A week sans the needle...

I know, I know...it sounds terrible, but truth be told I was so darned busy last week that I hardly had time to pick up my stitching...which now that I think about it, is actually terrible after all! Still, I managed to have a lot of fun, as well as hang out with some great folks! I also actually managed to find a nifty little yarn shop on my travels as well! Anyway, I started my week off by running a couple of errands that needed to be done before my trip up to NY with the wifey, and then heading off to my friend Mike's house to get tattooed. Originally I wanted the Eye of Horus, but the one that he had was too big to put where I wanted it so I changed my mind and wound up with this nifty girly piece instead!



Of course, that was taken when the ink was still very, very fresh and smeared with all sorts of bacitracin. Now, it's healing nicely but I think the blue in the moon needs to be re-done because I can still see some of my skin-color through it, which is actually okay considering he said that because me and the wife were good friends of his he was perfectly willing to do any work we wanted for free! He also wants to add some stuff to it, make it into a whole fantasy scene...and ya know what? I say ink me up! Granted, it probably wasn't smart to do it the day before heading to NY but at least nothing bad happened to it. Also, if anyone happens to be a fan of video games and/or Resident Evil, here's a picture of the one that my wife got done just before me!



Yay Resident Evil!


After the tattooing took place, we headed home and packed up for our trip and headed out at about 4 a.m., so we could beat the traffic and possibly avoid any manhole covers that may or may not explode (caused by pressure brought about by extreme heat, I guess) as I'd been warned that it had been happening on the Mass Pike prior to leaving. Luckily, we managed to NOT meet up with any of those shenanigans and the ride was smooth sailing, so we arrived in the town of Galway, NY (right in Saratoga Springs) at around 8 a.m., where we met up with our long-time friend Nicki and then promptly set up our tent (because we all decided that it would be FUN to camp out by the pool on her property) and took a three hour nap, only to be awakened at around one-ish to eat chocolate chip cookies and then head into downtown Saratoga to do some shopping and grab some real food. There were tons of places to buy things at, but I was pretty good until I got to the Stitching Post...a tiny yarn shop that specializes in my favorite thing in the world...SOCK YARN! I love sock yarn because you can buy enough to make a pair of socks for as little as nine dollars a skein and well, because socks are such a small project I can actually afford to buy the nicer stuff! Because I was kind of on a budget I had to limit myself, but I did manage to snag a skein of Tofutsies, and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Baby Stripe"...which I was quite thrilled about. I can't wait to play with them...but alas they have to wait until I finish my current projects. Maybe. I haven't decided yet. Here's my newest additions to my stash, in color!



Aren't they pretty? Now all I need to do is either find a nifty pattern for socks for either of these yarns or just figure out my own (which I think I'm going to do) and then get crackin'! I can't wait! Ah well...it was beautiful weather in NY, so it was also just plain nice to be walking around outside and getting some fresh air. Plus, I swear I've never seen a city that actually keeps itself so clean! Even the side streets were kept free of debris! It was fantastic! I just wish places around here could start adopting some pride in their upkeep. Oh well. I can't spend too much time worrying about it.

So, after we finished shopping, we went to meet Nicki's boyfriend Dan (who is a great guy by the way) at his place and then drove off to their softball game (a game that their team lost but still looked like they were having great fun playing) and then headed off to a local bar for a few drinks that were all on the team's captain (and I think owner) Dan's dad. The beer was cold, and the conversation was friendly. A great time was had. Of course, this meant that I was missing out on knit nite, but still...it was almost the same...except with beer, and baseball talk going on and actually very little (or rather, none) knitting at all. So strike that. Not at all like knit nite but still fun. Of course, after that, I was so bloody exhausted that I could barely stay awake through the outdoor bakeoven pizza making that ensued back at Nicki's house, and actually spent very little time getting sloppy drunk as I'd originally planned. On the plus side, I still have a happy bottle of Grey Goose sitting at home (well hidden from anyone else mind you) with my name on it and it will probably be drunk over the next two weeks. I'm not really a heavy drinker (in fact, I'm very much a lightweight), but I'm at least a happy drunk. No fighting for me. Just hugs, usually...which actually, nobody seemed to mind at the bar, which is nice considering usually I get teased mercilessly after getting buzzed off of half a beer. So, after pizzas, we went to sleep kind of early in preparation for spending the next day at Six Flag's Great Escape!


This picture was taken while standing on a ramp that faced the rollercoaster with the sign for the park at the back drop. The coaster is called the "Steamin' Demon" and though it's a ride that only lasts ten seconds, it is one of my favorites! The park used to just be The Great Escape with a Storytown theme, but Six Flags bought it and well, now it's a mini-Six Flags...but it's still incredibly fun with just the right amount of cheez! :) Edit: Apparently I had a little too much fun at this park seeing as I'm now going to have to be out of work for a week because of it. Damned Black Cobra...I friggin' cracked a couple of ribs on that ride and damned well caused the joints of the same two ribs that I cracked to separate from the cartilidge that attatches them to the breast bone. It hurts! HURTS I SAY!!! Waaaauuuugh!
Here are some more pics from the park!




Me (top) and the wife on the way to the park in Nicki's car.




My friend Nicki and her boyfriend Dan on the way to the park. No, Nicki does not normally look like some kind of silly zombie...she just likes to take strange pictures. Ah, Nicki, I love you! Especially since you're currently trying to learn to knit! Yay for fledgling knitters! The world needs more of 'em!



Me and Nicki standing somewhere near the Papa Johns in the park after feeding a greedy little duck all the rest of Nicki's pizza crusts!



The greedy duck in question. I had to get a picture of the duckie that was hungry enough to bite another duck on the butt just to get him to turn around so he could snatch the crust right out of his mouth...and succeed! It was funny to watch, but you kind of had to be there I guess. Anyway...



This was part of the original park, and though the paint is chipping on a lot of the life size sculptures, it was still nice to see that despite it now being a mini-Six Flags, it still has the quaintness of a small, classic amusement park! They even had a rabbit hole that you could crouch-walk through so you could get to the "Wonderland" part, but I think I neglected to take a picture of it. Stupid me. Anyway, here's a little more from that section. But I did get to take a picture with the White Rabbit!





This picture was taken inside the rabbit hole and is supposed to be a picture of Alice sitting at a really huge table, but unfortunately I took it kind of off-centered. Oh well. I'm not a professional photographer, so sue me. And here's one of Nicki and Dan sitting in front of the sign.



Aren't they so frickin' cute together?




The Cheshire Cat...both visible and invisible...my favorite Alice in Wonderland character!



The Queen of Hearts, of course. :) Can't have Alice in Wonderland without the Queen of Hearts!

And well, the rest of the day was spent riding rides, eating junk, drinking lots of soda and basically just having a good ole' time. After the park, well, we hung around Nicki's house for a little bit and then we wound up just driving home due to the fact that we had to go into work on Saturday and we wanted a full day to recoupe. On Friday I lazed about doing basically nothing and then began another hellish work weekend...which sucked. Saturday was alright, except for the fact that the nurse I was working with went berserk and kept frickin' yelling at me until I finally told her to not snap at me any more and I think I may have gotten in trouble for insubordination for that, but I'm not sure. Sunday I worked on a unit of 42 patients all by myself over night which sucked because the floor's heavy, and by Monday my back was killing me so bad that I left work early and began my four days off early. Of course, I'll probably get in trouble for that somehow too, but I'm beyond caring. I just need to sit down and knit I think...get rid of some of the lingering stress before I just do something dumb and simply quit. Can't quit...must enhance stash...therefore need to earn money. :) But I will be looking for a new job this week! At any rate, I think I'm about to go and catch up on my knitting now. Have a nice day all! But before I actually leave you all...



Introducing Bacchus...owned by my friend Nicki and well, the fattest cat I've ever seen. He's HUGE! I mean, I think he's like close to 30 lbs he's that huge! But I love him...even if he is a snotty kitty.



And well, this is what happens when people with dirty minds try to grow tomatoes. I'm sure you can guess what this one looks like? :) Of course, if you turn it a different way it resembles a duck but well, I'll never tell! >;)~