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!

Margaret’s Dogs and Cats

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There was a package at the mailroom for me from Australia. I have known Kathryn now for a number of years. Meeting through a knitting list, we have kept in touch over email. Through her I have gotten to know Margaret.

We have swapped small things, and I, guilt free, occasionally dump excess sock yarn on Margaret since she does an extensive amount of knitting for charity. Raising money by auctioning off socks has always struck me as an excellent method.

Inside the package was a pair of socks. Always thrifty, these were knit out of left overs.

Margarets Socksl

They have stripes of jacquard pattern separating the solid stripes. There are rows scotty dogs and pussy cats with the colors reversing from the tops to the bottoms.
Margarets Socks - close up
And finally, there is a paw on the heel!
The heel detail

I am hoping that she kept track of the pattern as I think these would be fun for kids socks as well. It won’t be that difficult to turn it into a .pdf file and post it if she has the charts.

Reading

Finished McNally’s Dilemma, no surprises and a great reader.

A Carribean Mystery by Agatha Christieand have moved on to A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, read by Joan Hickson. A perfect voice for the part of Miss Marple, Ms Hickson recorded this audio book just short of her 90th birthday.

-Holly

Left their homes

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I don’t know where they have gone, the small snails that have left their homes behind. Littering the steps on the way up to the house, I try to avoid crunching on them as I go, laden down with backpack and bag.

emptyshell

Almost bowled over by the dog who is so happy to see me that she streaks down to street level and then back up, she barks and jumps, avoiding my camera.
blownflowers
The snow in Landstuhl never made it here, small flowers are blowing in the breeze and the mini-daisies are fine.

mini-daisies

We spend a few minutes tearing around the terrace before retreating exhausted into the house.Since then she has been guarding the door, waiting for George. Which doesn’t make any sense at all, considering that he just called from Switzerland. Somehow, I had in my mind that he was home tonight and maybe leaving tomorrow. I had delayed going to the Chaos Quilters so that I could take the car with GPS, but I am just as glad not to have to drive home in the dark with the temperature dropping.

Fiber Progress

I have ony the toe decrease left on the “Hope” sock so I went ahead and cast on for the second Falling Leaves sock. The pattern is from Knitty.com and the yarn is Socks that Rock –
from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in
Scottish Highlands. I finished the first bobbin of the Fire Corriedale singles and filled about 1/3 on the second bobbin.

I am on the train to Sonthofen in the morning and back on Thursday night. I have to figure out knitting for the train: socks are always good. The poor pup, she will get checked on by Shana, but hates being home alone.

-Holly

Needles & Spins

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It felt rather strange this morning, on a Monday, not to be headed to work. But it is a federal holiday, which obviously means that the weather is completely rotten since it is still “weekend.” Gave me the perfect opportunity just to stay inside, knitting, reading and spinning. And dishes and laundry, let’s get real here.

Knitting

Instead I finished up the second of Inside Out:
Inside-Out
Inside-Out Detail
Rather than kill my hands or switch back and forth with needle sizes, I stayed with 2,5 mm needles through out. Including all the changes made with the second sock-I cast on 26 stitches for the toe, decreasing to 6 stitches at the tip. When the toe was complete, I picked up three stiches on each side between the front and the back sections of the toe. Distributing accordingly, I adjusted the number of 2/1 and 2/2 ribs to match the number of stitches. After the heel, I again picked up stitches along the edge to increase to 65 prior to starting the cable section (and to avoid any holes). I knit almost 15 rows prior to starting the pattern, adding in a 2/1/2 cable on the inside of each leg crossed every five rows for a total of 5 large cables plus the five stitch cable. They feel extremely comfortable and well padded.

I knit the heel flap, turned the heel and got half-way down the foot on the second of sock of my ChameleonColorworks Sock of the Month Club.

And finally, I have hauled out my Chinese Red Vest, from Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle. I have tracked down at least some of the extra yarn (For You, Gedifra, 125m/50gm, Merino on 4,0 mm ebony circ). About 10 cm or more past the armhole split, I just don’t have all that much left to do. This is what I decided to get done as my first project in the Red Sweater KAL. My only issue now is locating my copy of the book, so I have the pattern.

Chinese Red VestBottom border deatil

Spinning

Taking a break, I pulled out the lovely corridale pencil roving that I got from Crown Moutain Farms in color fire. It spins like a dream and I am planning on a fine singles on the Timbertops chairwheel, then plying it on the Dutch upright that is currently being used as a roving holder. It should be more than enough to do some colorwork with, once I find a solid that I like for contrast. I am thinking of a dark red since brown would be boring. It should knit up on a 3,0 to 3,5 m needles.
The Fire Roving
singles on the bobbinl

Books & Tapes

The Sayers are all finished untill some more come in the library.
The Friday Night Knitting Club
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs is a lightweight novel that centers around a knitting shop in Manhattan. Since I don’t live there, I can’t address how accurate that portion of the novel is, but the research supporting other portions of the novel is extremely week straining my credubility. This story of a single mother and her daughter suffers from too many two dimentional characters, continually shifting times and points of view, and a forced ending. Sad to say, it will probably do fine in the book clubs but I can only recommend it if you enjoy reading any fiction having to do with people and knitting.

McNally's Dilemma
McNally’s Dilemma by Lawrence Sanders is currently in the cassette recorder. Boyd Gaines is the reader. Another in the Archy McNally series set on the Florida Gold Coast, the usual cast of characters is present, and the good guys win (sort of).

-Holly

Baby Back-Zippered Jackets x 2

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Baby back-zipped x2

The Finished Twins Sweaters
The Finished Twins Sweaters They are done and we dropped them off to the twins this afternoon. At two months old, they have just hit gestational age. Although not particularly fussy, as early babies go, we stayed and visited only a short time before heading back to get our teens ready to head to school.

And, as you can see, I managed to hand sew the zippers into the backs of the sweaters without as much pain as it could have been. Clover dressmakers pins are both sharp and fine enough to hold the knitted fabric to the zipper without distortion.

From there, it will be on the zipper on the third sweater which I hope to be able to send on its way on Tuesday followed by the second sleeve on the fourth. (this baby has not yet been born). Nina left me the fifth sweater done up to the armhole split, so maybe I can get that one finished as well.

And then it was on to the second of the STR-Inside Out socks.

Through the heel turn – Inside Out And up the leg – Inside OutThe first sock is done, and I am now to the second round of cables on the leg. I am hoping to be able to finish up tonight. It has been an interesting experience. I normally do not care for toe-up socks, but there can be a real advantage to not having to graft toes.

Reading

The Hangman's Holiday. A collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers I just finished listening to Hangman’s Holiday, a collection of 12 short stories. Containing 4 Lord Peter Whimseys’ and a variety of others, they are vintage Dorothy Sayers. The actual quality of the production is fair at best and I do find Nadia May’s voice a bit iritating. Some of it might be the style of the time, it no longer seems to be required to read every last page, footnote and annotation. She also does not vary some of the voices quite enough, making the occasional character change difficult to follow when she reads a rapid conversation

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The Nine Tailors by Dorothy SayersIn contrast, Ian Carmichael turns in his usual superlative performance on the 11th Lord Peter Whimsey mystery The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayer. Set in the Fens, the story revolves around the ringing of bells at the old church. Subtitled – Changes Rung On An Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals – many of the chapter headings come from the technical terminology. I think it would be a fine read for anyone who is a student of hand bells (or church bell ringing-which seems to be mostly an English sport)

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Dream Hunter - by Sherrilyn KenyonAnd the current paperback for the backpack is Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dream Hunter, another in her Dark Hunter series. I am not far enough into it to have an opinion yet. OTOH, I am not going to stay up all night just to read it

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So I am off to update the pix on my finished and UFO pages, then to crash.

-Holly

Blockin’ and Rockin’

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Instead of knitting the whole day as I had planned, it turned into errand day. Blah..

It was something about needing a few groceries, white cotton socks, and returning books to the library. I did manage to move the baby sweaters off the terrace table where they were spread out, being blocked to the inside ledge of the living room window.

choices Just as I was settling into my comfortable chair and picking out my next audiobook, the youngest decided she really wanted to go and get her hair cut. The next up daughter went along. After due consideration, we dropped them off near the Uni Platz and went to Mannheim with the oldest to look at wedding dresses.

Since the Rockin’ Sock pattern is not fit for public consumption, I took along some pink. Doing the heel flap on the second sock, I got a number of questions about “was ist das?”. On returning home, the baby sweaters are feeling almost dry which means that I am out of excuses. For what? Sewing the zippes in the backs of them. Finishing is not my love. I love zippers in baby sweaters, but putting them in is a pain. I even have zippers. Since we are seeing the twins they are for tomorrow, I really need to get this done.

-Holly

Inside-Out

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Did I mention Blue Moon’s “Socks that Rock” sock of the month club? I am sure that I did. There are about 2000 totally insane people participating this year, which I am sure is overwhelming their local small town post office. After all, can you imagine walking in and asking for that many priority mailing boxes?

There have been various discussions of this colorway – named Monsoon. Personnally, since the colors are green, brown, darkish grey and a touch of lighter color – I keep wanting to call it camouflage or BDU.

But anyway, the pattern is named Inside Out, because the sock could be worn either way. Since the sock is primarily ribbing, the pattern on the top still is interesting, regardless of which side is out. I mostly followed the pattern, except for the following:

1) rather than change needle sizes-I used my 2,5 mm needles through out.
2) this meant that I had to reduce the number of stitches on the toe from 36 to 30 (on each side), but went down to 6 stitches with the wraps (from 8)
3)increased 2 stitches, one on each end, this meant that I had reduced the bottom by one repeat and the top by two.
4) since the sock had a fair amount of stretch, so made the foot a bit shorter than I otherwise would to the start of the heel
5) used 32 for the heel, then increased to 65 when starting the upper portion.
6) since there were these extra five stitches, I inserted an 5 cross cable on the inside of each sox, and did this every 10 rows. On the second sock, I found it worked better to do 15 rounds of the 2/1 ribbing before starting the crosses, this gave more “give” around the ankle.

In pictures –
Is what my first sock looked like on my foot. I had well over half the yarn left.
on the foot

Looking at mostly the sock top (the cup is Heidelberg from the Rosenthal series of Cupola City Cups –
sock top

Literally taking the attitude of Inside Out – just the top appears like this-
inside out

And then there is the not so polite over all look of the sock when viewed ohne Fuß.
sock top

What can I say? Since this was a training holiday, I had a relaxing day to sit at home and knit. I have other socks that I can knit in public. The Time Traveler’s Wife is done, as is the New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This leaves me down to only The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson on CD for the car traveling. Looks like I need to add a library trip on my errands list.

It would have been nice to have this pattern back when I was part of an inspection team and the guys set “Ol’ Lead” on the tablein front of me one afternoon. I responded by knitting it a purple cover, but had the ribs going the other way……

-Holly

Second Socks

Holly Doyne Posted on by

On knitting

I was taking a knitting break at lunch. Just quietly sitting there knitting a second sock. You know second socks don’t you? This one, a lovely semi-solid light pink is being knit out of a bamboo/merino blend. Of course I had forgotten the pattern at home. Since this is cables, I just decided to use the first sock as a pattern. Easy I thought, but extremely impressive to one of my co-workers who wandered down the hall who does knit, but has not strayed far from the vanilla sock.

What I should have admitted is that I never could have pulled this off had it been lace. I look at lace patterns and my eyes blur and my hands start to sweat. I can’t read them off the sock. But there are a couple ones out there by Cookie A that are worth trying. Since I do Paypal and download this proved to be quite easy. Thelonious is going to be the first one I tackle, solid color yarn I think.

On tiredness

After a non-functioning alarm clock this morning, compounded by a golden retriever who felt it was a great morning to head for the local meadow, I got to work about 35 minutes later than planned. I was still in time to do my PT test, walking the aerobic portion at this point in my life. A couple of years ago that I acknowledged that old injuries could be turned into new, fresh, painful ones if I persisted in pretending that I was young and invulnerable.

The dog whined in my office, extremely disappointed that she could not tow me for 6 1/2 laps around the area. In stead, we did that at lunch, right before the knitting.

On my bookshelf from the library

Probable Cause , Theresa Schwegel – Hardback
The Friday Night Knitting Club, Jacobs – Harback
A Day of Small Beginnings, Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum – Hardback
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Murder in the Casbah & Other Mysteries. Vols 13-18, Voices of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce – CD
A Deeper Sleep, Diana Stabenow – Harback
Hangman’s Holiday, Dorothy Sayers – cassette
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy Sayers – cassette
Off Armageddon Reef, David Weber – Hardback

Ranting on military fools

Feel free to ignore the following.

There has been a lot of controversy about the military lately. I am a supporter of free press. What I find at fault is how the military reacts to what is in the press. If you have been following the controversy at Walter Reed – there was a lovely piece in the Wall Street Journal today (15 March 07) by Daniel Henniger entitled The Walter Reed Fiasco. He discusses the fallout, the fact that this was not really “new” news. He also validates that MG Weightman was sacrificed in an attempt to stop the criticism. Since this an officer whom I have worked for several times in the past and hold in the highest respect, I am hoping that some of his points are taken by those who should be reading his piece.

And then there are the idiots who believe that “don’t ask, don’t tell’ is reasonable or fair. I will concede anyone their personal opinions, but I think all of us serving need to keep our personal prejudices buttoned up inside. We have learned to do that with other issues, I don’t see an issue: you either believe in EO, and that harrasement of anyone is wrong- or you don’t. In the LA Times this morning Nathaniel Frank makes the point quite clearly.

And part of the reason, I still maintain that so many of the older and more conservative men object is that they really, when all is said and done, do not subscribe to the idea of a blameless victim. We all have had experiences with people who had done dumb things, then claimed harassment. When the victim is female, most ask “what has she done?” When the victim is male, and the perpetrator is female – the usual comments are whistles or “what made him such a stud?”

If you let gay men in the military – there are a lot of men out there who see the risk of being “playing the female victim role” and it makes them quite uncomfortable. Largely because they do not see the victim as blameless (and what would others think of them if they were harassed).

If they really supported EO, then they would be committed to a harassment free workplace where everyone worked and was rewarded based on performance, and not anything else. Sexual preference would not matter in the least. A predator is a predator regardless of their sex, or the sex of their victim. I really hate to say it, but the fact that men find being the victim in this case so personally threatening ought to give them a clue—that women do not appreciate it either.

I have the next four days off. It is time to knit!
-Holly

Viveka complete – now on to socks!

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Ok, my March Madness Sweater is complete! Viveka from Knitty

Miriam

The sweater is for Miriam. It is knit out of Shelridges Farms Misty Blue on my lovely gold-plated 4,5 addi turbos. I knew there was going to be a reason that I needed them. The gauge was 20/10 cm. Of course, not liking to sew things together, I knit the body in one piece to the start of the “V” and the armholes; binding the shoulders off together. I knit the sleeves also in the round on 4,5 ebony double points, then bound them in as well. I posted some of the construction details on our March Madness Knit-a-long blog.

This meant I could wind up the yarn that finally arrived fromBlue Moon Fiber Arts. Ok, I know that I do not need any more sock yarn, but I have enjoyed a couple of their other patterns and yarn and got suckered in. Me and about 2000 others, so I am not alone in my insanity.

Leaving out the controversy about fiber names (I am one of these weird people who like the color name of a yarn to accurately reflect the colors of the yarn. Otherwise, to me, why bother at all when you can just give it a number while there are others who really like puns in names) this particular color is named “Monsoon.” You could also call it Tornado Sky or really BDU (for those with an Army background).

See?
Monsoon Colorway

and the started sock in a pattern called Inside Out. Since I have no interest in trashing my fingers with size 2,0 mm needles or smaller, I am adjusting the pattern as I go. The only trick is really going to be adjusting the sock top from 73 stitches down to something reasonable on my favorite 2,5 mm rosewood needles.

str-monsoon-toe1.jpg

I have almost 10cm done of the first sock and I am up through Disk 9 on The Time Traveler’s Wife. But it is late, and the SGM is gifting us with a PT test at 0630 in the morning. It would not be so bad, except for the 125 km drive which precedes it. Ah well, the downside of my comfy home.

-Holly

Progress

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Heidelberg, 13 March 2007, Tuesday

I managed to get a number of things done for work, on my way to the mail room if you want the truth. And my STR box from Blue Moon fiber finally came in. The color may be named Monsoon, but trust me-it is those colors that I love to hate, found in my good, old BDUs.

The afternoon meeting was decent, considering that I was not able to knit. Not that anyone there would have minded, it is rather than I had only four needles with me, and this sock calls for a lot of cables. Totally dumb move on my part punished with over two hours of twitchy fingers.

Coming in the door to a happy dog, I managed to finish up the second sleeve and bind it in on
sweater1.jpgMiriam’s March Madness Sweater. Now all that is left is blocking and ends followed by figuring out what I need to do for the neck finishing. I got a definite no from the daughter when I made a couple of suggestions. Further ideas would be welcome.

Putting The Time Traveler’s Wife back on the stereo, I then wound the wool from the STR kit and cast on for the first “Inside Out” sock. Since this is toe up, and a rather different method at that, I had not been paying much attention to what I was doing till I was past the toe and starting up the foot. Then I completely cracked up. I checked a couple of other knitting blogs to make sure it really was supposed to look like this. Ok, slightly bulbous toe and narrower shank.

Let me just leave it alone and post a picture tomorrow when I am to the heel. That way I will not get censored for using “hot button” words in this blog.

It is rather late, and I have the commute again tomorrow, making it time to put the needles down.

-Holly

Green flying free

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It came through again this morning, a flash of bright green swooshing past the living room picture window.

Sunday I had been sitting on the windowsill, knitting the second sleeve of Miriam’s sweater when I first spotted the green parrot that has been cruising around on our terrace roof. I had strewn some futter and sat with my camera at the ready. The dog, of course went nuts. Not because of the birds, but because she could see a potential snack from the dining room door that she could not reach. The parrot is a ring-neck and one of the best amateur pictures ,along with comments, can be found at here on a blog from Tokyo.

The issue of feral parrots is not new. There is a website even devoted to the Free parrot. What is unusual in this climate is how well they are doing considering that none of the birds are native to Europe. Most seem to have either engineered an escape from domesticity, or were let loose by their owners when they proved too much trouble. Colorful, bright and aggressive, this wily bird managed to drive off pigeons and sparrows to hit the feed.

 But it was gone before I could get outside with the camera.

-Holly

 

 

The Last Exit

Holly Doyne Posted on by

11 March 2007 The Last Exit

Sunday, Merz Internat, Stuttgart

There is that final moment when you can make a decision, and then it rolls past. Along with your exit off of the Autobahn, the last opportunity to chose another route, to not sit in a Stau.

The radio message system had reported about a 10 km Stau between Pforzheim-something and the following exit due to an accident in the construction zone. I guess that we kept expecting to see a slow down or stop in the stream of red tail lights snaking away over the hills in the distance. I had even gone ahead and programed the GPS to look for alternate routes, not that there is much of an alternative other than B10.

It was dark by now, well after 2030 and a varying two of the three teens were sleeping in the back seat. Normally they take the train back to school on Sunday night, but this time they were getting a ride for several reasons. The main being that Noah had his backpack, suitcase, guitar and amp; a bit more than is reasonable to schlep from train to Straßenbahn to school. There was also the fact that Nina had not had a chance to do her math tutoring untill late this afternoon.

So there we are, just passing Pforzheim-Öst. The insane babbler on the GPS tells us that the next exit is 13 km. We head down another hill and around a curve. On the A8 of course.

And there it is in all its glory–brake lights as far as the eye can see. Or at least 3 km, which ever is worse. Luckily the accident must have been long since cleared away, for suddenly the slowdown just opened up and everyone resumed a normal speed. Of 60-80 km/hr that is because we were not finished with the construction zone which only cleared right before the outskirts of Stuttgart.

After dropping them off and hitting the road, we took my normal route back: A81 -> A6. There is construction this way as well and, since it was past 2100, the trucks were on the road again in full force and fleets.

All of that as a passenger and I accomplished absolutely no knitting. I had not brought the second sleeve off Miriam’s sweater to complete the last 10 cm because measuring is hard in the dark. Instead I had brought some sock yarn and needles. Right-pale pink yarn and bamboo needles. I could not see a thing! Complicated by a pattern that called for cabling in the second row.

I was reduced to discussing politics as I had also forgotten The Time Travelor’s Wife. George, I am sure, was much happier this way.

-Holly

A Saturday at home

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Perched on the side of the hill, our terrace overlooks the city of Heidelberg. I could be tacky and say that it mostly overlooks trees (and Campbell Barracks) on a bad day. The weather is typical, four seasons in 24 hours: if you are not happy, wait a few hours and it will change. Most certainly the cold tonight is likely going to kill off the brave early flowers.

After this past week of constant running between teaching sessions, meetings, box hauling and checking the mail room for packages, I am more than happy to spend a quiet weekend. Especially if I can avoid cleaning and laundry. I would much rather knit on Miriam’s March Madness Sweater or work further on updating projects on the family website.

But there are teenagers to hassle, the son trying out his new guitar and perhaps a need for some fresh food stuffs in the house. Either that, or at least grab some supper before I crash.

-Holly

its the other

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

some how it feels so good to get to Friday. This morning seemed to be under control. And yes, I do feel like my job is somewhere between Zirkus Meister and meeting queen.

So it goes: morning report, wander around the hospital and scare people. Apparently all the nagging about catching up on everything is starting to get taken seriously. In fact, concerned when I show up in their ward/clinic and ask to see SOPs, training folders, NCO checklists, and they can’t produce them….

At 0900 it was off to the Infection Control Class to deliver a pep talk about why it was so important that they were learning what to do and then to do it. After trying to catch up on email (and deleting hundreds of messages across my accounts) and finding Min.net was down (secondary to a fire in downtown Baltimore at 0200 that affected power to their location and shut them down till the start of their business day – lets see – 0200 + six hours time zone = 0800 here and beyond.

A major planning meeting meant working through lunch; then a personal update meeting at 1400 which turned into a status update from everyone on everything. I shouldn’t find it surprising that somethings have fallen through while time has been totally wasted on garbage. As it turns out, we have six extensions pending on less than great soldiers. Rather than agree, all will be pulled and we will see what we get out of the “personnel lottery.”

Managed to get home before 1800. One of my War College Seminar classmates is in town from the States for a 2 week AT (annual training). Turns out this is his last night in town. So this George (day job – prosecuting Environmental Law for the Justice Department) came over for dinner. My George and I bough the littles off with TV and dinner in the family room. End result? Relaxing, enjoyable evening for us three adults. I gave him a ride back to the Q in Kitzigen really late.

crash time? yes…

If it is not one thing –

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Managed to get up, down the hill, and to morning report on time. I think that I mentioned the drill about the first Thursday of the month including extra meetings? So morning report starts at 0700 followed by Joint Staff at 0730. I had a number of things to review, and several even provided some good information.

Ducked back to the office to check on mail, then did my usual couple of hours of stuff including talking to JAG on the phone before heading to Kitzigen.

Amazingly enough – there was actually interesting food in the club lunch line today – bean burritos ,salsa, jalapeños and sour cream>, corn, au gratin potatoes, and broccoli. Lunch, more caffeine, meetings. The decision brief regarding the field exercise later this month to include the most we can accomplish in the time allotted without destroying ourselves or the equipment. Using the cheap method – dolly sets – not cranes.

After recognizing several soldiers who had done outstanding jobs, toured building 98 and the motor pool. I thought the return to the office was going to let me slide downhill for the rest of the day. (a stop at the mail room netted me a package – the blank cards so that I can transfer embroidery patterns from the computer to the sewing machine). A new Handwoven was also in my mail box (Finn Weave? humm, interesting but I am not tackling anything that slow and by hand in this lifetime).

Returned to the office to find that my CSM had picked up Noah; meanwhile George had headed home. Naturally they missed each other so I would up with Mr. Noah for about 45 minutes. Then there was the crisis of the moment, the crisis of the hour.Heading home at 1800, I wondered where the time actually went.

Other than that – the kids are the usual, George saw the pathologist who says he does NOT have a detached retina.

Packages!

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

They didn’t fight too badly this morning – I got Noah and Miriam up and took them to breakfast with me. George and Nina headed to Munich to look at schools for her for next year.

Went to morning report, sent Noah off to school went back to report then walked Miriam off to kindergarten. The rest of the day honestly does not need a description – you know the drill – meetings, and more meetings.

On of the rush things this morning was getting off what turned out to be fore letters to DA – there was a board meeting this week to grant constructive credit for the Med Officers Advanced Course. Now, I have four MAJs. Three finished the correspondence course but were unable to make the resident section in the one year window allowed. Two West Pointers and my DCCS from downrange. All have significant deployment time. Having them to do it over again would be a waste of three docs for eight weeks while they sat in San Antonio. Great for food and drink, not good for our patients. The other is one of my clinic commanders who I have known since 1993. He doesn’t need to do this either …. (and it is not like any of them really want to spend those eight weeks at Ft. Sam rather than at work or with their families traveling in Europe).

But the highlight of my day? Stopping in the mail room this morning. There were six boxes there! Now two were errors – same order filled multiple ties so have already emailed the company that I expect to return the stuff and get credit for the postage both ways. But in the other boxes? Some software I had been waiting for, the polar fleece for bathrooms (sent by Carmen), a couple of CDs and a beanie baby. right. seriously. There is Prickles, a hedgehog that Helen found for me. This is seriously upping the ante and I am going to have to really work at topping that – but I think I have found a solution…

Late breaking orders

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Out early – downloaded the remaining stuff that I needed before the rest of the world got up.

Spent my day running around and chasing my tail. Got my crowns finished – so I now have a bit more gold in my mouth. Army pays for something.

Went out to Harvey Barracks for the Assumption of Command by COL David Granger of 1AD DISCOM. The previous commander let command early in Nov because of cancer and treatment requirements, so they have had an acting commander for the last couple of months. Other than that – it looked like a regular change of command ceremony – but for the flag going from the CSM to the General to the new commander.

Getting back, held the monthly awards ceremony. Some awards were following folks from their previous duty assignments while others of ours were getting recognized.

End of the afternoon saw the consumer council meeting – a few takers, but not many – going to see what we can do to round up more participation.

Finished all of that by 1800. Had to NCO’s who had been waiting to see me. Turned out that the one was scheduled to leave on a MEDEVAC in the morning for an outpatient appointment but still did not have orders.

So, now I know how to type a DA 1610. The resource manager came in to provide the fund cite. Tomorrow, I get to unscrew the mix-up that had her orders not done in the first place.

Home to crash.

new month – more of the same

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It is amazing how fast files move at 0600. When all of you folks in the states having finally gotten off your computers on the east coast and have gone to bed! Took less that 3 minutes to download stuff that I had been fighting all of Friday. Part of the problem is that we have a low volume pipe that connects to the rest of the .mil and by the time things are up and running at 0730 – the average file transfer speed is down to 1.4 or slower. YES! Old modem speed. 

Anyway – walked in early, had meetings, worked through lunch. We have the new unit crest solved and will get it submitted today. Been listening to a wonderful CD that George picked up – Laridee. Actually a local group, normally they do pop/rock and folk. This one is completely inFrench and a combination of some old and some new folk. Extremely cheerful and upbeat <except for one to two tracks>.

George has his eye appointment for Thursday at the Uni Klinik to deal with his retinal detachment. more fun.

The whole crew picked me up at the end of the day and we headed home early. I took a book to bed and crashed. Did a little more cleaning up, so this was my break?

-=H=-