great gatsby, ahoy! and vacay time...

i made it safely home from my EPIC vacay to philadelphia and nyc at, oh, 1:30 on friday morning. what a trip - what a whirlwind. it's trip recap time, i suppose! i've been lazy and fully pretending i was still very much on vacation all weekend long. this afternoon, it's barbecue time, then back to work tomorrow. wheee! and boooo!

before i left, thomas and i got all dolled up and went out to a fancy schmancy dinner at restaurant tallent. amazing - i had bacon wrapped pork. i couldn't be bothered with the "sides." i just wanted to eat all the pork. thomas got the lamb shank.


this is what i looked like. i got a full-on bullseye in darts after dinner and kicked his butt. it was rad.


i flew into philly on saturday afternoon, got my rental car, and promptly headed into the city and to two different yarn stores. got a wee tad lost and realized i probably wasn't in the best part of town when i walked past a housing authority type of place. oopsy daisy. i did find some stellar yarn, though, and am currently knitting up a super awesome, do-it-as-i-go topdown cardigan in malabrigo lettuce colorway. it's gorgeous! photos soon.

woke up on sunday, the day of the wedding, with awesome bedhead:


then i headed to west chester (very sleepy town on a sunday) and to valley forge:


poor little kite.


then it was wedding time! i think kim was making faces at nathan at this point to keep him from breaking down during his vows. it was pretty freaking sweet.


on monday, i met up with karen and bach in downtown philly. what a wonderful day - i had my first cheesesteak, it was sunshiney and beautiful out. we met up with jef at this awesome downtown bar where they had a baby sitting on the bar, games everywhere (like hungry hungry hippos and operation), and we witnessed competitive rock paper scissors! simply amazing. and, somehow, i took zero pictures.

tuesday afternoon i was headed to nyc, but first i wandered to independence hall.


then to nyc. i dropped my pack at gray's office, then we sauntered about for a while before the methodman/redman album release party. (no, there were no celebrity sightings... but i did get a rad new pair of kicks for 25% off and drank some hideous pink fizzy booze made/sponsored by ludacris).


on wednesday, we had a late breakfast (BAGELS!), then trained it up to central park. we wandered everywhere, got ice cream, went to the guggenheim, wandered some more, then tried to go to the moby release party. i say "tried" because we got there, and gray realized that the party is, in fact, NEXT week. BOO! he made up for it by taking me to paul's, which is this amazing burger shack. seriously, amazing. i had the best burger of my life.








my rad new kicks. did i mention the methodman/redman thing was at the adidas classic store? i wanted to buy ALL the adidas.


that night, we went to a different bar in his neighborhood, where they played the blow, clap your hands say yeah, and other fantastic music i love. the bartender even put on mclusky at my request. and sang along with me to it. beautiful.

thursday was shopping and slow-moving day. we got bagels at murray's and ate them in washington square park. then i spent far too much money at american apparel, hopped in a cab, and started my long journey home. my feet HURT. i had some ridiculous blisters. i think we might have walked 10 miles on wednesday. seriously. a lot.

in knitting news (and just to make this post a LITTLE longer), i finished the great gatsby dress from interweave knits! i am in love.








on the needles currently: tuck in knitpicks comfy sport in a nice pumpkin color:


and the aforementioned topdown cardigan in malabrigo worsted in this colorway:


yum-yum-yummy.