Summer Vacation

I have had some time away from the office. It is great to have some extra time to relax, knit, read and work on the chore list, too.
Current reading: Stieg Larsson trilogy, book one, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", book two "The Girl who Played with Fire" and book three "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." I am over half way in the second book. It is hard to put it down.

Sunny Sunday

It rained hard during the night, but we woke up to sunshine.

I finished a book, last night. It is called "Hannah's Dream" by Diane Hammond. Hannah is an elephant, who lives in a small zoo in western Washington. She doesn't have an elephant company, only her dedicated keeper, Sam. Sam's dream for Hannah is to live with other elephants. The story line is rich, the character development is excellent. I won't tell you the ending, but I did think Nicole would have enjoyed the book with her special love for animals.

I will be staying close to home, today. Household chores, paperwork, knitting, relaxing with a spring training baseball game on TV.

Reading Time

Cuddled with Dad and reading a book.

Sweet

Sunday Evening

It seems this has been a tough, long week. Some of salutes to Nicole, include Julie wrote Nicole a letter in a birthday card with a stuffed heart, that said "I miss you". Jeff and Sharon released 11 balloons with forget-me-not seeds inside. Gary, Meggen and I went to the beach on Samish Island, released 3 red roses and heart shape candies. Meggen did want to retrieve the roses.
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On the knitting front, I did finish Jeff's red socks. I have a photo, should I post it? The socks have not been sent to Jeff, yet. I teach sock knitting classes, I had a classes on both Saturday and Sunday. Knitters have nice energy, even when they are focused on a new technique.

I am almost half way into the new Grisham book "The Associate". Interesting

Reading Time

Nicole and JoLynn some serious reading time
Now, some fun reading time
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Nicole was always a great reader and loved her books.
She liked to take books to bed with her as a toddler.

Rambling opinion

I have read 2 novels about loss and grief. One is "The Shack" by Wm Paul Young, the other is "In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing" by Christopher Noel. I am sharing my thoughts on these books. "The Shack" is about a loss of a child, the other book is about a loss of an adult partner. "The Shack" had about 50 pages of background of loss, all the scattered thoughts, feelings in the grieving process, then the rest of the book pulled together his healing process.
"In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing" rambled on and on with his story of loss, scattered thoughts, then pulled together his healing journey for the last 30 pages. He, then revisited some of the details of her accident and interviewed a nurse that was with her at the hospital. Many times, I thought why I am reading this, I should just give up reading this jumbled up book. I did finish this book. I would not recommend it to anyone going through the grief process, as they are already in the scattered thought process. I would find it hard for anyone, who is grieving to not recognize their disorganized thoughts. This is just my opinion.

Feb. 1 ramblings

First, new yarn. Today is the annual superball (Superbowl) yarn sale at my fav yarn shop. All the yarns are for socks, which is mostly what I knit. Nicole had been in my fav yarn shop, WildFibers, when she selected yarn for her penguin and bear in 2007 and 2008. She loved color and liked to pick colors for projects that I knit for her. I showed her completed penguin and bear, then the type of yarn to pick color. I am progressing on Jeff's red socks (his color choice).

Also, it is the day before Groundhog's Day and hope for an early spring. It has been a harsh winter all over, an early spring would be grand.

Reading: started 2 books, this week. "The Associate" by John Grisham, "In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing," a geography of grief by Christopher Noel I did finish "Knit Two" by Kate Jacobs.

I knit for a charity organization, too. The wool sweaters, vests and socks go to Russian orphanages. It is a yahoo group, the current challenge is for small kid socks.

Current Reading

I am reading "Knit Two" a novel by Kate Jacobs. It is the sequel to "A Friday Night Knitting Club". The story follows the lives of women with the knitting club connection.

Book Review

I just finished reading "The Last Lecture". What a powerful, little book (200 pages).

Reading Followup

I just finished "The Shack" by Wm Paul Young. I had mentioned, previously. It is one of those books, that you tend to hear a little about, here and there. Then, when the time is right, you read it. I will not retell the story. Just don't resist reading the book, if it seems to call out to you. Yes, I did have some leaky eyes (tears), this morning, as I finished reading it.