Good to Get Away; Great to Be Back

Like they always say, a change of pace often makes you appreciate the status quo, and that is certainly the case with this weekend. I had a smashing time in Fredericksburg with my two friends, but I was still very happy to get home and see my dear family once I got home.

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I enjoyed the teen sounds, Lee's stories, and even the lovingness of the dogs. Heck, this morning I even realized I'd missed the cheerful presence of the parakeet!

A Little (More Like a Lot) about My Trip

Suzanne is really good at planning getaways, and she reserved a cute, nicely furnished little house in Fredericksburg, called Abigail's Cottage. (I love the Internets--you can just SHOW people the house rather than go on about it.) She and I drove over there Friday evening, after a stop at the Burnet Dairy Queen for a decadent "dinner" of a Blizzard shake thing. Deana joined us later in the evening, since she'd been in San Antonio. Her husband deposited her and sped off, which was fine with us! It was great to be in a house, and no more expensive than a hotel! We knitted and chatted until late Friday night, then lazed around the next morning. More decadence. The house has a nice front porch for chatting and swinging.

Saturday during the day, after showering in the amazingly strong footed tub shower, we found the local yarn shop. Of course. We each got some stuff--selection was mostly Rowan, but it was nice, and I enjoyed the rug hooking and spinning stuff in the back, too. What pleased me most was that they had a good amount of naturally colored fibers, local fiber, and organic yarns. I was looking for that for a potential project, so I got good samples to try (there is more on this in the knitting blog). After that wonderful time, we had to eat, so a great lunch was had by us in a place called the Indian Nickel. I had a chicken sandwich with goat cheese and raspberry chipotle sauce.

All fortified up, we then sallied forth to all the girlie shops in Fredericksburg, unburdened by male partners who get sick of beads, jewelry, furniture, clothing and doo-dads. We could dawdle and dream about things we wished we owned to our hearts' content! I was more pleased at the content of the shops on this visit than I had been in the past. There was a lot more locally made stuff, and a greater variety of things than I have been in years prior. There were two really good, inexpensive jewelry stores (both of which got some of my newly available money). Some of the Mexican silver was really nice and really NOT expensive, though it seems to have been made just for the store I was in. In the other place, a guy made most of the things himself. Makes you proud to see a crafter who can make a living at it. His stuff was nice in a Texas-y way. There were also some amazing alabaster plates, bowls and goblets I wanted sooo bad, but managed to resist…at least for a while. Deana did get some.

After we were sufficiently tired, we headed back to the house for more knitting, an attempt to teach me to crochet with beads (I failed, but I did get going on peyote stitch), and watching the other two do beading. Suzanne got my carnelian Buddha bead strung onto a necklace, as you can see, and I like its rusticity. She is going to do more with my other large beads, once I get to her the accessory beads I bought on Sunday. Late in the evening, after dining on snacks, we watched a girly movie, Under the Tuscan Sun. It's something Lee and Beccano would never go for.

Sunday we lazed a bit more, enjoying the house's high-speed Internet, then packed up and headed back for more shopping. When our feet got to hurting too much, we ate at another local store, where I had the German plate (hey, I was in Fredericksburg, land of Germanic Heritage!). They had BOTH the peach cobbler AND chocolate bread pudding. I had eaten so much on the weekendthat I just had a bite of each.

What is sorta amazing is that we went on a holiday in the center of Texas in August and did not get overheated. We had the extreme good fortune of going out there on the first rainy weekend in months. Only we just got a few sprinkles. It was mostly cloudy and relatively cool. We really lucked out. So, all in all, it was a fine trip with some fun companions. We talked a lot about our families and issues, and really were just relaxed and mellow as we could be. Everyone has job stress (well, I don't, but I have an unemployed family member), so it was good to wind down.

The only bad thing was running out of yarn just shy of finishing my latest shawl. Ugh. The best thing was talking about a friend who has passed away with the lady at the store that sells all the cool rocks that my "happy stone" and our favorite candle holder are made of. I knew that friend was involved in this business, but it is so fun to make connections. That reminds me of what was good in that parenting organization. (Of course, it's the conferences I loved the best (the friend who has passed away was a great conference organizer in addition to being incredibly positive and funny no matter how sick she got), and getting out of town with my friends this weekend was the next best thing to going to one of those.)

I have some nice photos of where we stayed on my Flickr pages (scroll quickly through the shots of brown yarn and you will be fine), and will have more after I upload some later pictures.

Good to Be Home

I was so happy to see Lee and the boys, though. I enjoyed a nice dinner with Lee and Beccano, and had a nice time just watching Olympics and chatting. I even enjoyed listening to Tuba Boy's pals wailing away at Rock Band. I was glad that Lee liked the gift I gave him. I liked all the yardwork he did and hope we get tomatoes off his new plants! I must say the roses he planted are looking wonderful.

I know I rambled a bit. Writing in short bursts between Urgent Things to Do is not very conducive to concise, cogent writing. But hey, those of you who read this are my friends and used to me by now, huh! Thanks to Deana and Suzanne for taking the weekend off and letting me come along! It was great.

Suna and Lee Go Out of Town

Suna among Her Friends
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Who would have thought that a week with no job would be more busy than a week working? Well if you had my old job you'd know why. LOTS of time to blog sitting there waiting for work to do. At home, there is always something else to do, plus there are all those jobs to look for or interview for.

I had the second interview at the place I phone interviewed with yesterday already. They have a really nice workplace, good colors and stuff. The people seemed pretty nice, too, and weren't quite so overly young as the Monday place. We will see what happens. I am keeping my mind open. Tomorrow, it's back to ALE to try again there!

This post is about that nice weekend Lee and I had, already three days ago. We spent Saturday between Fredericksburg, Texas and Kerrville. We shopped in all the quaint and touristy shops in Fredericksburg, including Suna/Lee Nirvana, a candle factory. We also found a place on the shopping strip that sold these lovely cores from yellow quartz or something like that, from Utah. They were SO interesting that we had to get ourselves one for Yule, even if we are not rich! That place had a resident golden retriever who was in love with bubble wrap, and kept chomping it then carrying it around like his beloved. Very cute. Lee also got us a really pretty silver star, very large, with little palettes on it. He hung it on the front door, and it catches the light from the Christmas lights and shines at night. I'll have to take a picture.

At the end of our Fredericksburg jaunt we stopped in the wine shop where we met the vintner referred to yesterday. He seemed like a sweet fellow who'd rather be out making wine than selling it. Glad we happened in there at the right time. We will go back to that shop!

I'd never really seen the city of Kerrville, just the folk festival site and one hotel. So, Lee drove me out there I am glad he did. It has some nice spots, hiding among the creeping blandness of all US stores being the same. Lee then took me to the next down down the road, the name of which escapes me, and it was way nicer. A long stretch along a beautiful river, and some neat houses were there. Then, he turned into a drive with really nice hand-made lawn furniture, which turned out to be made by a guy he knew from high school. We dropped in on them and had a very nice visit in their incredibly charming little cottage. It had the original door with a rounded top, hand forged hinges and old-fashioned lock. And lovely wood paneling, The people seemed very friendly and I hope they liked me OK. I really have not met many of Lee's old friends, and I just hope they haven't been told icky stuff by his ex or something.

We spent the night at a nice hotel, the new Best Western, which had nice views and was quiet. We ate cheese and crackers and drank a bottle of the lovely wine. What a nice evening!

I woke up in bad shape Sunday--one side of my head was all sinused out. My ear had sharp pains all day (finally got better yesterday). But, I was resolved to enjoy the day anyway, and we sure did! It was a gorgeous day--if you have time, please take a look at some of the pictures we took of Enchanted Rock. You know I love the pink granite around this area and Marble Falls, and Enchanted Rock is one HUGE hunk of it. No wonder the Native Americans revered it. There are very interesting plants around it, and microclimates. We hiked all around the perimeter of the rock, which wasn't too bad except for one bit that was very rocky. We were trying to take care of Lee's knees. I ended up more sore than him. The weather was great, too. It had been very cold in the night, but warmed up pleasantly during the day--cool but not unbearable (and the huge winds of Saturday had died down). What fun we had!

We came home and were happy to learn that XH had taught Tuba Boy to drive the car, though I let him have it yesterday to go to school and he stalled a lot and hit something. But it was just one gash in my bumper. Not horrible. He got a school parking permit and I am sure feels quite old now.

Yesterday, other than interviewing, I hung out at the yarn shop for quite a while, then I did wrap what presents we have, and put them on a table so Rose won't eat them. We will have a pleasant Christmas--everyone has at least a couple of things. I even have two so far! We rehearsed with Trey Bone in the evening, after a dinner that I loved of lima beans and rice. What touched me was how Beccano chowed down on those beans. He loves my home cooking--he also loved the gingerbread I made, too. Awww. Lee wasn't feeling well, but made it through the rehearsal.

Tonight at choir we have a little baby shower for two of the members, so that will be nice.

All is well. I am thinking of my far-flung friends and family!