Adventures in Paradise

Martha!

Took my time doing it, but I managed to finish Martha!  I went up to the roof of the building to try and get some pictures outside, but it was packed, so I took a few inside and this is the only one of the bunch that was presentable.  I'm happy with the end result, although it needs another steam because the button bands ripple a bit, despite the fact that there is plenty of ease in the top. 

Here's a pretty close up of the bead work...
 

I think this will be perfect over a camisole this summer!

Slated

I got official word this morning - San Diego watch out, I'm headed your way!  I've got about six months left in DC, then about a six month training pipeline (Newport, RI; Dahlgren, VA; Norfolk, VA - maybe; and San Diego, CA).  After the training pipeline, I'll take over as Executive Officer for about 5 months, from June to November.  This is optional for me, but I figured after four years ashore punctuated by two years on a small, differently propelled Coastal Minehunter, I could use a few months to knock the rust off while someone else is in the driver's seat.  I'll probably regret that decision as I know full well that I like to be the one in charge, but it will be good for me. 

Anyway, sometime in November of next year, I should be taking command of USS DECATUR (DDG 73).
 

I couldn't have asked for a better ship - Flight II DDG, San Diego, outfitted for Ballistic Missile Defense, ship named for a legendary naval hero...I'm walking on air, even if I do have to wait.

Weekend in New York

My first duty station in the Navy, 15 years ago, was right across the bay from New York City in New Jersey.  It took about an hour to get over there and we took advantage of the opportunity a few times, but not often as we were all relatively broke and often at sea.  I visited the city last about 10 years ago, as best I can recall, just long enough to see Patrick Stewart on Broadway.  (Shirtless.  Totally worth the long drive.)  I keep meaning to go back and really see New York, but always manage to come up with a lame excuse about lack of time, energy, money...go ahead and fill in the blank with your favorite excuse.

But now a friend is stationed up at the United Nations for a few months and his wife is stationed down here in DC, and Memorial Day weekend was her weekend to travel, so I tagged along.  I took the train north on Saturday and my first stop was to visit Cathy (of the comments and beautiful lace but sadly no blog,) where I got to meet her adorable kitties, Mack and Lucy.  And being an excellent enabler, she first took me to a great Greek restaurant to lower my resistance and then introduced me to her local yarn store, Knitty City.  The damage is below:

Malabrigo Silky Wool in a solid and a variegated (and I'm kind of regretting not buying a second skein of the blue,) 2 skeins of Art Yarns Supermerino in a colorway that will be fun in socks and a skein of Cascade's sock yarn in deep colors.  Good stuff all around, and I left a lot of other good stuff behind.  The shop was really welcoming from the owner to the workers to the other customers and I enjoyed every minute.  Thanks for such a great afternoon Cathy!

After my yarny afternoon, I changed into a dress and met my friends for dinner at a little French place, saw Nine-to-Five on Broadway, which was wonderful.  Allison Janney was her usual great self and the two other leads were pitch perfect.  If you get the chance go see it, if only for those three and an entire show worth of songs written by Dolly Parton. 

Sunday involved baseball at the new Yankee Stadium.  It was over-priced and I'm a little cranky about the no bags policy (seriously, it was easier to get into the Army Navy game with President Bush attending than it was Yankee stadium) but the view was great. 

The food was pretty good, too.  And we got two extra innings for the ticket price, so it worked out in the end. 

That was about it for the touristy stuff I did since I stayed up waaay on the Upper East Side, well away from most of the "stuff to do" stuff in Manhattan.  Even a walk to Central Park or the Met were a bit too much for the bits of time I had in the morning before the baseball game on Sunday and my train on Monday.  So I spent my time walking around the neighborhood, breakfasted on bagels, hung out in little corner parks and otherwise chilled out happily.  (The pedicure I got might have helped with the happy factor.)  On thing about new York that really strikes me is the kids.  People with money who live in DC almost always move out out as soon as a kid arrives, leaving just the poor kids in the city.  In New York, there were kids of all sorts running around with their parents.  It's a much more kid friendly city than DC is, which is kind of cool. 

I didn't see anything touristy, but I did get some very neat shots in my wanderings.  For instance...

The explosion at the Starbucks in New York happened just two blocks from my hotel, which I discovered on my search for breakfast Monday morning.  But there was nicer stuff to look at, like this neat window box that reminds me of a birch forest.

And to add to my short but cool set of funk bike pictures, this little guy duct taped to his bike.  More than anything, I love the color of the wall in the background, but I like the bike a lot, too.

Grrrr

It's been one of those days.  I had a decent week last week - even my hearing (part of my job is to prepare the guys who go and testify in front of Congressional subcommittees, which is often painful) went very well.  So I wasn't prepared for today to be such a mess.  I had to make a last minute schedule change which was difficult, then got back to the office five hours later to realize I'd completely screwed up scheduling a completely different brief...by TWO days.  Worse, half the people had the right day on their calendars and the other half had the wrong day.  One of them said, later that he'd thought there was something wrong when I kept referring to a brief on Tuesday when he had it on thursday, but he'd just figured I'd misspoke.  And hearing me making the same mistake repeatedly over the course of a month didn't tip him off to anything.  I sent an e-mail to the staffers with a revised schedule, no problem.  Then I sent a mea culpa to the guys who write and give the brief, starting out with "I am an idiot".  Then sent it to the staff in addition to the people I'd intended it to go to. 

There are two days left in the week.  I cannot WAIT for the weekend.

Also, there's a problem with my baby blanket and if I can't figure out how to fix it, I'll have to rip and re-knit.  Or totally reconsider the log cabin idea.

Too Busy to Think

I'm knitting...the baby blanket is much further than this photo a week or so ago.  I can't remember if I ever posted this, but I am now 3/4 of the way through the second black square. 

I'm still knitting this on the train (and on the plane and on the bus...anywhere I travel) because it turns out that two sleeves at once is a bit unwieldy for commute knitting.   Anyway, I'm not doing too much in the way of anything extra-curricular right now because work has me hopping and will until  the end of the month at least.  I'll try to post weekend updates and such so that you don't think I've totally fallen of the end of the Earth.

Success ...

OK ... I'm going to brag ... just a little.

I believe I've talked about a search dog team I've worked with since the pup was 9 weeks old.  Angus is a red & white Border Collie from the Lockeye Border Collies in Oklahoma.  He's my dog's cousin.  Angus and his handler, Peter, started working toward their FEMA disaster dog certification in May 2007.

May 2 was the culmination of their efforts.  We traveled to Southern California for his Certification Evaluation.  It's not unusual for teams to fail their first attempt to certify ... and usually it's the handler's fault.  As most of us know testing nerves are horrible to begin with ... then we add a dog to the equation.  Any dog person will tell you that what the handler is felling goes right down the leash to the dog.  (Translated from "woof".)  "Oh, my handler is nervous, I'm getting all sorts of strange scents from him ... some bad must be happening."  A stressed dog doesn't necessarily work the way they do under normal circumstances, and teams often fail their first attempt. 

Peter and Angus didn't have that issue ... they tested beautifully and passed, FIRST TRY!    I am so proud of them!  But, in all humbleness, I have some personal satisfaction in this too. They are the first team that I have worked with as a mentor/trainer, and the feeling of accomplishment on my part is huge!  It's been a long journey and I would love to have a dozen handlers like Peter.  His dedication, in both time and money, has been amazing.  He was willing to do anything to make his dog the best he could be.  It's truly been a team effort.

On the way home we stopped to let Angus out to stretch a little.  He and Peter had a quiet moment of reflection at sunset and I was able to capture it.   What you can't see in the background is the herd of cows that Angus wanted in the worst way.  You can't take the herding instinct out of a workin' Border Collie ... even in a tender moment.

Toppers for Trouble

Some of you may know that Knitting Knotebook Cindy's little one arrived this past week.  And of course, that meant she needed hats, right?

I didn't quite get the sizing right, so I tried again...

with two more hats that I hope fit a little better - although she's such a little thing that even the hospital-issued hat was huge on her.

Other than the excitement of her birth, it's been a crazy week for me and the next two weeks look like they may continue in that vein.  Something about a budget being released...so I may be a bit absent until that bit of the month is over.  But the knitting continues - and I've just cast off the second front of Martha and am continuing to plug along on the log cabin blanket.  I'll try to show off things as I get the chance.

Close to the Best Day Ever...

This morning I woke up stupid early (which has been a trend the last few days that I'm not liking) and headed out on a big day trip that saw me traveling by car, bus, plane, ship, boat, van and on foot.  The only thing I missed was the train.  The new Littoral Combat Ship goes very fast.  And it kicks up a rooster tail that's taller than the people standing in front of it.

That was lots of fun.  I'm not entirely sure that my hair will ever recover because the guy I was wrangling insisted on standing outside for a large portion of the transit.  Thankfully I remembered to bring a windproof jacket.

To leave the ship, we rode down a ramp...

Out the stern door...

And for a pretty windy 2 mile ride...

The only way it could have been better would have been if I were the one in command.  Soon enough...

There were Sheep

I was kind of iffy on Maryland Sheep and Wool this year, first because there was a trip planned for work, and then once that trip was canceled, because of the weather. Then I found myself awake at 6:15 on Saturday morning and since I couldn't get back to sleep, I got dressed and headed north to the fairgrounds.  About a mile out I was regretting my decision because some of the other festival-goers were driving as if they were the only people on the road who wanted to get to the fairgrounds.  About the third time I got cut off by a vehicle who thought that my polite waiting so that the intersection wasn't blocked was an invitation for them to jump in front of me, I was ready to turn around and go home.   I was flat out cranky.

The day started off rainy and I was seriously not into battling the crowds in the vendor stalls, so I made my way to the sheep barns.  I watched some lamb judging, this little girl was adorable.

And then I hung out with some sheep, particularly this sweet Lincoln yearling ewe.

She just wanted to cuddle.  At one point I was scratching her and her companion with one hand each and just relaxing in the relative quiet of the barn.  The farm's owner came by and we chatted for a while, at which time I turned around and stopped scratching.  One ewe wandered away, but this one was not pleased.  She stood up on the slats of the pen until she was face-to-face with me, snuffled around my face, nibbled on my nose and generally made a pest of herself until I continued scratching.  I thought about taking her home with me, but I'm pretty sure the Homeowners Association would not have been accepting.  Probably the cat wouldn't either.

I also watched the sheep dog demo, which I always enjoy.  (And I even managed to find a dry spot under a tree to sit!)

And after the demo, I went a said hello to the dogs, one of whom was found a good way to cool off after a little workout.

A few seconds after this, she noticed that there were people! right behind her!  Who had hands for petting!  She jammed her rather damp self about halfway through the fencepost, stuck her nose in my face (despite my best attempt to keep my face away from the strange dog...) and gave me all sorts of kisses before returning her attention to the trailer full of sheep.

My purchases were rather small, partly because I didn't spent a lot of time in the sales area and partly because I didn't see much that I couldn't live without.  I bought this yarn,

and the pattern to make this scarf, which will be used for something to be discussed at a later date.

Yet another knit a small bit and pick-up-stitches kind of project.  I'm not sure what's going on in my head, but there seems to be a trend.  I also bought a sock darning egg and got a package of needles thrown in for free from an antique place that I've been looking at for a few years but never bought from.

And some felt animals, which will be Christmas presents for a couple of friends.

So, not much, but everything with a purpose, which is a new thing for me :-)

I didn't run into anyone I knew, which was a little bit of a surprise, but as I said - I only made a single run through each sales area and did so fairly quickly.  I enjoyed myself, but probably not as much as if I'd had a partner in crime.  Next time I'll try to plan a little better.