Author Archives: Holly

About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!

the phone

Posted on 2025-11-08 by Holly

I clearly remember cross country drives. Hour after hour in the car shifting from one radio station after another. Using maps to plot out my route, keeping an eye on the gas gauge, figuring out rest stops. Maps, phone calls … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose | 1 Comment

sixteen hundred stitches

Posted on 2025-11-07 by Holly

were added to this which is now about 20% complete. The cat spent most of the day either supervising me or occupying my lap. Otherwise? Four more lectures out of a Primary Care CME conference, a Grand Rounds on Medicare … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Home, Medicine | Leave a comment

Lawrence Hall of Science

Posted on 2025-11-06 by Holly

Many in my area routinely think of the Lawrence Labs, or the Lawrence Livermore Labs and don’t give the whole series of complexes a further thought.  High on the hill overlooking Berkeley, the UC Berkeley Campus, the Bay, Bay Bridge … Continue reading →

Posted in Around Berkeley | Leave a comment

And I really needed the coffee

Posted on 2025-11-05 by Holly

this morning. As well as the final about 200 stitches on this particular cross stitch. I spent a goodly portion of the day on various primary care lectures. Some were interesting, some were a bit too much on the sponsored … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Medicine | Leave a comment

Can always use more coffee

Posted on 2025-11-04 by Holly

Which is why I started this little gem yesterday. Found the pattern on Etsy. Grabbed three skeins of Gentle Arts that came in some surprise box or another and a piece of 14ct from ForbiddenFiber Co. Put in a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch | Leave a comment

My special helper

Posted on 2025-11-03 by Holly

Not that I really can afford this level of help . Taking up as much lap space as possible and totally blocking the keyboard. Because, why not?

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It isn’t 99 bottles

Posted on 2025-10-30 by Holly

But rather a lot of cross stitching, completed but not fully finished,and  grouped ion pants hangers. There they are, out of sight and mostly out of mind. Being quiet and reserved in the upstairs back room. I went looking for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch | Leave a comment

Puzzles

Posted on 2025-10-27 by Holly

I really don’t have many extra brain cells in the moment. Which may or may not explain why I thought it would be a grand idea to pull out the puzzle board and tackle a small puzzle… This little cutie … Continue reading →

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Sailing into Miami

Posted on 2025-10-20 by Holly

Miami is beautiful and quiet before 0500 in the morning as our ship sails up the harbor, turns and then settles in at the NCL dock. There were few people up and about. Most who got up were seriously interested … Continue reading →

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Pretty Pink in a row

Posted on 2025-10-17 by Holly

We are through the canal and once again stopping in Cartagena. I don’t particularly see a need to leave to port. I wandered to wander the bird sanctuary, but the flamingos were demonstrating what they thought of the hordes of … Continue reading →

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The New Locks – Panama Canal

Posted on 2025-10-16 by Holly

There was a lot of information provided yesterday by various people that turned out not to be exactly accurate. 1) I had asked one of the managers of the Observation Lounge if the lounge would be open early because we … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Cruising, Travel | 1 Comment

Tall Ships

Posted on 2025-10-15 by Holly

When the training ship for the Mexican Navy hit the Brooklyn Bridge, I think it was the first time that most people in the US had heard about Navy’s having Tall Ships for training their new, young officers and crew. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cruising, Military | Leave a comment

Big, new and shiny

Posted on 2025-10-14 by Holly

We docked this morning punctually at 1000 “at” Panama City. It isn’t exactly near the city, but you can see it from here. There is this pier, off what looks to be an island across the bay from an obvious … Continue reading →

Posted in Cruising, Travel | Leave a comment

YASD

Posted on 2025-10-13 by Holly

Stands for Yet another sea day. Between the storm, dock repairs and who knows what else, this was yet another day at sea. Connecting to conferences, CME awarding grand rounds and other on-line activities turned out to be not as … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Cruising | Leave a comment

I have heard this song before

Posted on 2025-10-12 by Holly

A long time ago, let us say around 1971-72, I took a break with three others. We drove to D.C. over winter break. I don’t remember much about that trip. It is sometimes good when things fade into distant memory. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cruising, Travel | Leave a comment

Onyx’s ceramic ancestor

Posted on 2025-10-11 by Holly

We docked extremely early in Guatemala this morning. It is most definitely where they want the tourists. Even the pier is signed as “Tourist Pier” which should give you an idea of how serious the government is about the influx … Continue reading →

Posted in Cruising, Travel | Leave a comment

Best Door Signs ever

Posted on 2025-10-10 by Holly

Decorating doors is something frequent cruisers have been known to do. I haven’t bothered since I had to deal with repeated stealing of my windsock jelly fish almost 10 years ago. Since then I have seen various door decorations mostly … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Cruising | Leave a comment

Not Acapulco either

Posted on 2025-10-09 by Holly

apparently Priscilla or whatever the storm has for a name is still an issue. I think it just might be Raymond following behind. In any case, the amount of wind, wave, and water being dumped from the sky caused the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Cruising | Leave a comment

Day 7 -NCL Joy

Posted on 2025-10-08 by Holly

The day number for this cruise is confusing. The ship is counting from Seattle. Those of us who boarded in San Francisco are counting from there. The caveat being that we did an overnight in port so actually didn’t sail … Continue reading →

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Yes, rougher seas

Posted on 2025-10-07 by Holly

It was pretty obviously by partway through the afternoon that the seas were getting a bit more “vigorous” as the barf bags were out prominently on every stairway landing.  From my point of view it wasn’t much, but then, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-Stitch, Cruising, Travel | Leave a comment