Saturday, September 29, 2007

Surprise and delight

T and I went out for lunch at a nearby deli. As I was waiting in line to order my sandwich, I noticed that one of the women in front of me looked familiar. I caught up with her again at the cash register, and said her name. She turned around and said, "Oh! It IS you!" She invited us to join them, which we did, and had a delightful visit.

We were friends in college, and for awhile we lived across the hall from each other in the same apartment building. Then she moved out of state, and I hadn't seen her for, gosh, close to twenty years. She and her partner moved back to Iowa to be closer to their aging parents.

And here is the kicker. She works two blocks from my office. What an amazing world.

This evening, T and I went to my co-worker's wedding. She is a fiend about organization, and it paid off. Everything was tasteful and beautiful without being ostentatious. The one thing that went wrong was really out of her control - the limo had a flat between the church and reception hall.

And bless her heart, she made sure that the whole event was kid-friendly, since a lot of their friends had toddlers. At the entry area to the reception, there was a basket with crayons and coloring books and Gummi candy for the young 'uns. (Bags of caramel corn for the adults, too.) She made the books herself, with clip art of wedding things. They were brilliant, and the kids had a great time coloring while we waited, and waited, for the limo to arrive so we could eat.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Dinner time

Chuckie--

A squirrel by our oak tree out front--

Princess Katie and her dihydrogen monoxide habit--

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Emergency vacation

It's a long story that I won't bore you with now, but many of my September travel plans have become confounded. T and I did get away last weekend, though, for the Iowa Star Party at Whiterock Conservancy.

I wasn't even there 24 hours, but I met a nice cat who looks a bit like Katie, except this cat liked strangers.

Lectures were held in this barn.

We had the best meal I've had in awhile.

Grilled pork chops, scalloped potatoes, green beans, cucumber salad, and homegrown 'maters - oh my! There were also brownies, but T's plate was already overfilled. His brownie is on my plate. I didn't take a picture of my plate, because I didn't want you thinking I was gorging on brownies. Ahem.

Despite the many food-like names for the following, it is not good eating.

Cow pie, cow patty, cow chip, meadow muffin... We were camped in a mowed-down cow pasture, so one had to be on alert at all times when walking about.

I didn't have any mindless knitting, so I started some.

That's a toe-up sock in Opal Flamingo. Yes, I'm using circs, and it is going okay. It's up to about four inches now. I used Judy's Magic Cast On from Knitty, and it was slick - no provisional stuff to worry about.