Ogunquit or Bust

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Is it the weekend yet? So close we're so close! For Memorial Day Weekend we're going to Ogunquit ME, and my sweet Kitty and her boyfriend will be joining us from NYC.

Do you know how huge this is? Do you know how many vacations Kitty and I have planned together over the years that ultimately never happened? How many tears I've wept? And do you know how many times it was her fault? (All of them.) I should really start calling her Kitty McFlakesters.

I had put money down that she would back out of this trip (like she did with our most recently defunct plans for Napa Valley this past spring), but to my amazement she has done the complete opposite and already purchased train tickets to Boston. But that's not even the best part! The best part is she put together a Powerpoint presentation of things we'll do. Powerpoint! There were all sorts of matrices and grids and charts. Clearly the girl needs more free time on her hands like I need more sock yarn.


To kick things off, we're having dinner at Arrows the first night. The 2001 issue of Gourmet mag rates it #25 on its list of best restaurants in America. La! But after that we'll be cooking in - the place we're staying has a full kitchen - trying some things we've never cooked before...

Kitty: We will COOK like little MONKEYS.

Me: Maybe I'll bring a big big pot in case. To put live LOBSTERS in.

Kitty: I've never cooked a lobster Cat. I'm scared.

Me: Neither have I!! So we need to look up how before we go. Mm...I may not be able to do it. So cruel. My mom boiled live crabs while I was home and it was sad. Delicious, but sad.

Kitty: I was at the fish store last sunday and there was a girl who worked there who was laughing about a lobster that she poked in the back of the head the way you're supposed to to kill it and it kept MOVING for like HALF an HOUR. She was like, Ha ha ha what a crazy lobster.

Me: Maybe we'll just do clams.

Kitty: Mussels and shimp and clams.

Me: If we can't cook the lobsters though, I'm having trouble picturing the guys being able to. We're all wussies.

Kitty: I think Tomcat would do it. I'll ask him.

Me: I picture us dropping the lobsters and screaming.

Kitty: And them grabbing our faces with their claws (bring the OLD BAY). Latching onto our arms and lips.

Me: ooo la this is going to be GREAT.

Kitty: By the way I can't eat really big shrimp.

Me: Hahah what?

Kitty: Because they're too BUG like.

Me: Hahaha WTF.

Kitty: The BIG ONES.

Me: You're an idiot.

Kitty: You bite into their BIG BUGGY flesh.

Me: BUGGY FLESH you are so stupid.

Please don't rain.

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Needle Case by Mom

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Folds in half lengthwise, then in thirds widthwise.
Four 4-inch wide pockets, and four 2-inch wide pockets.
100% cotton fabrics and ribbons on sale at Hancock.
Total price: $3, maybe? Awesome.

Behind the Scenes: Mom prototyping on a piece of newspaper. Everyone wants to help.

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A Mouse in the House

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

A couple nights ago I was relaxing on my parents' bed, watching TV and knitting (another) Pomatomus sock, with Mouse the cat alongside keeping me company. Every now and then I'd stop to show her my sock progress and she seemed duly impressed.

"Cool huh, Mouse? Don't you wish you could knit?"

Then I left to go to the bathroom.

"I gave it a whirl while you were gone. Bored now."

I was gone for maybe two minutes.

So disrespectful.

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Happy Mother's Day

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Left: My grandmother with her children (my mother is the one in the back, head poking out)
Right: My mother as a very fetching 21 year-old

Mom at 27 with her first (and only!) baby.

Duck flew back home last week, and my dad left on business in Uganda the same day, so it's been an girls-only slumber party down here. It's been really nice spending time with my mother. She makes breakfast every morning - bowl of fruit, pastry, a cappuccino - then I work for a few hours, then we go out to a long lunch, or shopping, then we talk about what we're going to have for dinner, then knit while watching Pride & Prejudice (movie version) on DVD.

The past few nights we've been going through boxes and boxes of old photos, all musty and curled from age. My goal is to take a bunch home with me, scan and archive them for prosterity. Those photos don't deserve to waste away like that. While it's been fun to see pictures of me back in the day in various stages of my growing pains - the missing teeth, and the 70's fashion sense, the 80's big hair, the BAD high school graduation photos - it's been much more fun and interesting going through photos of my mother back when she wasn't one yet...photos with her own mother, with schoolmates, and group trips with college friends which included one very smitten and very skinny future husband (haha Dad you were so funny-looking!).

I got a weird little sniffle in my nose and a small burning sensation behind my eyes as I went through all these old photos of my mom. She was so. Beautiful. My mommy!

I just hope she's enjoyed being a mom, to me. I don't think it was always easy, or fun, due to that requisite period when I was a complete and utter snot. But thank god teenagers are not teenagers forever.

Although I wish I could have seen my mom as one. Look how cute she was!

Mom (second from left) in high school.

***

And now...knitting content!

My mom's been making this crochet shell from the Kidsilk Haze I bought her ages ago. She had tried to knit with it first and couldn't understand how I ever managed to produce Butterfly ("So many haaairs! Is so steecky!!"), and declared me the superior knitter. Hee hee! She tried crocheting instead, we picked out a stitch pattern together et voila!

We went to Hancock Fabrics yesterday for fabric and ribbons. She is also making me a needle case. Yay!

 And I'm making her a summer sweater. The stitch pattern is from my book, and I'm using Hempathy (hemp/cotton/modal blend). It's going to be Orangina and Celia-like, with raglan shaping and small sleeves. I could have done this in one piece, top-down but don't have long enough needles and didn't feel like buying any. She's really excited to get something handknit from me, her little knitting protégée.

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Happy fun time

Sunday, May 07, 2006

We're having a jolly time here in the South. After a weekend with the parents, Duck and I headed to Savannah for a couple of days, then to Jekyll Island, then to Okefenokee Swamp, and then we got tired of driving around and headed back to Atlanta a few days early. I meant to update here more regularly but am trying to make headway in my very neglected photo album. So far I've only pics up of our trip to Jekyll - take a peek.

This past Friday for Cinqo de Mayo we headed with my high school peeps to some bar in Buckhead for some Mexican food, but all they were serving were drinks. Margaritas all night + no food all night = Tim puking out the car window on the way home. Ha ha ha! This is funny really only to me because in all the years of partying, I have never ever once seen him lose equilibrium even slightly, while he has seen me more than I would like to admit. And always with a gleeful, self-satisfied glint in his eyes. So yes I was rather enjoying myself watching him sick out the front seat, even though the mess came back and splattered my side of the window. I have pictures of this too but you probably don't want to see it.

Happy Cinqo de Mayo!

The night ended with a late late dinner at Waffle House, a greasy sort of joint that you'd only voluntarily step foot in if you were 1) a truck driver, 2) really stoned, 3) really drunk. Hashbrowns smothered in cheese at 1 in the morning never tasted so good.

Ah yes, we are all in - or approaching - our 30's. The fun never ends.

There has been some knitting. Some. Mostly the only person getting any quality play time with yarn is the cat. Mouse loves to play with yarn. And rabbits too. She brought one home the other day, much to my mother's displeasure. She's really sprightly for a middle-aged cat.

"Did you know I crochet too? Claws make for great hooks. As do incisors."

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