Dissertation and all. But I’m getting close to a first draft of the first two chapters (of 3, plus an appendix). And I think I have an outside reader and date for my defense.

Site and Shop: I’m in the process of dyeing more. Should get it up Friday. There will be a few more of the natural grey samplers, and some normal sized 4oz batches of things, don’t know for sure beyond that yet.

So I promised you a report of my trip. Well, it was excellent, though I was a little low on energy due to an (unknown at the time) low kidney bleed (culminating in passing it the Sunday after). Good times with good friends.

First, of course, you have to get there. An hour to pick up my friends from outside Boston, then we stopped for a lovely lunch at the Irish pub. Then, seven hours of driving to Canada, whee! Totally worth it to see people I haven’t seen since they got married my first year back here!

Luckily, it’s pretty much all really nice scenery. Up through Vermont to the border, where my exhausted dissertation eaten brain couldn’t get past the fact the nice borderguard was speaking in French then English. My brain kept pausing and trying to parse the French, even though he would then speak in English. Luckily Scott realized what was going on and answered for me.

Quebec has a lot of cornfields, and when their not filled with corn, they’re full of soy (a renitrogenizer). Soy on the left, corn on the right.

We arrived in the evening, but in the morning I took some photos of where we were staying. A condo in a very large fancy place full of large fancy places. Mont Tremblant is primarily a tourist place for rich skiiers in the winter.

We had a beautiful view of the water from our back deck.

Spent most of the first day relaxing, which I really needed (even with the stupid kidney thing). Reading…

And playing video games like Rockband. I finally sort of started to figure out the drums (which I’m still pretty terrible with). At least I wasn’t the only one struggling with them!

We also went on a walk around the place. Beautiful views!

And a fancy pool! We didn’t get to use it because it was full of kids all the time, full full.

The next day, we took a short hike, by a bog and river and into the woods. Very nice. There’s a great blue heron in the first photo if you can find it.

And took one of the worst photos ever of me. You can tell my back is bothering me, my entire body is tense and I look like a cardboard cutout.

The last day, we went to the tourist village. Pretty place.

And we had the most amazingly delicious crepes. Mmmm so good. I had one with sausage, apples, and a cream sauce, then we split one with apples and icecream and one with pears with chocolate.

And then, sadly, the next day it was time to head home. 7 hours back, past the corn fields…

Past the U.S. Border, where they noticed I had stupidly forgotten to sign my passport but were otherwise nice, if gruff.

Dropped off Scott and Robin, then drove an hour and a half to my parents’ house out in Western MA, because they had just gotten back from hiking the last piece of the Appalachian Trail with my little brother. Long drive, but worth it, again. I’ll separate that trip off into another post.

Back to writing. Hoping to finish the first draft of the first two chapters today.

~The Gnome