Mini Vacation

What a contrast. I headed to Florida to spend a few days with my parents. I was lucky to have four straight days of sunny, 75 degree weather (sitting on the beach in February is such a cool concept!!!) But then I came home to this nonsense:

A MIX OF SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL CONTINUE THIS MORNING. INFILTRATION OF WARMER AIR WILL CAUSE MUCH OF THE PRECIPITATION TO CHANGE RAIN THIS AFTERNOON. AS THE LOW MOVES PAST THE AREA...COLDER AIR WILL CAUSE THE WINTRY MIX TO CHANGE BACK TO ALL SNOW BEFORE TAPERING OFF THIS EVENING.

BY TONIGHT...3 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW AND SLEET IS EXPECTED TO BE ON THE GROUND WITH ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF AROUND A HALF INCH.

The upside is the kids get a snow day and probably one tomorrow, too, and I got to cancel a three day business trip out west. I am still trying to catch-up from my few days off work and the reprieve will help! (Actually doing some work instead of blogging will also help.)

While in Florida, I was fortunate to meet up with Debbie. My mom and I joined Debbie and her mom for a fun lunch. The chatter never stopped. She is a delight and we found we had so much in common - I think we might actually have the same children. (I meant to take our picture and completely forgot in the midst of all the chit chat!) At my request, she brought some of her uber-creative bags and wow! They are even more beautiful in person than on her blog. My mom is STILL raving about them.

It was a lazy sort of trip. My parents and I didn't really DO anything - mostly sat around chatting, playing cards, visiting with friends and the 4:00 happy hour every day was quite a nice diversion from the usual day-to-day busy-ness of life! Oh, and the knitting... I made my mom the beautiful lace dishcloth designed by Marie (very fun designs for dishclothes). Don't look too close as I screwed up midway through and in spite of ripping out a few rows and counting, double counting, never quite recovered. But what's my motto boys and girls??? "It's JUST a dishcloth." That's right. I left the mistakes in it and told my mom to ignore them. I've never been accused of being a perfectionist. LOL!
I also started on an afghan. I am using a pattern from Lion Brand and rather than the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick, I am using Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in the Brown Rice color. The afghan is comprised of five panels that are ultimately sewn together. Because you don't knit the whole afghan at the same time, it's a nice portable project.
I also started my bag for the International Tote Exchange. I am using a Nicki Epstein pattern that is in the Knitted Flowers book and also in the Vogue Winter 2004/2005 issue. I am using Patons Wool.
And what does one do when it's 30 degrees and snowing/sleeting? Yup! Find a pal and cozy up on the couch in front of the fire.