Mini Break!

To (badly) quote Bridget Jones: "A mini break isn't just shagging, it means true love" (or something like that, I am too lazy to break out the DVD). Two years ago, G and I went on our first mini break to Williamsburg, Va. He has a lifelong friend who lives there and we visited. It was our first overnight excursion and the first time I met two of his best friends.



Fast forward to this past weekend and we were back. His same friend hosted a gathering of the whole crew: five guys who've been friends since middle school plus five wives. Those with kids shuffled them off to grandparents for the weekend. It was a great time. First of all, Williamsburg is really pretty this time of year; flowers were in bloom and the weather was gorgeous. We stayed at this lovely inn right next to the historical section. Our room had the best canopy bed. I now heart canopy beds.

Highlights of the trip include a poker game that I did not win, sadly. I made some bad betting decisions. Oh well, the losers got to console themselves with cheese cake and a fire pit out back. And it cooled off at night enough for me to break out Fetching!

And we will not soon forget the Presidential Museum of Heads. Ok, I can't remember the museum's actual name, but it was basically giant cement heads of all the presidents, right up to the current one. It was on odd and surreal place. But what cool Project Spectrum pictures! These pictures do not represent any political bias. I basically just took pictures of the heads I thought looked coolest.







I brought along a sock to knit, but honestly didn't get more than a few rows knit on the drive down Friday before it got dark. Yesterday during the drive home, I spent most of the time reading to G from the Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home. We are at that stage! We have an appointment next weekend to look at homes with our agent. We've been talking, talking, talking about doing this and suddenly, bam, we're taking action. And now of course I am really excited and impatient to get in a house!

We're looking in Baltimore County mostly, especially the two P-villes: Parkville and Pikesville. G lived on the city side of Parkville and really liked it and we currently live very close to Pikesville and also like it. Of course we need to do tons of research about other towns and neighborhoods. Where do people like to live? We're looking pretty modest: a three bedroom home with 1.5 baths (or more!) in a place where there are lots of people with young children (we're not there yet, but are headed that way, I suppose), maybe a park within walking distance? Ideally we'd like an actual house, but we might change our minds and look at rowhomes too. There certainly are a lot of cute ones in our area.

I've started to get hooked on the various HGTV home buying shows, which leads to jealousy: a cute five-bedroom house with inground pool in Mobile, Ala., for $264K?!!!

Since the market has cooled down a little bit, I know we can take our time (our lease is up in July), but I also know that I am going to see something that I love and want it RIGHT NOW!

Good thing I have a respectable stash; I think my yarn budget will soon be smaller.

And speaking of stash: it was recently enhanced at swap hosted by the lovely Kirby of Yarn Coffee. The swap was on March 10, but I've been pretty busy with work and never got around to photographing my haul. It was a really good swap!



I came away with some sock yarn. And some Knitpicks. Some Lambs Pride. And some mohair. And a cool needle case!

Oh, you thought you saw some Noro, did you? No, that wasn't from the swap. See, I had to stop by the LYS on my home to buy needles for Fetching and this found its way to me. I am planning a felted tea cozy. I just love this Noro colorway.





Not bad at all! Plus it was a fun afternoon. Kirby served us yummy wine and cheese. And she has this really cute apartment that got me wanting to actually hang my pictures and tidy up.