love is all you need

We had some friends from Texas come visit us for a long weekend. There was only a small amount of knitting done- maybe three or four more stripes added to my sock, nothing that noteworthy. Instead, I wanted to share a few pictures from our weekend taken with my friends' camera. We had a long, crazy, fun, celebrity-filled few days.

First up, the group:
Joey, Me, Josh, Jim, Eric. (Brother-in-law Aaron took the pic)

Celebrity Sighting #1: The Unknown Celebrity. Well, obviously the autograph-seeker knows who he is but we couldn't figure it out. We think they were filming an episode of Law and Order in the area, if that helps.

We visited the WTC area on September 11th, along with many other people:



We stood in awe:

We played some foosball:


Had many good conversations:

Celebrity Sighting #2: Beyonce. She was filming a music video just down the street- she would come out of a bodega and arrest some guy.

We visited the American Museum of Natural History and saw some fun stuff:


Celebrity Sighting #3: Richard Belzer. We were busy talking about how this one guy looked like a balding David Duchovny and then Richard Belzer showed up out of nowhere.


We played some amazing games of Jenga:

And of course, Big Buck Hunter:

All in all, I'd say we exhausted ourselves:

I'll save my story of what I found on the street and the fight it caused for tomorrow!

Remind me not to drunk-blog anymore. Sheesh. Thanks for the kind words, though. I'm already in a much better mood. This weekend was a blast.
We headed over to our friends' apartment, where they were hosting a rooftop barbecue complete with fajitas, grilled corn, hamburgers, hot dogs, homemade blackberry cobbler and homemade ice cream. We were joined by tons of people who we didn't know and we partied with them all. Then came the fireworks, which were three times the size of any fireworks show I've seen. Here is a picture that doesn't show the two identical scenes to the right and left.

On Sunday we decided to go for a bike ride around Brooklyn which became a bike ride around Brooklyn and Manhattan. Now, I am not an in-shape person. I get winded climbing the stairs in my 3rd-floor walkup, but I thought I was getting better after all the walking I've been doing around here. Those hills were killing me! We went from our apartment to this beautiful park in Brooklyn called Prospect Park, rode their bike trail, went up to the Brooklyn Bridge and biked across it along with the hordes of tourists, ending in Manhattan. Then we rode along part of the Hudson River bike trail, passed by the WTC site and the Vietnam War Veteran's Memorial, and Pier 17, with all the cool old ships docked there. Then we headed up to the Williamsburg bridge and biked it back home. Actually, I had to walk my bike up the first part of the Williamsburg bridge because it was too steep for me. Then I had to hang on white-knuckled as I zoomed down the second half, feeling my bike vibrate so hard I thought the back wheel was going to fall off. By the time we got home, I thought I was going to die. My legs were shaking so badly I could hardly stand. My hands were in an semi-permanent claw position and I uncurled them to reveal two nice swollen bruise-spots on my palms, which are still hurting me today.
This better not interfere with my knitting

Right before our move Joey started a blog to document the trip and our new experiences in Brooklyn. I've joined in blogging with him there and plan do do most of my "Brooklyn-themed" blogging there. I will of course keep up with my usual knitting banter here. If you'd like to visit the other blog, go to http://yahmobloghere.wordpress.com

1. Comfortable shoes. Not just shoes that "don't hurt," but shoes that are like freaking pillows to your feet. My little toes are both so swollen and blistered right now and I have no idea what shoes I have that won't cause them more pain.
2. An air conditioner unit or gigantic box fan parked right in front of you at all times. Seriously, I completely underestimated how hot it gets up here.
3. A good map. I have three of them in my purse right now, but we've still managed to walk fourteen blocks in the wrong direction more times than I'd like to admit.
4. A camera to catch all the crazy awesome sights.

That's Brooklyn outside my window...

Here's us in our new place after we moved half of our stuff up three flights of stairs.
There's so much to tell, so much to do, so much to unpack. More coming soon.

First off, let me say that today has been much better than yesterday. There is a little light at the end of our apartment search tunnel. All hope is not lost. On top of that, as I pulled into the driveway today on my way home from work I had a sneaking suspicion that there might be a little something waiting for me and I was right. Leah, of theweatherinthestreets.blogspot.com sent me a goodie package from Brooklyn!

A while back, I won a blog contest Leah was having. I think all I had to do was tell her about my favorite food and she offered to knit me a pair of socks! I was pretty flabbergasted when I found out that a complete stranger wanted to do something that nice for me. That's what's so great about the knitting and fiber world; so many good-hearted strangers coming together because of a common love for knitting. Pretty amazing.

Speaking of amazing, did you see the socks? She used green and brown, which I told her were my two favorite colors. She also used Koigu, which I've wanted to check out for some time now. I really like the slight variegation in the single-color skeins.

I have to say my favorite part is the toe. I love how her shaping turned out- anyone know offhand what kind of toe shaping this is?

She also included some awesome Mentha lip shine in spearmint- (mmmm!) along with some cute birdy stickers. This was such a great mood-lifter. I will smile every time I put these socks on, Leah. Thank you for the socks and the smiles.

You know the feeling: things are going along swimmingly, so great that you amaze at how well things are working out. You go out and buy a ton of lottery tickets because your luck is actually that good. Then something slightly negative comes your way. You optimistically bat it away because you are not going to let things worry you this time. This time it is going to be fine, like it always turns out to be fine. Then the whole roof starts caving in on you.

First, it was the slight worry that the landlord didn't really want to rent to four people. That was quickly resolved with the suggestion of paying a little extra in rent to cover the wear and tear on the building and the extra cost of utilities. Then it was the fact that our move might get pushed back a few days, but for good reason because the band might be able to play a record label showcase in LA the week we were supposed to move. Then it was last night at 11:30 when Henry jumped off the bed, vomited up his dinner and his first round of heartworm preventative, and started panting and hyperventilating like there was no tomorrow. That was nicely resolved with a late-night trip to the emergency animal clinic, a steroid injection, an anti-nausea injection, and $130. (It was an allergic reaction to the preventative.) I was able to deal with these things- mainly because things were still turning out pretty well.
Then there came the call Joey got from the broker today saying that the other two of our four in the apartment situation would need co-signers. That was supposed to be resolved with a few phone calls, but one of them hasn't been able to find someone who could co-sign. Joey is working on remedying that situation, asking that maybe if we offer a larger deposit that person's co-signer could be waived. If not, we have to find another place, and our four might be whittled down to three.
It is at this point that Joey actually thanked me for being so cool and logical about everything, thanking me for being optimistic and reminding him that we can always find another place if we need to, that not all hope is lost. So I made myself a sandwich, using the last of the turkey breast that Joey picked up last night. I poured the last of the iced tea into a glass and sat everything down on the coffee table in the living room as my phone rang. Joey and I were discussing how things will work out- not to let the fact that we've already put in our notice at our jobs, or the fact that we've already sold both of our cars worry us. I was then distracted by seeing a man through the window. He was putting on a camouflage hooded jacket and was carrying some weird looking items. One of them looked like a stick with a tennis ball on the end. Another one of them looked like a metal pipe. He started walking through our front yard and I thought he might be coming to knock on the door. Daisy was barking at him through the window, and I'm on the phone trying to relate to Joey what I'm seeing. I ran into the other room to get a better look at this guy when he stops in the yard and opens the sewer drain with one of his tools. Oh. He's a utility guy just doing his job, not some psycho killer come to murder me and my dogs. Phew.
Then I hear the crash of my sandwich plate on the floor. The dogs knocked it down and were moving in on my sandwich when I finally lost it. Poor Joey got to hear my breakdown over the phone. There was much cussing and stomping and asking the dogs if they were 'happy now?' I actually said, "I'm not good right now, Joey." He said, "I know." Then I stormed into the kitchen with my messed-up-dog-hair-encrusted sandwich and set it on the kitchen counter, hard enough that the plate broke in two. "Now I've broken a plate," I relayed to Joey.
The idiocy of my breakdown was starting to flood my brain so I told Joey I would call him later and lay down on the couch. I started to think: that was the last of the turkey, there's nothing else in the house to eat, it's 2 o'clock already and I need to eat lunch and get back to packing...

Then I quit whining and got back up and went to make myself another sandwich. I might not have anymore turkey, but I just found some tuna.

PS- The dogs apologized.

"Well we all shine on,
like the moon, the stars and the sun."

We found out today that we were approved for our loft in Brooklyn. Did I mention that we're going to have four of us in one loft and try to retain some sense of privacy? We might be looking into pressure walls. I hear they're a sanity-saver.
So, less than three weeks left and not much has been packed. I hate this part. I've never moved more than an hour away, so this is going to be interesting. I started thinking that I might need to have a good knitting on the road project- to commemorate the drive. Nothing too intense, cause I don't want to get carsick (it happens when I read). Maybe a scarf or wristwarmers or something simple, something that can be done in a 24-hour drive cross-country.
Any good ideas?