Idiot forgets knitting, makes do

Is anyone else thrown off by the timing of Thanksgiving this year? I intended to spend the week of Thanksgiving with my sister in Maine. Instead, I booked my flight for the week before. I have continued to confuse dates (when rescheduling a haircut, when signing out for the week on my work intranet, etc.)

I can't blame my date confusion for this blunder though: I left on vacation without my messenger bag. This means I brought no knitting with me on the trip (or books, but I had an extra book in my suitcase). I don't think I've flown without a knitting project since 2000. So a trip to the knitting shops was called for, and long story short:


The yarn is Halcyon's Botanica, a line I've never noticed before. It has beautiful stitch definition and an attractive pallet. My plan is to knit a mostly plain, olive-colored sweater, with a few maize-colored stripes for accent.

Downeast Maine is lovely this week: cold but sunny. The cold gives me an excuse to wear thick, handknit sweaters, and I'm looking forward to being able to wear sweaters like this one in progress on days like today.

Vacation Tweets

I don't use Twitter with my phone. If I did, this is probably what I would've tweeted in the past few days:

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Landed only 20 min late. Resolution: only carbs on this trip will be alcohol, breakfast, or frozen.
11:00 AM July 16, 2008 from txt

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Maine International Film Festival. http://asenseofwonderfilm.com
06:30 PM July 16, 2008 from txt

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If I had iPhone, I would look up voice actors for WALL-E.
01:30 PM July 17, 2008 from txt

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Buying handspun from Pine Tree Yarns in Damariscotta. Next: sit on rocks @ Pemaquid until I forget my name.
11:00 AM July 18, 2008 from txt

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Fresh mussels with linguini and house marinara @ Scarlet Begonia. Brownie batter & pnut butter cup @ Gelato Fiasco.
06:00 PM July 18, 2008 from txt

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LOL http://drhorrible.com -- "The hammer is my penis."
08:00 AM July 19, 2008 from txt

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"Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth"

Matt posted a great re-cap of the XY Knitters' Trip to Mary Sheep & Wool. Left to myself, I probably would have down-played the farting, but Matt's account does paint an accurate picture. I can only add camera-phone snapshots and these assorted out-of-context nuggets of conversation.

Caution: slow moving wood.

It was an explosion of color. It was nice. (No, Don, you can't write that down; it doesn't count).

Here at Reality Tour Headquarters, we go through a lot of vermouth.

I don't like to crochet blankets when my colostomy bag is full.

Don't eat the brown guacamole.

SSS: Sleepy Sac Syndrome.

I think a booger just fell down my shirt.

I wanna see a full on throw down over some yarn.

Somebody's nuts smell really good.

Really no fun in making up a song about not farting.

Who just put on the peppermint scented Preparation H?

Next year we call it "Maryland Sex & Wool."

There's more in my journal, but it's best not to get too specific since it involves an unfortunate copy of the Koran, obscure snatches of music from West Side Story, or who was going to "accidentally" surprise whom in the shower. None of this comes close to showing how much fun I had. Thanks for the great weekend, gentlemen. All your blogs just got moved from the "Knitting" folder to the "Friends" folder in my blogroll.

Oh, and just to show that the weekend was not utterly lacking in dignity, here's Seamus posing with my traveling sock:

A town so smart its spelling starts with C-H-I-C...Chic!

Back from the activity portion of my vacation. Mike and I went to Chicago for the long weekend. Here's the rundown:

• Terrific room at the Palmer House with a wonderful surprise gift basket from my sister and her husband
  
• Nice dinner (terrible table) at Italian Village. Great breakfast at Lou Mitchell's (the donut holes were everything I'd hoped for, and I need to recreate the cheddar and apple omelet at home some time). So-so pizza at Giordano's. Best pomegranate martini I've ever had at Miller's Pub.
• Taping of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me at the Chase Auditorium. This was our favorite ticketed event of the weekend, even above the two musicals we saw. Two lovely handknit sweaters in the row in front of us. I tried to take pics with my camera, but they didn't turn out. We bought mugs, because like they told us at the show, "If you don't buy any overpriced trinkets, it's like you weren't even here."
  
• Miles and magnificent miles of Urban Hiking (or "Shopping"). Here's Mike with his celebrity boyfriend at the Gap.

Altar Boyz was good, poking fun at boy bands and the clumsy bad art of Christian rock. The stereotypes were played a little too broadly, but maybe that's the point. (I think it still could've worked with a lighter touch). 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was better, although I kept getting distracted by the brat precious little girl sitting front and center, who kept standing up and talking to her parents every time a performer was spotlighted downstage. Both shows had a mix of humor and sentimentality that make them enjoyable if not particularly moving or challenging (although the song Olive sings in response to "chimerical" really does earn the tears, I think).

The one big dud of the trip was Adler Planetarium, which we went to because there was, even late in the afternoon, a long line to get into the Shedd Aquarium. Some of the astrolabe stuff was mildly interesting. But in general the Adler is so lame that I think it actually does damage to the cause of making kids interested in science. (For a good planetarium experience, go to the Hayden in New York).

I need to sing the praises of my amazing L. L. Bean Weather Challenger Jacket -- waterproof shell, removable fleece liner. The weather was fickle, but this jacket adapts to everything.