I'm back from what I really thought would be the weekend from hell. My mother ran the Danskin Triathlon in Pleasant Prairie this weekend. It was my race last year. I had drummed up a bunch of women who were interested in the race and they all dropped out - EVERY ONE!! So, my mother got on the bandwagon and started training last October. She took swimming lessons. She doesn't like to get her face wet - even in the shower, so this was a really big step for her.

Then I had surgery in February and pretty much stopped doing anything. Mom, never the quitter, decided she was going to do the race anyway and so I signed on as moral support. Even though it killed me that I couldn't do the race. Anyway, I survived and was there at every start and stop during the race. When she came out of the water - that was me shouting. Then when she made it through her first transition, I was there with the camera, and shouting. Saw her coming out of the race start and I told her she looked good (my throat hurt from all the shouting at this point). She finished in 1:53:42 - pretty damn good for a 61-year-young (that's for you mom) woman with asthma and arthritis.

Soooo, because we were in Wisconsin (all the places in Pleasant Prairie were full) a quick check of the phone book came up with Barbara's on Main in Racine. What a lovely shop! We got lost on our way in and I called Barbara. She was a very pleasant woman who gave me directions on the spot (good ones too) and were at her doorstep in less than 5 minutes. Here's one of the things I bought



It's Aurora Melange by Karabella Yarns. I'm an orange freak and I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it. It's 100% extrafine merino and that swatch is 36 stitches on US 7 and it's about 5 inches wide. I only bought 1 skein (in addition to a skein of 100% rayon from Nepal and 2 skeins of a beautiful forest green Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals). I really wanted more, but as I have a to do list as long as my arm I couldn't justify more. If you're in Racine, stop by Barbara's. She's making plans to move very soon, but not that far away from the shop she's in now. A small shop, but she had lovely, lovely yarns. A personal bonus was that she was really nice! A lot of yarn shop owners have cool stores, but if they're not in it for the people factor - I don't consider the store a nice one.

Now, if you know me, you'll wonder why personal service is so important (if I could get away with it, I'd live in a cave with nothing more than a computer for company). I think if you're going to be the proprietor of a store, you should at least have the temperament to be nice to people. I will not shop in a place with the greatest yarn if I don't feel welcome for anything but my money. At least make the attempt!

By the way, my order from Woodland Woolworks came. I petted the skeins for a good long time last night. I'll have to snag the camera and take a picture. I made some wonderful color choices just by talking to the people on the phone. (See another extremely nice group of people.) Lucky, lucky me!!!