Cell Phones Are the New Postcards

Friends call me up, my caller id says “Pennsylvania” or some other likely location, and it turns out they’re in Maine on a mini-vacation. Cell phones seem to be the new postcard, with the added benefit of a real conversation.

I suspect cell phone programmers should be fighting each other to create the first “send a postcard” feature complete with the ability to download a picture of where you are, now that text msgs and pics are on some phones. Maybe Hallmark should get on this, to add to its arsenal of online applications.

If you want to show me a picture of your yarn stash, my cell doesn’t accept or make photos. Please don’t waste the effort. (I also don’t respond to texts, because I am a bad, old-fashioned friend.)

EDX the Car Visits the ICU

… and all I can think of is a filk of “The Day the Cruiser Died.”
Sigh. My plans to have EDX for 20 years were quickly reassessed when his transmission shredded metal and he stalled in the middle of the highway.

It’s going to be a rough month or two. Still, I delusionally think maybe I should pay the huge fee to replace the transmission. I may give EDX to charity so he can provide parts for other Chryslers. (It’s all kind of emblematic of the auto crisis, no? Except my lack of a car only affects myself and my immediate family.)

I hope to have knitting content sometime soon. Just not for a little bit.

Our Quiet Neighbors

Seriously, the dead are very quiet. Other people wonder how I can stand to have a graveyard so close to my house.

My thoughts: most of the people buried in this particular patch of green have been gone for a very long time. Their resting place is the open space for everyone around here, including a safe trail for the local wildlife to get from green space to green space. Every so often I’ve seen one of the local foxes trotting through the area at dusk.

It’s the drunk and disorderly who break the peace around here. Besides, if the graveyard wasn’t here, something grim and gigantic would probably have been built here back in the 1950s, when there was a building boom. Instead, it’s like having a little bit of the country imported from Jane Austen’s books.

So, any unusual places in your neighborhood that give you calm?

Marzipan as Still Life

Photographed by the Gardener before they’re gone — the marzipan fruit candies of Sprungli are small, artistic, and very, very tasty. They made a wonderful gift to bring home — much nicer than airport flowers (and easier to carry on the plane). Here is a lemon, orange, a few pears, and apples. Each is small enough to fit comfortably on a nickel. I can’t imagine how time-consuming it must be to make these little pieces of art.

My marzipan never looks this delicate and beautiful. I am thinking of making simnel cake again this year for Easter anyway, since it still tastes wonderful, no matter how amateur my cooking skills are.

Stealth Elevators

I suppose, like the elevators that show up when no one’s called them, there are automatic toilets that flush when no one’s there. So, while I’m blissfully asleep, somewhen in the night a toilet in Dulles International Airport flushes, and no one is there to be startled. Interesting… and yet I won’t waste my time thinking about it.

Note: the escalators in the Zurich Airport sit silent until someone’s ankles break a beam of light, and then suddenly the escalator is running full steam ahead. Yes, I agree this saves energy and is very ingenious. But I think the rest of the world should be forearmed with this knowledge before they have to negotiate the down escalator with too much luggage. A bit down on technology today. My car is currently cannot go forward, backward, or sideways. I fondly call it the largest paperweight in the world.

Roam

I’ve been playing my own version of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego”. In this case, I managed to go to a town in Germany and Zürich in the same week. Zürich was a stopover in the airport, so technically I wasn’t there.

There are no yarn shops in the Zürich airport, I wasn’t allowed to bring knitting needles in my carry on bags, and I left the camera at home, so there’s very little evidence of my trip. [The photo above is of the Atlantic, taken on a winter's day back in 2006.]

The chocolates and marzipan I brought home just in time for Valentine’s Day are the only sweet evidence: Sprüngli dark chocolates and miniature marzipan fruit from the waiting area of the airport. Well, that and tales of an amazing, unexpected trek and meals like deer and brussels sprouts or salmon and saffron cream.

Tourist Elk Info

When traveling, be prepared for weird signage that may indicate other people or mammals are the target audience. Years ago, while traveling, I was in Frankenmuth, land of gnomes. Apparently the elk have their own tourism stop, where they find out how to avoid being hit by cars and how to network with other elk and how to shop for lederhosen. I’m sure there’s a mundane reason for the sign. But for now, I’m just bemused, looking back over photos from a trip to Lake Michigan.

Frankenmuth Info sign

Finishing Up a DreamSwatch

Finally the end is in sight. This project, after logging in hours with me listening to BBC7 Listen Again broadcasts, is done. Stats: 38″ long and 3 1/2 inches wide. Made from Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Cotton Print in color 0435 Blueberry-Grape. The stitch on this one was lots of fun.

Of course, I’m having trouble photographing this one without natural light. So here it is with a blue background in an attempt to show the color. Look — two ends are in sight.

It may be a small project, but finishing this lets me focus on finishing other projects. And then start working on some of the projects that have been on hold. Anyone who’s seen my Ravelry queue knows it’s a long one.