ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Most of the time, I try to be coherent, but there are those days when it just doesn’t work. Like this morning.

It could be because I had little sleep on Sunday nigh, making the mistake of not heading to bed when I was tired. It passed, I had an energy spurt and all of a sudden it was after 0200 in the morning. Still with needing to drop George off at the Bahnhof for an 0615 train you may start to understand the magnitude of the problem. This was followed by a day of attempting to run errands, finishing knitting projects (you have already heard how that went) and packing.

All of a sudden, it was 2130 and I had this huge pile of projects to go in the suitcase, underwear and effectively no clothes. After I sorted things out a bit better (my plan on this trip is finishing two major projects and a lot of one-skein scarves), printed patterns, and found shoes – I need either the big suitcase, or two suitcases. That is where this frequent flyer business comes in handy. I can check two bags. The big suitcase and a smaller projects bag.

The downside? If my project bag gets lost I will be in a world of hurt without needles or yarn.

This morning I awoke to snow on the ground, ice on the steps and slightly coated objects next to the house that were car shaped. I had asked the Eldest for a ride to the train station. When I saw the snow, I decided it was stupid to have her get up and deal with all of that when she hadn’t gotten home from work till 0030. I was looking for the cab company phone number when she came up stairs, keys in hand. We made a deal, I borrowed a couple of Euro (just in case since I had 10 Euro and other wise only a large note. Large notes are not welcomed by taxi drivers, especially before 0600 in the morning), she called the cab company and went back to bed. We aren’t all that far from the train station. Given that the 0547 is the last direct train to the airport, it is my preference over later trains. Dragging suitcases through Mannheim Bahnhof to change tracks is not my idea of a good time.

Looking at the train schedule I realized – I could take the 0111 and be in Amsterdam by 0800. The only reason it takes that long is that the train has some long pauses at a couple of stations. Or, I could go to Hamburg, change trains and go to Copenhagen, Oslo or Stockholm (yes, there are ferries involved).

The other advantage of the early train is that the wagons are fairly empty. Lets me have two candy bars without feeling selfish when the conductor comes around. Bahn card has to be good for something!

0-H-0

Lufthansa Business Lounge, Fraport

Or perhaps less.

Let me tell you the tale of a shawl. It started life as several balls of yarn purchased in the seconds/sales room at Schoppel when Nanawolf and I took a road trip. Everyone needs the occasional road trip and various balls of multi-color long repeat singles, plied and lace weight were just too good to pass up.

May 2010 rolls around and I take the Mole to head across the Atlantic, landing in NYC only to cruise back on the Costa Atlantica. Checking back, it looks like I still need to upload most of the pictures from that trip – I got as far as setting up the pages…

Given that the cruise was 14 days long with about 7 days total at sea left a lot of time for knitting. I started this shawl around the 12th from an Evelyn Clark pattern. I hadn’t done all that many shawls to that point and was trying to stick close to the directions.

Since then it has been languishing in my UFO pile. It is just not that thrilling. The colors are so not me, and the pattern has been lost. (for those of you on Ravelry – the project is here.) Yesterday I decided that enough was enough. I have other patterns that are close enough. Besides, it is only a 10 stitch repeat. Falling Leaf (also a Clark pattern) lined up perfectly and added a bit of interest. In fact, morphing from one shape to another is both knitting and visually interesting.

Any who – I picked it up yesterday and knit one motif section (about 12 rows as I remember). I looked at this huge ball of yarn and figured I could manage another repeat. So I did that. Finally – today I did the edging – 14 rows, then started the last two rows. All of a sudden that ball of yarn was getting smaller, quite rapidly as a matter of fact.

Still figuring that I was going to be ok – since I was sure that I had another ball of this stuff somewhere I knit the last row, and started the bind off.

Well, as you probably guessed it, I am short yarn. Not a whole lot, about six inches worth of stitches so say about 0.5 meters of yarn. That isn’t very much considering that the shawl measures 65 x 36 prior to blocking…

I just went through that particular bin of yarn again. There isn’t any more. Not white, not green. I may be able to steal some pink out of a different family in the same weight, but then there is the potential of the next project also being short.

One thing is certain, since I have an early train it is not going to get solved tonight.

or down, as the case may be.

I awoke in the middle of the night thinking that I hadn’t finished the last post. I had started talking about two ways to get from house to street level. Then I admitted having challenges to climbing the stairs. But I never went back and explained the alternative.

I could have walked across the terrace from the dining room toward the craft room, then along the path which crossed our tiny square of lawn to the elevator. If it decides to agree, I could take it down the two stories and enter the garage at the back. With any luck, there would be enough space between the door and the switch so that I could hit the button to open the door. Please note, there is no pedestrian door to the outer world just the double garage door which goes up along a track similar to garage doors everywhere.

As long as there is no car parked right in front of the door, this works fine. If there is, the door bangs into the side of the car. If that car belongs to the Eldest, well let me just say that she doesn’t appreciate getting mongo scratches in her car paint. Since her car neatly fits completely onto the garage apron when parked perpendicular to the garage door, this is the occasional possibility.

From the street, the issue is the reverse. As long as no one is parked in front of the garage, it is possible to open the door. However, it doesn’t open without a bit of manual effort. I am trying to protect my back. Automatic opener? There might have been one once, but I haven’t seen it in over 8 years. Don’t need it from the inside (hit the button) and from the outside – well I had teenagers around for years which really took care of the problem.

As I headed back up last night I decided that hiking up was good for fitness, faster than dealing with garage and elevator, and besides – I can see going up!

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.

After emptying the SPAM folder once again, I have decided that the purpose of SPAM is not to provide comments on a website/blog for all to see.

Rather, it is a plot to drive the owner of said site insane, or at least to make them slow down when they see the same stupid message over and over and over, tempting the fool into clicking on a link. Now, I have not done that but I can see how it might happen providing another malicious way to trash a computer.

Of course, using a MAC makes me a little less vulnerable but still. I have decided that the world is not their target, it is me. Personally, me whose attention this spambot wants. Having figured out that much, I can wield my deleting abilities with impunity completely sure that I will never delete anything worth saving.

After all, it has been close to four years and 27,507 bits of spam. In all that time, I think I have rescued two comments. Skimming the spam doesn’t seem like a particularly good use of time given those odds. I might have been educated on the fact that certain words seem to trigger Russian and other former eastern block spam while others invite comments from the far east. Most of it seems to be good ‘ol USA entrepreneurship targeted at me.

It must be the attempted English language in the blog because I am hosted in Germany. Go figure.

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….

Since my Canon 7D developed a hiccup while in Chicago and needs to visit the camera hospital, I pulled out my older Rebel XTI. Taking some shots of various knitting, I set the camera to download to my hard drive and wandered off. Heading back a few minutes later with a cup of tea, I was astonished to find the job still incomplete. It wasn’t a dozen or so pictures on the memory card, it was hundreds.

Not taken by me, it was obvious that most of these had been taken by the Mole. What is more, it seems like 2010 was the year. There were photos of Norway, there were photos from the Tall Ship Races, there were photos from his short stint at RIT. When the download was complete I wandered downstairs to hand him the chip and card reader.

“Found some photos that I think belong to you – Midnight Sun, Tall Ship Parade, that sort of thing”

He had thought they were lost, gone for good. I promised to go through the rest of the cards that have been tucked into the corner of my camera bag.

I wonder if I will find any more to compare with this –

It is not like I needed more yarn and I showed you most of it the other day.

I had mentioned alpaca on cones that were my share of the treasures brought back from Bolivia to my friend Carmen. With the exception of the Paprika, these were all natural colors in light fingering weight. (I drooled over the other dyed cone which was a boucle. Alpaca Boucle? Then I thought of the many skeins of such I already have languishing in my stash. What would I do with it? Never mind, after fondling it for a while, I put it back in the box).

I had forgotten to mention this

or the rest of the merino lace which was on sale.

Now all I have to do is upload the pix to Ravelry. Somehow it always feels nicer to hit the “use yarn from stash” button when I start a project. Only thing is – I really shouldn’t be starting any new projects.

This is the scarf, well it started out to be a scarf, that I cast on while in Chicago. A simple thing – doubled strand of Peruvian Merino Lace on 5.00 mm needles. Pattern take from Radical Changes Ms Soprano needed something to wrap around her neck.

Since this was a scarf, no swatching was needed (I can hear you all snickering right about now). Adding in some edges stitches and a center section to make sure that it was wide enough (you can see this coming a mile away) I happily cast on and started knitting. One ball of yarn (~400 meters, doubled) was obviously not enough.

Adding the second ball, I kept on going. The photo is somewhere, just imagine the same scarf only a lot longer. She tried it on, It wasn’t quite long enough which was what mattered to her. I was a bit concerned that it was getting a bit bulky since it seemed to be a smidgen wider than the average scarf.

I took it back to Germany with me, plowing ahead with the third ball. Wait a minute – did I show you the pattern up close?

I love the pattern. Not only is it a nice knit, but the 8 row pattern is extremely easy to remember. My only other variation was to change the direction of half the twisted stitch cables to induce symmetry.

Finished, I considered blocking it. It would make it light and airy; would softer and bulkier be better? Then I did some measuring. Blocked – it was going to be 24×72. Not a scarf, it had morphed into a freaking shawl. Never mind – it counts for a Shawl in the 12/2012 group and will wing its way to Chicago tomorrow when the post office is open.

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.

Ok, I am officially overwhelmed by too many projects underway. Is that why I have been reading?

Anyway, as I started going through various bins, bags, and boxes (the essential three “Bs” of knitting storage) I discovered this simple cowl.

which was all finished except for the second edge/end.

It was a matter of minutes to manage a few rows of seed stitch and bind it off. Color it finished. Now all I have to do is find it a home.

Meanwhile, back to the reading!

Back in October I decided that I really wanted a yarn bowl. One of those lovely single purpose pieces of pottery designed to keep a ball of yarn from rolling around on a dog hair infested floor. I must have looked at dozens of different models on Etsy. Decided I liked the ones in this shop the best. While I was at it, I ordered a tea mug to match.

I have them now, they are great. Clear ringing tone and incredibly smooth glaze. Special combination of black and red just for me.

Now, all I have to do is see if Angela is up to making a new model – one with a divider in the middle so that I can use two balls of yarn at the same time for stranded 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.