These vagabond shoes

We are back. And have been for several days, but I've been overwhelmed with the requirements of regular life that I haven't gotten anything together until now. I'm sorry.

This weekend has been lovely -- we didn't go anywhere, or do anything, and I managed to clean up a whole mess of loose ends. K picked up a bit of a cold (damn NYorkers!) so he's been in low-energy mode all weekend. The weather's been perfect -warm days and cool nights. And I got to lark around and play domestic goddess (mmmm scones, zucchini bread, onion tart). The vacation to recover from my vacation. I feel so bourgeois. And lazy. But damn it's been nice.

We had a lovely time in New York. First we spent a few days up in the Catskills in a old farmhouse so the kids could get their nature on. Two 2-year-olds, 6 adults. And mmm, sweet corn. We even went on a corny (ha ha) little train ride on an old railroad. For the kids, of course.


What I can't get over is how green it was. Oregon's got this reputation for being Ireland-like in its greenery and it rains all the time blah blah blah; but see, the summers are dry. It might rain more or less constantly the other 9 months of the year, but we can go 3 months without even an inch of rain. I think it's at about 2 inches this summer for June through today. And this has been a WET summer. If you want a green lawn here, you need sprinklers and a buttload of water. But there everything seems to be green by default.

Then we returned to NYC on an extremely humid hot day and I got my mandatory Climate Appreciation training. As mentioned above, the side effect of this dry summer is LOW HUMIDITY (thank FSM). I can cope with heat, but heat with humidity makes me want to crawl into the freezer. I don't do tropics well.

What can I say? It was New York City, and I haven't traveled much but it's not like any other place I've been to. Just the density of people seemed to weigh on me. NY neice and her 'rents live up on the north end of Manhattan Island, a 45-minute subway ride to downtown. I make no judgment calls: my commute is 45 minutes too (but the MAX smells nicer. Sorry). I would find it really hard to live with so many people all around. Maybe I am an awful misanthrope after all.

But it is an extraordinary place to visit. We went to MOMA, and the Guggenheim, and wandered around Soho (dear Purl: I tried. But 12 pm opening makes life difficult). We walked all over and I got to see Habu Textiles (awesome. It's a tiny little office building door and you have to take an elevator to the 8th floor and find their suite door and it's all squoze into a teeny little area. I bought a little souvenir yarn for a hat for K - tsumugi silk, in grey and dark grey that I'll use doubled together. Mmmm silk). We had fabulous food, everything from streetcart falafel to woowoo high-end kinda expensive place (Craft: when they brought dinner it was like that scene in the Blues Brothers in the fru fru restaurant where there's like 6 waiters all doing things at once over the one table. Tasty food, but too expensive for habitual. But MY GOSH the best risotto I have ever had in my life).
Looking east across the Central Park reservoir.

NY neice accompanied us some of the time


Oooh, we went to Coney Island too! NY neice and K:


Fantastic old-school carnival rides and booths. And a wooden boardwalk!
K commented that there was a distinct lack of tie-dyed hippies.

We rode the Cyclone, the old roller coaster (sans NY neice, who did not meet the 4.5' height requirement and would not have enjoyed it anyhow). K's brother says they're tearing big lots of it down and building 60 story condos. Sigh. I also went to the Freak Show (judge me how you will. It's more random vaudeville than exploitation). Serpentina and the "Dance of Death" with her 10-foot albino python woulda been a whole lot more impressive if 1) I didn't know pythons aren't poisonous, 2) the python had been a bit less well-fed, and 3) one of my weirdo friends didn't already own and let-lounge-about his 15-foot python. I was super-impressed with the sword swallower, though. Man that must take some practice.

Anyway. Back to reality. I finished a whole sock while I was out (airline, subway, train, etc. Love me some small sock action). I also finished up a bunch of stuff this weekend and finally took some pictures of past FOs. This week: week of FOs! Woot woot! I hope you all had a lovely holiday or at least a fabulous weekend.

This vacation's theme: 2-year-olds are entertaining but I get exhausted just watching them.