My oh so exciting weekend!

I had a nice weekend, for the most part. Friday I did not get to the post office as I had not finished the baby blanket, so I stayed home until it was time to pick up Suzy for the symphony and knitted away. I thought I was closer than I was, but then I measured it and had a good five inches to go. I have no clue why I thought I was done.

The symphony was quite educational. We got there in enough time to hear Charles Greenwell talk about the pieces we were going to hear. I find that really does help the enjoyment of the music, especially when listening to something you don't know. The first two pieces were by Charles Ives. I had quite by chance bought a CD of his music a few months back, so I grabbed it on the way out of the house, so it wouldn't be completely unfamiliar. Luckily it contained the two pieces we were going to hear. Along with the two Ives' pieces, we were also getting a Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland, all before the intermission, and then Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 which was quite lovely.

We did have dinner at the Traffic Jam & Snug beforehand. I had the Broccoli and White Cheddar soup (YUM) and the Parisian Goat Salad (also yummy). We did not have dessert which is sad because they have the most fantastic desserts, but if I'm ever going to lose weight I have to stop eating dessert. *sigh*

Saturday was all about yarn and knitting, which was a good thing since the weather was so unbelievably shitty. I picked Martina and Elaine up on campus at 9:35 and took them to Julie's. Julie gets car sick so she likes to do the driving. Suzy showed up and we piled into the bright red Saturn Vue for our trek to the world's greatest yarn store, Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio in Lansing. This is the one that Julie and I had visited a month or so ago. We had told the Twisted Sisters Knitting Club all about it and then I decided we needed to make another trip as they were having a Philosopher's Wool trunk show on Saturday. Soyon couldn't make it as she had to go to Chicago for her nephew's first b-day. We are going to talk up the yarn store at the next knitting club get together and make her even more jealous that she's now missed two trips. I'm telling you, she's going to go bankrupt there!!! ;-)

I broke down and got some of the baby alpaca that Julie got the first trip. It's just so soft!!!! Mine is blue/dark grey and just gorgeous! I also got a bunch of different yarns to go with this cream mohair that Martina gave me because she didn't like working with it. I have four balls of it and was trying to find one yarn that went with it, but then one of the women who works there convinced me that I could do four different scarves, so then I had to find four different yarns that would go with it. It was a chore, let me tell you. ;-) NOT! After we checked out, we went next door for some sustenance, realised that we had missed the trunk show and since that was ostensibly the reason for the trip, we headed back. Elaine bought one of the kits, Julie bought another book (there's a sweater pattern in it that Suzy wants to make in the future) and I bought a pattern for a shawl. I think the guys love us as we bring them business! They'll really love us once we get Soyon there!

When we got back to Detroit we dropped off Martina and Elaine on campus and after a brief stop at Julie's we headed out to Jo-Ann, Etc. because Suzy needed needles. I returned some ugly-ass yarn I had bought before and then bought more yarn (just two skeins), some needles for me and my favorite plastic kids needles for my sister. Then it was back to Julie's for pizza and an evening of knitting. I finished the baby blanket (which I had been working on in the car the whole way to and from Lansing) and then Julie showed me how to crochet the reverse crab stitch to finish it. Whew! It's in a box ready to mail off.

The Detroit Free Press Marathon was run on Sunday morning and since my sister was running in it and wanted me down there to cheer her on, I got up at my usual time, but instead of heading to church I went downtown to watch insane people running 26.2 miles. I am telling you watching a marathon is really no endorsement running one. They all look like hell as they're coming in, crying, grimacing in pain, limping, looks of anguish on their face. I'm telling you, no way in hell, kids!!! And then the aftereffects? My sister had a blister on her second toe which was literally the size of the toe!!!!! And she had another on her big toe. And she normally loses the nail from the big toe as well as hobbling around for a couple of days afterward. I just don't get it. Oh, and it took forever for her to come out after she finished because she was about to pass out, while her friend was busy throwing up. Hell, I saw a guy throw up in front of me less than a mile from the finish line. It was completely disgusting. It was all I could do not to puke and to put the image out of my head. Thank God I hadn't eaten yet that morning or I would have been in big trouble!!!

I was completely lucky and as I walked up to the corner of Woodward and Montcalm, in front of Hockeytown, I saw her round the corner. Talk about timing!!! I yelled, Go Meg! She heard me, but couldn't see me, even though I was waving my gloves over peoples' heads. I found Mom and we stood near the finish line (where I saw the guy puking) waiting for Meg. Even though we were only two feet from her and were yelling Go Meg! Good job! She didn't hear us at all. Said she had tunnel vision.

After standing on cold concrete for damn near four hours, my feet, legs, and knees were killing me! On the way home I stopped at Target and bought a new heating pad, a heat in the microwave heating pad dealie, a 200-ct bottle of Aleve, and saline solution. The woman in front of me in the line said, "You wear contacts?" Um, were the four bottles of saline your first clue? If she had been a real detective, she would have picked up on the pain issue too! I wish I had the knee one with me today as it's making me aware of its presence.

I just had a phone call from the Kerry campaign. I have signed up to do my part. I'm going to the office in Redford on Sunday at noon (after church) to do what they need me to do. I will NOT be canvassing neighbourhoods as that is so not my scene. I'll leave that to Mark Maynard. I'm hoping for some office work as that is what I do best. I might be okay making phone calls as long as it's to registered Democrats and just making sure they're going to be voting on Tuesday. BTW, go read him, he quotes a Conservative magazine about why they are NOT supporting Bush in this election. A must read especially for Republicans.