So, yesterday, I was out–all day–with my friend Dawn. All. Day. Which was great!

We went to Short Hills Mall for some retail therapy (she was stressed) and were there basically from 11:00 until 4:00. We had coffee at Starbucks, tried on dresses at Macy’s, jeans and skirts and such at Anthropologie, shoes at Nordstrom’s, and some pants at Ann Taylor. Actually, except for that last, Dawn tried on the most. I spent a fair amount of time sitting on the floor outside dressing rooms, working on my sock, chatting, and giving opinions. (No, really, it was fun!)

We stopped for a snack around 3:15 and Dawn mentioned how she was in the mood for a love story kind of movie. I said, “Well, actually….” and pulled out a list of movie times I’d cut out of the paper before I left the house. (I was never a girl scout, but I DO like to be prepared!)

We finished up our shopping and hurried over to Madison for the 4:30 showing–just making it into the theater in time . . . for half an hour of previews, commercials, and so forth. (Oh well!) The movie we saw? The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Sure, it had some logical holes and some anachronisms (like, the Paul McCartney song they danced to in 2004 wasn’t released until 2005), but we enjoyed the story, even though we both saw that big plot twist coming a mile away, and we both enjoyed tearing apart the paradoxes . . . but, darn it, that’s part of the fun of watching a time-bending movie!! Anyway, it was just right for what we were in the mood for.

Then, we called Cindy (who lives just a couple miles from there) and she joined us for supper. We walked around town for a bit, looking for a good place to eat, and finally hit on just the right kind of place. A nice little Italian-Steak-Seafood restaurant whose name, I’m sorry to tell you, I can’t remember. But the food was excellent. Good crusty bread to start. We all enjoyed our entrees–we all had seafood of some kind–and the desserts were wonderful. But the best part? We were there for three hours and they didn’t rush us at all.

But then I did the thing I had to beg Chappy’s forgiveness for. As if it weren’t bad enough that I’d been gone for over eleven hours at this point, and that he’d been sitting by the window looking for me ever since my usual get-home-from-work time. No, as if all that weren’t bad enough, Dawn and I detoured on the way home to see Cindy’s newly-decorated kitchen (which looks I can’t even tell you how fabulous). Which means we also saw her dogs. Meaning Princess and Horatio, Chappy’s very best friend. Horatio on his part was thrilled to see us, and kept staring at me and sniffing my leg as if wondering why I was there without Chappy. (Yes, I apologized to Horatio, too, because it really was kind of a tease.) But when I came home, after dropping Dawn at her parents’ house?? Oh lordy, did Chappy give me a thorough once-over. (“You saw Horatio?? Without me? After deserting me all day, you went and played with my best-friend???”) You get the idea.

Oh, and my sock? Wasn’t it nice of me to take my sock on this urban trek, looking for clothing and such? And, really, I got so much done on it yesterday, it’s not even funny. (You can see I marked the progress on the sock in the photo.) But the part that I thought was most impressive? See that line between “Jeans” and “Movie?” That’s what I did in the movie theater. As in, yes, I turned the heel of the sock while watching the movie. In the dark!

I was 97% successful, too! There were just these two little problems . . . two stitches that somehow didn’t make it into the P3tog of stitch-plus-two-wraps. (For some reason purling together the stitches and YOs I do instead of wrapping the stitch was much harder in the dark than knitting the stitches and YOs together at the other end of the row.) But still. I don’t care. I’ll weave these two, lost stitches into the sock with some extra yarn at the end. They’ll be just as warm, and the stitches just as secure, as if they’d been joined together properly in the first place, right? The mere fact that I managed a short row heel almost completely successfully in the dark, while watching a movie makes me so darn pleased with myself, I don’t care about the error. If anything, it just makes me love it that much more.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I promised Chappy a tummy-rub . . . and an ear-scratch . . . and maybe an extra biscuit . . . if it weren’t raining, he’d probably have insisted we go to the park to see Horatio–together, this time–but as it’s rather wet outside, I vetoed that one. I’m so glad Cara found an alternate spot for the Spin-Out in Central Park today!! And, good luck to Claudia this weekend!

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Hmm, this doesn’t happen every day, huh?

And, have you heard about the Tour de Fleece? Like the Knitting Olympics, but for spinners during the Tour de France.

Tags: Friends, Knitting/Spinning // 7 Comments »