Saturday, January 23, 2016

I hoped, when I posted yesterday, that somebody would know the chemistry building at Mt Holyoke. Thank you, Pascoag Girl, for being the somebody! (comment yesterday)

Mary Lou, I had to google Eugene V Debs – but the process rewarded me with the article you mention.

The only really desperately important chore left for today is to polish my shabby shoes. But I tremble. Things which ought to be easy, never are, these days. Archie and Fergus will be here for lunch. I'll give them chilli con carne I think, easy and satisfying. It will be very nice to see them.

Then Archie will go back to school, leaving Fergus who will of course be joined by his mother, Greek Helen, tonight. She and I have a number of important points to discuss tomorrow morning such as how to help her father with his computer and how to turn the central heating on and off and how to make porridge. Even such simple conversations become tricky when the doorbell starts ringing.

I have packed all the important things already, such as yarn. I hope to finish those eternal Pakokku socks and maybe even start the next pair – I'll be taking Arne & Carlos yarn in hopes.

It would be just as well to make some progress with socks. I have retained a whole bag of sock yarn from the Slaughter of the Innocents. And on top of that, I had an email just now from "Knitcircus Yarns Web Store" saying that my order was being shipped. A moment of pure panic – what order? what on earth? But then I remembered – those rather glorious graduated socks which had to be specially dyed. And Amy Detjen signed the message!

Actual knitting, as always, has moved forward but slowly. I am nearly halfway through the final, right-side welt of the Dunfallandy blankie border. There must be well more than 500 stitches by now but that is not a sufficient excuse for this interminably slow progress.


I won't try to write tomorrow. Americans, I hope the snow is not as bad as forecast. I should be back here on February 1, with any luck, with news of Loop and of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York. 

24 comments:

  1. Off you go and have a grand time! You have earned a bit of fun.

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  2. Have a wonderful trip to London!!

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  3. skeindalous12:11 PM

    Hope it all goes Nicely Nicley.

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    1. Anonymous5:12 PM

      I concur!
      -- stashdragon

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  4. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Enjoy your time in London doing things that please and uplift you. Catriona

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  5. Anonymous12:54 PM

    Safe travels, Jean. Enjoy yourself!
    Barbara

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  6. Wishing you a lovely trip.

    Ellen (in CT, no snow here yet)

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  7. =Tamar1:37 PM

    Have a wonderful time! Here north of DC I peeked outside and saw somewhere between 12" and 18" of snow. I am tucked up snugly with a good supply of everything.

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  8. No snow here in southwestern Vermont. An 'open winter' for all intents and purposes. Rather sad as we are always prepared for and enjoy a Snow Day.
    Enjoy your freedom, I'm sure it will be grand !!

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  9. Plenty of snow here in coastal New York, but no problems yet! just beautiful drifts, she says looking out from inside.

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  10. Safe travels and enjoy every minute!

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  11. Anonymous2:21 PM

    Have a wonderful time, you'll be missed!

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  12. Enjoy your break, Jean! And the weather down here (Essex Uk) has become unusually mild again. Midges, anyone?

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  13. Have a wonderful time in London ( how could you not?)

    I'm writing from Maryland where we have at least 18" of snow and 30 mph wind gusts. Knitting weather if ever there was!

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  14. Message to Perdita - humans going on holiday need to know that their resident cats will behave themselves and look after the humans remaining behind. I know, that is not fun - but the boys might play with you.

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    1. And the Socklady is finally out of the hospital and home (24 days in makes ole ladies kind of weak). Ever so glad to see my wild mountain vally

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    2. I truly hate spell check. Have a good time in London.

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    3. glad you are out of hospital SockLady!

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  15. enjoy your time in London! i will get there one day!

    we have about 18-22 inches right now - its been snowing since 4 am and the storm is parked on top of us. prediction is around 30 and it may be more at the rate its still coming down 14 hours later. have been out shoveling sidewalks and patio and garden path several times - achy arms and back and NOT looking forward to shoveling the car on Sunday . sigh

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  16. Here in Charlotte, NC we have ice and sleet - very little snow - and below freezing temps. Nasty stuff. Have a great time Jean, but know you will be missed.

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  17. Through a convoluted route on Google I found your aunt's entry in Wikipedia and enjoyed reading about her. Knitting brought me to your blog but this type of exploration into a wide range of areas keeps me coming back every morning, Have a great time in London.

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  18. tee hee 'nicely nicely' up there in the comments. Have a lovely time, enjoy it all. London will be the better for your presence.

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  19. Hope you had a blast in London! And, oh, Carr. I went looking for a pic of it, but http://cutlerdb.com/portfolio/education/higher-education/mount-holyoke-college-science-center was the best I could do. Carr's actually behind the newer building, but you can see a bit of either it or Cleveland (which looks a lot like it) on the left edge. The joke around the physics department as they were building the new building was that they were just trying to hide Carr. Nice enough building, but in between the gothic manor-looking Shattuck and the brick castle that is/was? the biology building it looked a bit odd. Might also be why I had so much trouble finding a pic.
    I actually chose MHC because I thought I wanted to be a chemist and their program had more alums who went on to earn PhDs than any other in the country at the time. Then I took my first physics course, went oooh, and that was that.

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