So This is the New Year, eh?

Based on the perfect nature of this past weekend, I was convinced that 2007 would be terrific. Unfortunately, my hopes came crashing down today.

Friday Afternoon and Night
My center's director dismissed us early, so Suzi picked me up for some yarn shopping at Knitorious. I walked away with 3 skeins of Malabrigo and 2 of Cascade Sierra (for Sheldon, the knitted turtle in Knitty). Yay!

Friday night, Porkchop and I went to Cats at the Fox. Cats! I had never seen it before, and I enjoyed it well enough, especially when the kid behind us kept on singing.

Oh, also, Porkchop picked up a new digital camera, something we've been wanting for a while now. Sony Cybershot something (6 megapixels). Fun!

Saturday
Yay! Rooster! Porkchop and I enjoyed crêpes for brunch. Mine was egg, roasted garlic, and gruyere. Very tasty, although a bit heavy on the roasted garlic. The crêpes themselves were quite perfect. While we enjoyed our food, I have a few tips for the owners: use real silverware (nothing detracts from a good meal like plastic ware), use real cups when coffee/chai orders are to-sit, hire a proofreader (besides the website spelling errors, there's a sign labeled "recyclebles" in the restaurant), and iron out the kinks in the order-up system (quickly!).

Here's the outside of Rooster:



Here's me waiting for food and drinking a chai:



Here's me about to eat:



After eating, we went to the budget cinema to see Stranger than Fiction. Very enjoyable movie.

Next up, we stopped by a wine shop to pick up a riesling and my most favorite, Saracco Moscato d'Asti. The rest of Saturday was dedicated to cleaning and straightening our apartment.

Sunday
Porkchop did some yoga with me! I hope she wasn't too discouraged her first time.

After more apartment cleaning (we've removed all holiday vestiges now), we made up a grocery list. Since January is officially Buy Nothing But Essentials month, we decided to treat ourselves to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods (since we will need quality food to stop us from eating at restaurants), but we changed our plans to Trader Joe's and Dierberg's (so Porkchop could pick up a sugar-cereal and Jell-O).

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I'm frustrated and agitated by the grocery store situation in St. Louis.

Well, after we found Blue Sky orange creme soda at Dierberg's, I said to Porkchop, I like Dierberg's, and then I started to cry a little. In the Dierberg's natural foods aisle.

It is such a relief to be able to purchase all items at one store. I guess I should try to be more European and purchase food items several times a week at multiple stores, but I can't! Not when I have to drive so far in between places. Dierberg's is a little bit more expensive, but I think it might be worth it. I mean, we don't have to go there all the time, maybe just every few weeks.

Suzi came over for dinner Sunday night. We had Parrano cheese (yum!) and grapes for before dinner snacking. Dinner itself was porkchops with sage-cider-cream sauce and roasted potatoes. After eating, we played a few hands of rummy, and then Suzi left for other New Year's Eve destinations.

Porkchop and I continued to play cards for the night, taking breaks for ice cream and drinks. Unfortunately, I was too sugared out from my fudge brownie sundae to thoroughly enjoy the moscato d'asti. Maybe I will drink more of it tonight. It's too lovely for it to go to waste (and it cost $20).

Porkchop and I were both secretly freaked out last night from the celebratory gunshots. I think we've read too much about stray bullets killing people sitting in their houses.

Today
New Year's Day started out well with us purchasing plane tickets for April and going on a walk in Tower Grove Park. It was there that the new year went downhill.

But here are I am early in our walk:



So, Tower Grove has some work out stations scattered throughout the park. The wooden ones are in a bit of disrepair, but the metal ones are still just fine. In the fall, we played some on the rings. This time, we saw the parallel bars and stopped by for funsies.

After Porkchop did her bit, I stepped up and swung back and forth a couple of times. I was going to try to walk the length of the bars - you know how you can swing your body side-to-side and travel the length of the bars? - but I decided against it once I started trying. The handwarmers I was wearing were messing me up, and things weren't quite right.

I don't know what happened next. My theory is that my handwarmers caused my hands and arms to stay too far behind my torso, which then caused my torso to tip forward, my legs to swing up, and me to face-plant in the ground below.

Yes, I fell while playing on parallel bars at the park. I remember my chest hitting the ground, hearing Porkchop yell Shit!, and then my face smashing into the dirt (thankfully dirt). But, I don't remember why this happened. Crazy.

Porkchop helped me up and brushed the clumps of dirt off my face while I spit dirt out of my mouth and cried. After the numbness wore off my nose, I realized it didn't hurt so much. I managed to walk away with a few little cuts on my chin and nose (inside and outside my nose) and damaged dignity.

Murrrr.

Here I am when we arrived back at the apartment:



Porkchop said she wished she could have taken a picture earlier, when I still had dirt clumps on my face and was crying.

When we got back to the apartment, Porkchop washed the dirt off my face and cleaned my cuts with alcohol (ow!). After I took a long shower, Porkchop gave me a little massage. I'm a bit sore from the impact, and I think I'll have a headache for a while.

And did I mention the damaged dignity?

Here is Porkchop's depiction of what she saw happen:



Stupid 2007.

I am staying inside for the rest of the day. I might knit, but I'm worried that I will impale myself on my needles.

Happy New Year!