So far, so good, coz I have some projects

Ok, so maybe it is a bit early since it is only November 30th, but so far I have been able to stay sane for the holidays. It helps to have a knitting project or two or three.

We had dinner last Friday with family and we got to meet our new nephew. Driving around that day it occured to me that he does not have a Christmas stocking. Ooops, Tara, his Mom, does not have one and neither does Ben, his brother.

The stocking story is that Grandma Katie knit all of the stockings for our generation of cousins. They were all the same; red, green and white with angora yarn for Santa's beard, candy canes and our initials on them. Being the knitter in the family I have assumed that role for a lot of in-laws and nieces and nephews. Some of the sisters-in-law have knit their own.

So I decided last Friday night to try to knit the three for Christmas, Thomas Henry, Tara and Ben. I bought the yarn Saturday afternoon and started on them about 3 nano seconds after I got home. Now, less than a week later I am half way through the stockings. I honestly believe this is the reason for my sanity. It is really good to have a project to work on and one that is an antidote to the Walmarts of the world. Pictures to follow when they are done.

Holidays - here they come

The first Christmas commercial of the year always depresses me. The commercials make me turn 180 degrees from how they want me to respond. Less presents bought, less trips to the Mall. Less material goods, and more tradition.

I love so many things about the holidays. I love seeing family and friends. I love the traditions and routines. BUT, I hate the commercial holiday portrayed on television.

Our Thanksgiving is going to be very low-key, but it will contain the important parts. We will have the pies baked by the Senior High Youth Group. We will have mashed potatoes and other vegetables. We might not have turkey though. We will watch the Macy's parade. We will get out for a nice long walk. And we will be together as a family, and see more family the next day.

I try not to let Hallmark be the measure for whether our holiday is a success. Try is the opearative word.

Collecting my online info in one place

Intuit is fabulous company!

2 weeks ago on a Friday, the company ran an event called Hactivism. Teams of up to 4 people spend the entire day working on a project and presented to a team of judges at the end of the day. We did not win, but we had a lot of fun, great ideas and came up with this problem and solution.

How many social networking sites do you have a login for? I made a list of the sites that I remember I have created a login for. Here is the partial list: Facebook, Eons, Praxo, Linkedin, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Yahoo calendar, Tagged, Ziggs etc. I only regularly login to 3 of these. The problem statement for our group was how to combine all of your data from social networking sites, and then how to populate a new one. There are business reasons that require you to have a new one.

We designed that tool on Friday. You could push all of your data from existing sites, into this tool to store. This might be the resevoir for your contacts, or your resume, or list of hobbies or interests. You could populate a new one, by identifying which fields or which records to push to that new site. Has anyone else designed this already?

This idea is very similar to a post I made in May about chargers for electronic devices. Could we just get one generic charger?

My Myers-Briggs type loves to make casseroles of different items, and likes to be efficient. Our tool combines all of that different info in one place. A generic charger . . . not holding my breath for that one!

Back into some kind of routine

Yesterday some of our Saturday sewers got together after quite a few weeks off. I love getting together with this group. It is a modern version of the Sewing Bee. We sew/quilt/knit/mend and gab. We come for comraderie and community. We support each other, we give free advice, we spend 3 hours in our busy lives doing what we love, and not worrying about Saturday chores. We catch up on each others lives. After getting together yesterday, I realize how much I miss the group when we don't get together.

I also went to church today after a few weeks off. We have been away a lot of weekends this fall, doing great stuff, but nevertheless we have missed church. When this happens, and I finally get back to church, I realize how I love the routines in my life. I love the Saturday sewing and I love sitting in a pew on Sunday for that hour with nothing else to do but soak it all in.

Last Sunday we were in the Berkshires and a friend of ours is an interim minister at the Lee UCC church. We went to her service, and it satisfied my need for church. But I also needed to get home to First Parish. I feel plugged back in, I feel reconnected. With no weekends away planned until after Christmas, I am glad to be back into a routine.

Could we please not start with the scalpel?

For a bit of history, whenever a family member in our nuclear unit gets a spelck, splinter, sliver, and we need help getting it out, we go to Rod. We have affectionately started calling it surgery. Rod was a science major at University and has a well used disection kit. Last night when he pulled it out I asked "Are those disinfected?" No answer.

So I had something in my finger that we needed to do some surgery on, the kit came out and as he walked into the room, I said the title of this post. We both started laughing at the same time. That deep belly laugh that you almost don't recover from.

After the use of two sets of different size tweezers, out came the scapel.

I did not let him use it this time.

He is so patient with us as we yank away our hands or feet. More often than not the surgery is successful and sometimes he does use the scapel.

But, I Like the Red Eye

Some call me crazy, but I like the Red Eye coming back from California. I took it last night, got in at 5am, got home by 5:45am, slept for 3 hours and then went to work. I don't even feel that tired right now. A big part of this is that I have been away a huge amount in the last few months and I just really wanted to be home last night, OOPS, this morning. BTW, Jet Blue is a fabulous airline. The seats are comfortable and they give snacks away for FREE; more than pretzels. They also brew Dunkin' Donuts coffee. That alone would make me fly on their airline.

So I was wrong about my next knitting project. I started a very complicated pattern for a scarf years ago. Occasionally, I pick it up, work on it a bit, and put it down because I make mistakes. Last Friday we drove out to Lenox MA for our All Star II chairs meeting and in the dark, I was trying to knit. Yes, I was setting myself up for failure, but at the rest stop where we stopped for dinner, I threw that project away. It was a small project so I did not mind seeing it go into the trash but it felt very freeing. I have never been so impulsive, especially throwing yarn away.

At that point, I had more yarn with me so I started an easier pattern of a scarf for a Christmas present. Can't tell you who it is for, since you may be reading this!!!! I did add some sock yarn to my stash by visiting Colorful Stitches in Lenox. Jitterbug, one pair of socks for me and one for someone else, don't know who yet.

While in Lenox we visited Arrowhead, where Moby Dick was written. New books on my reading list are to reread Moby Dick and to find a good biography of Melville. Our group of All Star chairs have stayed at the Inn at Laurel Lake 3 times now. This time when we turned into the driveway it felt like home. Maybe I have been traveling a bit too much . . .

Let me clarify this Red Eye thing. The Red Eye is good 1) if the plane is not full and 2) you can stretch across 3 seats and try to get some sleep.