Knitting and/or Diving

Gee, there hasn't really been much content about either of these subjects on the blog lately.  In fact, it seems like several of my posts have been about why there haven't been many posts on here lately!  Well, I never said I was good at focusing...

So, knitting, I actually have been doing a little bit of that lately.  For some reason, during the summer, I tend to take a knitting hiatus, of sorts.  Not sure why, but it happens every year.  Then, sometime around my birthday usually, I pick it up again.  Maybe it's the change of season to cooler temperatures, but I get absolutely nothing accomplished knitting-wise in the summer. 

Like I said though, I've actually been working on a project; the Cinnamon Grace shawl by Katie Harris.  I'd link to my Ravelry project page, but there aren't any pictures there anyway, so you're not missing anything!  I did (finally!) finish my 1st Lace Shawl (Dane Shawl by Jane Tanner), but still haven't blocked it, so, no pictures there either, sorry about that...

And, as for diving, we've been doing a little bit.  My first student just received her PADI Open Water Certification card in the mail today!  She said she was so proud, she took it to work with her to show it off!  I am very proud of her as well.  It was a tough first couple of dives, but I knew she could do it! 

First, she had some difficulties with equalizing her ears in the pool.  Then, in the open water dives, she was nervous, had troubles equalizing again, kept getting frustrated and we ended up having to call the dive.  The second time out didn't go so well either, she didn't have any problems equalizing, but was extremely stressed about the mask clears.  Admittedly, the mask skills are the most mentally stressful for most people, but she was really having problems, and panicking.  I was really concerned that she wasn't going to get calmed down enough to do the mask skills, and if she couldn't, I couldn't certify her.  Finally, she worked it out in her head, calmed herself down, and nailed the first partial clear in shallow water.  Then a full mask clear.  Then the mask removal.  Then she did another full mask clear.  She had it!  We moved to the deeper platform at 20 feet, she did all of her mask skills flawlessly, and it was smooth sailing from then on!   She's a tough cookie, and stubborn too, she was going to get it!
On a related note, we leave for Honduras in a week and two days.  Not that I'm counting or anything...  Have a great Friday!

White Star Quarry, Last Year

So, we didn't get to go diving this weekend.  And I didn't get to play with my new toy.  The reason we didn't go is because Jeff threw his back out and didn't think carrying around 130 lbs of double tanks on his back and having to bend and twist to get his dry suit on would be a good idea.  I agreed!  I don't think I've mentioned Jeff's back issues. He's had 7 procedures on his back, including 2 major, multi-hour surgeries.  He had 3 disks removed and his bottom 3 vertebrae are fused to his pelvis.  The fusion was done when he was 17 years old.  He is now 31 and (knock on wood!) has yet to have any more major issues with his back.  Of course, the back issues were caused by degenerative disk disease, so, the chances of future problems are pretty high.  But, we'll take the good fortune that he's had so far!  The occasional pulled muscles are par for the course, and preferable to anything worse!  The fact that he's able to do the work that he does (he has his own custom tile installation business), and have an extremely active lifestyle, is pretty impressive.

But I promised some pics of the block house and crusher pit at White Star Quarry, so here are a couple from late last year with my SeaLife camera.

I still love that camera, but I couldn't pass up the deal on the Ikelite housing!  Anyone want to buy a used SeaLife DC800 with a strobe?  I'm selling it for $550.  
Anyway, the above pictures were taken above and inside the crusher pit.  The top of the pit is at about 45 feet and the bottom hits about 75 feet.  The fun part is going up through the tunnel!  Now, you have to have your Advanced Open Water certification and get permission from the quarry in order to go through.  It is an overhead environment and you need the appropriate training and equipment.  It's a little weird the first time, but after that, it's pretty cool.  It's about 40 or so feet long, with a height of about 4 feet by probably 6-8 feet wide.  Big enough to drive a small car through, and if the visibility is good, you can see the light at the end as it slants back up to the block house.  So it's not too scary, but again, I emphasize that it's not for everyone, experience in an overhead environment and the necessary equipment is extremely important.

Hopefully, next weekend Jeff's back will be up for diving and I'll have some new pictures with the new camera housing!

Some Diving Content for the Blog

Our good friend Rich at White Star Quarry was interviewed by ScubaObsessed.com. Catch the podcast here:

Episode 14 – Interview with Rich Synowiec of White Star Quarry & Jim’s Florida Dives

Along those same lines, we're actually headed there tomorrow. I'm so excited to dive, I've been wanting to go for a couple of weeks, but we've just been too busy! I'm also really excited to try my new photography toy. I can't believe I didn't post about it here. When we went to ScubaFest a couple of weekends ago, David Haas, a photographer that we met at ice diving last year had an underwater housing for our Canon Rebel XT DSLR for sale. At half price. After waffling for a couple of hours, I decided to buy it. So now I am the proud owner of an Ikelite underwater housing for our "good" camera! I'm a little nervous that I don't know what I'm doing enough to get any decent shots, but I guess that's why you keep practicing! Hopefully I'll get at least one postable picture! Wish me luck! (Oh yeah, I probably need luck to stay warm tomorrow too, the water temp is only about 45 degrees!)

Happy Spring!

First day of Spring and it was a beautiful day! 

Unfortunately Jeff and I didn't spend much of it outside.  Jeff has been sick with a cold for over a week, and I think I'm fighting it, cause all I want to do is sleep lately.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty good at sleeping, but I've definitely been way more tired than usual.  Despite his illness, and my desire to stay in bed all day, we went up to ScubaFest here in Columbus today and now I can't wait to get the dive season started!  Whitestar Quarry opens in less than 2 weeks, less than a month for Portage Quarry, Gilboa may already be open (can't really tell from the website), and of course Circleville Twin Quarries is always open (well, no staff, but you can get in to dive)!

Scubafest is always fun, we got to see some friends we haven't seen in a while and made some new connections.  I want to volunteer for MAST the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team to survey archaeological sites and wrecks in the Great Lakes.  Somehow, even after diving in Ohio for the last 3 years, we've never dove in the Great Lakes!  I figure this will give Jeff and I a great opportunity to do it.  I also would like to look at volunteer opportunities with SECORE.  They work with the Columbus Zoo and other public aquariums throughout the world to promote coral reef conservation and reproduction.  I've been wanting to get involved with some reef conservation efforts, so I'm excited to learn some more about this organization.

Well, off to bed, one more weekend day left, better enjoy it!

Stuff Going On:

I really don't have any good reason for not blogging lately, I just haven't!  I have been working on the appearance of my blog, you may notice the header change and a slight color change.  Also made it 3 columns instead of the default 2.  I struggled with that last night, I just don't know enough about HTML yet!  I'm starting to understand reading it, but just can't write it, just like Spanish!  Anyway, as the title says, I have stuff going on...

Ravelympics:  Made some progress in my Duchess Raglan Sweater, bound off stitches last night and will start the sleeves tonight.  I might just finish this thing!  Hmmm, probably shouldn't say that, now I've jinxed it!

Diving: Jeff and I went ice diving this past Saturday at Whitestar Quarry.  Had a lot of fun, saw friends and fellow divers that I hadn't seen in a while, but got super cold!  I know, shocking, on an ice dive, but last year I didn't get nearly as cold.  I made a rookie cold water diver mistake, letting myself get cold before I get in the water.  I learned that you should have all of your exposure gear on before putting on your fins and maybe wear one layer less on my feet, I think they got constricted and that's why they got so cold.  I have a big issue with asking for help, in all aspects, but in diving, especially being a woman and an instructor.  I feel like I have to be completely self sufficient and be able to do everything myself.  I hate asking for anyone to help me get gear on or hand me something if I drop it.  I feel so helpless when people have to help me do something I feel like I should be able to do myself.  I need to realize that ice diving is different, it's a lot harder to do anything.  You've got more weight on, full exposure gear, meaning less flexibility, usually an additional tank slung, throwing off your buoyancy.  Plus, you've got a rope around you, it's below freezing outside and you're trying to do everything with lobster claw gloves on.  Yeah, it's not terribly easy, and I still feel incompetent if I can't do it all myself.  Oh well, guess it's something I need to work on.  Anyway, it was a great time and here are a couple of pictures from the day, think warm thoughts when you're looking at them!

Snow, snow and Indonesia

As the title suggests, there is a lot of snow here! We're fighting with about 14 or so inches, which is nothing compared to other places I know, but it's a lot for us Central Ohioans! So, I'm taking a mental vacation from the snow and posting some Indonesia pictures and talking about the trip. After all, this is a diving blog too! So let's get started.

We flew into Singapore before going on to Manado, so we took the opportunity to spend a day there. It is a lovely city, and I strongly suggest staying a day or 2 if you ever have a layover there. Very cosmopolitan, clean, a lot of shopping, and so many other things to do as well. We got up and took a taxi to the Bukit Timah Nature Preserve and hiked to the summit (it was only about 550 feet!), the highest point on Singapore. On the way up, we saw lots of monkeys, I believe they were black tailed Macaques, and a couple of large monitor lizards.

The Macaques were so much fun to watch, there were babies jumping on each other and from tree to tree, so adorable! Then after dark we rode the Singapore Flyer, the tallest observation wheel in the world. I was nervous, since I'm not a huge fan of heights, but, you couldn't even tell it was moving, and the views were amazing. The top picture was taken on the Flyer.

We then flew on to Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The hour long taxi ride from the airport to the resort was a bit harrowing, but we made it. The traffic laws there are a little, well, not so much laws, as mild suggestions.

Tasik Ria Resort is beautiful, lovely rooms, huge pool, a swim up bar. And the diving was amazing as expected! Spectacular wall dives every day at the Bunaken Marine Park and a really nice house reef.

Saw my first cuttlefish! They are absolutely amazing! There were actually 2 of them, on the Tasik house reef, in about 10 feet of water! We just followed them around taking pictures for like 15 minutes. They weren't afraid of us, they actually just seemed a little annoyed by us, lol. I could follow them around watching for hours, they are just so interesting! They change color and texture instantaneously. Thankfully we saw several more in Lembeh later in the trip, and they never failed to completely fascinate me. I just love sea turtles, they're so serene and beautiful. This one was just hanging out on the reef napping.

We then went to the other side of North Sulawesi to the port city of Bitung, on the Lembeh Straits. We stayed at the Kungkungan Bay Resort, it was absolutely beautiful. We were in a beachfront bungalow all to ourselves. It was like staying in paradise. And the diving? Oh, the diving... I think the pictures illustrate it pretty well. I fell completely in love with muck diving in Lembeh. It's like a treasure hunt on every dive. I can't wait to go back!Oh, and this is Jeff vs. the clownfish. These little guys can be nasty! They kept bumping the camera, our masks, and one of the little buggers even bit my finger when I ventured too close to their anenome! Needless to say, by the end of the trip, Jeff and I were both pretty irritated with this particular species of "Nemo" fish!

So, there's a wrap up of our Indonesian vacation, we logged 25 dives over 13 days, and took around 1300 pictures. The above are just a few, and you can see a bunch more on my Flickr page, if you're so inclined, just be warned, there are about 150 of them!

I have to say, looking at these pictures did make me feel at least a little better about having to go outside in the 30 mph winds, at least temporarily. Stay warm wherever you are!

We now return to your regularly scheduled blog posts...

Sorry for the delay, lets get back on the blogging track. This post will be just a quick catch-up post on what's been going on for the last month I've been MIA!
So, got back from our fabulous trip to Indonesia last Tuesday, still recovering from the 13 hour time difference and the 30+ hours of travel time, each way. Man! Talk about jet lag! I'm actually surprised that I feel as close to normal as I do. I've heard it takes a day per time zone, it's amazing the effect that flipping your days and nights has on your body. Oh yeah, not to mention the dramatic climate differences! The first couple days we felt like we had the flu, hot, then cold flashes, stomach issues, insomnia mixed with exhaustion. Fun stuff. But it was so worth it. It was an amazing trip! Stunningly beautiful, both topside and underwater. The culture and people were wonderful. Food (for the most part), was FANTASTIC. I'll give more detailed info when I post pictures over the next couple of days.
So that was 2 and a half weeks of January, from the 10th through the 26th, so what else have I been up to? Well, not much, so don't get too excited! Before the trip, was mostly prep work. Getting packed (roll up spacebags are a Godsend!), filling prescriptions (OMG, the expense of this that you don't account for when you plan a trip), scuba and camera gear checkups, lists, lots of lists, document compiling and finalizing everything. Overall, everything went extremely smoothly! Considering we were going to the other side of the world and all!
Since we've been back, I've been shockingly ambitious and motivated. I have major motivation issues, as mentioned before. But I've just been wanting to knit and sew and cook! Especially cook! I think I've been inspired by both the Indonesian food and the angry chicken and Smitten Kitchen blogs. I've also been trying to eat more naturally, I'm not doing perfectly, but I'm trying! That's one of my goals, to eat more natural, less processed food. The food in Indonesia was all from scratch with no preservatives or chemicals. Not only did it taste better, but I felt better. All the swimming and exercise probably helped too!
After work yesterday I hit Whole Foods for some produce and other miscellaneous items. I want to make the local hot sauce that we ate on absolutely everything, from fish to french fries! It's called Dabu Dabu and it is super simple. I also want to learn to make Nasi Goreng and Pisang Gorang. Basically fried rice and fried bananas. Yeah, not low calorie, but better than cheeseburgers and Wendy's Frostys!
Well, I'll be posting pics soon from our trip and tell you how the Dabu Dabu turned out!

Christmas and Other Happenings

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and spent it with people you love! I had a great Christmas and it was only mildly stressful! We got all the wrapping done on the 23rd. Except for pair #2 of the French Press Slippers (more on that in a minute). We celebrated with Jeff's mom and stepdad and his brother's family on Christmas Eve, had lunch and watched Up with the nieces. What a cute movie! Sadder and more serious than I expected, but I loved Doug the dog! I worked on the slippers during the movie and when I got home that evening and stayed up to sew them up. I popped them in the washer Christmas morning, and gifted them to my grandma later that day! Of course, they were still a little damp, but she loved them anyway. And no, I didn't get any pictures of them, cause I'm awesome... lol! Christmas Day was the busy one, we were out at my parents' by 10 for presents and Christmas lunch. Then to Jeff's dad and stepmom's by 1:15. Then on to my Grandma Norma's by 3:45 and on to my Grandma Patty's by 5. Finally got home about 8:30. Exhausting would be a good description of that day, but it is always fun, if a little crazy.
Also, Santa was pretty darn good to us this year. I got this strobe for my SeaLife DC800 for our trip, a Kindle, an electric kettle, and a MacBook(!!!). Totally shocked about the Macbook, Jeff had asked his mom for a laptop for Christmas, so we could keep in touch with everyone while we're gone. BTW, is Skype not the coolest thing ever!? Anyway, we were expecting like a $300 inexpensive laptop, that didn't do much of anything except get on WiFi, and she gets us a MacBook!! Don't get me wrong, that's what we would have eventually got ourselves, but we did NOT expect her to get us one. She did say that this was the last present we would be getting for birthdays, holidays and such for the next couple of years! LOL!
Unfortunately, Santa also brought me a cold, blah. But, I'll take it cause everyone was so generous to us with their gift giving this year, it seems only right I've got to take a little bit of bad with a LOT of good!
Other things going on:

• I have my first Scuba student! My best friend Dani, is well on her way to being a certified Open Water Diver. We got all of her pool skills done this week and she is studying the book. She'll take the test next time she's in town, and we'll do her open water dives when it gets warmer this summer. It was really a lot of fun, and I'm glad my first student was my best friend. Took a lot of the anxiety out of it!!
• We leave for Indonesia in 2 weeks! So the packing and stressing has begun for that. I'm just now starting to feel a little nervous for the trip, it's a LOOONNGG way away! But so excited, I can't believe we're getting to go to the other side of the world a second time! Sorry for all of the exclamation points, but I am crazy excited!

Think that's all for now

Let's try this again...

So, I've been completely absent from blogging for quite a while, I've written dozens of posts in my head over the past several months, just never actually got online and posted. I'd like to try to post at least a couple times a week, and with at least some relevant content, either working out, knitting/crafting, dogs or diving must be discussed in each post. We'll have to see if I can do it! So, let's play catch up:

• Working out: I was running, and was building my strength and endurance. I was running 3-4 times a week for about 4 weeks, then I tore my quad. Couldn't run for 2 weeks, so I got lazy, and hadn't worked out until last night. Had a little bit of a headache, and it was raining, so I did one of the more strenuous yoga workouts, and I can definitely feel it in my muscles today, so that's a good thing! Plan to either run or do the Jillian Michaels DVD tonight depending on the weather.


• Knitting/crafting: We're now into the Christmas crafting season, so I have a butt-load of projects all going on at once, but no pics! I'm working on mittens for a friend, 3 (or more) pairs of felted slippers for family. Not to mention the couple of things that are languishing on the needles for myself. On the positive side, I've finished several projects; 2 Clapotis', one for me and one for my mother-in-law, my Monkey socks, well, I think that's it... Also on the crafting front, I want to make homemade scented bath salts for family and maybe sew a couple of bags too. We'll see how well I do! (FYI, all the knitted project info is on my Ravelry project page )


• Dogs: Well, we're now a one dog household. We said goodbye to the old man Dexter on October 30th, 2009. His quality of life was steadily declining, he was really starting to struggle to catch his breath, and we made the decision that it was time. We will always miss him, and it is certainly quieter around the house without him. Murphy has done well adapting, she's more spoiled than ever (thanks to the husband!) and we can now get a puppy fix at Jeff's mom and stepdad's house. They got a 13 week old chocolate labradoodle about 3 weeks ago, and she is super cute! She loves Murphy so much, but Murphy is not so sure about this crazy little thing that keeps stealing her toys! It's pretty funny to watch, especially since it wasn't so long ago that Murphy was that crazy little toy-stealer!


• And Diving!: I am officially a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor!! I took my Instructor Development Course in August and September, and passed my Instructor Exam October 18th. It was stressful, but an awesome accomplishment and I am just thrilled! Of course, there's not much teaching to be done in the winter, but I have several people lined up for spring when the water starts warming up, so I'm very excited! Also, we have booked a big trip coming up soon in January. We're going to Indonesia to dive! I'm pretty excited about that too if you can't tell!! We leave January 10, will be spending a day and a half in Singapore on the way there, and then onto Manado, North Sulawesi for 7 days of diving around Bunaken island. Then we head to the East side of the island to dive Lembeh Strait for 5 more days! It should be absolutely amazing! We'll be gone 17 days, which is crazy, but we are so excited! We are waist deep in the preparations, everything is booked but there's just so much to plan for. We went to the Travel Medicine Clinic at OSU to get vaccinations and prescriptions and info for going to the other side of the world, so we're getting there, but there's still so much to buy and pack.

Well that's a good catch up, be back soon!

My Life in Bullet Points

Hopefully I'll feel like posting from home soon, with pictures, just haven't felt like it when I get home.

• My grandfather passed away May 21, 2009.
• We almost lost our old dog Dexter 4 days before that.
• I planted a garden this year and just harvested spinach from it last night.
• We leave for Florida to go cavern diving for 3 days and reef diving on the Gulf for 2 days.
• In knitting news, June is officially Finish My UFO's month: finished a washcloth that has been sitting in my basket since December; February Lady sweater just needs buttons, ends woven in and washed/blocked.
• I've been reading like a fiend for some reason lately, finished Sarah's Key in 2 days and The Time Traveller's Wife in 5, now I'm a hundred pages into The Historian.
• My co-worker was fired yesterday, meaning work is going to be stressful for a while.
• We've dove a couple of times, but nothing super exciting, and no pictures.
• Obscene amounts of caffeine is the only thing getting me through the work day.
• I haven't been working out. At all.
• That's all for now

Cold Water and Mushrooms

Had a great day of diving yesterday, cold water notwithstanding! We went to Whitestar Quarry in Gibsonburg, Ohio. It is a beautiful Sandusky county park with relatively deep (the bottom of the crusher pit hits 75 ft) and super clear water. Visibility was probably 50-60 ft! Jeff got to play with his new gear, a set of 108 steel double tanks and with an OMS Harness, Dive Rite Classic wing and Apex XTX50 Regs. He's wanting to get into the tech side of diving, while I'm going more into the professional side. He did pretty darn good with his bouyancy actually. Had to throw on an extra 5 pounds of weight, even with 3 pound ankle weights and 130 pounds of gear! But, he managed to stay pretty trim. I took a couple of pics and videos too!

Here's Jeff on his favorite Christmas present ever:

Good example of the great viz:

Jeff in front of the staircase in the crusher pit:

Jeff demonstrating how to silt up the quarry with the sea scooter:

Me playing on the sea scooter:

Me hanging out on our safety stop:

We also went mushroom hunting Friday evening and today, with no luck. We're looking for morels, a delicious springtime treat! They're the only mushrooms that I really like. We go out at my grandparents' house, who have a couple hundred wooded acres. Last year was a great year, we probably found about 50 or so. I gorged myself on them and still gave a bunch away. Even though we didn't find any, a walk in the woods is always a good time. I just want to know why EVERYTHING is covered with thorns! I ripped a big hole in my jeans and scratched up my arms today. Oh well, maybe later this week we'll get some!

UFO Sightings and Updates

So, update on my grandpa, he's been released from the hospital and is now temporarily (hopefully!) in a nursing home much closer to home. He still needs to gain quite a bit of strength back. At least enough that he can get in and out of a wheelchair without assistance. They believe that the weakness was caused by a combination of his cholesterol medication (simvastatin) and his dialysis. He's been taken off of the statin and will be doing physical therapy to get his strength back, but the doctors are optimistic that he'll be able to go home within the next month or so, all depending on how hard he works. So, good news for the most part. My aunt and uncle brought my grandparents' Chesapeake Bay retriever Emma to see him, I think he was missing her more than anything else while he was in the hospital!

As for working out, I haven't run in about a week and a half=bad, but I did swim last Wednesday and plan to go again tomorrow evening=good! Diet is bad. I have zero willpower to eat right. I do good for breakfast, but lunch and dinner just fly out the window! Oh well...

So, UFO Sightings:

February Lady Sweater:

I'm getting there, slowly but surely. So much for having it done in February! Hopefully I can get it done in April!

Mossy Firestarters:

Had a heck of a time with the chart, still not sure if I'm doing it right, I guess we'll see!

The others... I don't want to talk about... :-) (that means no progress!)

Supposed to maybe go diving this Saturday, all depends on whether Jeff gets all of his tech gear together. His new Apeks regs came in today and he's got his wing and harness. He's still waiting on the metal fabricator in town to finish his backplates. So, we'll see! Hopefully, cause we're probably going to either Whitestar or Gilboa, both great places to dive here in Ohio!

Cold Water Diving and Divemastering

So, we went diving last Friday at Lakeview RV Park in Lancaster, Ohio. It was cold!! I was bothered by the cold on the surface more that day than I was on our ice dives! We did one 40 minute dive, vis wasn't too bad, about 10-15 feet. Sounds crappy, but for Lakeview, it's not bad at all. I'm an Ohio diver, I'm used to low vis! We had a pretty good time despite the cold, and I'm jealous that Jeff is going up to Gilboa without me this Friday! I'm not a big fan of missing dives! But, it sounds like it's going to be yucky weather, so maybe it's not so bad.
Also, I'm cracking down on the Divemaster studying. I've got to get the book read and the tests taken. I still have the watermanship skills and the 4 confined water dives to do too. Thankfully the weather is getting warmer and I'll be more motivated since we'll be diving more. We've convinced our neighbors J & V to get certified and took them to Scubafest this past weekend to get them in the pool for a Discover Scuba session. V's not really sure about it, but J is really going to do well I think. V just needs some more pool time to get comfortable breathing underwater. We're humans, we're not supposed to breathe underwater, of course it's going to be awkward at first!
I swam at the rec center again today, man that's a workout! I did 550 meters in about 30 minutes. I'm so out of shape! I've been running too, and trying to watch my diet, but I'm just not cut out for dieting. I don't have the willpower, and I like ice cream too much!
Well, I need to go read before the husband gets home. I'm going to take advantage of the empty house!

Slacking Blogger

So, I haven't been blogging much, but stuff has been going on. I haven't been working out much, but I did run last night! I ran outside too! It was such a pretty day. I started the Couch to 5K program and need to learn to run outside. I haven't been swimming but once, because I got a tattoo and couldn't submerge it in water for awhile. More on that later...

I've been working on some knitting, but no sewing. I've started the 2nd Jaywalker sock, and am about 2 inches in. It's my travelling sock. The one I throw in my purse to take with me, so those ones usually take a while to get done. I'm going to cast on tonight for Firestarter socks with my Andey's Original sock yarn in the Mossy Brook colorway! It is so pretty and soft! I'm excited! My February Lady Sweater is coming along, I'm about 6 inches into the lace pattern, it's going sooo much faster since I separated the sleeves! And the lace pattern is super easy! Let's see... Foliage is still hibernating because it hates me. The same with River. And I think that's all that on the needles right now.

On the diving front, Jeff and I are going tomorrow with our friend/instructor Jason to Lakeview quarry in Lancaster. We've been there twice before and conditions are going to be a crapshoot. The first time we went, it was great, 20 foot vis. The last time was awful, 15 feet till you got to about 20 feet deep, then when you went through the thermocline, the lights went out. You couldn't see your hand if you stretched it out in front of you. So, we'll see. I'm excited to get in the water again though! If conditions are decent, I'll hopefully have some pictures! I'll post some pics and talk about our ice diving certification soon too! Oh! And Scubafest is this weekend here in Columbus! I'm excited to see a bunch of people we met last month up at Whitestar Quarry for the ice dive. We're taking our neighbors, who are not certified yet (but soon!) and getting them in the pool for a Discover Scuba class. It should be a really good time!

I think that's a start for catching up... I'll do better at blogging, I promise!

And just for fun, here's a pic of Murphy curled up on the couch:

About me, the extended version

So, I've decided to join the world of blogging. I don't know that I really have all that much interesting to say, but right now I'm trying to keep myself motivated to get in shape. I hope that keeping track of what I'm doing, (or not doing) will help keep me in line! Also, I'll have miscellaneous knitting, diving, and dog pics.
Anywho, so, about me. My name is Heather, I've been married to my pretty super husband Jeff since October 2004. We have 2 dogs, Dexter, a 14 year old golden retriever/yellow lab mix and Murphy, a 3 and a half year old crazy chocolate lab. Obviously, I love to knit and scuba dive. I don't have nearly enough time for either of them since I work full time for a large corporation. As for the knitting, here's my Ravelry page to see what I'm working on. And as for the diving, I'm pretty much obsessed. I've completed my advanced and rescue diver certifications, and I'm about halfway through my PADI Divemaster. I hope to have my Instructor cert by the end of this summer. In June, I will have only been certified as an Open Water Diver for 2 years. Oh, and we love to travel, but don't have the time or money to do it as often as we would like. More about that in later posts.
I suppose that's a good start for the first post. Talk to you soon!