Knitting Cybrarian

Feels like

a Thursday night.  Strange, because I came home from work without a detour to work at the Studio (my usual Thursday night gig).

I think it's because I want the Labor Day weekend to start as soon as possible!

Ahhhhh

We've had a cool front come through and the temperatures dropped enough that we

• sat outside and ate dinner on the deck last night
• slept with the windows open

What a lovely gift from nature!

On the knitting front, I finished one flower bootie from Debby Ware's Girly Girl Booties kit.  The flower booties are the top pair in the photo.  As you can guess, these are for my infant niece.  They'll most likely be more for Spring 2008, but that's okay.  They're very cute.  And I've learned to knit bobbles -- I'm not fond of them, but they're cute on baby items.

My librarian gig is keeping me very busy.  I've got a number of things to tie up at home today (let's hear it for laptops, internet, and all of that) -- fewer interruptions and all.  Let's hope I get it all done!

Home again, home again

We flew to Baltimore yesterday for Joel's parents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  We also got to meet our nieceling born on 29 May, Adina Flora.  Adina graciously accepted my gifts -- 3 hats and a pair of booties.  She also enjoyed snuggling with her Aunt Laura any number of times.

We enjoyed visiting Joel's family too -- his brother and sister and their spouses and children along with Joel's cousin Eric, his wife Cindy and daughters.  Three girls all under the age of 3! We rented a car (a Chrysler 300, which we called the boat or the tank) for this brief trip-- roomy to drive around Joel's folks and tote his mom's walker in the trunk. The real excitement came this morning, though.  We left Joel's sister's in plenty of time to get to the airport.  But I got lost.  I rarely get lost, but when I do, it's usually a doozy.  And that's what this was.  We were out in the country and I missed a turn.  After about 2 miles past where we should have turned (I thought), I pulled off the road onto a side road.  I told Joel, let's see if this new phone and its tools are all they're cracked up to be.  I turned on the VZW navigator and loaded the destination.  It took about 20-45 seconds to load directions and off we went.  VERY COOL TOOL!  It worked fabulously.  And we got our rental car turned in on time.

The next bit of excitement came when we got to the airport.  We already had our boarding passes, so we were going to the end of the security line.  And the two security lines for our airline were incredible.  Hundreds of people in each line.  We didn't think we'd make our plane.  I called the airline to see if they could help.  Nope.  We asked a TSA agent if they could help.  Nope.  We'd have to get a ticket agent from our airline to bump us.  Thankfully some nice folks let us ahead of them in line and we just made our plane.  Once we got our seats, we collapsed literally. 

We really weren't sure if we'd make it. What I found interesting about the experience is that in other airports, TSA (or maybe airline personnel) would walk the line, calling out for folks who are on flight X, so those folks could bump up higher in line and make their plane.  Not so at BWI. 

Our flight was uneventful, and we got home safely.  Even went out for Thai food for dinner!  Portia's happy we're home and so are we.   

Back in KC

Back in KC. Am leaving for B'more early Saturday.  Tired.  Have a few stories.

Give them eternal rest

My Aunt Doris passed away yesterday morning.  I cried when mom told me and at the same time, I rejoiced that she had passed on from this world and was no longer in any pain. 

I'm flying back to Virginia early tomorrow (Monday), returning late Wednesday.  My cousins and extended family were there for me and mom when Dad died, and I need to be there for them.

Aunt Doris had a steadfast faith, and her life reflected that faith.  She was also a lot of fun.  She supported my musical efforts, and bought a piano for their house when I was in my teens.  She often asked me to play, sing and play, or play for others to sing, which happened nearly every time we were at their house (at least once a week).  She also loved to play Scrabble and one of her favorite Scrabble games was when she beat me AND Joel -- here she was, a woman with a high school education beating a person with a PhD and another with two master's degrees in Scrabble!  She loved it and we loved it too because she took a gentle delight in the fun of it all. 

There's so much more I could say.  For example, I had no idea she volunteered with the Salvation Army until my last visit home, when I saw the recognition plaques on the den wall.  She gave generously of her time and talents to her church. 

Aunt Doris had a lovely soprano voice and I can't help but think that her voice is now in heaven's choir, praising her Lord and Savior.

Last Sunday I sang the "Pie Jesu" from the Fauré Requiem.  The last words of the text implore God to "give them eternal rest."  Aunt Doris is resting now. 

What I love about summer

• Rain -- we finally got some rain last night.  Not much, but some.  And the temperature is now 69F.  It'll climb from there, but some blessed relief is wonderful.
• Fresh cantaloupe.  I LOVE cantaloupe, preferably locally grown.  I eat it with some salt on top, to bring out the sweetness.  Just like gramma and mama.  Probably a southern thing.
• Fresh cucumbers.  Joel and his work colleagues have a great trade going on.  He shares tomatoes and they share cucumbers and zuccini.  A fresh, locally grown cucumber is just wonderful.  Fabulous.  They remind me of very early summer mornings, while it's cool, wet and you can smell the very earth, springing with life before the heat hits it hard, taking your breath away.  The cucumbers seem to retain some measure of coolness, even in the heat.  I love them by themselves, with a little salt, or mixed in with sour cream.

Quiet for too long

It's been too long since I've posted.  Why?

• It's been hot here.  Dripping hot.  I'm so sick of the hair on the back of my head being perpetually drenched.  I'm sick of sweat dripping off of the end of my nose.  We had 3 drops of rain here this morning.  That was it.  You'd think my sweat would be enough to replenish the earth, but I can't exactly make it work for the whole yard, much less the entire NOTR area (that would be North of the River in KC parlance; not to be confused with LOTR).
• Busy.  I've worked at the Studio just about every Saturday, which means I'm pretty tired on Sundays (zzzzzz in the pm) and I've just not been too focused in the evenings.
• Hmm.  Boring?  I've knitted a second swirl hat (which did not turn out much bigger, if at all from the first swirl hat knitted for the nieceling seen here)



• I'm knitting matching booties.  Will be very cute.
• MS3.  That's Mystery Stole 3.  I'm one of the slow bees, having started the actual knitting late in the game.  But I'll catch up.  What is MS3?  A shawl designer created a Yahoo! group for the summer, and it was open for membership through early July.  Nearly 7,000 knitters signed up.  Once a week on Fridays, she posts part of the shawl pattern.  It's a mystery because no one knows the theme, and the shawl pattern parts are called "clues."  You knit along not knowing exactly what the finished shawl will look like.  The e-mail list where knitters share clues, troubleshooting, etc. has massive traffic.  I've deleted most of the messages because I just can't keep up.  Oh, and there are volunteer translators across the WORLD (yup, across the planet) who translate the written directions in various languages.  And then there are those who translate the charts into written directions.  I'm one of those knitters who loves charts, though -- it's much like reading a musical score for me.
• Work has been nuts in some ways.  The day-to-day stuff's not bad, but there's been lots of other not so fun stuff to deal with.  'Nuff said.
• Now a thought to leave with you.  When I was in Virginia, I took some time one day to do some shopping and ramble a little.  I drove over some roads I hadn't been on in say 20 years or so.   These are mountain roads, barely wide enough to accommodate two vehicles side by side, and one needs to be prepared to hug the shoulder.  Some of the roads have steep drop-offs and no guardrails (in fact several of the roads I drove on were like this).  There's just not much traffic.  Anyhow, I drove up the mountain, climbing higher and higher, and when I drove over the gap onto the other side of the mountain, the view was fabulous.  Hollers, ridges, meadows, mountains all lay out before me.  I gasped (and immediately shifted the car down a gear to save the brakes) and said aloud "why did I ever leave?"  I left because there were no job prospects for me as a musician, as an academic who wanted to be at a larger university.  And yet, seeing the view, that rip your heart, your breath out view of the land where my family lived for generations, reminded me that home is still there in Virginia, despite where I make a living, and where my music, books, and knitting are stored.  During the drive down the mountain and the rest of the drive back to my mom's house I was thinking of what Joel and I could do for a living on one of those mountainsides, and would satellite internet work well enough for me to be some kind of information broker?
• Enough for now.