She came...We saw...It kicked ass!!

I did make it down to see the Harlot yesterday in Ann Arbor. My dear friend, Moshel met me at the 'Rents house where I deposited Peanut for the day. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Connor O'Neil's. Too hot for a beer, though. Never thought I'd say that...but it was damn hot yesterday. I now understand when people say the heat was "oppressive". We made our way over to the library about 1:00 p.m. We arrived about 1:10 and found seats in the back row of the room. Just a word of caution, if you do open the Library's elevator doors mid floor "passengers will be trapped". I love that. No beating around the bush there! (Sorry about the photo, I know it's hard to read)

They eventually added two more rows of chairs and then shut down the room about 20 mins after we got there. While we waited, Moshel cast on a dishcloth with the yarn & needles I brought to gift her. Moshel's a sometimes knitter. She does a great job with lovely fun fur scarves.

The dishcloth was Grandma's Favorite so it was easy enough for her to pick and do, but helped her learn a basic increase and decrease. Dear Moshel is moving to Tucson in six weeks or so, so it was only fitting she was using the Fiesta colorway. She worked diligently on the cloth during the talk and cast off while we were waiting for the book signing line to die down. Now she has a commemorative Harlot cloth to move with her. I will miss her dearly. She's the only one of my friends who doesn't totally make fun of the knitting. She does poke fun, but it's all good hearted. Let's hear it for vacation trips to Tucson! (Anyone else think of Road Rules and want to call is "Tuck-son" when you see it? Season 1 maybe?)

Oy. I finally got to the Harlot at 5:30. She was well worth waiting for. She signed my book and I got this great photo. She is nothing short of fabulous. I am in love with her voice. I could listen to her speak for hours. Seriously need her to voice some books on tape. Here she is signing my book. I just love this photo because it kind of sums up the day.

I lived one of her stories once I got back to the 'Rents. My gram asked what I'd gone to today. I said "An author lecture." She replied with, "Oh what kind of books?" I had a hard time not grinning when I said, "Knitting books." "OH! Knitting books? Did you learn a lot?" "Um, no...it's not that kind of knitting book. It's knitting humor." Then she gave me that look.

After leaving the Harlot, Moshel and I ventured to chocolate dipped sea foam. Am I the only person totally in love with this stuff? Unfortunately, they don't sell it by the piece. My attempt to describe what sea foam candy is to Moshel peaked her interest...the lovely lady at Kilwin's said enough to seal the deal. "It's the base we use for peanut brittle that's pumped full of air and then dipped in chocolate." $7 later, we had a bag. Moshel is hooked. Good thing since she sprung for the bag. We enjoyed a piece on our way back to Main to visit Busy Hands.

This was my first visit to Busy Hands. They have a really nice store, but I didn't feel like there was a large selection of yarn. Fabulous selection of INOX needles. The owner was a lovely woman. All of the non-sale yarn was 20% off in honor of Stephanie's visit. I picked up three skeins of Grignasco Strong sock yarn for $16. Asuper duper pink is for Peanut and a Strong Print blue faux fairisle is for the Mister. It's really soft. I'm considering going back to get enough of the solid color for a shawl. I could probably get enough for under $30. Really cool thing about Busy Hands? Open on SUNDAYS! Totally viable to take Mister & Peanut down for frozen custard and then slip away to the shop. And Ann Arbor has free parking on Sundays. Genius.

I had mentioned previously that the lovely, Erin was to accompany us on our Harlot journey. I'm so sad to say that Erin fell under the weather just before time to leave her house. Erin, you were dearly missed and certainly not forgotten. I'm not saying any more than that.

Here's a photo of Peanut once we pulled into the drive. It's a 13 min drive from the Rents house to ours. I'd have to say based on how deeply asleep she was, she had a fabulous time.