Off the Wagon.

I must’ve fell off the blogging wagon.  Particularly Tami’s Work-in-Progress Wednesday and Finished Object Friday meme’s.  I don’t know why I got lost.  Maybe it’s because things have been a bit crazy around here.  Mostly weather wise….  Post (the Army post I live on) was shut-down at noon on Monday, 2- hour delay on Tuesday, 2-hour delay on Wednesday, and Thursday post was completely shut-down.  Even what they call “mission essential” soldiers were not to report because the roads were so bad.  All for what was collectively less than a foot of snow.    Last year the post never closed like this.  And this was only the first snow of the season.  As much as I love snow, and want more I hope it doesn’t effect the post in the same way this “storm” if you could even call it that, has.  Long story short, my husband has been home so much that I haven’t known what day of the week it really was.  Plus Thanksgiving changed what days school work was done, so I was turning in school work on different days than I typically do.  I’m just hoping things get back to normal, which includes my WIPW posts and FOF posts!  But I will get you all caught up till next week.

I’m working on a few things for Christmas.  I have my sights set nice and low though.  No aphgans, socks or even scarfs for Christmas presents.  (Besides a little something special for my hubby!)  Just a few ornaments.  I basically started because I am participating in an ornament exchange for the FRG next week.  I thought it would be fun to knit one!  So I started on a snowflake, and learned to read a whole pattern before I start.  The whole border, which actually makes it look like a snowflake, is crochet.  I have recruited a friend from the new knitting group on post to help, but of course it was canceled this week due to weather conditions.  So it pretty much just looks like a hexagon till I get some help with the edges.

 

So then I preceded to start a new ornament.  One that I can actually have done by Monday!  Because, well the ornament exchange is on Monday!  So I’m working on an ornament from the same pattern set as the snowflake above.  I’m making the pointsetta.  In some non-tradition, but festival and seasonal colors.  So far it looks pretty good, and I have 3 more petals to make, than the berries.  I know it won’t be much of a problem to get done this weekend, and I plan to work on it shortly after I’m done with this post.

 

Next on off the needles is a Kindle Case.  My husband both have really wanted a Kindle since they came out.  This year we decided we would make Christmas easy and buy each other Kindles.  His in the color graphite, and mine in white.  The last thing I want to do is pick up and try to read his Kindle.  And I’m sure it would bother him even more than it would bother me, what with all kinds of knitting books, romances and whatnot on it.  So I’ve been making a Kindle Case.  And actually it was quite a fast knit.  I think it only took me 3 days which is pretty good on my part.  I even went to go buy a button today just for the case! I’m just really hoping though, that it actually fits.  The pattern says it stretches over the kindle, and I’m wonder even if I should block it.  But I’m waiting for the Kindles to get here to try it out.  I’ll get my husband’s kindle to load with surprises and he’ll do the same with mine.  And it should be here by Monday or Tuesday.  I’ll find out then, and update you guys next week!

Oh Happy Day.

Hoping you can sense the sarcasm in my voice.  Needless to say I have to complain.  I’m not a big fan of complaining, but sometimes it’s just necessary.  Well, first I find out some people aren’t coming that I planned on for Thanksgiving.  Which is cool.  You should do what you want to on Thanksgiving, but I don’t like when I have to find out about it through another friend, because I discover that some people I invited are going there instead.   I mean, how tacky really.  I don’t mind when people do what they want to do and I always want the freedom to do what I want and not feel bad.  I really am just mad because this always seems to happen to us.  We tried to have a Super Bowl party last year, a birthday party for my husband, and things really just never seem to pan out.  We plan, I cook and people that we are expecting don’t come.  Or we find out a few days before that they aren’t coming.  As much as I love living in Germany, I’m really excited to go back to the states where we have family.  Because really, you can always plan on family.

So I went shopping for our feast because we still have some great friends coming, and although it will be a little more of an intimate party than I expected, we are still going to have a great old time.  I’m determined.  So my fridge is stocked and my menu is planned, and everything is ready to go.  Then life decides to throw me another curve ball.  Apparently I just wasn’t meant to have a working refrigerator for the week of Thanksgiving.  It started getting a bit warmer this weekend, so I turned the temp down on it so it would get colder. Then it didn’t.  So first thing this morning I called facilities on post.  She told me she would get back to me between 10 & 12 about when the contractor would come to fix it.  When she called over an hour earlier than she said she would I was hopeful, then she said he would be here between 1200 and 1800 (for you civilians that means between noon and 6pm). 6pm!!!  I cannot wait that long, so I told her this. She says he has 8 service calls today, he never knows how long each will be.  I just wanted to scream at her “just come here NOW!!!!!!!!!”  But, I kept my calm I said I have groceries in my fridge I need to worry about and would appreciate it if they could keep that in mind and try to keep me at the top of the list.  I do think that they need to think about stuff like this, instead of just coordinating where they are going by location.  Unless they want to pay to replace my groceries and get me to the commissary to buy them.  So, needless to say, I’m waiting on them to come repair my fridge.  And I hope they can repair it and that they don’t have to replace it.  From what I’ve seen they replace fridges all too much around here instead of just fixing what doesn’t work.  My groceries (the important ones) are at my friends house, who will actually be joining us for Thanksgiving.  She is such a good friend and I’m glad I have her to depend on.  And since she called me so much earlier than she said, I’m hopeful that he will get her to fix my fridge nice and early. I’m being optomistic.

Then I got home from my dear friends house.  And my cats are running wild.  Which isn’t all that unusual so I don’t pay that much attention. I should have paid more attention.  Down in that little spot by their water dish is my project bag, with my husband’s Christmas present in it!!!  But seems a ball of yarn was missing……it was spread from the bottom floor to the top floor.  Now, you must understand my house to really see how annoying this is.  We live in a split level apartment, and have 6 stories.  Yes 6.  So needless to say one ball of yarn was wet, and unraveled throughout the house.  I’m not happy.  After everything I’ve been going through, it really wasn’t what I wanted to deal with.  And now the cats know Mommy is not a happy girl.  They both got into big trouble!

Odds & Ends

I’ve had a lot of things going on here and there.  I’ve finished a few things, made some progress on others.  Mostly making progress on losing weight!  Dropped another pound!  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but every pound is progress.  I have to keep telling myself that!  I’ve lost 9 pounds now since my family has left from their visit.  Finally the weight has started coming off, mainly because a dear friend told me that you start running, you’ll start losing weight.  I didn’t believe it, I figured as long as it was cardio it was all the same.  But the weight loss has proved that wrong.  I started running on the treadmill at the gym when I went, instead of just doing the elyptical for my cardio.  I’ve gone from running a mile in 18 minutes, to running it in under 13 minutes.  I’m proud of myself, but I need to keep it up.  My goal is to also go to at least one class at the gym a week. Weight goal is to lose 10 more pounds by January 1st.  I’m hoping I can get there!  I think the purchase of the AE Active 2, when we do finally buy it, will help me in meeting this goal.

In mentioning that it has been a month since my family has left, I am realizing there is so much I haven’t shared with you.  Specifically, my favorite place we went (my mom and aunt even went twice!) is Rothenburg.  I will have to post very shortly about that!  But I do want to share with you fellow knitters my favorite purchase.  Not just from that one town, but probably from the whole visit.  You will all appreciate this.  If you have ever been to Germany, you will know that they are famous for items which most people call “smokers”.  They are typically a man or woman doing something specific, and you open it up, light an incense on the inside, and there is a hole somewhere on the item that the smoke comes out of, hence the name.  Well we were in this one tiny little souvenir shop, and my mom actually had to point out this specific smoker.  I can’t believe I didn’t see it myself!  It is of an old woman sitting in front of a bread oven, knitting, and then you can see her little black cat in the back.  It is so freaking cute, I just had to buy it.  Best of all?  It only cost me 4 Euro!

 

Unfortunately you cannot see the smoke coming out of the chimney.

 

I have finished the 2nd legwarmer I was making.  The recipient is very anxious to wear them to school!  But I think she will have to fight my cats for it!  She already has the first one (so I could be assured that they fit, before I knit another one) and my cat has brought the new legwarmer upstairs to share with me twice.  And it went in their water dish once too.  That’s where Edgar takes all his favorite toys. All the best knit items have made that journey, most recently my Citron and a skein of Knit Picks WOTA.  It must be a right of way in our house. So I’ve had to hide it.  I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have kids yet because I think the cats would claim all their favorite possessions.  I could take a picture and post it, but it looks exactly like the other one I’ve previously posted.  I’ll get a picture of both of them on her to post soon though!

I made a tiny, tiny little mistake.  I seemed to have forgotten my promise to myself.  The promise that I would not purchase yarn at all, till 2011 rolls in.  Yes I managed to stick to it for a good 2 or 3 months already.  And I’m very disappointed in myself, because it’s not like I went to this great yarn shop for anything, and just couldn’t pass up a certain skein.  Nope.  I just forgot.  It completely slipped my mind, and I was at the Arts & Crafts shop on post.  It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, trust me.  And that was where I broke my promise!  Seriously?  I mean, if it was for Wollmeise or even Lana Grossa maybe I would understand.  But I purely just forgot.  And I was thinking about the idea of making something for my bestest’s new baby Grace.  So I bought some yarn to make a little stuffed animal for her, so I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad.  It is for the cutest little baby ever! Ok, Ok I’ll share another picture of her!

It’s About Time

….For another travel post!  My family was here and I did a lot with them, although not everything I would have liked.  I already posted about our visit to Dresden, Germany.  Next on the list is Passau, Germany.  Let me just start by saying I think this was the most beautiful place we went.  The town is known as “The City of Three Rivers”, where the Danube, Inn and Ilz Rivers meet.  Just by reading that I’m sure there’s a big “Aaahhh” to why this was the most beautiful place we visited (or there should be!), and probably one of the most beautiful places in the whole country.  But I should emphasize the one of though since pretty much all of Germany is gorgeous!

Our visit was great, would have been better though if it was warmer.  However, I think this could be said for the whole of my families visit.  Also, I don’t even think I should mention the time they had trying to park in a German parking garage, and a mighty tight one might I add.  I think the only thing that can park well in that parking garage would have been a matchbox car.

First thing we did was head on a river cruise so we could see all the landscape and the beautiful city from the outside.  It was short and sweet, only a half-hour cruise, but I did get some tea with Rum.  Yum yum, nothings better on a cold, damp day.  We walked around the shops, found a LYS and got a little something.  No I didn’t break my “no buying yarn till 2011 promise” because my Aunt Karen, a dear family friend, bought it for me as a thank you gift.    And I love yarn no matter how I get it  We also went to St. Stephen’s cathedral, which was quite a site for me.  This was the first cathedral of the trip, for me.  And actually the 1st one I had ever had the pleasure of entering, in Germany.  Let me say that entering a cathedral built in 1688 is quite an overwhelming feeling.  Just gorgeous and full of faith and history. We also went to a The Glass Museum also, but I must admit that I wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t with family.  And it was a bit boring, and long.  Emphasis on long.  I swear the most interesting part was the maze we went through to see it, and it was never ending, in a very old hotel.  It’s interesting how much character the old buildings and their architecture have.  Now I will leave you with some of those beautiful sights I was telling you about!

The Green-eyed Monster

……has taken me over.  Ok, I must start with this.  To all of you going to Rhinebeck,  I am so jealous!  Incredibly jealous.  Like, don’t talk to me today, jealous.  Before I really got into the whole fiber world, and even knew they had events like this I lived in Rochester, NY.  Yes a few hours away, but still in NEW YORK!  I could have gone!  I could have easily taken the weekend to go with a friend.  But now I know about it and I’m in Germany!  I can’t get there.  Not at all.  So I am jealous (but of course still looking forward to podcasts/blogs reviewing Rhinebeck!).  Don’t worry though, I will get over it.  Especially if I go to the next Knit Nation!

So, I am back to an empty house.  Back to my same old routine.  Not traveling every day to a new city.  And unfortunately we are also back to one car for the time being.  This means lots of extra time for knitting.  And knitting I have done……well not really I suppose.  Frogging I have done.  I spent all day yesterday frogging my secret present for the hubby because I realized I didn’t have quite enough yarn to do what I had planned.  New plan already in action.  Then I was onto the next project (once he was home) which is my lovely fingerless gloves.  I have named them Hands Over the Fire on my Ravelry page since I’m using the Socks That Rock- Fire On The Mountain colorway.  This is now my time to complain.  I rarely complain about anything KnitPicks, but I have decided I won’t be buying too many more Harmony Needles.  I had to frog these gloves because the tip on my needle broke off.  I was doing the cable, and it a bit tighter than is should be, but that does not mean the tip should break.  I have also had the tip break off two of my DPN’s in the past and had cracks in two others.  Now, I know they are supposed to replace them with their warranty, but I tried that with the DPN’s.  Because they came in the pack with 6 of each size, they won’t replace it because that’s why they give you an extra needle of each size.  They should replace the circular needle that just broke though.  I sent a message to them, hoping to here back soon.  Now don’t get me wrong, this will not deter me from KnitPicks but I really like their zephyr needles to, so I think I will buy these from now on.  I love the harmony needles and know many people who have never had a problem with them, I think I just knit too tightly.  So anyway, I frogged these and started over with a size bigger needle.  The yarn is thicker that I realized anyway, so I think it should work.  I almost knit back to where I was before I frogged yesterday too, so I did make some progress.

My family is gone, but I have alot of memories and pictures left behind.  Pictures I need to share with you all.  Trust me, I won’t make you look at all the 500 something pictures. Just the really good ones.  To recap, we went to Dresden, Passau, Munich, Regensburg and Rothenburg.  I didn’t join them in Nurenburg.  After my Grandma and family friend left just my Mom and Aunt went to Prague and a town near Baden Baden.  I was supposed to go with them, but my hubby was coming home the day they left for Prague so I wanted to spend time with him.  I’m sorry I missed Prague, but I’m glad I didn’t go since I probably would have ended up in a hospital there instead.  So this is where my hospital visit comes in hence the reason I didn’t join them on their next trip.  I think my favorite of all the places we went was Rothenburg.  I’ll share with you why in a later post.  As you can tell I have a lot to post about and really didn’t know where to start, so I didn’t post anything.  It’s been too long since the last post, but here I am anyway.

Now I’m just trying to enjoy today.  This is the first day in months that I get to spend with my husband alone.  He has to work tomorrow because of rotation so this is his weekend.  And we have to go grocery shopping and I’m making him mow the lawn.  I hate to ask him to do that today, but if he doesn’t now it might snow before it gets cut again.  The lawn is way too long to get snowed on and we have a horrible housemeister who likes to mow everyone else’s lawn except our rows.  And yes, I did say snow.  Supposedly it is going to snow on Monday, but we will see if that actually happens.  I’m not ready for snow.  But the hubby and I are making the most of our day when we aren’t running errands and doing chores.  We are going to go see Dinner with the Smucks tonight.  It’s actually playing on post and we are huge Steve Carrell fans.  We are also going to watch the two episodes of The Office Season 7 that we haven’t watched yet.  I’m excited for a fun night with the hubs!  And if you are still reading, thanks for enduring this long post without pictures.  It is really a post of randomness.

Something About the Language

……Makes me love it here.  Maybe it’s because I studied German for more than 4 years.  Maybe it’s because I barely remember a lick of it.  And maybe it’s just the fact that I love living in a foreign country in general.  As I’ve mentioned my family is here (only Mom and Aunt left after this past Monday) and we stayed in a hotel for the second time during our traveling.  We went to Munich this past week (and NO I did not personally make it to the Octoberfest because I was stuck in the hotel working on my darn Powerpoint for my annoying, annoying class!) and I watched some German TV.  Actually I watched a lot for not really understanding the language.  I watched The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty & Scrubs all in German.  I also saw pieces of The Pacifier and The Dark Knight.  The voices in The Dark Knight were actually pretty convincing whereas most the others, especially The Pacifier were pretty hilarious and far off from the originals.  Vin Deseal had a pretty high pitched voice and I really couldn’t keep it on the channel for more than 5 minutes because I couldn’t stop laughing!  Anyway, they also have a lot of cute and funny commercials.  Watching German TV was worth it just for commercials!   Here’s one of my favorites:

Dresden, Germany

I thought I would share some of my travels with my family while I’m staying home.  If I don’t I will have too much to share when they leave!  And you will never see it all.  I’ve been staying home for the past few days while they travel.  The first day I just needed a break.  You get so used to being by yourself, or just me and the hubs at night, so it can get a bit overwhelming at times to have four other people here.  Then I stayed home yesterday because I didn’t feel good, and I have a great deal of school work to get done before Monday.  I’m staying home again with that schoolwork in mind, and hoping to get it done so I can go to Passau on Friday, and Munich from Saturday till Monday.

Last weekend we went to Dresden.  Dresden has a history as the home of Electors and Kings of Saxony.  The biggest draw and purpose of our trip was the Historical Grunes Gewolbe, or the Green Vault.  This was the actual palace of Alexander the Strong, with most of his riches still in tact.  Many of them were actually burnt and destroyed or partial destroyed during the war when the palace was set on fire.  And more than half of the silver treasures were melted down after the war.  But there are still so many left and they have tried to restore the palace to be as accurate to the original as possible.  It was a very interesting tour through the palace and I highly suggest it to any history buffs in the area.  I’d also like to share other pictures of the amazing old architecture of the town.

The Palace of Alexander the Strong

Statue in town. Notice the renovated apartments behind it, and Communist Era apartments which haven't been redone.

Travel Travel!- Day 5

Family, Family!   They’re here finally!  After a long day of waiting, a delayed plane, and a bit of getting lost getting to my house, my family arrived around 8 pm last night!  I was originally expecting them around 2 pm, so this was a bit of a surprise.  And a Looooonnngggg day of waiting, waiting.  Today we walked around town.  Tomorrow we are going to the community bazzar on post, and after that….Dresden!  So the Traveling, traveling will start shortly!  I’m so excited!!

Onto the blog hub swap.  Well Tammy must have ESP or something.  I opened the package I choose for the day.  And the card read “Hope ya can use these, to scrapbook as you please”.  So of course I expected scrapbooking supplies.  But they were just perfect!  Lots of stickers for traveling, plus some army stuff, owls and kittys.  But she had some specifically for Munich!  I will be there in just a few days!  Can’t wait to put all these great embellishments to use!

Blog Swap-Day 3

Tammy G is a clever girl.  I seriously wonder if she tapped into my head or something!  As far as I understand though, she was even stalking my comments on other blogs!  Sneaky, sneaky!  Today’s gift was pleasantly small and squishy!  The card read “I received one in a swap, and I take it with me when I yarn shop!”

What is it you may ask?  It’s a shopping bag!  I already have some of these and I think they have been missing for almost a year now!  So this is pretty much perfect.  Especially with my family coming to visit, we will be doing a lot of travelling, and …….you guessed it……. SHOPPING!!!   It even clips onto your key-chain! How cool!  And guess what else?  I used it already!  I went to the Netto this morning, which is my local grocery store.  Now in Germany, you really are supposed to bring your own bag.  They have shopping bags available, but you have to pay.  I had fun stuffing this bag full of groceries!

It’s also Wednesday.  Also know as Hump Day.  Also known as WIP Wednesday.  Well sorry folks, but I don’t have anything new to share.  Haven’t casted anything else on, and really haven’t made much progress on anything either.  Except me Citron.  The goal was to finish before my family gets here.  I am on row 18 out of 20 on the last sequence and then I have 12 rows of the ruffled edging to knit.  So, I suppose it depends on how much time I have to knit, and what time they actually arrive at my apartment tomorrow.  I’m so excited for them to get here!  Only ONE MORE DAY!!!

An Adventure & An Update

*Update* on baby Thia!  She is doing well right now.  Seems like a very strong girl!  Her blood gases have been really good. If the next one is good also, they will try taking her off the vent completely! They also are going to try to take out the last line in her belly button, and once that’s out, she can start her feeds!  I’m so glad she seems to be doing well, and I think all the prayers are helping so keep them coming!!

My husband finally had a long weekend and I didn’t want to waste it sitting in our house.  I also wanted to do something to enjoy the last bit of summer that we have (if you can call 50-60 degree weather summer.  My husband actually had to clean frost off the car when he went to work today).  So we ventured to the Munich Zoo with some neighbors.  And quite an adventure it was!  We were on our way, only about 20 minutes away from home just to find out that the autobahn entrance we needed to get on was closed due to construction.  I actually think Bavarians love their construction more than Americans sometimes!  Anyway, we didn’t exactly know our way to the next entrance, which is not nearly as easy to find as it would be in Rochester (NY.  My hometown) where there is an entrance every 4 miles practically.  Our GPS was basically useless, and wouldn’t redirect us around the on-ramp it wanted us to take.  So after alot of screwing around with the GPS and driving around, we finally found a new ramp!  And then, it took us off the autobahn.  Now when going to a major city like that, we should have stayed on the whole time.  Once we were on a dirt road, also blocked by construction I played with the GPS again.  The lovely GPS was sending us on the “short” route, not the “fastest” route.  Now I think Navigon could have come up with a better way of describing the different routes than short and fast.  I mean really?  So many people interchange those two.  Now I understand that “shortest” refers to the distance being drove and “fastest” refers to amount of time, but apparently my better half doesn’t always notice.  I still love him though!  We finally got to the Zoo at 11:30 am, when we should have gotten there around 10am.   No worries though, I got  alot of knitting done in the car and we still had a great time at the zoo!  We saw two polar bears playing in the water with each other, some monkeys running, hanging and swinging everywhere, and a baby baboon sitting with his gigantic father eating apples!  Thought I would share some of the sights!