testing to see if this is still worth using

 When I retired to Florida, I closed this blog as I felt I no longer needed to keep in touch with family and friends via blog.  I have recently realized that I miss talking about knitting and my issues with being  a 71 year old knitter.  So I'll be adding info on my knitting projects and asking advise from the knitting community on how to keep up with my WIP.  So my "new" blog starts again. 

Indian Feathers

by Alina Appasova

No long updated

Just in case there's anyone out there who ever reads this anymore, just letting you know I'll probably not be keeping up this blog anymore.  This blog was used mostly to keep friends and family informed on our life while living in Europe.  Since returning stateside, I found that most who read this are my frineds on facebook and I update photos via Flickr. 

Temporarily out of order

Still a house in process

Husband has arrived from Germany.  He said he wasn't going to do any "projects" on the house for 30 days.  He was going to use this Leave time to relax.

I knew it wouldn't happen as he's not the type to just laze around.

So far he's fixed a toilet (constantly running), a shower door (sticking), bathtub (calking needed), enptied all the boxes from one of the bedrooms, cleaned the garage and hung curtains on 10 windows.

Now if I could only get him to buy a hot tub.

Still unpacking

Too many boxes.  I can't seem to get ahead.  Be glad with husband gets here.  Maybe then I can get some knitting done.

HHG arrived

Our House Hold goods were delivered yesterday.  The delivery crew were professional and knowledgeable.  They worked quickly in order to get the furniture inside before the rain.  We got everything inside before the rain hit. 
Now all I have to do is empty a "zillion" boxes.

One more shipment

I received our storage shipment from Texas.  Not impressed with the company that handled the transportation from Texas. We requested shipment back in April and it was received in August.  Three months to move it just 1200 miles.

I got notification that my shipment from Germany will be delivered on Tuesday. 

Funny it only took about 6 weeks to get the large shipment from Germany to Florida.   So this shipment made it over 5,000 miles in 6 weeks. 

Does this seem strange to anyone else?

Crochet fan chains

They finely notified us that the storage shipment from Texas was scheduled to be in JAX yesterday.  We  still don't know when they will deliver it.  It's already a week late, so why would they worry.  I can't wait until I'm asked to write comments on delivery company.  

But on the other hand, my youngest granddaughter (A) asked me to teach her to crochet.  While I prefer to knit, I can crochet faster.  I have some crochet hooks and bought some books for A.  She's a quick study. 

As most of you know I just moved into a new home.  I was lucky the previous owners put ceiling fans in all the rooms.  Not so lucky for me, is the fan chains are way too short for me to change the fan speed or turn on/off the lights.  I got tired of getting the step ladder and I didn't feel like going out to get extension chains from the hardware store.  So I crocheted them. 

NOT HAPPY

Just found out that my storage shipment won't be delivered this week.  This is the stuff we stored in San Antonio.  The company had over 3 months notice. We had requested the deliver date as 17 July, the company changed the date to 30 July. This was the REQUIRED delivery date.  Seems that the company doesn't need the government business.  My stuff hasn't even arrived in JAX.  What's worse, is I had Tommy take out the washer and dryer out of this house so there was room for my front loaders that were in storage.  I'm now going to have to ask Tommy to put them back in the house. 

Thanks a bunch Coleman American Moving. 

Clean knitting room?

We are still in the process of moving from Germany to Florida.  Most of my knitting stuff is in transit so I only have a few knitting needles (my favorites) with me.

So here's my future craft room and some of the "stuff" I am knitting with.

Back from SC

The Friday night meet and greet was interesting.  It was nice to talk to some of the "girls" that I had been in contact recently.

On Saturday Missy, Harvey and I went into Charleston and did a bus tour.  After lunch it was just too hot and we were just too tired to do more.  Danielle had elected not to join us on our trip into Charleston, maybe she had the right idea.

On Satuday night we were late to my 45th High School reunion because Harvey decided to wake up and cry just as we were leaving.  We didn't want to leave Danielle with a crying baby so we stayed another 45 minutes.  Once we got to the reunion it went very well.  I met up with quite a few of my classmates that actually remembered me.  It was nice to talk and catch up on what's happened in their lives.

One downer was finding out how many of our classmates have passed away.  This included one boy that I remember very well.  He was one of the guys that actually talked to me and I'll admit I had a little crush on him.  It never came to anything, but I had always rememebered him.

On Sunday we drove back to JAX.  The trip is less than 5 hours, but that's a long time in a car seat for a 7 month old baby, so we stopped once to give Harvey a break.

Got home around 1pm and immediately had to go to the store, as I didn't have anything for dinner or for breakfast tomorrow.

After getting back from the store, I had a little panic attack.  I couldn't find my itouch.  I emptied my suitcase, my camera bag and my purse.  Couldn't find it.  Finely I looked in the makeup bag.  Not sure how it got in there, but there it was.  I was relieved to find it.

Now for a quite couple days.

High School reunion?

Tomorrow I'm going to South Carolina for my 45th High School reunion.  This should be interesting.  Being a Navy kid, we moved a lot.  We moved to Charleston in the middle of my junior year.  So I only went to Berkeley High for about 18 months. 

I wasn't real outgoing so I didn't make many friends and the few I did lived in military housing near us.  In the past, I've been out of the country when the reunion's were scheduled.  This time I've just moved from Germany to Florida so I thought I'd go.  I can't remember many of my classmates.

Luckily, my daughter Melissa is going to drive me up there.  We are going to use this as a mother/daughter/granddaughter mini vacation. We have to take baby Harvey with us, so Melissa's 16 year old daughter is going with us to take care of Harvey while we are at the reunion.

I'm very nervous. Wish me luck.

I'm back in Florida.  So I guess it's official, I'm a Floridian.  Tom won't be here until the end of September.  That seems a long time away. 

My car, MX5 is here in Florida and I can pick it up tomorrow morning. 

Tommy's going to take me to get the car in the morning.  He wants to drive the MX5 every since he saw the car on Top Gear.

Yesterday Missy, Danielle, Harvey, Jack and I went to a local flea market.  Danielle was hoping to see an old school friend.  It was hot and humid and Danielle's friend was late and we couldn't stay any longer. 

Of course, since I'm back in Florida, I'll be taking photos of the grand kids. 

As for knitting, I'm working on a yellow blanket for a friend's grandson.  Photos to follow.

Knits in an unexpected place

Yesterday, 4 July, Tom and I decided to have one more day trip before I leave Germany for good. We went to Trier Germany about 1 hour away from our house in Kindsbach. We did the tourist type stuff, road the city site seeing bus around twice. It was great fun.



As we were going across the park to the museum, I noticed something I had never seen in person.  Two of the statues had knitted items on them. 

Even Tom was surprised, he asked how they got the wrist warmers on the statue as he couldn't see any way to move the arm.  I explained that they had the warmers ready but didn't sew them together until they were put on the statue. 

He seemed to be impressed.

Spending to much time on line?

I'm hooked on Pinterest.  They have the neatest of stuff.  If you haven't been there yet, check it out: http://pinterest.com/all/
It seems that if I'm not knitting I'm on Pinterest checking out their knitting pins. Since our house hold goods are on the way Stateside. There's not much I can do except knit and surf the web.

I've discovered that  living without much furniture can be done.  I still have some of my knitting stuff.  I'll put, most of that in my checked luggage. The baby blanket I'm knitting I'll carry on the plane. So far when I traveled between US and Germany I haven't had any trouble with my knitting needles.  I travel with wooden circular needles.  Hope that my luck holds out as I'll be changing planes in Pennsylvania instead of DC as I usually do.

The schedule is for me to leave Germany around 2pm (Germany time) on Friday.  I should be in FL around 8pm (East coast time).  I'm excited about leaving Germany and a little sad as Tom will have to stay another 2 1/2 months.  The time should go by fast for me as I'll be getting the house hold furniture delivered and trying to find a place for all the stuff we have.
As for the knitting/craft room, I've got that figured out (I think).  The room identified as Office space by the sellers, I'm going to use for "Knitone Studio". That's most likely the first room I'll work on. 

Here we go

Today's "Packout #1".  By the end of the afternoon, we'll be down to one bed, one chair and two laptops.  This should be fun.  Don't think I'll get much knitting done today.

Paris

I've been here.By the way, there's a toilet at the top of the tower.  I know cause I paid 50p (about .75 cents) to pee up there.  Too much information?

How did you spend your Saturday monring...

As most of you know, we are in the process of moving from Germany back to the US.  We've been cleaning out stuff and moving stuff around.  Since I'm leaving on 6 July, I've only got a few more days left here.

Earlier this week, Tom mentioned that he wanted to get a squirrel.  I was surprised, but though he meant he was going to get another wood one.  No, he meant a stuffed one.  Seems that one of his German friends had called around and found a guy in a town nearby that did that kind of stuff.

So this morning we took a ride to the "stuffers" place about 30 minutes away.  It was weird and a little scary to see all the stuffed animals.  Tom got his squirrel and is happy, but  when we get back stateside, he's going to have to keep it in his "man cave".

Found on Pinterest

When I read this on Pinterest, it reminded me of my girls.  The middle daughter especially had a habit of eating paste and paper.