Vacation photos

The battery charger for the camera is missing a few important parts. Specifically, the part that plugs the battery pack into the wall. So until we track that down, there won't be any new pics of my projects on the blog.

Might I distract you with photos from the Oregon Coast?

Brian grew up ten miles south of Newport, Oregon, and his family still lives in the area. Conveniently enough, his parents run a bed and breakfast so when we come to visit, there's always the chance we'll get to stay in the suite. (When there's guests, we sleep in Brian's old bedroom. Which means that we still get the home-cooked breakfast, but we have to forego the comfort of an attached bathroom.)

This group of sea lions was on the Newport docks. They like to laze around and bark, in the hopes that someone will be so enthralled with their charms that they'll drop their lunch. I think of this particular group as the alley cats of the sea. 800 pound alley cats.

Brian's father taught me how to use a spinning wheel during this trip, but I sadly have no pictures to commemorate the event. However, here's one of Pop and our friend Meghan and the spinning wheel.

Haceta Head Lighthouse:

40 miles to the north, Yaquina Head Lighthouse:

And my favorite sunset picture (out of the ones that I took) of the trip:

Some of our friends from Nome came to visit us for the week. As it had been so cold in Northern Alaska the week before that 20 people had dropped out of the Iditarod, Hayley, Kara, and Meghan were very excited to be somewhere where the daily low temperature was 35 F, instead of minus 35 F.
And because no seaside vacation is complete without building a beach fort:

He is Risen!

I gave up posting on this blog (and checking out other people's blogs) for Lent. (Lent marks the forty day period between Ash Wednesday (forty days before Easter, how handy is that?) and Easter Sunday. It commemorates the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before he began His ministry. It is traditionally a time of waiting, contemplation, and denying oneself in order to concentrate more fully on God. )

While some Christian traditions have specific things which one does or does not do for Lent--my Orthodox friends are going vegan on Wednesdays and Fridays for all Lent--the Church of the Nazarene does more of a "choose your own adventure" approach to Lenten devotions. This year, I realized that I've been spending a great deal of time in vain self-glorification (and yarn-glorification) and decided to not blog for Lent.

Unfortunately, I reached the decision to give up blogging for Lent during the Ash Wednesday service and neglected to do a post to explain why I'd be MIA for the next six weeks.

Note that I didn't give up knitting for Lent, just the blabbering about it. I should have more pictures of my assorted projects coming in a few days.