I Am Taking This As A Good Sign

I am going on a trip next week (no posts next week, by the way, if you didn't see any of my earlier mentions of that). I am taking my daughter and flying out to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit my super awesome little sister and our mom is coming out as well.

My husband was trying to come with but his work schedule didn't align to let that happen, which means that this, my daughter's second flight ever, will also be my first time flying with her alone. Now, last summer, I took her on a road trip by myself. That went over pretty well for the most part. Theoretically flying should be way easier than a road trip, but I am much more nervous about this trip than I was about the last. This is because flying in general makes me a nervous wreck. Not because I am scared, but because I am kind of a control freak. When you fly somewhere, somebody else is in charge of pretty much every single aspect of your journey once you step foot in that airport. It makes me nuts. I foresee this going one of two ways:

Going this alone with my kiddo is going to be a total disaster because on top of freaking out about nobody bending to my own conception of how the universe should work, I will also be responsible for all of our luggage and my daughter and keeping her entertained and well-behaved for the duration.

OR

I will be distracted enough with keeping up with the kiddo that I will be less susceptible to my normal flying annoyances and will therefore be much calmer on this trip than I would otherwise be.

There's really no way to tell which way things will unfold. I will just have to trust myself to the universe and hope that we get there in one piece, with all of our belongings, with minimal fuss. But either way, there is plenty of prep to be done.

Part of that prep was choosing what yarn project I would take with me for the trip. I don't want to take the blanket I am working on because the further you progress on blankets, the bigger they get and the more space they take up. Also, they require you to bring along a lot more yarn. Fine for a road trip, not so much for a flight with limited space (especially in these wonderful days where you are charged for every ounce you try to bring with you, yeesh).

I figured a pair of socks would be a good small project that I wouldn't finish up too quickly and that wouldn't take up much space in any of its iterations. Having decided that, I just needed to settle on a pattern. I flipped through some of those that I have collected and found one that is a basic stockinette stitch starter pattern. It seemed like a perfect match for my project needs. The only catch was that it required worsted weight yarn rather than sock yarn.

Sock yarn, I have in abundance, but nice sock-worthy worsted weight is another story altogether. I mean, I have a few bits here and there, but I wasn't sure I would have the right amount or colors or what have you in my stash, and I really felt this should be a project that used up stash resources. I had a yarn in mind that I thought might work but it turned out to be the wrong weight (and I really don't feel like messing with substitutions).

I had resolved myself to hunt through my whole stash and pull out anything that might be worthy when I chanced to look at the pattern again, and I noticed something interesting. I had overlooked that the pattern suggested a specific brand of yarn and even gave the number of balls required in that yarn the first time around. But when I did finally notice it, it dawned on me that I actually had some of that yarn in my stash. In the correct amount and color configuration, no less.

It was yarn I had purchased last year on that road trip I took with my daughter, when we had gone to visit my mom in Iowa. Yarn that had been earmarked for no specific purpose, but that had been purchased simply because it called to me. Now, almost a year later, there it was, ready to be put to use in a project that was literally made for that yarn.

Score!

So, I am hoping this is perhaps a good omen of awesome things to come. Fingers crossed, at least. Regardless of how my traveling plays out, at the very least, I should end up with a pretty spiffy pair of new socks. That counts as a win in my book.

So have a wonderful weekend and an excellent next week guys! See you back here in April.

Southbound 35

Well, things went mostly well with the drive yesterday. The weather was pretty spiffy for the most part, though I could have done without the wind.

I accidentally (on purpose) overshot Oklahoma City last night and ended up stopping about 160 miles from home. I briefly considered pushing on through, but Baby Girl and I both really needed to stop. Of course, I did pick the hotel where the internet was down, though thankfully it is back up this morning. Cori gets cranky with no internet, folks. Also, why does autocorrect always try to capitalize internet? It really can't still be considered a proper noun, can it?

Anyhow, should be a short drive home, yay! Then I will collapse like an flan in a cupboard and all will be well.

Laters, y'all. Send some happy home-stretch travel thoughts my way, please.

Here, have a picture of my daughter being awesome at Cracker Barrel:

Straight for the peg game.

Also, a very happy birthday to Mr. Joss Whedon! Thank you for all of the awesomeness. We look forward to your next round of goodies, sir.

On The Road Again

Today I bid adieu to my mother and stepfather and head on back to Texas. It has been a wonderful visit, even if some of our plans had to be changed due to circumstances beyond our control. It is always so nice to get to see my family again.

The plan is to try to make it to Oklahoma City tonight (well, almost to OKC or just past it, I have personal reasons that keep me from wanting to actually stop overnight in OKC itself ever again in my life if I can help it, especially when I am alone with my daughter). That will make for a super short easy jaunt back to DFW tomorrow in theory.

The good old Facebook seems to be telling me that everyone down in DFW is experiencing some crazy-ass stormy weather right now (while the news up here would have us believe that the entire state of Texas is on fire at the moment), and we have had some rainy/stormy weather going on up here as well. This tells me I have a more interesting drive than I would like ahead of me today.

I did engage my limited weather-fu skills last night, however, and did a bit of research. It seems to be that these are two completely different storm cells not moving toward each other (at least along my path of travel). Looking at the major cities along my path it looked like I should expect random chance of showers until I get past Kansas City snd then for things to be pretty dry from there. A quick check again this morning shows my way to be pretty clear of rain and a mostly sunny, if windy, drive. Fingers crossed.

So that's me today. Wish me luck. Have a great one, folks! Stay safe if you're in a part of the country with the crazy weather!

Things Are Going Swimmingly, Or Perhaps I Should Say Knittingly?

For the curious, I did indeed make it to my mom's without incident this past weekend. Baby Girl was, for the most part, extremely well-behaved while on the road. The first night we stopped and got a hotel room about eight or so, which gave me almost two hours to chill and her some time to run around and expend energy before it was time to start her going-to-bed routine. I did not take her pack 'n play into the hotel with me on Friday night  because I wanted to see if she could just share a bed with me. This was...not my brightest idea. While eventually she did settle down and sleep more or less in the middle of the bed, she was pretty restless all night. I got very little quality sleep because of this (and because she, at one point, kicked me in the frakking eyeball just as I was drifting off--which didn't wake her up in the slightest, despite my loud and startled reaction). Other than that though, things went mostly pretty well.

The second day of driving was much better than the first, mostly because it was shorter. I will say, the gas station restroom we stopped at in Missouri on Saturday was far and away much nicer than anything we stopped at in Oklahoma or Kansas. This includes the Love's I stopped at, hoping for a safe haven of sorts in that department, which had a just plain scary bathroom. It continues to baffle me how many so-called "travel stations" have either no changing table or just despicable bathrooms overall. I know, I know, gas station bathrooms, who cares? But, man, I do. Especially being on my own with my daughter. I would like to find some place (relatively at least) clean and with a convenient (or at least not inconvenient) location for changing my child's diaper. Sigh. Sorry, ending rant now.

Anyhoo. I am very much enjoying the visit with my mom and stepdad so far. My grandparents (my mom's parents) even surprised me by coming up to visit Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. They had hoped to stay for my mom's birthday (which is tomorrow), but my grandfather is not in the best of health and traveling takes its toll on him. Still, it was wonderful to get to see them.

My mom has commented once or twice about how hot and muggy it has been here the last few days and it just makes me laugh. While I will concede that it is a little muggy, it's hardly anything to annoy me. As far as heat goes, well, it's been in the mid-80s range and supposed to stay that way throughout my stay. Compare that to the high-90s/triple digit temperatures that the DFW area has been seeing, and well...I think you understand why I think the mid-80s is a perfectly wonderful temperature range.

Of course, no visit with my mom would be complete without a trip to the local yarn store. Saturday afternoon we ventured to the shop where she works, a wonderful little store called Knitted Together. I did treat myself to a few goodies while there:

Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Quatro in Green Tea.

Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Quatro in Summerdaze.

Interweave Crochet, Winter 2010 and Summer 2011 issues.

I would have gotten three skeins of the green Quatro (come on, it's called "Green Tea," for Pete's sake, how could I resist), but there was just that one lonely ball in the store. So the blue will have to keep it company I suppose. I feel I showed remarkable restraint, overall, just getting the three balls. There were five balls of a spiffy grey wool on sale that I was eyeing but managed to talk myself out of purchasing. My space for yarn storage is at a minimum at the moment and without knowing what specific or even type of project I wanted to make with it, well, it really wasn't justifiable.

As far as the magazines go, they both have lots of wonderful patterns I want to try, including the cover patterns shown on each. So exciting!

So as we head into the week, I am a very happy Cori, hanging out with my mom, knitting, reading, playing with the kiddo. Trying to help my mother explain Dolores to my grandmother. It's good times. The Doctor Who scarf is even growing for the first time in months, huzzah!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Baby Girl is so sleeping in the pack 'n play from here on out.

On the Playlist

What road trip would be complete without a new music mix? None of mine, that's for certain. Every time I have embarked on a road trip, for as long as I can remember, I have always made at least one new mix-tape or mix-CD for said trip. This coming journey is no exception. This time I decided to go with all songs that I can sing along with at the top of my lungs (for keeping myself energized and to entertain my kiddo). If I'm honest with myself, most of these songs have made their way onto multiple mixes, but never before have so many of them been assembled on one disc for my listening pleasure! I am already excited to pop it in to my stereo!

For the curious, here's the mix I made yesterday:

Drive On

1. Dixieland Delight by Alabama
2. Mean by Taylor Swift
3. Alright by Darius Rucker
4. Lover, Lover by Jerrod Niemann
5. You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon
6. She Likes Hair Bands by Butch Walker
7. Mr. Jones by Counting Crows
8. Unwell by Matchbox Twenty
9. Long Way Down by Goo Goo Dolls
10. Hey Jealousy by Gin Blossoms
11. Hey, Soul Sister by Train
12. Fast Car by Christian Kane
13. I'm Gonna Be Somebody by Travis Tritt
14. Small Town Kid by Eli Young Band
15. Small Town Saturday Night by Hal Ketchum
16. Gunpowder & Lead by Miranda Lambert
17. Breathe by Michelle Branch
18. Fair to Middlin' by Collin Herring
19. Little Red Rodeo by Collin Raye
20. You Look Good In My Shirt by Keith Urban

You can probably see the train-of-thought nature that went into some of the assembly of this mix, but I am pretty happy with it. It should be a fun listen. 

Of course, just one mix for a twelve hour drive won't cut it. I do realize this. Sadly, I am not quite into the twenty-first century with the electronics in my car and cannot just plug in my iPod to select from whatever I feel like listening to in my vast library of music and audio stories. I'm going to get there one day (soon, hopefully). My stereo is equipped for it, it just doesn't have the actual connector installed, and every time I ask my dealership about getting it done, I get some vague mumbo jumbo about their "audio guy" and his mysterious and baffling (to them) schedule, so I have yet to get that taken care of. Probably gonna cave and go elsewhere at some point. But. Not before I leave on Friday.

This means assembling a good selection of CDs to take along with me, in addition to the aforementioned mix. Here's what I've got:

1. All twelve of Big Finish Audio's Stargate SG-1 and Stargage Atlantis audio dramas (six for each show, each clocking in at around fifty minutes to an hour).
2. There's A Hippo In My Tub by Anne Murray (for the kiddo).
3. The album of songs from my daughter's current semester of music class.
4. All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana.
5. Can't Love, Can't Hurt by Augustana.
6. Augustana by Augustana. 
7. Fishin' For Woos by Bowling For Soup.
8. All of my favorite Bowling For Soup songs not on the new album (condensed into two CDs--which, hey, lets me put two versions of Belgium on there, score).

All in all, I think this should keep us going out there on the open road. 

Lining Up Ducks

I am going out of town at the end of the week, heading up to Iowa with my daughter to visit my mom for her birthday. Even though we're not leaving until Friday (by the by, there probably won't be a post on Friday), I am already starting to get into the frame of mind for packing. Got a bag already filled with clothes for my daughter.

Now, I am a road warrior, this is something that I get from my father.  If it is feasible to drive somewhere, I will drive.  But I do have to admit I am a teensy bit nervous about hitting the road on my own with a toddler for the first time. It's about a twelve hour drive, which normally I wouldn't flinch at taking in one go. With Baby Girl in tow, though, I'll plan to split it up into two days of driving. It's not the driving bit that has me nervous, it's the keeping my daughter happy and occupied whilst I am driving that is giving me a little bit of pause. Still, I think we should be fine. I am going to keep a bag of toys up in the front passenger seat that I can pass back to her if she seems to be getting bored or fussy, and we'll be taking the iPad along, of course (she can spend hours playing with that thing). I'll also try to stop for lunch somewhere with a playground, as well as keep my eyes open for a rest area to stop at so that she has a few opportunities to actually run around and expend some energy. Splitting it up into two days also means we can stop reasonably early in the evening and I can let her stretch her legs before bed time. I think we'll be good. Keep your fingers crossed for me that she sticks to her usual genial temperament while we are on the road!

In addition to getting everything ready for the trip itself (and making sure that my husband and the kitties have enough food stocked up at home to survive my absence), I do have a few things I would like to achieve before I leave:

1. Finish the dish towel I am knitting.
2. Finish watching Stargate Universe season two.
3. Finish my current playthrough of Dragon Age II.

Items 1 and 2 are pretty much a lock to get done. I am well past the halfway point on both, and can do them at the same time while watching/playing with my daughter. I might possibly get both of these wrapped up by tomorrow, which would be outstanding. I will take the Doctor Who scarf with me to work on during my trip (not while on the road, of course), as well as maybe a few knitting basics so I can get some lessons from my mom. Increasing has proven tricky for me, and I am hoping she can give me some pointers, as she is a knitting goddess.

Finishing up my game should be doable, I think. I am into the third act now, which means the home stretch. I would prefer to not leave right before the end of the game, because then I lose the mindset of the game in the week I am not playing, and it makes the ending a little less satisfying. Though this particular playthrough hasn't been the most satisfying experience in any case. I mean, yes, my battles have been going spectacularly for the most part (except for the encounter with the Arishok, that was a bear), sure. But the character development side of the game? I am in the third act already and I have only gained the loyalty of one of my companions. Two of them have left my party for good. My romance is moving slower than a snail. I think it may be because I have not been paying attention to which party members I take on which quests, so I have missed some opportunities to gain loyalty (or heck, even rivalry) points. It is frustrating though. Losing Isabela has definitely screwed up more than one quest. I think it might also be my decision to take the "good guy" dialogue options. They've made my Hawke a bit bland--inoffensive to most everyone, but not really interesting to them either. I dunno. I think probably at some point I'll do another run through of just DA II porting in my character from the recent run of DA: Origins. See if I can't do better on another go around. By the way, I was totally right about the Bone Pit dragon fight--there was definitely a bigger dragon waiting for me. Managed to take it down in one go though, so huzzah!

Anyhoo, so that is what I am up to this week. Getting ready for my trip, running some errands, and finishing up some ongoing projects. Woohoo! Let the good times begin, right?