The week I have been waiting for

Events that I have been waiting for (for about four months) have finally transpired this week. After many trials and tribulations with various governments and governmental agencies, blue and I have finally received our work visas to go to New Zealand. So we finally started packing and are trying to tie up all loose ends here (which is still overwhelming even though I have been trying to work on that for the last 4 months). Blue just booked our flight today and we are flying out of Chicago on Saturday which means that we will get to NZ Monday morning.

One of the major loose ends that I have successfully tied up is finishing my thesis. Hurray I am a Master, a master of science!!! I am still working on formatting changes, which is a task I would not wish on anyone. There are so many little nit picky things that are a huge pain, mostly because word is stupid. But I hope to send in my last version tomorrow (but it probably still won't be right and they will send it back to me again...).

My mom also came down with pneumonia this week so I have been playing nurse and errand runner for her. She is finally feeling good enough to get out of bed today, she had quite a few rough days at the beginning of the week, poor mom. I was pretty relieved when her fever finally broke.

So, yeah, this week has been busy and stressful which is why all of my resent posts are just little blurbs. And I will most likely be really busy packing and settling into NZ for the next few weeks. However, I will have lots of time on the plane to knit :D Today was the first warm day all week so mom, kitty and I sat outside and watched the chipmunks.

mmm monsters

Your Monster Profile

Behemoth Enigma You Feast On: Pickles You Lurk Around In: The Empire State Building You Especially Like to Torment: Republicans

What's Your Monster Name?

* I found this on my friend's blog and wanted to play :)

Finally spring!

This morning I was awakened to the sound of a loon on the lake. It was such a beautiful way to wake up. I don't think it was our regular inhabitant, but instead a migrant passing through. Later this afternoon I saw one flying above the lake. They have such a unique flight silhouette, definitely more designed for swimming, rather than flying.
The arrival of loons is a sign that spring is finally arriving in the northwoods. Pretty soon there will be trilliums scattering the forest floor and spring bulbs popping up around the yard! We get the warmth and color a little later here than most places, but that makes it all the better when it finally gets here!

Round up the kids, it's time for ice cream

This is one of my favorite pieces of local eye candy. It makes me giggle a little every time I drive by it.

R.I.P.

stash enhancement

The knitting front has been a little slow lately, but the up side of that is that thesis productivity has gone way up. I recently ordered some lorna's laces sock yarn from this ebay store front. Her prices were pretty good and shipping (which is usually the clincher for me) was reasonable. I tried to pick a different color combo than I wouldn't normally (no blue or brown!) and think that when I get to it, this yarn will make some perty socks.
I am loving the artful yarns sock yarn I am currently making Roza's socks out of. I have one sock done and I am half done with the leg of the other sock.
The rest of the yarn is from the herrschner's retail store that I stopped at a few weeks ago and couldn't resist some of the bargain prices (I went in for the orange wool, came out with lots of sale yarn). But it was a nice bounty for $18.

It's snowing

The lake opened a week ago and it hasn't snowed in weeks.
However, we are now under a winter storm warning.
I think we will only get a couple of inches.
StitchK- I don't want to hear about how nice the beach is :-/