On our way home from camp

Game Boy went to camp here this year. He was able to spend a week at camp in Kentucky and then he got a week here. He had a good time, but he liked the Domain better. (It's bigger, the 4-square rules are better, the hikes are better, there's rock climbing, the cabins are better, etc.) He had a good time and learned to swing dance (the girls voted him the best boy dancer). He loved swimming in Lake Coeur d'Alene, and liked the food and campfires. Here is a view of the lake and the docks.On our way home, there were lots of little popup thunderstorms and it really made the scenery amazing. The light was incredible. My little camera can't do justice, but you can get the idea from these.

An Annoying Predicament

Random picture of Game Boy and the dogs. It has nothing to do with this post.

The farther away you are moving, and the more changes you have to make, the more likely there will be at least one disaster. All of these disasters are things that can be dealt with, but it is pretty annoying/crazy-making all the same.

On June 30, I received a letter from our credit union, telling me that my new debit card PIN was ####. Well, this is odd. Why would they change my PIN without my request?

It turns out that Visa was hacked, and my debit card was one of those stolen, along with its PIN. (It was nothing that I did--just bad luck. For those of you keeping count, mine has been stolen from Visa 3 times now, and The Collar's 2 times. The only time we had any money stolen was once.) Because of this, my debit card had to be cancelled. The Collar's will be cancelled eventually, but not yet.

Yes, the day before our house is being packed up for a cross country move. No access to money at all for me. (I still don't have any access--we have a temporary ATM card for our new local account but no debit cards or checks yet. There's a modest limit on how much you can take from the account, too. Maybe today all the other stuff will come?) Is there any worse time for this to happen? I'll set up online billing as I can.

Of course, since we have had our mail forwarded, these can't be forwarded on. There is also no point to forwarding it, because you must use these debit cards in the credit union's ATMs.

So, here we are, and I still can't just go out and buy groceries. (Well, we're buying them, but it's just enough to get us through a few days.) However, it's nice to have some cash around, because the farmer's market here is just wonderful. I like living close to where the food grows!

I still have about 4 boxes of stuff to deal with. One of them is full of music tapes. We don't have a tape player that works any more. Why'd we bring them along? I have a bunch of things we're going to donate to goodwill or the like. It's amazing what shows up when you pack up a house! Because there's always things on top of cabinets, or in the cabinets that you don't actually use, or...ahem.

Oh, and we still have to figure out how to help Game Boy unpacked. Apparently, he decided to unpack each box partially by dumping things on his floor. His room is, according to the Wiz anyway, a disaster area. It's not that bad. Well, maybe it is...

What Game Boy Made

Game Boy built a dam in the stream at the house we were staying while we were waiting/unpacking/etc. The dam made a pretty big pool of water, and it ran faster after he did it. He also spent a lot of time clearing weeds from the stream back, too.
Then, we had a lot of boxes. We believe in reduce/reuse/recycle. A lot of the boxes went to a parishioner whose son is moving. The really big ones we let Game Boy have. This is his first construction.
He has a roof and doors, too.
Sadly, the wind blew it over. I think that there will be a new construction later.

Back Garden

We have no grass, but we have a lot of potential.We have grapes (and an apple tree), chokecherries, and crab apples. The grapes are doing surprisingly well for a neglected vine. There are a few apples on the tree. There are a lot of chokecherries, and we'll have a lot of crab apples for the birds.

There are also roses, lavender, and a really huge butterfly bush.

We will need to seriously prune things, though. We shall see how things look next year.

While I was waiting

I knitted, quite a bit, in fact. Once your house is packed up, and you are in a car for hours and hours, there must be something to do. Then, of course, our closing was delayed, so I had more time to knit (and no tv or internet, so what else to do?).

So, here's what I did:

The socks are Spring Forward from Knitty. My version should probably be called Fall Back. The yarn is Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock yarn in Brown Sugar. Very autumnal colors, I think. They'll look good with my tan clogs when it's cool enough to wear them again.

I started these socks at camp, and literally wove in the ends as we drove into Washington. I really like the colors. My pictures aren't so wonderful, but they'll be great socks.I have finished all of the mitre squares for the dishcloth cotton baby blanket. It needs a border, but I'm waffling on what color to use. Suggestions? It's going to be very soft, and machine washable once it's finished.

I am almost finished with this, too. It needs to be blocked, and I've decided to use some sort of clasp, rather than the buttons that are called for. It will be good for throwing on when I'm too cool in air conditioning or at night. (It really can get cool at night here, even if the days are in the 90's).
The color is closer in the second picture. It's not the best picture of the sweater, but it's not too bad considering it's a mirror shot. :) (I think I've lost weight during the knitting of this sweater!)

I think that I'll be wearing it a lot. It's the Hexacomb Sweater from the Spring IK, and I knit it all in one color from Knit Picks Merino Style in Crocus, which is no longer available. I used Addi Turbos for the first time with this sweater, too.

Later, I'll post pictures of the boys' projects. Next week I might be ready for a "tour" of the house.