100 Books

While visiting some blogs, I came across a list of 100 books that started as a BBC Meme on Library Thing.  According to the meme, the BBC "believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here."  Now, I did some research, and cannot actually find anything about this on the BBC website, but since I love books, this is one meme I can get behind.  Some of these I think I've read, but am not 100% certain, so I'm not counting them.   Here is the list, with the ones I have read in BOLD:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -- I have read some of these, but not the complete works.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

34 out of 100.  Not bad, I suppose.  I'd like to know how the books were decided upon, and why some of them are, technically, on here twice (i.e. Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis).  I'm also curious as to how a series of books came to be listed as one book, but now I'm nit-picking.

So, which books have you read?

It's About Time(pieces)

Growing up, I never had allergies of any kind. 

After 12 years of living in Arizona, and without my approval or even knowledge, that changed.

To make a long, boring story short, when recovering from an illness, a doctor gave me some antihistamines to try to see if they would help, and they did.  So, without any further testing, I was informed I have allergies, and that was that.  Of course, I had no idea what I was allergic to, but no matter.

Shortly after moving to my current home, my watch broke.  Having worn one daily for more than 20 years, I felt completely naked without one, so a replacement was a must.

I prefer my watches to be water resistant to at least 50 feet, to have a metal band that is not in any way elasticized, and I have to like the way it looks.  So, I went shopping with this criteria in mind and found one that I liked.

I put it on and wore it happily for several weeks.  Then I noticed that my skin was getting irritated and itchy where the watch was.  I thought perhaps I'd gotten some water under the band, or the heat was causing irritation, so I took it off for a bit.  When I put it back on that evening, I immediately starting having the same reaction.  Now, I'm not always the brightest candle in the chandelier, but I was able to make the connection.  I took the watch off, and looked closely at the back.  It turns out that the back of the case is stainless steel, with the rest being "base metal" that was plated with something else, and the plating was coming off.  Yep, whatever "base metal" is, I am, apparently, allergic to it.

Being a bit upset, and unwilling to take out a mortgage to pay for a high end watch, I accustomed myself to life without one.  Which was harder than you might think.  Even after three years of not wearing one, I would, out of habit, go to check my watch to find out what time it was. 

Well, on Wednesday, Scott had asked me to pick something up for him at Kohl's.  When you walk into the store, one of the first areas you come to is the jewelry counter.  Being a fan of jewelry, I decided to have a browse.  When I got to the watches, one of them really caught my eye, and it was on sale.  In fact, all of the watches were on sale.  I took a closer look.  With the assistance of the saleslady, I discovered that it not only wasn't water resistant, it was also made from the mysterious "base metal", so it was out.  I looked at all of the other watches, and the ones that caught my eye weren't water resistant, and many didn't list what material they were made from. 

I'd pretty much given up, and was headed to menswear when a watch managed to catch my eye.  The one next to it was even better -- same style but a darker face which I preferred.  Then there was another beneath it.  I called the saleslady back over and, trying not to get my hopes up too high, asked to look at the watch with the dark face, and the one with a more decorative band below it.  I looked at one, she looked at the other and they were both water resistant.  Both had metal bands.  Neither were going to cost me an arm and a leg.  But only one was all stainless steel, which I know I'm not allergic to; the other didn't list the materials.

So I got it.  The watch is made by Relic, has a 12 year warranty, and, when you combine the sale and the coupon I had, was only $35.  I couldn't be happier.

How's It Growing?*

Well, as I feared, my dogs did quite a number on my vegetable bed.  They were certain that it was their new "sand" box, and my attempts to convince them otherwise fell on deaf ears.  I did get some plants sprouting up, but much of them stood no chance.  The only survivors were the tomato plants (except the "red beefsteak"), the peas, the beans, and the cucumbers.  So I decided to replant.

This time I went with seedlings, thinking they stood the best chance of survival.  I replaced the "beefsteak" with a "big boy" plant, and got cabbage, strawberries, rhubarb, basil, spinach, romaine lettuce, and red leaf lettuce.

The dogs still went after them, so my dh went out and put up a fence.  Now the dogs are not a problem, but most of the plants are still struggling.  The white coating is due to "salts" that we have in our soil that come up when the ground is wet.  I have a feeling that that cannot be good for the plants, but don't know what to do about it, so I'm going to The Avocado this week to see if they have any ideas.

The tomatoes are surviving for now, but they were hard hit by white flys that come from all the cotton plants that the neighboring farms have growing, and the soapy water used to treat for that.  There are even a few blossoms, but they should be doing more than this by now.

The cucumber and 2 cabbage plants have given up the ghost.  I've decided I'll try some onion there now that I can keep the dogs out.

The beans are doing okay, but I'm anxious to see some further growth on them. The flys got to them a bit too, but they seem better able to stand it.

The peas are also hanging in there, but I'd like to see more growth on them as well.

The flys have really made meals out of the basil (right) and spinach, but as both are showing new growth, I'm holding out hope for them.

The strawberries seem to be somewhat neutral.  They don't really seem to have much, if any, damage, but they also don't really have much, if any, new growth.  They are still green and apparently alive, however, so I'll just be grateful for that.  One cabbage plant is also clinging to life, and showing some new growth.  Hopefully, that will continue.

Finally, we have the rhubarb and lettuces.  The rhubarb does seem to have a bit of wilt going on, but also seems to be holding on, so I'm keeping hope alive for it.  The lettuce it thriving.  I'm not sure why they haven't been damaged by the flys, who have been making themselves at home on them, but they aren't showing any damage.  There is also a lot of new growth, and I'm looking forward to being able to harvest them.

There are a couple of "volunteer" plants sprouting up too.  I'm not sure if they are truly weeds, or if some of the seeds I planted miraculously survived both the dogs and my replanting, so I've decided to let them grow for now.  If they do end up being weeds, I can always pull them later.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions to get this whole thing healthy and thriving, I'd love to hear them.

*I apologize for the horrible pun, but I just couldn't help myself.

The Autumn Garden Stole

When my dear friend Lara and her husband were in the process of adopting 3 children from Ethiopia, there were two things she asked me to make, a bag and a scarf/shawl/wrap. 

I got the bag finished and sent off quite a while ago (you can read about it here), and started work on the stole.

The colors were easy -- based on the colors of the Ethiopian flag.  The pattern came about after flipping through my stitch dictionary and putting a three of them together.  I got to work, it was going well, and then I feared I had run out of yarn. 

I wasn't able to get any more yarn of the same dye lot, and at least one of the colors is no longer available, so simply getting more wasn't an option.  I decided the only thing I could do was rip back to the last repeat and get it finished.  I then noticed I had broken the yarn at the cast on edge because I had cast on too tightly.  So I ripped that out, too, and left the edge unfinished.  With both edges unfinished, I had an opportunity to add a new border, so I combined the two center colors and knit on a garter stitch edge.

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.  And although it wasn't finished in time for their trip to Ethiopia, Lara was (and is!) very pleased with it as well. 

Sorry about the quality of the last 4 pictures.  They were taken at night, indoors, so the color is more yellow than in person, but they show the overall patterning well, which was the point.  The colors of the first two pictures are more accurate.

Details:
Pattern Name: Autumn Garden Stole
Pattern Designer: Brenda McCunn
Pattern Source: Not yet available
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow (100% Merino Wool) in the Burgundy, Persimmon Heather, and Forest Heather colorways.
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size US 4/3.5 mm

It's Official

This week, my ds Jay, took and passed his driving test.  He's now a licensed driver.  Congratulations!

On another note, if anyone should happen to see him out and about, please send me a note to let me know how he's doing.

And consider yourselves warned. ;-)

Solving the A/C Problem

The company that my DH works for expanded into another building a few months ago.  Because of what my DH does, he needed an office in the new building.  The A/C system is set up so that one thermostat controls the temperature of several offices, which might not be a huge problem except for one thing:  the person who controls the thermostat is ALWAYS cold, so she keeps it set rather high.  In Arizona.  Where it gets obscenely hot.  So, my DH was constantly overheating or battling over the temperature.

Now, I've offered several times to knit something for my DH.  He's only once taken me up on the offer, and that was for a pair of felted clogs, which he still has and are in excellent condition.  Well, he took me up on the offer again, this time asking for a shawl for the woman he's been battling over the A/C settings. 

We immediately went stash diving, and I pulled out some SWTC Vicky Howell Collection Love in the Peter & Mary Jane colorway, as the co-worker's favorite color is red.  I then went in search of a pattern and found the Drops 113-35 pattern from Garnstudio/Drops Design, which was perfect except for the X-O lace patterning at the bottom.  I decided to knit it anyway, omitting the lace pattern at the bottom, and using the amount of yarn I had (10 balls) to determine the length.

It's a simple garter stitch shawl that starts at the neck edge, with a lovely lace border around the perimeter that is created by double yarnovers for the increases.  As with all of the Garnstudio/Drops Designs patterns I have knit, the instructions are clear and error free.  I highly recommend their patterns.

I washed, blocked, wove in the ends, and photographed the shawl, and have sent it off to work with my DH.  I just hope it works.

Pattern Name: Drops 113-35
Designer: Drops Design
Pattern Source: Garnstudio.com
Yarn: Vicky Howell Collection by SWTC, LOVE (70% bamboo/30%silk) in Peter & Mary Jane
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 7/4.5 mm

Digging In The Dirt

When we had our backyard landscaped, all the hard-scape was done, including some raised beds.  I've long been wanting to have a vegetable garden, but the soil quality here is horrendous, so a raised bed was a must.  I knew exactly what I wanted, beds that were 4'x12'x1', and we had enough room for four of them with 3' walking paths between each.

Living in the Sonoran desert, we have the privilege of gardening year round.  Now is the fall planting season, and our grass is in and we can walk on it, so it was time to get started.

I actually forgot to take pictures before we started work on the first bed (we'll be doing one per week 'til they're all done), but luckily we still have 3 empties that are just like the one we worked on, so I'm substituting a picture of one of them.  As you can see, we had irrigation put in the beds to make watering easier, I just needed to add the drip hose and nozzles, which the landscaping crew foreman showed me how to do.

I went to a local nursery called The Avocado to order the fruit trees, and found they also have an excellent soil mix for gardening in this area -- it's used by the local college, university extension office test gardens, and the Master Gardener's program -- at an even more excellent price.  Sold in bulk by the cubic yard, one load is enough to fill one raised bed.  So I went and picked some up, along with the tubing and nozzles to complete the irrigation.  I got home and got to work, putting in the irrigation lines, moving the dirt one wheelbarrow load at a time, and quickly realized this was going to be an all day project by itself.  And then my guys surprised me.  Jay came out, climbed in the back of my truck, and started shoveling the dirt into the wheelbarrow for me.  Shortly thereafter, Scott came out and took over wheelbarrow duty, leaving me to spread the dirt within the beds.  What wonderful help!  It made the whole thing go so much faster, and showed me that it would have taken me at least another day on my own.

So the beds were filled and level, and daylight fading, so we decided to call it a day.  Of course I forgot to take a picture again.  And then the dogs found the new dirt.  When I went out this morning, this is what I saw:

They had turned it into their own little sandbox.  I was not amused.  Keeping them out, it turns out, will be the biggest challenge to success.  Rather than deal with this immediately, I decided that my next step was going to Lowe's for some tools,

 

seeds,

 and plants.

I got home, got back to work, and got everything spread out and leveled again, but this time, I did remember my camera.

Now for the fun stuff -- the planting!  Or so I thought.  I actually got started, too, getting the tomato plants put into the ground.  Turns out I'd messed up a bit on the spacing, and had to move two of them.  More troubling, however, was the fact that I hadn't bothered to place and trim the irrigation.  I stopped the planting and made sure all of the irrigation was in correctly.  Then I was able to get to the fun stuff.

I picked up the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew about a year ago in the hopes that I'd someday have my garden.  When the beds went in, I got my copy out again, and started reading.  I decided to go with this method, but have modified it slightly -- some of my plantings are not going to be quite so dense this time around, while some strictly follow his spacing.  Whichever way works best will be the method I go with for future plantings.

Finally, the first bed is all planted and watered!

So, what's in there?  I'm glad you asked!  The 4 plants at the back are (clockwise from the left): Black Prince tomato, Red Beefsteak tomato, Juliet roma grape tomato, and Mr. Stripey tomato.  The seeds I planted are cucumbers, marigolds, peas, green beans, wax beans, basil, oregano, green onions, nasturtiums, stevia, broccoli, spinach, leaf lettuce mix, baby carrots, and a blend of 5 colors of regular carrots. (I couldn't find a link for either the marigolds or the baby carrots, but the labels read: Burpee Signature Marigold Burpee's Mixed Colors, and Burpee Signature Carrot Petite 'n Sweet.)

I can't wait to see everything growing!

Assuming, of course, I can managed to keep the dogs out.  Here's hoping!