Anyway, life goes on, so I continue to make my goals and my Plan for the year.  I’ll succeed on some things, fall short on others, and likely write a similar post on January 1, 2013.  But for now, it’s time to embrace 2012 and all it has to offer.

Happy New Year.

So that’s the “nine” part of the post, but what’s the “five?”

This week, #5, Albert Pujols, decided to say goodbye to the St. Louis Cardinals, where fans thought he’d stay for the remainder of his career. Shock, anger, frustration, disappointment were all emotions tossed around when the news broke. I don’t blame Albert for making the best deal he could; that’s his decision. People have argued about “how much money can you spend,” but I personally would like to believe that the bulk of his contract will help fund his foundation and do a lot of good for a lot of people. And frankly, Albert’s salary is none of our business. I admire him as a person and a ball player, but I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan first and foremost. And the Cardinals management made the right decision for the team, in not allowing one person to dictate the future.

The Cardinals were a historic team long before Albert, and they will be long after him. The Cardinals fans are the best in baseball, and will still show Albert respect should we meet him again. Albert’s move to the American League may afford him the opportunities to break multiple records, but at what cost? He’ll never be able to equal the greatest Cardinal of all time – Stan Musial (whom, by the way, my great-nephew is named after).

Commitment. Loyalty. Sacrifice. Love.

Who would have thought that those words applied to baseball as much as they do marriage?

Some things are so predictable – Kathy and I will not being doing something “right,” and Dad will always “supervise” even though he says he doesn’t want to do it.

This year’s drama was the apparent peanut shortage, but thanks to Mama Jean’s, I found the raw Spanish peanuts at a reasonable price (can you believe Wal-Mart was trying to sell them for $4.99 a pound?). Then we had a syrup mix-up, but Robert came to our rescue by running to Price Cutter while we were cooking up the first batch.

By the end of the morning, though, we had success – yum!

Most of our weekend was spent just hanging out, knitting, and watching movies (I saw my first Bollywood film, “Bride and Prejudice”) but we also checked out a pow-wow at Trader’s Village.

After we got a little bored with that, LOL, we hopped in the car for an impromptu trip to Galveston Island. I’m always up for seeing the beach and ocean.

We also saw the new Carnival cruise ship, the Magic (hmm, copying Disney there, Carnival?) and got to hear part of a live concert by Maroon 5 celebrating its launch.

We also did a little shopping, which included yarn and a visit to Twisted Yarn in Spring, Texas, where I met my longtime formerly online only friend, Luciana and her mother, Lucilia. What a treat! They are both lovely ladies I’m proud to call friends.

I’ll definitely be watching for those cheap plane tickets again!

This year, injuries and adversity made it seem like the Redbirds were going to fade with most of the other boys of summer. That is, until an improbable run led them to clinch the wild card, then defeat the Phillies, and finally crush the Brewers to win the NLCS landing them squarely into the 2011 Fall Classic with home field advantage.

This year, thanks to a very good friend with connections, Robert and I found ourselves in possession of two tickets to Game 2 of the World Series. The World Series! If my brother were still alive, I’m pretty sure this would have been the epitome of sibling jealousy. So on Thursday, we left work early and drove to St. Louis.

I never get tired of seeing the Gateway Arch.

I never get tired of seeing the entrance to Busch Stadium.

I still get chills when the organ starts to play “Here Comes the King” and the Budweiser Clydesdales make their majestic trek around the field.

And I never get tired of watching one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

There’s a sense of magic when you’re in the stadium with thousands of other fans, screaming and waving rally towels.

The only thing that would have made the game perfect would have been a Cardinals win.

But regardless of which team wins the World Series, nothing will change the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals have the best fans – period. And I’m proud to be one of them.

I had recently finished Evelyn Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl using Stacy’s Tempted Yarns Glam Grrl yarn in the drama colorway, so I took it along with me to Rhinebeck in case Stacy could use it for the show, and she did (along with other fabulous knits from Karen and Laura, among others)!

It’s just kind of exciting to see my work on display (it’s the dark blue shawl in the middle of the photo), but I’m even more excited for Stacy – she deserves all the success and attention she’s getting. If you haven’t tried Tempted Yarns, you’re missing out.

]]> http://eastburnadventures.com/2011/10/19/ooh-shiny/feed/ 1 tkeastburn http://eastburnadventures.com/2011/10/19/rhinebeck-2011-recap/ http://eastburnadventures.com/2011/10/19/rhinebeck-2011-recap/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:52:43 +0000 tkeastburn http://eastburnadventures.com/?p=833 Continue reading →]]> It’s been two whirlwind weekends in a row, and I’m glad to be home for a while.  Over Columbus Day weekend, I was at my annual Knit Together, Springfield Retreat, but you can read all about that here.  Back to work for a couple of days, and then it was time to catch a flight to Hartford, Connecticut  and drive to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep & Wool Festival.  This was my third time to the event and it was a blast as always.

I met up with my friend Lynn at the airport and we drove to Kingston where we met the rest of our group:  Karen, Stacy (and her daughter, Emily), Druanna, and Rose-Marie.  After dinner and hanging in the hotel lobby knitting, it was time to get ready for the festival.

We were up early on Saturday to drive to the fairgrounds.

We saw yarn:

And sheep:

Lots of people:

Cool knit displays:

Celebrity knitters:

And gorgeous scenery:

It was very exciting.

Karen and I, and our friends Kathy and Jan, took a spinning class from the amazing Abby Franquemont.

Before we left on Sunday, we had to get a group photo.

(L to R: Lynn, Karen, Druanna (in front), Rose-Marie, Stacy, and me)

Lynn and I then took the gang to the train station and we drove to Massachusetts to visit WEBS on Monday before flying home. It was a small miracle that we both got everything packed into the suitcases we brought.

Rhinebeck is by far my favorite fiber event. I’m already looking forward to next October!

I took a Portuguese Knitting class from my friend Linda, and it was awesome.  I also took an acid dyeing class from Dianne at Morning Moon Alpacas, and definitely want to try my hand at dyeing more yarn.  I was fortunate to teach a beginning knitting class, and also my toe-up socks class.  Adrienne taught socks cuff-down – we have a friendly rivalry with our preferred techniques.

I was fighting a cold all weekend, so I didn’t take any pictures except with Adrienne’s camera.  There was a fun fashion show Friday night and we had so much fun hanging with our dear friends from the Southwest Missouri Fiber Folks Guild.  Saturday night we headed back to Springfield and Adrienne fell in love with our monster dog, Jed.  Jed fell in love with the bare yarn I bought from Dianne.

The weekend was over too soon and after brunch at Hemingway’s where Christa joined us, we did a quick driving tour of Springfield and then it was back to Chicagoland for A.  I can’t wait until March when we get to go to the Missouri Fiber Retreat again.

We bought one-day hopper passes (discounted for conference attendees), and parked at Epcot before taking the monorail to start our day at the Magic Kingdom.  This was one of the parking lots – crazy!

And we were the only people on the lower level of the ferry to the Magic Kingdom.

I love Small World, and there was a sheep!

The line was too long for Pooh. Bummer.

The obligatory castle shot.

Back at Epcot, Spaceship Earth.

Robert stood in line for fish and chips in the World Showcase’s England.

We really rode all the rides we wanted to, including Soarin’, which I will never do again! It was cool, but really scary for me.

The next day we made a quick trip over to Daytona Beach. We just can’t get that close to an ocean and not stick our toes in the sand. The water was really rough, though, so we couldn’t get in and swim.

It was a good little diversion (and, oh yeah, the conference was really good, too.)