Adventures

I spent the night at my own place last night (hooray!) which ended up involving a couple of adventures.

Adventure the first:  When I arrived at Cemetery Way last night, there was a huge swath of the 'hood without electricity. That, of course, meant that there was no way to get into the parking garage.  And no elevator.

While I'm not always thankful for being on the second floor, last night I was very thankful I only had to climb two flights of stairs.  With a lot of stuff.

There are no pictures of that adventure, for obvious reasons.

Adventure the second:  This morning I had a snowy adventure. I was at my own place to avoid a 20 mile rush-hour drive to make an appointment this morning, so I decided to avoid driving all together and take the train.

I ended up going through the Cedar-Riverside area on my way home, where I passed a former abode:

I found it ironic that the only dry bit of brick on this building was the strip where the downspouts were frozen:

I also found this goddess-like sculpture ironic, given that it is in a neighborhood that is now heavily East African.  I have a young lady from East Africa in the class I am teaching right now, and she loves the freedoms that women have here.  I wonder if she is familiar with this statue... (I kind of have The Goddess on the brain right now as I am listening to The Mists of Avalon).

And finally, I found this mural to be particularly delightful on a snowy morning.  Nothing like cats frolicking in the snow.

Which reminds me.  Do you like Simon's Cat?  The cats in the snow made me think of this video.

Valentines

I'm not big on Valentine's Day, but a couple of things have come up today that were fun, including The Kat's posted pic, a greeting from the same on Ravelry, and a special treat this morning from Auntie, but now I've found a link on Mental Floss that is TOO GOOD TO PASS UP ... take a look at it.

In the meantime, this is the most romantic photo I can find of myself, so Happy Valentine's Day!

(you may have seen it on Facebook - taken by Girl-child in the Mission District of San Francisco June 2012)

Where Was I? Where Am I?

One of my long-term goals is to replace some books that were (ahem) lost in the upheaval of 2012.

This one was a challenge: a history of Spain for children, which is great for my purposes as it covers only the highlights (that's usually all I'm looking for).  I also like it because it ends before the Republic, Civil War and Franco years, which means that it glorifies King Alfonso XIII before his fall.

Anyway, it took some searching to find it.  After emailing the museum shop of the Alcazar de Segovia,  where I purchased the one I originally had, and a bookseller in France, I found it on Amazon.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, but there you have it.

This is a basket made by Girl-child from old t-shirts that will be used for ... yarn, of course:

We went to February's new restaurant last weekend (did I mention we're going to 12 new restaurants in 12 months?  It's great fun).  This is a very small piece of the unending graffiti found at Victor's 1959 Cafe, where the ropa vieja is delicious:

One of Auntie's cousins brought cookies and strawberries for treats while visiting the other day.  Great choices.  Auntie is doing quite well after surgery.  I'm hanging out in the Wilds of Bloomington to help out a bit while she heals.

Bacon and avocado sandwiches to go with the strawberries - yum!

Did you know that they glue the incision together for mastectomy patients now?  I guess it heals well and the scar is not so unsightly.  Kinda cool.

On The Arts

Apropos of nothing...Girl-child recently sent this link, which I think is fantastic on so many levels. 

While languishing in the wilds of Bloomington, I am reminded of the artistic traditions of the family. I never thought of myself as artistically inclined, when really it seems it just took me a long time to find my niche.

My Great-grandmother painted china. You may recall I went to the Antiques Road Show a while back, and this pitcher ended up being the most valuable thing I schlepped to the show. Not super-valuable, but the (snotty with a serious superior attitude problem) guy who looked at it told us that while all the ladies of the time (turn of the century) were doing this sort of thing, at least my great-grandmother was talented (read: a lot of those ladies made ugly stuff).

It was really the only thing of my mother's in the china category that I wanted. She gave it to me about five years ago.

Out here at Auntie's, there is a tobacco set, also painted by said Great-grandmother. It's quite spectacular.  Tray, tobacco container and ashtray included in the set.

Other talented relatives (besides Girl-child) would be Auntie herself, who not only knit and crocheted, but also painted china, did needlepoint and cross-stitch and hand-quilting. There was also a Great-aunt who went to California and worked in costuming during the early days of film.

Kinda cool.  I've learned a lot about my family while spending time with Auntie.

All's Quiet on the SW Front

Auntie is home from the hospital.  Everything went well; no surprises.  Thanks for all the good wishes.

So here I am in the SouthWest corner of nowhere, hanging out.  I find it both hilarious and terrifying that I am the "Responsible Adult" for Auntie's return home.

I could be doing some work, but I really don't feel like it.  I've been knitting on my stealth project.  I worked on my sock a little at the hospital.  I just bought Vogue Knitting, Winter 12/13.

One of the things I recently discovered is Shutterfly.  I got some prints from them, and then they started sending me all these coupons.  I caved and purchased a coffee mug with these three images on it:

I really, really like the mug.

In other news, I got to stay at my place for two nights last week while Auntie was in the hospital.  I watched the rest of Downton Season III while I was home.  To me, the cliffhanger was pretty weak in its predictability.  No, I won't spoil it, but do tell me what you think once you've seen it.

Boy-child called me today to give me my weekly update - I didn't even have to remind him!  He's liking Aristotle's Politics (!).

Today I am wearing these socks, which according to Ravelry I made in the spring of 2008.  Don't you love hand-knit socks?