Remembrance Day

My Auntie Daryth gave me this poppy to wear on Remembrance Day - I think it must be more of a Canadian thing, because I don't see too many people wearing them here - in Canada you would see oceans of them. I grew up every year reciting 'In Flanders Fields' - so here you go:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Pretty dramatic stuff for children - but I think the somber view was needed.

No Nonsense November

Yes, I am at it again. I love it when I can find a good alliterative groove for my exercise.

At my Weight Watchers meeting Saturday morning, my leader pointed out that there were only 10 weigh ins left until the end of the year, and compared the trifecta of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to the Bermuda Triangle. People go into it with all sorts of good intentions, never to be seen again. I've lost nearly 40 pounds this year - and that nearly is so close that I was tempted to throw out a deep exhale and tell them to weight me again. I have already had a few setbacks this summer/fall - two really bad bronchial infections that made it difficult to breathe, much less exercise, and the high-eating habits of my parents' visit (Mom, Dad - I love you, and please come visit whenever you want - but you throw my eating habits some nasty curveballs. Do you know how much cheese I have in my freezer right now?!?!)

So, I decided that I had already used up my free passes for the rest of the year, and I really needed to stick to the Plan and exercise every day. Hey - I am nine days into it now and going strong. I am sure there will be pitfalls - my birthday is this Friday, I am meeting friends for dinner next Tuesday, Thanksgiving is right around the corner... but I can do this. And I am determined to have more than 40 pounds in my pocket when I reach the other side of this Triangle.

Socks in Progress

I'll have to admit I have been slumping through projects ever since I finished my cabled hooded vest. I wore it to work on Friday and had many compliments on it. One of these days I will take some pictures so you can all see what the finished vest looks like.

Since finishing the vest, I started working on Mi Escuelita for Willow in a grape purple superwash merino, and I have these two socks on the needles:



The one on the left is my second attempt at Jaywalkers (rav link) - you may remember the first pair I knit was way too skinny for my cankles and I had to give them to my sister. The pair on the left are a Christmas present for someone (I'm not telling you who - other than it is no one in my family).

Rest In Peace, Caddie

From here:



To here:



I have a broken-hearted little girl tonight. We thought Caddie was rallying, but it wasn't meant to be. All I could tell her was that all dogs go to heaven and can only hope that helps.

Wonder Woman and Company

Willow decided that she wanted to be Wonder Woman this year for Halloween, and her grandmother whipped up a costume for her. Yes, we could have bought a Wonder Woman costume from Target, but I didn't think my 7 year old needed to be prancing around in a bustier just quite yet.

Here she is with her friend Bat Woman (aka Mackenzie). I took plenty of pictures in her classroom, but at some point I gave up on having a photo where everyone is in focus. Seven and eight-year olds just can't stay still for that long!



Wonder Woman taking her mission seriously:



My favourite costume of the parade - Willow tells me that this is her friend, Bella. Her Christmas tree costume is adorable.



Willow on Halloween night:



She has gone back to her old form of closing her eyes for flash photography. I just don't get it. In any case, we had about an hour of trick-or-treating before the deluge began. You can see in that last picture that we were pretty soaked by the time we got home. I was really surprised at how many kids were going through our neighbourhood - we had more kids come to our door before we left for trick-or-treating than we had in the last two years combined!

Small Potatoes

I'm not kidding - this post really is about small potatoes.

I had to work late tonight, so Willow and I stopped in at Trader Joe's to look for something quick for dinner, and we found these mini potatoes. How mini?



Um, does the fact that I could put 4 of them in my handy-dandy shot glass tell you anything?! I wasn't sure how long to cook them for - so I put them in a pot, poured in enough water to cover the potaoes and then some and salted it - and let them cook on a high boil for 15 minutes.

I squished them with a fork, put a little butter and some garlic and salt - and they were so yummy! I was a little afraid the skins would be bitter, but they weren't in the slightest.



(The rest of the quick dinner? Broccoli and cauliflower (I had eaten the cauliflower before I thought to take the picture), foccacia (meh.), and breaded fish fillets with mango salsa.)

Stitches East Recap

Trust me folks, this was the extent of our sightseeing in Hartford, CT.

When I first heard that Stitches East was moving from Baltimore to Hartford I was quite excited. It was a little more difficult and longer to get to, but I had never been north of Manhattan before and being a history buff, was really eager to go into New England. My friends and I book Amtrak tickets back in March, reserved a hotel room in the Marriott connected to the convention center where Stitches was being held, and we were on our way.

This was my first long distance train journey since living in Japan where train travel was part of my daily life. Maybe I should just say upfront that it was a good thing that I brought a 800 page book with me. Our 5 hour train trip took closer to 7 hours due to electrical problems - but I was okay. We arrived in Hartford just before 11pm, caught a taxi back to the hotel, and I was amazed at how clean and pretty the city looked. We passed the State House and some other historic buildings and I was eager to get out and explore the next day. The Downtown Hartford Marriot is a gorgeous hotel, by the way. It has a golden yellow theme throughout and is very striking.

The Stitches Market was fabulous as well - I had no problem spending money. There were a few vendors I missed seeing - Carodan Farms, Uncommon Threads, Rosies Yarn Cellar, Brooks Farm Yarns, Maple Creek Farms - none of which were at Stitches East -but there were some other New England-based vendors I had never seen before. Here's what I bought:

Farmhouse Yarn's Fannie's Fingering Weight in Aruba:



Handpaints by Artsygal:



Doodlebirds Creations in Watermelon Whee:



Creatively Dyed Yarns in Cadiz:



Great Adirondack Yarn Company Soxie in Blueberry:



Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK in a grape-y purple to make Willow a Mi Escuelita cardigan:



This should keep me busy for a little bit!

The burblings of trouble started when I was took a break from the constant walking and sat at one of the cafe tables. One of the women who sat at the table said that she was unable to get reservations at the hotel restaurant because the hotel was booked solid. No problem - we'll go elsewhere to eat. But then we started hearing problems about Hartford's escalating gang problem and how it wasn't safe for people to be milling about the city.

Jeez - how bad could it be? The concierge advised us to not even walk the two blocks to the Arch Tavern. One of the local Hartford vendors told us that when he travels into Hartford on the weekend, he carries a pistol with him. My friend Denise had something irritating her eye and wanted to go to CVS to get some eye wash and was told it wasn't possible - that CVS closes at 3:30pm on Saturday and doesn't open again until Monday morning. Omigod - this is not a great location for a conference that is 95% women! Yes, there is strength in numbers and all that, but was this even taken into consideration when Hartford was chosen as the next location? We had a laugh on our taxi back to the Amtrak station the next day - 1:30pm and the McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, and other restaurants we passed were all closed! (Thankfully the Subway in the train station was open so I could get a sandwich for the trip home!)

So, we stayed in the confines of the hotel the entire weekend. We weren't the only ones, either - we saw plenty of people ordering pizza and Chinese and eating it at the hotel and not venturing out. We had fun - my friends are great company, the hotel was beautiful, I had lots of yarn to fondle - but my friends and I have decided we are not coming back to Stitches East next year. We will go to another festival - perhaps SAFF or Rhinebeck.