Last week, Cortland, NY, and the Webs Trip

It was another crazed week. I really didn't get much done. Monday, I worked on Mya's sweater, I've finished a sleeve and I am halfway through the second. Tuesday I went to Paula and Fred's. They had a very nice Petit Syrah that they shared along with some fabulous strawberries, cheese and sushi. I love going to Paula and Fred's. There was much, much screaming laughter, to the point that my throat was actually sore the next day. I wonder what their neighbors think... I truly thought Alison was going to have a stroke at one point. Donna had been cleaning her yarn room (you should see her stash) and had some stuff she was willing to give away. I acquired 3 balls of Cascade Fixation, which is cool because I always wanted to try it.

Wednesday was pretty much a wash (literally). I did five loads of laundry getting ready for the trip to Cortland, NY for Shawn's brother's graduation from SUNY Cortland. I packed Thursday night. We left Friday morning. Shawn had told me it was a five hour drive. Try six and half. I realize that we stopped several times (I wasn't feeling well and the Sante Fe guzzles gas) and I got bagged for doing 81 in a 65 by a NY State Trooper, but still. We arrived in Cortland somewhere around 3:30pm and checked into the hotel, and met up with Shawn's parents and his uncle Scott. We went and got a tour of the campus and then had dinner. The graduation was at 9:30 am on Saturday morning. There were 600 kids in the morning ceremony and apparently 600 or so in the afternoon ceremony. The speaker was General Dunwoody, the first woman to become a 3 and 4 star general, which was cool. However, Senator Schumer showed up as a "surprise" in the middle of them awarding individual diplomas because he got the Jets to use the facilities to practice over the summer (I will not get on my soapbox about this country's moronic obsession and misplaced priorites concerning sports, but you all probably know how I felt about this b.s.) and delayed the ceremony further. I like Senator Schumer, but you'd think he'd have other things to do besides congratulating himself over having an overpaid pro sports team practice at a campus in his state...like I don't know...fixing the economic crisis, making everyone has access to health care, making sure everyone has access to education, you know things that matter in the grand scheme of things. Oops...apparently that soapbox jumped right under my feet without me noticing.... Anyway, my camera really wasn't up to the distances involved, so I have one picture of the crowd, and one picture that was almost black that I manipulated to death in Adobe Photoshop to get anything. Unfortuately, I didn't get any pictures with Corey in them, but Brian and Joanne took a lot, so I know she'll share when she gets a chance. After the ceremony, I drove six and half hours home. Granted a half an hour of it was being delayed by a train crossing when leaving Cortland, but I had to sit in the car for it. We got home about 7:30pm Saturday night. I drove all of it because we know how I feel about Shawn's driving. I've told him that he owes me two poems for this weekend.

This weekend was the Webs tent sale. For knitters this is like a holy pilgrimage. I had to miss the best day (Saturday they also have a fleece sale) because of the graduation, but I did get to go today. I went with Donna, Tracy and Nancy. I picked up Donna (she lives down the street from me) and we met Tracy and Nancy at the 89 Exit 2 Park and Ride. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to. I really wanted to convey how huge Webs is, but I was seduced away from blogging activities by shopping. I did manage to take a picture of the tent outside. They had some good deals outside, but nothing that really grabbed me. They had some Noro on sale, but the colors were so-so, and nothing my speed. As you will see, apparently my speed was all purple, all the time today. I know some of you are snickering to yourselves, saying what else is new, but I do actually buy other colors of yarn. Just not today apparently. I also took some pictures of the back room. There's a normalish looking yarn shop in the front area, and then there's the back room which is the warehouse, that you are allowed to shop in as well. The row in the warehouse I have pictured is just one of about 8-10. They have grocery carts you can use, which tells you the scale of purchasing.

Here's some assorted pics of the yarn I bought. I did buy whole bags of some of them, but the knitter readers can check the stats out on Ravelry.

I got some really spectacular yarn and some really good deals. But it was another 2 hours there and 2 hours back today. So I drove 17 hours over the course of the last 3 days and put a thousand miles on my car. I'm a tad fried.