kmkat and her kneedles

The earthquake report from a taciturn, low-key Scandinavian.

I emailed #1 Son in NYC to see if he felt the earthquake. His reply:

Yeah, we were on the eighth floor of the pediatrics building, and it started swaying back and forth. We all thought of terrorist attacks or some structural problem in the building before we thought of earthquakes. We were in a session where medical students present cases to a friendly attending, and the attending we were with was this very practical (though also very smart) "I'm a mom" sort of pediatrician, and then we just went on with it. But my first year friend told me they were doing CPR training and all had to evacuate the building for no reason, so yeah, Sinai did do its panic routine.

And there you have it.

Out of nowhere... the next project.

Interweave is offering a download of Knit Accessories 2009 for 10 cents until August 29. Never one to pass up a bargain, I jumped on that bad boy immediately. Paging through it just now, I came upon this little lace shawlette/scarfy thing.

 

Given that I am now a lace knitter, this one appealed to me -- small, quite open so it wouldn't take much yarn nor take forever to knit. Idly I perused the pattern. Hmm, Halcyon Yarn Silk Gemstone 2/5. I wonder is that is laceweight or what, I thought. 

Ravelry to the rescue.

Guess what I have in my stash, just waiting for the right project?

Just in case you are not familiar with that yarn, here are the deets.

I don't necessarily believe in kismet or karma, but this just seems... foreordained.

This yarn has always been intended for a lacy scarf. I had been considering Amy Singer's Montego Bay. And that would have been a lovely scarf, too. But this is better. We are leaving tomorrow for ten days on the North Shore, and a lace knitting project requires some uninterrupted knitting time at the beginning. Perfect.

::scurries off to pack the silk and needle and a tool /notions pack into its own special tote bag::

Sunday evening, the golden hour.

Our sky was slightly overcast today but it was a beautiful day nevertheless -- perfect temp, light breeze. Heavenly, especially after the heat and humidity we suffered for several weeks.

I knit on the deck for a good while this afternoon, then came in to take care of a few things. Later I was at the computer and chanced to look out the window... and grabbed my camera.

The light was stunning.

Of course, I had help.

  
 

Energy fair, or How To Have Fun While Keeping An Eye On The Toilets.

I volunteered at the Polk County Energy Fair today. Because I cannot walk very far or do heavy lifting or really anything remotely physical, my job was to check the women's bathroom every hour or so to be sure there were sufficient paper towels and t.p. and that no one had done anything disgusting. Except for the 30 seconds it took me to walk from my comfy camp chair out by the information booth to the restrooms every time, the job required roughly 3.5 minutes spread out over an 8-hour day. 

A few of the information booth crew:

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There were workshops and speakers. Five minutes before each round of workshops started, Dennis would skip (skip!) around the area ringing a cowbell and Jean (in the green dress) would put on her loudspeaker voice and announce the workshops.

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This is the second annual energy fair. From the very beginning it has aimed to be a low-waste event. This recycling/composting/trash station sums up their success.

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In between my arduous stints of checking the bathrooms, I spent most of the day knitting; it was my own little Knit In Public day. Three afghan squares done for Blankets for Birmingham:

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En Esch approves.

Random musings.

I am a charter member of the apostrophe police, and I currently trying to find out who I need to arrest for this egregious overuse of the little curvy devils.

 
* * * * *

This year's birthday was quite restrained, but Smokey and I did go out for dinner at a very picturesque location nearby. Tthe menu turned out to be unimaginative, but the food was excellent and the setting was lovely.

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The shawl is slowly coming off the needles, which leads me to the all important question: what to cast on next? Should it be the sweater on the left but done with vertical stripes like the swatch on the right (please turn the swatch 90˚ clockwise in your mind), using the Noro yarns below?

 

 

Alex has requested a rugby-style doggie sweater for Percy, her and Matthew's rescued pit bull terrier, and has chosen yarn from my stash:

    

I am all excited about lace knitting and am considering using some Rowan Calmer I bought on closeout at Webs for a Cece (but I would make it longer and with 3/4 sleeves):

 

(I am not fond of the color of the Calmer -- color at right side of skein is truest -- and am thinking of overdyeing it. Tea, for a browner tone? Rit, if I wanted dusky blue? Anyone have experience?)

There are a number of other project swimming in my head but I'll stop here.

* * * * *

I picked these wild blackberries three feet outside my front door.

Small but tasty.

The home stretch.

This is the Shawl of Doom Loveliness being bound off. Only 300+ stitches to go...

Free to good home.

I have a couple (2) mini USB 2.0 A to B cables that I bought in error on eBay -- turned out I actually needed micro USB 2.0 A to B cables. First person to claim them and PayPal me a couple bucks for shipping (or yarn!) wins. I tried to sell them on eBay for 99¢ each but had no takers.

Salad.

There was a package in the mailbox when I returned to Wisconsin last night. Much to my surprise, it was NOT for Smokey (he buys a lot of things on eBay) but for ME. 

I read the return address and didn't recognize it. (= duh)

What did I find in the box?

Careful reading of the birthday card informed me that this package of salad-y goodness was from Cookie! I immediately opened the wasabi wonton strips and found them deliciously addicting. Then I opened the wasabi almonds and discovered heaven.

Dinner tonight:

I added lettuce and tiny scallops and omitted the chow mein noodles. Tomorrow I shall make Asian noodle salad using the Newman's Asian Sesame Ginger dressing* and ramen noodles and the almonds and the mandarin orange segments and a little onion and whatever else I can find in the kitchen. And I shall eat the entire thing myself because cold noodles do not appeal to Smokey :-) Yay, more for me!

Thanks, Cookie! 

* This dressing is awesome! Both Smokey and I commented on how good it was -- and neither of us like ginger. Mmm...

Work.

Everyone knows about the April 15th tax deadline. It is covered on the news and detested by all taxpayers.

But few know about the other deadlines: July 15 for a partnership return that filed for an extension back on April 15, September 15 for a trust, ditto, and October 15 for 1040s that were extended in April.

What all this means is that I am back at work 30 hours/week until the October deadline.

One thing that seems to be different about the October deadline -- and I have only worked the fall busy season a couple of times in the past -- is that people who invested in hedge funds* have now received the 2010 tax information from them. The K-1 from a hedge fund seems to be an entirely different animal than the K-1s I have worked with for the past 18 years -- complex and confusing. ¶988 gains? WTF are those? Ordinary or capital? (For those of you who are interested, they are gains and losses on currency transactions. Whether they are ordinary or capital depends on... something.)

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that posting here may be scarce until mid-October. Please control your emotions.

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* Also, WTF is a hedge fund, exactly?** As far as I can tell it is similar to a mutual fund except that you cannot get into one unless you have at least several hundred thousand dollars or even millions to invest , depending on the fund. Hedging seems to be optional and not the primary aim of the fund; like many, many other things in Wall Street, nomenclature is designed to confuse, not illuminate nor describe.

** Okay after writing that I consulted The Authority -- Wikipedia -- and found that my impression was correct except that I left out that a hedge fund is "aggressively managed". I think that is a polite way of saying it will do anything to make money, right up to and way beyond any ethical and/or legal limits. I'm not sure a hedge fund manager is even human in the usual sense...

 *** Oh, yeah. Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks to all of you on Facebook who sent me greetings!

Ten on Tuesday: the produce edition.

Ten Things To Do With An Overabundance Of Produce

1. Grate the zucchini and freeze it. Zucchini bread will always be welcome in February.
2. Can the tomatoes, either as whole tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, whatever. 
3. Make jam.
4. Take excess to work and share. Co-workers, at least those without gardens, will be grateful. Unless they have other co-workers/friends/relatives/neighbors who are also sharing the excess with them.
5. Offer it to your local food shelf. Sharing is caring.
6. Feed it to the cat. Of course you have a cat, right? 
7. Feed it to the dog. Ditto.
8. Feed it to the chickens. You do have chickens, don't you?
9. Feed it to the compost pile. If you have a garden, you definitely have a compost pile. If you don't, why not? Compost is black gold.
10. Send it to me. I don't have a garden.

Winner!

The secretary of the county fair society is also on the county board of supervisors with me, and at the July county board meetin she sold the supervisors raffle tickets. Being a good citizen I bought a book of five tickets.

I was rather hoping for the 32" flat screen TV but had decided that if we won half a hog we would keep some of the pork chops and bacon and give the rest to the food shelf.

I did not win either of those things. What I did win:

 What is Remington 870 Express, you may ask?

Yep. It's a pump-action 12-gauge... shotgun.

Just what I always wanted. Not.

However, I did have the option taking cash instead: $150. According to several retail websites I checked, the gun retails for upwards of $300; I guess I got the wholesale value. Whatever.

I'm a winner!

A little catching up.

I have two finished scarves, one for me and one for the Red Scarf Project, but you are not going to see them until they are blocked and attractively staged. Instead I will catch you up on other matters.

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The other Olde Tyme Photo, this one of The Young Couple.

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Last week Smokey asked me what I had planned for Friday. Nothing, I replied. Good, he said, I need you to drive me to the VA in Minneapolis. He was scheduled for an epidural injection of local anesthetic and steroids into his lower back in hopes of relieving his near-constant pain, and they would not perform the procedure unless he had someone to drive him home afterwards. He was apologetic about commandeering my day (I know you have other things to do) but all I could think was, I'll have to hang around the VA all day. Knitting time!

Such are a knitter's thoughts.

The procedure went fine, no reactions or after effects, and he ended up being the one to drive us back to Wisconsin after all. It has been two days now and he says it is a miracle to be able to stand up and walk pain free. If this hadn't worked, the next step would have been surgery. The pain stems from an old injury suffered when he fell off a ladder in the mid-1980s. X-rays have shown that there are vertebrae in his back that are nowhere near being in a proper lineup. Age, weight, and rheumatoid arthritis have combined in the past few years to make that injury a source of pain that sometimes even Vicodin doesn't touch. He (and I) are hopeful that he can resume a normal active life again: there are cars to be fixed! home repairs to be done! walks to take! trips to be traveled! The effects are temporary and the procedure has to be repeated every X months, but it is sooo much better than the alternative as long as it works.

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Last Sunday I worked at the country fair, first at the library Friends booth, then at the booth for the energy fair later this month. It was hot, and as far as I know, there is only one small office in the entire fair park that is air conditioned; I was not in that office. It was very hot. It was very humid. Think Louisiana swamp hot and humid.

I saw this sign in the fair society's office:

It made me smile in spite of my dripping brow.

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Yesterday I helped at a pet adoption event at the local branch of Tractor Supply Company. (Click on that link today -- Sunday, August 7 -- and sign up for a chance to win a year's supply of pet food.) I was at the booth of the county's designated animal shelter (county rep on their board), and they were there as part of Tractor Supply Company's annual P.A.W. -- Pet Appreciation Week. There were two or three other shelters and rescue organizations there as well. We all had a good time visiting each other's animals and, of course, talking to the people who stopped at our display and were interested in pets.

A few extremely poor photos taken with my iPod. This is Lulu, a 1-year-old energetic Boston terrier cross female scheduled to be neutered on Wednesday (shhh, don't tell her):

Meet Wendy, an adorable 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier spayed female:

I do not care for energetic, short-haired dogs -- I want my animals to be calm and furry -- but Wendy was an awfully nice little dog. A couple came by and were as taken with her as I was. They have a special needs child, aged 10, who needs a pet and were seriously considering Wendy. She may have a home soon.

Mary, the shelter director, with Margo, a beagle cross, and Linda, a volunteer dog walker, with Margo's leash (Linda, I apologize for the less-than-flattering photo, but I was concentrating on the dogs):

Angie, this sweet three-year-old spayed female Pug, went home with her new owner, who had found her on Petfinders and had been telephoning back and forth with the shelter for two weeks to settle the adoption. Yay for Angie (and Charlie, her new brother, a basset)!

 

 

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And now, if you will excuse me, I need to go sit on the deck and knit. It is finally getting cool enough to be outdoors by choice.

Papa.

And so, after the taxidermy, they were able to keep Papa just as they remembered him—drinking an espresso, reading the paper, gazing out at the harbor. (Photo: Roger D’Souza; Dwell)

Found here. 

Friday fun: street art.

Found here via boingboing.net.

 

My buddy is a TV star!

My best friend from high school has a restaurant in the Restaurant Capital of the World -- Dorset, MN. Population 22, restaurants 4 (down from 7 at one time in the past). I blogged about her restaurant awhile back.

The Twin Cities media have discovered Taste of Dorset! Story here; if you wait, the video will appear at the top and you can see and hear my friend Kathy, sitting in La Pasta and talking about Dorset. 

She is older than I am. One day. Which I will never let her forget.