Olympics, Weekend fun and more

This is a collage of some pictures and logos taken from the Internet. If anyone knows a reason that these are not to be shared here, please let me know and I will remove them!

Lately, I'm feeling a little like the kid whose best friend just left for vacation with her parents at the end of the summer. In my case, it's my best friend heading for the beach for a well earned rest with her dear husband. I have to find ways to entertain myself - and that's a good thing. Never healthy to depend on one person for anything. And in just a few short weeks it will still be hot, but summer will be over and my favorite season begins. In the meantime, the Beijing Olympics started - early this morning for us, early evening for those on the other side of the earth. We just saw the opening ceremonies and it was awesome in the real sense of the word. There's something about the Olympics; it brings back hope that we can all live in peace. Silly perhaps, but true. Speaking of silly, Ravelry has its own version of the Olympics - Ravelympics. I'm a member of teamcolumbiasipandknit and I've cast on for the Saguaro Socks by Joanna, except I'm trying for a pair of fingerless mitts for S. Joanna suggested I turn the sock pattern around a bit to show the cabling off to its best advantage. I agree. While I'm writing about knitting, here's a picture of someone else's project that I am finishing off in my own way. Mary from our Sip 'n Knit group was de-stashing, had already crocheted the below granny squares, but hadn't sewn them together and lost interest in the project. I picked it up - after all, I have no other knitting projects extant, do I? - pieced it together, and crocheted edging with an interesting novelty yarn from the box. I may frog it if it starts looking too tacky, but so far, I'm liking the colors. If I'm not too ashamed of it, I may just give it back to Mary:). Below are three other bits of yarn I had the temerity to take home with me. I rationalized that (1) I could put it to good use and (2) I wasn't spending anybody's hard-earned dough.
OK, stop it, I hear ya!

Yesterday and today were court days in the morning. I had lunch with the boss yesterday afternoon on my way home and then CRASHED. Remember my last post wherein I said something about winding a bunch of sock yarn hanks into balls? Well I did - until about 5 in the morning. What was I thinking?!! I made it through court fine, paying attention to what our clients needed (that's number 1!) and went to the office, dropping off some overdue paperwork (!) and returning some phone calls. Then, after lunch, I went home, and did the aforesaid crashing (i.e., sleeping in a twisted position on the couch) for a couple of hours before heading for the Greenbelt Metro stop to pick up B from her mini vacation in Myrtle Beach with J and her family. Then home, prepped for today's cases and then bed.

This morning was a fairly quick docket - had to get one case postponed and the other was fairly straightforward. Went home, answered some e-mails and then off to the movies. Ellen and Connie and I had not really spent some time together since the end of May and before that I think it was sometime during the Kennedy administration, LOL! I mean, Connie and I talk and e-mail fairly regularly because we're in the same kind of practice, but not so with Ellen. So it was terrific to plan a Friday afternoon at the movies followed by a quick dinner (Chinese food of course - in honor of the Olympics in Beijing:)) We saw the total chick flick: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Yes it was a sequel and it was about a bunch of girlfriends and yes, it will very likely be on HBO and will definitely be on video soon, but it was good clean fun. I had tissue packets in my purse. Good thing - I was sitting between Ellen and Connie and handing them out literally left and right. Of course I didn't cry. Oh no, not me, LOL:) It was so good to see both of them and to catch up. We left with promises to "do this more often." I brought John home some of the leftover chicken and cashews which I think hit the spot (and alleviated my guilt at not being home for dinner.. again).

Tomorrow morning, I'm giving blood at St. John's and then Diane and I are going to see a matinee play at the Olney Theater. A dear colleague of mine - Tom A. and his wife, Terry, have a gift subscription but had to be out of town for a family trip. They kindly offered me the tickets. John cannot make it because he's working a ball game tomorrow, so I invited Diane - and she's driving! A month out of the hospital and she's driving! It'll be good to catch up with her and I'm sure I'll find the play interesting. It was so nice of Tom and Terry to do that!

Lest I have less than 50 projects going at once (yikes) I am swatching for the Secret of the Stole III - another knitalong. You can find it at http://www.knitwith.us/ if you're interesting in joining. This will be my virgin voyage into using beads in my knitting, so I want to try in the swatch in order to see how I'll do. The yarn pictured here is not the yarn I'm using - it will be bluer with variations in color, but not the wider variations you see here. I actually made a scarf out of this yarn and this was what was left over. I just couldn't throw it away. This yarn is very similar in thickness to the yarn I'll be using for the stole, so it should be a good example for me - plus I need the beading practice. I have 6-0 beads (whatever that means) and I was surprised to find that a size 10 (1.30 mm) crochet hook can fit through most of them. Hopefully I'll have some results for you tomorrow. Learn something new every day:)

Please pray for Joanna and family in Seattle. They lost a dear friend to cancer. From what little I've read about him, his loss must be a terrible one. My heart goes out to them. If you don't pray, then please send out good, warm and loving thoughts to them. Who knows - it may help:)

Good night and God bless - She always does;)

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