limited success

unfortunately, in order to make the 10pm train back (which, for a couple of reasons, ended up being far preferable to the 0300 train, including the fact that it turned out the luggage check room at union station closed at 10pm, and one of us would have to go get the luggage anyways), we bailed after 5.5 hours of a 6.5 hour line. the public viewing, which was supposed to start at 6pm, ran late due to a delay in the ceremonies (and a delay in the arrival of the guest of honor). it's probable that if we had done things a bit differently we would have made it in, but hindsight is annoying like that.

on the other hand, it was a gorgeous day for wandering around the mall museum hopping. and we cheered a bunch of runners in the marine corps marathon. the wheelchairs used by the wheelchair racers were substantially different looking than the racing wheelchairs i've seen in the boston marathon, which has me wondering if it's a different set of design requirements for a comparatively level marathon like the marine corps one vs a very hilly marathon like boston.

and being part of the crowd in line was pretty amazing. one couple we were talking to had driven 15 hours from outside of houston to be there. grandmothers with their grandchildren, parents with babies, very old men and women in wheelchairs, mostly black, but quite a few white and white-looking folks besides us. everyone there to pay their respects. i looked around at all the kids and thought "yeah, the next time you have to write a report in school about rosa parks, you'll mention how you walked past her plain casket and saw it sitting in the middle of the capitol rotunda, where abraham lincoln was laid out."

hey, knitters

have you seen youknitwhat?

i just added this to the "guilty pleasures" category of my bloglines aggregator.