Nothin’ up My Sleeve…

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Thanx for your interest!  I don’t block.  I’m just bad at texture work, my purls don’t correlate well with my knits, or something.  I’m only doing a pattern from this book because it was a gift, and because I’m kind of “what the hell” about knitting, will try anything.  I did learn the long-tail cast-on which was fun (from the web – NOT from the awful illustration and directions in the book).

 

Losing Interest

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Beatrice, best goat in the world, looking stunning.

I’m still tracking Vermont COVID-19 stats, but I’m retiring the stay-at-home spreadsheet as it no longer inspires me.

17-Apr 18-Apr 19-Apr 20-Apr 21-Apr 22-Apr 23-Apr 24-Apr
Chittenden Positive test results 378 384 385 385 391 393 395 396
Vermont Positive test results* 779 803 812 816 818 823 825 827
Total tests conducted 12116 12,566 12,726 12,981 13,111 13,462 13,852 14,310
Deaths+ 35 38 38 38 40 40 43 44
People being monitored 29 29 25 28 25 23 21 19
People who have completed monitoring 804 805 808 813 817 819 821 823
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 32 32 27 24 21 18 15 12
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 24 24 26 25 20 19 29

We continue to crush it.  But the curve will not literally flatten.  Even if it’s just one or two, there always seem to be new cases.

 

 

Book Corner 2020.18

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The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

Well this was a juicy yarn! The story of what happens to a four-way collection of friendships and marriages when a new school for “gifted” children prepares to open in a small Colorado city.

Semi-spoilers ahead!

“Semi” because you can surely see it coming. But I didn’t much mind that the big reveal was my least favorite plot hinge – secret parentage!! OMG!! Who you thought was your daddy ain’t your daddy! Because it wasn’t really the point of anything. The point was how the competition and blind ambition to have each character’s children acknowledged as “gifted” tore apart friendships and marriages.

I thought Rose’s blow-up at the book’s climax was almost cartoonish, unfortunately. Her character was something of a cipher. She never really felt like a neuroscientist to me. And I thought she was unduly mean to her husband, mainly at the end; but infidelity is another plot device, like unknown parentage, that kind of leaves me uninterested. But I shouldn’t quibble about how realistic a portray of a scientist Rose was; I’m always bitching that I want more STEM characters in novels; SO tired of protagonists who, suprirse!, are novelists… actually, more often they are thinly disguised as some other kind of artist. I’m glad Holsinger went out and did a bit of research as to what a neurological doctor’s day might be like.

I was definitely nailed to this book; thumbs up. ( )

16-Apr
Did you stay home today? Curbside Hatchet
What was for dinner? Hatchet
What business or charity did you support? Hatchet
16-Apr
Positive test results 377
Positive test results* 768
Total tests conducted 11,507
Deaths+ 35
People being monitored 30
People who have completed monitoring 803
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 33
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 25

Introvert to My Bones

This quarantine thing is really working well for me.  I really have next to nothing to complain about.

11-Apr 12-Apr 13-Apr 14-Apr 15-Apr
Did you stay home today? Bernice Day Jericho Market Yes, 100% X’s snow tires Jericho Market for milk
What was for dinner? Curbside Kitchen Table Bistro Mexican casserole Split pea soup Curbside meatball hero Turkey joe!
What business or charity did you support? Curbside Kitchen Table Bistro Jericho Market Pizzeria Verita gift card Mountain High Pie Empire!

And Vermont in general, and Chittenden in particular, BTW, is totally SQUASHING it.

Chittenden Positive test results 351 364 372 372 372
Vermont Positive test results* 711 727 748 752 759
Total tests conducted 9,258 9,841 10,365 10,585 11,081
Deaths+ 25 27 28 29 30
People being monitored 40 39 38 35 32
People who have completed monitoring 785 786 793 796 800
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 32 34 33 31 33
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 45 33 33 33 30

Book Corner 2020.17

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Northanger Abbey: an Annotated Edition

Jane Austen at her best – so much better than the humorless MANSFIELD PARK, whose annotated edition I read earlier this year. Jane as narrator is just a barrel of laughs in this one. I bookmarked a few of my favorite quotes.

“Mrs. Allen immediately recognized the features of a former schoolfellow and intimate, whom she had seen only once since their respective marriages, and that many years ago. Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years.”

“It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull or the jackonet.”

“The expectations of his friend Morland, from the first over-rated, had ever since his introduction to Isabella, been gradually increasing; and by merely adding twice as much for the grandeur of the moment, by doubling what he chose to think the amount of Mr. Morland’s preferment, trebling his private fortune, bestowing a rich aunt, and sinking half the children, he was able to represent the whole family to the General in a most respectable light.”

The annotations are mostly excellent. Quibble, after a while it felt like they became downright harping on the lack of feminine power in Austen’s society, constantly conjecturing whether in this passage or that she was commenting on it, insinuating on it, etc. ( )

7-Apr 8-Apr 9-Apr 10-Apr
Did you stay home today? Curbside burgers & beer Yes, 100% Curbside Mexican Yes, 100%
What was for dinner? Curbside burgers & beer Ravioli Curbside Mexican Leftovers
What business or charity did you support? Curbside burgers & beer Single Pebble gift card & employee fund Curbside Mexican Sweet Clover (advance order)
7-Apr 8-Apr 9-Apr 10-Apr
Positive test results 308 324 336 336
Positive test results* 575 605 628 679
Total tests conducted 7,129 7,749 8,181 8,657
Deaths+ 23 23 23 24
People being monitored 46 48 47 44
People who have completed monitoring 767 773 777 781
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 29 35 33 32
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 51 40 44 43

Check that out – one curve, for one day, in one state, has been flattened!

S’E2S’E Swag!

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My reward for spinning a total of ten rare breeds!  Very generous if you ask me.

6-Apr
Did you stay home today? Yes, 100%
What was for dinner? Jambalaya
What business or charity did you support? Dobra Tea
6-Apr
Chittenden Positive test results 285
Vermont Positive test results* 543**
Total tests conducted 6,633
Deaths+ 23
People being monitored 68
People who have completed monitoring 745
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 28
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 63

Seven

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My seventh skein of the season.

2-Apr 3-Apr 4-Apr 5-Apr
Did you stay home today?
Takeout. Curbside.   With a mask. Yes, 100% Went for milk & Chinese Errand day
What was for dinner?
Hatchet Leftovers Chinese Mushroom barley soup
What business or charity did you support?
Hatchet Frontline Foods Joyce’s Noodle House – only Chinese open Sweet Clover
2-Apr 3-Apr 4-Apr 5-Apr
Chittenden Positive test results 177 199 245 271
Vermont Positive test results* 338 389 461** 512**
Total tests conducted 4,711 5,228 5,844 6,582
Deaths+ 17 17 20 22
People being monitored 127 102 89 62
People who have completed monitoring 677 705 718 745
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 29 29 29 29
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 42 44 44 44

I wonder what it means that “People being monitored” keeps dropping and dropping.  Have they quit monitoring?  Wow, this sounds like a great question for Vermont Edition.

 

Book Corner 2020.16

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Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Warning, spoilers.

Niamh is an Irish immigrant whose family all perishes in NYC, so she’s sent west on an Orphan Train. She has various miserable placements but comes out all right. The story of her youth is juxtaposed with a modern-day story where the 91-year-old Niamh, now Vivian, connects with a troubled teenager.

This is a lightweight story where the characters are either Good or Evil, and you see everything coming from a mile away. Except one thing – although you knew that Niamh would reunite eventually with Dutchy, a boy she met on the train going west, I did NOT expect her to literally go to bed with him within hours of their reunion. I mean, I thought they’d go for a drink or something.

The story of Niamh’s loss after loss culminates with the biggest loss of all: she has a baby and gives it up for adoption. This lets the book end with a mother-child-grandchild reunion where everyone is wonderful and looks like each other. Swelling violins, please.

I read this because it was a gift from my step-mother-in-law. I kept reading it because I did want to follow the Niamh story. As always tends to happen with books that interweave two very different stories, however, there’s always one I like better; and hence the other one keeps cropping up as a mere annoyance. Old Lady Vivian of course is attached to all her old keepsakes and of course she and troubled Molly eventually achieve a deep bond. I didn’t care, I wanted to see how the orphan turned out. ( )

PS  I think it’s time for some more Jane Austen.

1-Apr
Did you stay home today? Yes, 100%
What was for dinner? Chili mac
What business or charity did you support? James Beard Foundation Relief Fund
Chittenden Positive test results 164
Vermont Positive test results* 321
Total tests conducted 4,495
Deaths+ 16
People being monitored 153
People who have completed monitoring 645
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 30
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19 45