dinner with friends

christine leaves for her home tomorrow. she is flying out of newark in the evening, and arrives in denmark 12 pm the next day. i think she will be tired! we had such a nice visit, and i really enjoyed getting to know her. she also surprised me with beautiful stitch markers! i'll have to take a picture tomorrow. i have the perfect project up my sleeve for which i can use them. it's one i've been putting off beginning, but can no longer do so!
janet made such a delicious meal for all of us. i wish i had thought to take a picture of the piece de la resistance . . the cheesecake with cranberries on top. it was scrumptious. thank you, janet, for a wonderful dinner. and bon voyage, christine! i look forward to seeing you again, one day, either in denmark (!) or here, again, in nyc.

wednesday at the Y and doing laundry

it's hot and humid. m and c are now at their isadora duncan class at the Y. i've been doing some straightening up and laundry. korrina studied for her chemistry exam, made cookies, and went to see james. i'll pick up the dairy order soon, and we'll all head over to janet's for a dinner with christine before she goes home tomorrow. i hope the weather gets cooler soon. i like crisp, autumn days, not these sluggish, steamy ones.

visiting with christine

it was an incredibly beautiful and warm day. janet and i took christine to the chocolate bar, where we sat and talked and knitted for a little while. then janet ran off to get her boys off to wayfinders, and i took christine home to pick up morgana and chanda. we decided it would be nice to take christine to see the high line and then to purl soho.

these are a few flower pictures from the high line. as you can see, it was very spring-like and summery up there! the bees were buzzing, the sun was shining . . and the purple flowers were blooming.

the cattail seed heads were fully out,

and the leaves have turned color, but with the warm air, it feels very odd.

we had a nice walk through the village to soho and to purl. it's such a pretty store . . a little pricey . . but pretty! there was some koigu on sale, and christine picked up a skein, which i added to. i thought she might like to make the chevron scarf from last minute knitted gifts. hopefully, i'll get the instructions to her before she leaves thursday afternoon.

of course chanda sniffed out some lollipops they had by the cash register. they looked so delectable that i couldn't resist either.

aren't they pretty? i think this flavor was raspberry. i had lemon, and christine had orange.

m and c and i had to rush off to music lessons. luckily, we made it in plenty of time for morgana to get a little practicing in before her 2:30 lesson.

chanda's lesson begins 30 minutes after morgana's. this is very good, as she practices for that half hour in the practice room before her teacher arrives.

morning at the chocolate bar with christine

janet and i took christine to the chocolate bar this morning. she chose to have a coconut hot chocolate. i had a raspberry since it's my choice when it's so warm out, and janet had her spicy with coconut milk (she brings it herself). i asked the man sitting next to us if he would take the picture. he was very funny and precise about taking the picture . . and i had to hold onto his dog who seemed to want to sniff around and then head out the door.

monday chem experiment

korrina worked on a science experiment this morning that allowed her to see that when matter goes through a substantial change, the total mass is not affected.

she did this by combining a solution from boiled red cabbage leaves with white vinegar, turning it pink. then she measured out 1 tsp of lye, weighed it with the vinegar/cabbage solution, poured it into the beaker and watched everything turn yellow/lime green. the color change and warmth of the beaker signified a chemical reaction was taking place. re-weighing everything and seeing that the mass was the same as at the beginning, proved the Law of Mass Conservation: matter cannot be created or destroyed. it can only change forms.

with her experiment completed and recorded, she happily went off to see james (in her new boots. i like them. they're good city walking shoes).

chanda worked on her handwriting, italian, theory and violin. morgana did the same before running off to pottery.

chanda also did some writing in her story review lesson book. now we're going to run out to look at some fabric that is needed for her family matters solo, and then i'll take her to her group modern lesson with ellen robbins. we'll meet m at the train station, as she is heading uptown early to help ellen with her 7 year olds and the wedding of the mouse dance.

waiting for the halloween performance

i got morgana some soup while we waited for 5:55 pm, when we would have to be back at studio maestro for ellen to call us in to observe chanda's class' halloween performance. it was so incredibly warm that we sat outside in the lincoln center triangle, across from barnes and noble. i managed to mess up my feather and fan shawl and had to pick out three rows, while she commented on the video advertising by the subway stairs.

it was announcing the new harry potter movie that is coming out in a few weeks in november. she actually won't see this one yet. she's reading them year by year. she's fourteen, so she just read the 4th book, goblet of fire.

i'm hoping that i will get to see part one of the final book with greg at a special screening at his work. i saw the last one that way, and really enjoyed sitting in a cozy screening room in an armchair!

sunday morning . . my treats!

christine had some treats in her bag for me! (those two chocolates are just a drop in the bucket! i'm set for the entire holiday season and winter!) isn't the little black kitty on the schoppelwolle cute? just like my xena, she looks like she can be a bit of a curmudgeon also! the sock yarn is beautiful. christine is knitting a shawl with it (very pretty), but i think i'll do socks. i'd love to wear them this winter with my jeans. the pink yarn is a silk and merino mix. it's wonderfully soft. i wish i had extra arms to knit while i work on the black mohair shawl i'm doing for the dances patrelle fundraiser. christine is sweet and i feel like i've known her forever. i'm so glad she has come to visit.

morgana and chanda and daddy all worked together this morning. soon it'll be time to get ready for gingerbread rehearsal. k is watching a cartoon on her computer. she said she'd put the chicken puff pastry dinner together for me, so i can do some spelling with morgana before we head out. i did a series of meals from the martha stewart cooking magazine this week! it's working out well, because the ingredients k needs to make the puff pastry chicken dish are already cooked . . chicken and sweet potatoes. they're leftovers from the past week's meals. so nice!

christine is here!

while greg took the girls to a ballet class and then rehearsal, i rushed through making dinner and then ran off to penn station to meet christine, my ravelry friend from denmark. i had no idea what she looked like, so i stared intently at anyone coming up from track 10 who seemed to be searching just as intently as i was. i also was looking for someone with a semi big suitcase!
christine was in baltimore for a cystic fibrosis conference where she presented a paper. she thought she would visit nyc this trip, so here she is! there was a great drummer at the entrance to the 1 train, so we stopped to watch.

he had an enthusiastic audience!

after dropping her suitcase at janet's, where she is staying, she came and had dinner with us.

we had a yummy dessert: vanilla pana cotta from the around the world cookbook.