For the Fourth

I barely felt like I had time at home after our trip before Scott and I were off again.  We ended up spending the 4th of July with his family, including a brotherly dispute between Scott and his brother Andy, resolved in the best way possible. 

I made some spring rolls to bring up to the festivities- soooo easy, and didn't take very long.  

The prep was just a bunch of cutting up veggies and preparing the arrangement for easy-creation.  I'm definitely going to be making these again.  I stuffed them with rice noodles, cucumbers, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, and cilantro.  Drizzling peanut sauce on each bite just made it even more delicious. 

(Maeby taking a snooze during a really warm and humid afternoon while I indulge in some page therapy!)

I've been on a roll lately reading- I'm halfway through the third Game of Thrones book, and I finished one of Ian McEwan's books this morning.  I loved McEwan's book Saturday, which I read for class back in grad school, so when I found out that my local library branch had a selection of his books, I thought I'd try a couple out.  The Innocent was decent- placed just after WWII, with an interesting twist that worked well with the intense character development which is signature of McEwan's books.  I'm going to try a couple more by him before I make any judgements on his writing- I still have his newer ones, such as Solar, and his most famous one, Atonement, to read.  I'll be biking up to the library tomorrow to trade out books.

Yesterday was spent largely in the car.  We had a wedding in St. Cloud to attend, and due to bad weather last night, Scott and I opted to drive home after the wedding instead of camping in St. Cloud that night.  That meant a lot of time on the road.  This wasn't exactly what we wanted- by now, we're both pretty sick of being in the car, but the trip was good for my knitting:  

I finished the tri-color portion of the Spring Affection Shawl!  Only thing left is two inches of turquoise on the bottom.  I have a couple of shifts at the climbing gym coming up this week (plus a possible trip climbing up the shore), so I'll be saving this mindless knitting for that.

I have other things to do- such as cast on the front sections of the Dude Sweater.  That puppy needs to be finished before the snow flies, or I'll probably get in trouble...