Idyllic Chick

I've never had a surprise party before. Almost planned one myself one year. 'Hey, come to my surprise party! Don't tell me about it!' Chrises and Lorena did a much better job than I could have. So many people. People I've known for nearly half of my life. People from far, far away (Like Baltimore far away! That's far!). People that I've met fairly recently but are already old friends. 

Thank you so much, everyone. I feel so stupid for not figuring this out! But y'all were, and are, fucking awesome. I have the best people. I really, really do. Y'all fucking rock. 

Lorena's photos are here. 

See? We are really roughing it up here in the mountains! Pictures of the interior of the cabin now up on Flickr!

In Franklin we visited the Scottish Tartans Museum, Silver Threads and Golden Needles yarn shop, and The Frog and Owl restaurant. The museum was quite nice, the yarn store equally, and the restaurant was... kind of odd. 

There was a strange odor to the place. Too much cleaning solution? Dunno. Just a weird smell. We sat down, I ordered a beer and excused myself to the restroom. Cute little bathroom with a shelf packed full of brightly colored washcloths, all rolled up and tucked neatly away. Happy looking. It was when I sat on the toilet that I noticed the pail of crumpled washcloths on the floor under the shelf. What the? Oohh... oh! I've read about this green custom on teh Internets. The Family Cloth, I believe it is called. And that's all well and good amongst your family. You are *family*! If you wish to share this custom, that's great! Save the planet! But... this is a *restaurant*. A public place. I realized as I sat there peeing that I was looking at a bin full of washcloths containing the urine of strangers. Ew, to say the least. Perhaps that is where the odd smell is coming from! So I finished my peeing, wiped with *toilet tissue*, washed my hands, soaped up, rinsed, turned off the water, flicked my hands, and reached for the paper towels. Paper towels? Paper tow...? Where the hell are the...? As I turned around to look for the paper towels behind me, I spied the wash cloths again. Realization dawning over me, I blushed to myself, grabbed one, dried my now clean hands, and left the slightly damp cloth in the pail. Sheesh, I can be dim sometimes. 

After Franklin, we went just a bit out of our way to Murphy, NC to visit The Yarn Circle. What a great shop! Visit it if you can. Loved it. On our way back to our home base we stopped in Helen, GA for some supplies. We hadn't planned on hitting Helen at all, but we were overcome with its charm and cults, and will most likely lunch there on Wednesday. If we don't show up in Gainesville by Friday, please send the deprogramming squad. 

When we hit 'home', Chris started making corn bread and heating up the chili, and I got more birthday singing from my brother and his family. Heheh, Chris saw who was calling and brought my phone to me out on the porch. Hank and I chatted for a while, and he asked if I had worked on my birthday. I laughed and said, 'Dude, I am in a hot tub in the mountains of Georgia. My husband is bringing me White Star champagne and Godiva chocolates as we speak.' I think he thought I was fucking with him! It does sound too good to be true, doesn't it? 

Dinner, of course, was great. I think that might have been the best chili Chris has ever made. Wow. All in all, the most wonderful birthday ever. I got so many sweet birthday wishes from friends, family, and chosen family. And that's what really made it the best!

More Flickr pics here. 

The cabin is most wonderfully awesome. It's one huge room with a king sized bed, pool table, tv area, and garden tub. The ceiling is at least 20 feet tall at the highest point. It's beautiful. Hot tub, wi-fi, pool table, flat screen tv, wrap around porch. Again, it's beautiful. 

There's these couple of weird things, though. There are granite counter tops in the bathroom, but it has been stocked with the cheapest, thinnest toilet tissue I have ever encountered. There is a new washer dryer set in the basement, but the landlords provide no detergent. There is plenty of hot water to fill the jacuzzi garden tub to capacity (Unlike another cabin that I've visited in north Georgia), but there's this weird little 'waterfall' on the wall which sends a thin trickle of water over some rocks that aren't glued down. It's all expensive and cheap, all at the same time!

Regardless, we are enjoying ourselves immensely! Popped the first of four champagnes last night. YellowTail, makers of the affordable, tasty (Or so I'm told. I don't drink much wine that doesn't have bubbles in it.) Australian wine, does a damn fine job on their sparkling wine, too. It's nice and fruity, and knocked my out in a glass and a half. 

Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't want me to upload photos lately, but you can check out my Flickr page for the couple of snaps that I've taken so far: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idyllicchick/

So I've got laundry rolling along, and the cat room is cleaned up for the cat lady to come feed the beasties. I haven't gathered up all of my knitting yet, but that will come tomorrow. And what exactly am I going to knit on over my vacation, you ask? I *do* still knit, you know. I guess I don't write about it here much because I say it all over on The Rav, and figure anyone who is interested will see it there. Anyhoo, I'll be working on the second sock of a pair for Chris that has a cable in the shape of a strand of DNA up the back of it. And I have some deadline knitting to tend to. And I hope to cast on my first fair isle sweater! Can't wait for that. I've still got a bit of swatching to do, and then some measuring for gauge, and printing out about a ton of charts. Then I have to draw my body's outline on the charts, and OMG can you see how much work this is?! But it will be a fabulous sweater, I promise you. Oh, and maybe I'll start that pair of kilt hose for Chris that I mentioned earlier.

My birthday is off to a fantastic start. I got a card from our car salesman a few days ago, and I got my first gift of the year tonight! And a wonderful giftie it is. I think I'm going to tuck it away for a few days while I dwell on the possibilities. Tomorrow comes cupcakes and champagne at the shop, then we leave on Sunday. Monday is my for real and for true birthday, but I've been known to spread this thing out for a couple of weeks. I figure I only do it once a year, and this one is a big one, so what the hell. You know? 

So I've been working on the menu for our trip. It goes something like this: