Friday Funny

This made me laugh really hard!

Have a good weekend!

Fall Is Perfect

Today is a cloudy and overcast day here, and we are supposed to get some thunderstorms. All of which is fine with me, I just hope Katie and I can avoid the storms when we take our walks. But I'm doing "inside" things today - laundry, bill-paying, etc., so I didn't have outdoor plans anyway.

Fall is taking hold now, except for the temperatures, which have been unpleasantly warm. However, I am choosing to ignore that the best I can until it cools off appropriately, and am enjoying the changing leaves, the trees getting ready for their rest, and the quiet of fall. I love it when the main sound is crunchy leaves, or the sound of kids coming off the school bus at the end of the day, full of "news" and other chatter.

I even love the dark, quiet evenings, that allow me to enjoy just being in the moment. When it's light until 8 pm, I never feel like I should settle in, because it's still light out. But when fall comes, it feels like I have permission to relax after the busyness of the day. 

We had no trick-or-treaters again this year, which was disappointing. But there was a "night market" in the neighborhood, with music and food, so things were at least lively. I was out with Katie after dinner, and we got to see a lot of the littler kids in their costumes on the way to a party held at a nearby preschool, so that was fun. The Tim said he saw a LOT of adults in costumes when he was out with her later. But I really don't think I'd enjoy Halloween as much if it was still light out. I know it's mostly because that is what I'm used to, but I do like it when the evening seems like the evening!  

I hope your fall season is going well, and that you are enjoying the things there are to be happy about. And if you live somewhere where you are having springtime, enjoy that too, because in your world, things are starting to bloom!

Seven!

This girlie thinks that 7 is a lucky number, especially since today is her seventh birthday!

She's already had a good day, and just left a bit ago to walk over to the dog park with The Tim. I'm sure she is already on cloud nine, since she LOVES going there with him to play fetch.

Happy Birthday, Katie Potatey! We'll have some fun celebrations later with treats and presents. All of us love you, and we hope you have the very best birthday. 💕💕

FO Friday: Socks Eternal; and, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

At the beginning of September I started a pair of socks for my niece's husband, Patrick. Last year, when I put out a call to family for anyone who wanted some hand knit socks, he responded, saying he would like some that were light blue.

I had two balls of yarn, so decided to start by knitting one cuff, and then the other one, then the leg on one, etc. When I have two amounts of yarn, I like to knit socks that way. I am however, too lazy to wind two balls from a single hank. 

Anyway, I zoomed along on the first sock, until I got to the foot. And then for whatever reason, I just stopped. For a few weeks. Sigh.

But the week after our trip to Rehoboth, I decided to actually sit down and finish the first sock, and I did. It was then I decided to name these the Socks Eternal, because they felt like they were taking an eternity!

Then, I put the project bag aside, and left it for another week. WTF? But then I realized that I wanted to at least finish the pair by the end of October, and there you go!

Project: Socks Eternal

Pattern: the vanilla sock pattern I use, with a 3 x 1 rib 

Yarn: KnitPicks Stroll Fingering, colorway Blue Sky, with some leftover darker blue from stash for the cuffs and toes.

Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm

Notes: I have to say, I'm not too fond of the Stroll yarn. It seemed like it was nice enough, but easily frayed or split. It definitely showed *any* change in tension, or where you had fixed a mistake, even once blocked (I generally block gift socks). And it didn't feel particularly soft in my hands. 

I do really like the finished socks, but wonder if they will wear well at all. I'll just tell Patrick that because I wasn't overly fond of the yarn, I'll make him another pair down the line. (Though I sincerely doubt he will know or care one way or another, not being a knitter or knowing anything about yarns.)

I'm going to put these in the mail today, hoping that he will receive them on Monday or Tuesday. Needless to say, I also have some things to send to Amanda, and to their kitty, Freeway, so it will be a package for everyone!

And now I am down to the last two people requesting socks on my list, at least for this first go-round. I may work my way through another set for everyone who requested them, since it was fun to make things for people that I knew really wanted them and enjoy receiving them. Of course, I'll still keep knitting socks for ME, but I really like knitting them for knit-worthy people as well. 😄

*****

I hope all of you have a good weekend. I have some projects around the house I want to get started on, and The Tim is going to do some work on our electronics, since our old transmitter for the TV, etc., died, and a new one is here in the box, ready to be set up. Fortunately, my projects will be well out of his way, so I think it will be a good weekend, LOL!

In any case, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

"Autumn in New York"

I sent my niece some of these photos, and she said as she looked at them, she could hear "Autumn in New York" by Bobby Short in her head. 😂

Yes, last weekend we were in New York City (aka "New Yahk Cit-ay" as the one vampire in "What We Do in the Shadows" always says). It was an anniversary trip, and the weekend did not disappoint!

Friday morning, The Tim took Katie to where she was going to board for the weekend, and when he got back, we grabbed our suitcase and walked over the to the train station to start our trip. We both love taking Amtrak, and once again, we were not disappointed. The time of year made it an extra beautiful trip when you looked out the window, with bright skies and the changing leaves. 

Once we arrived, we first made our way to our hotel. We knew it was too early to check in, but wanted to leave our suitcase. So that was a quick stop, and then we decided to make our way to the Frick Collection. I'd been there years ago on my own during a work trip for The Tim, and LOVED it. Since then, they have done some renovations and added some space to the public areas, so I wanted to go back, and The Tim had never been there so he was looking forward to it.

We stopped for lunch at a diner on the way, and then made our way north, taking the route through Central Park. And it would be hard to find a more perfect time to stroll there:

I mean, is that a beautiful scene or what?

We said hello to Balto, one of my most favorite statues anywhere.

We ended spending about 2 1/2 hours looking at things at the Frick Collection. There were other people there, but it was in no way crowded, so you could take your time without being in others' way, which is always a bonus. It's such a lovely place, and I guess because it's not huge, it just seems so approachable. 

On our way back to the hotel, we realized that we have done the "Frick Trifecta" - we've visited the collections in Pittsburgh, D.C., and New York. The Tim claims that might just mean we are "Frick Freaks." 😊

Once we got back to the hotel, we decided that instead of going out again, we would use a credit we had to get dinner at the little restaurant downstairs, and bring it up to the room to eat. Not fancy, but a really nice way to finish a lovely day. 

Saturday, we got up and decided that since we had spent the previous day walking so much (6+ miles!), we would laze around all morning until we had to get going for our afternoon activity. So we headed to our favorite bagel place for breakfast, and then back to the hotel to enjoy some laziness. Then it was time to get dressed for the main event of the weekend.

Why hello, Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center!

This was a first for both of us. We'd only seen this before on TV. But back in August, The Tim had mentioned that a new opera based on the book "Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders was going to premiere in New York in the fall. And the musical director would be Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who is also the musical director of our Philadelphia Orchestra. This book and this person are both faves of ours. So we did some digging, and found that there was a matinee performance the weekend before our anniversary, and Voila!, our anniversary plans were made. 

Not the best photo, but the chandeliers were so pretty!

And the opera was really wonderful. We had nosebleed section seats, but could still see everything on stage really well. I think if you weren't familiar with the book, you'd think you fell into some weird wormhole after taking LSD, but if you know the book, it was just really well done. Some of the effects were surprising but really effective, and at no point did you think, "OMG, I've been sitting here for *so* long!"

We slowly made our way back to the hotel, with two stops on the way. One at a little pub for some dinner, and then a detour to go and see the house where Stephen Sondheim had lived. We both love his work, and it was fun to see where he had lived and done so much of his composing. It was kind of dark by then, so we decided we would go again on another trip when we could see it better during the day. 

Once back in our room, we just hung out for a bit, re-packed, and went to bed since we had to get up *very* early to head home. I had originally made a train reservation for about 10:30 a.m., but got a notice on Thursday that train was cancelled and I would have to rebook a ticket. Well, there were two choices left that were not sold out: 8:04 a.m. or 6:30 p.m.! So we got up early in order to have something to eat, get ourselves organized and walk to the train station. Before we knew it, we were home, with a whole day ahead of us!

After unpacking, we picked up Katie, who was thrilled to go home, and spent the rest of the day just enjoying being at home. We are so fortunate to be able to do something like this weekend, and we are grateful as well. We agreed that it was worth some "cheese and crackers meals" for a while afterwards, so we could make the trip. We had beautiful weather, which I think makes any kind of trip more enjoyable.

Yesterday was our actual anniversary, so we tried a new place that opened near us billed as "French-Vietnamese," and it was really a good choice! A bit fancier than we expected, but everything was well worth it. 

OK, here is an exchange about our anniversary I thought you might enjoy. This is from our train ride to New York.

Me: It's so weird how long we've been married. Do you know which one this is?

The Tim: Well, it's really easy math. Because we got married in ... (long pause)

Me: 1978.

The Tim: Right. So 2028 will be our 50th anniversary.

Me: Well, *that* math is easy, apparently this one, not so much.

The Tim: I'm sure I would have gotten it at some point.

Such a romantic. 😉