Five Favorites for This Friday

Hello all - I think it's time to do this again.  It's been a frustrating week at work, and a pretty normal week otherwise, but there are always at least five good things to point out, right?

1.  It's November.  I like November, it always seems like a cozy month to me.  The weather gets cooler, there are lots of family birthdays (including The Tim), and Thanksgiving arrives, which I think is the coziest holiday out there.

2.  Flu shots.  I had a check-up at my doctor's office this week, and got a flu shot.  I had been meaning to get one, and then had to wait until the shingles were well out of the way.  So this week I was able to be shot. (!)  I know some people say the actually get the flu from the shot, but so far, I just have a sore arm.  And hopefully I won't get the flu!

3.  Cardinals.  There have been cardinals in our garden this week.  They are some of my favorite birds, the males being such a pretty red, and both genders being so peepy.  They are also the state bird of Pennsylvania, as well as my home state of West Virginia (and several other states as well).

4.  Knitting students who finish projects during a class.  While I was working at Rosie's on Sunday, my co-worker Andrea was teaching a project class for a bulky, lacy cowl.  The students were not total newbies to knitting, but they were not veterans either.  In spite of the fact that one of them had to start over three times, they both finished their cowls during the workshop time (that hardly ever happens!).   They were thrilled, and they ended up buying more yarn to make the same things for holiday presents.  It's nice when people are happy rather than frustrated when they learn something new.

5.  Manicures that last.  I treated myself to a manicure last Saturday, and only this morning did I remove the polish.  That's a big deal for me, as usually the polish has chipped quite a bit by the evening of whenever I have my nails done, or fix them myself.  I have been making an effort to take care of my nails, since it keeps me from picking at my cuticles.

What about you?  I hope there are at least 5 things you can find from the week!

Pitiful

The subject line is the description of my knitting output this year.  I only realized it when I went to my pictures folder of "Completed" projects for 2013.  This has been the year of the unfinished and/or frogged project, along with a few bouts of being really sick and also including some plain un-inspiration.

Such is life.  I am disappointed, but will live.  Hopefully I'll be more productive from this point, since I've got lots of things I'm ready to knit in my brain, and God knows, the yarn to knit things!

Remember this post?  Well, the thing I was so close to finishing was my Narragansett sweater.  I was pretty excited.  I managed to get the body knit, and decided to try it all on before starting the sleeves, to be sure that I got the underarm area right.  Well, I put it on, and could have easily fit five of my closest friends in it with me - it was HUGE!  It looked "normal" all the time I was knitting it, so I didn't suspect that it was going to be a problem.  Sigh.  I then decided the following:  1) it was gonna get frogged, 2) the yarn would be put away, and [at least in theory] I would try again next spring,* and, 3) I really did need to finish reading and absorbing the info in Knit to Flatter before I tried another sweater!

Another disappointment, but surprisingly, I wasn't as upset as I would have expected, thinking back on it.  Who knows.  It's in the past now, and in knitting as well as in life, I'm trying to keep moving forward, you know?

Because it's pitiful to be so pitiful.


*Maybe not the same pattern, but I love the color of the yarn, so it needs to be something ...

Flashback Friday - Dublin

I was realizing today that at this time last year, we were spending our final full day in Ireland, and our second day in Dublin.  In so many ways, it seems so very long ago, then again, it seems very recent.

Then I also realized that I never finished my travelogue of our adventures and photos here on the blog, so I'm going to do that now.

We'd flown into Dublin on our first day, but immediately got our rental car and ventured elsewhere, since we knew we had two days at the end of the trip.  When we had been on our only other Ireland trip in 2003, we'd gotten to spend a day in Dublin, so we knew what to expect, and had fun making plans of what we would do on our return.

As was the case the rest of the trip, we had good weather.  As a matter of fact, the only time it actively rained when we were out, was on our very last day, when we were about 1 1/2 blocks from our hotel, heading back for dinner and the evening.  Not bad, and certainly nothing that interfered with any of our plans.

So, join me for the last part of our trip, before we flew home on November 2, 2012.

Well, you didn't think we wouldn't visit the Museum of Natural History, did you?  (What kind of natural history librarian would I be to skip it?  Besides, even before I started working at one, we both LOVED natural history museums!)

One of the best things about the Irish National Museum of Natural History is that, instead of the approach taken by modern museums, this one makes you feel that you walked right into a true cabinet of curiosities, in the way that it is laid out, and the specimens and exhibits are presented.  It was the best.

This is me standing in front of an Irish Elk, a now extinct creature, but one of my favorites.  We have one in our library's reading room, but the chance to see and Irish Elk in Ireland pleased my inner geek in an amazing way ...

Birds!

I was excited to see these Blaschka models of scientific specimens.  We have some at our museum, and they are so incredible, even when you see them or hold them in your hands, it seems impossible that they are glass.

Foxes!

Portion of the Hallway of Mammals

Part of the Skull Collection

Then it was on to the National Library of Ireland, where they had a special exhibit in celebration of the centenary of William Butler Yeats.

The skylight dome above the Reading Room.

Then National Gallery of Art of Ireland.  I didn't take any photos inside, but I have to admit that most of the gifts I bought for others were purchased in their gift shop!  Though parts of the galleries were closed for renovations, it was one of those places where each gallery that was open took your breath away with the array of beautiful paintings and objects.

I made a friend after we left there and were walking through town.

We spent our late afternoon taking a tour of the Abbey Theatre, which was so cool, as we had the chance to go backstage, behind the scenes, through some of the wardrobing and costume areas!

The Tim (on the very left here) in front of the Abbey Theatre.  We attended a performance there that evening of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.  A wonderful and fun way to end the day!

The next day, we headed to O'Connell Street, to walk up and down and go into some of the shops and wander down side streets.

 Daniel O'Connell Monument

 The General Post Office (so gorgeous inside - see below)

This is a bullet hole in one of the columns of the General Post Office from the 1916 Easter Uprising.

Then we visited with one of The Tim's best literary friends, James Joyce.

Then we headed to Powerscourt Townhouse, for some lunch and a trip to This Is Knit!

I bought three skeins of Donegal Irish Wool, and had a wonderful time looking at everything.  The shop staff was so nice, in spite of my blathering on and on.

From there, we headed to another part of town, where we saw St. Patrick's Cathedral. the building and the grounds were truly lovely, though we didn't go inside, because on philosophical grounds we objected to spending money for admission.

And finally, we made our way back to the other side of town, back to our hotel, and preparations to come back home and enjoy our memories.  We covered a lot of miles in those two days, and walked everywhere, so we woudn't miss anything.  It was so hard to leave.  But being able to go in the first place is the real treasure.

Thanks for indulging me looking at my pictures and listening to my tales, both in those post and others.  If you ever have the chance to visit Ireland, I have one word for you - GO!

Thirty-Five Years

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, 

but in looking together in the same direction.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Thirty-five years ago today, at the age of twenty-two, we got married.  We were fortunate in that our wedding was small, inexpensive, and just the way we wanted it to be.  At the time, a lot of people were offended that only our families and some very special friends were invited.  Most of those people have either faded from our lives, or remained friends anyway.  As it should be.

Growing up, I never really gave getting married much thought one way or the other.  I guess I figured it would probably happen, but never that it must.   And to be honest, that pretty much was always the way I felt about it.  Even as a teenager, it didn't bother me one way or another that I never had a boyfriend.  To be honest, most of my peers seemed incredibly young and immature, so I was just as happy to not have to deal with them most of the time.

The Tim and I met when we were freshmen.  We became best friends before it ever occurred to us to "go on a date."  And we never really talked about getting married, we just kinda decided it was the thing to do rather than be apart when he was going away for graduate school.  Sure, we could have just lived together.  But we figured we would probably get married at some point anyway, so why not just start that way?

During the past thirty-five years, we have had lots of laughs, many disagreements, more than our share of heartbreaks, and the usual ups and downs of any given person's life.  We have both probably grown more patient with others, if less patient with each other.  There are times when I'm certain both of us just wish the other would go away for a while, or shut up, or Just.Stop.  We both realize that at this stage of our lives, that may happen sooner or later anyway, whether or not we want it to, and last forever.  So it's always worth going on.

Once when I was talking to an unmarried friend, she said that she wished she could find someone, of course for the usual reasons, but also because she thinks it must be nice to just have someone there.  I told her that there were plenty of times when we are both at home, but not necessarily talking or even in the same room, but that there was nothing quite as comforting as the feeling of  "companionable silence" (I read those words in a book once, and they stuck with me).  She had never heard the phrase, and agreed that it was what she was - in the end - wishing she could find.

So here we are thirty-five years later, different but the same.  Living our own lives, doing our own things, spending each day as we nearly always have, with some slight variation.  Sometimes great, sometimes awful, but always at least good.  Laughing, crying, arguing, sulking, agreeing, ignoring, mocking, and obsessing.

But always - now and forever - looking in the same direction.

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart.

Are You Gonna Eat That?

Hm.  I thought I'd posted since last week, but apparently not.   Oh well, here I am again, and it's another Ten on Tuesday.

This week:

10 Foods You Eat Regularly Now That Were Exotic (or unheard of) 

When You Were a Kid

I don't know about many of you, but my parents were pretty good about exposing us to different kinds of food - we liked ethnic foods, and my parents had a lot of friends who were amazing cooks.  My dad liked to cook, but was not always at home to cook dinner - weekends were his thing.  My mother though?  She loved to eat but she was not interested in cooking.  At all.  Plus, she was of the generation that thought cooking from scratch was "old-fashioned" - something her mother *had* to do.

On top of that, we were poor, so a lot of what we ate was food that was a) cheap, and b) could last a while.  

But I digress.  Here's my list, in no particular order.

1.  Brown rice.  Or even, anything other than Minute Rice (which admittedly, I LOVED as a kid!).  We had rice pretty regularly, and I was an adult before I ever tasted "real" rice, much less brown rice.  

(Source)

2.  Squash.  Of any kind.  We did not live near a farm, and there were not a lot of farmer's markets around.  I knew what squash was, but seldom - if ever - ate it (other than the thousands of zucchinis that neighbors with gardens would give us during the summer!)

(Source)

3.  Edamame.  WHAT?????

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4.  Any bread not white.  Well, I take it back, we did used to have rye bread pretty frequently.  And not Italian white, or potato bread white.  Nope - cheap, icky, sticky, plain white bread.  In spite of which I still managed to grow up loving bread of any kind!  Go figure.

(Source)

5.  Pineapple.  OK, we would have it very occasionally (usually at Christmastime), but it was always expensive, and as a result a real treat.  I don't know that I eat it now "regularly" (it's still expensive!), but definitely more than once a year.

(Source)

6.  Fried pickles.  I never even heard of these until I moved to Philadelphia, and only tried them the first time last summer.  They are GOOD.  We have them sometimes on weekends, with beer.  Y-U-M.

(Source)

7.  Frozen custard.  Again, never ever heard of it until I was an adult.  I LOVE frozen custard!  We have it in the summer every couple of weeks as a treat.

(Source)

8.  Homemade macaroni and cheese.  Much like the Minute Rice referenced above, I never had "real" macaroni and cheese until someone gave me a cookbook when I was sixteen years old that had a recipe.  Don't get me wrong, I've still been known to enjoy Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on occasion, but nothing is as good as homemade.  Nothing.

(Source)

9.  Steamed dumplings.  First of all, I never knew that there was such a thing as a dumpling that was considered Chinese food.  And growing up, we ate quite a bit of Chinese food - real and American-ized.  But when I read Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club, and they were [seemingly always] making dumplings, I knew I had to try them.  Wow.  I can't believe what I'd been missing!

(Source)

10.  Indian food.  Of any kind.  We must not have ever lived someplace with an Indian restaurant nearby, because I know my parents would have been all over that food!

(Source)

The good thing about all of this?  It's always fun to try new things, and broaden your horizons, particularly food-wise, as far as I'm concerned.

The bad thing about all of this?  Now I'm *really* hungry ...