I also did this. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love me some sand messages.

On Saturday, the boys went fishing while the girls stayed at the cottage and hit the beach. It was warm, but breezy – a perfect day for lounging by the surf. I slathered on sunscreen but still managed to get burned wicked back on the tops of my feet. Ugh, they still hurt. Anyway, we had a blast, and it was a nice relaxing little mini-getaway. There are lots more pics, and you can see a slide show here.

Aside from that, not too much is going on. I haven’t knit a stitch in quite a while, but I really need to get back on it. Mike’s mom told me last week that the big show in November is definitely on, so I need to get some stuff ready. I am thinking mittens to start with because I can knock them out so fast. I also have a great idea for some ornaments I want to do. They’re not knit, but I think they’re going to be really sweet. I guess I need to get a plan and make some lists.

I’ve been spending most of my time reading. After seeing Eclipse, I got sucked into reading the Twilight Saga again. This time around I read Twilight and Midnight Sun together – a chapter of one, then the matching chapter of the other. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them that way. It was so much easier to compare & contrast the two perspectives while each was still fresh in my mind. I burned through those and also New Moon, and now I’m a little more than halfway through Eclipse. After I finish these, I might need to take a break while I get a jump on some crafty goodness.

I’m stoked for the beer fest this weekend! It’s going to be totally sweet. I’m so looking forward to it because I heart beer and road trips. I also heart Zingermann’s, and I am pretty sure we will have lunch there. Woot! I need to get some fun road trip activities planned. I’m thinking Mad Libs for sure, but I’m open to suggestions, so if you have any, let’s hear them!

On Sunday, we had the gang over for Crappy Movie Sunday of course. This week we never really got around to planning for a movie, so Clovis brought a stack of kung fu movis over with him. We chose a movie called Chocolate that turned out to be sad, depressing, gory, and also a little absurd. We all had a great time watching it, though. After the movie we had some snackies and beers, discussed the concept of shame and how it impacts our daily lives, then we played the telephone game. The telephone game is pretty much a guaranteed good time, and we all loved it.

Yesterdy, we had my family over for a Memorial Day BBQ. It was a totally sucky and rainy day, but Mike is a trooper and stood outside grilling while holding an umbrella the whole time. We had some delicious eats, and we all enjoyed chatting and hanging out together. I made a yummy strawberry shortcake, and then I kept the strawberry tops and made fresh strawberry juice, which was really really tasty. Anyway, despite the weather, it was a great day, and a great holiday weekend.

Quick knitting update: I finished a pair of socks the other day. I think the socks theselves turned out great, but man is it some ugly sock yarn. I bought it on clearance, and I knew it wasn’t my favorite color combination, but it’s even uglier than I anticipated. I call these Toxic Sock Syndrome.

As for the sock yarn binky, there hasn’t been much progres. It’s just large enough that I don’t want to work on it when it’s hot, so I haven’t done a whole lot with it recently.

Last week, I had my orientation for a volunteer position, and today I have my hands on training. I’ll be working at a volunteer run charity thrift store! I’m excited about it, and I think it’s going to be really fun. I am definitely going to do this at least one day a week, maybe even 2. I’ll get my schedule all firmed up after my training session this afternoon. I LOVE thrift shopping, so I think this is going to be awesome.

Crappy Movie Sunday continued yesterday with the latest installment – Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. The CMS blog is all up in your grill here (I also added it to my links over on the right). If you haven’t seen this movie, I’m really not sure what you’re waiting for. It’s a kung-fu classic with music from DeBarge, so if that doesn’t have you running to the video store to rent a copy, then you must be crazy. Oh, and don’t forget to follow Crappy Movie Sunday on Twitter for all the latest.

We are houseboating in Kentucky in less than 2 weeks, and I could NOT be any more excited than I am right now. I can’t wait!! I found out last week who is going, and that made me even more excited. It’s an awesome group and it will be a ball. Pls it will be totally sweet to get out of town for a bit and relax with my homies. YAY!!

I finished this scarf recently, and it is for sale at Fuzzy Paws Knits. It took me forever to finish this thing because I used the tiniest little bits of yarn to create my own yarn for this. It took along time to collect all the yarn bits and then tie them together and then knit them., Whew. I think the result is worth the effort though. I call it “Fluffy Fingers”.

And just for giggles, here’s Dawn & I boozing it up at Gallagher’s last week. We are making a dent in the beer list. Distinguished status, here we come!

I also want to show off a couple of stuffies. These cuties are both for sale at Fuzzy Paws Knits for $5 each. First, Arturo. He likes reading, chocolate chip cookies, and rainy days. Dislikes clowns, brussels sprouts, and math. Then we have Miss Mimi. Mimi likes flowers, cheesecke, and shopping. She dislikes bees, spinach, and homework. There are more pics of both of them in the shop.

We also continued Crappy Movie Sunday this week with Conan the Barbarian. Dawn & I were less than thrilled, but Mike, George & Clovis thought it was delightful. It is definitely a guy movie. As Dawn put it, it’s “Twilight for dudes”. I guess so, but I can freely admit that Twilight (the movie) sucked. These guys can’t seem to come to terms with that reality about Conan.

I also took a break from Percy Jackson after I finished Book 3, and I decided to give the Sookie Stackhouse (TrueBlood) books a whirl. I have just started the third, and they are pretty good. I find Sookie just as annoying a character in the books as I did in the show (which I admittedly only watched the pilot episode of), but somehow in the books she is a tad bit more relate-able. Anyway, I am enjoying them, and I burned right through the first 2 books in just a couple of days.

I also came to the conclusion that I needed to use up the last pack of i-Zone film instead of hoarding it up. It’s been expired since 2006, and the quality will only go downhill. So I’ve taken a few shots, and plan to use them up very soon. You can see there is definitely already some loss of quality, so this was the right decision. Even though it breaks my heart.

They are so awesome, and I love this little camera! I will never get rid of it, just in case they decide to make film for it EVER again.

Last but not least, I started a new knitting project. I am making a Sock Yarn Binky. Basically, a blanket made from scrap sock yarn. For the non-knitters out there, this is a big deal because sock yarn is very thin, and you have to knit it with very small needles – so basically, I could be working on this for a long long time. Like years. I decided to do a log cabin style blanket because it will give me a chance to kind of free form this thing a little and really play with color and pattern. Also, I took the log cabin knitting class at Stitches Midwest last August, and haven’t had a real opportunity to put it into practice. Here’s a picture of what I have so far. I numbered the blocks so you can see where I started. Oddly enough, 3 of the 4 blocks so far are a solid color. This will not continue to be the case as almost all of the sock yarn scraps I have are some sort of self striping or self patterning colorway. It’s also important to note that I am only using machine washable sock yarns, because I think a blanket that needs to be hand washed is a little ridonkulous. So here’s the first pic, I will update whenever I feel there is decent progress.

Next up is the Azteca shawlette. I have made several of these, and I kept one for myself that is purple and pink. They are so easy to wear – very versatile and fun. I love the way the colors worked out in this one, I’m really happy with it. These are perfect for spring! I might have to keep another one for myself. I’ve had my eye on Cake & Ice Cream….