violetismycolor

Obsessiveness

As I have said in an earlier post, I am a bit of an obsessive personality. This actually helps me to get things done, IF, in fact, I am obsessive about the particular task. I can say that this applies (currently) to genealogy and knitting. Apparently, I am not an obsessive about blogging. I have been a terrible blogger. 

My other issue is that I am a bit...scattered. Maybe a bit ADD. My attention is easily pulled away. Say I am investigating the Vermilyea family (my husband's side). Someone sends me an email via FamilySearch.org and I jump into action to investigate whatever ancestor that person asks me about and, voila, I am on to checking into the van Eeden's or whoever. Focus, Diane, focus!

I will try to change that, a bit. 

So, what is new with me? It's a gray July morning in Portland. I am at my usual coffee shop, spending a hour doing some genealogy. The place is full of people trying to grab some great coffee and maybe a delicious pastry or two. There are never enough seats and it is a little loud, but that doesn't seem to bother me. I block out all the noise around me.

I am trying to focus a little bit more on my genealogy tasks. I am working up my family tree and adding a Life Story for each of my direct (and sometimes indirect) ancestors up my family line. Well, and up John's family line, too. I attach these on FamilySearch, the collaborative family tree that is sponsored by the Mormon Church. It is a free website and a good way to try to find distant cousins who may be working on the same people I am. I also attach those Life Stories to these same ancestors on my Ancestry.com site. That way if someone on FamilySearch deletes the story, I still have it. Oh, yeah, people do delete things...like attached records...without a lot of thought.

Next up is my (obsessive) knitting. I am working on a cardigan that is a variation of the Sock Arms Sweater...same pattern, I am just making it into a cardigan instead of a pullover. I am using a wonderful gold merino by Swans Island Yarns. It is a fingering weight sweater (read: the yarn is very thin and you need a lot of stitches to knit my size). It will be wonderfully drapey and light for the fall and spring. I intend to make a DK or Worsted weight gold sweater for cold winter days.

The garden is amazing this summer. I put this down to the fact that my son-in-law-to-be, Zerek, spread two yards of compost over it for me this past spring...and the fact that we had a rainy spring and early summer that gave it lots of good water.  The weeds cannot do much to get up beyond the mulch and the spectacular growth of the perennials. I am doing far less weeding than I did last summer. 

The thing that is the most abundant this year are the blueberries. They have produced more than they ever have...and they KEEP producing. We can't keep up with them, to the delight of Bonnie and Ross, who are happily accepting "gifts" of blueberries whenever they come by.

We are having lunch with Dominic from Switzerland, who was an exchange student the same year as our own Katharina. He is visiting with his girlfriend. I am going to make a charcuterie board spread with good bread, spreadable cheeses, nuts, salami, olives, etc. with cherries and blueberries on the side. It's not too hard to do and it's delicious. We are planning to eat outside but I am not sure the weather is going to allow it...how is that possible in July?

Last year, the summer here was unusually hot (lots of temps in the 90's and 100's) and/or too smoky from the wildfires in both southern Oregon and British Columbia to spend time outside. This summer has decided to be cool and overcast more than warm and sunny. I have decided not to complain (too much) about this summer's weather because last summer was unbearable.

Anyway, that's a brief look at what's on with me lately. I will try to be better about blogging.

 

Snowfall and me

As my husband keeps pointing out, I was raised in southern California. I grew up as a very outdoorsy tomboy on a dairy farm in LA county. 

I was outside all the time

a) because I was one of the oldest of a VERY big Catholic family and we lived in a very small house

b) because going outside was one of the only ways to get any privacy

c) because the dairy was big (I think about 62 acres, shared with Mr. Schmidt's dairy next door) and there was so much to explore

I spent a lot of time watching the cows give birth in the dry cows' corral, making a "house" in the haystacks, playing in Coyote Creek and catching frogs there, climbing trees, playing cowboys and Indians with my sisters, brothers, and cousins next door. But it almost never rained...and it CERTAINLY never snowed. I had complete freedom to wander. As long as I was in by dinnertime, life was golden.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Oregon. I LOVE Portland. It's best on sunny days but I don't really mind it in the rain. BUT being stuck in my house on snowy Portland days drives me to distraction. I NEED to be outside of my house for at least part of every day. NEED TO.

Luckily for me, those snowy days tend to pass pretty quickly but seriously! When I heard it might snow again next week, I about lost it. Come on, weather gods, give me a break!

 

Knitting, addiction

 

I have started knitting again, as I said in an earlier blog post. As with most things I do, I am a bit obsessive about it. I have three WIP's, as they say in the knitting world...Works In Process. One of those is the off-white Bailey cardigan (see photo at left) that I mentioned in an earlier post. I chose an off-white, organic, washable wool because I wanted something that I could wear with just about everything. I also wanted it to be soft and comfy.   

The second project I have is a hat, which I have just started. I am hacking about 3 different patterns to make something unique and am using the yarns on the right, the black Zara DK yarn and the red Grinasco Top Print. These yarns have been in my stash for longer than you might think. Many, many years ago, I owned a yarn shop here in Portland. It was called Spindleshanks Yarnworks, Ltd. (a mouthful, right?) and was filled with gorgeous yarns. When I closed the store in 1996, I took home some lovely things. The yarns that I am using for my hat were from my store. I am part of a Ravelry group called the Stranded Podcast Group. They are having a KAL (which I have learned means a Knit A Long) using commercially dyed yarns. This is why I put this project on the needles.

My third (and so far, last) project is a Noro scarf. This is using two different colorways of Noro and alternating them every two rows. This gives a beautiful striped scarf. I will post a picture of that some other time. It is a fun project that requires very little thought; it's just pretty zen. I take that project along to my morning coffee group and I can knit it and talk at the same time. 

Anyway, my white sweater project requires real concentration right now since I am making the sleeve caps, and I am watching the Olympics and not really able to concentrate on knitting anything complicated. Soooo...the white sweater just has to wait for right now.

Better get back to knitting....

 

more fave Venice pix....

There were so many pictures of Venice that I loved.  

***Click on the photos to have them enlarged***)

We stayed there for 3 days and it wasn't enough.  It was incredible.  From the views out onto the other Venetian islands, from our water-taxi:

 

 

To to views of the Grand Canal:

 

 

 

 

The lovely old doorways and docks (sometimes with lovers sitting there...):

 

 

San Marco and the Square were as magical as they seem when you imagine them:

 

The interior of the Cathedral is all in real gold:

 

Yep, Venice...

Venezia...

I don't think anything can prepare one for the beauty of Venice.  In some ways, it reminds me of Holland...so flat and so much water.  It is awe-inspiring.

 (click on images to see a larger version)

We got to the bus station and started to wander off in search of our Bed and Breakfast, which was called Campiello Zen.  It was enchanting...very small, only 3 bedrooms...and run by a young couple and their year-old son.  The breakfasts were wonderful, their service was impeccable, and it was away from all the crowds.  Only about one water-taxi stop from the Station, it was only steps from the Grand Canal.  

We bought lunch at a little grocery and sat in this plaza and ate it:

On the left is a lovely church, one of many in this city.

John decided it was time for a nap, but I decided to have a little wander, and here is what I saw:

A gorgeous wall covered with Trumpet Vine:

 

 

As I got close to the Station again, I saw this beautiful church, Santa Maria di Nazareth:

This is just ONE church...and there are tons of them...it's hard to get your head around all the money that has been spent on them, how many years it took to create them, how many people have passed through them.  Mind boggling.

I will leave you with one last shot, the our water-taxi stop.

                            

 

 

Finally, the vacation recap...

I know....you're thinking, "Didn't she take that Italian vacation in September 2010?"

Yep, that's right...and I have finally gotten around to going through the trouble of actually processing some of the 2000 pictures I took.  That's right...2000!  I am not mistakenly adding a zero there.  This is what happens when you give a girl a digital camera.  No discipline.

So, we started out with a 24-hour visit to Holland.  We got such a deal on the airfare IF we stayed overnight in Holland...and so, my lovely cousin, Rosemary, agreed to put us up overnight.  

We visited some cousins of my mother's.  They were so welcoming and told me some things I didn't know about my dad's dad...Cousin Bets was a friend of his and would visit with him whenever he went on visits back to the Netherlands

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Rosemary and her sister (my cousin, Mariette) took us to an interesting outdoor art show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, we wandered around the beach at Noordwijk, near her home in Noordwijkerhout. The weather was sunny and warm.  We saw this interesting McMansion...lovely, and with a thatched roof but in Holland?  We are seriously infecting the world with our need for these big houses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an interesting Sand Sculpture event going on...one example is shown here:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't do much more in Holland besides go out for dinner and then CRASH...Rosemary even got up with us at 4:30 in the morning to make us breakfast!  Then we headed to the airport for our flights to Rome/Venice.

This mini-trip to Holland reminded me of how much I like this country...we seriously need to go back and do a proper vacation.  Having my incredible cousins there makes it even a bigger treat.  

Tomorrow:  Venice recapped

Shakespeare and words...

I listened to a wonderful edition of RadioLab last week, and it was all about language.

 (http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/)

   There was a segment on Shakespeare and how he changed English.  I was interested to hear him likened more to a great chef or a great chemist than to a great writer.  It was the way he used words, tossing them together and using the incredible combinations that came out:    

    madcap

    ladybird

    eyedrops

    eyesore

    eyeball

    He was the guy who used "un" like no one else ever had.  Here are a list of some of the words he created with the prefix un-:   

    unnerving 

    unaware

    uncomfortable

    unearthly

    unhand

    undress

    uneducated

    unmitigated

    ungoverned

    unpublished

    unwillingness

    unsolicited

    unswayed 

    unclogged

    unappeased

    unchanging

    unreal  (my personal favorite!)

    These words had never shown up in English before he wrote them into his plays and poetry.  Cool, huh?  

    There's more.  He also could toss words together to make unforgettable phrases, like:

    the truth will out

    what's done is done

    crack of dawn

    dead as a doornail

    a dish fit for the gods

    a dog will have his day

    faint-hearted

    fool's paradise

    forever and a day

    foregone conclusion

    the game is afoot

    the game is up

    greek to me

    in a pickle

    in my heart of hearts

    in my mind's eye

    kill with kindness

    knock, knock, who's there

    what the dickins 

     i could go on and on

    something wicked this way comes

    a sorry sight 

    in stitches

    I have long been a fan of Shakespeare, thanks to my really-cute, freshman-year-in-high-school English teacher at my high school in California...who had us reading and analyzing The Merchant of Venice and who told me about the Oregon Shakespearean Festival.  I vowed to go to Ashland one day and see for myself, which I did while in college at Oregon State.  I have been back many times and have loved it every time .

    Hearing this podcast made me love Mr. Shakespeare even more!

 

 

 

i'm walking on sunshine...

We had rain and hail and wind today.  But I got lucky enough to have my walk, with Cookie of course, in total sunshine...4 whole miles!  I was going to get into the garden again, but that rain/hail/wind stopped me so I puttered around the house, instead.  

Boring post, but posted!  I'll do better tomorrow...

Sunday, lazy Sunday...

Sunday is a favorite day for me.  It is usually my laziest day of the week...mostly because we are delivered of TWO big Sunday papers:  The Oregonian and the New York Times. 

I don't often go to church anymore, but John said that this new series that our pastors were doing on Answers for Atheists (or something like that) was very thought-provoking.  And he knows that what I am most interested in is to have my brain poked...to be made to think. And this sermon did do that.

One thing that hit home:  He said that we are all hypocrites:  we profess values but we don't always live up to them.  True, true.  None are perfect.  I am totally guilty of getting angry because someone tailgates me, or because something doesn't go the way that I expect or any number of other things. 

Then I realized that I hold others to the perfection standard.  When they fall short, I get so disappointed. And today's sermon made me realize that I fall short, too, and I'm sure that I disappoint my fair share of people.  Humbling, actually.  Oh, I am so often humbled...

squishy...

I had my yearly mammogram today.  Oh, the joy of being compressed beneath a plastic plate.  Oh yes, crank it down 'just' a little bit further.  Now, to hold my breath for just a few seconds...

I found out last year that I had this thing called a 'hamartoma' in my breast.  It is a benign tumor that is very rare.  Of the tumors found in the breast, only 0.7% of them are hamartomas.  Yay for me for being somewhat unique.  The problem is that it continues to grow and it is making me lopsided, so to speak.  So, next week I go to see the surgeon and figure out when I can get it out of there!

head thump...

Only I could be pulled over by my yard debris can and hit my head on it.  I have a nice bruise between the eyes. 

Seriously!

visiting Mom...

I drove down for a visit with my mom today.  The Willamette Valley was especially Dramatic and Stormy, so i snapped a photo (or two).  My mom likes to look at my blog and my Facebook pages, so it was fun to hang out, roam the Web, and see her before heading off. 

too many things to do...

 

Looking at photos like this, of the countryside (near Osaka, Japan) makes me realize that it is worth it to slog through all the STUFF that needs to be done before we leave for Japan.  There are so many details to be dealt with for this vacation, added to all the daily-life sorts of things that still have to be done.  

We leave on Sunday, and I am very excited about it.  I am mostly anxious to get to see my daughter again after more than 6 months!  We will be taking photos and bringing a computer, so I may well post from the trip.  

I just hope I can get it all done...

killers in the kitchen...

Those who know me well, know that I do not have a good record with kitchen knives.  On any given day, they will attack me and try to kill me...or at least slice little bits off my hands. 

In the past couple of weeks, I have subdued the knives but apparently they have been plotting with my pots and pans. 

Two weeks ago, I was innocently turning over a piece of frying chicken and my frying pan hocked up a spit/bit of hot oil and burned the back of my right hand quite badly.  I was just about healed from that...just a bit of redness left to mark where the attack happened...when last night that SAME FRYING pan became even more of a threat. 

I was working on the final stages of 3  dishes at one time (Roasted Chicken in a Scallion and Vermouth Sauce, Seasoned and Steamed Broccoli, and Baked Sweet Potatoes), when my frying pan took the opportunity to prey on my overworked mind to begin hostilities.

John had just gotten home and was talking to me, asking me something complicated, like "When will dinner be ready?"

And I had just taken the frying pan out of a 450 degree oven, had removed the chicken to a plate, stirred the broccoli in its chicken broth, was reading my recipe book for the steps to make the Vermouth/Scallion Sauce...when in my confusion, the gleaming handle of the frypan beckoned to me, saying "you must drain most of the fat"...well, maybe it was the cookbook that said that but the frypan handle WAS gleaming...when in my confusion, I picked up the gleaming silver handle and heavy frypan and (too late) realized my error.

Thank goodness for Aloe Vera, my lovely husband, and SilvaSorb pads.  I think I was saved by all three of these things...no emergency room visit, no lasting horrible pain...but lots of embarrassment, minor pain, and frustration at not being able to use my right hand well for the foreseeable future.

Now, I have to figure out how to cook without using knives and frying pans. 

driving my grandmother's car...

My car is in the shop (leaky window washer fluid reservoir/the 'time for service' message came up on my dashboard display/I had a 'headlamp failure'), so I had to rent a car till the Saab dealership could get my car back to me.  There is an Enterprise-Rent-a-Car rep right there in the Saab/Cadillac dealership for just such a thing.

The problem?

They only rent out Caddy's there.  Why not rent out Saabs, too?

So, I am driving a boat of a car that is obnoxious in every way.  It embarasses me.

I have been driving it for two days now, and will have to drive to Corvallis to pick Ross up in it, too.  My car SHOULD be ready by late tomorrow. 

Please give me my cute little red car back.  Please?

and the snow just keeps coming...

I wandered the mile down the road to Hillsdale, with Cookie as my companion.  And this is what I saw:

   

Cookie on an almost abandoned road; a few walkers are on the horizon, poles in hand.  Parents pulling kids on sled.  Folks with snowshoes.  A jack-knifed semi, with one of Portland's finest there to help out.  Folks doing the right thing:  chaining up.

This is NOT normal for Portland, Oregon. 

We are in what the news folks around here are calling "The Winter Blast"!  Oh, yes, very dramatic.  And the latest forecast:  Christmas Eve: Snow, Freezing Rain, and Plain Old Rain.  Okay guys...make up your minds!

Note:  Adam had no problem with the roads till he got to Salem, where the traffic slowed down to about 5 miles per hour.  It should be 40 minutes from there to here, but we're still not sure when we will see him...

makes me wish I were back in Fiji...

  So...THIS is what we are looking at here.  SNOW drifthing THIS high.  This is what I dug out from on our backstair.  Cookie couldn't get out to do her business, the snow was so high.  She, a Sheltie snowdog, couldn't maneuver in snow that was higher than her little Sheltie-legs.  It was comical, but also disheartening. 

We managed to pick Ross up from the airport last night, though.  Right in the thick of the worst snowstorm I have EVER witnessed in Portland, Oregon, OUR Ross was supposed to be flying in.  5 out of 6 flights were canceled...both incoming and outgoing.  But my prayers and positive thoughts managed to work their way up to the Powers-That-Be, and Ross came in...and we got in and out, safely.

But I wish where I was right now, was back in Fiji...

bravery has nothing to do with it...

I ventured out into the Portland winter storm debris today. 

First off, you have to understand that people in Portland don't DO snow.  Nope.  A snowstorm is predicted and all hell breaks loose.  We stock up on supplies as though it's Y2K.  We make sure we are equipped with snowtires, studs, chains, whatever (Most people do, but apparently John and I aren't smart enough to do that...).  We try to hunker down once the storm hits...knitting is a great pastime, catching up on reading the classics is another...

And yet, I went out today...IN MY CAR!    

OMG, I was petrified.  I only drove the mile down to Hillsdale, where there is a coffeeshop and a small grocery store...i.e. other human beings.  I bought food for the next few days.  I had a mocha at Starbucks.  I went to the post office.  I couldn't make it out of the post office parking lot without reversing all the way to the downhill exit onto the main road.  But once I got onto that main road, I had enough traction, and a small enough set of slopes, to make it all the way home. 

Man, was I proud of myself! 

I also took the opportunity of snowy roads and Christmas-light lit house to try some nighttime photography...not great but a first attempt.  Here is my house:

teeth???...

Try combining the time change last Saturday with an abcessed root-canal-gone-bad, and you have my week.  It's got to get better than this, soon. After all, I am going to Scotland soon.

have I said this before?

I love Fall!  It is definitely my favorite time of year...what with the gorgeous, cool, sunny days and the lovely foliage colors, and my birthday and all.  These were taken in my backyard.

 

 

Oh, and I've got this little gal hanging out right outside one of my kitchen windows.  I figure she's looking for cooking tips...