I’m not dead yet

This is where we spent our weekend. We were camping at Hendy Woods state park. It was more of a hybrid version of camping – there were bathroom facilities around the corner, and you could pay for a hot shower. We spent our days mostly away from the campsite, but we slept in tents and ate meals prepared over a campfire.

See?

Our first day was just about setting up camp. The guys (and I mean all of them, even the 1-year-old, Blaine) set up the sleeping tent. My sister-in-law, Alicia, and I set up the changing tent (it was too small for the blow-up mattress, so no one slept there). The kids ran around and covered themselves in the dirt until they passed out. Good times. After the kids went to sleep, we adults had time to sit around the fire and chat.

The next day we devoted to wine tasting. There was one particular winery that Michael and I wanted to find – Navarro – they have a non-alcoholic grape juice that Carisa just loves. We tasted at several other wineries as well. Alexis only got to taste the non-alcoholic wine at Navarro, but she is such a ham that she had to have a picture just like Uncle Michael’s.

Alexis also hammed it up in front of a fountain. That girl just loves to be photographed.

When we got back, we decided to take the kids for a hike to burn up the energy they had pent up from sitting in the car all day between wineries. Robert (my brother) skipped rocks and Michael threw a stick into the little bit of water that was left over from a drying river bed. Blaine apparently channeled a puppy and charged into the water after the stick. All I saw was Robert reaching into the water and catching the baby by the back of his shirt and his diaper. Everyone but Blaine thought it was funny!

Blaine’s little adventure did inspire the girls, though. We found a secluded spot, had the guys keep watch, and stripped down to our birthday suits for a little skinny-dipping. It was kind of liberating for Alicia and me – we are both a bit conservative in the nudity department. Alexis wanted to be just like the big girls, so she took a dip as well. Her face depicts how we all felt afterward – free and happy!

It turns out that our nights at camp were all pretty much about the same. Save for the conversational topic – we were planning a cruise while we were on a camping trip. How’s that for irony? I, of course, sat by the campfire and knit until I could no longer make out the stitches. I should have chosen something a little more straight-forward than entrelac for the campfire knitting, but I guess you only learn by being in the situation.

The third morning we went to Mendocino. We visited the Ford House where we got tips about how we should spend our day. The volunteer at the register told us we should go to Fort Bragg to see Glass Beach. The beach was covered in bits of glass that had been tumbled against the rocks for years after the location stopped being a public dump. That’s right – someone got the bright idea to turn the beautiful coastline into a garbage pit. At least the error was corrected.

I also had another small squirrel adventure. I don’t believe I had seen a California squirrel before. I’ve lived here for 4 years, so you’d think I would have seen one by now. The thing is, we live in a city. In order to see squirrels, you have to go to the park, and it’s a bit of a haul to get there from our house.

Before we got back on the road, we had to stop again in Mendocino to use the restroom. I know this seems silly, but I saw one of the best ideas I have seen in awhile:

I know it seems like an odd thing to be impressed by, but think about it – how many times have you been to a rest stop where they were out of toilet paper? No one ever seems to have enough staff to keep the restrooms stocked. It’s more efficient to put a dozen rolls on the wall and let the staff tend to whatever other business they have. Now if I can only convince business that the one-ply sandpaper toilet paper is a bad idea…

Save for the car sickness (at least 3 of us had varying degrees of motion sickness on the very twisty road that led to Hendy woods), it was a really great, relaxing trip.

So many things

I have more kittens! Nebula came back to me with 5 new siblings. Here they are:

This is Biscotti. He is tiny (249 grams) and way too skinny. I suspect that problem will go away pretty quickly given that he loves to eat.

This little beauty is Cream Puff. She is much prettier now that we’ve bathed her.

Cupcake is a sweet little girl. She eats dry food on her own, so I think she will be one of the kittens who fares the best from this group.

This scraggly fellow is Meringue. He had an abscess that had to be lanced this morning. He looks nasty, but he is actually in pretty good spirits and he eats a bit of the wet food on his own.

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This tiny one is Sundae. This poor little dude weighs only 186 grams! He has teeth and loves being syringe fed. Heck, Merak weighed more than this one before he died. Sundae has a bit of diarrhea now. He was sitting on my shoulder for awhile tonight, and when I walked out of the room I noticed that there was cat poop in my hair! Sundae hasn’t figured out the box yet, so he just poops wherever he is. He even managed to crap a trail right down my back. Yuck! Once again, good thing cats are cute. That should be my motto.

And who can forget Nebby! He isn’t any bigger than when I dropped him off (he only gained 5 grams in 11 days), but his eyes have turned a pretty shade of green.

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Michael took some pretty neat pictures while I washed the kittens. Notice that Meringue looks fluffy in this shot. Also, check out the way the camera caught the water as it fell.

And what would a kitten with a fluffy face look like if you got that face wet?

I promised a squirrel story last time I blogged. Well, Michael and I were sitting on a little dock by Beaver Lake when a black squirrel approached us. I’m pretty sure that he is used to people feeding him because he gave me the sweetest little begging face. I told Mr. Squirrel that I didn’t have anything for him to eat. He moved closer then and gave me an even more pathetic face. I searched my purse, but all I could come up with was a mint. I put it on the dock, and Mr. Squirrel came running up to see what I had given him.

“Oh, that’s not food,” he impressed upon me. “It’s all I have,” I told him. Mr. Squirrel them picked up the mint and gave it a lick. “No, I’m sure that’s not food. What else have you got?” I started looking through my bag again, hoping to find the granola bars I often carry for quick snacks when I am starving and nowhere near food I can eat. The next thing I knew, Mr. Squirrel had put his tiny little paw on my knee and gave me a look that reminded me of the kittens. I almost wanted to pet him, but I didn’t want him freaking out and biting me. I continued to look in my purse, so he lifted himself up a little. “Let me help you find something in that bag for me to eat.” I was sure he was going to snuggle in my lap!

In the end, I really did not have anything for the little guy. “I’m sorry, but there really is nothing in there,” I apologized. Mr Squirrel shrugged, “That’s ok.” He then went on to pose for a few pictures before scampering off down the path in search of more people who might actually feed him. I tell you, even the animals are nice in Canada!

I made one more stop on Granville Island at a store that sells yarn - I believe it was called Maiwa. They don’t specialize in yarn - they seem to have lots of art supplies. They did, however, have a nice selection of dyes, roving, and some higher end yarn. I bought some merino roving and I intend to borrow Carisa’s drop spindle. I really would rather learn to spin on a wheel, but I think that a spindle will have to do for now. I’ll post a picture of the pre-dyed roving before I spin it.

We spent our last night in Vancouver at Grouse Mountain. If you search for Grouse Mountain from Google you will come up with 2 choices – the Summer or Winter homepage. I find that fascinating, but it makes sense. A lot of the hiking trails were closed off because of the snow. It’s so weird to have snow when it’s like 70°F. I experienced that only once before when I went to Wyoming.

We ate at the Observatory Restaurant on Grouse Mountain. Holy cow was it expensive. The prix fixe menu was $110/person or $130/person with wine tastings with every course. I didn’t really like much of what was on the prix fixe menu (I’m not much for seafood, and the menu was mostly fish), so we ordered a la carte. We spent nearly as much per person even without so many courses. That hurt the wallet! I will say, it was a great splurge given that the food was excellent and the view was incredible.

I have made just a little progress on the sleeves for Blaze.

I still need to untangle more of the yarn from the wayward hank in order to finish the project. Check out my sunburn.