Weekend round-up, redux

Another pretty decent weekend.

Started the weekend off nicely with a picnic in the park for lunch on Friday. I got carry-out from one of the yummiest places around, Paseo, and took it to Green Lake for a lazy afternoon at the park. Lunch was great, Green Lake was lovely, and it was so nice to sit outside and read my current book (an absolute must-read, by the way). Friday night I had dinner with my friend Amy on her forested balcony. Amy also helped me get going on double-pointed needles again (I mean, after Lisa showed me last month. I’ve heard it takes seven times of looking a foreign language word up in the dictionary before you truly learn it. So, extending the same principle, I’ve still got a ways to go . . . .). My goal is to knit my first ever sweater (the photo is the same pattern that I intend to knit, but in a different color. I found this on some random person's blog. My actual mileage my differ). This sweater will be for a friend’s baby who is due on October 20th. Ever realistic, my goal is actually to get the sweater done this calendar year.

Saturday I went kayaking with SYL and her novio, K2J (Is this getting boring? Are you bored? Look at the pictures! Well, except that there are no pictures of this portion of the weekend). We rented the kayaks over on the eastside and took them up the Mercer Slough. This was not amazingly scenic, although we did see tadpoles and turtles, not to mention the back of many an office park and the underside of several freeway overpasses, but it was great to be out on the water on such a beautiful day. I also picked A LOT of blackberries, since you could just kayak up to the bushes that hung out over the water. And those bushes were loaded with berries. As it turns out, there is actually a reason that those bushes have so many berries: it is not, um, easy to pick berries in while kayaking. In fact, it is a rather fine line between picking berries successfully and being punished for one’s berry-picking greed by either running the kayak (and yourself) straight into the thorns of the berry bushes or tipping the kayak over in an attempt to get that one super-plump, really ripe, absolutely delicious berry just beyond arm’s reach. After stuffing myself with berries, we kayaked back, drove home, cleaned up, and had a decent pizza (complete with pineapple!) at Piecora’s.

Sunday was another great day. Let me just say that I am so glad I have all these friends inviting me out places, since, without them, I would totally become the reclusive cat lady. With 37 cats. And I don’t even like cats. On that note, yes, Sunday . . . . I went over to Jen Em’s house to play with the best dog in the world (see proof below) and to garden a little.That is actually an official American Kennel Club stuffed duck.

I had a super-yummy breakfast, complete with rosemary potatoes with fresh rosemary from the garden, cooked by Jen Em’s boyfriend. Then we planted the new plants that Jen Em had bought. All I can say is that it sure is easy to plant plants when someone else digs the holes for you! Jen Em also sent me home with fresh basil from her garden. I think I might make a tomato mozzarella salad today with this.

Sunday afternoon I went hear the Yarn Harlot speak. This was definitely a new experience. Here are some things that won’t surprise you about this talk: nearly the entire audience was female; almost everyone was knitting while she waited, and about 80% of the audience kept knitting once the talk started; hand-made felted bags were VERY popular; and nearly everyone wanted to get her book signed and show her project (that, of course, she was wearing) to the author. Here are some things that surprised me: for some people, this was like a church-meeting-meets-coming-home-ceremony – people nodded their heads fervently and pumped their firsts in the air. I think I might have even heard an “amen” once or twice. I also heard a middle aged woman say, “I hate the weekends, because she never writes on her blog on the weekends.” Sister-friend, weekends are NOT for hating. You need to get a life. Your OWN life. There was a woman there with a large strange wooden contraption for unwinding thrift-store sweaters so she could re-use the yarn for new knitting projects. This is weird, but, whatever, you can own whatever kind of big thing you want, but do you gotta bring it out public?

Anyway, the talk was pretty fun. I definitely felt like the lamest and beginner-est knitter there. For example, my friend Amy is knitting the most beautiful lace shawl. Ever. I am not really knitting anything, just practicing on double-pointed needles so that I feel confident enough to begin my first sweater. Um, yeah. On the plus side, I am now in the possession of a dirty knitting joke. Just ask.

We, too, met the author and got our books signed.In Amy’s hand is one of many socks she is knitting. These are socks in the colors of the Cleveland Browns football team. It is possible that just because of these socks, the Cleveland Browns will now win the Super Bowl.