Chptr 45: A Late Report on a Sunday Morning

My Sunday morning knitting was the second of five Noro Striped Scarves.  At one point in the morning, Chester was sitting on the couch with nothing to do, so I made some suggestions.  The resulting look was captured in this pic, but I have no idea what he was trying to tell me.  Something about not having opposable thumbs?  I need help... so I'm turning it over to whomever wants to throw in a caption.  [Your narrator anticipating deafening silence which will be fine with Chester as it maintains that canine mystique.]

I did, in case anyone wondered, survive both Arundel Mills Mall and Ryan's 7th birthday party. 

Firstly, the approach to the mall was corporately sponsored:  Coca-Cola Lane.  Bass Pro-Shop Drive.  (I looked for Starbucks Street but I'm kinda relieved I didn't see one.)

Secondly, I think this was the only shopping mall I've been to that was built in the 1990s or thereabouts.  Themed ENTRANCES!  (We entered into the Egyptian Portal - as opposed to the Medieval Ingress - not sure if there are more but these two kinda blew my mind.)

Thirdly, there were trains (think Thomas) being driven through the mall by conductors and with little passengers who I think were actual children.  I'm not completely sure.  It was getting all Disney on me and they chugged by too fast for me to overcome my fear of being flattened by the Acela Express.

Fourthly (why did I do this as a list?  Not sure.  Oh well, continuing...), while there were no visible Mall Maps, we found the Lego store within five minutes of wandering and dodging golf-cart trains.  Got the right Advent calendar and a thematically-appropriate supporting item and got the heck out of Dodge.

Yikes.  Reason twelve-hundred-forty-one to shop Etsy this year.

The party was just fine.  I knitted during it and only had to take minimal flack from my family.  How bad could it be?  The birthday boy was polite and sweet and there were no high-pitched meltdowns. 

A few pictures from a typical Sunday morning:  Meredith working, Shasa chewing, Chester fill-in-the-blanking (as above), and Mac kinda watching it all:

Probably shouldn't have said "Code Monkey" but it's too late now to change the picture and sorry about the haziness, I'm still figuring out the sizing and pixeling and resizing and cropping and all that stuff...

Shasa loves her Elmo - he turns up in odd places, often in a Tim Burton-esque position.

Mac sees all and doesn't have a lot to say about it.  Which is probably just as well.