I'm home, I'm tired. Two days at the beach are not always like, ya know, a day at the beach. It was chilly and foggy and bleak and rainy and way too close to and downwind of the paper mill - if you know what a paper mill smells like, you are wincing in sympathy right now. In the morning the air was crisp and salty - in the evening it...wasn't. Trust me, if you've never smelled a paper mill you can consider it a blessing. I guess the locals get used to it. So my exciting trip was two all day depositions delving into brain-numbing details of how to (or rather, not to) restore a particular type of antique masonry building, (that's actually why I love my job, Boss and I are the Keepers of Arcane Information Society, and the older we get, the more bizarre and arcane our expertise becomes) in a small, smelly, damp, chilly beach town. The excitement never stops some weeks.

The drive home took four and a half freaking hours, it took over an hour and a half just to get south of Jacksonville. Rain plus rush hour is always ugly, but that was a new low. I thought (and said) as I often do, that it's a damn good thing Boss and I get along as well as we do - I can't imagine being tired, crabby, and stuck in traffic in the rain for hours with anyone else. Somehow we can bitch at everything else but never get annoyed at each other. It's a blessing.

But whoda thunkit, I found a new yarn (primarily needlepoint, but yarn too) shop and spent too much impulse money at lunch today on dee-vine shawl makings, but she threw in a pattern she modified for the yarn, and her shop sample was so right up my alley - a no-brainer with style. I picked a turquoise and blue colorway that will be dynamite with denim and a tank top or a Little Black Dress. My arms are getting so toned thanks to my girlfriend Denise, I will be showing them off this year.

I also made huge progress on Bardot - the back is done and half a sleeve - I owe this to the fact that there is Not a Friggin' Thing to do in that small beach town on a weeknight - every shop closes by 6. Boss and I finished dinner early last night and figured we'd brave the cold and walk around, and NOTHING was open. North Florida is SO not like South Florida, or even like OrlanDUH. North Florida is like the rest of the Deep South - they roll up the sidewalks after dark, and food is something deep fried. None of those restaurants has never heard of the South Beach Diet. Even the Italian restaurant deep-fried the fish. My stomach is in revolt against the grease overload. But I digress - as I started to say, the completely deader'n hell nature of the town after dark was a great knitting opportunity, so Bardot made a huge leap forward. I also brought the eyelet cardi and worked my way up the back - still don't have the right needle size for the sleeves, so I'm working the pattern backassward.