Feast or Famine

Its either feast or famine some days at work and today is definitely a famine day. Which I suppose is ok since I have time to review the interesting part of the week - Friday through Sunday evening.

Nothing too exciting happened at work on Friday but after work I spent quality time with knitters and spinners at Knitter's Palette for the monthly Spin and Knit (SP-IT) gathering. There was a lively group talking about spinning at the Dakota County fair (which started this week), European knitting cruises, Eastern seaboard cruises, babysitters who text!!!!, bananas that may or may not be jacked with (wink wink) and of course, yarn and knitting patterns. I actually finished sewing up the sleeves of the project I've been working on, the Imagine sweater, before the fun was over.

After SPITting, I picked up my oldest son from work, stopped by Caribou for coffee and made it home for the 10 PM edition of Real Time with Bill Maher. He opened the show with President Obama's former physician, Dr. David Scheiner, who spoke about the need for reform and is 100% in favor of a single payer system (which is not on the table at this time). Bill's panel this week was made up of 2 Repugs from the House of Representatives - Jack Kingston from Georgia and Darrell Issa from California - talking about Health Care Reform. He was joined by Arianna Huffington and a lively discussion was had, although not quite as exciting as Bill had wanted or expected. New Rules this week - Smart President <> Smart Country

Saturday, CB and I were supposed to go for a bike ride but it was raining and thus I squeaked out of that one! I took my son's shoe shopping at Knollwood Mall and discovered that the DSW there is MUCH better than the one in Burnsville. Anyone who has been to the Burnsville DSW store should make the trip to Hopkins to check it out! I bought a cute pair of brown slip-ons for work and the offspring bought work boots/shoes as each required. Note - lots of purses and bags...LOTS. We finished up our shopping excursion with a stop at Chipotle for a late lunch.

Later, CB and my friend Rina and I went off to Irish Fair on Harriet Island. I really love this event, or I have in past years. I wasn't really crazy about the tent layout changes they made this year. It seemed really random and somewhat chaotic. The one thing that stands out is that they set up the food vendors in a row that backed up to the river walk. Maybe that was so that the trash could be collected easier with carts or a truck along the river walk. The athletic field was set up where the food vendors had been in previous years. Also, there seemed to be a lot of crowding and chaos in the vendor tents...were there more vendors this year? Seemed like it. With the humidity up after the big rain on Friday and Saturday, it was really uncomfortable in the tents. And there was plenty of mud. I think I've been spoiled by the beautiful weather we've had all summer prior to this weekend. The music was good though, even if the beer was expensive ($6) and so was the parking. ($10-$15). People Watching was good. There just seemed to be something missing - flow, perhaps.

On Sunday I escaped the bike ride again due to cloudy-looks-like-rain weather in the morning. Instead we went to see Julie and Julia at the Cinemagic Theater over by Burnsville Center. We both enjoyed it immensely. CB and I are both Meryl Streep fans and by the end of the film we felt like we were actually watching Julia Child and not an actress portraying her. We also loved Stanley Tucci in the role of her husband, Paul. I laughed, I cried....CB laughed a lot. I, for one, can't wait to make Bœuf bourguignon once the weather cools down a bit.

Everyone has been asking about my spinning lately owing to the fact that I haven't been doing much of it and I don't really talk about it much. So in answer to, "Have you been doing any spinning?" or "Do you spin?" or "Have you used your wheel lately?" - a resounding YES! I don't always find time to spin and so to all who have been asking - I USED IT YESTERDAY! Hooray! I hauled my Schacht Matchless out of the corner and into the center of the room, and after oiling all its moving parts I spun up about 2 oz of natural, undyed CVM while listening to Dead Until Dark. I know awhile back I said I would sew on Sundays...but I'm not so much tied to that schedule quite yet. As a matter of fact I haven't had the sewing machine out since I made that schedule for myself. But back to the spinning...it felt really good to spin after so long a time away from my wheel. I have a lot of this CVM; in 2 colors! So I have plenty to experiment with - for certain! I think I'm getting the hang of the long draw, paying special attention to the little bumps that threaten to form when, after drafting out as far as you can reach, you sort of hold the fiber a bit firmer and you let the wheel take up the yarn onto the spool. The single I spun up measured out at a consistent 20 WPI! :-) Anyway...I wish I could spin again soon but it looks like Thursday evening is my first free time at home this week.

TV last night was entertaining....Dateline did piece on Woodstock to commemorate the 40th Anniversary which is this week. My son pointed out that I finished Imagine just in time for the Anniversary! If I had only been born 2 or 3 years earlier... I would have my own first-hand memories of it.

And of course Sunday night is True Blood night on HBO and it was a rollicking good episode with Sookie showing her grit and standing up to Bill's maker! Whoa! And that Godrick..what an evolved, smart Vamp he turned out to be. CB and I agreed that we are starting to like Eric... Jason has really turned a corner as well! But the scene with Eggs and Tara and the Hunter's Souffle...yikes! Where is that all going to lead!? Andy is also coming around as a might-be-likable character, its too bad the Sheriff doesn't see that yet.