Happy Friday the 13th!

  Tomorrow is the big Japanese Cherry Blossom festival in Washington DC.  I went once many years ago and while it was fun, I also felt it was too crowded to want to do again.  In previous years I usually had to work on Saturday, so it didn't really matter, but this year I have it off.  I know a few people who are going and I hope they have fun.
  Another good thing about this year is that it looks like the trees will still have flowers on them.  Most years the blossoms have come and gone before the festival and a few times they don't bloom until after it.  I always feel bad for people who plan their trip around the big weekend since they rarely get to see them.

  I also don't have to go all the way into DC to even see some cherry blossoms.  A few of my neighbors have some white blossom trees.  I personally like the pink ones better, but if I really want to see those then I just have to hop onto the Metro.

  I had planned on knitting all day, but Bill's cousin was coming into town and was going to stay with us for the weekend.  Instead of getting closer to the end of the blue sweater I spent some time cleaning the house.  The guest bed room got new sheets and vacuumed.  I also mopped the guest bathroom with my Swiffer.  I didn't read the back of the all-purpose cleaner I recently picked up and so I didn't know I had to rinse it off the area I cleaned.  I just happened to glance at the back later and notice this fact.  I wondered what would happen if I didn't rinse it but found out that on tile it leaves a tacky feel.  It was also showing all my footprints, so I had to rinse it.  It was really weird when I was going back over it and the residue started to foam up again.

  Later in the day Krissy came over because she was nervous about something I wanted to do with her.  I wanted to do the Grub for Good Fun-Run 5k, but I didn't want to do it alone.  She was nervous that she wouldn't be able to finish it.  The website says that all fitness levels are welcome and that it is untimed.
  We decided it would be a good idea to do a trail run of our walk.  We laced up our sneakers and headed out.  I set a timer so we could see how long it took us.  I had it in my purse so I couldn't see the time, I figured we would just walk and see how we do.  We walked, we took water breaks, and even smelled some good food smells.  We got back and felt pretty good about how we did.
  I had figured that we had about two hours as our max time if we wanted to finish the 5K and still get to have some snacks.  When I looked at the time, we had finished in 1 hour 21 minutes.  That means we could have walked even slower or taken more breaks and still be within the time.  She is a lot less worried and a lot more pumped about it now.

Never Ending Blue Sweater.

  I had been knitting along on the blue sweater and had gotten to the point where I should be dividing for the under arms and finally deciding what I wanted to do about the sleeves.  I took a look at it and realized that since I used stockinette that there was a good chance that the off the shoulder design would want to just fall off the shoulders and keep going.  I then took all the stockinette out on March 28th and was pretty much back to where it was when I first found it.  Since it also seemed a bit short I also decided to do two plain rows between my increase rows instead of the one I went with on the first round.
  It then became my main project because I wanted to get past most of the increases before our trip because I didn't want to have to worry about keeping track of what row I was on in the car when I was also trying to navigate.
  I got enough done to be able to see where I needed to be, but I didn't get all the way to the under arm area.  It took me until March 2nd until I was able to bind off for the cap sleeves and cast back on for the under arm area.  I decided to do a cap sleeve because one of my friends recently posted a sweater she finished with cap sleeves and I thought it was really cute.  I'm also getting more and more anxious for this project to be done.
  I wanted to do some ribbing so it won't fall off the person trying to wear it, and I wanted to keep using the ribbing on the body so it has a good chance of fitting someone without having to try and find the perfect person for it.  The gauge is a bit tight and it didn't have the same stretch most knits have.  This means that it is boring enough that I want it to be finished, but I have to pay some attention to it so I don't accidentally start just doing stockinette.
  I've kept it as my main project everywhere because I really want to get to the green leafy project.  I'm really excited to start that, even though I haven't done all the math needed quite yet.

  My friends know that I both like makeup and donating things to various charities.  I've been linked to the chicken sweaters before and things like this.  It was really interesting when I got linked to Wands for Wildlife.  This was also amusing because I had recently recorded a video for YouTube on items I have that still have product in them, but are too old to be used any more.  Now I have something to do with all those mascara tubes I was holding on to for no good reason.

  I've gone back to cleaning my house.  I took a bit of a break because I was trying to power though the sweater.  Don't worry, I didn't neglect anything, I just didn't go through any of my random bags of craft items that need to be put away.  I'm now back on it and found these.  They were donated from the Monday-Group and I really liked the pattern.

  Does it count as cleaning if I eat these?  A packet of Scottish Shortbread Fingers by Brake Brothers Ldt, and a Belgian Biscuit by Speculoos.  I keep finding my bag of goodies from Scotland and then misplacing it.  I am not overly picky about how shortbread tastes and I like this one.  The Belgian Biscuit is pretty gingery and nice and crisp.  I like both of these and I'm glad I snagged them from the various hotels.  I also like how European nutrition labels had any allergens in bold and tell you at the bottom if the food can be eaten by vegetarians or vegans without the person having to look at every ingredient.

Project Pan List:

Regular Items:

• Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque
• e.l.f. Cosmetics Eye Refresh Eye Cream
• NYX HD Eye Primer
• Kat von D Lock-It Primer (sample size)
• Bare Minerals Prime Time Foundation Primer
• Pur Minerals Correcting Primer
• Dr. Brandt Pore No More Primer
• Milani Moisture Lock Lip Treatment
• NYC City Proof 24HR Eyeliner in Dark Brown
• Maybelline Color Tattoo in Shimmering Sea
• e.l.f. Cosmetics Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted
• Elizabeth Mott Whatup Beaches Matte Bronzer (sample size)
• Pond's Luminous Finish BB+ in Light
• NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Milan
• NYC Ultra Last Lipwear in 416 Berry Rich 
• Bath & Body Works Sweet Pea Body Mist (travel size) 

Gimme Items:

• Origins Grapefruit Body Souffle (sample size)
• Origins Mega Defense SPF 45 (sample size)
• Origins mystery moisturizer (sample size)
• e.l.f. Cosmetics Eye Primer
• Cover Girl Perfect Point Plus in Espresso - 3/15
• Benefit They're Real Mascara (sample size)
• Revlon PhotoReady Powder in Fair/Light - 4/9
• Skin 79 Gold BB Cream (sample size)
• YSL Black Opium Perfume (sample size) - 3/5
• Balenciaga Floraboranica Perfume (sample size) - 3/17 (given away)

Day 3: Some Time At The Zoo

  Check-out wasn't until noon, so we planned on sleeping in.  For some reason, our fire alarm went off twice at nine, so that didn't work out for us.  The beds and pillows were so soft though, so the sleep we did get was really good.

  This place is right next to the amusement park.  You can even buy a ticket that will let you go to both.  I wonder what the animals think of all the screaming they hear from the roller-coasters.

  These roseate spoonbills were the first animals I saw when we walked in.  The one on the left kept stopping what it was in the middle of when I walked over and watched me as I took pictures of it both times I walked over.  It didn't do that for anyone else.  They were so cute, I wanted to take one home with me.

  I didn't know that armadillos like snuggling so much.  Soon after I took this picture the one on the left needed to get more comfortable.  First he rolled onto his stomach and then started scooting forward while digging some.  It was really cute to watch and made me wish I could take one home with me.

  Most of the prairie dogs were probably asleep, but two were on watch.  This one was the first to sound an alarm if one of the vultures would glide a bit too low.  There were also some moments with a staring contest or two between him and a zoo goer.

  I've always thought that turkeys are both really pretty and kind of scary.  They are just so large and menacing looking.  Their feathers are also amazing colors for mostly just looking black.  One of the males even puffed up a few times so we could see that typical turkey shape we think of when we think of turkeys.

  They didn't have an enclosure for squirrels, but they were everywhere.  This little guy was hamming it up when I finished taking pictures of the turkeys and noticed him.  He was even within five feet of me when I took this picture.  He even adjusted once so I could get a picture of his good side.

  The first time we walked through the nocturnal enclosure almost everyone was asleep.  We wanted to see if we could get a better view of the ocelot so we circled back before we left.  Everyone but the ocelot was awake and moving around.  The ringtail melted my heart.  Look at those giant eyes and fluffy tail.  She was another one I wanted to take home with me.

  While we were there a little girl was getting her own private egg hunt.  Mom would duck into one of the enclosed areas, put an egg or two and then they would let her look.  The found eggs would go into Dad's hoodie until they were snuck out to be found again.

  What is this?  It looks like one animal has snuck home with me in my bag!  Krissy saw me eyeing the last grey bunny in the gift shop when we first walked in.  She then bought me my little Easter Bunny.  I'm so happy!  I'm thinking of naming her Freya since it is also April Fool's Day today.  If you don't get the correlation, the name Freya is tied with the number one in numerology.
  I got more knitting done on the way back, but not as much as I thought I would be.  It was nice and sunny out, so I kept getting distracted by the sites along the way.  I'm at the point where I will be casting off for the cap sleeves and then casting on for the under arm area.