Ready and waiting...

...to be decorated:

....for cold, frozen ground:

This is what happened when Paul tried to put the trailer away for the winter.

Paul and I met our friends at the Red Lion Inn for lunch over the weekend.  Meet Elaine (aka "Sticky Fingers") and Steve (aka "The Surveyor"):

They are so much fun and we always have a great time when we see them.  I first met Elaine back in 1995 when we worked at the CT Dept of Children and Families.  And Steve is a land surveyor in CT, so if you live in CT and need a surveyor call Hodge LLC!.  More on Elaine's nickname soon....  

The Red Lion Inn is halfway between us so it's a great place to meet up and keep in touch.  Plus, Stockbridge, MA is beautiful this time of year.  The Inn, goes all out with their decorating.

And, one of Elaine's favorite things are the free spiced gumdrops in the lobby (hence one reason for her nickname....):

We had a nice lunch and I got to open a birthday present from Elaine and Steve.  Some yummy smelling cranberry candle things and..... as I was digging around in the gift bag, Elaine suddenly said, "Oh wait! you can't take that one out because it's stolen!"  What the heck????   In actuality, while it was stolen, it was for a really good and sentimental reason (which makes it ok).  Almost five years ago when Paul and I got married at the Inn....

In case you needed a reminder picture.

...Elaine took a spoon from the table to give to us on our 1st anniversary.

But she forgot.  If you look really closely, you can see a little stamp on the end of the spoon with a lion and "The Red Lion Inn" on it.  And that's the real reason for her nick name.

After lunch we shopped around and walked around town.  Check out this book we saw:

And Steve found this:

.... which is an:

I loved, Loved, LOVED that band!!!!!  One summer when I was 14-ish and we went to Cape Cod on vacation, and we listened to the High Infidelity tape the whole time.  My mom, my sister and I knew all the words to all the songs.

Then we went back to the Red Lion Inn for hot cider:

A wonderful day with good friends.  Can't wait to meet up with them again.

Meanwhile, on the trip there and back, I worked on my Daybreak shawl:

And the next day I finished it!  Here it is being blocked:

Then, that same day I started the Encompass cowl, which will be another class I will teach at the shop in January.  And I finished that this morning!:

Don't even think about it Pheobe! (she wants to snooze on it)

I'm hoping to have a book review for you soon....

And for those of you who didn't see it on Facebook, check out this picture:

Love. It.