Why was Justin Timberlake at a hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia? Do we care?

Last weekend was a big one in the pageant world. A major pageant was held about an hour away from where I work, and my little A, last year's queen, attended to pass her crown on to the next little girl.

(Okay, they're not so little, they're 7-8, but in my eyes, they're little.)

This is so cool because it gave me a chance to spend a long weekend with Jennifer, A, and B2, plus their friends with whom they drove up from Florida. I'd met A2, A's friend, at A's birthday party in January. She's a cute little girl, and when the two are in what Jennifer calls "full drag" (pageant hair and makeup), they look so much alike that sometimes I can't tell them apart in photos.

So anyway, Saturday afternoon, Jennifer got a call that "the limo is waiting" for A. Limo? What limo and why? To take last year's queens out to lunch at a local restaurant. The girls were really excited about this. All the mommies ran downstairs to take photos of their babies (some as old as 17 or 18) in front of and in the limo. As you might be able to see in the photo below, B2 was not impressed. He was terribly upset that Mommy left the room without him (he's only 3, although he's the size of a 6-year-old, except shorter--size six pants.)

(The limo is hidden behind the tree branches.)

When she entered the lobby on the way back in, Jennifer saw a crush of girls and mommies and the flash of cameras. A short, skinny, scruffy-looking guy in a watch hat pulled down over his ears was in the center, having his photo taken with mommies and girls. Justin Timberlake.

For a few seconds I was confused. Why on earth would he be in Charlottesville? Oh yeah, the new John Paul Jones Arena, concert night. $500 for seats at the bar surrounding the stage. The "sexyback" dance floor. The nausea.

Turns out that A2's mom saw his bus pull up behind the hotel. Justin got out, walked around the bus, and changed his shirt, in 30-degree weather, in full view of the rooms on that side of the hotel. Of course, women were taking his photo through the windows. Then he walked around the front of the hotel and entered the lobby.

I guess that was kind of nice of him, although he and his backup singers could have easily entered the back of the hotel and not been accosted by a bunch of preteens. If you've got it, flaunt it. The girls were thrilled.

Jennifer was not impressed. "He's just a person."

Did I tell you that my sister Joan and I met Don Henley?

Such gentle girls

(only one is my granddaughter; the other is a friend of hers)

Tiny Miss of America

B2's Moment in the Spotlight

(Daddy Longlegs contest)

What's more important than seeing MomMom for the first time in two months?

My Quiet Life

Oh my gosh, I am so honored. Amy Boogie left a comment under the post about dogs in Belize (there are many more photos. I just haven't taken the time to upload them. Be forewarned.) She's a famous yarn goddess, and she took the time to come here and leave a comment after I commented about her shoes on her blog. Hear that, Tom? I'll have to buy some of her yarn some year; it's really gorgeous and not expensive when compared to mass-produced sock yarn. And the colors......

Yes, Jennifer, I know she's a person just like the rest of us. But she's a knitting goddess, not Justin Timberlake, for heaven's sake.

Before I forget it,

which I will as soon as someone comes through the door, I want to welcome the people who've commented who are from other knitting blogs and from friends' blogs. Sometimes I surf from one blog to another and find someone I really like. I leave comments, they respond, and it's a cool way to meet new people with similar interests.

Just have to get this off my chest feet

Okay, that's really dumb, but that's all I can come up with. It's difficult to be witty when Sleep Deprivement Time rolls around.




My favorite shoes along with my favorite knit-by-me socks.



Note to neo, if you're reading this:

Your socks are almost done. I'm not happy with the way the colors have striped; I thought it would be more like the photo of the heel. I wrote to the company who sells it (www.knitpicks.com) and got a snooty answer: This is handpainted yarn, not sold as self-striping, blah blah blah. However, on one of their patterns that I bought at about the same time, it calls this same yarn "self-striping".

HA.

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize C.A.

What an interesting place! What impressed us the most is the friendliness of everyone there (with the exception of one US tourist who for some reason took exception to Tom's "Proud to be American" t-shirt), everyone,
the children, the shopkeepers, the stall-sellers, beach-wanderers, waitresses, time-share salesmen, even drivers. Most people, tourists and natives alike, drove little golf cars, and even when the roads were muddy, they'd slow down when they reached a mud puddle so they wouldn't splash any pedestrians.
They'd stop and wait for a dog to cross the road, for stupid tourists who wandered into their way. They'd speak pleasantly and go on their way. There never was a rush to see who could push through the foot traffic first. In fact, no one was ever in a rush--except the tourists. Including me. I have a hard time waiting, for food, to cross the road, just about anything. Tom kept reminding me that we were on "island time" and to relax. I have a difficult time with that.

There were two main north/south roads in town, one paved with cobblestones and one dirt. Horrible potholes filled with water, but "motorists" drove very slowly through them. No splashing. The carts might be full of kids and dogs and groceries. They parked anywhere on the streets, usually right against the walls of the buildings.

We walked about two miles south of town the first morning we were there. The farther south we went, the more affluent the surroundings .
We passed a spa, some gorgeous houses and inns,


restaurants, and lots of beautiful beachfront.






We stopped here for breakfast and walked back to town.