Del Mar Fair

Our first trip to the fair started late in the day, after my workday had ended and evening traffic began. Just on the east side of the 5 from the fair grounds is an Albertson's selling discount admission. Yay! A whole $5 off each ticket. I love getting a deal when I'm prepared to pay full price. (No crazy couponing here.)

It's been a number of years since I've been to the fair; same for Gianni. Only on Food Network had I heard of the latest and greatest Fried Fill-in-the-Blank but here at the fair it's right there in flesh and blood glutenous coating and oil. What I really wanted to see was the Fried Butter. Yes, a cube of butter that has gained social ranking by disguising itself with a bread crumb jacket, bathing in hot oil then shape-shifting into a fluid mess once you take a bite. How can that not be a shameful disappointment? Chocolate covered bacon on the other hand has many more fine and redeeming qualities (but I'm too cheap to buy a handful for $6.50 so I'll make some myself. Maybe.)

On our way to find the animal barns we walked through the fine arts pavilion. Inspiring water colors, delicate pen and ink, intricate mixed media, all sorts but needlework was nowhere to be found :( I suppose the cool stuff is reserved for exhibition at the STATE fair. Humph. No 4H decorated cat cages, no award winning preserves, no record approaching veggies, no cavies even. Absurd! None of the cool stuff.

Jack! Oh yes, the reason we made a point to even GO to the fair. As soon as G unfolded the stroller he jumped in and stayed in without fuss. Through the midway he snacked on my sweet potato fries. He gawked in awe at all the rides and lights. Both the roller coaster and log ride were "trains" which we of course watched intently. When we got to the animals though, he begged to get out for a closer look ... then got back in, no problem. G and I thought we were doing pretty well keeping the germs, dirt, grit, and ick just out of arm's reach. We're casually walking though a sawdust/mostly dirt blanketed outdoor booth area when I look under the stroller. I don't know why I looked but both his feet were extended under the stroller and parting the dirt like Moses. He was happy as a clam. I should have known. 

G informed me that the slippers don't quite fit well enough to comfortably stay on his feet. Bummer. Just a bit more than a tad too big so I'm going to try REAL hard to get them in the wash this weekend.

Chocolate Glass Coffee Knit

What a wonderful weekend! When I go out Friday night it just seems to make the weekend longer. So on Friday night we went out to dinner at Leucadia Pizzeria where Jack and I shared a gluten-free pizza. Love that place AND they deliver. We were invited to a BBQ on Saturday to watch the MotoGP race. Fun to meet new people and just hang out on a Summer afternoon. American, Ben Spies, won his first MotoGP race. Woohoo! Jack didn't really let me watch the race; we were upstairs watching Kung Fu Panda. Cute movie but there was racing on TV!


Sunday I started the day with two iced coffees from Java Hut. Pretty good but I've been itching to make my toddy ever since Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for iced coffee. On that caffeine high I scrubbed the house top to bottom and finished the laundry. Rather quickly I might add. When G left for a business meeting, Jack and I went over to Grocery Outlet and dinked around for a while. $97 later and we were out the door. A little surprised by that but we found some goodies: Dagoba drinking chocolate, Oikos greek yogurt, Pamela's mini cookie bites (gluten-free), Cascadian Farms granola, lots of other stuff and a bag of coffee. All they had was S&W store brand but that's fine for toddy. I am just in time with my iced coffee brew because yesterday it read 81 in front of the house. Dang that's hot for the beach! There should be a lot of good iced toddy weather coming up. Yum!

Knitting? Yes there was a smattering of knitting this weekend! I casted off the slippers (clogs, whatever) and knit a few rows on my Seattle Socks but the biggest accomplishment was felting the clogs. Sometimes the felting stage takes forever. Not the actual felting, but the finding time to put it in the wash and monitor it. I found the time last night after all the laundry was done but I always forget to monitor it! We were sitting at the table one second then the next I shot out of a cannon aimed for the laundry room. Thankfully they hadn't started spinning and weren't too small already.  So they're drying now and they fit! With every stitch I doubted they'd fit, mostly because of the cuff but also there were some wrap and turns written in. I followed them on the first go round but it didn't look right so I ripped it out and started again. On the second try they looked fine as I was going but you never know. As for when they'll be a wearable object, I cannot be sure. This morning they are still HEAVY with water and being that there's so much moisture in the air, it could be a week before G can wear them. Ah, the waiting game...

Tuesday our plan is to go to the San Diego State Fair. Feels a bit early in the year for the fair but then Washington schedules all their state fairs for the end of Summer to optimize the sunny days. I hope G doesn't mind stopping by the sewing, cooking, needlework, etc. barns :)

(My husband came up with the title to this post. Not sure he's all there this morning :) )

Out of the Desert

Hmm. Quite a bit has happened since my last post but the best item on the list is moving to My Love's hometown :)

The temperature change has thankfully summoned my knitting needles. I'm almost done with the last project i started in Phoenix - felted slippers for My Love. I had started them as a Christmas gift but locked them up in February when the desert summer reminded me it was just around the corner. Blech. Who wants slippers in the desert anyway? Now, a year and a half later, some wonderful husband wants slippers again. Here they come! ...hopefully. I'm using a pattern from my mom and the cuff instructions are missing. Oops. I didn't realize that until I was at the cuff of the first slipper. Par for course. So, we'll see in the next couple weeks when I finish and get around to felting. (I didn't say I had a lot of extra time. I still have my job and a now almost three year old!)

Oh! I have two, yes TWO yarn stores within WALKING distance!!! Both are incredible. One I've frequented on past trips to Encinitas, Common Threads. But the other I kind of dismissed in the past - Black Sheep. I mistakenly judged a book by its cover. Tsk tsk. The sign was (gulp) boring and it said "beads." I just assumed it would be more of a mixed media type store and I'm not really into much else but yarn right now. As you can tell, big mistake. The store is gorgeous! Two amazing yarn stores within a couple blocks on Coast Hwy. Who knew!? I thought their Noro section was nice until she pointed out I was only looking at the new stuff. More? A whole darn corner of the store! Ahhh heaven :)

Bicycling with little g, learning to surf, cooking on a gas stove (I never knew that was so awesome for lack of a better word), traveling to race tracks with my family .... plenty of fun stuff to come :)