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Update summer 2021: blog has a new name! Please visit me at https://thepowerofquiet.blogspot.com/

Sunday, December 30, 2018

2018 in Review

2018 was clearly not my best year for blogging. I did manage to do a few interesting things since my last post in July though, so here are the highlights:

In late July my daughter Jess moved out to OR in hopes of finding a decent job in a friendly city and state. Her instincts were good: she was able to set up a couple of job interviews within 2 weeks of arriving in Oregon, and had a good job offer before the end of August.

In early August Dan and I flew out to Oregon to stay with Mom and join her and all of my siblings, their spouses, and most of the grandkids (everyone except my oldest who couldn't get away from work) to spread Dad's ashes. It was a good weekend spent together and sharing memories.

I was able to take a knitting cruise on a schooner (!!!), the J&E Riggin, out of  Rockland, ME, along with 2 knitting buddies, Iris and Elizabeth. It was a 4-day cruise along the coast of Maine, great food and company, a little bit of knitting instruction (socks), and a great way to really get away. The knitting instruction was for socks without a pattern. I only managed to knit most of one sock, and fear I haven't written down what I did for that sock in order to knit the second one in the same size. Hopefully when I finally get around to finishing the pair I'll be able to read my knitting well enough to make a reasonably well-matched pair.


While I was cruising, my daughter Jess and son Jeff flew out to CT and they, along with Dan, drove my car out to Oregon for Jess to have. Jeff had limited time available to help and wanted to be back in CO for his first wedding anniversary, so they drove straight through from CT to Cheyenne, WY in about 30 hours in order to get him back home in time.

In September Dan and I took a vacation to Stowe, VT at the Trapp Family Lodge. Wonderful, relaxing week and great hiking.



Started a new job as part-time office manager at a Synagogue office and had to leave it due to a flare-up of tennis elbow (from the computer work).

Dan and I flew out to OR for Thanksgiving this year. First time I've had Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family in over 20 years!

Managed to do a little knitting anyway (my arms are recovering, and I'm diligently doing my stretches and exercised from physical therapy) and finished a cowl and continue to work on my cardigan. The pattern is called Conic, designed by Lori Versaci, and turned out great! The cardigan I'm working on, Pour Moi, is also by Lori Versaci. The back is finished and I'm working on the left front. As my arms improve I'm hoping to get more knitting done so I can actually wear the cardigan this winter.

























To finish out the year, I sang in Christmas concerts, had 2 of three kids home for holidays, and am looking forward to a busy 2019 finishing more knitting, sewing, and quilting projects!

Shelley in CT

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Go West Young Man!

 I'm a bit late getting this up on the blog; this all happened last month. Warning: this is a long one with lots of pictures. You will notice that I really enjoyed looking at all the farms we passed en route. Feel free to ignore them if they don't interest you.

The next step in Jason's journey to adulthood was starting his first real job after graduating from college. This involved moving from Connecticut to Colorado, and taking a car with him. We determined that we could drive it in 4 days without necessitating marathon driving sessions, and if we traded off the driving it would be doable. We looked at traffic around New Haven and through New York and found that an earlier start just meant more traffic at morning rush hour. Our first day started at a very reasonable 8:30 am but meant that we were driving until 6 or 7 in the evening.

Lunch!

at a rest area

Pennsylvania

into Ohio on our first day on the road

Boy with Rest Stop



We found a friendly Hampton Inn in Ohio, where we stopped for the night. Our home crew, my helpful hubby, got online while we drove, and made a reservation for us in Ashland, OH, just off the interstate. We didn't do any sightseeing along the way; we didn't have time for that. Our hotel location choices were based on how far we could reasonably drive in a day and where there was a Hampton Inn (clean, inexpensive, and free breakfast!) fairly close to our route. Having someone at home setting up those hotel reservations greatly simplified the trip (Thanks Dan!).

second day brought us to Indiana
Day 2 took us from Ohio, through Indiana, Illinois, and into Missouri.

Farm in Indiana

Another Farm in Indiana

many miles on I-70 West
Farm in Indiana
Moving on to another state.

Woohoo! another state line!

Bourbon, MO (no reason for the picture, I was just tickled by the town name)

Farm in Missouri
We ran into a minor difficulty when the car's AC started to weaken as the day wore on. Outside temperatures were in the 90s so we had been running the AC pretty much constantly since we started our drive that morning. By afternoon, the air came out cold, but even at the highest fan setting it wasn't moving into the car to cool us down.  We were very glad to come to the end of our day's driving and an air conditioned hotel room!

We stopped for the night in Rolla, Missouri. This part of our journey took us along historic Route 66. I would have loved to explore a little bit of the area. Honestly, most of my impression of Route 66 comes from the song, and from the movie Cars. Jason was on driving duty when we got off the interstate and drove along the smaller Rte. 66 to get to our hotel. That portion of it, in Rolla, MO, was curvy and very hilly, and difficult to drive on with any confidence. Jason had very strong opinions (and not favorable ones) about driving along that route. The surprise highlight of Rolla was a little sushi place that came highly recommended by the hotel clerk. We filled up on sushi and noodles and slept really well.

Day 3 took us from Missouri into Oklahoma, where we were planning to make a detour to Norman to pick up Jason's stuff from his college apartment. We started the day a little earlier to take advantage of the cool morning air. We made a point of NOT using the AC in the car, but cracked the back windows to get some of the cool air circulating in the car. That kept us comfortable through the morning so that we could turn on the AC when the afternoon started to heat up.

Cows seeking shade (they're the little black areas under the trees)

hay!

more cows in Oklahoma, cooling off in the watering hole

Farm in Oklahoma

more driving on I-70 West


We got to Norman, OK in time for lunch, packed up all the bags and gear from Jason's apartment, and he turned in his key.  We even had time to visit a few of Jason's friends who were in Norman through the summer, before we had to get on the road again. Stopping to see friends brought unforeseen advantages. They passed on a couple of small USB fans that we could plug into the ports in the car (they were small and didn't move much air, but every little bit helped!) along with an old styrofoam ice chest. We stopped to buy a bag of ice to put in the chest, which we left open near the fans in an attempt to cool the air in the car. It wasn't as good as a working AC, but it kept us from melting into 2 miserable puddles as we drove north to our hotel for the night in Guthrie, OK.

hotel in Guthrie, and an air conditioned room!

dinner in Guthrie. Cheers!

Last day on the road. We left REALLY early, 5:30 am, so that we'd be driving through more of the cooler morning and not as much in the heat of the afternoon. We left before the free breakfast opened up, but we had leftovers from the last night's dinner that we heated up in the hotel room microwave, and the kitchen had coffee out early (thank you thank you!) We loaded up our cooler with ice from the hotel ice machine and we were off.

Oklahoma morning Sunrise #1

OK sunrise #2

OK sunrise #3
Oklahoma landscapes were just beautiful. As the sun came up we got to see a lot more farms, cows, and big lush green fields of corn, though the corn was not yet as high as a elephant's eye!


made it to Kansas!
Oklahoma terrain was very flat and very windy. We found that Kansas was even windier! There were long sections of the drive where the car was being constantly pushed sideways. The big semi trucks on the road made me very nervous, as they sometimes swayed back and forth in the wind.

Kansas wind farm



Kanorado, town on the border of Kansas and Colorado



By the time we reached Colorado we had to turn on the AC. Thankfully, it kept us more or less comfortable until we reached our destination in Denver, my brother-in-law's house, in mid-afternoon. It was such a relief to get out of the car and unpack.

Mission accomplished! Jason had arrived, and still had almost a week to orient himself, get the car AC fixed (!), and start in on the process of getting his CO drivers license, car registration, figuring out the work commute, banking, etc. It was definitely an adventure.

Shelley, now back in CT

Monday, June 25, 2018

Oooooooklahoma!

I had never been to Oklahoma. With family on both coasts but rarely in between, we only get to see this part of the country from the air flying in one direction or the other; "flyover" country, as it were. I've always lived on a coastline or an island, and mostly ignored that great swath of land that comprises the bulk of the country. Well, now that my youngest son Jason is at school at University of Oklahoma, I have a good reason to fly there as a destination. It took me until his senior year to actually get there. We managed a quick visit, carefully timed in the fall of 2017, on a weekend when he wasn't overly stressed or inundated with classwork. We wanted to go when there weren't lots of crowds, and we could see campus, meet some of his friends, and see his apartment.

Now it's graduation time. My Mom, Dan's Aunt Karen, and our older son Jeff, are all flying out to join in the festivities and witness the pomp and circumstance. Jason didn't seem to care about attending the graduation ceremony, and I suspect he would have gladly skipped it all, but I think when he looks back on it, years later, he'll be glad he marched and had family come to witness the event.


Mom (Grandma), Jeff, Dan, and Aunt Karen, awaiting graduation ceremony


Spring is a beautiful time of year in Norman, OK. It's warm, mostly sunny and clear and HOT! and the landscape is flat, in every direction, almost as far as we could see. And, like the song, the wind really does come sweeping down the plain.

The festivities were lovely, with an all-school graduation in the football stadium on Friday night and the College of Engineering's ceremony on Saturday afternoon. We managed to get everywhere on time and find parking, and find accessible seating for everyone without any real difficulties. We were worried that some venues would be tricky, as Aunt Karen had recently recovered from a fractured knee and still wasn't back to full strength or agility.  To celebrate all that success, we all took Jason to his favorite Ramen place for dinner after the Saturday event.

Jason, the Summa Cum Laude Graduate, at the Gallogly College of Engineering Ceremony

What a good looking family!

Jason and Grandma
Jason and Great Aunt Karen
Jason and brother Jeff
Jason with proud parents


             
Poor Dan spent a good part of his stay in Oklahoma driving. Driving people back and forth to the airport (2 trips flying in, 3 trips flying out) and back and forth from the hotel to Jason's apartment, and to various places on campus.

After all the ceremonies, Jason gave his grandma, Dan, and me a leisurely tour of campus, and we spent some time helping Jason finish packing, and organizing everything in his apartment for move-out. All in all, a very successful visit.

The next step in Jason's journey toward adulthood is his move out to Denver, CO, for a job at Lockheed. But that's a subject for another post....

On the knitting front, I have FINALLY started a sweater for ME!!!


It all started at a knitting retreat in March, hosted by the Mermaid's Purl in Wickford, RI. My knitting buddy Iris and I were desperate for a good knitting retreat since Stitches East (as solely a knitting convention) was no longer happening, and knitting camp, sponsored by our LYS Yarns Down Under (in Deep River, CT) was also discontinued. We found a 3-day retreat in Newport, RI (at just about the last minute) and they were able to make room for us. I ended up driving to Newport in a nor'easter, with 40-50 mph winds, but I made it! It was a lovely getaway, the resort never lost power, and the workshop teacher, designer Lori Versaci, turned out to be a great teacher with some helpful information to impart. I fell in love with one of her designs, Pour Moi. I bought the Tosh dk yarn for the project at the Mermaid's Purl at the end of the retreat, determined to finally knit something for myself. Of course, before I could start the cardigan, I had to knit fast and finish up the half-finger mitts I was making for my husband :-P

Tosh dk, colorway Cousteau
By the time we flew out to OK for Jason's graduation, I had swatched (and swatched and swatched!) and bought the appropriate sized needles, and balled up the yarn so I could start knitting. I am so happy with the way this is knitting up. The yarn is just gorgeous, and I love the shape of the sweater.  And I like the pattern just the way it is, I don't need to "tweak" or rewrite any part of it! Huzzah!!! With any luck I can get a lot of knitting done this summer and have a new cardigan to wear when it gets cold this fall.


More stories are for another day.

Shelley in CT




Monday, May 7, 2018

Oh Beeswax!

I sent Bee's Wrap brand wax wraps (https://www.beeswrap.com/, no affiliation, just a satisfied customer) to my siblings and siblings-in-law as holiday gifts for Christmas and Hanukkah the year before last. I don't know how well they were received or used (everybody lives in different parts of the country) but I had bought a set for myself and thought they worked rather well. Plus, we were all doing good things for the environment by using less single-use plastic.

This year, when my wax wraps were about a year old, they had reached the end of their useful life (according to the packaging information, as well as their condition). As they are made of organic cotton and beeswax, they could be composted. I did, however, want to replace them. The Bee's Wrap brand does a wonderful job and offers many sizes and styles of wrap, but it gets a little pricey, especially since I'd need to replace it every year. So I decided to see if I could make some myself.

First stop Google. I searched for "beeswax cotton wraps DIY tutorials" and there were quite a few hits. Here is the one I found most useful:

http://myhealthygreenfamily.com/blog/wordpress/plastic-wrap-alternative-diy-beeswax-cotton-wraps/

I followed the directions on myhealthygreenfamily's blog and now have a nice set of usable cotton and beeswax wraps for use in the kitchen. I bought organic cotton at my local Joann Fabrics (love their coupons!) and started with a block of organic beeswax that I had purchased for making personal care recipes years ago.

I looked at the sized of the Bee's Wraps that I had purchased, to get an idea of useful sizes, and then measured the width of the fabric on the bolt, and determined that I could most efficiently cut a reasonable set of wraps from 3/4 yd of fabric. I bought 3/4 yd in 2 different prints, just because it was more fun with 2 coordinating prints, and that would give me some to give away.

Here is my schematic for cutting the fabric. It will give me two 14" square cloths, three 12" square cloths, and two 7" x 8" cloths.

cutting plan
Here are the cloth pieces, cut to size and ready to wax.

fabric cut to size

grate the beeswax
spread grated wax over fabric

melt the wax into the fabric
Bake at 185 deg F for 5 minutes or so. Keep checking. I have a gas oven and it took longer than the instructions suggested, most likely due to vagaries of the oven.

finished products!
I ran out of beeswax before I ran out of fabric, and grating the wax was a real pain and hard on my arms. So I ordered a bag of organic beeswax pellets from Amazon in order to finish up. A little more expensive than grating my own, but worth it to me for the greater ease and speed.

I am now happily using my new cloth wax wraps, and have given a set to a friend as a birthday gift.
And I have all the equipment labeled "not for food use, wax only" so I can reuse it next year when it's time to make a new set or two.

Many thanks to all the DIYers who give such clear instructions for this project on blogs online.

~ShelleyinCT