I'm Back

I've been gone a while. I've had some computer difficulties. My old computer, which was working fine, crashed. We had a big storm coming in July, so I decided to unplug the computer. Looking back, that was probably not the best idea. Well, the storm never really came. I tried to turn the computer back on and it wouldn't turn back on. After about a week, I took it to Best Buy to get it fixed. After they had it for two weeks, they let me know that they could fix it for about $400. I decided to go ahead and get a new one. I had them keep the old one to try to get the info off the hard drive. Info like my kids' pictures for the past 3 years and all my music. After another week, they told me they couldn't do it there. They could send it away to have it done where it would cost around $1500. $1500 that I didn't have, especially after just having bought a new tower. So after all that... I'm back.

I finally got my Ravelry invitation today. I never thought it would come. Last time I checked there were about 3000 people ahead of me. My heart jumped a little when I saw the email invite! I'm so excited to get started on it.

I don't have any new knitting pix to show. I'm still working on the Tweedy Vest I had started in my last post. I did knit a pair and a half of socks in the meantime, though.

I do want to post about something we did last summer. We went to the Mansfield Reformatory. And I'd like to say that it was awesome. The movie "The Shawshank Redemption" was filmed there. We took the Hollywood Tour, which showed a lot of the rooms where the movie was made. Take a look at these pix:





This is G1 and G2 in front.

In the movie, this is where Brooks and Red carved their names (this is a reproduction. the real one was stolen.)

The hole in the wall where the warden kept his safe. The safe was taken out after the movie was completed.

This is the warden's office where Andy locks himself in and plays music over the intercom system and the guards have to smash the window to unlock the door.








This tour was great. The tour guide, I think his name was Greg, was excellent and knew so many facts about the prison itself and the movie. It was very interesting and he does a terrific job.

This prison was also on an episode of Ghost Hunters on the Sci Fi channel. We got to see some of the places they went, too. I didn't the prison was spooky at all, but we were there in the daytime. I definitely wouldn't want to spend the night, which you can for about $50.

Other than that, I've spend the summer preparing for school, which obviously has already started now. I switched from 11th grade British Lit to 10th grade American Lit. I've been rereading stories and coming up with plans.