and it seems to be dead. Tried out a new recipe for dinner last night called “Cornhusker Casserole”. Came out great (after I made changes to the recipe).

Well that about sums it up!

My Nissan Frontier Crew Cab has 180,000 miles on the odo. We think it’s time to keep it closer to home. It too has had its share of long road trips.

We can’t fit Juneau and luggage in the Mini Cooper at the same time. It’s either/or. And Juneau no longer fits in the front seat. So it’s out as a vacation-mobile.

So it was time to retire the Pathfinder. Juneau and I have been looking for a SUV that she can grow into. As much as we would have loved another Subaru Outback (it had been Graham’s car), it wouldn’t have been long before she couldn’t get up and turn around to stretch her legs. A Toyota RAV 4? Nice and deep cargo area but not much room between the back seats and the rear window. A Subaru Tribeca? Long, wide cargo area but the rear window angles funny cutting off 1/3 of the usable space.

Two weeks ago Juneau and I spotted a couple Toyota FJ Cruisers at a local used lot. It’s a SUV that Knitting Hubby and I have been thinking about since the came out a few years ago. So Juneau and I stopped to look at them. As we walked onto the lot, the salesman asked “Are you looking for a car for you or your dog?”. Yes for my dog. We didn’t test drive. Juneau checked out the room in the cargo area. A fantastic fit with plenty of room to grow. We called Knitting Hubby and told him about our find, and the fit. That Sunday we test drove one at the Toyota dealership (the used lot is closed on Sunday’s) and found it comfortable, with very usable space for our needs. Granted, we’ll need to issue step stools to Mom and Dad the next time they come visit… Bought a Titanium Silver FJ on the following Monday. Yes, it gets questionable gas mileage, but so does my pickup. We’ll just have to find that sweet spot on the speedometer. (this is a file photo. I’ll be taking actuals when we find some place pretty to take pictures) We now have 3 silver vehicles!

Knitting Hubby has been in Boston the past week visiting Graham. Graham is done with his first year of grad school and took a day off from work last Friday so the both of them could go to New York City for three days. They had a fantastic time, went to tons of museums (jealous!!) and saw Hair on Broadway.

So Juneau and I participated in Americanine Idol on Saturday. We arrived too late to do the Poochapalooza Fun Run/Walk. Juneau did do the “Peanut Butter Lick” and came in in the middle of the pack. She also ran in the “Big Dogs Derby (51lbs & up) race”. 50 yard course. She came in dead last, about 10 yards back from the closely packed field. Everyone cheered her on though since she is such a cutie. We were there 4.5 hours and I think we both had a great time. Juneau is such a good Great Dane ambassador. She wanted to meet and greet everyone – human and doggies. I’ll post the couple of pictures I took as soon as I remember to download them…

I’m still slowly working on my Multnomah shawl. Knit a little here, frog a little there. You know how it goes.

Juneau tried to wake Ruby up from a nap yesterday by giving her a bath (house rules for Juneau – kisses only) and lost the battle. Juneau now has an inch long scratch on her nose. Does that teach her a lesson? No.

It was nasty windy all weekend and Juneau and I didn’t make it up Badger Mountain. We love those walks (until it gets to hot to do them) So long river walks were in order. I usually take her to the Richland park paths, Knitting Hubby takes her later in the day to the Kennewick park paths. Sunday morning she got me up early enough to watch CBS Sunday Morning, which I was glad of since I tend to forget it’s on. A cup of coffee and the paper read, we left for the dog park. Since she is a Great Dane pup and can’t be running hard and long until she is an adult, we can never stay too long. When we arrived there were only two other dogs (standard poodles) for Juneau to play with and they mostly just moseyed around for 15 minutes. Then the flood gates opened! People were showing up with 2-4 dogs each. So another 10 minutes of Juneau greeting every one. Ball play? Not much. Running? Nope. Socializing for 30 minutes? That’s what it was all about!

So about once a week I check the Denver Post on line just to see what’s going on or if my parents or brother mention some news I shouldn’t miss. Today this caught my eye: Top 10 things to do in Colorado before you die

I haven’t lived there in 31 years, do visit once in a while, and wanted to see how I’d score. I’d say not bad!!

Climb a fourteener – Can’t remember
Attend a concert at red rocks – Yes
Explore mesa verde – Yes
Sink into strawberry park hot springs – No
Visit great sand dunes national park – Yes
Touch dinosaur tracks – Not in CO
Listen to elk bugle – Yes
Navigate a mountain road – Yes
Board a train – Yes, Ski train!!
Raft the arkansas – Yes

Alternate list
Stock show – I think so
Ski Colorado – Of course
Royal Gorge – Yes
Go into Colorado’s wilderness – Yes
Hike (or bike) the Colorado Trail – Huh?
Cast a fly – Yes, well not real fly fishing but I did fish
Hike to a mountain lake – Yes
Garden of the Gods – Yes
Cultural institutions – Yes
Festivals – Yes. But the two I’ve missed? Dead Ned, and the Estes Park Wool Market.

Miss Juneau kept a pace that was just a bit faster than I would have done on my own, which was very good for me. What a trooper! She greeted hikers, runners and mountain bikers, sniffed dogs and flowers and checked pee-mail. Juneau was one of the few dogs on leash. I’d forgotten the camera in the car so you’re stuck with cell phone photos.

The reason Badger Mountain and the hills around us are treeless is because they were once lake bottom! Hills scoured away by ice age floods. I love this geologically fascinating place. I get nervous if I don’t see a volcano every once in a while (you can see both Mt Rainier and Mt Adams from Prosser – 20 miles west of us).

4.4 mile hike plus a 2 mile walk to the grocery store and back, plus once around the block 1 mile and Juneau was snoring by 9 pm. That’s what it takes to wear out the puppy!