I Think I Can...I Think I Can

Things have been pretty slow around here since the Dallas trip. After spending Day 1 of our adventure wandering around the hotel, trying to find someone to clean my room (in hopes that a good cleaning would get out the terrible damp, mustiness in the room, which we dubbed "The Bog"), I managed to get some work done on Friday -- only to end up sick halfway through the day. Stupid room. Of course, that meant that by Saturday, when we finally had a chance to wander around the city, I was a big, sick lump of blah. (Also, in the Hotel Room from Hell, the power went out in half the room, and no one could fix it for almost a full day -- and, no, we weren't even staying in room 1408)

We did, however, get to see the Dallas sites. We did all the JFK stuff (which was amazing, though it made for a less-than-upbeat day of sight-seeing), and we did some shopping. We even ate from all three of the Texas food groups (steak, Mexican, and BBQ). But the most exciting thing about our trip to Dallas?

I hunted down a Sonic. Clearly, their infuriating ad campaign works. You see, ever since we lived in Massachusetts, we've been seeing these Sonic ads. They had them in MA, and they have them here. The problem? There aren't any actual Sonics in the immediate area. Not for miles. It always drove our friends in Massachusetts crazy -- because they were from Texas, where they actually have Sonic. But it also drove me crazy because I'd never actually been to one -- and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. So finally, I got to go to Sonic. And there was great rejoicing. I got myself some chicken things and fries and a cherry lemonade, and it was all good. Since it was Satuday, I couldn't really taste all that much -- but what I did taste was delicious. And now I'll be even angrier when I see those stupid Sonic ads -- because now they'll give me unquenchable Sonic cravings. Darnit.

So anyway...I was hoping that my sinus thing would go away once we got back home and away from The Bog. But, alas, it was a cold -- not allergies. So I was down for a few days. That wasn't good -- since I had to quickly pull myself together and try to sound like a normal human being on Wednesday morning, when I had to record the radio show. Fortunately, I sorta pulled it off (hear for yourself). Thank you, Aleve Sinus.

In the midst of all the craziness last week, there wasn't much time for knitting. Can you believe that? But I'm getting there. I'm absolutely, positively determined to finish the latest sweater. Considering my bad luck with sweaters of late, it'll be a miracle if I bind off without frogging it all out -- but I'm so close... It wasn't all that easy at first -- since it was way too hot to sit around with a sweater on my lap. But now that the weather's cooling down, I feel a lot more motivated to finish it.

Apparently, Blogger doesn't want me to show you the picture, so for now I'll just say that I'm almost done with the first sleeve, and I still like it. And that, my friends, is a good sign.

Of course, now it's time to get crankin' on the sweater -- because I just realized that Christmas is just around the corner. YIKES! I bought my first Christmas Gift Yarn at the store on Monday -- and I've even got some fun patterns picked out (but I can't say anything about it -- because everything I'm working on right now is for someone who reads the blog...).

The problem, however, is that while Miss A and I were knitting on Monday, we both decided that we really need to make ourselves new shawls (I wore my Fireball on Sunday and got such wonderful compliments that I decided that I really need to wear shawls more often). So Miss A picked out her yarn -- and I helped her pick out a stitch pattern. And then she helped me pick out a couple of stitch patterns (one for plain yarn, one for variegated), and I've spent the last couple of days standing in front of my stash, trying to pick out some yarn.

I have some gorgeous lavender mohair -- but I was planning to use that for a sweater from Fitted Knits. And I have some pretty tweedy stuff, but I wanted to make a pullover. Same goes for the hand-dyed puple and turquoise. And I have some sparkly purple stuff, but I'm not sure what I'd wear it with. And I have some blue stuff and some orange stuff, but that's too springy. I also have lace weight stuff, but I want to do something heavier for the winter. I suppose I could always go with a plain navy, but that just seems too boring...

But...wait a minute. I NEED TO KNIT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!

Sigh.

All this talk of yarn, however, has me thinking about next year's big tent sale at the Super Fantastic Yarn Outlet Extraordinaire. I didn't get to go this year, and I was totally bummed -- so I want to start planning for next year's trip. Who's up for a little knitting weekend in Canada with me next summer? Though they don't schedule the sale until May or so, I'm thinking that if we planned a trip for August 15-16 or 17, the sale should be going on then. Here's what I'm thinking: we'd leave on Friday morning, so we could get to the sale by Friday afternoon. Then we'd get a place to stay (maybe a B&B?) and hang out and knit. On Saturday morning, we can wander through the nearby flea market / farmers' market before returning to the sale to buy the stuff that wasn't out on Friday -- or that we're kicking ourselves for not buying before. Then we can either head back on Saturday night or Sunday morning. I know...I know... It's 10 months away. But I don't want to miss those $2 2-pound hanks (and $4 2-pound cotton cones) again next year.

So mark your calendars now -- and start putting together your wish list for The Great Yarn Blow-Out of 2008!