ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

30 Nov 07, Friday
Day 12 – At Sea

Day four of the six it is taking to cross the Atlantic.

The only time it is possible to exercise is before 0600 in the morning as later the upper area is obstructed with either people ambling along at the slowest pace imaginable or filled with deck chairs draped with people in a variety of bathing attire.

I am now humbly of the opinion that the opportunity to wear speedos needs to be regulated. Just like string bikinis and thong bottoms, an upper weight limit would be really nice. (And I would definitely place it well below 150 kg).

Knitting

After finishing up the collar on Kauni

I decided to pull out the yarn for Mein Weg.

Since I wanted the sleeves to match (and know better this time than to attempt to start in exactly the same location for the second sleeve) – I knit the pair flat with a six stitch steek section in between. The pattern is deceptively simple – two rows of contrast colour in stockinette alternates with six rows of reverse stockinette in the main colour.

Audio Books

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde.

Arches

There is little for arches that I can find interesting here on the ship, so Lisbon will have to suffice.


-Holly

Shabbat Shalom

29 Nov 07, Thursday
Day 11 – At Sea

There is no silence on the sea. Not on a cruise ship under way. The dull muted growl of the engines below and the sound of the water shushing beneath as the vessel travels forward, cutting through the waters.

With a still surface surrounding the forward passage, there is little sound of waves against the side, only soft murmurs of people from upper decks drowned out by the constant background rushing of the waters below.

Knitting

After finishing up the Kauni Sleeve, I decided to knit the first of the front facings. Brain was dead somewhere. Way too many stitches on too big a needle. Maybe tomorrow I will have enough energy for the frog pond.

Which takes me to Mein Weg and the sleeves

Audio Books

Magic Kingdom for Sale (Sold) by Terry Brooks. Written over 20 years ago, it is a cute tale.

-Holly

28 Nov 07, Wednesday
Day 10 – At Sea

Day 2/6 in the Atlantic Crossing.

If you get there early enough, you might even get a treadmill. Then again, you might not.

Let us just leave this alone, shall we?

What else?

Food.

Would you believe that you can’t get a cup of coffee 24 hours a day? Or at least not early in the morning.

As far as the rest of the meals go – breakfast is about the best. You can have cereal or musli or eggs (scrambled) or dead animal. There is also both canned and fresh fruit.

And if you want to be served in a restaurant, well, you can have table cloths and napkins as well.

As far as lunch goes, there are salads, hot entrees and cold offerings. Again, restaurant or the buffet line on Deck 11.

Which only leaves dinner. Two seatings; two restaurants. There seems to be a theme each night which carries through the many course menu. In all fairness, the food looks fabulous. The plating is superb.

I should take pictures, most of it looks so beautiful. As far as the taste, there have been perhaps 2 good dinners since the start of the cruise. It is, in a word, horrible. The salads aren’t rinsed and drained, the soups are dull and lukewarm. The risottos are way too runny and the noodles are usually over cooked.

The entrees (non-vegetarian) seem all to come from previously frozen meat and fish. The vegetarian ones are a bit better, but sadly lacking in flavor.

The food is to cuisine what chow mein is to Chinese cooking.

On the bright side, the wait staff is good.

Knitting

I am half way down the second sleeve on the Kauni.

Since the last set of pix of the Rivendell did not show up clearly, lets try that one again.

Audio Books

Sleeping with Fear by Kay Hooper
Lost and Found Sound by Noah Adams

-Holly

27 Nov 07, Tues
Day 9 – At Sea

Pulling out of Santa Cruz de Tenerife last night just after 1800 – the city was back lit by the setting sun. This close to the equator the day light is not lasting until late.

Off we went on to the ocean with a sea that smoothed out into a sheet of glass so quite that it hardly seemed like the ship was moving for most of the night.

Audio Books

Unlike her other books (the Kelly O’Riley series), Keeper of the Keys I found confusing. After listing through the first of CDs, I still did not have a clear idea of where the plot was going or who were the critical characters. Certainly she had a couple in the vein of clueless and wandering plus a particularly strange husband of the now disappeared woman.

I put it aside in favor of Jonathan Lethern”s Men and Comics which is an interesting series of short stories set from the present into some kind of future comprising of character sketches and the “never grown up.”

-Holly

26 Nov 2007
MSC Sinfonia – Day 8 Tenerife, Canaries

Travel

Arriving in the morning – we were greeted by ugly cliffs. This island might be one of the Canaries, but Santa Cruuz de Tenerife is really ugly.

Rather than join a tour, we just hiked around the city for a while – then bought a round trip ticket for the Tranvia over to La Trinidad.

At the end of the 30 minute tram ride out, it was more of the same – a few interesting architectural details and doors, but basically cement slab construction. Not surprising, there doesn’t seem to be much for trees.

On return to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, there is construction and restoration -

and a small bit of sculpture -

Audio Books

Kepper of the Keys – Perri O’Shaughnessy

Knitting

I will finish up the rivendell in another couple of hours. Then I have to decide if it is the kauni or I love gansey socks.

-Holly
who is off to take a nice leisurely nap.

24 Nov 07
Arriving by 0800, Funchal on the

Madeira Island is the city of the day. Tomorrow we will be in the Canaries, stopping atTenerife. Following that, we will be at sea for six days.

Travel

We pulled into Madeira while it was still dark with the moon hanging in the sky

Debarking early, we spent a wonderful day playing tourist, leaving me free to take hundreds of digital pictures of Funchal from the streets, cable car and a short bus tour. City, harbour, a lonely Hapsburg and plants – this is a city of mild temperatures.

Cable carring up to the top –

Flora and Fauna

Old ships, newer ships and a German ship with a sense of humour (The Diva).

We ended our tour at the old city next to the harbour.
Leaving me only the question of – Who is Jamie Monez?

Knitting

Back to Rivendell.
 

Audio Books

Flashback by Nevada Barr on the MP3 player.

Magic Kingdom for Sale (Sold) by Terry Brooks on the computer.
 -Holly

24 Nov 07
MSC Sinfonia – Day 6 – At Sea

Travel

My day was quiet, getting a chance on one of the working treadmills by dint of being there when the exercise room opened.

Sitting in one of the lounges which was empty early.

That later filled with an assortment of people taking dance lessons. While I listened to audio books and knit.

Knitting

The Peapod is finished.

And the hat started and (completed as well.)

Audio Books

Blood Lure by Nevada Barr on the MP3 player.

Magic Kingdom for Sale (Sold) by Terry Brooks on the computer.

-Holly

Yes, the ship 

23 Nov 07
MSC Sinfonia – Day 5 – Lisbon

Pulling in close to mid-day – we had from 1200 to 2200 on shore.

However, Sandi and I had this small problem which needed attention. When we had done the research for the trip and checked for visas, it did not appear that we needed any. Most major countries now have all of this information on line. According to the guy in charge of passports on the ship – Brazil requires a visa.

We were not the only ones who tried explaining to him that according to the website, we didn’t need one. Try arguing with a wall – you would get a better response. My crabbiness just extended to the question of why he didn’t tell us this while we were docked in Barcelona….

Escaping the ship at 1200 we headed straight to the Brazilian embassy to find that they processed visas only between 0900 to 1200. There was this nice young man at the window just finishing up with an older couple. He was willing to answer a question for me – yes, we needed visas – and handed us the forms and an address where we could get pictures taken.

End result of going there, and going back twice was that we had visas in hand by 1600. 1230 for all the paperwork (and money, let us not forget the money) and then waiting for the head of mission to sign them off.

Travel

Walking the hills and heading up to the top of the Tower – Lisbon is a city of red roof tiles.

Mosaic cobblestone areas all representative of the sea and sailing -

Castles on hills and plazas through out the city

We grabbed the 15E tram just to ride around, and found that we had lucked into the one that went along the shore in the direction of our ship. After wandering around in a couple of neighbourhood, we stopped for a few minutes at a hole in the wall of at internet café where I was able to upload the last few days from a computer in this dark den. Most of the other inhabitants seemed to be teen age boys deep into on line gaming.

Navigating by watching for the overhead bridges, we made it back to the ship in plenty of time.

Knitting

The only time I did any knitting was while waiting at the Embassy – a bit more on the peapod.

Audio Books

Unbidden Truth by Kate Wilhelm.

Arches

Entitled Waves, this modern sculpture graces the Plaza at the entrance to the Quay in Barcelona.

-Holly

22 Nov 07

The water is relatively smooth, even given the rain showers that are alternating with a bit of sun. One of the stewards mentioned that the ship can carry up to 2200 passengers but there are only around 1300 on board.

So why are there herds of people (grey haired clinging to walls or stumping along with canes) every where I go?

Travel

Spending time just relaxing in the mini-cabin

and otherwise knitting and listening to audio books.

Knitting

Past the arm splits on the Peapod, I like the bright, cheerful colours. Although this is destined for a baby girl, it might work for a small young man as well.

Audio Books

Ben Bova’s The Grand Tour finished before noon.

On to Jonathan Rosen’s Joy Comes in the Morning.

-Holly

21 Nov 2007

Travel

Down the gangplank and into the city right around 0800, we skipped the tour groups in favor independence. (http://www.bcn.es/english/ihome.htm  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona ). At first there were not many people up and around in the city. The ship docks are actually close to the city. We were able to walk two blocks to La Ramblas. Buying a day pass on the double-decker tour bus allowed us to cruise both loops. Because the bus drivers were going to be doing an intermittent strike between 1100-1600, we just stayed on the bus.

Walking :

Before getting passes to the city tour bus. Not all that expensive for 4+ hours of riding around first the blue, then the red loop starting and stopping more or less at Plaç de Catalunya.

Barcelona is home to Gaudi –

The city also claims Christopher Columbus

And just a lot of interesting buildings. It is a city of architectural interest: trims on buildings, balconies with iron railings and interesting doors set back almost hidden by the surrounding walls.

And cathedrals – a prominent part of the city.

Proving that cells phones are needed, the teen managed to locate us on one of the main streets. I fed her lunch; after all, I am a mom. It was nice having her to order lunch – those years of Spanish have paid off, even here in Catalan. She is doing fine on her assignment, only wishing that three of the women at the Hostel would figure out quiet hours. She is here till Friday, then heads back to Germany by plane.

Knitting

Rivendell is not bus knitting. Peapods can be bus knitting. (This is my reward for finishing up that sock which has been UFOd for months and starting the second).

Audio Books

Twelve Red Herrings by Jeffrey Archer is a series of short stories. Quite British in most of their aspects, I still found most quite amusing.

-Holly

20 Nov 2007
MSC Sinfonia – Day 2 – Not Marseille

Travel

At 0600 in the morning, not many people are up and about. I tried their “jogging track” which isn’t. More like a pathway on the upper most deck, it travels along the railing on one side, around the front of a lounge then along the other side. The final end? You have to open the door, go inside across a lobby and back out the other door. Or reserve directions every loop. Or, cut across in the middle. Boring.

We were supposed to pull into Marseille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille
http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/marseill/marseill.htm ) this morning around 0800. By 0730, the water was still pretty rough, and at 0830 the announcement came that it was a no go for safety reasons. No France, no stop, no Marseille.

So we were off to Barcelona, the next stop in the itinerary. Except for me, I was bound for bed. Something about a migraine and choppy seas. Pain is one thing, nausea another (and taking a pain med that gives one nausea is the height of stupidity). Let me give you a testimonial about the power of Scope patches. Dinner was great.

We pulled into Barcelona in the evening.

The dining room has assigned seating complete with table numbers. We are in what looks to be the less fancy dining room and are sharing a table with an American couple who are around my age. Different, but fun, apparently this is their honeymoon cruise. Never mind that they were married on an Alaskan Cruise several weeks ago.

Our oldest teen is here in Barcelona as well, working on a UN conference. Since I am planning on being alive and better tomorrow, I am hoping to see her.

Socks

Started the second Rivendell, but didn’t get very far. Since the episode on the train, I am using metal needles. Not my favorite, but they were packed and safe.

Audio Books

The Partly Cloudy Patriot – by Sarah Vowell. A work of non-fiction, this is a collection of essays more or less political in nature. Most I found quite interesting.

-Holly

19 Nov 2007

Travel

Leaving Milan by train –

We were on our way to Genoa. Train reservations are a must – even so – the car was packed. So packed with people that all the large suitcases wound up out in the hall at parade rest up against the outside wall. Not an issue till someone tries to walk through the area, or worse, wheel a snack cart.
End result is that several of us wound up crouched on our seats with the center of the compartment filled with luggage. And wooden knitting needles don’t like to be stepped on.

We didn’t get a lot of time in Genoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa and http://www.timeout.com/travel/genoa/intro.html ) since we elected to try and check in (ditch the luggage).

By the time we managed to do that – it hardly seemed worth the effort to go back into the city.
Besides, they were offering Free Lunch up in one of the dining areas.


The ship is the Sinfonia.

Also seen here, here and here,

Leading to this

and finally here – in the cheap seats!

Thank you for surviving all the pictures of the ship – I promise I won’t do that to you again.

There are the important things – like Genoa Harbor –

Or the nice starting digital map that is on several screens throughout the ship.

Socks

Wicked is finished.

So I pulled out Rivendell, going from a partial cuff to this –

to this

over the day. The detail on the top looks like this –

Audio Books

Finished Too Many Cooks – by Rex Stout. Written in 1938, the publisher notes at the beginning that there maybe portions that will offend most today. Rather than edit the book, the original has been left intact, feeling that the reader is able to distinguish and handle those parts themselves.

Nero Wolfe (the main character), besides being severely obsess, is a frank misogynist. Set in West Virginia, people of colour might not have been slaves, but the attitude toward them was less than sterling. I don’t think it hurts to be reminded of how much change we have seen in the last 60 years, both in attitude by the white male and in law.

-Holly

Remember I said Cruise?

This is the ship.  And this is our intinerary. We start in Genoa and end in Buenos Aries.

I am packed. I am not organized but think I will have more than enough time to regret anything that I forget.

One of my teens is presently in Barcelona and I am contemplating calling her, just for the sake of doing it.

I will write and take pictures every day – and will upload them every 1-3 days depending.

And of course, there will be knitting.

-Holly

I am never sure how much to take on vacation. As a result, I pack either too much or too little.

The choice of suitcases is either the 22″ or the 26″ pull-toy. I did the two weeks of China with just the contents of the smaller suitcase. But this is a week longer (sort of) and I want to bring along sport clothes and will need at least one decent outfit. Add to that the changes of weather from here on the Continent to what it will be in Brazil and Argentina and I am kind of flailing.

The knitting was easier (grin): the three pairs of socks that are in progress ( I should easily be able to finish them), several hanks of sock yarn in case I want to knit more socks,

patterns to go with the above, the Kauni Cardigan so that it gets finished, and Mein Weg to start in case I really make progress.

As you can see, I decided to go lighter with the contrast yarn and pulled some Finnull out of stash. This was, of course, after I had made a run downtown and picked up some Roedel. But it is superwash and I just don’t think that they will work well together.

From what I can tell – out of 19 days – we will have less than 48 hours on land.

That is plenty of time to knit. Oh, and I have yet another baby sweater to knit. Peapod I think, and it a nice bright stripe!

Audio Books

In between the laundry and packing, I have been loading audio books onto my computer and portable drive so that I will have plenty of listening material. Jasper Fforde, Michael Connelly, Catherine Coulter (FBI Series), Perri O’Shaugnessy and Terry Prachett to name just a few.

I am planning on watching the sea, listening and knitting.

-Holly

And another day spent spinning in circles.

Or so it seemed.

Between saving Audio Books so that I would have music on the trip and making phone calls, I felt that my life was perhaps coming under control.

I haven’t heard back from the nice school lady. She is TDY next week, and I am gone for the next three. The kids may have a school interview somewhere around 19-20 Dec. They are not running on thrilled, but I can hope that something sparks their interest.

At least I managed to clean out my inbox, handle a couple of taskings and complete a support form before grabbing my leave form and heading out the door.

Knitting

Not much to report. I have to decide on the projects for my cruise. After all, the boat floats on Monday and I would like to have everything packed on Saturday.

Which reminds me – have you seen some of the lovely patterns on Wolke 7? I am looking at Mein Weg as a cruise knit. Since the author states that it is TV knitting worthy, it should do just fine. There are a couple of changes that I might make. Other than making it smaller (grin) – and that is to see if I can ditch the garter stitch. Probably not, as it would have a different drape. I may also steek the front so that it matches. I have this lovely cone of Kauni in blues, purples and a bit of green. Now to see if I have enough black on hand for a contrast or will have to hit the yarn store today.

But I have to do that anyway since I have one more Peadpod to knit. Unless someone can suggest something different. (I put my copy of Babies and Bears somewhere).

Audio Books

I managed to pull seven books to my hard drive in and among everything else I was doing. I am not sure what I will want to listen to and a choice would be nice. The laptop weighs the same regardless, which is not something I can say for hauling along a large number of CDs.

Which reminds me – I switched over to FreeRip from Real Player and Window Media Player. It is more than happy to run on a computer that it not hooked up to the Internet. And it just rips. Not plays, not argues with me about what I want to do. It also is a bit faster than the other programs. Important factor when you have large numbers of CDs to deal with.

Arches

Stairs to workout rooms. Shaolin Center. From 9 Aug this summer in China.

-Holly

What do you think? Perhaps the obvious – money.

From the last time I had to blast off, leaving the family behind, they have changed the rules. If you head to a tour where you don’t take your family, but could – it is your problem. Used to be (don’t cha just love it?), that if you left the family to make their life better, you collected allowances for the location where your family remained. Counting it out, it is cheaper to do that than to move a complete family twice. But no, someone apparently thinks that saving two moves doesn’t balance the books.

Economically, I am more than willing to donate money to charity, but not to subsidize the US Government. If the family “officially” comes with me, then the government pays the school tuition for my teens.

It might balance things out, and will certainly cut down the number of trips that I need to make across the Chanel. As well as not being really thrilled about having the kids in school on another continent.

No knitting today, no spinning today. Just a whole day spent on the phone, web and email.

On the Audio – Bait – Karen Robards.

On the nightstand – Tanya Huff’s The Heart of Valour.

-Holly

Which stands for Request for Orders. This nice little one pager from my branch that I have to take over to the personnel office comes in by email (after I have to go to the main site and reset a password and log in manually), and then they cut me orders for the move. Without these particular sheets of paper, I don’t have the authority to do much of anything but sit and whine, much less get the good old government to pay for that which they should.

All sorts of fun, not that I did not have enough to do this week. I am going to try and bug out on all the mandatory briefings for movement overseas…seems like I am already there from a US point of view.

Now on to the more important things in life -

Treasure

These came in the mail today.

It is my October (and last) SOM from Chameleon Colorworks. Bamboo, incredibly soft yarn in a pale seafoam color. Last kit, not because I don’t love Janel’s hand dyed yarns and patterns, but because she is selling off her business. I now have collector’s kits (grin) and I am hoping Nancy Colburn carries on as well (could not find a website for her).

and from The Sweet Sheep this nice box contained this-

and this underneath.

Spinning

Would you believe that this

fit into this?

Tomorrow it is on its way to PA. The challenge for the last several weeks has been to find a box that would hold the 24″ diameter wheel. [Hint, think diagonal placement in the box]. After worrying about two boxes, I managed to get the legs off the base, all the metal thingies in a baggie, uprights, footman, whorls and bobbins into the same box, padded with some wool. Wool is a wonderful packing material.

Now also to mail off some other things at the same time (wool, boxes of books to downrange, a few holiday packages and the like).

Socks

The start on the second Wicked -

Books & Audio Books

Finished the Berenson and Greeley and now on to Sweet Revenge. Reading is better than packing.

Tomorrow I will start thinking about what I want to take on the cruise. After all, the boat doesn’t float till Monday. That is plenty of time. Right?

-Holly

After banging my head up against several administrative rocks today, you would think that I would give up? After all, first my branch crew says that they have no record of my current extension. Hello? They approved it and I am still here in Germany – so it went through their hands. Next, they try and tell me that I have to request a curtailment in order for them to reassign me to the UK.

No. Been there, done that. Had it come back to bite me. “Well, you asked to go [to Muenchen]. ” No, I was told to go, and was stupid enough to help with the paperwork. But with my signature on a document….. Fool me twice? I don’t think so.

Besides, if I want to try and leave there in the foreseeable future, plausible deniability is everything.

Did I mention that it is cool, wet and raining outside? That it took me more than 90 minutes to get home, listening to Breach of Promise by Perri O’Shaughnessy and munching on crackers.

Turns out my husband did not head to Switzerland today. And he decided to surprise me with dinner.

Knitting

Which means that I should be working on the Valley Jacket. Right, I have to undo the collar bind off, take out one to two rows and put it back together. It is splaying out just a little more than I like at the join.

or get past the cuff on the second Wicked sock.

Travel

Or I could start packing for the cruise. Seems to me it is going to take a couple of days to sort out what all I want to take along with me.

Books

The real truth is that – instead of all the things that I should be doing, I have this pile of books that has suckered me. Nothing like stopping at the library to donate some Audio Books and find the following just out on the shelf:
The Heart of Valor – Tanya Huff
The Bishop at the Lake – Andrew Greeeley
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
Sweet Revenge – Diane Mott Davidson
The Careful Use of Compliments – Alexander McCall Smith
Hounded to Death – Laurien Berenson.

Now, doesn’t that just about cover everything? And explain why a nice cup of hot cider, a blanket and a book are just irresistible?

-Holly

I am hope and extremely tired. Train to Mannheim, train to Heidelberg, husband doesn’t get in from Boston till tomorrow so that all the whining in the world wasn’t going to get me a ride home from the train station.

No sleep on that flight. Snores all around so that I don’t think that other people had the same issue.

But I finished the socks!

-Holly

Dulles Airport -> somewhere over the Atlantic

Since we finished up yesterday, I got to sleep in a couple of extra minutes this morning before packing up everything.

Would you believe that I never got to a yarn store? But I did hit the book stores and found a couple of pullovers, so that will have to do.

The flight I was scheduled for was at 2030 and went to Muenchen. From there I would have had to change planes and fly the 30 minutes to Frankfurt before catching my train home.

Deciding it was worth spending a lot of time at the airport, I ditched the rental car and was the first person at the Lufthansa Counter. The nice lady put me first on the standby list for the 1800 flight direct to Frankfurt, tagged my luggage so that it would make the flight if I did and put in the frequent flyer miles from both legs of the trip. Not shabby at all.

The flight was full. Or at least coach was until several passengers used mileage or money to upgrade themselves. That opened up a couple of seats and I got on. And, being that I am such a nice person, I even traded seats with a guy who wanted to sit in the same row as his friends.

It actually was not that good a deal, as one of the last people onto the plane, the overhead compartments were pretty full and I had one of those strange isle seats at the back where there is no “under the seat in front of you.” I probably made more than one person unhappy by moving around briefcases and coats, but hey, what choice did I have?

Arches

Just so you will recognize the Fernbahn Station at the Frankfurt Airport should you need to.

-Holly

I was downrange with Jonah while his wife coped with their [then] 4 year-old triplet sons. He is now stationed close to where I am playing in the exercise that is just finished. They were kind enough to feed me dinner, even giving me a ride so that I would not get lost while sleepy in the dark

At eight I suspect that the boys are even more full of energy than when younger.

It was not quiet, someone was always in motion.

My hat is off to Paula!

Socks

On to the next yarn -

which looks like this when started -

-Holly

It is dark in the morning, it is dark at night.

Did I mention waking up at 0300 in the morning still and having to wait for juice and coffee? The Sleep Inn (which I can’t) at least includes a breakfast in the price. Hot beverage (add the flavoring syrup to the coffee yourself), juice, danish, bagels and cereal. The yogurt was awful, I am capable of learning on the first go round.

My crew, since they rotated out of the box, got to be role players for the CONUS based team. There was a fair amount of downtime.

I crashed early but

Socks

found time to complete the socks for Ms Pink.

-Holly

I am playing multiple roles in this exercise, kind of like a role playing game where you keep changing characters. What I am not doing is acting as the team leader for my team since I helped work out both scenarios. Didn’t make my team really happy, but they are surviving and probably learning more than if I was actually playing myself. And if not – there were enough discussions going on.

That took care of 0800-1600+. Then

Books

I got directions to the nearest major bookstore which turned out to be a Borders. I was really good. I mean really. I spent almost three hours in the bookstore and purchased only three paperbacks.

Shall we not talk about the list of close to 30 ISBNs I have written down for future consideration?

I can’t be the only one who really needs to handle books. Reading reviews helps a little, but ordering on line is a duck shoot in the pouring rain. Best I can do is judge by the author’s past works and the cover. My taste in cover art is obviously not that of the current young crop of editors.

Being able to hold the book, read the back cover and maybe the first few pages makes a difference for me, especially if it is a new author. Paperbacks are not as expensive as hardbacks but still, I don’t like buying books that I will wind up not wanting to keep.

When it comes to fiber books, I am even fussier. Looking through most of the new books out, few have anything to recommend them that I do not already have in either reference books or in pattern pamphlets.

Socks

Oh yes, socks started for Ms Pink out of Regia Crazy Stripe.

-Holly

According to East Coast time – it was 1930 when I went to bed last night. Add a nice round six hours to that and you will know why I was hardly able to find the light switch as I staggered into bed.

And then I woke up a few hours later. It was 0245 in the freaking morning. But my body claimed that it was 0845 and I was late.

The place has free internet! But since I was completely brain dead, nothing useful came of it. Finished up the Dante Valentine book I was reading [Lilith Saintcrow] and went off to a full day exerice on Edgewoood.

We will skip the part about following the other vehicle which happily turned left at an intersection through the end of the yellow leaving me behind. And the following hour where I tried to locate them on the base before giving up, going back to the hotel and getting a email printout listing the building number.

(I will continue to wonder why no one in the HQ had a clue as to where we were holding this. No one, it seems, of any importance comes to work before 0900).

Foolish me, thinking that if my organization was paying for and running an exercise that included a number of out of town players, I might let the staff duty officer in on the secret.

I skipped dinner to crash.

-Holly

According the to itinerary emailed to me by my OPS officer, our flight on United Airlines was to go out at 1215. Arriving by train at the Frankfurt Airport in what I thought was plenty of time – the flight on the board was listed as 1115. It was now slightly before 1000.

No sweat, thinks I. I am in line at the counter and the line seems to be moving. Getting to the nice young man at the check-in, he informs me that he can see my reservation, but no ticket number against it. Since it was a government purchase, I have to go and talk to SATO. They are over in Terminal 2.

Through the terminal, take the skytrain and go nuts trying to find the window which turns out to the in the far back corner of  Section E.

Yes, I am in the computer, no – he can’t issue me the ticket since I don’t have a government credit card. The other alternative is handing over a copy of my orders. We are on this new, electronic DTS system. I had opened the screen for this travel on Friday, printing three sets just in case there was a problem. I pull them out.

The orders say Garmisch. They are orders for a previous trip. Now either I hit the wrong button, or the label in the electronic system is wrong. Either way, I am screwed. Since I don’t have a government credit card – no tickets.

Searching through SABRE, he finally finds another flight out an hour later, but the return comes through Muenchen. Thrilling – it will take me an extra three hours to get home. The ticket is 50E cheaper than what it cost for the rest of the crew. Some saving grace at least. He books me through Lufthansa (which is going to be a challenge later – except for the fact that there is a matching UA number).

By this time, the 1215 flight should be boarded and ready to push back. Leaving a message with that gate agent for the six people whom I was supposed to have met, I manage to get through security and to my own gate just as they are starting to board.

Flight is full. Really full.

Hours later, it is still Sunday. I am wiped, through Immigration and customs with my luggage. There is no one waiting.

Figures. Time to rent a car and head north.

Luck is with me, I slap an audio book into the CD player which happens to work and roll around the DC beltway, up 95 and through the McKinley Tunnel. Taking the Edgewood exit, the hotel is right there.

The rest of the crew has checked in, but I am not going to wait up for them – it is really time to sleep.

Kate Wilhelm – Desperate Measures for the flight and one and a half Salmon stripe socks on the plane.

-Holly

Ravelry – Although I have been a member since June, I have not done a lot there since I returned from China. Last night I managed to upload a few pictures and update a couple of projects. In fact, there were several which I had started and finished prior to listing them in my projects.

Socks for the most part. I certainly mean the Wyvern and Peacock Socks along with the Peapod Baby set. Is anyone else finding it hard to keep up?  Between Flickr, Ravelry, and blogs I am not sure that there is any time for knitting.

And in the morning – I am off to the US, Aberdeen Proving Grounds South (aka the old Edgewood Arsenal) for an exercise. Such fun. I just love long plane flights – not. But I have plenty of sock yarn.

I am trying to sort out the pluses and minuses of different courses of action.

The kids are better with my going to the UK than they would be with Iraq. I might like the job there better, more challenging, working with military, troops etc. But there is the question of gear. I am getting older and my bones don’t like walking around with that much weight. BattleRattle right now can be up to 30% (minimum) of my body weight. The heat would be nice, but not a helmet all the time.

Knowing my assignment system, the real choice is go to the UK this winter, or get moved to the US this coming summer. UK is closer. I could retire.

[ large mind blank ]

I even have enough time to plan out the economics. Since the rest of the family will be here in Europe for at least three more years, seems kind of silly to get paid half as much to do my current work….

Arches

The new Olympic Stadium in Beijing taken in August 07. No, I didn’t use a weird filter or alter the photo, the air is that brown from pollution.

-Holly

Well – it is official. The job I am headed to is co-located with the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Located in Camberley, I will be 50 km outside of London off the M3.

Negotiating on a reporting date, but Mid January 2008 at the latest.

This is really going to make a mess of my planned knitting.

Otherwise, I have finally gotten back to Ravelry since I have not updated my projects since August.

Followed by the matter of the youngest now taking ill.

Enough, wouldn’t you say?

-Holly