10.28.2005

Flea at last

I arrived in Lexington yesterday afternoon after a really quick drive and a really expensive speeding ticket. I couldn't find my camera until late last night so the pictures will have to wait until I return from New Mexico. We are leaving in a few hours for the airport, but since I was awake I decided to at least write a hello entry. The apartment isn't exactly as unpacked as I hoped it would be, all of the paintings are still in boxes and all of my crafting supplies are still packed away. Thanks to the new backyard Astrid now has dreadlocks and fleas so we had to do a major haircut and flea treatment. I got this recipe from my boss and it is a great way to naturally prevent fleas on cats and dogs.

Natural Flea Repellent
To 1 cup of water add 5 drops each of tea tree, citronella, peppermint, rosemary, and eucalyptus essential oils. Put the mixture in a spray bottle and lightly spritz the animal every couple of days.

10.22.2005

There's treasure in them there rocks!

Today I went on my Saturday morning bike ride along the Elizabeth River bike trail and I stopped at Plum Point Park to play on the rocks. I looked down and I noticed a little plastic box with a note attached to the top hidden between some rocks. I picked up the box which contained a notebook, a pen, a stamp and and inkpad. This was a letterbox and every finder is supposed to leave a message along with the date of the find. I looked through the book and there were entries dating back to 2003. Some people found the box completely by accident and others found it on purpose (these people stood out since they used their own stamps not the one provided.) When I returned home I went to the letterboxing site and discovered there are boxes hidden all over the world. A few weeks ago I read a story on geocatching, a type of treasure hunt using a GPS, I wanted to go out immediately and buy a GPS just so I could try this out. It might just be the pirate in me, but I love the idea of hidden treasure and scavenger hunts. I encourage everyone to go on a treasure hunt today.

10.14.2005

An update for the kiddies

We moved everything out of the apartment on Saturday and now I am in the process of spackling and repainting the walls so that we can get our entire deposit back. I have no TV, no Internet, and no books to distract me so I am getting things done at a pretty quick pace. I haven't been doing a lot of knitting since I have no place to sit for hours and knit. The balcolny is the only place with chairs and it has been raining for a solid week effectively keeping me inside the apartment. In two weeks I will be in Lexington with Philip, actually in two weeks I will be on my way to Santa Fe for Nieves' wedding. After that I will be in Lexington with Philip. The nice thing about moving late is that Philip will have everything unpacked when I get there and I can focus my energies on decorating and thrift store shopping. I already have a big list of projects that I want to work on in our garage before it get cold. I am blogging on my work computer so I can't post pictures, but I did have Philip take pictures of my shrug and shawl that I will post as soon as I figure out how to transfer them. I guess that's all for now. I will post again this weekend when my life is more exciting.

10.07.2005

Bright yarn and more moving fun

On Saturday, I went to AC Moore with Jackie & co. and I ended up buying two t-shirts with iron-on letters and four skeins of Red Heart’s new Soft Yarn. I am pretty skeptical about Red Heart yarn, but this stuff is really soft and comes in great colors. I got two skeins of tangerine and 2 skeins of guacamole that I am going to use for some striped legwarmers. I met Jackie Sherry and Angela at Fair Grounds tonight for a little snb, but due to tangled yarn problems (my fault, not the yarn’s), I only made it through three rows of my legwarmers. I am hoping to have way more craft time after we move everything on Saturday.

In moving news, almost everything is packed up and ready to go. Philip comes tonight and we will finish packing the kitchen and then I am bribing some friends with beer to help us move everything into the truck tomorrow. After the move, which should take under two hours, Philip and I were going to take a bike ride, but since it looks like rain we'll just have to come up with a rainy day activity instead. I rode my bike along the Elizabeth River bike path last weekend and I found a little park that I never knew existed. If I had known it was there we would have gone there for Saturday picnics. I guess I regret not exploring this area more. I spent my entire stay here living, working, eating, and playing almost exclusively in my neighborhood and yet even within my neighborhood there were things I never discovered. I am going to spend my last three weeks here exploring, it’s never too late.