The Finish Line (Part I)

I have a secret.*

I started running in July.

Today I ran my first 5k.  My goal was to run the entire way.

I did.

Staying warm before the race. It was about 30°F outside.

There were 520 runners.

Annnnd they're off! (I'm in the red shorts in the middle of photo)

On the final stretch....

Final burst for the finish line...

And done!

My final time: 38:41. Average pace of 12:27 minutes/mile.

I met my goal, exceed my personal best time and got a snazzy new running shirt.

*unless you read my Facebook feed, then you already knew

(Finish Line Part II? - I completed my Lady Grey Coat last night. In the words of Maggie - this coat is epic. Photos and details when I return from Thanksgiving.)

Spin-o-ween

Mr. Cleaver and I had a pretty low-key Halloween evening, which largely consisted of eating Chinese take-out and handing out candy.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon at Maggie's celebrating what I shall now dub "Spin-o-ween." At Rhinebeck,  a number of our group picked up spindles and Maggie needed to get started on making the yarn for her 2010 knitolution (yep - I'm making up new words left and right here). So we gathered together with our roving and our pie - a treat indeed!

Chicago - My Favorite Places

As long-time readers of this blog know, before my most recent move to Maine I lived in Chicago for a little over two years. I recently had the chance to return to my old stomping grounds for a work conference, and leapt at the chance and added a couple days onto my trip to revisit my favorite places and hang out my my dear friend Kasey (who graciously let me crash at her place).

So below, some of my favorite spots (including a couple of new finds).

(A quick explanation on this photo: on the way to pizza, Kasey & I found a lost purse. We found an ID card, but  when we called the person on it, we only got a very confused young woman in Philadelphia. So we looked a bit further into the purse and found that the ID was fake, and that the purse owner liked to return one-shoulder leopard print dresses to the store after wearing them to Ne-Yo concerts at local lounges. One classy lady.)

I ate my way across the city stopping at The Billy Goat Tavern of SNL sketch fame (get a minimum of a double cheezborger), Giordanos for stuffed pizza (like deep dish, but even better), Thai food at Yes, and two stops at A Taste of Heaven for lunch and breakfast (Katie Cakes!!!).

I took advantage of all the free entertainment the city had to offer - old favorites like Free Thursday evenings at the Art Institute, where I stumbled upon a promo performance by Hubbard Street Dance Company, and the Lincoln Park Zoo; along with new finds at like the Lurie Garden in Millenium Park and the Lincoln Park Conservatory.  Urbs in Horto indeed! I did some shopping and picked up another sock's worth of yarn at Loopy Yarns, after visiting a co-worker in the South Loop. I also got to experience some turtle racing at Big Joe's bar.

Best of all, I got some valuable "just hanging out" time with Kasey, which included watching both the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel miniseries. (Which means I now really want to watch the Avonlea series, which my mom recorded every episode of off the Disney Channel back in the day.)

All in all, Chicago was familiar and wonderful and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to return.

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to make mention of two things:

• Barbara Billingsley, the original Mrs. Cleaver, passed away while I was in Rhinebeck and I just wanted to acknowledge the pop culture debt I owe to her.
• In all the Hub-bub, my 3-year blogaversary happened (on Oct 18th), without me even realizing it. So thanks to all the readers out there who keep me motivated to keep putting my words and pictures out there. I truly appreciate you all.

Roadtrip: Rhinebeck!!

I'm leaving for a business/fun trip to Chicago today, but before I left I wanted to jot down a few words on my trip to Rhinebeck.

As group of seven of us left bright and early Friday morning, divided into, as the running gag was all weekend - an old people and a young people car - henceforth referred to as OPs and YPs.

The YPs car before:

We left early so we could make a detour to Northhampton, MA to visit WEBS: "America's Yarn Store." Yes, we stopped to buy yarn, before we spent a weekend at a sheep & wool festival, buying yarn.

WEBS is huge.

We even spotted a Great American Afghan (Karen's nemesis) live and in the wool.

And if the main store wasn't big enough, there's a warehouse.

We, as a group, found a thing or two... I ended up with a sweater's worth of Williamstown for my 2010 knitalution (to design and knit a full-sized sweater).

That night we landed at our hotel, ordered in some Chinese food (that came with a complimentary bottle of Grapette Soda), and read aloud from the Amish romance Novel, The Parting.

Saturday morning, we made sure we were at the gate at opening:

Our first stop was the Evergreen Farms booth for an angora. Maggie had recently lost her bunny Cocoa Bean and was debating whether she was ready for a new one. Petunia convinced her she was.

After a quick stop at She Shoots Sheep Rhinebeck Style photoshoot (I think  Maggie, Bristol and myself were models  #9, #8, and #7, respectively. I'll post a link when the slideshow is up), we headed out for the vendors.

After the first two barns I had checked off my three must-haves from my shopping list: 1750 yards fingering weight yarn in a natural grey for a Pas de Valse sweater from Snowshoe Farm Alpacas,  semi-solid sock yarn from Persimmon Tree Farm, and an eye-catching spinning fiber from Gnomespun Yarn Fiber Arts. Fortunately for my wallet I slowed my pace and bit and my final two pruchases of the day, buttons for my knitalution sweater from Jennie the Potter and a BFL/Silk braid of roving from Gale's Art waited until after lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the Ravelry lunch meet up and got to meet Sarah, Casey and Mary Heather.

We also made dead center behind the banner in the official meet-up photo, which hasn't been posted yet.

We spent a bunch of time with some folks who raised Soay sheep, an primitive sheep breed . I didn't note the farm unfortunately.

By 3ish - we were tuckered out and stopped for a apple cider doughtnut break, before leaping back into the fray.

We left the fairgrounds at 4:45. We left the parking lot an hour and a half later. (Noting for future trips, leave early!!)

After a break back at the hotel, the OPs went out to dinner and the YPs went to the Ravelry party in RedHook. We arrived too late for the goodie bags and cupcakes, but did get a chance to hop in the photobooth and chat with some lovely folks.

On Sunday, we packed up the cars (don't worry, we didn't really store the bunny in the back), had breakfast at a local diner and headed back for a few last hours at the fair.

We caught a sheep shearing (the sheep's not a fan)

and picked up a few more items. I snagged another sock yarn, this time from Sliver Moon Farm, and fought off Maggie for some into the whirled roving. I have received much mocking from my knitting group for my color pallette/phases and how my knitting often matches my outfit. I have been firmly ensconced in a blue and yellow phase (my Manu and a pattern I'm releasing at month's end is a good example), but it seems pretty clear that my next phase is definitely leaning green.

All in all, the trip was fantastic and totally worth the drive and slightly sketchy hotel. We're aiming for a return trip in 2012. If you're planning a Rhinebeck trip, I'd make the following suggestions:

• Book your hotel early. We did it about 3 months in advance and everything good had been booked by then.
• Break up your days and catch some events. We wish we had seen some more of the events or taken a class. It all gets a bit over whelming, just doing vendor after vendor.
• If you're doing both days, leave early on the first day. The traffic out of the parking lot was awful day one.
• Talk to as many strangers as you can. Every person I talked to (usually started by one of us complimenting the other's knit-wear) was super nice and friendly and you have an automatic topic of conversation. I wish I had takend the time to chat more.

Now off to Chicago! Be back Sunday.

3 Years

Happy Anniversary Mr. Cleaver.

I love you, very very much.

Mike & Maggie Get Married

I didn't mention it in the last post, but the reason the Notary Dress is named the Notary Dress is because I made for a very special purpose, to officiate Mike & Maggie's wedding this past Saturday. The knitting readers may know these two from Mike's touching Ravelry proposal.

The wedding was held on the Artist's Covered Bridge in Newry in Western Maine.

We gathered on the bridge Friday afternoon for the rehearsal. It was my first time officiating a wedding, so I was a bit nervous, but once we got all the parties there, it went pretty smoothly.

Afterwards, Mr. Cleaver and I got to join everyone for a delicious rehearsal dinner, prepared by Maggie's father, who has convinced me that I will someday need to own a meat smoker.

The wedding day arrived, warm and sunny.

The knitting contingent arrived early.

And while the day of the wedding was beautiful, the bride was even lovelier

Officially got them married!!

Now off to the party!!

Congrats you two - you make a wonderful couple!!

(And a special thanks to Mr. Cleaver for the photos)

Roadtrip: Boston on Foot

Mr. Cleaver & I took the train down to Boston (our last visit was in 2006!) to wander about and have some fun on the last unofficial weekend of summer.

While we bought T passes, we kept looking at our map and saying "that's not too far", so we ended up hoofing it the entire day and racked up about 5 miles around the city.

We promenaded the Boston Common

We munched lunch at The Paramount (after standing in quite the line - this is a popular and tasty spot!)

We stumbled upon the cutest community garden in Cambridge.

And found happy turtles and triceratops,  indoor lightning, and knitted brains at the Museum of Science.

Now, during this daytrip, Mr. Cleaver insisted on taking more photos of me than usual, because, in his words, "Your blog readers aren't interested in pictures of me, they'd much rather have picture of you."

So, as a concession to the mister, I leave you with this photo of me running from dinosaurs and an opinion poll:

[polldaddy poll=3726516]

The Garden: Then & Now

Then (June 19):

Then (July 5):

Now (August 4):

Then (July 5):

Then (July 28):

Now (August 11):

Then (August 11 - 5:30 pm):

Now (August 11 - 6:09pm):

Weekend Update

Somethings I've been up to this weekend:

What did you do this weekend?

First Meet-Up, First Batch, First Harvest

Yesterday I had my first blogger meet-up with Amy of stash, knit, repeat (also the "Fit to Flatter" series). She was in town visiting some family and we met up at Knit Wit to checkout the new Quince & Co. yarn line, which is made in Southern Maine.

It was great meeting Amy in person and I definitely felt like I was hanging with the cool kids when Amy was recognized about 3 minutes after coming into the shop. It was even more cool when Pam Allen herself popped in to drop over another load of yarn.

The range of colors in this line is fantastic - there are so many variations of each color - 3 or so yellows a half dozen blues, it's a color lover's dream.  Amy came out with two sweater's worth, while I restrained myself to 5 skeins of the Chickadee in Delft and Carrie's Yellow (I'm totally in a yellow phase right now).  And this yarn is so new, it doesn't even have dye lots yet, because there's only been one!

In other news, I've had my first harvest from my garden - this little head of broccoli. It's been so warm, that it accelerated the growth process and I had to cut it before it bloomed. I actually dreamed about it the day before - I was so worried about the broccoli going to seed. It was ready to go on Thursday, so I chopped it off and ate it raw with some ranch dressing. Don't worry I shared some with Mr. Cleaver.

p.s : I must admit, whenever I work with the broccoli in my garden, I find myself singing the Dana Carvey broccoli song (it starts at the 2:00 minute mark).