November 27, 2008

Despite my best effort to go to sleep early I just could not. I was in bed reading for an hour, yet still wide awake. Another hour soaking in a hot tub of water didn't help, either. I give up!

Instead I came back out to my chair and began working on Silver Stitches again. I finished three more rows of stitches before finally going to bed at 9:30 this morning. I didn't like the way the two strands of 3743 hid the metallic X of the Rice stitches, so I chose to use only one strand instead. I also felt that two strands looked "heavy" whereas the one strand looks much more delicate to me. I know it's not a big deal, but to me it makes a difference in the overall feel of the design. That's also why I chose to use one strand of #12 Perle cotton rather than two strands of Blanc DMC. It lends itself to a more delicate design. Or am I just too darn picky?

I was only able to get three hours of sleep before Uncle Wes woke me up so that I could make it to Grandma's on time. I told her I'd be there around 2pm so that I could drive her over to Uncle Jay & Trish's for dinner at 3:00. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else in Maryland was trying to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at the same time!

I crossed the Severn River Bridge and found traffic at a standstill. That's over eight miles from the Bay Bridge tolls! I was able to get off Rt 50 almost right away and took back roads to get closer to the tolls. After rejoining 50 I found an even more congested mess but was able to get over to the the EZ Pass lane where I drove by another mile of stopped traffic. Upon reaching the toll plaza, it looked to me like there either weren't enough lanes open or everyone was running in slow motion.

There was more traffic in the one lane of east-bound traffic on the west-bound span than there were in the two lanes on the east-bound span. I don't like driving on a bridge with opposing traffic and no barrier between us, but it's better than having to sit in that mess for two hours and miss dinner! If I didn't know the back roads around here it probably would have taken me more than two hours to get to the tolls, and they're less than ten miles from my house!

Dinner with my Grandma, aunts, uncle, cousins, and Aunt Trish's dad and his friend was great. There was just the right amount of food to have a little left over. Trish fixed the traditional turkey and stuffing, gravy, real mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry relish with strawberries, green bean casserole, and corn pudding. Grandma also made her fruit relish, which was devoured.

For dessert, Trish's Dad, Dwight, brought a pumpkin pie that we served with whipped topping. Keeping in mind that I had to drive home still, I made sure not to eat so much as to stuff myself. I was nice and full without that after-dinner lethargy. My cousins left shortly after eating because their friend had to be at his parents'. Aunt Lisa, Chris, and Grandma headed back home right behind them. Dwight and Ginny had to go to her daughter's house so that just left me, Jay, Trish, and my cousin, Adam. Trish, Adam, and I played a game of Scrabble while Jay watched television (slept), then Trish and I played one-on-one. I finally won a game against her! I couldn't believe it! She usually cleans my clock, but I eked out a victory by the skin of my teeth (2 points)!

I left around 9pm and arrived home without incident. I had to snack on my turkey leftovers to stay awake but it worked. Unfortunately the tryptophan struck shortly after 10pm and I went to sleep. I was trying to stay up and maybe do some more work on Silver Stitches but "oh, well!"