Long Weekend Wasted

Jake & I took Friday off. He had a floating holiday he wouldn't get paid for if he didn't use it when he leaves his 'temporary' job to go back to his real job. We decided we'd drive out to Northwest River Park and take the pooches on a canoe ride and do some fishing. We got there about 20 minutes after the park opened and walked over to the boathouse (dogs, cooler and fishing gear in tow) where we were informed the dogs were not allowed in a canoe. I was mildly irritated, as nothing on the website OR on all the signage at the boathouse indicated there was this restriction. So, instead, we walked (the park calls it a hike, but a flat gravel-ly surface doesn't constitute a hike in my book!) down to the fishing spot. It's about one and a half miles, and the dogs enjoyed the journey (Zosia even behaved enough to be let off leash). We fished a bit, Jake got a few nibbles, I got nothing. I didn't mind, though, because watching the dogs was a riot. Jimmy Ray tried to fight some geese that made their way toward us. Zosia finally willingly went in the water on her own! We ate our lunches then set back.

It was still early in the day when we got home so we did some yard work and made big plans for a productive weekend while we went out to dinner. Unfortunately, when the alarm went off Saturday morning, Jake and I were both totally exhausted. . . and itchy. Lo and behold, despite the soaking of our pants and socks in bug spray, we got eaten by chiggers at the River! Thankfully, they aren't nearly as bad as last year, so I guess the bug spray helped, but I have such an adverse reaction to these things. .. not just itching - I swear they poison me! So, I did NOTHING Saturday except a bit of shopping and helping Jake with some outside work. We trimmed all sorts of branches off a neighbors tree. I'm not sure what ettiquitte is in the situation when the neighbor doesn't trim things in their yard so it overtakes yours, but we just cut everything that was over the property line and didn't ask. The guy is a renter anyway, so hopefully no one gets too cranky. The yard looks a lot bigger now without all the overgrowth, so I'm glad.

Sunday was mostly a wash too, though I did manage to clean some and get the laundry pile down.

With all the couch sitting, I did get some knitting in. Maude is done! Well, completely knitted, that is. I still need to add the buttons and weave in the ends.I also swatched and cast on for Goddess. I'm using Elann Lustrado in Aubergine. It's a lovely dark brown-y purple. I wanted to get it going since it has oodles of stockinette and I have lots of travel time coming up to try to knock all the mindless knitting out. . . . I leave for Iowa tomorrow for work. The glam life of business travel, right?! Freakin' Iowa! (Sorry if I offend anyone who lives in Iowa, but on my list of exciting places to travel, Cedar Rapids 2 months after a major flood is near dead last!) It's a good thing stitch diva doesn't show you any of the pattern until you buy it, because I would have avoided it had I seen the stitch pattern! It's the inverse of the stitch from My So-Called Scarf, which I HATED! Being the inverse (K2togtbl, leave stitches on LHN, K first st tbl, drop both off) it's an even bigger pain in the butt, but it's only a few rows on the neckline then to finish at the waist. I think I can keep from slitting my wrists on that amount.

I have been continuing to work on Malagrigo squares for the blankie KAL in the Malabrigo Swap group on Ravelry.

So much for having 3 days to do so many things on the TO DO list! There is always next weekend. . . . .