Holiday Time!

First Night of Hanukkah

All my packages have been mailed, my husband is home on vacation this week, and the kids only have a couple more days of school before the holidays. The season has been hectic but I'm finally getting closer to a relaxation state. Lighting the candles is always nice and quiet, we sing the hebrew prayer, and there is only one present per kid to open each night, until we run out. That's for my husband's side.

The Christmas Tree

This is for my side. Notice the knitted ornament in the center front (there are three: one for each of the kids). We have ornaments from different trips one or more of us have taken as well as homemade ornaments, handmade ornaments others have given us, and special gift ornaments. This year when we were decorating the tree I was explaining to Aya, our Japanese exchange student, where all the different ornaments came from or who made them. My 15-year-old son was also listening carefully. Later that evening he commented about how amazed he was that there was an interesting story behind just about every Christmas tree ornament. A lovely evening all around.

We've made our fudge for the kids to bring to their teachers at school and now we need to make more for us and for friends. We made hanukkah cookies the other night too. We have since decorated them and youngest son brought some in to school for a cookies exchange. Yum!

I had been feeling the holiday stress over getting gifts bought and packages mailed in time. This year I sent boxes to Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Then I got tired and bought the last one online, and paid for gift wrapping and had it sent to California. Phew! I feel like I singlehandedly kept my local post office in business this month.

Earlier this month we also had central air put in (with heating upstairs to replace the electric heat) so the house was "under construction." Our contractors were very nice and polite and cleaned everything up every day, but "stuff" had to be moved and we lost a little closet space, and I'm still trying to reorganize in the aftermath. But it is done, the heat upstairs is wonderful, and we're glad we did it. As I slowly get more areas cleaned up I start to feel less stressed, and I'm getting ready to enjoy the holidays and having everybody home.

Speaking of having everybody home, the prodigal son (who'd been away at college) is home, so we now have four (4!) teenagers in the house! It may sound scary, but I'm really enjoying having them all here. The other three are still finishing up school, but we'll have a week and a half when everyone is on vacation and we will have some good family time: fires in the fireplace, movies, popcorn, hot chocolate, games, etc.

So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas,  Happy Hanukkah, and a Festive New Year! May we all achieve our goals in the New Year!

Shelley in CT

A Beautiful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is probably my favourite holiday of the year. No religion to worry about. Not that I'm anti-religious, but my husband is Jewish and I am Christian, and we celebrate holidays from both religions, which is all good, but so many holidays are either my tradition or his tradition. Thanksgiving is both. And it's all about the food. And family. And friends. I like all of those things.

This year we drove down to stay with my brother-in-law and his family in Philadelphia. They are the nearest relatives we have, geographically speaking, and most years my sister-in-law can't get away for very long as she is a physician and is working the holiday or on call. It's a 4-hour drive normally, though it was 6 hours driving down on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (could have been a lot worse). Since we were going down early, I brought pie fixings with me and my sister-in-law and I baked many many pies together Wednesday evening. The girls (my daughter Jessica, her cousin Rebecca who is the same age, and Aya, our Japanese exchange student) made mini pies using a sort of pie press. Between whole pies and mini pies, we had apple, cherry, pumpkin, blueberry, and pecan. Yum!

pie makers

Yum!

The day after Thanksgiving we drove into Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's house, the Federal Reserve, and the Mint. It was a beautiful day, Aya learned a lot of American history and we discovered how much we had forgotten or just not learned the first time around.

Independence Hall - scaffolding around the bell tower

kids in front of Independence Hall

 The day after Thanksgiving we have a traditional sushi dinner (It's traditional for our family, originating in a birthday dinner request of sushi many years ago). We get fresh fish from the wonderful market in downtown Philadelphia (actually, my brother- or sister-in-law get it) and then we make maki sushi. Turns out, Aya didn't eat sushi all that often in Tokyo and had never made it. We make sushi a little differently than they do in Japan, but it still tastes good.

rolling sushi

We even had a day to sit around and relax. Lots of leftovers to eat so we got a break from cooking too.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving and a lovely visit. I always enjoy seeing family, but it was good to get home after being away for 4 nights. We're settling back into the routine and now it's time to start gearing up for Christmas and Hanukkah. I'm trying hard to get gifts squared away early this year so I won't have to pay extra to send  packages extra fast so they arrive in time. Wish me luck. I probably need to send something to Aya's parents in Tokyo REALLY early. Any suggestions for a nice gift for someone I really don't know that is representative of our country? Anyone?

Best wishes of the season, and whichever holiday you choose to celebrate, or not!

Halloween Fun

Just to keep things interesting, we had SNOW before Halloween this year! (it is very unusual for the Connecticut shoreline to get snow this early in the year)

You can see the snow coming down

the beginnings of a light coating of snow

I started to worry about a white Halloween, but the weather warmed  up and most of the snow in our neighbourhood melted away by Monday afternoon.

We were on a late schedule this year and got our pumpkins on Sunday for a Monday night Halloween. Didn't faze the kids. I was really brave this year and let the kids do their own carving. In years past the kids would draw the faces and Dan and I would cut. I gave each of the kids a knife. And held my breath. Yahoo! No blood!

scooping out the pumpkin guts and seeds

carving pumpkins

eerie glowing pumpkin faces

This was Aya's first Halloween - they don't do Halloween in Japan. She seems to be having fun with it. The kids all went out trick-or-treating, in last-minute, pulled-together costumes, laughing and enjoying the holiday. I'm getting the hot chocolate ready to warm them up when they get back.

Shelley in CT

Finally getting a few things done...

Well, I had started a post before I left for Stitches East in Hartford, CT, but somehow never got it finished and put up. I'm back from Stitches (more about that later), mostly caught up on work (limited by internet problems at the office) and settling into routine here at home. Yesterday I actually found myself with a whole day without appointments, errands to run, kids to pick up or jobs that absolutely had to be done. Sooooo, I finally got to do something on my LIST. I painted the bathroom! Well, I started anyway.  I cleaned up the walls, brought out the paint, brushes, rollers, dropcloth, etc., and started. I finished the ceiling, and all the cutting in with the wall paint at the ceiling, around the window, door, and vanity.

finishing up the ceiling

Getting started was really the hard part, and the prep took quite a bit of time. Today I scraped and sanded the trim around the door and window, then painted the walls. Then I went out and ran errands! Woohoo! This has been on my list since last spring. I even bought the paint last spring. Tomorrow I should be able to finish up the trim and then it will basically be done. Some time later I will take the door off the hinges and sand and paint it, but that project will need another solid day or two so we won't have to live for too long without a door on the bathroom.

the new color - lighter shade of green

finished wall

window needs trim painted

On the knitting front, I am lucky enough to be able to attend Stitches East most years. Now that it's situated in Hartford, CT (about an hour's drive from my house), it's even easier to get to. Stitches was a little odd for me this year though. I'm not sure what it was: Tropical Storm Irene aftermath and not feeling quite caught up or on top of things yet, having a host-daughter added to the nuclear family, or just bad alignment of the planets, but I was just not ready for or excited about Stitches. I prepped at the last minute and got my homework done and my suitcase packed (I go with a friend and we stay with her friend, about 15-20 minutes outside the city) and arrived on time but I just wasn't "into it."  I had signed up back in June and took more classes than I usually do - Almost the Works. I had a class the first afternoon, which meant that I couldn't drive out for my son's cross country regional championship meet as I have done in the past. Not a biggie. I think it bothered me more than it bothered my son. Classes all day Friday and all day Saturday, and a Sunday afternoon class. A lot of the time I just felt tired and was battling headaches. On the upside, I didn't spend as much money in the market because I didn't have as much time. I really enjoyed my classes too. I had two themes going. My first two classes were Swedish techniques: twined knitting (tvåändstickning) and Bohus Stickning (knitting). The next two were Reversible Cables and Two Sided Fabrics. Hopefully I will use some of these new techniques to knit up more of my stash yarn.

Snow is forecast for this weekend and two of the three kids are going to the Homecoming dance tomorrow night. Sounds like a good time for british murder mysteries and knitting!

Shelley in CT

A Fresh Start and a Remembrance

As an American, I can't really write a blog entry on Sept. 11 without an acknowledgement of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.  This year is the 10th anniversary of a terrorist act that changed our country forever.  I remember watching it unfold on the TV news as I waited at the car dealership for the service on my minivan.  That year all my kids were in the same school and all I wanted to do was go get them all and hold onto them.  It was a terrible terrible event in our history, but I can also remember how people worked together and helped each other during and after the attacks.

Onward to more mundane happenings.  School FINALLY started last Tuesday, a week late due to Tropical Storm Irene and her aftermath.  We lost power for six days.  The kids were real troopers but we were all so relieved when the lights came back on.  That was another instance where many of us had no power, phone, water, etc., and friends who had not lost power came to the rescue.

The kids are all exhausted after their 4-day week. They are starting new classes, scrambling to get school supplies (our school does not put out supply lists ahead of time - the kids get the info in class) and tweaking schedules.  Aya in particular has been completely exhausted trying to learn a new school, find her way around, and understand what is going on in her classes in English.  Her English and History classes are particularly difficult because of the heavy reading load.  She wants to move down to a lower level of those classes and I think that's probably a good idea.  Her science classes were a little better, and she felt that the math class was too easy, and may try to move up to the Honors level.  We have an appointment with her counselor on Monday to see what we can do.  Jessica thought she had the perfect schedule this year, but once she started, she felt that her Chemistry class was just too easy, and she is looking to move up to the Honors level there.  Always good to hear that things are too easy and that the kids are looking for a challenge rather than staying in an easy class and getting lazy.  Jason is the only one with his original schedule still intact. Jason and Jessica had after-school activities that started up the first week of school and they have had some long days.  Aya has become exhausted just trying to keep up.  Saturday morning she slept in until 11 am (and she was usually the first of the kids to get up in the morning).  That was over 12 hours of sleep!  Given all the energy she burned up this week just getting through school, I'm sure she really needed it!

I have had a busy week as well.  The week that power was out I couldn't really get much work done.  The office I work in also had no power or internet or phone or water.  I usually work 1 or 2 days a week, with a busier week at end-of-month reconciling the checkbook and putting together end-of-month reports.   So this past week was catch-up time.  I put in as much time as I could but really needed to be home for Aya this first week of school.  I'll still be catching up at work next week, but it shouldn't be quite as bad.

I have made some progress on the hat I started knitting for Aya.  It has become my evening relaxation.  I put on a murder mystery (this week it was Inspector Morse) and take out my knitting.

Hat for Aya

close-up of cable

It's coming along nicely and I really like the pattern.  It's called Bloody Stupid Johnson by Sarah Lilly, and I got it from Knitty.com.  Turns out I've been crossing the cable the wrong way, but I've been crossing it wrong consistently, and it looks fine and won't affect anything else in the hat.  The construction is different than the usual toque: the ribbing is done in the round from the bottom up, but rather than continuing bottom up, the stitches for the cable are cast on and knitted sideways, knitting the edge stitch together with a hat stitches 3 out of every 4 rows.  I'm almost 3/4 of the way around the circumference, and the cable will be grafted together when it meets the end where it starts.

The other fresh start I had this week was with my knitting group.  We don't meet during the summer because so many of us have school-aged kids and their summer schedules and summer travel keep many of us from being able to attend a knitting group.  We did try to set up some summer dates a few years back, but just didn't get anyone showing up!  And now it's such a treat to start knitting group every fall.  We often do more talking and eating than we do knitting, but it's a fantastic group of women so it doesn't really matter what we do!

This post is getting really long so I'll sign off.  It's been a heck of a start to the new school year, but we're off and running!

Shelley in CT
  

Post Hurricane Post

I shouldn't really call it a hurricane.  By the time Hurricane Irene made it up to my neck of the woods she had been downgraded to a tropical storm.  But she sure packed a punch.  We heeded all the warnings, stocked up on batteries, collected jugs of clean water, gathered our candles, and stayed inside.  We saw trees really whipping around, and we lost a few trees on our property and saw quite a few down around the neighborhood as well.  

The storm itself did not cause a lot of structural damage in our area, nor much flooding (I believe western CT got most of the flooding) but eastern CT lost a lot of trees, and a lot of those trees fell on utility lines, so we lost power and phone service.  We were prepared, and it wasn't so bad the first day, or 2, or 3... but boy, by day 4, and 5, and 6(!!!) we were really tired of it all and nerves were fraying.  We were very lucky that we did not sustain any damage to the house and we were all safe, and when we needed it, we had friends with power, internet, and SHOWERS who offered us their facilities.  I was even able to take the food from my large freezer in the basement to 2 different friends' houses in order to keep it all frozen.  So we didn't really lose much. This video is the view of the back yard during the storm; that oak tree that's thrashing around is huge!

I boiled water every morning outside on the gas grill for coffee and tea.  I bought bags of ice to keep in the refrigerator and everything stayed cold enough.  We made bacon and eggs on the grill, heated up leftovers, and cooked a couple of frozen pizzas (with only minor charring and small flames in one corner).  I did get tired and take the kids out to lunch one day for fresh hot food (and coffee for me), and another night we got greasy takeout Chinese food and ate it by candlelight on the porch.

Takeout by candlelight

I was taking advantage of my outdoor clothes dryer as well.  While I wasn't actually washing clothes, I used a lot of rags and towels to soak up the mess and the melting ice from the freezer and the fridge, and I needed to dry them out so they didn't grow mildew.

What really kept us sane was the ability to get out every couple days to descend upon another kind friend who had offered her house for showers, charging of electrical devices, and an internet connection.  We also used the public library, which became quite the community center where half the town came to charge electronics and check email using the library's wifi.

One afternoon the girls and I decided we needed pedicures.  So while the natural light was still good we pulled out all the nail polish we had and pampered our toes.

girls painting each other's toenails

pretty pedicures

By day 6 I needed to think about something besides the storm aftermath and how to feed 3 hungry teenagers without electricity.  I decided the answer to that was a new knitting project!  I has told Aya that I would like to knit a hat for her for the winter.  So I pulled out my knitting patterns and asked her to look through them and tell me what appealed to her.  Then we went to a friend's house for showers and I got on knitty and searched through all their hats.  She picked out an interesting pattern called Bloody Stupid Johnson, http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTbsjohnson.html, and I wrote down the yarn requirements, and after we had all showered, the girls and I took a trip to the yarn shop and looked for yarn.  While I was at it, I asked Jessica if she needed a new winter hat, and ended up buying yarn for 2 hat projects.

Yarn and gauge swatch for Aya's hat

Yarn for Jessica's hat

There is nothing like new yarn to brighten up the day.  I didn't really need to start 2 new projects, but I'm going to really enjoy them!

This morning at around 1:30 am the power finally came back on.  For once I didn't mind being woken up in the middle of the night by the hall light!  We are appreciating every little thing that we were missing without power, phone or internet, at least for a short time, and I am doing lots of catch-up laundry.  Kids will start school this Tuesday, a week later than scheduled, and hopefully we will all fall into a normal routine without any major storms to add excitement to our lives.

Shelley in CT

I am a Host Mother

We are hosting an exchange student from Japan for the school year and she arrived this week.  She wasn't the only excitement in our week: my youngest son Jason came back from a week in Indianapolis with his uncle on Tuesday, my daughter Jessica came back from 6 weeks in Japan as an exchange student and a week with her great-aunt in California on Wednesday, and our host-daughter Aya arrived on Thursday.  In a mere 3 days we went from one mostly adult kid at home to 4!  I am happy to have them back and to add one more to our family. Friday we took our Aya on a brief driving tour of town, including the town beach.

Aya and Jessica at the beach

So far everyone is working hard to communicate and mostly succeeding.  Aya has jumped right in and helped with setting the table and cleaning up after meals with the other kids.  The other kids have been open and helpful and I am enjoying it all.  I know there will be some difficult times in the year to come, but it's a good feeling to see everyone start out with such positive efforts and good intentions.

This coming week we go into the school to register Aya for classes, Jessica has band camp all week, and I have my final week with Jeff, my oldest, before he's off to college for his sophomore year.  The summer just flew by and I hate to see him go.

Soon school will start and we will all settle into a routine, but until then, we have 2 more weeks of relative freedom to take advantage of.  I'd better get busy.

Shelley in CT

It's the little things...

I've been trying to catch up on the mending in addition to all the summer outside projects (like weeding, mulching, sealing the driveway, cleaning the gutters) and have only been sporadically successful.  There are still a number of items in the mending pile, but I actually did some sewing from scratch!  It was not a romantic item, but rather a practical item that I found I needed after I bought the umbrella clothes dryer.  I found that as I put the items on the line it was a real pain to keep reaching down to a bucket of clothespins.  I needed an apron with a big pocket.  One that I could access with either hand.

Voila!

 I took a regular apron pattern and shortened it, and cut that main pattern piece out of red fabric.  Then I cut out a second piece in a blue print, but I had folded up about 4 or 5 inches of fabric in the middle of the apron before I cut out the piece (so the sides of the two pieces had the same shapes but the blue print piece was wider).  Then I cut out a curved piece from the top outside corners of the blue piece and bound that edge with bias tape.  I placed the blue print piece on top of the red piece and took about 4 pleats across the bottom of the blue piece so that the curved edges matched up.  I bound the entire edge with bias tape.  Then I attached it to the waistband and I have a wonderfully efficient clothespin apron!  It didn't take very long to make and I am so pleased with it.  I have been using it regularly as I put out my wash in all this summer sunshine.

Hard Drive Crash !*%#@!

Well, it happened again, This is the second laptop I've had whose hard drive has failed (so I've been spending my computer time on fixing problems rather than surfing and posting).  I was very proud of myself for buying a new hard drive, removing the old one and installing the new one all by myself (I found instructions online, using my daughter's computer).  I reinstalled my operating system and drivers and updates and antivirus program, and then I went to my backup to try to restore all my data.  Sadly, this is where everything went wrong.  My external hard drive with backup program didn't come with any instructions; I plugged it in when I bought it, the program downloaded, and I worked my way through it.  I've even used it to restore data from earlier computer problems.  Unfortunately, this time, because I had replaced the hard drive and had to reinstall everything, I should have restored in a different way, but there was no way for me to know that because there were no instructions with the backup program!  Once I had connected and installed the backup disk and started figuring out how to restore from my backups, the program started an automatic backup all by itself, which rewrote the file that organizes all the backups and thereby prevented me from accessing any of my older backups.  I emailed the company for tech support, and they helped me retrieve a little bit of my data, but the bulk of it is inaccessible.  What really bothers me is that all the backups are still there on the disk, but the program cannot access them, and there is no other way to access them using another program.  BUT, I did a little more searching online (google is my friend!) and discovered that there is such a thing as a hard drive enclosure with a SATA-usb connector, so I can try to connect my old hard drive to my computer and possibly access the data (pictures and documents) that way.  I have ordered this wondrous tool and now can only hope that my old hard drive is not so corrupted that I cannot access anything at all.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and being very thankful that my son is a computer science major and will help me in my quest!

Shelley in CT

Green Clothes Dryer

I finally made time to look around for a sturdy umbrella clothes dryer to put up in my back yard.  I had been thinking about it for a long time.  I noticed when I visited relatives in Sweden that people didn't have electric clothes dryers.  They all used lines or umbrella dryers in the back yard.  Even the well-to-do families didn't have electric dryers (or huge houses or multiple cars).  It made me stop and think about how much we all take for granted here in the US.  What we consider a modest standard of living regarding living space and technology would be quite luxurious in many European countries.  We really could do a lot better with our conservation of water and electricity, as well as recycling and use of gas-guzzling cars.  OK.  off the soapbox.

Well, it is certainly better for the environment to dry clothes outside rather than using the electric dryer. It should also save us some money on our electric bills, since the electric dryer uses more electricity than any other appliance in the house! (Perhaps this will help offset our use of window air conditioners in this recent heat wave!)  There are so many good reasons to dry clothes outside; I don't know what took me so long, but I do tend to overthink things and get bogged down with details, and then never move forward.  Time for a change.  So I forged ahead.

Our local hardware store only offered two options and they didn't look like they'd last more than a few seasons.  I wanted one I didn't have to think about for another 5 or 10 years.  I searched online at home improvement places as well as just searching for umbrella clothes dryers.  I looked at a lot of customer reviews too.  I ended up choosing the Sunshine Clothes Dryer, made in the USA (no affiliation, yadda yadda), ordered it online, and it arrived this week!  My husband is a good soul, and while I suspect he has his doubts about how much I'll actually use this new clothes dryer instead of our electric dryer, he humored me and went out this morning with shovel and pickaxe to help me dig the hole for the pole.  The other aspect of this clothes dryer that I particularly like is that we didn't have to set a sleeve into the ground with cement.  This has metal flanges that bolt around the in-ground sleeve, and all we had to do was put it in the hole and fill in with dirt.  It feels quite sturdy.

Here it is in all it's brand new glory.

It spins nicely, and doesn't wobble.  The whole top section will pull out of the in-ground sleeve to leave nothing but a little plastic cap to make lawn mowing easy.

It is overcast and they are predicting more rain and possibly a thunderstorm this afternoon but I couldn't resist and just had to put out a load of laundry.

There's still more room, so I may put out another load and pray that it doesn't rain before the clothes dry.  I've also discovered that I really need to buy more clothespins.  I didn't have many of my own, but I have a whole bag of clothespins from my mother-in-law (that she no longer needs as she has moved to a nursing home), so I'm making good use of them.  Next I need to make myself a little apron with a big pocket for the clothespins.  I'm using an apron I have but the pocket isn't big enough.  Good incentive to get back to the sewing machine.  Maybe when I clear up the sewing table enough to sew I'll also get to that baby quilt for my nephew who is already 1-1/2 years old!

OK, the washing machine beeped, so it's time to put out that second load.  Looks like the sun is coming out a bit as well.  We'll see how well I do this year using my new old-fashioned dryer.


Shelley in CT

Travel Knitting

I got lucky and found some affordable tickets to fly out to Oregon with my youngest son and visit my parents!  Yay!!!  I was searching online on Friday, and found the tickets for Monday (yes, this coming Monday, July 4th!) and grabbed them.  They were half the price of the least expensive tickets I had seen recently (yes, I had waited too long to make my travel arrangements and the prices had all gone up and up and up!) so I had to take them before the fare disappeared.

Now I'm starting to pack, and, of course, the most important choice I have to make in my packing is what knitting project I want to bring. I'm currently working on a sweater for ME(!!!) that is small enough to bring along on the plane.  It's a top-down raglan cardigan in a cotton blend yarn. I've been trying to knit down the stash and this project uses yarn that I bought over 10 years ago - yay!

This is called the Weekend Retreat Cardi and it's a free pattern that I downloaded from Lion Brand Yarn's website.  Here's the url if you're interested---it's a quick and easy knit--- http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/81016AD.html?noImages=  and you'll probably have to create an account and log in to get the pattern. I'll try to put it up on my ravelry page too.

This pattern has short sleeves but I'm thinking that I'll knit them to 3/4 length if I have enough yarn.  I'm also thinking that I should have put in some short rows in the back neck.  I've already knitted down to several inches below the underarms, and I can probably put some short rows in here, before I knit the bottom ribbing. Hopefully that will be enough. I really hate it when my sweaters ride up in the back.

Of course, the decision to bring this project along is a no-brainer, but I'm close enough to finishing, and I'll be away for a week, so I'm thinking that I need a second project (which just about guarantees that I won't get to it).  I'm debating between the second of a pair of socks, or starting a new vest pattern.  I would have to wind the yarn into balls if I bring the vest, but starting a new project is so much more exciting than working on a pair of socks that I'm tired of.  I really should bring the socks, but I'll probably be bad and take the vest.

NYC!!!

Over the past few years I have been stumped over what to get my oldest son for his birthday.  There haven't been any really longed-for ITEMS and I hate to just get him "stuff."  One year he noticed that Billy Joel was playing a concert near us, and fairly close to his birthday.  Bing! Tickets to the show for his birthday was the answer.  And of course, I had to take him to the show.  We went out to dinner first (my son is a very interesting and gentlemanly date!) and then to the concert.  Well, once precedent had been set, we found interesting shows for each subsequent birthday.  After Billy Joel it was Penn and Teller.  After that we moved farther afield, and took the train down to New York City (ah, the advantage of living on the Connecticut shoreline) and saw an off-Broadway show with John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle.  Of course, we had to spend the day in New York, wandering, ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, finding an interesting place for lunch, and looking, of course, like the wide-eyed tourists that we were.  But it was such a fun day!  And I got to spend an entire day with my son!

This year he turned 19. There were other thoughts this year, as he's in college, between his freshman and sophomore years, and in the market for THINGS.  After much thought, however, we returned to what is now the tried and true.  Broadway shows.  And he is still happy to spend a day in New York with his mother!!! Woohoo!  So we took an early train in to Grand Central Station.

Jeff in Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station

I just love that train station.  It truly is grand!  I tried to take a picture of the ceiling, which is painted to look like a sky, with constellations painted on it, and lights where the bright stars are.  But the photo didn't really turn out - you can't see much.  Here it is if you want to try:  OK, I'm a sucker for grandeur, but it really is a beautiful station.

Grand Central Ceiling

We strolled down Park Avenue, just so we could say we did.  The sun was shining, it was in the 70's (deg F) and the day was beautiful.  As we walked we saw an interesting sculpture in front of a large office building.

funky sculpture

I couldn't resist taking a picture, and Jeff was good enough to stand next to the sculpture for me.  We walked into the building to see if there was any information about it, but nothing.  When we came back out I noticed the security guard, at the bottom left of the picture.  I asked him about it and he was very friendly and explained that it had just been sold through Christie's Auction House and they needed someplace to put it.  Ha!

Apple Store

Well, we wandered some more, looked in shops, and ended up at the edge of central park, where there was an apple store.  My son, being the techie that he is, of course wanted to go inside.  It is entirely underground.  The white structure that you see is painted plywood that is covering up the glass block that used to be there (I'm not sure whether it is under construction or being repaired), but we entered and all that was inside was a spiral staircase that led us underground.  I guess they need to use all the space available in a place as crowded and built up as New York City.

We chatted with a very friendly pedi-cab driver and got a recommendation for lunch, then we walked back toward Times Square to get to the theatre in time for the show.

The show Jeff picked out was "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."  And it was fantastic.  We both love musicals, and a good comedy.  This one was written in the '50's, very dated, but they really played up the camp and we were smiling and laughing throughout.  If you caught the Tony Awards and the song-and-dance number that they performed from this show, you'll have an idea of a little of what we saw.  Sets were very  creative, choreography was a lot of fun, dance chorus was fantastic, and the performances had a lot of energy.  We thoroughly enjoyed the show!

After the show we took the subway up to Central Park again (an adventure in and of itself!) and while wandering, met up with my running partner's daugher and her boyfriend, both of whom were in Jeff's graduation class at the high school.  What fun!

Jeff in Central Park

I had not ever spent much time wandering in Central Park on earlier visits to the city, and I was really impressed with the size and the greenery within such a large city.  Central Park really is beautiful.  We saw lots of runners and bikers as well, and families, and kids with nannies, baseball games, playgrounds, I think there's even a zoo in there somewhere, but we didn't walk that far.

beautiful stone staircase in Central Park

After the park, it was time to head home.  We took the subway back to Grand Central and picked up dinner, which we ate on the train.  I got some knitting done on my summer cardigan.   I really need to put up some pictures of that project.  I may even finish it while it's still summer!  Maybe in my next post.

A wonderful day, but I was pooped by the time we got home.  I just love the fact that we can go down to New York for the day, even if I only go once or twice a year!  It's certainly a great birthday trip.  I'm already thinking about the next one...

Washing sweaters for the season

Bet you wondered when I would put in some knitting content!  This isn't knitting content per se, but it is related.

Time to put away all the winter woolies, but they must be clean!  So I have begun.  I only have two sweater dryers, so I'm washing wool sweaters two at a time.  I've used eucalan in the past, which I like very much and doesn't need to be rinsed.  I ran out and was too lazy to drive to a yarn shop to buy more eucalan, so I've been using cheap Suave lavendar shampoo.  It works well, smells nice, but I do have to rinse the sweaters.  It's not really a big deal though.

After washing and rinsing, I squeeze out (don't wring!) the sweaters and lay them on a big cushy towel.  Then I roll the towel up with the sweater inside and step it.  A lot.  Then I lay out the sweaters to dry.  I have two mesh sweater dryers, which are just mesh stretched over a square-shaped frame and raised a little bit off the surface of wherever you put them.  You should be able to see what they look like in the pictures.

These sweaters are store bought.  You'd think that with all the years I've been knitting I'd have a ton of handknit sweaters.  I wish!  Most of the sweaters I knit are for the kids.  I have 3 sweaters and a sweater vest (and a bunch of scarves, shawls, mittens, etc.) that I have knit for myself in my 38 years of knitting.  I'm working on bringing that up to a more respectable number.  I do have some kid sweaters to wash too, so I can feel like I've accomplished something.

On another note altogether, I am anxiously awaiting a skype call from my daughter who has arrived at her host family's house in Sapporo, Japan!  She has emailed to tell us that she arrived safely and it sounds like things are going well, but I will feel so much better when I have spoken to her.  We have tried really hard to not be overanxious parents.

Perhaps I can find something on TV to watch while I do a little knitting.  I haven't done much knitting lately and this is a good day for it.

Shelley in CT

Has it really been a whole year?

Well, I'm not going to catch up on a whole year in one post, but here are the highlights. Good summer 2010, sent Jeff off to college and handled that reasonably well (his father flew out with him - whew!) and Jason started his freshman year at high school. Jessica enjoyed being a sophomore (AKA: NOT being a freshman anymore) and kids kept very busy with homework, sports, and outside activities. In December we helped move Dan's parents to a retirement facility from the home they had lived in for the past 15 year. Dan and I took a vacation at the end of February with Dan's brother and his wife in Puerto Rico, which was lovely and relaxing. End of the easy part.

Once we got home from Puerto Rico (my parents flew out and stayed with the kids so that we could go away - yay!), we picked up our Japanese exchange student, who stayed with us for 2 weeks. She was very nice and we enjoyed having her here. A few days after she arrived, Dan's father went into the emergency room with terrible back and hip pain and ended up with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma (after many days, tests, biopsies, and heartache). This began the odyssey of Dan's visits to PA to help his father and the stress of the situation.

Dan spent almost as much time staying with his brother (who lived within an hour's drive of their parents) as he did at home this past spring. Their siblings also took turns staying in PA to help out. Eventually they moved Dan's parents to a nursing home (Dan's mother suffers from dementia and cannot live by herself) so that both parents could be taken care of. Dan's father passed away in May and we drove down for the funeral. Dan's mother is still in the dementia unit at her nursing home and is doing very well.

In the meantime, we have been helping Jessica to prepare for a trip to Japan as an exchange student this summer. She started her application back in November. Unfortunately, our school year had 5 days added onto the end of the year due to all the snow days we had this winter, and she had to leave for her program before school officially ended. She took 2 of her final exams a week early, and was able to get off in time, even after missing several days of school to attend her grandfather's funeral. Whew!

School is finally out, Jessica is safely in Japan, and should be flying out to meet her host family sometime today (tomorrow in Japan). Jeff is home from college for the summer and working 2 part-time jobs. I am still trying to catch up. Oh yeah, I started a new part-time job as an accountant. I have no training as an accountant (I worked in publishing - proofreading and editing) and am learning as I go. I started in March. It is now June and I am finally feeling like I know a little bit of what I am doing.

I was going to make this a very short post but I suppose I am still feeling a mite stressed and needed to get some of this out. I have great hopes that I will get some projects around the house accomplished this summer, and maybe manage to visit my folks in Oregon. Wish me luck. I will keep making my lists of things to accomplish and projects to do. Happy summer!

OK. Now it is time to schedule a massage!

Shelley in CT