Thunder Bay was a good time, coming back, not so much.

Dinner after we got home last night. From the left counter-clock-wise My Grandma, my Aunt, my brother's missus and my brother, my Mr., my Dad, my Mom, my sister, my niece and my girly. I was very happy not to have to make supper once we got home and everything started to go downhill. The good stuff first, then the bad.

Look what Grandma made the girly. There was one in different colours for my niece too. Isn't it beautiful! DK weight too. These took some time.

Look at the stitches. Mitered corners, Stockinette st and Garter stitch contrasting bands. This is really good work!

This is what I managed to knit on the way down. I did the red strap first, but it got dark before I got to the colour change and couldn't count where I was so that one got shoved to one end of the needle and I cast on for more Spare a Square squares. I discovered that a small penlight would be far better for measuring where you are than the dashboard lights are. I bought one as soon as I got to Thunder Bay and it now resides in my travel knitting bag. These ones are made with kitchen twine. Next up, the Chalk Line. She did say any material, I hope she means it.

My yarn crawl scores. The pale blue is Misti Alpaca in laceweight for my Lace Swap pal. There are two more skeins, a pattern, a circular needle and a few Canadian treats. As soon as I get some ketchup chips, it will all be on it's way overseas. Because what would a package from Canada be without ketchup chips, eh b'y.

The orange is a ball of a velevety sort of yarn I'm going to use to make a hat and scarf set for the girly. It's not very stretchy so I'll add a bit of lace and that should let it have some give to it. The blue and brown Alafoss Lopi is turning into a bag. I plan to knit until I'm out of yarn, then see if it's big enough to felt or if I'll have to line it. Then the two balls of Amazon DK 100% cotton will turn into dishcloths once I find a stitch pattern that will suit them. I would have bought way more yarn, but I ran out of spending money. Ah well. "Sandra" magazine from Chapters and a fabulous book for my Secret Pal so I can't show it to you since I'm sending my reveal package pretty soon. I think she will love it. The mittens are for the Girly and they were made by my Grandma and the pot holder is double thick and was crocheted by my Mother.

Caryll's Yarn Store. Great store, there's some high end stuff, some of the more generic stuff and even some of the middle of the line yarns in the store. Something for every budget and taste. Nice woman too, she spoke to the Girly who then proceeded to follow her around the store and chatter incessantly at her. She took it all in stride and even tried to participate in the "conversation". She has a spinning wheel all set up by her office. Must be good people.

Threads in Time. Excellent store, lots of good quality yarns some of the middle of the line stuff, some roving and loads of weaving equipment and supplies. She was super friendly and while I was wandering and feeling everything up, she was patiently helping a weaver set up on this huge swift looking thing. There was a name for it, but I can't remember it. She was great with the Girly too so no complaints from me about either store. The best thing is that they are about a block and a half apart so you don't have to drive all over the place to get to them.

Now, the bad.

We had people in to do the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom floors while we were gone. It was an insurance claim so we are only paying for part of it, but still. It's all vinyl flooring so it should have been reasonably easy, you would think. They charged for a 1/4 proboard underlay. It's not there. They didn't sand or paint the wall they were supposed to repair. Now we have a large patch of wall behind the washer/dryer that is covered with lumpy drywall plaster, nice. When they put the vinyl down, they didn't bother to check and make sure there weren't any lumps of dirt or unsanded spots underneath. Now we have lumpy spots in our floor. They also left a very visible seam in the hallway. The kind of visible that you can see standing 8 feet away. When they put the trim on the area where the vinyl meets the carpet, they used the wrong trim and they didn't hammer the nails down flat. Now I have sharp spots right where the children love to run and play. They will be coming back and redoing the entire thing. Once you glue down vinyl, you can't just take up a section without wrecking the rest of it. We are pissed off.
Edited to add: The contracter just called. He is now pissed off too. Apparently he sent out a subcontracter who was supposed to be an expert in the flooring business. He was wrong. They'll both be here tomorrow morning to look at it and the main contracter is already ordering new flooring for us. The whole thing will be redone. We are a little less pissed off.

Then, my Mom forgot to pick up the pets from the kennel. By the time we got home, dropped Grandma and Aunt off at Mom and Dad's and got home, it was 4:15. We brought in our stuff, switched vehicles (we borrowed Dad's since it's bigger than ours) and by the time I made it back to town, the pet store/kennel was closed. So I phoned the number for the kennel and got the owner at home. It's 5:00pm now. She says, get this, "I'm having supper now (okay, cool, I can wait for that) and I probably won't be going back there until sometime between 8:00pm and 10:00pm. I'll be going again at 8:00am." WTF???!!! She lives two minutes from my house which is 7 minutes from the store!

Me: Well, I would like to get them tonight, my Mother totally forgot she was supposed to pick them up this afternoon and the sooner I can get them home the better.

Her: Well, I'll give you a call when I go down, I hope to go sometime before 10:00pm.

Me: ??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her: Goodbye. *click*

Me: *$^&#$%^#%^#%%&$%&$%*#%&^#%@#$%$^U%^*%((*&#$^@$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She never called. I even gave her the number at my parents. I called her this morning at 9:00 am.

Her: Well, I was there at 8:00 am.

Me: What about last night, you never called at all. You never called this morning to let me know you were going down for sure.

Her: I didn't get there until 11:00pm. I don't like calling people after that time. But don't worry, I wasn't going to charge you for another night.

Me: I was awake. I would have come and gotten them. I want my pets back. I wasn't going to pay you for another night. I tried to get them back prior to that. You wouldn't take the time to give them back. When am I going to get my pets back?!

Her: I'll be going again at 1:00pm. Goodbye. *click*

Me: #%^&$^&^&*&%%$^**)(_)&$%$#%&%&^*&()*)(+_)(&%^$%##$^*&(*&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course being the nice passive-aggresive that I am, I never call her back to harrass her either time.

The pets are home now. Apollo has completely lost his bark. He hates small crates. I was thinking they had small runs for them. Apparently not. She said he got a walk every day though. Big deal. There are still another 23 1/2 hours left. Sam and Jezzy are full of dander and loose fur (normal for stressed out cats). They will not be returning to that kennel. There are other better kennels in the town that is an hour away. So much for the support your own community endeavour.