change number two

Change 1 turned the cardigan into a pullover. In stead of two 1/4 diamonds in the front, I knit a 1/2 diamond and am pleased with that part.

from the back

the front

I am no where as thrilled with the upper striped portion of the front. In Fabel (the Drops yarn) which is a Norwegian Muster, there is enough busyness to break up the areas of solid. Not so with this yarn.

The back is ready for change 2 – instead of a 1/2 diamond inserted I am going to knit a full diamond flanked by some 1/4 diamond panels. That will entirely eliminate the issue of stripes on the back.

the front

the back

More changes to come.

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Red Leather

I really like red.

My reward to myself in 2005 for working six weeks at Camp Casey was a lovely jacket.

In Pisa I found a bag. With

backpack straps

backpack straps

and lots of pockets

plenty of room for wallet and small knitting projects

plenty of room for wallet and small knitting projects

I think they look just fine together

ready to go out

ready to go out

Posted in Home, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Puzzles

An easy distraction.

Or not so easy as the case maybe.

This was part of my postal package pick up today.

Old Map of London

Old Map of London

Liberty Puzzles make (not cheap) wonderful, wooden puzzles full of whimsy pieces

which are even period related

which are even period related

I had to get started

and made progress

and made progress

The only caution I would make is that, for those of you who like the nice, regular pieces of modern die cut puzzles, these are challenging.

And, as I found out to my dismay – the print is too small for my aging eyes to read it. I am going to have to get the Mole to help me. Or get a magnifying glass so that I can see the detail on the box lid.

Posted in Home, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Berkeley

While the girls and I were doing the cruise thing last week, DH and the Mole were out in California on a two fold mission.

First, take a look at various colleges and Universities to see where the boy would like apply. He takes his “A” levels this year and finishes mid-June. Not being a fan of gap years, I want him to have plans firmly in mind. It also might do something for my ability to make plans and a budget for next year. Ms Soprano is also looking at the San Francisco area as a transfer student.

Looks like I may well change to California residency. The difference between in-state and out of state tuition is $20k. x two students. That is well more than paying 9.3% of my income in state income taxes….

I can do that because of the other reason they went: to close on the house we bought in Berkeley. Nice kitchen, great deck with view, masterbedroom and bath on main level (and the rest of the bedrooms upstairs). Redwoods, real redwoods on grounds along with plenty of storage. Less than a block to the bus stop and
under a mile to shul.

Plenty of storage space for all the stuff, including books and stash. Only thing is, if I started sorting out stuff now I could probably be ready to move in a couple of years…..

Posted in Home, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Red and Grey

are colors that I often wear. So much so that I have been asked if I own anything (other than blue jeans) that does not fall into the categories of red or shades of white-grey-black.

The answer is a strong, maybe.

This might explain why I decided to knit this sweater from Drops in shades of grey and red.

Carefully reading through the directions, I rapidly figured out two things. The first is that, as a cardigan the sides are not going to match without steeks. The second is that I have to be willing to have stripes that are not the same width.

While I was at it, I decided to make a few changes. Not being a fan of reverse stockinette, I borrowed the garter variant from the last sweater.

Being quite lazy, and recently more than willing to frog things that do not make me happy – the

first sleeve

first sleeve

is going to serve for both a gauge swatch and to see if I like how the colors come out. So far I am happy. I don’t mind stripes on sleeves and it should be reasonably easy to make them match.

I have four 100 gm balls of sock yarn, on 3.00 mm needles. It should be enough for the smallest size. Unless, of course, I wind up with too much wastage from matching patterns.

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Train and Plane

Take a train. it might help if I had found my Bahn card. Get out at Frankfurt Airport. Find out that the seat you have is actually an isle seat.

In fact, it is in the plus section of the British Airways flight. That portion where the seats are leather, two abreast and wide enough to be comfortable and leg room enough to move your knees.

Rescuing my bag at Terminal 5, the bus was prompt, the train not so much and I dragged through the gates at the Academy ground in mid afternoon obviously long past the major 10 am meeting.

According to the rest of the staff, the meeting never got past the second item on the agenda before completely degenerating, so I don’t regret at all missing the meeting.

The house is a disaster, compounded by suitcases, packages which arrived in the mail and off spring who didn’t clean up the kitchen.

All is normal.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Heading home

It is early in the morning, the girls are asleep while most of the ship seems to be stirring.

Not surprisingly, I was the only person in the fitness room for the first 30 minutes. The guy who then came in is doing a Malta-Malta cruise. Looking our at breakfast, I can see people headed away from the ship with their suitcases wheeling behind.

One of the positives about the cruise; if you are capable of handling your luggage yourself, you are allowed to haul it away at the end unlike other cruise lines that insist you drop suitcases out in the corridor to be hauled off the ship for you and reclaimed in a large arrivals hall. The girls and I will head out about 0900 and make our way slowly to the airport.

The ship is new, only two years old and doesn’t have a bit of worn or musty feeling. Even the low rent rooms are cheerful with nice beds, decent lighting and bathrooms with tiled showers.

At first blush, the idea of being able to go and do whatever you want seems great. I am sure that if you are traveling with young children it would be really key. Even the opportunity to eat all meals in the Garden Café didn’t stop most from hauling unruly children into the formal dining rooms. The shows were good, the musicians, singers and dancers all terrific.

Balance this with the overwhelming hucksterism. Somehow, if you have to buy raffle tickets, I don’t think you are winning a “free” trip to anywhere. Being cynical, I think they easily took in more than the value of what they were proposing to give away. Always things to buy, seminars on those things to buy, and charges for just about everything. Constant interruptions from the overhead speaker about something else on which you could spend your money.

Even on Friday night where the ship had provided three loaves of challah and a bottle of Maneschevitz for a Shabbat Service, it was hard to hear each other over the sales pitch. Interesting collection of attendees: Conneticut now living in Jersusalem cruising with his wife, Russian immigrant to New York, older couple from Tunisia now living in France along with their son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, another French couple and me. No count of a minyan according to the guys…. but then I don’t think they would have been happy with the prayer books discovered in the closet at the end. Reform is not them.

Over all, I had a good time. Traveling with the two girls was fun. I took photos, knit and did not do much for work….

Posted in Jewish Life, Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Cannes

Completely devoted to tourism (not just the film festival), Cannes wears her paint and clean streets proudly. From Castle to the far tip overlooking the beach, Ms Kletter and I hiked the town.

The Maus stayed on the ship, avoiding the grey day and the rocky tender ride to shore.

The day ended with a halloween party. I am not sure what time the girls got in.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Last night

Once more, my piece (peace?) of mind is being fragmented by various running, screaming and obnoxious small children. Oh, and the large one on the piano across the room who is starting a round of “name that tune.”

This is the last night on the ship, we are headed into Barcelona in the morning.

Not to sound like a crab, but the small people (IMHO) should be in bed by now. The teens have been great, and are all packed.

I should have the photos up tomorrow (Sunday).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Pisa

Again, Livorno where the ship docked is a distance from those places which might be interesting. We saw a bit of the town considering that we did the hike from the shuttle stop to the train station.

Given the choice between paying $89 each for the bus ride to Florence, we elected the 15€/3 people and the 10.50€/3 people and went to Pisa. I even spent some of the savings on presents and still came out ahead.

The weather was beautiful, Ms Maus did not want to climb 300 steps. Ms Kletter and I hiked up. Now, you have to ask yourself. Why would people who never climb a flight of stairs or walk more than a couple of blocks decide they are fit enough (and will fit through narrow passages)? I have been doing 4+ miles a day and still felt a bit winded by the time I made the top. Never going to volunteer for a skyscraper race…

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Not Rome

Civitavecchia is not Rome. Even if you call it the port of Rome, it is not Rome. Not when it is 90 minutes by bus. Another nasty surprise: unlike other cruise lines, NCL does not provide a shuttle into town. In those ports where you can’t hike out, they charge for the shuttle. Go figure. Not high on my “taking care of your vacationers”

Of course, if the girls had managed to get up like we planned at 0700, we might have gone to the train station and traveled somewhere. But at 1100+ when they finally rolled out of bed, it just did not seem worth it. Something about a late party….

They are having a good time, including spending 1-2 hours a day studying and plenty of time in the gym.

I am still trying to find a nice quiet knitting place, and came across an “I love me wall” for the ship as well as more primitives passing as art work.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Floating on a boat

I have not fallen off the end of the earth, but with the cost of connection from the Norwegian Gem, I am limited my connect time to almost nothing.
We started in Barcelona, went on to Malta, spent yesterday in Naples and today it is Citiavecchia (actually the girls and I are turning down the high price of a coach in favor of taking the train).
Tomorrow will be Livorno, (and off to Pisa – see above) with Sat in Cannes before getting back to Barcelona on Sunday in time to catch a flight back home.
Shopping wise we have done none. The girls are spending time on both studies and the hot tub with regular forays into the gym.
There are a lot of people on this ship, but no one else likes the gym at 0500 so I have not had any problems having lots of time on the treadmill.
Knitting is going well (2 prs of socks done, one sleeve to sew in on the first sweater and 15% into the second.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Naples

And then there is Naples. Having been here before, I took the girls out for a hike, we surveyed the castle

+ did the Hop-on, Hop-off bus.

The sun was shining, there were mopeds and motorcycles everywhere.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Malta

There were all these fancy, expensive tour packages.

And one could also wander around by themselves. I think our choice was obvious and a morning was well spent hiking around the island, seeing most of the streets and otherwise keeping ourselves entertained.

Did I mention that in spite of there being way too many people on this ship (500 below the age of 21 alone) the exercise room (open 24 hours a day) is completely empty at 0500?

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

At Sea

A day at sea meant that I could knit, the girls could do some home work and everyone spent time in the hot tubs.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCL Gem – Barcelona

25 Oct – starting out from Barcelona. Me, Ms Maus and Ms Kletter. What you are mostly going to get is picture galleries.

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stuff

Where did it all come from?

I arrived here with a backpack and a suitcase.

I am going on vacation with a backpack and a suitcase. And I was planning on going back to the UK at the end with a backpack and a suitcase.

But I have a problem. I have more than what fits into the suitcase.

Admittedly, I stopped at a couple of department stores and Rödel. I might just have bought a few balls of sock yarn at a good price. 3.95€ for a 100gm ball of sock yarn is a good price, especially when it is going to become a vest or sweater. Then there were the books, did I mention buying a few paperbacks? And a magazine, and some underwear.

Oh, and I broke down and bought a winter coat. I have not had a nice one in years. A cape, yes, but not a coat. Coats close and have pockets.

End result is that I have three boxes of stuff (oh, and some DvDs) to go in the mail. I am contemplating just leaving all the warm weather clothing here till summer. Then I could, maybe, get all that needs to be in the suitcase packed in.

Only the sleeve cap to go on the second sleeve. I would show you a pix, but the camera is packed.

I thought about it, then decided to knit socks on the plane. They are just easier and go quite quickly. Boot socks out of 6 ply, that is.

I should get some sleep…..

Posted in Home, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Lucked out

There are those times when you totally and completely luck out.

First, I managed to figure out the changes to the CME process this year so that I managed to leave with my certificate for 16 hours clutched in my hot little hands.

Secondly, the transportation to Harthof at the end of the conference went extremely smoothly. Enough so that I was able to grab the 1923 train rather than wait for 2040. Even better, the Bahn had switched trains so that everyone on the original 1923 train no longer had a valid seat reservation. I was able to grab a very nice seat, a single with a table and relax all the way to Mannheim.

Then, the nice guy came and picked me up at the Heidelberg Bahnhof – beat midnight by a couple of minutes!

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Traveling in comfort

Sitting in comfort as the German countryside flowed by my train window yesterday, I reflected on what a lovely husband I have. It is not just that he is willing to do kitchens and bathrooms, maintain a sense of humor inspite of our jobs pulling us in different directions, it is that he bought me a Bahn Card. On Sunday when we took Ms Maus to the train station he first got the discount card, then the round trip train ticket to München.

If it had been me, I would have gone ahead and booked a seoncd class ticket rather than pay what is a bit less than the normal second class full fare and sit in first class. So, instead of being crammed into second class with comfort comparable to sitting in ecomony on an airplance only with less lugage space, I relaxed, listened to my audio book and knit for three solid hours.

I will admit to cruising a few department store yarn shops downtown before taking the U-Bahn out to the SanAk.

And today, I managed to make it through the full day of lectures without a complete brain fry. I skipped the conference dinner. With 300+ people, they will not miss me at all and I can finish up that last 1/2 sleeve on Oragami. Found a yarn needle so I might even wear it tomorrow.

progress

progress

(and start a new project, tra la la la la la).

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

One hand clapping

A long time ago, some bright person developed a “finder” for keys. A simple, battery powered chirper that attached to your key ring, it sounded off in response to clapping:

Scene 1:  you walk through the house, clapping your hands and cursing.

Scene 2:  you are in a lecture, keys in your hand when everyone starts clapping.

Another one of those ideas whose time really never came.

Carmen mentioned lost phones. I don’t count mine lost till the battery runs down.  At that point, it could be hiding several inches from my nose with high success.

Knitting

Pictures will magically show up when I am at a computer that allows for pix upload. I suppose I could have loaded them from my MAC to a memory stick, then hauled along to the pay computer station, but I don’t trust my toys in foreign USB ports.

What I managed to do was finish the body on Oragami, 80% of the first sleeve and about 8 cm on the second. I had forgotten how wonderful and mind numbing it it is to knit a patterned yarn in garter. Progress is actually visible as the color changes. Unlike those kilometers of solids in Hanne Falkenberg kits.

I also restrained myself and did not start socks to have an alternative knitting project (Pats self on back).

Yarn lusting and train trip reported tomorrow…..

back
Posted in Knitting, Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment