The weekend was a lovely one. I got to spend a beautiful fall day with Karen on Saturday. We ate at Middletown restaurants. We walked in the woods. We talked. We drank hot apple cider.

Sunday we headed west for a college friend’s wedding. It was perfect — and deserving of a post all its own — and one when I’m a little more awake.

Today we got to breakfast with our friend BW and spend a little time with her before we parted ways. That’s good because we used to see her a lot more before Rudi and I up and moved away.

We moseyed home, stopping on a whim by a New York farm to buy pumpkins, cider doughnuts, and apples; browsed at a sports good store in New Jersey; and tried to visit the Grounds for Sculpture, which, it turns out, is closed on Mondays. Bummer. Guess we’ll have to try to catch it a different time.

But it was a great weekend overall. Friends, food, family, and festivities — who can ask for more? And how soon can we do it again?

We decided to come up to Connecticut this weekend to surprise the family. The drive up was lovely once we got clear of the rain in Maryland and the trees are a muted riot of color. And the family was very surprised to see us, which was nice.

This is my September Sock-a-Month 2 contribution and the most recent finished objects in my collection.

Rudi’s boss had his first grandbaby last week, so I thought it would be nice to send along a gift. The pair is made of Cascade Fixation and is pretty much a straight-up Magic Loop adaptation of the Baby Fixation Socks. Rudi picked out the yarn from my stash and picked this pattern over another one. They are very quick to knit up (doable in a day, really) and immediately elicit “Awwwwwws” from all the women in my office because they are just so deliciously tiny. (And, yes, that’s a quarter in the photo for perspective.)

(Click on the photos to open them in a larger format.)

Also, as promised earlier, I offer you some recent fibery goodness as well as some of the other pretty things that insisted on coming home with us from Salt Lake:

So last Thursday evening we flew out to Salt Lake City, purportedly to visit Rudi’s mother for a long weekend.

I admit, that while visiting my mother-not-in-law is as good a reason as any to visit Utah, I had a secondary motive — the Yarn Harlot was coming to speak.

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What? Three more beautiful things from the last week? Yep! Just too many to fit into one post!

1. Today was my best friend Karen’s birthday. When I called to sing to her in an off-key sort of way (which, as a musical person, she tolerated exceptionally well). While we were talking, her fiancé presented her with her birthday present and she burst out into very merry laughter. It was such a delight to hear!

2. Cocoa Rose, the puppy (maybe a lab-retriever mix?) who lives at the corner, is now five months old. I saw her romping in the yard on my walk to the Metro the other morning and she has grown tremendously since she arrived in the neighborhood. She is still a puppy despite her large size and she races from one side of the yard to the other playing with a small ball all by herself.

3. While we were flying to Salt Lake last week, we stopped in Minneapolis. As the airplane was descending, we got a gorgeous view of the setting sun. Pinks and oranges and blues and greys all combined to bathe the city in a vibrantly rosy hue.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. There is nothing better than coming home from a trip. Walking in the door and being met by three cats who absolutely adore you is incomparable. They want nothing more than to sit on you to prevent you from ever leaving again (unless it’s to buy them some more cat food, of course).

2. The Mets have been playing remarkably well this year. Right now they have the best record in baseball and last night they became the first team to reach 90 wins for the season. It used to be that I’d go places wearing my Mets cap and people would greet me with sympathetic looks. This year, I’m greeted with, “How about those Mets?” Even in Salt Lake! It’s a nice feeling to be at the top for once.

3. Washington, D.C., is a Democratic city. 74% of registered voters are signed up as Democrats. We’re so Democratic, it’s a law that the City Council has to have two members of a “non-majority” party just so that it’s fair. So when the primary rolls around, essentially you’re electing the person who is going to assume power. This year we had two major positions open up — mayor and city council chairperson. Adrian Fenty, who is only a few years older than I, won the Democratic nod for mayor. He has a vision for where the city should go from here that many people think is exciting. And Vince Gray, formerly the executive director of Covenant House, won the primary for council chair, offering hope that the next iteration of the council will consider ways to attract businesses and to provide services to low-income families simultaneously. I didn’t vote for either of the two winners, but I am excited that they bring fresh blood and enthusiasm to their positions. May they help to keep D.C. a nice place to live.