Estes Park recap

Gnome and I went to Estes Park 2 weeks ago. I really intended to do an update post earlier, but my wisdom teeth decided to take matters into their own hands by jacking up the left side of my mouth. Since the tooth pain is the biggest memory I have of the trip, I'll just start with that and get it over with so we can get to the actual trip details. My left wisdom teeth decided on Thursday that they were going to take a little vacation of their own and start moving. That lead to all of the teeth getting crowded and sustained white-hot pain on the left side for 5 minutes at a time every 1.5 hrs or so. By Saturday it changed over to constant throbbing and my face started swelling. I ended up ODing on Tylenol and Motrin just to stay functional (I weigh(ed) ~102. 1200mg of motrin and 1500mg of Tylenol alternating every 4 hours is a tad bit much). I went to my dentist when I got home on Monday. Thanks to the wisdom teeth moving, somehow one of my front teeth ended up with an abscess. I got a partial root canal and lots of antibiotics. She finished the root canal Saturday and the wisdom teeth are scheduled to come out next Saturday. Oh what fun. BTW, I recommend the toothache diet if you need to lose weight. Since I don't need to lose weight, I'm not so happy about losing 8lbs in a week. 

Now, on to the trip. We left at 4am (also known as the buttcrack of dawn) on Thursday and promptly drove for 12 long hours. I had briefly considered taking a "leaving" picture, but I'm fairly certain Gnome would have killed me. So there are very few pictures of the trip out there. I was surprised at how flat Denver was. Oh, and I hate Kansas. Sorry if you live there, but there isn't much to see and the cell service sucks.

We stayed at Gnome's Aunt's cabin. She has bullmastiffs. I rarely take good pictures, so here's one with me and Poudre (who outweighs me by 10lbs):

We did some hiking around the cabin. Mike was able to get a few good pictures. I stayed as far away from the edge of the rocks as possible because I am terrified of heights. 

We went on the Ghost Tour of the Stanley Hotel on Friday. I love Stephen King, and while I haven't watched the movie more than once, I have read The Shining several times. We did have a minor encounter with a ghost (that sort of thing happens to DH a lot). Lord Dunraven is a ghost known for grabbing women in a certain closet. We made some jokes about whether or not the ghost would be able to tell that Mike is a man or if he would be fooled because of Mike's long hair (it's down past his butt but he keeps it braided). We joked about it for a while. When we got out into the hallway, something forcefully knocked DH's sunglasses off of his head. It could have been the ghost or it could have been coincidental (although they were at the front of his head and fell down the back). Based on the jokes, we don't really think it was a coincidence.

Someone has a sense of humor (look closely at the ceiling).

We went to the wool market on Saturday. My DH and Gnome's DH didn't come in with us initially, but they drove around town. Apparently it's no big deal in Estes Park to let elk roam around on the road. DH sent me this pic: 

I think shaved alpacas are just freaking adorable:

This should be the part where I should show you my epic stash enhancement from Estes. Well, um, I only bought 1 skein of yarn. It wasn't even for me-I bought it for my bff as a thank you for watching my dogs. In my defense, I was not a happy camper due to the tooth pain and I'm not really a fan of alpaca or mohair. So I drove 12 hrs and didn't bring home any yarn. BUT. I did score an awesome hat. I have a thing for goofy hats that goes back to my days as a cashier at Walmart during college. I learned that if you are wearing a ridiculous hat it is much harder for the customers to be rude to you. Here I am rocking the fauxhawk:

And since it's 100F in OKC these days, here's the fauxhawk's current resting place:

I can't have my poor swift getting cold in the a/c in our apt. Finally, I made pretty good progress on my skull socks. I started them in the car somewhere in the cell service black hole known as Kansas.

I think I'm in love.

The FO happydance

I have an FO! I have an FO! My last one was March 1. Seriously. MARCH 1, 2011. That's over 3 months ago. Anyway, I finished my Interrupting Cow socks on Sunday. Aren't they cute?

The yarn is Shibuiknits sock in Spectrum. I love this pattern! Laura of The Knitgirllls designed it. It was super easy and well-written. I would say it's easy to memorize, but I'm all about reading the pattern so I don't have to think. But it would be easy if that's your thing.

I started these socks out of frustration from the stress of knitting for other people. I just wanted something for me. So they have officially been christened my happy socks and will be worn when my mood needs improvement. I expect they'll get a lot of wear lol.

In other random news, there is a minor event coming up this week. I'm not very excited about it or looking forward to it like whoa or anything. THIS WEEK IS ESTES! I'M SO EXCITED! (Yes, if you were in front of me right now, I would have yelled that at you and probably jumped up and down in excitement while clapping as well.) Gnome and her DH will arrive at my house around 9pm tomorrow night and we will leave at 4am-ish on Thursday. Since DH is an EMT and normally gets up around 4:30 for work, he gets to drive first. We'll drive alllllll day Thursday and eat dinner at Gnome's aunt's cabin that night. Friday will be devoted to relaxation and we are going on the ghost tour at the Stanley Hotel (I <3 Stephen King) on Friday afternoon. We'll hit the Estes Park Wool Market all day on Saturday and then drive home on Sunday. ::happydance::

I've been planning my car knitting for over a week now. I'm going to knit the Aargh! gyle Socks from knitpicks (rav link). Here is a photo that I ganked from Ravelry so my non-rav friends can see it:

Some of my lifegroup friends find my knitting obsession (and tattoo) a tad bit amusing. I mean, how can you not see a girl with a knitting tattoo and immediately think she's clearly hardcore and shouldn't be messed with? Right?! Well, they didn't get that memo and find it amusing instead. So I am knitting these hardcore superbad skull socks to prove how hardcore I am (let's see how many times I can fit hardcore into a sentence, shall we? I really should look for a synonym to use instead.) I'm going to use Tempted Good Grrl Into the Blue for the CC and Stacy dyed a lovely black for me for the background color. It should come in the mail today. ::fingers crossed::

Rawr.  \m/