Happy Birthday Paul-Hugo

Happy Birthday to my big boy Paul-Hugo who is now 11 years old. 11 years ago you were born on April 2 at 8:23 p.m. 11 years ago and every year since, you have been my marriage anniversary present. 11 years ago was a very special day. Rolfe and I woke up that morning, and wondered as you were a little late wether this was the day. We decided Rolfe should go to work as usual. I walked Alexandra to school all the way down he hill. I was about to go do laundry at the laudromat,when you gave me a little warning sign that this was the day that you and I would look into eachother's eyes for the first time. I felt another contraction, mild, and then another 15 minutes later, and then another. I called Rolfe back. He came home, picked up Alexandra from school, and dropped her with our best friends Kevin and Larry. Contractions were now coming closer, but we waited a little longer. We went for a long walk around Alamo Square, and at about 4, decided it was time to go. We did not have a car at the time, so we walked from Alamo Aquare to Kaiser on Geary, by the time we got there the contractions were well established, and you and I got to work. I wanted you to come on April 2 because it would be my marriage anniversary gift to Rolfe, and I think you wanted it as much as I did, and at 8:23 p.m. I got to hold you in my arms and the world stopped for a moment while Daddy and I stared into your eyes. Happy birthday, my love.

The Ozzard of Wiz

The sock pixie lives in the land of the Ozzard of Wiz! (Thank you Skye for the most wonderful name one could think of.) In my land there is yarn everywhere. There is yarn politely sitting in a beautiful basket in the living room, pretending to be disciplined. There is yarn in the bottom drawer of every chest. That is the special time out place for the yarn that misbehaves. There is yarn in all handbags, that's the emergency yarn, the one you pull out when the weird dude won't stop starring at you on the train! There is yarn in the school book shelf, that's the study yarn. There is yarn in the basement, and that's the yarn for the day the world will come to an end. Some people store food and gold, the great Ozzard stores yarn. There is occasionally a project attached to the yarn, in this case socks, but I also know of a few sweaters which are all in time out at the moment!

In the land of the Ozzard of Wiz, there is no need for heat. As long as it is above 40 degrees outside, there will be no heat. The great Ozzard (which might be me) loves to take draconian heating measures, and the values of layering, and wearing sweaters are highly praised. House guests are usually a little surprised at first. They are watched carefully, in case they turn purple before they can reach for a sweater. On a good day, you can even see the great wizzard in her magical coat and scarf inside the house, knitting frantically. "To try and keep her hands warm?" some evil witches would ask.

In the land of the Ozzard of Wiz, the littlest fairy lost her first tooth yesterday, and the great Ozzard started crying in the middle of the street, kissing her pixie which was a baby no more. In this great land, the tooth fairy has odd working hours. If the tooth was lost after 6p.m. she cannot come that night because she did not get enough advanced warning. Sometimes, she outsources the work because she is so busy, and then we run into terrible problems, with incredibly long delays in delivery. Sometimes it seems to the little pixies, and elves that she has not come. They look and they look, and cannot find anything under their pillow. They go eat their breakfast, slightly disappointed, but come back up to their room, after some convincing by the great Ozzard to find that the toothfairy had left something and they just had not looked carefully enough...

In the land of the Ozzard of Wiz, there is a sock factory. One pair is barely finished that another one is started. The socks for the most wonderful mother in law are finished, and socks for the almost 11 year old little elf are in progress. Sometimes the Ozzard loves to just knit the same thing over and over again, but yesterday the wind must have been blowing from a different direction, for she started to knit socks with a seeded rib pattern for the elf, and she just loves it.


In the land of the Ozzard of Wiz, house projects often get sidetracked, and delayed but eventually completed, as will be the case with the living room. It is rarely the case with laundry however, that is always sidetracked! And there is an axplanation for that too! The Sock Monster is responsible. See, the great Ozzard and the Sock Monster have been at war, one producing socks, the other one devouring them. The great Ozzard's war tactics include limiting casualties to a maximum, i.e. as little confrontation as possible, so very little laundry, and a lot of troop buid up, so knit as many socks as possible!

In the land of the Ozzard of Wiz there are some days that are harder than others, mostly because the great Ozzard was up too late knitting, or in this case reading the new Yarn Harlot book...

Of Cars, and Bent Needles

I will not hide that I have my ups and downs and that little things can get me bent out of shape. There is something about Bostonians and cars. Really! They wake up, probably all nice and pleasant, dress up quietly, so as not to wake their sleeping children up, they drink the coffee lovingly prepared by their spouse, they get dressed, paying attention to the details, after all this is one of the most European cities in America, they give a kiss good-bye, they close the door, and go to open the door of their car. And there, at that very moment something happens. They go completely insane. Nothing can stop them anymore. They will go as fast as they can out of their spot, they will zoom away, and they will get there, before the other million people who are posessed by the same demon. They will drive, at full speed, up one way streets. By the way, school buses are not exempt from that either. They will ignore all lights. When parked and trying to get out, they will bump the car in front and the car in the back. When you are crossing, they will show not intent of slowing down, but rather honk at you madly, and swerve around you. Bostonians know no white line. If they miss an exit, no problem, they go across all the lanes, in a mad dash to make that exit!!! They have to be under some sort of magic spell. They will stop at nothing to get the car going, and it can sometimes be a very difficult thing. A few weeks ago we had a snow storm, followed by rain, and then the temperature dropped. Everything froze. The cars, parked along the streets, had about a foot of completely frozen snow around them. I saw women, in high heels, with their little Louis Vuitton purses, pulling little hammers out of their purses, and delicately trying to "ting-ting-ting" hammer the ice. I saw people sit in their cars pushing on the pedal madly to get the car to jump out of its ice cage. I was also saw people dig their car out, but only to bury the car in from of them. Don't think that I just stand there and do nothing. I actually help. This poor man, was desperate, he could not open the car door, and was hopolessly blowing on the key hole, and I got him hot water to try and thaw the lock. The lock thawed, and without as much as a thank you, he sat in the car, and turned out to be the one who tried to make his car jump out of the ice!
While all this goes on, I sit in my comfy chair, a cup of coffee by my side, a pair of socks on the needles, and I watch. Sometimes I have to get up, knock on the window, in particular when a posessed driver starts dumping all the ice and snow in front on my front steps, which I just spent time cleaning in the freezing weather!
Enough of cars for today.


The living room is going to take a little longer than I thought. I managed to finish the second coat on the two walls. That leaves me with a lot of trim.Oh well, I guess there is no rush. It's not like John Kerry is going to drop by for a visit any time soon!


My mother in law's second sock is at the toe, but I don't know what happened to my needle! I left the sock on the kitchen counter last night to go for a walk with Rolfe, and when I cam back the needle was completely bent. I asked the kids, but nobody seems to know anything about it. It almost looks like they did not even know I knit! The conversation sounded kind of like this: "Did something happen to my knitting while I was out?" Response: "What knitting?". "You know, the socks for Inge." "No, I don't know, where were they?" "In the kitchen." " I disn't see them there, and I didn't go to the kitchen." Now if only one of the children repeated these words to me, I could tell which one had a little something to do with the socks, but they all repeat the same thing. I should not have had them all read the Three Musketeers!


Talking about musketeers, makes me think of super heroes, and I think I'll just end my post today with a picture of Skye as "Super Grandma!"

Early Morning Thoughts

I am sitting in my room, the curtains are open, and the sun is rising. Through the windows, against the backdrop of the blue grey sky, with its touch of red eyeliner, I see houses everywhere and the tops of the Boston skyscrapers. That is life. You know for a city, Boston is remarkably quiet at night. It is actually way quieter than Petaluma, where the sounds of the highway seemed to wake me up every night at 4 a.m., and I did not even live close to the highway! Here it is the rising sun that wakes me up every morning.
This morning, I decided to change my routine a little. From now on, I will get up at 5 a.m. with Rolfe, prepare his lunch, and will have my coffee with him. This way I'll spend one extra hour with him everyday. And then, once he leaves I can get to my writing for an hour, and then take care of the family, and be ready to start our school day at 8 a.m.
Now for the update on the house... I am still not done with the living room. I did take the day off from painting on Saturday, but got right back to it on Sunday. Two walls still need a second coat of paint, as well as the odd pillar that sits in the middle of the room, the mirrored cabinet needs a second coat of semi-gloss, and one door needs everything. Well, what do you think, two more days? Then I have to tackle the covers for the chairs my parents gave me, you know the ones in the picture in the previous post. I have been debating between slipcovers, and upholstering. I found the nicest velvety fabric, in a smashing blue color, covered with my favorite flowers, tulips. I have enough fabric for either solution. If you have any thoughts please leave a comment. Any suggestion on how to make a cover are also welcome! I am starting to chew my nails just thinking about it!
I will not procrastinate. NO, I will tackle the task, and be done, and I will not get side tracked by any other project, like a lovely sock. There, that is said.
Talking about socks, well I am slightly behind schedule on my mother in law's socks. I finished the first one, and am on the gusset decreases on the second one. I know that she will love them, even if I am a few days late. While I was working on the socks, I was thinking about how nice it was to knit gifts. Gifts that you take the time to knit, or crochet, or paint, are so much more meaningful than store bought ones. I don't know if it is just because while you work on the project you think about the person you are making it for, or if it's just that you took the time. I find so much value in not rushing through life, so much that you feel rushed to pick a present. It is so easy to just fall prey to the lure of speed and efficiency.You jump in the car, drive off, drop the kids at their activities, run to the store, grab a present and rush back to pick up the kids, stopping at the grocery store to pick up a quick fix meal. I live at a slower pace. Those of you who know me well, know that I don't know how to drive. I live at the pace of my walk. The children and I walk to the library, the grocery store. We may not "do" as much in a day, but we take the time to breathe, and look around us. We take the time to cook meals, we take the time to study, to read, and of course to knit.
In the time that I have been writing, the sky has turned light blue, the red eyeliner has disappeared, I can see people walking in the street, my day has started.

Progress

I have made definite progress, and would say I am about half way done with the living dining room. I of course could not resist the temptation to start arranging some of the furniture in the finished area. What do you think? These two chairs are some of the chairs that my parents brought to me. They were actually my first pieces of furniture ever. I am so happy to have them back. It makes my home feel like home. The first place that I had was of course a lot smaller than my current house. It was a tiny apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, overlooking a courtyard. The walls were a soft linen white, the floors, a honey wood, and it got the softest filtered light, and actually when I think about it, my house reminds me of my first apartment. The light here is the artist's delight. It makes my yarn look glorious.





The other side of the room is not quite there. And once again a picture is worth a thousand words...














I did find the time to knit last night, and made some progress on my mother in law's socks.













I also had to start something else. Here is a peek at it. Soft, fuzzy baby alpaca, and the coolest pattern, (I am desgning it, and taking great note!) and of course it's a sock!

Sorry I did not write on Friday, but as you know my parents' furniture was arriving and so did a huge snow storm, but let's start from the beginning. I talked to the truck driver on Thursday night, and he said: "I'll call you at 7:30 a.m. to tell you if I can deliver with the storm. If I can, I'll be there at 9." I let my parents know, and I went to sleep after setting up my alarm clock for 7 a.m. At 7:20 a.m., I got a call from my mother, which I could only imagine was frantic, in her nightgown, hair standing straight up on her head, glasses askew, "Caroline, le chauffeur est la!!!" (the driver, is here.) I said I was on my way, I hung up, and dashed upstairs, swearing at every step, and of course, in my great hurry forgot about step number 7, the one that is half the width of the other, and crashed. I heard a voice coming from upstairs: "Are you OK?" I slammed the wall with my fist, composed my voice, and said: "I'm fine, thank you." You know, once a lady, always a lady.
I put on whatever clothes I could find, and since I could not find my socks borrowed Rolfe's, and ran out the door.
The driver was this little, elderly man, who was convinced my parents could not understand a word he was saying. He seemed relieved to see me, in particular when it came to explaining to my parents how one of their antique chairs had a broken foot. I stood for 5 hours outside giving directions to the delivery people, directing them to one room or another. In my great hurry, however, I had forgotten about hat, gloves, and scarf. The temperature was about 25 degrees F. The snow was starting to fall, increasing gradually to light blizzard strength. To keep warm I climbed inside the truck, I even started unloading stuff. I think the guys were very surprised, to see this little French woman in high heels ( I forgot to tell you that of course, I picked light leather high heel shoes for the delivery!) pushing and carrying boxes!
My parents were happy to be setting up their new home, and I got to help them, which made me happy.

The rest of the day was great, as it was snowing so much. The kids had never seen so much snow fall at once, and we went for quite a few walks during the day and in the evening to be able to enjoy the blizzard fully! It did take a 30 minute boiling shower to thaw me!



On the painting front, things are going well, but I am feeling some sense of urgency. Alexandra's cello teacher is coming in a few hours and the living room looks...interesting... To make things a little more confusing, my parents actually returned some of my French furniture to me now that I have a big house, and room to put it. In any case a picture is worth a thousand words.





On the sock front, I decided to knit a pair of socks for my mother in law's birthday on the 23rd of this month, which means that each time I put my paint brush down, I will knit a row, actually each time my hands are free I will be knitting a row... As of now this is how far I am with the socks. Rolfe does seem a little concerned about the deadline...

The Yarn Harlot is coming to Northampton!

The Yarn Harlot is coming to Northampton, which is only a couple hours away from me, and is also the home of my school, Smith College. I have told Rolfe, he is renting a zip car, and we are going! This will definitely be a memorable date, both for me and Rolfe! I just thought I would mention it, since I had been whining so much about not being able to see her in Petaluma. And thank you oh Knitting Gods for answering my knitting prayers!