School Days

Brendon started his school today. Saying that makes me feel like he's five years old. As does this picture:(That's him in NC a couple weeks ago, playing with one of our high school friends' son's Tinker Toys. I'm so proud.)

Having B starting class means a lot of things. First, obviously, it's the end of his leave/vacation. It was a great vacation, I'm sad to see it go. It also means a lot of starts and ends, like the end of him having scruffy facial hair, and the start of hearing the alarm go off at ten minutes to 6 every morning; the end of getting up and walking to breakfast without showering, and the start of a new diet and exercise program.

It also signifies a lot of alone time for me. I may have mentioned this in earlier posts, but I've chosen to not look for any type of employment while staying here in Newport, because the only type of job I expect I could be hired for a three-month tenure is, well, wrapping Christmas presents or dressing up like an elf. And, come on, really. I am college educated. But it may mean I have to cut back on my yarn purchasing over the next couple months, until we get to Florida and I do seek gainful employment. It also means I will be spending the weekdays without anywhere I have to be, and with only my dog for company unless I venture out into public. Sounds like a great time to set my creativity flowing and get as many projects accomplished as I can stand!

First among these projects today was downloading some pictures from my camera from the last few weeks. Some of them are worth sharing. Here's a couple of shots from our most recent visit to NC, of my KIP (mom and dad - that's "knitting in public") with Bethany at Borders. She was learning how to use DPNs (double pointed needles).

Here's our table. My dog sweater belly, and her scarf. Plus some festive holiday coffee drinks. Yummy!

The DPN lesson clicks:

See the light bulb over her head? Form will come later, but at least the theory is down! She's gonna make a great pair of socks.

Next, some nice shots of the boxed-up chaos of moving out of the apartment.

Remember how B and I spent all that time and effort packing up some stuff ourselves? Trying to be helpful? Well, apparently (we were never informed of this) the military won't move any owner-packed boxes. Damn. So they unpacked and repacked all those boxes. Their stacks look much more organized than ours ever did, though.

When it was all packed up like that, I seriously had to wonder how in the world all that stuff ever fit into that tiny space to begin with. Wow.

The new place is so refreshingly different from the old one. We went from a one bedroom in an apartment supercomplex built in 2004, tucked away behind the MALL, to a furnished condo encompassing the entire first floor of a house that's gotta date back to 18-- at least (we need to ask the owner how old it is next time we see her). Walking through the neighborhood here, every fourth house or so has a plaque noting that it's on the National Register of Historic Places, and just up the road about 2 or 3 blocks is a gorgeous Catholic church where John F. Kennedy and Jackie were married. Plus there are a zillion awesome restaurants, shops, pubs... There was zilch within walking distance from the apartment in VA. And across the street:

A park! Riley can run and play! People have their dogs out there off-leash all the time. I'm thinking perhaps sometime when it isn't too cold out (and it really hasn't been THAT cold) I'll sit out there, let him wander around leashless, while I knit on a bench. Brendon thinks that would make me a little old lady, but whatever. I may instead walk up to the awesomest coffee shop ever, Empire, and knit there while drinking some sort of wonderful hot chocolate/cider/bubble tea. I sense a new habit coming on...

A couple more pictures of the new house - my spot:

And the "ghettofied" computer setup:

To finish it all off, I know it's a bit late for these, but what the heck. Our Thanksgiving dinner turned out beautiful:

Too bad it may (or may not!) have given B a very mild case of salmonella. He's okay now, and it was probably just a stomach ache. And besides, it was delicious.

I have a lot of pictures of yarn, but I'm saving them for another post. This one has gone on way too long as it is. By the way, I have in fact finished the doggy sweater - it was done Saturday night - but I haven't gotten up the stamina/attention span for writing out the pattern. So I'm lazy. So sue me.