Dear God, please, not more wool

Are these words you ever thought you'd hear me utter? You see I really feel I might actually have overdone it on this trip (don't ever quote me on this though Pooch, my sweet). I made a trip to some place...maybe called Chestnut Hill.... to visit a couple of yarn stores that were within 10 mins walk of each other on the same road. They both had admirable ranges of yarn from all over the place at prices you'd expect plus a good selection of needles and things (one shop also had a white cat with one eye - at least it only opened one eye during our stroking session so I might be making a hasty assumption here). And I could barely bring myself to buy anything in either. In fact I just shopped in one and then had a TWO HOUR bus ride to get back to Philadelphia because a bus broke down or something. I took the bus instead of the train thinking it would be, as my american uncle once said to me 'a fascinating view of small-town-america' and yeah, you know, it was. And was. And was and was and was for TWO HOURS!!!

However, one reason for the fatigue is that my elann order showed up so I now possess more cotton than any woman should plus some peruvian alpaca silk in 'parchment'. In fact I was looking over my haul from this trip and considering there are still two days left it is impressive to say the least. But I do think Pooch may be unhappy up to some point, although his having missed me will counteract some of that.

The Pooch has been sending me very sweet emails since i departed London and has suggested we stop shillyshallying (another phrase, along with higgledypiggledy, guaranteed to get any american laughing during a business discusion) about and get married asap. Told him to remain calm as having tried on the dress to end all dresses I am damn well not missing out on my opp to wear the wretched thing.

I feel I am rambling slightly because you see I am EXHAUSTED. I did a small amount of carousing last night ( 1 smirnoff ice) and got back here at 10.30 (that's 3.30am in the UK) having had the conference dinner under the dinosaurs and been promised live snakes to stroke that turned out to be a parrot that jigged up and down if you sang it 'happy birthday' and some sort of lizard that looked like it has been sat on. Then at 2am here the desk jockey rang me. I picked up the phone having hit the alarm clock a couple of times before realising it wasn't that making the noise only to have him apologise in my ear and then spill forth the memorable sentance.... "But I didn't wake you right?" Didn't wake me? My good man, you may be riding sidesaddle on the front desk at 2am but I am safely tucked in and catching sleep I possibly should or shouldn't be having because I'm all confused with the time difference. Considering I had another hard morning conferencing today I am pretty sure I should have had an uninterrupted 8 hours. Anyway... I sat through the first session and realised I hadn't taken in a word because I was wholly absorbed in not falling asleep in a comic lurching forward and hitting pencil with head that then cartwheels off and smacks the speaker in the ear type way. The onyl way, and I mean I really considered all options because I know this is not the most professional thing to do, was to get out el sockies and start knitting away. It was only st st so I never took my eyes off either speaker or the screen except to take notes. And sure enough I found it much much easier to concentrate but I feel I may have reinforced the english's reputation for downright weirdness.

I feel I've lost the thread again and am writing far too much considering I can't upload pictures. Let me at least give you a googled taster of what tomorrow promises. First a little....

Then some....
Before very likely finishing with a...

(I was going to put a picture of a cheesesteak here but they are so gross to look at this would really not be a good thing)

Had been in Philadelphia less than three hours when....

I spent $200 in rosie's yarn cellar. F*ck. No one is to tell the Pooch. You see I had to go there because I have to stay away until at least 8pm (I'm 5 hours behind here). And what else are you supposed to do when you can hear the yarn calling you from your hotel room? Off there now to think about the consequences of my actions....

Missing the Pooch but the people here are *so* friendly so all in all everything is good.

Philadelphia here I come...

Pooch and I went out to spend a few hours romantically sharing...the trocadero at piccadilly circus. For non-initiates this lovers-lane-of-london is full of teens playing that game where you have to jump on the dancepad in a specified way that culminates in you having the visual equivalent of an epileptic fit to music. There are also loads of slot machines and racing games etc etc. Pooch truly lost himself in the star wars game - I have never seen him so intent - while I excelled at the bash'em game where you have to hit rodents with a mallet as they pop-up. Pooch professed himself to be slightly concerned about my level of concentration as I played two rounds of this game. It's true - I feel at home with a mallet in my hand.

We also had dim sum (Mmmmmmmmmmmm) and as a result of my winning the obviously-chelsea-are-going-to-win-the-cup £5 bet I got some chinese sweets in one of the little supermarkets in chinatown.

Aren't they lovely? The shop itself was a visual wonderland that I feel Yarnstorm, Nickerjac and others would have adored. There is the downside that you basically have no idea what you're getting unless you recognise the pictures but what the hell, it adds an element of danger to life!

Speaking of danger does anyone else actually quite like it when your plane hits turbulence? I always end up thinking to myself that it's a reminder that I'm alive and that life is a finite thing. There you are right up there in the sky and nature is chucking you about a bit and having a laugh. But then I've never had it really bad - like when you just suddenly drop. Because planes are occupying my mind a great deal at the moment because I have a 9.5 hour (plus waiting times at heathrow) flight to do tomorrow. My MBA has begun so I have to do some of that but otherwise there is knitting and reading and hopefully snoozing. But then I need to work out whether snoozing is actually a good thig or whether I should stay awake. Considering the average weekend sees me taking a respectable number of naps I don't expect to do the whole thing awake but then I may end up with the tweenie from hell sitting next to me so who knows.

My shopping list for Philly includes
> susan bates crochet hooks
> red heart/lion brand type cheap and fun stuff for the floor cushion
> cotton based sock yarn
> lots of things for others, including baby lotion and eye drops. Weird? Yes.
But most of all I am looking forward to having a proper pretzel. Can you believe the ones in pret are actually.....b.a.k.e.d? It's a travesty. I have an offer from Tom, my trusty consultant, to show me around and I think contrary to my norm I will take him up on one of the days at the weekend. Normally i would keep very much to myself and then end up hiding away in my room in the evenings. But this time I have a cocktail party on the wed, dinner with the dinosaurs in their natural history museum on the thursday and so why not keep busy with other stuff the rest of the time?

Speaking of sock yarn (some time ago admittedly) I went pretty OTT on the knitting yesterday - largely because Pooch and I sat down to The Godfather so I had three hours to occupy my hands. This is the second of the curious yarn hanks Pooch bought me a few months back. It is one of the two skein ones that they seem to have stopped doing and this may be a good thing as they gave me this sea green to go with it and after a few rows I had to stop. Yuk. However, now I've ditched the small skein and am happy once more. I'm using 2.75mm but think I could have done 3.25 quite easily as it's knitting up pretty tight.

Don't ask em why I'm knitting it up so tight. I just am.

In other news did you see Crazy Aunt Purl met a guy and then he totally did the dirty and stopped calling? What an arse. CAP is the coolest dude and I now hate this man for being mean. At least she's getting the creeps out of the way early though so she must be getting to the point where there are only nice boys left (but not tooooo nice ;) )

My final act is to draw your attention to the weather forecast for Philly - bright sun and 22-26 degrees. Yeah baby. I'll be away for a week so see you on the other side xx