Good Saturday evening! We have had some real summer weather here for the past few days. It has been so hot and humid that it was hard to breathe. On Wednesday, I went bowling with the Social Rehab group and we had to walk only 4 blocks back to the center from the subway. I got into the building but our a/c was not keeping up with the heat and it wasn't enough to cool me off. I sat in the warm building all the rest of the afternoon and then came home and was sick. My body doesn't deal well with the heat. I drank copious amounts of water and took a cool shower and laid on the bed for about an hour and that seemed to help. But, it was nasty for a while.



When you have days like that the chance for thunderstorms is great. And last night, we had a doozy. Pk and I decided to go out to buy some needed household goods (underwear and sheets) so we went to a local department store on the way home from work. I just made it into the car before the rain started. But, you know how sometimes it rains just for a minute and then it stops and then the skies open and it's like an ocean falling from the clouds? Well, that's what happened. We got to the store and it wasn't raining so we made it inside dry. But we were looking for sheets and someone said, "oh my god, look at that" and you couldn't see the cars in the parking lot through the rain. It was blowing straight at the glass doors. It was amazing.



The only thing to do was keep shopping. So I found some bras that I can wear under t shirts (I hate bras with seams across the cups and don't understand why designers think that is a cool design feature but a lot of them obviously do because they were everywhere) and some panties and Pk found some undershirts and we went downstairs to find some new sheets. I don't know about the rest of the world, but department stores here in the US sell sheets and pillow cases in plastic bags with zippers. I can't tell if we're supposed to put our sheets back into the bags when we wash them? We don't. Usually, I threw this excessive packaging away. This time, however, I happened to see a new possibility for them. Ta da! The pillow case bags are the perfect size to hold a sock or other small project. The zipper is handy and the plastic is slightly thicker than ziplock bags. The sheet sizes will hold a lace project or part of a sweater for portability purposes. I kept all of them and felt better for not throwing them away.



We also lucked out because it was the weekend of the American Assoc of University Women's used book sale. The assoc has a used book sale each summer to raise money for scholarships. Pk and I browsed the tables while we waited for the rain to let up. (Yea, I know. A real hardship. We persevered. ) I found two old books of knitting. Not old enough to be really interesting. Just old enough to have hoods with pom pom ties and knitted pantsuits. Really attractive stuff. Actually, I bought two Jeffrey Deaver books. I love his Lincoln Rhyme stories. And I know El will read them and then we'll pass them on to someone else. Pk found some computer and wood working books.



Em came down for dinner on Thursday and we exchanged little gifts. Emily gave me some hand spun yarn that she made from batts she got through the club we signed her up for as a birthday gift. It's really pretty. It's the first time anyone has given me handspun yarn. The colors are flowery, pink with some green mixed in there. There's not a lot of it but I'll find something to make out of it for myself. (and yes, those are my pasty white legs in the photo. I have done an admirable job of not getting a tan this summer. On purpose.) Julie sent me some purple trainwreck roving (which I spun and am in the process of knitting into socks for Kate) and some sock yarn called Zap. I finally finished the socks and gave them to Em. I was supposed to give Em the yarn but she beseeched me to just make the socks for her because "you're so much faster than I am". The socks are incredibly difficult to photograph and get the colors to come out. The yellow is very bright and the blue is turquoise. The lightning bolts show up pretty well in a plain sock. Of course, it's a little hot to wear wool right now but in 2 months or so it won't be.




I am making Elanor a Feb Lady Sweater. I think the style will look good on her. She likes feminine but not frilly and that will fit the bill nicely. Of course she chose blue yarn (my girls love blue. I'm pretty sure Kate's sweater will be green, though. ) which we ordered yesterday and I finally ordered myself a set of Knitpick options. Pk kept telling me to order it and I kept putting it off but if I'm going to make a couple more sweaters, I need them. He wanted me to explore the Addi convertible needles but when I saw the price, I declined. I haven't heard anything about them and don't want to pay almost 200 dollars for a set of needles. Maybe when we win the lottery.



That's about all. I just took a shower to wash all the sticky off my body and am now comfortably installed on my bed with a new Vogue magazine. It's the Age issue and has Christy Turlington on the cover. She looks beautiful for 40. I'm going to drink my iced decaf and move as little as possible. Tomorrow will be a lazy day. I did the laundry and shopping today and have nothing emergent to do so I'll sit still and try not to sweat. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Have a good rest of the weekend!