Happy Valentine's Day, Ya'll

Slope at Gore Mountain Ski Resort, NYS

My Valentine's Day started with my cleaning up cat barf.

And yes, that is a photo of a ski slope at Gore Mountain in New York State.  So what do cat barf and Gore Mountain have to do with Valentine's Day?

Let me explain:

Usually dh cleans up cat barf and other disgusting things.  But he is not here; he is skiing at Gore Mountain.  And the ski slopes at Gore Mountain were a big test of our relationship decades ago.

We were dating, and we decided to join some of the members of dh's family at Gore Mountain for a day.  Of course I can ski, I assured him.  I had taken group ski classes one day with a group from college.  ONE DAY.

I truly did think I could ski, but when we got to the top of the mountain and I looked down the mountain, I told him that I could not ski that well.  

OMG---can anyone ski that well???

Well, future dh could, but he spent the whole day acting as ski instructor, and skiing small bits of each trail down the mountain with me following behind.  He skied a bit; I skied a bit. Until I ran into something or fell down.  I was very good at running into trees, other skiers and falling down.  Not so good at actually skiing.

It took the whole day to get in one run. Not the day future dh had planned.

He had just enough time left to get in one run which took him all of about twenty minutes.  

BUT, four decades +, two daughters, and four grandchildren later, we are still together.

I get to clean up cat barf; he gets to ski.  

But that's OK.  I probably owed him.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over!

So I exaggerate.  A little.

MY LONG local nightmare is over.  

I have finished the back of the Currant sweater, the one I started August 15, 2013.  And I know this exact date because, unlike SOME people I could name, but won't (you're welcome Sallyknit and Lucille), I enter my projects on Ravelry.  

I like to share.  

Here 'tis:

I cannot understand how this project has kicked my b*tt, but it sure has.  I'm hoping that I have learned all the new things I needed to learn in order to do this and that I remember them because I still need to knit the two sleeves and the two fronts.

Maybe it could be sleeveless....hmmmm.....


And yes, I am back from my week in Mexico.  A very l.o.n.g week.  And because as a child I was taught that if I can't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything, I will list only the three things that were good during the week.  

1.  Gorgeous weather the entire time.  Upper sixties through the mid-seventies, cloudless blue skies.

2.  I saw whales the second morning there.  They were where they were supposed to be, out in the ocean, eating and making their way north.  There were three for sure and possibly a fourth. They wouldn't hold still enough to be accurately counted.  

3.  The place we rented (and I still can't explain how we came to be in a residence with no walls in the living areas) was 100 feet from the ocean.  So---perfect views and a lovely ocean breeze all of the time.  

And now I'm home.

Knitting indoors.