Positive things

  My column came out in the Jewish Independent last Friday:

We are shaped by history

This article didn't run in the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News and is potentially my last column for a while--until, perhaps, government funding helps these small publications or advertising picks up again...I wrote it a while ago, but it ran, and right now, every small bit of work is a good thing.

We celebrated a big birthday, my dad's, by family Zoom chat.  My kids made amazing cards, which we sent by email.  My parents are doing well and the 'party' was fun!  (I was a bit sad not to celebrate in person, but that isn't possible these days, considering the Canada/US border is closed, among other pandemic reasons...) 

I dug around in the freezer and came up with apricot/apple puree from last summer, and I made some jam.  In April...and it makes darn good brisket for Passover, as well as being delicious on homemade bread beforehand.

We've had a couple spring snow storms, and one of them was quite a bit of snow. (8-10" or 20-25 cm or so.)  I was able to catch a photo of my family shoveling team from the window of the second story of the house.

We've been busy learning at home, doing science experiments in buckets, reading Dr. Seuss, and more.  Every day is full...but now, we are taking a break.

While everything else crazy has been happening in the world, we've been getting ready for Passover.  As I write this, kids are busy setting the table, helping their dad make special desserts, and producing lots of matzah balls... we will celebrate, and we will remember.  There were other plagues before this one.

Aside from dog walks, playing in the muddy, snowy front yard and once a week trips to the grocery store, done by one adult...we're staying home.  And it's fine.  Honestly.  We all have to cooperate, and work together, because staying healthy is the most important thing.

Yes, I'm knitting and spinning and sewing whenever I get the chance, as a sort of mental health break if nothing else.  However, we also spend time every day remembering to be grateful.  We have food, shelter, heat, family, and dogs.  We are able to email and zoom and facetime with people.  We can learn, grow, jump, play, sing, and dance... and the goal is staying healthy and staying alive.  We can do this.

If you celebrate it, Chag Sameach, Happy Passover!  Next year, let's get to spend it together, with our families and friends, wherever they are.  Stay well.  Take care.

Bermuda bag! On sale now!

Some time ago, I wrote this book, Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability and I designed some knitting patterns to go with it.  It worked out that I could offer some of the patterns as downloads online...but for one reason or another, some of these designs were not available, aside from purchasing the book.  Yesterday, I was able to fix that!  Now, the basic Bermuda bag and the Pin Check Bermuda Bag are both available for download on Ravelry, and also available on Love Knitting.  If you buy them both on Ravelry before the end of February, you can get $2 off, too! 

When I was a kid, I had one of these bags and I loved how "matchy matchy" it made everything...and it also seems like a perfect, vintage but new sort of thing....never really out of style or out of date.  Unfortunately, I am not able to carry one of these things now and hold onto the hands of both my twins in school parking lots, etc. so for now, I'll just have to say how cool they are for everybody else.  :)  And, imagine how neat it would be to knit matching covers for your outfits!  Cool!

For people who know me, I have a little bit of a bag thing going on.  I dig gorgeous bags---not fancy handbags, but useful, utilitarian bags for holding stuff. (heaven knows, I shlep around a lot of stuff while dealing with twins...)

 Just today I saw this field bag and these these bento bags--I tell you.  I feel seized by irrational desire.  I think I am subconsciously trying to contain clutter this way.  Our house is filled with clutter.  Piles!  Stuff everywhere.  And, you know, I'd like to be one of those zen tidy people, but I am not.  However, a good container...a good bag...well, it makes all the clutter appear to go away for a while.  Ahhh.  That's better.

Yesterday, I took a new handmade enormous wooden crochet hook I'd picked up at Ram Wools and I made something...a while back, someone passed along some old sheets and remnants her mother had saved, and said she thought I'd find something to do with them.  I contemplated getting rid of the box several times, but held out.  I'd cut and ripped one threadbare white sheet into a big ball of fabric yarn a while back.  Here it is in its new incarnation....it holds all those bits of paper with phone numbers scribbled on them, all those business cards that littered this area near the phone in our dining room until recently.  We are old school--we still have a landline, with a pile of phone numbers near it.  Now they have their own crocheted container/basket thingee.  It's not a fine job, I'm no professional when it comes to crochet...but it is tidy for the moment.  Ahhh.  Bags.  Containers.  I see a green ripped sheet in my office, and I'm imagining its future now.  If we can only contain it all?  Maybe I won't have to go through it or throw it all away?!

A new year

It is time to update the blog and keep up with all the things that are happening.  The professor and I (and twins) are visiting family for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  This is the first time we have managed a high holidays family visit in over 10 years!  It is the beginning of the school year, when professors start teaching (but the professor is not teaching this fall) and, well, the stars aligned and we flew east.  So far, the twins have seen lots of family, gone to a few playgrounds, ridden the DC Metro for the first time, and had several other big adventures.

I am taking a break with family and from trying to juggle everything in Winnipeg: toddlers, running our household and working whenever I can manage but had some things to share.

Learning to ask where our food is from just appeared in the Forward...this is a revision of what I originally wrote, but it is probably a kinder and gentler piece now!  Here's one of the photos I sent; a canning photo with more frills appeared with the piece, but this is what my apricot jam and saskatoon jams looked like this fall. (yes, I have managed some canning this summer, and I am so excited to have a full pantry again, I have not managed to can since 2010 so this is huge!)

A little while ago, this article about "helping hands" appeared in the Forward as well. I am so glad to get a chance to continue talking about the issues of helping new moms and new families--there has been a lot of quiet feedback from women of all ages about my two articles on this topic. More women struggle with these issues than you might imagine; our society needs to step up and help more! Finally, I am so pleased with recent interest in my new pattern, Slippy the cowl. It has been slowly beginning to sell, and I cannot wait to see knitters' versions as they appear on Ravelry and the blogosphere. All this seems like it is worth sharing as we begin 5774, the new year, and a brand new school year.

We interrupt this program...

I am trying so hard to have a good attitude today. Really I am. Can you see me straining over here while I try to smile?

Remember the newly painted bedroom? I posted about it here. We stalled a while when it came to moving back into the bedroom...we wanted all the paint fumes to dissipate before we slept there again. We also needed a chunk of time to get everything moved and maybe a helper to make the move easier. (I'm not moving furniture these days.)

Yesterday, while I was teaching, the professor and a friend of his moved the whole kit and kaboodle back into our newly painted room. When I came home, I was thrilled to see it. The room looked bigger, even with the same amount of furniture in it. I was excited to get into bed in our "old" bedroom last night. It looked gorgeous.

The dogs made themselves at home right away too. They were thrilled to be back in their regular territory. We knew we'd had a successful home reno job.

Then, last night, right as I was beginning to put on my pjs, the professor and I looked up at the newly painted ceiling right above my part of the bed (ahh, it looked so beautiful when he painted it...) and we saw the plaster had buckled. There was cracking. The professor touched it. It was wet. This just happened- yesterday.

We said a few bad words. We tried to isolate the problem, and as best we can tell, it is a leaking or broken boiler pipe between the second and third floors. Yet, our house is toasty warm, even on the third floor. The ancient boiler is doing an admirable job. Even so, we determined that it wasn't safe to sleep under something leaky that might spew hot water in the middle of the night.

The professor sent the dogs and me down to the living room. The dogs were sleepy and curled up for cuddles and I called my mom. Who else can you call at 10 pm CT (11 pm ET-- her time...) to have commiseration about these kinds of *^#%^!! things?

Somehow, the professor moved all our furniture on his own back into the "back up" bedroom where we'd been sleeping for a little over a month. This is where the nursery will be when the babies are born. He put down plastic tarp and a trash can in our -again empty-bedroom to catch any spills.

We went back to trying to sleep a little before midnight. I was exhausted...but somehow, the city decided that last night was the time to use the construction equipment bobcats to clear large snow piles on the main street outside our house. (Beep beep beep every time they backed up, all night long) Also, we had an endless number of dump trucks, filled with snow, idling on the street as they headed to snow disposal sites. This idling and enormous gas wastage apparently must be done between midnight and 6 AM to avoid traffic problems?

This AM, the professor called the plumbers, who now treat us like family. They explained that they are very busy and that both of their master plumbers are out sick. Luckily, we still have heat so there is no desperate emergency--we're all hoping it is a small little leak...but we'll wait until they come by to cut into that section of freshly painted (and now ruined) plaster ceiling.

Oy.
Have I mentioned that it's downright cold here lately? I am considering throwing in the towel on this day and creeping back under the covers again with a dog or two to keep me warm.

Good news? The carding class went well. There are still more Florida pictures to enjoy later in the week. We're all safe and warm and no one was burnt by leaking hot water in the middle of the night...I guess it's time to be grateful for all these things...right?

knitting for home

I really like knitting (and designing) things for my house. After all, you can only wear so many handknits at once, but your house? Well, your house can "wear" a lot more knitting at once!

For Knit Green, I explored a few concepts that the professor and I have worked on in our home. A while ago, we decided to transition to using only cloth napkins. This wasn't a hard transition as the dirty napkins rarely amount to anything near even a small load of laundry, and we saved money on buying paper napkins. It also saves energy--no trees being made into napkins, no trees cut down and trucked out to be processed, no napkins trucked into the grocery store for us, etc. Yes, everywhere else still uses paper napkins...but we can only make a difference a little at a time!

Of course, (since I'm a knitter), I started coming up with knitted napkin ideas. First came these napkins, and they're for sale on my website as a download. For Knit Green, I broke out of the neutral colors and went for brighter colors! (Note: brighter colors also hide more dirt and stains!) Here are Waves and Stars: Knitted Napkins....another couple of patterns in the book. This is one of those situations where the book says there are 20 patterns, but technically there are two patterns here, not just one at a time, so you're getting more patterns for your money!

If you choose machine washable and dryable yarns (cotton or cotton blends work well), these napkins are work horses. Use and enjoy them, throw them in the wash, and put them right back out on the table. They're fast to knit, too!


Another fast project are these knitted curtains. They are designed to use either a regular curtain rod (cafe curtains) or to use a decorative curtain rod with little knitted button tab loops. The sample curtain is made from a friend's handspun, but any sportweight yarn will do, and the project is fairly flexible. It's ideal for a little simple knitted interior decoration!

I'm hoping to find time to make more curtains like this for my new (old) house. We've got long windows, perfect for this kind of window treatment.

In other news, I'm off to Virginia (near Washington, D.C.) and New York this weekend. I'll be seeing family, hopefully teaching and signing books, and going to Rhinebeck, aka New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, to sign books. I'll try to keep posting about the projects in Knit Green in the meanwhile! If you're going to be at the festival, come by and see me on Sunday, October 18th, from 10-12 as I sign books! Can't wait to see you!

So, do you like knitting for your home? What projects do you like best? Ever considered knitted napkins or curtains?

The saga (err, journey) continues

The part of the story takes us from July 12-15...

Although our night in the Chicago suburbs was lovely, it was not without its challenges. First, we had to find something to eat that could be delivered—we ended up with an Italian style pizza. Not deep dish Chicago style, but good! The dogs were surprisingly good in the 3rd floor hotel room and seemed exhausted. However, Harry the dog still wasn’t quite accustomed to the new routine. As he was nervous, he gulped water at an alarming rate and woke the professor up at 11 and 1 am to go outside.

At 5: 30 am, I took them on the first morning walk. We knew we’d be ruled by our dogs on this journey, but that allowed us to see our travels from a very different angle than usual! Luckily the hotel near Chicago was right by an interesting truck parking lot/business with a lot of sidewalk to explore and a few friendly truckers. I couldn’t believe how cool it was in the morning compared to Kentucky! In Kentucky, I took a morning walk in July and felt happy if it wasn’t already over 75F. In Chicago, it was in the 60’s and breezy.

On we went to Minneapolis….we were slightly better prepared for how the day would go. I drove first and we headed towards Madison, WI for lunch. The professor had been there at least twice, and suggested we head towards the Capitol building to see the weekend farmers’ market. This seemed great! I drove…and drove…

Nearby, we saw a lot of cars. Tents, and crowds…this must be one heck of a farmers’ market, we figured. Maybe we’ll be able to buy lunch there. Well, it turned out that Madison had its once a year Art on the Square event on July 11th and 12th. We didn’t figure this out until we’d leashed up the dogs, walked up the hill and discovered wall o’ people…and a lot of breakable objets d’art.

Have we mentioned how good our dogs were!? We maneuvered out of the crowds as quickly as we could, grabbed street food for lunch, and walked right back down the hill. Feeling oddly unfulfilled, we stopped at Ella’s Deli on the way out of town. The professor sat in the air conditioned car while I rushed in to get a chocolate malted and a mint chocolate chip ice cream soda (for me). This made us happy as we rushed out of town.

There’s not much in the way of cities or excitement between Madison and Minneapolis as far as we could tell but the Wisconsin Dells, an enormous resort area with a lot of highway traffic. We were relieved to make it to Minneapolis, err, actually a suburb called Brooklyn Park.

We took a day’s rest in Minneapolis and spent two nights in the same hotel. The day we spent at the hotel involved: napping (Joanne and both dogs), reading (both humans), some knitting (you know who) and several walks for everybody. We were wrecked with exhaustion after the moving adventures and two full days in the car.

Although we hadn’t planned to visit much with anybody on this “moving” trip because of the time constraints and juggling two dogs, we managed to see a friend in Minneapolis for dessert on Sunday night and dinner on Monday night. The dogs were able to sleep comfortably in their portable crates in our car while we ate in her apartment. Again, we thank our lucky stars for the cool weather in Minneapolis that allowed us to leave the dogs in the car with the windows down in the summer time. (an absolute impossibility in the southern US.)

Tuesday morning, bright and early, we ventured off towards 1) northern Minnesota and 2) Grand Forks. We’d planned to ship the professor’s car but at the last moment, a good friend of ours in Kentucky needed to get to northern Minnesota…and we had a car for him! He left the car at his parents’ vacation cottage on a lake, just a short detour from the highway. We got to meet his family, who fed us apple cake, ice cream, and made us feel very welcome! Then we headed out again, in cold and pouring rain, towards North Dakota.

We got to Grand Forks that evening and again called for food to be delivered. (food by delivery was the norm, as we couldn’t leave the dogs in the hotel rooms alone, and didn’t want to get back in the car.) We checked out a new set of sidewalks, and this time, everyone slept through the night without a problem. We were exhausted…except when someone made noise outside at 2 am. Sally dog told them exactly what she thought of them! We shushed her, but she had a point. They deserved a barking from somebody…

On Tuesday afternoon we heard there was a small problem with our house purchase arrangements and we might not be able to get into the house on Wednesday. We were worried—but so tired that we focused only on crossing the border.

Back in (2) cars on Wednesday at 7:30 in the morning, we drove to the border, got through without any problem, and drove straight to the credit union outside of Winnipeg to straighten out details. Our first official act in Manitoba on this trip involved signing our mortgage papers. Then we grabbed lunch and drove through Winnipeg to meet our real estate agent at our new home in Crescentwood. (near Corydon Ave., if you live in town...)

It’s beautiful! The professor had to go purchase necessities like shower curtains and toilet paper right away. The dogs and I had to walk the neighborhood, rest, and explore our new home. It’s been 1300 miles and 5 days to get here…or over a year, if you count it from last July, when the professor was nominated to be a Canadian Research Chair at the University of Manitoba.

(No sign of our belongings yet, although it's possible that will happen later today or tomorrow...I hold out hope!)

Honey...

We're home. In Winnipeg. Got here on Wednesday, signed all the important papers, and moved right in.

However, we still lack some basic necessities. Like, say, our belongings. We hear those will arrive at the customs depot on Monday, but in the meanwhile, I lost feeling in my tushy and made the professor buy me chairs. Of course, it was a patio set and between that and a grill, it killed an entire day of assembling things.

Between cleaning the refrigerator and other fun new house activities, I haven't had a chance to update everybody on the blog. It also, sadly, doesn't leave all that much time for knitting! The short version is? The dogs did fine. We did fine. We had some wily adventures, as anyone might on a several day, 1300 mile drive. I have even written them down and will post stories soon.

We'll be walking our dogs multiple times a day for the foreseeable future (no backyard fence yet) and despite our best efforts, we still haven't gotten the cable guy to come out and get the phone hooked up. We're working on it. Be back soon. :)

Zone 3

Thank you for cheering about my new house! I think I needed a kick start in the enthusiasm department, and your comments really helped! (frequent updates from a sick relative and a friend in different hospitals can really get a person down) I will try to answer a bunch of questions from your comments here...

Mary mentioned our "old Durham house." You see, Mary and I shared a house in common. Prepare yourself, this is a weird one... Mary lived in a big yellow house, built in 1923 in Durham, North Carolina, on James Street. She sold it. We bought that house. We didn't know Mary, we knew very little about her, but we loved our house. Our first house as a married couple, it had a rose garden, a grape arbor, raspberry bushes, lots of flower bulbs...and eventually raised beds for gardening. (we put those in.) Eventually we moved away from that house, in 2002, and I joined the Association of Knitwear Designers and recognized Mary's name as one of the members. It couldn't be THAT Mary, could it? It was.

Long story short? Mary now lives in Northern Virginia (where I grew up, we seem to follow each other around geographically) and we share a lot in common when it comes to picking out a house. The professor and I like housing from the period of, say, 1912-1929--as did Mary. This house has a window seat, just like the house in Durham. Remember the window seat, Mary!?

Nancy asked:

Does it have a cottage garden? Kitchen garden? Herb garden?

Umm, no, we don't think so. Houses in downtown Winnipeg have weenie small yards. This house is on a corner, so there is a bit more yard. Also, and this is big one--Winnipeg is in USDA Hardiness Zone 3. Here's a map of hardiness zones...Winnipeg is just above North Dakota, if that helps. The short summary of that is that gardening is a very short lived enterprise outside. Here are some photos of the backyard. As best we can tell (and we were there in mid-May)--the yard has a forsythia...and it was flowering. We have no idea what other surprises are there for us.

Many yards in Winnipeg are just gravelled over or filled with a garage, so we feel lucky that there will be some grass, some chance for gardening (likely in raised beds or containers) and room for a garage just beyond that back fence. We'll be making sure the fencing is extra secure so Harry and Sally don't escape--the street is very busy. We hear there are community gardens available, but people were just beginning to work the soil in mid-May. It's that cold. (northern Vermont was ahead of Winnipeg in terms of gardening--I'd visited New England just the week before!)

Alison said: You GOT it!!! YAY!!

Well, yes, and I'm getting excited, but we are still dealing with mortgage issues, currency conversion, and the complication of getting a down payment from the U.S. to Canada in the small window of time allowed before the deal falls through. This has been a little complicated. The professor has also let me know that I should not go on any spending sprees while we're dealing with this transaction. (The Canadian dollar has gone up quite a bit compared to the U.S. dollar lately, so this costs more than it used to, say, a month ago.) When our house sells and we've dealt with the moving costs, etc. it will all be easier. We're working with the buyers for our house right now, so that should be ok...we hope!

Andrea says: Congrats on the house! And yay for breakfast pie too! See, I told you.

Andrea, thank you for the congrats--and she is right. Indeed, you told me, and I've almost finished that pie. It's pretty good stuff for coping with stress. Now I've just got to get this book proofing done, wish several people great healing and hope they get out of the hospital soon. Oh, and on Friday? I'm flying off to Durham to see our yellow house, Mary! Well, not exactly. I'm actually going to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh to give a little talk and see my old guild friends, but I'm staying at a hotel near my old house. I'll be cruising by. I'll be eating at Guglhupf, one of my favorite bakeries. It'll be a 24 hour stay in a place that I think still feels a little like home.

Got any other questions for me? I'll try to keep answering them. The next few weeks will be busy but I'll try to keep you updated!

*The stars*

Last night, the stars were aligned properly, and our bid was --considered-- for this house. Then it was countered, and well, it worked out. We have a house..in Winnipeg. It's amazing to consider, in this time of recession, that while we were the only bid, we still are paying $15,000 over the asking price. A crazy seller's market. (apparently, everyone is still moving to Winnipeg. Who knew?) Last night I was sort of grouchy about how it worked out, but today, I feel happy because we have a home to move to. Good. (moving estimates? check. House to go to? check....) I love the details and woodwork in this house. There's a second story study with built-in bookshelves. Perfect for a professor! Perfect for a writer!

There's also a big beautiful living room with more built-in bookshelves. The house was built in 1912. It's in a good neighborhood, but on a busy corner. (I stole these photos from a listing online. My furniture is not white!) No house is perfect, but right now--it's good.

Meanwhile, after we put in the offer, I knitted a lot and tried to stay calm about it all. I'm having a rough time with "calm" about now--just have too many balls in the air at once...and I'm terrible at juggling more than, say 3 at a time! Everyone has their limits.

The proofs continue, and if you remember, this is how I felt the last time I proofread a book too. I had just as hard a time with Fiber Gathering...only I didn't have quite so much going on.

To help myself to cope, I roasted two chickens last night and baked a peach/blackberry pie. Cooking calms me down. The fruit came from the freezer so the pie was a little bit runny. Hey, I have to empty that freezer out, right? So, I ate a hunk of chicken for dinner...and then I ate pie. For dessert. Then for breakfast, too. I'm considering more, actually, as a snack...It's good pie.

Sadly, the farmer is still in the hospital. My grandmother is in another hospital. I've got a lot "on my plate" right now in the worrying department. So, I took a break from proofreading this afternoon (face it, I've been procrastinating a ton this time and the deadline is coming up!) and checked out my horoscope, I read this sort of thing recreationally. Here's what it said:

May 29, 2009
Capricorn (12/22-1/19)
If you are in the middle of negotiating any business deals right now, it's not going to be an easy day. You'll encounter lots of back and forth and lots of small print. Others may be too demanding in terms of a timeline, so you'll have to push back on deadlines as hard as you can. The best part of your day will be later in the afternoon, when you see a light at the end of the tunnel and can spend some time with a person who always puts a smile on your face.

Hmmm.

Doing business? (check.)

back and forth and lots of small print? (buying a house? proofreading?--check.)

deadlines? (moving? book deadlines? check.)

The professor flies home this evening. (light at the end of the tunnel? Check.)

Hmm. The stars must be aligned...I'm waiting for the smiling part. I need a smile about now!

one's own bed

This is a view of my best friend's parents' home in Sutton, Vermont. Each of those terraces is a part of their gardens. To the left of the house (not pictured) is the apple orchard. It's not usual for me to skip posting for a whole week. However, this teaching/booksigning/book talk trip really knocked the stuffing out of me! I'm home now in Kentucky, after a flight from New England (Monday) and a 723 mile drive (today). I have one day home before we hit the road again to go check out houses in Winnipeg.... Cause we're moving to Winnipeg this summer and need someplace to live!

I've figured out that in May, I'll only be home in my own house for about one week. That said, I had the pleasure of staying in my parents' house and my best friend's house in Vermont. These houses were as close to home as somebody else's house can get. That was a good thing, too, because my charming nephews (3 and 7 months) bestowed upon me not one but two bad viruses while I was travelling... (no swine flu here, just two garden variety preschooler bugs) I've mostly recovered but if you have to be totally sick away from home, it's nice feeling comfortable and not self-conscious. I was also the lucky houseguest at a very kind friend's beautiful home in New Hampshire. All in all, I think I can say, ummm, I'm getting around.

Nothing, however, is as good as being welcomed home by two dogs and a husband who clearly missed me. The house looks well-kept, the lawn's been mowed, my bedsheets are clean and I cannot wait to hop in them! More soon as I recover from this long journey and head off to Canada for the next one!

going home

Even though I haven't lived in Virginia (the Washington, D.C. area) in nearly eleven years, it's still an area that I'll always be from. I was born in D.C. and grew up in Virginia...so even though "home" has been in Ithaca or Buffalo, New York, Durham, North Carolina, or now, Kentucky, another home is always waiting for me when I visit my family.

This time, we went out for dimsum at a Chinese restaurant with my parents, sister-in-law, and two nephews. Noodles (the baby, as nicknamed by his older brother) just napped right through it. My three year old nephew Nate was in for a treat, as were the grown ups. It was the Chinese New Year, so we were entertained by drums, gongs, fire crackers and Lions.

Then it was off to see the newly refurbished American History Museum. Since it's part of the Smithsonian, it's free...and it was very very crowded. I caught some photos of the mall while I was there.

Right now, downtown DC is having a revitalization, but many areas of our nation's capitol remain shabby and in need of support. DC is in a strange position; Congress passes its budget, so although DC has only a non-voting representative, the Congress controls spending. In the past, it was always the non-touristy areas, like the school system problems (I taught in inner city DC right after college) or the horrible public housing. Now even the touristy sections need some help!

Just about 11 days before, our national mall was filled to the brim with humanity on Inauguration Day. While I don't know how it looked just before Inauguration, I grew up visiting and playing on this stretch of green. I can say this...things were pretty well cleaned up...no trash remained. However, our national front lawn really looks shabby and literally downtrodden...no wonder after so many millions of Americans visited it. I'm wondering if those politicians who struck the mall refurbishment from the stimulus package have looked out their office windows lately?

While my trip was really scheduled to celebrate my grandmother's 93rd birthday (and we did!), we also got a chance to hold our newest nephew Noodles. He is doing well now that he is home from the hospital, although still has many medical challenges ahead. (he's still eating via nasal gastric tube, for instance.)

It was only after I moved away from the Washington area that I realized how close to the action I was when I lived here. I went to school with kids whose parents were in government,as my dad was, for a while. It was no big deal to see the diplomats' cars pull up to pick up kids from school, or to be held up in traffic for the presidential motorcade. One of my youth group friends happened to be the daughter of a congressman. One of my brothers carpooled to soccer with some kids who then moved to a bigger house. They had to change schools and soccer leagues, too! Their last name? Quayle.

It's interesting to see how all this personal experience fits in the context of our bigger nation...in Kentucky, a week after a bad storm, we're in the national news...but it's a rare occurrence here. (yes, electricity, safe water, and heat are still a desperate problem for many. I am lucky.) I'd forgotten about how Washington, DC sometimes feels like the spotlight's been left on all the time. It's fun to go for a visit, I miss the news, the diversity, the culture... but I don't miss the business issues of the national focus (like a choice to cut funding for our National Mall--and our family planning!) and the glare of the lights.