A Numerate Life

I found out after reading this book ( I follow Paulos on Twitter) that my daughter actually had him for Math class at Temple!! (I'm kind of jealous - I think his class would be fun)







A Numerate Life: A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours by John Allen Paulos

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Not an autobiography although there are autobiographical pieces, somewhat cynical of biographies as a whole, interesting approach to applying math to real life (there is actual maths saying you will not be the most popular person on your chosen social network) Geometry shows why it's weird and bland and boring to be "normal" but don't worry very few of us are!


Really enjoyed this book - will be reading his prior books when I get a chance



View all my reviews

Hooters

My friend Grace - Lovincomfortknits on the blog bar on the side is a monster knitting machine.  She makes more monsters than people who work on horror movies!  Of course her monsters are friendly not scary.  For a while now I've been teasing her about all her monsters. BUT...



I have recently been knitting owls.  First I knit the small ones (great use for scrap sock yarn - and since they use 2 colors - I can use scraps from my hexiflats.  The big owl is leftover yarn from my Too many Muppets mitts and my Flourishing Cowl test knit. I don't know how many I'm going to knit.  Unlike monsters there is no putting together needed- just a kitchener stitch at the top of the head.  I use the same cast on I use for toe up socks - so no seam at the base.

So anyway - I am currently blaming the Angie-  she goes to Temple - Temple's mascot is an Owl, they are referred to as the Owls.  So blaming my Owl for the Owls.

Angie's move in- a week late

Sorry- crazy week at work.  

Last weekend I took a 6 day weekend, Thur - Tue to take the Angie shopping, get her all beautified and moved down to Philly for school.

Thur - we got the new shellac gel polish, which supposedly doesn't chip for a couple weeks put on her nails.  My nails have the fiberglass acrylic on them so chipping really isn't an issue for my talons  We also had a great lunch at the Thai restaurant in town.  We always have a plan. One of us orders the drunken noodles lunch with soup, the other orders something else (preferably spicy, preferably something we haven't tried before) with the salad.  Then we share everything.  We decided that next time we would get a couple appy's so we can try a dessert after.

Fri - we both got spa pedicures.  Love the foot massage.  I actually got really bright pink polish on my tootsies (usually I stick to dark blood red sparkly polishes)  We then hit Pier one, Target, and Costco for back to school supplies.  The Angie is in an apartment on the fourth floor of the dorm she lived in last year so she needed more stuff-  She got a rice cooker/steamer (one thing she had issues with last year was rice - apparently the way the mealplan worked getting just rice at the Chinese place was an issue)  She got the Magic Bullet- she's been coveting it for a few years now - knows the infomercial by heart.  And of course every kid needs a leopard print broom!  Also bathroom cleaning supplies/tp/paper towels.  And 5 cases of 36 Poland Springs.

Saturday morning we went down to my father in law's to borrow his truck - and to get the bike he bought for $10 and refurbished for her to bring to school.  He figured that way if something happened, it wouldn't be as big a deal.  She then got her hair trimmed and blown out - and we finished her shopping at the mall and grocery store.  Sat night she went out for one last nite with her high school friends.


Sunday I had to go in to work for a meeting, blech,  and she finished packing and getting stuff into the truck and her dad's car.  SHe also spent time online finding deals and ordering books for the semester.  She has at this point sold most of her books from last year and several of her friends books (as well as some books people left behind during move out last year) 


Monday morning we left the house around 6am.  We did really well - missing the worst of the 80/287 traffic and got to route 1 early enough that we didn't really have traffic through there as well. (on route 18 I saw a Braun's truck coming the other way - yes I have issues - and it was C!!) We stopped for an extended hour long breakfast at Panera's off 95 in PA because we were running early and she couldn't check in until 10am. (but if we left a half hour later we would have had a problem being on time due to traffic buildup)  It was a fun breakfast as she told us a bunch of dorm life stories from last year we hadn't heard - and also some of the stories from her friends at other schools.


We got 2 parking spots a car apart on the street behind her dorm.  She checked in at 10:01.  We got all her things moved in, amd went to the other side of Philly to my friend Min & catphew Felix's house.  We had stored some of her stuff in the basement of Min's place.  We took the rest of Angie's stuff up to her- were summarily dismissed (really we've gotten used to it) and went out in search of lunch.



A picture Min took, when she walked us down - I think to make sure we got in the truck!


We had lunch at Chickie's and Pete's.  It is a fairly famous sports bar near the sports complex.  it is famous for it's crab fries- fries seasoned in Old Bay seasoning served with a cheese dipping sauce.  they were pretty good.  Keep in mind I really don't eat fries much.  I kind of expected a sports bar in a place like Philly to have a better/bigger/more varied beer list than what they had - so I had an unsweetened ice tea.  then I asked the waitress if I could have my burger done rare.  In my experience- if the answer is yes they fresh grind their meat, if the answer is no- they buy preground meat or frozen meat.  So even though it won't kill me to eat a medium burger- I don't.  I ordered a chicken club sandwich.  It. Was. Dry.  the chicken was dry, it was too bready for the lettuce and tomato to counter.  I had to ask for mayo - and use a lot. ( I kinda feel bad for Min - trying to think of places to eat)


We then did a turn through target, Modell's and Lowes.  At some point while CURT was driving the truck- the turn signals and brake lights stopped working.  He was going to get new bulbs- but they lit up with the head lights and when you set the alarm they blinked.  Min ended up calling her grandmother's..... boy toy??... who worked 40 years as a mechanic and crawled around under the truck, before we decided that the problem was the front end somewhere.  We were also looking for odorban or other spray to get rid of the mildew smell from her sneakers being soaked earlier in the week.  And Curt had given his multi-bit screwdriver to the Angie and needed a new one to try and look at the lights.


While in Lowes (because the camping/hunting sections in Target and Modell were sad) we got what we needed - and were trying to figure out if we could steal...



Chad - and where she could put him since he was kind of missing half.


After going back to Min's house to hang with Fe a while (and Curt was not being a good male role model but I forget why)   We walked to a Thai restaurant for dinner - and Curt finally tried Thai food - and it didn't all have peanuts- and ... gasp.... he liked it!  When we got back, he headed home and Min and I (and Fe) settled down to some knitting (ok when Fe wasn't needing some attention) and Brad Meltzer's Decoded.  I think I'm almost through season 1!

Project Me (6) - Atonnement spoilers.

WOW!  My last project me post was 10.04.10 that was just about a month ago.   So to try to recap.  The book I read from the 1001 list took me all month.  Part 1 was really hard to get into.  But, Angie liked the book - I have mentioned she's really smart right?  It was literally over half the book!  Once  again an over indulged spoiled little girl is the main character.  Her naivete/fantasy/assumptions change her sister,  her cousin, her father's protege and her brother's friends lives and destinies.   Part 2 was seen through the eyes of a soldier retreating across France, wounded with a fever and only partially lucid, but a great improvement over the first part.  I guess it was the triumph of love, and the determination and will to live to reach the true love made this short section necessary, as well as letting the reader catch up on what happened since Part 1 ended. Part 3 was interesting, the whole girl grows up, realizes her mistake and tries to redeem herself.  Dealing with the casualties of war also forces her to grow up in one long day as a probationary nurse.  IF it had ended there, the reader could imagine that her sister and her lover, after finding each other again live happily ever after, that perhaps while never achieving the lost closeness of sisters, there are repairs made to the relationship.  But in the final section "1999"  the girl, now an old woman, facing slow dementia due to micro-strokes is wrapping up her life's business.  You would be led to believe that the first three parts are the result of her lifelong project - a book.  But as she takes stock, we discover that the soldier - her sister's true love- dies of a blood infection, probably from his wound in France, a few weeks after she sees him and her sister.  Her sister only survives a couple of months, dying in the German bombing of London.  Her cousin, who has married her rapist, now the couple is Lord and Lady, and dedicated to charitable works.  And as the narrator heads to her own birthday party, a full circle is made, as the grand and great-grandchildren of her brother and cousins, stage the play she herself wrote at 13, that she was trying to stage with her cousins for her brother at the beginning of the book.  I don't know, it just wasn't a satisfying ending.

I also checked out Gregory Maguires new book The Next Queen of Heaven  I loved his wicked series (also just got a Lion among Men) and his fairy tale books - Mirror, Mirror and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, are 2.  But this book, happens in upstate New York, with an exceptionally obnoxious teenage girl, who just needs some sense smacked into her.  I got about 50 pages in and decided that live was just too short to deal with another book with an obnoxious girl. So I closed the book and returned it to the library.

I was going to go for my semi-annual hair cut (annual this time, I missed the spring and then it was getting too close to summer - I live in fear  of not being able to put my hair in a ponytail/bun)  but some things came up and now I have to reschedule.   If and when I finally get around to it, don't worry you'll get to see it.  It is tough, because I hate blowdrying - and let's face it I leave my house at 330 am- so it really isn't happening  well - ever!  So the cut has to work with the way my hair wants to fall.  

I did find a new nail polish - I am totally in love!!  It is red ( painted a streak on a piece of paper towel because it was hard to tell) but so dark red that it just about looks black.  And there is a ton of glitter in it so it almost glows in the sunlight.  Of course when I went to take a picture it was hard to find the right light, but here's the best I could do:





They look almost brown here, sigh maybe I'll get a better picture this week!


I went to grace's daughter's a couple Saturday night's ago, to a Lia Sophia jewelry party.  I did get Angie something which for obvious reasons I can't tell you about until after Christmas.  It was kind of fun - haven't seen her husband Tom for a long time (he installs carpet,so when we agree and she doesn't, we chalk it up to carpet fumes)  and I only briefly met her daughter once.   And it was just kind of different from my usual Sat night, with my usual suspects.

I went to lunch at Mara's (local coffee roaster, dessert shop, cafe) with Grace last week.  I picked her up/ broke her out!  LOL!  We had the best pumpkin spinach quiches ever!  She was good and had a salad ( she's lost over 40 pounds since last spring - way to go Gracie!)  Me, I indulged and had a New England Clam Chowder and spiced hot caramel cider.  It was fun catching up. (and she listens to me whine about work, and about Braun's not sending C etc without complaint, and I think she's actually able to follow my jerky, disconnected, ADD  random trains of thought!

Temple annoyed me, they said they didn't receive a tuition payment, and weren't going to let Angie register for next semester, and for some reason we couldn't pull up the image on the computer so Curt had to go to the bank and straighten everything out.  Angie is doing well so far in her classes, she's feeling the work load, but all the time management skills she has from her HS days are serving her well and she's staying on top of everything.  She had a bad cold and since a lot of people in her dorm were coming down with strep, she got checked out, but no strep thank goodness. I sent her a care package with microwave chicken soup cups, zinc/ecchinacea drops, airborne, a lot of hand sanitizer (she did start out with   several large bottles in August, but just to be safe) and I made her some homemade chocolate chip scones with red/white colored sugar on top ( Temple's colors).

She has been keeping up with politics on campus.  She went to MSNBCs Chris Matthew's show broadcasting from the Temple campus, a few days later Bill Clinton was there, and Saturday she gave up the football game (the Owls won without her) to see President Obama on campus.

Philly

On Thursday, I was going to go down to Philly to meet my friend Min's Mom from Missouri.  I was supposed to meet her last fall, but I had to work and couldn't get out of it.  I figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone, since for some inexplicable reason, Angie didn't bring her weapons with her in August, and practice started already.  Then she added sweatpants and t-shirts to her list. Then she added a bunch of VHS tapes to her list (well you get the picture - point being I had a full trunk!)  Then she asked if I could have dinner with her.  So I asked my friend if it would be a huge problem to add Angie to dinner.  THEN out of the blue Curt announced he rearranged his schedule to come with me.  I was a bit concerned at this point, because my friend has been under the weather and I didn't want to innundate her with known crazy people.

So when we got to Philly, since I never really discussed times before heading down, I bought Curt breakfast at a place we attempted to find during one of Angie's visits during a monsoon. I went with Min in August after we moved Angie into her dorm, turns out we were only a couple blocks mis-placed.   When we were done, Min and her Mom were still in NJ, visiting a friend and shopping, so to kill time we looked on our phones to see what  was around.  What we settled on was The Foodery.  Part of it was a sandwich shoppe, part was a beer store.  ( I would say liquor, but I only saw Beers and Malt drinks) They had a ton of different beers, a lot of imports and a lot of micro breweries.  What was even better was that everything was sold as singles.  And if you filled a six pack holder with singles they were 10% off.  I though I exhibited remarkable self control by only getting 2 sixes:



When we finally met up with Min and her Mom ( and I just now realized I forgot to get a picture :( ) 
I brought a giant mouse for Fe (he really loves his mice - and actually when we were there he was playing with the one renamed Triscuit)  I think he thought it was a NYC sewer rat, because he seemed leary of it.  I brought Min a pint of jalapeno jam and a half pint of habenero pepper jam.  I brought her Mom a pint of Jalapeno Jam because I wasn't sure how into heat she was, and you know, it's bad form to light your friend's Mom on fire.  She brought me three gifties!!

To understand the first giftie, you need to realize that for some inexplicable reason, Min's Mom is a Joey Logano fan.  She thinks he's cute.  I think the cute identification part of the brain must be the first to go.  Anyway, I had noticed a trend of after Joey crashes a car, we run out of toilet paper at work.  Most people think it's because out store mgr is too cheap to sign off on the expense POs.  I think it's cause we keep having to buy new parts/cars when Joey wrecks them.  So I told Min her Mom owes me some toilet paper.  Now you can see giftie 1:



She also made me two Tony pillow cases!



It wasn't until I took the pictures that I noticed the JL in the corner.  Funny, very funny!

We hung out.  Min's Mom discovered what it's like having a story told by someone with ADD.  Late in the afternoon, we left to go get Angie's stuff in her room and arranged to meet Min and her Mom at the restaurant.  We emptied the trunk, and went up to Angie's room.  It was relatively neat.  I was impressed until her roommate confessed to spending most of the morning cleaning up.  Oh well.  Angie's really happy, having settled in to dorm life.  Her hallway is the "social" hallway, everyone has their room & suite doors open when they're in.  They bring their dinner up to the hall and sit in the hall on weekends eating and having fun. They created a hallway long Twister field and had most of the floor and part of another floor in a huge 70+ person game of Twister.  Her building is split between athletes and honor students (interesting) so she easily finds people to go to the games with her.  She learned that ping-pong is a blood sport. 

Angie said she needed more Temple wear, as she only had one pair of sweats and 2 t-shirts.  So we went down to the Barnes and Noble across the street, but she couldn't find what she wanted.  So we went to the bookstpre in the Student Union.  I ended up buying her a t-shirt, a long sleeve thermal shirt and a stuffed zebra wearing a Temple shirt. (She currently is into zebra stripes.  Has a zebra snuggie.  Ordered 2 pairs of zebra knee high soccer socks to fence in, has a bunch of zebra unmentionables)  Does anyone want to guess when she decides she needs a hoodie?  My guess is Halloween.  Her brain thinks since she is south of here, she doesn't need cold weather gear.  College kids, just want to smack them.

We met Min and her Mom a few minutes after we were supposed to, because the parking garage we went to has the SLOWEST valets ever.  We went to the Italian Bistro.  The food was pretty good, and the beginning of the meal was great ( Angie really liked Min's Mom - she was originally expecting a more grandma-ish person) but then a party was seated right next to us.  30-40 people I think.  The manager was "surprised" that many people made so much noise. WHo'd have thunk that?  Jeesh.

After dropping Angie off at her dorm, we went to Trader Joe's.  Min has a friend (vying for Minister of Medicine wth Med-student) (longer story than I have room for here)  who works there.  We had a vague notion of going in with Angie's sabres, until I paid the armorer $200 before bringing her equipment down.  So we had cocktail sabres.  it would have been funny too, except Curt and Min's Mom are spoilsports.  And afterwords I realized I forgot to ask about the swiss cheese!  Ugh!  Well, next time I suppose. 

24 more hours still no pics from the slackers!

Seriously!!  S. L. A. C. K. E. R. S!

So anyway, once we got Angie's bed made and her closet double rod hung, helped her hang her jeans, loaded desky stuff onto her desk I asked her what she wanted us to help her with next.  Through the entire process, I have tried to make her own the process, as she owns her life.  Now, I don't know if it was too little sleep, stress from the move or just bitchiness, but she TELLS  me to "go find the laundry room and you can take Min with you if you want"  Seriously, it took every fiber of self control not to knock her block off, and I leave the room and start walking down the hall.  Min tells me that she knows where HER laundry is.  I obviously know where mine is, and as we reach the end of her hallway, we find a nice window bench and a pretty comfortable chair.  So we sit and people watch (sounds better than mock and judge doesn't it?)  

There was an Indian gentleman in a full out suit, tie and silver cuff links, helping his daughter move in.  Sadly, there were also several guys in dress pants, dress shirts ( a few ties) and sports jackets.  A couple dress pants and dress shirt - one also with a tie. (Curt - shorts and a tee shirt. Min - jeans and a tee shirt, me- shorts and a tee shirt) As I am remarking to Min that this is not how one dresses to move one's child into a dorm a dad walked buy in elastic waist shorts and a giant baggy tee shirt that may have been as old as his child. I pointed him out and said THAT  is how you dress to move your kid into a dorm.

There was a really tall kid moving into the room on the corner at the end of the hall.  His door was open the entire time so we got a really good view of the proceedings.  His dad was in dress khakis with a serious knife pleat ironed in. and a dress shirt (fortunately no tie) and a blue blazer.  He comes across the hallway, looks at Min and myself - like gives us each a stare- an deposits 3 boxes right next to Min in a stack and returns to the room.  I'm not sure since we were wearing black tee shirts and the people there to help the kids were wearing black shirts, if he thought we were with the school.  Now the boxes weren't empty!!  There was still stuff in the boxes!!  Including something in the box that was the most hideous blue plaid on the planet.  maybe the galaxy!

Now back to the kid.  His name was Bill.  how do we know his name was Bill? because he had a very precocious 4 year old sister, who spent most of the morning running unsupervised in and out of the room and around the hallway.  Kind of annoyed me, because not for nothing, but there are a ton of people in and out of the hall and building.  there was security but they weren't checking id's or signing people in and out.  I do realize that would have been a logistical nightmare.  The closes thing the girl had to supervision is her brother's roommate's 10 year old sister.  And realistically, the parents don't know this kid! Some 10 year olds are very responsible, some are not.  I was waiting for the 10 year old to have a stroke or coronary as after one time skipping down the hall, she was huffing and puffing and turning a definite strawberry color.  the 4 year old's dad (man in blue blazer) looked to be almost if not just over 60.  So Min and I were discussing whether she was an oops baby or 2nd wife  syndrome.  Then we saw her mom.  I am now voting for oops baby.

Back to Bill.  As I mentioned earlier he was tall, very tall, as in the top of the door frame hit him in the bridge of his nose.  This height is very important to the story, and the fact that he was seriously skinny ( i guess all his nutrients went to skeletal bone structure?).  While his parents futzed around with the practicalities of dorm life, his first goal upon getting to his room was to install one of those chin up devices in the doorway.... of his bathroom. 

Obviously, you could now no longer close the bathroom door (did I mention everyone moving in during this time slot was in the Honors College?) So as everything else is going on, for a substantial amount of time Min and I were waiting for someone to attempt to close the door.  People went in, the mom put the soap/ hand towels/ bath mats/ etc. but no one closed the door. 

We continued to people watch ( mock and judge remember?) there was a girl whose mom and dad were each pushing a giant cart. Her brothers? were each rolling suitcases, her grandmother?  was carrying a laundry basket toward her room.  She was bee bopping down the hall carrying a teddy bear!  There was a skinny boy, with a bright yellow bandana headband, a neon pink tee shirt, and plaid boxers hanging out his pants.  Angie's roommate kept running up the stairs with her parents to her sister's room upstairs.  There were students from the "hoot squad" and students from the honors college were going in and out of the rooms, checking on the kids, answering questions etc.  There were the kid's mentors who also stopped into the rooms.

By now, Curt was with us as well and we came up with a hysterical practical joke.  As I didn't have a single on me, Min provided me with one.  I went up to one of these upper classmen who looked official like, and had a clipboard. (Clipboards add authority have you noticed?) I offered her the dollar to go into Angie's room. Ask for Angie by first and last name and tell her that there was a mix-up and she was in the wrong room and needed to move her stuff one floor up.  (Angie's room had been swapped twice during the summer once right before her orientation/registration in July and once right after.  WHat we did not know was when Angie went to check in to check in and get her key etc, All three rooms were still attached to her name.  So they deleted 2 and gave her the key to the thrid)  Now while most kids would look for their parents in this instance, Ange was calmly asking if the room was one of the first two rooms, was telling the girl that she needed to talk to someone becasue she was sure this was the right room and maybe there were additional mix ups.  WE were out in the hall DYING.  it was too funny. And the girl even made up a Victoria as the correct resident of the room. Finally the girl flat out told angie she should find her parents and go work this out.  SO AS SHE COMES OUT OF THE DOORWAY, SHE SEES THE THREE OF US , PRETTY LITERALLY ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING OUR ASSES OFF!! 

She was pissed, but within a few hours admitted it was funny , and as word of it had spread around her hallway, she was pretty sure it would soon become freshmen move in legend.

We returned to our hallway window perch, just as the 4 year old, was begging her dad to go skipping down the hall.  The chin up bar thing was still in the bathroom doorway.  Now in a remarkable string of coincidence - at the very same exact time - the dad comes out still in his blue blazer, bends just about in half  to hold the girls hand, tells the 10 year old that he taught the 4 year old to skip, and skips down the hall. It was the silliest thing you have ever seen!  I AM LAUGHING SO HARD, I'M SNORTING, GASPING  FOR AIR.   At the exact same moment Min who is still watching the bathroom door, is rewarded when someone goes in the bathroom and tries unsuccessfully to close the door. Now She is also at the same time rolling on the window ledge, tears in her eyes laughing her ass off!  

People are stopping to stare at the two of us, we keep laughing.  people come out of their rooms to see what is going on, we keep laughing.  Curt tells random strangers in the hallway (turns out to be her roommates parents) that he doesn't know us.  (WHo does that? just tells a random person he doesn't know another random person?  I know how Jesus felt being denied by Peter - but kept laughing) We would slowly stop laughing  only to make eye contact and start laughing again.  WHen we could finally talk to tell Curt WHY we were laughing we discover we were not even laughing at the same thing, but we each thought the other was laughing at whaT WE WERE.  This led to even more laughter.  And byt the time we were done the bar was no longer in the doorway.  What made it so truly sad, was the kid was so tall, that he would have had to bend his knees to use it, and his calves wee so long that they then would have dragged up the wall.  We're picturing him, sing it just going up on his toes and back down, saying "feel the burn, why isn't the burn working?"  and laughed even more.

We then went to check into out hotel so we could leave one vehicle there, and went to Target to pick up some forgotten things, and then went to champs for lunch.  As this post is getting long, and it is now past my bedtime, there will be another installment to this story, including the day and a half I then spent hanging 0ut with Min since Angie was busy!  Stay tuned!!



Also, on another note, today is my good friend Carl's 42nd birthday.

  I brought him a mint chocolate chip cupcake (it's green - he's irish) when he delivered my carpet this afternoon -

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

ok, my family and friends are mostly slackers...

I have pretty much decided, that although Min is the only person to send me a copy of the picture she took, I need to post about Angie's move before I forget everything.  I may at some future date post pictures, IF I ever get any.

On 8.22 Sunday afternoon, I hosted a farewell/good luck barbeque.  (YES, it was an insanely crazy idea with her moving on Tuesday, but I came up with it at her graduation party.  And there was no NASCAR race that day.... I do have priorities you know)  Well mother nature saw fit to send in monsoon like rains most of the day on Sunday, but fortunately we have attended enough NASCAR races at Pocono Raceway to be used to tailgating in the rain.  SO out came the tents 






Despite the weather, fun was had by all - even her 2 fun-impaired aunts (Erica had half a margarita!!)

Monday, after we finished packing Angie and I went out for lunch at Panera's.  Even though she spent most of lunch texting, we did have some excellent conversations.



Angie then got a mani/pedi while I got a pedi (seriously no one but Lauren does my nails, except under extreme emergencies)  We had some girly giggling when they did the bottom of our feet.



Tuesday finally arrived, and we left a bit later than our anticipated 4am, but only by about 20 minutes.  (originally we were going to take ANgie shopping in Philly on Wed, but then discovered that the reason she had the first move in slot was because the Honors College had stuff planned for those freshmen all day on Wednesday.  So we finished shopping in NJ)  We took Curt's car, and curt's dad's truck.  Angie rode with me - because I really can't talk and drive, not coordinated enough to answer the phone.  SO that both vehicles stayed in contact, Angie rode with me.  ( She spotted a Braun's truck - that's my baby)  She was way too nervous/excited to nap, so we had a fun time.  Since every one who knows me IRL, knows I am seldom not attached to a cup of coffee, and it was no different on this trip,  and we hit the last rest stop before we left the turnpike heading for PA -

When we arrived, my friend Min, was already there.  The security guards were serious.  Before Angie had checked in or anything, they had us unload both vehicles to the side of the building and move the cars to the lot across the street.  ( curt had the bulkier things- so was back to watch the stuff before I was done which worked out well)   THey had giant orange commercial laundry carts, which you could use by giving them your license (like you were going to keep it)  By the time Angie and Min came back from check- in we had almost everything loaded into 2 carts except for the 2 rolling suitcases.

Angie was the first of her suite mates to arrive which worked out well as we had a bunch of her stuff on her roommates bed as we got organized.

This post is getting long, so the rest will be tomorrow ( trust me the funny is tomorrow so come back!!

Yarn Crawl Part 2

continued from yesterday

After lunch we went to Loop in South St.  if I am visiting Angie at Temple and want/need yarn they would be my Philly Yarn Store (PYS as opposed to my LYS- local yarn store!)  It is the second time I've been there and as opposed to the other stores on the crawl rather than looking for something I liked, Curt had to decide which ones I like better.  They have a really good selection over a wide range of fibers, weights and especially colors.  They have a really friendly and normal ( after my crawl that is now a factor) staff.  I bought a big 500ml bottle of Euclan to wash my knits with, the cutest yarn stitch markers in a case from hiya-hiya ( I used to be in an msn knitting group with Quianer Huang whose family owns the company)








The blue and the pink skeins are hand dyed Black Bunny yarns - she's the author of among other things Knitting Socks With Hand Painted Yarns.  It took me awhile to sort through the 4 bins and Curt figure out which 2 I liked best.  Angie took one look at the multi colored ones and declared I should make something for her with it. I asked her what - she said I don't know something knitted. (and to think she got into Temple's honors college)


We then went to Nangellini's farther down South Street.  This store was 1/2 art gallery, 1/2 yarn shop, 1/2 new age shop ( I know that adds up to more than 1 but some of the stuff overlapped categories)  none was done well.  They seemed almost desperate to get us to go upstairs - "most of the yarn is upstairs' "most of our books are upstairs" "if you like that most of the items like that are upstairs".  When you go up the stairs you have about a foot and a half to turn left or you'll fall down another set of stairs!  They had some Mirasol, but not much selection.  A weird sales assistance sign:





because the way it's typed up it reads "we are here to help you"  "figure it out" and it really wasn't obvious they were there to help so I guess people had problems figuring it out?  When we came down the stairs there were  bunch of women sitting in a circle - not knitting, you'd expect that- that were talking and when we came down were just staring at the walls. Odd. Maybe we interupted their coven or something! So I didn't buy anything there either.


Lastly we headed to Sophie's.  I really didn't have much hope for that place because apparently the best thing about the store was the cat!  We got there and the door were locked.  Looking in the window, the place was 3/4 empty and what was there was on sale.  So I guess the cat wasn't enough to keep them in business. After the fact we thought it would have been hysterical  if we had done a yarnie rendition of the Eaton Center shopper who wanted to get into shop when the mall was locked down due to rioting during the G20 summit.





After that we headed for the sushi place where we a couple of people at all you can eat sushi.


Friday, Curt and I had breakfast at Marathon Grill which was a couple blocks from the hotel.  I had a super yummy wild mushroom, spinach and goat cheese omelet.  We then checked out and went to Franklin Mills Outlet mall, mostly to be inside not outside in the heat and humidity.   We did pick up a few things.  had lunch at the food court, then went back to Temple to get the Angie.  Which of course required a stop at the book store to get some Temple attire.  We picked up Min again, were stood up by Kirsten and her husband, and went to Minar Palace for Indian food.  I had eaten Indian a few weeks ago at the graduation party of one of Angie's Indian friends and it was really good, Angie wanted Indian to see how restaurant food was different than her friends mom's food.  The food was great - none of us could finish it.  We were going to listen to the truck race on the way home, but it was delayed because of a power outage due to a pole down on the highway - so I fell asleep!

Yarn Crawl Part 1

Angie had her freshman orientation on Thur and Fri this week.  She also got to meet with her advisor ( with the Honors College it's a staff and she can see any of them) to make up her schedule for fall semester.  She is taking the same approach to college courses as she took in HS. She is taking 17 credits, all fulfilling one or more graduation/major/honors requirements except French.  She placed out of the first 2 years of French - so that fulfills her foreign language, but she really likes French, "it's easy" to her and she discovered that one of the honor societies she wants to get into doesn't count the placement test.

She placed out of several semesters of math as well, so she will take statistics next semester and not need any more math. ( meanwhile my brain is in convulsions - I went to an engineering school and had 24 math credits)  She is really good at math but, gulp, doesn't like it.


Ready for orientation!

While she was in orientation we stayed at the Latham Hotel - it has a floor 13!!
Most hotels go from 12 to 14, and since we stayed on 12, I noticed the 13 right away.  I even pushed it once to make sure it would stop at a floor and it did! (yeah I'm a dork)



Thursday I went on a yarn crawl with my friend Min.  First we went to Narberth to a store called EWE AND I .  I got a skein of Lorna's Laces that reminded me of an outfit I used to wear in college all the time.  Enough so , that Curt remembers it.



They were really friendly, and we had a fun discussion of how college and dorms etc have changed ( seriously Angie's dorm has central air!) Parked in front of the shop was a car with knitting plates.  (Some background - there is a NASCAR driver Clint Boyer who looks like a serial killer. My friends and I refer to him as TSK) I misread the plates as TSK Knits and thought oh my god, CLint Boyer knits?! (yes Dork I already admitted it)





We then went to a "highly recommended by several members of the Philly knitters" LYS  THE TANGLED WEB.  We were in the shop for at least 5-6 minutes before anyone even looked our way to say hello ( I know you can only help one person at a time, but said person usually won't mind if you just look over and say Hi) If you took out all the eyelash and ladder novelty yarn, there was like 5 kinds of Plymouth and not a really good color selection of them.  ( I really don't like the stores where it is obvious what color the owners like, and that's all they order. because unless those are the colors you like it's pretty useless and if you ever need to make a gift or swap they don't have the colors you need so I try to avoid them)  I usually try to buy at least something when I'm in a yarn store, because they don't have a really high customer count and have to compete with the internet and all that, but I'm not buying something I don't like either. I walked out of there empty handed.  Couldn't even find a pattern or stitch markers I liked!


We then went up te street to The Knit With.  I wish I had taken a picture of the outside.  Looked like an abandoned house.  Serious overgrowth, could barely read the sign through the vegetation covering it.  There were no lights on but the sign said open.  So we went up the stairs 9 Curt behind us wondering if he was going to have to save us from an axe murderer or something.  The door creaked! as we opened it and there was a weird  smell, like musty dirt - or Norman Bates mom...  An older ( mid-late 50's guy) came out and asked if we wanted the lights on - i mean how do you shop for something for which color is a big selling point in the dark?  Hmmm this feels like orange...  he kept asking Min weird questions, like was she from Hawaii - I look more Hawaiian than she does, and where was she from, West Philly apparently not the answer,  not where she was born, where was she from...  When she finally said she was from Kansas City he said that explained why she didn't have a Middle Earth accent ( did he think she was a hobbit?  I mean she is short, but she wears shoes and has correspondingly small feet not big hairy hobbit feet!) 

He had a huge- not fat mind you, just huge white cat (Sancho) with one green and one blue eye who he had odd convos with.  At one point he kept asking the cat if he wanted his belly rubbed. (another important aside- my text/IM alert is Yoda saying "awe ooh, message from the dark side there is)  Curt had texted me about how weird the place was just then , and Min thought the alert was the cat!  So she's laughing saying " I don't think the cat  wants it's belly rubbed"  He did have an interesting selection of yarn, some that you don't see often and he had Mountain Colors and Anne sock yarn - two of my favs.  I bought a super bulky Italian yarn that caught my eye - and didn't smell - I checked!  I also got the finer mesh yarn bras that I like using.





From there we had lunch at a coffee shop that was fantastic!  I had a roast beef panini with spicy mustard and pepper jack cheese, and a side salad that was very cooling with lots of diced cucumbers.  I also had a triple macchiatto - the real kind not the Starbucks version! 


This post is long enough so I'll cover after lunch tomorrow.