Step Into My Thimble

This weekend, I was in Newark, New Jersey. I went to my friend Shawna’s wedding which was in West Orange. I got to see a few old friends that I knew from the JET program in Japan. There just wasn’t enough time to go into New York City–I was there less than two days, and we had a lot of catching up to do.

This is my favorite picture from the wedding:

Leta and her husband James blowing bubbles as the bride and groom walked out of the gardens after the ceremony.

FYI New Jersey cabs suck. I spent the most money on cabbing around, and none of the jerks knew how to get anywhere. One made us wait on the side of the road for 30 minutes in the middle of nowhere while he fixed a flat.

Happy birthday to Chad (a little late). A pair of these lovely hand-knitted beer sweaters will be reaching you shortly:

They double as sweat bands!

In other news, our fish tank plants have kind of shriveled up, so we got some more. Another cabomba, and one that looks vaguely like bamboo but with purplish hues on some of the leaves.

We also got two new fish: Harvey and Lyman. They are gold zebra danios, and extra zippy compared to our sad and lonely singles. We really hope one of them won’t die. A very big picture of the tank, as Harvey and Lyman were getting acclimated:

Worship Mubaka!

You can see Kumar Chatterjee (the dark orange and black fish) and Miranda. Stella the tiger barb didn’t make it into the picture.

This weekend Rodney and I went to Kalamazoo for the egg toss, etc. It was a fun time with much warmer weather than expected. We even played on my old elementary school playground!

Rodney was the star of the egg toss. (By the way, my family makes each year’s newcomers wear these stupid old wigs.)

I also visited the knitting store and the fabric store. At the knitting store, I was wearing a thick acrylic sweater and it was so crowded and hot…I sat down to test some #19 needles for the baby sweater project and after that it was hard to concentrate. But I got the #19s, a set of #7 bamboo dpns, and a ball of Reynolds Sassy in blue. It’s cotton and if I like the little things I knit with it, it might be the brand I choose for a summer tank top. All together, I didn’t buy much. But they gave me a big program for the Michigan Fiber Festival that I have enjoyed reading the last couple days. I’m trying to decide which workshops to sign up for now! And this year, there is a new thing: a pig roast on Saturday night. Only $7.50 a person for all the fixin’s.

The fabric store resulted in a much better haul. I got about 12 pieces of upholstery fabric remnants for less than $4 each. These will make many bags that I might try to sell at the Oak Park Women’s Exchange. I also got several yards of a pretty Indian madras plaid that will be for a summer dress.

This weekend Rodney and I are off to Kalamazoo for the annual family egg toss. I’ve been enlisted to help with the Easter dinner, and to make the “goal” for the egg toss. This is the first year nobody is bringing an exchange student or other person who can’t speak English, so the pictures might not involve as many looks of puzzlement.

Some ridiculously bulky celery-colored yarn arrived this week for the Plymouth baby sweater pattern that I have. This yarn is so huge and thick. It’s Cascade Magnum brand, 100% new wool. The widest piece of the garment is something like 87 stitches, but my #17 needles are only 10 inches long, so I’m going to have to find some longer ones to fit all that yarn on. My mom and I will go to the yarn store AND the great Field’s Fabrics this weekend, so there will be treasures to report about, I’m sure.

For a long time I’ve wanted a pug dog. But then on Sunday when we were walking back from the library we saw two very charming Boston Terriers in a yard. One was named Maggie.

I only allow myself to like short-haired (non-prissy) small dogs, ones that look like miniatures of some other big tough dogs like a boxer or great dane. I’d love to have a full-sized Marmaduke but I know I’ll never have the space or patience. We probably will have a regular, slow-moving and cheerful big dog like a lab to go with our little dog someday.