A very quiet week.

It's Thursday and no one here has been in the hospital- had a birthday-made a major purchase or anything else truly worthy of notice.
I have been to work ,washed the floors and painted my nails this week (toes pink and fingers clear). I am also working on a black sock for Michael, as so many men have told him that they hate to wear anything but handmade socks. He is now willing to try them. For some reason though I misscounted the heel and had to redo it four times. The knitting part doesnt take that long,but the pulling out of the mistake and not completly losing my place is tough and takes ages.
Today is my Dad's birthday- Happy Birthday Dad, if you are reading this. Michael is going to Dresden this weekend for his free weekend- I had mine last week ,remember? It seems so long ago already. Tomorrow morning I have my last stitching class and afterward am going to do the last bit of shopping for my Gemini birthday exchange.
I found a nice picture of my dad and the boys from last summer but once again I can't get it to download - i will try again this afternoon.

The promised pictures

Here are the promised pictures. A pair of socks , finished in a race with the Formula One drivers in Imola. I watched too much and knit too little and lost. LOL . The yarnis for four pairs of socks- a black pair for Michael,which I started last night, the blue strip is for Moni. The other dark yarn is actually a dark blus silk mix with sparkle. I hope to find some dark blue beads to add to the cuff of this pair. I don't yet have a plan for the off white and blue yarn. I just liked it. I also bought three pairs of circs. One pair is Inox and the other two are Addi premiuns. I have read so much about these needles that I have to try them. I have been ironing this morning , but Larry King live is on so it is my knitting/stitching time.

Vacation bits

I made it home safely from my mini vacation- a day late and but in good time to see the Formula One qualifying ;-) . Had a very relaxing trip ,not hurrying to go anywhere or do anything in a short time frame. I did have a couple of small set backs ,but nothing tragic.
On Wednesday I drove to Moni's and on the way tried to go to a LNS that I had been meaning to visit for about three years. I have ordered things from there and spoken to them a number of times and thought I would take the opportunity and drive out of my way to actually see the shop. When I got there it was gone! I spent about an hour trying to find out if I was in the right place and if so what had happened to the shop. I finally found out that it had suddenly closed about a month before. Sad- and a pain for me. After I had lunch and a cup of tea ,it was off to Moni's. The weather was so nice that we were able to sit outside and chat and dringk pots of tea until about 7pm. Lovely.
Then next afternoon I continued my trip with a visit to Annemarie in Maastricht. I had a little adventure in driving in that I was almost to her house when I decided that I must have gone wrong somewhere and turned around. I quickly found a place to park and called her . With a little encouragment I made it all the way to Annemarie's house and even managed to park my car in a small space behind her house. It was fantastic to meet Annamarie and Pelle ,of course- I had a wonderful afternoon and hope she did too. We had lunch in a little cafe in front of her house and then we walked into the center of Maastricht- which is a town I aways enjoy. We hit all he LNS/LYS in the hopes of finding some nice sock wool- which we didn't, but it was fun anyway. We then ate an ice cream at an Australian ice cream shop- mmm yummy. We then walked back to the house . Jula was home from work so we got some Chinese for dinnner, another of my favorites, We then talked until far to late. Poor Pelle should have been in bed ,but was remakably good tempered, and I should long have been at Anja's. I did have a chance to show off a few bits of my stitching and knitting and to check out what Annemarie is working on. She stitches beautifuly and has chosen a super chart for Carol's RR. Thank you for the lovely afternoon and Evening Annemarie. I hope we can do it again soon.
Friday I spent with my friend Anja and her kiddies- Ciara and Mika. In the afternoon we mananged a trip to Aachen to the big Junghans craft store-where-hooray- I finaly found a great selection of knitting needles. They also had a good (not great) selection of sock yarn and stitching bits, pluss tons of other fun stuff. All of which made it definiatly worth the trip.
Friday evening was another beautiful one and we were able to eat outside and even sit out until after 10 pm- wonderful.
Saturday I drove home and managed not to get a speeding ticket so it was an all around successful trip.

This afternoon I finished the second of a pair of socks while watching the Formula One race. I thought I could get it finished before the race was over and was knitting like mad ,but they were to quick for me. I had it finished before the interviews were over though- so I was close.
I thought I had downloaded a picture of the new socks and my stash to this blog ,but they seem to have disappeared into cyber space. I will have to go searching for them.
Well, I have downloaded my pix twice and blogger keeps eating them ,so I will try again tomorrow.

Going to have a couple days of vacation!

Here are my three Easter Bunnys. We had a lovely lunch in a hotel and they provided some child care and amusement. They even hid eggs in the hotel entrance hall and had an egg hunt. After lunch all thelittle kids lft and my kids ,and Leonie, took over the craft corner and amused themselves making rude bunnys and hanging them on the wall of the otherwise elegant conference room.

alexander was at the doctor this morning and was given a clean bill of health ,and Patrick is in Koln visiting a friend so I have decided to go away for a couple of days.

I am going to drive to the German/ Netherlands border where I have friends. First to Moni ,who has sprained her foot,and then tomorrow I am going to meet Annemarie- in person (woohoo) , and then I will spend a night with Anja and then back home again. Between visiting friends I hope to hit at least one LNS and one LYS both of which I have never been to before. So I might have a stash report when I get home. Now I better pack a few things and get going before someone comes up with the idea that I should do something else before I go:-)

Are you ready for Easter?

We are- or as ready as were going to get. The boys dyed the eggs , to help out the Easter Bunny , I baked another easter bread-the first two have been eaten already. And Michael made arrangments for us to meet friends for brunch tomorrow .
Watching the boys dye eggs made me remember one year when Michael was deployed in Jugoslavia over Easter.
Friends of ours lived in Amsterdam and I took the kids there to spend the holiday. Their idea of Easter was brunch in a nice hotel . I like this idea too ,but the kids required an egg hunt first. After the kids were put to bed Saturday evening , I unpacked the egg cooker, the eggs and dye that I had brought with me. Both Judy and Jun rolled their eyes and made that "this is why we don't have kids face" . I begged them to help me and they both agreed, although I don't think Jun ,who is Japanese, had ever dyed eggs before. Sometime around midnight I gave up and went to bed and left the two of them happily creating tiny works of art . I had shown them how ,if you color on an egg with crayon and then dip it in the dye , the dye will not stick to the egg. I use this techniqe to do things like write "Happy Easter" in block letters. They took this and ran with it. They made really wonderful eggs with names, animals and fantasy designs. The kids were thrilled with these eggs- me too.
They are divorced now and we haven't seen them in ages, although I spoke with both of them less than a year ago. They helped make a holiday that could have been difficult, with Papa away, into something special.
I wish everyone of you a Happy Easter, Passover, or just a lovely day .

Promised updates

Here are a couple of pix , to show what I have been up to on my "holiday". My goal was to be somewhat further along than I actually am, but things will happen.
Alexander needed new clothes -again. We have been invited to go out to brunch on Sunday and realised that A has only lined ,winter pants. Until now that has been good ,but it is spring! Also he has outgrown all of the nice, button down ,oxford shirts that my dad bought him last year. So off we went to Munster , in the pouring rain , to fight the crowds, with our still limping son , to buy him clothing. We managed two pairs of jeans, a pair of "nice" pants , his first adult shirt and tie and a nice-ish sports jacket. . I will try and remember to take a picture on Sunday when he is all dressed up.
I am off now, to watch "Law and Order " and work on Barbara's RR some more.

An important finish

I am letting out a sigh of relief. I have been messing around with a mail art for weeks and it is finally finished. I am not sure why I had such a hard time getting it done, exept that I wanted it to be "just so" and a large part of getting it right was in the finishing-which is not my strong point. I can't post a picture yet because it is supposed to be a surprise ,but as soon as it arrives at it's home I will put up one ..or two. I am very pleased with the way it came out and all of the thought that went into it shows.

Alexander is doing well and now just has to avoid being overactive for a week or so, and as my house guests have gone home (sniff,sniff) I have some time to work on Barbara's RR and my socks. Hope to have an update picture on those tomorrow.

It wasn't Patrick this time.

To start with- here is my latest sock finsh. I am very happy with this pair. I tried a bunch of new stuff while knitting these socks. I used bamboo needles for the first time, I went down a needle size, used a yarn with a coton content, knit a pattern for the first time and a different heel and I tried grafting the toe. I was pretty happy with the way everything but the toe came out. I think it just needs practice though and will definitly try again.

On the personal news front. Yesterday I was in Munster for a stitching class afterwards I was going to do some sock yarn shopping when my handy let me know. I had received a message. I actually read it which is quite unusual for for me. It was a message from my DH asking me to call right away. I did and when he answerd the first thing he said was "everything is all right" by which I knew it wasn't. He them proceeded to tell me that our oldest son was ,at that moment ,being operated on. DH was packing a few things for DS1 while I drove home to pick him up and we managed to get to the hospital before he came out of recovery.
The story I have been able to piece together is this: Alexander woke up with some pain in his abdomen, but not too bad ,so he didn't mention it. I have to say here that he looked fine to me. At some point in the morning it got so bad that he went to the school office and they tried to call my DH and myself. We were both carrying our cell phones ,but for some reason they could not reach us. The school then called our neighbors ,who also have my cell number,but they had just left on vacation. Then the school called our GP's office , he was not in ,but only his partner. I don't know who decided to call out GP at home ,but "thank you" to whoever it was. Our GP , the lovely Stefan, actually got into his car and drove to my DS's school , examined him and then drove him to the hospital. I think nothing will get you into an operating room quicker than showing up with your own doctor! They discovered that Alexander had a twisted testical, which needs to be fixed ASAP , if it is to be saved. So they did. It turned out that I actually know the doctor who did the surgery , which is a nice feeling. I sat with Alexander untill about 8pm and as I am writing this at 9 :55 am, he called and said he could be picked up from the hospital. DH just went to get him .
We took our GP a bottle of wine last night , but the poor man was still doing home visits at 9:30 pm, so we drank a glass with his wife. I think I owe him some huge thanks and a home baked bread or something. Thank God we live in Germany where doctors still still make home (and school) visits and hospitals only wonder about who will pay ,after the fact. . A huge "thank you" as well ,to all who took the initiative to get my child the help that he needed ,even though they couldn't find us or "get our permission'.

Husband living at home

I know- most husbands live at home -but mine doesn't usually. His job and the age of our kids has made it a neccesity for us to live in different places for the last couple of years. That he travels a lot in his job means that he also doesn't come home every weekend. It can be tough,but I sometimes think that is is even harder when he comes back for a while! We are glad he is here though.

He will be spending 3 months in the Congo,working, this summer . Until he leaves ,he is taking a French course. French is the main language in the Congo and while his French works for a short vacation in France (mine does too-and I have never had a French lesson , so this isn't saying much) he can't converse. Anyway...... It just so happens that there is a military language school near where we live. Which means that he will be living at home from now until he leaves for the Congo. Pretty cool. I just have to get used to finding his shoes and coffee cups strewn about the house on a daily basis again. A small price. I guess ;-)

We had a lovely weekend. Visited Anja and Roman, went to Charity Night and Danced for hours. My idea of fun!!Charity Night was much better than last year ,but not as good as years ago when Anja and I were on the organizing commity ( of course) they have found a better band though and that is great as the music can really make or break a function like this.

One huge complaint I have, has nothing to do with the orginization and everything to do with people just lacking sense. Charity night starts at 7pm and consists of food eaten from booths, dancing with loud music and lots of alcohol. Why do people bring their children? I would never have subjected one of my children ,as an infant, to such loud music. It can't be good for their little ear drums. And in my opinion ( I am pretty opinionated) no child under 16 belongs at a public function, after about 9pm, where huge amounts of alcohol are being consummed. A four year old doesn't belong there at all. It's just too dangerous. I always ask myself why, why do people bring their children places like this. I have yet to come up with an answer.

A little stitching news- I have made some progress on my sampler mailart ,but can't post a pic as it is a surpise for the recipient. I have also worked on Barbara's RR- maybe I will have enough progress by tomorrow to post another pic and, I have finished a sock and cast on the second.
Everything about this pair of socks is a new experience. I have gone down a needle size, am using bamboo instead of metal, a yarn with cotton in it, a reenforced heel , and this sock has a pattern and is not "just" stockinett stitch. All of this for the first time. Plus I am actually working from the book that Cheryl , so kindly, brought me. The first sock came out great and I am exited to get the second one finished and start another- something new!!

Funny

You Are Karamel Sutra

Plain on the outside, but once someone gets in, they're stuck

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

I rarely eat ice cream but ,I love Ben and Jerry's. Good thing it is hard to get here in Germany.