This is going to be long, be forewarned. The discussion of the trip will be in a few paragraphs.

First of all, since a couple people commented: "Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion" is a book about the immune system. (I haven't got to the spontaneous human combustion part yet). It's written by Gerald N. Callahan, who is an immunologist, although some of his ideas strike me as a bit "woo-woo."

First odd idea: we "harvest" bits of the DNA of people we are intimately* involved with and they are stored as a sort of "memory" in our lymph nodes.

(*not just THAT "intimately," also people like parents, children, other close relatives - anyone that we might have some kind of physical contact with through hugging, kissing, etc.)

Second odd idea: just as our immune system developed to protect us from microbes that would turn us into food, our nervous system developed MAINLY as a protection from large things (e.g. sabre-toothed tigers) that would turn us into food.

Odd idea but one I find seductive: There are counterparts between mental disorders and immune disorders. Callahan doesn't mean that if you have one you will have the other, but he suggests, for example, that just as allergies are a situation where the immune system is hyper-vigilant and responds to "threats" that aren't really threats (ragweed pollen, mold spores, peanut proteints), people who have anxiety disorder have nervous systems that are hyper-vigilant and are responding to "threats" that aren't really there (meeting new people, noises...) As someone with allergies - and with a bit of an anxiety issue although one that I would call subclinical, that seems to fit kind of neatly for me.

He also suggests that our trend to living in more "sterile" environments and particularly trying to protect children from getting muddy and such may not be so good, as early exposure to "non theat" items helps to teach the immune system what is and is not a threat. (And also - early infections may have a later protective effect; it seems that kids who had a lot of minor viral things have stronger immune systems as adults. Which is interesting to me, because it seems like I was sick all the time when I was a little kid, and now that I'm an adult, I'm disgustingly healthy.)

It's an interesting book and you really don't need to know much about the immune system to read it; he explains things pretty well. I'm not sure I'm convinced by all of his out-there ideas, but they're interesting to contemplate.

Now, the trip.

I got on the road a bit later than I planned - first, I wanted it to be light (and it was a cloudy day), I figured there's no sense taking a risk driving in the dark for a vacation trip.

I also wound up at several instances between slow-moving "wide load" things - either pieces of heavy equipment or a mobile home being moved to a new location. I'm not an impatient driver so I didn't try to pass.

It was about 11:30 when I got to Longview so I went to Barron's first for lunch.

Barron's is the book/gourmet/home-accoutrement shop. They also have a cafe which is excellent. (I highly recommend it; if you're ever in Longview, it's in the Albertson's shopping center at the corner of McCann and Loop 281. They're open Monday through Saturday for lunch and I think they're now also open for dinner. They are closed on Sunday).

I decided to get lunch first because Barron's can get very busy over the noon hour.

One thing I like about them is that they know how to serve solo diners without shoving them in a back room next to the bathrooms or without making them feel like something that escaped a freakshow. (Unfortunately not all restaurants are that way).

I ordered a hot chocolate - and Barron's is SERIOUS about hot chocolate, it was the real thing (made with milk and chocolate syrup, not some nasty powdered mix) and it was served in a cup the size of a small soup bowl.

They also bring hot sourdough breadsticks and butter to the table.

For lunch, I got a cup of the tomato-basil soup (one of their specialties) and an apple-pecan salad with maple viniagrette dressing. (You'd think that wouldn't work but it does, it works very well).

Everything was absolutely delicious. That's one of the things I love about Barron's: they have food that is special and wonderful but it's also fairly nutritious. Too many restaurants, their salads seem like more of a duty than a joy and the "good" tasting things on the menu are deep fried or coated in cheese.

Soup, salad, and bread: I could happily live on the different variants of this theme.

I also got dessert. I tried the tiramisu, which I had never had before, but they made if sound enticing on the menu, and I wasn't in the mood for chocolate cake or cheesecake.

The tiramisu was really good but it's not something I'd crave on a regular basis; it's quite rich, all that mascarpone cheese.

And then, I went shopping:



That's the stuff I bought for myself. There are other items, Christmas present type items, but they're mostly breakable and are mostly wrapped up in tissue paper to protect them, so I'm not going to unwrap them and rewrap them. (There's also the outside chance someone who might be in line to receive one of the items might read this).

I got a candle in the "Frasier Fir" fragrance from The Thymes. Very nice and very seasonal.

The books include one of Alexander McCall Smith's non-South Africa books. I enjoy his writing, at least the Mma Ramotswe books (I've not read any of his others yet). He strikes me, from his writing, as a happy man and someone with a kind temperament.

I also picked up the first book in the Sharpe series; I've read that it's a fun read and is kind of an intelligent "action" book. I actually kind of like those swashbuckling sorts of novels; much more enjoyable to me than the modern Festivals of Dysfunction that seem to be so many of the best-seller type novels. And it wasn't very expensive; if I don't like it, I can pass it on to someone else. But if I do, there are other books in the series, which is always a plus to me.

The third book is by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (which I haven't started reading yet..) but it's short "magical" stories, kind of fairy tales for grownups. I read a page or two in the bookstore and decided I wanted it. And besides, I wanted it for the binding - it looks like an old-fashioned sort of book, like something my grandmother would have had.

From there, I went to the yarn shop. This was where I spent the bulk of my money. Some of it was for projects I had been wanting to make (The Felted Marsupial Tote, the Pearl Buck sweater jacket) and some of it was semi-impulse buys:



Clockwise from the left: Lamb's Pride in Pine and Bronze for the felted tote (I guess I still have some preppie influence from my high schooling; those were the only two colors I thought would work well together for me). The green and brown yarns next to them are a Berroco alpaca which I am going to use to make two-tone mittens for me. Probably cuffs of the green and the rest of the brown. And I might have enough to do a pair with the colors reversed. The "Oh My!" is a fuzzy yarn, I'm going to use it to make a toy cat from Ysolda's free pattern (scroll to bottom of page for .pdf file link). That was a semi-impulse purchase; I had downloaded the pattern a few days ago and had kind of thought that if I could find a soft yarn, it would be fun to make.

Then there's a skein of OnLine Winter Colors sock yarn. It's purples. I had to have it.

And there's a skein of Schaefer Elaine in the colorway named for Renate Teboldi. Total impulse purchase on my part, but I love the idea of naming colorways in honor of someone, and the colors are so pretty in the yarn. This is going to be a scarf, perhaps one with a slipped-stitch pattern, to keep the colors from pooling. Or maybe it'll be a knit-the-long-way scarf (where you cast on like 300 stitches or something and just knit until the scarf is wide enough). I've not decided yet.

And then, the big purchase: the pinky red yarn (And that color is actually pretty true in the photo, at least on my monitor) is a dk weight Laines du Nord for the Pearl Buck swing jacket. I had been wanting to make it. I had been thinking of it in a turquiose but when I saw a turquoise yarn I realized that that big of an expanse of that color on me would be kind of bludgeoning, kind of like painting a house bright purple. I like the pinky red - I can't wear most red because they wash me out - but this one is a softer color, almost a rhubarb red. And it's very soft. And it's merino wool. And it was a good price. I bought an extra ball or two for insurance - the owner said I could trade them back if I didn't need them but I'd just as soon make hats or something for a 'community knitting' group out of them.

And yes - I paid cash for all of this. That kind of thing is important to me, important to my Do Not Go Into Debt Under Any Circumstances lifeplan.

I did also go to the Michael's. And I have to say - I think Michael's has Hobby Lobby soundly beat when it comes to carrying usable yarn. Hobby Lobby has become so wedded to the concept of having their own house brand (Yarn Bee, which has a few good lines but lots of novelty drek), which by and large isn't a very NICE yarn, it mostly tends to scratchy synthetics (and there are NICE synthetics out there; Hobby Lobby just seems to choose cheap processors). But Micheal's carries a lot of the Paton's line, and a lot of the Lion Brand stuff...and they seem to be less about the furry or glittery or otherwise "bizarre" yarns and more about stuff that a person who is knitting for people over the age of 18 or so can actually use:



I saw two yarns I had heard of, but not seen before: Paton's Soy Wool Stripes (those are the pink and green yarns in the corner of the photo) and Paton's Rumor (which is an alpaca "blend" but actually has precious little alpaca in it; whatever.)

I also bought a ball of the Paton's wool in a white; I want to make the one-skein crochet scarf from Happy Hooker. (They also had a reprint of that pattern - reprinted WITH permission, just so you know - out for free if you bought the yarn). And I got the Fun Fur and wool-ease for the Christmas hedgehogs.

The two books are from the Books A Million next door.

I bought the Crochet magazine because I flipped through it and was very impressed - they have done a good job of including patterns that (mostly) draw on the good points of crochet. Crochet does openwork well, and it also does 3-D sculptural forms, like some hats and also soft toys, well. It is not so good at a traditional "closed stitch" sweater because it can become hard and stiff very easily. But this magazine had mostly patterns that, as I said, showcased the good points of crochet.

I wanted to make a pair of slippers that are in there; that's what the Rumor yarn (the black with rainbow stripes) will become.

I also bought - not pictured - two books of American history: "Glory, Passion, and Principle" which is about women's roles in the American Revolution. It has chapters on different women:
Sybil Ludington
Phillis Wheatley
Abigail Adams
Mercy Otis Warren
Lydia Darragh
Molly Pitcher
Deborah Sampson
and
Nancy Ward.

Of those, I only know about Adams, Warren, and Pitcher, so it should be an interesting book. (And also: look at all the lovely female names on that list that are hardly used any more! Molly and Sybil [well, that one may have been 'ruined' by the movie] and Lydia and Abigail. All good intelligent sounding names. I'd much rather see that than a classfull of Michelles or a class full of young women with "inventive" names that I don't know how to pronounce.)

I also got a book called "A Land as God Made It," on the Jamestown settlement. I don't know why this sudden burst of interest in early American history, but there you are - I also have biographies of Washington and Jefferson and several on Franklin on the shelf that I want to read.

Finally - the "Not another teen knitting book." This one surprised me. I had myself set up to dislike it - first of all, it's intended as "young hip knitting" but also it draws on the high school stereotypes. And I remember reading about the book and mentally rolling my eyes, and going, yeah, great, another book reinforcing why the "populars" shouldn't mix with the "brains," &c. But noooo! (as John Belushi was known to say). It's actually parody, it's camp - it's not taking itself seriously. And there's a pair of sweet fingerless gloves in there that I am SO making. And there's a calculator cozy with a pi on it, and a laptop cozy made to look like the Silicon "box" on the periodic table. And there's a batwing shawl for the goths out there. And there's a nice, simple, drop sleeve sweater for the sk8r boyz, with a skater symbol on the front - but you could just as easily rechart it as a flower or a peace symbol or a Celtic triskele (which I'm actually thinking of doing; it's a good basic sweater). Or the Celtic symbol for the Trinity, which I like, and it's more subtle than going around with a Jesus fish stuck to your car.

There were also two other books - and I know this is getting long but I feel the need to comment on this. One was called "Knitting with balls" (yuk, yuk) and was a "men's knit book" (I probably didn't need to tell you that). And the other was called "Not your mama's knitting."

You know - I'm kind of ready to be done with the self-consciously hip knitting books. With the ones who promote knitting as an act of generation-gappery, of a way of setting yourself apart from those Boring Old Farts who seem to have to inhabit your world with you (Can't we do some kind of a Soylent Green thing and get rid of them?). The thing that irritates me is this - these Boring Old Farts - well, they were once Young Farts, and the youthful hipster types now will someday be the Boring Old Farts. And the sooner they realize that, the better. I have pictures of my parents when they were quite young, and it's striking to think that they were once college students, and young new professors, and all that - and that I someday will be a grayhaired retiree (God willing). But the presumption seems to be that whatever generation the book is pandering to, will somehow remake the world and they will not become Boring Old Farts. Or, for that matter, the books presume that all people over the age of 30 or whatever (or maybe now it's 50, as 50 is the "new" 30) are boring and not worth the time, and have little to contribute.

Um...you all ever heard of "learning from others' mistakes"? You all ever had someone older than you tell you "don't do like I did in this situation because x happened"? That's just ONE of the values of listening to the Boring Old Farts out there.

Anyway. And the whole knitting with balls thing - yeah, yeah, it's cute and great that there are some men who are confident enough in their manhood to knit. Is there a book out there called "Car Repair with Ovaries"? I don't think so. I dunno. I guess the feminist in me wants to scream, "We had to fight for years and years to even get the frickin' VOTE*, and now when you pick up needles and yarn everyone's fawning over you like you invented fire or something." And I know enough history to know that in the medieval period, only men were allowed to profit from knitting. It was the whole guild thing. So I'm not so impressed by the "Look! He has a penis AND a knitting bag" thing.

(*Which said: if you are female (or for that matter, even if you are not), don't piss off the shades of any suffragists who may still be hanging around this reality. Get educated about the candidates and issues in your area and go out and vote. Note that I am talking about that as a two-step process: voting on the basis of campaign ads only, or on the basis of who is cuter or some dumb thing like that is really no better, in my mind, than not voting at all. And it might be even worse.)

My, I used quite a bit of "language" in this post that I usually don't use...