Screwdrivers, pliers and me

There is a very good reason God made me a female. He knew I could do things with my hands and that my fingers would be nimble and fly at times. He also knew I probably couldn't talk very well without my hands to use for emphasis. So today I got up and my plans were to go to Hancock's (patterns were on sale). Then I remembered I wanted to go to Lowe's also to get a grill. So I get up and get around and drive over to Lowe's where about 1/5 of Norman was also shopping. Found a decent parking spot and grabbed a cart and saw all the beautiful flowers and plants. I knew the spring flower bug had nipped at my heels and especially since every day on my way to work there is a certain pot of perky petunias that wave at me from a neighbor's yard. Ok, I can look at the flowers and then go get a grill. So I passed by the zinnias and those are always good late into the summer so I grabbed four small pots of those. Then I went inside and found some purple and white petunias. They are sooo pretty. I put some of those in my cart and then saw some purple, red and pinks and had to get those also. Then I remembered I needed to get my tomato plants. I'm patio gardening so I only got two but they are heirloom tomatoes. Yippee!! I go inside and they don't have my grill in stock. Darn it. So I check out and load my trunk. Wal-Mart is just across the street and I could park on the side and slip into the garden center door. The grills are just inside. Eureka! I found my grill plus a small patio table. I load everything in the car. Off to Hancock's. I found several patterns I wanted, browsed the fabric for a very short bit, checked out and left. I decided to skip the grocery store and head home. I had a grill to assemble and some swatches to knit not to mention the usual laundry and cleaning screaming to be done. I had planned on breaking that grill in this afternoon. But that is when the assembly of the grill got to me. I thought you screwed the nut over the end of the screw but I quickly found out that I had to hold the nut and use the screwdriver to screw it into the nut. Geeez, that seems so backwards. But it was the only way it was going to work. Those nuts were in some tight, small spaces and my fingers couldn't hold it and twist at the same time. The handles, whew!!! Is there some engineering reason why the holes on the handles were placed about 1/2 inch wider than the holes on the grill?? I had to fight and squeeze this metal handle to get the holes to line up with the holes on the body of the grill and it just flat wore me out. Assembly on the grill took me two hours. God knows my hands and strength are better used on yarn, knitting needles, fabric and thread than to fight and twist and fumble with metal, screws, nuts and pliers. Thank you God. I prefer being a woman.

So this is the reason I went out:

This is what I bought:

The plant fairy gave me this pot of New Guinea Impatiens:

Susan may have the Yarn Inspector, but I have the Grill Inspector:

Linen and Koigu

Terri, Rosemary and I took a road trip today. We braved the torrential rain and drove up to Tulsa to visit some yarn shops. We first stopped by Fringe. Small shop but it's more a knitting lounge with some yarn, needles and books to pique a knitter's interest. We then drove to Utica Square to Loops. There were a group of knitters at the table up front and one of those knitters was one brave man who was knitting also. I met Kendall and Shelly. Shelly owns the shop and Kendall is a designer who works there as a second job. They have some gorgeous designer yarn. I saw some Debbie Bliss Silk. I have never had such a difficult time putting a skein of yarn back in the display as I did this yarn. It is not only gorgeous but so silky soft!! No wonder it's called Silk. Lucious, lucious yarn. Next we drove over to Stitchworks on Sheridan. We were good yarn dieters there. We managed to fondle and drool and then walked away. The last store we hit was Naturally Needlepoint on South Lewis. And as you can tell by my pictures, I caved. I have been pouring over Mason Dixon Knitting and recognized the Euroflax Geneva Linen yarn Ann and Kay use for the linen hand towels. I've read before that linen washcloths are THE BEST. So I turned and fretted and couldn't decide which color to choose and finally decided to get the pinky-peach color. Then I noticed they had a pretty decent selection of Koigu!!! Yippee!! I don't know what it is about that yarn but I LOVE it! I think Rosemary and Terri do also as all three of us bought some.

By then the rain was just an annoying sprinkle or two. And we made a run to Wild Oats. I think Rosemary fell in love. She wanted to do some serious grocery shopping. But of course we had no way to keep any refrigerated items cool so that wasn't practical. We did notice a man in the parking lot loading his Wild Oats groceries into three separate coolers he had in the back of his SUV. Terri figured he drove a good distance to do his shopping and had come prepared. And all three of us were wondering why on earth Oklahoma City doesn't have either a Wild Oats or a Whole Foods Market? If any of you know the answer to that, please let one of us know.

So after picking up a few healthily prepared items from Wild Oats, Terri and I drug the vegetarian Rosemary over to Coney I-Lander. Terri and I wanted EXIT Coneys. I'm sure you are scratching your head wondering what on earth is an exit coney. Let me tell you the rules when I go to Tulsa. I am not allowed to get on the road heading west to OKC unless I've had a coney from Coney I-lander. Therefore: in order to exit Tulsa, I have to get an Exit Coney. :-) If you've never had one, you need to try it. Terri and her husband Kevin tried them for the first time last week. I think they were very pleased as they sent me a text message to say how good they were! And Kevin sent his order for coneys for Terri to bring home. lol

Once we got back on I-44 and headed west the rain was ending. Doesn't that just figure? lol We talked on the way back trying to decide what to take to the Knit-In next week at Gourmet Yarn. It's a Cinco de Mayo theme and I think I know what Rosemary is bringing. Terri won't make it as she has a birthday party to go to. I was trying to think what would be good and Mexican that wasn't salsa as I'm sure there will be several batches of homemade salsa. So I think I've come up with an idea. It's going to remain a secret for now. But I think it will be delicious!!!

Completion Issues

I was a Bluebird for a year during the 2nd grade. I seem to recall there was a pledge about finishing what I start. Maybe that is why we only had a troup for one year, we couldn't finish what we started?? lol I read knitting blogs almost every day. I've tried to branch out and read some I've never seen before. While on this mission I've noticed most knitting bloggers have COMPLETED ITEM pictures. It made me realize I have INCOMPLETE ITEM pictures. I have the never ending baby blanket, the entrelac bag, socks that might get cast on but never finished, a Christmas stocking for Lexi that might be 2.5 inches long, a knitting bag I've cast on two times and frogged, several unfinished washcloths. Hmmmmmm I think I have so many incomplete items that I can't remember them all. I tried to figure out why I don't finish my projects and the only reasons I can come up with are 1. I get bored with the project and lose interest and 2. I get "startitis" and have to fulfill my need for the adrenalin rush I get starting a new project.

I also realize this problem occurs in other things I do like sewing and reading. I've thrown out so many unfinished items of clothing it isn't even funny. I can honestly say there are fewer books I've started reading that I haven't finished. Does anyone else suffer from this problem??

For your viewing pleasure, I have up close and personal pictures of Norman's Favorite Son in statue, James Garner.

Trivia question: What did his character Maverick always keep pinned on the inside of his coat?

Alphabet Meme

Thanks, Emily. I will follow your lead.

Accent: Definitely Tulsan with just enough ya'll thrown in to sound deep south.

Booze: Margarita's on the rocks (I'm not much of a drinker)

Chore I hate: Cleaning the refrigerator

Dog or Cat: one adorable kitty girl

Essential Electronics: Computer, television, digital camera

Favorite Cologne: anything patchouli

Gold or Silver: Silver

Hometown: Sapulpa, OK

Insomnia: when something is on my mind upsetting me

Job Title: Sr. Case Manager

Kids: One son

Living arrangements: Lexi, yarn, books, fabric

Most admirable trait: You'll have to tell me

Least admirable trait: Negativity (I work hard to try to curb it)

Number of sexual partners: what is sex???

Overnight Hospital Stays: I've only been hospitalized twice, don't recall how many overnights it was but when I was 5 I had tonsils removed and then I was in for about 5 days when I had my son.

Phobias: Heights, snakes.

Quote: There's nothing more attractive on a man than good manners.

Religion: Raised a Methodist

Siblings: one younger sister (can you tell I'm the oldest by how bossy I am? lol)

Time I wake up: 6:30ish-7:00

Unusual talent or skill: I don't think I can tell that on here. :-)

Vegetable I refuse to eat: brussel sprouts

Worst habit: procrastination

X-rays: teeth, arm

Yummy foods I make: brined turkey; tuna casserole; salsa

Zodiac sign: a Leo of course!!

WARNING! This is a bitch/soap box post

I just reached a high on the frustration point scale today. My bitch? Why is it so difficult for people (men in particular) to put information on paper?????

I worked with the public for 30 years. For 13 of those years I helped people find jobs. I know filling out forms/applications is a pain in the rear. But how else is an employer going to find out if you are THE ONE for the job?? To me, the epitome of laziness is the person who writes "see resume" on an application. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!! I used to deliver this story in the workshops I conducted. There are some companies (mainly large ones) who are so "by the book" that when they receive applications, they have a person remove everything attached to the application. You know EEO, AA guidelines, make everything fair and equal etc. etc. So if you attached your resume because it would require too much effort to complete their employment application AND you wrote "see resume" on the application, where are you now? You are nothing but a name on a piece of paper, an incomplete piece of paper mind you, and what exactly is it about your name and address that is going to tell the interviewer/manager that you are THE ONE for the job? Your resume was tossed before the application went to the person's desk who reviews and makes decisions. Also an employer knows their application well. If I needed to hire an employee and I had applications that were half completed or had "see resume" on it, I'd turn it over into the reject pile. As an employer I don't have time to read YOUR format to see how you fit into MY format.

With that in mind I now work in a law office and I still have to extract information from people. The type of work we do requires submitting information to the federal government. I don't make up my own rules and regulations. The Feds do that all by themselves and I have to dot all the i's and cross all the t's just like they say OR they deny our applications. Their application requires things such as work history to include complete addresses and the name and phone number of the supervisor you had on that job. When the program had major changes last year, I wrote a questionnaire for our clients. This questionnaire does not have alot of fluff on it. In fact, every single question on there, is required on the Fed application. You'd think that these people know their very livelihood depends on this information and that they'd bend over backwards to supply all the details. Nooooooooooooooooo! Not true. And since I have over 30 years experience dealing with people/the public, I have noticed the majority of the troublesome individuals are men. Why????

Ok, I see I am rambling way too much. Maybe I just needed to vent. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. :-)

Manners, Kids and Knitting

As you can see, I've made little progress on the clapotis. I've found I have to knit on this while I'm at home alone. I've also made a couple of mistakes that I was able to fix! Yippee!! The first one (this time around) I was sure I'd have to start over but I managed to get it repaired. This yarn is sooo soft. It has a tendency to curl as you can tell by the needle point I have placed at the tip.







This is the neverending baby blanket. I took it to the doctor's office yesterday just in case I had to wait. Oh boy! Two solid hours and that was BEFORE I got to see the doctor. So needless to say I knitted many rows instead of the several I had planned.







While I was waiting yesterday, I had the misfortune of witnessing children gone wild. What is it about a parent who lets their child run wild in a store or office? I know when I was a kid I knew I would get spanked if I misbehaved like that. When my son was little I kept him beside me, with his hand in mine (although he didn't always like that). I was the mean ole lady at my former office in Tulsa. When people let their children run around unattended, I'd gather the kids and take them to their parent and tell them this is a business office and you need to keep your children by your side while you are here. The parent yesterday, thank God, left with the children when she heard her doctor had been called out for an emergency. Whew! So today I come home and I'm sitting here in the den and I see bicycle wheels cutting across my yard. I noticed this the other evening but didn't make it to the window or door in time to see exactly who it was. Today I saw one go by and ran to the door, again the child was past the fence and I couldn't see who it was. So I waited, and opened the door again just in time to see this little girl (about 7 or 8) cutting right across my grass to go to her house. I guess because my yard has a bit of a slope to it that it makes for a more daredevil ride?? You would have been proud of me. I NICELY asked her to stay on the sidewalk and to not ride across the grass anymore. So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed!! lol

Terri and I went up to Gourmet Yarn last night to crash the sweater club. We had a nice time. Saw some pretty items in progress. I noticed Margaret has posted the pictures so you can access them at her website.

And to close, I want to share my own little saying I came up with years ago.

There ain't nothing more attractive on a man than good manners. - Kay

Lazy Easter Sunday

I think this is the first weekend where I've had nothing I HAD to do in quite awhile. So how have I filled these two lovely days? I finished the pink bunting. I managed to make a bigger mess in the extra bedroom (it has been filled with boxes ever since I moved here). I've done laundry and I sewed. That's why I made the bigger mess in the extra bedroom, digging for sewing supplies. Today I went to Wal-Mart in the hopes that everyone else in town would be at church, hunting Easter eggs and having their Easter dinners. lol No such luck!! I stopped at Sonic on the way home to get something to drink and even it was completely packed!! lol Ok, maybe my thinking was a little naive.

This is what I've been sewing on. And yes the front is shorter than the back. My natural waistline is 2.5 inches lower in front than it is in back. Maybe because of all the junk in my trunk? lol Anyway, that is an alteration I make to the pattern so HOPEFULLY my hemline hangs even when I wear the skirt.





























And guess what this is??? (I think this is the fourth time I've started this and the furthest I've gotten, cross your fingers for me!!)

On the way home I heard Different Drum by Linda Ronstadt. I have always liked that song. Nice melody and easy to sing along with, she and I have a similar range...lol But there is one teeny tiny lyric in that song that just bugs me every time I hear it. It reminds me of a row of perfect strawberries and then realizing there is one bitter brussel sprout right in the middle. The line that says I'm not ready for any person, place or thing......did anyone else remember that is the definition of a noun from our grammar books? So every time I hear it I wonder did the song writer just have a mental block and that is all he/she could come up with? Had they just left their English grammar class and it was fresh in their mind? lol How about I'm not ready for any noun. It feels like a bump in the middle of the road. Oh well. Maybe it's just me. Oh, by the way, I looked up the lyrics and saw who wrote it, Mike Nesmith, the Monkee who wore the stocking cap. The one who's mom invented Liquid Paper.

Will it ever make it?

Oohhh, look what I bought today. Opal sock yarn!! And Terri!!! It's in MY colors!! lol

As you can tell Margaret got some Opal sock yarn in today. She had six different colors and this is the one that had to come home with me. I wondered why the Opal page had a link to "how to read the Opal label". Now I know why, it's all in German!! lol Anyway, six colors and more coming. She said there are some new colors and she is on the list to receive them. Yippee!!





I told my boss today that I needed to leave early as I was running up to OKC to my yarn shop. Now most of you would wonder how he'd respond to that, right? He told me had heard an interview on NPR of a gal who knits and has written a book. He turned around to his computer and pulled it up, Debbie Stoeller and the Happy Hooker. lol Now isn't that cool? Of course, he knows I knit and I've even taught a co-worker how to knit. But I am just guessing that the title of that book caught his attention also. lol

Now the big question is: Will the Opal sock yarn ever make it into socks?


The Magic Lexi ball says:





















It's doubtful.

Wikipedia Info

1846 - The United States annexes New Mexico
1901 - Cadillac Motor Company founded
2001 - the Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.

1893 - Dorothy Parker, American writer (d. 1967)
1920 - Ray Bradbury, American writer
1934 - Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. general


1977 - Sebastian Cabot, English-born actor (b. 1918) 1991 - Colleen Dewhurst, Canadian actress (b. 1924)

Does this tell you I have nothing new going on? lol

Guild Meeting

We had a pretty nice group this past Sunday, 29 total I believe. I see lots of new faces or at least new ones to me! each time. We had three newbies who came wanting to learn how to knit. Yippee! Susan did a great job showing us how to figure gauge.








We had several donations for the charity knitting. We also learned from Anna that the hospital would like hats for babies in addition to the preemies. I liked the sound of that, especially since I was having a hard time trying to knit a tiny hat. I was very resistant to using DPN's and had just about decided I was going to break down and do so. It would not have been a pretty picture. lol





This is Anita. Sorry for the quality of the picture. I had several that turned out blurry, some worse than this one. Anita is one of our members who is with the Metro Library System. Yay Anita! She must carry a big stick that I never see as she makes things happen at the library when we have our guild meetings.






And this is Emily. I hope all of you have gone to her website to see the very nice ass she has posted. :-) (You didn't think I'd pass up that opportunity, did you Emily?? lol) She knitted the turtleneck shrug from Scarf Style and asked this very gracious lady (I apologize I cannot remember her name) to model it for her. I do remember the gracious lady had a sweet and lovely daughter who was knitting jewelry.

We had show-n-tell and Susan made us go around the room to say our name and show our items. Darn her. As usual, I had NOTHING to show. So I dazzled the room with my frogging abilities and offered to frog projects if they needed my services.

That's the guild update. For those of you who haven't been, we do hope you'll join us. Next month we'll be back to our regular schedule of 3rd Sunday from 3 to 5. Belle Isle Library on NW Expressway and Villa.

How to Cause Kay to Have a Heart Attack

Ok, those of you who know me very well, or even those who only know me a little bit, know how crazy I am about my cat. In order to tell this story I have to backtrack about 7 years ago. I had two cats previous to Lexi. They were sister cats and littermates, Thunder and Lightning. I had Lightning 13 years and Thunder for 18 years. Thunder was my lovebug. I also have this "thing" about how cats are INDOOR pets. In my books, if you love your feline babies you keep them indoors out of harms way. I used to let Thunder go out on the balcony of my condo. She felt rather safe there and loved the feel of a breeze ruffling her coat. One night the guy I was dating at the time was leaving. He was on the steps and I was in the doorway talking. Usually when Thunder would come to the door she'd meow to let me know she was right there. This particular night she did not do that. I closed the door not knowing I'd shut my precious baby outside. Outside for the first time since she'd been a newborn kitten. I went to bed right after that and still didn't miss her. She sometimes slept with me but not every night. So the next morning I got up and got ready for work and had keys in hand to walk out. I always told her I loved her before I'd walk out the door. Most often she'd be laying on the windowsill in the living room and she'd poke her head between the curtains and meow back at me. Not this morning. I put keys and purse down and started looking in her usual places but to no avail. I finally called the boyfriend and jokingly asked him if he'd taken my kitty home with him. He said nooooo, then realized I was crying. So he jumped in his pickup and came over to help look. I'd looked all over inside, turned up anything she could get under and didn't find her. When he drove up he said let's drive some of the streets around here. He didn't say it but I knew he was looking for a body. We drove back and started walking around the building. As we were coming down some steps he and I were talking back and forth when I heard her meow. She heard my voice and started meowing. He found her under some shrubs under the stairway. He picked her up and put her in my arms. I was so happy but just bawling away. If only that had been the happy ending. As it turns out she was very stiff and moved very slow. I thought an 18 yr old cat spending the night out on a frosty March night, she'll be ok in a few days. Wrong. I took her to the vet and left with my precious baby in a box. That was March 1999.


I wasn't going to get another cat for awhile. But Lexi had other plans. She woke me up one Sunday morning late July meowing at the top of her little kitty lungs and I went out and scooped her up and she became mine. But in those almost 7 years I've had many recurring nightmares and all of them have one central theme: Lexi getting outside and in dangerous situations. So with this background story in mind, my friend who kitty-sitted for me while I was in California asked me to go to lunch today. We had talked but had not seen each other since I'd gotten back. We sat down and ordered and immediately she said I have a confession. I was being the smarty pants and said let me guess, the reason why Lexi hissed and growled at you is because you pinched her? lol I was making a JOKE! My friend said no, it's worse than that. She came over on Wed. of the week I was gone to feed Lexi her kitty treat. She was a bit concerned because it didn't appear Lexi was eating much since I'd left. Lexi wouldn't come out when she was here so on Thursday she wanted to come back to see if she'd eaten the treat (it's the Iam's pouch of food, Lexi's candy). The bowl was clean so she freshened everything and went to leave. She couldn't get the deadbolt to lock with the key so she came back in and left via the backdoor and locked it. She decided to come back over Saturday morning to make sure Lexi's box was scooped. She came in the front door only to find the back door standing wide open. She freaked out running into my bedroom to look for Lexi. She knows Lexi will hide inside the box springs but Lexi wasn't there. She called another friend in a panic and asked where else would Lexi hide. The other friend told her to go check the middle bedroom closet. She did and thank God!!! Lexi was there hiding and that is when she hissed and growled at her. Anyway, all of that to try to explain this odd day and the odd mixed emotion feelings I've had. I almost wished she had not told me. I hate those nightmares I have, they are unsettling and I know they go back to shutting Thunder outside that night. Thanks for listening.

Guild Note Cards

Aren't these note cards darling? These are the winning lamb names/colors. Each of us received these notecards as our prize for our winning entries.

Purl: myself
Phlox: Terri Derrick
Bedlamb: Emily Schnabl
Aran: Debra Spindle
Tink: Susan Barrington

The back of the cards has our logo and website info, email and our mission statement. Pretty cool, huh???

We have our monthly guild meeting today, one week early, because of Easter. It's at the Belle Isle Library off NW Expressway and Villa from 3-5. Bring your current project and any show-n-tell items you 'd like to share with the group. We have a class on gauge and swatches. And we'll be discussing a secret pal event. All knitters or wanna-be's are welcome. The meeting room is downstairs so the north entrance is the closest and most convenient.


This isn't a note card but a semi-sleepy kitty girl soaking up some late afternoon sun.

Sleepy Saturday

I slept until 8:35 this morning. It felt sooo good. This time change kicked my butt and I'm sure coming back from PST to CST didn't help it any. lol I've been so bummed out over the tax news that I haven't been able to focus on much. I had several false starts on preemie hats. I started my clapotis only to make a mistake I didn't know how to fix about 4 inches into it. I think I need to practice knitting into the front and back of a single loop. Purling too. Ran up to Gourmet Yarn today to see the new books and to see Margaret. Walked out with some soft pink Rowan cotton yarn, hopefully for a preemie hat! Not much to say, I'll just let you "suffer" with a few more vacation shots.






















This is Francis Ford Coppola's building:





































This is one of the views from our room:

Name Calling

Blogger doesn't seem to be accepting pictures tonight. So you are spared more vacation pictures. lol

Ok, a few days ago I mentioned that my sister and I were called lesbians and nasty sluts while in San Francisco. Here is the story:

My sister had this wild hair that we had to go to the Castro district. Don't ask me why, I don't know. So we catch the F Line across from our hotel and it takes us all the way down Embarcadero, through the Financial District and all the way down Market to Castro. It was a very nice ride. I love those old antique (but refurbished) street cars. Anyway, we reach our destination and hop off. We wander down one street and then cross to the other side. We went into The Body Shop and chatted for a bit with the person working there, got recommendations of where to eat in the area. She/he warned us NOT to eat at Harvey's. lol She/he explained that they did not hire women nor were they kind or helpful to women. Good thing to know as it was a nice looking restaurant in the center of the area we were in. (BTW, I'm not being ugly about she/he, it was a man who preferred to dress as a woman.) So we scout out the recommended restaurants and settle on Slider's. Great burgers and a fantastic condiment bar. We wander into a few more shops and then my sister is ready to go. We are walking back to the F Line stop and I notice there is an obviously gay man standing there ranting and raving about something. There was also another person standing close by so upon first glance I thought they were engaged in conversation. Wrong. By the time we get to the median the other person was gone and the raving man is still carrying on. He's upset over a poster that was put up "underground". He said it used to be a poster of two men kissing but now it was just two men looking at each other. He is going on about how it makes it look like gay men are wrong and so on and so forth. And if this doesn't make sense to you, then you will understand how it didn't make sense to either of us! lol We get on the street car and get our seats. The raving man follows a minute later and stops to explain his upset to the driver. The man goes on about the posters and continues to say that it's those damned lesbians. They are always fronting us men. He yelled he was TIRED of those lesbians. The driver told him to pipe down and go to his seat. So the man takes a seat across from us. He has some bags and puts those on the seat beside him and then leans over so his head is blocked by the metal panel by the doors and takes a long sip from his beer can. He then gets up and goes to rave and rant to the driver again. A few minutes later he goes back to his seat mumbling and repeating the same things over again. We are going back up Market street by this time and he raises his voice again and looks at my sister and I and yells: I'm tired of you lesbians!! You Nasty Sluts!! Now I don't dare turn around. I know my sister is trying not to laugh. I'll have to pinch her if she starts and if I look at her she'll laugh out loud. So I keep my head turned to the front. There are a few others on the street car but no one is looking at or giving the man any attention. After a few stops he gets up to get off. Once he gets off he turns around and glares at us over the top of his sunglasses. If looks could kill. lol I then turn back to my sister and she is grinning and the man behind her raises his eyebrows at me and grins like "sorry"! lol I laughed and said if the raving man had said something true I'd be offended.

Ok, that's the story. The rest of the trip my sister and I took verbal punches at each other (all in jest of course) calling each other a nasty slut. Maybe in our dreams!!!

Artfibers in San Francisco

When I knew for sure we were going to San Francisco I knew I'd have to go to yarn stores. After consulting with Rebecca I decided to just visit one store and use the rest of my time on San Francisco things. The closest yarn shop to our hotel was Artfibers on Sutter close to the financial district. Not knowing exactly how far it was on Sutter, we walked a good distance to get there. And of course, it wasn't open yet. lol We went across to Crocker Galleria to find a ladies room. I swear for a city to be such a walking city I wished they had more public facilities available. lol The most consistent sign I saw in all the places we walked by was "restrooms for customers only". I digress. From Crocker Galleria we had the perfect view of Artfibers.





















I told my sister I needed to get lots of shots of this yarn shop as I had to tease Emily about not making it to a single yarn shop while she was in Berkley a short while back. So I have several more snaps my sister will send later on. To get to this yarn shop we used this old small "open the doors yourself" elevator. lol




















This shop specializes in unique yarns, most of which they are directly involved in the dying and packaging.
This is one of my "oops" shots of some of their yarn. I hope my sister got some better shots than I did. lol











This is what I couldn't leave without:
















As you can see the cone is just a foam tube and the labels are printed on a home computer and printer attached with a simple rubber band. I loved this yarn. It reminded me of peacock feathers. It's 100% cotton tape. It will probably exist as fondling yarn for a long time.

By Friday after my sister had drug me through several art galleries I decided I would go visit one more yarn shop. I plotted our destinations that morning and wrote our street car and bus routes. My yarn shop, because of logistics and transportation, would have to be our last stop. By the time we'd visited 2 destinations the rain started. It was heavier than it had been earlier in the week. We made it to 2 more destinations and then got on the bus to take us out to Atelier on Divisadero. I should have called the shop to see which bus route went closest to their store. When we got off on Union and Divisadero, we were many blocks from the store. And these were not regular blocks. These were steep blocks. lol I have never walked down a street and had my toes hitting the inside of my shoes like they did while walking down some of these hills. lol The rain was coming down harder, the umbrellas were only keeping our heads dry and I cried uncle. I was soaked, my sister was soaked so I said forget it, lets just get back to the hotel. Which is exactly what we did.

My sister had an interesting story to tell me while we were there. This might be PG leaning towards R rated, so read on with caution. She teaches in a public school and had to take a day off a few weeks ago. The school contacted a sub list and made arrangements for this one woman to sub for her. Unfortunately, this would be this person's first and last time to sub at that school. It seems she told one of the classes an inappropriate story. She told the class that when she was in college she took her knitting to class one day. She was sitting in class knitting when the professor walked up to her and told her knitting was masterbating. The woman responded to the professor by saying when I knit, I knit. When I masterbate, I masterbate. Hmmmmmm and she didn't realize probably every kid in class would go and tell someone else (including parents) that story???? lol

There's no place like home......

Ok, I can see Blogger is up to no good today. So I'll write my post for a SECOND time!!!

I'm so glad to be back. My very first visit to San Francisco and I happen to be there when the city breaks it's 100 year record for the rainiest March on record. I do have to admit the rain they receive is very different than the downpours we get here. Until Friday, the rain was soft, light and gentle. On Friday it was a bit heavier but still nothing compared to what we often receive.

I met my sister (Colorado Springs) in the Oakland airport and then we motored to the Radisson on Fisherman's Wharf. We had to share a king sized bed, ok.....we'd deal with it....after all, she quit wetting the bed years ago. lol The bed was a sleep number bed. Small pitch here, but that thing was GREAT! My number was 80 and my sister's was 35. lol

We dumped the bags, changed shoes and headed to the wharf. It was a beautiful site even though it was damp, nearly dark, overcast and windy. We saw the rowdy boys of Wharf 39....








For the seven days we were there, my sister dragged my behind over every square inch from the wharf to Market Street. I swear we walked a hundred miles (slight exaggeration but I felt like we did). She wanted to visit Chinatown on Sunday. Little did we/I know, that would be worst day to visit. It was soooooo crowded, people everywhere, many doing their weekly shopping. We spent the entire day there and I told her she was lucky she got this out of the way on the first day because I wasn't going back! lol Famous last words. She missed the fortune cookie factory and we had to go back the very next day. Ugh!!! The "factory" is nothing more than a small shop in Ross Alley. Three cookie making machines manned by three ladies and one man. Although his English was rough at best, he managed to tell us he had a relative in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was pretty neat, he couldn't say Grand Junction well but finally got the Junction over by joining his fists in a junction movement. Cool, huh?









The next day I wanted to visit the yarn shop, Artfibers, close to the financial district. (more on that shop later on)














We went to Union Square and saw some fantastic shopping. Nothing I could afford but hey, it's always fun to see. The next day we went to Westfeld Center which is more or less an upright mall with Nordstrom's occupying the top five floors. It was going to be a rainy day so we walked over to Yerba Buena Gardens and the Loew's theaters and saw Inside Man (good movie). This is just a cool building I saw while there.



















The next day we ate breakfast at Mama's on Washington Square. It was worth every step.



















The day after that, my sister wanted to visit the Castro district. I was a bit hesitant as it was the furthest distance we had traveled (on bus/streetcar) but we went. Met a nice woman/man who made some good lunch suggestions. The burger at Sliders was great and had the best condiment bar I've ever seen in a burger joint. We got on the F Line and had the lovely experience of being called lesbians and nasty sluts. lol I'll tell this story in more detail later. But I did tell my sister if he had said something true, I would be offended instead of laughing about it.

Friday started out sunny and pretty and then turned into the rainiest and almost miserable day. We went on a wild goose chase for a second yarn shop that we never made it to. Those maps make places look so much closer than they are!! lol

We didn't have any earthquakes while we were there but part of a Sausalito hillside slid off due to all the rains. On the way back to the airport I saw several trees that slid down a hillside due to rains. And we happened to be there when the whole BART system shut down because of a computer software upgrade. Thank you, God for not letting that happen while we were on it!!