Leaving New Mexico on Memorial Day

We lingered until 11:00am at the hotel to rest since we only had a few things left on our must-do list before we had to head to the airport at 3:30pm. Amber took a nap. I knitted. Then we went on our way.

Our first stop was at the Rio Grande Valley State Park, where we checked out the very interesting visitor center before walking down a short trail to the bank of the Rio Grande. We saw a lot of striped lizards, but not much else in the way of wildlife. Unlike most of Albuquerque, there are a lot of trees along the river, but it still didn't keep me from getting hot on what had been our sunniest day there. Near the entrance to the trail was a very strange fence that both Amber and James (when he saw the picture) said looked like it was from a war zone.

When we left the park, we started to drive towards one of the two stores on Amber's list for the day. This store, Jackalope, was very cool. Amber got some weird slipper shoes that resembled a woven straw basket or hat in construction and material, and we admired the many different imported items from around the world. They had a lot of beads and rocks and necklaces, and I wished that I had the desire to make jewelry. They also sold furniture. The store was like a more exotic, cheaper World Market.

We next went downtown to Skip Maisel's, a store that specialized in items hand-crafted by Native Americans, such as jewelry, pottery, weavings, paintings, kachinas, and much more. Some of the stuff was downright creepy, though. Amber bought a few souvenirs here, including a necklace made from painted corn kernels. As Amber was paying for her purchases, we noticed a little flyer for a restaurant down the street, and we decided to go eat there afterwards.

As I walked into the restaurant, the odor of elementary school spaghetti grudgingly filled my stuffy nose. Nothing on the menu looked appetizing, so Amber was gracious enough to allow us to go somewhere else. We ended up at a bar down the street (The Library), and I had a delicious meal of a grilled cheese sandwich and french fries. We finished up just in time to head off towards the airport.

We stopped at a gas station to refill the rental car and spotted a panaderia across the street. The lady inside didn't speak English, but we had no trouble obtaining cookies and other sweets to take with us on the plane and back to Amber's friends. My cookie was delicious, but it was too big for my appetite. I let James finish it off when I got home.

Unfortunately, our flight was delayed almost an hour due to a broken seat on the plane that had been fixed in the morning but had consequently made all following flights for that particular plane late all day long. One lady waiting with us for the flight was particularly vocal about the hardship she was enduring and called every single contact in her phone to relay the same story about how irritated she was that the airline (possibly) wouldn't hold the plane of her connecting flight to wait on her. See, it was clear to her that since she was being inconvenienced by the malfunctioning seat that every person on her unaffected connecting flight should also be inconvenienced by having to delay their flight to accommodate her. Silly airline--shouldn't they realize that it is unreasonable not to delay every single connecting flight so that no one misses a flight. Who cares if everyone is an hour late? (Rant over)

I was exhausted when we landed in Dallas where James was already waiting to pick us up. When we got home, I inquired about the cupcakes from Austin that I had been promised. Unfortunately, it turns out that the cupcake trailer is closed on Mondays. Instead, James had brought me something from the place next door to the cupcake trailer. Something even better than a cupcake. It was yarn. Beautiful yarn.

He handed me a bag containing two skeins of Koigu sock yarn in a very pretty color, which made me thankful I hadn't ended up getting the Koigu I saw at Village Wools, and a very colorful, pretty skein of soft Araucania. I have no idea why he has been skeptical of getting yarn presents for me before because I really adore what he picked out. It may just be that it's hard to go wrong when buying any yarn for a knitter.

It's a good thing that I'm now so well stocked on yarn because it may be a long time before I can buy any more. That's because I got laid off from my job yesterday. Wish me luck in searching for a new one!

A Day in Santa Fe

I, of course, woke up early on Sunday morning, and had showered, eaten breakfast, and was fully dressed and ready to leave before Amber awakened. As I waited on her, I knitted, and I continued knitting most of the time we were in the car that day. I got a lot of my second Easter sock done during this trip.

We took the scenic route to Santa Fe, called the Turquoise Trail, and drove up to the crest of the Sandia Mountains. The city of Albuquerque is at about 5,000 feet above sea level (Dallas is around 500 feet) and the crest is at about 10,000 feet. I can't help but wonder if my constantly stuffy head and nose and becoming winded more quickly than usual had anything to do with the elevation because both conditions seem to have returned to normal since I've been home. Anyway, the drive up was beautiful and I noticed that the trees became more and more plentiful the higher we got, and that the smell of fir and pine trees became stronger and stronger.

The view from the top was disappointing, to say the least, because the crest was completely enveloped in a cloud. We could see absolutely nothing beyond the thick white fog, and I was disappointed to not even find a picture of the typical view somewhere in the gift shop. The temperature at the top was drastically lower than at the base, and I felt silly (and cold!) in my flip flops. There is also a tram that goes to the crest from the other side, though I think at a different point. Neither Amber nor I were keen on the idea of riding the tram, and we ended up not seeing it during our trip.

The scenery along the Turquoise Trail was beautiful but very different from what I am used to seeing. No grass, no trees--just shrubs and cacti. We stopped in a little artsy town called Madrid and walked around looking at all the little shops. The town was jam-packed with visitors, most of who had arrived on their motorcycles. Amber became very excited when she found out that the movie Wild Hogs was filmed there. We ate lunch at the Mine Shaft Tavern (so named because the town was originally a coal-mining town before becoming a ghost town and then, finally, a settlement for artists and tourism), and I gave New Mexican enchiladas another try. This time I opted for the red chile, and it was great! Amber had her enchiladas sin chile, and I think she enjoyed them best that way.

It was pretty dreary and cold when we arrived in Santa Fe, so we first stopped in at a little coffee shop where we found a handy map of downtown. We decided to park closer to the things we wanted to see, and I was worried we would end up parking even further away when I saw how crowded downtown was. We really lucked out and ended up seeing someone leave a really great parking spot right in front of us.

Very close to where we parked, there was a little craft fair where we stopped to browse. Immediately, a tent full of handspun yarn and scarves and wraps knitted from the handspun caught my eye. I was disappointed to discover that the beautiful, but coarse-feeling, bulky yarn was around $60 for about 30 yards. Ouch! A little further down in a different booth, a second display of hanks grabbed my attention. These were made of buffalo/wool blend and naturally brown. I excitedly purchased a skein of the bulky handspun yarn (30 yards) for $15! I think it even smells a little like buffalo...I couldn't get Amber to smell it.

There is a lot more to see in Santa Fe than to talk about, so I recommend looking at all my pictures. We saw the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi (shown below) and the smaller Loretto Chapel. Though we couldn't go inside due to a wedding taking place, I bought a postcard that shows the miraculous staircase inside. I remember seeing an episode on Unsolved Mysteries (which I frequently watched as a kid) about the staircase, and it was cool to see the location of it.

We also saw the Plaza of the Governors where we heard/saw a Mariachi band and dancing briefly as part of the celebration for the grand opening of the brand new museum across the street--the New Mexico Museum of History. We we able to go inside the museum for free because it was opening day. Afterwards, we found the oldest active church in the US, and the oldest house in ... the building was clearly not modern stucco because there was bits of hay and rock in texture. Maybe adobe?

The pizzeria (The Upper Crust) next to the oldest church smelled fantastic, and it didn't take long for us to decide to eat there. I remarked to Amber that I didn't want to have Mexican food (again), and she agreed. I had to make her repeat herself because she has always claimed to love Mexican food so much that she can eat it for every meal. Maybe that only applies to tex-mex. Amber and I each had a calzone--mine was stuffed with spinach, pesto, cheese, and tomatoes. Yum!

The state capital was the last thing we saw before we headed back to Albuquerque. I wasn't as interested as Amber, so I took pictures of pretty flowers instead.

The drive back to Albuquerque along 25 was beautiful but not as mountainous (to the west, anyway) as the drive up had been. I liked how flat and treeless it was because you could see so far away. While it wasn't raining on us, you could clearly see that it was raining off in the distance.

I was about to link to my uploaded photo album for the trip, but Facebook apparently did not save my pictures last night! Maybe tomorrow...

Arrival in Albuquerque

I just spent the last three days in New Mexico with my best friend, Amber. I met Amber in 1989 when I was five years old, and we have now known each other for nearly twenty years and have been great friends for almost all of that time. We both love to travel, but we haven't traveled together very often, so the twenty-year mark seemed like a good time to take a trip together. New Mexico turned out to be a great choice.

Getting to Albuquerque was very uneventful. After some minor irritation with the rental car agent, Amber and I were on our way. Luckily for me, Amber had volunteered to drive our rental car, which was a silver Dodge Nitro. Although we had reserved and paid for a compact car, we were given this small SUV which thrilled Amber. She just couldn't believe that they would give us something other than the tiniest car (which, I pointed out, were probably all rented out). I found this very amusing because I am almost never given the car type I reserve and was just thankful they didn't try to give us a minivan.

Because it was too soon to check in to our hotel, we drove around Albuquerque and quickly encountered downtown, old town, and a little Mexican place called "Garcia's" where we ate lunch. Amber and I both had enchiladas and sopapillas. New Mexican enchiladas are different from what you usually get in Texas. Instead of rolled up tortillas, they are flat, stacked tortillas with cheese (or other filling) between the tortillas. Also, you specify whether you want "red chile" or "green chile" on them. Amber opted for red, and I for green. It was pretty good, but I prefer the rolled up tortillas smothered in sour cream sauce that I can get at home.

After we located our hotel (and it still wasn't time to check in), we went to the Petroglyph National Monument. Petro = rock and glyph=symbol/picture, so naturally we found many drawings on big rocks as we walked along the trail. We also saw some more recent markings, which didn't appear much different than the old ones in quality (only the content, e.g. "M+B"). This makes me skeptical about the age/origins of the other drawings we saw because there is really no way to prevent other people from making their own petroglyphs. Supposedly, the original drawings were made by Native Americans long, long ago.

As we started to leave the rocks, it started to rain. During the entire trip, the weather was constantly changing. One moment, it would be hot and sunny; the next it would be cloudy and cool; and before you knew it, huge raindrops that landed with a "thud" would be pounding on your head or roof of your car. I don't think I've ever put on and taken off a jacket so many times in a day.

I won't get into the details of how difficult it was to find the correct route to our hotel, but it did take three tries down three separate roads (all on the same exit with the same name) before we figured out how to get there. Once settled in our hotel room, we devised our plan for the rest of the day: shopping.

Albuquerque is much, much smaller than I imagined. There are basically two highways--25, which runs north and south; and 40, which runs east and west. We didn't even have a proper map, but we had almost no problems getting anywhere we wanted to go. Our first stop was Village Wools, a local yarn store. Before the trip, I had been thinking I would purchase Fiesta yarn as my souvenir yarn since it is actually produced in Albuquerque, but none of the colors in stock really attracted me. I also saw some lovely Koigu, which I have had on my mental wishlist for a long time, but I decided I'd rather get colors more reminiscent of New Mexico. After inspecting the rest of the store rather thoroughly, I settled on some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in purple, turquoise, and gray. The colors definitely reminded me of much of the New Mexican jewelry I had seen in Old Town. Amber even bought some sock yarn under the condition that I would make her some socks from it. Her color choice was more reminiscent of the stucco buildings and bare desert ground.

After getting my yarn fix, we drove to a Native American Gallery/Shop called Ben Muir. I bought three pairs of earrings for myself and a Kachina doll for James. Everything there was very beautiful, and Amber and I both had a difficult time settling on which earrings we liked the best. The place was on the edge of town, and there were buffalo across the driveway. Across the street was the Sandia Resort (and Casino?), and we drove a little ways up the road towards the Sandia Mountains and Cibola National Park. We took some pictures of the beautiful scenery before driving back towards town.

Our last stop was at Trader Joe's. I have heard so much about this grocery store and how great it is (via internet forums) that I decided it was one of the places I absolutely had to visit in New Mexico so I could see for myself what the big deal is. Although smaller than I imagined, I was very impressed by all the interesting food and the affordable prices. After one visit to Whole Foods in which James and I spent a ridiculous amount of money, I had decided it wasn't worth the drive (twenty minutes) or expense to shop there. If Dallas had a Trader Joe's, however, I think I would definitely shop there. I got some spicy lime trail mix and some crunchy chip-like green beans for James. I didn't find anything appealing for myself that would fit the specifications of being compact enough to bring home, no refrigeration required, and not more than $5. At least now I know what the big deal is, though. Amber really liked the store, too.

I neglected to mention that I slept for about four fitful hours the night before and about six fitful hours the night before that. I was exhausted when we left Trader Joe's. And starving. Amber felt the same, but to a lesser degree, I think, so we headed towards the hotel and looked for a place to eat. I requested that we didn't have Mexican food and Amber requested that we not eat at a national chain restaurant, so we stopped at Blake's Lotaburger. It was the only meat I ate during the trip, and it was very good. Earlier in the day, Amber and I had both been discussing how we missed eating hamburgers more than any other meat, so it seemed fitting. I especially liked their slogan: If you are what you eat, you are awesome.

I crashed pretty soon after eating, bringing my first day to a close.

In order to not overwhelm my readers (who have likely already stopped reading this post by now anyway), I will write up the rest in a separate blog entry or two. I haven't weeded through and uploaded pictures, but a link for those will follow in a later entry, too.

Traveling Scarf is Traveling No More

I have had a fantastic time being a part of our traveling scarf group since last August. I originally joined because a friend in my knitting group was participating in one, and it sounded like a such a neat idea. I know I have explained this before, but I'll do it one last time...

In our group of about twelve knitters, all scattered across the country, we each knitted a little starting piece of a scarf (about 4-6 inches). We then sent this section to the next person in the "circle" and in turn, we received one from the person before us in the circle. We continued to knit on each scarf we received, making the scarf a little longer, and then sending it to the next person. By the time the scarf has traveled all the way through the circle and is sent back home to its owner, it is a full-length scarf, usually made of many different yarns and patterns, each chosen by the person who knit each particular section. It is also common to send along a little notebook so that the knitters can write notes in it, and we keep in touch on the Ravelry forums throughout the entire process. It's a neat way to meet some interesting knitters.

My first scarf with our group came home in December, and we started Round #2 in January. For Round #2, we were a little more particular about fiber type (only natural, non-animal fibers, such as cotton) and color (only green or purple). I went a step further and asked that my scarf be only purple and that it all be done in openwork/lace stitches. The result is even nicer than I had expected, especially after blocking. I wish I had taken a "before" picture of it so you could see the difference, but here is the final result.

Though I have tremendously enjoyed this experience, I have decided that I'm not going to do another traveling scarf--at least for a very long time. For the last two months or so, I've gradually been feeling less and less interested in working on the scarves since the novelty has worn off. Add to that the insane amount of postage I've spent and the time and money I've spent on other swaps, and I really just feel like I need to take a break from it all.

Except...I volunteered to make another angel package this morning. Why is it so hard to resist?

Bunnicula Swap

Wow, the USPS has floored me (in a good way this time) by getting my swap package to the recipient practically the next day! She received the package yesterday before lunch, and I hadn't even dropped it at the post office until Saturday afternoon.

The package was for the Children's Books Swap ran by the Odd Duck Swap Group on Ravelry. Ladymay's (her Ravelry name) original partner had bailed on the swap after she'd already received a package for it (as this particular person had done with a few other swaps) so I volunteered to make ladymay's package.

After a little sleuthing, I decided to theme the package specifically around the children's book series about the "vampire" bunny, Bunnicula. I had remembered seeing a Bunnicula cartoon when I was a kid, but I have never read (nor even knew about) the Bunnicula books. Ladymay, like myself, has a pet bunny, and she is also a fan of vampires, so it seemed like a good choice from her list of favorite kids' books.

For the package, I knitted a Bunnicula from a pattern where you basically make a bunny out of a knitted square. It's pretty clever, and I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out. I kinda messed up the placement of the widow's peak in relation to his ears, but I am otherwise satisfied.

I also knitted two "veggie victims"--a tomato and celery with fang marks. In the books, Bunnicula sucks the juice out of vegetables instead of eating them. Other items I included: two of the Bunnicula books, a handmade bookmark, a bunny treat for her bunny, some handmade bunny stitch markers from an Etsy seller, and two skeins of green silk-wool blend yarn.

Commitments

For the past few weeks, I have been devoting pretty much all of my knitting and crocheting time to making things for other people. Things that I volunteered to make, and therefore feel committed to actually making. I enjoy doing this, but I felt really stressed about all the stuff last week, so I tried really, really hard to get all caught up this weekend. I finally feel much better, and I am even contemplating starting something new for myself once I finish the blanket I'm crocheting.

So here's a rundown of what I've been knitting. Much of it is kinda surprise/secret-oriented, so I haven't been blogging it.

Traveling Scarves: I finished knitting the last one for the group and mailed it home to its owner this morning. Mine, which returned home to me last week, was washed and blocked yesterday. I will take pictures once it's dry.

Swap Package: I finished up everything for my Children's Book Swap and mailed it off to the recipient on Saturday. I will post pictures and details once she gets it.

Super-Secret Project: I had to buy needles in the correct size to work on this, so I did that yesterday. I am about 75% done (hope to finish tonight). It will be a long time before I can talk about this one, so I hope I don't forget.

Baby Stuff for Donation: I have made two hats, and I'm currently crocheting a blanket. I'm about 60% done with the blanket. I have a lot of baby yarn stash, so I thought I would use up as much as I could in order to give to a friend who is collecting items for donation. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get done before she's finished collecting, but since I didn't commit to a certain amount (or any amount,actually) I don't feel as pressured about this one.

Wedding Afghan: Okay, so I haven't even started this, but it has been on my mind. I volunteered to make this for my friends who are getting married in September, and I am anxious to start because I know it will take a long time. They have sorta narrowed down the patterns they like. No yarn has been purchased yet.

In addition to working on these items, I also made another sundress (same fabric, just knee-length, so I feel a picture would be redundant), and I gave the first one to Sara. I cut the fabric for the other two and ironed the fabric for one of them. My goal is to have them both finished by the end of May. That should be easy.

Now, to decide what I should knit for myself....

Tweed Sweater Vest

I feel like I've slowed down a little with my knitting lately. It's not that I'm enjoying it any less; it's more that there are so many other things that I want to do that interfere with knitting time. Like camping. And festivals. (Two this month!) And trips. (Going to New Mexico in three weeks!) And while I do knit during parts of these events, I still do not knit as much as I would if I stayed at home.

I started some plain ribbed socks on Easter for my quick pick-up-and-knit project that I can take in the car with me easily whenever we go places. I've also been working on them at times when I know I don't have long to knit, such as during my lunch break. I finished the first one while we were camping last weekend, and maybe the second one will be finished in another month. They are very snug-fitting, which I like. I don't like it when the socks get looser during the day and start to feel saggy.

On Sunday, I finished the larger project I had been working on, which was a tweed sweater vest. I mostly like how it turned out, but it's a little tight around the armholes. I feel like it also turned out a little short even though I made it longer than the pattern called for. Since it's wool, I think it will stretch out to more pleasing dimensions, but I haven't tried it yet. It's a little warm to wear it, so I may just wait until the fall to attempt that. Anyway, here are a few pictures.

Since I got my lego swap package, I am officially not participating in any swaps now; however, I volunteered to be moderator of a Board Games and Card Games themed swap (going well so far, except for one minor mishap) and I volunteered to make an angel package for Children's Books themed swap. I went shopping and bought a lot of stuff for that package yesterday, but I won't talk about it here because the recipient knows who I am and I want to make sure it is a total surprise. I will post more (as usual) once she has the package, which will be before the month is out.

Can you believe it's May already?

One Cougar, Seven Fish, and a Rainstorm

The title pretty much sums up my weekend, but I think it also requires more details.

After loading up the car with camping gear on Friday afternoon, James and I left home to go camping for the weekend with my parents and siblings. There was a little confusion about getting to Lake Tawakoni State Park because I had neglected (for possibly the first time ever) to look up directions to the park. Less than a mile from home, James asked me if I had the directions. When I said no, he asked if we should return to get them. I said no again. I'm lucky we didn't get lost, or I would've felt like an idiot for saying that. With the help of Sara and Mandy by phone, we got to the campsite without a single wrong turn.

After setting up our tents, we all sat around talking by the glow of propane lanterns. Something moving beyond the tent pad caught my eye, and as I looked towards it, I saw a large tan cat (with a long tail) move silently behind my parents' tent. When I say large, I mean it was the size of a large dog or bigger. I freaked out (but didn't panic) and I told everyone that a mountain lion had just went behind their tent. It actually took a little while for me to convey that information, and by the time my dad went to investigate, there was no sign of it. My dad felt sure that I had seen a dog, and they proceeded to tease me about it. I never once doubted myself though--that was NOT a dog.

The next day when we had returned from fishing, my mom mentioned that they had seen tracks that looked like they could've belonged to a cougar. My dad was skeptical, so they went together to look at the tracks, and I asked my dad to take a picture on his phone so I could see. I finally felt validated when they returned with the picture, which showed a paw print about the width of dollar bill. Everyone seemed more inclined to believe me after that. After doing some internet research this morning, I now think the track was actually from a dog. However, I am now even more certain that I saw a mountain lion because I found out that they have been sighted in that area before. Most of my disbelief at what I had seen stemmed from not thinking that they inhabited that area.

So, yeah, fishing...

I woke up at 6am on Saturday to go fishing with my dad, my brother, James and our fishing guide. The weather was absolutely perfect, which was fortunate since the forecast had predicted rain. It was very overcast, warm enough for shorts, and cool enough to comfortably wear a thin sweatshirt. I have rarely been fishing since I was a little kid, so I didn't expect to catch many fish (if any). And I really didn't expect to have much fun trying, either. You might be wondering why I even went in the first place, huh? Regardless of why I went, I ended up having a really great time. It turns out that trying to catch fish is pretty fun. And it turns out that actually feeling a fish tug on your line is even more fun. And, reeling the fish in and seeing what you've got--that might be the most fun part. Granted, I think the reeling in part is only fun when you've caught the fish in the first place. It's annoying to be offered a "pity reel-in" by someone catching a lot of fish while you're having a dry spell. It feels similar to when someone is obviously letting you win a game of checkers after they've beaten you ten times in a row. I like to win fair and square or not at all.

My brother, Steven, caught the most fish. I caught seven. James caught five or six. My dad didn't keep count, but (according to Steven), he didn't catch as many as Steven did. James and I both had fun and agree that it's something we could do about every other year or so.

When we were back at our campsite that afternoon, my grandparents came over to visit for a while. Because of the predicted rain, James and I had bought a canopy to sit under to stay dry, and my mom and sister had assembled it while we were fishing. It certainly came in handy once it started to rain (and thunder), and my grandparents very smartly decided that they should leave before it got worse.

It definitely got worse. Much worse.

For a while the rain came and went and we managed to cook hamburgers and hot dogs over the campfire. Just as were we eating, the rain starting coming down heavily and the thunder and lightning increased. Then, as if the pouring rain, lightning, and thunder weren't enough, the wind started blowing so fiercely that our canopy lifted off the ground and would've blown away if we weren't all holding it down. We sat in our vehicles a while deciding whether to stay or go, and my parents (whose tent had blown over and become filled with water) decided to leave, and my sister decided to stick it out with James and me. We all crawled into our tents as soon as it got dark, and though I stayed dry and warm, I slept terribly because of the constant fear of being washed away by a flood or being struck by lightening. (The cougar was the least of my fears by then!)

In the morning, the rain had pretty much ceased to be anything more than an intermittent drizzle, and we undertook the lengthy process of drying stuff off as much as possible before packing it up. My dad called us while we were driving home to tell us that the Cowboy's practice facility had collapsed during the storm on Saturday, which we later saw on our way home. I see that building every day, so it was very surreal to see it lying in a heap this morning. We also saw many, many access roads that were completely flooded between Greenville and Rockwall on I-30. It kinda scared me that we were camping while this stuff was happening. I plan to take rain warnings more seriously in the future, and I feel lucky that discomfort and muddy stuff was as much as we suffered. I really don't want to repeat this camping experience!

(Sorry I don't have pictures. I didn't have my camera with me most of the time, and the three pictures I did take are crap.)