9/11

On Being Home

Things I'm wearing that I haven't worn for 16 days:

1. My favorite black tank top
2. My wedding rings
3. Underpants

The Kindness of Strangers

Most days, I think people suck. And service - customer service - does not exist.

Not today.

Today, I am tired. And when I say tired (these days) I mean tired. Really, really tired. In the British vernacular: shattered.

Today is one of the bad days. The iron pills are making no difference, the anti-flow pills are making no difference and the pain pills... well, let's just say they're the final part of the "making-no difference" trifecta . Sigh.

Dogs fed, I didn't have the energy to feed myself, so I succumbed to my baser instincts and ordered food in from the local takeaway.

My order was not complicated: wings and potato wedges.

Wings and potato wedges.

When the food arrived, the order wasn't right. I looked out my front door to see the driver still sitting in his car. I signaled and he came back. I told him that my order was wrong. I expected him to tell me to call the takeaway and let them sort it. Instead, to my great delight and surprise, he had me call the restaurant, he told them to organize a new order for my address and then told me not to mention that the original order was wrong and just keep the food he'd delivered. He drove off.

Less than 20 minutes later, the same driver reappeared with the wings I ordered and two orders of garlic bread (because he couldn't find more wedges). Awwww. He delivered it all with a smile and an apologetic shrug.

Just when I give up on people being nice to each other.

And on a day when I felt like this.

Awww...

The First Stamp in My Passport

Ok, so it's not really the first stamp in my passport, but it is the first stamp since I got my resident's visa.

Since I'll be out of commission for a while (more on that later), I wanted a quick, something-just-for-me trip. So The Husband accompanied me to Pfaffenhofen, Germany to Mecca. Er, Wollmeise.

The lovely Elemmaciltur was there to greet us. He made us delicious coffee and offered us our fill of the chocolate bowl and then, after a brief chat, he stood back and let me shop! And, oh!, the shop...

It was lovely.

This is the blanket that Ravelers made for Claudia to celebrate the opening of the brick and mortar shop.

This is the wall of the 80/20 Twin skeins. I was told that twin is warmer and better not worn directly next to the skin.

This is the wall of 100% Merino Superwash.

More superwash, baskets of Lace and skeins of Fluffy to the right. The pile on the table is my pile of "rejects".

The basket on the far left has the coveted skeins of Spice Market lace!

I think even as a non-knitter, as long as you like color, it's a beautiful place to be and just look. There are two very generous sofas on which the non-knitting partner can park their tuchus and read or frown or grouse or chat, whatever. The Husband was quite good, I have to admit.

I was frighteningly restrained and only came way with one skein of lace and, um, a few skeins of 100% and twin for myself. I didn't spend all I had and some of what I spent was for other people. I never even got to the Nobody's Perfect wall...

I was very, very pleased with myself.

With an extra day the day before the shop opened, we walked part of the city - saw the Glockenspiel, the façade of the Residenz (masked with a canvas printed to look like the façade when it isn't being renovated), ate sausages and soup and drank glühwein in the city center while watching the ice skaters and went to the Mucha exhibit at the Hypo Kunsthalle. We even went to the (in)famous Hofbräuhaus, but (on recommendation) we ate at the Weisses Brauhaus.

It was fantastic.

If you ever get the opportunity, go. Trust me. Go.

Happy New Year!

Best Wishes for a happy and prosperous 2010 !

Yeah, Socks!

Today I finished my first pair of socks. Ever.

Other people knit socks all the time. They knit them like they're going out of style or, like, they're easy or something.

I watch people knit socks while I'm at SnB on a Thursday night and they knit on these tiny little needles - making the pattern up on the fly, changing the stitch count , subbing a different heel or toe because they don't like the heel or toe that the designer used for the sock their knitting.

Some of the people in this group do it without looking.

It's crazy, but good crazy. My kind of crazy.

Not only was this my first pair of socks, but it was my first Mystery knit and my first knit-a-long, all at the same time.

And now that I've finished my first pair of socks, I'm hooked and I'm trying to decide what pattern to knit next!

This one is the Through the Loops Mystery Sock 2009, knitted in madelinetosh tosh sock in the colourway "Shell" and knitted on KnitPicks Harmony 3.00 mm DPNs.


I knitted these week-by-week, per the Mystery Knit-a-long, with no modifications other than needle size to obtain gauge.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

It's Guy Fawkes Day here and much like The Horse Whisperer or gefilte fish, I wish it could be dis-invented.

I can't stand this night.

The fireworks. Oh, the fireworks. Bloody amateur fireworks, too. Amateur fireworks that drive my dogs crazy. Crazy.

As soon as the sun sets, the fireworks start with the popping and the banging and the whistling and the high-pitched whining and then - worse - the barking.

Oh, the barking.

I've tried everything - shushing the dogs; pretending the fireworks aren't happening; feeding them so that they associate the fireworks with good things; I even took Campulance's advice and took them out into the back garden and oohed and aahed at the pretty lights bursting in air, lying for their sakes, so that they could see that I wasn't afraid and that they needn't be afraid. Pshaw! Nothing worked.

I've given up now and am letting them run in and out of the back door, bark alternately at the sky and the skylight and shiver and quiver in fear, as they like. It's nearly midnight now and the fireworks will ease and, hopefully, end soon. They'll forget about the noises and the bad exploding lights, but I'll know it's coming next year.

It's coming.

I'm no fool, I have a plan. Next year, they'll have these to cover their ears.

Next year I'll remember the 5th of November and the three of us will Keep Calm and Carry On.