Unexpected Thanksgiving

We were meant to be in Phoenix right now, celebrating my aunt's 70th birthday on T'giving day with all our family. The airlines had other ideas, and as we watched our flight get delayed yet again and learned we would miss our connecting flight and there were no others available at all, I was really bummed about the holiday. I really wanted to be with them all, to go around the table sharing what we're thankful for, and have the chance to catch up with everyone. Instead I was on the phone with the airline confirming our tickets would be refunded and trying to decide what to do about dinner on Thursday. But it's turned out to be a really delightful holiday.

It was only 9:30am when we left the airport (although being up for 6 hours already made it feel much later). D needed a new coat, so we headed over to the stores and enjoyed having fully stocked racks and shelves everywhere we turned. We decided that rather than try to create a traditional turkey dinner at home, I'd grill steaks with mushrooms and onions, grilled asparagus, and mashed potatoes. We stopped at Fresh Market and they had chanterelle mushrooms - so far my favorite fungus and not one you see fresh in stores this time of year. I picked some up and sauteed them with cippolini onions from our garden, a nice holiday-level treat.

I had thought about running a Turkey Trot 5k out in Phoenix, I figured it'd be warm enough I could do it barefoot. I decided the night before T'giving to head to town and run in our local one. Although it was cold enough I did wear shoes:

It was a fun event, and the race organizers said over 14,000 people and 700 dogs had registered! The shirts had big turkeys on them, and the dogs got matching bandannas with bones on them. I have no idea what my time was. With that many people the start was really sluggish and for some reason I'm not listed in the chip timing results :(. Not that it really matters. I ran at an even pace the whole time and had fun doing it.

The weather warmed up in the afternoon and we went outside for a game of catch. We were a bit rusty, including our outfielder Kayla, who kept losing the ball in the leaves. Kayla was a riot. She kept running back and forth between us each throw, rather than stand still and wait to see where the ball was headed. When one of us missed a catch she'd crank into high gear and chase after the ball no matter how tired she was.

So overall, despite the change in plans, it turned into a very nice holiday with a lot of the features I had hoped for. And since it seems incorrect to end a T'giving post without a mention of thankfulness - my heart overflows with gratitude at the life I have and the people I get to share it with. I love you all!

He loves me more than just flowers

I was out shopping at Marshalls/TJ Maxx and fell in love with this totally impractical pair of shoes.  They're Calvin Klein, on clearance, and actually had my size.  A subtle evergreen/teal snakeskin peep toe with a dark brown stacked stiletto heel.  I tried them on, standing up gingerly aware of my bad ankle.  The shoes were perfectly comfortable, peep toes really take the pressure off from the heel height.  I walked around, knowing that once my ankle is better I'll have no trouble moving in them.  But they're just ridiculously tall.  4" heel on top of a half inch platform.  Yeah, that puts me dangerously close to 6'3".  I'm thinking of Braveharlot when I say that, since she's a gorgeous 6'2" barefoot and no stranger to over the top heels. 

I fell obsessively in love with them but put them back on the shelf, telling myself they were a bit too expensive, definitely too tall, and where am I ever going to wear them?  Yes, the unusual color would go with almost any color dress, particularly that gorgeous cool grey dress I bought recently (also Calvin Klein.  God I love TJ Maxx).  They kept dominating my thoughts as I went through the store buying more practical items like velvety hangers, a new couch cover, and pet odor carpet spray.  I went back to the shoe department and put them back on, taking a photo of them with my phone to remember them by.  I called my mom and told her about the shoes, lamenting that my shoe fetish wasn't quashed permanently, and how do I keep myself from drooling over things like this when I know what types of shoes are better for my feet and legs?  She laughed, and I went home with my practical household items.

When I got home D felt something was wrong, and wanted to know what it was.  I told him about the shoes and showed him the photo I took.  He said I should go back and get them if I really liked them that much.  I demurred, citing all the reasons I had against buying them.  He got exasperated with me, commenting that he'd like to buy me things like that, knowing I don't really care about flowers and such.  When I argued how impractical they were, he said I'd wear them to a dinner party and all the other women could see how nice they were.  He insisted they were a present, and before I knew it I was back in the car to get my special shoes.   He's so sweet :)

Ale tasting

My parents came down for a visit and I thought it'd be fun to have an eclectic mix of beers for me and Dad to share. He said he likes brown ales so I went to the local wine shop and told the manager what style I wanted. It was great being led around the extensive beer section having him pull bottles off the shelf explaining why each choice was special. He pulled a Dogfish Head ale down and I commented that I didn't really care for DFH beers. He seemed stunned, knowing that my tastes are similar to his, and said DFH is his favorite brewery. He handed me a bottle, saying I needed to taste it. He saw my hesitation and dragged me over to the counter to open it, saying I *had* to try it. He poured us each a healthy dollop to drink. It was pretty good, and I promised I'd give the brewery another try. So here's the array I ended up with. My favorite was the Boont amber ale. Dad & I had a fun time working our way through the lineup over their visit. They were all very different, and a few times we traded glasses after tasting each other's choices. Best of all, they're about 1/4 the cost of my normal Belgian ales. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing a similar style-tasting in the future for other varieties. Anyone want to join me?

Meet our new baby!

Fresh from a bath, and hasn't left D's lap since we set her there. She's an Australian Shepherd mix we think, which Katie also was (we always thought it was border collie but after looking online we believe she was Aussie). Looks a lot like Katie did but a little thinner faced and WAY fuzzier. Even her forehead has heavy fluff on it. She's super cuddly and chased after Windy a bit. Windy is about 20% weirded out, the rest just curious - including pulling out all her toys in front of the new girl. No name yet, but she's only a couple hours old, so to speak. Hooray!

No catchy title, just good fun

My sister-in-law just came for a visit (well, my brother was there too, but she & I went off on our own). We had a delightful time starting at the local wine shop for their weekly tasting and buying some rare & unusual wines with my brother. He met up with an old friend there and we went our separate ways. Our next stop was to the local donut shop (a request from my bro) to pick up some stunningly fabulous donuts. Not even sure how to accurately describe how wonderful they are - small batch, freshly made, soft inside with a crisp tooth on the outside, worth breaking any diet for.

Then on to the local yarn store, where we sat on the floor pulling together colors for our next 2-row projects. We unconsciously were holding the potential yarn balls the same way, and laughed when we saw the result. I think she got the one on her thumb in the end. I found a perfect colorway combination, but the yarn was just a bit crispier than I'd like so I talked myself out of it in the end. The women are not very welcoming at this shop, so we left and went next door to Starbucks (stopping by the car to pick up a donut) to knit and chat. I think we spent a couple hours there. The conversation was great and it was neat that we were working on essentially the same project in different colorways-you can see my scarf below. When are they going to invent teleporters so we can get together on a regular basis for craft-chatting?We got the crazy idea to go back home and dye some self-striping yarn ourselves, since I didn't get any at the shop. I do this regularly so it's not that crazy, just the spontenaity (good god that doesn't look spelled right) that made it seem so. We haul out my warped warping board and begin winding the yarn to prep for dyeing. She was an extremely helpful assistant during the winding process. After we finished we talked about what colors we wanted, and neither of us were definite about anything. So we bundled it all away for future use and went out to dinner with the guys. We already have too many plans for the next time we see each other (in a few weeks!).

Crafty Doppelganger

My awesome sister-in-law and I had a great time at our family xmas party. She's also a knitter and spinner, and we had a crazy time drinking wine and fiber geeking. We have a lot in common, to the point that when I saw her nailpolish I had to rip my sock off to show I had the exact same color on my toes.We also share a happily similar taste in knitting projects and yarns. The first time I met her she was knitting socks with kool-aid dyed yarn. I grinned and pulled out my own kool-aid socks project. It seems every time we visit it ends in pattern swaps for what the other person is knitting. She's also incredibly enthusiastic, moreso even than me if you can believe it. It rubs off when we're together, which is yet another reason I wish we lived closer together. I might actually get some projects finished with her encouragement.

For a good part of the evening we sat together on the couch knitting and talking. I told her to knit on my 2-row Noro scarf (no it's not Noro yarn) a bit - a touchy thing since most knitters have subtle variations in knitting styles. So now when I look at my scarf I can see the inch she knit, too subtle of a difference for anyone else to notice, but a happy reminder of the evening. Things got a bit silly later in the evening, including some dangerous online shopping, and hilarity over my inability to match dye lots. Hey! When you dye your own yarn without measuring these things happen. Cool sock pattern, though. On a slightly unrelated note, I think yarn shops would be well served to hold wine tastings in the store. My local shop had a book signing party w/ wine one night and I think the owner made a killing off of tipsy yarn purchases. It's only extreme self control that keeps us all from going bonkers in yarn shops. A glass or 2 of wine destroys that, as my splurge on the current scarf yarn shows. She (and my brother) are coming for a visit in a couple weeks as a result of the online shopping that night. I can't wait to geek out with her again.