Three photos.
This little sterling cup (just a little over 2″ x 2″ excluding handle) arrived in the mail the other day. Janet was Rusty’s mom. She was born in Worcester, MA, in 1915 (d. 1978), the second of four children; by the time she was five, the family had moved to Providence, RI. Rusty’s brother, Dave, recently ran across the cup when he was sorting things, and he knew that we’d all love it. I’m torn about cleaning it… but that’s a lot of patina!
I'm joining Carole & friends today for Three Things on Thursday… (because I need some structure!)
I lost my (prescription) sunglasses Sunday/Monday somewhere between here & there! In my youth/younger days, I was perfectly happy to squint in the sun, but I've smartened up since then. I cannot/will not be without sunglasses! That pair was getting old — there've been more than a couple prescription adjustments since I bought those — and I'd made a mental note to myself to get them replaced by September at the latest. Unfortunately, I can't even get in for an exam until June 2nd, and it would be another week or two before a replacement pair was in-hand.
So, Amazon to the rescue with same-day delivery of a pair of Fit-Over Sunglasses… they're ENORMOUS and I'm feeling a little Jackie-O, but they're actually pretty great!
2. 8 Miles a Day = 20%
I rented neither scooter nor bicycle in Denver, but holy cow, did I put on the miles! I averaged over 19,000 steps/day over four days, which translated to just over 8 miles/day. That's about 3x my "normal" day. We walked everywhere except for transport from/to the airport, the return trip from the Denver Botanic Gardens (having walked there and then walked all around!), and Sunday when we rented a car to go to Garden of the Gods (where we walked all around!).
Anyway, all that hoofin' added up to having 20% of the North Coast 500 under my belt already!
3. Spring!
Finally. It's feeling — and looking — a bit more like Spring!
When Kate finished working (she's recently written a couple of articles featuring embroidery (!!!!)) yesterday, she went down to do a little clean up of the garden. This is a zoomed in shot from the bedroom window this morning — and I'm thrilled to see hostas emerging!
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I have a 4-day weekend beginning tomorrow (or today at 4pm), and it'll be full! Shopping & lunch with Kate & Ali tomorrow, followed by an overnight with the girls. On Saturday, the girls have a salon date, after which… shopping & lunch! On Sunday, I'll be roasting my last organic chicken from the CSA farm for a family dinner. And on Monday, I'll be taking Kate to ORD for her return to EDI. Cleaning/readying the Airbnbs as needed, too.
Whew.
I hope to be posting with a bit more regularity soon! Have a great weekend!
Three Things on Thursday…
Thing 1:
I have about 150 rows to go before Rusty's temperature panel is complete!
This was taken early yesterday evening… there was a fair bit of knitting afterwards to a couple of episodes of Yellowstone! I am so excited to start another panel!
I am especially happy with how much Rusty likes it!
Thing 2:
Stats!
Are you still playing Wordle everyday? I think of it as a good way to engage my brain every morning. I've played more games than this, but for the past 54 days, I've been playing exclusively on my phone; therefore, accurate stats. Most days, I also play Quordle… usually after my brain's been good & engaged for a while! haha. I like that there's a practice mode.
Thing 3:
My #1 daughter has her #1 official Colossal by-line.
I've been having a hard time putting together a post (or two or three) about Puerto Rico. There's a lot going on right now — in the world, in my life. I wake up one day, such as yesterday (my day off), thinking that I'm going to tackle taxes & bookkeeping, only to end up running out to buy a laptop for a certain adorable nephew in Peru (his logic board fried), shipping it to arrive across the state by Friday to Annie's boss (who happens to be visiting for a few days), who will then schlep it back to Lima/said nephew. By the time that was done, it was noon. I grabbed a quick bite for lunch, and then had a scheduled video chat with Kate to get her taxes filed & paid (she was running into a roadblock), along with some other chit-chat (for an hour), and then I needed a nap. Ali & the kids were due after dance class! I guess I did get some tax-related stuff done, as originally planned, but it wasn't mine!
So let's try small bites, shall we?
I'm joining Carole & friends today for Three Things on Thursday…
The only concrete engagement on our vacation "itinerary" was a guided trip to Gozalandia Falls on Saturday, from which I have three photos to share.
I had a couple of vouchers from Airbnb — perks for maintaining Superhost status — and we'd enjoyed our first Airbnb Experience in Mexico (just before the world shut down in 2020), so I searched for something similar in Puerto Rico. Our host/guide was Reynaldo, and he was intimately familiar with the whole property, having helped build some of the infrastructure (paths, stairs, etc.).
Rusty's taking a dip in the pool at the first falls. There is also a rope swing for sailing out over the water — hopefully beyond the big boulder just under the surface — and splashing into the pool. Rusty didn't do that, but it sure was fun watching other people do it!
It wasn't easy getting photos without people in them! Certainly most visitors found their way all by themselves, and we could easily have visited and enjoyed these falls without a guide.
But without Reynaldo, I would never have walked up behind one of the falls. Nor would I have hiked through the river from one waterfall to the other. I have few photos because all my stuff was in Reynaldo's dry-bag backpack, and good thing. I didn't fall, but I definitely needed my hands to steady myself a few times, jumping from rock to rock, sliding down bigger boulders, and needed all my wits about me instead of worrying about my phone getting wet (or dropping it). It was a fun — wet & dirty — challenge!
I didn't know just how dirty until we got home — after stopping at the supermarket — and noticing that my butt was not only wet, but super muddy, too! Rusty never told me! I bought a small bottle of laundry detergent on our next trip to the store and did some laundry in the sink. (Because my packing skills were MIA when prepping for this trip and I actually had only a few appropriate/practical/things-I-wanted-to-wear clothing items.)
BONUS:
We learned that the movie A Perfect Getaway was filmed at Gozalandia Falls!
The movie is actually set in Hawaii, but it was cheaper to film the waterfall scene in Puerto Rico, even having to truck in thousands of flowers… and equipment, crew, etc.! I was surprised to see Timothy Oliphant as one of the leads, along with one of the Hemsworth brothers, and we enjoyed it more than expected.
It's another 3TT/Unraveled mash up! I'm joining Carole & friends for Three Things on Thursday + Unraveled Wednesday with Kat & the Unravelers.
KNITTING / 3 PHOTOS:
I finished a hat — my first FO of 2022!
I actually knit it twice; the first was a test/prototype. Ali wanted a "messy bun" hat, but she has a pretty big bun so I wanted to make sure it would work! I had some leftovers from other projects, so knit up the tester and I'm glad I did because we made a couple of adjustments. The Rasta has very little stretch, so I decided to run some fold-over elastic through the stitches to finish (instead of the yarn).
The colorway is gorgeous! To minimize any pooling or flashing, I knit alternating rows from both ends of the yarn cake.
We'd also decided to lengthen it a bit, which was easily done by knitting an extra row or two or three in each section. I have yarn for at least one more (in a much less exciting color) (which I might end up overdyeing)!
READING:
I haven't been reading. When I do, it'll be: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (audio), by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, and (still): This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History (pages).
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It's been a little crazy around here. Annie & her family were supposed to come up for a day or two between Christmas & New Year's Day, but they were hit by Covid/Omicron… falling like dominoes over a couple of days. Thankfully, all vaxxed, so none of them got very sick but their visit was postponed. They're all here now and finally spent a night in their own house! They like it a lot! It's really cool that Annie was informed that she'd achieved AIRBNB SUPERHOST status while they're here! (That's all me, but it is her house!) So now we're a duo!
I was able to nab a couple extra days off next week, and I'm looking forward to some proper visiting & catching up. I've been a little out of sorts since the new year began, and I hope to get a little more centered/grounded, too.
