Goodbye Google Reader

I read quite a few blogs. Some are knitting blogs, some political or news, several are genealogy related. My friends do some blogging, although many are just on Facebook now. I had discovered the best way to follow them all was to subscribe to them through my Google Reader app, on my phone and laptop. So I was a bit upset to hear, a few months ago! that Google was going to abandon their Reader. The deadline is in just a couple days now.

With Google Reader, I could add a blog that I enjoyed and all their posts would be collected in one place for me to read. It saved me from having a ton of bookmarks too. It was a great timesaver.

So with the death of Reader I needed a replacement. I also wanted one that would work with my iPad. I tried and rejected several. There were pros and cons on each. Finally I chose Feedly. It worked on Android and iPad.

Best of all, I was able to import my Reader feeds so I didn't need to search for each and add it.

I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to follow several blogs. It can also work for news feeds and has suggestions and a great search feature.

So goodbye Google Reader. Hello Feedly!

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COFFEE!

I am finally finishing my "morning" coffee. Ahhhhh!

My mammogram was scheduled today. And of course, there is no caffeine allowed before hand. I almost fell asleep in the waiting room, while knitting. And that isn't easy in those hard oversized chairs. (The seat is hard and lumpy. And too deep and tall. My feet dangle off the floor. Couldn't they have picked at least a few smaller chairs for the Women's Health Center?). And with the lack of coffee I gave them the wrong birthdate. Lack of coffee, I swear!

I am doing much better after my coffee.

While watching "They Died With Their Boots On"* last evening, I switched out the threads holding the sleeve stitches on my Duchess of Cambridge Featherweight. With longer threads I could try it on. I was happy to see that it fit fairly well.

The original pattern that I had purchased had to be up sized. I recalculated and had knit quite a bit before a new version came out with larger sizes. So I tweaked the pattern to those stitch counts. Then out came a new version. It seemed that the second version needed adjustments to the sleeves. I'm not quite sure where I am now.

But I know I know I need couple more inches before the ribbing starts.

* I never realized I hadn't seen this movie. In my mind it was confused with a different movie that involved West Point cadets and the Civil War. I think Ron Reagan and Error Flynn were in it. Anyone know what that movie was? I think what it is.

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Craving Strawberries

I would almost kill for fresh strawberry shortcake right now. Or a warm from the sun, slightly sandy big old strawberry, right from the plant. Yum.

That's right, I am craving strawberries.

I think I may have mentioned how, after seeing in the local buyers guide that my favorite berry patch was open, I was foiled last Monday by a "closed for season" sign. It was too warm today for me to try to pick some so I headed out to the highly touted farmers market in town.

Despite all the press I have seen on it lately, it doesn't open till July. Drat.

To fully appreciate my craving you must understand that last year there were no local berries to be had, thanks to the early heat wave, followed by seasonable frosts. And in the few years previous, the berries always ripened in times that did not correspond to paydays. I don't like imported berries from out of the country, or even out of state. Usually picked before really ripe, those are too hard and flavorless. So I only buy them in season, when I can find them.

It looks like another berry-less year.

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Something Profound

My semi regular readers (if any) may have noticed that I haven't posted since early this week. The reason is that I wanted to thing of something to make this a special post. Because this is post number 1000!

Who knew when I started this back in 2007 that I would still be going?

So anyway, here I am. Nothing profound. No farm tidbits. No knitting (!). Just a plain old post, rambling on about nothing in particular.

Now, on to the second thousand.

 

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Nephews Galore

Sunday, I let Hubby sleep most of the day. He couldn't have had a better Father's Day.

I, on the other, hand bummed a ride with my brother to see all my nephews.

The star of the day was my newest grandnephew, not quite two weeks old. He is a cutie. Of course he is still at the Eat, Sleep, and Poop stage of life. Unfortunately whenever I got my hands on him, he was in the third mode.

Aside from myself, the rest of my parent's descendants (brother, two sons, two nephews and now three grandnephews) were male. Here is my brother's side of the family tree.

My brother and my nephews--the grands and the wonderful. At least the family name will live on into another generation.

 

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Rainbows and Sunset

After a rather surprising downpour, comes the payoff.  A big double rainbow.  It was too close to capture both ends at once.
But it sure was gorgeous.
And the western view was equally nice.

Waves of Blue and Purple

The knitting continues on my Happy Vest. I love the ripples of color in Feather and Fan/Old Shale pattern.

I find that I have already hit the black hole on this project. It is long enough now that you cannot see that you are making any progress. Because of the scallops it measures a maximum of 13 inches and a minimum length of 11 1/2 inches. Lizzie consented to model the vest late yesterday. The length is a bit longer than pictured here.

At least that means I am almost half way through the back. The pattern calls for 33 inches, but I am going to only knit to about 27 inches or so. And then the front will also be knit to the same length. The pattern has the front about six inches shorter than the back. But I think that I will make them even.

After all, the distance from shoulder to waist is longer in front than in back, thanks to the "girls."

 

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Still Torn Up

The work continues in the alley behind work.

The sand piles shift from side to side. More sand gets delivered.

Trenches get dug, filled in and dug again.

Somehow, we ended up with what looks like a major sewage clean out right behind the center.

If that thing blows, we will be in deep......well, you know.

And no sign of finishing any time soon. Its going to be a long summer.

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Family Traits

I find family traits interesting. Sometimes you suddenly see things that have been right in front of you that you've never noticed before.

My younger son looks remarkably like a picture of Hubby's grandfather at about the same age. That is if you chopped off some of his hair and scruffy whiskers. That is him below, in the front row, with his young wife, tall, lean and lanky.

My other son is built more like my father, who I posted about last week, not so tall, but muscular.

And recently I have discovered a family trait of my own. While looking at some old pictures, I noticed my fat chubby hands with stubby fingers at the end of my grandma's arms!

So I guess it is fitting that it was Grandma who taught me to do different kinds of needlework. After all, I have her hands!

 

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World Wide Knit in Public Day

Did I manage this year to participate in World Wide Knit in Public Day?
Well of course I did, at two different graduation parties.

Another Night, Another Movie

Who knew there were three movies based on the novel The Maltese Falcon? I didn't anyway. The second version is a looser adaptation than the classic 1941 version with Bogart. Those are both on too late tonight for me to watch them. Especially since I have to work tomorrow.

But I did get to catch the original version of the story earlier this evening. Filmed in 1931, I had never seen it before. It apparently is the most faithful to Hammett's novel. And it is a pre-code era movie. Pre-code movies are the best. Too racy for their time, they would be a mild PG-13 now. And it was very evident this was pre-code.

This earlier, more faithful rendition of the movie cleared up a lot of things that Bogey's version left me confused about. Miss Wonderly did sleep with Sam. And at the end, Wilmer shot and killed and Cairo. And the ending is a bit later than in the '41 version.

I always enjoy watching different versions of the same movie. Especially when some of the dialogue is the same. And it is fun watching for the differences as well.

The best part tonight was that I got to see the whole thing. I guess I grumbled enough about missing the ending last night, that we didn't go out to plant beans until after it finished. Barely finished, but finished nonetheless.

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Remembering Those Who Fought

Was it really 69 years ago?
D-Day, when so many lost their lives.  I watched the movie D-Day, the 6th of June recently, during the Memorial Day movie marathon of war movies.  The more history I learn, the more it awes me.
My dad, shown here had enlisted before graduation, having enough credits to graduate.  He was placed in Darby's Rangers and saw action well before D-Day, being wounded in Sicily in 1943, and home recovering by then.  Between his wounds and his hearing loss, he was unable to go back.

However, two of his brothers, the next two older, were also in the service at that time.  I do not know what kind of action they saw during the war.  At least one, Uncle Howard was in England when their father died at home in August 1945.  They chose to remain, remembering their father as he had been.  They are pictured on either side of him, on what was probably Memorial Day, 1946.  The other, Uncle Don is on the left.

Luckily they all survived the war.
On my mom's side, a cousin was also serving in World War II.  If he was there for D-Day, he survived.  I am not sure if he was there then or not.  Unfortunately Paul died during the Battle of the Bulge.
More people died on that one day 69 years ago than has died so far in the current conflict.
Let us not forget them.

And pardon one last picture of Dad, back home after the war with my grandparent's dog Ginger.  (She must have been ancient when she died!)  I just had to show off his medals, even if the picture isn't the best.

The Forgotten Sweater

Well, I must admit, it wasn't really forgotten.  Just set aside.  As I mentioned the other day, I needed a no-brainer project for Knit Nite.  Not that the Old Shale/Feather and Fan is such a complicated pattern, but when you get to chattering away at Knit Nite, somehow, things can fall awry.

My Duchess of Cambridge was started back in August of 2010.  The Nordic Blue is prettier than shows in this picture.  It is from Nature Spun fingering weight on a cone.  It was originally just called the Nordic Blue Featherweight, but was renamed when I got up and knit during Kate and William's royal wedding.  It has mostly languished ever since. Since I was undecided on the finishing edges, it kind of put off working on it.   However, I am still on the stockinette portion, and have almost decided on ribbing for sleeves and bottom and possibly moss stitch or seed stitch for front and neck edge.  So I can continue to work on it again.
I had the Happy Wrap Vest along, just for the opportunity to get a good picture of it on the dance floor.  Again, between the texture and the rayon, it reflects the light in a funky way.  But in real life I am very happy with it.

And even with these two far from completion, and the black tee glaring at me, I have been comtemplating my NEXT project.
Can you say mohair boucle?  Wait till I get the chance to start that sweater.

Planting Potatoes, Take Two

I mentioned a few days ago on FaceBook that Hubby and I had covered our potato plants with some sack and were all ready for the possible freeze.

Well it froze. Look closely to the left of those two orange stakes. You can see the green leaves of the plant next to the right stake.

However, next to the left stake are only some curled up brown leaves. Just a day or two before the last of our 38 plants had broken through the surface. And despite the covering, about half were hit by the frost.

So last night Hubby and I replanted. And luckily we didn't even need to buy more seed potatoes. Since I had half a bag of rather straggly potatoes, I was able to provide some replacements. And more were furnished from a friend with a similar bag of potatoes.

That said, we have replanted, and hopefully these will survive. And a motley assortment we have, with half Yukon Gold, a quarter russets, and the rest white mystery potatoes.

And across the garden, possibly two sweet potatoes that survived uncovered!

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There Has Been Knitting

While I haven't been posting much again lately, I have been knitting. I have been working on the Happy Vest. I love Feather and Fan lace, aka Old Shale.

I have done a bit more than shown here. It is now about 6 3/4 inches to 5 1/2 inches long. I think I will only knit it to 27 inches for the back. I would prefer it to be no longer in back than the front. Old Shale goes fairly quickly with only every four rows requiring much concentration.

I suppose I should spend more time working on one of my sweaters that are languishing in the WIP pile. The Duchess of Cambridge Featherweight in particular is calling to me. I will may start taking that to Knit Nite, since not much concentration is needed for that.

And you, sometimes my concentration isn't the sharpest at Knit Nite. Really!

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Road Construction Season

I mentioned last week that we had gotten a notice, at the history center where I work, that our back alley was being torn up. And since it is the entrance most people use, as well as our handicapped entrance, we were rather dismayed.

And sure enough, come Tuesday morning, right after the holiday weekend, I found this when I unlocked the back door.

Even with all the rain! the had already torn up part of the pavement.

By the nest day, even the rest of the pavement was gone. And when I looked out back, this big piece of equipment was blocking the alley.

While my co-worker and boss continues to use the back parking lot and comes in each day through the back door.

Me? I would just as soon avoid the sand. I use the parking lot across the street.

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