I've been savoring my weekend.  The last leg of the drive home was through a thunderstorm last night, I had dinner with my family, did some laundry, wedged myself into bed between spouse and pets and slept (more or less) through the night, took a shower, got dressed, went to work, did some work, had lunch, did some more work, came home, had supper...  all the while feeling as if I'm in a happy, suspended animation.

If I don't blog about it, maybe it doesn't really have to be over...

DH and I left at noon on Friday to meet Katie in Stevens Point.  We wanted lunch, but didn't want to battle a lunch-time crowd, so decided to drive to Fremont and stop at a cafe there.

My dad used to take us sledding at a big hill just outside of Fremont.  Our next-door neighbors growing up had a cottage on the Wolf River at Fremont that I went to once -- their second daughter was one of my best friends.  The dad was an architect and their house was the one that was NOT a two-story colonial with bricks and white siding on our street.  The mom used Oxydol and I will always remember that for some reason.  We turned left off the highway at the church in Fremont to get to their cottage.

Until the "new" highway was built and rerouted around town, we drove through Fremont just about every time we went anywhere to the west -- and that was plenty -- and right past the Wolf River Cafe without ever stopping.

Our loss.  Our big, big loss.  I was charmed the minute we walked through the door.  Well kept and clean, the decor is definitely retro -- nicely done retro, not too-too.  DH had chicken noodle soup and a tuna melt, I had all-you-can-eat whitefish and potato pancakes and, of course, couldn't even eat all that was served in the first round.  I took a chance on the potato pancakes, because the quality and style can vary greatly, but they were just the way I like them!

We met up with Katie in Stevens Point and she and I took off to The Cities from there.  She delivered me to Deb's just as Kathy and Chris were arriving.  Chris is the only one with half-decent pictures of the Friday night "festing" and, oh, what fun it was.  We had a beautiful dinner of butternut squash soup and caesar salad, with the justly famous flourless chocolate cake for dessert.  Yum.

To tell the truth, I don't have the greatest pictures of Saturday, either, but here's one that did turn out and it's one of my favorites.  I started my day having coffee with Deb and not-blogless-for-long Brenda, who we met for coffee before embarking on the yarn crawl.  Turns out Brenda's from the same place my mom and dad were born and raised!  It's a small, small world folks.

We started at Coldwater Collaborative, where I finally scored some Noro Kureyon Sock yarn -- destined to be something other than socks.  We did a little walking tour of downtown and stopped in a couple of fun shops... spring has sprung in Excelsior!  Needlework Unlimited was amazing and a little overwhelming.  I did manage to find some suede heels and toes for my stepdad's Log Cabin Socks -- I've seen full soles everywhere, but have never seen just heels and toes before!  The Yarnery was a great little store, but by then my mind stomach was more interested in food.  CursingMama found us in the crowd and we all walked over to meet Renee at Cafe Latte.  Oooh, yum, what a great lunch.  I had a salad sampler (three different salads) and a cup of not-your-ordinary cream of mushroom soup.

On Saturday night, serenaded by The Osmonds, I completely finished knitting the pieces of Mom's Habu Birthday sweater!  I even fixed the one piece where I'd forgotten to do the arm decreases.  The pieces will have to wait for their severe steam blocking and seaming.  In the meantime, I ripped my Autumn House Farm Shantung Silk Shawl (on Ravelry) on Saturday night, because it was too steep and pointy a downward-pointing triangle, and began reknitting it on Sunday more along the lines of my Sally Melville Shape It! Scarf (also on Ravelry), which I wear all the time.

Sunday morning was lovely, nice enough for a good walk with Deb and Holly and, of course, Katie came to pick me up and it was all over too soon.  It was fun for our Katies to meet -- here's a picture of Deb taking their picture.  Interestingly, Kate & Kate both have an interest in residential design and/or architecture.

Two funny blog things about Sunday.  I read about Bonneville with my morning coffee, starring some of my favorites -- Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, and Kathy Bates -- and was tickled when I read that Kathy Bates' character is named Margene!  I hope that movie doesn't skip my little 'burg, as I'd really like to see it!  The other funny thing was that as Katie and I made our way toward home, we stopped for a bite to eat and had to take a left on Norma Lane!

That was my wonderful weekend.  Thank you Deb, Jon, Katie, Holly, Tig and Sammie.  Thank you Chris, Kathy, Brenda, Lauri, and Renee.