An Interesting and Varied Weekend.....

I had a 3-day weekend this weekend, as I had decided to give my boyfriend an early birthday gift (his birthday is not until 11th July) of tickets to see Alison Krauss and Robert Plant at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, an event we were both so looking forward to, and did very much enjoy. Excellent musicians and playing excellent music!! Loved it!

We were able to chill, relax, and hang out together for the day on Friday, and when we got home on Friday afternoon from doing some errands, he went online to check his email to get the news of Tim Russert's death. Needless to say, we were, and still are, stunned at the news. Neither of us are terribly into politics, nor even watch his show much (though I used to watch it a little more frequently when I used to live in DC), but we both really liked Tim Russert, who seemed so passionate about politics, his family, his hometown, his Irish and Catholic background, and had a great sense of loving life, and was living it to it's fullest. Such a genuine human being - and such a loss to have him taken so soon. May he Rest in Peace.

I got to head to Hampden for the Annual Honfest here in Baltimore, and had a great time. Wanted to visit Lovelyarns to participate in the World Wide Knit in Public Day, but I didn't get there 'til much later in the day, as I bumped into some sailing friends, some of whom I knew would be there, so I hung out with them for much of the day. But here is a taste of what I saw......





Finally left my sailing friends around 5pm or so, and finally got a little bit of knitting in. Luckily, got a call from the boy, who had been down at the DSC teaching sailing for the day, and he came up from the Inner Harbor with a fellow sailing instructor, and so we hung out watching and enjoying a band for a bit, and bumped into another fellow sailor with his lady friend, so that was fun. Good times with some sailors at a non-sailing event!!

Today, we went to Sunday Brunch at Ryan's Daughter up in Belvedere Square, as I wanted to celebrate Father's Day - C's kids are up in York, PA still living with their mother, and he didn't have plans to be up there today, so we had our own celebration here in Baltimore. He's playing golf this afternoon with a friend from an old job from several years ago, so he's having fun with that...... I haven't decided yet what to do with the rest of my afternoon, but I do have some grocery shopping to do, so will likely head to Trader Joe's in Towson.....and then decided from there what all else I'll do.

In the meantime, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there - hoping it's a good one!

More Knitting, and Ouch at the Gas pump

I'm addicted to the Ruffles Scarf Pattern from Pam Allen's Scarf Style book, and am currently in the middle of knitting my 3rd one in a row!! I took it with me yesterday to the LPGA at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Harve de Grace, MD - I was lucky enough to get free tickets from work, and my boyfriend and I were able to attend. We had a great time, even surviving the scorching heat, by using plenty of sunscreen, and drinking LOTS of fluid, mostly water....... And in between, I got the opportunity to work some more on my knitting....



On the way home, we had to stop for gas, as my tank was getting pretty empty (the warning light had come on, which I haven't allowed it to happen in months!), and low-and-behold, I spent $54 to fill up my car!! I was shocked a few weeks ago to have spent over the $40 mark (I think I spent about $44 that time), but I have never, ever, with any car I've had, spent over $50 before, so this is a first. And I don't consider my 2001 Mitsubishi Galant to be a gas guzzler either :-/ Thankfully, I don't own an SUV, and don't see one of those vehicles in my future......, but am wondering about how to work around the increased prices, as I'm sure many, many people are......

Made it to the MD Sheep & Wool Festival yesterday....

...and didn't do any major damage, thankfully, so I was glad of the certain self-restraint! So much I would have loved to have purchased, but realize that I'm working on not putting myself into debt for the sake of having more "stuff", of which I have plenty of already anyway, and have yet to practice the art of simple living. Got to purchase yarn, of which I know I already have a pattern for (next step is to seek and find said pattern!), and another scarf pattern which will be great for skeins of yarn that I've no idea what to use for yet. And then there were some non-knitting purchases, like 2 hand-made soaps for a Gettysburg, PA-based pottery, a small basket from some locally-based ladies in MD, a magnet hook for my frig from a local lady who uses old spoons/forks/knives/utensils to make things with, some herbs in a bag for use as a moth-ball, a couple of wooden needles, and 2 notebooks for the frig (great to make lists/notes with)..... And here is a photo to show off all the products!



Looking forward to next year already!!

Finished Ruffles Scarf, and another one started....

Finished my Ruffles Scarf a couple of weeks ago, and have started into another one, but will hopefully post pics of that at a later date......

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD....hopefully, I won't get to do any unnecessary damage!!

Springtime and an Addiction

Am sooooooo glad the Spring is here, as I'm so not a fan of the cold, dull weather (though I think snow is fun, fun, fun!!). It's great to see the daffodils and tulips starting to bud and flower, and am excited to see the sailing season starting to kick off! Got out for my first sail of the season yesterday, and it was an unexpected invite, and very last minute too. Alas, no photos as none of us had our cameras with us, but it was so much fun all the same!

Anyhow, in the meantime, I've become addicted to the scarf I started knitting towards the end of our trip to Florida, and have been posting some of my progress on Ravelry which is a knitting website I've starting to use more and more in recent weeks, am enjoying it immensely! I won't get to enjoy wearing the scarf until next winter, due to the yarn being wool, but it's so colorful, that it'll help brighten up my winter!! Here is my latest photo of it's progress....

Settling back to life in Baltimore......

Got back to my boyfriend's place in Gaithersburg on Sunday night after a long road-trip on Sat/Sun from St. Petersburg, FL, where we met up with friends from my Washington, DC days - can't believe that I know them for over 10 years now! Drove straight to work in Baltimore on Monday morning, after an early start (for me anyway) of hitting the road at 7am, and taking 1.5 hours to get to work - not a coummute I'd normally like to do!!

Anyway, am still settling back after a wonderfully relaxing trip, enjoying the beach, biking, golfing, chillin', and enjoying all the sunshine and the proximity to the surf!! Adjusting to dirty ol' Baltimore, and being back at work again is, ummmmm, interesting, as mentally, I'm still in Florida, biking down to the beach, and just hangin' out!

Here's a couple of photos of typical of our week......



By the way, Happy Birthday today to my older brother (who is back in Ireland with the rest of my family) - hope it's a great day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And a Finished Knitting Project too!

Had hoped to post more stuff about my knitting, as I'm using this blog more frequently over the past year or so, but am so up in the air about what to write about, it literally seems to be more about whatever is happening the day that I decide to write in this blog.... Fairly directionless, I know, but tends to be how I feel that I am a lot of the time, which, of course, is never a good thing :-(

But, here is a toddler sweater that I have FINALLY finished over the weekend....it's the Boat Sweater pattern by Debbie Bliss, from a recent book (published about a year ago), and I can't remember the exact title of it, but it's something related to Family Knits (25 patterns are included if memory serves me right). I don't have my own copy of the book, as I borrowed it from the library, but copied this pattern, as it was the perfect pattern for me to knit for sailing friends who had a baby back last October. I wanted to get a nautical theme, and ended up deciding between this sweater, and another pattern, and this one won out on the day. I've figured that I really don't like sewing up all the seams, etc., so next time, I'll aim to do the seamless kind of sweater, by knitting in the round. I have a basic children and adult sweater pattern, that can be varied to spice it up. I'm not that confident in my knitting yet to vary the basic pattern too easily, but I knit with my Stitch 'n Bitch group on a fairly regular basis, that they could hopefully help me the next time I decide to tackle a sweater again!

Anyway, here are a some photos of Niko's sweater, which I hope to get to his parents this week, all going well (will be heading off to FL on Friday, so hence hoping to get it to them this week!)





And happy Paddy's day to all the Irish, and wannabe Irish, and anyone who is Irish just for this one day of the year!! Hope you all enjoy!

Another Vacation planned....

Yes!

I got my vacation request for Easter Week confirmed by my supervisor today, and my boyfriend and I are planning to head to Florida for the first time since Christmas 2004. His parents have a place on the west coast, in an over-55 community, and because of their failing health, are putting their winter home for the past 20 years up for sale. I had been encouraging my boy since before Christmas that, if possible, we could/should try to get down there sometime in first quarter of the year, as a last opportunity to have somewhere to stay before it's sold to another new owner...

And, we finally got our ducks in a row since earlier this week, and along with my vacation approval today, so we're all set to head to the Sunshine state. My man just has to verify the dates with his boss at work, which is not a problem, as luck would have it! We've decided to drive down to save on flights and car rentals, so we must plan our route, but that's part of the fun....

But, Florida, here we come!!!

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Just had to get out tonight to have the opportunity to see the eclipse of the moon which I had been hearing about, mostly on the radio on WYPR (88.1FM), my local NPR station here in Baltimore.

Included are a couple of my (very, very amateur) photos, which SO do not do the lunar eclipse justice, but you get an idea.

And it's a cold night here in Baltimore too - we got our 1-2 inches of snow had been predicted, so the ground was nice and white, though luckily, it didn't stick to the roads. Though that could be different in the morning, depending on the overnight temps, so we'll see what tomorrow's daylight brings.....

Trying to keep busy this weekend....!!

I was seriously considering going on a hike today with the Baltimore Hiking Group of which I'm a member through Meetup.com. But by the time I got my laundry started, coffee/breakfast made and eaten, I just didn't have time to get up to the Gunpowder Falls State Park in time for the 10:30am meetup time, so I decided to take a day trip to Gettysburg, PA instead.

I have only been up there once before, and that was over 10 years ago, back in the Fall of 1997, so I figured I was way overdue a visit again! I had certain memories of my previous visit, which I did with 2 girlfriends at the time, but have since lost all contact with (they were from my Washington, DC days, which seems like such a lifetime ago!), so it was time to make new memories for myself. There were a couple of places that I remembered, which was nice, but even better was the fact that I didn't remember enough places from my last visit, and that I was able to create what seemed like a totally new first-time visit, though old memories of my life back then came seeping back, but that's how life is......

Anyway, I came back to Baltimore hungry, and took home some Chinese, and am now here online watching 60 Minutes on CBS, so it's sooooo not a SuperBowl night for me. I had been invited to a party, but am mentally not up for it, so I'm relaxing at home instead......

Here are some photos from my trip to Gettysburg today...... Must finish up here soon, as I'm pretty beat - the drive up and down to PA, as well as some short walks and hikes while in Gettysburg have taken more out of me than I thought, but hope that'll help me sleep better tonight!

A Little "Me" Time!

Had my first weekend day to myself in a long time, and spent some time doing stuff only I wanted to do!!

Started off by having to bring my car in to have the front left tire checked out. When I got out of work on Thursday evening, I discovered (not straight away, unfortunately!), a fairly flat tire, but was lucky enough to have enough air in it to get to a fairly close gas station on the way home, and fill it up. Noticed by yesterday that it seemed to have had a slow leak, so took it to my "new" local car shop (recommended to me by Knitting friends from Stitch 'n Bitch group - thank you Sarah and Lynn!), where a nail was discovered..... Got it fixed in no time at only $15, to which I was quite relieved, as I was worried about the possibility of having to replace the tire. Due to still paying for my flight home for Christmas, and also the work done to the car right before I left on vacation, I really didn't want another added unexpected expense to add to the list!

Got to have a pleasant walk afterwards at a local park that the boy and I had talked about and make a slight attempt to walk around before (Wyman Park by JHU), but never really did, so today was my day to take that walk!! Seems to be the thing that I do when in times of "trouble".....

Got to my local Panera Bread (a few miles north of where I live) by mid-morning for late breakfast, and from there, I decided to head further north for some hiking (again, it seems to be the thing I do in difficult times!), and so I enjoyed that, and felt so much better for it. I've lucked out in the weather, as temps were rather mild today, with absolutely no rain, unlike yesterday, when it poured out of the heavens like it was going out of fashion!

Then I went window-shopping at a local mall, and managed to bump into a friend, which was always a nice surprise (2nd time that's happened so far this year, and I love it!!). Didn't get to hang out with her for too long (she introduced me to her daughters who were shopping in the store we all were at), as I had bought a movie ticket a half-hour previously, and the movie was starting 10/15 minutes from when I bumped into them, so ended up having a more rushed conversation with them than I would have liked........ But I did get to see "27 Dresses" which I thoroughly enjoyed, as I really needed to see a "girly" movie, and this was the one for me. Two movies at the movie theater in 2 weeks - not at all typical of me, but as it's winter, and the best time of the year to be watching/going to the movies, I figured, why the heck not?!!

Anyhow, got in a little bit of grocery shopping too, so felt good about that, but am now at a point of slowing down, as I'm getting rather sleepy - I did wake up very early this morning (around 6:20am!), but then again, I was falling asleep way too early last night (around 8:30pm - how sad on a Friday night!!). It was largely due to not having slept too well all week, so it finally caught up with me by week's end. I was glad to have finally gotten the sleep I needed, and did feel quite refreshed today, so hence that helped me feel pretty good, at least for the most part anyway!! Weird what some stress will do to you, but such is way of life sometimes.

Gotta take the bad with the good, and how one deals with the stresses/strains one's dealt with is a test of one's character. I have to admit to not being good at with dealing with life's knocks, so it's something I have to work on (along with plenty of other "issues" I feel I have!), as I "could always do better"!!! And with that, I'll say goodnight, as I really am starting to fade...... zzzzz-time is here, so gotta go!!

Rough Week

It's been a pretty rough week, both on the personal front and at work, and so I'm not in the best of sorts at the moment...... I'm hoping things will pan out for me sometime sooner rather that later, but it's hard going through these tough times, especially with what seems like so many negative things going through my head (and heart) right now.

But, as someone at work told me yesterday (and in the best way possible), just to "soldier on", so will do what I can, though at times, I just want to curl up and sleep, and hope it's all gone by the time I wake up. I guess I can keep dreaming.....!!

Oh well, such is life sometimes, and I'll just have to ride this wave out, and see where I land when all is said and done!

First Movie of the Year

We finally got to see our first movie of the year yesterday, as we decided to head up to Hunt Valley to got window-shopping. The boy needs new hiking boots, as the pair that he's had for about the past 15 years finally fell apart last weekend (at least the left boot did - the sole finally broke away from the shoe while we were out for a walk in a local neighborhood, and luckily it happens on our way home!)....we found a new pair at a decent price at DSW, but will have to wait 'til next payday in the hopes they'll still be there. In the meantime, I was able to buy a new pair of slippers to replace the pair I had bought at DSW about 4 or 5 years ago, that have been showing their age in recent months. I am pretty pleased with them, and they were very inexpensive too! A photo is included to show off my new "furry friends"!!!

Anyhow, as it was so cold outside, and we weren't into doing too much window-shopping due to post-Christmas budget constraints, we decided to catch a matinee at the movie theater, and got to see "Charlie Wilson's War". We enjoyed it, and are always glad to catch a movie at the theater, as it's something we don't tend to do as often as we'd like to..... I just have to take more care in the amount of buttered popcorn I eat, as it seems to not sit as well with me the older I get :-/ But it was a fun time!

Snow....

We've gotten our first snow of the year today, and were able to get out of work a little early too, which is always an added bonus! I had a hair appointment for this evening, and luckily they had called me right when I had found out we could leave work early, so I was able to get that appointment squeezed in, and still got home close to an hour earlier than I normally would have even left work. So that was nice. Unfortunately, I didn't have an opportunity to take any photos, but I'm hoping that there'll still be enough snow on the ground in the morning, that I may be lucky enough to take some then, all going well......

Changes....

....I know there's going to be some changes (all good, by the way!!) this year, as I start to settle back to living and working in Baltimore again, and even though transitions are always unsettling, it's always good to make some changes, especially when way overdue......

Nothing negative in the works anywhere in particular, just very, very unsettled in one aspect of life, which is bothering me enough to get into action, though just one step at a time.....I'm not always the quickest mover in many respects, which is always a regret, but a side of me that I'm still dealing with and struggling to accept.

As "coy" as this post is, it's unintentional, but will probably come out later, whenever the (positive) changes do get to happen!!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post - am still in the process of recovering from jet-lag even though I've been back in the US since Monday; largely, I'm still waking up a little earlier than usual (around 6am yesterday and the day before, but have been awake & up since right before 5am this morning!) and hence, getting tired earlier than usual every night too (from around 9pm onwards). But such is life, and I'm hoping that I'll fully recover over the weekend!

Anyhow, had a quiet New Year's Eve celebration with my boyfriend. I slept for about 2-3 hours after getting back to DC late in the afternoon, and managed to stay up for another couple of hours, before my boyfriend sent me back to bed 20 minutes before midnight hit. Jet-lag at it's worst! I think I was brushing my teeth by the time midnight came and went, so not a huge celebration on my part! I had enough energy to go downstairs to have a quick "New Year's kiss" and headed right back to bed, and was out cold in a flash!

OK, off to get ready for work!! Later.....! And by the way, my trip to Ireland was a very relaxing, family-oriented trip, and I loved meeting my new nephew!! More news in a later post, I hope!

Getting caught up with the Holiday Shopping....

.....and stressing out a little with not quite having gotten everything yet, and also with the financial strain of it all too... BUT, have also to spend time cleaning up my room, start packing, sort out some gift-wrapping, figure if I have a realistic opportunity to get 2 last items that I know I'd like before my return to Ireland for Christmas, and trying not too worked up about it all, as I'm starting to realize how little time there seems to be!!! It'll all fall into place, I hope!! Realistically, I'm not stressing out too much, but am just a little anxious about what it is that I think I'd like to get done beforehand....I'm also feeling down about my boyfriend not travelling with me next week, largely for financial reasons, and that's understandable, but I'm going to miss him so much, as I know he will me, but such is life. All will be fine, and I am looking forward to seeing my niece and nephews next week, and spending time back in Cork at Christmastime, which is the first time in 5 years that I've been home this time of year! Should be fun, I hope!

Changes of the Season and Christmas

I've been enjoying the changing of the seasons as best as I can, and Autumn is still my favorite, and Winter being my least favorite. I'm not a huge fan of the cold, but I do love snow, so I'm continously conflicted, but such is life...

Here are a couple of shots taken from my bathroom (!!) window - one taken recently when we still had leaves on a neighbor's tree, and one taken just now, with absolutely no leaves.....what a difference a couple of weeks can make!!

And I've also been getting into the Holiday season, listening to Christmas music, doing some shopping, not doing very well at staying on budget, though my purchases are not altogether dreadfully expensive :-( I do love this time of year, though, except for the financial pressures, which never seem to fail me!! I've decided to include a photo of the Christmas tree down at Port Discovery, which I took last night. I was meeting friends at Howl of the Moon for the Happy Hour that a girlfriend had won, so it was nice to get down there for a couple of drinks! Didn't stay long, and was out of there not long after 7:30pm, but it was still fun! It's been a busy week, with having had birthday celebrations on Tuesday, and other holiday celebrations for the remainder of the week, but makes me appreciate the down time too, and I am certainly glad to have friends to do things with, unlike when I first moved to Baltimore in late 2000.




Well, I'm going to tidy up here, and get ready to head out to meet my boyfriend and other sailing friends for drinks and dinner, as I am getting hungry!

'Til next time!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday to Me!

OK, I don't normally 'sing' greetings to myself, but as I'm alone this morning, I figured I would..... Heading into the end of my 30's by celebrating!!

Quiet birthday celebrations over the weekend

Spent the weekend having a fairly quiet time with my boyfriend, and hanging out with friends on Saturday evening for the Lighted Boat Parade in Baltimore's Inner Harbor - we hung out at Captain Larry's bar in Federal Hill after it was discovered that our usual haunt of Little Havana's was closed to the public for a private party. It was nice for a change to be somewhere different, and I like Captain Larry's, as that's where we went to for our friend's baby shower back in September, which was a great time! We also got for a short walk around Fort McHenry on Saturday afternoon too which was nice, though it was soooooo cold all day.

We had Sunday Brunch at Gecko's Bar in (Upper) Fell's Point yesterday which was our first time there in several years - a place kinda close to our hearts, as it was our first "unofficial date" together, though it was well before we started dating..... We wanted to take a walk around Fell's Point, but it was raining, so that detered us from hanging out for as long as we wanted to, but we did get the opportunity to hang out at one of the antique stores down there..... Fun times, and more celebrations tomorrow for my actual birthday itself - will be planning to be at Little Havana's, as our sailing friends have their social get-together's there on Tuesday nights in the off-season, which we're now well into the swing of....