ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Should I talk about knitting first? I owe you knitting pictures.

First – The Finished Peapod.

Those are green bunny buttons – and have to be the cutest things I have seen in a while. We dropped it off on Saturday – right between everyone getting sick.

And then there is the progress on the Valley Jacket

Where I am at that lovely tangled yarn state that comes from knitting off of two balls for three parts. With any luck, the yarn will last the last couple of CM and let me do the shoulder bind off. From there it is only the sleeves and I will be done since this is a “finish as you go” project.

Military

Each branch and corps of the US military handles its officers different. Sometimes you get choices about where you are going to be, and sometimes there are few options. My branch wound up with a sudden opening in the UK starting around the first of the year. Obviously my family is not going anywhere, so this would be an adventure on my own to a large extent.

I don’t have to do this. But there are no jobs for me in Germany after 30 June, which means that I would have to get my act together in order to retire and find other work. There are serious economic implications of course with retiring unless I get myself rapidly motivated into job shopping, there would be some significant downtime. I have the possibility of starting consulting or job shopping with the Uni in Heidelberg.

Or I can go back to CENTCOM for another 15+ months – Iraq this time.

Or I can take the job in the UK.

There is good and bad with the situation. The 18 year-old finishes her Abi this spring, so her education is a factor, but it is the follow on that counts. The younger two are simply not movable in school as they are in the 9th and 10th Klasses in the G8 Gymnasium Curriculum. The DH is on the road a lot, in London at least every other month and way too much time in Zurich.

Which really leaves the dog. Since I am coming from the EU – it is a matter of a working microchip, updating immunizations, and getting a titer drawn.

It is a bit to think about. Meanwhile, it is time to start researching University Music Curriculum in the UK for the vocal one.

-Holly

AKA – Murphy’s Law says that once the first thing goes wrong – everything else will just domino into chaos. 

Arriving home, I was surprised to see the 18 year-old still there. Scheduled to leave for Vienna  on a music trip with a class in the morning, our plan had been for her to overnight with a classmate in Stuttgart in order to make a 0615 flight.

Dashing, we were on the way to the train station when she realized she did not have her cell phone. I was going to give her mine, and just tell her to pay cash for the train ride, but then she would not have had enough money along. Turning around, we went home, got her phone and some more cash and then bought her ticket from the Bahn’s vending machine.

Rather than a direct connection, it involved an S-Bahn to Mannheim and a change to an IC. 45 minutes later, I get this upset call – she left her carry-on bag on the S-Bahn. Checking with the Bahn – it had not been turned in and the S-Bahn was at the Karlsruhe Betriebshof. She now is in Stuttgart without a change of clothes.

Her classmate is not the same size, and it turns out her asthma meds were in the case.  I look at packing another bag and sending it down with her sister yet tonight (but the youngest was unable to reach any of her friends so that she would not have a place to stay – and I didn’t want a 14 year old wandering on the trains at 2300).

It is now after 2330 when the bedraggled kid gets back to Heidelberg. I have found her some clothes (she has little that is clean) and an alternate medication. There is a possible train connection that will get her to the airport at 0522. But it turns out that her passport is in Stuttgart and she has missed the window to go and pick it up.

We hang the whole thing and I start to send her to bed. She is still not recovered from her illness this weekend and is now walking into walls with exhaustion.

When I think about it – I should have cancelled her early on (as she still is not feeling well) – or helped her watch the clock so that we had enough time at the train station in the first place.  She is normally my most organized and driven teen, but even planning this trip has been a disaster from the git-go.

Knitting

On the knitting front – I have less than 2 cm to the shoulders on the Valley Jacket and should take some socks out of hibernation.

Audio Books

Big Trouble – by Dave Berry. A really fun romp complete with teens, Russian mobsters, gun runners, FBI, local cops and airline pilots not old enough to have cleared their acne. Probably no redeeming literary value, but the story does a nice job of using sterotypes and poking fun.

-Holly

Is not just a city. It is one of a family of Noroviruses that commonly make their appearance in the winter months. Norwalk and others of its ilk have earned their deservedly bad reputations from institutional and cruise ship outbreaks as well as causing generalized misery to anyone unfortunate to contract them.

I don’t think that I mentioned that our son came home from school on Friday not feeling well and spent a good portion of Friday night up with the usual GI symptons. At age 16, you don’t call on your mom unless you are really feeling badly. He is of the “please let me die in peace” mode of illness. It looked like he had recovered enough by yesterday to take off for a week working at a Biotech firm down at the Bodensee.

Late yesterday, it was the 18 year old that started with the vomiting. Feeling just horrible, she needed love, support and wanted anything to stop her stomach from rebelling. Sick for most of the night, her fever is gone and she is finally on the way to recovery late this afternoon.

My DH got sick last night as well, badly enough that he had to delay his early scheduled departure for London this morning. Flying is not a good idea if you can’t get more than 10 meters from the toilet.

The youngest and I are fine. She informed me that she has been super careful since early this week when it started going around school?

The whole school? Or just the Internat (boarding portion)?

About 20/32 had been ill by the time we left for home on Friday.

???

Did I mention that my three are on Fall Vacation this week. Great time to be ill, wouldn’t you say. But I am more concerned that the school let this blow through the student body. It can easily be food borne and quite challenging to clear. Add my 16 & 18 year olds to the numbers and that is a fairly high attack rate.

The end result is that I did some telecommuting today, not about to leave sick people home on their own. I can do tea and sympathy, waiting for the disease to run its course.

Otherwise, I have almost 50 cm knit on the Valley Jacket and a couple more boxes in from AudioBookstand sales shelf.

-Holly

It came together today. A confluence of ideas derived from several sources that left me thinking. Perhaps it is normal for this time of life. Anita Diamant, in Pitching my Tent, makes mention of the increasing life span as a major driver for individuals and society requiring a new look at middle age. Leaving aside that fact that she is completely incorrect about the increased life span (detour here, follow along for a bit of science –

Technically, in 1900, the average life span was 47 in the US. However, 50% of deaths occurred in individuals under the age of 15. Infectious diseases took their toll along with accidents. If you survived through your 15th year, your life expectancy was in the 60s. The extra years of life loss were on the front end, not the back. Between ages 15-50 women primarily died of conditions relating to childbirth. Men died of accidents and wars. It explains why you read and here of so many elderly spinsters in those days. Eliminate the risks of childbirth and the chances were excellent you would survive well into your 70s, 80s, 90s. Today’s medical science and preventive medicine have eliminated almost all deaths from childhood diseases, most from infectious disease, and drastically reduced the risks associated with childbearing. This leaves us free now to die from chronic disease, cancers that increase with age and cardio-vascular disease resulting from our “improved” life style. )

requiring a new look at being in those middle years that is different if poverty is not at the door.

Sometime between 40 & 60, most of us asses our lives: what we have accomplished and what we had set out to do in our early twenties with idealism leading our hearts and stars in our eyes. There are those who have done something that it widely known or well recognized. We all have met one or more: the person who seems to have done something important or accomplished everything.

Or you can be like Joe – the main character in Margaret Truman’s Murder at the Washington Post – and be facing retirement wondering what you have accomplished. Trying to decide if that is enough. And you can make stupid choices, good choices, or extremely bad and damaging choices.

But most of us just have lived our lives doing the best we could on a day to day basis. Face it, there are not all that many Nobel Laureates around. Nor Deans of Universities or CEOs of Fortune 500 firms.

Perhaps we have the luxury now of making choices, changing careers, learning new things. Certainly we need to keep our minds active, trying new things and getting out of old ruts.

What has come to me over the last year is a willingness to look ahead. I am not the only one who is facing transitions (never mind the teens still in the house). I will have a life after I leave the military. Perhaps it is time to gather together some courage and figure out what I want to do next. Certainly I have enough wool and fiber to keep me busy for a few years. Balancing that with my tendency to like to start things but getting bored once it is underway and routine, something tells me I need to look for something that will be a challenge and not the same every day.

But I will need to take a leap.

-Holly

who will get back to her regularly scheduled fiber programming as soon as she charges the battery in the camera. I found homes for only two of the lonely fiber batches. Perhaps I should put it all on one page, then send an email to Chris to get it a home?

From the time I had the means, my door was open. To feed the stranger, to house others, to share what I had. I don’t think that I ever consciously thought about it, it was just the way things were. What you did to give back to others, to take care.

This weeks Parsha (Torah portion) is Vayerah. It starts with Abraham’s hospitality to the stranger. Even in personal pain and recovery, doing for others came first. A basic tenant of Judaism that I view as sometimes being lost. I am not sure when I connected what I assumed was normal behavior with this particular passage. And in finding it, I feel like I have justification for what I already was doing. Perhaps being better able to marshal arguements when explaining why “of course this is what you do.”

Last night at our monthly potluck, we talked about hospitality in conjunction with this section and how the principle is/is not applied today.

It certainly is a nicer thought than dealing with becoming a pillar of salt. Glauber’s salts I can do – they are useful for some kinds of dying. Epson salts for soaking people. But a pillar because you looked back?

I think it all connects with the differences in how men and women look at the world. I will admit it might just be my generation. Men seem to go forward, on to new challenges, new battles. Things are over, done, forgotten. Women, well, we look back. And we say good bye.

Audio Book,

Murder at the Washington Times by Margaret Truman.

Except for the ending (which could have been wrapped up better) this was a nice murder mystery with interesting characters. The reader was excellent.

Good distraction from teenagers in the car needing things.

-Holly

This is a rant, please feel free to skip it.

A while back, over a year ago I think, Harlequin started a new line of books called NeXt. It was supposed to be more like relationship novels and less like romance. I am a sucker, I will try and read almost any kind of fiction.

What is really was – taken all together – was a collection of books that should have been subtitled “Competent Women need not apply.” Instead of being about “what comes next (no fancy strange lettering needed), story after story unfolded about women who just did not have their acts together; who bad things happened to while they blundered around; and let us not forget all those who whined while putting more effort into their girlfriends than their families.

I had to stop for a moment and really examine why I reacted so negatively. I came up with several of my own conclusions. I decided that I really believe that some fiction should emulate life. And life, as I know it, is filled with hard working, courageous women who have made various choices in their lives. And they deal with the consequences. They don’t cry when life does not emulate soap operas or romance novels and wring their hands while waiting for someone else to solve their problems. They work, take care of their children, do their best with their households. They might have spent time being a full time parent, but when war made them a widow, they stayed alive for their children even if it meant taking a job and child care for babies. Today is not the 1960s where there were few choices for women who were on their own with children, whether from divorce or loss of a partner.

And here was a whole series that really featured woman after incompetent woman (with or without girlfriends) a la the 1960s. The occasional exception did apply, but really. I gave up after the first few months. Even horrid anticipation can’t keep you going to see if this next book (ouch) is worse than the previous.

It seems like other readers might have felt the same way as four books a month has dwindled to two.

Why am I bringing all of this up?

Jeanne Ray wrote a fun, lovely little book called Romeo and Julie or was it Julie and Romeo? In any case it chronicled the story of two rival families in the florist business with the two protagonists finally getting together in late middle age. When another book of hers called Eat Cake showed up on AudioBookstand’s sale shelf, I bought it. Books go to the sale shelf under two circumstances; they age, or they don’t sell.

I was expecting ….. actually, I am not sure what I was expecting. But it wasn’t a story told from the main characters empty headed point of view while she stood around wringing her hands. At seven hours on CD, that is an awful lot of whining and navel gazing – if you can stand to listen to someone natter for paragraphs about whether or not it is ok to put limits on her 16 year-old daughter (little stuff like setting the table).

Certainly, I was not expecting a novel about a woman who spent more time being unhappy and panicked than looking for solutions. And one so worried about offending everyone else that she needed a sweatshirt labeled “doormat.”

There is no question that life can kick us in the death. Bad things happen to wonderful people. I guess that success in the face of adversity doesn’t meet the current criteria in American fiction for challenging relationships between the characters much less growth of the protagonist by the end of the book. Perhaps the author uses the beliefs and attitudes of the 60s just because she was a parent then?

The book is not all bad. It is also warm and fluffy with the good people having things work out in the end. But with all the bad that happens, I never get the feeling the main character is grounded in reality. Perhaps it is that “click your heels three times” that brings around two aged and battling parents, and a spoiled teen ager. The husband’s unemployment is never resolved.

Arches

Not all doors are fancy, some your just pass through on your way upstairs to work.

-Holly

Growing up in Minnesota, you would think I would be more than used to cold weather. Even in October when fronst ws literally on the pumpkins, it was a place of stoic people and acceptance of nature.

Lake Wobegon may be fictitious, but the people and the attitude they portray are more than real.

Yep.

That was just the way things were. Your personal ethnic background didn’t matter. The basic attitude and ability to deal with the cold cut across all line.

For sure.

I am not a teen any longer and I get cold. I have no joy in finding frost inside my windows and ice on my nose in the morning. I no longer care to compete in the “layers to bed” sweepstakes.

The allegedly warm water I I can hear trickling in the register seems effective for only one-two hands wide of a five foot white iron beast that is just fixed there, refusing to cooperate.

Key? Bleed the thing in case I should be so lucky that the issue is only air bubbles?

Right. And I am the one with bloody hands since whoever cranked the valves last year certainly was not interested in allowing leaks.

We shall not talk of menopause either, nor the cold that seems to have settled int my bones leaving me feeling comfortable only in sand ovens of the desert.

It is time to put another layer on the bed, wrap my hands in knitting wool and listed to an audio book, pretending that 4°C is just what I want for weather.

-Holly

As you probably guessed from the short posts for the last several days, neither knitting or spinning have really been on my mind.

Reading still – going through a couple of paperbacks a day (or a library book).

But I am contemplating hauling out the loom. Not that I need another project underway. There are only three WIPs that really count – the second “Peacock Sock,” my Kauni cardigan which still needs the second sleeve and facings, and the Gallery Jacket which is now four fingers above the armhole split – all the way across.

Now – that means that I really don’t need to think about starting something new. Even tho I have yarn dyed for a couple of afghans from three years ago. Or a number of cones of this lovely blue that came in a while ago.

What started all of these thoughts? A nice, useful size catalog from Webs that arrived in  today’s mail.  There is no lack of wools, and some decent cottons for weaving. But I haven’t played with Tencil or Bamboo on the loom. Those are new fibers since I last threw a warp on the small beast.

Of course, I also received a lovely box of sales audio books in the mail today. Enough to last me a longish time. The post library loves the CDs and the MP3s, but they are no longer taking donations of anything on cassette.

Hummm.

-Holly

Even if you leave home early, arriving at work when there is only a rumor of sunlight above the horizon, a farewell luncheon in the middle of the day sort of tears a hole in the schedule.

In case you can’t read the sign – it reads either Alte Feuerwache or De Nico’s (depending). I am not sure of the significance of the naked young man with the frog that stands just on the other side of the front entrance, but he is kind of cute (and the restaurant is Italian without frogs on the menu.)

One of our great SGTs is leaving in a week for Walter Reed.

Catching a picture that doesn’t have name tags is a real challenge. She has a great sense of humor and will be sorely missed in the lab.

Me? This proves that I actually come out of my lair on special occasions. Because the SGM really wanted to try my camera, I turned him lose for a while. The unfortunate result is that I actually was captured in pixels.

Books and Audio Books

Blood Orchid – Stuart Woods – has finished on the CD player and The Big Four by Agatha Christie has now replaced it in the car.

In print – I read Killer Weekend – the new Ridley Pearson thriller from the library. Plus Three is a Crowd by D B Borton. While I can’t say that I really appreciated Cat Caliban as a sleuth, this book was obviously well researched with the plot relating to the past anti-Viet Nam war era being all too real to someone who lived through it.

-Holly

(and no, no knitting today either)

could possibly be as uninteresting as the first day back at work after a week on the road. Or almost a week if you want to be completely accurate.

Thrilling adventures with overflowing email boxes resulting in messages bouncing, a staff meeting that turned into total insanity (just move 1300 to 1100 and turn the head of admin services lose to explain why nothing in one of his sections after another has done anything promised), and a golden retriever who howls at being left alone in my office for the duration of said meeting.

How do I know about the unhappy pup? I am leaving out completely the staff member who rang me on my Handi partway through the meeting. Pulling it out of my pocket, I pressed what I thought was the off button. Issuing immediately from the phone speaker is the whining and barking of the lonely dog. Saving myself from dying of complete embarrassment only by finding the off switch, the rest of the crew found the whole thing pretty funny.

By the time the end of the day had come and the two of us had navigated the construction zones and arrived back home in Heidelberg it was too late to do anything useful other than read and crash.

May I recommend Many Bloody Returns edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner?

-Holly

As you might know, I have knit a lot of pairs of socks this year. I am choosing now to focus on some other projects, so that my sock output has dropped off remarkably. Experimenting with both yarn and patterns, I had been branching out from some of the traditional sock yarns into Indie dyers of 100% merino, merino/tencil, merino/bamboo and other fiber combinations.

Looking back at the socks I knit 12 years ago, the ones from cheap yarns did not survive without pilling. Many of them were for my children. They have been outgrown, worn through, and singles lost along the way. My socks are a different story. I take care of them, washing on wool cycle and hanging to dry. So that it should not be surprising that I have pairs that are 12 years old, worn regularly and in fairly good shape.

The socks that have developed problems feel into two categories – they are either heavier weight or not knit out of sock yarn. With the exception of a pair knit out of some lovely handspun I received from Ruth, the survivors are all knit of sock yarn. Not 100% merino, but sock yarn with nylon or similar fiber added (up to 25%).

I think this is important. If I am going to spend hours on a sock, I want it to last more than a couple of wearings. Especially if they will be gifts for someone else.

Let me show you what I mean – looking at the heels

Now look a little closer -

The black and white are out of Schöllinger yarn, knit sometime prior to 1998. They are probably over 10 years old. I wear them regularly and they have been through the wash dozens of times. The blue and pink are a pair of boot socks, knit with doubled sock yarn. They date from 1996. The heels are starting to wear. The red/black pair I knit this summer. They have been through the wash at least five times and show no signs of distress.

compare that to this

looks fine – the soles? But looking at the heels -

this is one wearing. Just one time being worn and through the wash. The cables are pilling and losing their appearance.

Now, you might want to state that it is always what happens when you do details on heels, then stick your foot in sandals. I would like to say that this is the only pair acting this way, but the same thing is happening with other socks that are 100% merino. This is lovely yarn, the colorways are wonderful and the service from the people is fantastic.

It is not happening with some of the less expensive yarns, from those Indie dyers who are using a regular “sock yarn” as their base. And it is not a problem with any of the standard German commercial sock yarns. I don’t walk around in my stocking feet, but do wear socks with sandals unless there is snow on the ground or puddles to deep to avoid.

I want my socks to last.

As I sorted through the stash purchased this last year, I think I am going to change my knitting priorities for now. Sock yarns first, high twist merino to follow leaving some of the more beautiful yarns to lay fallow in the basket for a while.

Knitting

Progress on the Valley Jacket.

Just past the armhole split – I now have two balls going; one for the back and one for the two fronts. Stopping every few rows to untangle (it is a mess when you are knitting from the inside and outside of a ball at the same time), I am trying to make sure that all three pieces are the same length. This part seems to be going a lot slower.

Maybe I just will go and read a few more books.

-Holly

If you don’t feel much like knitting

you can always go to the commissary, coming back with the ingredients for Pumpkin Soup.

Ingredients
Take two surly teenagers and get them to peel, remove the slimy seeds and quarter the $0.85 pumpkin.

Then chunk it up into a nice pan (isn’t that just a wonderful WMF pan that I found on sale? – big enough that it makes having a glass topped range with five heating spots well worth while.)

while the pumpkin is cooking, just barely covered in a layer of water. (tarragon, cilantro, onion, and parsley added to improve the flavor).

quickly sauté some green onions for topping

After running the now cooked pumpkin through a food processor, add back in the cooking liquid and make a couple of decisions.

1) Dairy meal? Add in a cup of light cream -

and serve with warm rolls and salad, let your dinner companions salt and pepper to taste and top with the green onions.

2) Non-dairy? Make sure that you really have pureed the pumpkin well. Add a cup of red wine and let it simmer long enough to cook off the alcohol. Serve as a side soup, or with dark bread and salad.

3) Spicy? Add cumin while cooking, plus a bit of cayenne. If you don’t like to add red wine to your cooking, a small amount of vinegar will improve the bite.

Whole prep time is less than an hour (including the complaining teens).

We watched Surf’s Up on DvD. Glad I hauled my knitting back out. Shall we say – not one of the greater children’s animated flicks? Except for the chicken.

-Holly

It was in the 1930s that the German Military built a hospital in Wuerzburg (also the city information) to take care of both service members and their families. Situated toward the top of a major hill, it over looked the Main valley and across to fortifications on distant hills. The first commander of the hospital was an OB-GYN who lived in an apartment with his family on the fifth floor. You can see the history in the design and the construction details.

The US Occupation after WWII was by replaced by standing troops under NATO including the 3ID (Marne Division); which only left in 1996 to be replaced by 1ID.

Why am I telling you this? I was stationed there 1995-96 and then again from 1997-1999.

And today, 19 Octber 2007, the US Army is closing the hospital permanently and turning the caserne back to the German Authorities. Thousands were stationed here over the years, babies delivered, patients seen as this hospital was home to both TDA health care delivery and the 67th Combat Support Hospital (deactivated last year).

And in the immortal words ascribed to that French woman – Let them eat cake.

Knitting

A drive up and back means that there is at least some time to knit. I really like the colour and texture of this simple all over twisted rib.

Arches

To enter the old city of Meersburg.

Shabbat Shalom

-Holly

I may have mentioned that the program was a bit different this year, with parallel sessions running on different topics. Choices, it left me with choices as to whether I wanted to listen to presentations on surveillance, or on lab testing. Survey over the top, or picky details.

Did I mention that the organizers were trying to pack the maximum into the day?

Hadn’t read the final agenda when I made my train reservations. Rather than stay till 18:10 when the conference closed, I elected to catch a slightly earlier train. Out the gate and

on my way, not that I was going to get back before dark anyway. Finished up the J D Robb and a Stuart Woods just as we were pulling into Heidelberg.

-Holly

Returning to my old stomping grounds at the SanAk in München by train yesterday as I mentioned, this is the first of a two day conference.

Besides greeting old friends and looking at the posters, I realize that there is not all that much in the one morning session that I want to attend. (And this is not a knitting meeting, Germans just would not understand or get it).

Did I mention that the yarn I had picked for the eldest’s  sweater just did not look right when sampled?

No, I just told you about the books I got out of the library on a stop between the commissary and realizing that I had to get to the train station now! The train ride was lovely, listening to books and knitting.

In between the train station and the U-Bahn I made a short detour and found some lovely slate blue shetland type yarn.

which I think will look much nicer. I decided to be a little late to lunch in order to cast on.

The day ended with one of those mandatory fun evenings of dinner with several hundred of your best friends in a local restaurant.

Didn’t matter which way you looked – tables and tables of people. Not being a complete fool, I managed to get near the door and scooted out at a reasonable time.

I think it is more of the same in the morning.

-Holly

Books

Just picked up from the library today:
Scots on the Rocks – Mary Daheim
The Tell-Tale Horse – Rita Mae Brown
High Noon – Nora Roberts
A Wrongful Death – Kate Wilhelm
Hard Row – Margaret Maron

And in audio – Kyle Smith’s A Christmas Caroline the first disk of which has reminded me of why I don’t bother with chick lit, self absorbed fashionistas and other totally irritating characters. They may exist in the world, but I am glad that mine is populated with real people who have better things to do with their lives than worry about commenting on other’s fashions.

But then again, I belong to that lovely segment of society that finds pleasure and ease in knowing what I am putting on for clothing each and every day. Aka – a uniform that means something.

-Holly

to write about Monday’s at all?

They are either in the category of “the only day that I am in the office this week” with all the insanity that entails. Or in the returning from being gone and I have a bijillion emails in my inbox and several deadlines that say COB last Friday.

This particular Monday fulfills both missions while making my life miserable. Last week was that lovely conference on PTSD followed by the tech conference at the Bodensee. That means a few days of emails. And deadlines. Then there is the fact that I leave tomorrow for Munich and a meeting there on Wednesday and Thursday.

To me that looks like about 7 business days packed into one. Never mind the complaints – at least I am not one of the other people in the office who has to deal with 15 NSPS evaluations (another improvement for your edification and non-convenience).

Knitting

I have purchased this lovely pattern from Webs called the Gallery Jacket (#175 by Valley Yarns down at the bottom of the page.) The yarn is this slightly fuzzy grey that has been on the shelves for a while. Since the pattern gauge and the yarn don’t match, I am actually going to have to swatch in order to alter the pattern. Good concept huh? Might even be able to make this to fit the eldest on the first run through. I am also taking the peacock sock along.

I had thought about my Kauni – but it is too bulky now to easily travel.

Audio Books

Off I am to load a couple of audio books on the computer to transfer to the CD player. I figure two J D Robbs and perhaps an Elizabeth Berg should do nicely for the train and the evenings. Perhaps I should pack as well?

-Holly

My knitting time just slipped away, taken up by teenagers who needed shoes and sweatshirt. Running those sorts of errands that keep life going but leave you at the end of the day wondering what, if anything, you really accomplished. Other than depleting the finances, that is.

The Kauni is staring at me from next to the computer lying quietly on top of my copy of Alice Starmore’s Stillwater. I have these three large skeins of handspun in roses, lilacs and blues. Then there is that new cone of Kauni in shades of denim. I need to get the needles into the second sleeve of the Kauni now, before startitis hits.

Second sock of the Peacock is on the needles. Giving in gracefully to the DH, they will be his. After all, he spent the last several days telling what a lovely set of colours they were and that the pattern was interesting.

English language books take longer to get into my local Bookmart than the shelves of Borders, Barnes & Noble, in the US or equivalent locations in the UK. Plus, one never knows what was ordered, much less what will actually be on the shelves for more than a day.

Good excuse for on-line book shopping, is it not?

-Holly

When you were younger, did anyone ever throw stones at your window to capture your attention after your parents went asleep? Perhaps you got up, sneaking out or letting someone in?

When you are well over 50 – it is not thrilling.

Somewhere past 0100 in the morning I awoke and groggily recognized the weird “boing” out on the balcony as having to do with small stones. And that it was directed toward me.

Having left the room door slightly ajar, it had not occurred to me that the DH would be locked out of the hotel, not being able to get to the door. Seems like it took him 45 minutes to get my attention, meanwhile getting rather chilly. After getting up, pulling on clothes and finding a door that I could open, I stomped back to bed. There is a point to taking along one’s cell phone, is there not?

Well after breakfast, we checked out and headed to Meersburg.

Known for its castle, port and tourism – there are old walls, interesting buildings and a plethora of flowers, even at this time of year.

and entertainment from street performers

Even more importantly -

That is not a balloon shaped like a Zeppelin – that is a Zepplin. Here, along the Bodensee is where the industry started with Graf Zeppelin building the first in 1900. The museum is located near the castle. After watching a film on the Zeppelin (historical footage from the early 1900s through WWI and the lead up to WWII and ending with the fire of the Hindenburg ) we spent a few minutes looking at the exhibits of original items from various of the ships.

I had not realized how many of them had been built, nor that they were actually used on bombing runs over the English coast in WWI. Sitting duck is not a good term, rather – large visible flying object with minimal maneuverability comes to mind. I have no clue why anyone would have been surprised at how easily even the first planes could take them out (strafe, watch the explosion and fire).

We have added to our book collection with Luftschiff marsch! (#2-19 on the list) which has an incredible collection of original photos.

Heading toward home, we stopped in Hechigen for coffee. Where the history of the town can be found on the town center fountain,

or hanging over shop doors.

Socks

Leaving me only the toe to graft on the first sock.

-Holly

Out the window this morning – I discovered why it we heard so many trains last night. Should I also mention that it would not have been as cold if we had realized the balcony door was open?

On the way to the conference, there was a small forest of masts as we were barely 50 meters from from Bodensee (Lake Constance to you English speakers)

The conference itself was held at the old Zollhaus (Customs House), recently renovated and used for programs and conferences.

Since you can travel across the lake easily to Switzerland and Austria from here (and bring in goods), it is not surprising that there is a long standing history of placing costs on businesses and travelers. This is the base of the commemorative plinth, along with the top facing out to the water.

The conference was sponsored by ESE (Embedded Systems Engineering) on “High-tech for a better future” featuring developments in biology, environment and health care (now you know why I was interested). Since it is also their 10th year anniversary there was a small matter of a dinner in the evening.

Between the programs’ end and dinner I did not transcribe my notes. Instead, I walked into and around town, capturing this crew of garden gnomes looking to enter a house.

The multi-course meal was interspersed with all the expected speaches, a jazz band, and a pair of magicians. At 2230, my head was aching with the noise and I hiked back to the hotel.

Socks

A little more progress on the socks while listening to the last few tracks of Fluke.

-Holly

Doors

What you can not see is the small sign that happens to casually mention a date some 200 years in the past. The building is well preserved (plaster/stucco covers a lot of faults) while the iron work is safe behind the newer glass.

The PTSD conference ended in time for me to walk to the train station with time to spare.

A bit over 3 hours later George was to pick me up in Singen . Since I had a choice, being able to avoid train chages means that I can really settle in with my knitting and MP3 player. (This particular town dates from Herzog Burkhard III 919-973).

Traveling on to Bodman-Ludwigshafen, there is this lovely little hotel overlooking the water. Even more impressive is the restaurant at the Immengarten with wonderful food, presentation and not the big city prices.

It was dark, late and I had eaten a sandwich on the train, mores the pity.

Socks

I finished up the Wyvern on the train.

And then started the Sept Peacocks from Chameleon Colorworks -

I adore the colours which are peacock and the pattern makes the eye of the tail. I think this is one of the most reasonable sock clubs going and the dying is superb.

Audio Books

Short Straw by Stuart Woods finished only 15 minutes before arrival. It is amazing how fast you can get through 6 disks when you are hiking 45 minutes three mornings in a row plus a train ride.

I went back to Fluke to start disk 7.

-Holly

It is taking me longer than I thought to rebuild my list of “blogs to read” since switching computers. So naturally I lost a fair amount of time this evening catching up on what a few of you are doing.

Kauni

The second sleeves have it. I did not have the patience tonight to start which means that it is not going to happen till this weekend as I am off to another conference tomorrow evening. Doing the sleeve facing on the train is just more than I want to tackle.

Socks

As I mentioned, the first Wyvern is done.

and the detail looks like this

Since the second sock is past the toe and on the foot, the minimum I should be able to do is finish it up on the trip. I am also taking along one of the Chamelon Colorworks socks as well as the most recent BMFA I have since cuffed socks are kind of cute. Five socks in two days is out of the question, but at least I will have choices.

Spinning

Just a little more accomplished on the Indigo Singles.

Audio Books

Partway through disk 7 of Fluke, heard all four of McNally’s Bluff. Finished Orchid Blues and started Orchid Blood in the studio. That leaves me with Short Straw (also Stuart Woods) on the last player I heard most of the first part and realized that I have either read it or heard it before. I really need to start archiving things better!

I am contemplating queuing a couple of JD Robbs. This only leaves me out of paperbacks for the train trip. Go figure.

-Holly

No, the keys have not yet turned up. So I walked to the Holiday Inn where the meeting is taking place. It only took about 45 minutes, so it obviously is not as far as I thought.

The meeting itself is excellent: a three day training course on both minimal Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD.

Socks

As a result of arriving early, I was able to finish the leg on the Wyvern and only have the cuff left. It would be nicer if this was the second sock, but no dice.

Audio Books

There is no getting around that Christopher Moore just has a different sort of mind; adding Whaleyboys, Orca’s and Blues to the Humpbacks and whale scientists. Another of his strange – “what the heck genre is this, anyway?” The secondary cast of evil characters makes good use of various sterotypes. Fluke is the name.

And after the battery ran out on the MP3 player, I started McNally’s Bluff on tape for the way home. I still find that Archie McNally has some personal habits that could be best cured by use of a dull knife…..but – have you ever been to Palm Beach (or other spots populated by the monied with no brain?)

-Holly

(remember, there is still spinning fiber looking for a home, postage only. pass the word)

Knitting

Pulled out of the basket and the sleeve is finished.

Now do I do the neck facing? or the second sleeve?

Books

Every once in a while, a book that you are reading just resonates and you absorb it from start to finish. Not because it is a pounding thriller or a mystery that has to be solved but because it is speaks to the results of pivotal choices and what we make of our lives. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is such a book [ISBN 0-14-303813-3 published by Penguin Books].

Perhaps it is because I remember the years of which she is speaking, of what school was like if you were different and of the attitudes towards Down’s even when I started medical school. Even with the increasing rarity of the condition in the western world secondary to prenatal testing, the under lying story of decisions, secrets and people’s lives will hold up as literature.

-Holly

Here I was, trying to put the blame on everyone else in the house. The van keys have been who knows where since Wednesday.

I had no clue that they were among the missing as I had been gone from Wednesday through Friday. According to the oldest, I had taken the van on my mail run before heading to the train station. I had to think back carefully before I could agree that I had driven the van that morning (rather than the wagon) to run a couple of quick errands. It is not that I remember which vehicle, but I remember listening an audio books – and I don’t normally bother in my husband’s car as the CD player is in the cargo area.

So that means that I was probably the last person to have the keys.

After looking through the entire house about three times (and doing some cleaning up with each round) – I have not a clue where they went. I have been through all the pockets, bags, purses. I have looked high and low (and under things – dust elephants, but no keys).

By the way – this is not a single key – this is a large red carabiner with the car key on a strap and a cluster of house keys also dangling off by a ring. It is not small or inconspicuous. So why can’t I find it?

Knitting

The peapod – and hat are done and put together – it looks cute and you can easily see the sherbet colours.

And now moved to the bathroom floor to be blocked.

And remember this?

Yes – it is out of hibernation and I have knit almost 10 cm on the sleeve this evening. Partly I really want it completed so that I can wear it this winter. And, honestly also because I want to start a new project (!) and can not justify increasing either my WIP or UFOs. Leaving aside the small matter of this being the particular needle that I need.

-Holly

I have found homes for the reddish roving and the alpaca – the tricolour roving

and the brown roving

are still looking for new homes.

Spinning

Two bags (about a pound each bag) of Indigo Rainbows from Spinderella  a long time ago.

And otherwise a nice quite day of reading and knitting.

-Holly

Garmisch – as I have mentioned in the past, is located in the southern portion of Bavaria with Alps towers over the town which nestles safely down in a valley.

The nearest airport is Munich. The roads are driveable when there is not snow. Normally I take the train from Heidelberg to here. The last portion of the ride, on the regional train is lovely. That is, most days when the train engineers are not striking.

There had been discussion about the strike not lasting, or being put off.

Instead, today we have a strike that is not a complete shut down, just reduced services and intermittent delays. You can’t count on getting there from here. Even better, my connecting train is coming from Austria. The train is still Austrian with Austrian crews when it stops in Munich. It is going to be on time but I can’t say the same for me, I might not be able to get out of here at any reasonable time.

The CSM headed back to Heidelberg has an extra seat in his van. Would I like to ride with them? Takes me a few minutes. I much prefer the train to a crowd of people. But I want to get home.

Knitting

But I did get the sleeves

and the body of the Peapod completed.

Now all I have to to is frog a small portion of the left front, and do the shaping that I missed while listening to Fluke (Christopher Moore) in the van.

Arches

Layers of doors in the Ghost Temple.

Shabbat Shalom

-Holly

This is another table top exercise related to Pandemic Influenza Planning. At least that is the schedule for the afternoon. If I had gotten the correct word about not needing to be here until 1300 – I could have stayed in Heidelberg last night, sleeping in my own bed.

But then I would not have had a lovely train ride with yarn in hand,

knitting the Peapod with merino superwash the colour of mixed fruit sherbet. Nor would I have been able to enjoy sitting on the balcony of my room and enjoying the mountains.

It would have been even nicer, had I Internet connection for the day without walking over to the library. But since that was my only option I draft now with the plans to upload the pictures and free the draft later.

Just spent the evening knitting, read most of a paperback by Catherine Coulter (a spin off on her FBI series) and went to sleep early.

-Holly

Heidelberg -> Garmisch-Partenkirchen

For some reason – I had written #58 in the header of a message I sent our to friends last night, rather than the correct birthday of #57 that I had written in the body of the message. It tells you that your mind really does go as you get older.

Just like I was thinking my train was at 14:30 when it is actually 13:14. Something about new math perhaps that had me leaving for a 4+ hour journey and still arriving before 18:00.

So any how – small rolling suitcase and shoulder bag in hand with uniform, change of clothes, computer, MP3 player and knitting (PeaPod Babyset for a baby due this week), I am heading out the door.

Oh yes, the camera – I will have that as well.

-Holly

After a rather long day at work (short fuses, email, meeting, new person orientation and the fact that I am going to be on the road for a few days) I finally arrived home.

I had elected Thai for dinner, and not to cook – so we tried the Thanapon.

Returning home, there was a lovely oldest daughter baked cheesecake accompanied by tea/coffee.

Pictures?

and I also received flowers.

Books & Audio Books

Just finished Wired by Liz Maverick. Interesting premise, main character excellent, the bad guy and good guy were just not well developed enough. As a plot device to keep you guessing, it didn’t work. Made you wonder why, with a character this smart, she had anything to do with either of them.
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman on the cassette player (5/8) and on the last CD of the Stuart Woods in the car.

-Holly

Nowhere else, except for the government, is this the start of a new year. Fiscally, all the money dries up on 30 Sept so that 1 Oct is normally funded through continuing resolutions and other devises to make sure that payroll is met. Only the government….

At work, it was relatively quite, most of my staff is out at meetings or otherwise engaged in completing whatever tasks are left from last year while planning this year’s priorities. The massive construction on A6 continues, costing me somewhere between 5 to 35 minutes each way.

Knitting

You haven’t heard much about Kauni from me recently. The bad news is that I have not yet pulled the cardigan out of it’s bag since I returned from China. The good news is that Annette got the following in for me:

the EL has shades of dark blue, purple and forest green while the ES has shades of denim from dark to light. I have about 340 gm of each. Rather than knit against each other, I am planning on each being the contrast yarn against some hand spun. I have several choices, which I will post probably next week and ask your opinion.

Everyone is gone, but for the dog and I. She enjoyed her day visiting at work and might like a repeat in the morning.

-Holly