Bats In My Belfry

So long, “Pro-Meh”. See ya later Bertha Bawk Bawk. Hasta la vista “Hier ist nicht ein hunde kloo”. Auf Wiedersehen “shabby front door”.

Headed for the hills, literally. About frickin’ time too. Mainly a placeholder ’til I get the site updated and pictures uploaded to Flickr. Scenary is muuuuch better up here.

We had one of the best storm systems I’ve seen anywhere here yesterday. It was a real doozy. Enormous energy, terrifically high winds, hail, driving rain, the whole bit. Having lived in “Tornado Alley” in the States and seeing some of those storms (including the “super cell” types), I rate this one right up there in intensity. In fact, I was surprised that no tornados were reported. Then again, it was like a great, big honking tornado. BIG.

It had been quite hot and muggy for two days prior to the storm (with much whinging and moaning around here. Even The Dawg hates weather where the humidity and temperature are about equal…in this case 90° and 90% humidity). It’s even worse here because we live in a “townhouse” which has windows only on two sides which do not catch any breeze in the summer. It can be terribly stifling. And, of course, nothing like air conditioning. So, the approach of a cold front was bound to cause a big reaction. And boy did we get it.

Was awoken shortly after sunrise yesterday by very loud, prolonged thunder (as well as 4 cats all trying to sit on my head). I thought, oh yaaay! The heat is about to break and rolled over thinking happily that when I got up it would be a bit cooler. Uhm, no. It was 90° by 10:30 a.m.

Watching the radar, I could see a massive (and I mean half the size of France) blob of bright red (as in “OH SHIT!”) coming for us. Now, where we live there is this odd “bubble” that sometime protects us from extremes (snow, rain but oddly never, ever heat) and oft times these storm fronts skitter just north or just south of us. Not this time.

Skies grew grey, then very dark grey and then finally that shade of green that I learned to associate with “duck, it’s gonna get nasty”. And then it hit. Hard. High winds (105 mph), hail, rain of the sort that rendered visibility to nil and massive lightning & thunder. It was spectacular. Nature can really kick ass. So, I grabbed my camera and ventured out the front door. Didn’t dare go any further for all the lightning and that pesky hail which hurts (wasn’t too huge, about the size of  M&Ms).

This was taken around 4 in the afternoon. Notice how dark it is.

And the following shows the hail…

Here’s a close-up of the hail:

Temperatures plummeted nearly 40 degrees within literally minutes. I had to laugh…I was sweltering and cranky because it was so hot and then I was freezing. That might have had something to do with getting soaked through just by opening front door to take pictures.

Happily, in this area, I have heard of no deaths or injuries. Heggelinstasse “creek” came way out of its banks (detritus on the opposite side of the road from the waterway), gravel from the side roads must have been washed onto main road, some flooding in town and thre creek was still quite high during last walk of the day (2 a.m.). I don’t know when it finally stopped raining, certainly not before 4 a.m. when I keeled over. From what little I could see last night, the crops took a pounding but I don’t know if they are ruined or will spring back. Last big storm we had like this really tore up the corn but it didn’t cause any lasting problems aside from the lower (only ones above ground at the time) leaves having some rather large holes in them. Will see more when I do evening walk with The Dawg. More pictures if there is anything worth taking pictures of.

Now we are meant to have nearly a week of nice, cool temperatures with low humidity (sixties during daytime, down to upper 40s at night). This is bliss and means one less week of nasty summer weather to be lived though.

Edit: Local newspaper says that, sadly, about 70% of this years’ agriculture crop is gone. The vineyards took a terrible pounding, corn looks to be gone, fruit trees were damaged. So frustrating for farmers to see their whole year’s income ruined in an hour. Sad.

When I arrived in Germany one of the big things I noticed was that eggs in the markets are kept and sold at room temperature (we won’t go into the utter shock I experienced upon first seeing bright orange yolks…that really threw me at first). Now, my American mind instantly said: Death by salmonella or the like. Then I decided, well…what the hell, let’s see what happens. So I bought and ate eggs from all the markets we shop at. I have to admit that I still stick ‘em in the ‘fridge when I get them home but after six years? I have not croaked. Or gotten even a mild tummy ache. Nothin’. And I eat eggs fairly often.

Now this puzzles me. In the States we are warned big time to always keep eggs (and egg products) refrigerated else we will become terribly ill. I wondered why folks here (and by “here” I mean Southern Germany, I have no idea what occurs outside this region with regard to egg storage) aren’t keeling over left and right from dread diseases contracted via “improper egg storage”.

Was it the turnover rate? Was it differing conditions in keeping the chickens? Was it some sort of immunity built up by people eating room-temperature eggs starting early in life? Was it…magic? I’m still not sure but recently I read a comment on a site posted by a French person about how they kept eggs in their cupboard and didn’t suffer any ill effects. This was immediately called into discussion by some American posters. One reply intrigued me and I am going to try to find out the actual science involved here. It basically said that once an egg has been refrigerated the protein makeup of the egg changes and it must henceforth be refrigerated. However, if an egg has never been refrigerated it can be kept for an extended time at room temperature (cool, dark place).

Hmmm. I’m not sure the local Edeka (especially in the summer) can be considered “cool & dark” (air conditioning is not very common here although the past few years has seen an increase in use in stores). Still…I’m not dead. No one I know here has even become ill from eating eggs.

I had always assumed that folk eating eggs in the past didn’t have issues because they went out and rummaged an egg or three out from underneath the broodies and consumed them very shortly thereafter. Now, I’m not so sure anymore. In this area, eggs are ONLY sold at room temperature (in either the standard egg cartons, neatly labeled with when the eggs were laid, where they were laid and expiration date) or loose in a basket (with coded stamps on each individual egg) or the likes with cartons so you may pick and choose your own.

No deaths.

I’m still curious but I haven’t had any issues myself.

Edit: Found this URL which seems to explain it.

I am doing it. I didn’t know I was doing it. First taught myself to knit back in ‘66. Think I knit a couple of scarves and then decided I was going to have a decade or so of craziness and quit knitting. Then I took up crochet back in the late 70s through the 80s. Didn’t do much again ’til 1990 when I started crocheting again (wanted afghans for the CO winters) and charity drives. Then, to avoid going completely batty after moving to Germany, I took up knitting again almost 3 years ago but really only the last 2 with a vengeance. First year of that was desultory, mainly doing the ol’ “Grandma’s dishcloth” thing. I then decided that I truly wanted to learn to knit. Been quite a journey and the end is nowhere near in sight.

But I do have SOCKS!!! And they fit and everything.

Lever knitting…well, it seems that is how I knit. I did give Continental a go but, despite being a crocheter, it Continental struck me as being horribly awkward. Watched my MIL knit a bit (she showed me how she was taught) and my head almost exploded. It seemed to me that there was a whole lot of jiggering about to accomplish the “right” and “left” stiches (knit and purl respectively, at least that’s what I think it is but given my capacity to completely misunderstand all things German, I could be off. Still “recht” or “links” is pretty clear). She was equally mystified by my method. Near as I can tell, she’s doing some sort of version of Continental knitting which she learned from her mother. I have never seen pictures or videos of that particular method, so I have no idea quite what to call it.

Didn’t occur to me until recently (due to watching instructional knitting videos on Knitting Help and YouTube that I was not knitting in the method I thought I was (English/American). Apparently I do a version of knitting called “Lever Knitting” as best illustrated via this link to HeartStrings FiberArts.  I did wonder how folks could knit with the exaggerated “throw” that I saw in various videos. Seemed to me like it would slow one down quite a bit and wear one’s wrists out in short order. My right hand never lets go and the yarn is moved via my right index finger. Economy in motion (okay, lazy). It is somewhat similar to The YarnHarlot’s method but, of course, I am nowhere near as graceful or fast (ye gods that woman is blindingly fast) and she moves her yarn with her middle right finger. And is faster. Way faster. But I’m still pretty quick.

And it’s comfortable. I’m kind of tickled that I managed to teach myself this method. I just ended up doing what seemed to be the least motion intensive (again, lazy) and the “standard” English/American “throw” struck me as waaaaay overkill.

And I knit socks. Yup. I do.

see more Political Pictures

– Post From My iPhone

– Post From My iPhone

The one on the right is the face I get when coming up with the likes of the one on the left.

Been playing Age of Conan since about a week after its release. As a newly released MMO it is not without issues. Some of the issues are pretty severe for those who are suffering them (game crashes, lag etc.) so there are legitimately frustrated people. There is, as well, the usual group of trolls who spend a great deal of time on the AoC boards crying, hollering, threatening etc. This is bog standard for MMO forums and not really to be taken seriously. Can be entertaining though.

I write here today because I need to get something off my chest that I cannot do on the Funcom AoC forums.

Forum moderation.

Now, when a group of gamers gets together there can be friction under the best of circumstances, no doubt. And moderation is essential. In fact I am critical of most game forums because I don’t feel there is ENOUGH moderation but the FC AOC forums? Plenty of moderation. Problem is, it’s wonky as hell.

It is capricious, it often makes no sense. For example a thread titled “Failcom Blows Goats” will remain in place and the inevitable fanboi vs. hater flame-a-thon ensues. But a thread that questions why there is a delay in receiving responses on legit questions or requesting information on account issues or wanting to know what the upcoming patch notes consist of gets nuked instantly (or nearly).

Also, there is a tendency to “prune” threads of “troll posts” which unfortunately often results in a thread that no longer makes much sense. In fact, I would say that all too often the pruning is too “deep” and leaves a thread which newcomers (e.g. folks that haven’t been following the thread since its inception) would find nearly incomprehensible.

I am ALL for attempting to keep boards civil. Very much so but I think that Funcom (at least the EU side) is doing a rather wobbly job of it. There is one moderator who is rather overzealous and responsible for the majority of questionable calls. I keep hoping that with more experience this moderator will start to learn the fine art of when to let something slide, when to just edit a singular post, when to prune several/many and when to shut down a thread.

As it stands now, Funcom is alienating even more people with these overzealous, sometimes incomprehensible moderation tactics and it’s not helping matters given the angst and ire that is swirling around the game itself.

There. I feel better now.

EDIT: I want to make clear that this rant is aimed at the volunteer moderators, not the 2Pi people. In fact, I am thrilled to see 2Pi coming on board. They have a deft, professional touch that is sorely needed. I do hope, as time passes and things settle a bit, I have to eat my words.

A spring evening with lovely light lead to the following:

The Alps! Not seen often from here, rarely in warmer weather. Something about the lake and inversion and technical meteorological stuff. But there they are. I believe that’s Mt. Sanitas.

The above is the range on the south shore of the Lake of Constance.

Fairly large dairy farm that borders the Hegg. Fields. Here you can see the mown grass that they gather for the cattle. It smelled wonderful.

Retina-burning shot.

And one of my favourites. Captured the breeze and the light of the setting sun. It was a lovely, lovely evening.

moar humorous pics

Hee!

Boy, this sucker is large. It’s getting a bit tough to manage whilst working here at my desk (usual knitting place). I’m still concerned that it’s going to be a bit heavy to wear but, I’m in this for the long haul.

Mushy Peas, not just for eating. I suppose I ought to get those put back in the cupboard. Hard to see but I’ve gotten pretty anal about lifelines. Thanks to the sensible comments from Stellaluna and Himself, I’ve gotten over feeling like I’m “wussing out” using lifelines. In fact, I find it quite freeing. After counting stitches obsessively to be sure I’m on the right count and pattern, I run a lifeline and then, for awhile, knit on whilst watching DvDs. I generally run a line each day so that, at worst, I would lose one day’s work.

About half done, maybe a bit under. Not sure where in the hell I’m going to block this. We have no carpeting, no surface that is going to be big enough. This could pose a challenge. In fact, I don’t know anyone who does have any carpeting that I could pin this out on. But, that’s a bridge that’ll get crossed when I come to it.

Loving the Harmony circs. The points make the k2tog so easy. Avoids that desire I have with some needles to cram ‘em into a pencil sharpener. No problems with cables coming undone either (touch wood).

Well, last week I groused and grumbled about Jordana Paige’s Bella here and here

After conducting the experiment I find that I need to eat crow. Upon leaving Bella hanging…

…for 4 or 5 days, not only do the straps work a lot better (e.g. they actually pull through the tabs) but when they are pulled up tightly, the top closes up in a secure manner.

So, I was flat out wrong. Conclusions were leapt to and first impressions were wrong (despite the old adage). I have to say I had a lot of fun cramming the cans in Bella and conducting the experiment.

I figure it’s only fair after withering on about this bag that I set the record straight. It’s still on the smallish side but it would be excellent for those who are sock addicts and want to have a stylish bag that also is a good home for their WIP.

Jordana Paige? My apologies. Now, to figure out what seasoning goes well with…crow.

It’s tempting to think that Spring has arrived, especially when seeing things like this:

Not a cloud in the sky this morning. Brilliant blue skies every direction. In the 40s but you could actually feel the sun’s warmth. Was pure pleasure to be out and walking on a day like today. Some of the trees have buds and there is plenty of mud where last week the ground was crunchy. In some places the mud was so slippery that being dragged along by the frisky Dawg was like skiing.

I was so tempted to snag a branch of this…

…but I don’t feel right about taking things from Nature. Best to leave them where they are.

Walking out in The Fields can sometimes feel as if you’re nowhere near a town the size of Markdorf. This is a good thing to me. It’s essential to recharge and I’m blessed to have this area so conveniently located to wander about in.

To the left there is a little enclosed property. I have no idea what they are called. They are small fenced in areas, with sheds, bar-b-que equipment, small gardens (flowers and veggies) and sitting areas. There are three of them out in The Fields. An old woman frequents one and she tends some very pretty flower beds.  She is a bit ferocious about people walking by. I assume she prefers her privacy. Another is more a social gathering place with a large shed and seating area. The third is a large vegetable garden and you often see a woman tending it at dawn in the summer.

Don’t know what these plants are, kind of like pampas grass. I’m woefully ignorant about horticulture but not quite as bad as Himself who tends to “tree” “flower” etc.

This one, I do know. Willow. I spent a great deal of my childhood up a willow tree in our backyard, reading.  I remember having a transistor (über!) radio and listening to “A Summer Song” by Chad and Jeremy. Always associate that with willow trees. Looks like this tree is greening up a bit.

Beautiful, beautiful day. The cynic in me is wondering when Winter is going to make a return and smack us upside the head. But…not today.

Is mostly sunny today, in fact, a rather nice day despite the forecast. It did snow last night. At sunrise there was maybe half an inch all over everything but it melted by mid-morning revealing a very nice day.

Skies were beautiful with the white clouds floating by. The clouds were gathered over the Alps in cumulonimbus form.

You can see that just a couple hundred feet above Markdorf the snow has remained. Hard to see in this picture but the snow decorates all the evergreens at the top of that ridge.

Well, we may be in for more winter but days like this make it not-so-bad because you can see…

Buds starting to appear. The smell of damp earth was strong today too. The aroma of spring was present. Of course, it’s just a teaser, for the next 2 months will bring the most moisture and, depending upon the weather patterns, snow. Himself is all for it and I am, to a point, but I do hope it doesn’t get really deep because it will be a bit of a pain trekking through the fields in deep snow. But, then again, it would be beautiful.

I read that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today.

Always a favourite day of mine. It’s the beginning of the end of winter and that is a very, very good thing. Time to look forward to those subtle signs that winter is loosening its grip. I’m especially looking forward to it this year as I am out in the country numerous times per day walking The Dawg. It has been a real treat watching summer wax and wane, then autumn with all its glorious colour then winter with its fogs and winds and snow and, of course, rain. Now, we’ll be seeing the heavier rains and, perhaps, snows.

But then…ah…then…spring. Nothing quite like spring unfolding after a long, grey winter. And today marks the shifting toward that. The days are already longer and the sun when it shines is a touch warmer.

Gaelic tale has it that if it’s a sunny day for Imbolc, Cailleach will be out to gather winter for the rest of the winter but if the weather is foul, it means Cailleach sleeps and winter is almost over. Tomorrow is meant to be a rather nasty day.

Funny how that is similar to the Groundhog  Day.

In any case, we’re past the worst of the dark days and moving on toward the light, once again.

Lovely!

I’m experimenting. Recently I groused a bit about the Jordana Paige Bella I purchased. I received (surprised me!) a nice comment from Jordana Paige about my comments and decided to experiment with adding weight to Bella in order to stretch out, a bit, the straps and effect a more “drawn in” top closure via the stretch. I’m a bit odd in that I tend not to carry much weight at all in a handbag/purse so the stretching would not have occurred naturally. So I hied myself down to the pantry and found some cans, all weighing 300 grams each for a total of about 5.25 pounds (2400 grams).

Note that I have used imported goods! My Bachelor’s Mushy Peas and Campbell’s Cream of Celery soup. I have to import these from the U.K. There was no issue in fitting ‘em all into Bella…

Then I decided that since I was in test-mode, I’d close it up and swing it around and see what happened. As I mentioned, the bag is well made and survived my flinging it about without issue (not sure the neighbours did after seeing me flinging a handbag around my head like a bolo) and…I think the straps stretched just a bit in that test. I was happy to see how much fit into the small looking bag. I would not have expected I could get eight cans in it and they aren’t even particularly crowded. All fit in one layer. So that puts paid to my moaning about it being small. Although I doubt many folk would be toting around eight cans of mushy peas and/or soup. Heh.

Here’s Bella closed up and sitting on my work table…

Well, not quite closed which is my remaining grumble. But, I shall hang Bella from a hook in the front hall (after tossing aside the husband’s coat…I mean this is an important experiment!) for a day or three and see how this goes. Serves him right. He suggested putting The Neem in the bag. Silly man.

To add:

Straps are certainly longer.

About 2 feet into the five feet to see it done. And not without a crisis. Heh. Always a crisis with me. All part of the learning process but sometimes I really, really, really wish I had a teacher. My biggest problem is figuring out how to fix errors. My brain works peculiarly, I guess, as I have trouble reading instructions in a book or online and then implementing them. Usually do okay when I can watch a video (thank goodness for all the great folks who make knitting videos!) but they don’t often focus on “oh look, this is wrong, no idea what’s wrong, but it’s obviously wrong” type situations.

Exactly the type I find myself in. Case in point…this shawl is a CO of 132 and a repeat of 4 rows. Simple enough, pattern easily memorised and requiring no particular fancy maneuvers. And yet, I have, twice now, made the same mistake. Bad part is, have yet to figure out exactly WHAT the mistake was. I end up with one stitch less on the “money row” (in Old Shale that’s the row with the yo and k2tog bits). I am pretty sure that I am missing a YO but every time I go to figure it out, I can never see where I have. Quite maddening, really.

So night before last saw me ripping back (always gives me the collywobbles) until I got to a plain knit row that had the proper amount of stitches. Happily this was only one pattern repeat. Then back on the needles and carry on. I did have the sense to run a lifeline which is kind of embarrassing but I’d rather be embarrassed than howling and cursing when I can’t get something fixed.

And so…

The colour just isn’t coming out correctly with the Ixus70. I need to investigate why. It’s more a tan/oatmeal colour.

Bottom edge. Shows the yarn and its heft. This is not going to be a dainty wrap by any means nor was it meant to be. It’s meant to be exceedingly warm and to be burrowed in. I do hope it’s not so heavy as to be unwearable though. Heh.

Lifeline. Meh. Well, as my husband pointed out when I was whining about the need for a lifeline, it’s akin to backing up your code when developing. Somehow that made it feel not so…uh…silly.

I think this is going to turn out as I envisioned and providing I can continue to count to six and stop mucking up with yarn-overs, I should be done with it in a couple weeks at the rate I’m going.

Even though it is frustrating to screw up, I did feel rather good when I took a deep breath (okay, several) and figured out how to try and un-screw it. Progress.

Happily, I discovered the TV series “House, M.D.” (on DvD with captioning!) and after viewing the first season in a couple days, got season 2 and 3 and am happily knitting away whilst watching the show. Love it. Hysterical and I am particular amused by the un-PC aspects and the rampant “smart-ass-ery” of Hugh Laurie’s character.

Messing with camera today whilst walking The Neem resulted in some telephoto shots of the Alps. Now the Alps are rather “shy” around here. Rarely see them unless conditions are “just right”. I’m told it’s to do with the Lake (of Constance) but I’ve really no clue. So, when I was out there and could actually see them, I decided to mess with the telephoto in the Canon Ixus70. Results are not that great but does give an idea of proximity.

Interestingly (well, to me anyway) there doesn’t seem to be much snow on the Alps for this time of year. Mind you, these are the foothills, the big peaks are behind and not visible today.

Pity that the Alps are not part of the daily view. We are pretty much surrounded on three sides and it would be nice to be able to see them more often. They rarely are seen in the summer but that doesn’t seem to dissuade the tourists from flocking to the area. Of course there is a lot more to see and do than just ogle the Alps.

From what the weather forecast is claiming, the Alps will be disappearing again. The word is “winter returns” starting tonight. That generally means visibility ’round here goes down to a mile or so.

Ah well.

Ordered a Jordana Paige “Bella” from Angel Yarns in the U.K. on 18 December 2007. Finally got it today! Not sure what the delay was but I was happy that it finally shipped. Received a nice gift from Angel Yarns as well, I assume to apologise for the delay. They sent along two cable needles.

First impression. It’s smaller (by a lot) than I expected it to be. Certainly not going to work for a project of any size. Not a big deal, that, because I rarely carry around large projects. What really bothers me though is the short handles. I swear they aren’t as long as they appear to be in the following picture from the Jordana Paige Website.

Notice the length of the handles. Now compare with:

Seem a lot shorter. In fact, the only way I can get the handles longer is to really pull on them to draw the top of the bag closed. Probably just my perception but it’s one that might’ve stopped me from buying the bag. It’s awkward to have to pull those handles hard enough to make them long enough to put over a shoulder.

The inside is rather floppy with thin lining material (polyester). Hard to get things in the various little pockets as the material is so thin and floppy that anything with any weight (gauge, scissors) just rolls right out. Part of the problem seems to be there is little structure to the bag itself. I had planned on using this as my purse/traveling-knitting bag. I’m not so sure about this now as the top of the bag, aside from the strap that goes across the middle of the bag from back to front, is open. This not only worries me with respect to my wallet but all the little knitting do-dads that are in there (stitch holders, measuring tape, needles gauge, Chibi etc.). Looks to me like they could fall out awfully easily.

Tested it by putting the usual stuff in the little pockets along with current sock project (ball of 150g yarn, 4 DPNs). Closed the strap, cinched up the handles. Turned the bag upside down and everything fell out (except for ball of yarn and sock itself), including a DPN that was stuck in the yarn on the current sock project. Didn’t even have to shake the bag, the stuff just plopped out.

That’s definitely not a good thing. I have enough trouble keeping track of gauges and tape measures and scissors without ‘em having free egress from a bag.

Here is Bella with three 50g balls of yarn. This gives a good idea of how “not large” this bag is.

I wasn’t crazy about the material of the bag (polyurethane) when I ordered it but it doesn’t look too bad for that. I suppose making it in leather would have made it all the more expensive. It has a nice enough style to it. Metal feet on the bottom are a nice touch.

I am left to wonder what was in the mind of the designer of this bag?

So, summation:

1. Small. Okay for socks or a scarf but not at all suitable for anything much bigger.

2. Not terribly secure storage for anything except in the two zipped pockets (long centre one and small one on front “wall”). Things falling out all too easily. I suppose it would be fine for someone who was quite careful when carrying a bag. That someone is not me.

3. Not very good for tossing over shoulder. It can be done but it’s awfully short. This could be my prejudice as I prefer rather long straps on a bag.

What I would do to improve it:

1. Complete closure for top.

2. A sturdier lining. The lining is very thin.

3. Longer straps.

4. Leather

5. Slightly larger in width and height, maybe an inch on height and two inches on width. Depth is okay.

Final thoughts: Wouldn’t have bought it had I been able to see it in person. This is the bane of living someplace where you cannot see and handle something before buying. The ‘Net is great for being able to buy anything and have it delivered but you do get bitten at times and this was, in my opinion, one of those times. I don’t think it’s worth the money, especially considering it’s basically plastic. It’ll make an okay handbag but it’s useless for a knitting bag for me.

So. I guess the quest for a good combination purse/knitting bag continues.

Meh.