Beach Day

After a fairly crappy Saturday, today was a nearly perfect day here at the Lake.

I was up early to see my parent off on their vacation to Nova Scotia. I sat on the front porch and read my favorite brain candy for two hours, reading a book start to finish.

Then I wandered down the street to visit six of my favorite humans. I know I’ve mentioned the Blackburns before several times. They’re truly wonderful people. Without even trying, I received and accepted a dinner invitation. A far superior choice to running into town to get dinner to eat alone, which was my original plan.

After coming home and having leftover ribs …

Oh yeah. We had the VBP RibFest last night. Winning the ribs contest is like playing hot potato. It means you have to host next year and nobody wants to do that. Here’s the passing of the crown …


Tony, on the right, is the two-year champion. We didn’t have a RibFest last year since his mother was extremely ill. Dan, on the left, is our new champion. He has won previously.

And we had a cool sunset

Saturday’s Sunset

… So back to today. After having rib leftovers for lunch, I went down to the beach. Today was an almost perfect beach day. It was too hot to just sit on the beach, so I went swimmin’ Twice! There were a ton of people in the water, since the lake was dead calm and a perfect temperature for a hot day.

After I was properly sunned, I came back up to the house and got quite near the end of my second book of “brain candy” for the day. Then I had a really great bike ride, finished my book, showered and went down for dinner.

We got a little silly after dinner when we all started taking pictures of each other taking pictures :)

Ann

Bill (L) and Chuck

Joann and Bill

Then Ann and I took a goodly number of sunset photos




I went inside for a bit then said my goodbyes. Ann, Chuck, Doug and Andrea (last two were not pictured. They hid inside. Doug is a good friend who is 10 years younger than your friendly local DPUTiger. Ann is Bill & Joann’s daughter. Doug is Ann & Chuck’s son. Confused yet?) leave to go back to Indianapolis tomorrow. I’ll leave to go home and then spend the week in Mississippi. I hope to have another week up here before the end of the summer, but today has been great.

Oh, and we had fireworks in Barcelona tonight! Nearly no booms, pretty show from a distance. Actually, five local communities had fireworks displays tonight. We could see flashes from two of them in addition to the Barcelona show. Much fun!

Another Weekend, Shot to Hell

I keep forgetting to get a decent outdoor photoshoot with the Black Socks of Doom. Since I’d kind of like to blog the FOs in order, this is putting a serious hitch in my giddyup. There are actually two additional finished and photographed projects waiting in line behind the Black Socks of Doom thanks to my FO-tographer Michelle (owner of Bloomin’ Yarns … we were surprisingly quiet on Saturday morning!)

We’re doing baseball the next two nights (what else do I do when the Cubs are in town?) so blogging might be a little thin for the early part of this week. Here’s hoping that between those baseball games I can turn in a few kick-ass work days! I certainly need them!

We got home from the Lake on Friday and I promptly fell asleep on the couch for a two-hour nap instead of doing some writing like I probably should have done. Watching Olympic softball TiVo-free finally took its toll, I guess. Saturday was spent working at the Bloomin’ Yarns sale. I slept in this morning, then motivated enough to go up to The Quilt Company for a special Sunday event to unveil their fall schedule (and put batiks on sale 25% off!). I really enjoy that store and intend to take at least one class up there this fall (fingers crossed). I think I will find "my people" there.

Anyhoo, I got a serious eye-roll when I asked The Hubster if he’d answer the spouse meme going around blogland (most recently seen on the blogs of Trillian42 and TheOtherAmanda), but Chris is a good sport, so here you go. His responses in italics, my editorial comments [in brackets]

1. What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
you enjoy it

2. What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
It sometimes pulls attention away from other things/times I'm trying to communicate something
[This is true … sometimes]

3. What is something I have knitted that you recall as good?
maybe a sweater; actually the color themed scarfs are cool, but probably elementary as far as knitting prowess
[I think he means my Steelers and Bruin scarves, but I’m a moron and forgot to check my email while he was still awake to confirm this suspicion]

4. Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
yes
[but has he, in 10 years, ever complained or tell me to cool it? Once. And I deserved that!]

5. Do you have a stash of any kind?
Nope
[sad, but true! I wish he had a hobby so I'd feel less guilty about spending on mine!]

6. Have I ever embarrassed you knitting in public?
Yes [I knew this, but ::cringe:: I now try to ask before busting out my knitting in public]

7. Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?
No [I don’t think I could answer that question either!]

8. Can you name another blog?
no

9. Do you mind my wanting to stop at yarn shops wherever we go?
as long as the stops are "long and lots"
[That's what he typed. I think he meant aren't "long and lots"]

10. Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
yes
[I believe him since he has worn the blue tent twice, despite the fact that I played fast and loose with the Gods of Gauge and lost. Another try for a sweater that fits is forthcoming. And I hope he knows how much it means to me that he wears that sweater anyway.]

11. Do you read my blog?
yes
[He has never electronically commented on the blog, but I occasionally hear about it if I blogged something he finds objectionable. Like when I falsely accused him of eating the toppings on peppermint brownies.]

12. If I didn't knit, what would be different?
you'd spend more time sewing
[True. Despite recent appearances, I quilt as well as knitting.]

13. Anything you would like to add?
No

OK, so I'll add something. He’s pretty great. I’ll keep him! Thanks, Chris, for being a good sport! [it’s my turn to be a good sport the next two nights. At least we’re going with WeirdyPants, the MWP and blogless Dana tomorrow night!]

RT Does Toronto (Part 3: Tourist-ey stuff)

When I finally dragged my stupid butt to bed last night (I stayed up too late, but hey! Sprout is done except for sewing on buttons!), I realized I had forgotten to blog. But then I realized I was going to be up ridiculously early (for me) in order to watch the Gold Medal softball game, which started at 6:30 am EDT on USA Network.

We started out our last day in Toronto with meeting up with one of my part-time bosses, who was in town for a game. We picked up credentials for that night’s football game, then had a yummy brunch before hoofing it over to the home of the Hippo Tours.

This was one of the things that Chris was excited about doing while we were in town and it was fun! The tour place has three Hippo busses, all of them made in Canada. Here’s “our” Hippo

Hello, Happy!

This is their oldest bus, Happy Hippo. These are quite similar to the Duck Tours that are available in many American cities, but with a swimming bus instead of a “WWII-surplus amphibious vehicle”

While on the tour, we drove past a number of Toronto landmarks

Old City Hall

This building has a ton of history. Next trip I think it would be cool to tour it

“The Ex”

“The Ex” is home to the Canadian National Exhibition, which started the day after we skipped town.

There was a big splash when Happy jumped into the water

Go, Hippo, Go!

Here’s a pic of Henrietta Hippo, the newest Hippo in the fleet. Gives you an idea what the bus looks like in water

Everybody wave!

We got some good views of Toronto from the water, but because the day was a little hazy, the photos weren’t spectacular. And it seemed like every time I thought I had a nice shot all framed up, something was in the way or something else didn’t seem quite right about it.

So on the way back to our drop-off spot, I managed to get one decent shot of the city’s tallest landmark

You can’t tell, but they were opening the roof of the Rogers Centre while this photo was taken!

Since we were going to the “big game” at the Rogers Centre that night, I figured it was appropriate to get a pic of both those things together. We tried to take a tour of the CN Tower after the Hippo Tour, but it was a busy day and we simply ran out of time.

We did a full lap-plus around Rogers Centre

Look! Statler and Waldorf!

For some reason, the designers of the SkyDome decided to put sculptures of sports fans on either corner of the “city side” of the building. I don’t understand why, but there you go. It’s called “The Audience” and is hard to miss.

Traffic was starting to remind us of Los Angeles, so we hoofed it back to our hotel, changed clothes for the football game and headed back over to Rogers Centre

Shhh!! Stealth RT photo from the press box!

They couldn’t make up their damn minds about the roof. Open. Closed. Open. Closed. Open for warm-ups. Closed for kickoff. Whatever. We worked through the end of the third quarter, then left early in the fourth.

I was starting to believe that Canada doesn’t have gas stations, but we finally found one off of the QEW, fueled up and headed homeward. There were wicked thunderstorms for the first two-thirds of the drive with massive quantities of rain and huge lightning but we made it through the weather, past the cranky U.S. Customs dude and back home.

Not much has been happening here at the Lake since we got back. Today will be our last full day up here, since we’re heading home on Friday. Finally, here are some photos from last night. The actual sunset wasn’t one of my favorites, but we had some spectacular colors after the sun went down.

RT Does Toronto (Part 2: Wallet Stealing)

We departed the Hockey Hall of Fame and decided that it was early enough that the best next stop on our itinerary was the one other request on my list.

After discovering (the hard way!) that Toronto is NOT a left turn-friendly city, we negotiated the maze of one-way streets, streetcars and challenging turns and landed …

Here

Yep. Lettuce Knit.


Let me tell you, my blog-reading friends. This place is T.I.N.Y. If you’re a California quilter, take the old classroom at Bearly Stitchin’ and chop it in half the long way. One of those halves is what I’m talking about for the entire public area of the store.

If you’re a Western PA knitter … hmmm … Take the kitchen at Bloomin’ Yarns and double it (making it two equal-sized rooms, end to end). If you aren't familiar with either of those locations? Use your imagination. This place is small!

Hmmm … what should I get with DPUTiger’s credit card?

That shot above is the one I used in yesterday’s post. It’s the wall on the right as you walk in . It’s all sock yarn. Lorna’s Laces on the top two shelves the whole way across. The bottom shelf has Jitterbug on the left, a disappointing (to me) supply of Fleece Artist, a little Handmaiden, some Smooshy and a sock yarn I recognized from Bloomin’ but can’t remember the name.

I wandered in while the Hubster took a stroll around the block so he’d be entertained while I was shopping. And lemme tell you – this is one eclectic neighborhood! They’re in the heart of Toronto’s Chinatown.

Anyhoo, I worked my way to the back of the store. There was one customer who was sitting in the back knitting a sweater who alerted me to the basket just inside the door that I had already perused on my way in (“I’m not a sock knitter so I’m not sure what it is, but it’s handpainted yarn that just arrived this morning and everyone has been going bonkers over it all day long!”) and one store employee*, as well as one additional shopper with her daughter.


Here’s the display on the left as you walk into the shop. A bunch of Butterfly cotton hanging from the wall, some amazing BFL Fleece Artist on either side … I would have purchased that, but I didn’t have any sweater patterns in my head and didn’t want to jump in blind. But wow, that was some soft, beautiful stuff!

Oh, and all the cubbys? Koigu! I decided to not look too closely, since I know that both K1 and Yarns Unlimited in Pittsburgh carry the stuff.

While I was perusing … I had pretty much realized that there wasn’t any Fleece Artist that was going to come home with me (the only colorways I liked were their seacell stuff, and that’s sadly in the same category as Tofutsies for me no matter how pretty the blue is!), I started digging through that aforementioned basket at the entrance. Of Socks that Rock. That had arrived that morning. And included a brand-new Lettuce Knit colorway!

Anyhoo, while I was on the floor digging through yarn (c’mon. what knitter hasn’t done that?), a woman breezed in talking a mile a minute. It was Ramona of the Hibiscus for Hope socks! She was talking about how absolutely slammed she had been because of Steph and her blog posts (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee had been knitting Ramona's sock kit through her entire vacation) and how wonderful Steph was for doing that and how she simply couldn’t keep up any more with the sponsorships and pattern requests. Ramona was an exceptionally happy camper!

So I chatted with Ramona for a bit. And I chatted with the store employee* as well. After a decent back and forth between three three of us, I was invited to the weekly Lettuce Knit stitch & bitch. And informed that Steph would most certainly be in attendance that particular evening. For about a heartbeat I thought about staying and then took a deep breath.

Me: What time does S&B start?
Them: Well, people are already coming in. But Steph usually feeds her family and comes in around [two hours from now].
Me: Wish I could, but I just can’t do that. The Hubster would kill me.
Them: Too bad, but if you’re ever around on a [that day] again…

I really appreciated the invite, and their advice on which of our “final three” evening activities we should pursue. (we took their advice and did Second City. It was fun!) And I didn’t mind in the least that it felt kind of like I had been “vetted” prior to the actual invite. Hell, Stephanie had been on vacation for three weeks and I’m certain she wanted to be a regular human at her regular knit night, no paparazzi encouraged. Completely understandable. And in all honesty if the time of Stephanie's regular arrival was "in about 20 minutes" I would have stuck around. Two hours I simply couldn't justify.

So I made my (not small) purchase

One Handmaiden Casbah, 5 STRs

RT did good, as usual! I'll detail it better in future YPF's.

And we were on our way to the hotel to check in and do dinner and a show. I will certainly go back the next time I’m in Toronto. For the shop, not just the celebrities that call it home!

Bye! Thanks for being awesome! :-)

As we were leaving, Chris mentioned that he appreciated that I passed up an opportunity to meet the Yarn Harlot and remarked that it was too bad I hadn’t had any knitting with me anyway.

I stopped, looked at him and said “do you really think I didn’t bring any knitting on this trip? I have a sweater and a sock in the car!” Boys. What are you going to do? ;-)

One more day in Toronto to recap, but it’s super late, so I’ll put it off until tomorrow. Today kind of flew once I shut down the work computer. Went for an 8-mile bike ride, had dinner with Chris and my mom, put together two IKEA cabinets at mom’s request and then had to watch a 9-inning nailbiter with USA Softball in their first medal round game. Since stupid CNBC didn’t show tonight’s game live (9:30 pm EDT first pitch, tape-delayed for a midnight start), we had to watch online on my computer so I couldn’t write and watch simultaneously.

I’ll shut up now so I can go to sleep. Happy Hump Day, everyone!

*In going back and looking at the Yarn Harlot’s post about Franklin’s visit to Lettuce Knit, I realized that the store employee that I chatted with? Denny. How ‘bout that!

RT Does Toronto (Part 1)

Hubster and I took a “Fake-ation 2008” side trip last week and spent the bulk of Wednesday and Thursday in Toronto. I took a bunch of fun pictures, so I’m splitting this thing up so I don’t get too photo-heavy.

Chris, RT and I started off at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The “showcase” part of the HOF is an old bank. Neat building.


The entrance, though, isn’t that cool door on the corner. It’s inside. Downstairs. In the food court of the mall. Seriously.

We saw great big statue dudes at the entrance

See the Hubster hiding in the background? (above)

We saw a replica of the Montreal Canadiens locker room

Put me in, coach!

RT wanted his picture taken with the real Stanley Cup. None of this replica crap.

I win!

Did you know that the Stanley Cup that they carry around to all the venues, etc., has a replica cup at the top? And those five big bands at the bottom? The top one gets flattened and put in the HOF when the bottom one fills up and they have to put a new one on.

We saw lots of Jimmy Craig’s stuff from the 1980 Olympics

Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!

We saw a group we recognized while we were in the Hall

Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!

It’s the Steelers magazine show (TV) guys. They were in town for the Steelers-Bills game at the Rogers Centre (Yes, I mean Centre! It’s in Canada, after all!) on Thursday night.

On the way out, RT saw a bunch of kids playing hockey. He wanted to join in, but he didn’t have his skates with him, so he just sat on the bench with them for a bit.

Oh wait. It’s summer! No outdoor skating in the summer!

So that was the first half of Wednesday’s itinerary. The food court entrance should have been a tip-off. We were a little disappointed in the Hockey HOF. But maybe that’s just because we have been spoiled by Canton, which is a fabulous HOF.

That’s enough for tonight, but I’ll give you a little hint about our next stop on Wednesday.

I stole DPUTiger’s wallet again! (muwahahaha!!!)

And now, sunset pictures from Saturday. Enjoy!

An Open Letter

Dear Canada:

Please consider investing in some reflective paint or those little reflective squares for the lane lines on the QEW. It would really have helped me not feel quite so much like I was driving to my death on the way home from Toronto tonight. Nothing quite like a Kramer Special three-lane comfort cruise at 60mph (roughly 100km/hr) in a downpour to make you feel nice and comfy.

KTHXBAI,
DPUTiger

Toronto was fun. My knitting peeps will be particularly in my trip recap. Look for it sometime Friday, probably early evening. I'm way too pooped to think tonight.

Holy Crappers!

Greetings from the Lake, and the start of fake-ation. The second DPUTiger-quoted article is now live and online. Find it here.

I’ve been chipping away at my socks-in-progress (cast on when I was a brainless drippy fool at PAKnitWit’s house on Saturday -- I managed to cast on 45 for a 46-stitch sock. Oh well.) and Sprout is patiently waiting for its buttons and button bands.

In other news, yesterday was a little bit nuts, blog-wise. I put that post up at 1:36 pm EDT. And then, the comments exploded. I was getting 3-5 comments every half-hour or so. So I got curious and checked SiteMeter.

Lots-o-numbers

Want a better visual on what happened to my blog hits? Take a look at this, screenshotted at about 11:45 pm on Sunday night.

What the hell is going on out there?

Uh-huh. That’s 1,420 visits to my quiet little blog in just over 10 hours. It’s the “Bars” recipe. Almost everyone got here by Googling for the bars recipe after reading the Yahoo! Sports article. A little more perspective?

Is that a sh!tload of hits or are you just happy to see me?

Taken just after midnight on Tuesday night/morning. Here’s hoping life returns to normal around here soon. ☺

I now will attempt to stay up at least until first pitch of the USA vs. Venezuela softball game. I don’t think it’s going to be easy. They’re at least 40 minutes behind due to an earlier game going long. I’m not certain I’m gonna make it, especially since I reallyreallyreally need a kick-ass work day tomorrow. Bummer.

Bachman Bars

Bachman Bars
Recipe by: Barb and Wiz Bachman

Grease 9x13 pan
Bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup White Karo Corn Syrup to a boil and remove

Stir in 1½ cups creamy peanut butter and 6 cups Special K cereal

Spread in greased 9x13 inch pan

Melt in a double boiler
6 ounces butterscotch chips
12 ounces milk chocolate chips
Spread over bottom layer.

I woke up on Saturday morning to the news that Wiz and her parents, Todd and Barb, had been touring the Drum Tower in Beijing when a 47 year old nutcase attacked the group, killing Todd (her father) and inflicting critical, life-threatening injuries on Barb (her mother) and the female Chinese tour guide.

I spent the day crying off and on. I did two interviews talking about Todd and Barb, one with Yahoo! Sports that is posted here. The other was with a good friend who is writing for her Tuesday column in the Orange County Register. I’ll post that link when it goes live.

Todd and Barb are amazing, wonderful people. Please indulge me while I make a pathetic attempt to tell you a little bit about about them.

Their youngest of three daughters played volleyball at UCLA. I worked with her during my first two and her last two years with the Bruins. She was the first student-athlete that I met when I started at UCLA. That recipe I put at the top of this post? Bachman Bars (OK, so the recipe card Wiz gave me at her senior banquet says “Special K Bars” but screw that. They’re Bachman Bars!) were present and consumed at every single banquet during those first two years I was at UCLA and the three years Wiz played prior to my arrival. After every Friday night match (roughly 5x/year) there was a social for family and boosters and most of the parents brought a dessert to go with the athletic department-provided food. At her senior banquet, Wiz handed out recipe cards for the bars.

I woke up yesterday morning and Chris (the Hubster) had heard that “relatives of the U.S. men’s volleyball head coach” had been attacked. Wiz is married to the men’s volleyball head coach, who is from New Zealand, so when that news was paired with “Americans were injured” Chris put the pieces together rather quickly. I couldn’t compute it until he said what I couldn’t accept out loud: It’s Todd and Barb.

After a series of frantic emails to people I know with the U.S. delegation in Beijing, emails to my former co-workers at UCLA in case they couldn’t connect the dots, and the confirmation that Todd was dead and Barb was in surgery, Chris and I talked and decided that we should keep our plans for Saturday. There was no sense in sitting at home and being sad. There wasn’t a damn thing we could do from Pittsburgh. For me, Saturday’s plans included a Hurricane Knitters gathering at PAKnitWit’s house.

When I was completing preparations to leave the house, I threw some tin foil over the peppermint brownies I was bringing to the gathering. I looked at Chris and said “Why do I want to stop everything right now and make Bachman Bars?”

Instead, I picked up WeirdyPants and got a Rufus fix at her house, then we made it over to PAKnitWit’s, where I was only physically present. I was in and out of the house all day, emailing and texting with former co-workers. Talking to the reporter from Yahoo! Sports for half an hour. And crying off and on.

I feel badly that I was a drippy wet blanket on what should have been a fun knitting day, but all the Hurricane Knitters seemed to understand. (thanks, guys!)

Todd and Barb attended all of Wiz’s college volleybal matches. All of them. That’s no mean feat when you live in Minneapolis and your kid’s home games are in Los Angeles. Once she started playing internationally with the U.S. National team, they frequently traveled abroad to watch their daughter play. This is why I truly believe that this was a completely random act of violence. Sure, they were probably identifiable as tourists, but so are 75% of the humans in Beijing this week and next. They were seasoned enough travelers that I'm certain they weren't wearing anything that would scream "Americans!!" to random homicidal/suicidal crazy people.

Todd and Barb were responsible for the end-of-year team video for pretty much all the years they were involved with the program. Wiz, as well as Todd and Barb, were invited to my wedding (they were in Italy with the U.S. Women’s national team and could not attend). I was invited to Wiz and Hugh’s wedding in December, 2006, but could not attend because I was in Hawaii with the Bruins women’s volleyball team.

They were parents to the whole team at UCLA. And to me, when my own parents were 2,500 miles away. Again, they were parents and "volleyball nomads," cheering on Team USA at as many matches as they could attend, all around the world. Their two older daughters live on the same street as they do in Minnesota, while Wiz and Hugh are in Southern California because of volleyball.

There is no distinction between "son" and "son in law" for Todd and Barb. Wiz and Hugh were going to be in Beijing because Hugh's team was playing? Great! Let's go! A quote in one of the articles I've read said that Wiz was really excited for the Olympics because her parents were coming to Beijing and she'd have a good chunk of time to spend with them in China. That's indicative of the relationship Todd and Barb had with their kids, and it's a very familiar feeling to me, having spent eight years living thousands of miles away from my own parents and sibling.

I really don’t know what else to say. How to convey what special, genuine, wonderful people they are. I wish that there was something, anything, that I could do to ease Wiz’s burden right now. I simply can’t comprehend watching my father murdered and mother critically injured while I stood and watched, unhurt. I’m not a praying person, but I pray to whoever will listen for Barb’s recovery. The only thing that could make this whole awful thing even more awful would be if Barb doesn’t fully recover.

As long as I have known Wiz, she has always taken a camera everywhere she went. When Chris and I met her at Downtown Disney just before we moved east, we were on the road (and running late) when I realized that I had forgotten my camera. No worries, Wiz would have hers! In a funny twist of fate, Wiz had forgotten her camera that day as well, so we didn't get a picture of the two of us that day. So I share with you a photo of Barb, Wiz and Todd from Opening Ceremonies for the Athens Olympics. This was Todd and Barb’s 2004 Christmas Card, but I think my copy didn’t survive the most recent purge of stuff. Bachman’s, Inc., the family’s horticultural business in Minnesota, posted it on their website.

Barb, Wiz and Todd

The Bachmans are loved and respected. By me. By many people. I am heartbroken by this news and eagerly await each morsel of news and word from my friend if there is anything at all I can do to ease her unbearable burden.

Goodbye, Old Friend!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve used the same pair of shorts as my “beach shorts.” Basically as a cover-up for when I go back and forth to the beach.

Yay, 1980s Gap!

I haven’t been shopping at the Gap since I was in high school. Seriously.

So I’ve worn these shorts for years. And they’ve gotten more and more threadbare. More and more worn out.

Ruh-row Shaggy!

Chris has been commenting for a few years now that I should give up the ghost and just throw them away. There was more than one summer where I was too fat to fit into them, but I still had to keep them. I wore them easily the last two summers and fit into them … enough … this year.

Then about a month ago I squatted down to pick something up and rrrrip!

Major blow-out.

So I have had to retire my very favorite beach shorts. I found a suitable replacement that met all of my requirements (must have pockets, large, baggy) for $8 on the sale rack at Dick’s. Powder-blue Reebok shorts. Quite adequate. But not nearly the same.

In other news, you’d be surprised what you can find when you go shopping for fleas

Really. I’m related to this (it's my aunt. they went flea market shopping). ::sigh::

The party went well last night. Everyone had a good time and the big storms came through before and after the event. Bonus!

Had a good sunset tonight. I stayed until it was almost totally dark. Enjoy!