Jake and I were really fortunate to be able to head to Madison for a long holiday weekend and spend time with our families. We traveled to Madison on Thanksgiving morning. I thought the holiday might be a busy travel day, but it was a ridiculously easy trip, possibly the easiest flying experience I’ve ever had. We made it to Jake’s parents for early in the afternoon and were still able to join in all the festivities, since they have their big meal later in the day. I don’t have any pictures of the meal, but here’s a shot of a very 2.0 holiday event – they used Skype and two video enabled laptops to talk with family in Michigan.

So 2.0!
After dinner, which was delicious, of course, we played cards, a game called Nerts, which I’d never heard of before meeting their family. It’s a fun game that quickly gets extremely competitive. I wont even bother to try to explain the rules – check out the link above.
On Friday, I made a trip to the Sow’s Ear, a local yarn shop in Vernoa (just outside of Madison). I’d never been to this shop before but had seen it mentioned on several Madison-area knitting blogs, so I was excited to check it out. It was quiet when I got to the store, but quickly got very busy as knitters came in to eat lunch and have coffee with their knitting. I liked the selection; there were lots of yarns that I’d never seen in a shop before. With unlimited time and resources, I could have done some serious stash enhancement, but decided to just go with two kinds, some Marisol Tupa, a Merino wool and silk blend in a gorgeous gold color and Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, in color 108 Neptune Rainbow.

Stash enhancement!
As you can see, I’ve already started playing with the Mini Mochi. It’s a beautiful yarn, but I’m a bit flummoxed about what to do with it. When I started to knit it up, the yarn seemed too weak for socks that would get any wear. I’m thinking of making some sort of striped hat or scarf with a contrasting yarn that shows off the color changes, which are gorgeous, but not well suited for a lace scarf or something similar. I purchased this yarn primarily for the great color, but I kind of wish that I had seen the comments on Ravelry about the yarn before purchasing it, which indicate that it’s fairly weak. When I tried to start a mitten project with it, I found that it is pretty thin in places and I was worried that it would break if I pulled too hard to tighten up the stitches between DPNs. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually, but this yarn might have to wait for some inspiration to strike.
Over the rest of the weekend, we met up with a number of friends in Madison that we hadn’t seen for a while. This included a trip to Lazy Jane’s cafe on Williamson Street, a restaurant that I’d never tried before. I had a delicious lemon cream scone and I heard that the other scones and breakfast items were great as well.

Lemon cream scone deliciousness (+great coffee!)
The table we used was an old desk that still had drawers. I discovered them when we were nearing the end of lunch. Apparently we were not the first to discover it – it was full of notes and other miscellaneous items from previous patrons. We had a lot of fun shifting through the notes to see what people had left. Here’s a note from “Hans!”

Is "crossbar" code for something I don't know about?
On Monday, I went to Baraboo, my hometown to meet another friend for lunch. They had fried cheese curds on the menu, a treat that we don’t have in Ohio, so I had to get them.

Cheese curds!
It had been a really long time since I’d been to Baraboo. The downtown area is really beautiful, and it was sad to see it so deserted at holiday time. There used to be a Santa house in the square area, and I remember there being a lot more holiday decorations when I was younger. A lot of the stores have gone out of business leaving many of the buildings empty. There’s still the old Al Ringling theater, though it’s currently under renovation. When I was in high school we had lots of band concerts in this theater. I don’t think I’ve been in it for at least eight years, but it’s a really great theater from the days when going to the theater really was a big deal. They show movies too, though and had Where the Wild Things Are playing there on Monday.

So many band concerts...
Today we finally had to return to Ohio. Thankfully the travel was pretty easy again. I had a really great Thanksgiving weekend, and I’m so glad we were able to go up for some extra time this year. I’m looking forward to heading home again for Christmas in just a few weeks!
Someone Tell the NFL and Bridgestone That Women Watch Football Too
December 13, 2009 by jesshagman
Sigh. Apparently this commercial debuted during the Superbowl last year, but I must have missed it when our cable froze. I just saw the ad during tonight’s Sunday night football game. I wonder what the message is supposed to be here? That the right tires will shut up your nagging wife? I suppose I’m just not in the target demographic and too much of a humorless feminist to get the joke, but I hope this feeing of annoyance with Bridgestone (“official tire of the NFL”) resurfaces the next time I need to buy some tires.
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