space, oars and lip balm

Space Girl, in progress....

the most wonderful lip balm, ever.

Long Beach Jr. Crew coming in second in the NorCal race.

I have had this sweater in my ravelry queue forever it seems.  I have told myself to finish what I have already started, or make something smaller that I can finish in an evening.  No, this sweater has appealed to me from the git-go.  'Space Girl'.  yeah, I'm there.  So....after volunteering to chaperon  some 100+ teenagers on a rowing meet, assisting with feeding, corralling and lastly, a bus trip of up and back from Long Beach to Oakland California.  Yes folks, driving to and from Oakland.  Let's see, just how far is that? 370 miles.  ahem, 370 miles in a bus,with 32 teen aged boys (boys), twice, that is up to Oakland and then back to Long Beach in less than 48 hours. Tah-dah!  it is confirmed that I am out-of-my-mind.
On this little trip I figured I would need some lip balm as the kids would be rowing, on the water.  I would be helping in the 'hospitality tent' shoveling food at them making sure they were well fed and hydrated. I found this wonderful balm called 'Labello'.  oh, I do so adore it. Firstly, it is pink, it smells like roses and it comes in frosted!  I bought two tubes, one with frosting and one without.  It now lives in my pocket to be applied often during the day.  I actually hate lip balm.  I have never understood how people could wear it all day, it was just too weird feeling on my lips.  Not so with Lobello, it is not sticky, heavy or waxy.  It is just right!  I am now a faithful Lobello consumer.
Oh yeah, the sweater.  Well when I signed up for this gig I really only heard '8 hour bus ride each way' and imagined all of the knitting I could do with so much time in a seat.  I started the sweater before getting on the bus (smart gal as I am) and settled in to knit as we got underway.  I soon realized that riding a big, bouncy, bus with 32 jacked up teen aged boys watching "Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy"  is not like sitting with my knitting group chatting and sipping a flavored coffee beverage of my choice (smart gal as I am).
I did not get as much sweater knitted as I had planned, but wow, I've got hydrated lips.
Space girl sweater?  Delicious.
Bus ride to Oakland? Not so delicious.
Labello Lip Balm?  Absolutely Delicious.