another month

October has felt like a limbo month for me. September was exciting with my birthday and kids coming back to school, and November means Thanksgiving, and being that much closer to winter break and Christmas, and October has just fallen in the middle and been whiled away. There were even some reasonably big events in October -- Scrabble tourney, marathon... maybe it was the lack of really vibrant colors so far this fall. Maybe it was missing two Farmer's Markets, which tend to put an accent mark on my otherwise mundane weeks. In any case, I'm apathetic to this whole month's passing, but looking forward to November and chillier weather and soups and Carmina Burana (November 14 in Greenbelt, November 15 in Annapolis! Please come!) and Tim's parents visiting.

Looking at my October livejournal calendar, there's only one weekday on which I didn't write. Makes me want to go and backdate an entry to that Wednesday.

Plans for NYC -
Today/tonight: eat Nathan's at the rest stop on the way to the city, and Indian food in the village.
Tomorrow: play Scrabble with Rochelle (maybe we'll even make our way to Washington Park, where I hear that people play at all hours), dinner in Midtown, Beauty and the Beast
Sunday: brunch in the village, farmer's market, head home
Some time: Downtown Yarns, Seaport Yarns Midnight Madness sale, mail the mail that I still haven't gotten out, drink tea at White Lily, finish knitting my bag

new york city, day one

With beautiful weather like this, and the ease of an EZ-Pass coming through the Holland Tunnel, this weekend began wonderfully. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get from Baltimore to Rochelle's place, and we got to put the car in the safety of her lot, away from hooligans with eggs (of which there are many around here). We went to Wild Lily Tea Market first, just to make sure that we got there. I had an eight-treasure sticky rice dessert, which was sweet and lovely, with some caramel tea (my sweet tooth is acting up, probably in response to the trick or treatedness in which I'm not partaking).

Rochelle's a little not well, so Tim and I took a trip down to Seaport Yarns without her. I closed a yarn store -- woohoo! I bought two beautiful Bouton d'Or yarns that I'll hold together and make into a scarf on big, fat needles (I hope to finish that this weekend). I also bought a 'potluck pack' of Cherry Tree Hill hand-dyed worsted weight wool yarn -- 6 skeins/1680 yards for $60 -- that's a mile of yarn! And, it's absolutely beautiful -- all blues and purples and lovely. I'll have to take a picture in the light tomorrow before I start balling it up. It's enough to make a sweater, but I can't decide whether I'd rather do a bunch of scarf/hat/mitten sets. Or even felted bags. I finished up the bag I've been working on, and am looking forward to sending it through the washer when I get back to town. I also picked up a pair of 10 1/2 double point needles -- my first set of Brittany needles, in fact, so I hope I like em. Seaport is great -- the prices are reasonable, the people are helpful, I was able to find parking, and the selection is impressive, especially of hand-dyes. It would've been a little more convenient if they took anything but cash, but what can you do.

( tasteless costumes spotted in nyc in here - don't click if you don't wanna know )

We had dinner at an Italian place right by Rochelle's, and it was quite well done, with great water service, music that wasn't too loud, enough elbow room between the tables, and little chocolates that came with the check. All in all, it has been quite the good first day.