Everyone's Checked In

Miraculously, all family and friends connected to us are now accounted for with only one person left with an uninhabitable apartment. Some are without (regular) water, electricity, phone service but in the big picture, all is well.

Thanks everyone for the emails, the phone calls and for keeping Chile in your thoughts.

Great Sign

On a lighter note, here's a favorite sign in the neighborhood:
Finally walkers get their own lane. I, for one, resent those looks I get when walking up to the drive thru teller at the bank...

Many Family Members Have Checked In

We've heard from Pato's parents who are ok, his brother, sister-in-law and nephew in La Calera are ok, two aunts and an uncle in Santiago are ok

Still waiting for others

Earthquake

There has been a 8.8 magnitude earthquake near Concepcion, Chile. (The earthquake in Haiti was 7.0. The Richter Scale measures exponentially.) Fortunately for Chile, many of the modern buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes. But there are older buildings too.

Here's your geography lesson of the day: Concepcion is south of Santiago. Our house is north of Santiago. We are hopeful that Pato's parents are ok. We do know people in other parts of the country, including Concepcion. We are very anxious to hear from everyone. Of course, it will be a while since communication is down.

So keep Chile in your thoughts today, as well as all of the people across the Pacific who could be affected by the potential tsunami.

Thanks. We'll keep you posted when we have details.

Crisis of Expectations

All excited I was, for the Thursday cast removal. Traded it in for a removable splint:

Not so good. Sure I can take it off but it hurts without the support.

Another four weeks.

:-(

Le Weekend

It was a weekend of ups and downs. I will stick to the good parts.

I went to Knit Night Friday at The Yarnery where Jean, the best knit night hostess ever, brought up the subject of knit tagging. Half of the people there hadn't heard of it. They had some laughs from my story of the run-in with the police and others had good stories too. I also found out about this friend of Jean's. There was a woman visiting from California who had done some very interesting knitterly travel, including visits to Norway and Fair Isle. Fair Isle has to be one of the more exotic places I've ever heard of anyone traveling to, and I think that's saying something, given that I worked in the travel industry for nearly twenty years. (It is not, however, on my list of places I'd like to visit).

A couple of Macalester students were at Knit Night too. Boy-child, in the meantime, was hanging out with friends at Macalester where he begs and swaps clothes on a regular basis.

A Midwestern Holden Caulfield

I went to the Minnesota Knitters' Guild annual tea today where I saw one of the women who organizes Yarnover. I told her how thrilled I was when I got my classes for this year, and that I get the hiccups whenever I think about it I am so excited. (I have class with Jared Flood in the Morning and Franklin Habit in the afternoon).

Other weekend activities included volunteering Saturday at Franklin Learning Center where I worked with two young women studying for the citizenship test (one of my favorite activities), I started reading A Mercy by Toni Morrison, and Pato and I watched The Time Traveler's Wife. I thought was pretty good, which sometimes happens if enough time has passed since I read the book.

And last but not least, I've gotten to the 25% mark on the cranberry Seaweed Stole:

I am rather pleased with it. I may have to rename it though. Maybe the Broken Wrist Shawl?

Yarn Bomb Extraordinaire

Andrew

Last month, when Pato and Girl-child were at the house in Chile, a friend of the family stopped by on his bike:
We last saw Andrew in September right before he left town.

Today's GPS coordinates put him near Santa Cruz, Argentina.

I just can't begin to express how amazing it is to me that he's covered the length of the Americas on a bicycle.

Way to go, Andrew.

(thanks, Pato, for the photo)

Ice

Wallpaper

Kmkat wants us to show our wallpaper - so here it is:

Children walking Cannon Beach, Oregon - August 2009

When I Am an Old Woman

Received this in my email today. Hope you like it. This is the old woman I will strive to become.

Goodbye Mom

A young man shopping in a supermarket noticed a little old lady following him around. If he stopped, she stopped. Furthermore she kept staring at him.

She finally overtook him at the checkout, and she turned to him and said, "I hope I haven't made you feel ill at ease; it's just that you look so much like my late son."

He answered, "That's okay."

"I know it's silly, but if you'd call out 'Good bye, Mom' as I leave the store, it would make me feel so happy."

She then went through the checkout, and as she was on her way out of the store, the man called out, "Goodbye, Mom."

The little old lady waved and smiled back at him.

Pleased that he had brought a little sunshine into someone's day, he went to pay for his groceries.

"That comes to $121.85," said the clerk.

"How come so much? I only bought 5 items."

The clerk replied, "Yeah, but your Mother said you'd be paying for her things, too."

(thanks, Bonnie)

Title of the Week

I haven't done this for a while, partly because I don't see all the new stuff that comes in to the library any more, but I stumbled upon this new book today and I must share the title with you:

Monitoring and Control of Macrofouling Mollusks in Fresh Water Systems

Second Edition, even.

Cranberry Seaweed

As it turns out, once you have something started, it's much easier to continue knitting with a cast; you just have to get beyond those first rows.

The Cranberry Seaweed Stole progresses:

Language Master

Haven't had a quiz for a while...

Your result for Guess The Language Test...

The Language Master

22 of 24 Knowledge!

You scored 22 Knowledge. You did Awesome! I hope you had fun, that is all that really matters. The best result you got is a little bit of exposure to some of the many languages of the world. If you liked this send me feedback and maybe I will make another one. If you vote that is appreciated also.

Take Guess The Language Test at HelloQuizzy

And check out this little quiz from Mental Floss; it's vertical slits from presidential memoirs; you get to guess which president from the fragment. They have regular lunchtime quizes that are quite amusing, if you're geeky enough to be into that sort of thing...

Crip Knit

Sarah suggested I make a video of knitting with the cast, so here it is.

Unfortunately I can't edit the video, so sorry about the poor quality. You get the idea.

Slow and steady wins the race. Eventually.

Two FOs

I finished the puzzle last night, as well as Boy-child's latest hat. I had about an inch knit on the hat that fateful, icy Monday Morning-of-the-Break; it was going to be done that night at Conversations With Books.


This morning I'll find out if I can cast on with a cast.

:-P

Caucus and Other Pass Times or What To Do When You Find Yourself One-handed

Last night was caucus night in our fair city. I was tricked into being the Convenor for my precinct, which meant some extra work. Off I went with Boy-child in tow; he was, quite literally, my right-hand-man.

Non-presidential years are good ones to be active. The group was small last night. My only difficult attendee was my (Pseudo) Co-convenor. One of my more amicable attendees was a former mayor. We had many representatives of candidates visit, and one gubernatorial candidate, (Minneapolis) Mayor R. T. Rybak showed up in the flesh. (For the record, my status is undecided).

Girl-child was in class, so she didn't attend. Boy-child watched because he refuses to declare himself a Democrat, which meant he could not participate. He and I agree to disagree on politics, although we do agree that representative democracy is special.

I am knitting a hat for Boy-child, which is moving along at a snail's pace. I've hit the decreases which are especially difficult with the cast. In the meantime, Girl-child made a mitten-cap for my fingers since I can't get any mitten or glove over the goofy thumb of my cast:
Cool, huh? The color is off but the cap is very green - looks great with the purple cast.

I've been working on the Paris map puzzle I received for Christmas too. The only pieces left are the ones that all look alike:
This color is more accurate:
Excuse the glare; I'm not home during daylight hours except for the weekend. It's pretty impossible to take photos these days:
I'm also reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which is really, really good. I've already bought the sequel from Audible and loaded it into my iPod. What I can't understand is how my slacker book club ended up with a 600 page book for the February pick.

Ok, in looking up the links I have just discovered that the author is no longer living, that the three books he wrote were found unpublished when he died in 2004 and that the original Swedish title was Men That Hate Women

Random Photos:Kids

Rough morning: couldn't zip my pants, put my sweater on backwards, bus driver forgot my stop so I got dropped off in a snowbank...