This next week is going to be a BLAST! Tomorrow morning I am leaving for an abbreviated version of our late summer Girls' Weekend at the Lake. Everyone else will get a full version, but I can only stay until early Saturday afternoon.
We'll have our usual fun. We'll eat too much,
Drink too much
play LOTS of poker 
and just be downright silly. It's going to be hard to tear myself away after only being there little more than 24 hours. But I really want to go even though it's for a short time.I'll drive back home and finish getting myself and the family ready for our early morning flight on Sunday. We are jetting off to the beach for one last hurrah before school starts.
We fly into Myrtle Beach on Sunday morning. We'll be staying at the Caravelle Resort. This is where we stayed the one and only other time we were in Myrtle Beach. We got a "School Daze" special so decided to splurge for the oceanfront executive suite. Why the heck not?
Jake was just a little tyke when we were there before...he doesn't even remember it. But I remember ....he LOVED chasing the waves. I wonder if he'll still love it as much. Kaitlyn, on the other hand, remembers it quite well, and says Myrtle Beach is her favorite place on earth. One of the reasons we chose to go back there. Instead of camping. Which is what Mike wanted to do. Hello? Camping? NOT a vacation, especially for the mom. No. Camping is WORK. I want to PLAY! And rest, and relax....
like this
or this 
or this 
So while I'm at the coast, I will mosey on down to Pawley's Island and check out the 2 yarn stores there( Island Knits and Elegant Stitch), and there is one that I found in Myrtle Beach too (Knitting up a Storm). Does anyone know of any others in the vicinity that I can visit if we happen to get rain (which it looks like we are going to...according to the forecast, but then...what do they know?) I'm hoping for sun, really I am, but I wouldn't mind a couple hours of rain to give me a guilt-free excuse to go yarn shopping!
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The garden is still exploding, though some things have slowed down. I am no longer picking 6 zucchini a day, or a dozen cucumbers, or 2 dozen pickles. However, the tomatoes are now going bonkers and no matter how many I pick there are still hundreds left out there for the wildlife to chew on. I have given away (this is NOT an exaggeration....) HUNDREDS of pounds of produce from my garden this year, not to mention using a LOT myself. Besides having friends, family or coworkers to pawn it off on, we ended up taking about 8 grocery bags full to the local food pantry (and still, the next day, every flat surface in my kitchen was covered in produce)
I have made enough pickles to last all winter long, even though I've taken countless jars to every family function we've been to all summer. I have made enough zucchini muffins, brownies, cookies, stir fries to make me not care if I ever see another zucchini (until next summer) My freezer is filling up with tomato soup (ask me in February how good it tastes, and if I remember how much I complained about the exploding garden). I've made lots of salsa, and have convinced my brain that the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are candy, since there is a bottomless bowl of them on the counter. No matter how many I eat, there is just as many in the bowl. (Jake picks them when I'm not looking) I mean, when you can go out to your garden with a Tupperware "That's a Bowl" bowl and almost fill it, just with cherry tomatoes, you've got a good crop! The Snow White cherry tomatoes are yummy too....I don't have quite as many of those as the Sun Gold.
I feel like I am taking a vacation from my garden, if nothing else. It sure has monopolized a lot of my time this summer. I wonder what it will look like when I get home.....
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On the knitting front:
I finished knitting another version of my new felted bag pattern, and will hopefully get the pattern to the printer shortly after getting home from vacation. I also knit another moebius scarf for the shop. This one is done in stripes of black Bamboo and black/tan/brown Fur Real, both by South West Trading Company. It's very cute. I have several students signed up for the moebius class already. Classes start after Labor Day. We've had kind of a hiatus from classes, due to lack of interest, over the summer, but things are picking up again!
I am debating what I want to take with me to knit while gone. I have been itching to start another pair of socks, and since that is a portable project, I'm sure that will be one thing I take. I have also fallen in love with several of the lace projects that Jane has knit recently so may take along some skinny yarn and skinny needles and try to create something lovely.
When I get back I'm going to cut the sleeves off my denim jacket and knit some new ones. Here's Diane's jacket (we both got denim jackets at thrift stores when I visited her at Easter...she got her project done WAY before me...isn't it cute?)
Anyway, I won't be around for a while...I don't even think I'll be taking the laptop with me, so unless I can squeeze in another post on Saturday evening, I'll say adios for now!
