Running

Today is the last day of August, which has been my best month so far this year – I chalked up a whole 41 miles this month.  *headdesk*  Must.Be.Patient.  I did get in a 3 mile run this morning before work, which felt fantastic.  Still slow as hell, but 3 miles run is way better than having spent that time sitting on my butt, right?!  LOL

A bit of sad news on the running front…  last week, I had to take my car to the mechanic.  His shop is exactly 2 miles from my house if I run the Trail.  So I drove the car there and ran home that morning.  When he had it ready for me to pick up, I ran back to the shop & drove it home.  On the run back to the shop, I came across Larry (the famous “flip-flop man”), who was walking the Trail.  I slowed up & walked with him for a bit, getting caught up.  The sad news is that he cannot run anymore.  If you all remember, he is the one that ran every day, rain or shine.  A light day of running for him was a 20 mile run.  Long runs were in the 50 mile range.  He is still very active, though, spending 8 hours a day walking the Trail instead of running.  I feel rather sad that he cannot run anymore, he is an icon in this area!!

Knitting

Made really good progress on my scarf, yay!!  I figure I’ve got about 5 more repeats of the pattern to go, then I’ll be done with the knitting.  It’s going to be so long, I’ll have to block it in sections, I think.  Hopefully, I’ll have it finished up in another day or two, w00t!!  Then I’ll be playing around with stitches, trying to come up with just the right stitch for my next design.  SO looking forward to that!!

Geeks at drag shows & hanging with friends

So I have a couple guy friends at work that I just adore.  They keep me laughing day in & day out.  We work together really well, I think, plus we truly are friends.  That always helps working relationships, of course.  But I really think we’d stay friends if any one of us went on to work somewhere else.  Anyway, last week ended in a rough way – I had a very frustrating day on Friday.  So much so, that I had remarked to one of my friends that I wanted to go to Happy Hour with them when they went.  Well, I don’t drink, so in all fairness, he thought I was just joking around.  He went, took a pic of his drink & posted it on Facebook with a caption “This one’s for Angela”.  The rat!  LOL  After commenting about it & emailing back & forth, I ended up joining my friends at their favorite bar on Saturday night.  I had SO much fun!!  It’s one of the local gay bars here – they were having an anniversary party, so had a drag show.  My first one ever!  :)  We met another friend there, so it was 3 guys and me (the straight girl) sitting at the table.  At several points in the night, all 4 of us were sitting there with our phones out, texting, FB’ing and tweeting.  We had to look too funny, 4 geeks texting each other at the table.  ROFL!

Sunday afternoon was spent at my knitting friend’s house, Manda.  We sat around gabbing, knitting, spinning & having a terrific time.  I had a headache still from the day before, so I had to bug out a bit early & missed the dyeing fun, drat it.  But I had a great time while I was there!  Manda was scouring Ravelry, looking for shawl patterns.  We were talking about one in particular, but it got me thinking…  I realized I haven’t done search for shawls on ‘Today’s Ravelry Search’, so here we go!  ;)

Today’s Ravelry Search

As always, click a picture to go to the Ravelry pattern page!  Today, these are all free patterns!

Lovely!

This is a rectangular shawl - so pretty!

A pretty shawl created by modifying an existing afghan pattern.

This is the pattern that my knitting friends are planning to tackle next - gorgeous, isn't it?!

Gorgeous sock yarns can make such gorgeous shawls! ;)

"A geeky ode to Stargate SG1"? How could I not include it?! LOL

It's like a sampler shawl, right? So very pretty!!

Words cannot begin to express how much I love MMario's work.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love Finnish shawl patterns? :)

Lovely crochet!

I just love Faroese style shawls. :)

ADORABLE! The colors are perfect on this one, too.

I absolutely love this one! I am SO going to attempt something like it with the right yarn. Intentional pooling - how can you not love it?!

Another pretty crocheted one! :)

Stunning!!! This one is knit, not crochet! It almost looks like crochet, doesn't it?

Dane shawl - how could I not include it with a name like that?! ;)

Ooooh, gorgeous!

The pattern is in Russian, but charts & fantastic pictures are included so you can crochet it even without knowing Russian!

SO very pretty! I love it!

Full pattern is in French, but you can get the chart in English.

Apple Blossom Stole - lovely!

Simple, clean, I love it!

This one almost looks like little baskets of flowers, don't you think? Pretty!

Happy Monday, all!