spaazliciousThursday, May 25, 2006
Where to start?
The major event of our week was going to Bay to Breakers; it was our first time.
We walked the last half of it with Kirsten and she took this pic at the finish.
On one hand, I wish I'd brought my camera because there were lots of fun things going on and some great pictures to be had--like the world's longest line of public urinators. There were probably twenty guys spaced three feet apart urinating into shrubs along the side of an apartment building...and a line of guys waiting to pee.
On the other hand, I am really glad I didn't bring the camera as I probably would have been so caught up in snapping pics. Instead, I kept my head swiveling, my eyes roving, and my hands knitting:
I still feel more in spinning mode than knitting--so I only feel slightly guilty for buying some tourist fiber at Deep Color where we met up with Brooke and her pups.
A 4oz. bag of Polworth dyed in various hues, I have no clue what I'll do with it. But check out the crimp intact in some of the locks.
And, um, today, I picked up well-skirted fleece of a one year old Lincoln with the terribly catchy and saccharinely sweetly sentimental name of #621.
I blame Mary-Kay for the 5¾ pounds of lanolin-y locks, she's just a bad influence and the skin side of the fleece she bought was just too sheeny pretty. I'm washing it in small batches, and some I'm going comb and spin, some for tailspinning, maybe trying some bouclé...there's a lot to work with and it's pretty soft. Lorraine Powell does a great job skirting the fleeces.
Back to Bay to Breakers...
I used the Google pedometer and mapped all of our walking that morning--we did just over 13 miles (!) so we feel all ready for the half marathon (we just need to run that distance instead of walk it, no biggie). Ha. ha. ha.
The linked article mentions the political costumes, but there were a diverse lot out there in the 75,000 strong crowd: there was a safety cone squad that actually ran through dressed in caltrans orange (one with a traffic cone on head, and Nick observed, "That's amazing, traffic cones are surprisingly heavy.") more naked people than I have fingers and toes (although the women I could count on one hand, and the ogle-worthy on one hand after a horrific sawmill incident, but nudism isn't about firmness of the flesh, it's about sunshine on the tingly bits) yet fewer than I expected, and way more Budweiser than I ever want to see again.
Flickr has lots of pictures under the baytobreakers tag. We didn't see this one, I think we would have pissed ourselves laughing. That pic is from last year, and I suppose it's just not done to do the wear the same costume twice in a row...(warning: NSFW, as are many of the B2B pics, apparently we had nudie blinders on, relatively speaking).
We totally forgot to bring our own alcohol, and we wandered through the crowd uncostumed feeling more like observers than participants (sounds like a bad thing, but just different, still fun) and I'm wondering what we should do next year. Qualify to be seeded runners, run it and walk back through the crowd and enjoy the show, or recruit more people and have a costume theme and our own keg in a shopping cart-rolling tiki bar-beer helmet hat (for the extremely lazy)? I liked the people who ran the route going the opposite way in salmon suits while screaming, "spawn! spawn!" although some fish were distracted and got caught up in a dance party. It was fun to meet up with Kirsten at Ashbury and Fell and wander through the crowd...so we may just do that again next year. Anyway, it was great to be back up in the bay area. It's probably unbelievable to anyone who hasn't lived there, but Oakland rocks. In fact, I'm saving that for another post. So many reasons we miss Oakland. And Sacramento too.
But we came home and were so happy to be back home with the dogs--it was surreal to go hiking in Redwood without them.
And I discovered my plants were traitors. I swear my seedlings doubled their size while my mom was babysitting, and the beneficial insects have started showing up--this ladybug is my favorite:
No spots, and juicy looking like a little mini half tomato...
Not sweet at all though. Crunchy caviar.
(kidding, kidding)
My banana peppers poked out for her:
My basils went nutso leggy and my amarinth stood up and said, "Howdy!"
On the gardening front, well, maybe another post.
We had a great time--it was neat to meet Kirsten and Brooke and eat at our favorite places and hike at Redwood again and smell that gorgeous rainfed eucalyptus smell.
On Solano Ave, we drove past a movie theater with a sign up on their marquee, "as if we didn't get enough in march: WATER." But it only rained on Friday and Sunday afternoon, so I don't know what they were complaining about. ;)
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We walked the last half of it with Kirsten and she took this pic at the finish.
On one hand, I wish I'd brought my camera because there were lots of fun things going on and some great pictures to be had--like the world's longest line of public urinators. There were probably twenty guys spaced three feet apart urinating into shrubs along the side of an apartment building...and a line of guys waiting to pee.
On the other hand, I am really glad I didn't bring the camera as I probably would have been so caught up in snapping pics. Instead, I kept my head swiveling, my eyes roving, and my hands knitting:
I still feel more in spinning mode than knitting--so I only feel slightly guilty for buying some tourist fiber at Deep Color where we met up with Brooke and her pups.
A 4oz. bag of Polworth dyed in various hues, I have no clue what I'll do with it. But check out the crimp intact in some of the locks.
And, um, today, I picked up well-skirted fleece of a one year old Lincoln with the terribly catchy and saccharinely sweetly sentimental name of #621.
I blame Mary-Kay for the 5¾ pounds of lanolin-y locks, she's just a bad influence and the skin side of the fleece she bought was just too sheeny pretty. I'm washing it in small batches, and some I'm going comb and spin, some for tailspinning, maybe trying some bouclé...there's a lot to work with and it's pretty soft. Lorraine Powell does a great job skirting the fleeces.
Back to Bay to Breakers...
I used the Google pedometer and mapped all of our walking that morning--we did just over 13 miles (!) so we feel all ready for the half marathon (we just need to run that distance instead of walk it, no biggie). Ha. ha. ha.
The linked article mentions the political costumes, but there were a diverse lot out there in the 75,000 strong crowd: there was a safety cone squad that actually ran through dressed in caltrans orange (one with a traffic cone on head, and Nick observed, "That's amazing, traffic cones are surprisingly heavy.") more naked people than I have fingers and toes (although the women I could count on one hand, and the ogle-worthy on one hand after a horrific sawmill incident, but nudism isn't about firmness of the flesh, it's about sunshine on the tingly bits) yet fewer than I expected, and way more Budweiser than I ever want to see again.
Flickr has lots of pictures under the baytobreakers tag. We didn't see this one, I think we would have pissed ourselves laughing. That pic is from last year, and I suppose it's just not done to do the wear the same costume twice in a row...(warning: NSFW, as are many of the B2B pics, apparently we had nudie blinders on, relatively speaking).
We totally forgot to bring our own alcohol, and we wandered through the crowd uncostumed feeling more like observers than participants (sounds like a bad thing, but just different, still fun) and I'm wondering what we should do next year. Qualify to be seeded runners, run it and walk back through the crowd and enjoy the show, or recruit more people and have a costume theme and our own keg in a shopping cart-rolling tiki bar-beer helmet hat (for the extremely lazy)? I liked the people who ran the route going the opposite way in salmon suits while screaming, "spawn! spawn!" although some fish were distracted and got caught up in a dance party. It was fun to meet up with Kirsten at Ashbury and Fell and wander through the crowd...so we may just do that again next year. Anyway, it was great to be back up in the bay area. It's probably unbelievable to anyone who hasn't lived there, but Oakland rocks. In fact, I'm saving that for another post. So many reasons we miss Oakland. And Sacramento too.
But we came home and were so happy to be back home with the dogs--it was surreal to go hiking in Redwood without them.
And I discovered my plants were traitors. I swear my seedlings doubled their size while my mom was babysitting, and the beneficial insects have started showing up--this ladybug is my favorite:
No spots, and juicy looking like a little mini half tomato...
Not sweet at all though. Crunchy caviar.
(kidding, kidding)
My banana peppers poked out for her:
My basils went nutso leggy and my amarinth stood up and said, "Howdy!"
On the gardening front, well, maybe another post.
We had a great time--it was neat to meet Kirsten and Brooke and eat at our favorite places and hike at Redwood again and smell that gorgeous rainfed eucalyptus smell.
On Solano Ave, we drove past a movie theater with a sign up on their marquee, "as if we didn't get enough in march: WATER." But it only rained on Friday and Sunday afternoon, so I don't know what they were complaining about. ;)
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