Some things feel familiar – water storage on the top of buildings, a few wooden doors here and there and a real phone booth. The Library is open on Sundays – most of the stores are not.

And progress on the knitting.

Since I was just here in Nov (as apposed to Nov of 2007) when I had seen some of the museums I decided to take the tram across the northern part of the island from Tenerif. From one end of the line to the other takes close to an hour starting from near the old fort at water’s edge and ending at the Pedestrian Zone at the other.

It is easy to see that we are back in Spain; the fancy patterned stone side walks with their lines, symbols and insets are gone in favor of ordinary cobblestone and pavement. The architectural highlight in this city is the door. Old wooden doors pitted but lovingly tended. Newer doors (well 100 years old is newer, right?) gleam with varnish and sealant. Also of interest are the wooden frames to upper windows.

I hope you can handle doors two days in a row. Oh, and did I mention the tribe of Scouts complete with backpacks, sleeping rolls and a weary looking couple of adults escorting them down the street. From the variety of languages heard I don’t think they are local kids.

Reading -

I am trundling through Monica Ferris’s Needlework Shop Mystery series. Not exactly in order by chronology but by alphabetical order as I picked most of them up over the last year on the various Audible Sales.

Knitting.

It takes much longer to finish a section repeat on the Shadow Jacket now that I have added the body extensions on both ends to to the sleeve sides. ~150 stitches suddenly had 220 added, which does slow me down.

Traditional embroidery here is a variation of white on white cutwork with blue on which being first seen no earlier than 18xx and brown on ivory only in the second half of the 20th century. There is a small embroidery museum (from which I include a few pictures taken before I saw the sign saying no photos). I stopped at two of the Embroidery Factories, one of which was an actual working location.

The process is as follows – drafting of patterns, punching of patterns, transfer of the pattern to the fabric. What follows then is the hand (mostly) embroidery followed by finishing. Most locations also sell some needlepoint (most of which looked like it was French/DMC with the body of the work completed leaving the background stitching up to the purchaser. You can see that there were cubby upon cubby containing current and historically used patterns. What I also was informed is that the government, in an effort to protect the industry does not allow patterns, materials etc to DIY. Kind of explains the many stores offering embroidered linens and garments and the absence of any remotely resembling needle craft (wonder what they do about the Internet – plain brown wrapper?)

This also seemed to be the correct post in which to place the current knitting update.

The shadow shawl is complete as of today. After completing a couple of rows on the pumpkins in Hocus Pocus I switched over to the shadow jacket. I was at the point where I needed to cast the body onto both sides of the first sleeve. Rather than follow the directions and have one side off 1/2 a row I elected a provisional cast. When I get to the neck split, I will go back and three needle bind off under the arms from the provisional stitches (which shouldn’t show in the black although I may go nuts during the execution). It was at this point I found that everything no longer fit on one needle. I don’t’ think it will be quite as hard to go back and work the second sleeve in, since it is 15 rows short of complete to the shoulder.

Since then, I have been to/through the Canaries a couple of times but the stops have been on other islands.

This is the first of two posts on Funchal. Too many photos for one post. Two completely disparate things to talk about.

In the last several years there has been a lot of art development which leads me to the street art. Back all those same number of years ago I had a Friday tradition of posting pictures – normally doors or arches. So this is about the doors along Rua de Santa Maria. Not all the doors, mind you – just the ones which I found interesting or could get a decent shot not obscured by all the other tourists with their cameras. I have my older EOS instead of the 7D which was not particularly happy with me. I am feeling the lack of capability (narrower ISO range which decreases the quality of indoor pictures) and the not-quite-as-good lens.

If you are reading the email version of this post with thumbnails – suggest you wander to the blog as the ability to embiggen some of the photos really makes a difference.

Just so things are clear – we made an unexpected stop in Gibraltar last night. Since I have the older camera with an ISO setting only down to 1600, the shutter speed was longer than I liked and the best that I got was with camera braced on the side rail

The story started earlier in the afternoon when I was sitting, minding my own business in one of the lounges. This couple who had a significant number of years on me dropped in to chairs on the other side of the coffee table. The elderly gentleman, from what I understood (my French is just about gone and they had no other languages) had not been feeling well. He got up and wandered off. A few minutes later as he was headed back, it looked like he got dizzy and hit the carpet with a resounding crash.

Guess what – I even got to fill out an accident report in exchange for promptly responding (head wounds bleed like mad) and the staff rounded up a wheel chair after finding me some clean bar towels for a pressure dressing.

Several hours later, there is a ship wide announcement that we will be making an unplanned stop in Gibraltar to off load an ill/injured passenger. Now, I don’t think the head wound was all that serious but it did need stitches. What I believe is of concern is whatever medical reason was behind his falling in the first place. It wasn’t rough seas and it was not food issues. The five main issues (cardiac, strokes, diabetes, electrolytes and medication imbalance) are much more likely as a source).

The seas were not all that smooth and it was a bit chilly. Watching as they dropped down a side panel to lock up against the medical response tender and said vessel bouncing around like a cork was more than I wanted to see. Rather than take any more pictures, I headed in.

Now – back to the ship followed by a side detour into knitting.

The Norwegian Jade…. built in 2006 has the same physical layout as the Norwegian Star (Alaska cruise last August). In contrast, it has a bit of an interesting decoration scheme. There are paintings, murals, decorations and lighting fixtures that I would expect to see in the Pacific.  Well – goes what ? This turns out to  be the ship that used to be named “Pride of Hawaii” that plied the route around the Hawaiian Islands.

My cabin is comfortable for me and would be fine for a couple. You would have to be insane to try and shoehorn four people into this space.  What I am starting to consider is that, when traveling my oneself – go for the cheapest room possible. There really is not a whole lot of point to views or lots of space when it is by far more interesting to be out and about in the ship. If I want to sit by myself and never see or talk to other people I could have stayed home.

Anyway – there is the ship and there are also the two knitting projects currently in front of me. The Hocus Pocus cowl is portable within the limits of dealing with a color work pattern so it was with me on the plane and the first day on ship prior to luggage. The large triangular shawl has the first wing done, the center section and most of the second side completed leaving me with about six rows plus the front edging. It is a lot of stitches, trust me.

so – Ship pix, the rock and night (not great but the best you will get) and two knitting pictures.

From my point of view, this trip meets all criteria

1. it is warmer there than here
2. I like Barcelona and can find things there. Still want to spend more time in the Maritime Museum
3. I am familiar with the three Canary Stops and have places to visit and hikes to take
4. there are days at sea to knit.
5. no cooking, cleaning, laundry
6. good fitness facilities

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE   DEPART Tues Jan  31 Barcelona, Spain 7:00pm Wed Feb 1 At Sea Thu Feb 2 At Sea Fri Feb 3 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Feb 4 Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands 8:00am 6:00pm Sun Feb 5 Arrecife, Canary Islands 8:00am 6:00pm Mon Feb 6 At Sea Tue Feb 7 Malaga, Spain 8:00am 7:00pm Wed Feb 8 At Sea Thu Feb 9 Barcelona, Spain 5:00am

-Holly at Sea again

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

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.

nearing the end

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…

those last few stitches

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.

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!

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.

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.

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….

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 –

Shai!

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

lavendar merino lace

it was on sale, cheap

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.

folded in sixths

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.

the first ball finished

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?

details

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.

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.

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

cowl? Would you believe long tube?

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!

my matching set

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.

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.

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

the new PJs

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.

the new length

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.

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

just the pattern portion of a larger shawl design

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.

tucked into her corner

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

living and dining area

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

kitchen wall and living area

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.

temp sleeping solution

And then I mentioned the bedroom closet?

built-ins

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.

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.

Loopy Yarns at Dearborn Station

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

mostly through the second skein

Instead I managed to get from here

Spooky

the Halloween Cowl

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

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?

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 …….

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.

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.