Sprimmer Fun 07

Can you still call it Knit Night if only two out of the seven people there knitted? And even that was only for a few minutes at best. But Mojo joined us (pictured here) and we had fun chatting, catching up and enjoying treats.

At “Knit” Night, we talked more about our Sprimmer (Spring/Summer) of Fun. I am trying to squeeze in all the fun San Antonio events, places, concerts, happenings, trips and other fun outings starting now through the end of the summer (or for me, whenever I leave). My coworker/friends are in on the fun and while needing to work on the house a little bit, I am looking forward to squeezing in as many fun times as possible.

And after a record setting amount of rain for March, today was beautiful! I just hope the heat can hold off a few months longer, but really who am I kidding.

Enchanted Rock

One of Suzy’s little sisters got married yesterday at Enchanted Rock State Park just north of Fredericksburg. Actually she got married at the top of Enchanted Rock, and we hiked up before the ceremony. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting for a wedding. Of course today I have blisters from wearing the wrong shoes, but so glad I was able to go.

It was nice to see Suzy and her family. This is the first time I met Lily! She is adorable and very sweet. Hopefully we will be able to get together more often when we are living closer. The idea of a road trip to anywhere from San Antonio is completely crazy and unrealistic. Well, a road trip to anywhere we want to visit as Corpus Christi doesn’t really count.

All other news at this time revolves around getting the house ready to sell, including having a realtor come out. She seemed positive that it would sell quickly and for a good price. So now I am job searching in Bloomington and we are looking at houses there. Need to coordinate a trip maybe to look in person.

Knitting at Justin’s

I swear there was actual knitting on Thursday, unfortunately I didn’t really get any pictures of it. We met this month at Justin’s on Main and had yummy sandwiches and ice cream (I highly recommend the Cracked Orange) in between knitting. Whether we meet in the training department office, someone’s house, Ruta Maya, or Justin’s, meeting once a month is almost a sacred event for me. Sometimes I get a lot done, sometimes I never pull my project out of the bag but I always feel a part of a group of women (and a few token men) that I can relax with, find comfort in, and enjoy myself. I can’t exactly articulate what that means to me, but I find great exuberance and great peace every time we meet.

Tricked II

This time we got tricked by the weather. My parents were scheduled to fly on Friday, but haven’t yet made it out of Denver due to the huge blizzard. Their flight was cancelled for Friday, and were finally lucky enough to get their flights changed, but not until Tuesday, so we’ll just have to celebrate Christmas late. My mom and I were lucky enough to get our library shifts covered on Saturday (thanks Mimi!), and get our flights changed, so we can extend our holiday a little bit and I can show them around south Florida. Neither my mom or Andrew has been to FL before and after all that snow, I’m sure they could use a little beachy weather.

While we are missing Loki, my inlaws got a mini white schnauzer named Gabe who is very cute. We’ll have to take lots of doggy photos. Actually he is still quite a bit of a puppy with all the hilarity that ensues from that. I brought my knitting project with me and after searching down a knitting store here for the right sized circulars, it is going pretty well. There is a lot of sports on this weekend, so it will be perfect to curl up in the same room and just knit.

Today we went to the beach, saw some dolphins and ate lunch at our favorite waterside restaurant. Tomorrow? Maybe a trip to Tim’s favorite…the Everglades.

Morguers

In light of recent airport security, I am so glad I got in all my summer trips already. My trip last weekend to Detroit Rock City was fantastic. It was so nice to see Cyn and Suzy in person and get in some good laughs and memories. We shopped in Birmingham (MI), ate all middle eastern food, saw Canada from across the river, went to the Ribs -N- Soul festival (Where my ladies at??), met Johnny Knoxville, saw the Tigers win in outstanding fashion (Pudge 2 run homer in the bottom of the 9th), checked out Ford Field, drank in Plymouth and in general had a great time hanging out.

This week at work has been…um…interesting. Interesting, disappointing, sad and frustrating. But I’ve not been fired, and it isn’t the end of the world. I have been thinking though that it is funny that through times when you feel the most down, you can also have many moments of extreme hysteria and laughter. I’m not sure the staff at the coffee shop/bar down the street wants us back after some work people got together last night to “knit”, bitch and blow off steam. It was also a farewell get together for Becka. Have fun in Chicago…we hardly knew ye.

I can’t believe my birthday is next week!

Who had the Cobb Salad?

My last minute trip to Colorado was great. While Colorado and the Denver area are changing dramatically (some of it good, some of it baaaaaad), there is something refreshing and restorative about driving by our old hangouts, sleeping in my old room, and in general being home. I also saw an old friend briefly and we ate at a restaurant that is part of a chain that I once worked (Red Robin, which I can highly recommend based on daily cleaning tasks. Also the recent site for some funny trip memories, one involving a Cobb Salad…). Sometimes it feels like going back in time. We also went to several quilt shops, a quilt museum, a cycle shop, caught a Rockies game, watched World Cup Soccer, and made the ritual trip to the mountains. And of course, the food, drink and company (including AJ!)were excellent.

Since I’ve been back, I took a long bike ride with my new cycling shoes, which I would highly recommend to anyone who rides! It took me a few tries in the yard and two trips around the block to get used to the lock and release thingy, but makes a huge difference on a ride. I am also taking a special quilt class where I will learn some new techniques (mitered borders, scalloped edging), I had sorely underestimated how long it would take me to make 63 3 1/2″ pinwheel blocks. The blocks are adorable (so tiny!), but I may have to take a make up class somewhere in there. I have my book group tonight. While I resisted joining a book group for soooooo long, I quite enjoy attending and discussing. Even (or especially) when I am a lone dissenter.

We planned to start in July, but have started early. Tim and I are changing our diets…vegetarian (ovo-lacto vegetarian to be precise). I am excited to try some new recipes, and make some changes in our (already pretty healthy) diet. We talked about trying it for a month and reevaluating from there. It has been a week, and so far, so good.

Pineapple Blossom

Tim has been gone all weekend, so I had four days off all to myself. I tried my best to not make a huge to-do list, and instead had four wonderful sort of lazy days. Friday night some of the knitting group came over and we had Noodle House take out and got a little crafty. So much fun, I am glad everyone could make it. And since it has been several months since I’ve started or worked on a quilt, I made an entire quilt top this weekend. It feels really good to be back quilting, and I love how it turned out. I am not going to show it, as it will be a suprise later this year, but I love it! I didn’t do a lick of reading (odd for me), but watched several movies (I recommend Bee Season and don’t recommend Jesus of Montreal), took some long walks (in the early morning only), went to the fabric store, got my summer haircut, watched tennis and ate leftovers. A good weekend, but I am ready to see Tim again and not just because a big worm fell from the skylight in the bathroom and I had to deal with it instead of calling in the husband.
Just a few hours left to sweep up the thread bits from the kitchen, make a fruit smoothie, and get at least 1/2 hour of reading in before I swing out to the airport. Oh, and of course…Happy Birthday Cyn!

Tennis Anyone?

As I type, photos are going up for my shopping spree in Austin. Thien, Sonia I, Sonia C, Danny, Luke, Lan, Angela, Juanita and I all drove up to Austin on Saturday to check out Hill Country Weavers, a lovely yarn store. There is only one nice yarn store here, but it has been blown out of the water by HCW in terms of selection, hipness and staff. We may have to ditch a day of work and head up on on a first Thursday, when they have a sale. We went to several other thrift/kitsch stores, ate pizza at the delicious Conan’s Pizzaria, had bubble tea at the super fun Momoko and overall had a wonderful time. I am normally not a purchaser of many items, but I bought lots! Well lots for me: yarn, a pattern, a odd wooden spring head thingy, a beaded ring, three birthday presents, Domo-kun stickers for Tim, and a silk jacket at the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Oh, and we also signed the ballot for Kinky Friedman.

p.s. Andrew loved his quilt.

Conference Center

What with the cedar allergies (I know, I know but I’ll stop talking about them when they stop driving me crazy), there is plenty to complain about south Texas during the winter. But we have been lucky to live in a city that hosts conferences, and have friends and family be able to visit us because of this. My parents left yesterday after attending ALA here in town. My mom and I did a whole lot of fabric shopping, eating out, knitting and yarn shopping. Basically a lot of girly time with mom, which I don’t get a lot of, so it is super nice when it happens.

This week is busy with Knit Night at the library tonight, and then a quilt class tomorrow night which will give me some good quality sewing time to work on my 2005 Block of the Month quilt for AJ. What with the company, I haven’t had a lot of time to work on that. Oh, and my mom also got me a Fabricalc, because yes, I am a dork.

The Librarian in Me

Tim thinks that is is supremely geeky that I am really excited about this software that catalogs your home book library. But a)who is he to talk, and b)he should have known this was in me when he agreed to this whole marriage thing. I am the daughter of librarians, I am related to librarians and have many librarian friends, one who recommended the software to me. I am still trying out my 100 book, 30 day trial, but it is looking good. And I mean, he loves books, and it is a database, so I am thinking that once he uses it, he will be hooked. Mixing technology with books, how can you go wrong? Well, especially in this household.

Amy and Mitch were out here visiting from LA…it was great to catch up with them. We did a lot of talking, drinking, eating, talking about books, drinking, shopping for books, some more eating and drinking, and a little driving around. There are pictures up already, thankfully none of the late nights here at the house. Oh! And Amy can confirm the roly poly burial ground…she saw the evidence first hand. I tried to take pictures, but it was hard, and they didn’t really turn out.

Can’t believe it is almost Thanksgiving, though we are staying here we may be busy with a house project. I am trying to finish up some holiday knitting and shopping. Also have the one cowboy quilt left. Even though I went to the quilt festival in Houston and left inspired, I haven’t started any other projects. Maybe I am just saving up all my sewing to get to work on finishing the block of the month quilt for Andrew this winter. I have one block to go, and then there is all the sashing, borders, etc, not to mention the quilting. I am actually thinking of sending the quilt out to be professionally quilted. Should probably start looking into that, but tonight might be knitting and cataloging software!