Santa drinks Starbucks!
Yes, really.
We’ve spotted Santa at Starbucks a few times while Mom and I were mall-walking. The first time it happened, I tried to double back and and nonchalantly shoot a picture with my Treo camera. However, he saw me through the window and waved. I was too embarrassed to bother with a picture and sheepishly went on with my walk.
The next time we walked by Starbucks (the one located on the Second Level, West Market Street, across from Eddie Bauer), Mom saw him and decided to go inside and ask him his permission for a picture. He graciously obliged.
You never know, you might bump into Santa the next time you go to Starbucks! Edited 12.4.07 Santa also rides a motorcycle! (Scroll down to the last picture; thanks Tracey!)
In other news… I noticed that this blog’s number of comments is approaching the 2,000 mark. I hope to reach it before the end of the year. If someone leaves the 2,000th comment on or before December 31, 2007, I’ll award a $20 gift certificate to that person. The winner will be able to choose a certificate from one of the following: Amazon, The Loopy Ewe, or Woolgirl. Will you be the lucky commenter??
Valentine Florals
Last weekend, Mom and I took pictures of the “Heart in the Park” event at the MOA. There were hearts plenty, and the sculptures were fun and cute. Local folks who are planning to attend Knit-Out & Crochet this weekend will be able to see these, since the event does not end until February 19.
The pictures are better this time around, since there was more natural light available. My favorites are the white swans swimming in blue hydrangeas (very Project Spectrum). Enjoy!
A chicken among the tulips
The MOA, as part of the ongoing Park in Bloom event series, held a “Largest Indoor Tulip Show” last month, January 19-27. I don’t know if it really is the largest indoor tulip show, but there were lots of tulips, and I gave Mom my camera to take pictures as we walked around the mall. Even though this show is over, the tulips remained and they will be replaced with new flowers for the upcoming “Heart of the Park” event starting on Friday.
One nice thing about these events is that local artists can display their artwork (for sale, too), so you’ll spot a few in the pictures. With our latest freezing temperatures, I thought a little hint of spring would be good.
Mishmash
Quick Madder Ribbed socks update… I haven’t been able to work on them very much, but I plan to finish them both by tomorrow evening. Fingers crossed, except when knitting!
I have a BUSY weekend coming up. On Saturday, my parents and I are going to Shepherd’s Harvest. Althought I don’t have my secret pals’ (yes, plural) information yet, I’m hoping to get some fun gifts there. Then on Sunday morning, Mom and I are team-walking at Race for the Cure at MOA. (I’m debating whether I should bring a knitting project; I’m tempted, but I know it will be crowded, and I may not have an appropriate project for walking.)
Oh yeah! I’m hoping for some MDSW weather mojo… the weather prediction: rainy and cool this weekend. : /
Dyann tagged me for a meme. I don’t have a hubby or SO, so I skipped that. more »
Knitting Spots
kat knits is holding this fun contest/meme: Name 5 places (other than home and LYS) where you’ve knitted.
It’s been fun reading all the various answers. Here’s mine!
- At Mall of America, while mall-walking.
- Walking around the Highland Park neighborhood.
- While traveling (Wellesley in my old dorm!!, Biloxi-Gulfport, and Los Angeles).
- At work.
- At Mom’s office.
Knitting update:
The Madder Ribbed socks are nearly to the point where I will have to start the heel flap. I’m trying to decide whether they are too tight before continuing (or frogging).
The Sixth Sense socks are coming along well. I’m about halfway through the instep and hope to get to the toe decreases by the end of today.
Q*bert
One good thing from the ’80s decade: Q*bert. If you played video console games or home video games (Atari, Colecovision, etc), you most likely played this game. I absolutely loved Q*bert, and it always pops into my mind whenever I see tumbling blocks, slanted squares, or cube-type patterns. It was also a colorful, maybe even psychedlic, game; you had to jump on each cube to change its color, completing the level when all cubes changed. As the levels got harder, sometimes you had to do it twice. If you made a wrong jump (eg: off the pyramid) Q*bert plonked to his death. There were also bad guys like a sproingy snake coil to avoid.
I took a break from my two sock projects on Friday and Saturday to knit a huge (to me anyway) washcloth with this cotton chenille. Because I chose a slanted square pattern, working on it constantly made me recall the funny-looking, adorable Q*bert creature. I used most of the cotton chenille hank and a US 6 needle to make a 10.5-inch square washcloth. I intended to machine wash and dry purposely to shrink the washcloth. (After all, the label says to handwash then dry flat.) None of the pictures I took turned out well, but the washcloth turned out great after a wash and tumble dry. It’s softer and fluffier. It hardly shrunk, though, but I’m happy with it.
While the Q*bert reminiscing was good, I had a not-so-good ’80s Fashion Nightmare Flashback at MOA while mall walking. In the Gap front window, there was an eerily familiar sight. There were thick-striped polo shirts accented with gray (eg: red gray red gray, or blue gray blue gray…). I managed to swallow my gasp of horror and not trip. I couldn’t believe it. You see, way back in the late ’80s, maybe 1 or 2 years before the Gap became what it is today (eg: it wasn’t yet cool), they had the exact same patterning on a bunch of mix-and-match shirts and shorts. The colors and styles appeared to be a strong match to the old versions. I couldn’t find an example at the Gap website, though. I remember back then, my friend bought one with red stripes, and mine was turquoise. (I hadn’t learned my colors yet, either, yuck! I don’t believe I wore any good outfits in the ’80s until I discovered Esprit and Generra. I freed myself from brand name dependency in the ’90s, thank goodness!)
Orange and Yellow, some of the time
I wanted to post this yesterday, but couldn’t… my wireless connection with Comcast was acting up all weekend. I finally became fed up and watched some TV and knit some more on the Sixth Sense socks.
This ribbed pair is my take along project for mall walking (MOA). The weather is marvelous today and I think I’ll go walking around the neighborhood on Wednesday if the trend continues.
I knit a bit more slowly while walking, but I think I’ve made good progress for about 3-4 hours total. Usually, I only have to fix one or two misplaced purls. On Sunday, however, it was not a good day and I managed to drop a stitch. :/ Fixed it during the car ride home, though, so they’re OK again. : )
Yesterday at the grocery store, I picked up some Glaceau Vitamin Water on sale, and I realized a few minutes later that the flavors I had picked were April Project Spectrum colors! I swear, I didn’t do that on purpose… I wasn’t in the mood for the red/pink flavors yesterday.
The magazine underneath the bottles is the very last issue ever of Veggie Life. I’ve always liked that magazine for the recipes and was disappointed to find out they’re ending publication. They’re switching to an online recipe club, so my subscription will transfer over. I’ll appreciate being able to browse and print out recipes directly from my computer, but wonder how often they will add new recipes.
