Thank heavens for Panera...

Panera Bread

  You may have noticed that I blog a lot less frequently these days.   There is a reason for that, that goes beyond a busy home life.    Where we live, we do not get cable or DSL.   As far as entertainment goes, we miss cable but do not hate Direct TV.    What we really do hate is our internet provider, Clearwire.   I have talked about this before.    Our service is awful with upload/download speeds so bad that we can't even load a network speed test.   There was a nice long stretch when the situation improved.   However, that stopped some time ago and the service is now worse than ever.   We pay a monthly fee for "unlimited high speed internet".    As you can see, our internet speed is not high and now, apparently it is not unlimited either.   It seems that we are being "throttled".   Meaning that Clear is limiting our speed based "high usage".   What they call high usage, we call weekend only gaming, and the occasional Netflix download (twice a week?).   Other than that, the boys do homework, hubby sends and receives email, and I blog while haunting Facebook and Twitter.    I can't imagine how this adds up to "high" usage.   Their customer service has proven unhelpful to say the least.   We have found their reps to be inept with a questionable command of the English language.

What does this mean to the blog?    It means that, much of the time, I cannot get a post uploaded without going to Starbucks or Panera.    For a while that was both a treat and an inconvenience but during those months when I had to share a car with T1, it was impossible most days.  Even now, that I finally have my own car again, I am finding it hard to get out as much as I would like.

So please bare with me.   We are exploring other options.   Hopefully we will find a better alternative soon or, maybe, a way for me to spend more time sipping lattes in public.

Masters Prayer Shawl 

Toe-Up Socks

Though not blogging as much, I have been knitting.   I recently submitted a design to a major publication and then, because creativity feeds on itself, I dreamed up two more must do designs that I hope to have finished and up on Ravelry soon.    The only things I can show now, are Hubby's socks and the friendship shawl that I referred to a couple of weeks ago, both of which are coming along slowly but surely.

As most posts are these days, this is brought to you from Panera, because Clearwire Sucks!

Farewell Disney, we loved you well.

We have been soooo lucky to have annual Disney passes for the last three years, but the time has come to let that luxury go.    Having one child in college, even with scholarships, has turned out to be way more expensive than we anticipated.   That combined with a stretch of unforseen circumstances (including multiple car accidents & health challenges), have made it necessary to cut back on non-essentials.   Sadly, it was necessary to admit that Disney is a non-essential.

Rather than sulking (no matter how tempting), we decided to make our farewell a weekend long event.    As the date got closer, T1's ongoing health problems necessitated a short hospital stay and some tests, I became ill with a re-occurrence of Menier's, and T2's cold got worse rather than better.    The reservations were made with Marriott points so were non-cancellable, so we stocked up on meds and went anyway.

Surprisingly (or not, I have a pretty wonderful family), we had a good time.   We spent Saturday at Epcot.   Hubby and I roamed the World Showcase while the boys took off to ride the rides and eat in almost every country.  We stayed to see the fireworks which were wonderful, as usual.   We really lucked out in that the park was not busy at all.    The only line longer than 5 minutes was for the  Patisserie in France.   Sunday we spent at Magic Kingdom.   By this time we were getting pretty worried about T2 (who was not breathing well at all), so we made a list of favorite rides and shows.    We hit those highlights (Haunted House, Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, & the Jungle Ride) and grabbed sweets at the bakery.    We were home in time to unpack, shower etc. and watch our Sunday night favorites (60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Walking Dead).

All in all, we had a lovey weekend, there was even knitting.    I am making  hubby a pair of Toe-up Socks from Last Minute Knitting Gifts.   Socks really are wonderful.   Not only are they luscious to wear but they are the perfect take-along project.   I knit in the car and around the world and in the Kingdom.    Knitting really does "sooth the troubled spirit".

P.S. Turns out that T2 had bronchitis but he is doing much better now.