39 and Mud!

Good Morning!

Whew it was rainy yesterday - torrents came down on my way home.  But, it eventually stopped, Colin came over and grilled hamburgers for us and then suggested a walk.  He wanted to go on the River Trail in Valley Forge Park, so we headed over there.  The trail was very wet and muddy and then this happened:

Yup - I ended up slipping and sitting down...hard.  It was gross.  Luckily Colin had some cardboard in his car and I was able to sit on that and keep the seat of his car clean.  My phone was covered in mud and now I can't seem to charge it, so I guess I'll be stopping at the Verizon store this afternoon.  My little finger is swollen and bruised, but other than that I'm fine.  I showered as soon as we got home and then the clothes went in the washer.  All the mud came out😊

Meanwhile, here we are 39 years ago:

(Oh that hat!!).  No special plans to celebrate our anniversary...just more of the same wedded bliss - lol.  Really, it's been great and here's to many more years together.

This year we have two pairs of nesting wrens!  The first is in a bird house hanging on a branch of our apple tree:

And the second is in a gourd hanging on our patio:

Look at all those little twigs sticking out!  And now there is more than one hole in the gourd (they have a front and a back door!!).

Wrens have nested in both places in prior years much to Tyg's enjoyment.  Neither one is a particularly safe place - Tyg climbs the apple tree all the time and just under the gourd is a large trashcan for yard waste - Tyg often jumps onto that and from there it is an easy reach to the gourd.  I'm hoping that both families survive.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  We have plans to meet Colin & Mailing for breakfast tomorrow (within walking distance from their home) and then walk over to the Farmers' Market.  We have some errands to run after that and Colin is going to grill some lunch for us.  It will be nice to hang with them a bit.  And Sunday Dee and I are going to meet up!  Finally!!  We haven't gotten together in about a month, so it will be good to catch up (and perhaps have a little retail therapy??).

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - enjoy!!

Plans

Good Morning!

The sun is out (at least for a little bit) and it is already muggy.  Whew did we have some wild storms last night!  Just as I was pulling dinner out of the oven, a huge clap of thunder made both Fletch and me jump.  It sounded SO close.  Mailing said that a number of people she works with north of us (up by the Allentown area) had windshields cracked from hail - some hail was the size of ping pong balls!  More storms are forecast for tonight.

Today is the "real" Memorial Day (before they made most of the holidays fall on Monday).  And it is my Dad's birthday.  If he were still among the living, he would be 99 today.  Missing him each and every day.

Last night I had all good intentions of pulling yarn out and starting something new...but instead I cleaned the bathrooms (which really needed to be cleaned) and chatted on the phone with my friend Carol in Maryland.  She's having a bit of a rough time since her Mom passed away 3 weeks ago.  So this morning over coffee I pulled some yarn.

First of all, the "bad" yarn that I used for the shell cottage sock will not become a Hitchhiker.  I had completely forgotten that I did manage to finish one (very tight) sock, so the yarn left would equate to (maybe) 20 or 25 teeth.  Not enough (and I am not going to unravel the sock - totally not worth it).  I will save the bit that's left and use it for heels and toes on some socks.  Meanwhile, here is what I came up with.  First up some socks in the Tosh colorway "Tart."

I plan to use the top portion of the Gladys pattern (free on Ravelry).  We'll see how that turns out.

Next up, this yarn that I purchased earlier in the year at the Allentown Fiber Festival:

There is a bit of sparkle to it and I'm excited to be using it so soon after purchasing it - lol.  I also love the name of the colorway:  "Secluded Forest."  I plan to make Odyssey Shawl by Joji Locatelli - another freebie on Ravelry.  The pattern calls for 3 different colors, but I think this gradient will work well and there is sufficient yardage.  Woo-Hoo! 

Both yarns, patterns and needles have come to work with me today.  Now if the lunchtime Gods will allow, I should be able to start something!

Unraveled Wednesday - May 29, 2019

Good Morning!

Another grey, moist day here in Eastern PA.  Strong thunderstorms are forecast along with flooding conditions.  We did have some storms last night, but nothing too severe.  And, at least we are not getting snow, unlike some unlucky folks (thinking of you Nancy).  And gosh!  What awful tornadoes around the country.

Meanwhile, it is Unraveled Wednesday, and I'm joining in with Kat and friends.  Yesterday I showed Mailing's finished Hitchhiker.  I think I *need* to order more of that yarn (Ancient Arts Yarn in the colorway "Midnight Clear") - it is such a beautiful blue.  I worked a little bit on my Down The Rabbit Hole sock:

It is a 13 row repeat and I have finished two repeats and am in the middle of the third.  I forget the brand of yarn, but the colorway is "Grapefruit Sangria."  It is a fun pattern, though it is going slowly for me as there are two cables on each needle in every row.  I am not a speedy cable knitter, but I am enjoying it. 

Remember the awful yarn I used for the (start of) Shell Cottage socks?  It kept splitting and behaving poorly.  Well Dee has suggested that the yarn would be great as a Hitchhiker.  So, I may be starting yet a third Hitchhiker very soon.  The pattern is so addictive - lol.  That would be perfect for bringing to work and coffee shops when I meet up with Dee!  There are a few other patterns that I am looking at as well - more on them later when I pick out some yarn and get moving.

On the reading front, over the weekend I started A Tangled Mercy which I downloaded for free some time ago on my Kindle.  I'm about a quarter of the way through and it is ok...set in Charleston it flips between the early 1800's (slave uprising) and 2015 (troubled 20-something grad student researching that period of time).  So far I haven't really connected with the main character (troubled 20-something) and the book could use some editing (wonder why it was free??).  Meanwhile, a book came through on Overdrive that I have been waiting for:  Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston. 

To find out what others are making (and, hopefully not unraveling) and reading, hop over to Kat's blog.

Weekending

Hello!

How was your weekend?  I hope you had a good one.  Mine/ours was just what I needed (I did catch my breath - lol).

Friday I had hoped to leave work by Noon or 1 p.m., but did not get out till after 3.  But the evening brought success - I finished Mailing's Hitchhiker.  Love this one.

I blocked it Saturday and was able to give it to her on Sunday.

No pictures of it around Mailing's neck - Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend, and even inside with the air on, it was too warm for a Hitchhiker.  The main thing is she really likes it, so that makes me happy.

I managed to walk Saturday, Sunday and Monday!  Saturday I walked the River Trail in Valley Forge Park, but only 1.5 miles.  I wore some old sneakers and could feel every stone and pebble through the soles of the shoes.  By the time I was back to my car I was limping like an old person - ha!  Sunday I returned to the River Trail and this time walked 3.5 miles.  My walk was almost aborted when I just missed stepping on this guy

I couldn't tell initially if he/she was alive or dead.  It stayed very still for quite some time, but eventually slithered off the trail and I was able to continue on my way.  Dappled sunlight - so difficult to see things! 

Monday I picked a different trail (Perkiomen Valley Trail) which turned out to be very busy - lots and lots of people biking, jogging, walking.  I walked about 3.7 miles and it was much nicer in that the humidity had dropped considerably from Sunday.

Another nature picture:

Colin texted me this picture yesterday morning.  The little fawn was curled up by his fence sleeping.  This morning he told me the fawn was still there in the afternoon - in the hot sun, so he and Mailing moved it into a shady spot.  They tried to give it some water or milk, but it wouldn't take anything.  Later it moved to their shed and then back to the fence.  They were planning to call a wildlife rehabilitation center today, but the fawn was gone by this morning.  I hope he/she is ok...and I also hope he/she doesn't return to munch on Colin's garden!!

Sunday we went over to Mailing's parents for a cookout.  It was awfully warm and humid (high 80's) and ended up raining a bit, so her Dad grilled (chicken, shrimp, sausage and veggies), but we ate inside.  It was a very relaxed and lovely time.  Her Dad plays several different instruments - one of them is a "Horse Head Violin" from Mongolia.  He has two of these and they are so beautiful.  I had never seen anything like it.

Reminds me of a horse, but also a Seahorse. 

Monday was just a nice, peaceful day.  I walked, did a bit of knitting, ran some errands with Fletch and then cooked in the afternoon.  Fletch had cut some of the rhubarb from the garden, so I made a strawberry rhubarb pie.

That didn't help with weight loss I'm trying to achieve, but it sure did taste good!!

I did finally manage to finish a book A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains which was very interesting (particularly since so many of the places mentioned in the book are familiar to me since my brother lives in Boulder).  I have more of her travelogue books to read...she was quite the brave woman in the late 1800's.  For anyone interested, here is more info on her Isabella L Bird - I downloaded a  lot of her books for free on my Kindle.

All-in-all a wonderful weekend and now a short work week.  Still plenty of budget meetings going on here at the office, but the worst for me is finished, so I should be able to catch up on some blog reading!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Catching My Breath!

Good Morning!

The sun is out and it is a GORGEOUS day.  Life has just been so very, very busy and I'm trying to catch my breath and stay sane.

Last weekend was wonderful.  My friend Leslie and her husband Bob arrived Friday right around dinner time.  We ordered out (cuz that's what we usually do Friday nights...and they really wanted Philly steak sandwiches) and then had a nice fire in the pit...sat around with beer and wine catching up.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day for Colin & Mailing's party.  Leslie and I took a short walk in Valley Forge in the morning (not far as she had just had knee surgery the week before!), and then we all headed over to Colin & Mailing's around 2.  There were about 40  people there plus a (loud) live band - friends of Mailing's from work.  Great food and lots of catching up with "kids" I hadn't seen in some time as well as some relatives from out of town.  I can't believe that I did not take a single picture!  But, Leslie got a great one of the happy couple:

Mailing's dress was so pretty,, and they both just smiled all day long.

We didn't leave till around 9 p.m. and didn't stay up long.  Bob & Leslie had a long drive back to NC on Sunday and, in fact, they were on the road before 7:30 a.m.!  I did a little laundry and then headed out around 10 to meet up with Mailing, her Mom & sister and best friend to look at wedding gowns.  Boy did I get choked up - lol.  I'll probably be a mess at the wedding.  No decision yet, but the hunt has started.  We all went out to lunch and then headed home in our separate directions (we were all fairly tired from Saturday).

Work has been hectic this week.  Still in budget season and everyone is fairly stressed out, lots of tension in the air, etc.  I only worked a couple of hours Monday morning as I had some minor eye surgery late morning.  But yesterday was slammed and today is promising to be more of the same.

Meanwhile, on the home front, we are down to one car!  When my Dad passed away 5-6 years ago, Fletch's Explorer was nearing the end of a useful life, so he took my Dad's car.  That car failed inspection in April and is not worth repairing, so as of May 1st it is un-inspected and un-insured.  We left for vacation and returned and have been crazy busy ever since.  We need to go car shopping!  If I were retired, I would be happy with just one car, but since I am still working, we really need two.

We also haven't gone grocery shopping in a couple of weeks!  This morning I stopped on my way to work just to pick up cat food which we needed.  Poor Tyg!  Can't let him go hungry.  And, speaking of Tyg, he was very friendly towards Bob & Leslie.  Surprised the heck out of me!!

I'm hoping to catch up on laundry, groceries, etc. this weekend.  Fletch wants to pick up some roofing supplies (he is going to re-do our patio roof).  And, we are going to Mailing's parents on Sunday for a cookout - I promised to make dessert, so I need to figure that out.

There hasn't been much knitting or reading going on...hoping to rectify that soon as well, and also catch up on some blog reading.

Hope you are all doing well!

Friday Felines

Hello All,

Happy Weekend...almost...

This week has been so long.  The guys who were in for budget reviews hated the restaurant I chose Wednesday night - lol.  We went to True Food which is really good, but they all prefer a greasy mess, so there was a lot of complaining.  My boss, Kevin, admitted that the appetizers were very good.  But they all ended up at Chickie and Pete's later for greasy food and heavy drinking.  Luckily I was home.

So, a conference call this a.m. and I'm hoping to get out of here by 2 at the latest.  I need to text Leslie and find out what time she & Bob will be coming over from his sister's house.  I don't know if they'll be at our place for dinner...or later.  I need to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things.

Colin was over last night and picked up some lawn chairs for his party tomorrow.  And some plywood - there will be a band playing and the drummer needs a solid, level space.  Col's friend Ray will be bartending and the food planned sounds really good (mostly finger food).  I'm really looking forward to this and the weather is looking perfect!

Meanwhile, Tyg will not be pleased to have two strangers in the house for the weekend.  He will most likely stay out most of the time.

And stare back at the house wondering when things will get back to normal.....

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - have fun!

Unraveled Wednesday - May 15, 2019

Good Morning!

Wow!  The sun is out!  It is still chilly (41), but is supposed to get up to 71 today😌

I'm feeling unraveled this morning.  Monday night I didn't sleep well - I was having some very weird dreams and I kept waking up every 30 - 45 minutes.  Last night I fell asleep quickly, but woke up at 3 a.m. and never got back to sleep!  I've been at work since 7:15 this morning, and I have a work dinner tonight.  OK, enough griping.

Oh!  I forgot - I need to gripe about dinner last night - lol.  Colin & Mailing gave us a lot of leftover mussels Saturday night.  I ended up shelling them all and made a sauce last night to go over pasta:

Looks good!  Fletch really liked it.  It was way too fishy smelling for me to enjoy though.  The pasta was good, and the shallots and tomatoes, garlic & herbs...but I could not eat a single mussel. 

OK, I'm finished complaining now.

Fortunately there has been no unraveling of yarn this week.  I'm up to 30 teeth on Mailing's Hitchhiker.  The color is just so rich - I am loving this one.

And I finished the twisted rib on my "Down The Rabbit Hole" sock.  Loving this yarn too.

I've been cleaning in preparation for Leslie coming this weekend.  Now it turns out that Bob, her husband, will be coming as well.  That means another room to clean!  Our guestroom only has a twin bed in it, so we'll put them in what was Colin's bedroom which has a full bed.  They won't get to our place until after dinner on Friday and they need to leave early Sunday, so a quick visit, but it will be so good to see them again.

Well, time to roll - I've got about 10 guys in today for budget reviews.  I hope they're ready!!

Head on over to Kat's to see how other Unravellers are doing.

What Month Is This???

Good Morning!

It is grey and wet and in the 40's.  That was our weather all day yesterday too.  It feels like March!

Saturday was beautiful though (until the evening).  I went out early to one of my favorite walking places - along the canal and walked 3.25 miles.  There were a number of people out on the trail at 8:30, but there was not much wild life.  I saw a few geese and one giant turtle.  (Also, the skeleton on the bench was still there - lol.)  We did some grocery shopping and late afternoon headed over to Colin & Mailing's.  Dinner was wonderful:

Mussels and fries.  There was also a salad with garden lettuce.

Toasted pecan cake (Smitten Kitchen) - SO GOOD!!

We sat outside for a little bit and had a very small fire, but soon it started raining.

Sunday morning Fletch and I *tried* to go to breakfast.  First we went to our favorite diner and discovered it has gone out of business😟.  We tried another place and it was so crowded and noisy that we left.  The third place was so busy we couldn't get a parking space.  We came home and I cooked bacon and eggs - lol.  The rest of the day I spent cooking and cleaning.  It was pouring rain and cold, so not a good day to be out and about anyway.  I had to clean the guestroom as my friend Leslie is driving up from NC at the end of the week!!  We have been friends for over 50 years.  She's coming up for the party Colin & Mailing are throwing next Saturday (combination house warming and engagement party).

I did manage to start a new pair of socks!

Fun yarn.  It is 100% superwash Baah La Jola and the colorway is "Grapefruit Sangria."  So summery, isn't it?  The pattern I'm doing is Down the Rabbit-Hole - a free pattern on Ravelry.  Usually I knit the ribbing as K2, P2, but this time I'm following the pattern and K1 tbl, P1.  I've done 10 rows...another 5 and I'll see what I think.

On the reading front, Fletch and I finished The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas (so good - very humorous in places) and started "Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne.  We enjoyed "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" so much last year, we've decided to read another by Verne.

Hoping everyone had a great weekend (and better weather than we had/have).

YAY for Fridays!!

Good Morning!

It's kind of grey-ish out and we are expecting thunderstorms today - or more likely tonight.  But, it is Friday - TGIF.  Especially on the first week back to work after vacation.  I am more than ready for the weekend.

I left work around 2 yesterday (had some minor surgery in the afternoon) and then Colin cooked dinner - grilled chicken, home-made corn muffins (delicious), and a BIG salad made with several types of lettuce from our garden and radishes from Colin's garden.  It tasted so good to be having garden produce.

After dinner Colin and I took a walk (about 3 miles) along the Perkiomen Trail.  The trail is paved and the grass is kept short next to the trail, but otherwise everything is left pretty much to the wild.  We saw red winged blackbirds and lots of phlox in bloom.  What really surprised me was we saw honeysuckle in bloom - I always think of that as a mid-through-late summer bloom.

Sorry the pic is so dark - we were on our way back to the car and it was after 8 p.m.

We also saw several pairs of geese.  One pair had 2 little goslings and the other pair had 8!  So cute.

Once home, I cleaned up the kitchen and the guys started a fire in the pit.  It felt good - the air was a bit chilly and damp.

I'm hoping for an easy day today (caterers just arrived with breakfast for us!!) and an early get-out-of-Dodge kind of day.  We are going over to Colin & Mailing's for dinner tomorrow to celebrate Mother's Day.  (Sunday is supposed to be a wash out all day).  They are fixing mussels in wine, home-made fries with home-made mayonnaise (I love me some mayonnaise on my fries).  Not sure what vegetables we'll be having, but I'm already excited for the mussels and fries - lol.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms - have fun!!

Vacation - Part 2

Good Morning!

Part 2 of our vacation coming up.  We had a day to just hang at our campsite outside of Charlottesville - we didn't bother going in to walk around as we had been there the prior Spring.  We found a nature trail on property and walked that.  I did some knitting and took a (well-deserved) nap and Fletch puttered around going various things.  We grilled steaks for dinner which were pretty flavorless😞 - luckily we had some great Brussels sprouts and onions to go with them. 

Wednesday we got up, packed up our camp and headed South to the Suffolk area.  We stopped at the "famous" Virginia Diner for lunch which was good (but everything was sweet - even my chicken salad!!).  We got to Damon & Peggy's (Fletch's brother and his wife) mid-afternoon and relaxed with a beer.  That night Fletch stayed up later than everyone and ended up locking himself out of their house!  He spent the night in our camper in their driveway - lol.

Thursday morning the guys went through a bunch of old photos and memorabilia and I knit.  We headed out to the Smithfield area in the afternoon.  First stop was Fort Boykin on the James River.  We walked a bit and came upon this gorgeous Black Walnut tree.  It is the 2nd oldest tree in Virginia and is over 200 years old!

And we did a bit of beach combing.

Smithfield has some lovely old Victorian houses, so we strolled around town a bit and ended up on a nature path that Peggy used to walk when she was working (she retired in March).  Much to my dismay, we came across this guy:

A black snake over 4' long.  I was not pleased.  Supposedly they are harmless, but that doesn't really matter to me.  I stepped up the pace (plus the mosquitoes were coming out) and we made it safely back to the car - lol.  We ended up at Captain Muck A Chuck's for dinner - a place right on the water.  The fish tacos were some of the best I've ever had and the frozen margarita wasn't bad either.

Friday we went out to breakfast and then stopped by Fletcher's uncle's home to say hello.  Then we packed up and hit the road for Chincoteague.  It was pretty windy in Suffolk and we were a bit concerned about crossing the Bay Bridge, but there were no restrictions and it turned out to be much less windy on the Eastern Shore.

As we were setting up our campsite, the wind picked up a bit.  We had dinner and just as we finished Fletch's sister Lori and her husband Patrick arrived (in their very large RV).  It was a great night for a camp fire (though the wind whipped up the fire and we went through our 2 bundles of wood quickly) and we just sat around having beverages and catching up a bit.  We could see the lighthouse on Assateague from our campsite.

Saturday we tooled around Chincoteague.  We had planned to go to Assateaque and tour the lighthouse, but last time we were there the bugs were so bad we couldn't even get out of the car!  It was kind of a mucky day so we stayed put.  Fletch and I did find a nature trail that was about 1.5 miles long on the bay side of the island.

We didn't linger as there was a lot of standing water and ponds that seemed perfect for various insects.  We did hear a lot of bull frogs.

Driving around on some back roads, we came upon the Timothy Hill House - the oldest house on Chincoteague (circa 1800).

And we stopped for ice cream on our way back to the campsite!  I have not stopped for ice cream in years.  It was delicious, but I couldn't even finish it.... 

Sunday dawned with some rain.  Lori & Patrick packed up and headed back to their home in Chesapeake, VA by 8:30!  Fletch and I had a lazy morning and then went to the Chincoteague Museum.  Lots of Island history.  I was sorry not to be able to visit the yarn shop and not to see any ponies, but all in all, we had a wonderful time.  We didn't leave until after dinner on Sunday to avoid the heavy traffic around Dover, DE.  We pulled into our driveway just after 11 p.m.

A fun time, but it is good to be home!!

Vacation Part 1

Greetings on this grey and misty Wednesday.  We had a touch of rain overnight, but I have some pictures that will brighten things up.  Warning:  picture heavy.

We started our trip by driving to Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, April 27th.  We had had some very high winds (and tornado warnings) on Friday and the winds were still pretty strong on Saturday - not fun going over bridges while towing a camper.  But, we made it safely to our KOA which was small and very quiet (yay!!).  We set up our camper, cooked some dinner and tried to have a fire, but the wood we bought was very damp.

Sunday dawned and it was a gorgeous day.  After breakfast we unhitched the car, left the camper and drove down to Richmond.  We met a couple of Fletcher's cousins and his aunt at Tazza's Kitchen for lunch.  Really good food!!  After several hours of hanging around chatting, we followed Fletcher's cousin Kathy and her husband Rex back to their home in the Fan District of Richmond.  We took an afternoon walk along the walkway across the James River.  There were lots of turtles (including some snapping turtles) and birds.

We saw a group of people practicing rock climbing on a very steep wall.  We fixed some salads for dinner and later in the evening took a walk in their neighborhood.  It's kind of like walking around Society Hill in Philadelphia - very elegant homes.  The only difference is that there are a ton of Confederate statues all along the different roads.  Here's a picture of the front of Kathy & Rex's home:

Monday was a bit damp and on the cool side.  We had coffee and then made our way to the Stir Crazy Cafe (a local, funky coffee shop) for breakfast.  After that we headed to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens - 50 acres of gorgeous gardens.  So many plants in bloom, so many peaceful places.  It was wonderful.  Some snaps:

Pitcher Flowers

A beautiful carved gate...and Fletch

Pink Lady Slippers

I want this bench!!

This is the same tree that I showed yesterday (with Fletch & me standing in front of it).  HUGE!!  And, over 100 years old.

There were greenhouses with beautiful flowering cacti and other tropical plants:

And a room with just butterflies!!

They put out dishes of fruit and also water for the butterflies to enjoy

They were everywhere!  You had to watch where you stepped because some were resting on the walkways.

There was also a very large community garden with ripe tomatoes (already!!), squash plants in bloom, plenty of greens and bee hives!!

We walked around for over 3 hours and then ended up at the cafe on property for lunch.  If you are ever in the Richmond area, I cannot recommend this garden highly enough.  It is gorgeous!!

We headed back to Kathy & Rex's, packed up our car and drove back to Charlottesville and the sun came out!  We fixed a great dinner of nachos (done over charcoal) and then had a small campfire to end out the day.

Tomorrow - Part 2.  Thanks for sticking with this long, picture-heavy post.

I'm Back!

Well hello!

We are back from vacation - got in late Sunday evening and yesterday was spent mostly on laundry and picking up a few groceries.  Today I'm back to work and it's a bit on the busy side (no surprise there).  So this will be very quick.  More details later.

We did have a fabulous time and excellent weather (which is highly unusual for us - lol).  Here we are in front of a tree that is over 100 years old!!

This was taken at a Botanical Garden we visited in Richmond (again - more later...and more pictures!!).

I only took the Southwest socks to work on and finished them approximately 3 hours before we headed home on Sunday!

They ended up being matchy-matchy (which I normally don't like) and I love them.  Sadly no yarn shops were seen during our trip.  There were a couple in Richmond I had noted down, but our time was limited there.  I really wanted to visit Carodan Farm on Chincoteague Island, but they were closed since they were at Maryland Sheep & Wool.  Boo-Hoo. 

I managed to read a few blogs while I was gone but not many...I'll be trying to catch up a bit over the next few days.  More about our trip in the next post.  For now, I've got to get back to work.