I’m home – I got home late, late, late last night, crawled through the door at 1:45 am. But I liked waking up home (with a little red-headed boy in bed between his Daddy and me – heaven!) and being in my own room is a special joy. Yay.
I missed breakfast Sunday because I had to run, but here’s a shot of my breakfast on Saturday morning. So meaty! And very tasty, too!
I stayed at the Ashford Manor sleeping in the Safari Room, best described as Out of Africa meets Master Harold & The Boys. Or, Martha Stewart visits Soweto. It was unusual and unexpected, but a LOT of fun!
My front door overlooked a wisteria covered porch. [Sigh.]
A quick drive into Atlanta on Sunday morning and I was in a funky, chic part of town and ready for my next engagement.
I loved teaching at Knitch – a lovely, lovely city-shop in Atlanta with possibly the BEST lighting I’ve experienced as a teacher!
Kim, the owner, was wonderful, so it’s little wonder with the draw of the beautiful yarns, helpful staff, funny hangers-ons & well-wishers, the shop would be FILLED with MANY happy knitters.
After a quick dinner with two of the best men – and best knitters – I know (Hey Lou & Doug!) I dashed off to the airport so I’d have a full FOUR HOURS to wait. As I told Lou, I can never REALLY rest until I get my bags checked and I’m at the gate.
I actually enjoyed just sitting and watching the luggage cards winding by as the sun set over Terminal B. It was poetic.
Exercise
Right before I left town Gerry took me to Target to look at a bike on sale for $99 – a 28″ VERY simple 7-speed woman’s bike. I succumbed. After all, I’m sure we can sell the used Sears bike on Craig’s List, it has real retro-chic appeal…
I had been walking so much in St. Paul in the past few weeks, but in Atlanta I was NOT walking at all. So my stroll down to Grand Ave this afternoon left me more winded than I’m used to. Back into the saddle! Tomorrow Max wants to ride his bike to school, and I think I’ll let him (if I go with him!)
Moving On
I have about 10 days here at home, then I’m off to Portland for my first visit to the – what’s it’s nickname? – Rose City? Beertown? They both sound pretty good to me…
I’ll be teaching at Abundant Yarn and Knit, Purl – it should be FUN because I seldom teach on the West Coast and I’ve NEVER taught north Petaluma. Woo-hoo! And I’ve heard the beer is very nice.
I’ve been hearing from more and more shops, asking if I’m teaching ‘again,’ wanting to bring me out to do some classes. Yay! That feels good – it’s always nice to get some engagements lined up for the coming months.
I may be coming down to Tennessee (Memphis and Nashville) sometime this Fall, and there’s been some interest in my classes from Omaha and Rhode Island. I’m working on my collection of quarters from each state where I’ve taught – I’d like to collect all 50.
MN Retreat
In my monthly newsletter I asked who might be interested in a MN retreat, and the response was VERY good. We’re still talking through the details, but it looks as though there WILL be at least one retreat in 2008 – yay!
Tentative dates are set for May 2-4, Oct 17-19 and Nov 14-16 and the location is the Medayto Rose Cottage on Green Lake in Spicer, MN.
It’s not terribly far, just a little West of the Twin Cities.
If you’re interested in more information on this, contact the Medayto Cottage and mention that you’re interested in my retreat weekend, May 2-4.
Ol‘ Shep
Also in May, I’ll be teaching at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival (and also hanging around and signing books and making a general nuisance of myself…)
Please come by if you’re in the area, or go to the website and sign up for a class (I’m not sure how many spaces are left – there are some great classes there taught by a lot of good folks!)
Click on the image to the right for a press release.
PARIS!
Yes, I’ve done it! I cashed in my frequent flier miles today for two tickets for Hannah and I to go to Paris.
We’re both beside ourselves with glee. I figured in light of the upcoming merger of NWA and Delta I should go ahead – who KNOWS what the status of miles and awards will be…
This is the bonus from all those flights (and from taking advantage of every mile-enhancing opportunity I could find.) I use one of those the airline credit cards to grow my miles, but I pay off the card every month like clockwork. With all the traveling I do it works well for me.
I also stumbled on this promotion at NWA where you can gain an extra 2,000 miles per flight for $20 (I get 2,000 instead of the 1,000 mentioned on the webpage because I’m using my airline credit card to charge the $20.)
Another thing I do is before a trip is check to see if there are rental car deals at the airlines website which would garner more miles (there usually is – I got a nice car this weekend at a discount AND earned an extra 500 miles this trip to Atlanta, for instance.)
So little by little the miles have piled up over the past few years until I had enough to get two round trip coach tickets from Minneapolis to Paris, right before Hannah’s birthday. This is the trip I’ve been promising her for 5 years. She’s been such an amazing kid this year, she deserves this!
I wonder if there are any English speaking knitting shops or groups that would like to have a class while we’re there…? Sacré Bleu!