Weekend Wrap Up with Yarn Aboard Loot!

As I mentioned on Saturday, Henry Hudson (of Yarn Aboard fame) showed up on my doorstep. I was so surprised because I thought it would be a little while till he arrived. I was also not completely prepared for his arrival. Naturally, he came bearing gifts, as any good visitor does.

Along with a lovely skein of Interlacements Toasty Toes, there were a bunch of cool treats – a bookmark that says “Serenity”, foot lotion (for my nightly foot rubs), an eye mask, cute post-its, and Junior Mints lip balm. Detect a theme? It seems to be relaxation and, when the package arrived I was really stressed – so the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Saturday was just a mess. There was so much to do in preparation for our huge BBQ on Sunday and, instead of going out to do the last minute shopping, I got stuck at home waiting for someone who never showed up. She had sent out an e-mail saying that she’d stop by to tag items in preparation for a tag sale that my daughter’s troop is running next Sunday. Unfortunately she put the wrong date on the e-mail and never contacted anyone to correct the error.

I could have done some cooking while I waited but I was missing key ingredients for most of the recipes. It’s also hard to settle in to cooking when you know that you’re going to have to stop in the middle. Ugh! It was so frustrating and threw my whole day off. In the end I got almost everything done on time except for the poor blueberry pie that still – 2 days later – needs to be assembled.

I made cole slaw, potato salad, carrot salad, chicken kabobs, steak, chocolate cake, molasses cookies, and brownies. It all came out well and I forgot to take any pictures at all. You’ll just have to trust me – it was good and, at the end of the day, it was mostly gone. I was really thankful that the party was held on the only good day of the weekend. My house is not big but, with good weather, I set up tables inside and out and it works well.

On Monday I rested. At least, I planned on resting. As I sat down to work on a project I looked over at the mess of knitting stuff that was threatening to take over the living room and felt the spark of inspiration. I dragged all of it out of the baskets and cabinets and sat with a box of Ziploc bags for most of the afternoon – organizing and taming the stash. Hubbo, my dad and the girls all watched at times. I think I saw fear in their eyes. I have to admit it was a little overwhelming.

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Today is the first day of school here and it’s raining. Not just any rain but horrendous, soak-you-to-the-bones, torrential downpours. At least Stinkerbelle and DQ are starting 2nd and 5th grades (respectively) with style. In this picture, taken at o-dark-thirty this morning, DQ is wearing her trademarked "Mom, you're embarrassing me" look and Stink is too cool for school because she's wearing her new vans.

Ernesto Was Here - Saturday Sky 9/2/06

Yesterday was cold, windy, and wet as Ernesto blew through Northern Virginia. There are many people in areas that are flooded or powerless. Although my lawn is covered with random branches and leaves that were liberated from the trees, I’m pleased to report that the only casualty at my home is my umbrella. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to look like this.

Today started off pretty gloomy but, as you can see from my Saturday sky, it’s starting to clear. If I look down my street to the right, the sky is still dark and cloudy but to the left, the clouds are fluffy and white with patches of blue peeking through.

This picture is taken as I look straight ahead. You can see hints of the grey clouds and the blue sky. While the weather is far from perfect, it shows plenty of promise for tomorrow which is an incredible relief. Sounds like we’ll have perfect weather for our BBQ. I’d better start cooking!

Thanks to everyone who left suggestions about how to chase away the end of summer blahs. Naturally, I started by placing an oder with Knit Picks. Yarn is a great picker uppper. Last night we watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith which was fun and lifted my spirits a bit too but the best boost to my morale arrived in the mail today. This former New Yorker got a visit from none other than Henry Hudson of Yarn Aboard fame. Woo hoo! I'll have to tell you all about it on Monday. We're still getting acquainted.

End of Summer Blahs

I am exhausted today and, since I have a very busy weekend ahead of me, this is a bad sign. I’m not even sure why I’m so damn tired. I didn’t stay up to see the end of the Agassi match because it was just too painful to watch. (I’m so happy he won) I went to sleep at my usual time and had a pretty good night’s sleep. I did leave work early to get a bunch of errands done yesterday afternoon - but no more than normal. Besides, I was tired when I got to work yesterday too. I think I may have the end of summer blahs.

Anyone have a surefire cure? I could really use one.

As I said, this will be a very busy weekend. I invited a whole bunch of friends over for a BBQ on Sunday. This was before I found out that my dad was going to be living in our downstairs rec room for and extended period of time. The rec room is usually my fail-safe because I tend to fill the house to maximum capacity. The logic goes that, in the event of bad weather, we can send all of the kids downstairs. Ummmm… not so much this time. It’s ok though, I’ll just have to work it out creatively – and pray for a sunny day!

Naturally, with a whole bunch of people coming over, I’ll be busy cooking too. Tonight it’s likely that I’ll break out the cookbooks to choose just the right mix of salads, seasonings, and desserts. I’ll likely fall back on old favorites but I usually find one or two new things to try. Cooking will commence and hubbo will begin the tradition of running to the store for all the stuff I forgot. I’m guessing 3-5 trips this time.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it all. It reminds me of a former friend who’d invite over a house full of people, prepare for the party, and then, while the guests were eating, drinking and conversing – she’d fall asleep on the floor or the couch in the middle of it all. She thought this was perfectly normal behavior – I begged to differ. Proper behavior or not, in my current, exhausted state, it’s starting to sound rational.

Never fear – with yarn all things are possible! I suspect that I’ll sneak in some down time to work on Lily this weekend. If that doesn’t put me firmly to sleep then it’ll certainly take the edge off. As promised, I’ve made a bit of progress since I picked it up on Monday night. It’s really tedious though. It’s knit in the round so each round has eleventy-million stitches and takes an eternity. Maybe it just feels that way because the linen is so harsh and nasty to work with. It had better soften up considerably and amaze me with its beauty when it’s done to make all of this unpleasantness worth it. Humpf!

On the positive side, that fact that this sucker is knit in the round means that when I’m done – I’m done. I can also say that about one of the other UFO’s that I picked up again last night - the 2 at a time Elfine socks. I doubt that I’ll ever do 2 socks at once again. I’m doing them on 2 circular needles but it’s just no fun. I also think that I may hate my new Inox needles. I’m doing the mate to hubbo’s Trekking sock on them and, while the points are great – the joins are bothering me enormously. My yarn keeps getting caught on them. Maybe they’d behave differently with other, squishier yarns.

Whoa! It’s just not right to end the week, and start a long weekend, with a whine, so how about a little Eye Candy – in a literal sense!

This was taken last December in the “Sweetest Place on Earth” – Hershey, PA. The kids are my girls and their cousins, Jake and Sam. As you can see, they were feeling a little silly at the time – wouldn’t you?

Have a great weekend. I wish all of you good friends, good food and lots of silliness!