• I've found and bought a camera like mine on eBay.  Photos will resume as soon as it arrives.
• As luck would have it, the old camera has decided to work just fine today.  I knew this would happen, but have my doubts about how long it will continue.  Proof?

• Weather this summer has been just plain strange.  There've been more hot days than usual (4 weeks worth so far, and we're heading into our warmest months: September and October), and the rest of the time it's been cooler than usual.  The fog comes in at night and doesn't leave until about noon which is normal for San Francisco, but not so normal for Fremont.
• I've been in a decluttering, cleaning, getting-rid-of-excess-stuff mood all summer.  I don't seem to be making a dent, but the garbage and recycle bins are full every week and I've made several trips to St. Vincent de Paul, and we left out 8 garbage bags of clothes for one of the charities that picks things up. 
  
• The garden is growing like crazy.  Next year I want to plant more different vegetables.  Ken will eat veggies we grow even if he normally professes to dislike them.  I can deal with that.
• My projects-other-than-knitting list is almost as long as my knitting-projects-in-progress list.  I need to focus on a couple of each and get them finished.
• I've lost the pattern for my turquoise sweater AGAIN.  It seems like I lose this pattern every time I touch it, which might seem life a hint!  I'm loving the sweater and the knitting, so this constant misplacing is making me crazy.

We went to see the old and beautiful cars at Hot August Niles after Ken and Darrell finished on the roof.  Joan and I looked at antiques and yarn while the guys looked at cars.   We had lunch at The Nile.  I picked tomatoes.  

Sunday was more of the same.  Ken volunteered for Golden Spike again.  I got a pedicure, worked in the garden, visited with Joan and Will, and watched the Olympics.

(Because I have all the doo-dads for my current camera and haven't had the time or the urge to actually upgrade my camera, I'm watching several of that model on eBay.  Buying time for proper research into a new camera, while using one that's familiar and meets most of my needs is the best approach for me.  With luck I'll have a replacement by late this week.) 

I did, or tried to.  Traffic was awful and it took 5 hours to go 100 miles.  When I got there, he'd been moved to the ICU and was now officially in a coma and not expected to survive.  His doctors were not optimistic; if he lived through the night he'd probably remain in a coma until he died; if he came out of the coma he'd most likely need to be institutionalized.

Ken is very stubborn, and he's certainly proved that doctors don't know everything!

It's a long story, and one that we look back on rather fondly because it's probably what pushed us to get married - we'd long before decided that living in sin was more to our liking.  The road back to anything resembling a normal life was long and challenging, and I am very proud of Ken and what he's achieved.

I was reminded this weekend of how much our lives have changed.  Ken and Darrell, a work-car-radio-motorcycle friend, installed a ham radio antenna on the roof of Ken's shop.  Yes, the man who was supposed to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home was climbing around on the roof of his shop, standing on a ladder tightening nuts on bolts and generally scaring me to death.  (I was knitting on the patio.  Actually, I was pacing the patio and the yard with knitting in hand for the 2 hours they spent on the roof.)

All this work was in support of something I don't think I've ever mentioned here.  Apparently Ken wanted to have a ham radio license in high school, but Morse Code was required and he was never proficient enough.  It's not required now, so Ken and Darrell took and passed their technician-level tests about 6 weeks ago.  

Although Ken had relearned many things since the stroke that caused his accident (swallowing, walking, talking, reading, writing, driving, the technical computer engineering he does for work) the ham radio license was the first new skill he'd studied for and achieved.  This makes it very special.  

I'm very proud of him, and love the stubbornness that keeps him going.  Sometimes that stubbornness can be a bit wearing, but I remind myself that, without it, our lives would be very different. 

The last competition was Canon vs. Cannon, and it's predictable: Pachelbel's Canon vs. The 1812 Overture.  I love both pieces and enjoyed hearing them today.  I was transported back to high school band in west Texas and our performances of the 1812 Overture.  This flashback revolved around the explosions at the end of the piece.

We had a cannon in the courtyard of my high school, Civil War vintage (presented by former student Laura Welch's family - you know her now as the First Lady, Laura Bush), but of course, we couldn't fire that. 

Instead, members of the percussion section brought in their own shotguns, with minimal loads for safety, and those were fired into buckets of sand.  

Can you imagine kids bringing their shotguns to music classes and performances now?

Can you believe that we thought this was the way anyone performing this piece would handle the explosions? 

To us, this was normal. 

I did grow up in Texas, and got my first gun when I was 12.  Like everyone I knew, there was a pistol under the front seat of my car when I learned to drive.  My parents cannot believe I don't have a gun in my car now, but CA requires a concealed weapon permit which is not easy to get.  In TX you take and pass a class for a concealed weapon permit and both my parents have one.

My purpose in writing about this is not to create controversy or pro- or anti-gun comment.  It is meant solely as a reminder that many of us did grow up in more innocent times, and that in some ways it's too bad that life has gotten so much more complicated. 

White Knight
Take Your Secret Self 1 Step Beyond today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

Your Deadly Sins

Greed: 40% Gluttony: 20% Lust: 20% Wrath: 20% Envy: 0% Pride: 0% Sloth: 0% Chance You'll Go to Hell: 14% You will die love and feared by many. And you'll be buried in a tomb.

My sister sang, we cried, a letter from Mama Goode (my high school biology teacher) was read, we laughed, we kissed, we cried some more, John toasted (and almost cried), a glass was broken, children played, friends talked, motorcycles were admired - it was a wonderful day!

It seems like just an instant, and it seems like forever.  So much has happened, not just in the eight years we've been married, but in the 16 (or 18, depending on when you start counting) years we've known each other.

Ken and I initially "met" electronically in 1990.  He was a customer of NetFRAME (a defunct company that created superservers, was sold to Micron, and ceased to exist in Silicon Valley), I was the technical support specialist for OS/2 and LanManager.  We'd talk while he waited for a Novell specialist.  Two years later, NetFRAME hired him and he moved from New York to Silicon Valley.  

We were part of the older folks at work, the not-fresh-out-of-college-and-first-job group, that went to lunch occasionally.  I was married; Mr. Ken was dating a former friend of mine.  In 1994 I left NetFRAME (because I was making a lot of changes in my life - not all of them smart), my ex-husband and I divorced, I moved to our rental house and mostly lost touch with Ken.   Our friend John used my back storage shed for his Lotus, and occasionally I'd be home when he and Ken came over to work on it, but usually not.

Fast forward to 1997, and the impending sale of NetFRAME to Micron.  John had moved to Houston, and he called to remind me of a party to commemorate the closing of a division of NetFRAME.  I'd decided to pass, but John insisted that I had to take a message to Ken for him so I reluctantly agreed to go for a while.  

Ken was late to the party.  Really late.  Late enough that I'd spent almost 3 hours there, had seen and talked to everyone I cared about and a few people I didn't.  I heard a murmur of "hi Ken" and turned to see him smiling.  I went over and he hugged me.  I gave him John's message (it wasn't earthshaking, Ken asked why John didn't just email him, and neither of us remembers the message) and he hugged me again.  We hugged until people started teasing us.  We parted, made polite conversation, and I went on my way.

A week later, Ken emailed me: "You wouldn't want to go out with me sometime, would you?"  I did indeed, we did on the next Friday (dinner and a book store visit), and we've been together ever since. 

It's wonderful that we get to celebrate over and over!  Happy anniversary, my dear.  Happy anniversary to us!

1. I've spend much time the past week or so trying to find a new doctor.  My old primary care MD is no longer part of my insurance plan, and this is a great opportunity for me to find one I actually like.  One who won't leave me dressed in a paper sheet for 90 minutes without a call or an update because she's waiting on paperwork at the hospital next door.  One who won't tell me she doesn't have time to answer questions because she's running late.  That sort of thing.  I did find one whose office appointment hours start at 7 a.m., rather than the more common 9 or 10, and made an appointment for a consultation to see if she and I can work together.
2. I'm working on a list of questions to ask.  If you have a favorite, please leave it in a comment.
   
3. One of my antique ivory earrings is missing.  I'm crushed; they were old enough that issues with ivory hadn't been raised when they were carved and imported and now one is gone.  I'm going to get a flashlight and look under the armoire.
4. I really need a jewelry armoire.  If you have one, leave me a comment and tell me what you like about it and what you don't like.  I've collected jewelry for years (it's my favorite memento from travels) and have a mixed bag of stones, wood, metals , vintage pieces, beads.  Bracelets, rings, earrings, pins and brooches, necklaces - you name it.
5. It's been hot again this week.   I'll be so glad when it finally cools off and rains.
6. There's this sunshine yellow mohair in my stash (dyed by Lisa Souza) and I gave in to its begging and started a new sweater Friday night during the Olympic opening ceremonies.  This is not an Olympic challenge, RavelryOlympics or anything of the sort.  It is my way of having something tangible to show for the hours spent watching swimmers, divers, gymnasts and other Olympic competitors.
7. The delphiniums have just about finished their 2nd bloom cycle for this summer.  The poppies are done; I'm hoping to dry the seed pods and plant the seeds for next year.  I've also started a bunch of perennials to plant later this fall when the weather is cooler. 
   
8. That's it.  I'm off to watch athletic performances.

There's this tank-ish top made of teal tweed that just needs the finishing touches and I can wear it. Of course, the finishing touches involve crochet so there no telling when it will be wearable.

There's the mystery project I teased a couple of weeks ago.  That's just looking for an appropriate model.

There's the hat and scarf set made from oddballs.  The ends are woven in and it's blocked - ready for the holiday gift box.

I'm anticipating time very soon to take and upload photos of these Finished Objects. 

And, there have been a couple of new projects started!  Imagine that! 

We were underwhelmed by the main stage performers this year, in fact we were headed for a museum to while away the 3 hours until our train when we heard that the New York Police Department Jazz Band would be performing on the Big Band Stage (also known as a the Silicon Valley Stage).  As Mr. Ken is a former New Yorker, we thought we'd give this a shot.

WOW!

They were fantastic!  Every performer could be a professional musician, but all are active duty New York police officers.  I cannot begin to describe the quality of their performance, but will say that I didn't knit at all. 

I knit everywhere.  Heck, I even knit at my own wedding reception.  I was so blown away by the music and the voices of the singers that I couldn't concentrate on my knitting.

If you ever have the chance to hear this group, I urge you to run to the performance.  I know I will. 

Monitor status is now upgraded to "iffy" - it seems to be working more than 75% of the time now, so replacement can wait until either Fry's has a good monitor sale or the whole computer is replaced. 

Computer ditto.  I used an on-line backup service, so most of my essential files would be recoverable in any event. 

Cell phone is recharged and holding a charge. 

Digital camera appears to have a bad memory card, which is not really a problem because I wanted more memory anyway. 

iPod is doing its thing.  So's the PDA. 

Of course, it took hours and much bad language to get to this point, but now it's practically the weekend and I'm very ready for it!

On days like this, a meme can be a Very Good Thing.  (Thanks to Knitnana for this one!) 

The Recipe For knitswithcats

3 parts Magnetism 2 parts Happiness 1 part Boldness Splash of Charisma Finish off with an olive

The Recipe For diann

3 parts Flair 2 parts Craftiness 1 part Glamour Splash of Giddiness Shake vigorously

I was happy to comply.  Any suggestion to make planning a meal easier is good, so we've now declared Wednesday to be Pasta Night. 

Tonight's pasta sauce started with part of the tomato sauce from the weekend.  I sauted about 1/4 cup of chopped garlic in olive oil.  One chopped onion, a couple of chopped carrots, 2 ribs of celery and a green pepper were added

then I added the tomato sauce and simmered it on low while I trimmed the red roses and filled both the green bins (about an hour or a little longer).

We had chicken apple sausages in the fridge, so I split and cooked those, which were then served on top of the pasta and sauce.  A green salad, some steamed green beans from the garden and a fresh baguette with garlic butter completed the meal.

The verdict on leaving the tomato skins on?  Meh.  I wasn't happy with this version of sauce.  Italian tomatoes have tough skins that don't disintegrate during cooking.  They are also just a little bitter and the sauce would have been better without them. The next batches will be mushed before cooking.

Tonight they opened on a night when they're usually closed, and had a Recession Special dinner, one very reasonable price for all-you-can-eat.  The food was the sort of home-cooking that I wish I could do, the staff was attentive (if a little overwhelmed) and attendance was amazing!  There were many new faces - people who've never tried the restaurant before - and some old friends (people like us who eat out too often).  The Niles Merchant's Association and Essanay Silent Film Museum were sponsoring dinner and dessert for National Night Out; many of the merchants and docents came by for dinner after the events concluded.

We had Dave's Moms Meatloaf (a real winner; I'd like to see this on the regular menu), macaroni and cheese (ditto), spaghetti and meatballs, sweet potato fries, ratatouille, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans, salad with my tomatoes, and garlic bread.  

The desserts were incredible:  root beer float (a real crowd favorite), apple pie with crumb topping, and fresh peach cobbler.  Mr. Ken had a root beer float and I had peach cobbler.  We agreed both were good, but preferred our own choice.   I'd love to see these desserts on the regular menu too.  Their desserts are good, but often a bit fussier than my preference.

Essanay Cafe is planning the Tuesday night "Recession Special" through August; if you're in the area check it out!

A few hours over very low heat, and they've cooked down to about half that volume.  I put a bit over a gallon of sauce in the fridge to chill overnight.  Later this week I'll freeze part of the sauce in pints; the rest will be made into marinara for dinner this week.

This is an experiment of sorts.  Normally I use my fancy Italian tomato musher (I think it's actually called a tomato press) to crush the tomatoes and separate the seeds and skins from the juice and pulp.  It's messy and I don't like losing any bit of fresh tomato goodness.  I recently read a report that many of the good cancer fighting antioxidants in tomatoes are in the skins, so I decided to try one batch of sauce made with the skins on (and seeds too, because I'm too lazy to scoop the seeds out without losing the pulp).  I'm anxious to see if the resulting sauce is acceptable.

The Fremont Festival of the Arts was excellent.  Michael McNevin , a local Niles singer-songwriter, entertained beautifully as the first act on the main staqe Saturday morning.  Joan and I knitted, Will and Bruce danced, Karen laughed, Lynn listened - it was a great way to start the Festival.

I found my favorite vendor and made my purchases.  As a general rule, arts and crafts are not my thing, but I do get great ideas from them.  I have, however, done blown egg decorations (granted I was a 7-year-old Brownie at the time) and found them difficult.  I really appreciate the lovely work Mother Goose does, and buy several eggs every year for myself and for gifts.

We had dinner reservations at Essanay Cafe , a Niles bistro, for the Open Mic Favorites Invitational dinner performance.  Dinner was good - my tomatoes were used in the wonderful gazpacho the chef created - and the entertainment on the patio was first rate.  One of the performers even dedicated a song to Mr. Ken and me!

Sunday morning early we headed to Livermore for the LARC (Livermore Amateur Radio Club) swap meet.  Mr. Ken was looking for some special cable connectors (which I found) and we also came home with an antique Zenith short wave radio.  He's been looking for one like this for quite a while and it appears to be in good condition and had all its tubes and the antenna.

Once home, I puttered successfully until knitting time.  We met at Roseann's house, which Joan and I had last seen before Roseann bought it.  Joan and Will had considered it, and we'd looked at it to provide a 2nd opinion.  We met Roseann's friendly cats (Sputnik, Sumo, Felix and Moose) and settled in to knit and talk.  Wonderful!  

Later, Mr. Ken and I joined Joan and Will, Will's childhood friend and his wife, and Will's daughter Kathryn for a bar-be-cue.  Wonderful food and good conversation and stories of growing up in Colorado combined for a lovely time.  Joan and Will are wonderful hosts and good friends, and we always have a great time with them.

Some thoughts about puttering

Saturday's wasted free time was frustrating, and I've really tried to figure out what the issue might be - obsessed might be a better description.  My conclusion is that I'm experiencing what's often called "empty nest syndrome".

Since Mr. Ken's stroke and subsequent motorcycle accident (and coma and recuperation) in some way and some level I've been at his beck and call.  From 18 hour days in ICU for 6 weeks, to living in the same room at hospital for his last 6 weeks of rehab before his release to 24-hour-a-day home care, I've put my independence on hold to make sure he had every chance to regain his. 

When he first came home from rehab, he needed me for almost everything: transportation, talking to people, shopping.  As he's improved, he needs me less and, like a teenager, he's enjoying his independence.  He talks to people, he drives, he does guy things with friends: this is all good, but now I need to rewire my brain to accept it and re-create the independent life I enjoyed before stroke (BS: almost 9 years ago!).

He continues to improve, even though he doesn't see the changes in himself.  He's becoming the gregarious, mischievous, independent man he was before, and that's wonderful!  It's my turn to become independent again.  It will be a grand adventure!

Today I had time to putter, and I couldn't settle on anything.  I tried reading, couldn't manage more than a couple of pages.  I tried knitting, and did manage to clean out my knitting bag but couldn't concentrate on knitting.  I tired gardening, same result.  In desperation, I tried napping, and found that I couldn't relax!

Nothing worked, and I basically lost 5 perfectly fine hours to not-being-able-to-putter and have absolutely nothing to show for them. 

Somehow, it's imperative (to me) that I learn how to putter again!

So, welcome August.  I'm looking forward to some pleasant times with you.  In that spirit, a few Random Things:

• Check out Twist Collective 's premier issue, just available today!   Autumn is my favorite season, in large part because I am all about the sweaters (yet another reason Summer is not my friend: I've never liked summer clothes!) and cables and tweeds and socks.  This issue is just packed full of designs that make me salivate.
• We're awash in tomatoes!  I took a whole basket of heirloom tomatoes to a favorite restaurant because there's no way we can use these in the next 3 or 4 days.  I kept the Italian sauce tomatoes and it looks like I'll be making sauce this weekend.

• Tomorrow is Fremont's Festival of the Arts, and I'll be there looking for Mother Goose and her eggs at 1O a.m. sharp!  A local musician and friend is performing at 10, another couple of friends are performing at 2:30.  Love it!
• I finished the stealth project!  It's blocked too, but I haven't found a good way to display it.  Here's a sneak peak, taken while it was all pinned out and blocking:

Stolen from Cake Wrecks , by way of Cabezalana . 

There are many funny, scary, sad cakes to see, but this one made me laugh until tears rolled down my cheeks and Mr. Ken rushed into the office to see what was wrong!