Category Archives: See the Sights

See the Sights

In which I report on several more days of vacation

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After a promising start to taking a lot of vacation pictures, my picture taking became quite a bit more erratic. I’ll muddle along as best I can. After all, if you were desperately into cohesive narrative, you probably wouldn’t be here in the first place, right? 😉

Some views from Michaele’s place – see the really large REI in the second picture? I got a pair of Keens there…

 

 

The day after the party (Wednesday, June 13), I rambled around downtown Denver in the morning. You’ve already seen my best pictures from that day in the Things to do in Denver when you’re alive post. Then Michaele and I stopped at Fancy Tiger (where the horndribbles are plentiful), Colorful Yarns, and A Knitted Peace on our way to Buca to celebrate Stacey’s birthday in the Pope Room.

 

I cannot sufficiently emphasize the freakiness of the Pope Room! You might remember my picture of the Pope under glass on a spinner… The womens’ room at Buca was massively entertaining, but I restrained myself from spending the entire evening in there taking pictures.

 

After Buca, we went back to Colorful Yarns and knit for a while with some of the folks from Stacey’s party. (Yes, yes, of course I made purchases at our various stops, but you’ll have to wait for the purchases post, since everything’s been so muddled together now!)

Thursday the 14th, Michaele and I headed up to Boulder for a bit of morning hiking along the Flatirons. Then we wandered along Pearl Street, dining and exploring shops. You’ll have to completely imagine this part, since I apparently didn’t take a single picture of our idyllic day. We camped at a table outside the Bookend Cafe, next to the Boulder Bookstore, enjoying excellent people watching, conversation, and a bit of knitting. In the evening, Anne joined us for knitting and conversation before we headed back to Denver.

Friday the 15th, I wandered up to Estes Park, checked into our cabin, and headed across the street to a thrift shop while I waited for everyone else to arrive. I think I was meant to go to that shop. What do you think?

 

The chenille black cat, black cat coasters, knitting pattern and booklet, and eight vintage Estes Park postcards (not pictured, because they were ready to be mailed) set me back a whopping $2.15.

Ok, more on Estes later – this has gone on long enough!

 

“Look, Mom, no cavities (or paper)!” -Mayhem

Randonymity, See the Sights

Rub-a-tum-tum

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Edit: Hee hee – I wonder if they used Chaos as inspiration?! 

And more again…

I found another cat tummy or two myself. Chaos’ brother, Diablo (he’s on a diet!) – hmm, it’s a bit hard to tell, but doesn’t it look like he’s missing guard hair in the same spot Chaos is?! (I know, more exposed boy kitty nipples. Blog’s going to heck in a handbasket.)

A really bad shot of Chaos’ mom, Riley, and her white tummy spot – if it helps, part of her mouth is on the extreme upper left of the picture.

Our unsettled weather continues. Yesterday we had crazy, crazy wind. The big storms missed my area of Minneapolis, but the clouds over Lake Calhoun last night were pretty dramatic – these are from the south shore of Lake Calhoun, looking north toward downtown.

Ok, you busted me. I got nothin’! I’ve been doing all sorts of little things to get ready for vacation, but haven’t made a whole lot of knitting progress (although I am on the cuff of the second pink and black sock). Somewhere I have a reading update to post, too… I will post something else before I leave Monday, I promise!

Gratuitous Chaos shot to distract you…

*bite bite bite nip nip nip* -Chaos

See the Sights

What I did with my weekend, or Meet the Peeves

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As I mentioned Friday, the Peeves came to Minneapolis for approximately 24 hours, en route to see more sights and meet more bloggers (Hi CarrieK! Hi La! Hi Laurie! You’ll have fun!!). Meet the notoriously camera shy Peeves:

After we caffeined up, we headed over to Yarnzilla, which was one of Peeve’s must-see Minneapolis destinations.

This may or may not have been because of Yarnzilla’s amazing wall o’ Koigu (they have more in the back – and I think that gap at the right end of the second row from the top is where Peeve had already grabbed a few skeins). Peeve’s love of Koigu is infamous.

More on the great yarn I got at Yarnzilla in a few minutes. We then proceeded into Minneapolis proper to Depth of Field. If you were a game show contestant, wouldn’t you select the prize behind the yarn door? I thought so.

After stopping so the Peeves could have a bagelly lunch, we headed down to Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s, where we discovered a book signing in progress. I picked up the latest (For a Few Demons More) from the lovely and gracious Kim Harrison.

Our next stop was Dreamhaven, where Mr. Peeve purchased a Cthulhu baseball cap, autographed Neil Gaiman goodies, and much, much more.

I was fascinated by the display of awards Neil Gaiman won for his novel American Gods. Sorry about the crappy picture, CV… Top center was his Hugo Award, then from left to right, his Locus Award, SFX Award, Nebula Award, and Stoker Award. Seeing a Hugo and a Nebula in person – wow.

We were all pretty tired after that, so we wandered over to my condo and vegged for a while before venturing back out for some food at Tum Rup Thai. The rest of the evening was spent knitting (Peeve and I), doing laundry (Mr. Peeve), and trying to convince Chaos that just because people aren’t me doesn’t mean they’re bad.

Sunday morning, we stopped for breakfast at the Uptown Diner, then had time to stop at the MSP Airport Post Office so the Peeves could lighten their load a bit before they hopped on another plane. Thanks for stopping in Minneapolis, you two! I had a blast, and my lumpy futon is yours for any future visits! 🙂 Maybe it won’t be raining then – as feared, it rained all weekend. The Peeves claimed to enjoy the rain, since Melbourne is suffering a drought. Well, then, they came to the right place.

So back to the yarn… On the left is a gorgeous skein that Peeve brought me from Australia – it was dyed by the late Marta, so this is a very, very special skein. I hope I can do it justice. Thank you ever so much, Peeve. I am honored.

The next two skeins are from Yarnzilla – they’re One Sheep Hill superwash merino sock yarn (500 yards) and are hand dyed exclusively for Yarnzilla. (This yarn isn’t on their website yet, but should be soon.) Linda, the gracious owner of Yarnzilla, gave Peeve and I each a skein of the colorway in the center! Thank you, Linda!

“Hmm, maybe your skein has that one sheep in it, May. I don’t think mine does.” -C

*sniff sniff sniff* -M

Peeve also bought me a lovely skein of Henry’s Attic Carrera (50 silk/50 merino), which I look forward to dyeing this summer. Thanks again, Peeve! While we were at Depth of Field, I picked up some other yarn for dyeing – in the center are a few balls of sportweight Colorado Yarn from the DoF Sale Loft. The two skeins on the right are Jeannie from Kraemer Yarns (80 superwash/20 nylon, 480 yards), which I hadn’t seen before.

“I will love this skein forever and I will name it Mayhem.” -C

“Wait a minute…” -M

“Hey, cut it out, you two! Unpaw that yarn, Chaos!” -me

Contests, Randonymity, See the Sights

A day in my life

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Heather’s giving away several copies of a Project Spectrum blue/white/grey mix cd she made. Leave her a comment about what you’re working on for Project Spectrum and you will be entered in a drawing! Comments must be left by February 19, noon MST.

Thanks for all the input on the mobius cat bed yesterday! Although the “keep it” contingent was quite eloquent, I think I’m going to rip it out – if nothing else, I don’t have a lot of free space in my condo and it’s supposed to be a pretty large item even after felting.

Last week I mentioned that Elisa was having a contest – she wanted to see what our typical days were like. Yesterday I finally remembered to take out my camera throughout the day!

I get up at an unspecified time – I’m not quite sure, since I engage in alarm clock trickery (set it quite a bit fast, hit snooze quite a few times). I shower, dress, feed the cats, feed myself, make a mocha in a go-cup, and am in the car driving to work by 6:15 am. It’s dark. And everyone drives very fast. I didn’t take any pictures.

I get to work by 6:30. I’m one of the first people there, so it’s nice and quiet as I ease into my day, sipping my mocha and publishing my blog entry (prepared the night before). Here are some highlights from my cube, starting with my cabinet covered with Frigits:

My bulletin board – you can read it if you click on it!

A few toys… Hey, I work in IT. I have to have toys in my cube.

My work computer, with another Kenshin background.

I pretty much sit at that computer all day long. Sometimes people come over and talk to me. Sometimes I get up and use the facilities. Often I go run errands over lunch. Yesterday was an errand day. I started at my beloved thrift store – picked up some fun buttons and a black hoodie (to wear when walking around the lakes in the spring).

Then I returned a big stack of library books, but didn’t find anything to check out.

Next I went to the post office to mail a few mysterious packages. There wasn’t a line. I’m still in shock about that – good thing I documented it.

Finally, I stopped and picked up a salad…

and another soy mocha (there is a barista – she’s just tiny!).

Back to my cube – ate my salad, drank my mocha, worked. I usually leave at 3:30 pm, but yesterday I left around 4 pm, since I did take sort of a long lunch. I drive home on side streets – the freeway is already pokey.

One more errand – I needed cat food. Fortunately, my neighborhood pet food store did not have a cage of rescue kittens this time (see, for example, Mayhem).

This is what greets me when I get home and open the door:

“I’m dying! I’m dying! I’m dying! I’m dying!” -C

So I feed the cats and do other exciting things like clean the litterbox (not documented – aren’t you glad?!). I turn on my laptop and answer email, edit photos, and work on the next day’s blog entry.

Last night I straightened out the poor sweater I’m trying to dry…

“A new place to nap and play, play and nap! So very cushy… is there some silk in this, Mom? Maybe a spot of cashmere?” -M

Finally, I had some supper (popcorn and a soy hot chocolate) and settled in with my knitting to watch the premiere of Season 6.

Bedtime varies from 9:30 pm (best) to 11:30 pm (not so good), depending on how sucked into 24 I get. Since I’m out of DVDs after the Season 6 premiere until the rest of the season comes out on DVD, I’ll hopefully get more regular sleep again soon!

Contests, See the Sights

Cooqi

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Ruth is having a contest – leave her a comment by Friday with your best guess as to why she knows that Lamb’s Pride Worsted (color “coffee bean”) burns with green flame in the fireplace – you could win some sock yarn.

Check out the Yarn Life 2007 Crafting Challenge! By declaring your fiber-related goals for the year, you can be part of the support forum (y’know we all need support!) and eligible for prizes throughout the year.

So I might’ve mentioned that I’m a celiac and follow a gluten-free diet. Living life without wheat, rye, barley, spelt, and oats is definitely a bit of an adjustment. When I was diagnosed over 10 years ago, gluten-free products were only available over the internet or in limited selections at co-ops. Now? Wow. The times, they are a-changin’ and it’s good. One sign of this is that the Twin Cities now has a gluten-free coffeeshop and bakery!

Cooqi is located at 2186 Marshall Avenue in St. Paul – basically on the southwest corned of Marshall and Cretin – and has been open a week.

I visited them right before closing on their first day and they were a bit shellshocked (but happy!) about the response they’d received, as evident from the empty bakery case!

I’ll definitely be back to try some of their bread, have some more muffins and a mocha, and sit and knit. Cooqi is extremely warm and cozy and I wish they had more seating for knitters! 🙂

They also appear to be extremely kid friendly.

“I’ll get you for the foot incident, big kitty!” -M
Festing, Knitting, Randonymity, Reading, See the Sights

Eventing

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If you’re in the Twin Cities and you’re planning to attend the Mountain Goats concert at the Triple Rock Social Club on Thursday, September 14, please let me know! Right now I’m going alone.

A while ago, I asked if anyone was going to be at the Taos Wool Festival (October 7-8), as it will be one of my stops on the Knitblogger’s Fall Tour I have planned for myself. If you are on the path between Minneapolis and Albuquerque and going to be around from September 30 – roughly October 15 or so, please leave me a comment or send an email to chris at this domain. I’m trying to get my exact schedule and route figured out – currently, I have stops planned in Ft Collins, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Taos (for the festival), although not specific dates yet.

SRP Update
He Huffed and He Puffed (250 pages), Good King Sauerkraut (214 pages), and You Have the Right To Remain Silent (249 pages) by Barbara Paul. These were the second, third, and fourth NYPD Lt Marian Larch mysteries. The second and third Marian Larch mysteries are described on the covers as “mysteries with Marian Larch” – she is definitely not the main character. In fact, in He Huffed and He Puffed, I wasn’t sure it was a Marian Larch book for the longest time! You Have the Right To Remain Silent is the first book in which Marian Larch is as important as the crime she’s investigating. This book could also be described as The Apostrophe Thief, part one.
Love Is Murder by Linda Palmer, 275 pages. This is the first Morgan Tyler (soap opera writer) mystery and even though I have absolutely no interest in daytime drama, I’m definitely enjoying this series (which I am unfortunately reading out of order). I’m about to start the third book in the series, which I hope will feature the black kitten she acquired in book 2. 🙂

Belated Saturday Sky… So belated that I took the picture Sunday evening! This is a view of downtown Minneapolis from the south shore of Lake Calhoun.

And to prove that I actually do knit sometimes, here’s my charcoal grey Regia Silk waffle sock for Project Spectrum – now with more cat butt than ever!