This past week, the flu bug has hit the adults in our household and my mom. 1 out of 3 have received the flu shot so apparently this flu bug was not included in the shot.
I'm still hoping the kids manage to avoid this because it is pretty nasty...
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Friday, January 15, 2016
Osaka
Surprised to see some posts from me again? I'm really trying to get on a schedule/plan that will not have such big lulls.
Anyway, on to catching up on Japan...I had to look up what I last posted and it was the Neko Cafe in Kyoto. Oh my...that trip was in April. This was our 2nd trip to Japan and we learned so much from our previous trip that we could take advantage of this most recent trip plus having the benefit of our kids being much older. The kids are 10 years older since the last trip and can handle the rigors/experience of long distance walking, sightseeing and food choices.
We got JR passes that helped immensely in getting around to see the neighboring areas for day trips. This is one trip where it was our first visit so that naturally involves lots of walking, stairs, doubling back and getting lost. I cant remember the mileage but we walked between 7-12 miles a day. Side note: I learned from my NYC trip the importance of well-fitting walking shoes with plenty of room in the toe area. I walked the same mileage in NYC with poor shoes (I had regular athletic shoes that I thought were fine) and ended up with blisters and damaged toe nails. I ended up losing about 8 toenails after that NYC trip. Lesson learned. I invested in a good pair of walking shoes from the The Walking Company and have been fine ever since.
Sorry, I keep getting sidetracked. Osaka is a short shinkansen ride from Kyoto and we learned that there is a Oksaka-san and Osaka, which is not the same place. The shinkansen ride to Osaka-san is only 10-15 minutes and then we had to transfer to a JR train for another 20-30 minutes into Osaka.
We kept it quiet from the kids because in Tokyo we spent a good portion of our day finding the Pokemon store and we knew there was one in Osaka. Turns out the train station is right next to the mall and the Pokemon store is right there! That way we could buy Pokemon stuff before we left and didn't have to lug it around all day.
It was rainy and dreary that day but a very good point about Japan is that there are plenty of umbrellas to be had inexpensive and abundant. I like the clear ones so you can lower it and still see to navigate through the sea of people.
The umbrellas are inexpensive like I said before but they will fall apart after a while especially if you have a rambunctious 12 yr old and it's very windy.
Our apartment had plenty of umbrellas to use but unfortunately we had to buy another umbrella with strict instructions not to break this one. :-)
One of the things we like to do when travelling is find the tallest building or tower and that's exactly what we did. Too bad for the rain because this place is lots of glass and cool escalators.
Not so pretty outside but you can see the glass walkway that connects the 2 buildings.
My guys taking a break. Yeah, also there are not a lot of benches/chairs to sit on so prepare to stand...
Okay, looks like the rain has stopped. On to more exploring and finding Osaka Tower which mean more walking. You'd think finding a tower is pretty simple and it usually begins that way until you lose sight of it or come out of train station with no reference point at all. More doubling back, asking for directions and walking.
Oh good, there's the tower.
So much to see while walking, and Tyler desperately needed a haircut but didn't want to take that chance of communicating in limited Japanese.
We must have eaten lunch already because I would have been all over this place.
This is sort of Osaka's personality that is different than Tokyo...larger than life signage which is actually helpful in figuring out what they're selling and for landmarks. So very easy to get lost...
Getting closer...
We made it!!!
Going up and down to the other level requires stairs...at least this one was festive with colorful neon lights.
Ready to journey back...
Japan is very orderly. Every car is labelled and people dutifully line up for their car. People sit in their assigned seats and clean up their trash to take off the train.
Hector and I really enjoyed Osaka and eventually I will post of our date night in Osaka.
Anyway, on to catching up on Japan...I had to look up what I last posted and it was the Neko Cafe in Kyoto. Oh my...that trip was in April. This was our 2nd trip to Japan and we learned so much from our previous trip that we could take advantage of this most recent trip plus having the benefit of our kids being much older. The kids are 10 years older since the last trip and can handle the rigors/experience of long distance walking, sightseeing and food choices.
We got JR passes that helped immensely in getting around to see the neighboring areas for day trips. This is one trip where it was our first visit so that naturally involves lots of walking, stairs, doubling back and getting lost. I cant remember the mileage but we walked between 7-12 miles a day. Side note: I learned from my NYC trip the importance of well-fitting walking shoes with plenty of room in the toe area. I walked the same mileage in NYC with poor shoes (I had regular athletic shoes that I thought were fine) and ended up with blisters and damaged toe nails. I ended up losing about 8 toenails after that NYC trip. Lesson learned. I invested in a good pair of walking shoes from the The Walking Company and have been fine ever since.
Sorry, I keep getting sidetracked. Osaka is a short shinkansen ride from Kyoto and we learned that there is a Oksaka-san and Osaka, which is not the same place. The shinkansen ride to Osaka-san is only 10-15 minutes and then we had to transfer to a JR train for another 20-30 minutes into Osaka.
We kept it quiet from the kids because in Tokyo we spent a good portion of our day finding the Pokemon store and we knew there was one in Osaka. Turns out the train station is right next to the mall and the Pokemon store is right there! That way we could buy Pokemon stuff before we left and didn't have to lug it around all day.
It was rainy and dreary that day but a very good point about Japan is that there are plenty of umbrellas to be had inexpensive and abundant. I like the clear ones so you can lower it and still see to navigate through the sea of people.
The umbrellas are inexpensive like I said before but they will fall apart after a while especially if you have a rambunctious 12 yr old and it's very windy.
Our apartment had plenty of umbrellas to use but unfortunately we had to buy another umbrella with strict instructions not to break this one. :-)
One of the things we like to do when travelling is find the tallest building or tower and that's exactly what we did. Too bad for the rain because this place is lots of glass and cool escalators.
Not so pretty outside but you can see the glass walkway that connects the 2 buildings.
My guys taking a break. Yeah, also there are not a lot of benches/chairs to sit on so prepare to stand...
Okay, looks like the rain has stopped. On to more exploring and finding Osaka Tower which mean more walking. You'd think finding a tower is pretty simple and it usually begins that way until you lose sight of it or come out of train station with no reference point at all. More doubling back, asking for directions and walking.
Oh good, there's the tower.
So much to see while walking, and Tyler desperately needed a haircut but didn't want to take that chance of communicating in limited Japanese.
We must have eaten lunch already because I would have been all over this place.
This is sort of Osaka's personality that is different than Tokyo...larger than life signage which is actually helpful in figuring out what they're selling and for landmarks. So very easy to get lost...
Getting closer...
We made it!!!
Going up and down to the other level requires stairs...at least this one was festive with colorful neon lights.
Ready to journey back...
Japan is very orderly. Every car is labelled and people dutifully line up for their car. People sit in their assigned seats and clean up their trash to take off the train.
Hector and I really enjoyed Osaka and eventually I will post of our date night in Osaka.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Garter Squish blanket
Warning! This will be a long term project. I began this project December 5, 2015 and this is a super, mindless knit intended to use up my leftover sock yarn bits that I've had forever (it seems) and the sock yarn that has just lingered far too long in my yarn cupboard. I have some KP Palette fingering yarn that I chose way back when I picked the needles again and had no clue how to select the proper yarn.
The original pattern calls for 2 strands of worsted weight to get a nice bulky weight yarn but I didn't really see a need for such a heavy blanket. The nice thing about blankets is that it is usually easily adjusted. Thus, I will be using 2 strands of fingering weight (which = worsted weight).
This is my starting point. I keep adding to the mix with entire skeins to blend with the little bobbles of leftovers.
I'm intending to knit a lap/sofa type blanket approx. 3 x 5 feet. We shall see...
Here is the very beginning, as you can see I chose 2 different yarns with similar complimentary palettes. One is self striping and the other has long color shifts so it will have a pretty effect.
Then I begin adding another color when I run out. I chose some significantly brighter.
I'm sure some knitters/people in general will be horrified at the randomness of it all since I don't have a color scheme in mind. I rather like it. I was rummaging in my yarn stash and found the same self striping yarn that I used at the start so I can finish off with it for some balance.
This was taken a few days ago. It measured 2 x 3 feet. The width is perfect to cover me when I sit on the sofa but I want it much longer...
My scraps in the plastic bag is dwindling down so I'm in the process of adding more. Also this blanket has encouraged me to knit some socks to acquire more leftovers. Win-win. This may be a major factor in completing my blanket since that may take some time.
Hopefully I will have made significant progress when I report next month...
The original pattern calls for 2 strands of worsted weight to get a nice bulky weight yarn but I didn't really see a need for such a heavy blanket. The nice thing about blankets is that it is usually easily adjusted. Thus, I will be using 2 strands of fingering weight (which = worsted weight).
This is my starting point. I keep adding to the mix with entire skeins to blend with the little bobbles of leftovers.
I'm intending to knit a lap/sofa type blanket approx. 3 x 5 feet. We shall see...
Here is the very beginning, as you can see I chose 2 different yarns with similar complimentary palettes. One is self striping and the other has long color shifts so it will have a pretty effect.
Then I begin adding another color when I run out. I chose some significantly brighter.
I'm sure some knitters/people in general will be horrified at the randomness of it all since I don't have a color scheme in mind. I rather like it. I was rummaging in my yarn stash and found the same self striping yarn that I used at the start so I can finish off with it for some balance.
This was taken a few days ago. It measured 2 x 3 feet. The width is perfect to cover me when I sit on the sofa but I want it much longer...
My scraps in the plastic bag is dwindling down so I'm in the process of adding more. Also this blanket has encouraged me to knit some socks to acquire more leftovers. Win-win. This may be a major factor in completing my blanket since that may take some time.
Hopefully I will have made significant progress when I report next month...
Monday, January 11, 2016
Let's get this party started...
If I begin posting regularly, it will become a habit. I suppose I've been posting for so long and rambling along that it's difficult to know what's out there on the other side, I know less than a handful of people that are my faithful readers so I shall endeavor to keep up my efforts.
A Christmas gift I gave to my family is a membership to our local botanical garden and it will let us visit many other gardens in the US. I do enjoy seeing all the plants and flowers although I am horrible at their names so you will have to do your own research on any species. I will not be able to help you.
I also brought my big workhorse of a camera, my Canon 60D which I still love but my wrists don't love the weight. I used the 50mm lens to force myself into seeing objects in the certain way. Maybe I'll do a monthlong lens of this lens to see how photos will appear.
This is day after several days of rain and obviously the sky is not this blue but the magic of Lightroom can transform practically any photo.
Now let's see if my hubby will notice that I blogged. Shh...no telling.
A Christmas gift I gave to my family is a membership to our local botanical garden and it will let us visit many other gardens in the US. I do enjoy seeing all the plants and flowers although I am horrible at their names so you will have to do your own research on any species. I will not be able to help you.
I also brought my big workhorse of a camera, my Canon 60D which I still love but my wrists don't love the weight. I used the 50mm lens to force myself into seeing objects in the certain way. Maybe I'll do a monthlong lens of this lens to see how photos will appear.
This is day after several days of rain and obviously the sky is not this blue but the magic of Lightroom can transform practically any photo.
Now let's see if my hubby will notice that I blogged. Shh...no telling.
Friday, January 08, 2016
New Ideas for 2016
Hi all,
I'm not sure if people still read blogs anymore. I have a few I still follow but I do watch more Youtube which is something I may attempt in small portions. There is that whole new area of video which includes lighting, editing and much more. But it is a thought...
My hubby is probably my most ardent fan of my blog so I've let him down is neglecting my blog. Sorry honey! I'll do more....
We've had several days of rain this week due to El Nino which California desperately needs. Today there is a break in the rain so I will be heading out for some fresh air and exercise before the rain comes back tomorrow.
Leave a comment if you have any topics or ideas for me to do soon! Thanks!
I'm not sure if people still read blogs anymore. I have a few I still follow but I do watch more Youtube which is something I may attempt in small portions. There is that whole new area of video which includes lighting, editing and much more. But it is a thought...
My hubby is probably my most ardent fan of my blog so I've let him down is neglecting my blog. Sorry honey! I'll do more....
We've had several days of rain this week due to El Nino which California desperately needs. Today there is a break in the rain so I will be heading out for some fresh air and exercise before the rain comes back tomorrow.
Leave a comment if you have any topics or ideas for me to do soon! Thanks!
Thursday, October 01, 2015
Friday Video
Haven't posted a song lately so here goes...Friday video now on Thursday!
She has a famous father who was on SNL and Deuce Bigelow...I'm going to have to listen to some of her other music now.
She has a famous father who was on SNL and Deuce Bigelow...I'm going to have to listen to some of her other music now.
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