No joke!

Well, Kansas was a culture shock after my guard had been eased down by the gentle Utah people and atmosphere. Breathing humidity wasn't easy. Seeing all the people going around with severely fewer body parts covered than usual was a bit of a shocker for this woman. Seeing a homeless guy without pants peeing into a corner was an interesting experience. And this is during the day, I wonder if the guy didn't care or was a bit scattered in the cerebrum.

Anyways, I promised photos, so photos I got.

It was a long ride from Utah to Kansas. We left around 7 or 8 in the morning and got there around 1am. The family dog, Daisy, took it all in stride and slept through most of it. And at every stop, she was ready to go out, stretch her legs, and look gorgeous. She's seriously a wonderful dog. Great manners, very friendly, just a wonderful thing. I worked on the Mystery Stole a little bit, but in a cramped car with a stinky dog, I wasn't all that crazy about knitting.

My birthday came after the hungover-from-long-car-ride day. I awoke with an envelope in front of my nose, though my short-sighted eyes had a hard time figuring out what that was.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" my mother crows and I'm thinking that the only thing happy is that I'm too tired to be snarky on my birthday. To my delight, the envelope contained $100 from my oma. Yes, yarn money!

But then I finally come to and pull out my list of yarn stores to visit. I could go to Kansas City but it's very labyrinthine and I don't want to be lost in one of the nastier parts of KC like I did last time I tried to find one of the yarn stores down there. So it's out. Closest one after the Yarn Barn is Knit Wits. Okay, I've been to Olathe (actually after I finished LPN school, there WASN'T a part of the Greater Kansas City area that I had *NOT* visited or gotten lost in). I could find my way around.

But still, the cities aren't nice and conveniently grid-like as they are in Utah so I pull up directions from Mapquest. This was a stupid mistake because Mapquest is crap. But I don't find that out until later. Wanting company, I grab my little brother (I guilted him into it because otherwise he would have either been playing on the computer like he did during every waking moment that I was there or been at D&D with his buddies) and we headed off.

No problem finding Olathe, but really, what were they thinking with the directions? The street we were on was no longer even called what Mapquest called it. So I stop in a few gas stations, asking the slack-jawed attendants if they knew how to get on this street or that. Finally one of them had a sparkle of intelligence that the summer sun had yet to beat out of his head. He told us right how to get there. I hope Karma gave him a good kiss for me.

With a bit more snooping and U-turns (I've grown quite expert at U-turns after living here in Utah for a while), we finally found it. I was so excited! Upon entering, I was delighted to see it bursting with yarn and though the novelty yarn was in good supply, so were the other yarns. I found Mountain Colors, oh bliss! And my brother, the darling soul of my heart, was bored out of his ever-lovin' mind, it was vaguely alleviated by the entrance of the Yarn Puppy. He was the owner's dog, slightly skittish, but he knows a good soul when he sniffs one. My brother and he made friends and the owner let me photograph the wee doggeh.

A few notes about Knit Wits. 1. It's quieter than a morgue in there. 2. Only ONE of the staff was friendly, outgoing, and happy to see a customer. The rest seemed irritated at someone who might interrupt their knitting/crocheting. 3. 'spensive stuff, yo! If I'm paying for your yarn, gimme some love, okay? I hate going and getting yarn from snobs.

But despite that, a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Wild Raspberry adopted me (many more lunged at me and after I put them all back, the Wild Raspberry would not let me go). $20 but it was aaalll worth it.

I have more but it's almost 1pm and I have chores. So...TO BE CONTINUED.