Maggie and Lu

Dang it all to hell, I don't have photos of the wonderful B&B where we stayed. Gaston of Disney's The Beauty and the Beast" decorated it for sure -- "I use antlers in all of my dec-o-rating...!" (and deer heads and bear heads and boar heads.... OH MY!)

When Yentala gets back home and online, she has a whole bunch of real good ones -- especially of the power blackout. Leigh has a wonderful one. Go see! I'll wait.
Now, my friends, I have to tell you, that was a HOOT.

PITCH BLACK. A living room with about 10 knitters just back from a fiber festival, folks. Bags and bags of purchases strewn out all over (we were just finishing up our show 'n' tell), yarn, fleece, needles, spindles, a lucet, a brand new, VERY NICE, NOT CHEAP spinning wheel, lots of the above-mentioned antlers, a large stone fireplace, pokers, hunting and gardening implements, and the above-mentioned examples of taxidermy. And the hostesses were out for the evening.

Thank goodness for cell phones and digital cameras. We used them for light to find candles and get them lit. Unfortunately the few candles we found were just little stubs. I stumble around finding candlestubs and come back into the living room with a lit taper to hear Kerstin's quiet voice, "Norma, do you know how to build a fire?"

Well, hell ya, I know how to build a fire. I'm from Vermont. And I DID. And we were all saved. ;-D

But Maggie and Lu. Maggie and Lu. Ah, yes, we will all remember our hostesses so very fondly for the rest of our days, I do believe. They told us they were cousins. Oh, yes. "Cousins." Fer sure.

Anyhoo, I will be the first to admit that I don't think anybody got in trouble or shushed until after I got there. I'll take the blame. It's okay. I have broad shoulders.

Maggie and Lu (mostly Maggie, I think) had had it just about up to HERE with us. Every time we turned around we were being scolded for being too loud, for leaving dishes in the sink, for staying up too late, for being where we shouldn't be, for stealing a luggage rack (that was us trying to dry out poor Sandy's sweater), for parking wrong, for having the ceiling fan on (you're going to get COLD), for NOT having the ceiling fan on -- and this wasn't even junior high!

During the blackout, we did a very grown-up thing: We sat around a circle of candles in the living room plotting that when they returned, we were going to tell them we were having a seance. Ah, good times. And we'd go back in a second. They have hella breakfasts.

Comments

[Kae]

Damn... wish I had been able to go. I could have set it all up for ya, moving a table, providing the crystal ball... I think I even have a leprechaun in my trunk that could have been used as a prop... (snicker)

[Jean]

Sounds like heaven. I think the blackout sounds like the most fun of all! Love your blog.

[Anne]

You SO owe me a brunch. I can't believe I had to miss out on this. What will I write for chapter 24 for the book of whacky Vermonters I've known and loved?

Lordy, I STILL cannot believe I had to miss this tour. Oy.

[carolyn]

dude! you are so NOT forgettable. you probably won't believe me...but you were in that paragraph. only i was so tired i left out one of the "s in the URL...so it left out the entire sentence because the next " was around kerstin's...damn HTML... because at home, on the mac, i don't get the "URL" button i get on the pC so i have to type out the entire address... i saw your comment and i thought what is she talking about, she was one of the first people i mentioned... and had to go back in and look at the entry to figure out why it was skipping over your sentence :(

you'll forgive me right? i got to work at 6 a.m. yesterday, by the time i was writing that post i'd been up for 16 hours, i was dead dog tired! (i am still now!)

[Kerstin]

Alternate title to this post? Norma Saves the Day and Redeems Herself. :) I wish Sandy had gotten the brainstorm to play "Survivor Blogger" that night. What a hoot and a half that would've been. Ok. Should I book the whole inn this time?

[Kerstin]

P.S. Did it throw you off that I'm actually a QUIET person? We were talking about perceptions on the way home and I said "Yeah, I'm sure I throw people off a bit when they meet me. They're expecting some slightly obnoxious, gregarious person and they get little old mousey me." Deb said "But you love it." Guilty. :)

[Annie]

Great recap of Maggie and Lu. I called them on Monday to ask about my cellphone, and still haven't heard back. Grr..

It *did* throw me off that Kerstin is so quiet. You would never know from her blog. Now, Norma on the other hand, is exactly like her blog.... :)

[claudia]

Not brave enough to link to your erst-while hostessi, hmm?

;-)

[Dawn]

Glad you kids had a good time. Besides, what fun is staying in a B&B if you can't mess with your hostesses a wee bit?

Also, that sounds a lot like my last B&B experience, where the hostess was a crazy grandma. Not a good match for 5 twenty-somethings with a case of beer.

[Stephanie]

You know...it's funny how different my blackout was.
I loved that Kerstin was such a surprise that way, it made her even more interesting. (As does her buying the spinning wheel that I was weeping over.) It's good to know that you will forgive anything if we were to give you an excellent breakfast.

[Vicki]

Sounds like a bunch of 10-year-olds at a slumber party or summer camp! And it sounds like heaven. It's been a blast reading all of your accounts.

[Margene]

Séance!! Man, that would have been cool. I'm telling ya, we gotta go next year. Utah bloggers will descend on Rhinebeck and then all bets are off. We're talking about it anyway. Yeehaww!

[Sharlene]

You guys are killin' me over here... can I come next time, pretty puh-leeese? :)

[Norma]

Again stealing a moment at work and somebody's wireless.

Claudia: I'm verbose, not stupid. Besides, I don't want everybody else (except you, of course) to go ahead and book the place out from under us!

Sharlene, Margene, and everybody else: Oh, YEAH. Come one, come all -- the more the merrier. Mary Beth will always take the child-size cot if there's not enough sleeping space! ;-D

Gotta get back to work now! Wish we could keep the fun alive longer. Work ......well, it's work.

[amy]

ooo I spied Norma on Main St in Burlington with her lunch today! It was just like a celebrity siting, and I was too shy to say hi. I love your blog and I have such admiration for putting your life out there in public. I can't wait to hear more about your new adventures in spinning.
Keep it up lady!
(if you see me, I'm the tall young woman who is often knitting socks while she's walking in Burlington, I swear, I'm not crazy or dangerous in anyway, just shy)

[Cindy]

I agree about "missy quiet" when I met her in NYC I thought the same thing. I am so wanting to go back! With all the blog posts that keep going and going, but alas I am not the energizer bunny you are Norma : ) Keep it coming ....

[Kim]

I just KNEW that Maggie & Lu weren't a couple! In fact, Maggie told me as we were leaving that she met her boyfriend on the internet, and they've been dating since January. Will wonders ever cease??

[Norma]

Kim, I'm not buyin' it. ;-)