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I experienced a moment of perfect contentment this weekend, sitting on a storm drain at the farmer’s market Saturday morning, watching people walk by and listening to a local band.

Note the babies on the backs of the musicians.  Totally Lawrence.

Brandon and Kaity took me to lunch Saturday, and we just happened to be downtown shortly after the Art Tougeau parade ended, and the entrants just happened to be parked in front of one of our favorite lunch spots, India Palace. I also had my camera on me, one of the reasons I bought a smaller camera in the first place.  Here are a few of the participants:

Rainbow car

Kaity calls this the "Mordor car"

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Dragon Wagon

This one was designed by a high school senior in Baldwin, a town just south of here, as part of community senior project.

Bottle cap car - now with working propeller

This one has been in the parade before, but it has a few new accessories this year.  It’s a real distraction driving down the street, with that propeller spinning in the breeze.

And not all entrants were of the four-wheeled variety.  Kaity’s friend, Ian, used the dragon his mom designed for the school production of The Hobbit, and transformed his tricycle.

Ian and his dragon-cycle - note the snazzy riding outfit

Dragon-cycle

That’s what I love about downtown, there’s always something going on, and you never know what it might be.

What’s the old saying? March comes in like a lion, out like a lamb?  Looks like Mother Nature got it backwards this year.

Freezing Rain

Since yesterday, we’ve had temps in the low 30s, and rain that turned to sleet overnight.  West of us, they’ve had lots of snow, and the governor has declared a state of emergency in 62 counties.

Ice Storm

So much for Spring. Looks like a good day to stay inside and knit.

I’ve started working on a new pair of socks.  I spent part of my Christmas gift certificate to the LYS on some pretty Crystal Palace Mini Mochi Yarn in the Violet Rainbows colorway (thanks, Poppy & Callista!).

Mini Mochi Sock Yarn

I waffled for days, trying to find the right pattern for this yarn.  It’s not self-striping, but has bands of color that blend into each other seamlessly, and I wanted a pattern that would do the yarn justice.  After digging through Ravelry to see what other knitters had done with this yarn, I settled on Cookie A’s Monkey Socks pattern, partly because the examples I’ve seen look great with this yarn, and partly because I’m an anthropologist and like the name.

I started the first sock on a Size 1 magic loop needle.  After three repeats, I tried it on, and could barely get it over my heel.  Not good.

Too tight

My size 1 needles are 2.25 mm in diameter. Checking the pattern specs, the designer recommends US 2, 2.5 mm needles, which I didn’t have.  All of my sock needles are either size 0 or 1.  So I made another trip to the LYS to pick up the right size needle.  I decided to splurge on an Addi Turbo, and picked up a size 2, casting on again from the second ball that evening.  After two repeats, I tried it on.

Too Loose

Sigh.  Turns out that Addi (a German company), sells 3.0 mm needles as US size 2, while the pattern says a US 2 is 2.5 mm. No wonder they were too loose.  I remeasured my other needles, hoping that I might have one that was 2.5 mm.  I discovered that my very first magic loop needle, a gift from a swap partner in England, is the right size (even though it’s listed as a US 1). I ripped out both socks, and cast on again last evening while watching Season 5 of Buffy.

Lesson learned: Ignore the US size numbers, which lie, especially at the smallest needle sizes, and go by the diameter measurements.

We stopped downtown today to spend a little time at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  It looked like most the the town had taken off work for the event; parking was a nightmare, and there were thousands of people lining Mass Street.  Before the parade started, the reviewing stand was serenaded by a fiddle quartet:

Good music

Everyone was decked out in their best “Irish” garb.

How many green fro wigs do you see?

His shirt says "Irish Craic Addict." Craic - "fun, enjoyment, abandonment, or lighthearted mischief; often in the context of drinking or music" - Oxford English Dictionary

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We woke up to this today:

Snow!

We ended up with 2.5 inches, nothing major, just a little reminder that it is technically still February.

Location: Target

Purpose: Shopping for Christmas Dinner

Outside Temperature: 23 degrees Farenheit

Bikinis before Christmas?!?

We can’t even enjoy our Christmas dinner and have a week to regret it before making our New Year’s Resolutions?  Thanks, Target.

Every December, Lawrence hosts a Christmas Parade downtown.  There are no marching bands or floats.  All conveyances in the parade must be horse drawn.  It make the parade a little slower, but it draws horse lovers from around the Midwest.

We went for the first time this year (I think this is probably the only parade in town that I’ve never been to). The horses were beautiful, and there was a lot of interesting history.  The Nicodemus Buffalo Soldiers led the parade.

There were plenty of carts and wagons, including the minature kind.

Elves (and snowmen and reindeer) passed out balloons.

There was even an old stagecoach.

Overall, a fun and interesting way to spend a Saturday afternoon downtown (there are lots more pictures in our 2008 Christmas Gallery), and one more reason to love Lawrence.

Fall is one of my favorite times in Lawrence.  Here’s a couple of views from the top of Mount Oread:

Looking North

Looking South

Brandon and I got up at an ungodly hour for a Saturday to run a bunch of errands, the most important of which was to go vote.  We didn’t want to be stuck in a long line on Tuesday evening.  So we made a fairly quick trip to the county courthouse, stood in line for 20 minutes with roughly 100 other brave souls, and exercised our rights as citizens to make our voices heard.

The Rotunda in the County Courthouse

Here in Douglas County, the early polling places are open from 8-noon tomorrow.

Since advance voting opened Oct. 15 at the courthouse, election personnel have distributed ballots in record numbers. Overall turnout had approached one out of every five eligible voters just before lunch Friday, even before today’s expanded efforts to accept advance ballots in Baldwin City, Eudora, Lecompton and, yes, Lawrence.

If you can, vote early.  If not, vote anyway.

Waiting in Line