Weekend parallax

selenite posted about the weekend from his POV, so I think I shall fill in the bits from mine.

Thursday night was the knitting meetup group trying to restart. So I went. Turns out the owner of a new yarn shop in town has stepped up to run it. I suppose she probably sees the Meetup fee as an advertising cost. It went okay. I should have brought more stuff for show and tell, though. Five of us were there. One working on a poncho, two working on novelty yarn scarves, one trying to learn a new stitch, and me, having just finished a pair of socks, working on the Big Diamond Lace Throw.

I ended up sharing a lot of advice, tips, and tricks here and there. It was unnerving, giving knitting tips to the *owner* of a yarn store. I'm used to the other two stores around here, where they give them to me. I'm not used to thinking of myself as an advanced knitter - none of what I do usually seems very difficult to me. But then I got an email from bkseiver recently about her birthday present that was very complimentary and I realize that yeah, I take my level of competence for granted.

Friday I found out there was supposed to be an attempt to get the Stay At Home Moms meetup going again. I tried to go with Maggie, but nobody from the group was at the restaurant. Sigh. I'm not impressed with this woman's attempts so far - she can't spell well, for one thing. Anyway, after that I took Maggie to the 2ndhand kid store, hoping to find her a couple new dresses. I was searching through the size 4 stuff, as stuff closer to her age and weight is generally too short. No luck. Then we went and picked up some more door babyproofing stuff, and then went to the petstore to get catfood. Since we were killing time to keep her away from the house for Jamie to have uninterrupted therapy time, I went all around the store with her, looking at animals. We saw lizards, toads, tarantulas, snakes, crabs, all KINDS of fish (she found the clownfish and proudly annouced "Nemo!"), kittens, dogs getting groomed, parakeets, mice, hamsters, a rabbit, and ferrets. And a bug, a big ugly beetle on the floor, which she insisted on adding to the tally.

We also had a stop by the library. Maggie always enjoys that. Then off to pick up my x-rays for the appointment I have with the specialist tomorrow. Please please please let that do some good. Then lunch with Maggie, and home to Karl.

Saturday I was VERY annoyed to find out that Walmart didn't have wading pools anymore, but was displaying toddler long sleeved parkas in 90+heat. Gah. Then I caught a ride with sandy_tyras and family to the ORAC meeting. It was pretty good, and I had a new knitting project with me, so that was a good thing. Finding out that you're supposed to water your foundations here in Fort Worth boggled my mind. I've lived here for two years almost, and nobody ever told me this. This is scary.

Went back to the Tyras house afterwards to borrow some Dr Who tapes, and then rather than take me straight home they took me along on a visit to Cabela's. I'd never seen one before. HUUUUUUGE outdoor/sporting/hunting/fishing/stuff store. And I do mean huge. But it's really more like a natural history and taxidermy museum that just has a really extensive gift store interspersed with the exhibits. You walk in and there's a flock of geese overhead. I stepped in and sang "I use antlers in all of my decorations!" There's a mountain covered with foxes and mountain goats and such, and a waterfall down to a pond with REAL LIVE rainbow trout, guarded by taxidermy beavers. And a mink, and an otter. There's apparently amazing aquariums in the fishing section, we didn't get over there. The Africa section - oh man, they have an ELEPHANT! And wildebeest and antelope and warthogs, jackals and birds and hyenas and a leopard and FOUR lions. And it just goes on and on. They have a fudge and candy shop. Yum. I saw a camp folding chair I want to go back for, folds down very fast and might help me and my poor pained self get through FenCon - the hotel chairs at Conestoga left me in agony. I want to go back with Karl and the kids anyway, Maggie would LOVE all the animals. I brought home a present for Karl, a notepad with a beaver that says "Dam Important Things". And Sandy and I shared a funnel cake on the way home - good thing we shared, that thing was HUGE! The guy made the thickest funnel cake either of us have ever seen.

We got Karl and the kids and went out for a meal, then came back and watched some of the Dr. Who. The kids stayed up with us - well, it was a weekend, but it got too late, and Maggie gets really affected by scary music and such, so we put them to bed before finishing the 2nd ep.

I'm tired out from all this. This morning I realized we had the other speech therapist coming at 10 am - and I realized this just before 9. Had to get the kids to finish breakfast, I had to clean up the living room, vacuum, sweep the kitchen, eat my own breakfast, and then bathe and dress them. Whew. Now having a quieter day. I have to do the forms for the specialist's office tonight, and get up EARLY tomorrow to go.