The sock I have been working on. Made with Jawoll Cotton using #2 dpns

Mom seemed very pleased with my idea for a belated Mother's Day outing. My daughter went with us, so more is always better. We went to the Tea House in her town. It's a reservation only place and since we went on a Thursday afternoon, we were the only ones there. When we got there, the lady said we should choose a hat from the decorations to wear.
Much to my surprise, mom and daughter both went along with that. I do the hat thing so it wasn't an issue for me. The place was beautiful - in an old mansion that is being renovated to be a Bed and Breakfast. There was plenty of food - we took a lot home with us. Anyway, mom was impressed. In fact, she said "very" impressed.

We went from there to see the Princess Di exhibit at the art museum. It turns out she actually liked getting to see the exhibit. I didn't know that she was someone who got up at 6am to watch the wedding all of those years ago. It was a nice exhibit and I found myself really admiring her dresses. I'm not into fashion at all, but these were absolutely gorgeous.

It turned out to be a good day.

The ultimate test.

A few days ago, I tried on swimsuits. Ugh. But I managed to not head into the downward spiral of depression after doing so, so I think that means I'm ok! :) No new suits purchased though. Gotta get back on track with food and exercise choices.

I saw the Da Vinci Code yesterday. I found it to be entertaining and don't understand what all of the fuss is about. The fuss the fundamentalists are raising I find silly. The fuss where people complain about it not being GREAT is confusing to me.

I found the book entertaining, and it kept my interest. I never thought of it as a great book. I liked the story in Angels and Demons better, but the way he explained what was going on was very annoying to me. These so called experts kept "forgetting" things, so then they would be explained. In Da Vinci, at least he had a character that needed some of the explanations.

Sometimes I think some people don't feel happy unless they are fussing about something.

Saturday we went to see the symphony. It was a very good concert. Our seats were horrible.
We were in the upper balcony and I couldn't see a thing. The lady in front of me was short enough, but she had wide hair. The seats are offset only every so slightly and it just isn't enough. After the first part, I moved to the empty seat next to me. There was a very tall man in front of that seat, but I thought at least his head is narrow. I could see much better - until he decided to read the program.
Did he keep the program in his lap and look down? Hell, no. He held the open program up at eye level and blocked the entire stage. It was so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh. So for the last part, we looked for empty seats behind us. We ended up finding the PERFECT seats for us. In the last row, on the left side. There are only 2 seats there so my husband doesn't have to have the aisle seat for his leg (he has a prosthetic leg and has always has the aisle seat). He had room for his leg to the left and I was on the aisle on the right - and these seats were offset from the next row by half.
So even if there was a tall, wide haired person reading a program in front of me, I could still see.
So next season, those are the seats we will try to get.



The guest conductor was Alessandro Siciliani. He can be quite dramatic :)

Lake Hope was different for me this time. I think my head was cleared up quite a bit, but the process was less enjoyable than in past times. But I had different issues to deal with this time.

I achieved my goal of walking around the lake. The lake is shaped roughly like a horseshoe so to walk along the lake, I had to go on the inner loop so I would arrive back where I began. The outer loop starts on one side of the lake and ends on the other so I would need a way to get back, at least until I'm ready to hike back the trail. Here's a map.

dnr.ohio.gov/parks/parks/pdf/lakehope605.pdf

As usual, if there is a long steep hill to climb on a trail, I managed to choose the direction that has me walking UP the steep, long hill. It was tough, but I made it. I was tired when I started, so I was really tired when I was finished. It might have been better for me to wait until I had bounced back more, but I managed to do it.

Before I went there, my city mind was wondering where to park. The only place I was aware of is right on the main road and I had only seen one car parked there ever. I thought I would be announcing that I was walking alone on a trail. After I got there, my mindset changed to ok, if I park there and don't come out, someone will notice and come looking for me :)

I didn't take the camera with me - I didn't want to have to carry anything extra, so no pictures. That's a shame because there were some pretty neat wildflowers in bloom along the trail.

Part of my time was spent watching videos - a few from my collection and a few from the library. I watched, in no particular order

Marjorie Morningstar
Cousin Bette
Mulholland Dr.
Girl From Rio
Mrs. Henderson Presents

I started and frogged the sock again a few times. I'm certainly getting my money's worth with this yarn if the enjoyment is in the knitting. I'm going to keep going with what I have now though. I kept trying different stitch patterns and then changed my mind thinking it was too much work for a yarn that doesn't have much stitch definition, so I settled on a fairly simple pattern.

The Moonville Tunnel.

I've just returned from spending a few days in my favorite part of the state. I like to go to Lake Hope and spend a few days on my own. On a previous trip, I tried to find the Moonville Tunnel, but was unable to get past high water in the road. The tunnel is supposed to be haunted.

http://www.graveaddiction.com/moontun.html

To find the tunnel, I had to drive a few miles on a gravel road, and through the swamp area I was unable to get through before..



I was told to stop at the metal bridge and park my car and look for a trail.


Ah, the trail...


I found it!






Now I knew about all of the stories of the tunnel being haunted by a ghost or two. I joked that the ghost must not have liked me because I didn't see it. I walked through the tunnel and took a pic from the other side. I felt a chill as I walked back through but hey, it was just the tunnel effect for a breeze, right.

After I got home, I looked at my pics. I was quite surprised as I looked at the pic I took from the other side of the tunnel.

Have you ever been so tired, it hurts? Ugh. That's me today. Bladder infection confirmed, antibiotics started. The problem is I don't notice any symptons until it's so bad I can barely function. I heard the S word today - surgery. That's a ways off, but now I know why it keeps happening. But I have a ton of work to get done within the next few days and I just want to crawl into bed.

I've lost count of the times I started and frogged the sock since Sunday. A couple were careless mistakes and the last one was looking way too big. I swatched and measured, but unless I was going for the slouch socks, it wasn't going to work.

I also decided to see if mom would want to go to the Diana exhibit for Mother's Day. I asked dad to find out if that's something she would want to do. He said he'd talk to her. I just got an email from her saying she read my note, but she didn't respond to the question at all, just said she wanted to fix dinner on Mother's Day. (banging head on desk).

If only there was a way to have the scent emit from my monitor....

This is Lucy when we brought her home at age 3 months. Isn't she cute?