Some Scintillating Knitting Photos

Here is the first scarf I made (the one I referred to in my first posting) when it was still on the needles and about 75% completed.
The same scarf, now finished. Woo hoo!
A little pink hat - the only thing I have made so far that isn't a scarf. I made this in a two-part class at ImagiKnit called, appropriately enough, "Hats".
Everything I have knit so far - minus one blue scarf sent to my mother in New York and one orange scarf made for my friend Sarah.



From left: The scarf that started it all (big, chunky wool); lt.blue scarf made for "Knitting 101" class (silk & linen, tiny stitches, took a loooong time); purple & green wool scarf (long and skinny, first time using rib stitch); multicolor pastel scarf (done as experiment using acrylic yarn and giant needles - finished the whole thing in less than 2 hours!); pink wool hat made in "Hats" class; black,purple & blue short scarf (made from "fun fur" - yarn label said it was for a beginner but it was actually kind of a pain to knit. Oh well - it looks cute on!)

Morpheus Learns To Knit

Here is a photo of Morpheus next to a pile of "in progress" knitting projects. The blue yarn on the metal needles turned into a scarf for my mom, the light blue yarn turned into the first project for my "Knitting 101" class and the red yarn was for practicing on.

Susan Speaks! (or, if you want to get technical,writes)

Hello!

This is my first foray into blog posting, something Mike has been after me for a while to do. I still have to learn how to add pictures, which will undoubtably make my postings more interesting. I plan to take a picture of my first knitting project and put it up. That's right, I am taking a knitting class. There is a cute little yarn store right at the end of our block, and every time I go past it I think "Wouldn't it be fun to learn how to knit?" Well, it took me three years to get around to it, but I've been to two of the four classes and have mastered the two basic stitches. This has allowed me to start on what has historically been every beginning knitter"s first project since the dawn of time - a scarf. When that sucker is done I will be so proud of myself I'm going to wear it every day, even if it is made out of thick ropy wool and the temperature hasn't dipped below 60 degrees in weeks.

Well, that's it for this evening. I'm going to try to post this now and see if it works. ( Extreme skepticism surrounding technology + knitting = I am turning into an 85 year old woman!) Now if you'll excuse me I have to remove my hearing aids, take out my teeth and set my hair in rollers before I go to bed - I want to be well-rested for my bridge game tomorrow. Good night!

Susan

Willy Wonka Factory? Not quite.

We set off with our new French friends to visit the Scharfenberger chocolate plant in Berkeley!


Before we were allowed to enter the chocolate factory we had to don hairnets and endure a lecture on the history of the cocoa bean. Highlight of the talk was a guy who took issues with Scharfenberger not being "Fair Trade". Hey, it's Berkeley afterall. Click the image to watch the video.

A chocolate machine of some sort.

Cat Blogging

Friend or foe?

Hank learning to blog. Who will publish a post to this blog first? Susan or Hank? Odds anyone?

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Here's a great video with real scientists and real science countering the almost religious-like dogma of the man-made global warming (MMGW) crowd. Most important points to take away from this video:

1. Throughout earth's history, ice core analysis shows that CO2 levels actually have FOLLOWED temperature trends. In other words, CO2 is an EFFECT of temperature change. This evidence is directly contrary to the implicit MMGW assumption that C02 is te CAUSE of temperature change.
2. Solar patterns are a much better indicator and predictor of global temperatures. Also, as the earth is currently warming, so are the other planets in the solar system.
3. MMGW logic dictates that the earth's troposphere should be warming faster than the surface temperature of the globe...it isn't.
4. The earth has been much warmer than it is now...and has had had bigger "mood swings" than now. The Arctic and Antarctic have been much bigger than they are now. They've also been smaller before, no thanks to human CO2
5. During the post-WW2 boom in industry and CO2 production, global temperatures actually fell (from 1940-1970)
6. CO2 is a MINOR greenhouse gas that comprises a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gas total pie. Human contribution to the total CO2 mix is even smaller. Water vapor is by far the biggest greenhouse agent.

Woman of Courage: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

We had a chance to listen to Ayaan last week as she talked about her new book, Infidel. If you don't know who Ayaan is, you simply must learn more about her. I don't use the word "hero" lightly, but she qualifies. And Ayaan had about 6 bodyguards with her to prove it. The Western World needs more women like Ayaan. Ironically, Ayaan was born and raised in Africa. What makes her of particular interest is not only her remarkable courage in the face of Islamic death threats but also the fact that she is of a gender and skin color which prevents the modern-day Left from dismissing her with the usual "racist" and "Islamopobe" smears.

That's a copy of Atlas Shrugged under her arm there - a fellow guest gave her a copy to read.

Animal Matrix: The Intro

Here's the intro to a movie that was alas, never completed. Promising beginning, especially with those animal mixed martial arts! Click the image to start the video. Turn your audio on!

Sicily! More to come soon...

Andy & Mike's Annual Traditional Behind Homeplate Beer...ummm...Baseball Night

What fun is a Giants game without the required Mai Tais and Red Bull?

Behind homeplate booing Jeff Kent of the dreaded Dodgers

Two celebrity sightings this year...Jack Bauer and Oakland Raiders Warren Sapp.

Kiefer Sutherland sitting on his butt was the highlight of the game for this girl. After a few Mai Tais it got really easy for us to give her a hard time. Click the image above to see the video.

Weekend Getaway to Clear Lake

Last weekend, we took off for Ukiah, near Clear Lake, CA. It led to a fun 4x4 adventure 30 miles north of Clear Lake, into some desolate country.

 

Some guest cottages. Can you spot Susan in the picture?

The abandoned Bartlett mineral spring structure. Rich people in the 19th century used to come here. 2 hotels, a post office and several cottages sprung up here in the late 1800's. A great fire in 1934 made sure that nobody would return.

 

Here we have an abandoned water bottling plant. Inside was a place frozen in time. Equipment was dated from 1909 and bottles were still in the machines! Yes, we took some souvenirs. No, we won't be selling them on eBay!

Mike's car 3 days after he bought it new. It will never be clean again.

 

Susan made some friends on our way out of Clear Lake.

 

Las Vegas Baby!

It's Susan's Birthday. Who's counting the years? That birthday cake was made by the Four Seasons Hotel - marzipan encrusted, dark chocolate engraved flowers, bavarian cream and fresh berries - yum! Turns out the hotel also sent up a complimentary chocolate mousse cake earlier in the day.

Our in-room breakfast. If we stayed here another day we'd gain 10 pounds!

The Birthday Cake.