Finally got the Internet back up, with almost zero help from the cable company, despite sending two technicians out, the most recent of whom declared, in the four seconds His Royal Doucheness blessed us with his foul presence, that our $200 router was bad. Fortunately Travis had the good sense to plug it in and try it again before we rolled out to Best Buy to pick up a new one...yeah, it's fine. And we called the cable company to complain about Mr. I-Smell-Like-I-Have-That-Not-So-Fresh-Feeling and his attempt to blow a bunch of our money by LYING TO US.
But I have internets now. And I is happy. Let me celebrate with random photos:
Hemlock Ring blanket, as seen on the bus. Have I mentioned the yarn yet? It's Brooks Farm Solana (which they're not selling on their website yet, but hopefully will be soon - though I'll say if you wanted a comparison, think Lorna's Laces worsted superwash.) This was taken while I was in the process of knitting the blanket back onto a 5mm needle. I had to use a 4mm to pick up a round to rip back to. Again. I hate this thing. But I think - THINK - I have it sorted out now. There may be a mistake in it, but I'm not going to worry too much about it.
Friday night, the smoke detector went off when I was cooking something in the oven. The smoke detector almost always goes off when we use the oven - it's very sensitive. But it wouldn't stop. So Travis took it down until the oven was off.
This was a VERY stressful time for Rooster. Turns out he's borderline-OCD when it comes to fire safety.
He laid right there in the corner and waited for the smoke detector to come back. I like to think if he had detected smoke, he would have emitted a very loud high-pitched wail.
I found out how much fits in my Piddleloop bag:
(I didn't tell Travis why...just made him do it. That's why he looks all nervous - he was thinking I might have finally lost my damned mind.)
So, by way of getting us out of the house and distracted from the lack of Internet, what did I do? I kicked into high gear as the GREATEST WIFE EVER.
OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN WHEEEEEEEEE OHMYGODWOOHOOYEAAAAH!!!!!
We so have to buy one of these. (Is it sad that I figured out that if I sold about half the stash, we'd almost be there?)
Look at the fun! Look at it!
My helmet had orange flames. Of COURSE. (I requested that one specifically.)
We got tangled up in fishing line on the pier. That was fun. Fortunately for the group, there was a knitter in their midst - I knew there was a reason I carried little crafty tool kits with me everywhere. A few snips, and we were off again!
They're wonderfully easy to ride, especially once you let things happen naturally and stop trying to control the thing to death. It's actually very intuitive. But as with all sports activities that require a kinetic device of some sort (rollerblading, skateboarding, dirtbiking), I had some degree of difficulty with regards to coming to a stop.
Okay, that might have been a staged dramatization. I did not have quite as much trouble with staying still as that muscle-y jacked-up guy you see behind me in the photo. Those two were on our tour also (it was only the four of us) and they were so nice, but the guy kind of proved that physical stature and prowess aren't necessarily indicators of immediate Segway success. I was behind him in the queue, and we came to a stop and he stayed still for a moment, and then just started drifting backward...and backward...and *CRASH*! It was more funny than disastrous, but he seemed very surprised about it all and seemed to have not noticed that he was rolling backward.
(Hint: if stuff in front of you suddenly starts getting smaller, you're probably moving away from it. Try to stop.) He got more comfortable, though, and by the end of it we were all experts.
Then there's Travis. Who ran the thing off the trail and into a bush and had to dive off of it, almost breaking a leg in the process. There's no way of knowing what he was doing back there. As you speed up, the pitch goes higher, and I was right in front of him and heard the pitch go up, then a few choice swear words and the rustling of shrubbery. He swears that a wheel spun out in the sugar sand, but he was at the back and no one saw what happened, so I have to go by what I heard and lay odds on his daredevil nature and tendency to do what those in the scientific community would call "jackassing around".
We had such fun, though. I'd buy one, but I'm waiting for them to come out with a Jetsons expansion pack. (Seriously, it'd be that much more fun to ride if it made the noise that the cars in The Jetsons make. Right??) If you can find a way to get yourself onto one of these things, I highly, highly recommend it. (If you're looking for a place to start, try here.)
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