Saturday, October 31, 2009

Marathon Expo, Getting ready for the marathon and life's small emergencies



Yesterday I met up with an old friend to pick up all my marathon paraphernalia at the Jacob Javits Center. The two of us were in a bit of a frivolous mood, she was just off a plane from Geneva and well I'm always frivolous. Anyhow, I bought practical stuff like cliff shot bloks, long sleeved running shirt which was half off and wicks moisture, running socks that don’t slip and help prevent blisters, expandable running belt to hold ipod, etc… then slightly less necessary, arm warmers, anti-fog sunglasses, and the most frivolous: Halo Headphones - these are practical in that I always listen to my ipod while running and I hate that I’m constantly having to push my headphones in (especially when the ears start getting sweaty) but not something you’d call a need.

So today, I had a game plan of stretching, drinking lots of water and resting my soon to be weary legs. After some morning stretches, I thought I'd take a morning bath to get myself even more relaxed. I'm not a bath person as I just tend to get really bored. So I had the bright idea that I'd listen to an audio book on my ipod. BIG MISTAKE! Yours truly somehow manages to drop ipod into bath. On any other day, I would have looked at all the internet 'how to repair submerged ipod' links and tried my best to figure this out. BUT I have the marathon tomorrow and the idea of 26.2 miles without music or audio book could not be faced. So my poor mother who'd been working all night volunteered to drive me to the nearest apple store (40 min drive away) to see if they could repair it. As you can guess, they couldn't and it was out of warranty. They then suggested that I could recycle said submerged ipod an get 10% off a new one. Now of course I could have gotten a cheaper ipod on Amazon but as I mentioned this was a marathon emergency. So I sucked it up and got this new baby:



I've been out of the ipod loop since I got my last one two years ago so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my new baby has FM radio - super cool and a video camera - xtra super cool!

So now I'm home and want to relax but not sure on that one as my lil bro is desperate to go to a haunted house. My mother has to work tonight and can't take him and I want to relax after my 'harrowing' day and marathon tomorrow but I feel bad that he can't go. We'll see how that pans out.

Anyhow, I'm crazily promoting my charity that I'm running for. You can donate at www.firstgiving.com/carylpierre and there are lots of awesome prizes to be won: Check it out here. I'd really appreciate the support and I think it's a pretty great cause especially after my summer as a volunteer in Ghana.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Yarn Gluttony AKA Stitches East



Despite just arriving in NYC, first on my agenda was heading off to Hartford, CT for Stitches East to hang with my fellow Malabrigo junkie ravelers. As I'm unemployed, the plan was to socialize more and spend less. Hmmm... See the above picture and you can see that I did an amazing job of multitasking...

Here's the group of us at the Malabrigo booth:



It was supertastically fun to meet up with the Mal Gals and become inducted as an NJ Mal Gal. It also seems that I've taken on a bit of a British accent though mainly I've just picked up British vocab. I shocked myself when I yelled 'Oh crikey' on seeing the large volume of DIC Stardust on offer. I don't even remember saying crikey when I lived in England. Maybe I did and never noticed it... The Mal gals found my Britishisms quite fun so at least it provided entertainment :-). For me it was interesting putting voices to the posts I've been reading for nearly a year. Especially the NJ accents. :-)

It was also lovely meeting the people behind the Malabrigo yarns of which I'm obsessed and getting a wee treat as well.


A quick sum of what I purchased:

- Dream in Color Stardust (2 skeins of marooned)
- Madeline Tosh Lace (1 skein of Oxblood)
- Madeline Tosh Worsted (2 skeins of Lepidoptra)
- Cascade Eco + (3 skeins of a plum red color)
- 1 mini skein of Habu
- 3 mini skeins Planet Earth Fibers to make masks in camel, sandstorm and a plum color
- Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca DK (2 skeins)
- Tess Superwash Lace (2 skeins)
- 1 pair of Sassafras hoop earrings made of recycled knitting needles
- Gail Hughes buttons
- Beads (1 tube of 6/0s)

Gifts/Trade
-Traded 1 skein Mal Worsted Polar Morn for 1 skein of Jacinta
- Gifted a skein of wounded yarn by Cupcake Jenny
- Gifted a skein of MerinoCash laceweight in Bobby Blue (1180 yards) by Malabrigo and a skein of MerinoCash Fingering weight in Velvet Grapes(450 yards) by Malalabrigo

OMG!!! I am a yarn glutton!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Official First Family Photo



Just saw this pic on a forum I follow. What a beautiful family!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Goodbye London



My cab should be arriving in about 10 min to carry me off to Heathrow. I'm packed and ready to go which is a complete shocker as I'm usually packing till I have to head out the door. I managed to wind some mal sock for some airplane knitting and just went out to say goodbye to the Thames and the Southbank. It's a perfect London day, spitting rain. Almost too little for an umbrella but if you choose the path of no umbrella, you'll arrive at your destination soaking wet. :-)

It's weird to be leaving after so long living here. It's been the best of times and the worst of times as they say...

GOODBYE LONDON!!!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Crafting Mojo



For the last month or so, crafting has seemed a bit of a chore. It would seem that my mojo left me there for a while. I kept at it but something that would have taken me no more than a week to knit has taken me around a month. I think it's my current state of limbo that killed my mojo. HOWEVER, in two weeks I'm moving home to NY and I'm feeling really stoked. I also completed a fairly complicated FO but can't reveal it yet as it's going to my swap partner and it must stay top secret until she receives it.

The last few weeks though I've been walking around London and just enjoying the sites and sounds. I live around a 10 min walk from Covent Garden and today while I meant only to go and pick up some crimps from The Bead Shop, I ended up just enjoying the ambiance.