After Work Adventures in SF

This is the first post in a while that lives up to the name of this blog: I'm currently waiting to fly home on a redeye.  I've been coming to San Francisco three days a week for six out of the last seven weeks and tonight is the first time I've had time after work to do anything not work related.

Here is my cute little swatch.

My first stop was this yarn store I've been stalking for a few weeks. On my way to work each day I walk through the Union Square and Chinatown areas and one day I looked up to see a bright red sigh that read "Yarn." When I looked it up I discovered that it actually belonged to ArtFibers and that each day they stay open until 6pm.  I also perused their blog and found some of their patterns that I really liked.  As matter of fact I happen to be wearing a shawl collared sweater today when this caught my eye.  I'd nipped in right before they closed at 6, but Roxanne was nice enough to let me pet all the luscious swatches and then whip up a mini swatch of a purply maroon to see if that would be a good color for the collar and cuffs of the cropped jacket.

This is my swatch next to the sample of the body yarn. 
This picture really doesn't do justice to the rich colors of the yarn.

We thought it picked up enough of the colors in the multicolored main body that I should go ahead and use it.  The next step will be for me to go back next week when Roxanne will even adjust the pattern for my measurements and help me to figure out how much yarn I'll need.  And they are having a 15% off anniversary sale.  How nice is that!

After my fiber fix I had an nice little side trip to Victoria's Secret where I actually managed to use a couple of those coupons that turn up periodically in the mail and usually end up in the trash.  Don't think to hard about this - I bought something sensible. 

For my next stop I revisited a place Todd and I ended up at by accident during our trip in the fall: Lori's Diner.  I stopped by just to look at the menu and was lured in by the mozzarella sticks.  Then once I sat down at the table I decided to be adventurous and ordered the BBQ ranch salad too.  I turned out to be worth the gamble as it was a lightly dressed pile of crunchy (romaine) and healthy (mixed) greens with a zippy ranch/bbq dressing and nearly a whole avocado hidden under the entire chicken breast and the yummy dollop of shoestring onions.  

I know I should have had some self-restraint , but I ended up indulging and having a banana split to round things out.  The bananas, strawberries and cherries make this healthy right.  Anyway, I made a valiant effort and reduced their generous portion to this:

The nice people at Lori's even let me use their wireless internet and didn't seem to mind when I whipped out my laptop and monopolized a table for almost three hours (don't worry I left a very nice tip).  Now I just have a few more hours to kill until wheels up....