Slow down!

Good grief. The summer is going by far too quickly.

I don't seem to be able to post with the Crack. I've totally forgotten how to type on an actual keyboard. Today is the first time I've driven in a month.

Let me tell you, living in the Keys is tough, dude.

We're looking at houses and have actually seen a few that we could move right in to. Many are disgusting dumps. Not a whole lot of choice in our price range, but more open every day. We saw a brand new townhouse in Key West, but it's really small and we have a lot of stuff.

I'm going through emails from realtors, looking at the properties they've emailed me. It takes forever, and we only have internet access at the library. The Crack is useless for something like that, but I'm having a blast keeping up on email and Facebook (Rita Knits is my name--join me!) and I'll miss that when we go back to the mountains and don't have cell phone coverage. It works well here for that.

Gotta run. We love it here. We can see ourselves living here. When I have time/opportunity, I'll post some photos. The Key deer are very friendly, very cute, and I've gotten to rub the velvety antlers of several males. Males are friendlier than females. We've seen tiny fawns, about Zippy's size.

Zippy is happy being a Key dog. He knows he has to go to the elevator to go O-U-T. There are huge iguanas all over the place, some as big as he is. He doesn't chase them. I think they could take him in an instant.

Later! I hope you're enjoying the summer. I really miss reading all of your blogs and hearing from you. I'll catch up when I can.

OH--Eric Brace has a new song and video, "Tranquility Base", an homage to the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. Beautiful song, available on iTunes, and the video is on YouTube.

So, yeah.

Last night I tried to post on here using my new Blackberry, but I couldn't sign in. Actually, it did let me sign in on the comments page, where it posted my "test" twice, but I couldn't find a link to "new post". Since I'm going to be relying on that this summer, I am a bit pissed.

I know nothing about this thing. Read the directions? Pfffft. I asked a kid why there was a red light blinking constantly; I'd spent a couple of hours trying to find what that stupid light meant and couldn't find a thing. Ask a kid, within seconds she said it was an indication that I had text messages and showed me how to find them and get that damned light off.

I've learned that it's kind of painful to use the thing for internet (I haven't tried it tethered to the laptop yet; I am afraid), since my fingers are bigger than the damned keyboard and I can't type easily, plus is seems that the blazing fast 3G network is slower than dialup. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I expected more.

I still haven't gotten a data card for it, but I think we will after school today. Then I can download music (I'm sure it's reaaaaallllly easy and fast) and take photos and videos and spend hours trying to figure out how to email and blog them.

Last night we went to Roanoke (a two hour drive on a good day, but it was the Thursday before Memorial Day at rush hour) to see/hear Last Train Home featuring Peter Cooper at a tiny place; it holds maybe 60 people. Yesterday was Peter's 39th birthday. It was a "weird hybrid" (Eric's term) of Last Train Home and Peter's band, and I really like it. They sing so well together and both are songwriters, different styles that are merging very well. We thoroughly enjoyed the show; notsomuch the getting home at 1 a.m., but it was worth it.


After the show started, I called Joan so she could "hear" the show. I'm sure the quality wasn't great, but it was nice to be able to share it with her.

So, would you like to see what we did Saturday night?

I'll show you anyway. I'm mean like that.

Joan, Scott, Liz, and Berend (Joan's daughter and her boyfriend) (Liz's boyfriend, not Joan's) went with Tom and me to Ashland Coffee and Tea Saturday night for a show by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, our absolute favorite singers. (Go to their website and listen to their music. I'd rather listen to them--and Last Train Home--than anyone else. Yes, Betty, even more so than Neil Diamond!)

Joan and I are a little....obsessed (but in a good way) with these guys. We had such a good time listening to the music, talking about the music, talking to Eric and Peter, talking to our husbands, enjoying the food, and trying to reassure Liz that we wouldn't totally embarrass her. (Thanks, Betty!)

They played a mix of their own songs, songs from their duo cd, and songs that they haven't recorded. Their voices are so different, but they blend together so well. The harmonies are so beautiful.

Kevin Cordt, who is part of Last Train Home and also a jazz group, took the train from DC to the coffee shop. The stop is literally feet from the entrance.


Here you can see some of the studding on Peter's suit.

Rumor has it that he paid $40 for the suit. I'm guessing that having the crystals put on cost a whole lot more than that.

Toner shortage continues

I managed to score 4 bottles of toner today. We're not due to get our shipment till the end of the month (and that's if I believe Xerox), and I had to put the last bottle I had left into one of the copiers yesterday.

At a time when jobs in this division are likely to be cut, I don't want to run out of toner now. I need to keep busy.

I'm hearing some really heartwarming feedback from the faculty, though. It's nice to be told that I'm doing a good job. I appreciate it. I mean, I know that I'm doing a good job, I get things done fast and before they're due, but it's nice to hear it.

On the knitting front, I'm plugging along on my thigh-high legwarmers. I've done about 12" of the second one. Another 6 or so inches and I'll be able to turn the heel, knit a couple of inches in k2p2, then bind off. That day can't come soon enough, although then I'll have to rip out most of the foot of the first one and do the ribbing. They're just too thick to be worn with my good ol' Birkenstocks. But thick is good when it's cold (which it hasn't been for a week--not that I'm complaining, and I hear it will be this weekend).

Tomorrow night we're off to Ashland to see Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. Tom and Scott will tolerate Joan and I drooling panting thoroughly enjoying the hair the view the music. If Liz and Berend are brave enough to come along, I know we'll embarrass them. But give us a break, kids, and don't mess with our high. We old ladies can be tough bitches cookies.

Not that you're old, Joan, really.

New playlist

I love these days when it's cold enough to keep my door shut and turn up the music.

I'm listening to "YDHtLTB" on my computer at work. It's got some beautiful songs on it. "I Know a Bird" and "Down to the Well" are absolutely haunting. Eric and Peter's voices blend so beautifully and so well.

This article sums it up well. (I'm afraid they'll come after me if I just copy and paste it.) (Scroll down waaayyy down past the ads.)

It didn't occur to me, until I got to work this morning and no one was here, that perhaps it was too dark for 7:20. Sure enough, it was 6:20. A.M. In the morning. And I didn't even realize it, although the clock in the car said 6:20. I just figured it was wrong. Last night when I reset the alarm (after getting up two hours later yesterday due to school's delayed start), I reset the time, too. I was wide awake, though, so I didn't curse (for a change) and got my morning's work done before anyone else got here. Yeah, I'm that busy today.

Now it's caught up with me, an hour before school ends, and I've got to wait till 3:30 to leave.

Winners!

Bis and Elaine are the winners of "You Don't Have to Like Them Both". Please email me your mailing info at rita knits at g mail dot com. I'll get them in the mail--really--honestly--truly.

I hear that there are videos of Last Train Home and Peter Cooper and Eric Brace on YouTube, but I can't link to them from work. Stoopid rules. No YouTube, no myspace, no facebook, no flickr, no Raverly (reason for that one: dating, personals. It's a freaking yarn/patterns group!).

Betty said that SHE listened to the guys. This was a major sacrifice for her, what with the steel pedal guitar and country stuff. But I really appreciate that she tried.

If you're in the area, on February 14, Eric and Peter will be at Ashland Coffee and Tea. Great for a Valentine's Day date! Tom and I will be there, and Joan and Scott will mostly likely go, too. Join us; we'll be sitting right in front of the stage.

Contest--"You Don't Have to Like Them Both"

I have two copies of the cd, both personally--and personably--signed by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. Want one? (No, Joan, you already have one.)

Comment by midnight EST tomorrow night (Tuesday). I'll choose the winners by pulling them out of a hat, or if there are a lot of entries, by random number generator.

And I'll mail them. Really. I promise. The others, too. Within the next week, sooner if I can get my ass moving.

Trust me, you'll love them both!

It was 11 hours coming home

And I'm wiped out. I'm definitely not as young as I used to be. Why, only ten years ago I could drive three hours to a concert, get three hours of sleep and go to work. I can't do that any more.

Joan's boss gave her today off so she wouldn't have to come home and go to work a few hours later. Slacker.

Tom and I got home at 11, and in spite of half an ambien, it was almost midnight when I went to sleep. I was five minutes late to work this morning, and I'm a zombie today.

But it was worth it! The show was great, Peter and Eric and Mary Ann were all so nice, and it was fun to be at the release party for their cd. The Station Inn is a tiny old club; some of the seats are from Earl Scrugg's (I think) old tour bus. The place is full of posters for old bluegrass shows, lots of personality and flavor. (Except the food. Microwave nachos and pizza just don't cut it, but we gamely ate them anyway, since that's what was available. Maybe the bbq was better......)

We really lucked out with the hotel I found at hotels.com. I've gotten a couple of not the best options that way, but this one was in our price range ($64, a "last-minute" special), and we didn't know the city at all, so we decided to try that one. It turned out to be the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, a pretty nice place and usually much more expensive, and in a good neighborhood. Some medical school was having its Cadaver Ball there that night (I'm not kidding about that, either.) and there was a convention. When asked what convention it was, initials were muttered, then the guy came clean with "Amway". Good grief.

After checking out Sunday morning, we toured the city by car, with both back windows down and Joan and me hanging out with our cameras. Being immediately marked as tourists doesn't bother us. We saw enough to know that we want to go back some time when we can spend a few days and it's warm enough to go outside.

But maybe we'll fly next time.

Two time zones in one day

We left home at 6:30 this morning for a little trip.

We met my sister Joan and her husband and headed off to a show.

Two weeks Ten hours later, we arrived in Nashville. After marveling how much longer it stays light here, I got a sneaking suspicion that maybe we were no longer in the Eastern time zone.

After a little google search, we discovered that was correct. Oh well, it gave us an extra hour to get lost find The Station Inn.

Oddly, we took a wrong turn and found the place immediately. (This never happens. Ever. We always get lost.)


We drove for 10 hours so we could attend the cd release show for Eric Brace and Peter Cooper's "You Don't Have to Like Them Both". Mom calls us "groupies". We call us "fun".

The show was excellent, as always, and we met Tom T. Hall. Last Train Home sings one of his songs ("I Flew Over Our House Last Night"), and Eric and Peter sang it tonight.


Tomorrow is the long long drive home, but it was worth it.

Winter break,and a cd giveaway

This is one of the biggest reasons that I work in a school. We always have 10 days off at Christmas, and sometimes we have two whole weeks. This is one of those times.

I've been lazing, sleeping late (although not well at night, in spite of--or maybe because of--the ambien), staying up relatively late for the working me, not the nighttime me that I used to be. I actually watched tv--and knit--till 1:30 Saturday night. It was heavenly.

I knit a hat for my nephew for Christmas; plenty of free yarn from Claudia back when I worked there, and it's coming in handy now. Tom would roll his eyes when I'd drag in another bag or two of yarn back then, but see? I'm using it, Tom, sweetie, it's not costing us anything, and I can make nice warm gifts for Christmas. I don't know how the recipients will like their hats and scarves in place of money or a year of XM radio, like in the past, but that's the past, and this is now.

I started a Fingering 55 (merino/silk) scarf in a very simple feather and fan pattern. It's really pretty, very slim, and I hope I don't run out of yarn before the scarf is long enough. I might have to put that one aside for a while as it's taking forever to knit even 12", but I got to about 15" last night. Once I'm motivated enough, I'll take photos and show you what I'm doing. But I'm lazy.

It's cold here, as in COLD 10 degrees. Lily the Heat Whore is in front of the electric heater we keep going in the living room; she even forgets that Zippy is in the room just three feet from her and will roll over on her back, all four feet in the air, and show her fat pink tummy. Zippy spends most of his time in his cardboard box. Tom cut the front down so he can get in easily, put his old pillow in there, and Zippy's happy. It keeps the drafts off him.

Beghera spends most of his time on the bed, cuddled up in the covers, unless Tom is in the living room. Then Beghera is either on his lap or draped over his shoulders.

Chester the Cat is pissed off these days. Several days, coming home from work, I've caught old Chester too close to the road. That's quite a way from the house; we have a long, winding driveway, and old Chester likes to go right down to the road. So now he's a house cat, not allowed outside at all, and he is one pissed cat. We've never seen the othe two cats that close to the road; they rarely go past the bamboo at the bottom of the yard; at least, that's all we've seen. When Lily goes out, she sleeps in the sun on the porch, but today, even though she really was in a hurry to go outside, she was equally hurried to get back in. Like I said, she's a Heat Whore. She used to sleep on the heat vent in the bathroom, but now she has a heater, and shes loving it.

I love this time of year in spite of the cold weather that accompanies it. We don't decorate, partially because Chester the Cat would rapidly undecorate, partially because we're lazy, which bothers A, because every house should be decorated for Christmas, as far as she's concerned. I love seeing holiday decorations, but like I mentioned, I'm lazy, and it's cold, so I'm sitting on the couch trying to stay warm.

For the last few years I've enjoyed the decorations that others have done along the drive home from work. Many people have lights and reindeer and wreaths and all kinds of pretty shiny things in their yards, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. Some are tasteful, but most are the over-the-top crazy out-of-control type of decorating, and I love those the most. There's a single-wide trailer, rusty and leaning, that's always decorated to the point that I wonder how the thing can stand up under the weight. Their yard is similary overdone, but it's wonderful in an awful way. Or awful in a wonderful way. I wish I could get a photo of it at night, but it's cold, I'm lazy, and I don't know how to photograph it so it would properly display the awesomeness.

Tomorrow is B2's 5th birthday. Unbelievable. He was a big baby, and he's still big. He's not a little boy any more.

A's 9th birthday is coming up the first week of January. I've taken advantage of my free flights and am going to Orlando on Dec. 30th. I'll be "sick" *cough cough* on January 5th so I can be with my Bunny Baby on her birthday and fly home late that night. Back to work early the next morning, but it'll be worth it.

Hey, anyone want to have some Last Train home and East Nashville musicians Christmas cds? I have three to give away, courtesy of Eric and Mary Ann. The first three people who comment and claim them will be the lucky recipients of one of the cds. I have two Last Train Home's "Holiday Limited" and one "Yuletide from the other side--More Music from East Nashville", with 37 songs from artists including Last Train Home and 36 others. I admit that I haven't heard of most of the artists on this one, but if Eric thinks they're good, then they're good.

And regarding the last two contests: I'll mail the prizes of all three contests by Friday of this week. I promise. You guys have been so patient with my laziness. I appreciate it, and I appreciate that you've stayed around.

And now, I'm going to eat some black bean and corn salsa and knit for a while. After I go to Ravelry and see what hat pattern for chunky yarn, suitable for a man, that I can dig up. I haven't knit with chunky for a while, so I've forgotten how many stitches I cast on, and I can never remember how to decrease at the top so it looks decent.

Wish me luck. I'll be lost for hours, browsing the patterns and groups and people at Ravelry. It's fun!

You Don't Have to Like Them Both

But I do.

Putting the school's mail in the mailboxes is part of my job, so I get first crack at the mail each day. Rarely is there something for me. But today....

There was a square box with my name on it. I thought, "It's the yarn that I won from the KAL." I was wrong.

It was THIS:

(Please excuse the crappy photo. And that thing on the electric stapler is a Last Train Home hat. I was in a hurry to take the photo and didn't do very well.) (I'm supposed to be working, you know. But it's slow today.)

Eric Brace and his wife, Mary Ann Werner, sent us a box of Red Beet Records (see Last Train Home link) products. Including *trumpet fanfare* their latest offering, "You Don't Have to Like Us Both" by Eric and Peter Cooper. Two of those, as a matter of fact, one autographed for Tom and me, and one to *ahem* give away. We were going to buy it (maybe a couple) at the show in Ashland on the 27th, and it was all I could do to wait. Joan feels the same way. Ask her. She'll tell you.

Along with those (as if that weren't enough), they sent TWO each of "Yuletide from the Other Side--More Music from East Nashville" (you can find all of these at the Last Train Home/Red Beet Records site), Last Train Home's "Holiday Limited", and Fassoux McLean's "Early". I think that we have all of them; all that we don't have will be contest prizes.

Stop laughing at me. I mean it. All of my former contest winners' loot will be mailed out next week. Honest. Really. I hope I can find their addresses.

Anyway, thank you, Eric and Mary Ann. What a nice Christmas present, and we get to share it!!!

An old knitting dog CAN learn new tricks

I taught myself to knit about 8 years ago. It was a slow, painful process. I'd cast on, knit a few uneven rows, then put it away for a couple of months. Every time I started again, I'd have to look up how to cast on, because it sure wasn't sticking in my mind.

After a while, though, it clicked. My stitches became nice and even and I could remember how to cast on. I started knitting regularly.

I'm kind of ashamed to say that I never learned the provisional cast on. If a pattern called for it, I'd find another pattern. My brain just couldn't handle trying another way to cast on. The long tail method was what I first learned, and by golly that's good enough for me.

But this past week I found a pattern for wristlets that is so perfect that I have to make them. And, of course, it calls for a provisional cast on. I sighed then googled, found a site, printed it, and sat down to knit.

I could not figure it out. It looked like a foreign language. So I did some more googling, found another non-video site, and tried it again today.

Still couldn't get it. So I sucked it up and went to Youtube. And I found the perfect explanation.

I don't know why I've avoided Youtube and videos this long. Yes, I do know, I'm lying. I hate computer noises. Startup, "you've got mail", that annoying bleep when I do something wrong. So, for years, I've kept the sound turned off. It pains me to even turn it on to listen to music, and I loves me some music. (Last Train Home, Eric Brace, Peter Cooper)

Anyway, I found this video, Crochet Provisional Cast-On, and watched it once. Suddenly it clicked. I picked up my yarn, crochet hook, and dpn and cast on provisionally. And it worked. The first time.


Wow. I feel empowered. I am Woman. Watch me cast on.

Not really. I'm not up to making a video right now. I'd have to turn the computer's sound back on.





My perfect wristlets: They'll have to be added later. IE froze on me.

And I didn't even have the stinking sound on.



P. S. Another reason I like this video so much--"crocheting" is misspelled. Or is it mispelled?

Contest alert!

Not mine this time but from another blog: http://blog.knitting2together.com/ Once again, I apologize for not having my linky cheat sheet. I had the cds with me yesterday, but they're heavy to carry and I left them at home this morning. Crap.

So anyway, this lady is on a trip and wants you to guess how many photos she'll take with her new camera.

About my contest winners: I'll get the prizes out. I promise. I'm a terrible procrastinator. I actually picked up Courtney's prize last night and hugged it and smelled it (Downy fabric softener; Claudia uses it and it reminds me of her drying room with all those gorgeous hanks of yarn drying. I have to go visit.) and then put it back down because I was too tired to do anything about it. I'm so sorry, guys.

A note about the Peter Cooper Mission Door cd: It's incredible. Joan and I are listening to it every chance we get. She keeps it in her car; we listened to it on the way to and from George's funeral and burial. Last Thursday night at home I turned it up really loud and listened to it for hours. (Tom had gone to pick up Donna in Baltimore, so I had the house to myself.) Usually when I'm alone I don't turn on the tv or music; after being around kids and copiers making noise all day, I just want peace and quiet at night, but that night I needed good loud music. I'd taken the truck to work that day and listened to Mission Door on the way in and home; it's about a cd's worth ride each way, and it was heavenly to have. The car doesn't have a cd player; it only has a cassette deck that's broken. And the truck is more comfortable and well-appointed than the old car. If we keep that car another two years, I'm going to have to put a new XM radio with cd player in it. Right now we have XM stuck on the dash and wired into the radio (since the tape deck broke; reception is much better through the tape deck than through FM reception) and it's ugly and in the way, but it's better than not having XM.

So, anyway, Peter Cooper = good. I'm looking forward to the cd he and Eric Brace from Last Train Home have finished and are releasing soon. I'm sure that'll show up in a contest as soon as I can get it!

Last Train Home

I think it was about two weeks ago that we saw Last Train Home (linkie in sidebar; don't have the html worksheet file on this computer. Laptop, I miss you!) at Ashland Coffee and Tea. Great show; they did some older songs they hadn't done for a while (at least, not that I remember, and we all know what my memory is like), and that cutie, Alex McCullough, played bass guitar (last time he played steel pedal guitar). I love their music, whoever happens to be playing in the band. They're all good.


Kevin Cordt (trombone), Tom Mason (lead guitar, accordian, trombone), Alex, Eric Brace, and Dave Van Allen (steel guitar). Drummer Martin Lynd is in the background, unseen.

Tom Mason tells a good, dramatic, funny musical story.


They're incredible. If you ever get the chance, go see them.

I have their cd and dvd, Live from the IOTA, to give away in a contest. I just haven't thought up a good contest. Any ideas?

Eric and Peter

The show is great! What fun to be in California and hear a show from Alaska.

Online concert tonight

Well. Pay $100 for a room in a less-than-$100-per-room-quality motel, and you still have to pay $3 a day to use the internet. Color me pissed.

I stewed about it, but in the end I gave in. I had to check my email and stuff. I'm glad I did, because there's an email from Eric Brace (of Last Train Home) that he and Peter Cooper are live on Whole Wheat Radio (if you miss it, it'll be available as a podcast tomorrow) tonight at 11 EDT, which means 8 PDT our time (the jet lag, once I get home, will be a bitch). As I noted before, we missed last Friday's show at home, so this will help to make that up a bit.

Poor A is going to be so bored tonight.

Photo lifted from Whole Wheat Radio's website. Oh God, Peter, does this mean you cut that gorgeous hair???

We're off!

(Don't say it. I know what you're thinking.)

We're off to Roanoke to see Last Train Home tonight. I missed their last appearances in the area when I rushed off to Orlando a few weeks ago, which meant I missed the winefest also. Drat.

But we'll make up for that this weekend. LTH is also at Colonial Downs tomorrow, so if it's not raining, we'll go to see them in the early evening, then run to Ashland for their show at Ashland Coffee and Tea. It'll be a fun weekend. I'll get to knit (or string beads; my arms and hands hurt just thinking about it) a lot.

And I don't have to work on Monday! I'll come in Tuesday to pack up the office for its annual "move everything out so the custodians can clean the floor" and to learn how to assign lockers. It involves computers and school software, so how hard can it be?

I crack myself up sometimes.

Eric Brace and Peter Cooper

Eric Brace has perfect teeth, and Peter Cooper has perfect hair.

(In case you can't figure out which one has perfect hair, that's Peter on the left.)

We saw the two of them at Ashland Coffee and Tea Saturday night. Eric, lead singer and head honcho of Last Train Home, brought his East Nashville neighbor/friend/singer-songwriter Peter Cooper. They just finished a whirlwind tour of Germany and the Netherlands; if you're interested in history, music, and humor, read Eric’s and Peter's blogs. Reading them reinforced my desire to go back to Germany and not be sick so I can enjoy it.

It's always a pleasure to listen to great performers at AC&T. Their listening room is low-key, conversation is discouraged, everyone is politely asked to turn off their cell phones (usually there's one moron, male, who has to "take" repeated calls during the music), and the beer and wine is good. Notsomuch the food; we ate across the street at the very expensive (for our usual nights out) Iron Horse Restaurant. Good food, but I'd really rather pay less and enjoy it more. But their Key lime torte was out of this world.

I asked Peter if I could take a picture of him; I hate to aim a flash at someone without warning them first. He asked if the photo was okay. With my usual tact and grace, I said, "It looks sort of like a mug shot, but it's fine." What I meant, Peter, is that the flash washed out your gorgeous face, I should have stood farther back, but your perfect hair shows up fine.

I swear, I had this unlikely (for me) desire to run my fingers through that hair. But I didn't. If I knew him better I might have. Until the end of the show when it was all sweaty. Ick. But, hmmmmmmmm........

*

*

*

Apologies to Tom. I love you, sweetie. You'd probably egg me on. Just one more reason why I love you.

Weekend music

We're off again this weekend to see Eric Brace (of Last Train Home) and Peter Cooper (see Red Beet Records, Eric's label) at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Great music, great place to listen to it.

Peter has a new cd, Mission Door, on Red Beet Records. From what I've heard of it, it's beautiful music and he has a beautiful voice.

We're looking forward to hearing the two of them together.