So long you want to cry!

The Maryland vacation went pretty well.

It was lined with some minor freak outs disasters and broken things. My travel buddy, NK, and I had some freaking out before going, thanks to the airplane crashings and LAX cleaning crew going on strike. Surprisingly, neither of us chickened out!

We got on the bus to go to the airport, and got stuck in some horrible traffic! The traffic was caused by a big rig that had caught fire at the top of the Sepulveda Pass, though only the length of what was left gave away what type of vehicle it used to be. The driver and a passenger were on the side of the road with no visible damage to them.

NK and I talk each other through all of this, hoping that nothing else disastrous would happen. We sit outside the terminal smoking cigs and really calming down, bags get checked quickly and with no problems. Then we go to security...

I walk through with no problems (and a size 0 metal DPN poking out of my ponytail). No arguments from the workers about the needles and hooks, no arguing about the nail clippers. And then NK's bag goes through the x-ray machine. Blue screen of death. Wait! The x-ray machine is running Windows XP Pro?! Really?!

They shut it down, turn it back on, black screen of death. Awesome, Windows won't even boot! Shut down, turn it back on, blue screen again. NK and I mock the guys from the sideline, saying now that they have rebooted twice they can call NOC. NOC tells them to reboot again.

20 minutes later we get out of there and to the gate, thankfully we were so nervous we had tons of time! Even more so once the plane got there and we were told that it needed "special maintenance", which was then compared to "when you get the oil in your car changed and you need that extra work done". Super!

I try to get NK to practice her knit stitch, and try to work on my gloves. I guess now would be a good time to explain the travel buddy's nickname! She is my newb knitter, though she will need a nickname upgrade soon, as she's proving to be a quick study.

Hardly any turbulence on the flight, lots of people sleeping. I got halfway through my "Why the crap is he so damn tall?!" scarf, and then 3/4 of the way through my first glove. Splendid!

We land, have troubles with them opening the door for the plane, eventually get out and try to go to my favorite restaurant. It's closed, forever. There's one part of the chain left at the crappy mall, so we speed over there to get our all crab dinner with my family. NK's brother comes and picks her up, and my sister kidnaps me to go to a movie. Except the tire is flat.

We get the tire filled with air and just go home. It was too late for anyone out there to do anything or meet up with people. Everything else was pretty standard and uneventful. Yarn crawl kept getting postponed to hang out with family.

When NK and I finally took my cousin out for the yarn crawl, the first store on our route was closed for filming. We had to skip some of the others because I was in a car with no blinkers and I was being a giant wuss about driving through Baltimore with no turn signals. We only made it to two stores, but they were both completely awesome! NK admitted that she was officially addicted, and got some nice new yarn to play with, my cousin seemed to enjoy picking out yarn for me.

I somehow managed to avoid working on the scarf, and only worked on the gloves. Until the flight home when I decided I wanted to use other yarn to make other gloves. I changed my mind on them and frogged over and over until I just went back to the "Vacation gloves". By the time I got home I was halfway through the second glove, and they were finished 2 days later.

I've tried lots of other patterns for my "frogging yarn" and haven't found anything that sits well. I'm impressed with how well the bamboo-silk is holding up to all the frogging though. Very pleased.

I set everything aside for Hat Attack, which started yesterday. Got through 2 pattern repeats, found out I screwed up, frogged. Got through 1.5 pattern repeats just to find out I made the same mistake! Frogged again, cast on with the alternating color and have only gotten through 1 pattern repeat. Looks like I might die before I finish my first hat again.

I really just don't knit well under pressure!