We head back to Dublin tomorrow, so this is my last chance at being online before we head home on Saturday.  This has been such a great grand vacation holiday and so I’m sad to see it end.  Of course, the main reason why it’s been so great is thanks to my friends who let us crash at their place for the week.  Not only did we get to go sightsee during the day, but then we had fun hanging out with them in the evening.  The best part – my friend’s girlfriend is crafty!  She does beading and makes great jewelry (and even has an etsy shop – I’m trying to convince her to make stitch markers and row counter bracelets) and her mom knits (you can see the Sam the Scarecrow doll that her mom made on her etsy shop).  Anyway, if my friends/hosts are reading this – thank you for making us feel at home here in Ireland!

Once I get back home, be prepared for some spastic and sporadic blog posts containing pictures.  As of Monday, we had about 2200 taken between our two cameras, so ummm, it’s going to take some time to figure out exactly what we have.  Ya know?

Oh, I almost forgot!  I actually drove today!  Not much as it’s raining (the first time since we’ve gotten here thankfully) and I’m headachy from my stupid cold.  But I drove around the neighborhood near here on the way to the grocery store.  Woo Hoo!

I only have time for a quick post, but this one is important enough for me to try and squeeze in.  We went to the largest of the three Aran Islands yesterday, Inis Mor.  We were only there for about 5 hours or so, but I wish we had planned on spending a few days there.  The area is breathtaking.  We decided to walk the length of the island which was tiring, but probably the best way to enjoy the views and to be able to take pictures.  Unfortunately, because we were walking and the island is so big, we simply didn’t have time to see a lot of the “highlights” of the island.  Someday, when I win the lottery, I’m coming back and spending a week on the islands!

The most important thing about the island is that I finally found yarn!  There are several shops at both ends of the island that sell aran sweaters and when I asked at the first shop I went into, I discovered that they do have yarn – it’s just tucked away into corners.  The odd thing about this… while there are tons of sheep on the main land, I struggled to find yarn.  But on the island, where I finally found yarn, I didn’t see a single sheep.  Huh.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost a week now!  We spent the first few days in Dublin and are now in Galway, staying with some friends.  I have taken (literally) thousands of pictures (many of them are of sheep), but they’re either on the camera or on my friend’s laptop (which is at work with him) so I can’t show any right now.  But everything has been absolutely incredible here.  The scenery, of course, but the people are just so nice.  When anyone finds out that we’re from the states, they start chatting us up.  I’ve learned a lot about the country’s history just from these conversations.

I did have a bit of a stupid moment on our first full day here.  We were in Dublin and, upon advisement from many people we know who have visited here, didn’t have a car.  Now, for those who don’t know this about me, I participated in a 3 Day breast cancer walk a few years ago.  I know my feet pretty well and I know exactly where they’re going to blister when I walk a lot.  This is useful information to know because I put moleskin on before the blisters appear.

Anyhoo, we set out on foot on that first day and walked across the city.  From one end to the next.  And then back.  We did use some public transit as well, but we mostly walked.  And walked.  And walked.  Here’s the stupid thing… did I put moleskin on before heading out?  Nope.  Did I bring moleskin with me to use while we were out?  Nope.  By the time we got back to the hotel that first night, my poor feet were covered in blisters.  Ouch!

We now have a rental car so we can drive across the countryside instead of walking.  Of course, the roads are so bumpy that I nearly have blisters on my bum.  (And for those who are curious, I haven’t been brave enough to try driving just yet.  I’m going to give it a shot today.  I’m not too concerned about driving on the left or having the steering wheel on the right.  But the roads are amazingly narrow and the drivers are kinda crazy!)

This past weekend, Melanie, my hubby, and I went up to Flagstaff so I could attempt cross country skiing for the first time.  This was a common position for me.

This was actually my second time down (of many), but I think my first spill was the funniest.  We were at the Flagstaff Nordic Center on Saturday and the trails were pretty icy.  I was attempting to go up a hill but I lost my momentum.  Instead of going up, I started to slide down backwards.  I was already leaning forward and so when my skis started going backwards, my upper body continued in a forward motion.  Until I hit the ground.  Hard.  Enough to knock the air out of me.  Once I knew I was ok (Ankles ok? check.  Knees ok?  check.  Anything broken/twisted?  Nope.) I started laughing because I could only imagine what it must have looked like.  Unfortunately, my hubby missed the photo opp.

We went skiing both Saturday and Sunday and I did manage to stay upright for the most part on Sunday.  I even eventually figured out what I was supposed to do with my hands and feet.  (I determined that cross country skiing is much like learning how to drive a stick shift.  You know what you’re supposed to do, but getting your hands and feet to comply is a different matter.)  Saturday’s weather was sunny and somewhat warm (hence the icy trails).

Sunday, however, was a different story.  A storm moved in overnight and brought snow.  Several inches of it.

Brrr!  Thankfully the lodge was nice and warm so we could thaw out.

I really had a lot of fun.  It was hard work, and I was extremely sore on Monday, but I can’t wait to go again next winter.  I’m not sure the Yarn Mobile is as excited as I am, though.

My poor little car isn’t used to the cold weather.  And while the three of us made it through the weekend without any injuries, there was a casualty of sorts.

My hubby wanted to get video of me when I first started out, but the camera slipped and landed on the ground.  Oops!  Pictures can still be taken, but the display is dead.  On the bright side, this confirms our decision to buy a digital SLR to take with us to Ireland in May.  (Oh, didn’t I tell you?  We bought tickets and are heading to Ireland on May 9th! Ack!)

What a crazy month!  My niece is getting married on Tuesday and I’m one of the bridesmaids.  So things are even more hectic than normal for December.  Anyhoo, I finally have pictures to show you from my sister-in-law’s visit from Thanksgiving. 

We took the Yarn Mobile

and went to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats, which is where we took my mom-in-law last year when she was out for Xmas.  When we went last year, it looked like this.  What we hadn’t realized was that they were doing a draw down (I think that’s what it’s called) so they could perform maintenance work on the dams.  Here’s what we found…

That’s me and my sister-in-law in the lake.  Not just at the lake, but actually standing on the dry lake bed.  I’d love to go back when we have more time and walk the lake bed, but I think they’re going to fill it back in pretty soon.  Of course, I think the fish will be happy to have the water back.

Poor fishies.

As I mentioned, we also went to Tortilla Flats, which is this speck of a town with a couple of shops.  We stopped at this one place to get some yummy ice cream and even though I’d been there a couple of times, it was the first time I ever noticed the dollar bills stapled to walls.

Lots of them.  I have no idea how I missed this before.  Another oddity I discovered was in another shop’s bathrooms.

Excuse the cheesy smile.  The stall I was in was directly across from a mirror, so I originally tried to take this picture myself.  I can only imagine what the woman in the stall next door was thinking when the flash went off.  Anyway, I couldn’t quite get the picture on my own so I finally had my sister-in-law help me out and I couldn’t stop cracking up.

That’s it for the pics.  Before I cut you loose, I have to give you a fantasy football update.  I thought I was done with the league last week, because this weekend is the beginning of our playoffs.  So while I was happy to end with a 7-7 record, I was sad that I was done playing.  However, it ends up there’s a consolation playoff and I’m playing in it!  Right now I’m neck-and-neck with the team I’m playing against, so I’m a little stressed.  It’s coming down to the Monday night game, which means I’m going to be calling my hubby every 30 minutes while I’m at the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night to find out how I’m doing.  Ack!

(Edited to add: 1) Sorry for such a long post!  I’m planning to get back on the blog-once-a-day thing November and 2) Carol won the March of Dimes Walk prize - I still don’t know exactly what the prize will be, though I have a couple of ideas, plus I know that Eva was planning to donate a prize, so there might be another drawing!) 

I’m constantly amazed at how many places have wireless internet access now.  My niece-in-law and I are staying in a close-to-dirt-cheap hotel on the Historic Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona and I’m able to blog about our trip and the March of Dimes walk thanks to the hotel having wireless internet access.

Anyhoo… this weekend has been so fantastically spastic, that I’ve decided to call it spastastic.  We drove up yesterday and discovered that there isn’t a whole hell of a lot between Phoenix and Kingman except for a small town called Wikieup.  This is one of those towns that if you blink you miss it, and we were starving.  After passing a few places that made me prefer starvation over eating, we stopped at this bizarre little burger type of joint.  The food was surprisingly good, but the bizarre thing about it is that the entire place is covered in grafitti.  On-purpose grafitti.  I guarantee that there are people who are going to read about this and say “I’ve been there!”  Anyway, before we headed back on the road, my niece made her mark

and then I made mine.

We only had a ballpoint pen, so it’s a bit tough to read, but it says “Keep on Knittin!” and I signed it Nan and the Yarn Mobile.  See the car in the background?  That’s my Yarn Mobile!

Ok, so after another hour or so in the car, we finally arrived.

We didn’t do too much after getting into town except a little shopping and getting some dinner.  Oh, and did I mention that the shopping took place at… a yarn shop?!?

No pics of the merchandise, but I got some Green Mountain Spinnery cotton/wool yarn (in violet) and some superwash merino/alpaca roving (in a kind of heathered grey).

That was Friday.  In all honesty, while the day was long, it wasn’t actually spastic.  Today, however…

We got up bright and early and made to the park for the March of Dimes walk.  We had scoped out the park last night, so we knew exactly where to go.  Well, we thought so anyway.  We got to the park and there were no signs and no sign of March of Dimes people anywhere.  We eventually found out that the walk was starting out on the opposite side of the park.  Once we saw the ramada, I suppose we should have know.

I mean, this screams March of Dimes Walk HERE, doesn’t it?  The registration started at 8am, and the walk was supposed to start at 9am.  After it took about five minutes for all 10 of us to get registered, we sat around for a bit.  And we sat around some more.  Finally, the organizers told us to just go ahead and start walkng.  Only problem was that the people who were volunteering at the rest stops weren’t expecting us yet, so the first few stops didn’t have anyone around.  The walk itself was ok.  It certainly wasn’t the uplifting, motivating walk that the 3 Day walk was, but we did find some sidewalk grafitti that gave us some encouragement.

It says something about Kingman when you realize that they can’t even spell swear words correctly.

Since the walk was over around 11am, after a brief nap and shower, we headed back out into the town.  We discovered that they were having a small festival and not only was an alpaca ranch owner there with some yarn and roving (I managed to keep my wallet in check and leave without buying anything), I saw a baby kangaroo in a stroller.

I’m telling you, this has been the most spastastic trip I’ve ever been on.

After dealing with several technical issues, I finally managed to get my pictures from yesterday ready to show you. 

In any case, we headed up to Strawberry yesterday morning and discovered that Pine was having a craft festival.  I don’t point this out because we stopped and shopped for crafty items.  Instead, we got stuck in a long line of traffic crawling through the small town.  In any case, we finally got to Strawberry and passed the old one-room schoolhouse as the directions instructed us to.  Unfortunately, it was after this that our directions were a little… vague.  The town sheriff was in his car at the side of the road, so we stopped to ask for directions.  His response was “Fossil Creek Ranch?  What’s on it?” which didn’t bode well for us.  We drove back to the schoolhouse and retraced our steps.  Anyway, we eventually discovered that we had been on the right path after all and made it to a very deserted llama ranch.  I had been hoping to have a ranch hand (or whatever a llama ranch person is called) be there to chat with us and maybe let us pet the llamas.  Instead, we just checked them out through their fence.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but here’s my favorite.

I nicknamed this cutie Tyra, because this was the supermodel pose she was striking.

There were some darker colored llamas, but I didn’t get any great pictures of them.  I did get a shot of these two fellas.

And, in addition to llamas, the ranch has goats.  Hungry goats.

Goats so hungry that one managed to squeeze himself into the feeding trough holes.

This guy just cracked me up.

The ranch also had a small, but beautiful, garden with tons and tons of butterflies.  Trying to get a picture of one of these butterflies was tough, because just as soon as I’d snap the picture, they’d close their wings.  Out of the bajillion I took, I got lucky and had this one turn out.

There were also these really cool flowers in the garden.  This picture I took is simply how it came out, even though it looks like I photoshopped it.

Ok, admittedly, it doesn’t look all that impressive at this size.  But in full resolution, it kinda looks like a watercolor painting.  Anyway, I’m not sure what these flowers are called (any ideas, Eva?), but they have impressive blooms.

Once we moved on from the llama ranch, we stopped to take a picture of the field we passed on the way up.

The colors were so much more vibrant in person, but I love the horses in the background.

Just to prove that I managed to drag my sick, llama-loving butt up to Strawberry, here’s a picture of me with my niece-in-law…

and one of just me (exciting, I know!)…

and finally, a picture of my little trooper, the Yarn Mobile.

She did such a great job yesterday!  Especially considering the fact that she went to all that work and didn’t even get to stop at a yarn shop as a reward.  Poor thing!