Uncle Sherrod?

Senator Sherrod Brown is someone I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times - both at my place of employment (all too briefly) and at Congress in Washington, DC, where we had a quick chance to speak Russian / Bulgarian to each other.  He's a hardworking, yet super nice guy who happens to not be related to me, I promise, though do you think he'd mind if I started calling him "Uncle Sherrod?!"  :-)

He's a great senator - my senator (OUR senator) - who champions the people of Ohio rather than their companies' CEOs who send our jobs out of state and out of country.  Since both he - and President Obama - have been in office, Ohio's unemployment rate has fallen to 7.4% (April 2012), well below the national average of over 8%.

The challenge?  Fallout from the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision.  He's being ridiculously outspent in his current re-election campaign by nearly 5-1.  He's being outspent by people who will never vote for him - not because they oppose him (which they do) - but instead because they are not even from Ohio and are therefore ineligible to vote for him.  Karl Rove and his SuperPac are spending millions of dollars here in Ohio to campaign against him simply because they can.  Citizen's United.

Here's a clip of a recent interview Senator Brown gave on The Rachel Maddow Show.

Do we really want our elections to be controlled by people who will not even vote in them?  Do we want people who don't even have to live in this country to have such a huge say in the outcome of this country's elections?  I thought we were a republic where each person had a voice.  Well now, the voice is centering around the small handful of people who have not been hurt by this current - great - recession.  It is centering around those who have already recovered because they were bailed out by our tax dollars.

Remember Democrats - remember what we as a party did in 2010?  We pouted and a lot of you (yes YOU - since *I* made it a point to show up at the polls) stayed home and didn't bother to vote.  We do that again and the Republicans won't HAVE to legislate more disenfranchisement around the country because we'll do the work FOR them.

Sure, President Obama may not be the most liberal president in the world that you HOPED he would be, but he's a damn fine president who's getting a lot accomplished in SPITE of Republican obstructionism - primarily in the form of filibustering every piece of legislation presented - more than in any - other - president's - term - of - office.  Ever.  Think of what he'll be able to accomplish in a second term.  

Of course, he won't have a second term if you stay home pouting again.  

Do you really want to give the victory to Mitt Romney?  I don't think you do, but stay home again and you will.  

So - make sure you get off your butt and vote this time around!  If the Republicans get back in the White House, everything that led to this great recession will happen all over again.  Despite the fact that the Republican Saboteurs are putting the fate of this nation second to their own political agenda, what we progressives are accomplishing now is far, far better than what would ever happen under a Romney administration.  

You voted for President Obama because you didn't like the "all or nothing" attitude of former President George W. Bush, yet you expect that very same "all" from President Obama?  And we call Republicans hypocrites?

While I don't think that example of hypocrisy can even begin to compare to that of the Republicans, I do think that we should all start right here in Ohio and make sure we help re-elect Senator Sherrod Brown so he doesn't lose to a guy who doesn't even show up to his current job.  I'd already be fired if I had that kind of attendance record, so let's not reward Mr. Josh Mandel by promoting him.  Let's instead reward Senator Brown for doing the great job he's been doing by giving him another six years to do even more.  

Do you really want your senator to miss votes?  No - you want a senator who's going to show up to work every day and fight for you - a citizen of Ohio - and for the entire nation - not just for the small handful who bought the election.

Senator Sherrod Brown is that kind of senator.  Don't let his job be bought and paid for by those who can't even vote in this senatorial election.  

Vote.

Stats, Stats and More Stats

While I'm working on my book that's about travel and knitting, I found myself looking up a variety of stats for the countries that will be profiled.  Basically, I'm writing a book filled with knitting designs, so I'm writing about the countries that inspired the designs.

Though it's going to be a fairly light book - nothing controversial, only fun - I did find some interesting stats and thought I'd share them with you here.   The countries that are highlighted, or profiled, in my book are:

• Austria
• Bulgaria
• France
• Greece
• Spain
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

The reason these countries were chosen is solely because I had knitting designs already completed (or well on their way) that could easily be applied to these particular places.  The stats I'm about to post are per the CIA Factbook.  Hey - I'm not an economist, nor am I a business writer or anything, so I went to an easily accessible source.  So while my friends on Facebook were letting me know what they knew about all these countries (Thanks for that, friends!), I was gathering some statistical information.

OK, let's start with some basics.  Each group of stats will include each country's individual ranking.

Population (July 2012 est.)

USA (#3) 313,847,465

Turkey (#17) 79,749,461

France (#21) 65,630,692

UK (#22) 63,047,162

Spain (#27) 47,042,984

Greece (#78) 10,767,827

Austria (#94) 8,219,743

Bulgaria (#100) 7,037,935

Size (Area)

USA - #3

Turkey - #37

France - #43

Spain - #52

UK - #80

Greece - #97

Bulgaria - #105

Austria - #114

Moving on to some financials, I looked up the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. The Factbook defined this as "Purchasing Power Parity."  I didn't really know what that was either.  It went on to say the GDP at Purchasing Power Parity exchange rate is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. 

GDP

USA - #2

UK - #9

France - #10

Spain - #14

Turkey - #17

Austria - #36

Greece - #41

Bulgaria - #71

Interesting that USA is #2, but listed as #1 Is the European Union.

Per Capita GDP

USA (#12) $48,100

Austria (#18) $41,700

UK (#34) $35,900

France (#35) $35,000

Spain (#43) $30,600

Greece (#49) $27,600

Turkey (#86) $14,600

Bulgaria (#90) $13,500



What I was happy to see was the rather high literacy rate in all the countries.  Sadly, I was a bit surprised at Turkey because I thought it would actually be lower.  Perhaps I shouldn't have thought that.

Literacy Rate

France, UK, US - 99%

Bulgaria - 98.2%

Austria - 98%

Spain - 97%

Greece - 96%

Turkey - 87.5%

Finally for tonight, I'm going to add in Life Expectancy. 

Life Expectancy (At birth)

France (14) 81.46 years

Spain (15) 81.27 years

UK (30) 80.17 years

Greece (31) 80.05 years

Austria (33) 79.91 years

USA (50) 78.49 years

Bulgaria (112) 73.84 years

Turkey (124) 72.77 years

I'm surprised that the U.S. isn't ranked higher than it is.  But I also read today that over 1/3 of adults are considered obese - nearly 40% of all women.  YIKES!  Need to work on that healthier lifestyle.  Maybe we should all move to France and drink more wine?  (I love France!) I have more stats to share later on, but in the meantime, I think this is all pretty interesting.  What do you think?



The Itinerant Knitter

So yesterday, I finally got around to deciding on what my New Year's resolution is going to be.  Clearly, I don't believe in rushing these things as it's now February.  Sure the losing weight thing is there, but that's an annual renewal of sorts, so it doesn't really count as a resolution in the new year if it's just being carried over from last year, right?

For those of you who have read my blog before, it's probably rather obvious that I love to travel.  Probably rather obvious that I love my Indiana Hoosiers, too, and that I occasionally like to dabble in politics.  While I haven't written too much about it here, I also love to knit and never go anywhere without at least one or two (or often three) knitting projects within reach.  When I'm deciding what to write here, I usually have some needles and yarn in my hands to keep me busy since I'm lousy at not being fidgety.

When I knit, I like to knit two things in particular: lace and socks.  Sure I knit other things - like sweaters for other people, hats, cowls, wall hangings, etc.  But I mostly knit socks and lace projects.  Sometimes I knit socks with a lace pattern on them, but thanks to access to wonderful books and a desire to knit something potentially complicated and challenging, lace usually wins out.  Of course, as any knitter knows, it takes a heck of a lot less time to knit a small project than it does to knit a huge lace shawl, so the smaller projects often win out.  The former can be done watching a good football or basketball game on TV.  The latter requires actual concentration that jumping up and down while my Hoosiers defeat #1 and #2 ranked teams simply doesn't allow.

With knitting, I've also begun to dabble in designing.  I'll admit, I'm horrible at making fitted garments, so I don't touch those, but with lace - and no true need to stick to a particular gauge - I like to make up my own stuff, such as this stole, the design for which was borrowed from a kilim I saw while in Istanbul.

Istanbul Stole - Ravelry pattern link

Or even with other projects, such as this pair of fingerless mitts that actually keep your wrist warm, I tend to create my own pattern if I can't find another pattern that I like.  Thus far, I've published everything on Ravelry which is amazingly knitter and designer-friendly.

Buckeye Braided Fingerless Mitts - Ravelry pattern link

The last year or two, I've been toying around with the idea of writing a book.  I love to travel.  I love to knit.  I love to knit while traveling.  Heck - I almost knit an entire sock on the flight back from Madrid a couple of weeks ago.  Why not combine my two loves into one big project?  Why not create a collection of designs inspired by the places I've traveled?  After my recent trip to Spain and Morocco, I certainly have plenty of inspiration and am already working on my third design from the Alhambra alone!

Since I didn't already have anything more than just a recycled "lose weight" New Year's resolution, I've decided to make this project my slightly-belated resolution.  Maybe it can be a "before my next birthday" goal since I just turned (cough) 29 (cough) again last week.  That would give me an extra month, anyway.  I already have it all outlined with a whole list of possible designs, though last month's trip to Iberia and Northern Africa would probably yield enough ideas for a stand-alone book.  So much beauty there.

I already have an appropriate name picked out:  The Itinerant Knitter.   It's under that name that I already publish my patterns despite the fact that my Ravelry ID is "DizzySpinster," a name borrowed from my time in the Peachtree Handspinners Guild in Atlanta - a fabulous group of ladies who originally taught me how to knit back in 1999.

My goal is this:  Organize the book, getting the written parts done and have most if not all of my projects knit up for pictures so that it's ready to be submitted for publication - all by this time next year. 

Hopefully while all this is going on, I'll find a publisher willing to take a chance on a new author / designer.  My hope on the book as well is for it to be appealing to knitters and non-knitters alike since I plan to write about the various places I've visited.  Maybe it'll turn out to be a lovely coffee table book...that just happens to be used by knitters all.

So there you have it: My (slightly belated) New Year's Resolution.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Quiet on the Homefront

I know I've been quiet the last couple of weeks. Well, it really doesn't have anything to do with Indiana's recent losses to Minnesota and Ohio State. Sigh. I've just been busy. Of course, I've been busy at work as well as with planning a trip to Spain and Morocco! I've never been to either so this trip will add two new countries to my list. I love going someplace new. With a few of my friends, I'll be able to see new places, meet new and exciting people and try out lots of new foods. In addition, I'll have an opportunity to see just how rusty my haggling abilities have become! In Spain, we're going to visit Madrid and Toledo (the original). Plus, I'll spend a couple of days at Grenada to see the Alhambra. So cool!

In Morocco, we are going to spend a few days in Marrakesh, staying not too far off Jemaa al Fna, the main square. I'm so very much looking forward to returning to Northern Africa. Though a world away, I had the good fortune of visiting Egypt while living in Bulgaria. What a wondrous and enchanting place it was. So easy to fall in love with the region when you have places such as Turkey and Egypt, the two countries there I've seen. Morocco will be different. One - it has couscous. Enough said. All joking aside, though one should never really joke about couscous, I have wanted to go to Morocco ever since I was 16 years old and visited Epcot Center for the first time. I fell in love with the country even then and am now so incredibly excited to finally be able to see it with my own eyes. I will probably cry when I get there. Wow!

While I won't be able to post pictures during my trip, I promise that I will definitely share them with you upon my return! I also hope you'll please forgive the temporary lack of decent formatting as I can only control so much while typing this on my phone!!

Until then, now that they're calling my flight to Madrid, I wish you all the best. Safe travels, friends!

2012 Iowa Caucus

Did you know the Republican Iowa caucus is set for tomorrow?

Actually, the Democratic Iowa caucus is also set for tomorrow, but President Barack Obama is running an uncontested race there, so he's using the evening to have an online Q&A session with constituents.

Since May however, there have been at least six different Republican front runners so it should be pretty interesting to see who wins since it's still anyone's game.  According to the Des Moines Register's latest poll, a full 41% of likely Republican voters are still undecided as of the weekend before tomorrow's caucus.  That is unheard of!

It really is rather unusual that the field is still so varied this late in the game.  Editor-at-large for Salon.com, Joan Walsh, once likened the Republican race for a presidential candidate to a game of T-ball - where it's cute that everyone gets to play and everyone is a winner just for playing.  

As a Democrat, I rather hope a different person wins every single week so the race can go on and on, thus forcing the candidates to spend all the money in their coffers against each other, rather than against the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Some interesting things to think about if you're considering voting Republican:

Did you know that the Dream Act was originally proposed (during Pres. George W. Bush's first term) by - and championed by Republicans like Senators Dick Lugar, John McCain and Orrin Hatch?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this.

Did you know that Cap and Trade was originally proposed by Republicans? And did you know that it was a major part of the McCain / Palin 2008 Republican Presidential Platform?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this.

Did you know that it is the party that determines the rules of the caucuses in Iowa and that the Republican party is allowing both same-day registration AND voting WITHOUT having to show any form of I.D.?

In 2012, all Republican candidates are now campaigning against this. Several Republican-led state legislatures are also working on legislation against same-day registration and in favor of requiring photo ID to be shown at all elections.  Their argument?  That ID is required to do things such as going through security at airports.

Of course, travel on airplanes isn't enshrined in the constitution as a right of all American citizens.  Voting is.

The Iowa caucuses are interesting in part because they get a lot of attention, presumably because they're first in the primary schedule and we tend like all things shiny.  But after a while, many Americans will be sick of hearing about the election of the week and well - it'll be overshadowed by things such as the Superbowl or March Madness.  That said, they will go on.  They will continue and eventually, our incumbent president will have a challenger from the Republican party - the nominee for which will most likely be the lesser of two evils for most voting Republicans.  

In the long run, and if we're lucky, we'll probably have a third party candidate - either thrown out there by the Tea Party or the Libertarians.  Either one will cause the same kind of split brought on by Ross Perot's candidacy back in 1992.  After two terms by the guy who won that particular election, we had a booming economy and a budget surplus.  

Maybe if the Republican candidates can start working for the American people rather than their corporate campaign financiers, we can achieve that level of prosperity again.

It all starts tomorrow.  In Iowa.  Let the games begin!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Joyeux Noël!

Весела коледа!

Feliz Navidad!

:-)

Sign My Yearbook?

I'm doing a little tech check on my comments section for my blog, so would you please help me out and leave a comment below? Just think of it as a high school yearbook, but of the virtual variety. Hey - maybe somebody famous will sign! Maybe a lot of my twitter followers and facebook friends will sign. Maybe, if I'm really lucky, Richard Engel (someone I truly admire and would love to someday meet) will sign - though he is in Baghdad at the moment. Hmm. Wishful thinking, I suppose. :-)

Anyway, sign away, friends. If you want - and just for fun - let me know where you are!

Languages other than English are all welcome!

Thank you! Merci beaucoup! Благодария! Gracias! Grazie! !شكران Danke schön!

Indiana Hoosiers

So has anyone noticed that my alma mater, Indiana University, has a men's basketball team that is currently 6-0?  It's true!  We even beat Butler the other night - by a lot of points!  (Butler - a Final Four team!) 

So cool!

Next up is NC State at 7:15pm tomorrow night on ESPN2.  Our only "out-of-Indiana" pre-season game.  The game to worry about?  University of Kentucky - on Saturday evening, December 10. 

Fingers crossed for a victory over the Wildcats!!!

GO HOOSIERS!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours a very happy, fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Lithuania

While at the annual Columbus International Festival last weekend, my friend and I stopped by a booth manned by some people in very colorful, traditional costumes.  There was a man and a woman there who were very friendly and happy to tell us all about their home country: the small, Baltic country of Lithuania.  One thing in particular that surprised me was that the Lithuanian language is NOT Slavic, which I'd incorrectly assumed it was.  No - it actually stems from Sanskrit, an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Indian subcontinent.

Trakai Castle

Located in Northeastern Europe, Lithuania is one of three small, Baltic states (Estonia and Latvia's being the other two), that are nestled in between Russia, Poland and the Baltic Sea.  A little bit larger than West Virginia, Lithuania is the largest of three countries, though boasting only 90 KM of coastline.

Peace Corps volunteers served in Lithuania between 1992 and 2002 providing assistance with business and economic development as well as English language training.  While it has a good mixture of agriculture and manufacturing, Lithuania is probably best known for its amber from which jewelry is made. 

Aside from the obvious difference in size, Lithuania is very different from the U.S. as it turned 1000 years old in 2009!  Lithuanians celebrated the anniversary of when their country was first mentioned in 1009 AD in The Annals Quedlinburgenses, a document that survives to this day.  After centuries as an independent nation, Lithuania was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and though it claimed independence in 1990, it still disputes ownership of a tiny piece of Russia (Калининградская область)that rests on the Baltic Sea.

Lithuania's flag - Its three stripes symbolize prosperity (yellow), hope (green) and life (crimson).

Here are some basic facts about Lithuania:

Republic of Lithuania

Capital: Vilnius

Population: 3,535,547 (July 2011 estimate)

President: Dalia Grybauskaite (since 12 July 2009)

Prime Minister: Andrius Kubilius (since 27 November 2008)

Life expectancy: 75.34 years old

HIV/AIDS rate: .1% of the population

Literacy rate: 99.6% of the population (99.6% male, 99.6%female)

National Holiday: Independence Day - 16 February, 1918 (11 March 1990 is when it declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

Suffrage: 18 years of age, universal

Unemployment: 29.4%

Info above is all thanks to the CIA Factbook - Lithuania

Except for the flag and map which are from the CIA Factbook, the pictures posted here are all borrowed from the Lithuania Tourism website.  If you have a chance, I recommend your taking some time to check it out as there are many more beautiful pictures in there as well as lots more information about this wonderful country. 

Women in the 99%

I just really like this picture from an Occupy Melbourne protest.

Sidecars - Without the Au Lait

Since the word sidecar is part of my blog's name, I thought I'd share some of my favorite sidecar shots from TV and the movies.   It's my treat to you today, so enjoy!

Starting with a classic Batman and Robin.  Robin - poor guy.  I'm sure he chaffed the whole way.

From Garden State - fun movie.

No list of sidecar shots would be complete without Hagrid and Harry Potter, right?

Remember Hogan's Heroes?

Ahh - Indiana Jones - Harrison Ford and Sean Connery: two awesome actors!

And well - while I can't say this is one of my favorite shows or movies, because I've never seen it.  Heck - I haven't even seen the trailer for it, but - The Rum Diary picture has to be included because you just cannot ever go wrong with Johnny Depp.  :-)

Kiva

Ecuador – Jordan – Senegal

These are three countries to which I’ve just lent some money.  In reality, I actually just lent $25.00 each to small businesses located in each of those countries.

Thanks to the non-profit organization, Kiva, people around the world, like me, are able to lend money to small businesses around the world – all in increments of $25.

It’s called micro financing.

According to the website microfinancinginfo.com, micro financing is defined as “banking the unbankable, bringing credit, savings and other essential financial services within the reach of millions of people who are too poor to be served by regular banks, in most cases because they are unable to offer sufficient collateral."

It goes on to say that “(Micro credit) is based on the premise that the poor have skills which remain unutilized or underutilized.  It’s definitely not the lack of skills which make (sic) poor people poor…charity is not the answer to poverty.  Unleashing of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer to poverty.”

Successful organizations such as the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Kiva.org based in San Francisco, CA, have been micro lending to small business owners for years.  Grameen Bank got its start in the mid-1970s when its founder – and Nobel laureate, Muhammed Yunus - lent $27 to a group of 42 families during a famine in 1974.  They used that money to create items to sell without being beholden to larger banks that would employ more predatory tactics for the repayment. 

Using that as an inspiration, Kiva.org actually works as a central location for potential lenders (e.g. people like you and me) to connect with regional lenders and the small businesses around the world that they service.

Kiva has “a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.  Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of micro finance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.”

With Kiva, I basically have $100 in loans floating in their system.  What started as a small handful of loans has blossomed into a continued pattern of lending to more and more businesses in need.

While I do my best to support the local businesses here in Grandview, I do also like all things international.  Lending to small businesses via Kiva lets me support people around the globe without just giving people a handout.  Micro lending is exactly that: lending.  That implies a repayment.  After I make a loan, I receive regular updates regarding repayments. 

The loans I make are primarily backfills of loans first made by lending institutions that are local to the businesses I choose to support.  An example of a loan I made today is to Julian in Otavalo, Ecuador.  He makes handcrafted musical instruments and needed a $600 loan to purchase wooden tubes and a two-HP motor.  The money was disbursed to him on October 10 and he now has 12 months to pay it all back.  The loan itself was just listed on Kiva today and already 24 different people each lent $25 to cover it.  Now the local lending institution can lend more money to local businesses and those of us who backfilled this one will be paid back over the course of the next 24 months.

As money is paid back, I can either get my actual money back or I can choose to re-lend it, which is what I typically choose to do.

I try to make it a point to lend to a different country each time - for variety’s sake, I guess!  I’ve lent money to businesses though based on the country, the gender of the owner, payment terms, loan amount or even the type of business – basically, whatever fits my mood at the moment.

So far, I’ve lent to the following countries and businesses.

Paid off:

Peru - Seamstress

Congo - General Store

Cambodia - Grocery Store (this country was chosen because I work with someone who is half-Cambodian)

Repayments in progress:

Ukraine - Retail store

Tajikistan - Grocery store

Palestine - Photographer

Jordan - Animal Sales (Livestock)

Ecuador - Musical Instruments

Still raising funds for the loans:

Senegal - Clothing sales

Personally, I think it’s pretty cool that I can help small businesses out this way.  I’m in there as RPCVBG, so you’re welcome to check out what I’ve done with regard to lending. 

Better yet, you’re welcome to check out what YOU can do!

GO BUCKS!

I should preface this by saying that I went to Indiana University for my undergrad studies and (THE) Ohio State University for grad school.  I should also say that I will NEVER root against my Hoosiers - even when they're playing the Buckeyes, though regardless of outcome, I'll still claim the win.  I just want to be honest about that. 

I'm on my lunch hour at the moment asking my coworker what I should write about since I've been marveling at the fact that people in other countries are actually checking out my blog.  There's been a rush this week especially, on blog views in Russia.  My coworker said I should work to get someone in Liberia to check it out, too.  If only I could be so lucky!

Personally, I think it's actually pretty cool that on a dozen separate occasions, people in Russia have wanted to see what I have to say.  Maybe it's a slow week there for entertainment, but hey - I'm glad to welcome them here.  Большое спасибо, Россия!

Now - if only I can get David Hasselhoff (@DavidHasselhoff on Twitter) to start following me on twitter (@rpcvbg)  (Come on folks, please help me with this twitter campaign!)  Of course, it's my goal for him to follow me on both Twitter AND here at Au Lait in a Sidecar.  Maybe someday I can even get a picture of David Hasselhoff IN a sidecar.  Wouldn't that be just grand?! 

Maybe it's a tall, dark hair, blue eyes thing.  But then again, I'm more of a tall, dark hair and green eyes kind of gal - like Clive Owen, but maybe we shouldn't go there at the moment.  (No offense, Mr. Hasselhoff)

Ahem.  Anyway...

Back to my discussion with my coworker...I asked him what I should write about for my next blog entry and he, an avid sports fan, suggested the following:

Ohio State's defensive adjustment during their bye-week to the overpowering Wisconsin offense

Apparently we need to worry about Wisconsin's QB who can both throw and run because our defense has issues with both of those possibilities.

It's always something.

OK - fine.  Now I'm jealous.  My coworker, @brittondiller just told me that David Hasselhoff was following him.  Naturally, I checked my sources (trust, but verify?!) and learned this is no longer the case.  Sorry, Britton - you've been unfollowed by the Hoff!  Whew.  Guess I don't need to be jealous. 

So back to football:  GO HOOSIERS!  GO BUCKS! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Updated:  Awfully rude of me to neglect Clive Owen.  Picture added.  Swoon.

Addiction

Hello.  My name is Heather and I'm addicted to yarn.  (applause - HI HEATHER!)

While heading out east this past weekend, I first spent the afternoon and evening in Hoboken with my cousins, including some time in Trish's yarn shop.  I knew when I went there, I was going to pick up a couple of things.  Yeah.  Well - I ended up picking up a whole lot and I totally blame Trish for just standing by and not stopping me.  lol!  I mean, she just stood there while I grabbed more and more yarn.  Seriously - it just jumped out at me.  I had no choice but to take it back home to Ohio. Yeah.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I like to knit.  No.  I love to knit, so buying yarn is a hard thing for me to avoid.  Like all knitters though, I have far more yarn than I'll ever be able to knit up.  From time to time, I trade yarn with my friends, but while I have more than I can ever use, I really do knit a lot.  I do actually complete projects as well.  I'm in a dinky apartment, but still have a bunch of plastic bins in a storage unit - many of which are filled with yarn.  Yes - I'm hopeless.  Thankfully, I have plenty of friends in the same boat!

Speaking of friends, my cousin, Trish, opened her yarn shop, Patricia's Yarns, seven years ago.  Prior to her opening the shop, I only knew how to knit socks and crochet afghans.  Since she opened, I've learned how to do so much more.  While I don't get out to Hoboken very often, I can say she's introduced me to a lot more kinds of yarn.  I've now officially become a yarn snob and love knitting with the good stuff - such as silk, alpaca, merino wool, seacell, linen, etc.  I can't bring myself to buy the acrylic stuff except on rare occasions. 

Anyway...here are a few things I've made.  I've grown a lot as a knitter since my days of only socks and afghans.  I love the creative process and definitely love learning new things.  Recently I've learned how to knit entrelac (a basket weave sort of design) and a moebius scarf.  Love taking classes at my local yarn shop!  These are just a few things I've made in the last couple of years.

Alpaca, fingerless mitts.

Dr. Who socks

Moebius scarf

Wysteria Lace Shawl

Are you on ravelry?  What's your Rav ID? I'm there as DizzySpinster. Feel free to add yours below so we can see you there.  Happy knitting!

Occupy Wall Street - October 15, 2011

Last weekend, I got together with a couple of my friends in New York.   We went to attend an INSI debate on safety for international journalists, but more on that later.

On Saturday, more than 80 countries around world rose up in solidarity on behalf of the 99% which, in the U.S. is left with only 60% of the country's wealth. The past few years has shown us time and time and again how politicians' work only for those who finance their campaigns.  Since the ruling on Citizen's United, the number who do finance them has dropped significantly, to the point where the 1% seem to have all the say.

While in New York this past weekend, we decided to go down and visit Zuccotti Park in Manhattan to see for our selves what the people there were like.  The park was filled with good people - decent, hard-working people who have felt sold-out over the last decade for the benefit of those who don't NEED help, but who get extra benefits like icing-in-the-cake tax breaks anyway.

Following are some of the pictures we took while joining them in Zuccotti park as well as in Times Square that evening.  When we joined them in Times Square there were several hundred, but we discovered later that there were upwards of 10-20,000 people who had gathered.  The enthusiasm was infectious and my friend, Kathy, and I were thrilled to be a part of it all.

Power to the people.

My view...

As I first woke up this morning!

Time to Make the Donuts

Remember the old Dunkin Donuts commercials with the guy getting up super early to make donuts? That's how I feel.

Getting up early to fly to New York for the weekend, so stay tuned for posts from the Big Apple!

Did you know...

...that Jaguar got its start by making sidecars?

Yes, indeed. It originally started as Swallow Sidecars in the 1920s.

Stay tuned for updates! Very interesting!

So I took some pictures while in the shower today...

...of my cat, Moghi.

Moghi is an interesting creature. She's a young cat (which means trouble right there) that I adopted when my sister-in-law found six (yes, 6) dumped kittens last summer that had been dumped in a park. She brought them all home and naturally, my two young nephews, wanted to keep them all. Not being practical with one cat in the house already, they could only keep one of the 6. My nephews then talked their Aunt Heather into taking one. (Did I mention that I'm slightly allergic to cats? Yeah. I am, but I took her home anyway! Sigh.) We were able to find good homes for all the rest. Moghi was the only girl of the litter - and the cutest, if you ask me! Her ears were huge as a kitten though she's now - mostly - grown into them.

Anyway, for a feline, she's a bit odd. She loves being near the water which is why it's really difficult to take a shower without her. She doesn't even jump when the water splashes the shower liner. The weird part is that she usually ends up licking her side of the liner which, I'm sure, can't be good for her. Another oddity she has is a really good vertical jump. I'm 5'3" and she can jump at least as high as I am tall. OK fine. Not THAT big of an accomplishment, but she usually likes to do this early in the morning, say around 5-6am - against the shared wall with my neighbor - the one with whom I rarely talk. I wonder why.

Maybe that's not really odd: practicing her vertical. Maybe it's just Moghi living up to her namesake: Moghedien, one of the Forsaken (i.e. 12 or so main evil characters) in Robert Jordan's 14-book Wheel of Time fantasy series. Great books! You should read them, but the character of Moghedien is rather evil. When living in my old house, Moghi would jump on the counter, then to the top of the fridge and then on top of the cabinets for a better view of the kitchen and family room. The picture above is from her first meeting with a dog. I think she actually DID frighten that pit bull!

Don't get me wrong. She's an adorable and lovable cat and has the ability to be a total sweetheart. Granted - she's not always a sweetheart, but the ability is there. She's also great about using the scratching post so I can't complain about that. So yes, though a bit strange, this is my cat, Moghi. Isn't she cute?

Now back to those allergies - um...anyone want a cat?

Just kidding!