If you hear maniacal laughter…

It’s because my pictures loaded…

This first one is our view in the Granby valley–it’s a big sky sort of place!

“Those aren’t horses!”

We were looking for the Lonesome Stone Alpaca Farm–and clearly we found it. I got some LOVELY yarn here, and we met Lily, a dog bigger than my first car. This mill has a couple of specialties–BFF, which is basically whatever the dyer felt like THAT DAY (and it was gorgeous!), BEAST which is basically what happens when you spin a fiber mill’s dust buffalo, and REAL buffalo/alpaca mix, which was, as the mill owner admitted, “Fifty/fifty when it hit the drum carder–I have no idea what the ratio was when we pulled it off.” The yarn was a distinctive chocolate color, and it felt like something you’d weave a rug out of. A rug that would be hypoallergenic, exothermic, and would last until the end of the human race.

This is me, at the falls just outside of Lake Granby–I don’t know what my hair is doing, but my largish body is screaming “Oxygen!” The falls are pretty, though! It was worth the height–I just never realized a portable O2 tank was an option for a fully satisfying vacation!

This is Michelle from Colorado! She really is as sweet as she looks–she’s also a big fan of sci-fi fantasy (uhm, yeah!) and a LOT of fun to talk to on a blazing-bright Denver afternoon. She shared her High Tea with us at the Wystone Tea Factory (I think I got that right) and we chatted about everything the Denver sci-fi con to our respective parents and how to teach kids to cook. (In my case, it’s sending them to grandma, who will hopefully have better luck than she did with me!) She also gifted me with FANTABULOUS GIFTS–yarn (I WILL take a picture of my spoils tomorrow!) a quilted sock bag (which I am using right now as I wait for my pix to download) a book by Wen Spencer, spices for steak (the one thing I can cook!) and the most beaut-e-ful stitch markers EVER. (And it all came in a book bag–I just wanted to tuck her under my arm and run home with her–she was WONDERFUL!!!!) Thank you, Michelle– you were the best part of Denver!

And this is one of the pictures from trail ridge–not one of the scary ones, but it does illustrate that ‘no guard rail’ thing I was talking about!

And here we’ve got a moose–you know, before we realized what happened AFTER the flatlands. (We were so stupid. I just can’t shake my head about that enough!)

And some more pictures of the trail!

And this is Mate and I, in front of Buffalo Bill Cody’s grave. (Okay–his wife was next to him–she was two years older than he was AND she outlived him–I’m guessing she gets some mention!) And yeah, I know–you probably wanted to see their final resting places, but tough. This could be the first time Mate and I have been in a picture together since before Ladybug was born, and, well, I wanted to show it off. He’s still a handsome Mate and me likes him.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll do some yarn porn… boum-chicka-boum-boum… but right now, I’m going to dance around the house with glee because my pictures loaded. (I’ll be careful not to be too loud–Big T had two wisdom teeth out today, and he’s nursing his owies, doped to the gills. Poor guy. I need to make him socks–my mom told me he’d worn the last pair I made him until the had holes in them. I’m so pleased–isn’t that the fate we all want for the socks we knit?)