Back from Denver -- Friends, Cuteness, Art, Cheese!

I'm back from a quick trip to Denver to see Best Friend. It was a lot of fun catching up and it didn't matter that it rained for most of the time. I was there to see her, not Denver.

(Warning, the pictures and paragraphs don't quite match. Not sure what I'm doing wrong in Blogger)

The funniest part was when she gave me a scrapbook she made from pictures going back to 1989.

Here's the cover showing us at 19 years old.

It's hilarious how young we looked! No more pictures because, well, the big hair and tight curls is a look that doesn't need to be shared.

Here's what we look like now at almost 38.

She could have lived in the middle of nowhere and I'd still have as much fun chitchatting and catching up. And hanging out with her little 2 year old boy.

Friday night, her husband had to go to a fundraiser for work. He works at the Denver Botanical Garden. Normally, he doesn't wear a tuxedo, even though the black would hide dirt.

The first night we had dinner their house. (My) Husband provided the after dinner entertainment. It's an action shot!

The excitement was a bit much for him (Little One, not Husband) and he was over stimulated, jumping all over the place and demanding to be the center of attention. Not having children, that was a new experience for me.

The next day was pretty tiring for the little one too. Here he is all tuckered out. The blue striped thing is the body and tail of a snake I knitted for him.

Saturday morning, Best Friend, myHusband, and I went to the Denver Art Museum. Her Husband and Little One stayed home so she could have a breather.

But first, Husband and I woke up to see protesters at the Planned Parenthood next door to our hotel.

I don't know what referendum or whatever that the truck refers to, but what's with the protests? Abortion is not a decision made lightly and family planning is something to be encouraged. Unless the protesters will adopt and raise the results of every pregnancy, they should not interfere with the life changing events of other people's lives.

Certainly, I've seen only a tiny little glimpse of how Best Friend's life have been radically changed by having one child. And the pregnancy wasn't easy either. Are the protesters going to take on the burden and responsibility of the pregnancy too? Oh, wait, they can't! It's the woman's body and the woman's right to decide what will happen to her body and her life!

Okay, back to the art museum. There are lots of interactive things at the museum, presumably for the children, and Best Friend certainly tried it out. Here she is, ready for her European portrait. The rest of the outfit is a bit anachronistic.

I really liked their African art exhibit. Not only did they show the usual masks, carvings, etc. but also contemporary art by contemporary African artists. Here's a detail from painting called "Soliloquy" by Moyo Ogundipe.

There was a section that asked "What is Art?" with sticky pads where you can write your thoughts and put them on the wall . I wrote something like "Art is an expression of ideas and should make you think and feel." Someone else used the sticky note to do this:

For lunch, we all met up at Chedd's a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant.

Very apropos, since Husband, Best Friend and I are from Wisconsin, and that's where we all met. Go Badgers!

Here's a map where you can put a pin showing where you're from. Notice the number of pins around Madison.

It had been raining but Saturday afternoon the sun came out enough to give us hope so we headed out to Golden, to see the mountains.

While there, Husband and I were approached by someone looking for a dollar to buy a lighter for his cigarette. He looked at me and asked if I was from Taiwan. That just blew us away because no one ever guesses Taiwan. Most people don't know Taiwan exists. Most people ask if I'm Chinese, which I am, ethnically. Koreans will ask if I'm Korean.

It rained on the way there. We went up Lookout Mountain to Buffalo Bill's grave, but since it was cold and rainy, we didn't see much.

Back in Denver, we went to Wazee's for dinner and watch the Olympics. Clearly, it was riveting. Little One doesn't get to watch much TV. Good pizza too.

Sunday morning began sunny, and protester-free. Pics of the Denver skyline and the mountains beyond.

Husband and I drove over to Best Friend's house for a pancake breakfast at their house. We were late because I was watching C-SPAN. They replayed the forum Rick Warren (author of the Purpose Driven Life, pastor of megachurch) had with Barack Obama and John McCain. Good stuff.

By the way, these signs are all over the place.

After breakfast we went to the Denver Botanical Garden because the sun was finally shining. Even though her husband works there, he has no probably going there on his day off. It is a lovely garden and it's right that he gets to enjoy some of the fruits of his labors.

Next, a montage of cuteness. Little One in the garden. Your teeth may hurt from the sweetness.

Also in the garden is an exhibit about Urban Art. Basically, hardboard panels painted by notable urban artists, a.k.a. graffiti artists, which I really liked.

The day ended with hugs goodbye and then off to the airport.

On the way there, we stopped at a Carl Jr and had a burger. It was the messiest burger I ever had, but good. Husband found out later that they were 1080 calories each, about the amount of calories an adult should have all day.

It was sad to leave Best Friend and the visit was much too short. But on the whole I'm very glad that we got together to mark half a lifetime of friendship.

It's summer in Atlanta, fall in Denver

Going to Denver this weekend to see Best Friend. This year will mark the 19th anniversary of our friendship and we met when we were 19 years old. So we've known each other half our lives. Certainly something worth celebrating.

Just checked the weather. It's going to be cool over there, getting down to the 40s F at night and only the 60s F

I'll be packing the wool Emerald sweater from Knitty I just finished for Sister. Might as well enjoy it a bit before giving it away. Pictures to come when the light is better. Maybe one from Denver.

I really enjoyed making Emerald, a raglan sweater knit from the bottom up. I'm thinking of doing another, from the top down, so I pulled out Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel and went onto Ravelry to see what would work.

It was kind of disheartening to see so many people mentioning how many mistakes there were in the directions. Some people said that the errata wasn't complete enough. Others said it was important to read your knitting, not the instructions so much.

And the yarn I got for my next project isn't the blue I expected. It's a bit more muted that I wanted, so I'll just save it for another baby blanket. Someone's always having babies.

I shouldn't start anything new now, though. I have plenty of UFOs to work on, plus the yarn for my mom's Wool Peddler shawl is on it's way.

I should probably go pack before it gets much later. Early flight tomorrow.

What I'm going vs. what I should be doing

What I'm doing:

• Writing my blog.
• surfing Ravelry for a cardigan pattern. Never mind that I have the yarn and pattern picked out and swatched for the Mirabella cardigan.
• Surfing Facebook.
• Drinking wine.

What I should be doing:
Working on a grant proposal due Friday. But since I'm going out of town Friday, in reality, the proposal's due tomorrow.

Sigh. It's 10:56pm. I should hunker down, knock this proposal out and go to bed. Then tomorrow morning look at what I've written, make edits, have someone else read it, finalize, and e-mail it off.

It may be another late night tomorrow. Because I have other reports and such due tomorrow too.

aches and pains

This has not been a good week for me. I had to take Friday off because I had food poisoning.

Then this morning, I went to fill the bird feeders and got stung by a bee. On the bottom of one of my middle toes. It may be between the toes. I'm not sure. All I know is that my foot hurts and there's an ache going up the back of the leg.

I've soaked my toes in a baking powder paste per Husband's instructions. He says it will draw out the poison. I've taken some pain meds too. Because other aches include a headache. That could be a hangover from last night or a continuation of headaches that I've been having since Wednesday.

My lower teeth and gums hurt too. 10 days ago I had some deep cleaning done and they weren't kidding when they said my teeth would be sensitive to everything for weeks.

Okay, that's it for the recital of aches and pains. I'm going to go mow the lawn while it's still less than unbearably hot.

Too many blogs

Like many people, I have personal e-mail and work e-mail. I also have personal blog and work blog. And work Googlegroup. I was already logged in for my work Googlegroup but forgot to log out before posting the post below.

Fortunately, I always check to see how the post looks on the blog right afterwards and that's when I realized that posted a personal blog post to the work blog. Thank goodness for cut and paste and DELETE POST.

Whew.

I also recently joined Facebook, for networking for work. I used my real name, my real workplace, etc. The people who are my friends are people I met on my European fellowship and that was kind of a work thing.

So now I have one more online presence to manage.

Hmm, not what I expected.

Just received the yarn from Elann for my Ravelympic sweater, the Mirabella Sweater from Interweave Knits Summer 2008. The pattern calls for bulky yarn (16 sts = 4 inches which is 4 sts to the inch) for size 10 needles.

I got On Line Linie 119 from Elann.com. It looks more like a worsted weight, but the gauge says 21 sts = 10 cm. It's been a while since I've done the metric conversion, but after a bit of math, it looks like Linie 119 knits up 5.25 sts to the inch. So it's the wrong yarn for the project. Hmm.

Looks like I'll have to go with my back up project, which is this scarf in Great Adirondacks Soxie in Blueberry. Gorgeous emerald blue, cobalt blue, and royal purple. Just my colors. This picture does no justice to the yarn.

That's about 8 inches done and I don't think I'll have enough yarn. Of course, the yarn shop where I bought the yarn 2 years ago doesn't have anymore of that colorway. I looked it up on line and found places that carry Soxie but not in Blueberry. I may have to get a similar colorway in Soxie for the ends. I'll call it a design feature.

Unexpected haul and the Ravelympics

Yesterday, I was taping an interview for work with a local AM radio station. It happened to be a few miles down the road from a yarn shop. I generally don't go to that shop because they have a bit too much novelty yarn for my taste and the shop owner's not always very pleasant. So it will remain unnamed.


However, I was in the area, so I stopped in. For the Ravelympics, I want to make something I will be able to wear right away, so no wool cardigans. Besides, I'm almost done with Sister's wool sweater, Emerald from Knitty, and am ready for something lighter.

Just a half a row around the collar then bind off. I'll put toggles on it instead of buttons. It's a bit tight on me, but Sister's at least one size smaller than me, so I hope it fits. I'm using Lamb's Pride Bulky, in the Ocean colorway, which is turquoise blues, not teal like you see here.

So, the Ravelympics is an activity where any knitter or crocheter on Ravelry takes on the challenge of completing a project (or projects) within 17 days during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

I have 2 projects in mind, depending on yarn availability. Ideally, I will be making the Mirabella cardigan from Interweave Knits Summer 2008. It's knit in a bulky cotton yarn which I've ordered from Elann.com. It may arrive today, it may not.

If not, my back up is to crochet a scarf from a skein of Soxie in Blueberry from Great Adirondacks yarn. I got it years ago at the yarn shop which will not be named.

The pattern will be a simple shell trellis mesh, very airy and open, to be used more for decoration than warmth. I have to admit, I've started it already. The rules are, You must cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies. Given that the opening ceremonies were underway in Beijing when I cast on this morning, I think I'm still technically within the rules.

So what's the unexpected haul? Lots of sale yarn including:

5 skeins of Cotton Classic, at $17 for the lot.
A one-pound cone of unknown thin yellow. I'm guessing fingering weight and cotton. $5.25 for that.
And the best buy was 14 skeins of Rowan Felted Tweed in 151 Bilberry for $91 instead of the usual $140. Not sure what I'll do with it but I just got the Interweave Knits Fall 2008 and there's always the Sunrise Circle cardigan.