Wow, almost a month since a post! That's what I get for not having pictures. I feel like I don't have anything interesting... Oh well, this is going to be a picture heavy post...and a long one; fair warning! There's a nice surprise at the end though; I promise!

I've joined the Mason Dixon swapcloth and have been instructed by my SP to keep up with my blog, so you can thank her for this post. I got an email from her on Friday 8/11 when emails for pals were still going out, so I think she's going to be great! *waves at SP*


So, I'm on vacation! Yay, vacation! It started yesterday, and we were *supposed* to be in Denver by 10:30am. Our Roanoke to Atlanta flight went off without a hitch, and we even go through security in 5mins. We got to Atlanta to find that our Atlanta to Denver flight had been cancelled due to no pilot (who was probably delayed some place else due to heightened security). Mad dash to re-issuing line...and standing in line for almost an hour got us a flight to Vegas at 12:54pm then to Denver by 7pm. Could've been worse, right? Here's a picture of Nathan (hubby) in Chilli's having lunch. We're doing ok at this point.

Our flight to Vegas then gets delayed to 1:30, ok...we can still make the 3:30 flight to Denver, no problem. Then...it's 2:05...cutting it close, but still probably ok. Then, it's 3:30, with an ETA of 4:38. So, we have to rebook a new flight out of Vegas for 5:23. This was my view in Atlanta for a really really long time (remember I was in Atlanta from 8:30-4...yeah, our flight boarded even later than 3:30.)

The 4 hour Vegas flight was good for knitting, and watching Mission Impossible 3, and Over the Hedge, which was really funny. Plus, I got to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, the desert, and, well Vegas. The landscape looked like Mars; nothing like I'd ever seen before (coming from green VA) and was so cool. I wish I had gotten pictures...but my camera was in the top closed storage. We landed in Vegas at about 5:20, and ran our butts off across the airport to get to our Denver flight; no such luck! *This one* was on time...figures. We watched it pull out of the gate and take off. We were rebooked onto a 7:40 flight, and I got to explore the airport. No, I didn't play the slots, but I did buy some chips...how could I not?



At 7:40 we boarded our flight to head to Denver. We met a woman (in her 50's?) who was coming from Hawaii and heading to Orlando, and she was interesting. I mananaged to snap this photo out of the window before they made us turn off all electrical devices. Unfortunately, I couldn't snap a picture of the lit up Vegas strip as we went by, but it was cool.


Cities at night look really neat from the sky...like lit up lace. Got to Denver at about 10:15, and our checked bag was there!! Yay!! That was the thing I was most worried about, cause yeah they *said* it'd go on the next flight...but, well, how often do they say that? Rana picked us up in her 1970 VW bus...so cool. Got to the house around midnight (MST...so 2am EST...remember we started at 7am.)


Today, we went to a sculpture festival (apparently Loveland CO is all about sculpture.) We saw a lot of interesting things, Loveland itself is really pretty, and the weather is really nice. It's hot, but not humid like VA, and there's a nice breeze since it's all pretty flat. They don't use their AC, which I was worried about at first, but now I understand why; it feels nice without it. There's a lake in the middle of Loveland; it's really pretty...this whole place is pretty nice; I have to say.

This morning, in CO, I got mail! How weird is that? Ok, so the backstory is a really good friend of mine is moving to Richmond while I'm on vacation. She was there when I left, but won't be when I get back. The night before we left I saw her, and gave her a going away present. We also hung out the day before and went to Barnes & Noble (my absolute favorite place to bum around in Roanoke) and I saw a "My Trip" journal that I really really wanted. Yeah, like I need another journal...I have like 20 with only a couple that even have a few pages written in. There's just something about them. So, I didn't buy it. So, Leslie did! She had priorty mailed me the journal I wanted, and enclosed a little note. Aww...she's trying to make me cry.

Ok, so I promised you guys a surprise at the end. Since you've been so good, and read this whole thing...my surprise is yarn PrOn! At the sculpture festival there was a craft show, and of course I managed to find the one yarn tent in the craziness. There had to be over 200 tents there, and we only had an hour before Rana had to go to work. Don't mess with a knitter's nose; we know when there's yarn around. This stuff is gorgeous! It's a coppery gold with turquoise, and has a mohair ply and a nylon ply. I saw it knitted up...and it's beautiful. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with one skein of it.



It's not my typical color palette, but it was just so pretty, and eye-catching! I also scored some really pretty dark purple handsoun alpaca and got to talk with the spinner at length about her wheel, and her alpacas!



Whew! That's a lot of info! I'll try to be more regular with posts from now on so it's not everything at once!