Well, he can’t possibly be bored. He wasn’t alone for more than an hour all day. He had a walk at lunchtime. He had people from the power company outside to bark at. He had me throw his soft-frisbee through the house (rolling on the floor, really) for a good 20 minutes just before dinner. He got a bite of birthday cupcake.

And yet, while Mom and I were watching TV tonight, he apparently decided to take out just about every toy he owns. The squeak toys. The chew toys. The rubber toys. And when he had played with all of those (especially the louder squeaky toys–especially during vital scenes during “Commander in Chief”) he started moving his pillow. He shook, dragged, pushed, and pulled it all the way across the room. Then he went back and picked out new toys to play with.

  Now, really, he can’t be bored, can he? Just . . manic. This picture is the one I took after Mom and I kicked the bulk of the toys into the corner, so as to not be, you know, treacherous for ankle sprains, pratfalls, that kind of thing. But really, before we went in there tonight, there was maybe one toy out of the basket . . . now look! I can count 14 in the picture–not counting the ones around the corner of the chair, or right by my toe as I snapped the picture. Sheesh!

(You don’t suppose he has too many toys, do you? Nahhh… he does play with them!)

For knitting? I got the first inch or so done on my sleeves tonight–really, I did the cast on row, and about 6 rows to get them “started,” and then moved on to my sock. I turned the heel and got a little more than halfway through the gusset decreases . . . definite progress being made on that Jaywalker. Phew!

My copy of Vogue Knitting came today, too, and had a nice little blurb about Susan and Margene‘s “Give a Little” fundraiser for Katrina victims last Fall. (Page 20 or 22, I think–I lost count . . . why don’t magazines put numbers on every page??) There aren’t too many patterns I’m interested in–again–but what can you do? It’s still better than Knitters….

Today was my Dad’s birthday, and we think he had a pretty good day. He opted not to golf (he did yesterday), but I think he had an okay day. I hope so! He deserves it.

I took a picture yesterday of the sunrise as I drove to work–still misty in the valley, but a clearing sky as the sun came up over the hills . . . Pretty, huh, Sandy?

Oh. And Chappy’s finally tired now… Sleeping in his crate. Finally!

Tags: Chappy, Family, General by Deb
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It’s Monday. The first “real” Monday in a few weeks. No holidays. No extra days off. No long weekend. Just, you know, beginning of the week, head to the office, go to work. Blah.

Still. It was in the 50s and sunny today. I got Chappy out for a walk at lunch. Dad got out for golf, and Mom and I got to have dinner, just the two of us. (Which tends to be a lot more on the mixed-vegetables over pasta or rice nature, than the more usual meat/potatoes/veggie trio we mostly have when Dad’s home.)

I made some progress on my Jaywalker sock. (See, Cara?) That’s the heel flap, right there, but I still have to actually turn the heel. I would have done it now, but since I’m working on a different number of stitches than the pattern called for (that gauge issue again!), I needed to actually think a bit before I got that far . . . so I paused there, and am going to pull out my calculator and my thinking cap as soon as I’ve posted this.

I admit, though, that I’m feeling a little guilty about this being Cherry Tree Hill yarn. Have you heard about the problems Jane is having with them? Never underestimate the value of good customer service . . . or the damage that bad customer service can cause! I’ve used their yarns in the past and have some in my stash right now, which I’m sure is perfectly decent yarn, but . . . why should I spend my money supporing a company that doesn’t stand behind its product, that throws up so many roadblocks when a customer has a problem? It’s not like she abused the yarn or deliberately caused it damage, and she is on the other side of an ocean from the company, so postage to mail it back to the company is not cheap. And, it was a problem with a single skein of yarn–it would have cost the company relatively nothing to just reimburse her, or send her another skein. Instead, they’ve been obstinate, sarcastic, and unhelpful . . . and she’s just told the world about it. Really. Talk about short-sighted on the company’s part. I don’t plan on buying any more of their yarn. I’d rather spend my money on a company that cares about its consumers.

Did anybody else watch West Wing last night? The first episode aired since John Spencer (aka Leo McGarry) died. I thought the intro by Martin Sheen, lauding the man, was sweet, and I was so glad they had a nice, Leo-centric episode in the can already . . . it would have been a crime not to air them. But, did anybody else whimper just a little when “Leo” was talking about his health, and the excellent care he got after his heart attack? (sniffle)

Oh, and speaking of sniffling, thank you. I’m feeling better today. Barely any wheezing, just a slightly stuffier nose than usual . . . and yes, Norma, it was Elderberry extract, why? What should it have been? The only syrup I see has a bunch of other stuff in it, too.

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning by Deb
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  My niece was inducted into the National Honor Society today.

Isn’t that wonderful? I am SO proud of her!

My parents went to the ceremony, but I stayed home with Chappy and wheezed. I even tried some of Norma’s Elderberry Syrup . . . which . . . yuck! For something that sounds like it’s going to be so tasty–or at least not disgusting–blech! Worse than cough medicine. (Sorry, Norma.)

I also spent some time in the bathroom with the shower running. Drank some honey-lemon-brandy tea. Sucked on some Fruit Breezer cough drops. And basically . . . wheezed all day. I never had any problems with asthma until last winter when I had bronchitis, but every now and again, now, the occasional asthma-like symptoms. Today was unusual. And no, I have not been to the doctor–they’d just prescribe medicine and I hate taking medicine–the side effects usually feel worse than the symptoms. I know all the arguments for going anyway, really . . .

The good news? I finished the other front of my cardigan. I’ll start the sleeves tomorrow. I just LOVE how fast this sweater is going! (I mean, compared to the USMP, anything would, right?). And I’m almost up to the heel on my Jaywalkers. So at least there’s knitting progress, even if I don’t feel like I accomplished much of anything else today other than reading. (Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories–murder mysteries in an alternate universe where the Plantagenets are still in power and magic actually works.) I didn’t get around to wrapping my Dad’s birthday gift, though (bad me!).

Lastly–Risa’s got a new family member. Just look at that adorable little face! I wish them a happy, healthy, wonderful future together.

Tags: Family by Deb
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I honestly don’t have much to say tonight, but I didn’t want anybody to feel neglected or anything, so . . . let’s see. Mom and I went to Barnes & Noble this morning–I have a gift card from Christmas, not that I really need an excuse to hit a bookstore–but here’s the shocking part.

I didn’t buy a thing. Not a single book.

I know. It worries me a little, too . . . although I do tend to have a drown-or-drought way of bookshopping–either I find an armful of books, or none at all. I’ve rarely ever bought fewer than three books at a time. So, today was a no-book day. I am still a little bit in shock, though (grin)

We also went out for a nice dinner at my Dad’s favorite German restaurant, the Triangle Hofbrau, one of the few German restaurants in the area. We go every year for his birthday (though technically, that’s not until Tuesday). Yummy meal, but we’re all stuffed full of food–Sauerbraten for Dad, Goulash for Mom (she orders it every time), and Jaeger Schnitzel for me–about the only time I ever eat veal. We all had Peach Melba for dessert. I know, you’d think something cake-y and cream-y like Black Forest cake or streudel or something, but darn it, they do a really good Peach Melba there. Something about that really good raspberry sauce . . . I wish I could find it to buy it.

Anyway, it tempted me to have some ice cream, which I haven’t had more than a bite of in months, and I’ve been having wheezing problems ever since, and now have my humidifier going full-blast with Vicks Vaposteam in it. Ah well. It tasted good.

I also ordered coffee to go with it, and plopped some of my whipped cream in it, which made Dad comment, “That’s the first thing my father would have done.” Dad doesn’t talk about his father much. He died in 1967 from Alzheimer’s–back before people knew about Alzheimer’s. I was 10 months old when he died, but really, he’d been “gone” for years. It’s always kind of nice to hear something, a little tidbit about the Grandfather I never knew. But, another thing I apparently got from my German relatives? My tendency to order a hot beverage to go with my frozen desserts. Apparently, that’s something my grandparents and all those aunts and uncles used to do, to “balance” the temperatures. I’ve done it for years. I wonder if it’s a genetic thing? (grin)

Anyway. I’m full of good food. I have a bit of a headache from the headlights on the drive. I didn’t even knit tonight! Although, I made it up to the armhole shaping on my sweater front this afternoon–a rare daytime knitting stint–so I figure I’ve met my daily “quota.” Now, I’m going to curl up in bed with my book, with Chappy at my feet–because it’s the weekend, and he’s allowed on the bed on the weekends.

G’night, all!

Tags: Family by Deb
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There’s no way I could keep up with Cara, of course, but at the rate I’m going, I’m not going to be Jaywalking anytime soon.

Here’s my first sock–just about 5″ long. I’ve got another 1 3/4″ before the heel. I am making progress, mind you, but only about 6 rows a sitting.

I’ve been spending most of my knitting time working on my sweater. The right front is about halfway done–more, really–so I do feel like like I’m making progress on something. Just not on the socks.

Question: I’ve had one person ask me for the pattern for my KidSilk Haze neck warmer. Is that something anyone else would be interested in? Just taking stock….

Now, other than knitting, I’m reading “A Grand Idea” by Joel Achenbach, and enjoying it quite a bit. It tells the true story of George Washington’s plan to make the Potomac (aka Patowmack) River a main, commercial artery to the Western part of the new United States. It’s interesting in and of itself, but I’m enjoying the author’s subtle sense of humor, which sneaks in from time to time. How many historians can work the word “squishy” into a serious work? (“Even so, they might have gotten away with it, for frontier law tended to be squishy.”) I’m enjoying the main story, but I’m loving the little tongue-in-cheek asides.

• “Washington would no sooner loll out his tongue than wear breeches on his head.”
• “…He also had a horseman’s tent, and extra horshoes and canteens of water. He had fine sheets. He had silver cups and silver spoons. The general might be going into the remote fringe of western civilization, but he didn’t intend to live like an animal.”
• “Washington, like almost everyone in the late eighteenth century not named Benjamin Franklin, had little experience with new technologies.”
• “Eventually he learned that he had been called to the presidency. The message came in a roundabout manner. Washington had previously written Secretary of War Henry Knowx with a request for some ‘superfine American broadcloth’ … On February 16, 1789, Knox wrote to inform the general that the cloth had not yet arrived, adding casually that the general had, according to the latest election returns, been elected unanimously as the first president of the United States. It was one of those ‘By the way, you’re the president’ letters.”

And, in a not-funny, but wow kind of way, how about this: “The most remote Indian villages were transformed by trade long before the first whites settled in the western territories. If people couldn’t drag their deerskins over the mountains, they would find some other way to sell them. Historian Eric Hinderaker reports that in 1783 a group of Delawares on the Upper Ohio wanted to sell a pile of animal skins and knew it would be too difficult to send them over the Appalachians. Instead, they canoed down the Ohio to the Mississippi, then down the Mississippi to New Orleans, then sailed through the Gulf of Mexico and around Florida, all the way to Philadelphia and sold their skins. Then they walked home, to the Ohio River. People find a way.” I hope they found a good sale when they got there.

Oh, check out this blond joke I got off of MSNBC’s “Clicked” page. It’s funny!

And, one of my favorite non-knitting blogs is back up for the first time in months. Yay!

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading by Deb
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I opened up Google today and was met with this graphic, instead of their usual logo. Anyone else recognize it?

As luck would have it, I spent years of my childhood pouring over stories of Helen Keller and Louis Braille, and actually memorized the Braille alphabet.

A grid of 6 dots. The letters A through J use the top 4, in various configurations. Then the letters K through T add the bottom left dot, in the same sequence. And then U through Z add the dot on the bottom right. The sole exception is the letter W, which doesn’t exist in French, and so they took the letter R and reversed it for the W. (So, A is the top left dot; K is the top and bottom left dots; U is the top left dot, and both the bottom dots. B is the top two dots on the left; L is the line of three dots down the left side. V is the three on the left and the bottom right dot. And so on.)

Edited to add: Here’s a page with the punctuation, and some of the Braille shortcuts, if you’re interested. That dot before the Google logo does mean the G is capitalized.

Not only is this moderately interesting in and of itself (to me, anyway), but it made a great code for passing notes in school. Of course, drawing all the dots got tricky–as well as inaccurate–so what my friends and I did, was connect the dots–we’d draw a dot for A, a short, vertical for B, a short horizontal for C . . . L-shaped, diagonals, dots where necessary. It made an excellent code. Pity we never learned all the Braille shortcuts.

Why the Braille lesson? Today is Louis Braille’s birthday. Isn’t that nice?

And, they’re sneaky, over at JenLa. I innocently stopped by to read them, and what do they do? Shanghai me with a meme. An Ugly Avatar meme, nonetheless, so what could I do? Here’s mine–as tacky as I could manage!

All of which is good, because I didn’t really have any new knitting things to talk about–I knitted last night, but really, no visual progress worth photographing. I did take the time to weave in the ends on my sweater pieces-to-date, so I won’t be swamped with them when I’m done with the whole thing.

I know. Exciting, huh?

Also, please go over and give Risa a hug, would you?

Tags: General by Deb
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You’ve heard about those West Virginia coal miners, haven’t you?

Thirteen men, trapped in a mine. They found one body last night, but then around midnight, the waiting families were told they’d found the other twelve–alive. They celebrated and rejoiced for three hours, and then were told, no, sorry, only one of them is alive. The mine officials knew within 20 minutes of that first, false report, that not all the miners were alive, and they let the families continue celebrating for three hours. Three hours. And then they went in and broke their hearts.

It might not have been deliberate, but it was cruel. What a nasty trick of Fate to pull on people already stretched too far by grief and mortal fear. My heart bleeds for them.

• CNN
• MSNBC
• Fox News

Tags: Uncategorized by Deb
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  I’ve been getting some knitting done this weekend, which shouldn’t really surprise anybody.

See? I just finished the left front for my sweater. I cast-on for the right front, too, but really, right now it’s just a bunch of loops on a stick, hardly worth the picture.

I had both a lazy and a constructive day, today. Spent almost all my time either in the kitchen (constructive), or sitting on the loveseat in the dining room window (lazy). I baked some homemade bread this morning, made lunch for both my parents, since Mom is fighting a cold. I made supper, too, but since that consisted of boiling pasta and heating Ragu from a jar, it barely counts. (I actually would have made homemade sauce, and was even thinking about homemade pasta, but Mom’s stomach always acts up when she has a cold, and it didn’t seem worth the risk. I didn’t even add ground beef for meat sauce, but kept it as plain–read “boring”–as possible.)

  And then, in the dining room, I sat with Chappy, read, did some knitting. He mostly slept. Although, we did get out for a walk between storms (it’s supposed to be a wet week), so he may have been tired from that. First walk we’ve gotten in days, we’re both getting lazy.

My sister called me with a riddle this evening:

• What do you get when you cross a cat with wool?
• Mittens

(I didn’t say it was a good joke.)

Tomorrow, of course, it’s back to work–the holidays are officially over. My Dad’s birthday is on the 10th, though, so that’s something festive to look forward to. Maybe it will help get me through the dreary rain and snow we’re supposed to get tomorrow. One thing I have to do? Bring “The Producers” soundtrack with me in the car in the morning. Ever since seeing the movie on Saturday, I’ve been humming the songs. That show’s a toe-tapper.

Tags: Family, General, Knitting/Spinning by Deb
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Well, here we are, the beginning of a new year. (Happy birthday, Cara!) I hope everyone had a happy and safe night last night?

First things first–Here’s my first entry for Anne’s ABC-Along.

A is for Alphabet Soup.

My last day of 2005 was spent running errands with Mom in the morning, and then going to the movied in the afternoon (“The Producers”), followed by dinner at a local restaurant with my folks. Mom and I watched “March of the Penguins” last night, and by 11:00, I was in bed, reading. At midnight, I closed my book, gave Chappy a kiss, and got up and changed my calendar. That’s it. That’s my big New Year’s celebration. Exciting, huh? (Makes you feel bad you laughed at Gloating Day, doesn’t it?)

Oh yeah, I did spend quite a bit of time typing in lists of books and other highlights, which you may have seen on my other posts today. I had fun recapping my year. I would have counted the number of KALs and Memes I participated in, too, but lost count . . . and I wasn’t going to go through all those posts again! As of right now, there are 363 posts, and 1666 comments, and I started blogging last year on January 14th. Hmmm, maybe I really DO talk a lot….

Happy New Year, everyone!

Tags: ABC-Along by Deb
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To recap my reading from last year . . . I read a total of 330 books in 2005, 133 of which were new reads. (The rest were re-reads, and before you imply that that was cheating, then, to increase my count, I actually read new books faster than re-reads. If I had read nothing but brand-new–to me–books all year, I would likely have read even more. But really, that’s economically unfeasible.)

My favorites? Here they are,(more or less in the sequence I read them)

Fiction:

BROKEN FOR YOU by Stephanie Kallos. (I finished it on New Year’s Day and it JUST missed my 2004 list)

KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini. (Not my usual kind of book at all, but so, so good)

POWER OF ONE by Bryce Courteney

BANISHING VERONA by Margot Livesey

HISTORY OF LOVE by Nicole Krauss

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE by JK Rowling

FITZWILLIAM DARCY: A GENTLEMAN by Pamela Aidan

Non-fiction:

THE GREAT INFLUENZA by John Barry

AMERICAN BRUTUS by Michael Kauffman

1776 by David McCullough

THE YARN HARLOT by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

ALEXANDER HAMILTON gy Ron Chernow

TRUTH AND BEAUTY by Ann Patchett

COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond

And, if you want to see the actual books:

• January list
• February list
• March list
• April list
• May list
• June list
• July list
• August list
• September list
• October list
• November list
• December list

Tags: Monthly Reading List, Reading by Deb
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Books for December 2005.

29 read for the month (though a handful were knitting books which are mostly patterns and can be “read” in a matter of an hour or so, like a good magazine. I even left a couple of those off the list).

1. ALLELUIA FILES by Sharon Shinn (471 p)
2. ANGELICA by Sharon Shinn (485 p). Two of the “Samaria books” by one of my favorite authors. Always good.

3. SANDITON by Jane Austen (56 p) Her last, unfinished novel
4. COMPLETION OF SANDITON by Juliette Shapiro (188 p). A modern finish to Austen’s novel. So-so. There are some authors who can “mesh” well enough with Austen, but I didn’t think much of the way this story was finished.

5. MUMMY CASE by Elizabeth Peters (313 p)
6. LION IN THE VALLEY by Elizabeth Peters (310 p)
7. DEEDS OF THE DISTURBER by Elizabeth Peters (298 p)
8. THE LAST CAMEL DIED AT NOON by Elizabeth Peters (430 p)
9. THE SNAKE, CROCODILE, AND THE DOG by Elizabeth Peters (432 p)
10. THE HIPPOPATAMUS POOL by Elizabeth Peters (384 p)
11. SEEING A LARGE CAT by Elizabeth Peters
12. THE APE WHO GUARDS THE BALANCE by Elizabeth Peters (376 p)
13. FALCON IN THE SKY by Elizabeth Peters (366 p)
14. HE SHALL THUNDER IN THE SKY by Elizabeth Peters (401 p).
15. LORD OF THE SILENT by Elizabeth Peters (404 p).
16. CHILDREN OF THE STORM by Elizabeth Peters (400 p).
17. SERPENT ON THE CROWN by Elizabeth Peters (350 p). Obviously, I went on an Amelia Peabody jag this month. A Victorian Egyptologist, her husband, and precocious son . . . and then adopted daughter . . . daughter-in-law . . . master criminal . . . step-half-brother . . . grandchildren. The earlier volumes are the best, mostly because I absolutely adore her son Ramses as a child, but the whole series is enjoyable (if getting a little stale in the last couple).

18. STRICTLY CURLS by Nicole Siri (89 p) Up-do hair styles for curly hair.

19. KNITTING VINTAGE SOCKS by Nancy Bush (111 p). Knitting patterns for vintage socks, obviously, by a master.

20. NEW KNITS ON THE BLOCK by Vickie Howell (112 p). Clever book of patterns, but mostly for kids . . . good, but really, no use for it.

21. HORSE PEOPLE by Michael Korda (367 p.) A look at different people, different lifestyles with horses. It was okay, but could have been better—he talked more about his private life and its relation to horses than about other lifestyles. While I appreciate that as a way to hold the different segments together, I really wasn’t all that interested in his divorce and his new wife’s horse-showing skills.

22. DOGS IN KNITS by Judith Swartz (93 p). Patterns for dog sweaters

23. MARLEY AND ME by John Grogan (289 p). A gift for Chappy, really . . . the story of the author’s Labrador Retriever, the “worst dog in the world.” Funny. Sad. Puppies. Kids. Chaos. Nice.

24. FITZWILLIAM DARCY BOOK 1: AN ASSEMBLY SUCH AS THIS by Pamela Aidan (218 p).
25. FITZWILLIAM DARCY BOOK 2: DUTY AND DESIRE by Pamela Aidan (232 p.)
26. FITZWILLIAM DARCY BOOK 3: THESE THREE REMAIN by Pamela Aidan (335 p). These three books tell the story of “Pride & Prejudice” from Mr. Darcy’s point of view, and are entirely enjoyable. (Well, okay, the side story the author throws in to explain what Mr. Darcy was doing during some of his absences from the original is a little out of place. His friend Dy is an engaging character, but a little too Scarlet Pimpernel to fit into a Jane Austen novel.) They are also self-published novels, which isn’t a bad thing, but they could have used a little more editing—“Discrete/discreet” was regularly misused, and there were apostrophes in “its” that shouldn’t have been there, and the prose got just a little sentimental from time to time . . . BUT, all that said, I thoroughly enjoyed these. They’re not as good as the original, but she meshed well with Jane Austen, and put together a darn good story . . . even if my favorite parts were the same as my favorites in Austen’s! Really, I’m very picky about this sort of thing, but this “sequel” gets my thumbs-up.

27. KNIT AND CROCHET WITH BEADS by Lily Chin. A great look at all the possible, different methods for putting beads and yarn together, along with some really nice patterns.

28. KNITTED EMBELLISHMENTS by Nicky Epstein. 350 patterns for add-on flowers, cords, ribbing, and so on.

29. HERE BE DRAGONS by Sharon Kay Penman (700 p). This author came highly recommended, but I was disappointed in this, and got bored. This isn’t to say it was actually bad, because there were parts that were engaging, the writing was good, the historical accuracy seemed well done. Just . . . I get bored with historical fiction that concentrates on real kings and queens—I’d rather read actual history. I prefer historical fiction that deals with entirely fictional characters, with maybe a cameo from a real person, or references to real political events. But please don’t put me into King John’s head. It’s just MY personal preference—no reflection, really, on what was a perfectly decent book. And besides, after Dorothy Dunnett, I’ve been spoiled. I don’t think ANYONE can do historical fiction like she did.

Tags: Monthly Reading List, Reading by Deb
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