Here's how far I made it on the scarf before the manufacturer put a knot in the yarn.  It switched from the dark purple to the hot pink instantly - not a good look.

Here's the pattern I found for the rest of the yarn.  It is a cluster afghan stitch - though the afghan stitch is now called the Tunisian stitch.  Even in the Red Heart yarn, it is pretty.

Here is a sample made up with the yarn.

Here's all the quilting material I have to cut up and piece together.  I did get a little of it done today, but we had a picnic at the park this afternoon for Ralph's work, so....I didn't get it all cut out.

Alli seemed to have a good time at the park today.  The weather was great - a high of 92.  We were sitting in the shade, and it was beautiful!

Ralph and Alli walking to the picnic.

How quickly things change.  It seems like just yesterday the boys were little, but yesterday was Dallas's going away party.  He leaves Tuesday for Pittsburgh, PA.  My babies are growing up!  (and he's not even technically mine - Margene and I were trying to think of a name for how we are related - our boys think they are brothers, what does that make us??)

I went empty handed to my quilt class yesterday.  I have not touched the sewing machine in over a month.  I still have fabric from the last class that I haven't even cut out yet, much less pieced together.  I have the last quilt pinned and ready to quilt, but not much done on it.  I'm falling behind!  The instructor scared me about next year.  She said she will like it much better - it is still four projects, but they are bigger project.   She didn't think that these little ones were a lot of fun to do, and she had no good use for the small projects except as gifts.  Bigger?  I'm in trouble!  I may be talking to Meredith about splitting the class - she do two of the quilts, and I do two.  If I can't finish four 'small' projects, how am I going to finish four 'bigger' projects?  We'll see - it's been a fun experiment.  I've always wanted to quilt something, and now I have!

I think I found a new pattern to use the yarn I bought in Crescent City.  I started a scarf in it, and it was looking pretty good.  About 12 inches into the scarf, there was a knot in the thread, and they knotted it to a completely different color in the shading!  How could they do that?  This was not cheap thread!!  I cut off where I was working, and was trying to figure out where I wanted to go from there - start over?  Find a spot in the thread that matched up to where I was so I continue without such a blatant color change?  Write a nasty letter to the manufacturer?  Then, yesterday, I got a new crochet magazine that had a scarf that is gorgeous, and I think the rest of the yarn will be perfect for it.  Not only that, but it is a new technique for me - something new and beautiful!  I started a swatch last night just to try out the pattern, and even in Red Heart yarn it is pretty!

Speaking of working the swatch - I did that last night while I was house-sitting.  Meredith called yesterday, and her dad has taken a turn for the worse and her husband and daughter were on their way down to Castor Valley, could AJ house-sit for them?  Well, not really - he was going to be at Dallas's party last night (Margene planned an all-nighter for the boys - and there were about 8 of then there yesterday, so it could go on all night!) but I could!  AJ went over with me yesterday afternoon to show me what needed to be fed (three fish tanks and two dogs).  I went over last night about 8:30 and fed everyone, and then sat and talked to the dogs for a while while I worked up my swatch.  Sofie talks back, so it was fun.  They don't take a lot of upkeep.  They would love to go for a walk, I'm sure, but they are fine without one, too.

Another birthday has come and gone, and I don't feel any older!  I got some nice phone calls for my birthday, lots of comments on Facebook, and my co-workers had a potluck lunch for me - yum!  Even my "little" brother called - I haven't talked to him since July when we went camping.  I was partying too hard at work though, and missed a meeting I was supposed to attend (it wasn't my fault - they tempted me with berry cobbler and homemade ice cream!)  Luckily, no one at the meeting seemed too bent out of shape - lucky since three of the people in the 6 people meeting are all either an SVP or and EVP - not someone I want to think of me as a slacker!  The meeting was a 'debriefing' of the conference I attended last month.

Wednesday was the book club meeting at my house.  Luckily, Dawn was able to do a bunch of the prep work for me while I was at work.  She made the ice cream for me, and got the oven fired up and put the  enchiladas in before I got home - a huge time saver for me!  The book wasn't that great (I can say that - I chose the book!) but the bookmarks seemed to go over well.  Dawn even stole one, and she didn't read the book!  The book for next month is "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford.  I've ordered a copy through Amazon, and it looks good!

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  This week has been so busy between getting ready for the book club, scouts, my birthday, and just keeping the house running - I'm ready for the weekend!  Saturday is my quilting club, and I haven't even cut out the material from last month.  I haven't touched my sewing machine in a couple of months.  I'm in trouble!  I do want to sit down and quilt, it's just finding the time to do it.  I'm taking a vacation day next Friday, but I'm going to Susanville after work on Thursday, then to Reno on Friday, and I have a Eastern Star meeting back in Susanville on Saturday - my last meeting for this year.  No time that weekend to sew.  Maybe I'll dig out some time this weekend?

I kept forgetting to take pictures of Alli's new haircut!  It is cute, and now VERY easy to wash and comb!

I finished the bookmarks for the book club!  The book this month (kind of a let-down of a book - not that great!  Worse yet - I chose the book!) was Don Juan in Hankey PA.  It is the on-going drama of putting on an opera - so.....the book mark is the drama comedy/tragedy masks.  I started with this one - one mask on each side.  Not bad, but....not that good either.

So - on to plan B - two masks side by side.  The first set had the faces embroidered, and putting them back to back hid the stitch work.  Side by side called for a different plan - felt!  It sounded good, but it was tough to get the little tine pieces of felt just how I wanted them, and where I wanted them.  But, I persevered (:)) and got:

We played hooky from one session in San Diego and took a tour on the USS Midway.  I'm glad we skipped "Taking Credit Quest to the Next Level? (we don't even have the program yet - anything is the next level for us!) and spend some time out there.  When I think of the Midway, I think of WWII - I had no idea that it didn't see action there.  I also thought of it as an 'o;d' ship, but it was active into the 90's.  It was the lead ship for Desert Storm.  I also sat in on a presentation by a docent on how they actually launch the aircraft from the ship.  Cool!  We climbed up and down stairs that I sure glad I don't have to climb every day in a hurry!  Here are some of the photos  - in no particular order.

I made it back all in one piece from San Diego!  I took tons of pictures - of course - and some were even decent!  The trip was great - the conference was good, the location and weather perfect!  It was so nice to be out of the smoky skies of Redding.  He stayed at The Hyatt, right on the harbor.  We were just a few blocks from the Gas Lamp District (lots of restaurants, shops and 'drinking establishments')  Here is a view from my hotel room toward the 'city'.

And here are a couple toward the harbor.  The large ship in the center right of the photo is the USS Midway museum.  Way cool!!

 I wondered a lot down in the harbor area between the sessions and dinner, and during the lunch break.  It was too nice to stay inside!

 I had to take a picture of this ship - it is The Allison C" - love it!

 Between the hotel and the harbor was 'Seaside Village', a collection of shops and restaurants.  It was also a cool place to walk around - people watching. 

They had a really cool carousel too - it was originally built in the late 1800's.  Beautiful!

 One of the walks I made took me out to "The Walk of Heroes' - artwork dedicated to those in the military.  One area was dedicated to Bob Hope.  They had statues of Bob Hope speaking into the microphone,and around him, different soldiers.  There was a looped tape of Bob Hope speaking (from Vietnam while I was there) playing as well.

 Some of the Cypress trees along the walk.  The USS Midway is in the background.

 This was taken along the harbor on our way to dinner one night.

I opened my birthday present early, and made homemade ice cream for dessert for Dawn's birthday dinner last night.  It was wonderful!  (and it was so easy - this could become a really bad habit!)  I had been thinking about getting an ice cream maker for a while - ever since I got my Kitchen-Aide mixer (they have an attachment to make ice cream).  Not too long ago, I started doing more research, and decided I didn't want one - the good ones were way too expensive!  Most makers require the bowl to be frozen 24 hours before each use.  I don't always have room in my freezer, or what if I wanted two batches??  Then, last week, I had the best idea yet - Ralph used the reward points from one of our credit cards!  That took the price down on the expensive model to what we would pay for one of the 'more reasonably priced' models.  And then, it came in early, and then it was Dawn's birthday....I just had to open it!  Good idea!  It is a Cuisinart ice cream maker that has the freezer built in to it.  Wonderful!

I'm off today to San Diego - I think I have everything done before I leave.  I spent most of yesterday running around and cleaning.  I still have to pack, but that is about it.  I'm being picked up at 11:00 this morning.  My biggest decision - what project to take with me?  I finished up my doily last night - or as much as I can.  I ran out of thread 3/4 of the way around the last row.  I checked all of the stores here in town that carry thread, and no one has the Aunt Lydia's Copper Mist thread right now.  I'm bummed!  Do I rip out the last row and use a different color (and what would that be??) or just wait until I can find more thread?  I think I'm going to wait.  I'm hoping to get to Reno in September for Knit and Crochet show, and the Ben Franklin store then should have it,  If not I'll wait for a 'free shipping' day on one of the on-line stores and order it.  Eventually.  Bummer.

I made it through the week!  I wasn't too sure at times, but.....here I am!  This 'back to  school' stuff is tough on Mom's too.  Alli seems to be adjusting fine - I'm the one that is running around tired all the time, I think.  So far, school is going well.  At least, not a lot of notes home to us anyway.  By Wednesday, they had a new bus schedule for Allison - instead of being dropped off at 5:00 (even though the driver said it would be 4:45) she is being dropped off closer to 3:45.  Much better!

Yesterday started at 4:45 a.m. for me, and off to work by 7:00.  I got in from work around 8:30 p.m..  A long day!  My department was responsible for refreshments for the monthly staff meeting this month, and, since this is the Bank's 30th anniversary, 'they' decided we should all be at work at 7:45 on Friday before the meeting for a group photo.  No big deal, but that meant we had to have everything set up for refreshments before that!  I got to work at 7:10, and (with help from the department) got everything set up at 7:44.  Whew!  (And then, the photographer didn't show until 8:00)  Then, after work, we had a bridal shower for a co-worker.  I had spent my lunch hour on Thursday running around getting stuff for both activities, and then had to set up for the party between 5:00 (when the bank closed) and 5:30, when everyone showed up.  Everything went well, so it was all good - but I'm tired!  I was tired, but not sleepy - I watched TV until midnight last night, crocheting on a doily.  Then, of course, Alli was up at 5:30.  It's going to be a long day!

Our floor has its first casualty.  One of the dogs threw up sometime during the day, and it just had to be on one of the seams.  Oh well, it was going to happen anyway, but.....I was hoping to put it off for a while.  Two seams right in front of the couch are turning up.  Hopefully, it isn't too noticeable to anyone but me!

I'm off tomorrow on a business trip - I'm off to a conference in San Diego Sunday - Thursday.  It should be a fun trip - there are 6 of us going from the bank.  I have a chance to get "certified" in one of the programs I use at work - I'm looking forward to it.  I don't think Ralph is quite so excited about me leaving.  He'll be fine, but it is always stressful for him.    I've left him a list of what I do, what I pack in Alli's lunch,, etc.  he'll do great!

Alli (and classroom) survived her first day back to school.  She rode the bus to school - pickup is 6:10 a.m. - but I picked her up after school.  She had an appointment with her spine doctor at 4:00 and needed x-rays first.  Even x-rays took forever.  I was planning on getting the x-rays, and then stopping for a snacks, and then off to the doctor's.  Instead, we went right from one place to the other.  Then, we waited until 5:00 to see the doctor.  Alli was DONE by then, but....she survived that too.  Her spine has gotten a little bit worse over the course of two years.  In September, 2010, her upper curve was 47 degrees and her lower curve was 57 degrees.  Now they are 46 and 63 degrees.  She goes back in January to check for further deterioration.

I found a serious down side to sitting on the patio to blog......there was  skunk in the neighborhood last night.  Yuck!  It's still cooler than in the house, so it is a trade off.  He wasn't here very recently, or I would go back inside.  As it is now, I have two dogs (Tank and Koori) for company.  I was going to add that I have a couple of birds in the yard for company too, but Tank saw them.  He doesn't LIKE birds in his yard.  He chased them out before I could even type it.  No he's all proud of himself for defending his territory and is out strutting around the yard.  Silly dog! 

I finished up my baby afghan this morning.  I'm not real happy with the 'pucker' in the middle.  I'm hoping I can block that out.  We'll see!  The baby isn't due until November, so I have plenty of time to make some booties and a hat to go with it.

I didn't do much more on the blog yesterday than post pictures - it's all I really had a chance to do.  I made a big mistake by not bringing the "good" camera on the trip.  All the photos were from my phone, and it isn't the best for photos.  Don't get me wrong, for a phone, it takes great pictures, but it is still a phone first.  The 'good' camera would have been so much nicer to have.  Not to mention the fact that it is easier to get the photos off the camera than it is to get them off the phone,  I had to e-mail each picture home, open each e-mail and save the picture onto the computer.  I took almost 100 pictures!  It took all morning just to get the pictures on the computer and then I had to straighten them.  Every single picture I took was tilted a bit - some more than others.  I missed my camera!

The trip was good - good weather, good company, nice walks on the beach and in the trees.  I miss the coolness of the coast - I love walking in the mist in the big trees, and on the beach.  I wouldn't want it all the time - I love the sunshine, too (and you don't get much of that there) but I do like to get my "beach fix" every once in a while.  I need to do it more often - if Crescent City wasn't 4 1/2 hours away, it would be easier.  Even Eureka is 3 hours away - a bit long for a 'quick trip'.

Alli sure enjoyed the ocean.  She had fun in the sand on the beach long before I got her down to the water.  Once she knew she could actually walk in the water without me telling her to get out, she had a blast.  I couldn't keep her out of it!  Mom and I wandered up and down the beach looking for shells (of which I found exactly 1!) and then for pretty rocks - and we didn't find very many of those.  Alli trailed behind us, walking in the water.  We walked for over an hour, and she was still having fun.  Her feet were probably numb, but she was having fun!  The beach she was walking on is a very protected beach, and very slowly sloping out.  Very little danger for her - I was just worried that she might trip and fall due to the currents, and then I would have to wade out in the cold water to get her up.  She did good though - no falling - at least on the beach.  She did fall on our walk in the trees, and has a very nice bruise on one knee.  Poor baby!

Here's some videos of Alli playing in the waves