Cats and Socks

Xena is modeling my latest finished knitting project, the socks from Colorado. I'll post a better photo of the socks soon but i couldn't resist the opportunity to take a photo of two of my favorite things together.

Back Door Guests

Spring.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

What a weekend! I love March Madness. My Kansas Jayhawks started things out right with a big win over Texas to win the Big 12 championship. And thanks to my friend Shea, and her very generous Texas fan friends, I got to be in OKC to watch them cut down the nets. So much fun! It was one of the best college basketball games I've ever seen. I'll post a better photo of the game soon. I really appreciate my new Longhorn friends for not leaving me somewhere along the turnpike on the way home. They were very nice to this Jayhawk. In training news, I'm starting to fight off an IT band problem. I had to cut my 9 mile run down to 8 on Saturday because it became so painful when i would put weight on it. Tonight, I ran 3 with no pain, so I'm hoping I'm just a quick healer. I don't want to have to deal with that for the rest of the summer. So painful. My regular massagesare supposed to help prevent this kind of injury. Ugh.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

How could you not fall in love with this?

Meet Perchance to Knit in Primarily and Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Poppy and Carousel

I arrived home this evening to find my package from The Loopy Ewe with the sock yarn I've been anxiously awaiting since the full contact yarn buying experience on Monday night. It was worth the extra effort it took to purchase it. Absolutely gorgeous. Now I have to decide what pattern to use.

It's been a great week and the yarn delivery is the cherry on top. I found out Tuesday night that I am being promoted, the Big 12 basketball tournament is starting (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!), and the weather is absolutely spectacular. The daffodils are even starting to bloom. This time of year goes by so fast...probably because we only get about 20 days of spring weather before it becomes blazing hot. You've got to love Oklahoma.

The race is on

You wouldn't think that buying yarn would be a full contact sport, but last night I discovered it can be pretty cutthroat. For my birthday, my sister and her family bought me a gift certificate for a really cool online yarn shop called The Loopy Ewe. They specialize in sock yarn, my latest obsession, and they carry brands of yarn that are made just for the shop. She received a big shipment of yarn last week and her blog promised that the store would be updated last night between 8-9 p.m. When I got online, I was not disappointed, and there were a lot of other people who were just as excited. It was a mad dash to look through all of the new, beautiful skeins of yarn in every color scheme imaginable, and decide what to order before it all sold out. I'm very excited to receive my package in the next few days. I'll post photos as soon as it arrives.

Catching up - The Girls Weekend in Colorado

I haven't had this blog very long, and I'm already starting to get lazy about posting. Bad blogger! I'll try to be better. Time to catch you up on February.

My birthday weekend with the girls was absolutely fabulous. Colorado was as beautiful as I remembered it being...although the fog for the first 2 days I was there made it look suspiciously like Oklahoma. It's amazing how mountains change the landscape. Fortunately, the fog lifted enough for all of us to enjoy the views of the Flatirons, Indian Peaks and Long's Peak. I flew in a day earlier than the rest of the girls, so Gina and I went to one of my favorite places to eat, Chipotle (the other girls actually have Chipotles within driving distance...so not fair)

From there, we went to a enormous yarn store where I bought a skein of purple, orange and hot pink Toasty Toes hand-dyed yarn from Interlacements. They make the most beautiful yarn. I absolutely love it! My new theory, now that I am a sock knitting expert, is that if I'm going to take the time to make a pair of socks, they need to be obnoxious so people notice them. I can buy a boring pair of socks anytime.

Obnoxious socks! Love them. :)

But I digress. After what was probably one of the most exciting shopping excursions Gina has ever experienced, we bundled up and headed to the mountains to go snowshoeing. It was a little cold at first, but once we got moving, we quickly realized we overdressed. It was a really fun experience. I definitely want to try it again when we have a little more time and when I hadn't been up since 4:30 a.m. with only 3 hours of sleep. I was beat!



On Friday, Gina and I headed to her gym (once again, she pointed out the supposed views of the mountains...everything was still covered with fog), and we went to a spin class. The instructor kept warning us not to go anaerobic, but my flatlander lungs were struggling to get enough oxygen. The promise of a smoothie after the class helped me push through.

Friday afternoon, the rest of the girls FINALLY arrived. Sheryl, Allison and Holly came in from Kansas City, and Christy flew in from sunny San Diego. It has been a long time since we've all been in the same place all at once. We had to head to the ski rental shop to pick up our skis, but then the focus quickly turned to food (a common theme when we all got together). Waits are pretty long in Boulder at restaurants on Friday nights, but we ended up eating at a cute little Italian place with yummy food. I think the first time we all stopped talking from the time the rest of the girls arrived was when they delivered our dinner to the table.


Saturday morning (my birthday!) we headed to Breckenridge for some skiing. It was a beautiful day, and the conditions were perfect on the slopes. We don't have any daredevils in the group, so we stuck with mostly greens, but decided toward the end of our day to challenge ourselves with a blue. We all made it safely off the mountain. There were a few leg cramps from the evil ski boots, but no major injuries to report.

Ski bunnies

We left Breckenridge Saturday afternoon to make it back to Gina's to give us time to get cleaned up so we could go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. I felt so lucky to get to spend my birthday with 5 of the greatest friends a girl could have. Since Mexican food on my birthday is a bit of a tradition, we headed to a restaurant in Boulder called Rio. Not that we have any lushes in the group, but we were a little surprised to hear that the restaurant has a 3 margarita maximum per person. And even more shocked to see that they were small. By our second round of margaritas, we learned that they weren't your average everyday margaritas. They were high octane. It made for a fun night. Many thanks to Arch (Christy's super thoughtful husband) for arranging to buy us our first round of drinks. He got the evening kicked off in the right way.

Looks innocent, doesn't it? HA!

The weekend flew by way too fast. I'm already counting the days until our next girls weekend. I miss having my friends close by, but I marvel at how when we are together, we don't miss a beat. I feel so lucky to have found this group of caring, intelligent, athletic, fun (I could go on and on...these girls are amazing) women.

A Good Excuse Not To Do Laundry

I'd hate to disturb the kitty. But unfortunately my kitchen is being overtaken by clothes, so I'll have to move her. Tomorrow I leave for Atlanta for my IABC Southern Region board meeting. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends from around the SoReg. We have a jam-packed 2 days of meeting. I'm excited to get some work done. I'm always inspired by this group.