Knitting the Blues

Weekending

Hmmmm......

It was laid back and lazy spent doing, among other things, the following:

• reading
• tv catching up
• eating (out with Pete and Erin)
• birthday partying
• ding-a-linging (I started ringing with a bell choir for the holidays)
• holiday music listening (yes, I started)

Pretty low key. I'm not feeling like a blogger at heart yet, or at least in the way I used to. If I was I would have taken a photo of something and dramatized it just enough to be a post. Like maybe the flatbread I had for lunch on Sunday. The hand bell table. Birthday cake. Something. Instead here is a sneak peak of one of the shawls for the Tour de Cure raffle.

And a little reminder of warmer weather.

Thirty-five. Nothing like keeping a blog to remind of how boring your life can get. ;)

Weekending

My weekend was pretty low key, solitude was my friend as I was home alone for much of it and glad I was because I had a plan to get a lot done. Did I? Well, I may have and it may even be actually near what I anticipated getting done, but not quite as much or exactly what I wanted to accomplish. Capeesh? Or Capisce? Something like that.

Anyway, I spent my weekend with yarn, I have a fair amount and a looming deadline to get it ready for storage. Usually, when a project comes up or flies back into my radar I can check the stash on Ravelry or hop down to the basement and go on a search. The stash in the basement, up to a certain point in time, is organized by weight, which helps, but nothing is marked and then there is a bunch of yarn that has been purchased and not added to my virtual stash tracker. My goal for the weekend was to take care of that and to organize and store itall in marked containers so that if I have to go into a storage unit to look for something I will know exactly where it is.

In my mind this was going to be a day of just cataloguing the new stuff, moving things around and making sure there was room for the rest and marking the boxes and adding that info to Ravelry. Then I started and in my usual 'take any job and make it as difficult and time consuming as you can' fashion morphed it into a gigantic venture of making sure all of my projects were linked to the yarn used for it and the correct weights of leftover yarns were logged in so that I can find that info at the click of a button.

Because......... you know.

I have LOADS and LOADS of partial skein leftovers from years and YEARS of knitting. Some I ditched, but many I added in. By added in I mean a lot of them never made it to my Rav stash page, the info was usually on the project page, which helped, but I was adding yarns to the stash, finding some of the projects to weigh them against the yarn I found so that info would be correct (ish) on the project page (because I like to know how much yarn is actually used for a project! I try to put all the info I can on a project page because it can be helpful and that is what Ravelry is, a resource that is driven by user participation and information and I'm doing my part).

I could have done all that and not had photos of the yarn. THAT would be a totally normal thing to do. THAT is reasonable. THAT would never fly in my world, though. I reeeaallly wish it would.

So I am working in batches and wondering over odd balls of mystery yarns that I want to keep, but can't remember why I have them or what on earth I made with them. That is annoying me.

I love the idea of having this all set up and keeping up with it from now until forever. It suits my perfectionist tendencies. And now I want to knit ALL! THE! YARN!!! RIGHT! NOW!

Twenty-eight. After this is the fabric, quilting and sewing patterns and tools! And the deadline, it looms....

WeekendingAnd She Chooses A WinnerAnd She Wishes She Could Give A Shawl To Everyone

Summer weekends. They can be crazy busy or quiet and relaxed. This weekend was a bit of both.

Apologies, I forgot my camera for much of the weekend so some of these are phone photos.

Look at those faces!
(Before a 150 mile trek)
My favorite photo of the weekend,
two of my favorite people in the world.

• Sending some of my people out to ride for a cure.
• Supporting riders along the route.
• A little housework, a little houseplay.
• Enjoying all meals al fresco. Or at least on my screened in porch.
• Finally adding some polish to my long suffering hands.
• Preparing to entertain.
• I'm addicted to the Tour de France!
• Knitting on the porch.
• Forgetting my camera.
• Even when I actually had it.
• Blueberry and raspberry picking.
• The blueberries went from the bush and into the oven in under and hour.
• Some cooking the fresh veggies from the garden.
• Having some friends and family stop by for dinner and drinks. (Had camera, forgot to use it. Whomp.)

Oh, and there was this....

 

I opted for the old-fashioned way, writing names on tickets, mainly because I thought it would be more fun than an online, random number generator. I was unprepared for the generosity of our friends! Luckily I kept up with things, so I didn't spend the entire weekend scribbling names on the backs of tickets, but I did have to separate them and get them ready for drawing.

This is the hard part. Not the giving away of a shawl, that is actually not so difficult for me. What I am having trouble with is giving only one of you a shawl. Readers of this blog, friends of mine, friends of my husband and daughter have all been so supportive and generous. We have been blown away by it. Many had stories of children, parents or their own experiences with diabetes which made the ride even more personal for Pete, Meg, Ben and the rest of their team. Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough.

I WISH I COULD GIVE EVERYBODY A SHAWL!

Or something.

So I sit here trying to work up the emotional guts to just pick someone and get it over with. Here we go:

 

 Congratulations to Sandra! I will be able to deliver the shawl to her personally, which makes me happy.

Remember, if what you really want is a shawl knitted by me, I can be convinced. I love knitting lace. If I start right now I might be able to knit shawls to give to everyone that donates to next year's Tour. Well, maybe not everybody, but more than one.

Weekending along with Amanda who writes The Habit of Being. Her blog always feels like a calm place for me.

2013. Four. I kind of like the video thing. I might make this a regular feature!

WeekendingDeck The Halls!

• I should start this post on Fridays and keep a running tally of my weekend as it goes by.
• Because as of right now, I've forgotten a bit of it.
• I remember delegating.
• People should be very careful visiting my home during any kind of cleaning or decorating.
• There is no level to which I will not sink.
• Just ask my brother-in-law.
• He thought I was kidding, you know, making a joke when I put the wreath, bow and all the rest in front of him when he stopped by to watch the football game.
• He doubted he was the man for the job.
• I didn't.
• I was right.
• He was very focused and just as particular about it as I would have been.
• The red was his idea, I was against it.
• Until he put it together.
• See? He was the right man for the job.
• While he was hard at work I headed out to get the navy bows for the window wreaths and the greens for my Advent Wreath.
• Which reminded me that I totally forgot Advent Calendars this year.
• My Advent Wreath is looking beautiful.
• Something about bringing out the crafty girl in me while listening to holiday tunes ignites a glimmer of holiday spirit in me.
• Dinner Saturday was out with friends.
• Followed by a painful episode of the hiccups.
• If I go out in the cold after eating I get the hiccups.
• It took two rounds of drinking water upside down to get them to stop.
• My middlest turned 25 on Saturday.
• When I turned 25 she turned 1 week old.
• Hard to believe.
• Harder to believe what else that means.
• I spent a bit of my weekend contemplating that.

Weekending along (albeit at the last second) with Amanda of Habit of Being. Her Weekending posts remind me of my days with little ones and how busy it was while comparitively our weekends are sometimes so quiet when one kid lives miles away and another worked most of it and the birthday girl and her boyfriend took off for the north where there are quiet inns and the ski areas are making snow. While we are mostly okay with that transition, I didn't raise them to keep them, Pete and I are still adjusting and sometimes find ourselves all at ends without the schedules and practices and carpools and games.....

It's a good problem to have.

2012. What's your favorite hiccup remedy?

Weekending

Sorry about that photo! I uploaded it using the iPhone App and whoa! It is big. I know, there is some way to resize it, but I can't be bothered to figure it out at the moment. On with some moments from my long weekend.

• I ate an entire vegan, gluten-free Pumpkin Pie.
• If you think it is missing anything taste-wise, you are wrong. And I'm not even justifying it because it is all I can eat, I am a huge lover of pumpkin pie and this is even better than traditional pp.
• I disovered some other new recipes and I.......
• COOKED!
• I may have also started a small kitchen fire....
• This clean alternative to the traditional Campbell's Soup Green Bean Casserole is excellent.
• Tastes great and you can feel even better about it because it is really that good.
• Use more onions, though.
• I didn't post to the blog....
• Whomp.
• Did you hear how the Patriots tromped the Jets?
• Heh.
• Hung out with my girls!
• Elf and Chocolate Mint martinis.
• Another friend turned 50.
• The cake looked like an inferno.
• How can so many of my acquaintances be so! OLD!?
• The Christmas music has come out of hibernation
• Shoved my swollen, broken toe into a shoe and went for a run.
• It was a run/walk, not too long.
• Listening to Christmas music the whole way.
• I was so sore the next day.
• I spent hours battling with the mechanics of a tubular 2x2 bind off.
• For reasons that will bore most readers, the instructions of most tutorials were written for 2x2 rib worked one way and mine was worked the opposite. And I had extra sts.
• My AHA! moment was long in coming.
• And when the solution finally came to me, it was so simple I wanted to give myself a smack.
• I'm glad I persevered.

Thanks again this week to Amanda who encourages her cyber-friends to share a bit of their weekends with each other!

Does anyone know why Typepad puts an extra space between all of the components of a bulletted list? It didn't used to. I don't like it. It feels like it flows better without it. And it used to keep all of the text of a bullet to the right of the bullet, columned. Ugh. Annoying.

2012. Thirty-one. So, I'm weaning myself off of sugar and have been pretty successful. Well. After the entire pumpkin pie day. Okay, it took me three days to eat an entire pie. Expect crankiness if you run into me.

Weekending

Never knowing when the dreaded # sign is going to take over the machine I'm going to make it quick!

My weekend included lots of yarn, different yarns, different projects.

I just love when, like puzzle pieces, the individual parts start coming together and the picture begins to emerge.

Weekending along with Amanda of The Habit of Being.

2012.Twenty-nine. And yes, I am perfectly fine with macro-photos of my seaming! Can I finish a second sweater for NaKniSweMo? I don't think this has been entertaining enough. Where has the crazy been?

Weekending

The weekend:

• Dinner and drinks with friends on Friday night.
• Too much gluten for me, but it was fun.
• Lots of knitting
• Lots of looking for laptop solutions
• Football
• Whew!
• A whole lot of tea drinking
• The tea above is Huang Shan Mao Feng Reserve by Teavana
• Sadly discontinued
• So I've been stocking up
• To that end I won some by 'tweeting my cup' on Friday!
• On Fridays Teavana invites followers to retweet their tweet and post a photo of what is in their morning cup.
• By 3 pm they draw five tea drinkers to win what is in their cup.
• This is the second time I have won.
• FREE TEA!
• Time to sign up for twitter, don't you think?
• And follow me @knittingblues
• And Teavan @TEAVANA
• I hardly ever tweet, so following me is sort of silly, really.
• You can see my tea tweets over on the nifty twitter thing in my sidebar.
• I hope my future weekends have more content, or this weekending thing could get pretty boring to write and read about.
• If I could wear shoes there would have been hiking and running and working out and so many outdoorsy things to add to this list.
• Soon.....

Thanks to Amanda of Habit of Being for inviting the internets to Weekend along with her.

2012. Twenty-two. Blogging brought to you by an external keyboard to override the fried keyboard on my laptop. Ideal? No. Doable for now? Sure is!

Weekending

Most people who have attempted to keep up a blog would have to cop to the fact that coming up with something to write, especially something to put on the blog every day, can sometimes be the toughest thing. Repeated weekly themes help give structure and focus to the thinking process and in the past I have participated in a few. Weekending, which Amanda of Habit of Being started, is the perfect way to start off the week and to keep you looking for blog-able moments during the weekend. Well, I wasn't that good at that, but I can share a little about my weekend with some photos.

It was button obsession weekend. There were trips for buttons, one of them longer than most would go just to look at buttons, but it was to the Fiber Festival of New England, so I got to look at other things, too. I may have left with other things as well, or may not have.....(Okay, I did, but there is a crop of new babies that need sweaters!)

I blocked a sweater this weekend, and as the actual knitting was coming to an end I started the search for buttons. Many buttons have been chosen as 'the button' and rejected and as it stands right now the sweater might never be worn because I cannot settle on a button. Oh well. It was a fun knit.

I spent entirely too much time placing, removing and replacing the current finalists.

  Wooden, Blue buttons

 
Pretty gradient blue buttons

Ball and Skein Beach Stone Buttons

A couple of random silver buttons

I've decided which button I am going to use...........

About twenty times. Every time I am firm in my decision, I take another look and change my mind.

So, to distract myself from that I have been obsessing over my knitting. My current knitting (NaKniSweMo dontcha know), my future knitting, knitting I wish I could make work.... I am overwhelming myself with all of the knitting! I had better live a loooonnnnggg time.

A few other weekend details:

• Birthday dinner for the daughter's boyfriend was fun
• Experimenting with Apple Martini recipes.
• Very successful.
• The drive out to The Big E to look at pretty things and see some lovely fiber people
• Looking at you Judy!
• and you Heather!
• Listening to this and, while enjoying would be the wrong word for a book like this, I am finding it an interesting and compelling read.
• And Carole, between you and me, there may have been some lolling around.

2012. Fourteen. I would have done one of those survey thingies for the buttons, but since I have about sixteen readers at this point (neglect the blog and you know what happens....) it hardly seems worth it. Feel free to leave every opinion you have. About the buttons, that is. ONLY THE BUTTONS! During this particular week it is important to be clear on that. Know that I am sure to go with popular opinion do whatever I want anyway. If I can decide what it actually is that I want.

WeekendingDay Thirty-five

My weekend in a nutshell:

• Sushi x 2.
• That means twice.
• Friday night with Cyndi and Sunday with Erin.
• I tried to have it on Saturday, but nobody else wanted it.
• We joined in to be part of over 9,000 for an attempt at breaking a world record for people caroling together in one place.
• Well.......
• We were several thousand people short of breaking any record.
• There was plenty of holiday spririt and the city is abuzz with spirit and protest.
• The photo above is the only photo I took with my camera.
• It was a test shot, but then my camera battery died.
• I had just charged it.
• Add it to the list.
• I wouldn't mind so much, but it was my heavy SLR with a longer lens that I was lugging around Boston with me and I couldn't even take a picture with it.
• See? I am actually remembering to take the camera in case there is blog fodder.
• I'm actually thinking about the blog.
• It only took a month of daily posting for me to remember it and plan.
• Anyway, the caroling was a lot of fun!
• I can now say that I have sung with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (pictured above).
• Pete learned the lyrics to some popular carols.
• Where has he been his whole life?
• Then we had lunch with Pete's brother and his brother's girlfriend.
• I ate some of Pete's bacon, it was so good.
• I miss bacon almost the most.
• That's it! It was a low key, laid back kind of weekend.
• Laundry, a run, knitting, sushi, (Oh yeah. I mentioned that, didn't I.) football, thinking about quilting........
• A lot of thinking about quilting.
• Maybe this week there will be quilting.

Happy Carolers!

2011. Fifty-eight. $2.50. My weekends are not generally very exciting. I hope yours was everything you needed it to be. Weekending along with Amanda.

WeekendingDay Twenty-eight

Thanksgiving weekend.

• Turkey day.
• The girls are all home.
• Prep and a run.
• Lots of family coming and going all day long. It feels chaotic, but somehow controlled.
• I didn't overeat at the meal, but my gluten-free, vegan pumpkin pie went down well and often.
• So did some other pies.
• I look forward to sitting and knitting at the end of the day and when I finally get to sit I am too tired to lift my knitting.
• No Black Friday shopping.
• They could be giving it away.......
• Friday afternoon is spent at Cyndi's with extended family and if I thought my house was chaotic, this puts it all in perspective.
• It's an awesome chaos.
• Started the holiday movie/show watching with Elf and Love Actually.
• I love both of those films.
• Saturday is spent knitting and going for a run.
• Saturday night is Sushi Night at Cyndi's again. So.Much.Fun.
• Sunday is knitting and football and I get my crafty side on and create my Advent Wreath.
• Wishing I had remembered to take one photo of anything I did.

Knitting progress. I didn't knit as much as I might have liked over the weekend. It looks like NaKniSweMo won't be happening for me. There has been progress since this photo was taken and in my mind I can totally finish this in time! A sleeve and a half plus the shawl collar and wide button band? No problem! If I don't sleep and quit my jobs.

Along with my Christmas music coming out for the season, my collection of mugs followed along. The first one I pulled out was my favorite, the other side depicts Santa's sleigh flying across the sky. Doesn't Santa look adorable?

There is also amaryllis progress. THAT is not the amaryllis that I have been showing so far this fall. I purchased that one yesterday when I got the greens for my Advent Wreath (no I didn't hike through the woods for them, and for what I needed it is crazy that I purchased them at my local garden center, but that's just how this year rolled.

The amaryllis that I have been showing is on time-out in the garage. I thought we had fruit flies and I couldn't figure out where they were coming from and then Pete noticed them on the amaryllis soil. Turns out they were fungus gnats (EEWWWWW!) and until I have time to get some insecticide and clean off the top layer of soil and cover with rocks that amaryllis lives in the garage to keep the gnats from spreading to my two other amaryllises. Thank goodness it is warmish.

Here is a better photo of my Advent Wreath. The wreath form, the greens, some floral wire and a hot glue gun was all it took. My girls even commented on how talented I am. They really did! Something along the lines of wondering if there is anything I can't do when it comes to being crafty. Awww. Again, I was totally surprised at the outcome. It isn't perfect, but it is perfectly me.

Because the cables are just so pretty. I have mixed feelings about moving onto the sleeves. On the one hand I am closer to the end, on the other I am finished knitting those cables and they were fun. This is really one of those projects that I will be happy and sad that I am finishing. The yarn and design are perfect together and I am enjoying every second of the knitting.

Now for the Christmas song of the day. This one is only here as a nod to my childhood. Pure nostalgia. Funny, it is the same song, but on my cd there is a clip-clopping (like an actual horse) with the percussion and as kids we would do that click-clock thing with our tongues. With exaggerated mouth movements. I don't hear it as well in this audio.

2011. Forty-nine. $3.00. So, you should really listen to this one as well. Still the Tijuana Brass playing Tijuana Christmas. I love it, so dated, so kitchy, so fun! I mean, my head just bobs and nods through the whole thing. I LOVE IT!!!!! Total nostalgia for me.

WeekendingDay Twenty-one

What to say today.

• This is an unusual weekend for me.
• Usual: Homebody, maybe heading out for take-out.
• Unusual: Party on Friday and dinner with friends (OUT at a restaurant) on Saturday.
• The food and drink caught up with me.
• Home all day on Sunday.
• Some of you may know that some food sensitivities or allergies have either caught up with me or developed out of nowhere over the last three years or so.
• Stick to the foods that are okay and I feel pretty good.
• Cheating can be okay if I only cheat infrequently.
• I have a problem with that.
• One cheat leads down a road that can last several weeks and leaves me feeling lousy.
• Once I start, though, I cannot seem to stop myself.
• This weekend is the culmination of a binge and it is now time to get my act together.
• Anyway, that subject bores me.
• Other than that, the weekend was so much fun!
• And the food and drink tasted so good.
• The rest of my weekend can be summed up as, well, OBSESSIVE personality disorder.
• Not quite Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but Obsessive for sure.
• I just diagnosed myself.
• See, I'm about to make a quilt and long story short, wanted a particular fabric that I have 1/2 yard of and need more.
• Five quilt shops: no luck,
• Internet search: no luck,
• Ebay: no.luck.
• The search started on Wednesday, but I had no information, only the description of the fabric.
• YOU do a search for "batik blue green" and see how far you get.
• I would have driven the two hours up to Center Harbor yesterday to take a look there, but....see above: The food and drink caught up with me.
• So I thought I'd go today.
• It's one of those things where you've been told by everybody that you can't get that fabric anymore, but if you don't go look it will always eat at the back of your mind.
• Well, it will eat at mine anyway.
• Plus, if I am told I can't get it, I take that as a challenge, not a hint to make another plan.
• As the morning wore on (and I was knitting and thinking about leaving) I decided to try ebay again.
• Guess what!?
• I found a fat quarter bundle with the fabric in it!
• You know what that means!
• I have a fabric company name!
• I head to their website and by a fluke of link clicking I get a stock number for the exact fabric I'm looking for!
• A quick internet search with the correct information: Hoffman 885 504 Montego gets me all the results I need.
• Phew! You have no idea how focused I was on this one thing for the last five days!
• Or maybe you do.

2011. Forty-two. $3.55. This post would be so much better if it included a photo of the fabrics that are going into my quilt, wouldn't it? You'll have to settle for this:

WeekendingI Went A Little Batty......

and I made BATTS!

2011.  Seventeen. $10.38.  I even started spinning them. It was a batty weekend. I'm weekending along with Amanda and it is Blue Monday, usually hosted by Smiling Sally, but her granddaugthers are pinch-hitting and asking for our prayers, their Grandma needs them after surgery that didn't go as well as hoped for. Send good, blue vibes her way.

WeekendingAgain!? I almost forgot....

the excuse reason I have to post on Mondays.

The girls were all home.

I was there, too.

We hosted a small Easter gathering.  (Yes, there were men there, but while we were smiling for the camera they were where men should be, in the kitchen cleaning up.)

Gillian is on her way back to NYC, and I'll miss her a ton, but lucky for me she has started a blog, Greener Bean!  Now I can keep up with her and her explorations and discoveries on having a healthier lifestyle.  You can read about it, too.  This weekend saw all of my healthy eating go straight out the window, and not in a "holiday" way.  More a stress way.  And either way, it never feels good.  I'm usually good about not indulging because I hate the way it feels after.  Not one bite of food tastes good enough to feel all bloated and tired and gross after, not one bite.  It is back to green smoothies and sticking to foods that support me and encourage feeling good starting now.

As usual, Weekending is hosted by Amanda.

2011.  Thirteen.  $15.00. The girls and I discovered Words With Friends this weekend.  'Nuff said.

WeekendingOn a Blue Monday

 

Hmmm, what's missing?  Oh!  The fluff of unspun fiber that is usually underneath bobbins or spindles for the photo.  That's because there isn't any left.  On to the rest of the plying!

I'm joining in on Weekending on this blog.

It's also Blue Monday!  Thanks, Sally

2011.  Ten.  $22.50.  It's amazing what I can do when I decide it will.be.done! by the end of the weekend.

Weekending!?

Have you heard of this great idea?  A quick Monday morning recap of the weekend in list or photo form or whatever you want.  Poetry?  Haiku?  Headline format?  It's great to have a jumping off focus when blogging regularly.  A few years ago I committed to blogging every day for a year and during that time I used specific themes for different days so that each week I wouldn't have to come up with an entire idea for a blog post, just something to fit the focus for that day.  Blue Monday used to be the jumping off point for the beginning of the week and this post fits that as well.  Having committed to blogging at least 135 days this year, having some theme days will certainly keep me going.

So this is an idea swiped from Margene who got the idea from Carole who points back to the originator, the author of The Habit of Being.

• Currently free of any contractual or commitment knitting, my fiber pursuits were relaxed and somewhat self-indulgent.
• Friday saw the drop spindles come out from hiding and instead of packing my wheel up to go to spinning group, I lugged (ha!  because there is so much lugging with drop spindles!) them with me and actually used them!
• I had brought knitting as well and really thought that I would do that, but suddenly became inspired to spin some fiber that has long been in the works.
• I'm very close to the end, then more plying and then KNITTING!
• I hope I'm creating some sustained momentum.
• Saturday saw me at my favorite quilt shop and lunching with Kim. 
• Margene said it, weekends spent with grrrlfriends......
• Then there was swatching and thinking about swatching.
• This is a post in itself, but I've decided that the swatch gets a bad rap in general, being accused of lying and all that.
• I am of the opinion that the swatches are tellers of truth and that the knitters are lying to the swatches, but more about that on another day.
• On to the swatches!

• Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Baltic.  Wish I could capture the color better, it is gorgeous.
• Candelia (ravelry link) is the pattern I am swatching that yarn for, a great little sweater for spring and cool summer nights. 
• Yes, I am looking forward to those.

• The Fibre Company's Road To China Light, a blend of alpaca, camel, cashmere and silk.
• In Sapphire.
• This is a yarn to live for to knit.
• I know, forget I typed that last sentence.
• Touching that yarn removes all conscious thought from my head and sends me into a wordless tactile bliss.
• I'm looking forward to knitting that yarn into another of Winged Knits patterns, Lavaliere.
• Cecily Glowick MacDonald of Winged Knits is having a pattern sale.
• Oh, I may have stopped by that sale this weekend as well.

 

• There wasn't only planning, I actually cast on for Candelia!
• Twice, because I swatched, was happy with the second needle size, cast on, and didn't get the same gauge as my swatch.
• It was not the swatch it was me.
• I have a tendency to knit tighter after casting on.
• I lie to my swatches.
• I also spent a lot of time this weekend photographing and then trying to get the colors of these yarns closer to what they are in real life.
• I have failed miserably so you will just have to trust me when I say they are stunning.

2011.  Eight.  $33.75.  Well, would you looky there.  A post about knitting on a knitting blog.  THIS knitting blog.  What did you do this weekend?