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Holly Doyne

words, wool, and travel

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MSC Sinfonia – Day 1 – Genoa

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-19 by Holly2007-11-19

19 Nov 2007

Travel

Leaving Milan by train –
 milan station/milansign
 milanstationinterior

We were on our way to Genoa. Train reservations are a must – even so – the car was packed. So packed with people that all the large suitcases wound up out in the hall at parade rest up against the outside wall. Not an issue till someone tries to walk through the area, or worse, wheel a snack cart.
End result is that several of us wound up crouched on our seats with the center of the compartment filled with luggage. And wooden knitting needles don’t like to be stepped on.

We didn’t get a lot of time in Genoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa and http://www.timeout.com/travel/genoa/intro.html ) since we elected to try and check in (ditch the luggage).

By the time we managed to do that – it hardly seemed worth the effort to go back into the city.
Besides, they were offering Free Lunch up in one of the dining areas.


The ship is the Sinfonia.
 mscsinfonia

Also seen here, here and here,
sinfonia2sinfonia3ship1
Leading to this
sinfonia5
and finally here – in the cheap seats!
 sinfonia6

Thank you for surviving all the pictures of the ship – I promise I won’t do that to you again.

There are the important things – like Genoa Harbor –
genoa1genoa2
Or the nice starting digital map that is on several screens throughout the ship.

 genoamap

Socks

Wicked is finished.

wickedcomplete19nov07

So I pulled out Rivendell, going from a partial cuff to this –

 rivendell1.jpg
to this
 firstrivendell
over the day. The detail on the top looks like this –

rivendell-detail

Audio Books

Finished Too Many Cooks – by Rex Stout. Written in 1938, the publisher notes at the beginning that there maybe portions that will offend most today. Rather than edit the book, the original has been left intact, feeling that the reader is able to distinguish and handle those parts themselves.

Nero Wolfe (the main character), besides being severely obsess, is a frank misogynist. Set in West Virginia, people of colour might not have been slaves, but the attitude toward them was less than sterling. I don’t think it hurts to be reminded of how much change we have seen in the last 60 years, both in attitude by the white male and in law.

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, Knitting, socks, Travel, Uncategorized | 1 Reply

Knit, Meme & words in the ears….

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-18 by Holly2007-11-18

valleystart.jpgvalleycollarstart.jpg

Kristina – yarn sticks http://yarnsticks.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/365/ added me to the list of Rocking Girl Bloggers. Along with a comment about pairs of socks knit. I really don’t think it has been all that many. Not really.

New Meme from the Scrabble Queen –

You have to open the book you’re currently reading on page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag with.

My problem is which of the books I’m reading do I use?!?! Ok, I will do both of them..,

  • from Murder At The National Cathedral:
    “Were they aware of the murder that had taken place there?
  • from Darwin’s Black Box:
    “But the other problems will not concern us here.”

The five Bloggers I will tag are:

Amy, Holly, Heatherly, Monica, and Ashley

now – how do I do that with an audio Book?

Posted in Books & Tapes, Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Departing for parts not yet seen

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-18 by Holly2007-11-18

Remember I said Cruise?

This is the ship.  And this is our intinerary. We start in Genoa and end in Buenos Aries.

I am packed. I am not organized but think I will have more than enough time to regret anything that I forget.

One of my teens is presently in Barcelona and I am contemplating calling her, just for the sake of doing it.

I will write and take pictures every day – and will upload them every 1-3 days depending.

And of course, there will be knitting.

-Holly

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 3 Replies

Packing

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-17 by Holly2007-11-17

I am never sure how much to take on vacation. As a result, I pack either too much or too little.

The choice of suitcases is either the 22″ or the 26″ pull-toy. I did the two weeks of China with just the contents of the smaller suitcase. But this is a week longer (sort of) and I want to bring along sport clothes and will need at least one decent outfit. Add to that the changes of weather from here on the Continent to what it will be in Brazil and Argentina and I am kind of flailing.

The knitting was easier (grin): the three pairs of socks that are in progress ( I should easily be able to finish them), several hanks of sock yarn in case I want to knit more socks,

sockyarn1.jpg

patterns to go with the above, the Kauni Cardigan so that it gets finished, and Mein Weg to start in case I really make progress.

kauni-meinweg.jpg

As you can see, I decided to go lighter with the contrast yarn and pulled some Finnull out of stash. This was, of course, after I had made a run downtown and picked up some Roedel. But it is superwash and I just don’t think that they will work well together.

From what I can tell – out of 19 days – we will have less than 48 hours on land.

That is plenty of time to knit. Oh, and I have yet another baby sweater to knit. Peapod I think, and it a nice bright stripe!

brightpeadpod.jpg

Audio Books

In between the laundry and packing, I have been loading audio books onto my computer and portable drive so that I will have plenty of listening material. Jasper Fforde, Michael Connelly, Catherine Coulter (FBI Series), Perri O’Shaugnessy and Terry Prachett to name just a few.

I am planning on watching the sea, listening and knitting.

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | 2 Replies

Getting there

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-16 by Holly2007-11-16

And another day spent spinning in circles.

Or so it seemed.

Between saving Audio Books so that I would have music on the trip and making phone calls, I felt that my life was perhaps coming under control.

I haven’t heard back from the nice school lady. She is TDY next week, and I am gone for the next three. The kids may have a school interview somewhere around 19-20 Dec. They are not running on thrilled, but I can hope that something sparks their interest.

At least I managed to clean out my inbox, handle a couple of taskings and complete a support form before grabbing my leave form and heading out the door.

Knitting

Not much to report. I have to decide on the projects for my cruise. After all, the boat floats on Monday and I would like to have everything packed on Saturday.

Which reminds me – have you seen some of the lovely patterns on Wolke 7? I am looking at Mein Weg as a cruise knit. Since the author states that it is TV knitting worthy, it should do just fine. There are a couple of changes that I might make. Other than making it smaller (grin) – and that is to see if I can ditch the garter stitch. Probably not, as it would have a different drape. I may also steek the front so that it matches. I have this lovely cone of Kauni in blues, purples and a bit of green. Now to see if I have enough black on hand for a contrast or will have to hit the yarn store today.

But I have to do that anyway since I have one more Peadpod to knit. Unless someone can suggest something different. (I put my copy of Babies and Bears somewhere).

Audio Books

I managed to pull seven books to my hard drive in and among everything else I was doing. I am not sure what I will want to listen to and a choice would be nice. The laptop weighs the same regardless, which is not something I can say for hauling along a large number of CDs.

Which reminds me – I switched over to FreeRip from Real Player and Window Media Player. It is more than happy to run on a computer that it not hooked up to the Internet. And it just rips. Not plays, not argues with me about what I want to do. It also is a bit faster than the other programs. Important factor when you have large numbers of CDs to deal with.

Arches

shaolinarch.jpg

Stairs to workout rooms. Shaolin Center. From 9 Aug this summer in China.

-Holly

Posted in Arches&Doors, Books & Tapes, Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Next Crisis

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-15 by Holly2007-11-15

What do you think? Perhaps the obvious – money.

From the last time I had to blast off, leaving the family behind, they have changed the rules. If you head to a tour where you don’t take your family, but could – it is your problem. Used to be (don’t cha just love it?), that if you left the family to make their life better, you collected allowances for the location where your family remained. Counting it out, it is cheaper to do that than to move a complete family twice. But no, someone apparently thinks that saving two moves doesn’t balance the books.

Economically, I am more than willing to donate money to charity, but not to subsidize the US Government. If the family “officially” comes with me, then the government pays the school tuition for my teens.

It might balance things out, and will certainly cut down the number of trips that I need to make across the Chanel. As well as not being really thrilled about having the kids in school on another continent.

No knitting today, no spinning today. Just a whole day spent on the phone, web and email.

On the Audio – Bait – Karen Robards.

On the nightstand – Tanya Huff’s The Heart of Valour.

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | 1 Reply

RFO

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-14 by Holly2007-11-14

Which stands for Request for Orders. This nice little one pager from my branch that I have to take over to the personnel office comes in by email (after I have to go to the main site and reset a password and log in manually), and then they cut me orders for the move. Without these particular sheets of paper, I don’t have the authority to do much of anything but sit and whine, much less get the good old government to pay for that which they should.

All sorts of fun, not that I did not have enough to do this week. I am going to try and bug out on all the mandatory briefings for movement overseas…seems like I am already there from a US point of view.

Now on to the more important things in life –

Treasure

These came in the mail today.

tulip.jpg

It is my October (and last) SOM from Chameleon Colorworks. Bamboo, incredibly soft yarn in a pale seafoam color. Last kit, not because I don’t love Janel’s hand dyed yarns and patterns, but because she is selling off her business. I now have collector’s kits (grin) and I am hoping Nancy Colburn carries on as well (could not find a website for her).

and from The Sweet Sheep this nice box contained this-

sweetsheep1.jpg
and this underneath.

sweetsheep.jpg

Spinning

Would you believe that this

img1200a.jpg

fit into this?

boxedwheel.jpg

Tomorrow it is on its way to PA. The challenge for the last several weeks has been to find a box that would hold the 24″ diameter wheel. [Hint, think diagonal placement in the box]. After worrying about two boxes, I managed to get the legs off the base, all the metal thingies in a baggie, uprights, footman, whorls and bobbins into the same box, padded with some wool. Wool is a wonderful packing material.

Now also to mail off some other things at the same time (wool, boxes of books to downrange, a few holiday packages and the like).

Socks

The start on the second Wicked –

wicked.jpg

Books & Audio Books

Finished the Berenson and Greeley and now on to Sweet Revenge. Reading is better than packing.

Tomorrow I will start thinking about what I want to take on the cruise. After all, the boat doesn’t float till Monday. That is plenty of time. Right?

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, Military, socks, Spinning, Uncategorized | 1 Reply

Should be

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-13 by Holly2007-11-13

After banging my head up against several administrative rocks today, you would think that I would give up? After all, first my branch crew says that they have no record of my current extension. Hello? They approved it and I am still here in Germany – so it went through their hands. Next, they try and tell me that I have to request a curtailment in order for them to reassign me to the UK.

No. Been there, done that. Had it come back to bite me. “Well, you asked to go [to Muenchen]. ” No, I was told to go, and was stupid enough to help with the paperwork. But with my signature on a document….. Fool me twice? I don’t think so.

Besides, if I want to try and leave there in the foreseeable future, plausible deniability is everything.

Did I mention that it is cool, wet and raining outside? That it took me more than 90 minutes to get home, listening to Breach of Promise by Perri O’Shaughnessy and munching on crackers.

Turns out my husband did not head to Switzerland today. And he decided to surprise me with dinner.

Knitting

Which means that I should be working on the Valley Jacket. Right, I have to undo the collar bind off, take out one to two rows and put it back together. It is splaying out just a little more than I like at the join.

valleycollar.jpg

or get past the cuff on the second Wicked sock.

pinkball.jpg

Travel

Or I could start packing for the cruise. Seems to me it is going to take a couple of days to sort out what all I want to take along with me.

Books

The real truth is that – instead of all the things that I should be doing, I have this pile of books that has suckered me. Nothing like stopping at the library to donate some Audio Books and find the following just out on the shelf:
The Heart of Valor – Tanya Huff
The Bishop at the Lake – Andrew Greeeley
Making Money – Terry Pratchett
Sweet Revenge – Diane Mott Davidson
The Careful Use of Compliments – Alexander McCall Smith
Hounded to Death – Laurien Berenson.

Now, doesn’t that just about cover everything? And explain why a nice cup of hot cider, a blanket and a book are just irresistible?

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, Knitting, Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Home – tired

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-10 by Holly2007-11-10

I am hope and extremely tired. Train to Mannheim, train to Heidelberg, husband doesn’t get in from Boston till tomorrow so that all the whining in the world wasn’t going to get me a ride home from the train station.

No sleep on that flight. Snores all around so that I don’t think that other people had the same issue.

But I finished the socks!

salmonstripedone1.jpg

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Standing by

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-09 by Holly2007-11-09

Dulles Airport -> somewhere over the Atlantic

Since we finished up yesterday, I got to sleep in a couple of extra minutes this morning before packing up everything.

Would you believe that I never got to a yarn store? But I did hit the book stores and found a couple of pullovers, so that will have to do.

The flight I was scheduled for was at 2030 and went to Muenchen. From there I would have had to change planes and fly the 30 minutes to Frankfurt before catching my train home.

Deciding it was worth spending a lot of time at the airport, I ditched the rental car and was the first person at the Lufthansa Counter. The nice lady put me first on the standby list for the 1800 flight direct to Frankfurt, tagged my luggage so that it would make the flight if I did and put in the frequent flyer miles from both legs of the trip. Not shabby at all.

The flight was full. Or at least coach was until several passengers used mileage or money to upgrade themselves. That opened up a couple of seats and I got on. And, being that I am such a nice person, I even traded seats with a guy who wanted to sit in the same row as his friends.

It actually was not that good a deal, as one of the last people onto the plane, the overhead compartments were pretty full and I had one of those strange isle seats at the back where there is no “under the seat in front of you.” I probably made more than one person unhappy by moving around briefcases and coats, but hey, what choice did I have?

Arches

station11.jpgstatoin21.jpg

Just so you will recognize the Fernbahn Station at the Frankfurt Airport should you need to.

station31.jpg

-Holly

Posted in Arches&Doors, Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Triplets

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-08 by Holly2007-11-08

I was downrange with Jonah while his wife coped with their [then] 4 year-old triplet sons. He is now stationed close to where I am playing in the exercise that is just finished. They were kind enough to feed me dinner, even giving me a ride so that I would not get lost while sleepy in the dark

At eight I suspect that the boys are even more full of energy than when younger.

It was not quiet, someone was always in motion.

My hat is off to Paula!

Socks

On to the next yarn –salmonball1.jpg

which looks like this when started –

salmonstripe1.jpg

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Second Team Up

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-07 by Holly2007-11-07

It is dark in the morning, it is dark at night.

Did I mention waking up at 0300 in the morning still and having to wait for juice and coffee? The Sleep Inn (which I can’t) at least includes a breakfast in the price. Hot beverage (add the flavoring syrup to the coffee yourself), juice, danish, bagels and cereal. The yogurt was awful, I am capable of learning on the first go round.

My crew, since they rotated out of the box, got to be role players for the CONUS based team. There was a fair amount of downtime.

I crashed early but

Socks

found time to complete the socks for Ms Pink.

pinkstripe1.jpg

-Holly

Posted in Military, socks, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Playing Roles

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-06 by Holly2007-11-06

sert.jpg

I am playing multiple roles in this exercise, kind of like a role playing game where you keep changing characters. What I am not doing is acting as the team leader for my team since I helped work out both scenarios. Didn’t make my team really happy, but they are surviving and probably learning more than if I was actually playing myself. And if not – there were enough discussions going on.

what.jpg

That took care of 0800-1600+. Then

Books

I got directions to the nearest major bookstore which turned out to be a Borders. I was really good. I mean really. I spent almost three hours in the bookstore and purchased only three paperbacks.

Shall we not talk about the list of close to 30 ISBNs I have written down for future consideration?

I can’t be the only one who really needs to handle books. Reading reviews helps a little, but ordering on line is a duck shoot in the pouring rain. Best I can do is judge by the author’s past works and the cover. My taste in cover art is obviously not that of the current young crop of editors.

Being able to hold the book, read the back cover and maybe the first few pages makes a difference for me, especially if it is a new author. Paperbacks are not as expensive as hardbacks but still, I don’t like buying books that I will wind up not wanting to keep.

When it comes to fiber books, I am even fussier. Looking through most of the new books out, few have anything to recommend them that I do not already have in either reference books or in pattern pamphlets.

Socks

Oh yes, socks started for Ms Pink out of Regia Crazy Stripe.
pinkstripestart1.jpg

-Holly

Posted in Books & Tapes, Military, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

It is dark out

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-05 by Holly2007-11-05

According to East Coast time – it was 1930 when I went to bed last night. Add a nice round six hours to that and you will know why I was hardly able to find the light switch as I staggered into bed.

And then I woke up a few hours later. It was 0245 in the freaking morning. But my body claimed that it was 0845 and I was late.

The place has free internet! But since I was completely brain dead, nothing useful came of it. Finished up the Dante Valentine book I was reading [Lilith Saintcrow] and went off to a full day exerice on Edgewoood.

We will skip the part about following the other vehicle which happily turned left at an intersection through the end of the yellow leaving me behind. And the following hour where I tried to locate them on the base before giving up, going back to the hotel and getting a email printout listing the building number.

(I will continue to wonder why no one in the HQ had a clue as to where we were holding this. No one, it seems, of any importance comes to work before 0900).

Foolish me, thinking that if my organization was paying for and running an exercise that included a number of out of town players, I might let the staff duty officer in on the secret.

I skipped dinner to crash.

-Holly

Posted in Military, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Wail of a plane trip

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-04 by Holly2007-11-04

According the to itinerary emailed to me by my OPS officer, our flight on United Airlines was to go out at 1215. Arriving by train at the Frankfurt Airport in what I thought was plenty of time – the flight on the board was listed as 1115. It was now slightly before 1000.

No sweat, thinks I. I am in line at the counter and the line seems to be moving. Getting to the nice young man at the check-in, he informs me that he can see my reservation, but no ticket number against it. Since it was a government purchase, I have to go and talk to SATO. They are over in Terminal 2.

Through the terminal, take the skytrain and go nuts trying to find the window which turns out to the in the far back corner of  Section E.

Yes, I am in the computer, no – he can’t issue me the ticket since I don’t have a government credit card. The other alternative is handing over a copy of my orders. We are on this new, electronic DTS system. I had opened the screen for this travel on Friday, printing three sets just in case there was a problem. I pull them out.

The orders say Garmisch. They are orders for a previous trip. Now either I hit the wrong button, or the label in the electronic system is wrong. Either way, I am screwed. Since I don’t have a government credit card – no tickets.

Searching through SABRE, he finally finds another flight out an hour later, but the return comes through Muenchen. Thrilling – it will take me an extra three hours to get home. The ticket is 50E cheaper than what it cost for the rest of the crew. Some saving grace at least. He books me through Lufthansa (which is going to be a challenge later – except for the fact that there is a matching UA number).

By this time, the 1215 flight should be boarded and ready to push back. Leaving a message with that gate agent for the six people whom I was supposed to have met, I manage to get through security and to my own gate just as they are starting to board.

Flight is full. Really full.

Hours later, it is still Sunday. I am wiped, through Immigration and customs with my luggage. There is no one waiting.

Figures. Time to rent a car and head north.

Luck is with me, I slap an audio book into the CD player which happens to work and roll around the DC beltway, up 95 and through the McKinley Tunnel. Taking the Edgewood exit, the hotel is right there.

The rest of the crew has checked in, but I am not going to wait up for them – it is really time to sleep.

Kate Wilhelm – Desperate Measures for the flight and one and a half Salmon stripe socks on the plane.

-Holly

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Catching up

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-03 by Holly2007-11-03

Ravelry – Although I have been a member since June, I have not done a lot there since I returned from China. Last night I managed to upload a few pictures and update a couple of projects. In fact, there were several which I had started and finished prior to listing them in my projects.

Socks for the most part. I certainly mean the Wyvern and Peacock Socks along with the Peapod Baby set. Is anyone else finding it hard to keep up?  Between Flickr, Ravelry, and blogs I am not sure that there is any time for knitting.

And in the morning – I am off to the US, Aberdeen Proving Grounds South (aka the old Edgewood Arsenal) for an exercise. Such fun. I just love long plane flights – not. But I have plenty of sock yarn.

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | 1 Reply

Is there really a choice?

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-02 by Holly2007-11-02

I am trying to sort out the pluses and minuses of different courses of action.

The kids are better with my going to the UK than they would be with Iraq. I might like the job there better, more challenging, working with military, troops etc. But there is the question of gear. I am getting older and my bones don’t like walking around with that much weight. BattleRattle right now can be up to 30% (minimum) of my body weight. The heat would be nice, but not a helmet all the time.

Knowing my assignment system, the real choice is go to the UK this winter, or get moved to the US this coming summer. UK is closer. I could retire.

[ large mind blank ]

I even have enough time to plan out the economics. Since the rest of the family will be here in Europe for at least three more years, seems kind of silly to get paid half as much to do my current work….

Arches

The New Beijing Olympic Stadium

The new Olympic Stadium in Beijing taken in August 07. No, I didn’t use a weird filter or alter the photo, the air is that brown from pollution.

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized | Leave a reply

Sandhurst

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-11-01 by Holly2007-11-01

Well – it is official. The job I am headed to is co-located with the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Located in Camberley, I will be 50 km outside of London off the M3.

Negotiating on a reporting date, but Mid January 2008 at the latest.

This is really going to make a mess of my planned knitting.

Otherwise, I have finally gotten back to Ravelry since I have not updated my projects since August.

Followed by the matter of the youngest now taking ill.

Enough, wouldn’t you say?

-Holly

Posted in Military, Uncategorized | 5 Replies

Moving?

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-10-31 by Holly2007-10-31

Should I talk about knitting first? I owe you knitting pictures.

First – The Finished Peapod.

peapodwithbuttons.jpg

bunnybuttons.jpg

Those are green bunny buttons – and have to be the cutest things I have seen in a while. We dropped it off on Saturday – right between everyone getting sick.

And then there is the progress on the Valley Jacket

28oct07.jpg

Where I am at that lovely tangled yarn state that comes from knitting off of two balls for three parts. With any luck, the yarn will last the last couple of CM and let me do the shoulder bind off. From there it is only the sleeves and I will be done since this is a “finish as you go” project.

Military

Each branch and corps of the US military handles its officers different. Sometimes you get choices about where you are going to be, and sometimes there are few options. My branch wound up with a sudden opening in the UK starting around the first of the year. Obviously my family is not going anywhere, so this would be an adventure on my own to a large extent.

I don’t have to do this. But there are no jobs for me in Germany after 30 June, which means that I would have to get my act together in order to retire and find other work. There are serious economic implications of course with retiring unless I get myself rapidly motivated into job shopping, there would be some significant downtime. I have the possibility of starting consulting or job shopping with the Uni in Heidelberg.

Or I can go back to CENTCOM for another 15+ months – Iraq this time.

Or I can take the job in the UK.

There is good and bad with the situation. The 18 year-old finishes her Abi this spring, so her education is a factor, but it is the follow on that counts. The younger two are simply not movable in school as they are in the 9th and 10th Klasses in the G8 Gymnasium Curriculum. The DH is on the road a lot, in London at least every other month and way too much time in Zurich.

Which really leaves the dog. Since I am coming from the EU – it is a matter of a working microchip, updating immunizations, and getting a titer drawn.

It is a bit to think about. Meanwhile, it is time to start researching University Music Curriculum in the UK for the vocal one.

-Holly

Posted in Knitting, Military, Uncategorized | 2 Replies

Poor Kid

Holly Doyne Posted on 2007-10-30 by Holly2007-10-30

AKA – Murphy’s Law says that once the first thing goes wrong – everything else will just domino into chaos. 

Arriving home, I was surprised to see the 18 year-old still there. Scheduled to leave for Vienna  on a music trip with a class in the morning, our plan had been for her to overnight with a classmate in Stuttgart in order to make a 0615 flight.

Dashing, we were on the way to the train station when she realized she did not have her cell phone. I was going to give her mine, and just tell her to pay cash for the train ride, but then she would not have had enough money along. Turning around, we went home, got her phone and some more cash and then bought her ticket from the Bahn’s vending machine.

Rather than a direct connection, it involved an S-Bahn to Mannheim and a change to an IC. 45 minutes later, I get this upset call – she left her carry-on bag on the S-Bahn. Checking with the Bahn – it had not been turned in and the S-Bahn was at the Karlsruhe Betriebshof. She now is in Stuttgart without a change of clothes.

Her classmate is not the same size, and it turns out her asthma meds were in the case.  I look at packing another bag and sending it down with her sister yet tonight (but the youngest was unable to reach any of her friends so that she would not have a place to stay – and I didn’t want a 14 year old wandering on the trains at 2300).

It is now after 2330 when the bedraggled kid gets back to Heidelberg. I have found her some clothes (she has little that is clean) and an alternate medication. There is a possible train connection that will get her to the airport at 0522. But it turns out that her passport is in Stuttgart and she has missed the window to go and pick it up.

We hang the whole thing and I start to send her to bed. She is still not recovered from her illness this weekend and is now walking into walls with exhaustion.

When I think about it – I should have cancelled her early on (as she still is not feeling well) – or helped her watch the clock so that we had enough time at the train station in the first place.  She is normally my most organized and driven teen, but even planning this trip has been a disaster from the git-go.

Knitting

On the knitting front – I have less than 2 cm to the shoulders on the Valley Jacket and should take some socks out of hibernation.

Audio Books

Big Trouble – by Dave Berry. A really fun romp complete with teens, Russian mobsters, gun runners, FBI, local cops and airline pilots not old enough to have cleared their acne. Probably no redeeming literary value, but the story does a nice job of using sterotypes and poking fun.

-Holly

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