How long is your bedside USB cable?

 I have a USB  cable plugged in next to my bed so I can charge my phone at night ( as one does). 

There's a cable holder stuck on the back of my nightstand that the cable  is threaded through so it doesn't disappear behind the bed or nightstand.  Great!...  Right?... 

Unfortunately, the cable is a bit short. It's okay if the phone is on the nightstand, but if I want to charge it and use it at the same time I have to lay on my side and hang my hand, a bit awkwardly, off the edge of the bed.  I drop it all the time.  It's vaguely uncomfortable.  

Tonight, I thought, this is stupid, we probably have a hundred USB  cables in this house.  I have one in my car that's 6 or 8 feet. Which is way to long. I have it coiled up and a hair band around it.  Why isn't that one up here? 

So I went down to the living room and found the longest cable I could easily put my hand on- I really didn't want to go out to the car- and come back up to change out the cable.  

I pullout the nightstand to get to the plug and realize that the cable is PLENTY long enough.  I just have about two extra feet on the other side of the cable holder.  Which is tight enough on the cable that you really have to pull hard on it for it to slide through.  Which makes sense, that's why it's there, to hold the cable in place.  

So.. now I pulled the additional two feet on to my end and it's plenty.  I can charge and use the phone without holding it over the side of the bed like a mafia hit man holding a gambler, that owes money, over a hotel balcony,  by their feet.  

Why am I like this? 

Does anyone still read blogs?

 I'm not sure anyone still reads these? I think it's been almost  18 years since I last blogged. Can that be right? 

My life went off in a totally different direction.  

We moved to Virginia in 2009... and here we still are in 2025. 

I went back to school, got a degree and  then a job.  Which I have been at for 10 years.  

I still like to knit.  My eyes don't like cross stitch. I lego, read, go to the beach, I'm trying watercolors... cause why not? 

We have a new sweet doggo. A chocolate lab, Charlotte Bordeaux.  

She is spoiled and  sweet and my husband's darling.  She is his retirement project.  

The real reason I wanted to start blogging again is that I sometimes think about things that probably no one wants to hear.  

Do these thoughts belong on threads or reddit? I really don't know.  

Tonight I was thinking about how long it takes to get ready for bed . 

As a child, you brush your teeth for 30 seconds, pee, hopefully wash your hands,  put on some pajamas and off to bed you go.  

As I got older, I took more time with my teeth and hands, and added some simple skin care. Braided my very long hair.  Still not too bad.  

When my kids were born I pretty much added their routine to mine.  

As they got older, and started taking over their own bed time routines, I went back to bulking mine up with additional skin care  and the occasional heavy hand lotion with gloves overnight.  

Now, I'm 61. I have what I call a " robust" nighttime routine.  

It feels like it takes forever.  Pills, pee ( hands!) Hair up, french braid or in a bonnet.  Teeth, two minutes , gargle.  Wash the face, Tretonin ( why didn't I start this earlier) , hand lotion. Once the Tret has had a chance to sink in, then a serum and a moisturizer. Special neck cream.  Maybe a little castor oil on the eyelashes. A little rosemary oil on the scalp.  

I also do two lessons on Duolingo.  One Yiddish and one Portuguese.  The reason for these choices is a whole different blog.  

Pee and hands again.... 

Sometimes it would be nice to just throw my self in bed and fall asleep. Which I guess I could,  but I'm afraid of the dentist and those little wrinkles on my neck!

70/30

I received this incredible floss/ribbon fob from Barbara. She remembered that I love peacocks and she got the colors just right ,too. It is sitting right here in front of me, on my desk, where I can enjoy it.

I got my car back- on Saturday! They aren't even open on Saturday , but they messed about with it so long and made 3 diagnosis and had to order different parts and felt so bad, that someone came in and fixed it Saturday morning. The final repair was cheaper than the one I thought they were doing in my last blog, as well.

The drive to pick the car up was so stressful that I managed to get sick . I am coughing, what little brains I have , out. WHIIIIINE!!!!

50/50

Do you see this car? This is NOT Rachael"s car.
Can you say "rental car" ? I knew you could!

The yellow writting on the side gives it away- ADAC (German AAA) replacement for my car while it is being repaired at a garage 130 kilometers away. The beast, which in three and a half years has not given me a moments trouble, decided to leave me stranded on the autobahn, miles from home, Sunday evening at 5pm.
It simply had no power. I knew that something was wrong on Saturday as it lost power a couple of times , but I was almost at the end of a two and a half hour trip and I had an appointment for a new battery and to have the heater looked at on Wednesday (today) anyway , and each time it recovered nicely. I left for home early on Sunday , to try and get home before dark , even if I had to go slow- but I hadn't planned on going THAT slow. At some point it was just no go. I called ADAC , who showed up after half and hour , he messed with the car for another 30 minutes couldn't find anything and called for a tow. The tow guy showed up after another 35 minuts or so , It all went very quickly considering ,but.. I had planned on being home by then and I had to peee..... The tow guy was very kind and stopped at the next McD so that I could use the facilities and then on to the garage where they gave me the abouve pictured Ford Focus and sent me on my way.
Now comes the scary part- they couldn't find anything wrong with the car. They had the same driving experience that I did ,but just couldn't find out why! Tuesday evening they had the answer. The water pump . That's why the heater wasn't working either. The engine wasn't being cooled properly and everytime it got too hot, an emergency program kicked in and choked the engine untill it cooled down- hence- no power. They will have it fixed tomorrow or Friday to the tune of - big bucks- at which point I will be free to drive the 260 klicks to retreve the thing. And then it still needs a new battery and emergency triangle which got left behind, on the A64, 1500 meters before the Sonnenbornerkreuz. If you see it could you grab it for me?

The other 50 % was wonderful - party , party , party. For which I have no picture's because once again, I forgot my camera! Sombody smack me!! Saturday after a brief stop to shop and gather Starbuck's in Munster, I drove on to Masstricht. Yes, I managed to visit Annemarie after forever. For some reason I had forgotten what a darling ,dandelion puff of curly blond hair she has. She will probably hate me for that, but it was soooo nice to see her and have a bit of a chat in person. Jula looked good and Pelle is so cute- he fell asleep on the couch holding on to my finger. One just doesn't realise how much one misses the odd bit of baby love until one gets some. My heart was melting.
But, by 7:45 pm I needed to be back on my way over the border to Germany again.. My friend Joe turned 50 on Sunday and we were celebrating into his birthday. I know I have mentioned before that it is bad luck in Germany to celebrate ahead of time- so at midnight we sang , congrtulated , opened presents etc.. I went to bed at 4:30 in the morning. I must have been insane. I woke up and wandered downstairs , glanced at the clock and it was NOON.
Once again I was off to the races in my not so trusty (at this point ) steed. A quick wash, fresh clothes and a glass of water and away.
Sunday was Leonie's birthday. Leonie is my god daughter and I was late for her birthday. Some serious present action was called for here , but luckly I was prepared. We had a lovely lunch and then coffee and cake. Wilma (Leonie's Mama) had noodles and cake, extra with no wheat, for me. Thank you Wilma -big hugs.
Unfortunatly , I had to leave early in an unsucsessful attempt at avoiding the above described oddesy. I wish I could have stayed longer. Next time :-)

Red boots, blue boots,

old boots, new boots.
If you look carefully you can see that these two pairs of boots are the same. One pair is just one year older than the other. I bought the older (duh) pair one year ago on St Martin's Sunday . I like them so much that this year I bought them again- on St. Martin's Saturday. The shoe store in our village has 20% off on St Martin's and I was not willing to pay more this year than last year! For me these are the perfect , everyday winter boots. I bought them a size larger than my summer shoes so that my thick socks fit inside , the sole is "shock absorbing" and non slip , the heel is just the right height to give ME a little height ,but not too high or narrow. They look good with jeans and I also like the height of the shaft. I wonder if they will make them next year? I was amazed to see how much the old boots had aged- even though I did polish them regularly.
A shoe question for those who go to a fitness studio (or gym, as we used to call it) , At the fitness studio that we use, most people don't put their shoes in the lockers, but leave them on the floor. This makes a lot of sense, as we are not talking Manolo's here. But... almost everyone- okay everyone but me- turns their shoes so that the toes point towards the wall/ lockers. I don't get it. Everyone sits down to change their shoes , both before and after working out. Especially now that it is winter and most people are wearing boots ( I was also the last one to go there- last Thursday I was still wearing flip flops to the gym) So if you are sitting down, the shoes you just removed have the toes facing the center of the room. Why do people turn them around? They just have to turn them around again when they change back into them. Am I the laziest person on the planet? Have I not grasped some important point of changing room ettiquette? Don't I have anything better to do than worry about this?

And yes, I am a Dr, Suess fan . I pretty much know "Green Eggs and Ham" by heart. It's amazing how often you can work ".. and he rode with his load to the tip top to dump it" ( mini quiz- which book is this from?) into everyday conversation.

Mojo?

I can't belive I haven't written in so long. Probably no one will read this as they have given up on ever finding anything new here. I noticed a lot of people having long pauses between their blog entries lately- exept Barbara- she is writting every day- and I am not even managing to leave comments- Barbara, if you are reading this- I can't belive how much you have accomplished recently- you are amazing, and Max's stitching - WOW !
I had a wonderful trip to Virginia. No pictures because I have a new camera and the battery has a different set up than my old one and I just didn't have it figured out. Somewhere on my cell phone are a couple pix of Cheryl and me at the new WWII monument ,but I am going to have to get someone more phone/computer savvy ( Patrick?) to move them over here.

Virginia was fab. Great weather, although everyone who lived there thought it was too warm. I was at the beach which cleanses my soul. I was at the book store, I was at Starbuck's. I was at the yarn store, I was with Cheryl!!! We went to Cheryl's knitting meet-ups , met great people, laughed our butts off ( ha- I wish-mine is still a million times tooo big) . I met Remelda and traded bits with her and ate fantastic , wheat free, frozen waffels. I kid you not, those babies where great.
We went to Washington DC and saw the three things that were at the top of my "things to see in Washington DC" list. Thank you Rick (hug)
The Holocaust Museum- very intense- IMO not for childeren between the ages of about 2 and 12. Under 2 just won't get it and children under 12 will get it, but not understand. Very well done.
The new WWII monument.Pretty , but OTT. There is something to represent everything. Pillers, gold eagles, water, wreaths, maps, reliefs, BIG engraved signs. Like I said it is pretty , but the feeling is missing. If you go to the Vietnam War memorial, you start to cry. This one is nothing like that. Plus I have lived in Europe too long not to be bothered by all of the "do not" signs. Don't go on the grass, put your feet in the water, drink eat or smoke, climb on anything. Breath?
Number three was Mount Vernon- loved it. If you have a chance - go.

Once I got home ( we won't even discuss my flights other than to say that if you ever want to get anywhere on time , don't choose to fly parallel to me. On the other hand , I always do get to where I want to be. Up to you) and had all my chicks back in the nest (exept M of course) I thought things would get back to normal, but it hasn't been that easy.

I have started to go to the fitness studio three times a week. Once to the afore mentioned Pilates class and twice to work out. This seems to be using up some of my mojo. I haven't been able to stitch or knit much. I just can't seem to get started. I have managed to do an amazing amount of other stuff. Getting my kids to a long series of Dr. and dentist appointments ,music lessons, driving lessons etc.. Worked in the library on Tuesdays and covered what seemed to be 397 history books. I even managed to get the winter tires put on my car.
My major goal at this point is to get Dianne's NRR finished and in the mail- it's almost finished- I swear it is! Mojo- come back- please.

Mad insane packing.

We are mad insane packers.
I took Nala to Anja and stayed there for a couple of days-trying to recover from my CC fiasco- Oh you don't know about that? I managed to lose my credit card last Saturday and only noticed it was gone Monday night. I am leaving for the States early this Monday morning- see my problem.

After I canceled my card on Monday night and ordered a new one, I was lying in bed and all of a sudden had a vision and new exactly where I had lost the stupid thing. Okay, maybe it's not the CC that stupid - it's me.
Patrick and I were at Starbuck's and the cashier gave me my card back after I had put my wallet away and so I wrapped the reciept around the card and stuck it in my pants pocket. Later I was in a restroom (parking garage) and while washing my hands looked down and saw a piece of paper sticking out fromn between the toilet seat and the edge of the bowl. I thought "hmmmm was that there when I sat down - I think I would have seen it." And walked away!! At 12:30 in the morning I thought "Yes goof ball , you would have, and since you didn't maybe it belonged to you. " In the morning I called the park garage and someone had kindly turned it in. - I got it back , but canceled is canceled. The bank promised me a new one by Saturday at the latest. It actually came on Friday. So- a huge cosmic thank you to the person who found my card and turned it in and to the people who replace CC's for getting the new one to me so quickly.

On to insane packing - I got the boys to do most of their packing yesterday evening. Then this morning, I took them to Muenster and told them - whatever you don't have, but need for your trip- let's get it now. We got Alexander a rain jacket- picked up his new glasses and a book, Patrick got munchies for the trip (22 hours in a bus) and the new phone that we were chasing last Saturday. I got a new suitcase. We were home about 15 minutes and Alexander asks me if I have a small umbrella for him. Well- I do , but they are all to girly. Why didn't he say something in Muenster?! I have also had to dig out a swinmming cap , camping flatware , passports and a lot of socks. I even remembered to make copies of the kids shot records and write 27 contact phone numbers on them.
Now, I need to pack my new suitcase.

Look who's here!!

Just for 6 days, but we are making the most of it. Mostly improving the economy.

Pilates tonight- this is helping my 'back" problem more than anything else has up until now. The class I am attending is a series of 10- I don't know what will happen when it is over. I hope that they will offer a continuation class , but I am afraid too few people will want to take it.

BTW- I floss after eating everything exept a cough drop. So yes, in bed, without a mirror, in the car, wherever I happen to be and think that no one who might object can see me. I said it was scary :-)

I fear I am getting old.

My favorite chill has been to lay in bed with a good book , a munchie and a bottle of water. Now my favorite chill is to lay in bed with a good book, a munchie a bottle of water and a roll of dental floss. Scary.

Weekend Report

It is beautiful out- and I am in the house trying to "get stuff done" . Laundry, ironing, stitching (on Dianne's RR, which is now officialy late) writting emails, vaccuming, and blogging. I am doing all of this while listining to CNN- I am a bit of a news junkie.
Later is the Formula One race in Spa- this is knitting and stitching time. Spa is a fun race to watch for a lot of reasons , but one, is that part of the track is regular street and we have actually driven on it.
My sister sent me this beatiful knitting bag a while back. It is soooo cute. I love the baby blue , fine wale cord it is made out of- it even has a matching accesory bag- with a zipper! - She is doing some great sewing.

Su, made all of the members of our RR neighborhood exchange teeny, tiny exquisite, sissor fobs with little houses stitched on them. Stunnig! Thank you Su ;-)

The knitting bits are my first ( self knitted) dish-cloths. The one is finished and the second almost finished. Cheryl sent me the yarn a while ago, I kept seeing this pattern on different blogs , homepages etc.. and thought it was really interesting and decided to give it a whirl. These are really fun , fast finishes. I haven't tried them yet , but I have heard that they work nicely and wash up well.
I hope that everyone else who has lovely weather today, is outside enjoying it.

paying debts

These socks are for Barbara and Arden. I waited to post them until Barbara had received them. I owed her a pair as a prize from my book recomendation contest- before Easter. O0ps! it took me so long because I knit three pair to get just the right ones.
The first two pair when finished were lovely- , but one pair said Mom and the other had a wide pink stipe-and I know Barbara is not big on pastels. These were exactly what I was aiming for when thinking "Barbara"
It is the Embossed Leaves from interweave (again) and the little socks for Arden have sort of a vine pattern going around them. The yarn is from my last Opal abo and I made a point of not matching the stripes as I wanted a more 'organic" look.
I am quite pleased with them and Barbara says they fit and the colors are quite restful.
I wis everyone a "restful ' weekend.
"Restful" not a word I use often ,but now that I have started I can't seem to stop :-)

hummm- where was my brain?

On Friday I sent out a couple of gifts. One was for my mother. It came back yesterday. Why? Because, while I cleverly wrote the return address, I forgot to write on it who was supposed to receive it. Eight Euros in the toilet, because the stamps are canceled. What a dork.

edit- The post lady was lovely and put the package back through without charging me for postage again. Isn't that nice!

Can a family spend more time apart?

Alexander was in a play a couple of weeks ago. That's him in the green shirt. The play was called "Das Fest" and the kids did a fantastic job on what was some very serious material. Alexander looks a little dark in the picture because he played a black man. The character spoke only english and so he was the obvious choice for the part. He did well ,though, and found it a lot of fun, and thinks he would be interested in doing more theater . Which I think is a great idea.

Yesterday , I did something I have never done before. I bought an airline ticket on line. I am a real weenie about things like this. The computer confounds me and I am afraid I will make some huge mistake. I kept obsessivly checking the dates to make sure I was puchasing for the right time - and finally decided- I 'll just go whenever the darn ticket is good for. So I am off to visit Cheryl, in Virginia, for a week in October.
How did this come about? Well.. Cheryl keeps asking me to come for a visit and I really want to sooooo. Both boys have big school trips this year- Alexander is going to Scotland and Patrick to Rome. Last week I noticed that they would actually be gone at the same time! What an oportunity :-) Michael said I should go do something, and so I am.

We had to have a laugh though - Michael will be in Kinchasa, The Congo. Patrick in Rome, Italy. Alexander in Edinbrugh, Scotland.And, of course , me in Virginia Beach- Virginia. One musn't forget Nala. She will be back with Anja and Co. in the Netherlands. Between us we are covering five countries, three contenents, and both hemespheres. Maybe someday soon we can all go somewhere together?

Shopping finishing and cool stuff

Her is some yarn I purchase this sommer- all of it is sock yarn- I see I went a litle heavy on the purple!
The large twisted hanks are from Pagewood Farm . Handdye from a woman in California. The colors are fantastic and the yarn is really cushy.
The small hank is Claudia' handpaints. I knit a pair of socks from this yarn already and I love how it knit up.
The two small skeins in the yelow net is a purple and white Louet. In the red net a skein of pink Lornas Laces- the second skein had knots in it so I didn"t buy it. This will have to be kids socks.
The small pink skein is Tofutsies. This yarn looks really thin and I am kind of afraid of it :-)
All the other skeins are from Trekking, including the finished pair of socks in brown and pink. A yahoo sock knitting group that I belong to here in Germany went on a field trip to Trekking Zitron two weekends ago and did a little shopping. They actually make their own bamboo needles at Trekking- DPNs and circs. They showed us a little bit about how they make and put the circs together. They also told us that you should always store your circs in a plastic bag as the nylon cable loses water and over time, becomes dry and can become less flexible and even crack. If you notice this happening , lay them in water for a few minutes. I have been storing mine over a gooseneck lamp to keep the kinks out- I guess I better put them in a zippy.

The socks are from Trekking yarn, knit on Trekking 2.25 bamboo needles. The colors on all the pictures is pretty bad as it is overcast today, but I liked the colorway of this yarn so much that I knit plain socks with it ,which is something I almost never do.
The post card is from Cheryl and Rick's son Rich , who was on a dig this summer in Israel- I thought this was the coolest thing and am so grateful that he found time to send me a postcard. Thanks Rich !

San Francisco

Here are the kids in Golden Gate Park. We are just in front of the de Young Museum. It has been recently remodeled , and while I liked what they have done, I was surprized at how small it is.
My all-time favorite museum - the museum of natural history and the Steinhart Aquarium and Morrison Planatarium is still closed for renovations. You can see it from where the boys are standing in this photo. Visiting it are some of my earliest and best memories. They have a small version open downtown, but it is not the same- or even close. I hope that when they finish with the building they haven't changed too much. The main reason for renovation is to make it more earthquake safe. I hope they keep, what for me ,are important bits. The beautiful tiles in the amphibian house, the Foucalt Pendulum and the prehistoric dioramas.
I have always been facinated by the Foucalt Pendulum- even when I was to small to know what it was. If you are ever near one of these it is worth it to go see it. It is not really spectacular but somehow impressive.

17

Alexander turned 17 this July. In Germany he can now go to driving school. - Need I say more?

I'm back -Kind of

Well we're home. More or less. School has started. Michael is home and we have been running around like mad things trying to take care of business. We haven't even managed to open our mail yet. But here is a picture of the boys . They had a great vacation , kart racing was just one of the many activities that my Mom planed and made sure happened. Here they are about to go out onto the track and try and beat the snot out of each other.

Dang

Sorry, My internet is down. there is something wrong somewhere in my system. I hope that when Michael is home he can get to the bottom of it. Until then I am stuck pirating one of the kids computers a couple times a day . So no pix :-( And my sister sent me the cutest knitting bag that she sewed for me. Very, very cute.

Yummy

I just received this sock yarn from Wollmeise. This yarn is so yummy. I can't belive I waited this long to order some. The colors are super deep and the skeins are heavy and feel great in your hand. I am not sure I want to knit with them , I think I want to just hang them on the wall as they are!

Promised Mom

I promised my mom some pictures of the table deko from my birthday party. Anja and I found both the tiny wellies and the fake grass hysterical. The flowers in the boots are real. The mini rubber ducks were given to the children as favors . Funnily enough , I just remembered that I bought these table cloths (at Ikea) 10 years ago. Anja and I had discovered that our birthdays are only a few days apart and we celebrated together for the first time, inviting the laidies in our club. I wish I could remember the menu .
This birthday the menu was chili con carne, onion bread , honey oat bread, a cheese platterwith grapes and strawberries, brownies and tiramizu. All of it home made. I even baked the finger biscuts for the tirimzu.