Washington DC/Arlington

We spent the weekend of 14 November 2008 in DC burying my mother-in-law. I don't have photos yet; will update when I do. I'm going to have to get someone to email them to me as I didn't take any of my own, though M took video.

It was a good weekend, all things considered. We drove up to DC from Atlanta, where we live, and stopped off to pick up M's cousin where she's in college in North Carolina. The drive was uneventful, and we had no trouble finding the hotel, a really sad little Days Inn across from Fort Myer. I won't go into how we ended up staying there; suffice it to say that everyone agreed the place was a dump except for the person who picked it, and we teased that person unmercifully all weekend.

Fort Myer is where the soldiers who work at Arlington and around DC are stationed. It's a beautiful place, full of history dating back to the American Civil War. It's considered a model installation now, and if you didn't know it was a military post, you'd think you were on a college campus. We had brunch there on Sunday, then M and I went sightseeing with his cousin that we picked up and our nephew. They are both kids, 19 and 22 respectively (which I guess shows my age a little, that I think of them as kids) and we took them to the National Mall. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and walked down the Mall to the new WWII Memorial; it's pretty grand but we all agreed that the Viet Nam War Memorial is more affecting; something about having all those names listed makes the whole war seem more personal, even if you don't know anyone who fought there or died there. Of course this only represents the American war dead, which means it's still an incomplete list.

We also saw the Pentagon Memorial for the people who died there on 9/11; I know the intent was that it be very moving, but somehow it falls short. I am not sure why, but it just doesn't have the same impact as the Viet Nam War Memorial, or in fact anything on the Mall. I think maybe it's too modern and sleek...but no, the VNWM is also modern and sleek. But the Pentagon Memorial just seems like it's some sort of modern sculpture park outside the Pentagon, rather than a tribute to the people who lost their lives there. Maybe it's the empty benches; I didn't see anyone sitting on them but I bet some people do, and somehow it makes the whole thing a little too inviting and casual to be a place of awe and reverence.

The best part of the day was watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's a very solemn ceremony, performed every hour on the hour, and it is something every visitor to Washington DC should see at least once. Interesting (at least to me) side note: since the rule is that all attempts must be made to identify all soldiers who fall in battle, there may well come a day when, through DNA testing and other high-tech means, we no longer have any unknown soldiers in future wars to be buried on this site. Wouldn't it be better if we just had no future wars, full stop?

But I digress. Anyway, we had the funeral early Monday morning. After all the pomp and ceremony of M's dad's funeral in 2000, I was surprised at how quickly it was over. M said, and I agree, that as a military wife for 27 years his mom should have gotten the same 21-gun salute and the family walking behind the caisson that his dad got. She was in service just as much as he was, and her life was just as defined by the military for the first 27 years of their marriage as his was. But of course, that didn't happen...so very quickly it was over and we went to the Officers' Club at Ft. Myer for brunch. Then everyone split up early to go to the airport or start the long drive home. We were supposed to stay Monday night with friends in Charlotte, but because we left so much earlier than planned, we pushed on home and got to sleep in our own bed. That may have been the best part of the whole weekend.

And now, M's mom is gone, so much sooner than anticipated, and we will not be traveling to Massachusetts for Christmas after all. We will be staying home for the first time in 9 years, and I am looking forward to putting up a tree and waking up on Xmas morning in my own bed, in my own house. I will miss being with all of M's family, but it will be nice to see this year out quietly, together at home, and hope for better things in 2009.

Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love natural fibers most, for both knit and crochet. I find that things I love for crochet, like SWTC soy yarns, I don't like for knitting. I love KnitPicks Shimmer for both, though. I am OVER novelty yarn :-).

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a crochet hook wrapper that my friend D made for me from some cloth I bought in holland for most of my crochet hooks. I keep my knitpicks harmony needles in the cases knitpicks makes for them. I also have a plastic freezer baggie full of odd needles and hooks that I really need to do something with.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I've been knitting almost 2 years. I flirted with combination knitting, but as a lefty, have pretty well settled on continental style. I'd say I'm an advanced beginner :-). I can knit socks, but haven't tried lace yet, or sweaters. Or working with multiple colors/strands.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Not yet, but I will build one and then put it online. Wish KnitPicks would let you build a wishlist!

5. What's your favorite scent?
Depends on the season. I love lavender in the summer, pine and citrus in the winter, and verbena all the time.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I do have a sweet tooth and I adore chocolate, but I'm trying to lose weight so I am not indulging this passion often lately.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I love paper crafts - decoupage and card making. I keep threatening to start scrapbooking, but haven't yet. I love to cook. I don't spin, though I am sure one of these days I will start.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)?
I have very eclectic taste in music. I love pandora.com and my stations include Van Morrison, Joe Jackson, Cool Jazz (Sarah Vaughn, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck - jazz from the 1950's in particular), trance music (Trilok Gurtu to Massive Attack to William Orbit), Grrl Power (Madonna, Aimee Mann, Roseanne Cash, Tori Amos, all the Lilith Fair usual suspects). Oh, and Billy Bragg, and American folk music (Kingston Trio, Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, T-Bone Burnett).

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I love all colors except yellow and orange, just because I can't wear them. I tend toward jewel tones - clear blues, deep reds and purples, green, teal, aqua. My favorite neutral is gray, but brown runs a close second.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I am married with 2 cats and 1 dog. No kids.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
yes, no, sometimes, rarely.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I am loving socks now. Also dishcloths and anything quick and easy - I'm into instant gratification :-).

13. What are you knitting right now?
Socks for hubby, dishcloths for holiday gifts.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Absolutely! While I am grateful anytime someone thinks of me and gifts me with something they bought, it's the handmade things I treasure most.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I do almost everything on circs, but I also like straights. I'm still figuring out preferences but so far I love bamboo and knit picks circulars.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? No, wish I did.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? 1.5 years...

18. What is your favorite holiday? memorial day and labor day, because expectations are so very low for them :-).

19. Is there anything that you collect? Kaleidoscopes, crystals and minerals, refrigerator magnets, odd little tins and boxes from yard sales, craft supplies.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I don't subscribe to anything except Interweave Knits, which I love. Ditto Interweave Crochet...but other than that I like to browse before I buy. I would love a copy of Dominitrix, and oddly, I own no stitch n' bitch or yarn harlot books.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
lace knitting, but not ready to take the plunge yet.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I am a newly minted sock knitter; just finishing up my first pair! I'm a european size 39, or a 8.5/9 wide.

23. When is your birthday?
4/17 (or 17/4, if you're European :-)

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
yes. DoubleDutch59.

spoke too soon...

We lost my mother-in-law unexpectedly this past Tuesday. She fell and broke her hip, and even though she had a dickey heart and blood pressure problems, the doctors felt that it was best to do a hip replacement and clean out bone fragments, as they felt she wouldn't heal properly if they didn't, and was at great risk of infection and other complications. She did ok during surgery, and even in the recovery room, but once they got her to ICU she crashed and they couldn't save her.

The wake is tomorrow, memorial service on Saturday, and she will be buried with her husband in Arlington National Cemetery at a date still to be determined.

We didn't always see eye to eye on everything, but our mutual love of my DH helped us bridge all other gaps, and I find that I will miss her much more than I ever thought I would. I'm grateful for the many things she gave me, and even more for all she taught me - how to make a great cranberry pie (I'll post the recipe another time, it's a thanksgiving must-bake at our house); how to sew a hem; how to grow irises; and so much more that I can't think of right this minute.

RIP, Martha Jean M...and I hope you find that heaven is all you believed it would be.

I have to admit

It's getting better, a little better all the time...the Beatles are suitable for any occasion :-).
Life is getting better here at New Amsterdam (with apologies to both NYC and Elvis Costello, respectively - I'm stealing your name for my home).

I have lots to catch up on here on the blog, and so hope to do short posts frequently until I get back to realtime living my life.

Long story short - life seems to be getting back under control (though I have my fingers crossed, and am knocking on wood that just saying this out loud won't jinx it - which makes typing this sentence difficult). I have a few great swap packages to blog about, and also our vacation (we just returned from San Francisco and Sonoma County, CA, a welcome vacation). More soon...

Things Are Not Ok

We lost Louie on Tuesday. Turns out the hyperthyroidism was masking cancer, which is what killed him. I will miss him - he was my office mate. Here he is in his favorite pose:
Rest in Peace, Louie Kablooie. Thanks for 8 great years of love and and looniness from the craziest cat I have ever owned.

summertime blues

I am behind on blogging, because the last couple of weeks have been really tough around here. My husband's business partner had a heart attack while on a business trip to California on the 18th of July. He has never liked California, and now he has good reason to feel that way. His doctors ended up doing two surgeries, the second one a triple bypass. For his friends and family here on the east coast, the stress of worrying about him has been compounded by our utter powerlessness to help. The earthquake in LA last week was just one more reason to be worried, at least for me. It's been a time for us to hang together and try to figure out what comes next for him, for us, and for the business.

Partner is doing much better now, and we hope he'll be able to travel home next week. But the hits just keep coming - my cat Louie Kablooie, featured in a previous post on this blog, has hyperthyroidism. We've been treating him with Methimazole, and for at least the first month or so, he seemed to be responding well. The next step was supposed to be radiation therapy, which would eliminate the excess thyroid tissue and thus the excess thyroid hormones. But this week, he's begun having some breathing problems and his coat has gotten rougher, signs that the medicine isn't controlling his condition, and on Thursday he stopped eating and drinking - also bad signs. We were hoping to stabilize him and help him gain back some of the weight he's lost before the radiation, but now the meds don't seem to be working and he may no longer be a candidate for radiation therapy. We've got him isolated from the other animals and that seems to be helping some; he has been eating and drinking again in the last 24 hours, but I'm not sure it will be enough. If he can't get the therapy, I don't know what comes next.

I operate best when I have facts and knowledge, and a plan to execute. But the past couple of weeks have been lessons in rolling with the punches and making it up as we go. I have been knitting and crocheting, which are lifesavers, and the bright spot in all of this has been family and friends, even friends I've never actually met in real life. Timely packages from swap pals have helped; I have a package from the Hot Sauce Swap that I need to photograph and blog about, and I have packages almost ready to send to my pal in that swap and in secret pal twelve. With all this stuff going on, though, I haven't felt much like writing about yarn, or swaps, or WIPS, and I wasn't ready to write about what was going on in my life until I had some idea of how it might turn out. I'm guardedly hopeful that things will turn out ok, so maybe I'll feel like doing a more cheerful blog tomorrow.

Not What I Was Planning

I was going to write a longish post about my current projects and my answers to Secret Pal Questions for weeks 4 and 5, but for some reason can't post photos. So the project update will wait, but I need to go ahead and answer the questions anyway. Sorry no photos; maybe next time.

Question(s) for Week 4:

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?

There isn't any one yarn that would make my stash complete. I'm still too much of a newbie to fiber crafts and still learning. And I hope I always feel that way, even if I live to be 90 and work with fiber every day between now and then.

2) What yarn do you never want to be without?**

A good basic worsted weight yarn in a natural fiber can lend itself to so many things, including socks. So I guess Cascade 220 Superwash fits that bill. I'm also loving working with bamboo fibers, but don't have a favorite yet. I really like cotton, and I'm loving Omega Sinfonia for some socks I'm making right now, but I'm not sure it's going to hold up to washing. We'll see!

Question(s) of the Week #5:

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

So far, I'd say that my two favorite cities are Paris and Amsterdam. But I have not seen nearly enough of the world yet, so I don't expect to get back to either of these cities, much as I loved them, too soon. I've visited both of them at least 3 times, and it's time to do something different.

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

Oh, there are so many places I've never been and really want to go! We're going to San Francisco this fall; I haven't seen much of my own country yet. And I want to go to Italy, back to England and Spain, to the old eastern Europe - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. Poland. Prague. Curacao. Venezuela. Macchu Picchu. Whale watching in Baja California. And probably 2oo other places given money enough and time...travel is one of my very favorite things.