Still shocked at how quickly this year has flown by, but now I’m looking ahead to an exciting 2014, when not one, but TWO of my self-published knitting books will be released. A shiver goes up my spine just reading those words!

Had a wonderful visit with my daughter when she spent a week here over Christmas…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was appropriately wintry and festive with holiday lights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lots of excellent food, much of which we cooked ourselves, but which also included a return visit to Eataly (so much for my vow not to set foot in that temple of all foods Italian again until after New Year’s).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a trip to Black Dog Gelato.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mostly, we goofed around and enjoyed each other’s company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a lot to be said for having adult children. And although I’m most definitely biased, I think mine has turned out to be a pretty spectacular human being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When my father was alive, every year as his birthday approached my sisters and I would ask him what gift he would like.

His response never varied from year to year; “Peace and Quiet,” he would say wistfully, surely aware that his three rambunctious daughters would be unlikely (and constitutionally unable) to follow through with such a present.

Following a long weekend that included no fewer than three – yes, three! – birthday celebrations, with multiple house guests and other family members staying at nearby hotels in order to be close to the festivities, I have a new appreciation for my father’s annual request.

Enjoyable as it was to have a full house, loved ones to talk to, lots of cooking as well as eating out, and to make a suitably sweet and sugary fuss over all the birthdays:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

now that everyone has flown back to his or her own home, I am relishing the peace and quiet that has been restored to my space.

And after no knitting whatsoever for three full days, I am anxious to get back to it. I’m completing a cozy winter hat for a friend:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and am just starting a new cardigan for myself after spending most of this year designing and knitting the sweaters for my new book.

After a freakishly warm Sunday that included sheets of torrential rain and tornados (!) touching down all over the Midwest – just to add to the drama – we are now heading into what feels suspiciously like “real” winter. By the end of this week, the temperature won’t get much higher than 30 degrees during the day.

Sunset arrives earlier every day, and that lovely orange glow from the setting sun is deceptive because it has no true warmth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yes, that white dot is the moon, and this photo was taken from our balcony around 4 pm) 

Chicago is donning its holiday regalia; this is from one of my favorite neighborhood attractions, the courtyard garden at the Driehaus financial offices. Today I couldn’t resist playing tourist to capture their latest lovely seasonal planting:

 

One minute you’re waiting impatiently at Baggage Claim at the airport for your daughter to step off the plane and begin her summer vacation. While you wait, you fantasize about all the fun things you’ll do together: a couple of day hikes, floating leisurely around in the criminally underused backyard swimming pool, a little shopping, cooking her favorite meals together.

Next thing you know, she’s back at college for her sophomore year. Unbelievable though it seems to me, Rachel is already back at school. She arrived about ten days before the start of classes because she is an orientation advisor for incoming freshman.

Within hours of her arrival on campus, we were Skyping. She wanted to show us her new room in a 2-bedroom on-campus apartment, which she will share with 3 other young women; the bedrooms are doubles. The kid knows how to decorate, that’s for sure, and at lightning speed. Posters up on the walls, desk set up, bed made. Don’t know how long it will stay that way, but at least she’s getting off to a great start.

 It’s much nicer than her dorm room last year (which was smaller than her bedroom at home, and had to accommodate two people instead of one), and this year’s roommate is an improvement over last year’s as well from what I can tell.

She looks pretty happy, wouldn’t you say? (I’ll have to do a “Before and After” shot once classes have actually started, and this one is definitely the Before!)

Summer has gone by incredibly fast for us. I feel like I missed out on most of it because even when my daughter was home, I was often back east helping out with my parents during their recent health crises. So although it’s only mid-August, I have the nagging feeling that summer is already over. Adding to that sensation is our recent weather; northern California has had an unseasonably mild summer… and my usually prolific vegetable garden is showing a definite failure to thrive as a result!

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of days when the temperatures went above 90 degrees so far. And where I live, just east of San Francisco, our summers are usually termed “semi-arid,” that is to say very dry and hot, hot, hot. At least we still have September and October to come, and those are months when we often have warmer days. So there’s hope.

Our family vacation was all too short, but we’re lucky that we even had the time and the resources to take one.

 The fact that we went in the off-season to a part of the world that is reportedly lovely during the winter, but during the summer months not so much, coupled with the fact that I succumbed to a long-ish bout of what I will politely term “intestinal distress,” does not take away from the fact that we were able to relax together as a family for the first time in many months.

And now it’s over… yet September always seems like the beginning of the year to me rather than a month that is technically closing in on the end – 4th quarter and all. All those years we spend in school do something to our hard wiring, I’m convinced. When I see “September” on the calendar, I start making fresh plans and starting exciting new projects… I invariably go out and buy myself a little notebook with a pretty cover, and a shiny new Pilot rolling ball fine point pen (dark blue or black ink, please), just because. Just because it’s September, and I can’t resist. Who’s to say what will fill that little notebook, or what brilliant words I might write with that new pen with its crisply flowing ink? Life is just redolent of Possibilities in September.

In Office Max the other day, I dallied for way too long by the school supplies – all those fabulous notebooks, folders, and pens! – even though I had gone there in search of more mundane office supplies. School supplies have gotten so much more interesting and attractive since I was in school!

Hoards of kids and their parents were squabbling over which looseleaf binder to buy (our schools open next week, for those of you back east where Labor Day weekend marks the official end of summer break), which mechanical pencil and calculator, and seeing them made me deeply nostalgic and envious – I loved shopping for school supplies with Rachel, and now those days are over.

Parents’ Weekend at her college is a month and a half away, but I’m already looking forward to it!

I can say that because a) I just had another birthday and it made me wonder if it would be kosher to start subtracting rather than adding a year from this point forward, and b) tonight I’m on my way back to New York to spend another week helping out with my parents. New round-the-clock aides are in place and (we all pray) will work out, meaning they will be able to tolerate my dad’s, ahem, quirky personality. Friends tell me that they see an entirely new – and not usually good – side of their own parents when their infirmities necessitate the help of paid companions. And my dad was not terribly patient to begin with. So, we’ll see.

I’ve already been ordered to make a stop at the pharmacy to pick up a new prescription on my way to their house from the airport. And believe me, it was not a request. Aye-aye, Dad, SIR. Make that aye-aye-ai-ai-ai!

Here’s a bit of what I’m leaving behind for the week:

I’m taking my knitting, and this time am determined to make more progress!