My birthday this year was full of time spent with Eric and the rest of my family, and that really made for a happy Kristine!

I started out the week really excited about one of my favorite knitting authors was coming to town, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot).  Eric was sweet enough to drive me there, early even so I could get a good seat, and hung out the whole time I was there.  It was sponsored by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, who I had just finished two projects with their yarns, so it was fun to be able to wear that sweater and socks.  It was so cool because even though I didn't find friends who had come from my knitting group, I sat with a group of people who were so welcoming and we chatted about knitting and stuff, which made the wait until the talk started great fun.  I worked on knitting a new pair of socks while I was there, and there were lots of other socks-in-process around me.  The talk was fabulous, I am SO glad I made it to see her this time.  It really was a wonderful experience and started off my birthday week with a bang!

On my actual birthday, E and I took the day off, and we went on our now annual Birthday Adventure, which we've done the last 3 birthdays.  This involves some driving, some music, some shopping, some walking, and good food.  We went to Bridgeport Village, my favorite outdoor mall, and ate at Macaroni Grill including some fun birthday drawing on the table.  We found some of the kitchen things I was looking for at Sur La Table, and The Container Store.  Browsed books at the giant Borders, which is always fun.  From there, we went down to Woodburn's Outlet store, where we went through a bunch of stores and found E some little saucepans.  Finally, Fry's was an important stop because E needed a new monitor - and he was happy with my old one, so I got a new one :)  They had a special deal with a free photo printer after rebate, which was great because that's what I was missing by having a laser printer.  And we got a few other small things we'd had on our list.

Sunday after my birthday, we got together with my family and had a party.  I got my choice of food (my dad's rigatoni with cranberries and spinach) and brought my own yummy cake.  The whole family was there which always makes celebrating funner.  Here's a few pictures:

I got some nice gifts, including a sewing box, crafty stuff, several gift cards, a CD, a knitting book that I was really excited about, paintings, and a necklace.  And it was especially nice to see so many nice notes in my comments and facebook wishing me a happy day, that was really a treat - so thanks to you all!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I had a very nice weekend.

It started out with E having a half-day on friday, giving him a chance to work on a web project for much of the afternoon while I did menu planning and knitting and tv watching.  He's got a small contract with a friend to do updates to an existing site, and it seems like it's a fun challenge for him.

Saturday, I had good plans, and they all worked out, and that's always nice.  When I was at the library on Wednesda for the knit in, there were some projects in the work for knitting donations to benefit the library.  They mentioned needing someone to put together baskets for this auction, and I said I was good at making things look pretty (yes, I'm crafty!) and they were excited for that and suggested I should just join the Friends group to make it official that I was helping out. 

Side note: The Friends of the Library are a group of people who help in fundraising for the library and assist in book sales and do other activities to promote the library.  I always figured that when I got older, I'd be most excited about helping the library if there ever was a chance.  I mean, hello, it comes full circle because I was the youngest volunteer in the system when I helped in Washougal (from ages 12-15).  :)

So the first monthly meeting was going to be on Saturday morning, so I planned on that.  It was a nice meeting, even though 2 of the 4 people I knew in the group weren't there.  I got to take home all the current basket auction stuff they had so far, and it was really nice to meet all the other people who were involved in the Friends group.  I was the youngest there this time, but I didn't feel out of place, people made me feel comfortable right away.

After that, I was excited about going to the Farmer's Market again - the last time we went, we didn't see many fruits or vegetables we really had to have, and this time, I planned it so we'd go here before the grocery store, and that was much smarter.  We walked all the way through and then decided what to get.  A beautifully shaped butternut squash, a couple ears of corn to eat that day, fresh from the garden red peppers, a nectarine, and some apples.  There were so many other things we could get, but it's definitely a case where we didn't want to get them and have them go bad, with just two of us to eat produce.  It was very successful!

Then we drove up Main street, where E thought he'd seen some restaurants.  We went to an area of the city I don't think I've ever been to, they call it Uptown Village.  There were a lot of interesting shops and a Subway, so we parked and figured if we didn't see anything else, we could always go there.  We ended up finding La Bottega, which was a wine store with a deli/cafe in it.  The garlic smell was really good, with a small but interesting menu, so we decided to try it out.  That's where the Strawberry Coke was from. :)  We had fun looking in the windows of other shops, too.

While at the restaurant, we finished our grocery list and went off to Safeway to finish off the plans for the day.  We went home and rested and relaxed and cooked dinner and watched TV and it was a nice finish to a day full of great things.

On Sunday, we went to a double birthday party for my sister Megan and her husband Andrew.  Their birthdays are 2 days apart, so we are destined to always have joint parties!  It was a delicious birthday dinner my dad cooked, steaks and barbeque chicken and my favorite pasta salad and veges in cheese sauce, and of course, a cheese cake for desert (this is the sister who had cheesecake for her wedding!)  We played with Leah and Leonard and sat and chatted, and it was a nice afternoon.

Today, I'm a little sore still from all the activities, but it was a great weekend, so I can't complain!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I woke up and looked at the clock to see if it was time to get up, like I always do (if it says some crazy thing like 6:45 on a weekend morning, I try to fall back asleep).  It was 8:11, and I thought, "Oh Yay, I slept in!"

Read and post comments | Send to a friend