Road Trip to Columbia

We were just antsy. Ready for Spring. Tired of our same old dull weekned routine. So we decided to jump in the car to go for a road trip, just me and my guy. We went to Boonville first. Played at the casino and stayed at the hotel there - Isle of Capri. It's really clean and nice there. The Friday night crab buffet they have is wonderful! For $39 for two, we had all you can eat crab, and it was really tasty and fresh.


We don't gamble much at all - the guy plays a bit of blackjack. I like the slots. Penny slots. I played $2.00 and made it last all night on the "I Dream of Jeanie" slot machine. It was fun. At one point, I was up $6.00 but eventually lost it all - except for $1.78 I cashed out, so I guess I was really down only 22 cents.

When I was a little girl, I used to LOVE the show "I Dream of Jeanie" and I used to drape the table with pink cloth, climb beneath the table and pretend that was my bottle. I also dressed up for Halloween one year as an unconvincing and mousy-looking version of Jeanie. But anyhow . . . that was fun.

Then we headed off yesterday to Columbia, Missouri on a whim. We had breakfast at Ernie's, an old coffee and breakfast place that's been around since the 1940's. It has an old time feel to it. It was so crowded with college kids that we crammed ourselves into some counter seats. Had my favorite traditional breakfast of steak and eggs with wheat toast. Yum.

We strolled around downtown Columbia all day. They have a lot of cute, eclectic shops - with artsy stuff. Very fun. We went to an antique mall. Had dinner at a micro brewery called Flat Branch. It had the most delicious hot twisted pretzels dipped in Spinach Artichoke dip. I want to try to make those at home sometime. Since it was a cold day, those hot pretzels really hit the spot.


And one more thing, oh my gosh, Columbia has one of the neatest yarn shops! Hillcreek Yarns is big, nice, large and varied stock of yarns with friendly employees. Wow! It was great. They even have a Janice Rosema freeform jacket up in their window. I would have loved to show you a photo of it, but I forget to bring my camera this weekend. Drats. I'm going to get to finally meet Janice sometime in April when she rolls through the Columbia/Jeff City area. I need to find out more specifics about her teaching schedule. I definitely want to meet her. She's a talented freeform artist from California and an online friend of mine.


While at Hillcreek, I bought a couple different sizes of 40" Addi turbo lace needles so I can keep making socks with this 2-At-A-Time method that I'm enjoying so much. I also bought some new Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in a green colorway called, "Spring Tickle" which really fits my mood right now.


One of the best book investments I've made in a long time is that Melissa Morgan-Oaks sock book. I love that book and her method is great. If you buy it, be sure and check the errata at this website. There are a few patterns that have changes - especially the fact that you need to reverse steps 23 and 24 on the toddler socks at the beginning of the book. But the book is really great and explains Magic Loop so much better than anything else I've ever found. It's my new favorite way of making socks.

In fact, I gotta go now, gang. It's 71 degrees out there today - sunny and SPRING. I'm gonna sit out on my deck, drink homemade Jasmine iced tea and knit on my Flam'n Red Dome socks while it's still daylight.