Dinner with the parents

Last night, Thom and I had dinner with my parents and brother, celebrating Mother's Day a little late. We went to a local Italian restaurant that we've eaten at several times. My parents are a little fussy when it comes to restaurants... my dad only eats American, Italian, and Mexican foods, so we've automatically ruled out a whole bunch of places already. They don't like loud places, or crowded ones, and strongly prefer places that take reservations. Luckily, this restaurant fits the bill, and we've eaten there several times.

So, I called during the week and made a reservation for 6:30pm and asked for a particular table, which they reserved for us. When we got to the restaurant, we were barely acknowledged by the hostess, who kept answering the phone and going back into the kitchen. Finally she greeted us, but our table wasn't ready. After 5 or 10 minutes, we asked for another table, which we got. This was just the beginning! We had a rude waiter. My mother had to order 3 different entrees before she found one that was available tonight. (Mind you, her first two choices were chicken parmagiana and eggplant parmagiana, which are fairly standard Italian dishes). Then, the waiter gave her a hard time because she needed some time to make an alternate selection when the first two weren't available. The butter dish had used containers of butter in in. My father got a dirty bread plate. My mother's glass had a chip in it ... I'm not sure that my dad will be going back there again. Hopefully, we'll give it one more try, since I like the place and it's convenient!

Now for the knitting related content ...

My mom wore her Red Sox sweater and I was able to get a photo! Here is a shot of her and my dad in our apartment --


I was hoping to get some close-ups, especially of the Sox logo, but she didn't want to take it off. I guess I'll have to try again later! The logo was my first attempt at intarsia, and I think it came out well! Especially since I designed the logo myself (well, I guess "design" isn't the right word -- I charted it myself from the "B" logo that everyone knows).

Sweater specs:
Pattern: My own. I used the Ann Budd Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns as a starting point, and adjusted to get the specific fit my mother requested. I charted the logo on some knitter's graph paper that I got from this site
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (main color: Wolverine Blue, accents in Barn Red and Cotton Ball, I think).
Gauge: 5.25 sts/in and I forget how many rows!

Overall, I was very happy with the end results. My mom loves it and has worn it about three times this week, I think! I plan to use this yarn for a sweater for me sometime...