Travel day check-in

They called this morning from Lhasa, Tibet, all safe and sound. Still having a great experience and all. Pretty much that was all we covered due to roaming charges for international cell phone use. But that was the important stuff anyway.

Youngest Daughter update

DTY is winging her way back to school this afternoon. General classes aren't starting for another two weeks, but she is going early for licensure for RAM as she keeps calling it. Upon Googleing it, I am thinking it is known as RML. Seriously, it probably isn't what first came to mind for most of you. Both of her grandfathers probably had such a license, and maybe her great-uncle. By the time she is done with Spring Semester, she hopes to also have an Operator's license. It could well lead to a second work-study job; she plans to continue with her theater set construction job next year.

Stuff we have been known to do in stores

My daughters and I have been known to do random and weird things in stores while shopping, like play "Who can find the ugliest shoe?" (In case you haven't noticed, there are some really ugly shoes out there, more in the women's department, but for men too. BTW, I have nothing to do with Hubband's shoe purchases. Well, not since I requested he have a new pair of cowboy boots for our wedding.) It is fun and entertaining for us, but we get really weird looks from other people in the store, especially the people that work there. We also have a tendency to smell shampoo and soap and have discussions about them. Stuff like, "This shampoo definitely smells like flowers and then you would have bees around your head."
"Well, it smells like coconut all right. Ewww!"
"The cucumber and melon is alright. Do you want to smell it?"
"Hmmm, I wonder what this one smells like?" Daughter, looking at the label, "The promised land, of course!"
Guess what went home with us? And I wasn't even planning on buying soap that day.

Weekend listening

I was just listening to the soundtrack of my weekend and heard this

They closed the base down in 1946. Even though the base was closed, the streets were still there and so were the hangars. There was also over a mile and half of runway that was very, very wide. When I was in high school, we would go out there and drag race on the old runways. There was only one policeman around most of the time, and he didn't even have a car. I've driven over 115 miles per hour on that old base. And my parents are dead so they can't hear me say that, which is a good thing.

DTY and I both think that sounds seriously awesome. It could be a lot of fun. Probably smoother than the highway.

We also heard a very cool story about the sound of cancer. If you don't get this show in your area, it is available as a podcast to your computer. (Never forget, you don't need a pod to listen to podcasts.)

Pictures from the other side

Hubband was able to Skype me a few pictures from the other side of the world. (Too bad we can't travel that fast. They can in the Star Trek world, lucky people.)
These are taken at their visit to Forbidden City.
There is some interesting information at that link,if you are into reading stuff like that. (Or do it out of the habit, like reading everything in the museum.)

 

These are taken on their excursion to The Great Wall. (Which, despite the urban legend, can not be seen from the moon with a naked eye.)



This was also taken on that trip, click on it so you can see what it says. (Just because I decided to make all the pictures small instead of medium or large today. Saves space or some dumb thing. Seriously, all of these are worth looking at in click-make-it-big-mode.)




This is the two of them with our friends that they have been visiting there.

 

This is the (I was told) world's largest LED display screen and is

over 6,000 square meters (about 200 meters in length and 30 meters in width). The display at the International Trade Center in Beijing, will be one of the promotions for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Here is a You Tube link of it in action. (Hubband said he forgot to take his own video. I think he forgets that his camera has that very cool feature. I have videos, just still working on getting them into the actual viewable mode, instead of just pre-viewable to me.)

A quick update

Hubband and DTE have spent the last several days with our friends in Beijing. They got to Shanghai safely, spent one night there (instead of two) and caught the day train to Beijing. I have been told, via a Skype chat, that they have eaten great, albeit strange, food. Apparently even my picky eater DTE has been eating all sorts of stuff even when she knows what is in it. Sometimes it seems like it is better not to know what you are eating, but she needs to be a bit careful due to an anaphylatic reaction to eggplant. (Yes, she had to be really careful in Greece last summer too.) They have also been to the Great Wall, and seen other really cool stuff. Hubband might be able to send me some pictures via Skype sometime in the next ten hours before they head off on the train to Lhasa, Tibet. If he does, I will post them here for you all to see. Apparently there had been some confusion about those train tickets and they weren't absolutely sure they were going to be able to get them after all. That would have left them at loose ends for almost a week and probably cutting their trip short. But all is good, the CEO of the travel company handling the Tibet segment brought the train tickets to them last night at the restaurant where they were having dinner. So they are very happy travelers to have their trip all on track!

It's that time again

It is time for me to post another questioner. (Hubband hates it when I do this. Sorry honey. At least you aren't reading it today and might get lots of some other posts to read all at the same time.) It isn't like I didn't give you all a bit of a hint after all, when I told you the seasonal "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" dish cloth exchange was coming up. So now is the time to post the information about me, knitting, dish cloths, and "stuff." Also another reminder that if you are a knitter and haven't been in one of Anne's swaps, now is the time to check it out. Remember you can't go wrong this time.
1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both?
Knit
2. What types of needles do you enjoy using for making dishcloths?
Bamboo circulars
3. What types of cotton do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Is there any that you've been wanting to try?
Sugar'n Cream or Peaches'n Cream, and sometimes CottonTots. Not that I can think of for dishes.
4. What color(s) are your kitchen and bath decorated in (if any)?
Umm, the kitchen,none. It's base colors are black and white, so everything. (As an aside, I did notice Oribel matches the chocolate brown rug better than the pink one.) Oribel's bath is a sea blue motif and our bath has fixtures of a color Hubband would rather ignore.
5. What are your favorite colors for yarns? Least favorite?
Seriously, when it comes to yarn I don't dislike any of them.
6. Do you like Winter, or do you count the days until it ends?
I love winter. It gets a bit old when we don't have snow. (Don't believe everything you hear about Minnesota winters. They must be talking about up north. I would swear we had more snow in any given winter the last ten years we were in Utah than we have had all together since we moved here. But up in Duluth where DTE is in school? They get snow! So much that they once spent an afternoon jumping out of the third floor dorm room windows into snow drifts. That is serious snow! Lucky girl!) I absolutely love it here when we have fresh snow and it is a clear night on a full moon. We get some breath taking shadows of our oak trees that I love!
7. What's your favorite way to brighten your day when you're down in the dumps?
Reading a book, knitting, weaving, hanging out with Sadie or Oribel. (Simon is seriously Hubband's dog and really doesn't leave his side when he is home. When he is gone, Simon sulks and is sad. Yes, you can tell when a basset is sad, they look different than normal.) Cooking often works as a drug of choice too.
8. What is your favorite treat to indulge in and when your down in the dumps?
Reading or knitting. Drinking a cup of tea or coffee.
9. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Cocoa?
Yes.
10. If you could take a vacation starting tomorrow and go anywhere for one week and money were no object, where would you go and what would you do?
I would absolutely love for Hubband and I to pack our girls up and take them to Rome. Show them all the cool places and things we saw.
11. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should be aware of? Strong perfumes, cigarette smoke.

Mystery items

This is what I did last week while DTE was playing with fire. I had a brief lesson on Judy's spinning wheel and here is the product of that, skeined up and loose so you can really see what it looks like.

Finally, the mystery item Jessi has been going crazy for weeks now with curiosity about. When I told her that my friend needed a foster home for it and Hubband said our house was the logical fostering place, she wanted to know what kind of wheel it was. I asked the owner if it had a name, and she kind of gave me a blank look and said, "Is it supposed to?" I then asked her what kind and she didn't know. So after I got it home, I told Jessi it was a Louet something. Seriously, that was the best I could answer at the time. Therefore she has been dying to see a picture of it so she could figure out what it was and give me long-distance help when I need it.
I am not sure how she is going to give me help from Alabama with what could prove to be my biggest challenge when it comes to learning how to spin. Oribel has already shown me how much she likes any yarn, and she particularly loves yarn that is moving. Fortunately I have figured out how to stop it when she decides she needs to jump up on the moving wheel to knock the drive band off, or stick her paw into the spokes. Don't be expecting any awesome spinning out of me very soon. I am thinking I could end up with a kitten with a broken leg, a smashed head, or some such similar horrible thing.
Today she has been really busy with distributing presents. She has given the dogs three coasters and the fish has been blessed with two. Apparently there was something wrong with their clean dishes having just water in them. Fortunately I didn't get any wet ones dropped on me at 6:30 this morning for a game of fetch. It has been known to happen.
Oribel also likes to be up high to be able to see, so she tends to spend a lot of time riding around on my shoulder. The other day we went up the stairs, put stuff away and then back down the stairs, got a cup of coffee, and then back upstairs, the whole time with her hanging out on my shoulders. Today she decided she needed to be just a little taller to look at a curtain rod and thought the top of my head was a good place to look from. It didn't work out so well for her, what with slippery hair and all. It was kind of funny though.
In other news, Hubband and DTE arrived in Shanghai, spent one night, and then took the train to Beijing to meet up with our friends and their hosts/guide for a few days. They called this morning (for me, but it was late tonight for them) to let me know they have passed the latest stage of their journey safely.

Have I ever mentioned

how much I like the birthday present Hubband gave me? Probably not. He was really sweet and gave it to me early (like the end of October). With it I can take cute things like this
and this

 

and these

 

But seriously, I really love it because I can take pictures like this out my kitchen window even when he has taken his camera on vacation!

(I would strongly recommend you click on the picture to get a big view of it.)
That was taken at about 3:20 in the afternoon, and you may be able to tell how close to the house it is since I got some of the bird feeder that is on the deck into the picture.
It is a Barred Owl, and they average 16 to 25 inches in height when full grown, which this one is. This is one of the reasons Someone isn't allowed outside by herself. She is just now getting to be only slightly bigger than a squirrel. This, and the Red-tailed Hawk family that lives in the trees above our shed at the edge of the yard.

Barred Owl can sometimes be seen hunting before dark. This typically occurs during the nesting season or on dark and cloudy days. A Barred Owl will use a perch, from where it dives upon its prey - meadow voles are its main prey, followed by shrews and deer mice. Other mammals include rats, squirrels, young rabbits, bats, moles, opossums, mink, and weasels. Birds are taken occasionally, including woodpeckers, grouse, quail, jays, blackbirds, and pigeons.

Sometimes when I am filling the bird feeder Hubband refers to it as the Hawk feeder. He might need to start calling the owl feeder.

They are...

In the air on their way to China!