This was a lovely weekend, just what the doctor ordered. No, not literally; there was no doctor involved. It was restful and productive, what I needed after two weekends away.
Saturday morning was our last TnT coached run for the season. Wahh! As much as I'm looking forward to running with my own group again, I'm going to miss the team. There's that indefinable feeling of being part of something special, something important.
We met at the Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry parking lot at 7:30 am. The brand new summer team was also meeting there so it was going to be getting crowded. There were lots of strange faces there, but those of us on the spring team took off running while the newbies had a clinic.
My run, all 4 miles of it, went very well. I ran the first couple of miles with others and then slowed down and ran the last 2 miles alone. Even the alone part was faster than normal, so it looks like I've recovered from the marathon.
The whole team had been asked to gather together for thank you's, congratulations and good bye from the coaches and manager. This is what we used to do at the wrap party, but those have apparently been discontinued. Too bad, they were always fun. Mama Lisa and Coach always have gifts for the mentors and captains and awards for special people. This year they gave us each a plaque individually engraved with our name. It had the Olympic torch, after which our Team Flame had been named. Very nice. The participants all got pins of runners, also very nice (I got one of those too, lucky me!). There were also finishers certificates from the manager.
Boo hoo saying bye is really hard, but -- oh yeah -- I was going to see a lot of those people later. I scurried home, showered and changed and sped back to Oakland. Jeanette's band was playing at the Temescal Street Fair at noon, which meant I had to hustle if I wanted to catch their set. I got an incredibly lucky parking space and arrived just before they started.
It was sunny and very warm, but felt good standing in the sun listening. They sounded great. Several other teammates showed up and we all listened together. The crowd, which had been pretty sparse at the start, filled in with people watching and listening and dancing. Unfortunately they got booted off the stage after only an hour and a half by a very impatient martial arts exhibition. I think the crowd would have been happier if they had just kept playing.
I had told Jeanette that she had to hang around afterward to visit Article Pract and Bakesale Betty's. The poor woman had never been to either place. So we grabbed a bite to eat (yum, Lanesplitter Pizza) and went to the yarn shop. She found yarn for a couple of projects she had in mind, but somehow I managed to walk out without buying a thing. Not so at Betty's! I got a pear ginger scone (drool...) and a big container of brownies.
I headed over to my bro's house to see their new kitten. They had recently lost one of their older sick cats, so for his birthday last
week they got a young kitten, Flower. I wanted to see her before she grew up and became just another cat. Oh stop it, you know what I mean. She'll be a cat for years but will only be a kitty for several weeks. She's living in their bedroom now, since the two rats live in my nephew's room, the two dogs roam the rest of the house, and the other cats are free to go where they like.I got up the hill and only my bro was home. He was making Sangria and I gave him my famous recipe I had gotten in Spain. Yes, add brandy, triple sec and lots of fruit to the wine, plus other stuff. I also gave him the brownies I had gotten at Betty's. Funny, he had meant to get some but didn't know there was a street fair going on and couldn't find a place to park. He thought he'd have to disappoint his son, but Auntie Amy to the rescue. What, you thought I was going to try to fit all those brownies in on weight watchers??
The kitten was adorable, lively and probably teething (ouch, those baby claws and teeth are sharp!). I played with her for a while until I got tired out and decided to call it a day.
Sunday consisted of straightening the house, doing yard work, running errands, updating files, blah blah blah. I had wanted to sleep late but was wide awake very early. Oh, this not sleeping thing is getting really old.
I also read Memoirs of a Geisha over the weekend. I enjoyed just being able to sit on my ass and read for a while without feeling I had to do something else. Well, I did feel like I had to do something else, but I ignored that feeling and read anyway. I didn't get any knitting done because I haven't figured out how to knit and read at the same time.
I went through my yarn stash trying to decide which yarns to use for my Temescal Bag. This is the class I'm taking from Petra at Article Pract next Saturday and the last Saturday of the month. I'm torn between using dark boring colors in a bag I'll actually use, and using something bright and colorful that would probably just sit in my closet. Oh, what to do, what to do. I finally came up with two different combinations; one in greens using Wool of the Andes [oh crap - looking at that link I notice it's on sale and "must not buy any yarn" and it's so tempting... ] and one in purples using Cascade 220. What, you ask? Yeah, I thought about doing it in reds/pinks/grey/black, but that's what they're all expecting!
And now it's Monday. Time to get to work!
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