November in Paradise, 2008 Edition

Last year, I posted about November in Paradise, aka Windanseaville. This year we had a perfect Halloween weekend: warm on Friday into the evening, sunny on Saturday, and a little rain on Sunday just to make it cozy.



Mary was Cleopatra, as you can see. She's surely in denial about something. Probably homework. Anna was the grim reaper, but she was out the door so quickly in the morning that I couldn't even get my iphone out fast enough for a photo.

Saturday was lazy (at least, it was for me - Anna had rowing so she and John were up and down at the Bay by 6:00). We had lunch by the pool down at the beach...you can see the aftermath of the Halloween festivities and glut of candy here:



So Mary swam the afternoon away, and then Sunday I knitted and watched reruns of House. I hope to have some FOs pretty soon for your viewing pleasure.

November in Paradise

This happened last year too - right when I should be in the thick of knitting, we're hit with a heatwave right around Thanksgiving. Not to mention - I ask you...who feels like baking pie and roasting turkey when it's 80 degrees out?

On the other hand, look where Mary and I got to spend the afternoon.

Plus I'm even knitting:



The crummy cellphone photo depicts me working away on a tomten, round about ridge 28. It's taking a loooong time to get through those ridges, too, because my apparent inability to count caused me to cast on 128 sts rather than the recommended 112. What does that matter, you ask? EZ says you can cast on any number divisible by 8....but then, all the proportions have to change, too - so instead of knitting to ridge 40 and starting the sleeve areas, I'm going to have to go to 48 ridges. Oy. I had to get a spreadsheet out and enter formulas and draw diagrams and everything just to figure out my knitting.

Stay tuned to see if it works. Until then, I'm shaking the sand out of my wool and knitting on with confdence.

Head of the American River

After being home for what seemed like 20 minutes this week, Anna and I loaded ourselves and a few possessions onto a bus with the rest of the ZLAC girls and headed up to Sacramento for the Head of the American regatta. A few of you have expressed your deep sympathy for my situation, i.e., being trapped on a seemingly endless bus ride with 40 teenaged girls, but don't worry. I had my iPhone, my iPod, a book, some knitting, four other adults and a stream of teen movies to entertain me.

You can tell it's Anna by her black cap...she's the 2nd one from the left.

I hadn't seen (and was unlikely to, in other circumstances) Step Up 2 The Streets or Fired Up!...I actually laughed during Fired Up! so I either must've been really tired or suffering from all the teen hormones in the air on that bus. And Step Up 2 The Streets...well, I do secretly want to join a dance crew, so I was bound to enjoy that. We also watched Get Smart and Blades of Glory, which I slept through.

They remind me of my kids when they were still in high chairs!

The place the girls raced was very pretty: Nimbus Flats there on the American. It's surrounded by oak foothills and I was able to hike around on a couple of really nice trails while the girls weren't actively racing. I'm sure this place is a birder's paradise when there aren't a zillion rowers, and even so I got to see a flock of wild turkeys and lots of ducks and geese.

Really, how hard could a duck bite you with that bill?

The weather was fine and our canopies were right in front of the finish line, and we were shaded with the sun at our backs for the whole time...amazingly comfortable compared to the freezefest on the Charles last week!

I tried to sneak up on it, but the goose would have none of my petting, even for spaghetti!

The biggest entertainment came from the local waterfowl. We had a pan of leftovers that they went nuts over! After gorging themselves for a few minutes, they all ran down to the water, drank and drank, and then ran back to finish. You know how ducks shake their heads when they eat? They made a huge mess of themselves.

Sacramento Sunset

Bags and Sweets

Vasalissa in Recoleta...a pink and celadon paradise of chocolate

While I didn't manage to get to any sort of fiber-y shop in Buenos Aires, how can a place teeming with shoes, bags, and sweets be bad?

That bag came home with me...

In addition to eating my weight in beef (sorry, my vegan friends...but when in Argentina...although actually I eat plenty of beef right here at home so it's not a good excuse) I also managed to consume a fair amount of chocolate, pastries both straight from the bakery and in the million and one cafes I sat in, cheese, nuts, and olives. In other words, my ideal diet: chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and coffee, chased down with pastry and steak. The minute I manage to look like Valerie Bertinelli I plan on cashing in.

If you are in BA, don't miss Fervor. We had a fantastic dinner there, the ambience is warm and lively, and the dessert menu includes flan with ice cream. You hear that? Flan AND ice cream, both made in-house. What a great idea - two-course dessert. And of course we went to La Cabrera, a BA must.



I also went to a couple of really nice bars, something I rarely do at home. (Actually, that came out wrong: it's not that I don't go to nice bars...it's that I don't go to ANY bars...lest you think I go to dives. And I do go to the Whaling Bar once in a blue moon.) The Library at the Faena Hotel is such a nice place for a drink, and the bathroom is not to be missed. It's a palace of marble and beveled glass, with fresh flowers and freaking swan faucets. The Oak Bar a the Hyatt was pretty spectacular too, although you do have to brave the cigar smoke.



And just in case you gather the impression we didn't do anything "cultural" at all (four women loose in Argentina = no museums) we did visit the very beautiful Recoleta Cemetery. And, I believe I can make a very good argument for the case that we experienced more culture talking to the wonderful, friendly locals than we would have on the tourist circuit.