Airports are noisy

And I should know. It's 3:30 am and I'm lying flat on my back listening to the racket. Yet I can't hear any voices. No announcements. Strange-- there was a "report any suspicious baggage" announcement about 10 minutes ago, but otherwise I haven't heard any loud speaker announcements nor music in hours.
Yet the sounds are crazy loud. It's all the people mover things clanging and grinding with the occasional cleaning machine that provides quite the din.
I had an amazing long trip yesterday that turned into 2 days.
This time my third flight was whacked. Chicago: not my home town. A bummer with thousands of people. Huge lines. Stupid check-in kiosks placed in front of counters so you have to get in long lines to use them. (United is going to get quite a response to their survey.)
The sequence:

• Sitting on a plane with the doors "secured" yet we remain at the gate. 
• Precious minutes tick by and at last we are I informed of an electrical problem. 
• I can almost anticipate what's next: waiting for someone to come check it out. 
• Waiting. Waiting. Yep, there's a problem. 
• Is there a quick solution or do they have to go looking for a part? 
• Times for possible departures are given for several scenarios. 
• And at last, take everything with you; we are switching to another aircraft.

Arrived late in Denver causing 75% of the flyers to miss a connecting flight. Me included. Only there are no more flights until the next morning. Some people were told the July Fourth weekend had started and they might be stranded-errr, for awhile.
So I go to customer service to politely request a hotel voucher to be told that they didn't have any more rooms to give out. Ok I'll get reimbursed instead, however, there are no rooms available this side of the Continental Divide. Masses of people were picking up and putting down phones at the hotel call center. No one was getting anywhere. Then I called my hub and told him I'd be spending some time on the floor tonight and minutes later my phone rang with a hotels.com agent booking me in to a hotel a mere 12 miles away. I was off. All I needed was transportation and a very nice Iranian man gave me a price and said, "We go now." I climbed into his 12 seater van and off we went. (Boy, did that thing need shocks!)  At 65 mph he was tapping various addresses into his gps. And when we arrived at said hotel, guess what? He says, "I wait to make sure this is the one.". I'm glad he did because there was no reservation for me and no room.* We spent the next hour at other prospective lodgings with the same result. I admitted defeat and told him to take me back to the airport. "Why? What would you do there?"  Spend the night? He hesitated, then asked if I would like to stay at his home. What a dear man. Really there was no proposition, just that he was appalled that there were no rooms. And he did his best to get one for me. I declined and we chatted on the way back. He had a great story, works hard and has a young family. I felt sorry for him having to take me back to the airport at midnight when I knew his shift was over hours ago and the airport is definitely in the opposite direction from home. I probably would have been treated nicely, returned to the airport the next day with a boat load of experiences and money in his pocket.
But instead I'm lying here flat on my back.

My corner at the airport.

 I expect that by 5 am the airport will be bustling, but for now I'm pretending to be a homeless person, huddling among my meager possessions with my jacket over my head--and my iPod plugged into the nearest outlet.
Sent from my iPod
Julia

The train at 5:30 AM

Hotels.com immediately refunded my money.  While I was on the phone they called the motel and verified that they didn't have a reservation and didn't get paid.

No compensation yet from United;  I can claim up to $100 in accommodation costs... but I'm going to try to get reimbursed for the limo/van.

The Princess Top revisited

I remember starting and re-starting this one.  Then I hemmed up the sleeves because they were too long.  Not anymore!  It's a real top, and not a tunic as originally worn.  It gets thrown in the washer and dryer, and still looks great.

Details here:  Princess Top

AND in 24 hours I'll be over the Atlantic, halfway through my 32 hour day.  Wish me luck and lots of knitting.  It's what keeps me semi-pleasant when I'm folded up and squeezed on long flights.

The Verdict

What did I decide to do?  Without any votes... I should have made it a contest ???
D:  None of the above should have been an option, because I won't be finishing the vest which is spared from frogging.  AND the sweater from years ago is now converted to a vest.

And the real kicker is how nice the back looks.  When my daughter requested an embroidered rose on the back, I thought she was crazy, but now I like!

The cabling is only on the collar.

The duplicate stitch pattern is borrowed from my other rose sweaters.
And to answer Brenda's question:  Is Angora froggable?  I don't know... the sleeves remain intact.  Maybe they'll be re-attached!!! LOL

Back to work on the other vest...  Some people just never have enough purple wool vests!  LOLA  What a lucky knitter I am!!

What keeps me busy these days?

I'm wrapping up my month in Norway, visiting my daughter and granddaughter.  Sometimes I wonder what I'll do today, and then the day is over!  There's some frustration living 8 time zones away from "grandpa", knowing he'd love to be sharing the experiences.  Yet, when I call him at midnight, he doesn't always seem enthusiastic.
The plan from before I packed for this trip was to bring back beautiful cashmere yarn that my daughter had purchased but was languishing in my stash.  I started a scarf, and meant for it to remain in Norway.  I revamped the scarf idea, and here it is, two weeks later...  looking like life with a toddler strikes again.  Of course, the yarn is coming home with me... I'm almost up to the armhole split, and I've purchased another yarn to complete the project because I'm quite sure I won't have enough of the cashmere. I'm using it doubled.
Here's the updated picture for today:

But wait, what's this?  The finished sweater?

 Why, yes!  It is finished... and surprisingly like the one I'm currently working on, only the one I'm making is a vest.  YET.... it's been requested I remove the sleeves of this sweater because it wishes to be a vest...  notice the lovely cabling on the sleeves. hmmm....errrrr.

 I knitted this many years ago, before I was a Ravelry member.  It's an Elsebeth Lavold design/pattern made in Elsebeth Lavold Angora.
Future blog vote, please:
A:  Title:  Third Time's A Charm.  Above vest is frogged, and revisited yet again as... something in single weight yarn.
B:  Title:  Twins!  A finished garment during toddler visit.
C:  Title:  ______;  Well, maybe there's no blog about it again.

Month of June: I have knitted and finished a hat and a mouse and sewn a cover for a clothes drying rack to convert it into a playhouse.  Under construction are some quilt blocks, and frankly, I'm not sure what else!  They just seem to crop up, and there I am-- making something I've never done before!  That's toddler progress!

A repeat...

In case you missed the big "two year" celebration, I'll redirect you to a previous blog.

If you didn't miss it but are just SOOOO taken by my grandchild and you can't get enough, I'll redirect you BACK to my previous blog, which now has MORE pictures in the slide show.

By the way, the weather has been behaving itself!  Sun and no rain for 3 days!!!  (Not NM sun, for sure, but Norway sun.  Teehee...)

More about knitting tomorrow!

Previous Birthday Blog

One Mid-Summer Night

Date:  June 15, 2011,  Bergen, Norway,  just before midnight.

I noticed something strange.  First, I noticed it was a gorgeous night, then I realized that the chunk missing from the moon was odd.  Could it be... an eclipse?

This is more like the lighting at midnight in mid-June at 60º N latitude.

I googled it, and sure enough, it was the end of an eclipse.  Being surrounded by mountains, and the sun going down around 11 PM made this an event I almost missed.
Friday night (June 17), sunset 11:09 PM, Saturday morning (June 18), sunrise 4:09 AM.  One hour of 'night' between dusk and dawn!

Weather in Norway

Meteogram, next 48 hours

*Nedbørssøylene viser maks- og minverdier for nedbør per time. 

This is just SAD!  The chart doesn't even go over 20ºC...

We are just laughing it off, in fact, at this moment it's quite bright out, like there's sun somewhere, but the cloud cover is shrouding the mountains.  I'm SOOOO glad I'm not a tourist here for the day! LOL

Sorry about the pasted chart above spilling over into other columns, but you get the idea.

Today we had a mini birthday party for our 2 year old.  The puddles under the swings was VERY popular, as was the splash at the bottom of the slide!

We kept the cupcakes under foil and everyone was cheery as if the sun was shining.