Tuesday, July 31, 2007

As promised. It's a Biggun'.

I have been accumulating finished projects for a few weeks and it is about time I get them up here for you to see. If you are here to see Sockapalooza socks, those are at the end of this post.

Yarn: Berger du Nord - Belle

Color: 9027

Pattern: Friday from MagKnits

Variations: None except that it isn't blocked yet. I am hoping it will hold its structure better once it is blocked.


This is a going to be a present so I am just giving a little bit of a peak. This is knit with Fleece Artist yarn in Barbara Walker's Seafoam Lace stitch pattern. I haven't blocked this yet either, but I already love how the pattern and color look together.

I made this necklace with some beads that I got while bead shopping with my mom in Minneapolis. I plan to eventually make earrings with the rest of the bright green beads (in honor of my mom's tendency towards compulsively matchy-matchy jewelry!).


This necklace was made to satisfy my non-chunky, simple necklace day need. I've already worn it a few times. It was made using stuff from my bead stash, which rivals my yarn stash. I'm not sure which stash wins at this point.

SOCKAPALOOZA 4!!

Here they are! They are done. Never have I knit a project with so much hype attached to it. It has been great fun reading about and seeing everyone's projects on the pligg. I can't wait to send these on to my pal and, of course, to get my package.


Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino
Color: Sea Storm
Pattern: Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch using Slipped Stitch Rib


These socks were knit in planes, trains and automobiles. In Minnesota, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and in many places in between. In front of the TV while watching Colonial House and in front of the campfire while watching the flames.

I am sending out my package with the socks, extra yarn from the skein, stitch markers and a card that I made. I wasn't able to find out a lot of personal information about my sockpal so these extras will have to do.


Here is a little close-up of the beaded stitch markers and the quilted card.

What are my socks on? I was thinking about buying some sock blockers, when I came across this website that tells you how to make your own sock blockers. My grandma, who can no longer do many of the crafts that she used to do including tatting lace and quilting, has been satisfying her need to create by crocheting around coat hangers. My extended family regularly gives her supplies and she churns these out in massive quantities. They are actually great for hanging shirts that slip off of hangers and tank tops. I realized that they would also make fabulous sock blockers as they would help prevent rusting and would soften the effects of the narrow edge of the hangers. I came up with these on my first try.



They are the right size for my feet but my sock pals feet are a little longer than mine. Hence, the loose toes in the first photo. They are definitely an affordable alternative to fancy schmancy ones like these. Although, I wouldn't mind having a set of those too!

Happy and speedy knitting to all of the Sockapalooza knitters who are working to meet that deadline.

Partners in Crime

I have been fortunate this summer (my summer off!!) to have crafting buddies to share my time with. Here are some of my partners in crime:


This is Liz. She is a Jane of All Crafts. On our afternoon of crafting she did needlepoint and knitting and is also known to make jewelry. Notice we had plenty of fuel to keep us in crafting energy.



This is Bonnie. She finished her first ever knitted item during our crafting day, but not before developing a yarn stash. Her stash development was partly my fault. I brought her to the sale at Hub Mills earlier this summer. Bonnie has also been known to engage in a variety of crafts. Hooray for first projects!

What is it about crafting? It is hard to stick to one medium.



This is Becky. She and I originally met through knitting (Thanks Stitch n' Bitch!) when we were both new to Boston. We recently met up at the Common to engage in some sock knitting. She has finally decided to try knitting some socks after resisting my attempts to convert her for quite some time. We had gone to Windsor Button to pick out the necessary supplies. It was a hot and humid day (notice the shine, I mean "glow" on my forehead). We found a bearable spot near the Frog Pond and knitted the afternoon away.

What have I accomplished with all of this creative time? That will be posted soon...hopefully today.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Smell-O-Vision

This summer has been full of free outdoor fun. I love that this city offers so many options. Here are some of the free things I have done just this week:

On Thursday evening, Sam and I walked around the corner from my house and watched Babe at the park courtesy of the City of Somerville. It was an excellent way to spend a hot evening. It is pretty incredible how different the temperature was between sitting on the earth and walking on the sidewalk. We felt the temperature increase when we walked off of the field back onto the sidewalk. Dang concrete. It is everywhere around here.

On Friday, I met up with Becky so that we could knit and keep cool near the Frog Pond at the Boston Common. She started on her first pair of socks! Although, I think she is going to have to start over since she is also cursed with gauge issues. Loose knitters, we are.

Tonight Paul and I ventured down the road a few minutes to take part in Union Square's Smell-O-Vision evening. We had also gone to the Farmer's Market in Union Square earlier in the day. It was a Union Square Saturday. Smell-O-Vision was an interesting experience. They showed the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie which was much more witty than I had remembered it being. As I sit here typing this I can still smell the scent of chocolate on my clothes. They also gave out goodie bags so we could eat things that matched what was happening in the movie including gobstoppers, taffy and chocolate. We got to blow bubbles when Charlie and his grandfather are floating in the bubble room. BURP!

Tomorrow I am heading to Lowell for the Lowell Folk Festival. I have been meaning to go to this every year that I have lived here but this is the first year that I am able to go. It is supposed to rain but I am not going to let that stop me. While I am there, I should probably take advantage of the yummy Life Alive Cafe. I can't get enough of that place.

I have been getting a lot accomplished crafting-wise. I just haven't had a chance to take any photographs. It just isn't as much fun talking about things if I can't show you pictures. I'll work on getting that up here soon. When I do, it'll be a biggun'.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Mohawk Trail State Forest: "Bears live here!"



HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL!!

Last weekend Paul, Tchazo, Jack and I all loaded into the car and headed a few hours west to commune with nature. We tend to fit in a camping trip once a year but always wish that we could do it more often. We really enjoy hiking, campsite cooking, sitting by the fire, playing with the dogs and living life at a slower pace. Luckily for us, there are plenty of beautiful camping destinations within a few hours of home. We chose this past weekend for the trip since it was Paul's birthday weekend and we chose Mohawk Trail State Forest since it seemed like it had all the right things: mountains, rivers, and hiking trails.

When we got there we found our campsite and were really excited to see that it was right next to the Cold River, which divided the park. Paul and I have come to the conclusion that our favorite camping involves water in some way. Rivers, lakes, oceans...as long as there is a body of water, we find it enjoyable. So does Tchazo. Tchazo will rock jump and swim til the cows come home. Jack, not so much. He hates to be wet and only complies with getting wet when faced with the threat of being left behind on our adventures.


Since our campsite was right next to the river, we had the beautiful sound of running water the whole time we were there. Sometimes we also had the sound of someone's blaring radio at their picnic site, but luckily that was only temporary.

We had to wade across the river to get to some of the hiking trails or else we had to walk really far out of the way to get to the only bridge. We chose the more direct, more exciting route.



Paul and Tchazo crossing Cold River. It was indeed a cold river.



For some reason, it seemed that the campers at this campground were not into hiking. We spent hours on the trails and only saw one other group of hikers. We didn't mind the exclusive access one bit and neither did the dogs.










It was a very enjoyable trip, but it didn't go off without a hitch or two. The first problem was that the air mattress we had brought to sleep on (I know we aren't very hardcore. I like to sleep on soft things.) was missing an essential part needed in order to inflate it. So, no air mattress. Unfortunately the only spot on our campsite that was large enough for our tent was on top of rocky, gravel stuff. So, that wasn't all that comfortable. Add to that the super cold air that constantly flowed in and out of our tent all night long and a few flimsy cotton blankets and you end up with one nearly sleepless night. By morning I had vowed to sleep in the car for the second night.

On that second night we had cooked a great dinner, cleaned up and were relaxing by the fire. Tchazo had gone into the tent to get away from the bugs that only seemed interested in attacking him. Jack was attached to his lease which was looped under the leg of my chair. Most of the campground had cleared out because it was Sunday night. There were only a few campsites with people including the campsite right next to ours and another one a few spots down. It was still pretty early but the family next to us had gone to bed.

Let me show you a little bird's eye view of the scene:




Notice anything strange in that diagram? Yeah, um. While we were sitting there, I sensed something to my right. I looked over and since it was so dark, I couldn't see that well but I noticed that there was a big shadow obscuring the tree behind the picnic table. Oh wait, that's not a shadow. That is a BEAR! Whenever I go camping I always read the campground signs about bears, I've always been careful to clean and lock-up food and garbage, I never eat in the tent...all of that stuff, but until right at that moment, I didn't really think I would actually see a bear. To be honest, I thought it was more of a preventative measure rather than a necessity.

Well, here we were 5 feet away from a real, live bear. My mind quickly raced back to the suggestions I had read in the the pamphlet they gave me when I checked in to the campground titled "BEARS LIVE HERE!" It had said if you see a bear to "yell, bang pots and pans, blow a whistle" to scare it away. So, I began yelling and jumping my chair up and down to scare it off. (For some reason, I felt that standing up might elicit bear aggression rather than fear.) Paul quickly figured out what I was doing and started yelling too. I realized a second later that Jack was no longer attached to my chair (remember how I looped his leash under the leg of my chair) and he was chasing after the bear. Let me say that again: scaredy dog Jack chased after the bear! He probably thought it was a big dog but I was still impressed that he reacted that way. Although it does prove once again that he has no sense of what might be a losing battle. We were scared the bear was going to hurt him so we started yelling for him and he came back.

Holy commotion!

All of this was happening in a virtually still and silent campground. We felt that we needed to warn the other campers around us and we felt that we needed to settle their potential nerves about crazy people camping next to them. When we went next door the family's truck lights were on but they weren't around. We said hello and they unzipped their tent window to tell us that they knew why we were yelling and that the bear had just been by their site. They were using their remote to make their car beep and light up to scare the bear off. All in all, they seemed pretty OK with the whole scenario and went back to sleep without us hearing a peep from any of their three young kids.

So, we moved on to the other site and came upon the couple who was staying there. The woman was by the fire. The man was in the cab of their truck and it looked like he was rummaging for something and kept accidentally hitting his horn. We headed over to talk to the woman and had started telling her what had happened when I noticed that it looked like their was another person at their site. The almost total darkness was making it hard to see but it looked like someone was bent over the picnic table. I looked closer and realized that the bear was right next to her checking out what was on their picnic table. I was totally shocked that she was looking right past it at us and didn't see it. Her dog was on the ground next to her and had no clue either. We stopped in our tracks and I managed to say, "Um. There's a bear right next to you." She started screaming and their dog started barking. So, the bear high-tailed it again. The dude in the truck came out and said something barely intelligble to her to the effect of, "yeah i told you to hold still. that's why i was honking the horn." What?!?! They seemed either very drunk or very idiotic. Either way, we didn't need to tell them since they obviously knew there was a bear in the campground.

We went back to our own site and I was still I little revved up and spooked and not really interested in sitting by the fire anymore. I had already planned to sleep in the car but now I had visions of Paul and the dogs being attacked by a hungry bear in their sleep. So, I insisted that we all pile into the car. The car being my tiny Nissan. Warm and safe we were. Comfortable we were not.


The next morning we got up had a good breakfast, took one last walk and packed up.

Paul tried to convince me to leave this story off of the blog because he knows a certain someone who worries about him (Hi Joanne!) and he didn't want to give her any reason to worry. What a good son. However, how could I not tell you about such an exciting event?! For what it is worth, I researched black bears when I got home and learned that they are not known to be aggressive. Apparently, they are just smart enough to know us lazy humans leave out tasty snacks for them. Not at our campsite! We eat our tasty snacks or else we lock them up.

Surprise Ruiner!

I got back from my trip with a few days to spare before Paul's birthday. I had prepared his birthday presents before I left for my trip except for one thing that I hadn't been able to find yet. That thing was a bottle of a particular type of whiskey that he likes. My sister's boyfriend was able to score a bottle for me at a discount since he works for a distributor. I lugged that bottle all over during my trip, thinking about how much he would like it. I am notoriously impatient about gift giving and I was grateful that he was taking care of all of the dog walking, garden watering and other household chores while I was off gallivanting in the Midwest so I decided to give it to him right when I got home. Well, apparently the store that he used to buy it from restocked so he had already bought himself a bottle. Surprise ruiner!

The main gift that I had planned to give him for his birthday was a gift certificate for an MP3 player of his choice. I knew he wanted one but was holding out on buying it since it seemed like an unnecessary splurge. So, I thought it would be the perfect gift for his birthday. Except that I left him unsupervised for the week and he bought one! I noticed it the morning after I got home while he was getting ready to walk to work. He had a set of headphones hanging around his neck. I (nonchalantly, I am sure) asked him what they were for. And, he pulls out a brand new MP3 player. Dang surprise ruiner!!

The thing is, he has a history of doing this. I try so hard and he effortlessly thwarts my attempts to do nice things for him. He doesn't intend to ruin the surprises, he just has a natural tendency to do it. Luckily, I had a back-up plan so his birthday was still well stocked with gifts.

Strolling and Floating

After our big ole breakfast we needed to do some walking. Jamie and I set off down the country road to see the sites.

One of the things to look at is this International truck from the 1950s. It has been there for nearly as long as I have been alive. I have really come to like the aesthetics of it.



Especially the rusty, chipping paint!




Later that day we went on a tubing/canoeing trip down the Namekagon River. The water level was pretty low, which meant the river was flowing VERY, VERY slowly. The slow flow was fun for the first few hours and then we started to get a bit antsy. We eventually all piled into the canoe to paddle our way to the take-out point. Along the way we saw lots of fish, a muskrat, some hawks and herons and lots of other little creatures. And, thanks to our diligent applications of 45 spf sunscreen, our 6 hours on the river only resulted in a mild sunburn.

On the next day, Jamie and I needed to head back to Minneapolis so I could catch my flight home. On our way, we came across this creature alongside the road. We stopped the car in a state of confusion trying to figure out exactly what it was that we were looking at. It turns out that it was an albino deer. It was just chilling out beside the road having a little snack. I wasn't quick enough with my camera, but I did manage to get a slightly decent photo.


So, I think I have filled my Minnesota quota for quite a while. It took a while to get all of this blogged but since so many of my readers are those who I was visiting, I didn't want to skimp on the Minnesota blogging.

Good Eatin'

Can you spot my dad in the raspberry patch? This unruly, but very well-stocked patch is at my grandma's house. She let us raid her patch and we were not the first to take advantage of her generosity that week. Luckily the patch was so well stocked that we did not leave empty-handed.

We brought two buckets each: our belly bucket and our regular bucket. Jamie put a lot of berries in one of her buckets. Here is a picture of what she put in her other bucket:

Just kidding. We each picked enough berries that we ate them and ate them and ate them all weekend long. On one of the mornings we had a super yummy, almost entirely homemade breakfast. By homemade, I mean my dad baked the bread and did the cooking, we all picked the raspberries and then Jamie made raspberry sauce out of it and the maple syrup was harvested and boiled down by my dad's neighbors.

Here is my dad about to dig in after Jamie and I had eaten more than our fill of breakfast. One does not want for good food when staying at my dad's house. He has a fabulous garden chock full of veggies, herbs and potatoes. He has various hook-ups for berries (blueberries, blackberries and raspberries), raises his own chickens, hunts and fishes for his meat and fish, bakes his own bread and lots of other DIY goodness.

We ate like queens while we were there.

Going "Up North"

"Up North" is to Minneapolis as "Down the Cape" is to Boston

After my family moved to the Minneapolis area from rural Wisconsin, our rural home became our "up north" getaway. We spent many summer weekends there getting grubby, playing outside and rarely changing out of our bathing suits. I have a fondness for anything that resembles that kind of a weekend because it reminds of my younger years. I have one friend, Jamie, that goes far enough back in my life to have experienced many of these weekends as an honorary member of our family. So, I was glad that Jamie was able to take some time off of work and join me for a trip up north during my visit home.

We, of course, had to make the required stop at the cheese store for cheese curds and frozen yogurt cones. The cones are a steal at seventy-some cents a piece...and that's for the swirl cones!


The store has turned into much more than just a cheese shop.
Jamie found some excellent literature.

Add this to the pros list for Minneapolis

According to this article, Minneapolis is the 2nd best place in the country for home buyers right now.

Now, if only someone could do something about those nasty winters and all of the mosquitoes!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Recruiting for Minneapolis Residents

Jamie, my friend since elementary school, has been implementing a no-holds-barred recruiting attempt to get Paul and I to move back to Minneapolis. During my visit she tried to lure me back with yummy dinner grilled and eaten in her backyard, great yarn stores, affordable priced homes in her neighborhood and, one of the most alluring things of all, beautiful settings for the daily dog walking. Since Jack and Tchazo were not in attendance on this trip, Jamie used her dog Lucy to show me how great it would be to take a walk if we lived in Minneapolis.

This lake is just a few blocks from her house.

Lucy and Jamie show how much better dog walks are when they include a shoreline.

This is one pleased pooch.

Tempting, it is.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

In Keeping With the Mom Theme

I, of course, wanted to spend time with my mom. We started our day with one of my Minneapolis Must-Do items: breakfast at the Seward Community Cafe. After my belly was full with a Super Green Earth, we could venture on to the day's task: shopping for beads.

When I was home in April, I went to Beadhive with Jamie. I was really happy with it then and this time was no different. Almost all of their beads are available to touch and look closely at, they have a good selection, their prices are fair and they have nice staff. After making our selections there, we ventured to Bobby Bead, which is the most well known and largest bead store in Minneapolis. After having had such a great and tangible experience at Beadhive it was hard to shop at Bobby Bead. They keep most of their beads in cases, which you have to ask to see. It made shopping really laborious and took all of the fun out of it for me. I wish they would change that aspect of the store. I understand that some of the precious stuff needs to be kept under tighter security but we had to ask to see wooden beads that were priced at 45 cents each. That is totally unnecessary.

All that shopping made us hungry so we went to Jamba Juice (my sister is a big fan of the Jamba Juice and is trying to bring my mom and I into the "club") for a smoothie. The Jamba Juice we went to was housed in a Whole Foods Store, where I saw this interesting comment card (click the picture to make it bigger).


While we sipped our Jamba Juice we had a chance to talk about some family history. As I get older, my family history becomes more and more interesting to me. I like to hear about the young lives of my grandparents and what my parents did and thought before I existed. It is especially interesting when some of that history involves some slightly scandalous things....but, I'll keep those thing off of the internet!

As if vegetarian breakfast feasts, hours in bead stores, fresh fruit smoothies and catching up with mom wasn't enough, the day wasn't over yet. We headed over to a yarn store called Needlework Unlimited where we browsed and my mom (not a knitter) picked up all of the "novelty yarns" exclaiming, "What would you do with this?!" My answer, "Nothing!" Besides all of the crazy yarns, that store has lots and lots of beautiful yarns and patterns. I ended up with a pattern and two skeins of yarn for a pair of socks.


Here is a picture of me and my mom, in which she is proving an open mouth in a picture makes the picture seem infinitely more exciting.

Taylor's Falls - Where the Footing is Dangerous and the Logs Jam

After meeting my mother-in-law (that is not a term I am used to!) for lunch at the tasty Cafe Brenda in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis, checking out the bounties that the Nicollet Mall Farmer's Market had to offer, and spending another fabulous evening with Jerri, I was still only 3 days into my 8 day trip!

On the 4th day, Sally and I took a day trip north to Taylor's Falls, Minnesota and St. Croix, Wisconsin. The main attraction there is the Interstate State Park where there are hiking trails that lead around glacial potholes, along the river and on top of the rocky cliffs.

I should disclose that I get some sort of weird satisfaction from packing efficiently. When I go on trips, my packing goal is to pack exactly what I need. No more and no less. So, when I packed for this trip, the only footwear I brought was a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of flip flops. Well, I forgot to take into account the hike that Sally and I had planned to take. When I got dressed that morning, it was hot so I wore the flip flops. When we got to the park I saw this sign:

Um. Perhaps I should have worn sturdier footwear?!?! Since I am still here to tell my story, you can assume that Sally and I were cautious with our footing near the edge.

We totally lucked out with the weather. It was a beautiful and sunny day.


Apparently, the St. Croix River has a significant enough bend in the river around Taylor's Falls that it caused a big log jam. According to this website:

In 1886 it took two steamboats , two steam engines,
every available team of horses in the area, and over 200 men working with
peevies and dynamite six weeks to break up a log jam at Taylors Falls. Stacked
50 feet high in places, logs choked the river for miles, a spectacle of
sufficient magnitude of sight seers. Jams of 250 million feet of timber
were a common occurrence from 1850 to 1890, as lumberman on the Upper St Croix sent their winter cut of White pine downstream to the mills at Stillwater. To
control the flow of logs that piled up at Taylors Falls where the river made a
sharp right angle bend, The Nevers Dam was built 2 miles upstream in 1890. In
1912 the last log sluiced through its gates, and the colorful days of logging on
the St Croix were over.


Here is one of the glacial potholes. Some of the potholes in the park have yet to be uncovered, while others are cleaned out regularly to preserve them. Some of the holes are filled with gunky green stuff, like this one.

Besides our Interstate State Park hike, we also wandered around town where we stumbled upon a really nice bead store. The owner makes and sells his lampwork beads at his store. They were beautiful and used some techniques that I hadn't seen before. (Dang! I should have taken a picture! Whoops.) I couldn't decide which one/s to buy so I refrained for fear that if I tried to decide, I would have bought all of them. And this girl ain't got that kind of budget.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

A Series of Mommas

Yesterday I enjoyed the company of many fine ladies and a few distinguished gentlemen.

I've been staying at my sister's place in uptown (2 blocks from the Wedge! I totally heart the Wedge!) and have witnessed her sixth sense when it comes to being a ferret mom. One of her four (4!) ferrets is sick. She is one dedicated momma, giving him medicine every 8 hours, hand feeding him and watching for any inkling of something being not right with him. That is some serious animal loving.


This is my favorite (shhh! don't tell Jessy I am playing favorites!) of her ferrets. He sleeps a lot and one of his favorite resting places is on top of his pompoms. My not-favorite ferret is the one that sneaks up on me and nips me with his tiny, sharp as spikes teeth. Not cool, ferret. Not cool.

After spending time with the ferret momma, I went to visit a momma of 2 young men. Christa is doing an amazing job with her two energetic little boys. One of which is at the "Why? Why? Why?" stage. She very skillfully reroutes that question so he finds himself explaining why. Smooth move Christa!

Later that day, I joined a friend who has a job supporting mommas...notice the momma theme. Our plan was to go to a park in St. Paul to play disc golf. Jerri, my self-declared biggest blog fan, had written down directions to the park. We followed the directions and got to the park without any problem except that it wasn't the right park. At that point, something happened that I decided was indicative of our personalities. Jerri is (I am totally simplifying a complex person here) an outgoing, charismatic, friendly, emotions-on-her-sleeve kind of gal. In short, she is a people person. Her solution to our Wrong Park Dilemma was to think of who she could call who might know how to get us to the right park. I am nowhere near the people person that Jerri is so while she was listing off who we could call, my problem-solving self, starting thinking about the information we had available that we could use to figure out our problem. I asked Jerri if she had a map. She did have a map and it got us to the right park. Had we not had a map, I am sure Jerri could have called someone who could have solved our problem. She's got people.

With all of this airport, hanging out, bus riding time I have finished my Sockapalooza pal's first sock. I need to make one of those sock blocker things so that the shape of the sock looks a little more sock-like. It looks a bit deformed in these pictures. But, I am really happy with the colors: manly, but not boring.



Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Summer Rocks My World

There has been a lot going on lately. Let me catch you up, cliff notes style:

*Paul and I hosted a 4th of July game night. It was fun. None of the pictures that I took were flattering so I will keep them to myself.

*We went to a movie in the park. Gotta love all of the free fun activities that the summer brings.

*Hub Mills had a sale. I didn't mean to buy much but I ended up with 2 sweaters worth of yarn. It was a good deal and I have a hard time passing up a good deal on yarn. Bonnie and I went together and she couldn't resist buying yarn either. After we shopped, we ate and knit at Life Alive. I love Life Alive.

*I had a job interview. I would like to have the job. I am waiting to find out if I get it. Cross your fingers for me please.

*I arrived in Minneapolis today after a painfully early flight. I am looking forward to a week of hanging out with friends and family. My week will be topped off with a trip to Wisconsin to see my dad and steal food out of his massive garden.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

335 Zombies

A healthy relationship requires understanding and acceptance. Well... the truth is that there are some things that Paul and I accept about each other that neither of us has a chance in hell of really, truly understanding. Let me give you specifics:

I cannot understand why Paul would spend hours and hours playing a video game in which you hunt and kill zombies. He has killed 335 of them so far. That seems like quite a time investment to me. But, I accept that he gets enjoyment out of it, so I leave it be.


From his perspective, he cannot understand why I would invest hours and hours of time to knit a pair of socks. It probably seems unfathomable to him why I would want to spend that much time creating something that you could buy from a store for cheaper than it costs to make it. But, he accepts that I get enjoyment out of it, so he leaves it be.

Lucky in love for both of us.

I'm going to go spend some more hours making a sock so I can have some great pictures to show you all tomorrow.

Here is where I was the last time I took some pictures:



Sunday, July 1, 2007

Hometown Tourists

The tourists are out in full force this time of the year. It is great to live in a town where there is so much to do and see that people from all over the world come to visit. It is a privilege to be close enough to walk or ride the subway to all sorts of things worth getting on an airplane to see. Even though I have lived here for 4 years, I haven't seen many of the major attractions. I've been chipping away at the city's offering over the past 4 years but this summer, I am seeking to make a big dent in what Boston has to offer. Paul joined me this weekend for a plethora of hometown tourism.

On Friday night we went to the Museum of Science. They have a knitted brain there!! I had no idea that they housed one, although I did know that they existed (I think I read about it on the internet somewhere...). It was really beautiful. My only wish was that it wasn't housed in a case because I really wanted to touch it.



Then, later that night, we got together with Sam and Arturo because, as of Friday night...THEY LIVE HERE! Welcome, welcome, welcome. We're glad to have you a hop, skip and a jump away. Any of you other Minnesotans going to follow their lead? Red Rover, Red Rover, send more friends right over!!

On Saturday we fought off a major case of the lazies in order to visit the New England Aquarium. There were many beautiful and quirky creatures to look at. I didn't even bother taking photos because I knew they wouldn't do the creatures justice. I did wish I could have captured some of the colors of the jellyfish. There were some seriously inspiring color combinations going on at the aquarium.

Today (Sunday) we drove north, almost to New Hampshire, to get a disc golf fix. It was a pretty tightly packed course with minimal obstacles but Paul did manage to lose a long range driver trying to complete the required crossing of a pond on the 16th hole. RIP Leopard Long Range Driver.
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