Where in the World?

Yes, I have been somewhere!  With my mom!

First we were here:

Then we boarded this:

And last, we went to the tip of this island and looked at the volcano crater from a different perspective:

It was an incredibly wonderful trip – Athens, Istanbul, Mykenos, Patmos, Kusadasi (Ephesus), Rodes, Crete, Santorini and back to Athens. I took in excess of 900 photos and have yet to sort them out. It IS happening, just on a slow schedule. My mom and I had the best tour – I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TRAFALGAR – the guides and drivers were all wonderful and I learned SO MUCH. Did you know that walking on the street in Istanbul is considered an extreme sport?

The Revel.

I drive Highway 92 every day from Half Moon Bay to Foster City (SF Bay Area).

It is a truth that I love to drive – I always have looked at road trips as opportunities to go/see/do/think and have had many memorable ones over the last 30 years.  And that commute is golden for me.  I listen to NPR or just think.  The CD player in the TT has decided it’s done.  So, only radio music for now (Casettes?  What are those?).  But plenty of quiet time as I pass from the suburban sprawl on the Peninsula to the Valley of the San Andreas Fault to the Coastal  Hills and over the pass into the farms and ranches of the Coast.

I really see it as a transition from busy to peaceful.  I revel in it.  What a gift.  Thanks to my husband I have had 12 years of it and I see plenty more ahead.

Plaxo. Twitter. Facebook. CONNECTIONS. CHOICES.

I am continuously amazed at how many ways there are to connect with business acquaintances and friends these days on the web. How to choose? Where to spend time?

Plaxo for casual links, LinkedIn for formal resume posting, Twitter for one-line blogging, Facebook for social networking, BLACKBERRY to read the mail and update everything without a laptop.

I think in the next five years, laptops will be on the sidelines and the iPhone and Blackberry (or Palm) will hold the email/calendar/contacts market. Don’t you think that’s what Steve J. has had in mind all along? The laptop is great if you need a bigger screen and want to type fast. But, already I am spending less time with it and more with email on the BB.

I would go with the iPhone but I hate AT&T and wish that it worked in our house.

Top 5 Reasons to Reuse a Bag!

1.  The petroleum in 14 plastic bags could drive a car 1 mile.

2.  Americans use over 14 billion plastic bags anually.

3.  It takes 70% more global warming gasses to make a paper bag than a plastic bag.

4.  Paper bags do not biodegrade in landfills.

5.  Cities spend up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs.
1 Bag at a Time

Wrestling.

Last night was spent having dinner twice with Miss A & Miss K – separately – as they were having back-to-back piano lessons in Palo Alto.  I enjoyed Asian food with Miss A, followed by a nice Italian caprese salad while Miss K had pasta (at two different restaurants of course).  Then the three of us went to the Creamery at Stanford Shopping Center for dessert (just a latte for me).  What a nice way to spend the rest of my birthday.  At home, we found the DH in his chair working away (next to our bed).  I stretched out to chat and next thing I knew he and Miss K were wrestling between me and the chair!  It so happened that she got nailed on the head and on the second time yelled, “OW DOES NOT MEAN DO IT AGAIN!”  We laughed our heads off.  It was so funny, I had to Twitter it.

The Obituary.

Our family was in mourning last night – our beloved daughter stepped in front of the weapon and took the bullet meant for me. It was a horrible moment when I realized that they fit her perfectly and could keep her toes cozy in the afterlife of Sock Wars 3. What a sweet color, her favorite. What a soft texture, perfect for her personality. How I wept over her dead body and the loss of those perfect socks. It’s just too much.

Thank you Linda M.! (Not for killing my daughter, but for making her last moments so enjoyable.)

Remembering Tirza.

We toasted our friend Tirza yesterday while breaking up her stash.

Tirza taught me to be fearless when it comes to my knitting. She was the one who encouraged me to move on to circular needles and sweaters (although baby size). Her confidence in me allowed me to be confident in myself and to gain new skills to share and use.

Her legacy is her family, her friends, our memories of being with her and how much she enjoyed herself so we could all see it.

So Sock Wars 3 is over.

It was quite a time – like a car wreck that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. Thank goodness I will be dead Monday night and don’t have to think about playing on. I DID make the decision not to anyway. I signed up to play Julie’s game and when it’s over, it’s over. Why the ending she chose should surprise anyone who knew anything about the other two is just another thing for some of the participants to complain about.

The WSJ article was really cool at the time; in retrospect I wish it had never happened and we had just gone on to the next war with 100-200 folks who were just in it for the game. Having a sponsor come in offering a significant prize as incentive (completely overboard for the kind of game) was foolish on their part, when they had no experience of the game. The scale of complaints and AWOLs was out of hand – although really just scaled up in proportion to the increased number of warriors. So it really was to be expected. The offer of Valkyries (lesson learned from last time when some did not end up with socks) was a solution to one problem – really the only consistent problem from the previous wars.

I am looking forward to seeing my death socks. And to the next war, of which I am sure there will be one.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the second pair of socks I sent off to spinknit.

JK Rowling knows how to communicate.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

First Weapon Released.

Finished. The. First. Pair.

Hurray! I can take a break for a day from socks and get something done during my lunchtime (like order some new glasses, maybe?)!

Here are the socks I made for my first target:

I am so glad to be done. Other photos on my Ravelry project page.