Happy Birthday to Me!

G'day all!

(Argh, not posted for a whole day cos apparently I didn't close a link in my html, not that blogger kindly tells me where I didn't close the link)

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday dear me-ee,
Happy birthday to me!

(I have to sing it to myself cos I haven't got anyone to sing it to me - DH doesn't do that sort of thing plus he hasn't organised a cake or made one or anything - if he has, he's been very sneaky cos none of my cake mixes are missing.)

Thank you to those who have sent birthday wishes, and bigger thanks to those who have sent cards and even presents! I must say the post is very slow at the moment, well I hope it is very slow - Nathan has received more parcels than me this week! Humph!

Yesterday, after I picked up our hire car, I drove up to Wyoming, took a right and ended up in Nebraska (mrspao, I have to do a little piece on western Nebraska for you). After a left and a loooong wait in some roadworks, I ended up at the Brown Sheep Mill. They don't allow pics in the mill - not sure why as I would've thunk that well a woollen mill looks like a woollen mill the world over but apparently not. The shop had a range of yarns that I did get tempted by, but no pics yet, haven't had time. I left home at 12:30pm and got home just before 8pm. It is technically a 2.5 hour drive each way, but I like to stop and look at stuff along the way, in particular Scott's Bluff National Monument in this case. I figure if you drive all that way you may as well look around the area. I walked a teensy bit of the Oregon Trail. They were nuts, you know. 2000 miles of trail, across prairies and mountains... At least I could do in a car in half a day what they took a week to do. (Pics and info to be blogged on Colorado Dreaming.)

Today we stuffed around in the morning and eventually got moving. Nathan got to drive the Suburban we were lent by a friend for a few days. It is not new, but really I would expect something about 10 years old would have held up better. Anyway, it is a MONSTROUS vehicle (as I drove it I sang to nearly every other "car" on the road "I'm bigger than you!" but the seat didn't go back far enough for Nathan to be comfortable behind the wheel. How silly, eh? Something half as big as a London double decker bus but with hardly any more va-voom (though plenty of V8 roar) and less room! Anyway the little-ish Nissan (that is knee-san, not niss'n as Aussies say it) we rented is much nicer, easier to steer, good on petrol, Nathan found a comfortable driving position, much more get up and go, and better whoa too. I much prefer small cars to enormous houseboat like tanks.

We drove to Loveland, where I ended up buying Too Much Yarn from Woolen Treasures (they have different sock yarn there, verra nice). Pics later cos again we got home well after dark tonight. Then we drove up into the Rockies and into the actual park. It has changed a bit since we were last there! The Trail Ridge Road is now closed until April or May. Pity cos it is a fun drive (I must blog our last experience, ack) and there is not that much snow where they closed the road. The aspens have all lost their leaves. There is snow on the ground here and there. Plus it was a leetle bit colder (ie my fingers went numb if I left them in the wind for long).

Now Nathan is cooking me dinner. I hope it is yummy cos the meat cost $11 - that is a lot more than I usually have in one dinner's food. If I am lucky he might even write on the card I reminded him to buy me (he bought me two secondhand books and I also saved some of "my" money and bought me some more sock yarn and Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for socks book, so he "gave" me them too!).

(For those wondering how we can afford this after me crying poor? Apparently we will only have a month without pay - still hard but we should be able to survive it. Nathan's boss pulled a swifty on his boss and in the best tradition of Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, outmanoeuvered him.)

Tomorrow we drive to Denver via the mountains and meet up with someone from Back 'Ome. Gosh it will be nice to talk to another Aussie, and a brainy one too! I'll catch up on pics eventually.

Birthday contest

In honour of my birthday, I am going to have a little contest. Leave a comment describing your biggest birthday surprise. I have up for grabs a hank of handspun Shetland wool in a sport to light DH weight. The yarn is off-white with a little ginger to it - it looks like white pepper. There's about 180m of three ply yarn that could be yours! Should be enough to make mittens or a hat and short scarf or wristwarmers. It should be easy to dye too. Oh and yes, I spun it. I was going to make a sweater from the Shetland fleece I bought at Taos but I realised that I didn't have enough of it. My loss could be someone else's gain!

anon!