So, this morning, after Mom had finally gotten through on the phone to get her tickets to see Carly Simon at Lincoln Center next month . . . Oh, didn’t I mention? Mom is a huge Carly fan. These tickets were her top priority this morning, so at 10:00 we were both sitting at the kitchen table with two phones each–the main phone, my Dad’s line, her cell phone, my cell phone–dialing, redialing, redialing, redialing . . . redialing . . . until finally after 45 minutes she’d gotten through and was lucky enough to actually get tickets. She’s hugely excited–Carly doesn’t tour very often, but she did perform last December at the Apollo Theater, which Mom also got to see–but that doesn’t matter. She’s super excited.

But anyway, after that dialing marathon, we hopped in the car and headed to Montclair to Modern Yarns. This is a brand-new shop that Tina mentioned on her blog a couple weeks ago, it’s only been open a month. Nice. Clean. Friendly owner. Rowan yarns. Debbie Bliss. Noro. LHS. Manos. Naturally, to be supportive, I bought some yarn–some Kid Silk Haze in this lovely, caramel-yellow (my guess is it’s the “Swish” colorway). It looked yellow under the halogen lights, but the bag in the car looked like I was carrying buns. Really, it was quite a sacrifice on my part to buy this, but you know, had to be nice to the new shop. It’s located on Church street, right behind the movie theater. There’s even a bead shop a little way up the block which had some nice beads, but since the girl working there was too busy chattering with her friend the entire time Mom and I browsed through the selection–not even a “Hi,” as we walked in–or, for that matter, even a glance to acknowledge us–I’m not anxious to go back. The yarn shop was much friendlier.

We also noticed there was another yarn shop on the same block, and looked in the windows but it was cluttered and crowded-looking, with nary a customer in sight. I know there’s a fine line between a store that’s filled with merchandise to provide a good selection and one that’s just crammed full of, well, not junk exactly, but so much yarn that it might as well be. Maybe it’s just me, but I like yarn shops that look like they’ve been cleaned and dusted in the last decade or so; that seem to have a big enough turnaround that their yarn hasn’t been sitting on the shelves for an eon or two; that have enough room to reach your hand into a bin to feel the yarn without scraping your knuckles, or knocking over piles of yarn. A fine line, I admit–because you want enough yarn for there to be a good selection–but I don’t like a LYS that’s too cluttered. All I can think of is the amount of dust.

On our drive home, though, we saw two signs we thought were pretty interesting.

First, while waiting for a traffic light in Montclair, was this one, directing traffic to the some nearby towns and the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore?? You have to realize, Montclair is in the middle of Essex County–nowhere near the ocean, so far as I know. I mean sure, if you head south out of town and go past the Oranges, Irvington and keep going past Elizabeth, Newark and so on, eventually you will come to within reach of, um, water, but! This reminds me of the road signs they had at the M*A*S*H 4077 camp, giving distances to Cleveland, New York, Hong Kong and basically anyplace-but-here.

Second, a sign for an Evacuation Route on Bloomfield Avenue. Um, Evacuation Route from what? Nuclear catastrophe, apparently. But I’ve got to say, considering the length of time it took to drive down that street on a normal Saturday afternoon, with all the traffic lights and insane drivers, heaven help anybody trying to use that road to flee for their lives, is all I can say!

Now, for your sweet tooth, if you’re craving chocolate, check out this recipe for Hot Fudge Sundae Cake. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but the message board I found it on was raving about the recipe. I don’t know if it’s as good as Norma’s Microwave Chocolate Cake (I haven’t been able to bring myself to bake a cake in the microwave yet–it’s a prejudice, what can I tell you?). All I know is they’re both chocolately, they’re both hot and rich, and they both go great with vanilla ice cream . . . or so I hear! Yum.

Tags: Family, General, Knitting/Spinning // 4 Comments »