Only Knitting Progress it is ... sigh.

And really not all that much knitting got done this weekend, either.

I DID, however, finish Crazy Aunt Purl's Brangelina Hat! Whoohoooo!

(It looks grey but it's black, I SWEAR!)

My only issue was that the skein of baby alpaca kept knotting up. Seriously. I'd have it all wound nice and neat .... turn away to knit a stitch or two ... turn back... and the ball of yarn looked like it had battled a tornado! And lost! ARGH!

And detangling alpaca ain't so easy. Because it has little fuzzies that cling to little fuzzies on other strands and you can't tell if you've got an actual knot or just a co-mingling of the fuzzies (heh! ;)). Anyhoo ... I did finish the hat (after possibly some cursing and errr, maybe even the use of scissors) ...and it is fan-ta-bu-lous!!! Brad Pitt's of the world ... watch out!!! :)

So the wedding this weekend was at The Dalles Ranch in BFE*. And when I say BFE ... I ain't kidding. Once you drive from Portland to The Dalles (an hour and a half?) you head south til you turn onto a gravel road. Then meander for about 15 miles following directions such as: "when you see the row of mailboxes, go 0.6 miles then turn left." "Hang a right at the hairpin turn." You know, that kinda thing. All on the one lane gravel road with some massive dips filled with water. (so if you go, strap on your SUV. Just sayin').

However, as soon as you turn into the driveway you realize just how worthwhile the drive was! The ranch house was stunning! And the bride and groom put on a top notch weekend. They had me bunking down at the house. And the house included pool table, foos ball table, air hockey, dart boards, an AMAZING home theater, free concession stand, old-time popcorn maker, amazing Mt Hood views, serenading by a choir of frogs which sang every evening as you relaxed under the heat lamps on the deck, food, food, and more food, a sauna, a 8-person hot tub, steam showers, those huge fluffy white spa robes, an open bar ... and a big ole bonfire (note to self: next time pack marshmallows!). Oh wait ... and a wedding! :) It was really awesome!

Here are some pics:

The main room. There is a big screen tv which pops up outta the cabinet to the left of the fireplace in case the movie your friends selected for the theater room wasn't to your liking.

A couple of shots of the theater room (how do I get me one of these???):

The theater was AWESOME! Big comfy leather chairs which reclined all the way back. Big movie screen. And a control console between two seats in the back row which let you choose from about a 100 preloaded movies. Only thing missing was someone to run the console ... cuz let me tell you, Saturday night sometime after midnight about 6 of us decided a movie would be a great way to wind down. 30 minutes later we had to give up and track down the owner (who was still awake or we wouldn't have bothered him) to get the movie rolling for us. It was pathetic really ... but uhhh .... I mentioned the open bar, right?? :)

And this was the concession area in the game room, right outside the theater (how cute, right?):

All the bathrooms felt very spa like:

And here's a shot of the bonfire ... before and after it was lit (seriously, marshmallows, Graham Crackers and Hershey candybars, is all I'm sayin'! ;)):

Cool, huh?

And I lovelovelove that within this group of friends all the wedding ceremonies are performed by an ordained friend as opposed to a hired priest/minister. Since the bride at this wedding tends to be our "minister" for the others, her brother and one of her good friend both got ordained and together married her and the groom. I LOVE that. Just makes the wedding so much more personal.

Okay, so I hear my regular readers screaming ..... "screw the pictures and the wedding chatter ... what the HELL happened with you and that single guy you were going to have to share a room with???". (yeah, don't think I don't hear ya!!!). Well, let me tell ya folks .....absolutely BUPKUS happened! I don't think I said but two words to the guy. He didn't arrive until Saturday (the wedding day) and I was a bit preoccupied with the ceremony as well as with chatting with a bunch of friends that showed up at the same time. By the time all the dust settled and people started clearing out, he was already hanging with another single chick there. Which I figured works out just fine. Let someone else be the Rebound Chick I say! Anyway, so really ... no good stories to tell there. I think he, Buck and one other guy were the only single guys there. Just sad really. But ah well, Buck and I had a good time! (I know, I know ... not really the juicy gossip you were hoping for! ;))

Anyway, that was the weekend. Congrats again to D and J!! I'm so very happy for you and wish you all the best!

*which in this case was The Dalles, Oregon! (whodathunkit, eh?? :)