Spring Cleaning Part Deux: New Uses for Old Things

I have been steadily cleaning out this disaster-area of an office, and finding things that are...well, fairly useless.  Such as 5-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks that have information I've already either archived or have on my current computer.  There are books for which I have copies in ebook form (Jane Austen books, many of which you can download free), and paperback books that are falling apart because they are literally over 30 years old and I have read them over and over again (and I hope, hope, hope that I can find them again in print or in ebook form).  Then there are papers that are decades old that surely can be thrown out, and so on and so on.  Or, there are old Windows 95 and other software manuals that are way, way out of date.


However, today I came upon this particular item.  It's made of Gore-Tex-like material, about 9 inches by 5 1/2 inches when folded.  The interior pockets are made of some kind of vinyl and are about 3 1/2 by 4 inches.  I've had it for...probably almost 15 years.

I pulled it out of a pile of stuff that I had put on one of my bookshelves to look at "later," which obviously was about at least 10 years later.  Yes, that's how long it's been sitting around.  I opened it and when John popped his head around the corner of my office to see what I was doing, and I held it up.  "Recognize this?"

He gazed at it for a second or so, puzzled.  I said, "It's a holder for the 3 1/2 floppy disks for the old PC we used to have.  I guess I should have thrown it out by now, right?" I said, laughing a little at how silly I'd been for holding onto it for so long...but stopped laughing as an idea slowly formed in my brain.  "On the other hand...I think I won't because I might be able to use it.  I could use it to--"

"Store knitting needles!" John said.

"Yes!" I said, much pleased at his perspicacity.  "Exactly--circular needles, in fact!"

The top pockets are too shallow to hold the needles without sticking out, but they're just the right size to hold a small pair of scissors, especially if you pass the velcro strap through one of the finger loops.  The clear plastic holder to the left, which normally would hold a business card, is perfect for holding a cable needle without too much worry that it'll fall out, since the opening is up against the fold of the holder.  It would easily slip into any purse or knitting bag without having the cables get tangled up, especially since the velcro strap holds them down.  Here's what it looks like with needles and accessories in it:

Just to test how secure the items were within it, I closed it and shook it (the horizontal velcro pieces on either side are "opposites" so that it stays shut when closed).  Then just to be absolutely sure, I opened it and shook it upside down.

Nothing budged!  How cool is that?

So now I have a handy-dandy circular knitting needle holder for whatever knitting project I might want to take with me when I'm on the go.  Now I'm thinking about looking for more floppy disk holders like this for more of my needles.  Each pocket can be easily labeled as to the size, and and another label on the outside saying what all sizes are within.  The holder is about the height and width of a trade paperback book, so I can put it in my bookshelf if I want to, and the spine--though thin--is wide enough to put yet another label on if I want to see what sizes are within if I do put it in a bookshelf.

Wow.  I absolutely must see if I can find more of these!  If I recall correctly, it wasn't very expensive when I bought it.  However, if I can't find any of these, I bet CD holders would work about as well, and at low cost, too.  I found one here in Amazon.  Less than $10!

However, I like the slim line of the 3.5 floppy disk holder, since it's very easy to tuck in a purse, unlike the bulkier CD holders.

I feel so frugal and resourceful!  :-)

Spring Cleaning--and Creating!

Got busy today!  I decided to clean my office in 1/2 hour spurts, which coincidentally is the amount of time wool roving needs to cook in the crockpot.  So I thought, why not dye some roving and clean at the same time? That way I'd have a few breaks from the tedium of cleaning, yet still dedicate some solid time giving away, throwing away, and putting away stuff.  Yep, spring cleaning is here!

I am glad to say that I was productive in both ways.  No, I will not post pictures of my office/library because it still looks like a tornado went through it.  There is improvement:  now a path from door to computer desk can be seen, plus I cleared off a bookshelf and put my yarn in tubs on it.  A box of books now sits in the living room, ready to be delivered to Goodwill.

However, as you see, I am posting pictures of the roving I dyed, because it is much prettier to look at.  I may end up selling the roving or spinning it...I haven't decided yet.  It's nice, soft wool: I have one set that is purely Merino wool, so very soft; the other one is a touch coarser, but still soft and has a somewhat elastic, bouncy feel. 

The pictures don't quite do justice to the colors of the roving.  Except for the primary colored one (to the left), which is that intense in color, the others are actually a bit lighter and more pastel than they look here--very much spring colors.

It's been very wet and rainy lately--I think we've had a month of rain and clouds with perhaps half a day of real sun--so I was feeling very much as if I wanted to create some spring if I couldn't have it in the weather.  I guess that's why there's a bit of yellow and green in all of the rovings I dyed today!

Since each set of colors took half an hour to cook, I guess because I have four colorways, I actually spent two hours cleaning!

I think this deserves some definitely spinning time.  After that, I'll put up some of this roving on my Etsy site.   I haven't put anything up there right now, but if you go there, you can be notified via e-mail once I do start up my shop again.

Hmm.... An Editing Business... Hmm....

So I'm back from Germany, and looking around for a job, and after my rant on Facebook about the lack of basic punctuation and spelling on the web and elsewhere, it occurred to me that maybe I should hire myself out as an editor.  Okay, so everyone, even the best and most careful of writers, has a typo every now and again, and there are times we all say "damn you autocorrect!" 


But that's just my point:  everyone makes errors.  Some of them are slight; and some of them are horrible, disgusting, and degrading to the English language.  Okay, maybe not that bad, but still egregious.  I certainly make errors, and bad ones sometimes, because after hours of writing it becomes one big blur and I can't see the trees for the forest.  (Yes,  I meant to phrase it that way.)  However, I care about the quality of my writing enough to ask someone else to go over it, just in case I might have missed something.  Heck, even with more than a pair of eyes scanning the work, errors still get missed.  We're human.  It happens.


Some people don't care whether their prose comes off as being...hmm...less than good.  That's fine.  They wouldn't be my customers.  However, people who do care how they sound, look, and communicate would be, whether they write fiction or nonfiction.

My qualifications?  I've written eleven novels and four novellas for major U.S. publishing companies.  I've been a technical writer and editor over the course of fifteen years.  I've written and edited various documents in all the jobs I've held for close to thirty years.  I've edited and proofread academic papers, articles for medical journals, software documentation, structural and civil engineering documents, and environmental engineering documents and proposals and so on.


And I also know that depending on whether you go by Chicago Manual of Style, APA, or Gregg Reference,  whether you capitalize after a colon will differ.  :-)

As far as editing fiction writing goes, I've been in a critique group for longer than I've published.  I've been a judge in the national Romance Writers of America Rita contest, as well as a judge of various chapter contests.  I have also personally contacted certain contest entrants whose writing was superb and urged them to pursue publishing...and their works have become published.  I know good writing when I see it.  And I can tell you why it's good.


Most of all, I love writing.  I love the English language.  The art and craft of it is a passion for me.

Sigh....

Well, I must say when I first began writing this blog post I was feeling in a bit of a funk.  But now that I've written about the things I know and love, I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about it.


So I think, I really do think, I might just pursue the idea of offering my editing and copy editing services as an independent contractor.  I'll see, I guess!

The Perfect Mom

Okay, there is a Local Single Mom somewhere who not only makes $10,000 in 15 days working part time, goes to college while supporting her family on government grants that nobody knows about, but is 55 and looks 30 by removing her wrinkles following one weird tip that she developed.  Dermatologists apparently the world over are gunning for her because they don't want anyone to know.  I see this all the time on Facebook and internet ads. 

Either this woman deserves a medal or she deserves jail time for fraud and making the rest of us look bad.  I'm just sayin'.

How to make a kiwotsukete kit (also known as the UMCOR health kit)

"Kiwotsukete" means "take care!" in Japanese. 

My niece Erika has a lot of friends in Japan, and many of them want to help their fellow citizens in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake and tsunami.  She suggested that they put together a clothing and food drive, which is a great idea.  You go, Erika!  :-)

What I'd also like to suggest is putting together what I call a "kiwotsukete kit"--or, as the United Methodist Committee on Relief call it, a "health kit."

It doesn't take much--even people who don't have much themselves can make up a kit. You can get these things at a dollar store.  But they are essential items that people need to keep up their health and help keep sanitary in disaster areas.  Even in a clean-conscious society as Japan, in a disaster of this kind, the badly affected areas are going to be highly susceptible to diseases because people's basic washing supplies have been destroyed.  Food and clothes are great, but what donors often don't realize is that keeping clean means prevention of disease that is rife after such disasters.  So, if anyone is interested, here is how to make a "kiwotsukete kit":

You need to get one gallon zip-lock bags.  In each one, put the following items:

1 hand towel 15" x 25" (38 cm x 63 cm) up to 17" x 27" (43 cm x 68 cm)
1 wash cloth
1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
1 bath-sized bar of soap (3 oz and up, still in original wrapper or box)
1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper or box)
1 large tube of toothpaste (expiration date must be longer than 6 months)
6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

Lay out the hand towel flat on a table. Lay the washcloth flat in the center of the hand towel. Place all remaining items on top of the wash cloth. Fold over the sides of the hand towel to cover all of the items. Fold over one end of the hand towel so that it covers all of the items. Grasp the bundle of items tightly and roll over the remainder of the hand towel tightly. Place the tightly rolled bundle in the plastic bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal the bag.

For those who are living in Japan and want to make these kits, it probably wouldn't hurt to include one or two small bottles of hand-sanitizer, too (the kind you can take on airplanes).

If you're in the U.S. and want to send these kits to Japan, you can send them with $1 tucked in an envelope for processing.  The instructions for putting together the health kit above is not complete for those sending from the U.S., so please go to this web site for more complete instructions:

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/getconnected/supplies/health-kit/

Send them to one of the following address of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (do NOT put any messages in these packages, because they'll have to be removed to comply with--I think--federal regulations):


UMCOR Sager Brown Depot
P.O Box 850 131 Sager Brown Road
Baldwin, LA 70514-0850
Contact For Help: 1-800-814-8765

UMCOR West Office and Depot
1479 South 700 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84104-1605
 Contact for Help: 1-801-973-7250

Use whichever address is closest to you.

Church folk send these kits to UMCOR all the time so that they have them ready when disaster strikes.  But they always get dangerously low when there's a disaster, so they can always use more.  These kits really help keep people healthy and alive in the aftermath of a disaster.

If you want to donate money instead, 100% of any funds given to UMCOR go to relief aid (the administrative costs are paid for by church members).  You can do so directly at this web site:

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/

Ranting

So, I'm looking at some comments after news reports here and there regarding the Japanese earthquake and there are more than a few people who use this disaster to proclaim that it's useless to pray and it proves there's no God. Which is pretty damn heartless, in my humble opinion. If someone's response to this horrible disaster is to pray, then let them if it gives them comfort and gives others comfort. I do not see the point of stripping people of what hope and comfort they can find when facing real horrors just because you don't believe the same as they do. If it gives them hope and if it helps them survive, then as far as I am concerned, let them believe what they want.

This also goes for people who are blaming the Japanese people for this disaster because of whatever so-called environmental "sins" they might have committed. That's no better than some fundamentalist blaming gays for hurricane Katrina.  Heartless? Yeah.

Drop the politics, people. Take up a donation instead and start helping. And praying, if that's your tradition (it's mine, by the way). It can't hurt to extend caring and benevolent feelings toward others.

Natural disasters happen. No one is to blame. They just happen. When disasters occur, the best response is to give comfort and aid in whatever way you can.

End of rant.

The movers have arrived!!!

The movers brought our furniture and other goods from Germany--at last!  Thank goodness they were more careful than the mail.  The antique china cabinet arrived intact, as did the marble-topped side table.  I love those pieces so much!  I've never had antique anything before, and now I do.

We unfortunately decided to mail our glüwein mugs and as a result, all but three (two medieval ones and one from the main Cologne Christmas Market) arrived in the mail smashed beyond repair.  That made me downright heartsick--my favorites (aside from the medieval ones) were the white ones with the red lettering.  Those were smashed nearly into dust.  There's no replacing those, unfortunately.  I don't know if we'll ever have a chance to experience a Christmas Market in Cologne again, and so that's the end of that.

Still, now that we have our antique (Art Nouveau, from what I can tell) cabinet and side table, I have a MUCH better idea of how I want to paint and decorate the house.  I will, most definitely, decorate around those two items.

It was also nice to see my yarn again.  :-) I bought quite a lot of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball Sock Yarn while in Germany, as it was only 8 euros (just over $10) each skein, as compared to $18 to $24 here, depending on where you go.  So I'm looking forward to using that yarn to make plenty of socks.

Anyway, I have to get back to unpacking...and yes, I'm typing this on my iMac instead of a laptop or my iPad!  So nice to have it back!  But I do have to put it in my office instead of where I have it now...on the dining room table.  And after that, I have to do taxes (I have to submit them early this time because we have to deal with both US and German taxes via our tax accountant).  And then I have to finish my Regency novella.

Work, work, work.  It never ends.

Zola's Cafe in Auburn--Yes!

So I went shopping yesterday for jeans, and started to miss the shopping experience I had while in Europe.  This is how you do it there:  you go out in the morning (usually with a friend), take a while shopping (usually in an outdoor market, but there is often regular stores nearby, within walking distance), then you have a very leisurely lunch in a funky little restaurant or cafe with a great atmosphere and good food and chat and/or do some people watching.  This whole process can take about four hours, and yes, I know, we Americans have a hard time even thinking of taking that long to shop, but keep in mind that you don't just shop, you have a shopping experience.  There's no rush.  You linger over the items to buy, compare prices, get some bargains, and then because this is a lot of work and walking around, you take some time to relax and enjoy your environment, and I don't mean going to a shopping mall food court and stuffing down fast food and hurrying off.  No, you sit and relax, because shopping for bargains and the best deal you can get is real work, and you deserve some pleasure out of it all.

I couldn't do much at the moment about the missing friends, but I could do something about the cafe.

There was a cafe I remembered, from before we went to Germany, in downtown Auburn.  I hoped it was still there, because it had a good feel, with comfortable chairs and such.  Luckily, I found it again, and indeed it had that Sittard Market feel.  It's Zola's Cafe, and to my delight, they had expanded their menu, and had added some VERY nice beer (English ales, as well as a genuine German Hefe Weissbier!) as well as some good looking wine.  I didn't have any of the wine or beer, since I was driving, but they did have mineral water (I remembered in time to call it sparkling water).  They also had espresso.  All the drinks that you would find in an European cafe.

Their menu, so far, is light, with a Mediterranean slant.  I've been on a non-high fructose corn syrup kick since I came back from Germany (food tastes very sweet to me now), so I was glad to find they make their own foccacia bread, so there is definitely no corn syrup in that, plus their sourdough has no corn syrup in it either.  I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the foccacia bread, and there was a nice bit of decorative salad with pickle on the side, enough for a contrast to the sandwich. Not too much, not too little. Just right.

I also found to my delight that they have live music every Friday evenings from 7 pm to 9 pm.  The music ranges from blues, jazz, "indie," and country-western.  No cover charge, but you can tip the musicians, which I think is important (they are providing a service, after all), as well as buy their CDs.  Zola's events calendar has links to the musicians' web sites/music, so you can hear what they sound like.

The staff is friendly and the service good, and they do take the time to chat a bit as you are ordering your food if it's not horrendously busy.  I hope to persuade John to go there one evening and have a light dinner there, relax, and sip some wine or beer as we listen to some good music.  I'll let you know what it's like after we do.

Knitting from my iPad

My wonderful hubby gave me an iPad for Christmas, which I got after Christmas, because we we re in the midst of moving during the holiday season, alas. At any rate, I have been exploring the various functions of this marvelous device, and of course had to look at iBook app.

I stumbled upon a marvelous use this app: storing and reading knitting patterns that have been put into PDF format!

I happened to be looking for a knitting pattern online, and because it was in PDF format, I naturally decided to download it, as I normally would on a regular computer, not thinking whether or not it would work on the iPad. It did.

After the PDF came up on the screen, a dark grey bar briefly flashed just under the URL and Google search boxes at the top of the browser. What was that? I cautiously tapped that area just under the search bar.

The grey bar appeared again, this time with the words, "open in iBooks" just under the Google search box. Huh. Okay sure, why not? I clicked the button. All of a sudden, iBooks popped up, stuck the knitting pattern I had downloaded onto the bookshelf, and opened it up! From there, I could bookmark it if I wanted, and I also found I could create a "collection," name it "knitting patterns," select my downloaded knitting patterns and move them into that collection.

How cool is that? I can now download any knitting pattern and have easy access to it on my iPad from my IBooks app! What's great is that I don't have to squint at a small print out, I can increase the font size easily. Less clutter! Fewer pieces of paper used!

I am a happy camper. I'll have to find out if I can somehow make each pattern searchable under subcategories (socks, sweaters, etc.). For one, it'll be a great resource for decluttering and organizing my knitting patterns downloaded in PDF form.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Christmas Markets - Valkenburg

Starting in mid-November and going through January 6th, the cities and villages in the Netherlands and Germany are laden with bright Christmas decorations, and a visitor or expatriate living in these countries (I’m one of the latter) finds the traditional Christmas markets irresistible.  I decided to go to as many as I could.

I was determined to go to the first one available, especially when my mom  came to visit me in mid-November.  One of the earliest of these markets, and fairly close to the village of Süsterseel, Germany, where I currently live, is the Fluweelengrot Christmas Market in the limestone Velvet Caves, underneath the ruins of Valkenburg Castle in the Limburg region of the Netherlands.