(Virtually) Fly Me To The.........

This weekend's adventure involved a virtual trip to the moon hosted by a knitting designer and teacher, with classes by other knitting designers and teachers on topics such as:

• How to Wrap The Moon in Green Cheese: An Intro to Shawl Design
• Aliens Like to Knit Too!  Patterning with Beads (featuring an alien face design)
• Knitting a Moonscape:  Craters and Dunes (two classes)
• It's Not Rocket Science:  Math for Knitters
• Have Some Tang:  Out Of This World Stitch Patterns
• Countdown Sequence:  Three Knitted Shawls
• Moon Pie Magic:  Stitches to Accentuate Striping Yarn

Interestingly, we had an actual rocket scientist from JPL attending the weekend as one of the students.

We also had two cooking sessions: Preparing pizza dough on Friday night, letting it rest in the refrigerator until the next day (which improves the flavour), then using it to make pizza or crescent-moon-shaped calzones.  This is mine:

A slight blow-through of cheese in a vent.

Filling was onions, summer squash, and zucchini, sautéed in olive oil with some herbs, and shredded mozzarella cheese.  I sprinkled some on top and should have added it partway through the baking so it wouldn't be as toasty.  And I'd been a bit stressed trying to figure out how to bake it because I haven't yet unearthed a baking sheet, although I do have a couple Pyrex® baking pans unpacked.  Then my mind wandered to pizza stones and I remember unpacking a Pampered Chef® stone pan that I'd purchased during a friend's party thinking it might be a useful thing someday.  I pulled it out of the box (yes, never used), gave it a quick wash, put it into the oven while it preheated, and it was a perfect solution.

The final result was quite tasty and I have dough in the freezer to use later this week.  After we got the dough started on Friday we had a special lecture from Sky and Telescope's contributing editor Bob King, who told us "The Amazing Things You Never Knew About the Nearest Alien World".  OK, some of us knew at least some of what he discussed, but it was fascinating to listen to him, and if we'd had time another half-hour would definitely have been welcome.

I did not get to take all the classes 'live' due to work on Friday and going to see "Porgy and Bess" today, but they were recorded and I will catch up later.  The opera was a phenomenal production, amazing singers and staging, and there was a special callout for the lighting designer whose work really enhanced the scenes.

This week we shouldn't have torrential rains, so I hope to get out and catch up a bit on the geocaching challenges.

[Of course, I borrowed the title of this post from 'The Chairman'.  And the pizza option made me think of a song by one of his friends.  Did you think similarly?]