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Lambtown and Etc.

I always feel somewhat guilty when I am in the Sacramento environs and do not tell my friends Malvina and Sam that I will be in their vicinity, as we always have fun and delicious foods whenever we get together.  However, my appearance in the state’s capitol was rather spontaneous: my mom and I trekked up to Dixon to attend their annual Lambtown festival, then followed up with a trip to the new yarn store I found the last time I was in Sac over Labor Day.

Lambtown was fun, if a bit smaller than I was anticipating, but we are not talking Maryland Sheep & Wool or Rhinebeck here, we are talking Hick California Town Sheep Thing. (No offense to Dixon, which is a cute little farm town about 20 miles from Sacramento.)  There was plenty to look at and a whole multi-purpose room full of yarn and fleece.  I even looked at a drop spindle, but dudes: come over here and punch me if I ever start spinning because cripes in a kayak I do not want to. I haven’t even used my loom this year – let’s master rigid heddle weaving first, shall we? Oy.

Didn’t take any pictures of the yarn room, but I did take adorable shots of alpacas and sheep:

Lambtown

Lambtown

Lambtown

Lambtown

Plus, I got a shot of this beauty:

Lambtown

Poor guy is in need of some orthadontia, I think. Heh.

Anyway, it was a good time and afterwards we headed up to Fair Oaks to go to Babetta’s, which my mom hadn’t been in before. We were discussing what to have for lunch and couldn’t really decide, when we noticed that like three store fronts from Babetta’s was a Thai restaurant! So after yarn we went over there and had a very nice lunch.

We got a peanut sauce salad, which was kind of your basic salad but it had this awesome peanut sauce and braised tofu bits and was just really tasty. We also had pad thai, which my mom had never had. I liked it, but I’m not too picky about pad thai. She wasn’t super thrilled with it. It lacked in the peanut department, I thought, but was otherwise good. We also tried the chicken and red curry which was also good. I must say no place has ever equaled the unparalleled greatness that is Coconut Bay in Burlingame, so if you take that place out of the equation, this place was quite good.

I have been sick all week with a minor cold, and I feel a bit better today – a lot less sniffly which is nice. I mainlined the zinc Cold Eeze on Wednesday and Thursday and that seemed to do the trick. I’ve slept a lot, which is definitely nice. I don’t think I’ll last too late tonight either. I should look for something for dinner, maybe.

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CHS 1998 11 Year Reunion



CHS 1998 11 Year Reunion, originally uploaded by Pynnski.

So, last Saturday was my school’s 11 year reunion. Why not 10 year? I have no idea. We’re procrastinators, I guess. (our reunion website is late4class.com)

I have to admit, I was ultimately underwhelmed with the whole thing. I’m not someone who looks back and wishes they were still in high school – I was a hormonal wreck, completely out of my mind, didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself and was a complete and total dork.

So, I have pretty much blocked most of high school from my head. And college, too. What came out of my school experiences were ultimately wonderful and lasting friendships. In the picture above, I have known all those girls a minimum of 15 years, and Jen I’ve known for almost 20 (OMG). (I’m sitting next to Jen on the right; she’s the one with the fab pink hair.)

Sure, there’s a certain amount of curiosity I retained about people I went to school with, but alas, the people I was most curious about didn’t come. And now, I definitely feel like I’ve come full circle and have closed that chapter of my life.

Anyway, the shindig was at the Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek, and it was loud and the air conditioning was broken. Now, I still retain my Texas heat shields, but this was way too effing hot with way too many people in the same room. At one point I went to use the restroom and it was a blissful 68 degrees. I caught the photographer in there and she admitted that she had gone in there on purpose just to get cool.

The food was hor d’eourves, various stuff, pretty tasty, and there was an open beer/wine bar. I had an apple cider beer that was pretty good. Also: cold. And there was a really good chocolate cake thing for dessert.

I wonder if because it was an alehouse they kept the temp down so you would enjoy (and order more) ice cold beers? If so, fail.

Anyway, the other thing that happened was that one of the people who had been quite popular back in the day was *I SWEAR* on something because he was a little too fidgety a little too early on the day; i.e., dude was totally tweaking.

But yeah, I did talk to a few people I was pleased to catch up with (Steve the Pirate King, his wife, Mark, Kirsten) though ultimately it was the most expensive “hang out with my friends” I’ve ever accomplished. THOUGH: props to the coordinators of the event. While I was kinda bored with the scene, it had nothing to do with their efforts and I think they did a great job considering the time constraints and our lackadaisical class.

SO: Here’s to us, Concord High Class of 1998! Now I never have to look at most of you ever again!

Maybe.

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Things I Make When You’re Not Looking

I totally knitted an Ishbel shawlette while nobody was looking.

Ishbel Blocking

Ishbel01

(Least of all myself – this was a fast knit.)

I have turned into a chart knitter without noticing – if a pattern doesn’t have a chart, I won’t use it. The charts on Ishbel are great; easy to read and interpret. I will definitely be making this shawl again, probably in the bigger size.

I knit it in Malabrigo Sock in the Terracotta colorway, and this thing weighs nothing. I will have to show a pic of it modeled because wowza, this yarn feels so nice against your skin, soft and wonderful.

I knit this on an Addi Turbo lace needle in size US 6 that I picked up at Cottage Yarns in South San Fran a few weeks ago. These needles are great, and I really think that helped with how fast I knit this sucker up.

I also had an urge to crochet on my Babette squares, which comes and goes in fits and starts. But I’m almost done with the 49 4-round squares.

Babette Progress

(Aren’t they purdy?)

Yesterday I cast on for an Aeolian shawl, also out of Malabrigo sock, plus beads. Pretty awesome!

And finally, I made sushi for the first time and it was great:

Sushi

I am too chickenshit to deal with raw fish, so there was none of that, but I did use a variety of fillings, including avocado, cucumber, crab (fake), tuna, green onions, and tempura shrimp. Above you will see my practice sushi; I forgot to take pictures of the “real” sushi that I made for when my friends came over on Saturday to sample it.

Above all, my favorite was the spicy tuna roll, which was a mixture of canned tuna, mayonnaise, and sriracha sauce, plus green onion I think. I am not sure how my friends liked that one, but they did enjoy all of the different varieties and I was complemented specifically on the California roll, and also how “nice” they looked, which I thought was funny, but apparently some people don’t roll them very well.

Anyway, super easy to make, and now I’m going to have to keep tuna on hand for when I want a spicy tuna roll. WTF! I never eat tuna. UNTIL NOW, apparently!

…And I thought I was sick of sushi but I guess not because now I want a spicy tuna roll again. Go figure.

***

This weekend is my ten-year eleven-year high school reunion, which should be interesting. I am going to bring my camera to document the event. I am looking forward to it, but I’m going to be bummed if a couple people with whom I would specifically like to chat with don’t show up.