Hockey weekends, always an adventure

This weekend was off to Albany, NY for the annual ECAC men's hockey tournament since Cornell was there. I was also there to celebrate the birthday with friends. Well...I haven't driven up to Albany in at least 5 years. It's not my preferred method. But I did this weekend. I was supposed to fly Southwest but since they managed to over sell all of their day time flights and it seemed I was the last person to attempt to check in to my flight. Me not happy. This weekend is the only weekend a year I fly Southwest and it looks like in the future, I'm just going to send the extra $50 to fly out of National with a guaranteed seat. So I stood at the counter, waiting to see if there was anyone who checked in but didn't show up at the airport but now. And so I called my friend who was still at home and he played travel agent for me. He found me a ticket out of National for $900....which wasn't quite worth it. We figured since I had my car at BWI, that I would get there in time if I drove, although he did also find me a train that would get me there at about 5:30, but I had already had my return tickets refunded as well. So, we worked out an altered itinerary for me and then I said, "I'll see you in a few hours!" I then called up another friend to also let him know of the change in plans and to leave my ticket at will call, and then another friend to get the fastest possible directions to Albany. I drove like a maniac and made it there in about 6 hours. I always marvel at the Travelling Lynah Faithful. I differentiate these from the usual Lynah Faithful because the Travelling Faithful are those I am well acquainted with...we keep running into each other at hockey games, not at Lynah! But on the Friday of the tournament at about noon, we're all in transit and you know that if you need directions, someone, at some point, has come from the direction that you are coming from. When I finally got there, they all welcomed me with open arms, and marvelled at the adventure. But you know what, if it had happened to any of them, they would've done the same thing. Yes, we are the Travelling Lynah Faithful...if there's a will to get there, there's a way.

Oh, and we lost. Boooooo! Harvard sucks! During the Princeton/Harvard final, I did have to whip out the socks I was working on. Hey, it was boring, Harvard has no fans, Princeton brought a couple of quiet fans, so again, we had to provide our own entertainment. Some of the people around me noticed that there was another woman at the other side of the rink who had pulled out her knitting. Yes, it was kinda boring...until Princeton started lighting up Harvard's goalie...mwahahahaha. And we made sure that they knew that our team may be out, but Harvard still sucks.

The guys took me out for a birthday margarita and drinks and even though we lost the first night, it was a highly enjoyable weekend. And now I'm really sleepy

I made some earrings!

That's about 34 carats worth of smoky quartz there in that pair of earrings. This was part of my first sets of experimentation with trapping stones using peyote stitch and I've learned some interesting things from it:

• It is definitely important to make sure that the initial peyote stitch ring is as big as or a bead or two bigger than the part you want it around.


• In the case of cut stones that are not factory made, you can't assume that the initial peyote stitch count for one will be the same for the other. In this case, I strung on 44 beads for one and ended up having to string up 46 for the other.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this. I have some white quartz that are a little smaller that I want to make into earrings as well. I do plan on putting these up on etsy at some point.

Beady things

Class on Saturday at Bead Obsessions with Paulette Baron.



In other play time, I got most of the serpentine strap done, yes the picture is fuzzy. I'll get a better one when it's actually done



And her teeny tiny arms - size 15 beads in tubular peyote that started with 8 beads:


Yes, I did feel like I was going blind.

Retail Therapy

It can be expensive, especially after a hellish week when you finally fall asleep after dinner with a hockey game blaring from the computer speakers right next to your head. And then you think about going to Bead&Button. For you non-beaders out there, this is the equivalent of a Stitches event, except that it lasts for an entire week and not just a weekend. Me...I'm just going to take the weekend and attempt to take a couple of classes. I was flipping through the catalog this week after an incredibly bad day and when I happened to look online to check out class availability, there were still some available. eee! And I checked out my finances and stuff...and said, "If I can book a room at one of the block room rates, well then, I might as well book the room. I can always cancel later, right?" So there was a room available at the Hilton, so I have a room.

I'm just waiting for the results of the hockey game tonight. It will determine if the season's over, in which case I won't be going to Albany in 2 weeks, or I have another week to wait to find out if I'll be booking last minute tickets to Albany. And if not...that frees up some money for Bead&Button.

I"m just getting over the shock that I'm going this year. I"ll get really excited soon. This means that I must REALLY watch my spending at Sheep and Wool this year.

I have a dream...

That is a speech made by Martin Luther King Jr way back when. He dreamt of civil rights. Me, I dream of turducken. This weekend, I started on the next step of the progression and made "ducken". I had only meant to roast a chicken in the slow cooker this weekend but I felt the need to massacre some poultry. This could very well be some leftover aggression from work. I ended up coming home from Whole Foods with a duck and a cornish game hen. The duck was next to the turkey and I had to remind myself that I wasn't there for the turkey yet. If you can't stand looking at massacred meat, I suggest you don't look at the pictures. I have added more pictures to my "Quest for Turducken" set. Sometime last year, I had started with a chicken. I've added the picks of the chicken on top of the duck as I started stuffing. I did learn a couple of things.

• I need to buy a good roasting pan. The duck ended up sticking to the bottom of the pan here.


• The reason the duck is inside the turkey is because the duck is too fatty and with the roasting, the fat melts and the stuffing flows out.


• Using the turkey setting on my thermometer, this took about 2 hours to cook.


• I am managing to debone the birds at about 40 minutes per bird.

Catch up post

I finished some black socks I was working on. I found that I like Louet Gems :)

I do like them. I've worn them once, they were nice, now I need to wash them for the first time.

I've also been on a beading streak. I'm working on a necklace centered around a mermaid lampwork bead so I made Patricia's Serpentine Strap that she designed for our cabochon class at Bead Obsessions. I finished the second strap last night and am in the process of joining them together:


So, I continue on the the necklace for the mermaid and I've got the Snow Shawl on the needles and another pair of socks.