Week 33 - A Fun Week!

The week started with the trip to the Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas to check out spinning wheels with Andrea. We left Wahoo at 7:30 to start the 4 hour trip, which flew by (it was nice to have someone to talk to.) Before we knew it, we were at the Topeka State Hospital to take pictures. What’s left of the Kirkbride is abandoned but we could drive all around it (OK, so I negotiated my way around some barricades) plus I got some neat pictures of the other buildings, and we were back on the road to Lawrence just 30 miles away.


What a wonderful city Lawrence is! Clearly their downtown never died. It’s 6 or 8 blocks long and every shop is full. It’s also a nice mix of stores – some geared towards college students but with just as many for us normal people. Besides the Yarn Barn, where we spent 2 hours and I got a mini spinning lesson (I’m not a natural), there was a huge quilt store that had every fabric imaginable – from brights to tea stained with imports from Japan thrown in too, a British shop, a gourmet store with lots of imported chocolate and a fun Asian noodle restaurant. And that was just in the 2 blocks we had time to explore! I’d love to go there and spend a weekend doing Massachusetts Ave. from one end to the other and maybe checking out the KU campus, which we never even saw. After a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts (another plus for Lawrence), we headed east to Overland Park to check out another yarn shop and hopefully hit Penzey’s.

The other yarn shop was nothing special and we just missed Penzey’s so we got back on the road home just before 6:00 with our bags of yarn (I only bought 7 skeins (enough for 4 projects) and 3 of those were on sale.) With only one stop in St. Joe at Dunkin’ Donuts, of course (Lawrence didn’t have lemon filled chocolate covered, which St. Joe always has – Yay!), we drove straight home, eating donuts for supper and arriving just before 10:00.

The middle of the week was uneventful, which was good because by Wednesday night, I was struggling to keep my eyes open at 7:30. I got 2 nights of 8+ hours though and was good to go.

Friday had a nice surprise. Mary and I had been talking about going to a movie and she suggested Friday after work. Since my only plan had been to food shop, I said sure and went to check the movie times. When I told her there were only 4:00 or 7:00 shows, she said, “Let’s leave early and go to the 4:00!” Now when your boss suggests something like that, who would say no? Since we’d be done so early, I convinced Nora to come so the 3 of us snuck out at 4:00 and went to Julie & Julia, which was lots of fun. What a great way to end a work week! Plus the 3 of us had plans to meet up Saturday morning to hit the Hillstead fiber garage sale so there was more fun to come.

Nora had errands to run so Saturday morning Mary and I met to do the sales, with Nora and the kids planning to meet up with us later. The Hillstead sale, for which I’d donated the 7 bags of stuff from clearing out my craft room, was mostly fabric (I’d been hoping for some yarn) and I showed restraint, spending only $3 and getting one charm pack and a few upholstery samples. We walked the entire neighborhood and I got a few CD’s and a Stone Mountain leather purse for $1.50! Again, I was aiming for restraint so was happy with my few purchases. Nora was behind us the whole way so Mary and I went to a coffee shop to relax while Nora finished. We then went to lunch where Mary had a blast goofing around with the kids. It was like there were 3 kids in the booth and it was fun to watch.

The rest of my weekend went well. I finally got all those things that had been on my to do list done and still managed to get my 2nd pair of socks finished. I also stashed all my new yarn, as well as all I’ve bought since I started knitting in earnest, on Ravelry. And I even did some cooking so I have food in the fridge for the week, which is a good thing because it’s going to be a busy week. Unfortunately I realized when I was changing my shower curtain and so had a different perspective of the toilet, that the trickle of a run had now become steady and later I found that the toilet is dripping into the laundry room. So, there’s a plumber in my coming week, which is never good, but maybe it’ll be my incentive to get the bathroom done sooner rather than later.