Saturday, March 29, 2003
Never fear, you will get to hear about my fiber filled day of fun from Thursday, but first a little story for you.... My landlord is also a realtor and does a lot with estates. He's also a pack rat and has lots of stuff that he gets from estates once the sales are done. So, he found out about me being a fiber artist and asked me if I'd like him to keep an eye out for any fabric/yarn/tools, etc that he runs across. I told him sure, I'd really appreciate that. I figured I might end up with some junk, but I might also end up with some gems. So, the next day I find a small pile of stuff by my door. He's left me some old tapestry-like upholstery fabric. It's musty and falling apart, but I call him and thank him, because it is thoughtful of him. And then yesterday, there's some yardage of plain white fabric that's pretty smudgy on the outside, but nice on the inside. And then today, I help his wife mend a knit top and then go out. And when I get back there's a veritable mountain of stuff outside my door. So, I leave it there for a bit and then go out to sort through it. And I think... hey some of this looks familiar. And then I realize... he's left me some of my own garbage! The other day I got some old boxes of craft stuff from 10+ years ago from my parents' house and I sorted through it and pitched a bunch of stuff, including a bunch of old acrylic yarn with knit bit attached and all tangled and mangled together. He must have seen it in the trash and thought of me (ew). So, I start sorting through again. Not only was there stuff I knew was garbage because I threw it away, but there were mismatched socks, a couple of hats and this is the worst... a pair of long johns!!! Ewwwww! There was also more upholstery fabric, but it was decaying before my eyes, so I pitched it all, very quickly. So now I'm not sure what I should do. How can I politely tell him not to leave me garbage??? It's disgusting! Now I'm wondering wear he got the rest of the stuff he gave me. I thought he was just going to give me stuff from people's houses that none of the relatives wanted. I didn't know he actually considered giving me something he got out a garbage can acceptable. Isn't that just a little wierd? To me it definitely is. It's definitely outside the realm of human behavior. I think his heart is in the right place, but I definitely will now feel icky about touching ANYTHING he gives me! I feel like the owner of a cat that leaves dead mice as "presents."
Ok, so onto more pleasant things, such as my wonderful trip to Columbus!
While you realize this, you're going to think that I'm addicted to food, because much of this trip revovled around food.. and you're right. But at least it's legal, right? Anyway, so Mom picked me up early and we went out for brunch (or shopping fuel as I like to call it!) We went to my favorite breakfast place, First Watch. They have killer omelettes! So, properly fueled, we hit the road. Along the way from Cincinnati to Columbus there are two big outlet centers, so we stopped at one of them to go to the Liz Claiborne outlet store so that Mom could get some much needed new work clothes. We also went to the Elisabeth outlet for me, but they didn't have a single thing I liked. The toughest part of clothes shopping for me is that I'm kind of between sizes. At Liz, the biggest sizes were just a tad to small (I could wear them, I just don't think they were the most complimentary looks) but at Elisabeth, the smallest sizes were too big. So, I was screwed. Lately I've been finding a lot of good work clothes at Lane Bryant, so I've got enough to start this new job. I'm fine in the pants department, I found a great fitting style and I bought them in three different colors, so no worries there, but I need tops! But I stopped at Lane Bryant again tonight (I went on a major spree there two weeks ago!) and got some more great tops, so I ought to be set for this spring/summer. Okay, back to the road trip. So, after the outlets, we hit the road and completed out trip to Columbus. Our first stop was, of course, Wolfe Fiber Arts, where I spent entirely too much money! I got enough yarn for a sweater and five pairs of socks. I figure since I'm going to be bussing it to and from work everyday, I need to stock up on sock yarn, because that's what I'll be taking with me. I got two balls of Sockotta for myself, one lovely rainbow-y one and one black with rainbow colors intersperced. I can't decide which should go first, but I definitely want the Sockotta to be my first bus knitting project. And then I got enough Fortissima Cotton Colori to make three pairs of socks, a pair for me from the rainbow-y colorway and a pair for Mom from the denim and the rainbow. I was bummed, though because they were out of the Regia Stretch that I fell in love with last time I was there, so I guess I'll just have to mail order it from somewhere. Anyway, I also got this great wool yarn for a sweater. It's a ten ply yarn, five two ply strands. One strand is gray, one is gray and white plyed together, one is black and two are variegated colors. So it knits up as this great dark gray with flecks of color. I've decided I'm going to make it a simple v-neck with non-binding ribbing and the hem and cuffs. It's so soft a beautiful and I can't wait to wear this sweater! I've already made one swatch, but it's too small, so I'll be making another with larger needles, then deciding which I like best. It's called Australian Merinos and I am absolutely in love with it. Now I want to rush Bob off the needles so that I can start playing with this and designing my own sweater. I'm sure there are tons of plain v-neck patterns out there, but I want to try designing one on my own and seeing how I do with designing. It's so exciting! And for my wonderful find of the day, they had one ball of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Brite Blue that my mom pointed out to me, so I can finally finish my pair of fuzzy feet for myself! Yea! It's way too warm for them, but they'll be all ready for next fall and winter! Yippee! So, after a long fiber gorge at Wolfe's, we headed over to another of my favorite places... The Cheesecake Factory! We don't have one of these dens of inequity in Cincinnati, but I sure wish we did. I gain weight just looking at the darn place! So, happy and content with plenty of new yarn, I gorged myself on crab cakes, chicken pad thai, shrimp scampi and thai lettuce wraps (my mom and I each get what we want and then split everything, so I didn't consume two appetizes and entrees all by myself... really!) When we were done with all that, we were way to full for dessert right then, so we got cheesecake to go! I brought home four slices, two to be consumed immediately by Mark and I, and two to be frozen and savored at a later date. I got a slice of Brownie Sundae Cheesecake for each of us, then a Triple Chocolate Chip for Mark and an Oreo Mudslide for myself *drool* We already ate the brownie sundae slices, and just to give you an idea of what a slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory means, I'll describe it to you.... It starts off with a brownie "crust" (aka a 3/4" thick brownie) on top of that is the cheesecake... a good 2.5-3". On top of that, a creamy topping and on top of THAT is some chocolate fondant. And this confection is then topped off with almonds, hot fudge, whip cream and a cherry. *drool* After dinner, we then went to Cheryl's cookies, because four slices of cheesecake is obviously not enough decadence. What we REALLY needed was some cookies and brownies to top off the day :-) I got myself half a tray of celebration brownies (that a dozen 1x2" bars) that I will freeze and eat over the next six months. I also got a couple of cookies for Mark. Mom got her favorites, and with that we were finally done with Columbus. We stopped a couple of other places in the Easton Towne Centre and one of the notable things I picked up were some herb packets that smelled rather pleasant and are supposed to ward off moths. So, I put some with my sweaters and then the rest with my spinning fibers. I know Mark had some moths at his old apartment, and I don't want them getting into my stuff if there were any stow aways, so now I feel pretty well protected. There are little bags of moth herbs scattered everywhere there's fiber. The only thing that disturbs me about these is that they smell pleasant, they're made of herbs, and the packaging strongly resembles tea bags. I can just envision all the poor, dumb souls out there drinking moth repellent. Ick! So, with full stomachs and smoking credit cards, we headed back to Cincinnati. On the way home, there was a rainbow, which was the perfect ending to the day. And it's kind of funny because the last time we made this trip, there was a rainbow on our way home. I think that's a sign from our guardian spirits that they approve of our girl get-away days. It was just a little bit of magic to round out our day. So, that was fabulous, and I love all my new toys, and now I'm working on biting my nails to the quick because I'm so friggin' nervous about my new job. I start in less than 36 hours and I'm tremblin' in my boots. I hate the first day of any job. It's just so akward! I'll survive, but I'm just really nervous. Tomorrow is all about getting ready for my new job. I'll try to write, but we'll see what happens. I have a feeling I'll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off! Pretty please send some calming thoughts my way if you can spare them. Goodnight!
# posted by Jenni @ 3/29/2003 10:53:00 PM
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