ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

I know that I have mentioned more than once that our house in Heidelberg is on top of a hill. There are two ways up to the house, and correspondingly – two ways from the terrace to the street level parking.

There is a multi-section flight of stairs totally 60 in number from the street, through the front gate and along the house on the right side of the property. As long as it is not pouring rain or knee deep in snow, climbing the stairs any time of day doesn’t seem to be a problem. There are the stairs, there are several landings on the way up and there are railings. I know where those steps are and going up them can be done on auto pilot. It is fairly easy to anticipate the next step.

Coming back home from dropping off friends this evening I once again noticed the outdoor lighten phenomena. Going up the stairs, the lights are on the left and shine down and across the stairs throwing the steps into sharp relief. I can see where I am going.

Leaving the house, which translates to going down the stairs is a completely different issue. Those lights are on my right side going down the stairs. They are shining down the stairs, if one is willing to dignify those pale few lumens as outdoor lighting. The dark yellow-orange glow from the lamps looks malevolent; failing to provide my eyes the clues needed for a three dimensional vision of the steps. I descend slowly and carefully, unable to distinguish the edge of the step visually from the one directly below. Each flight appears flat to my eyes. Those last few steps before the gate are the most treacherous curving to the right while absent the security of a railing.

Now, since the lights had been on for the 15 minutes I had been gone I am be willing to believe that these evil lights are of the new energy saving kind which take a while to warm up and provide light. Since this time I didn’t turn them off and back on in a futile attempt to decrease the number of times we have to spend a day fighting the fixtures to replace burned out bulbs.

Perhaps I am more dark adapted on return? But really, I think it is a sad but safe conclusion that I am getting older and just don’t see as well.

It seems like a good excuse anyway. It explains the challenge of reading menus, difficulty in locating food on the plate, or attempting knitting in the average evening restaurant. It also provides a rationale for me stumbling through the house at night, not seeing the stuff that is lying there just waiting for the opportunity to maim me.

Shall we skip over the part about this not being any different now than when we bought the house in 2001? Or that I have been complaining about restaurants for years?

Nah – I am just looking for an excuse to explain those dropped stitches in the shawl that came to the Saturday afternoon Stricktreff at Red.

I returned back to Germany *last* week and should be completely over my confusion but it seems that it is not so. Yesterday I never was sure what day it was (my partners here at the house managed to point me in the right direction at the right time) and I spent time knitting.

Today, I kept thinking it was Friday especially after I woke to an email from George saying he was on a plane. For whatever reason, I was sure that it was Friday he was to return home. Since he would be home this morning that meant it obviously must mean it was Friday.

This is in the face of my Thursday morning knitting group, The Mole having a doctors appointment and The Eldest a dental appointment. All of which were clearly marked on calenders as occurring on Thurs.

Go figure.

Meanwhile – I have made significant progress on both knitting and reading. Promise photos for tomorrow….

rather than knitting over the weekend. A variety of books, not two things in the same genre. Well, ok, sort of in different sub-genres anyway:

1) Ghost Story – Jim Butcher. The most recent Harry Dresen novel featuring Harry as a soul trying to put right the mess (power vacuum) caused by his complete annihilation of the Red Court. As a Soul? Well, you see, he was murdered immediately afterwards. Sent back to find his murderer, he gets a good look at havoc, unhappy changes and starts to think …

2) The Alloy of Law – Brandon Sanderson. Steampunk in another world -or maybe the Wild West. It doesn’t matter. Some magical talents, a young (well, I think 42 is young) man who has to return home to salvage the family states and fortunes, train robberies and Victorian formalities. Whats not to like?

3) You’ve Got Murder - Karen Tabke & Edie Ramer which I picked up when it was free on Amazon. A on-going writers group picks up a new critique partner and then things begin to unravel. Told completely in email between the characters format (except for the occasional SMS or IM), the authors have done an excellent and credible job of character development. There are enough plots, subplots and twists to keep the story moving along at a fun clip.

4) It’s a Dog’s Life – Dale Mayer. Quick, sweet. Newly employed as an admin in her neighborhood vet practice, the main character discovers that she is not insane, she just hears the occasional dog mentally talking to her. Getting her life together, learning the new job and … well I would hate to spoil the rest.  Again – I picked this one up for free.

5) Taming Mad Max – Theresa Ragan. Couple of friends, toss in some pro football players and let the opinions (and fur) fly. Again, I pulled it when it was free.

6) The Adventures of a Love Investigator – Barbara Silkstone. Divorced and convinced that neither men (nor women) have a clue about love, commitment and relationships – Ms Silkstone sets out to interview a 1000 men (in a year) and see what men [think] about love and relationships. What follows is a pretty funny set of stories drawn from the 526 men she interviewed over the next six years. Some of the men clearly know who they are and their share in the relationship. Others – well it is pretty obvious that there are men (and women) that are obviously not married for a reason. Again – it was free.

7) Dragon Blues – Edie Ramer. A dragon will always defend his horde, won’t he? Even after centuries, even when being hunted for his “secret for prolonged life.” This is a nice urban fantasy and NO vampires. I got it for free. It is now a whopping $0.99.

8) The Care and Feeding of Rubber Chickens. Scott William Carter. Yes, it is a joke – the manual (which includes the first part of the novel.) He’s whacked – and it is pretty funny, especially if you never thought about one as a pet – or when they are actually manufactured.

9) Hidden Summit – Robyn Carr.

Oh, I take it back – I have finished a few more rows on my rainbow jacket. Tomorrow it is back to the audiobooks and knitting.

it is dark along the A6 as I head for home. The rain helps obscure the road leaving me little doubt that the speed limit in round red lights overhead of 130 is a bit excessive. Neither the trucks nor I are going anywhere near that fast as we head in the direction of Mannheim hoping for as little problem on the journey as possible.

Certainly we don’t want the current issue of the A66 near Wiesbaden where someone is driving down the wrong side of the road. But I can see how it could happen, in the dark where there is no traffic and the road is pitch black. There are certainly no lights along the autobahn to give you an idea of direction. Nothing. Not like in Belgium or the Netherlands where the gleam of yellow energy saving lights reflect like cat’s eyes from over the road. Nor is there the orangish glare common to some of the other major roads elsewhere on the continent.

No, Germany can remain proud of its decision to not waste energy on lighting major roads which normally do not have speed limits. Those same roads, when it is dark and the fog swirls up from the fields covering the roads and obscuring that place, just a soccer field ahead of you where there was (wasn’t there?) a rather large tanker just a minute ago.

The drive was long, dark and I arrived home exhausted from a day of teaching ATLS in Landstuhl.

I have a full tank of gas and a promise that I don’t need to be there before 0900 in the morning which is good because I am more than brain fried having left home at 0530 this morning.

The first day back from anywhere, and there is catching up to do. I unpacked yarn (of course I bought yarn on this trip) and did laundry. Convinced the rest of the family to take out garbage, sort and clean, run errands and pick up the mail.

note – with the exception of the alpaca (and the starry sky) – the rest were close-outs and will be used for gifts.

I am sheepy -

or is that sleepy?

The good thing about catching a plane at 1600 on a Chicago afternoon is that the flight – around 8 hours – gets in about midnight (biological time) where it is supposed to be morning at the landing place (add in the seven hours of time zone change).

I was surprised not to be more confused than I was for the rest of the day.

So far I have managed to

• Photo’s the new additions to the stash (which also meant finding the power adapter, charging a the camera battery and down loading 427 pictures on my powershot (I have no clue who it was that got married, or the identity of the boy with the bubbles or took the photos. Family? Anyone?)
• emptied suitcases.
• Get the boy to take out trash, bio and recycle (some of it more than one container), start on his room and clean the downstairs bathroom as well as make a trip down to the cobbler to recover repaired shoes
• picked up a refill at the pharmacy and found that the appointment George had for the morning wasn’t on the books (no clue why someone called me to schedule something then forgot to enter it but hey – this works. Stopping up stairs to say hi to Denise and met this dude (Viet Nam Vet and guru of dealing with the VA) who provided me some extremely useful information about Chapter 35 (which is not the same, and doesn’t overlap with Post 9-11 GI Bill). Who was it that said money that helps pay for kids education is good?
• cleaned out the fridge (once again, stuff had died in there while I was gone. I think they all just leave it for me so that I will feel useful).

I thought about knitting – but then decided that I really needed sleep. The morning will be soon enough to finish up this scarf which has grown by more than a dozen pattern repeats and get it in the mail to Chicago.

There is something about driving to an airport knowing that you are going home that makes me want to go just that little bit faster. Getting through the rental car drop off was not an issue, nor was catching the shuttle bus to the Terminal.

Of course, Lufthansa’s counter (they only have a couple of flights a day from Chicago – the rest are all code share operated by United) didn’t open for a couple of hours. Gave me plenty of time to knit. That scarf seemed a bit short. Since I still had another skein of yarn, it seemed most sensible to add another 30-40 cm to the length figuring I can mail it to her this coming week.

United doesn’t recognize any frequent anything card below Senator Class of other airlines, so I got to relax in a restaurant drinking a cappuccino and deciding that it is nicer to fly from SF or NYC. Paying United for the privilege of their lounge for a couple of hours just didn’t make any sense. (Does it also mean that for a price, just about anything is for sale?)

The flight – a 747 – had only ~ 80 in economy. I had noted that the plane seemed fairly empty when I did the online check in. As a result I had moved my seating from a section with a lot of people to the back of the plane claiming a row of three all to myself. At check-in, the counter person confirmed that it was likely that there was going to be no one with in several rows.

Not a problem – sleep is good.

and of course, packing. It is not that I really have all that much to take home, it is I don’t want to leave the extra suitcase here. Good thing that my Frequent Traveler card with Lufthansa entitles me to the extra suitcase (and only a bejillion miles to go to reach Senator status).

Reading

I had mentioned the reading in the my first note this year. I am attempting to shift my reading to free sources as much as possible. It may stop me from spending as much on books (all formats) as I did last year. There is a lot of material free (B&N, Amazon, iTunes and even occasionally on Audible). In response, there was a wide variety of reading from all of you. Ron, for example answered -

What am I reading? Just finished the “Hunger Games” Series after Deb kept telling me I need to read them. I could not put it down, 3 books in 7 days, over 2000 pages. Well written. Interesting fiction with socioeconomic subtext about distribution of resources (food) in American future at some distant point yet to come. It is not deep, but it will grab your attention and hold it. It reads like an ancient Roman story set in the future… food and blood sport used as tools to control the masses. Play the colonies against each other for the good the the empire. I am probably going to read them again to see if I missed anything… It is about to be released as a single movie, that has a big list of stars in the key characters.

These are books in which I, to this point, have had no interest. I had mostly heard teens talking about them. After being totally irritated by poorly written wizard stories and sparkly vampires, I had been ignoring YA fiction. Sounds like these might actually have some redeeming worth and I might reconsider.

Ignoring all those books out there which fall into the SVS group (stupid vampire stories), I have been listening to mostly mysteries and the occasional non-fiction.

For something completely different in non-fiction, I would recommend “Looking through a Keyhole” a memoir by Julia Spencer. With sharp, clear prose Ms Spencer unflinchingly interweaves her past into her present situation. Having inherited retinitis pigmentosa, she must come to grips with going blind; changing her life, reclaiming independence and finding her place in the world. This is also a story of Irene – a golden lab – who makes the difference. Most of us have issues with trust, wanting to do things for ourselves. Having to define relationships, especially in one’s seventies is really pretty impressive. I don’t know how the book would read – I have it in audio (and at $3.95 it is cheaper than print) and the narrator is awesome.

Otherwise, have deleted a number of free books, read a couple of so-so urban fantasies and am working my way through some of the early Sharon McCone books by Marcia Muller (again, Audible has nice sales).

Knitting

One does not want the daughter of a knitter to get cold. Someone who has moved to Chicago didn’t have a decent warm neck scarf. So, I knit her a scarf

Since this was not a really exciting day (we went out and bought pj’s) I thought it was about time to share pictures of the place. Not exactly all set up or organized pictures since these were taken a few days ago, but still they are pictures.

Exposed brick walls, hard wood floors, a lot of built in storage and, for some reason, a mirror backing on the interior partial wall which encloses off a den space. The Gwen is thrilled at having another dog in the place with her but has not yet figured out why that golden retriever won’t share toys and seems to do exactly the same as her, even dropping things.

Which means that after all that hard work, Gwen has found a comfortable location out of the way, underneath the breakfast bar in which to tuck herself.

Moving on – walking into the place right now you get a lovely expanse of window, wall, polished floors and open space.

The kitchen area is on the left hand wall as you enter, once past the small coat closet and the two utility cupboards.

I didn’t photo the den space, the bathroom or the built in storage along the hall going down the right hand hall toward the sleeping space. Courtesy of some friends (college roommate of George’s, truth be told) we have been sleeping on a double layer full size air bed for the last few days.

.

And then I mentioned the bedroom closet?

Some of us are organized, and others less so. At home I have gotten to the point where I try to be very careful about wallet and keys since it annoys me, much less everyone else when leaving the house turns into a large production.

There was a lot of snow today and ice on the roads. Now 19F (about -10C) doesn’t bother me all that much since growing up in Minnesota teaches you about cold weather, preparedness and the value of hats and gloves. We even started the day with a plan. Get it together (have breakfast, get stuff together, get the dog out and get into the car), head to Evanston to pick up my cousin’s son (now, technically he is also a cousin. If I want the clear relationship, I ask Beverley who is an expert on these kinds of things. Never the less, even though he is the son of my first cousin, I think of him as a nephew since he is the same age as my youngest.) before proceeding out to Deerfield to visit my other first cousin’s son.

I have mentioned that our family is small, right? Like I only have two first cousin’s (only one of which has children)?

Anyway, we headed up Lakeshore Drive, went turned right, drove a number of miles. Gertrude behaved herself just fine and got us to where we needed to go.

After a lovely day and evening, she even got us home and directed us to get off I94 at the Taylor Street/Roosevelt exit which puts us within five blocks of where we needed to go.

If my camera battery wasn’t being snarky at the moment, I would show you the 30+cm of scarf I started taken from Radical Change since Ms Soprano doesn’t have much in the way of decent scarves and the wind can be a bit cold here.

Oh, the bit about the pockets? I had been in possession of the second set of apartment keys since the beginning of the week and for whatever reason hadn’t seen them in days. I had taken apart the suitcases, backpacks and purses as well as check counter tops, floors and outerwear. What I had forgotten was the blazer neatly hung in the closet. The one which had bulge in the pocket when I donned it this morning.

Figuring Ms Soprano needed a day to work on the place without her mother hanging out – I set off to find the local yarn store.

This was after spending time at Dominick’s. What, you may ask, is Dominick’s? Think Safeway (well, it is part of the Safeway family). Large, really large grocery store complete with loyalty program, nice people at the cash register, good produce and a manager who is out talking to customers and bagging groceries rather than hiding in an office. We spent money – she now has staples, spices and food.

Back to the yarn expedition. I had noted (isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing?) there was a yarn store on W Polk, which should be close, that had a group meeting for lunch on Thursdays.

I hiked up Wabash, cut over to State Street and finally figured out (with the snow coming down in my face and my toes getting cold) that I had walked too far when I got to Washington. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Chicago has streets named for Presidents. What I don’t remember from the 5th Grade is the order of the presidents after Washington. Hello? Like I need this information because? It would be also useful to know that not all East-West streets are through streets.

You know what is coming next don’t you? Not being a complete fool, I headed down into one of the Blue Line entrances, found the map on the wall which told me I still had four blocks further south to head. Brilliant – right where it was supposed to be – there it was on W Polk.

Spent a lovely noontime and early afternoon with Vicky (the owner) and other knitters who dropped in.

I didn’t work on the After Hours Shawl

since I didn’t want to knit completely from memory.

Instead I managed to get from here

to here

on the cowl which I started on the flight over.

Obviously, my trip back to the apartment was much quicker than the one on the way over.

It seems to me that my daughter could live her entire life within a mile radius of the apartment. The apartment takes care of the basics – shelter, place to sleep/laundry/shower/study/entertain/lcook/eave the dog during the day.

Columbia College falls within that mile as does the Public Library. Added to that she can get to a Dominick’s (Safeway), Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Jewel Osco (same corporate parent as Giant) within easy walk. Multiple Starbucks abound along with any fast food you could want. Then there is Target, multiple movie theaters, parks, museums and sports stadiums. The L is only two blocks away at Roosevelt where she can connect with the Red, Blue and Orange lines.

If you want fancy shops, just head over to State Street (one block west) and walk north. Michigan Avenue is a block east. Same thing – head a few blocks north and you are in the center of everything.

All of this was running through my mind as I was headed back to the city. It seems that accidents and slow downs are all too common. Gertrude, my friendly (?) GPS, directed me off the Kennedy when it looked like more than an hour delay. Heading across multiple streets wasn’t all that bad and following the directions got me back on the I-90 just as the traffic was starting to move.

I have no clue as to why it directed me off at Ohio. In any case I will never do that again. There is a problem with being dropped off in the middle of skyscrapers – you can lose satellite feed. If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where to go next. Given that all Chicago drivers are insane, stopping was totally and completely out of the question. Without a clue I kept on driving.

Oh – State Street! I know State Street and it only took me three blocks to figure out that I was driving in the wrong direction. After that it was a matter of getting turned around and heading back south. Just about two blocks from 13th and Wabash Gertrude kicks back in and tries to give me directions.

Do you think I listened to her?

Ms Soprano is off at orientation.

I got to spend a fair amount of time at Hertz (O’Hare Airport) turning in the van and picking up a much smaller car. It wasn’t supposed to take very long. Except …
1) they were out of cars, so it was 45 minutes. Ok, I can live with that – I had my iPod and knitting. I also had a box of “stuff” that had been left in the van. Had not planned on leaving anything in the van. So there I sit with a box at my feet surrounded by all these elegantly dressed people with their fancy suitcases. Go figure, I just ignored them.
2) USAA forgot that I was in the US and bounced my credit card. Not a good time, glad I had a back up. Their excuse later was …. they sent me an email to request that I log on to answer their questions.

All of part two I had no clue about until end of the afternoon when I stopped in to some friends in order to get a fixed phone for an 800# call and to access email. Not like all of us always have email.

So, meanwhile, I get through Costco on a debit card (same account as the credit card) without difficulty. Go figure, I can’t.

Stopping by a friends I call USAA and they tell me about their wonderful attempts to thwart fraud on my account. I tell them about the ugliness of standing at the Hertz counter and having my credit card refused. They tell me about sending an email. I ask them why they would think I had email while traveling.

We both take a breath. I once again give them phone numbers, they once again apologize and assure me there should be no problems. Huh.

Heading back to Chicago. Have not heard from the daughter since we parted ways at her orientation. Didn’t put her number in my phone.

So I have just sent her an email with my number and asked her to call …….

The car is unloaded and I wiped out for the evening.

Gwen has more or less adjusted to the new location. She is not thrilled about boxes or being refused a place on the bed. But other than that, she is fine.

The other two of us (Nina and I) are another story – we still have a whole list of things to do and get.

She has orientation in the morning and I need to swap out the van for something a bit more reasonably priced.

Setting up a place to live from scratch for one of the off-spring transferring schools might be called a challenge. I have been leaving a lot out between the lines but have been called to task enough times in the last couple of days by everyone who has become confused. Seemed like the time to review the bidding.

Now, this past fall with Maus it wasn’t completely absurd. She was headed to Pratt, she was going to be living in the dorm and excellent friends in the city helped out going over and above anything rational to give us a hand. (At least that is what Mark and Deb did, from bailing us out of the airport, dropping off Miriam’s stuff at school, putting us up overnight and dropping us again at the airport the next morning). Then there were the shopping runs.

Transferring Ms Soprano to Columbia College in Chicago was made more challenging by Gwen. When you have a dog, you don’t live in the dorm which necessitates finding an apartment. It also means a drive from DC (where her stuff was) to Chicago because of the stuff and the dog. Staying in motels which are dog friendly makes sense, and staying with friend in the area for a couple of days also meets the common sense test when you have keys but a completely open and empty place.

Today we managed to accomplish some major tasks. We didn’t buy out Costco, but she should not be lacking for supplies for a long time. They kept a bit of my money in return.

And then we went 0-2 at Apple once again failing to be able to execute a phone contract. AT&T managed to unscrew the paperwork but it took long enough to see 1/2 football game and reassure myself that I have been missing absolutely nothing by not watching TV for years. For an encore we stopped at Target for the rest of the house hold basics (those things which you really don’t want to buy in case lots – vegetable peelers, can openers, pillows……)

What we haven’t really settled is the furniture. I think it shouldn’t be an emergency decision driven by not wanting to sleep on the floor. After attempting IKEA yesterday and spending a bit of time on-line today I have had my thoughts confirmed. Whatever we buy, Ms Soprano is going to have to live with for a long time. Which is the long way around of saying that we haven’t made any decisions at all.

Don remembered the air mattress which has been hiding in his closet for several years. Originally purchased for one of his sons heading out on a similar type adventure it has seen a lot of use. We hauled it out, pulled it from the bag and unrolled it. Carefully peeling off the two sheets which had been packaged in with the air mattress we opened it out on the floor, plugged it in and watched it start to fill. It wasn’t hard to figure out the setting for the intake value but it just didn’t seem to be filling. As I am standing on the far end, I feel a cool breeze on my ankles. Looking down, there is a gaping hole with printed directions to the right. Funny thing, there is an out flow as well as the intake.

Seems that if you want to effectively inflate this double decker charmer it really helps to close the valve.

We will arrive in Chicago this morning.

The plan is coordinated for us to get keys to the apartment followed by unloading the van. I figure that will give us a few hours to wander around the area before heading out toward the burbs. We are going to have to do some basic stocking. Even with gas and tolls, I have a feeling that downtown Chicago (if it is like most major cities) has higher prices for many items than you find a bit further out.

The plan – obviously – is to leave Ms Soprano stocked with the basics. We picked up dog food yesterday. As we drove over the last two days, we made lists of everything we would need to pick up (from laundry detergent and cleaning supplies and food) those things which have to be done (utilities, mail delivery) to making suer that she can find the school and the dog park (hey, when you own a golden retriever I am told that your priorities can change).

What I hadn’t counted on was the poor kid getting sick.

We found where we needed to be and met the lovely lady with the keys at 0900. I then left the daughter in the bathroom while I hauled a few things up from the car. Moved the car to the parking lot and hauled up a few more boxes all the while being very grateful that I had repacked theses boxes for me to carry. And that this round of bad back was no where as serious as the last time round the pain.

Shortly after noon everyone seemed stable enough to pack into the van and head out to one of the burbs. George it seems keeps track of just about everyone including a roommate from his sophomore year at Georgetown. Me? I have this huge floating gap (high school through FM residency) which is inhabited only by one person, Carmen, whose house I stayed on Tues.

So here we are in a real house for the rest of the day. Kid is too sick to go shopping, the Gwen is thrilled to be with people who think she is special and I am just relaxing. Furniture shopping is going to be done on line. For that matter, a lot of my life now seems to be on-line!

-Holly
Palatine, IL

don’t walk anywhere. Really. The whole place is automobile dependent.

Now, admittedly we are staying in a motel near the major freeway exchange just south of I-80/90. But sidewalks? Pedestrian lights?

Not a chance. I got more than a few strange looks as I attempted to cross Mississippi St, even when there was a light. You know the kind of traffic light I mean; the one where a person going straight ahead is definitely interfering with the right of drivers to turn right any old time they please regardless of traffic conditions.

I discovered all of this after we checked in. There was a mall within vision distance so I thought I would just take a nice hike over. Bad mistake! I managed to get there, but at risk of life and limb. After cruising around the mall for a while and not finding much of anything, I hiked back. Giving up, we took the car. This particular area of town strongly resembles Rockville Pike. Same malls, same store combinations only without a decent grocery store in sight.

In nearby Hobart we saw one housing development that had sidewalks. I am sure the only reason they were there was because the regional high school was across the street. Other than that – we saw nothing anywhere that looked like a town center, nor anywhere that anyone could safely walk.

After driving around for a while we finally found the Petco, the dog is now the proud owner of dog food, drinking bowls and (from the sale table) a green holiday frog that was on half price. I am not sure why I didn’t figure out before she delightedly showed me that it squeaked.

-Holly
Merrillville, IN

Fredrick, Hagerstown, Pittsburg, Youngtown and a lot of small tows whose names are unfamiliar. There are also those that I vaguely remember from driving the DC to Ft Drum route in 1990-1991.

Gwen wasn’t thrilled but rode in the back seat, the seat belt safely strapped through her harness unfairly limiting her movements (in her opinion). After her soft whining didn’t accomplish anything other than reprimands – she grudgingly gave in and napped between pit stops.

The weather has held so far, the temperatures right around freezing no matter which temperature scale you favor without precipitation. The traffic has not been heavy and I will say that there are definite advantages to toll roads over local driving with lost people and lots of stop lights. I am ignoring my back which is not particularly happy with long driving hours at a stretch which is the explanation for not pushing through in 1 day and getting this over.

We are staying at LaQuinta’s. First, an aside about the expensive and snooty hotels which are the main stay of the upper end business traveler. You know when you are in one of those places: there is fancy name small bottles of product in the bathrooms; they are over decorated and under heated; you are charged for breakfast served by an individual of any race with the mandatory French name tag; and, of course, you are charged for internet at a seriously overflated price per 24-hour period.

La Qunita’s, on the other hand, is your average US chain motor lodge along the by-ways and highways of the Interstate Highway system. Like it’s fellow chains – Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express – it features drive-up unload yourself service. The registration people have ordinary US names like Brenda, June, Ahmed, Maria, Kahl, and Vekesha. Friendly and accommodating, they let you check in a couple of hours early when you look exhausted. Some, like Brenda, are Army brats who are in the Jessup area because her mother retired out of Ft Meade a number of years ago. Other, like Ahmed, moved to the US as a child when his parents immigrated. June and her husband have been living in Ohio their entire lives and working at this particular location for over a decade.

Breakfast is included, the rooms are neat and scrupulously clean, the WiFi is free and breakfast is included. What is most important, they are pet friendly. The rules, which you sign on registration are clear and simple: keep the animal under control and out of food, exercise and pool areas; don’t leave it alone to create a fuss; clean up after it.

What is not to like?

LaQuinta Inn – Jessup, MD

Ms Soprano and the four footed blond arrived safe and sound.

George had driven them to the airport in Frankfurt this morning their time. Checking them in at his ticket counter (something about being that frequent a flyer means that they are willing to let him use the VIP lane to take care of family members even when he is not flying.

On my end, I had spent the morning repacking all of the boxes of her “stuff” which had been unceremoniously dropped off at Carmen’s. Condensing them down just by doing a more efficient job of packing wasn’t all that hard. Loading them into the van wasn’t even all that difficult.

The Hertz rental people were extremely nice and apologetic. They obviously had not expected the almost new van I had rented to start flashing a “maintain me and give me oil” light at me shortly after I left the airport. Certainly it made sense not to drive it to Chicago without relieving its anxiety. And, while I was at it, I got to swap for a van that was not all fancy electronics…. The very nice guys in the return yard moved the boxes for me, adjusted the seat and let me leave the loaded van there while I went and met the flight.

It might have been a pain to switch vans, but I didn’t have to pay for the extra fuel or parking while doing picking up the blonds so I probably came out ahead.

We hit the road for the first hotel. I am wiped, the daughter just finished up her emails and the four-footed one is bored.

George was kind to me this morning. Considering that my back is recovering slowly from my latest bit of stupidity (hint – if you are going to do something non-intelligent  like yank an overloaded laundry basket off the floor it really helps to not be standing on the pair of blue jeans you are firmly gripping so that they don’t slide off the top. Some how the effect is something like – wham – the basket doesn’t lift  and the back goes zing/burn…..)

Back to the train. Getting dropped in Mannheim meant that I didn’t have to drag a suitcase from one track to another with only five minutes between trains. Instead, I could roll to the right track, take the elevator up and get on the waiting train with plenty of time to spare.

It was after I checked in with British Airways that things started to be challenging. About 15 minutes prior to boarding, I noted that my flight had disappeared off the gate and another flight was now using this particular area. Asking, I was informed that the flight was delayed. About two hours delayed which just about matched my connection time in London.

I headed back to the ticket counter (back through Passport Control and looking sadly at security as I passed. There were all these people checking in and dropping off bags, but no one at the actual ticket counter. Met this lovely woman working there. She agreed that I was not likely going to make my connecting flight and the later BA one was fully booked. Did I need to go to London?

Ah, no. I could skip London.

Couple of minutes of key clicking followed by – If I would like, she could rebook me onto United 933 and I could fly from Frankfurt directly to Dulles. Only catch is that the flight doesn’t leave till 1700.

Took me about no seconds to decide that was a much better deal and another 15 minutes for her to do all the involved paperwork.

British Airways is in Terminal 2. United is in Terminal 1. Finding them in the center section, they were happy to get me checked in and make sure that my bag was located and transferred to their flight. I turned down the chance to upgrade for 435E (that is a bit much) and would have happily done it for 15000 miles (a good deal) but they could not take Lufthansa Miles, only United Miles. (BTW, a friend on the west coast has been willing to offer me miles, but given the 9 hours of time difference by the time he was up and said it was cool I was already boarded and settled).

There is a Lufthansa Lounge in Terminal Z which I got to use.<

The flight was fine but I didn’t get in till 2030 and picked up the rental van at 2115 which means that it is closing fast on 2300….

According to my watch – it is fast approaching 0500 in the morning. That means I have been up for 23 hours. I think it might just be time to sleep.

-Holly
Wheaton, MD

I made the mistake of announcing to offspring that I would like an updated picture of the four of them. Should it matter that it would make me happy and that the most current photo probably dates from around 2007? Like from before the UK assignment!

Anyway – today was the last possible day since I am on a plan tomorrow and Ms Soprano on one (with dog) the day after. As the sun is headed down the overcast sky they congregate on the terrace.

I took a dozen shots. I don’t have one that has everyone with their eyes open, much less smiling. Maus always looks good in photos. The Mole was willing to leave off the hat. I think the Eldest likes the back of her head showing more than the front. Ms S just claims that she is not photogenic and should be excused.

So, that is why you are seeing this note, but no photo….. it is going to take photo-shopping several to come up with a composite unless they do one for me.

Last year I joined a lovely Ravelry Forum called “52 Books in a Year.”  Obviously, reading 52 books in a year is not a particularly difficult goal for me being part of the subset that read more than 200 books. (Obviously, being deployed heavily contributed to my reading numbers along with eBooks and Audiobooks).

Listening to books and reading books electronically can  be financially wallet breaking if you are not careful since it is extremely easy to just hit the buy it now, load and go. All of the on-line book stores continually have special deals as does Tantor, Audible, GraphicAudio and numerous other sources for audiobooks. (please note that I am not providing links for you, I am not going to facilitiate increased expenditures).

This year, instead of spending large amounts of money on reading and audio material, I am going to concentrate on what I can read for free. I have a decent local library; that solves the best sellers reading. I have plenty of access to paperback swap shelves, so portable books for take-offs and landings are solved. My backlist of audiobooks to be heard is long enough that it should last months. Finally, there is a wealth of free eBooks – I must have a good hundred between various accounts (B&N, Amazon, Kobo) and more are available every year.

The end result is that I plan on reading what I find, writing reviews, recommending new authors and limiting my spending. I am willing to be honest in a review here; I am unlikely to post on an otherwise open site if writing is significantly lacking. Something about the old “if you can’t say anything nice…….”

There are some others from Ravelry joining in. If you want to play as well, just let me know. I am more than happy to link to anyone else participating and also put up links for anything interesting that I find. Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob are a good sources for listings and recommendations on free eBooks. ITunes has the occasional freebie, not as often as Amazon or Barnes&Noble but more than snow in Florida.

Currently on hand from the Library:

Aloha from Hell (A Sandman Slim Novel) – Richard Kadrey which I thoroughly enjoyed. Yes it is violent; no – there are no vampires. Gritty Urban Fantasy with imagination and minimal romance.

Three-Day Town (Deborah Knott Mystery) – Margaret Maron. Deborah and Dwight on their one year delayed honeymoon no sooner arrive in NYC than there is a murder in their apartment. Bringing Sigrid Harald (1980s-1995 mystery series) in as one of the NYC detectives is both interesting and effective.

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz. After writing a whole series of YA mysteries – Horowitz was selected by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate to pen a new Sherlock Holmes Mystery. It is next on my reading list.

Son of Stone (A Stone Barrington Novel) - Stuart Woods. The latest in the Stone Barrington novels – sometimes life takes some rather interesting turns.

Spellbound – Blake Charlton. With all these mysteries – I just had to pick up one fantasy book complete with dragons didn’t I?

What are you reading? Write a post, write a review, I will happily keep the links and conversation going.

It has not been a quiet year in Lake Woebegone.

I spent the first quarter of the year deployed to Afghanistan and the month of April trying to get retired out of the military with the correct paperwork. And, as you are aware, a lot of the rest of the year traveling. Not counting my AF frequent PAX terminal stops (Germany, seven different locations in Afghanistan + Kuwait) I managed to get to New Orleans, Boston, NYC, DC, VA, CA, Seattle, AK, FL  (we will not count plane changes in lovely locations like Huston). Besides Germany I can count Spain, the Canaries, Italy, Austria, France, Monoco, UK, BE, NL in Europe plus Mexico, Belize, Panama and Honduras in Central America. A lot of these just might be secondary to cruise ships but I am going to count them just the same.

The Mole did miserably in school and was unceremoniously brought back home. The Maus graduated. Ms Soprano fell, broke her foot and got to come back to German to heal complete with golden retriever.  The Eldest overcame a lot of challenges in her personal life and has motored forward with impressive equanimity.  George spent entirely too much time on the road.

This fall seemed to be more of the same. The Mole was not a happy camper, Ms Soprano spent the fall taking classes on line so that she would not lose the semester completely. She also proved that self discipline is the difference between success and not when achieving personal goals. Maus started at Pratt and successfully completed her first semester. The Eldest is an amazing photographer. Unfortunately – with the increasing sophistication of digital cameras it is harder and harder to make a decent living at it. George is looking to win an award for the most hours spent on evening conference calls in one week. So far his personal best seems to be 20+ hours.

Which takes us to this evening – friends over for dinner, 3/4 offspring actually present for the meal and then there are fireworks which normally last for 30 minutes or more.

I wish you all the best in the coming year!

Ok, I know that today is Friday – I can figure out that much. It also must mean that yesterday was Thursday.

See? I can get it together once in a while.

Really!

It was about 1400 when my migraine meds wore off enough that I was coherent. Or thought I was coherent – I didn’t ask either Ms Soprano or the DH if I was. Anyway – we headed downtown as someone (not me) needed jeans that were not going to fall off her bum due to serious successful weight loss. While we were at it, the thought was to drop off boots for re-soling.

(Insert comment here about Betriebsferien. For you non-German speakers, the effect is that they were out of office, closed up till after the first of the year).

We found jeans, a winter jacket and a lot of socks, leggings, tights, belts and slippers). I think the lady ringing them up kind of arched her eyes a bit, but since the collection was going to cover five adults I didn’t think we had done too badly.

Once home, I think I crawled back to bed at some point.

Oh, yes – I forgot – I also made a trip to the grocery store.

Isn’t my life just so exciting (grin).

My life is nothing but exciting. The Mole and I had eye exam appointments today.

We have eyes. I may need trifocals (or finally make the switch to progressives) and he could stand a bit of plus up for reading/computer use. Since he was done first, with disposable sunglasses, the boy hiked home. I waited for a ride since hiking carrying library books, camera, knitting and who knows what else in a heavy bag was not my idea of a good time. Did I mention the dilated pupils?

That was not the high point of the day – there were only two of us today at Shanda’s house (her and me) for the Heidelberg Fiber Frauen. We weren’t sure if it was the holidays, the fact that getting onto PHV is a pain or what, but we have a lovely time just relaxing and knitting.

The guys, meanwhile, had made a run to the recycling center making that two car loads this week.

Along with huge databases of both yarn and patterns Ravelry has literally hundreds upon hundreds of discussion groups. No matter what your interest in fiber (or anything else from cooking through steampunk to gardening, books and TV programs as examples) it is likely you can find a group.

For the second (or is it the third year?) a sub-group the Jewish Fiberholics has run a holiday swap. No ornaments obviously, just Marla setting up the match with no one knowing who “has them” till the package arrives which leads to a lot of fun questions, hints and merriment in the weeks leading up to the deadline.

Third year – I wasn’t able to play last year from Afghanistan.

This year I managed to get my package off in plenty of time. Early Dec – I received a box from the woman who drew my name and I managed to hold off opening it till tonight.

Underneath that lovely bundle of silk for spinning (rainbow dyed) is a CD. The little package up at the top contained 3 elegant glass lace weight stitch-markers. A small sachet with lavender is in the middle.  The edible goodies were four different varieties of fruit confection from a local to the Upper Northwest Orchard. Similar to Turkish candy, the flavor and texture was amazing. Since it is not like I really needed anything, I think the woman who drew my name did an excellent job of  coming up with fun stuff.

I had sent off a box with yarn, 2 fat quarters, a knit scarf and a couple of knitting/sewing toys. I know it got there but haven’t heard anything else. Ah, well.

 

I would have also called it the darkest day, but you would think that I was repeating myself.

It was dark when I got up in the morning, overcast the entire day and dark early in the afternoon.

Actually, when I started looking it up I found claims that the 21st was the solstice or the 22nd. Or, more importantly that the 23rd was the longest night. It was at this point that I decided that no one was going to confuse me with facts and that I needed to knit something simple.

Like, let us say – a soft, squoosy, slouchy hat for one of the girls. Knit on size 9mm needles out of two strands of Shakespeare held together. It finished up in no time at all just leaving the Eldest with the task of procuring her own ribbon for the row of eyelet’s.

Every birthday is a milestone when you are young.

Months counted when you were really little; then quarters and halves. I think it actually takes until you are in the 20s before the halves drop away.

If you are a military brat there are two key birthdays – 21 and 23. Twenty-one is when normal adulthood strikes and you are dropped from the family payroll. If you just happen to be a military dependent and still in school working on your first degree, you can be extended until 23. At which point you turn into a pumpkin.

This particular pumpkin turned 23 today and I don’t have a photo to share. She has turned her life around in the last six months and I am terribly proud (not taking any credit – it has been her hard work and discipline).  Right after the first of the year she heads back to the US. Her and the pup.

 

The pup, who of course, knows that she is in the center of the world.

So there I am in Zurich looking to return to Frankfurt.

Since one of the other members of the Aeris crew is headed through Frankfurt on the same flight before changing planes/airlines/whatever to go home (California) I opt to take up David’s offer on sharing his cab and save a number of minutes off the Tram ride to the Airport.

He can go through the high class security rat run designed for those important enough to have gold cards. I go through the peon gate. This is Switzerland. They are precise and don’t offer courtesy to those not entitled. As it turns out, our flight is not exactly near the lounge and we meet back up in the gate area.

At boarding we part ways – he is in the front, I am just glad for a seat on the plane and to find that it is not in the last row in front of the latrines.

Frankfurt – the Lufthansa arrival lounge in Terminal “B” is for inbound international customers, not the rest of us mortals. I hang out at the USO and wait till Maus arrives.

She is easy to spot. Long blond hair, grinning face and towing frosted green suitcases. She was right on the color – nothing like it anywhere on the baggage carousel.

We make the train back with a minute to spare, change in Mannheim and are picked up by the Eldest. All happy to be home.

I think that I have mentioned it before – that once the first challenge starts going sideways everything else gets even more exciting.

It was raining in Heidelberg.  For example – I was headed to Zurich this morning. Flying for some odd reason (something about the plane not costing all that much more than trainfare and needed to be back in time to meet Maus in Frankfurt around noon tomorrow). The Eldest kindly drops me at the train station and I buy a ticket. Deciding to catch a slightly earlier connection to Mannheim than the normal connector it means that I should have 12 minutes between trains rather than the usual five. Train leaves late, in fact it leaves at the scheduled time for the S-Bahn. Since the S-Bahn leaves after us it was probably a good choice as the ICE has just about finished boarding in Mannheim as I dash up.

Like a good air travel passenger, I have preprinted my boarding pass which turns out to have done me no good. Getting to the security area, the nice guy tells me that my flight has been cancelled. Back up stairs to Lufthansa ticketing where the gate keeper tells me security is wrong; she has no record of the flight being cancelled. It is a Swiss Air flight, I inform her – booked with a Lufthansa number. Ok, she gives me a customer number. Awaiting my turn – yes, it seems that flight is cancelled. The weather in Switzerland is rapidly deteriorating and flights are being cancelled. What is more, I can standby for the 1500 flight, but there is not a free seat till 1700. Since we need to be at the dinner partly before I would arrive in at the Zurich airport, this is a non-starter. And no, they have already started boarding the 1155 – I can’t standby for that one (1130 here).

Ok, I take the standby card and slide through security (Frequent Traveler status with Lufthansa gets you through the Business Class line). The 1500 gate is A25. Just for a lark I stop at A21 where the 1155 is just about done boarding. The lovely woman at the counter looks at me when I explain that I am standby for the 1500, but wonder if there is room on this flight to standby. No – no checked luggage. She has no clue but asks. Turns out that since there are still seats she is more than willing to seat me. I am the last one but two on the plane, the door closes. We taxi out.

The flight is fine till we hit the Alps. Let us just leave it with the fact that turbulence was significant enough to shut up all the screaming babies. After trudging from the furthest gate in Zurich I managed to find the #10 Tram and get to the Hauptbahnhof by the nice leisurely method of traveling through the rain past all sorts of uninteresting buildings and neighborhoods. Finding that I could have gotten off several stops sooner and not walked the wrong way around the block.

Oh, well – got there, went to dinner, took photos, got back to the hotel.

Never did get a chance to try my new frequent traveler card at the Lufthansa Lounge.

 

This is absolutely not my favorite time of year. I don’t like short days. Well, let me take that back – I don’t like it dark in the morning. I can live with it being dark in the evening but I need light in the morning.

Being on the cruise ship was fine. We had to do time zone adjustments as we traveled. Sensible people ran the ship which means that the clocks were pushed back at 2 am. Since I am not up that late it simply meant that it was increasingly unlikely that anyone was going to challenge me for the use of the treadmill at 0600 in the morning.

Flying back on the 16th of last month wasn’t even that bad since one always gets whacked out by traveling east. What I had forgotten was that I was also traveling north. Germany – from the perspective of someone who lives in Oslo (for example where they are down to just under six hours of daylight) is not all that far north. But coming from Panama – let me just tell you that the change in hours of daylight was significant. Going off daylight savings time didn’t help a bit. It was dark in the morning.

For the last month I have been fighting it – the creeping feeling that no one in their right mind has any business out and about when it is dark out there. No one who is up to any good. No one who is not crazy. It even leaves me feeling mildly sympathetic toward offspring who don’t want to be up before noon. Not completely, mind you. They have studies to complete, cleaning to do, dogs to walk. But a mild bit of sympathy might just stir as long as no one pushes it.

Did I mention that it is also dark in the evening?
15 Dec 2011 08:14 16:26 8h 11m 59s − 42s 12:20 17.4° 147.241

are the numbers provided by Time and Date.Com

Do you see that?!? Only eight hours and almost 12 minutes where there is daylight. That is, where it would be daylight if it wasn’t overcast with rain……