And Saturday's trip

 Tomorrow is my birthday. I hit "double nickels," which seems really weird to me; most of the time I feel like I am still in my 30s. (Well, except for my knee - it is better but today I stood and walked more than I had since January and I can feel it tonight).

Well, also on Saturday I stood and walked a lot, though it was in shorter bursts.

First, the trip to Quixotic Fibers. It started off badly - the car key slid out of my pocket when I "rotated" to get out of the seat (it's still harder for me to climb out of a car like I once did). I had locked the car and was walking (across a COBBLED BRICK PARKING LOT, which is agony on a bone bruise) when I realized I couldn't feel the key in my pocket.

So I went back and looked, first hoping it had fallen on the ground, then hoping the door didn't *actually* lock, but it had. So I kind of freaked out and went in to the store (which was super crowded: small store, grand opening) and managed to ask an employee what I could do. I was told to call the police, they could send someone.

Nope. The Denison police does NOT unlock car doors, I was haughtily told by the dispatcher, I'd have to hire a locksmith. (Gee, sorry, my only previous experience was locking my keys in the car on campus, and the campus police officer happily came out - "this is an easy thing to fix," he said - and unlocked the door for me).  So I did. Luckily there was a guy on his way from Gainesville to Bonham and he was close enough to swing by. So I waited - sitting as best I could on the bumper of my minivan, because by that point, after crossing the brick parking lot several times and walking on the weird textured concrete floor in the Katy Depot, I was SORE.

He arrived fast enough. Walked up to my car. "Ma'am.....by any chance do you know the code for the entry keypad?"

D'OH!!!!! (And yes, I literally facepalmed. I had forgot that existed, and to that very moment I had forgot I had the code secretly stored in my phone). 

"I'll still have to charge the service call," he said apologetically, "but just that. If you read the code off to me I can at least punch it in for you." 

So yeah, there's a concept - it translates to "learning money" (I think it's lära sig pengar in Swedish, maybe something similar exists in German) that I read about years ago: basically, it's the cost of learning something you should have known, and I guess that was my situation there.

But I got my key back, and I guess the guy got a few quick bucks (I don't know how much overhead the company that employs him takes. Not a lot, I hope)

Anyway, I finally got in to shop. By then, it had cleared out a little, so I was able to look, despite hurting some:

 Three sock yarns. Most of what they carry is sockyarn but that makes sense - good for small projects, lightweight, can make shawls of it (and hats, and mitts, and socks, and even a sweater if you buy a lot of it). The deep turquoise color here is for fingerless mitts (it's a Dream in Color), and the striped one will be socks, perhaps knit with some kind of chevron pattern to make the stripes more interesting. And that other one is called "unicorn bark" (it's dyed in South America. And apparently "unicorn bark" is a candy, like peppermint bark but with rainbow sprinkles). I will probably use that for some kind of fancy-stitch socks. 

I also impulse-bought a bag because it made me laugh:

I am not particularly a fan of Lady Ga Ga, but some of the stuff I've read about her tells me she's a decent person - she's big on getting kids to accept and celebrate who they are, and she did that work with Tony Bennett towards the end of his life. 

And the bag is absolutely funny.

They gave out tickets for every $20 spent; they were doing a drawing for a gift basket (I presume I didn't win). As I was filling them out (sitting at the table in the shop), I saw this and decided to make one more purchase:

It's a kit (even the hook is in there, the only thing it doesn't have is stuffing) for an amigurumi unicorn. The yarns are all recycled material/repurposed material; apparently this company's thing is being environmentally friendly. But it's definitely a cute design, maybe will be the next "critter" I start.

I also went out to lunch (Red Lobster, but.....we don't exactly have luxury restaurants here and I was able to get a decent lobster tail). From there I was also able to look over at the relatively-new Michael's and it looked really crowded, so I decided to wait for a later date on that, hopefully when I'm even more healed.

I did go to Ulta (got my "birthday gift" - a small tube of free "body butter" that is pretty nice, and was able to pick up a few items I was getting low on). And the JoAnn's, found a really odd-colored (bright, bright green with tiny purple flecks) yarn on sale - a sweater's worth for less than $30 - and I was tempted enough by the odd color to buy it. I have a simple tunic type sweater pattern that it *should* work with. Or any generic pullover pattern would work.

From there, to the natural-foods store. Got more of the canned pureed sweet potatoes I like, and decided to just pay the small premium on milk and eggs there (rather than trying to get to the Kroger's) because, as I said, I was hurting at that point and ready to just go home. 

But at least I got out! And I found the yarn shop! And since I'm not traveling over Spring Break (I thought I wouldn't be healed up enough, and it's too late to get a ticket now), I could go back there on a weekday then (and hopefully: I'll be even more healed in three more weeks). 

But I do need to get to bed soon. I taught an entire lecture on my feet (at the whiteboard, demonstrating how demographic life tables work) and was on my feet for most of the 2 hour lab this afternoon, and I am tired and hurting a little