Christmas Eve

It's the 24th of December; whoa....this year has flown by.  I became a grandmother and on November 28th, I also became a great aunt.  This means that my sister is also now a grandmother.  I can totally understand and appreciate her enthusiasm for this wonderful event having experienced it not so long ago myself.  My nephew, Ryan, is now a dad to Sydney Rose.  She is a tiny bundle of joy that I will hopefully get to meet sometime after the beginning of the year.  They live in FL so I am not going to be able to know this baby in quite the way that I would like; but we will make every effort to be part of her life, even if it is from a distance.

Tomorrow is Kaitlyn's first Christmas.  And like the song, for Christmas she is getting her two front teeth!  The poor child actually got the two on the bottom when she was barely 4 months old.  She was a drooling machine for a few days and then without any fanfare there were two little white teeth pushed through her gum.  Not so this time; she has been very unhappy with the impending arrival of what appears to be both of the top teeth at the same time!  Her checks are flushed and she is so cranky.  She rarely ever cries so this has been an emotional time for all of us.  Scott and Jessie are beside themselves at not being able to soothe her and there doesn't seem to be enough Baby Oragel on the planet to make this poor child comfortable.  I just hope that Santa delivers and by tomorrow the teeth will be through and she will be the happy child we love so much. 

Speaking of Christmas...this has always been a tough time of year for me.  Christmas seems to bring about all of those emotions about the folks that are no longer with us.  This year they seem to have subsided a bit as the focus is on those that have joined us this year.  I am somewhat practical and have tried not to spoil Kaitlyn with too many things.  Instead I have made sure that she has a new car seat (totally boring gift) that will actually function for her until she no longer needs to have car seat and started to save for her education and left the 'fun' stuff to her parents.  Not that I am a total Grinch, I did purchase books and she has her first diamond earrings.  Diamonds are her birthstone after all...

It's the time of year when we take time to reflect on what we have and I am so grateful for Ben, Scott and Jessie, dear Kaitlyn and all of my family.  We are blessed with more than most and I am happy that we are all together.  Tonight we will be with extended family as we begin to celebrate Christmas.  I hope that wherever you are today, that you too, have more than enough.  Many your Holidays be happy; and you have all good things in the coming year.

Almost the First of December

When I started this, I wondered if anyone would ever read it and thought it may be more than a bit self-indulgent. However, I was recently asked why I had not updated my blog so here for at least that single reader who finds this amusing, is what I have been up to (in the short form) for the last couple months.

Kaitlyn is growing and changing day by day; I guess that is to be expected. What I had not planned for was how much joy I would feel at each little, new thing she would learn. Be it a new noise, an expression or reaching her little arms out to me to be picked up and held, my heart nearly explodes and my tear ducts most also do. I find myself thinking about my own mortality as I play with this tiny little girl, will I be here for this or that in her lifetime...God willing I will.

Yesterday was her first Thanksgiving! We had guests, who are really more extended family than friends. We told them to come over anytime and were woefully unprepared when they did. Neither Ben nor I had even showered when they arrived and the house was in it's typical disorderly, dog hair covered state. The turkey however was in the roaster and the food was well on it's way to being done. Since they are more family than friend, they just rolled with it and never blinked an eye about my pajamas and Ben's sweats and one at a time we excused ourselves to shower and dress. The food was good and too plentiful. There will be left overs this evening. Kaitlyn was fun and experienced her first tastes of things like real peas, squash, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey and cranberry sauce. She was not too impressed with the texture of the mashed potatoes and although we expected that she would find the cranberry too tart for her tastes she wanted more of that. Our friends have two granddaughters but they are not local and they did not get to experiece lots of the baby times with either, so it made me very happy to see Pat on the floor on a blanket with Kaitlyn and a load of toys, reading a book. It's so nice that Kaitlyn will have surrogate grandparents in these folks in her life. I am looking forward to Christmas for the first time in many years and can't wait to see Kaitlyn tossing bits of paper around, since I am sure she will be far more interested in that the contents of her gifts at this point.

On the knitting front....well I spend far too much visiting with folks on Ravelry but they have become, in some abstract way that I can't really explain, good friends. Ben and I went to the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Festival in late October and actually meet some of the folks that I know from Ravelry. I even brought SPAllison with me; SP stands for Sock Puppet and she is the sock puppet version of her owner Allison who could not attend the festival. We had fun and made new friends who found it amusing that a middle aged woman was wandering this festival with a sock puppet on her hand. SPAllison left the festival with someone else and went to visit her family and tour the Washington DC area before heading off on another adventure. We came home with only a small amount of yarn, a few bottles of wine and great memories of meeting new friends. And I confirmed a valuable lesson...I am too old and impatient and maybe claustraphobic to be in a festival setting like this with thousands of people and not walk away a bit frustrated. I need to go earlier in the morning to hit the places that I most want to visit before the crowds are so thick that you can't move. That being said we have already made hotel reservations for next year's festival and plan a visit to the Culinary Institute as well.

We also attended the wedding of one of Ben's cousins in the Baltimore MD area. She is one of those completely lovely people who take on a million tasks, complete them with perfection and succeed at everything they attempt. I am sure that none of it is easy; but she certainly makes it seem that way. She created and hand made all of her invitations, the table arrangements and the gifts on the tables for guests to take home. We were greeted at our hotel with a gift bag of things like bottled waters and snacks, a list of interesting things to see and do and directions to the venue for the wedding. She thought of and executed every little detail; including knocking on our hotel room door to welcome us before the chaos of the event began. We wish this couple the very best and thoroughly enjoyed our visit and their wedding.

The project for the Three Irish Girls has come back to me; but the details of the project have not been made public yet. I can't wait to see what everyone else created and what is being done with the photographs that were taken.

On another topic, I have joined Facebook. This is not something that I ever thought that I would do but many folks I know have invited me to join them there and who am I to turn down an invitation. I don't completely understand what happens there and have been hit with snowballs and asked to join the Mafia, but for what it's worth it's nice to know that I can find friends there that I have not been in touch with for years.

And that, for what it's worth, are the highlights of what goes on in my world!

The Great NY State Fair

And I use that phrase loosely.....I had never been to the State Fair until last week. I had this notion that the state fair was a showcase for all things New York! I couldn't have been more wrong. The first thing that we came across as we started our trek through the fairgrounds was a group of trained bears; never mind that the thought of these bears with garlands around their necks riding bicycles caused me to shudder with embarrassment for these large and majestic animals, they were in fact from Canada! The next stop we made was to watch a group of 3 aerialists; 2 men and a boy of about 11 who was the child of one of the men. While I fearfully watched as they did stunts on chairs and poles and a rotating wheel about 80 feet over my head all I could think of was why wasn't that young boy in school and not risking his life working on a pole with no safety provisions in sight. And to top it off when they took their bows I learn that they are from Tampa, FL! You could of course see a butter sculpture in a building where you could also buy a baked potato with a multitide of toppings for a dollar or a glass of milk for a quarter. There were touches of agriculture throughout but for the most part it was a giant carnival with vendors selling everything from Sham-Wow to pots and pans that cooked with no water on every corner. Both days that we were there it rained at some point during the day and we were soaked. One day we took refuge in a giant exhibition hall that was labled something like 'Progress for the Home', in the center were a few men working on a giant sand sculpture of a ship that has recently been commissioned and was constructed of metal from the twin towers, it truly was interesting and very large. But the entire rest of this exhibit hall was lined with rows and rows of vendors!

We camped at Green Mountain State Park; the view from the park was lovely. The park however was not the greatest. We didn't expect much because as a state park there are typically no hook-ups for things like water, sewer or electric but we did think that there would be more than one source for potable water and that it wouldn't be in the other loop of campsites. We had a bit of a challenge as the site was at the bottom of a slight hill and our camping partners were on the site at the top of that hill. And since it rained and water does run down hill we were in something of a swamp by the end of the first day. But we enjoyed their company and the trip to the fair was an experience I won't soon forget!

Updates

On the Kaitlyn front; our Princess had her doctor's check up and weighs in at 14 and a half pounds and she is 24 inches long. The doctor says she is a bit on the short side...but the poor girl never had a chance in that department; not a one of us has any height! She got her first tooth on Sunday; Ben had mentioned a few times that her bottom gum had white marks but we all believed she was too young to get a tooth. She sure fooled us, she had been doing a fair amount of drooling but never was cranky or had any rash or fever that often is a part of teething. I hope that everything is this easy for her!

Ben and I are leaving tomorrow for the Syracuse area to camp and attend the NY State Fair with his step-father and his wife. I have never been to a state fair and I have no idea what this will be like but we plan to attend on two different days because there is so much to see. I will be interested to see if there are any folks there that spin wool or make any hand-dyed yarns.

I am waiting for a package of yarn in the mail any day from Sharon at Three Irish Girls. I will be knitting a small project for her that will be photographed for her website. I am a bit nervous about doing a good job and having it finished in a timely manner, the finished project needs to be in her hands by the 22nd of September. When she is done with it she will send it back to me and also send me a gift certificate for her website. I feel a bit guilty about that part. I am just happy to be included in the project and will be thrilled to have my project when she is done with it.

There are some things that need to be finished before we leave tomorrow.....

Travel

First, I should preface this by sharing with you that Ben (my husband) is not fond of air travel, or boat travel or frankly any travel where he is not the one in charge. (See previous posts about camper ownership) I can recall only a handful of times in our 20 years that I have been the driver and he has been the passenger. That having been said.....

Ben needed to travel for his company this week; and not a short trip. He had to go to San Francisco. Thank God another gentleman was also going to go which made the prospect of this journey slightly less awful. But it did not go at all as planned...

Ben left at 4 a.m. Sunday morning to pick up his traveling companion and get to Albany for a 7 a.m. flight to Newark....about 8:30 when I attempted to call him to make sure he was about to board his flight to San Francisco, his phone began ringing in the bedroom....Scott, Jessie and I just looked at each other with this 'Oh Crap' expression on our faces. Ben had forgotten his phone...about 10 minutes later Ben calls to tell me the obvious...he forgot his phone and the not so obvious... that the flight was delayed until about 11 a.m.....he would get back to me when he could, but his co-worker only carries a trac phone and Ben didn't want to use all his minutes so was only calling when he absolutely had information to share....didn't hear from him again until about 7 p.m., which I thought was going to be the call to tell me that he had arrived in CA.....sadly, no, he was still in Newark...and after a long and somewhat weird day with a $500 voucher off his next Continental travel he boarded a plan to San Diego. He called about 2 a.m. our time and was being put up for the night with his co-worker in a two bedroom suite in a hotel that he didn't even tell me the name of in San Diego....they were being put on a commuter flight Monday morning to San Francisco. So on Monday I dutifully overnight his cell phone to the facility he will be working at, and wonder how things are going.

There has been a news update that a Continental flight in FL has 26 injured passengers due to not having their seat belts on during turbulence. Not sure that the $500 voucher will ever be used at this point ....oh yes and let's add to that earthquakes in San Diego....it just couldn't get any better. My hopes for some chocolate from Ghiradelli are evaporating before my eyes.

Finally have a call from him about 10 p.m. on Monday night. The day went pretty well but not without some speed bumps. They took a taxi to the San Diego airport and were let out at the Continental terminal, only to realize that Continental put them on an American Airlines commuter flight to get them to San Francisco. So off they go to find the correct area so that they can actually depart and get there with a whooping 15 minutes to spare. Arriving in San Francisco was much the same headache, they deplane at an American Airlines section of the airport and then have to trudge through the airport to find their luggage which is at the Continental Customer Service area, then find out that they have to go to the total opposite end of the airport to get their rental car. From that point on things go smoothly, they get to their hotel, check in, regroup and make their way to Flowmedica by mid-morning.

Now that all the travel 'stuff' is over I am hopeful that he is enjoying some local flavor and seeing some things (at least on the way to and from the facility) to make the trip enjoyable. So I ask what he had for lunch; completely hoping that he got information from the folks at the facility about some great local food.....first I should mention that these folks are all going to be unemployed soon as the company that Ben works for has purchased this company and they are moving the production of the product line to the NY facilty....guess they really don't feel good about handing out tourist tips. So lunch is at the local SUBWAY.....I nearly choked when he told me but held out hope that for dinner they found some wonderful seafood place and had gorged themselves on fresh seafood. They did have seafood; however he and his companion were both exhausted after the long travel, the time change and the work day and opted for the first 'safe bet' they saw that wasn't too far removed from the hotel....yep, you guessed it...RED LOBSTER!!!

Not sure how this will all play out....but I am sure that there will be stories!!

Caught up in a Sea of Yarn

Once upon a time I would check my email to see if anyone had sent me a note or surfed the web to see what might be going on in the world or checked card making sites for ideas; now it seems that email and the world at large have become secondary issues. Now, one of the first things I check is the Ravelry website to see who is on and what they have going on in their world today. I don't use Facebook or Twitter but this community of folks that like fiber have invited me in and I have joined them with enthusiasm. Many times the conversation is over my head.....discussions of various types of wool and yarns and roving and techniques. But I am learning....so many things...and the lessons are not remotely limited to fiber. The world is a very small place and the commonality of the folks here defies their borders. Ironically, I found my very own next door neighbor was a member of the site and a girl who sings with the opera in Switzerland but actually went to school at Crane in Potsdam is also a member.

Soon there will be a gathering in Oregon called the Sock Summit; there is no way that I can cross the country to attend this event. And frankly if I did I would be standing in a corner slack-jawed with wonder at everything it promises for those that attend. There is even a contest among those that hand dye yarn called Dye for Glory. They win nothing but the honor of winning; though on a practical front I am sure that the publicity for those that win will change their businesses tremendously. I am voting for Sharon, who dyes her yarns as Three Irish Girls, they are beautiful and inspired and I am truly impressed with her gift for interpreting something like an everyday peach and creating a yarn that makes you feel as if you just bit into one and the juice is running down your chin.

In October there will be an event in Rhinebeck, not too far from where I live and if time and money allow, maybe we will camp there for a couple days and take in all of the sites and sounds and textures that the NY Sheep and Wool Festival has to offer.

Knitting for Three Irish Girls

A few weeks ago on Ravelry a lovely woman know as the Yarnista asked for volunteers to knit with her yarn and produce an item that would be suitable to be photographed for her website...though I am a novice at the craft I threw caution to the winds and submitted my name and said that I would love to try this and indicated that I was currently knitting socks and baby things. There is an entire thread on Ravelry dedicated on the forums to this subject and we have all been anxiously awaiting her decisions. I have been asked if I would like to knit gloves or mittens for her. I am certain that she is asking me to do so as an act of kindness so as not to discourage a novice knitter but I have told her that I would love to knit whatever she would like....so I am now waiting to hear from her about a pattern and yarn choice so that I can begin knitting for her. Hopefully I will do a good job and the next time she makes an offer of this sort I will have proven myself to be worthy of a more demanding item. But it all starts with baby steps....