Month: January 2009

Back From Vacation!

And what a weather shock. We had beautiful weather in Maui, except for one day that it rained hard, and another where the wind howled all day. But heck, it was warm, we had rum drinks, and I wasn’t at work, so it wasn’t all bad. It’s been in the low 30’s most of this week since we’ve been home, with rain and grey skies, and yesterday morning we woke up again to snow. Sheesh.

We did lots of cool stuff in Hawaii, as well as lots of relaxing by the ocean. We did a luau, saw whales, and drove up to the top of Haleakala Crater. It was socked in with fog on the drive up, but cleared off as we neared the summit, and was in full sun by the time we got to the top. On the way up, we saw a few miserable looking bicyclists coming down the mountain in full rain gear, looking wet and cold. It seems there are quite a few lunatic people who get up in the middle of the night so they can go to the top and stand there in the fog and rain at sunrise.

Here are just a few photos. Here’s the link to the whole slide show if you must see more.

John on the beach:

On the whale watch cruise, a big whale breached twice in the span of a few minutes right in front of our boat. We didn’t catch the whale in the photo, but caught the splash-down.

Big banyan tree in Lahaina:

Socks on the beach:

Socks on the mountain top:

Knitting by the beach. Here are two photos that show that this yarn is the same color as the ocean tidepools.

And one last sunset at the resort:

Alas, all vacations must end. Here’s the plane ride home:

What? Don’t try telling me that you’d send Sweetpea through checked baggage. She always goes Princess Class.

A World Undone

by G. J. Meyer


I actually started this one in 2008, but what the heck. It’s my blog. It’s also close to 800 pages, so I’m counting it.

This is the story of the 1st World War, and Meyer manages to cover a complex period of world history in a style that is easy to read and understand. In each section, he provides background stories of the major players in the war, enabling the reader to follow the complicated politics of Europe that led to the bloodbath called the Great War. Once you finish reading this account of the “war to end all wars”, you will more easily realize how the world was set up for a second great disaster in World War II.

Meyer includes a helpful chronology in the beginning of the book, as well as a list of the major characters. There are a handful of photographs, and only a few maps. Probably my only criticism of the book is that more maps would have been helpful.

The last sentence in the book follows a background section entitled “The Fate Of Men & Nations”, in which Meyer describes what happened to the major characters in the Great War over the next decade and a half. After discussing Winston Churchill’s eventual warnings about the rearmament of Nazi Germany, he ends the story by saying, “But that is another story.” I can only hope that he plans to write that story as well.

777 pages.

Dead Until Dark

by Charlaine Harris


This is the official first book of 2009. Dead Until Dark is the first in a series by Charlaine Harris. If any of you watched True Blood on HBO this past fall, you’ll recognize this story. It’s the story of a cocktail waitress named Sookie Stackhouse in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and of her adventures with vampires and murderers. It’s a great story, there are some hilariously funny moments, and Sookie is an entertaining heroine. There are 8 books so far in the series, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them.

292 pages.

Resolutions

OK, I really didn’t mean to go two weeks without blogging again. That was one of my New Year’s resolutions. This doesn’t bode well, does it? Here are a few of the rest of them. These are not in any particular order.

Blog more. There, I said it. Maybe I’ll do better at it now that I’ve put it in writing.

Knit more. Knit faster. Use up more stash. I’d be embarrassed to die now; the people going through my stash would think that I was a lunatic.

Complain about work less. I have a relatively secure job, one that pays well. It funds far more than the yarn budget, not a small thing in this economy. Quit your whining.

Read more books. I signed up for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge on Ravelry. I have no hope of actually completing this one, since I tend to pick huge books that take me weeks to read. The two books I’m in the process of reading now? One has close to 800 pages, the other has 900. I’ve decided to just keep track of the number of pages I’ve read through the year.

I even made a new blog page to keep track of the books. The link is over there in the sidebar. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Oh, and the 900 page book?

That’s where we are this week. We’re on Maui, and having a fabulous time. My laptop computer has a little weather icon that shows the temperature back home. It’s 38 degrees this morning at home. It’s much, much nicer here! Here are a few photos to prove that we’re having fun, another of my NY resolutions.

We picked this spot on a drive around northwest Maui to return for a picnic later in the week.

Rum drinks:

Knitting by the pool. I’ll show a photo of that Peacock Shawl yarn next time I get the camera out. It looks exactly like the colors of a tidepool. Oh, the drink in this one was vodka, not rum. Nothing like a little vodka tonic to get you going in the morning.

Sunset on the beach. Is anybody but me humming the song “Red Sails In The Sunset”?

More rum drinks, this time at a luau.

Yet more rum.

Yes, those photos prove that plenty of rum drinks have been consumed. There is nothing better than going someplace on vacation where they put little umbrellas in your drinks!