All the Pretty Words

Today is our first anniversary, and I came home after a full day of running errands to find these:

They’re pretty, smell quite nice, and came with a very sweet note. To celebrate some more, we went out for some pretty tasty (but huge!!) sushi and watched The Lives of Others, which was a great film. This first year has been a great one, and I hope we have many more together. It is rare to find someone who loves you and understands you so completely, and I am so happy to have found such a person.

During the errand-running, I went on a bit of a yarn crawl through Edmonton and discovered River City Yarns, which I think will become my new LYS. They have a great selection of yarn, most of which I have used and liked or have heard about and want to try, the lady there was very friendly, and I found out that they have a weekly knitting night on Thursdays. I’m planning to bike over tomorrow evening to try it out! I’ve never been part of any sort of knitting social circle, so I’m both excited and nervous about it. I think it will probably be fun, though. Anyway, here is my haul for the day:

I almost came home with a Della Q bag, but decided I should think about it for a while first. I might buy it tomorrow, though…

We arrived in Edmonton a week ago, and have become nicely settled in here. Bryan’s mom is working on some bathroom renovations and getting ready for a season of gardening, so there has been plenty to do here. Bryan’s birthday was yesterday, and I made him a black forest cake (mostly) from scratch–I did cheat a little and buy some pre-made icing because I didn’t think I would have time to make it too. We had some really nice pizza for dinner, and then we went on a long bike ride. He’s a long-time cyclist, so he has been whizzing up the hills while I puff along in the lowest possible gear. It does push me to get into shape, because I wouldn’t mind passing him on a hill for once! And now, for a photo of my shiny new bike:

It is nice, is it not? Also–please do me the favor of ignoring the dorkiness that is my borrowed helmet :)

We have finally arrived in Edmonton after 4 days of heavy driving, and I’m so very happy to finally be here. We got in pretty early–around 5:30 PM, I think–and unloaded the super-full car. Josie is extremely happy to have a new space to explore, and it’s great for us to be able to stretch out too. We’re going to shop around for a bike for me tomorrow and run a few errands, but we’ll mostly just be taking these next few days pretty easy.

To make up for the lack of Toronto photos, behold Lettuce Knits:

I thought it was sweet that they put out the yarn for birds to use in their nests. I also finished another round of strips in the Log Cabin blanket:

I also bought so much yarn that it’ll take months for me to knit it all up.  I got roving and a drop spindle at Lettuce Knits since I’ve been wanting to learn how to spin. I also got some lace yarn there, as well as other yarn at Romni Wool and the Knit Cafe. I’ll post photos of those later–they’re all really pretty.

I made it to Toronto without any trouble, and we spent a few days there having quite a bit of fun. Bryan showed me around town and took me to several really good restaurants, and we also went to Toronto Island and rented bikes, which we rode around for a couple of hours. I really liked getting to see Toronto, because it’s a great city–lots of things to do, but it’s not completely overwhelming.

We left Toronto Sunday morning around 11:00 AM and it’s now 1:30 AM Monday morning in Marathon, Ontario. We have discovered that Highway 17 is a vast stretch of trees and rocks and water. And more trees. And lots of inuksuit. And NO GAS!!! We got to Sault Ste. Marie, decided half a tank was good enough, and kept going. About an hour later we found that we really needed gas–and a man at a motel said the only gas station for 40 miles in either direction was the one just down the road, which was conveniently closed for Sunday. We had to drive back almost all the way to Sault Ste. Marie before finding a gas station and turning west again. This little adventure lost us a full hour, but we did get to see a moose on the way there!

I’m all packed up, all but three boxes have been mailed off to Edmonton, and the car is loaded to the gills with oddly sized things that weren’t quite mailable. In other words, I’m about to leave the vicinity!

I’m very excited, and it all feels a bit unreal. I’ve been waiting so long to get the hell out of Vermont, a state for which I have only the barest and most occasional regard. I’ve also been separated from Bryan for three weeks now, and I miss him greatly and will be so happy to be with him again.

The plan is as such: tomorrow I’m going to get up incredibly early (6 am might as well be barest dawn for me–I routinely sleep until noon when given the chance), put the last few things in the car, mail off those last three boxes, and start off for Toronto. I’ll meet up with Bryan there, we’ll stay a few days, and then on Sunday we’ll leave for Edmonton. We should get to Edmonton on Thursday after driving through much of lower Canada. Bryan says it’s a really pretty drive most of the year, but right now the leaves are just budding out and it will be rather bare. It will be great to be in Canada, though!