My Cat

I had to put my cat, Lewis, to sleep today and it was an awful experience. It was just so fast - I had been holding him and he was purring. Then the vet put him on the table and pushed in an injection of an anesthetic. Lewis tried to pull his foot away, and then toppled slowly over. He was gone. And not to sleep. Putting an animal to sleep is a dishonest euphemism.

I came home last Wednesday from Costa Rica to find that Lewis had not eaten while I was away, and wouldn't eat anything I tried to entice him with. I took him to the vet's yesterday and he had blood taken. This morning the vet told me that the blood work was perfectly normal. I took Lewis back over for x-rays, which showed large lesions in his lungs. There was also a lot of fluid in his lungs. He had lost four pounds in about a month, so whatever was going on had caused him to stop eating. The vet explained that there was no humane treatment for the lesions, and we decided to do the kind thing and put him to sleep.

Lewis showed up in our back yard in 1997 and was insistent that he live with us. Our dog had just died and we were pet-less. He was a very civilized cat and so I think he must have been lost or dropped off. We put up signs and called local vets, but no one claimed him.

I loved that cat (past all reason, according to my family) but that's the way it was; he was my cat; I was his person; and I miss him.

And There Were Monkeys!

Lots and lots of monkeys, who were not happy to see us.

And this business.

We didn't go in to check it out.

And there will be much, much more, after I get my brain sorted out, and after I finish washing the coffee out of my clothing. Yes, like all tourists to Costa Rica who love coffee, I brought back several packages in my checked luggage. I don't know HOW one of the packages ripped open, but it did and the loose coffee went everywhere!

More later. Threat or promise...you decide.

There Will Be Monkeys

That is what I am promised. I am off tomorrow for a week in Costa Rica.

For the past three years, friends and I have gone to Mexico, but this year we decided to go to CR instead. Mexico is unfortunately less and less safe for tourists, unless they stay put at a resort, and we rent houses in towns instead. So we've rented a place on the Pacific in Tamarindo, CR, and the owner of the house promises that we will see monkeys. There were some in the part of Mexico we visited last year, but we never saw them.

I just think animals belong in the wild and so I will consider the trip a great success if we see monkeys in their natural habitat. I don't want to meet them or feed them, just see them!

Second Bacall Sweater

I have finished the second Bacall sweater from Rowan Knitting & Crochet Magazine Number 44.

I made it for older daughter and it will go in the mail today. I sewed the band on as I knitted it (knit it?) and it did work out a bit better than sewing the whole thing on after finishing the band. This way it was exactly the size I needed.

But I know why I knit so many scarves and hats----no seams! I need lots of practice on finishing.

Knitting Lesson No. 213

Rule 213: Just go buy the yarn.

I did think I could make another ten rows or so with the little yarn I had left, but I studied it and looked at the gap and decided that it was unlikely. Really, really unlikely. And I realized that if I did make it, using up all the yarn I had left, I then wouldn't have the yarn I needed to sew the rest of the band and collar and the sleeves to the sweater.

So I gave up and went to the yarn shop for more yarn.

Rats!

Knitting Lesson No. 212

Do NOT return yarn to the yarn shop just because:

a. the pattern calls for four skeins
b. you mistakenly bought five skeins
c. you are starting the fourth skein and only need to knit the band
d. you happen to be at the yarn shop for knit night and have the sweater and yarn with you and you think-Oh, I may as well return this while I'm here because I won't need it.

Why not return the extra skein?

Because returning it will pretty much guarantee that this will happen:


Yes, I need just enough more yarn to knit, oh, maybe ten or so rows to close the gap in the collar portion of the band.

Thirty stitches times ten or so rows.

And all I have left is this:

Hmmmm.............

Maybe if I kind of s.t.r.e.t.c.h. the collar a bit when I sew it on.....

Yes.

I'm sure that will work. Sort of like blocking in advance.....

I'll let you know.

It might become Knitting Lesson No. 213.

mycomputerisback

mycomputerisbackmycomputerisbackmycomputerisback!!!!!

OK. I'll stop now.

But MY COMPUTER IS BACK!!!!!

It's been gone for months! weeks! eight days!

But now it's back and all the nasty viruses are gone (until I download the next one....) and it has more gigs (huh?) and has been thoroughly defragged (I didn't even know that existed, and what is a frag anyway) and updated. Yay!

I can't count the number of times I've thought: Oh, I need to write a blog about that, or that is funny/interesting/scary and not been able to post. Think of all you've missed! And you really have, because now, being 50-plus (in the sense that anything over 50 is 50-plus be quiet family) I've forgotten what I wanted to write.

But this didn't happen....

Help, Indeed...

Once again, my computer is off to the computer hospital. We (that's the royal we; I am referring to dh) tried to replace Windows Vista Home Premium (the Worst Operating System in the World) with Windows 7. We couldn't get the updates to Vista to install, and without them, Windows 7 wouldn't install. So to get rid of the Worst Operating System in the World, you need to have the Worst Operating System in the World in operating condition.

Makes no sense, does it?

So, no blogging until my computer is repaired, if that's even possible....

[photo from Google Images]

Well,

I am just altogther too smug about this hat:

Yes, I did knit it and I think it's beautiful. It's shown being blocked over a dinner plate but is almost dry. The color is a bit deeper than it appears in the photograph.

I think the real genius, however, is the designer, Desi Knitter, and those of you on Ravelry can get to the free pattern (Cabled Rangoli Hat) by clicking on the "Desi Knitter" link. The pattern is stitch perfect and I am amazed by that. I think that pattern-writing is difficult and this pattern is particulary fussy, with the cables moving around on the hat. I followed the advice of another Ravelry knitter and made the bobbles larger; they were small and not very noticeable in the original pattern. The only caution: the pattern calls for dk weight yarn, but the hat the designer and others on the site made were all knit from worsted weight, as is mine. I think it must just be a typo.

The yarn is Malabrigo, kettle-dyed worsted, 100% merino wool, and it is wonderfully soft. The designer suggested using a tightly-spun yarn so that the cables will show up well, but this Malabrigo is in spots almost just roving and it worked out fine anyway.

The hat is for younger daughter, and I think she will love it too.

It Snowed!!!

Well, not really.

Our neighbors took advantage of several days of well-below-freezing temperatures to make snow. All it takes, apparently, along with the cold weather is a compressor, a snow-making machine and a pressure washer. I don't know what order those things are set up in, but it works.

Our neighbors' kids have been having a blast sliding down the hill lying on whatever they can find that is slippery. This snow is between our house and theirs, so we've been able to watch and listen to the fun. It is a bit odd, though, when we walk down the stairs to the family room, and the snow catches our eye through the window at the bottom of the stairs. Snow? It snowed? Oh, yeah.

Now don't laugh, you northerners. To us in the Atlanta area, this IS snow!

Back From Austin

We are back from Austin, where we had a great Christmas with both daughters, son-in-law and four wonderful grandchildren. They might not be so wonderful for their parents for a few days - I did my best to spoil them. They didn't hear the word "No" from me!

I did not get my coveted turquoise Thunderbird (sniff, sniff) but younger daughter did give me this sparkly case for my I-phone. She knows well that I love all things sparkly, and potentially a bit gaudy, so this is a perfect gift. She also helped me find some glitter eye shadow, which I first saw on a waitress in Sayulita three years ago and have wanted ever since.

I thought that with this sparkly case, I would now be the envy of 12-year old girls everywhere, but then my 7-year old granddaughter stopped dead in her tracks and gazed longingly at it. She loves sparkles too. So perhaps I am the envy of 7-year olds everywhere.

What doesn't a TSA agent like to see? Long pointy things in the x-rays of luggage. I had wrapped these cool mushrooms (gift from older daughter and family, handmade by an artist in Austin) in bubble wrap to keep the stems from snapping off in transit, but they showed up in the x-ray machine. The TSA agent went through my luggage, finally saying in bewilderment, "She (the x-ray agent) says that there is something long and pointy in here."

At which point, my brain clicked on and I said, "Oh! Those are my mushrooms!"

Huh?

So we had to take them out and x-ray them separately.

I apologized for the mushrooms; he apologized for the delay, and all was well in the Austin Airport once again.

This is a gift from DH, but found by younger daughter at a crafts fair in Los Angeles. A mother/daughter team uses old knitted sweaters, felts them, and uses the felt to make pillows and designs. I love this pillow and have a favorite bird, the third from the top, right in the center of the pillow. He looks particularly cheerful to me.

While I was in Austin and not feeding sugary treats to grandchildren, I worked on the Yarn Harlot's one-row pattern scarf and finished it up last night. It's made from Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, colorway - Franklin's Panopticon. I made it on size 8 needles, and it's a bit lacy, but I'm leaving it as is. Otherwise I would have to take it all out, use smaller needles, increase the number of stitches, and use much more yarn. I'm too lazy for all of that.

So today is New Year's Eve Day. DH came home from Austin sick with some sort of head/chest thing and sounds as if he is at death's door. I have a pot roast in the crock pot and some splits of champagne in the refrigerator. AND, just too exciting for words - the plumber just left after installing a new water heater. The old one had a leak, which fortunately didn't blow all out while we were gone.

Woo hoo.

I hope your New Year's Eve is more exciting than mine and wish you a

Happy New Year!

Just a Jumble of Thoughts

Because that's all I'm capable of today.

I started off the day by opening my computer to check e-mailed photos a friend had sent me of the snow around her home in West Virginia. I saw the photos, and then Windows Vista Home Premium (the world's WORST operating system) took over, telling me that it was installing a major update, the first one there has been since I bought the computer.

(Yay, thought I. Maybe now the computer will actually WORK! And be FAST! And not FREEZE!)

So it installed, and installed, and installed. It installed for about two hours and then shut itself down.

Great, thought I. Now I get my computer back. I can download the knitting pattern I need; I can download the shortbread recipe I need; I can check blogs; I can look at Ravelry; I can...................................................................................................................................................................


do none of those things because this is what the screen said:

So even the updates for the world's WORST operating system don't work.

Of course they don't.

So then Windows Vista Home Premium (the world's WORST operating system) spent another hour or so "reverting" back to the original crummy and s.l.o.w. system it has always been.

Yippee.


Now on to something completely different:

I have been trying out yarns for the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf. I can't find the link to that specific post, but the pattern was free on her blog, so I will print it here:

Cast 26 stitches onto size 8 needles.
Row 1: *knit 2, knit into the back of the next stitch, purl 1.
Repeat from * till there are 2 stitches left. Knit 2.

Just keep doing that row until the scarf is as long as you want it, or until you start hating the project, then cast off.

This is what it looks like in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, colorway - Franklin's Panopticon:

I like it! And it's certainly easy enough for me to do on a jumbled-up day.

My first try was with some Noro Blossom yarn I bought a couple of years ago at an LYS sale:

The colors and textures of the yarn are so varied that the stitch pattern didn't show up at all. I have yet to figure out what to do with this yarn, so it's going back to time-out for now.

And now for something completely different, again:

I usually scan through the Sunday New York Times engagement/wedding announcements because they are, well, unusual. People submit their own stories and information, and then hope, pray, dance, do spells and whatever else they can think of to get their announcement published in the Times.

This leads to some weird/interesting announcements. When we first met in 1998, we didn't like each other at all, says the groom, but later, after meeting again at......., we fell in love.

That sort of thing, but with lots more detail.

The announcement that caught my eye today was for the wedding of .................., the groom, age 61, and .............., the bride, age 56. After all the usual stuff - parents (deceased), schools (long ago so who really cares), jobs (nice) - the last paragraph simply stated:

The bride's first marriage ended in divorce, as did the groom's first two marriages.

And that's all she wrote.

I just think that's an odd thing to put in a wedding announcement.

And that's all I wrote.

I Agree!

with this.

Is six more weeks too much to ask for, really?

Darn It!

But I don't know how!

Lately

I'm a knitting machine! (But it does help to only work on smallish projects...) This is my latest finished project, a Basic Tam for younger daughter:

It's being blocked over a kitchen plate - a clever idea I learned from Jane at last week's knit-night.

This is the second hat I've made from the pattern in this book:

The first one was made from a Noro yarn, and I think I like this one better. The solid color shows off the stitch patterns and the decrease swirl. I used ella rae Kamelsoft yarn (75% Merino wool and 25% Camel) and it's very nice to work with.

The pattern includes optional flowers, but I'll wait till Yd tries it on at Christmas to see if she thinks it needs the flowers. Knit-night knitters suggested a large button, or clusters of smaller buttons, or a pin of some sort, so we'll see.

Bobbles!

I have just finished the Bobbles blanket from the pipsqueak knits book and I'm quite happy with it, and happy that I have no more bobbles to knit until I take up making the hat after Christmas. The baby is not due until February, so I have time. Mine is a very pale yellow; I do like the blue on the cover better, but like so many parents today, this couple has chosen not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time. These young people apparently do not know that they frustrate grandparents everywhere, grandparents who would love to knit, sew, or shop well in advance of baby's arrival!

This is the book the pattern is in. Isn't the blanket and hat set cute?

And what a cute and cooperative model!

Stupid Should Hurt

says my friend, Kathy, and usually I agree with her, but not today and not me.

Dh has been nagging reminding me that I've been driving around since September with an expired driver's license. Just a few months, but who's counting?

So off I went to the Georgia Drivers Services Department, about twenty miles away, to get my new license. Dh had also told me that there was someone new in charge of Drivers' Services, and that he had made changes so that no one would wait more than ten minutes in line. HAH!!! I arrived, found a LINE that ran outside the office onto the sidewalk in the cold. As we stood in line, we all entertained ourselves by complaining about the line.

Now here's where stupid comes in. Had I ever actually looked at my license to verify that it was, in fact, expired? Nope. Dh is generally so OCD concerned about these things that I took him at his word.

When I fished my license out of the mess that is my purse, I looked at the date. It expires, as you can see, in September of 2010.

As I muttered about how my license hadn't actually expired and then walked away, I heard laughing from my fellow drivers. It was justified; I had earned it. And I realized that not-so-deep down, they were jealous. I got to leave. They had to stay.

But no pain, please; I've suffered enough.

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is a turquoise Thunderbird:



I know. H*ll would have to freeze over. But our two cars are twelve years old and I'm sure that one will be coughing up blood any day now, so why not replace it before it croaks?

And Santa, a used Thunderbird would be just fine.

Thanks,

Knittergran

P.S. I SEE me in this car....

Pret a Porter

I've finally finished the Bacall sweater I started October 2nd for younger daughter. It's en route to LA and she will have it tomorrow. I just hope it fits!

If I make this or any other sweater with a sewn-on band and collar again, I think I will try knitting it on as I go rather than what I did this time - making it and then sewing it on the sweater. Just out of curiosity...to see how that works.

The pattern calls for a brooch to hold the fronts together, but I've left finding the right one to younger daughter. She'll have fun picking one out and her taste and mine might not be the same.

Now I've started another Koigu Puckered scarf, but with a different yarn. I love the colors -pictures soon!

Whoa!

I bought cat food, thinking it was cereal. I mean, doesn't this box look as if it contains cereal?

But doesn't this look like cat food kibble??? And it's hard as rocks.

I don't KNOW what cat food tastes like, but I think it might taste like this stuff.

Yuck.

From the Ridiculous

GROSS!!!

To the sublime??? (kind of creepy, really)


What teenager wouldn't want this on display in their car?

To the .....REALLY??? People buy these???

Hey! I wonder if this thing works?


Now this I could use....
Ah, the Christmas season. You never know what the mailman might leave.

Catalogs, anyone?

[all photos from the unsolicited Harriet Carter catalog]

Happy Wednesday

[From the New Yorker Cartoon a Day Calendar]

Well, Good Morning to Me

This is the headline I saw when I opened my IGoogle page this morning:

(CNN) -- Galileo's missing fingers found in jar.

Well, that's a relief. I had been wondering about those fingers. And...euwwww...

And in other news - bumper stickers I saw during my drive over the weekend:

Save the Ta-Tas (I don't want to know.)

I Heart Jet Noise (Gosh, who doesn't?)

Bob Dylan for President (Does Bob know about this?)

I am always on the lookout for unusual bumper stickers, those other than My Child is the Most Brilliant Child in the World (Sorry, that would be my grandchildren) and
My Such-and-Such Breed Dog is Smarter than your Honor Student (Could be, I don't know either of them, but again, my grandchildren are the smartest), and those are the only three I saw in my ten-hour drive.

And that's the news!

You Can Thank Me Later

Because I'm selfish, I want to get rid of the image of what I originally thought to be a hairball that I found this morning. I gagged, picked it up with many pieces of Kleenex, all the while wondering why there was an eyeball looking back at me....... and then I noticed the tail.

Ickkkk...........It was a slaughtered mouse.

I screamed like a little girl, called for DH to take away the remains, and am now sharing this with you in the hopes that doing so will make the picture in my mind GO AWAY!

Now I'm off to NC for pleasanter things.

Have a nice weekend! :-)

Another Odd Business

Younger daughter, who lives in LA and who has introduced me to odd little-known businesses, told me about a van she saw driving through the city. On the side is a sign saying Post-Rapture Pet Care.

No joke. I looked on Google and discovered that there are post-rapture pet care businesses all over. I even found one in the UK.

I am not a rapture scholar, and so I don't know much about it, but what I can figure out from reading some of the advertising is that when the rapture happens, all the good people, the true believers, will go off someplace (the sky?) and the pets they own will be left behind.

To the rescue come the atheists. A number of the ads promise that the staff are all atheists, and since they will be left behind too, they will take care of the pets of those who have been whisked away.

Sort of brings to mind what has been mistakenly attributed to P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute, ..."

I do wonder if they actually have clients.

[photo: Google Images]

My Sparkly Christmas Socks

Whew...just in time for .......Thanksgiving? I just finished these from yarn older daughter gave me a couple of months ago. You can't tell from the small picture, but these socks have silver in them and they sparkle!

It's Dream in Color Starry with Silver sockweight yarn, Lipstick Lava color. It's a nice yarn to knit with, and there is quite a bit left since the skein had 450 yards on it.

The rest will go into older daughter's circular blanket, I think.

I'd Rather Be Knitting

than sewing what I've knit together.

As would most knitters, I think. I have taken a finishing class, taught by Jan, our guru at the LYS, and I don't know that she would approve of these seams, but I tried my hardest...I really did!

Now I am hoping that the saints of the miracle of blocking will make everything just fine.

[S-the sweater really is brown, not gray, as it looks to be in these pictures!]

The Koigu Puckered Scarf

is finished and I love it. I'm starting a second soon, once I

a. finish younger daughter's sweater, which just needs to be sewn together
b. finish the second sock of the pair I started a month or so ago.
c. start the scarf/shawl I'm making out of the natural wools I bought two years in a row at SAFF.

So off to work!

Welcome Home, Knittergran

Welcome home, indeed. I finally arrived from Austin after 11:00 last night, thanks to weather delays caused by Ida, and this is what I found. Odd looking laundry room, you say? Well, that's because it's my FAMILY room, now storing my washer, dryer and other odds and ends from my former laundry room. Dh put a tile floor in the laundry room over the weekend while I was in Austin. But the grout is not there yet, and Dh isn't either. He's away on business. So this is what I live with in the meantime.

And how did Dh move the washer and dryer by himself? Did he buy a dolly from Lowe's, which is less than two miles away? Silly, silly question. Why do that when he has a perfectly good skateboard saved from his childhood?

But on to happier subjects. This is the world's sweetest one-year old granddaughter! And boy, oh, boy, did I spoil her!!! I gave her her first piece of candy corn, her first sip (many sips, actually) of a strawberry fruit smoothie, her first maple syrup, and so many other firsts (most involving sugar - I know how to win grandchildren over) that I can't remember them all. But she loved them all, and now, she loves her Gran.

This is grandson. I tried, really, really tried, to get a good picture of him, but he was having none of that. He's three, and a funny, funny boy. He also seems to have unlimited energy.

The two older girls, ages 9 and 6, weren't interested in having their pictures taken, so they miss out on being on my blog. Poor girls.....

Another treat while in Austin: We went to hey cupcake and bought the most delicious cupcakes ever (according to my older granddaughters). It was raining when we were there, and the place stayed really busy. With good reason! The cupcakes are wonderful, and of course, buying them is so much easier than baking them myself.

hey cupcake is across the street from my favorite Austin knitting shop, Hill Country Weavers, and we went there the same day. Even my granddaughters couldn't help themselves and bought yarn. Both girls knit now, and the older one (9) figured out by herself how to decrease stitches to make a triangle-shaped cape for one of her critters. She's addicted now. heh, heh, heh.

And as I posted before I left for Austin, I washed my hand-knit socks on the delicate/hand wash cycle of my magic washing machine with the invisible agitator and it worked GREAT!!! No damage, no shrinkage, no felting, and no colors running. (And the turquoise/brown pair usually runs like an escaped convict.) No more hand-washing of socks for me.

It was, however, hot in Austin, so it sure wasn't sock weather.

And now I'm off to call my most-favorite neighbor of all times to see if I can use her washer and dryer.

Dance With Me

I am experimenting and washing my hand-knit socks in my magic washing machine with the invisible agitator. I've set the machine for delicates so I'll see what happens. Normally I would wash them by hand, but I'm getting ready to go to Austin tomorrow to spoil play with help with my grandchildren, and I'm rushing to get things done.

Lily, six years old, is currently running a 101 degree fever and doesn't feel well, so my fingers and toes are crossed that it's a twenty-four hour bug and not H1N1. I'm not brave enough to brave that.

I'm doing a little "Get Better Lily" dance and a "Don't Ruin My Hand-Knit Socks" dance. Anyone care to join me???

[photo from Google Images]

Book Quiz

From my younger daughter who got it from older daughter:

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?
Almost always hardcover. I just love books!

Barnes & Noble or Borders? It used to be Barnes and Noble, but a smallish Borders opened about 1 ½ miles from my house, and they keep e-mailing me 40% off coupons, so I go there to use them.

Book mark or dog-ear? Book marks! Remember? I love books - wouldn’t think of dog-earing them.

Amazon or brick-and-mortar? Well…..both? I love looking through books, looking at what the staff recommends, but lately I’ve been reading the book review section of the Sunday New York Times and ordering books via Amazon from that. So - why not both???

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random? Not alphabetized at all and not random (oh, the horror!). I group by author, and then by category – history, Irish literature, French-related literature, British, current, etc. I always know where every book I own is in my bookshelves.

Throw away, or sell? Keep, unless I hated it. I lend books, and ones I don’t want I take to a used book store for credit, but I never get books from there. Go figure…

Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep it. Always. But I might let younger daughter have the jacket from my War and Peace, since she lost hers and loves the book. I can’t get past the first 70 pages.

Short story or novel? Both. I really love short stories. They are such perfect little worlds if written well.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? HARRY POTTER! I read the first Lemony Snicket and flat out didn’t like it at all.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? At chapter breaks.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Buy or borrow? Both, but usually buy, because I might well read any book more than once.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse? All three.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy can be sort of too tidy sometimes. So cliffhangers are good too; the reader gets to think about what might happen.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading? All. But I might have to think about more books on tape, since reading and knitting compete. It would be really difficult to switch to books on tape. I like re-reading really good sentences and passages, making notes in the margins, and underlining things that jump out at me.

Stand-alone or series? Stand alone, except for Harry Potter and John Updike, although I don’t know if his Rabbit books can really be called a series. Maybe….

Favorite series? I really haven’t read that many. When I was young, I loved The Little House on the Prairie series. One of my elementary teachers read aloud from them daily and that got me hooked.

Favorite children’s book? I don’t think I have one.

Favorite YA book? Probably Gone With The Wind.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Well, maybe A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. It’s a weird book and it fascinated me.

Favorite books read last year? Wow. I can’t choose.

Favorite books of all time? Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. There are passages in this book that are so beautiful that they are poetry. I’ve read it several times. Another favorite is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I’ve read that several times too. And of course, there is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s in the top three on most Best Books lists, and everyone in my family but me hates it. I used to read it once a year. Now just every few years.

What are you reading right now? The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. It’s really a history book, not a gossipy Entertainment Tonight sort of story. It’s really a very interesting social and legal history of slavery before and during the life of Thomas Jefferson.

What are you reading next? Probably Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old? A Brief History of the Dead? No, just joking. I don’t really know. The Harry Potter series? But I think all 11-year olds may have read it already.

Favorite book to re-read? See the answer to Favorite Books of all times. But I do re-read many others. My favorites are listed above though.

Do you ever smell books? Huh? Although I suppose a store of used books smells different from a Barnes and Noble, I’ve never really thought about smelling books…weird question.

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries? Well, if they are part of a book, although I once read a book of letters written by Mary Todd Lincoln, and then found out years later that they had been written by someone else, supposing what MTL might have written. I felt cheated, although it was sort of my fault for not paying enough attention to the sourcing.

And that’s all folks!

Yep.

My third post about Leonard Cohen. And until a few months ago, I hadn’t even heard of him, but the audience at the sold-out performance the week before last at the Fox Theatre sure had. Mr. Cohen walked on to the stage and everyone stood up, applauding and whistling and shouting. What a welcome…

He was great. His back up singers and his musicians were all great too, and we know this because Mr. Cohen is a generous performer. Each of his singers and musicians was given his own chance to shine. Mr. Cohen’s show itself was three and one half hours long, with one hour of that comprising three or four encores; I lost count.

His show was wonderful; I’d go see him again in a heartbeat, but he said that he didn’t know if they would be this way again. He is kind of older-ish, and looks even older than his age. But he promised they would give their all, and they did.

Three and a half hours of MUSIC!

(photo from Fox Theatre website)