Dona Nobis Pacem

Kat has already told us about Project Peace in her Friday links, but because I think it's so worthwhile to share this, I'm going to do my part to spread the news. 

Christina Campbell has been kind enough to design and generously share (it's free!) a cowl pattern named Project Peace. She says it has a soothing stitch pattern with a a 4-row repeat. If we knit one repeat per day, at the end of 21 days or so we'll have a peaceful cowl. Christina will also be sharing tips on her blog on how to bring more peace into our lives. 

As soon as I saw this pattern on ravelry, I felt like it was just what I needed, coming into my life at just the right time. I created my project page, dug through my stash, and am now waiting peacefully to begin on Nov. 28th. If this sounds like something you might benefit from, please join in! I'm betting that many knitters have 435 - 550 yards of fingering weight yarn in their stashes, and if not, then hey, yarn shopping can also bring peace. 

No pressure, no deadlines, just the chance to join in this endeavor to bring our global knitting community together with a focus on peace. I think it may be just what the world needs now.

Grant us peace and go in peace.

Robert Seeley's Dona Nobis Pacem sung by the Portland Gay Men's Chorus

Sunday Selection

Sundays during November will be for my Sunday Selection - a recipe that sounds good, a book that I love, a quote, poem, or photo that speaks to me ... whatever strikes my fancy!

Today it's The Nix.

I read this book back in September and predicted that it would most likely be the best book I read this year. I feel even more sure about this in mid-November, so I want to spread the word in case it sounds like it might be a book for you. I know several of you have already read this, and I'm friends with quite a few of you on goodreads, so my apologies if you've heard this all before. 

My goodreads review:

In an interview about The Nix, Nathan Hill said, "I stuffed it full of every idea I had. It became a repository of things in the world I was mad about, concerned and confused about." Luckily for me as a reader, he was mad, concerned, and confused about college professors and students they have to deal with, plagiarism, MMORPGs, politics, media, mother-son relationships, past deeds that haunt us, and choose-your-own adventure books. At 620 pages it's a big repository, and even though there were times I wished it had been edited down, there were more times that I wished the stories would go on and on. I started listening to The Nix as an audiobook, but know that the hardcover version weighs in at 620 pages because I bought it when I came to the embedded choose-your-own-adventure book. While You Can Get The Girl! is not strictly based upon the readers' choices, I loved this, as I have often longed for this format written for adults. 

Reviewers that were not as enthralled with this book as I was seemed to think that Nathan Hill was trying to say something about America and how it has evolved/devolved since the sixties, and that may well have been his intention. Rather than look for a message, I simply enjoyed the multiple story lines, full of humor, sadness, satire, details, and thoughts that point out how funny, terrible, and ludicrous life can be (with all them often occurring simultaneously), like this one from Walter Cronkite's mind:

It's a chilling thought, that politicians have learned to manipulate the television medium better than the television professionals themselves. When old Cronkite first realized this was happening he imagined the kinds of people who would become politicians in the future. And he shuddered with fear.

It's only September, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that The Nix is most likely the best book I'll read this year. Nathan Hill is a damn fine storyteller. 

I have a hardcover copy of the book that I'd like to pass along if you are interested in reading it. Please leave a comment below and I will randomly choose a winner next Wednesday and send it off to the lucky person as soon as I can get to the post office.

Happy Reading!

Saturday Sky

It was a mesmerizing show!

Annual Enrollment

We received this notice from John's company, but their list of what we needed to do involved watching some meaningless and condescending animated videos and calling the Employee Service Center if I had questions. Since the ESC has been outsourced like many other functions, they have been fairly diligent about providing as few answers as possible while also striving to provide the lowest level of service. So I made my own more realistic list of what we needed to do while choosing benefits.

1. Pour a big glass of wine, and keep the bottle close by.
2. Attempt to log on to the benefits site with the username and password that you carefully recorded after last year's confusion.
3. Discover that the ESC has reset everyone's passwords this year, but their instructions on how to log in don't work because they have confused social security numbers with employee id numbers. 
4. Log on to the benefits site once you have cleared the first hurdle. Decide to treat this like a video game in which you are on a quest.
5. Finish the first glass of wine now that you can actually see how much the premiums have increased for medical insurance. 
6. Pour yourself a second glass of wine.
7. Search for a way to simply choose a medical plan and adjust our Health Savings Account contribution without listening to and watching the inane accompanying animated videos featuring Alex. This guy is the Clippy of Annual Enrollment.
8. Resolve to sit through Alex's videos and personal questions, while wondering why some good coding couldn't automatically retrieve that information from HR. Take a sip of wine every time he chirps "Got it!" and "Understood" and two sips for "Your call!" when Alex is clearly not happy with your answer.
9. Rejoice in the ability to finally choose a medical plan, adjust the Health Savings Account contribution, and anxiously press "Confirm". Finish wine.
10. Be very grateful that even though this process was a bit aggravating and expensive, we have health insurance and the ability to pay for it. These are big things and not to be taken for granted.

Thanks, Alex!

ToT and TWT, Too!

Since Ten on the Tenth and Think ... Write ... Thursday! have collided this month, our ToT topic for November is 10 Things You Enjoy About the Current Season, which also ties in with TWT. It's fall here and it's my absolute favorite so this is an easy one.

1.  The rich, beautiful, and awe-inspiring colors.
2.  The light. Spring and summer are verdant green, and winter is gray, but there is nothing like the golden glowing light of autumn.

3.  The delightfully cool weather with just enough warmth during the day and the crisp crunchiness of frost at night.
4.  It's the perfect season for wool - both knitting and wearing our handknits.

5.  Dark evenings make it easy to knit and/or read without guilt.
6.  Candles that provide just the right bit of light in the darkness.

7.  The coziness of soups, stews, and bread baking, which help warm the kitchen and the soul.
8.  Warming cups of hot tea make many things right with the world.

9.    Honeycrisp apples. I just tried my first ones and they are heavenly with honey chèvre.
10.  It's apple cider season. Cold, warm, mulled - the tart-sweet deliciousness can't be beat.

To me, there's just no denying fall's brilliant views and the contented, cozy feelings that autumn can bring. What are your favorite things about fall?

Read other ToT/TWT posts here; sign up to receive the Ten on the Tenth emails here, 

and Carole and Kat's Think ... Write ... Thursday! emails here. 

Wordless Wednesday*

* This was originally just a Wordless Wednesday post about my washing machine, but today, after election results, I really have no words, except that I am immensely sad that I live in a country that has supported racism, sexism, xenophobia, misogyny, and all the worst in human nature.

I Voted ...

and now I'm going to spend the rest of the day fervently hoping that voters seriously consider the candidates' experience,
qualifications, sanity, civility, reason, and facts so we elect a person Hillary who is actually capable of carrying out this important job.