21st day of Summer Vacation: in which we travel to Italy

We are in Italy!

We flew Hartord to Philadelphia, then to Heathrow London, then to Milano Linate.

I HATE Heathrow while it's under construction. We spent almost an hour total on busses, just trying to get from one terminal to another. The whole place felt like a nightmare, involving long lines for the bathrooms, no obvious place to buy breakfast, and no public water fountains. I'm pretty sure that the tap water is potable but I wasn't going to take chances... the last straw was when they forced us to check the violin, which may have permanently damaged it. (UPDATE: hooray for carbon fiber violins! It survived.)

On a lighter note, I read two entire novels (Proxima by Stephen Baxter and White Nights by Ann Cleeves) and watched Charlie Wilson's War, which I enjoyed mightily.

We then drove to Stresa, Italy. It's a vacation town on the shores of Lago Maggiore. The drive down is terrifyingly steep, but the views are amazing.

And that's it for today! Tomorrow, I think we're going to visit one of the islands.

Ten on Tuesday: last 10 books you read

1) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. SF space opera. The narrator is sympathetic but mysterious, the scale is both vast and intimate, and the author has completely nailed the "sense of wonder" that I want from my SF novels. This is short-listed for the Tiptree, Clarke, and Nebula Awards. Highly recommended!

2) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, a reread for me. Interesting ideas, but the book hasn't aged well as several of the major concepts have more recently been criticized or debunked.

3) Revived by Cat Patrick. YA suspense/horror. A very engaging read, although further reflection made me realize the less realistic points of the plot. Recommended if you like YA suspense.

4) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a reread. Ditto what I said about Outliers.

5) Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Memoir/graphic novel. This is an amazing book, both in the artwork and in the way the story unfolds. Highly recommended!

6) Living Witness by Jane Haddam. Contemporary mystery. One of my favorites in the long-running series about detective Gregor Demarkian. Recommended.

7) How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny. Contemporary mystery. The series-ender to Penny's series about the Quebec Police Force. A terrific book but you really need to have read the rest of the series for this one to make sense. Recommended.

8) Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. YA SF. A good entry point to their long-running Liaden series. I enjoyed the book but found it a little "preachy".

9) Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy Sayer and Jill Paton Walsh. Mystery set during WWII in Britain. The authorized continuation of Sayer's series about Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey. Very enjoyable; highly recommended!

10) The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord. Utopian SF/romance. Also short-listed for the Nebula Award. Highly recommended!

Rush jobs

I was on bed rest for most of the past week; my hip had finally decided to complain loudly enough that I had to listen. After the cortisone shot, my hip joint is all better but my surrounding muscles are complaining about the sudden uptake in their use. And so it goes...

Mother's Day loomed. I had no plans, none at all. But I did have lots of time and plenty of yarn (hah! that's an understatement.)

Dashing in 2 days, for The Stepmom. In Cascade 220 Superwash on #3 needles 'cause that's all I could find at the moment I wanted to cast on.

Ishbel, with about 20 rows already knit, completed in 4 days for The Mom. On a really long circular #3 wooden needle from KnitPicks, using Fingering Silky Merino from Sundara in a colorway whose name I've forgotten. I would have called it "Dusky Rose" but I'm sure she called it something much more spontaneous.

Now that both those are safely in the mail, I turned my attention to the birthday party that was... oops, this afternoon. Yeah. Only one mitten got delivered but given that's we had 80 degree weather today, he can wait a couple more days to get its mate. I seriously considered making him glittens but I really needed the recipient in front of me for multiple fittings and that would spoil the surprise. So I've promised Elder Son that he will get some glittens this fall, and I'll work on them when he's around. Maybe after that I can generalize the pattern a bit more.

So that's my Saturday night: reading "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms", knitting a mitten, and maybe watching "My Life in Ruins" if I can figure out the DVD here.

Welcome!

Why a blog?
Well, the short answer is that I got sick of being called "sadly blogless" by everyone around me.

What will I post about?
My three current passions in life: knitting, reading, and cooking. (My other passions include math and my family, but those aren't likely to make the blog.)

Currently reading: "Blood and Iron" by Elizabeth Bear and "Rainbows End" by Vernor Vinge.
Currently knitting: a Sidewinder sock, a blanket for my older son, and a Little Leaf Lace Scarf
Most recently cooked: a lovely salad with arugula, toasted pine nuts, roasted beets, a few cherry tomatoes, and a little blue cheese crumbled on top. Dressed it with a homemade dressing of olive oil, rice wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.