Turkey, Part 1- the kitties

I've not been blogging because I haven't uploaded any pictures from Turkey. And it seems backwards to blog about anything else before I write about the trip.

I finally got some of the pictures uploaded this weekend. It's not all of them, but it's a start. I started with some of the smaller collections, and to solidify my "Crazy Cat Lady" status: I present some of the stray cat pictures from Turkey. We couldn't take Webster, so we took pictures of the strays to show him when we got home...










The strays were EVERYWHERE. It was surprising. You can see that they would find soft places to hang out and take naps during the day, and they would come out at night and roam around.

I am going to keep plugging away at the pictures. But I have to say that I don't think it's fair that Ranger Man has all the fun taking the pictures and I get the not-fun job of sorting, sifting and uploading. blech.

Stay tuned for actual pictures of interesting places in Istanbul.

Safe Landing, Achoo!

Phew, we made it home.

Turkey is an amazing place- I highly recommend it as a vacation place!

What I don't recommend: long plane delays, getting a bad head cold just before 13 hours (ish? I lost track...) of flying time in the midst of a flu pandemic scare, and having to return to hot, sticky Georgia heat.

We had a fantastic time and took tons and tons of pictures which have not been uploaded to my computer/flickr due to the aforementioned bad head cold. Imagine each of these sentences punctuated with a sneeze- because that's how the last few days have been for me, yuck!

More to come, I promise! Now- back to bed.

Best. Day. Ever.

Ranger Man learned how much fun it is to chase Webster around the apartment.

The big bad Ranger Man is chasing the big fluffy cat around the apartment and giggling. It is truly the best day ever.

We leave soon- that means I need to start packing (what, the knitting I'm taking is all ready to go, I'm set!).

Have a great weekend!

Pipeline

I will never forget the night that I graduated the eighth grade. Not because of the ceremony in the gym, not because of the dance after the ceremony, not because of the pretty new dress and not because my friends gathered at my house before the festivities started for a Mary Kay make-up party to prepare.

The night of my eighth grade graduation there was an explosion in my town. A natural gas (I think?) pipeline ruptured and ignited. I remember standing on the outside deck of my house in my new pretty dress with the makeup on and my mom taking pictures, when we noticed that there was ash falling from the sky. I remember the carefully guarded fear in my mom's eyes as she rushed to the television to turn on the news because my dad was working (still does) in an oil refinery, and explosions in oil refineries were certain to be bad.

I don't remember too much about the ceremony (except that it was announced to the entire graduating class that I wanted to be a professional rock-climber, which is a career goal I had made up in a bout of silliness and knew that while I loved climbing, I could never live that life), and I don't remember much about the dance. I remember the ash falling from the sky and the feeling of uncertainty and fear.

We later learned that while no one that we knew personally was killed, three other boys were. One of the boys that was killed was the younger brother of a boy that was just a few years older than my friends and I, and the next year we were at the same High School as this older boy who had carried his badly burned younger brother out of the explosion site, only for the smaller boy to die the next day. It was whispered to me in the hall when the older brother passed that it was "his brother" that had died.

I remember later- much later- passing the explosion site and seeing the devastation and feeling chills. And to this day, whenever I hear the word "pipeline," a little shudder passes through me and I struggle to follow the conversation and not be transported back to that day and those times when fear and anger ruled my small, normally happy little town.

I will always remember the day of my Middle School graduation, June 10th. And perhaps someday I will be able to have a conversation about pipelines that doesn't result in the little shudder and temporary loss of focus. Keep your loved ones close, y'all. Time is precious.

Kai Mei, take 2

In my last post, I mentioned that the Kai-Mei sock pattern was so awesome that I knit (most of) one pair in a week, and then the following week cast on a second pair?

I got a call from the FRG that night, asking me what Ranger Man's name was (no joke). We're not married, so- my name isn't the same as his, and because he's not actually married, he doesn't show up on any FRG lists of anything. So- a group of soldiers was coming home that night and someone at the FRG just happened to think of me and that perhaps Ranger Man was one of the mystery soldiers. So I got one phone call asking who the heck he was- and then a second phone call saying "yep, he'll be home late tonight/early tomorrow."

But, but... I was just about to start the toe of my sock! I didn't have any mindless knitting suitable for (what was sure to be) hours and hours of waiting! So I spent about an hour combing through pattern books, but I knew that I didn't want something that I had to look at the pattern (because hello, it was the middle of the night and dark!), so I just cast on another pair of Kai Meis. It was a good choice.



Here's a better picture of the pattern:


For now, in hopes that I won't completely burn out on this pattern, I've started a pair of garter rib socks in a special colorway for my dad's birthday/Father's Day.

I'll be casting on a different pair of socks for the upcoming plane rides though (just in case something goes awry with security...)

Where am I going on this epic plane ride, you ask? I think it will have to be a surprise, lest the poster boy for OPSEC (aka Ranger Man) deem the security threat too great. Yes- he takes it to the extreme sometimes.

But I'll have some beautiful pictures to post, hopefully!

Ranger Man Meets...

the knitting group!

Apparently, it's A-OK to leave me alone in Georgia for 4 months at a time, but try to leave the Big Bad Ranger Man alone for 12 hours and he gets lonely. Normally on Monday nights I go to the knitting group and eat dinner there (we meet at a Panera).

Ranger Man didn't have to work yesterday so he was left to his own devices and after 12 hours by himself and an almost-50 mile bike ride, he was hungry and lonely, so he called and said he would meet me for dinner "with the knitters." ha!

I think he was impressed. He's always been very supportive and indulgent of my yarn habit, but I think having a bunch of people with yarn habits all in one place was a bit unexpected. He left soon after he finished eating and left me to be with my people.

Remember the awful marathon day at work with Teddy Ruxbin? Here are the socks that I started (and almost finished one of) that day:




Kai Mei socks, out of Yarn Love Juliet yarn in the Precious Jade colorway. This pattern is so awesome that I cast on another pair the following week (more about that to come). The yarn has a distinctive smell though- I think it might be the dye? The first picture has the colors right, the second picture is shady, but you can see the detail on the foot a bit better. At any rate, this was another pair that Webster immediately attacked. Maybe he just doesn't like me wearing socks?

Ranger Man and I are busy planning our upcoming vacation (thank you to the Army for cutting that in half, by the way!), enjoying the sunny weather and having miscellaneous other adventures.