Huge tracts of, um, something...

So I was returning home from the gym (yes, I have been slowly making my way back into the world of exercise) and I saw something weird on the garage door as it was making its way up. What was it you ask? You know I had to close the door and then go outside to see what it was. Enter our night visitor...


And for good measure, I, well, er, measured him/her/it. Four inches of icky slug is attached to my garage door. I hope it doesn't find anything good to eat in my yard cause I don't think I have the nerve to squish anything that big. UGH!



Other than giant slugs there is not much of note happening around our household. Just a little more knitting on ye old scarf this evening and in general being a bit lazy. Kinda nice.

Attack of the dull, dull little birds

Not sure why, but our back yard seems to be a very exciting place for these birds. This is the second time that we have seen a gigantuan flock of these little guys hanging around our backyard. They don't seem to be eating our grass seed, so I think it might be all the weeds back there that is grabbing there attention.


Joe ran out back and screamed at the birds and they hi-tailed it to the safety of our roof. It was actually quite funny! So many birds, but I have no idea what they are. They look pretty boring actually. Just brown and dull. However, when there are 50 of them in your backyard one tends to take notice.

Budda loves knitting

I have finally completed my first scarf! It has been 99.99% complete for months, but I finally learned how to bind off, so it is officially done. Thanks to Aunt Rebecca for the beautiful yarn and the lessons on knitting!


Now I am on a knitting frenzy! OK... lots of exclamations going on here, but it is so neat to see something take shape like this. This is my first scarf that has a pattern. I will be learning how to do variations on the knit and purl this Thursday so watch out!

Knitting!

Short but sweet today. I have learned how to purl! The day is mine... or something like that. Anywho, I am excited and I can't wait to start some sort of project. Maybe I will start that new bag that I bought yarn for. Ooooh! I can't wait!

Ahhhh!

Gratuitous photo of the giant 11 pound rabbit! Her name is Smokey and she is in love with Lenore...

San Diego... the end

I am slow and here is the final bit about our trip to San Diego. It was only a week and a half ago when we got back, but that is just the way it is.


We went to a Padres game on the 1st with several of DH's coworkers. They played the Houston Astros and ended up with a loss, but it was a very close game and tons of fun!


Our last day DH took me around to a couple of places that I wanted to go. One was Stitcher's Treasures, a nice cross-stitch shop in Esconido, CA which is a little north of San Diego. I bought a few new Mirabilia's there and had a nice time just perusing the shop. I asked about a spot for lunch and A Delight of France Bakery was recomended and WOW was it good. Everything seemed to be made fresh that day and tasted delicious. If you are in the area stop by for a glass of wine and some good food. After that we drove over to Pacific Beach. Again, DH stopped by a cross-stitch and knitting shop, called Needlecraft Cottage, to let me have a look around. Since I am taking a knitting class next week I went ahead and purchased a Miro book and some yarn to knit a cute bag. Wish me luck! After we wondered Pacific Beach for a while we headed back into the Gaslamp District to walk around and grab some dinner before our flight back home. Another excellent restaurant is Bella Luna. We have eaten here in the past and it never disappoints. Mmmm yummy! It is so nice to be able to eat outside and not be miserable. Something that is just too hard to do over here in Charlotte.


Before I sign off there are a couple of really great places that we went to earlier that I have to mention. One is Carol Gardyne's shop over in the Italian district. I went there last year and didn't buy one of her gorgeous hand painted scarfs (that she creates in the shop) and regretted it. This year I got a beautiful green and black one. You really should check them out!
Last but not least there is Chi Chocolat. Double yummy! You cannot go wrong with gourmet fine chocolate made in house. Really yummy!


So that is probably enough advertisement for one night. So many cool places to do and see in San Diego, that is probably why it is one of my favorite places to visit...


Good night.

San Diego... the middle

I have been lax in my blogging duties as of late. To start the ball rolling again I will finish up with all the fun that we had out west.

Let’s see, Monday (the 1^st) was a most fantastic day. This was the day for The Day of Beauty a la the Four Season Aviara Spa. Words cannot explain the luxury and the happiness and the sheer luxury of this experience. So I will attempt to explain it anyway… it started with a salt scrub (nice course salt to scrub all the nasty off of you and then wiped away with a nice warm towel and then a nice shower in which to remove the remaining salt) which accounted for the first hour, which doesn’t sound all that great, but, oh wait, there’s more. The second hour was the avocado wrap. Yeah, that was nice, soothing, and oh so relaxing. Imagine being covered with green avocadoesque creamy goodness and then wrapped in a human size heating pad with Velcro closures (for some reason I found that humorous…) while my skin was soaking up the avocado goodness I was given a nice facial massage including scalp. After the baking the avocado was removed with another hot towel. I barely made it to the next room for *gasp* the massage. No details, but I was jelly by the end. After the massage I had a Cobb Salad (can someone please rename that, it just sounds dirty) and a fruit smoothie for lunch. Once that was devoured I headed off to my final destination, which was the facial. I have decided that facials are great! My face was dewy and glowing once that lady was done with me. The end to a perfect day! I lounged around for about an hour after all of that to recoup from the perfection of it all. Not a day I will soon forget! If any of you are wondering about all of this pampering there was an actual reason for all of this. I have been coveting this Day of Beauty ever since DH started attending this particular conference that is held at the Four Season and since yesterday (the 10^th) was our 10 year anniversary he graciously allowed me to sign up. The key is how do I convince that this is do-able for next year?

I do stitch!

Ok, so maybe I haven't really been stitching for months. But for some reason the apartment we lived in for a few months seemed to suck the life out of me. No excuses now, we have been in the house for two months now.


This was finished today. The unfortunate thing is that whilst working on the third block I went to my LNS and saw this finished on a beautiful wintry blue fabric and it was gorgeous. Of course, I had to buy the fabric and they were kind enough to have made a list of the color changes that were used. I guess that means I may be stitching this again :) BTW: the same person had decided to do the Spring Snapperland on a wonderful spring yellow so I have ordered that fabric as well. I am a follower after all!

konagod

Yeah, I said I was going to bed, but surfing the net is fun, ya'know. Well, I couldn't pass this one up... konagod

You are very sleepy...

I will try and get to the rest of our great San Diego trip soon. We had tons o fun and bought many shoes! However, I need some sleep...damn the red eye... meanwhile I had a few things to share:

The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe: thanks Oz, you know I loved it!
Have I mentioned that I like Sea Monkeys? Now that we have settled into our new home I may have to add some to our lovely abode.

Oh and Darla from random cyberspace? Ha! And I mean that in the best of all possible ways, really. I about fell out of my chair when I read your comment. Made me laugh and the DH just rolled his eyes... you can comment anytime dear!