Tuesday night

No thunderstorms tonight, which is unusual for the week. We've had a lot of storms over the past few days - big, exciting ones with lots of thunder and lightning. Midwestern summer storms were one of the things I missed when I lived in Oregon. Jamie and I went to a park for playgroup this morning, only to find that the dark gray skies frightened everyone else off. Or we were at the wrong park. I decided, as we'd come all that way and it wasn't raining, he could go beetle around by himself and if the rains came, we'd run for the car.

It's all part of recovering from another eventful weekend. The Cosmic Otters and Rachel went to Lansing, Mich. for their Saturday night dance, which was loads of fun. Jamie played with some neighborhood girls who we hired to watch him, and as the dance is held in a church hall, there was a conveniently located Sunday school room nearby, with a lot of blocks and small tables and chairs - basically all the things he needs to be entertained.

The dancers were terrific fun to watch, and we had a really good time.

Rachel and I had an especially good time, because she had never been to ThreadBear before. We had the guys drop us off and told them we'd see them in 45 minutes. I've been in a bit of a knitting slump lately ... but now? Obviously, all I needed was a couple balls of sock yarn and some Cascade superwash for a fall sweater for Jamie, because I'm back happily making socks again. Also, all I needed, I guess, was a lot of blue yarn, because that was all I got. Except for this self-striping ball with some purple in it that's going to be my next pair of socks for playground knitting.

I bought a ball of dark indigo Pagewood Farms yarn that I'm really excited about. Lots of people in my knitting group love this yarn, and I'm looking forward to making something (Rachel got the purple ball) nifty - but probably not socks. I'm leaning toward Multnomah. And I'm leaning toward putting beads in the border, but we'll see when I get there.

The next day, after chatting with Sam-the-banjo-player, we stopped by Rae's Yarn Boutique as well, and had something like this conversation.

RACHEL: I really don't need any more yarn.

ME: Me either.

RACHEL: Let's just look.

ME: Right.

RACHEL: Oh, except I wanted some dpns.

ME: Isn't this red yarn pretty?

RACHEL: Oooh. And it's not blue.

ME: I know! And there's some with purple in it over there.

RACHEL: Ooh!

The Fool and Edward watched Jamie during the yarn-shop excursions, but the Fool got his fiber on as well.

Saturday night, after the dance, we were hanging out at our hostess' house. Sam-the-banjo-player came over to visit. His sweetie knits, so he's not totally unaware of the fiber arts.

THE FOOL: (Admiring a throw over the back of a chair at our friend Bonnie's) Wow, this is a cool stitch. I wonder what it is?

SAM: Knitted.

THE FOOL: No, I don't think so. That looks like crochet.

SAM: No, look at this. That's the yarn over. This is knitted.

And then, we headed for home the next day with a couple stops en route (Bell's Brewery, Sweetwater Donuts) and here it is, another hot week in which perhaps I will make the time to shop for a digital camera. Because Best Buy would be a super-fun place to take a toddler, right?