Vacation Withdrawal

The ms Massdam anchored at Bar Harbor, ME

We've been back from our vacation for five days.  Laundry has finally been caught up on, the floor has ceased swaying and it's back to reality.  We sailed on the ms Maasdam from Boston, to Bar Harbor, Maine, around Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island and finally through Quebec to Montreal.  It was 7 glorious days of being waited on, scrumptious food, being with family, and no dishes to wash.

The holiday didn't start on a good note, though.  Eighteen hours before we were to fly Boston, a crown fell out of my mouth.  Actually, the tooth broke off at the gum line with the broken piece still cemented inside the crown.  Since I don't have a dentist in our new hometown yet (an appointment was made for the Monday after our cruise) I couldn't get in to see anyone about the tooth.  I was, however, able to see my sister-in-law's dentist in Boston, who cemented the crown temporarily and sent me off with a prescription of antibiotics.

Our last night in Boston, we had our little pre-cruise, pre-anniversary party for my in-laws.  The anniversary quilt was presented to them and all the blood (I slashed myself with my rotary cutter during it's construction), sweat and tears were forgotten when I saw the look on my mother-in-law's face.  She was absolutely ecstatic over the quilt!

The thing turned out pretty big.  It's about 80"X80".  My sister-in-law gave me over 150 pictures and I had to whittle it down to just over 100.  It was really hard deciding which ones to take out.  I was so glad to be finished with the thing.  Working in our temporary quarters was not easy.  I had to push the kitchen table up against the wall every time I worked and tidy up after myself whenever we ate.  Two more months to go before me move into our house.

Swallowtail Shawl

On the knitting front, I packed two projects for our time away.  I started a shawl for the airplane and a sock for those in-between times during the cruise.  Airplane projects are always hard for me to choose.  I wanted something more challenging then knitting stockinette in the round and nothing too complicated that I would get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no internet access to help me out.  Since I had spent so much of my time working on the quilt, I also wanted to use stash yarn and a pattern from my limited selection in the apartment.  The Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark was picked and I cast on a few days before our flight.