Okay. Birthday roundup.

I will start off with the "not so awesome" in order to get it out of the way:

1. The traffic in and around 380 (University) in McKinney is a nightmare right now; they are rebuilding (?) the exit and they have random lanes of 380 blocked off. And despite Texas' "Drive Friendly" admonishments, they're not very "friendly" about letting you know about lane closures: the worst one being that the lane I was in was suddenly coned off, under an overpass, with no sign any distance back to say, "Hey, guys, you might wanna think about merging" like they have in Oklahoma. (And we also have, a few hundred feet before the closure, another sign that basically says, "Hey, fool, merge now or you'll be violating a state law and you could get a ticket.")

2.There are more empty storefronts in McKinney. One of the antique malls is gone, "120" is gone, The Abode is long gone (and is going to become yet another restaurant it looks like. I suppose restaurants - especially those with liquor licenses - do better even in leaner times. I guess. I'd give up eating out before I'd give up, say, buying quilt fabric though.)

3. What I thought was just really bad allergies turns out to actually be a cold. I guess in a way it's good I didn't realize that before last night, or I might have chosen not to go. But last night I started feeling chilled and took my temperature: 100.9. Ugh. And now today I have that sore/dry feeling throat. I didn't go to church - part of it is that talking is kind of painful at the moment (and singing would probably be worse) and I want to save my voice for teaching tomorrow. But also, I didn't want to expose anyone else to the cold; I know there is at least one person there taking a medication that can have immune suppressant effects. I also talked with my youth group co-leader and she's getting a sub to help her tonight so I don't have to go. Which is good, because if the kids were their usually somewhat giggly selves, I'm not sure I'd feel well enough to be very patient.

The better stuff:

1. Thanks, TChem! The gashopon toy came yesterday. (Along with an explanation of the name: Gasho is the sound it makes rattling around in the vending machine, and pon is when it lands at the bottom of the chute.)

It's a tiny food thing - little parfaits (? or maybe glasses with melon balls in them, it's a little hard to tell). It's a lot like the Re-Ment stuff that I already have.

I love not just the little food and the fact that it arrived ON MY BIRTHDAY (good timing, USPS!), but also that she carried it all the way back from Japan for me.

2. Once again, the quilt shops in McKinney were the busiest stores. I'm guessing that either (a) quilters have more stable incomes/sources of disposable cash, (b) people who quilt are willing to cut back in other areas if they have to economize, or (c) In a lot of ways, it can be a small indulgence: most fabrics are less than $10 a yard, fat quarters are cheap. I bought a bunch of fabric: some fat quarters in sort of acid greens and pale magentas to match some fabric I have on hand, some just-cute fabric that I'm not sure where it will end up, and a big piece of the Goodnight Monkeys fabric (the one with the monkeys jumping on bunk beds; that one was my favorite, the shop was closing it out at a good price, so I bought what was left on the bolt - a little over 6 yards - to use as the backing on that eventual quilt).

Oh, and Quilt Asylum's new location is really easy to find, as it turns out. And a lot closer to the old downtown. It's not as "pretty" a spot (IMHO - mainly because they no longer have the lovely large front windows) as their old location, but it is larger and has a much better classroom space. (The store is in a former "Steak Kountry" restaurant. I've never eaten at one; I admit I'm irrationally suspicious of restaurants that do the K for C substitution in their names...)

3. The single biggest purchase was something I'd been wanting: a small area rug to put in front of my big chair. I had been thinking of getting one of those flokati-type rugs, but decided against it, partly because a flokati rug wouldn't match with the style of the room, but mainly because, if I had another carpet beetle outbreak, they'd eat the thing whole (flokati rugs being wool). And it would be too sad to spend that much money on an area rug and have it eaten up.

So I got a woven cotton one instead:



I admit it doesn't match PERFECTLY, but the colorways that the store had that would have been a better match, I did not like so well as I liked this one. (And even at that...there are very subtle purple grapes in the upholstery of that chair that kind of pick up the bluish purple stripe on the rug). I may eventually cycle this out and put it next to my bed instead, except the rug that's there now doesn't look like a living-room type rug.

4. This is the Carolina Yarn Bell:



When I do get back to the Rosy Fingered Dawn shawl, it will protect the yarn from dust (and presumably, bugs, if any get in here again).

5. There was not a lot of great antiquing (I skipped a couple places I sometimes go into because I was getting tired by that point), but I did find one cute thing:



This is a little half-timbered cottage that I found at one of the little shops. There is no real mark on it so I don't know when or where it was made but I like it. (Those are photos of great-grandparents - on my dad's dad's side of the family - behind it).

6. Morningstar Treasures was still there, still nice, still had the little corner devoted to yarn (of which I bought some). I also got this, I could not resist it:



It's a "vintage" bunny (again, I don't know how old, but I've seen similar patterns that were described as being from the 40s or 50s). It was $16, which would be cheap enough even IF it were newly made from an old pattern.

I couldn't resist it, both because of the face and because of the little teal corduroy jacket.

The bunny is going to be the centerpiece of my Easter decorating this year:



I was originally going to do St. Patrick's Day first, but I have no St. Patrick's Day stuff, really, and didn't see anything that was so cute I had to buy it. So I'm kind of skipping ahead to Easter.

But not totally:



Yeah, I have two "Irish-y" (neither actually MADE in Ireland, though) bears: the Aer Lingus bear my mom brought back from her London trip, and then a beanie baby for St. Patrick's Day. So I decided to put them on the other end of the mantel.

7. Also, Loco Cowpoke (the Texas foods store) was still there and still fairly busy. I think part of it is his strategy: he has free samples of just about everything he sells, and will open up something he doesn't have open if you ask. I bought a (rather pricey, but at the time I thought it might also work anti-allergy - as I was still thinking this was an allergy problem) jar of local wildflower honey. And a bottle of plum chipotle basting sauce - I tried it on a cracker but could tell it would be really good on chicken. (If I get the energy up this evening, I have chicken breasts - I stopped at the Kroger and was actually able to get some with the bone in and and the skin on - which I usually can't find in town - and I really think those taste better after they're cooked). So I might do a baked chicken breast with plum chipotle sauce for dinner tonight.

The sauce would also probably be good on broiled tofu. It had kind of a fusion Tex-Mex/Asian flavor to it.

I rather wish we had a place like that in town, where there were all kinds of different foods. The Texoma Peanut Inn has some things, but what they have are mostly different varieties of pickles, and they don't have quite the diversity of different companies' food that Loco Cowpoke has.