Austin report
Jul. 31st, 2006 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
celticdragonflyI have been nudged that I need to get this written up. I was too busy yesterday, and had planned to do it this morning, when I realized that Jamie's OT therapist was due in 10 minutes. Yikes.
So Friday afternoon we headed off for a trip to Austin. We drove down and met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kd5mdk and then went downtown, located the parking lot and watching area for the Congress Ave. bridge, and then went and got some dinner. jazz007 met us there. Afterwards we went back to the bridge to see the bat colony come out at dusk. Oh, that was cool! I've been wanting to see that for a long time. I am fascinated by bats. I love dragonflies, and really like bats, so perhaps it's just that I hate mosquitos. In any case, bats are cool. I'd been telling Maggie about bats, and showed her the educational signs they had up and such. About 750,000 pregnant female bats come here from Mexico in the spring, and have one pup each. By late summer the pups are flying, too, so about 1.5 million bats. I hadn't realized we'd *hear* them before they started flying out. Hearing them was really fascinating. At first one or two would fly out, fly back, fly out, fly back, and then a bit later just STREAMS and streams of bats! It was wonderful.
I tried taking some pictures later on, but I don't think I did very well.
Seeing bats under the Congress Ave. bridge in Austin, TX
Bats flying out from under the bridge. This was near the end, so the stream of them was getting pretty thin.
The next morning I was going to the Yarn Harlot's book tour talk, hosted by Hill Country Weavers, held in the Baptist church down the block. Wow. I heard someone estimate it as over 200 of us. I don't think I've ever been around that many knitters at once before. Almost all of us were knitting, of course. Someone in front of me turned around and said hi - it was Sharon Casteel from the Bujold list! She had SUCH a lovely circle lace shawl. I really do need to get a shawl made. I was wearing lace knit socks, but jealous of the knitters who had more visible things to wear! Afterwards I got to say hi to her friendtxanne, who I have met at sf cons before.
The talk was great fun, very amusing. I was going to try to put down a lot of what she said - but I dunno if I can now. I enjoyed it. The bits about knitting not as art or craft, but as a sport, were fun, that and her tales of the Knitting Olympics. About knitting as a transformative act, and how it's similar to parenting or a marriage, those tiny steps over and over that eventually lead to something wonderful - like a kid, or a SWEATER! Except you can't frog a husband. I told Karl that on the way home Saturday afternoon and he laughed so hard he nearly went out of the lane.
Anyway, it was all good. And then we all waited our turns to get our books autographed. I shopped at Hill Country Weavers, expecting to spend a bunch, but didn't. I really want a set of hardwood DPNs in size 3 mm, but the only hardwoods they had were in US sizes, so no 3 mm. And none of their sock yarns wanted to go home with me. I was in a mood for green. I'm rather regretting not having bought the Douglas Fir Lornas' Laces Shepherd Sock yarn I saw at the store in Woodlands north of Houston last month.
the Yarn Harlot at her booksigning after her talk. I got my books signed. I'm holding her travelling sock, and she has the one I was just finishing up.
The Yarn Harlot with both my sock and hers
Oh, she mentioned during the start of her talk that she'd seen the bats come out from under the bridge the night before. So she'd been there in that crowd too!
Karl was at museums with the kids while this was going on. Sadly, it sounds like they did NOT let him see nearly enough of what he wanted. I'd hoped to get done and come join them at the museum, but they'd worn him out and he'd come back to get me.
This makes me sad. I wanted to see some of the state history museum, too! Sigh. Karl and I *REALLY* need more chances to go out and do things together as the two of us, for the ongoing health of our marriage. I keep seeing all these things that insist that couples need to do that, they should be spending an evening every week or two, a day or weekend regularly. HOW? We can arrange the occasional evening, but I can't imagine how he and I could arrange for a trip to Austin on our own, or all the other sorts of things we'd really like to do together, without having to drag the kids along every time.
Anyway. We stopped to look at a shoe store, because I've noticed that when I wear my birkenstocks, I do fine, but when I get FED UP with sandals and wear my sneakers, my knees hurt badly by the end of the day. And birkenstocks makes non-sandals, I knew, and I figured if anywhere in Texas had a store for them, it'd be Austin. Sure enough,kd5mdk had been able to direct me to one. Where I struck out. They apparently come only in normal and narrow widths. GRRRR. Apparently the sandals are 'unisex' and therefore wider, I guess.
So then we headed north. We'd wanted to stop and see the Inner Space cave thing north of Austin. We did stop, but the store/concessions/waiting area was too crowded and too loud, and introvert me was just not up to dealing with it. I don't think the others were either. So we headed on home.
So Friday afternoon we headed off for a trip to Austin. We drove down and met up with
kd5mdk and then went downtown, located the parking lot and watching area for the Congress Ave. bridge, and then went and got some dinner. jazz007 met us there. Afterwards we went back to the bridge to see the bat colony come out at dusk. Oh, that was cool! I've been wanting to see that for a long time. I am fascinated by bats. I love dragonflies, and really like bats, so perhaps it's just that I hate mosquitos. In any case, bats are cool. I'd been telling Maggie about bats, and showed her the educational signs they had up and such. About 750,000 pregnant female bats come here from Mexico in the spring, and have one pup each. By late summer the pups are flying, too, so about 1.5 million bats. I hadn't realized we'd *hear* them before they started flying out. Hearing them was really fascinating. At first one or two would fly out, fly back, fly out, fly back, and then a bit later just STREAMS and streams of bats! It was wonderful. I tried taking some pictures later on, but I don't think I did very well.
Seeing bats under the Congress Ave. bridge in Austin, TX
Bats flying out from under the bridge. This was near the end, so the stream of them was getting pretty thin.
The next morning I was going to the Yarn Harlot's book tour talk, hosted by Hill Country Weavers, held in the Baptist church down the block. Wow. I heard someone estimate it as over 200 of us. I don't think I've ever been around that many knitters at once before. Almost all of us were knitting, of course. Someone in front of me turned around and said hi - it was Sharon Casteel from the Bujold list! She had SUCH a lovely circle lace shawl. I really do need to get a shawl made. I was wearing lace knit socks, but jealous of the knitters who had more visible things to wear! Afterwards I got to say hi to her friend
txanne, who I have met at sf cons before. The talk was great fun, very amusing. I was going to try to put down a lot of what she said - but I dunno if I can now. I enjoyed it. The bits about knitting not as art or craft, but as a sport, were fun, that and her tales of the Knitting Olympics. About knitting as a transformative act, and how it's similar to parenting or a marriage, those tiny steps over and over that eventually lead to something wonderful - like a kid, or a SWEATER! Except you can't frog a husband. I told Karl that on the way home Saturday afternoon and he laughed so hard he nearly went out of the lane.
Anyway, it was all good. And then we all waited our turns to get our books autographed. I shopped at Hill Country Weavers, expecting to spend a bunch, but didn't. I really want a set of hardwood DPNs in size 3 mm, but the only hardwoods they had were in US sizes, so no 3 mm. And none of their sock yarns wanted to go home with me. I was in a mood for green. I'm rather regretting not having bought the Douglas Fir Lornas' Laces Shepherd Sock yarn I saw at the store in Woodlands north of Houston last month.
the Yarn Harlot at her booksigning after her talk. I got my books signed. I'm holding her travelling sock, and she has the one I was just finishing up.
The Yarn Harlot with both my sock and hers
Oh, she mentioned during the start of her talk that she'd seen the bats come out from under the bridge the night before. So she'd been there in that crowd too!
Karl was at museums with the kids while this was going on. Sadly, it sounds like they did NOT let him see nearly enough of what he wanted. I'd hoped to get done and come join them at the museum, but they'd worn him out and he'd come back to get me.
This makes me sad. I wanted to see some of the state history museum, too! Sigh. Karl and I *REALLY* need more chances to go out and do things together as the two of us, for the ongoing health of our marriage. I keep seeing all these things that insist that couples need to do that, they should be spending an evening every week or two, a day or weekend regularly. HOW? We can arrange the occasional evening, but I can't imagine how he and I could arrange for a trip to Austin on our own, or all the other sorts of things we'd really like to do together, without having to drag the kids along every time.
Anyway. We stopped to look at a shoe store, because I've noticed that when I wear my birkenstocks, I do fine, but when I get FED UP with sandals and wear my sneakers, my knees hurt badly by the end of the day. And birkenstocks makes non-sandals, I knew, and I figured if anywhere in Texas had a store for them, it'd be Austin. Sure enough,
kd5mdk had been able to direct me to one. Where I struck out. They apparently come only in normal and narrow widths. GRRRR. Apparently the sandals are 'unisex' and therefore wider, I guess. So then we headed north. We'd wanted to stop and see the Inner Space cave thing north of Austin. We did stop, but the store/concessions/waiting area was too crowded and too loud, and introvert me was just not up to dealing with it. I don't think the others were either. So we headed on home.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
So cool!
Date: 2006-07-31 11:33 pm (UTC)Re: So cool!
Date: 2006-07-31 11:49 pm (UTC)But then, I'm not having to travel cross-country and try to figure out what town I'm in because I'm not even sure what day it is!
I'm working on the 2nd sock now - wanting to spiral the rib in the other direction, but I'm not sure if that's going to work or not.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-02 01:05 am (UTC)It was in... um... 1998 or so. I was in Austin for a regional conference and locals took me.
Pretty amazing, eh?