Yup, it's Monday............again

Hello again.  Seems like I always have more to talk about on Monday's after my update on Sunday.  Probably because I write my update very early on Sunday mornings.  Not to mention, this past week has been full of family and activities.  I have a few photos to share with you today.

First up:

When you live in the desert, you get visits from some very interesting critters.  This is a wall gecko.  They eat bugs and are really very harmless.  I never try and kill them when they get in the house and they always seem to find their way back out again.  My dogs don't even bother with them.  This is one of the biggest ones I have ever had in the house before.  He was quite nice about posing for the photo too.

Hubby and I took a day trip to Tucson today and on the way down and back I worked on square #3.  

This is what it looked like when we got into the car.  This is what it looked like when we got home. It takes about 100 minutes from our house to the house we went to in Tucson.  I figured my total knitting time was around 3 hours. (I snuk a little nap in there on the way home.)

That is 70 rows of garter stitch.  I did not work on it while we were visiting family in Tucson.  I did not want to appear rude since I had not seen the one family member for about 3 years.

After we got home from Tucson, I sat thinking about the fact, there is only 4 squares and I am now well under way with #3.  I was trying to think of a way to make it seem like things were moving along quicker with this square so I could get to square #4.

Why not go ahead and start on square #4 and work them concurrently like I do when I make socks?  That way, when I got tired of working with the black (It is quite depressing to do 40 rows of black at one time) I could switch to the other square that is awaiting for color to be knit.

So I started square #4 tonight right after dinner.

I am half way done with the center of the square.  I don't know if this will help or not, but it does seem to me that it might actually get done quicker this way.  I am sure it will take the same amount of time as doing them separately.................but....................I feel better about it.  I now can see a light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT a train!

My brother left this morning too.  Since yesterday was his last day here, we had a nice family gathering in the afternoon that carried over into the evening.  We went swimming, ate ribs with some yummy side and topped it off with my homemade cheesecake for desert.  It was so much fun.  There were 9 of us in total.  That being said....................Then how could I possibly have this:

These are some of the beach towels waiting to be washed.  I already have 5 of them in the washer and I will guarantee you there are more than 4 more in this pile!  In fact, I counted them and there are 7 more in this pile.  I only had 3 beach towels left in the bucket that were not used.  This means, there are 2 more loads of towels to do just for the pool towels.  They are so heavy, I do not like to put more than 5 in the washer at a time.  Otherwise, they will take forever to dry in the dryer too.

But we all had a great time and it was fun to have the whole family together again.  It had been quite a while since we had done that.

Before my brother left, I finally got up the nerve to take a selfie with him.

I really dislike having my picture taken and even dislike selfies more.  I prefer to be behind the lens of the camera, never in front of it.  But since it had been a while since we had taken a photo of just the 2 of us, I was nice and went for it.  No, we don't really look a lot alike.  He has my mom's coloring but looks more like my dad.  I have my dad's coloring and look like my mom.  Go figure!

OK, that is all for tonight.  I need to go and change the laundry around, so I can at least get 2 loads done tonight and will finish them up tomorrow morning.

Until next time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!