The silence is broken

The last couple weeks have been a blur.  I traveled to Chicago on business.  While the seminar was intersting, the biggest event was being away by myself.  I got Emily over 6 years ago.  In that time, she has gone on some sleepovers, but I have never left her before.  She had serious sleep issues for years.  Each night was a huge challenge so me leaving her was not an option.  So here I was flying off for 2 1/2 days away.  In a fancy hotel.  Alone.  No one else from my company was there, I knew no one at the seminar.  I sat absorbing knowledge for 2 days.  And had room service meals.  Quiet room.  No decisions to make for any one other than me.  There were some highlights.  Like figuring out how the toilet works.  Now this should not have been a hard thing to figure out.  That is until you look in the bathroom and see this.

Now it looks like a normal toilet in all regards except the flushing part.  (who would have thougtht I'd write about this and have illustrations to boot!).  After some thought (and I'm not saying how much thought) I pressed on one side of the flat metal panel.  Presto chango the toilet flushed.  So curious as to what the other side of the panel did, I pressed that as well.  Even more resounding flushing occured!  I just laughed, water savings at its best.  But all in all the Chicago trip went well.  I knit in my room in the evening, I took phone calls from Emily as she struggled to sleep without me.  But we all managed and I had a nice break from my normal life for a few days.  It may be years before it happens again, but it was just a real nice break for me.

Now you might be wondering to yourself, while the toilet thing is interesting and all, isn't this a knitting blog?  Why yes it is.  And I even spun a bit too.  This is some yarn I keep thinking of carmeled apples when I see it.  I really didn't enjoy spinning it that much however, it was a bit scratchy and coarse feeling.  And it wasn't very smooth at all.  I'm not sure what I will make from it, but I figure you can always learn something from spinning and who knows.  I may come up with just that perfect thing to make from it. 

The blanket is coming along nicely.  I finished the cabled section which is when I should have taken another picture of it, laying all nice and flat.  But no, I couldn't WAIT to get started on picking up all those stitches to start knitting to oblivion.  So that is what I'm doing, knitting round and round and round.  On one VERRRRYYYYY long needle.  But it is lovely, soft, and just amazing.  Mistakes and all.  Because I have mistakes there.  And there they will stay. But I just love this blanket.