Boy, I have a lot of photos that George & I have taken since we got digital cameras.  I created a lot of new folders so I can more easily find what I'm looking for.  Here's a photo from June 2005.  It's of my niece Catherine (left) and her friend Mel (right) in the Temple Bar area of Dublin.  This was a trip I'd promised Catherine if she did well in high school.  Not only did she do well, she was a National Merit Scholar.  George said it was a good thing the trip wasn't pro-rated.  We would have been in Europe all summer!  As it was, we spent a week in Ireland and a week in London.

I knitted this premmie jacket for the daughter of a boss I had a few years back.  Unfortunately, the daughter died at 10 days old so I never gave the jacket to her dad.  I'm keeping it until someone else I know has a premmie.

This isn't a very good picture, but it's the best one I have right now.  I'll try to get a better shot before I put this up on my Finished Projects website.

I've just spent the last 2 evenings finally arranging all the digital photos I have on my desktop from 2001 - 2006.  I created new folders by date(s) and events.  Now I can more easily search through the photos to find what I want.  Since this is now done (tho' I still need to copy some 2006 photos over from George's computer), I'll be putting more pictures up on the blog.  Here's an example from 2002 Jul 6:

Doesn't it look delicious if messy?

I started a six-month contract at Geospiza, Inc. on November 26th.  My job is to write up test cases for the core program, Finch.  I'm working for Jim Hancock again who hired me at CVS.com and then at Washington Mutual.  It's nice to work for someone who knows my work and likes it.

Geospiza is a small company, about 24 employees, and everyone's been great to work with.  They're planning to hire a couple of more programmers in January and Jim is looking for a performance tester to fill out his team.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to set myself a schedule for blogging so I'm going to blog at least once a week.  That's my New Year's Resolution for 2007.

I haven't blogged about my knitting, or my new passion needlepoint, because I've been unable to find my photos.  I'm going to check out the photos that are on my laptop and George's.  Hopefully I'll find them.  At which point there will be some knitting updates.

Wish me luck in keeping my two resolutions for 2007: Knitting from My Stash and Blogging Weekly.

Wendy of WendyKnits.net posted the following on 14 December 2006:

Knit From Your Stash 2007!

A few days ago, L-B mentioned to me that she was thinking about attempting to knit from her stash exclusively in 2007. I, of course, laughed at her initially, but started thinking that attempting to knit from my stash exclusively was not a bad idea. Both L-B and I have stashes of epic proportions. L-B had suggested a period of 9 months of knitting from the stash, so that we could go to Stitches East next October and buy yarn there.

So, in a phone call this morning, we sketched out some guidelines.

Knit From Your Stash 2007

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

So. I have put it in writing. I've got yarn for a number of very alluring projects in stash, and I am hoping to actually get to most of those projects next year. We'll see how I do.

And anyone else who would like to join us in this is welcome to do so!

I have something of a stash but what I really need to work on is knitting up items for which I have bought the pattern, yarn, and needles already.  My rules will be as follows:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through August 31, 2007 -- a period of eight months so I can buy yarn in Italy in September.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.b. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.c. I get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

2.d. I can buy specific yarn required for any knitting classes I take at my LYS.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

These rules should work for me as I have so many projects to knit up.  And I have lots of partially finished projects to finish.

Please wish me luck!

Here's a gorgeous photo George took of a tree at the beach near our time-share back in March 2005.  Click on the picture to see a larger size.  The photo has almost a 3-D quality.

I'm still working on George's socks.  At least I'm on the second one now.  I spent weeks not working on them and then found that the needles had come out while everything was sitting in a bag I kept shoving things into.  I finally got all the stitches back the way they were suppose to be (I was in the middle of the gusset decreases) and am now knitting the foot.   I said for the past 3 weekends that I would finish this sock over the weekend.  This time I think I'll finally be done over the Labor Day Weekend.

I'm still knitting the sock continental (pick) style and my stitches are getting much better.  Practice, practice, practice.  I mentioned below that I was knitting a scarf continental style.  Well, I've decided I hate the stitch pattern I was using and I'm going to rip it out.  It's been great practice, but I wouldn't want to wear it.

I got a big shelving unit for my basement studio.  I'll try to get some pictures of my basement studio/office up in a day or two.  I think I might get another of the same kind of shelving unit as the present one looks good, but I have lots more stuff.  We have a very large house for just the two of us, but it's always messy.  I think this is mostly because we don't have the right furniture for the storage/display of what we have.  I wish we could afford a professional organizer AND the furniture/storage they would suggest for us, but since that would be prohibitively expensive, we'll have to muddle through on our own.

My contract job is probably ending Sept 14th.  RealNetworks isn't extending my contract as they're changing their QA focus yet again.  I'm ready to move on to another company with a different dynamic.  I can say that I've really enjoyed the people I've been working with, but it's not the company/position for me.

I should get home now before George starts worrying.  Bye for now.

I just read the Yarn Harlot's July 1st post "Canada, eh?" and am busy reading the various comments by mostly Canadian and American knitters.  When Steph posted about Canada Day last year, an American wrote that Steph was a "terrible American, Canadian-wannabe" seemingly unaware that Steph is Canadian.  A lot of the comments from actual US Americans (as many people pointed out, everyone in North, Central and South America is an "American") have been along the lines that they really are "terrible American, Canadian-wannabe"s.

This got me thinking about being American/Irish.  Like many of those commentors, I'm ashamed to be a USAian(?).  I don't like (ok, I'm sick to my stomach) that our present administration approves torture, spies on its own citizens, and always plays the terrorism card to try and distract we the people from all their scandals.  Often, when I'm really upset with our government, I image escaping to Ireland.  The thing is tho' that I don't really want to leave Seattle, and the life and friends George & I have made here.  I like the thought of being able to leave if I must without being a refugee, but I really don't want to leave because of my government.

When George & I got engaged, we talked about me getting Irish citizenship after we were married the required number of years (in our case 3 years with no residency required) so that we could take 6-month contract jobs in the EU while leasing out our house in Seattle.  We're both in computers (George is a programmer) and jobs were plentiful at the time we were talking.  With an Irish passport I wouldn't have to worry about getting a work permit and we'd have time to explore an area while earning money.  Our plans always included returning to Seattle to our friends and sharing our adventures with them.

I don't really feel like an Irish citizen as I've never been in Ireland for longer than 3 weeks.  I know that if we did move to Dublin (that's where George's family and most of the jobs are), I'd suffer culture shock because I AM an American/USAian/USian in my thoughts and perceptions.  I grew up in Metro Los Angeles, California and live in Seattle, Washington.  I'm a left coast liberal and I think I do well at trying to see things from other people's points of view, but I have been formed as an American.  I expect certain things and am startled when they're not there or are different in some way.  Discovering these kinds of things while travelling is exciting and expands my horizons.  But as I found while living in Taiwan for 6 months in 1981, even the most open of minds can only take so much before culture shock hits.  And then hits again after one thinks one has adjusted.  Does it ever really go away if one is an expat?

My perfect solution would be for the Pacific Northwest to secede from the union and become Cascadia or whatever name you wish, with a liberal government that cares about its people.  That way I wouldn't have to leave my home and my friends if my present national government continues to slide into despotism.  What a pipe dream! <g>

This is long enough now.  I'll visit this topic again another day.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I've started another pair of socks for George.  I got the first one done and had to rip out the toe after George tried it on (it was too tight).  All the stitches are back on the needles, but the hot weather here in Seattle results in a suana in our living room (where I do most of my knitting) so I haven't felt like working with wool.

I also haven't made much progress on the seaman's style scarf that I am knitting continental method.  Again the heat issue, and the fact that I knit slower in the continental method so I get a little bored with it.

It's time for me to purchase some shelving for my studio-to-be in the basement so I can get all the boxes of knitting and sewing stuff off the floor, and have a comfortable and cool place to knit.  Also I need the space to sew up some curtains for our 1st floor guest room.

We made our 2nd annual move to the "summer palace" on Monday night as our master bedroom on the 2nd floor is stifling in hot weather.  The 1st floor is better, but if the summer heats up much more we'll be moving to the southern hemisphere (my basement office/studio-to-be); yet another reason to clean up all the boxes spread out across the basement floor.