Well, now I'm 30

Thanks so much to the people who called or sent birthday emails, it was lovely to know that you all were thinking of me! Sorry I wasn't there to get the phone calls though, I was on my way back up from the Redwoods.

It was a good trip, though it rained the whole way down. We took the dogs for a walk up a hill under the tall, tall trees (it was a closed gravel road, so dogs were ok) and a long walk on the beach. It was nice enough that evening to have a campfire & grill some dinner too. The next morning dawned sunny & clear, and we went to the beach again (briefly) after breakfast ("California Eggs Benedict" with avocado & tomato instead of ham really wasn't that great). Then we visited the HSU Marine Lab where we got to see assorted sea creatures in tanks, including intertidal animals in touch tanks outside. I got to show the boys an urchin's defense mechanism when it senses a sunflower star- it flattens its spines, stick out its pedicellariae, and runs away!

On the way up, Eli & I stopped at the Prehistoric Gardens, but only had enough time to take photos of the dinos you could see from the parking lot. As it is, we got home much later than anticipated, and had to rush around getting things ready for a murder mystery dinner party we were hosting that evening. But everything turned out well in the end (my tiramisu turned out perfect), and we had a lot of fun! I just wish those games allowed you to invite more people- 6 is so limited! We're going to try to write one for ourselves now.

This weekend was pretty rainy, so I had a dye-a-thon. I had bought some cheap Easter egg kits, and used those and food coloring to dye a bunch of yarn.
(please click to see whole pic- blogger doesn't play nice with picasa, even though they are both Google programs).
I used a lot of different methods, including my first time hand-painting (the orange, and another purple one that isn't pictured). Dyeing is fun! My knitting is going slowly- I really need to stop doing patterns with lace repeats in them, they take so long.

Tomorrow I'm babysitting my little friend Emily, whom I used to nanny (she's 6 now). I haven't seen her in a while, so it should be fun. I think we'll go to the yarn shop to kill some time & buy me a pair of needles to make a tank top while in Kauai. I hope I'll actually finish it in time to wear it!