More progress on a new project

Having finished both shrugs, I decided to try something a little different - a tank top in deep plum. I'm using Caron Simply Soft Eco, "helping to save our planet one stitch at a time." The label states that "NatureSpun is a high-quality polyester fiber made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles." I've never worn a bottle before. LOL! Tonight I made it to the neck decrease. I might have been a little further along, except I got invited to join a lovely forum on Ravelry known as Dishcloths R Us. I had absolutely no idea that so many people knit so many different dishcloths. Here's my very first venture, a pattern known as Grandmother's Favorite.It knit up quite quickly and gave me a sense of accomplishment that might hold me until I finish the tank top.

Project completed!

Here's a picture of my first completed shrug (flash and all.) It's a bit heavier than I thought it would be, but it's done. My stitches are regular - the stockinette stitch is easy - simply knit one row and purl the rest. The first part of the week is supposed to be somewhat chilly, so maybe I'll wear it to work.

I began my next project, another shrug, on May 12th. Here's a link to the pattern site www.canandianliving.com and a picture showing my progress to date:

Re-igniting an old interest

I'd been to one of my favorite websites, the Pioneer Library System, and downloaded the audiobook, The Friday Night Knitting Club. It was a very engaging book, so much so that I found myself picking my knitting needles back up and starting a project.

Then, being me, I simply had to roam the world wide web to see what had transpired in knitting during the intervening years. Whoa!!! What a plethora of patterns are available, some for free, some not. And the types of yarn that are now available to order simply by clicking a few keys. (I grew up using Red Heart knitting worsted that I bought at the Wolcott Bargain Center.) This is a whole new world of wool with access to yarns I had not been aware of. And the materials they now use to make knitting needles - it boggles the brain. I saw lovely handcrafted rosewood needles and some that seemed to be made of glass. And the websites that are devoted to knitting - a Google search pulls up 20,900,000 that are currently indexed and available.

I've located an excellent site, Ravelry - A knit and crochet community. It not only has searchable patterns, but it functions as a living community with forums, groups and a place to share the project that you're currently working on. I'm a neophyte there, but I did see that what I blog about here can appear there. So, I'm once again inspired to blog.

On becoming a Squidoo lensmaster

No, I'm not one yet, but I have created my first lens at Squidoo.com. Translated into English that means that I've created a web page on a special topic, in this case it's about our basset hound, Zeke. The website can be found here.

Squidoo gives you a forum to share on topics that you're passionate about. Because Google ads appear on each Squidoo page, a little bit of money is generated each time someone visits the site. That money can be deposited into your checking account or donated to whatever charity you'd like. I'm the only one that's looked at my site to date so I'm not getting rich anytime soon!

I found a widget

Maplight.org has a configurable widget that tracks donations to Presidential candidates and graphs them on your web site. Let's see if I can insert the proper code (exciting stuff for neo-geeks)!

Presidential Money Race Widget

OK, I must not be understanding something. I can't get the object to embed correctly. This is a work in progress.

Later that night: I went back to the website and saw that they had changed the embed code. Let's try again:



Eureka! Success!

Check out MyLiveSignature

I found a new site that allows you to quasi-replicate your own signature on blogs, websites and emails. I'm trying it out here.



Ok! Ok! So my signature is actually a great deal sloppier! MyLiveSignature.com asks you to type in the name or nickname you want to use. You then get to choose from 120 computer generated "fonts"; you also get to choose a size, the "ink" color and the slant of your "signature". Here's my first name:



Wow! After perusing the website for awhile, I learned that my options include the signature wizard (as noted above)or scanning my own signature to send to the site for a real live person to hand code (for some money). Who'd have thought there was a market for signatures?

Fora.TV - a favorite of mine.

What exactly is Fora.TV? From the official website:

"There are brilliant ideas, expressed everyday in public discussions and events, all over the world."

"Don't miss them."

"FORA.tv delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression and a place for the interactive community to gather online."

Fora TV now has myFora available in beta. Try it out by clicking on the program below.


View Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History on FORA.tv

The words for today are....

Fallow (from Dictionary.com: not in use; inactive: My creative energies have lain fallow this year.) and Fecund (from Dictionary.com: very productive or creative intellectually: the fecund years of the Italian Renaissance).

To my mind these words are directly related, as in: During the period of time from my last posting - October 11th - to date, my mind and body appear to have lain Fallow, but are now entering another Fecund period. I believe I needed a rest to recuperate from the rigorous regimen I had set myself. Today it just felt right to pop in Leslie Sanzone's 1 mile walk DVD and get in 15 minutes of aerobic walking. It could also have been because I took off early from work (due to a threatened snowstorm and whiteout) and found myself with extra time and extra energy. ;->

Here's a site for you. If you're like me, you revel in both words and augmenting your vocabulary. Check out FreeRice.com and you'll have the joy of tweaking your terminology while donating free rice to a good cause. FreeRice has two goals:
1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world. Well, at Free Rice it does... the totals have grown exponentially." - The Washington Post

Try it and feel good about yourself!

Today's big literary news

Doris Lessing won the Nobel prize in literature. Soon to turn 88 years of age, she has written dozens of works of fiction, short stories, an autobiography and some science fiction over the past 40 years. I learned that she never finished high school and had educated herself through voracious reading. Today's papers said she was born in Persia, raised in Rhodesia and is currently living in London. Her fascinating biographical background is said to feature in many of her works.

How is it that I, another voracious reader, with a major in comparative european literature, had never heard of her until tonight's PBS Newshour report? I'm grateful to have finally learned of her work and to now have a whole new literary persona to discover and digest in detail. Her wikipedia entry can be found here.

Some of what I've been up to...

My husband and I attended the Gathering of Mustangs & Legends (World War II warbirds) at Rickenbacker airfield the last weekend of September, flying our Cherokee 180 over several states. The picture accompanying this item is just one of the lovely views from above.


There were 81 P-51 mustangs at the show along with B-17 bombers, a Lancaster, numerous P-38s and the airforce's current crop of F-15s, F-16s and an F-22.

The exciting part for me was beginning to learn to read (ie interpret) the Detroit sectional aeronautical chart. You have no idea how much information can be crammed into how little space until you've seen a sectional. I learned how to look for obstructions such as towers, hang gliders and parachute jumping areas. I was able to spot power transmission lines, roads and railroads and became a bit more proficient at finding the various airports' unicom and AWOS/ASOS radio frequencies for my pilot/husband.

Here is what the view from my side of the plane looks like when coming in for a landing - yes, that is the runway below. And a very espensive GPS to keep the plane on track is on its left.

As far as exercising body/mind and spirt, believe me, we walked for miles at Rickenbacker airfield!!! I was more than glad to finally sit down and watch the acrobatic pilots. It was a wonderful weekend to be outdoors in the 80 degree sunshine - nature can be very spiritual. And I more than exercised my mind with airport radio frequencies, elevations and reading sectionals.

Amusing Musings

When I went to Chautauqua for the week and ended up with a severe upper respiratory infection, I never did get back into my physical exercise program. The amusing part? Last week, Solutions for Wellness sent me a congratulatory certificate of completion of their wellness program!

I still walk whenever I can and try to eat right. I've signed up for a 30 day e-course with Thich Nhat Hahn. And, I've loaded up my library book bags. I'm keeping tabs on my virtual bookshelf at Facebook. So far I can remember reading 1,525 books, am currently reading 5 books and want to read 296 more. Check out my Facebook page to see the specifics.

More musings....

I'm still not completely back to normal healthwise. My physical exercise program reflects that. Yesterday I walked our basset hound Zeke for almost 30 minutes. (Well, it was more pausing and snuffing that continuous walking, but it still counts.) Today I walked back to my main agency building and returned to the jail - at least 20 minutes of walking. (This doesn't count today's grocery shopping; that's walking and a bit of strength training since Bob's Big M insists on overloading the cloth bags I bring in rather than contribute to the plethora of plastic bags covering the earth.)

I watched the PBS rebroadcast of a 1986 performance of the Elixar of Love by Donizetti, featuring Luciano Pavaoatti in his prime. Even with the older video sound track and my non-enhanced bedroom television, it was very apparent that he could really sing. The notes appear to cascade from him effortlessly. He will be missed.

I serendipitously found a new spirituality website: SpiritualityandPractice.com. Although one of the courses with Thich Nhat Hahn offically began on September 10th, I signed up for the full forty day e-retreat. I already have a gatha to use on a daily basis, borrowed from one of the other sharers of the spiritual journey: "Chopping wood, drawing water. Walking with a mind of listening."

Amused at my musings...

or, a peek at my personal preoccupations:

I decided to segue slowly into another attempt at Week 8 of the Solutions for Wellness exercise program. Last night I took our basset, Zeke, for a 20 minute walk, well - it was more a 20 minute stop and snuff, but you get the idea. Tonight I went for another walk with Zeke, who almost took me off my feet when he spotted a predatory rabbit. That meant I got both aerobic and strength exercising at the same time!

I can't get into my Facebook virtual bookshelf to update the books I have finished and those I am currently reading. I'm continuing to listen to A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester and have found it to be extremely interesting. It's been slower going for Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.

I'm giving some thought to doing a daily gratitude list as a spiritual practice. I wonder what would happen if I googled "gratitude list"? (Wow! displaying the results for 1 through 10 of approximately 2,270,000 pages!!)

Starting over, again.

Musings: Well, I now know what it takes to knock me off the exercise horse (so to speak). I was managing to stay active and exercise even while on vacation at Chautauqua, but when I came down with a bad upper respiratory virus while half-way through my week's vacation, I found myself taking it easy, resting, drinking plenty of fluids and no longer exercising. I'm still battling the lingering effects of the tenacious bug and have yet to begin exercising again. Housecleaning and going to work seemed more than enough to do.

Even though I did not continue with physical exercise, I did continue to exercise my mind and spirit. I read several books and listened to numerous podcasts of dharma talks. I did metta meditation and, once, having been inspired by Dr. Dharma Singh Kahlsa at Chautauqua, I found myself listening to a meditation (in song), Ek Onkar, Sat Nam, Siri Wahe Guru. I decided to galvanize myself and start blogging again, even though I'm not back at 100% yet.

For the mind: I'm listening to A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester seemingly about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but actually an education in the advances of geology, plate techtonics, etc.

For the spirit: While surfing the web, I came across the following item from Buddhanet.net

The Game of Janken (Scissors, Paper, Rock)

Janken is perhaps the most popular game which the Japanese, young and old, play when deciding a trivial issue. It is played by thrusting forth the right hand simultaneously with the other player and extending or curling the fingers and thumb to represent the shape of scissors, paper, or rock. Scissors defeat paper because a pair of scissors can cut paper; rock beats scissors because scissors cannot cut rock; and paper defeats rock because it can be wrapped around a rock. This game conveys the profound Buddhist teaching of interdependence and relativeness.

I had no idea that this game had a Japanese ancestry nor did I even suspect it to be an explanation of the interdependence of Buddhism.

Week 8, Day 3

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

I'm still on vacation at Chautauqua, where it's been very rainy and damp. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.

For the body:
One walks everywhere in Chautauqua. Tonight my pedometer shows 6714 steps.

For the mind:
I attended several lectures today, the most intriging being given by Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD dealing wih scientifically proven ways to reverse brain aging and improve memory using age-old yogic techniques that have unexpected hormonal benefits. Anything that can stave off the ravages of Alzheimer's is worth investigating further and it just so happens that I bought his book, Meditation as Medicine: activate the power of your natural healing force.

For the spirit:
I attended a dharma talk by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede of the Rochester Zen Center and I'm considering trying to get up for a morning meditation session with him at 7:15 tomorrow. I also walked the Chautauqua labyrinth tonight.

Week 8, Days 1 & 2

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

I've been on vacation at the Chautauqua Institution since Saturday. I'm eating very healthy: spinach salads, oat bread ham sandwiches, granola and low fat milk and I'm walking alot to get to the various lectures and symphonies. No formal exericse program, though.

For the body:
Plenty of fresh air, walking and good food.

For the mind:
I attended a lecture entitled "Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine" by authors Donald Barlett and James Steele. I also picked up two books at the Chautauqua library: S is for Silence, a mystery by Sue Grafton and Heart Like Water: surviving Katrina and life in its diaster zone.

For the spirit:
20 minutes of mindfulness meditation each night.

Week 7, Day 6 & 7

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

Musings: Friday was busy as well, with the additional sad pleasure of taking my student intern, Rachel, out for a farewell luncheon. Saturday was mostly spent being on the Thruway to get to the Chautauqua Institution, so my exercise was abbreviated.

For the body:
On Friday I walked to Wayne Behavioral Health Network to drop off my timesheet for the next week while I would be on vacation. That was approximately 30 mintes of walking. On Satuday, I wore the Eli Lilly pedometer and walked 10,360 steps. (After you unload your car at the Chautauqua institution, you take it off grounds to park for the week. There's little or no motor traffic here. Everyone walks or rides their bikes. I also had the extra benefit of aerobic exercise when I carried our supplies up two flights of stairs to our third floor apartment.

For the mnd:
On Friday I finished reading The Diana Chronicles and continued listening to Tin Roof Blowdown. On Saturday, we finished unpacking and gobbling supper earliy enough to catch the pre-symphony concert lecture by Lee Speers and got to hear directly from the composer of "Night Light", Yanim Leef, and then learned a great deal about Beethoven's use of motif's in his Symphony no, 9.

For the spirit:
On Friday, I fell asleep before completing my mindfulness meditaiton. On Satuday I wouild say that the hour long performancy of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with it's final section "Ode to Joy" more than counts for a true connection to spirituality.

Week 7, Day 5

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

For the body:
I was crunched for time today what with working all day, rushing off to get a much needed perm from the Headlines talented stylist, Pat Mac Dougall, and then off to grocery shop and get ready for my week vacation at Chautauqua. I elected to count the 30 minutes at Bob's Big M pushing a shopping cart as the 30 minutes of aerobic exercise needed for today. I postponed today's strength and flexibility training.

For the mind:
I read several more chapters of The Diana Chronicles and listened to more of Audible.com's audiobook, Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.

For the spirit:
Nothing like multi-tasking! While waiting for the 1st perm solution to set, I used the twenty minutes for metta meditation.

Week 7, Day 4

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

For the body:
A day of rest!!!!

For the mind:
I began to explore Facebook in more depth. I invited several more individuals to join and now have a total of 9 friends. Wooo Hooo! I also continued to listen to my Audible.com book, Tin Roof Blowdown.

For the spirit:
A half hour of metta (loving kindness or friendship) meditation, where one begins by wishing for the following for oneself:

May I live in safety.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.

After doing that for awhile, one then wishes the above for a benefactor, then for a friend, then for a neutral person (one for whom you have neither positive nor negative feelings) and then for someone disliked. Eventually, one wishes the above for all creatures (self included).

It was a nice change from attempting to watch my breath.

Week 7, Day 3

What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again).

For the body:
Thirty minutes on the treadmill, walking at 2.1 miles per hour while watching the PBS show, Origins.

For the mind:
As I noted above, I watched the acclaimed PBS show, Origins, Episode Two: How Life Began. I found it fascinating to learn that we might owe our very existence to a byproduct of bacteria

"...It's amazing to contemplate, but without cyanobacteria, there would be no oxygen and Earth would still be smothered in noxious gases. Plants, animals and humans would have never evolved..."

(From Origins: How Life Began.)

For the mind:I only managed ten minutes or so of mindfulness meditation. Partly because of our pets and partly because of an allergy headache.