good golly, miss lolly! (and 20 things, too!)

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting our lovely Socktoberfest hostess, Lolly, her wonderful husband, Kris and her gorgeous sister, Mimi. I'll admit to having butterflies in my stomach before meeting Lolly! I had so many thoughts playing racquetball in my head- What if she's an internet weirdo? What if she thinks I'm an internet weirdo? What if we meet and have nothing to say to each other? How long can I talk about the weather? Can I pass Bossy and Stinky off as someone else's kids if they start acting up? And my fave from my very protective Hairy Leg-ged husband: What if this is some kind of online stalking sex solicitation lure? All of my anxieties were immediately allayed the moment we met. Lolly is as gracious and beautiful "in real life" as she is in her blog. No awkward pauses, no mumbling about the rain, no nervous giggling or leg shaking in silence. Talking to her, I felt like I'd known her for a long time. She and her family are so warm and real- so full of aloha- they give you that tingly good-feeling when you meet them.

We started with lunch at The Green Papaya, a Vietnamese restaurant in Honolulu. Finding the place was a little tricky (So sorry, Mimi!), but we both arrived in good time. With so many great types of cuisine to choose from locally, my concern was finding something with vegetarian options for Lolly. Hairy Legs and I enjoyed lunch, and the company, especially, with only one minor mishap when Miss Independent Stinky decided to launch her water glass in a fit of defiance. We were grateful that Bossy didn't decide to follow suit. Instead, he was content to suck his vermicelli noodles up through his straw. We were thankful that Lolly, Kris and Mimi decided to have selective vision with regard to the kids' behavior.

After lunch, we went on a yarn crawl! Well, it should have been a one-stop LYS visit, but my lack of foresight turned it into a two-store crawl. Being the space cadet I am, I neglected to find out whether Isle Knit would be open on Monday. Let me assure you that it most definitely isn't. Ever gracious, our guests trekked back to their parallel parked car in the pouring rain, sans umbrellas, with smiles, though I'm sure they wanted to clobber me. I got my bachi (returned bad karma) for my negligence when the bottom handle of my automatic umbrella popped off into the street and got run over by a bus. At Lolly's urging, I almost ran out to save it, but was grateful I didn't when I saw my umbrella handle's fate.

Not wanting to experience any more spontaneity, Hairy Legs called Yarn and Friends to discover that they were indeed open. We drove there and were able to snap a few pics during a brief sunny interim. I didn't notice it earlier, but we were both wearing fuschia colored tops and skirts! How weird is that? Knit blogging minds must think alike. Kris and Hairy Legs were also wearing the same colored tops and shorts. Eerie! I also didn't realize it till we got home and I looked at the pics, but gosh, Lolly sure is tall!! Makes me feel even more vertically challenged. The yarn store owner was very sweet and outgoing, but Lolly managed to distract her long enough so we could get down to yarny business! We perused the store for quite a while and decided on some Cascade Fixation for some future matchy-matchy socks- maybe a little corny, but it is still Socktober, after all.

Although I'm sure they were hoping upon hope that we would decline, Lolly, Kris and Mimi invited us to the Waikiki Aquarium. Well, by now, my whole family had become true-blue Lolly-family stalkers, so of course, we tagged along. Bossy, because he is aptly named, led the tour, since the Aquarium's one of our regular haunts. Kris cracked us up with his knowledge of the Latin genus and species names for all of the aquatic plants. You would've thought we were in ancient Rome, the way he spewed those names out so effortlessly! Bossy and Stinky managed to hold it together pretty well in spite of having no nap (you can see they're about to pass out!), though I'm sure we averted certain impending disaster by deciding to finally stop stalking Lolly's family after leaving the Aquarium.I was a little sad to leave- we'd had such fun all day and there were still so many more things I wish we could've talked about, but I'm so grateful that we had the chance to meet and make a connection in person. Lolly, Kris and Mimi, it was truly such a pleasure meeting all of you!!! Our family loves you and we hope we get the chance to do this again someday. Thank you for a wonderful day!

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The very talented Myra of My Little Mochi tagged me with a Twenty Things meme. Thank you, Myra! I am an incredibly boring person, so it took me a quite awhile to come up with these. I salute you in advance if you manage to make it to the end of my list without falling asleep.

1) I used to work in an entomology lab where one of my duties was disemboweling poor, unsuspecting termites by pulling their alimentary tracts out through their anuses for "testing."
2) I also used to work in a fly lab, where I'd regularly commit mass genocide by freezing thousands of flies in a minus 20 freezer, all in the name of science.
3) I knit English style.
4) I've tried knitting continental, but apparently I am an undextrous continental loser. It would make knitting ribbing go so much faster and lessen my odds for bursitis.
5) I gave birth twice without the use of drugs or medical intervention.
6) That said, I am the first to request (okay, beg) for anesthesia during the most minor of dental work.
7) I am a coffee fiend. We actually spaced Bossy and Stinky apart so that I could have a few months to support my habit between weaning Bossy and getting pregnant with Stinky.
8) I nursed both Bossy and Stinky for a combined total of 33 months. They sucked the life out of me, literally. I am now left with pathetic, deflated balloons in their wake.
9) I once broke a mercury thermometer during Organic Chemistry Lab. I've never seen a roomful of people evacuate so fast.
10) I still consider myself a Big Island girl, even though I've technically lived in Honolulu longer than I ever lived in Hilo.
11) When I was a little girl, my dream was to be able to eat Sapporo Ichiban ramen everyday of my life. That dream came true my first year out of college because it was the only thing I could afford to eat. And it wasn't even Sapporo Ichiban, it was that cheap Top Ramen, feed-yourself-for-a whole-month-with-this-$2-case brand.
12) I regularly have elevator nightmares. I swear it's some past life thing. And it sure makes living in a condo and riding the elevator daily a freaky trip. I enjoy it in a sick kind of Fear Factor way.
13) I am an out-of-the-closet American Idol fan. And a Clay fan. So there.
14) I know all the words to every Barry Manilow song ever written. I am not proud of this. It is my evil mother's doing.
15) I love Christmas trees. Real Christmas trees. When I found out my mom bought a fake fiber optic tree from QVC last year, I almost cried. Both because of the fakeness and because she was subscribing to QVC. Which, of course, she got me hooked on, just like Barry Manilow, though I will adamantly deny it if questioned point blank.
16) I have a very nervous stomach. Unfortunate things happen when I get nervous. Out of both ends.
17) My husband claims I have two stomachs. One for meals and the other, more highly developed one for snacks. I think that just makes me more evolved.
18) I almost won my elementary school's spelling bee in the fifth grade. Except that I misspelled playwright. How the hell was I supposed to know what a playwright was? (And yes, I asked for a definition.) I just figured it was what my mom always admonished me to do with my sister.
19) I once tried to mangle a Chinese squash plant (hyotan) in our backyard with a sickle when I was little to stop it from producing any more squash. Divided into a 100 different pieces, that evil Hydra grew into 100 distinct monstrosities. We ate hyotan soup for many, many nights.
20) I am a very protective mom. I have been known to engage in WWF type smackdowns at Thinker Toys with parents who let their evil spawn run amuck.

Hmm, now I need three people to pass this on to. Most bloggers I know have already done a 100 things meme, so I'm passing this on to acornbud, karen , mamma and beak knits, so I can delve into the darkest recesses of their minds, bwahahaha!