A new dress

Bug got an early birthday package in the mail from her Nana.  She got 2 new dresses.  The one she likes the best is just a bit too big, so we thought we’d show this one off.  She enjoys the kerchief in her hair!

Something new to look at

I know that all I’ve been showing off lately is the Kauni.  And I know that this could make for some boring blogging (if the Kauni weren’t so fun!).

Bug’s birthday is at the end of July.  I’ve been itching to play with more rowan calmer after I made the luna moth shawl for my grandmother.  So I rather thought that a dress for Bug made from rowan calmer would be scrumptious!

On the other hand, I’ve only just realized that this will be her most expensive dress ever!  But it will be cute.  I think the beginning of it looks like flower petals.  Oddly, it is a boring knit in comparison with my other projects, so I feel like I am struggling to work on it.

Steeking has been achieved

Because I took a steeking class last year at stitches midwest, this little endeavor really didn’t stress me out much.  But, this is the first time I attempted to steek a full project.

First I crocheted a chain over the stitches I was prepared to cut up.

I then sewed down each side of that crocheted chain.

I felt confident that one row of sewing would hold the sticky Kauni yarn, but I could easily have done a second reinforcing row if I was at all nervous.

Then I began to cut, which was a lot of fun!

Now it is open and I can pull the crochet chain scraps out.

And though you can still see the front of the cardigan has not yet been cut, but I plan to work the collar first.  But this does put me in a position where I can actually try it on and begin the sleeves.  (Don’t worry, it fits beautifully!)

I suspect I’ll be attempting a more traditional fair isle soon enough! The steeking was fun.

It is time.

Time to steek!

Harmonize

I made a duo! Two 2oz. rovings which are meant to be spun separately and plyed together.

Heat and Power

It is hot! Hot and humid and downright miserable.  And the hot humid air is making the weather unstable. Though I know this is typical for this time of year, we’ve had a surprisingly light severe weather season.  Now that it has begun, I need to get used to it again.

In the new building, we have what I refer to as the VoG. (Voice of G-d).  He warns us from time to time, and it always scares me! At least now I know when we are having tornado warnings, in the last building I’d never hear them, my boss would come tell me to leave my area and take shelter.  So yesterday I couldn’t even get to the road outside our building without glistening, such was the heat and humidity.  But then I hear VoG tell me we are under thunderstorm warning until 10 PM.  I packed up to leave and realize the temps have dropped 15 degrees at least, and it was suddenly windy.  What a relief!

We run errands, get home, and make dinner. At this point it begins to storm.  Now that Bug is a little older, I can get her to sit outside on the porch while it storms from time to time, even when she is scared.  So, now that the weather is cooler, we head out to sit outside and eat and watch the rain.  We aren’t out there for more than 2 minutes before we realize that we are going to have to get back inside.  There is no staying covered in this rain, the downpour is major and it is coming in at all sides, wind whipping about.  And, it is still quite a bit warmer outside than in.  We get inside, eat dinner, lights flicker.  But….looks like a save.  Lights flicker again, then go out.  Ah well, wonder how long it will take to fix that?

Now it is so dark that I cannot read, cannot see charts to knit, cannot see my stitches.  What to do, what to do?  Spin!  I finished up 4 oz. of Finn wool I had received from a swap partner early this year.  2 ply fingering weight 275 yards.

It took 3 hours to get our power back.  We had 2 major storms.  Bug played outside in between them when the rain was light.  Once the storms passed, the sun shown again and it heated right back up.  I had all the windows open to get some breeze at least.  My garden took a hit, 2 blossoms fell off my hot pepper plant, all my tomato stems broke, (though they will make it through) and the brand new basil which J bought for Bug is battered and bruised.  I lost a full crop of basil, but it is early in the season still, I should have more soon if it stays this warm.

More Conversations With Bug

Bug:  Mommy, How do babies get out of your tummy?

Me:  Bug, you can worry about that when you are older.

Bug:  I am NEVER going to have a baby.

Me:  Why Bug?

Bug: Because I don’t want my tummy to crack open!

It is not a monkey!

But it is a sock.  A simple madder rib sock from Vintage Socks.  It will qualify for sock knitters anonymous and it will live up to J’s sock standards.

Kauni Update

My overall goal for the weekend was to work the Kauni until I at least put the armhole steeks in.  I did manage that goal, so I am feeling pretty good about the project.  I’ve taken another picture, but I don’t think it looks all that different right now.  Just more colors chasing each other!

Swappin’

I just love to swap!  When I first began my fiber arts endeavors I thought I’d never swap, but it has turned out to be something I completely look forward to!

This month, my swap partner gave me wool from the fleece of a jacob sheep.  How cool is that? You can totally see the different tones in the wool rolags!

That’s all you get from me today, I am off to taco ride!

Do I even bother?

I am not sure it is even worth posting another pair of monkeys.  But, they are done.  Yarn Pirate merino/tencel sock yarn.  Not sure of the colorway.  The worst case of pooling I’ve ever seen in my own knitting, but the colors are pretty muted so it doesn’t show too badly.

It is hot, I am tired, and I have nothing interesting to say about these monkeys!  Sorry!  The kauni is FAR more interesting.

Chasing Rainbows

I cannot help but be obsessive over this project, but I had no idea I’d get this far this fast!  I am so eager to get to the next color change that I can barely put it down!  It has also got me thinking of the next Kauni project, which is a bit silly since I have many sweaters to work on before I get to another Kauni! (But I am thinking something a little more pastel…:)

WWKIP

Today was world wide knit in public day, or WWKIP day.  Now, I have never held much stock in having a day to do so when I would say it is a rare day that I do not knit in public.  But when Mary suggested knitting in public at a free outdoor blues concert, well, I just had to go!

O’Kathy and I decided to head downtown together at about 4:30 to stake out a spot and settle in.  Mary met us there after work.  We sat farily near the water so that Bug could enjoy the boats.

O’Kathy brought these fantastic large sunhats which became a toy for the Bug:

And so we knit in public.  Drawing even more attention to ourselves with our silly hats.

The bands were very good, they started with a blues school, younger kids playing and singing.  The guitar player had a surprisingly good and deep voice in addition to playing a mean guitar.  There was also a rockabilly band, a very bluesy one man band, a great sibling band, and the final act was a gal who sounded similar to Janis Joplin.  We didn’t hear much of her as it was getting late and we’d been there since 4:30ish, but she sounded good.

We will certainly be knitting in public again next month at the next free concert!  Bug enjoyed herself so much, and never once asked to go home though she was about asleep when we got back.  We will make a few changes, I will be purchasing a better chair for hauling out to such things, we will sit even closer to the water, we will remember our sunscreen, and we will hide food and water in our bags.  Because…$7 for a funnel cake?  Insanity!

It got increasingly crowded as the evening wore on, and I tried to take a little picture of how crowded it had gotten, but of course my camera does not have a panoramic shot!

And what was I knitting?  I’ve started working with my Kauni yarn again, attempting a different pattern in a different way of lining up the color runs.

It is a perfectly perfect KIP project!

Wheeling toward the finish

I have finally finished my pinwheel sweater.  The yarn?  Noro matsuri.  The modifications?  I put bell sleeves on this, and then added the garter edge and the double icord edging at the bottom of the sleeves, just to pull it all together.

Bug took the pictures, and they are a little silly.  I may have to have someone else do a photo shoot.

I am extremely happy with this sweater.  I am glad I made it larger than the written pattern, and I love my modifications.  This was a case where just a little extra time on the details gave a big payoff in the end.

Round toe monkeys

I had some yarn pirate merino/tencel sock yarn hanging around.  I find I don’t particularly enjoy knitting with it, so I won’t be purchasing any more.  I have one more skein.  Since I find it to be a struggle, I decided to knit these into monkeys.  I am done with monkey one and on to monkey two.  The color is a hard one to capture, pink with gray tones.  They look good but my aversion to man made fiber overrules.

I did a round toe and short row heel on these.  I am very pleased with my short row heels these days!

MishMash Lace

I’ve been working on a shawl which I’ve wanted to show you for some time now, but it just looked like a mish mash of yarn without any real pattern.

This is because it is knit from the outside in, decreasing as I knit.  So even though I’ve been working awfully hard on it for some time now, it doesn’t look like much very fast.  But now you can begin to see a pattern!

This is done with my kettle dyed linen/silk laceweight.  I am having fun seeing how my own colors have come together!

Moving and shaking

As of yesterday morning, I am officially moved into our new building at work.  I am in a temporary office until mine is finished, but my faculty had just about had enough of me being across campus.  So they pushed for an early move for me, and it finally went through.  My old building was….old.  Pretty on the outside, but dark, dreary and unrenovated on the inside.  I had no window access, and my coworkers only had tiny slits of a window.  The one thing I most look forward to is seeing the outdoors from here on out!

I took a few pictures of the new space so I could share my excitement.

My old space (this is an old picture of my birthday surprise a few years ago):

The new building:

My new (temporary) space:

My current temporary view (we look out over our future):

The view I will have when they have my office complete:

(Actually, that is the view from one window, I have two.)

And finally, a surprise picture of a surprise monkey sock, taken on the ledge of my unfinished office:

As I was writing this, I watched dark clouds roll through and the rain move in, now it is pouring, and I don’t even have to wait for hotmail to tell me!

Almost there!

I am painfully close to being done with my matsuri pinwheel! I have one sleeve done and the other started.  I’ve made some interesting sleeve modifications, I am eager to show them to you, but I’ll wait until it is complete.

Bulk

I just finished up some bulky yarn, which turned out to be some of my favorite plying ever.

110 yards BFL

I am very fond of the colors too!

A perfect day

Yesterday I was bound and determined to have a relaxing day.  I had planned a bike ride with O’Kathy in the morning, and then a day of relaxing on Sarah’s back deck while Bug ran through the sprinkler.

Since Minnie’s son came over to mow the back area (due to my fear of snakes), I had the courage to go back there and cut down all the junk trees which were growing out of control.  I did have Bug run around the entire house a few times just to ensure that any relaxing snake was either going to hide or stay where he was.  But I saw no snakes and felt pretty safe and confident in my duties.  I managed to get that done even before my morning bike ride.

Went on a 15 mile bike ride in my new bike skort, which is full of win!  Much more comfortable riding!  Then we went grocery shopping, came home to unload bike and get a shower and make hummus, and headed to Sarah’s.  Sarah’s new house is just about perfect.  The trees in the back yard are so mature that even though it is hot out, if there is a decent breeze blowing, sitting under the trees feels cool and comfortable.  Bug did run through the sprinkler for a long time, and made herself downright cold.  I spun.  I don’t really like to knit in the heat, so spinning seemed ideal.  What did I spin?  Well, I finished what I could of the lovely turquoise batts, plyed them with the silk that I had on hand, and made 173 yards of laceweight yarn.  I still have more than 3 oz. of spun batts left and need to find more silk to turn turquoise to match.  Once I was done with that, I spun another 2 oz. of BFL, in order to get a good worsted to bulky weight yarn in the next couple of days.

I find I love these colors because they remind me of noro!

We left Sarah’s at 8:30 PM, and Bug was fast asleep by the time we got home.  All I had to do was carry her inside and tuck her in bed.  It was such an easy relaxing wonderful day that I am positive I need more of them!

Nebraska Vegetarian Little Piggies

Bug version:

This little piggy went to the Old Market

This little piggy stayed home

This little piggy had yoghurt

This little piggy had none

This little piggy went “wee wee wee wee” all the way home!

Once a day

I am trying to spin once a day.  A little each day.  It has been tough because I never feel like I am getting anywhere on a project.  And yes, it would be a lot easier if I would just stop spinning laceweight, but I love laceweight yarns, how can I resist!

You may remember my elation at receiving the above fiber in my swap club.  I’ve been spinning at it bit by bit.  One more batt to go, and I did start the silk.  I can’t wait to ply them together!  The best part?  The gal who sent these lovelies is running a little contest, we can possibly win more of her batts by posting pictures of spun yarns from our swap packages.  What more motivation would I need to spin a little every day?!

I am dumb

New car dumb, that is.

I’ve not been driving the pretty new car because…well because it is pretty.  Too pretty to drive.

But last night I wanted to spend some time with friends, so I loaded Bug into the car and went over to see them.  It was a little late when we returned home, it was the first time I’d driven my car in the dark.

For the last 10 years I’ve driven my little subaru where the lights come on when I turn the car on, and the lights shut off when I turn the car off.

My new little car has some fog lights that are always on when the car is on.

I drove all the way home without turning on my lights. I complained that I could not see the radio to change the channel, and why was it so dark in the car, and when it is that dark in the car, the digital dashboard seemed so painfully bright!  I pulled in my driveway and sat there for a moment thinking “There has to be a way to see the radio at night!”  And I started fiddling with things.  Then all of a sudden “AAAhhh!  Lights!  Inside AND outside the car!”

New car dumb, thats me!

Wahnananah BAT SHAWL!

I’ve got Sarah’s bat shawl to feature tonight, she did a really nice job on it.  And….Bug blocked it!  Dead serious.  I put the top wires in, and pulled the point to the bottom, and Bug put the rest of the pins in and blocked it out.  She was intense!  She’d pull a side out, and then the other side to match, then she would determine if it was good enough or if it had to be redone.  I’d hear her say “That was a really good one!” or “Let me try that one again.”  It was so cool!  Then this morning she pulled all the pins out, put them away, put the wires away, and folded up the shawl neatly “like a peanut butter sandwich.”  She got nervous because there was a little spring back to the yarn, but once I told her it was fine, she stopped worrying.

Isn’t this a perfect color for a bat shawl?

Show off!

Hanami stole, with hematite beads throughout.  I love this asymmetrical stole, it is just the prettiest thing!

It has been raining all day, which made me worry that I wouldn’t be able to get decent pictures.  I couldn’t hang the stole, but this will do.

A dye day of our own

O’Kathy, Mary, and I decided awhile back that we needed to have a dye day where we experiment with different dyes and fibers and yarns and just have fun.  We’ve been trying to plan this for so long now, but getting 3 very busy women together for one day is almost impossible.  We finally came up with a day that O’kathy and I could do it, and Mary told us to go ahead and get started without her.

So Saturday was our day!  We ran errands in the morning, going to goodwill to pick up some equipment, and then over to a restaurant supply store for a few supplies.  My big score at goodwill was a huge dark roasting pan with lid, and a crock pot with a slightly broken lid.  The crock pot was one of these large ones with a removable insert, and for kettle dyeing, I didn’t figure I needed a lid all that much.

We then grabbed lunch, got back to my house, and began our day of dyeing.  We also had a friend, Becky, around as an extra set of hands and a bit of a distraction for the Bug.  Who really wanted to be in the middle of everything, when we really wanted her to be out of the kitchen.  LOL.

Blank yarn, O’kathy chose bamboo/wool blend for her sock weights

You can just see it, she wrote “Pedal” across this sock yarn in orange dye.

Then she finished dyeing it.

My blank merino fiber.  I have a lot of fiber left, but worked predominately with merino and merino/tencel on saturday.

Yarns soaking. I dyed laceweight.

Kettle dyeing in my new (to me) crock pot.

Which made this…2 gray tones linen/silk laceweight colorway Seattle Sky. Can’t wait to see how this knits up!

“Pedal” yarn soaking after its trip in the oven.

My 2 goodwill finds…I’ve discovered that the large dark roasting pan works well for solar dyeing in the heat of the sun, no need to turn on the oven!

Kettle dye in process, you can see some merino draining in the corner.

This picture shows us the insanity that is our dear O’Kathy.  She knit this sock blank holding 2 strands of yarn together, so she could dye it, and then reknit it into socks.  Nuts!

Yarn hanging on the porch, this is early on in the day.

Candid shot of Bug and Becky, Becky brought her dog, which amused the Bug greatly.

Candid of Bug and me, as I look terribly hot and gross.

Yarn hanging on the porch later in the day

Yarn everywhere!

Bug everywhere!

Some finished objects, this is merino/tencel colorway Georgia Arbor

Merino/tencel colorway The Monica

Linen/silk laceweight, kettle dyed. Colorway…heath?

O’Kathy’s yarns!  Even the mistakes came out beautifully.

I actually have more to post, but they need to be reskeined before I take pictures.  Some of these will go up in the etsy shop as soon as we get ourselves organized, but if you see a colorway you just have to have, let me know!  We will be doing this again, we had a ton of fun even if we were exhausted, and we learned so much!

A quick update

I should have a litte more for you tomorrow, but I wanted to show off a swap package I received last week but was too busy to show off then!

Another hobby

When we were kids, one of our favorite family outings was to go biking on the Erie Canal.  We grew up doing this and biking long distances at a fairly young age, and some of my best memories are of long days biking through small towns, and stopping to shop here and there.

When I grew up, I found that typical bikes hurt my already injured wrists, and I needed a very upright bike.  I invested in a very expensive (for me) bike and it has traveled with me ever since.  But, since I’ve had Bug, it has been rather neglected.

Enter O’Kathy, whom I knit with.  You see, we met during the winter, so we knit together frequently. But I kept hearing stories about how she would not be knitting as often in the summer because she would have to be biking.  And while it was to be expected, I couldn’t imagine how someone would want to bike instead of knit.

But, I underestimated the O’Kathy power of persuasion.  All it took was one Thursday evening bike ride and I was again hooked.  So now I find myself biking instead of knitting!

J was supposed to come home this evening and I was going down to the airport to pick him up.  Of course I was really excited about this, as I haven’t seen him in 3 weeks. But, I got a message on Saturday that his mother was too sad about his leaving and wanted him to stay another 2 weeks.  And of course while I understand his mothers heartbreak over having a son so far away, I myself felt a bit bereft because my plans were completely changed.

But then I started to think, what would I do?  Why, one of my favorite things.  I asked O’Kathy if she would be around and up for a bike ride and she, of course, said yes.  So 3 of us did 20 miles today, ending up with a leisurely lunch at my favorite bistro.  To be honest, I felt like I could go another 20 miles.  So, we’ve another ride planned tomorrow!

Conclusion, if you don’t see me knitting, I am probably biking.  LOL

Now, the event which O’Kathy pulled me in with is called the Taco Ride, which takes place around here every single Thursday evening.  I had no idea what I was getting myself in to!  I didn’t realize that this event would have 1000-4000 people on it during the peak points of the year.  Imagine tons of people, all smiling, happy, and having fun!  You can’t beat it!

This Thursday she took some pictures, so I stole them off her camera (again!)

Old hat, New hat

I know I’ve been somewhat absentee this week.  I have literally not been home in the evening since last Saturday, so my blogging time has been very limited.  As has my picture taking time.

And the reason?  Well, for the last 10 years, I’ve been driving this:

And, I’ve been happy about it!  My old hat has served me well, and I’ve loved it most of the time I’ve had it.  But I also knew that it was getting to be time to think about buying a new one.  This gave me fits of anxiety at first and I took my dad with me to search and test drive cars when I was last visiting them.  I was looking at subaru’s again, and then also at the honda fit and the honda civic.

I ended up choosing the civic for its gas mileage and its ability to still feel like a car when driving.  But then you know that the fun begins.  Now I’ve actually got to negotiate a price.  So I sat on my decision for at least a month.  After all, I was in no huge hurry to get a new car, I wasn’t desperate, I just knew it was about time.

Once I decided that now was a good time (indicated by the burning fluids now causing large puddles underneath my car AND the smoke from them feeding back into my air circulation system in my car, causing visible smoke) I contact 7 dealers.  One was in PA, and the rest in 3 states within a 3 hour radius.  My goal was to get them well below invoice price.

To do this, I decided I would get my quotes online.  I asked them for their lowest quotes and did not bring up that I might have a trade in at all.  I got one dealership on a low and firm quote by Monday afternoon.  Then I went in to check on my trade in.  I got a price they were willing to give me on that as well.  I then refused to put a deposit on the car to hold the car and went home.

The next day, I asked him a few more questions about the car, still feeling that his price was the best I’d be able to get.  By Tuesday afternoon I had almost put a deposit on the car and called up dealership #2 whom I had a trade in appointment with and told them the deal was done and I wasn’t coming in.  But then I asked myself what I was gaining by rushing this?  Not a thing.

I got a message from dealership #3, she told me they would make it worth my while if I’d just come in and let them talk to me.  I realized that dealership # 3 was the only one that had my truly desired color.  But, color was not of first importance.  So I decided to keep my appointment with dealership #2, and then visit dealership #3 later on that evening.

I went to dealership #2 where they were really scrambling for my business.  I got them to agree to $250 more on my trade in than the first dealership, and in the end I got them to drop the price of the car another $500, which was less than I ever imagined I’d spend on that car!  But of course, I had to agree to it that very moment.  Which I refused to do.  I did tell her I would call her on her cell later that night.

Then Bug and I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to dealer #3.  I told them that I was informed that they would beat the lowest price I brought in, and that the lowest price had changed.  I had them look at my trade in.  And then they started throwing numbers at me.  Now, math is not really my strong point, but I am not dumb either.  I know that I can work out the numbers given time and a piece of paper.  Which is when the following conversation took place:

Me:  I am not understanding where you are getting these numbers from, and they don’t look right to me.

Salesguy explains again.

Me: Something is still not sitting right with this.  Let me get my notebook.

I then proceed to write numbers down and do the math.

Me: I understand the price I want to be paying for the car, and the price I am getting for my trade in, so why does this extra $154 keep popping up and being added on to the total price?

Salesguy: That is for the price of the splashguards. We put splashguards on all our cars here, and we need to charge you for that.

Me: (fuming) Wait a second, you’ve got me all the way down here because you want to beat any other deal I’ve gotten, and you promised to make it worth my while, but now you want to dicker about splash guards?!?!  Which are already on the car?  When I can walk out of here right now, go back to dealership #2 and get this price?  The price I want to pay?  You’ve GOT to be kidding me! We are hot, tired and annoyed, don’t waste our time!

Salesguy: (looking sheepish) Let me go talk to my manager.

That little outburst got the splashguard price taken off my total and the price dropped another $100.  At which point I was just about ready to sign.  But…I thought I’d call the other dealerships first.  I gave them a call and they were pretty angry and would not match my price.  One of them sarcastically commented “It is great when you can find a dealer that will give a car away for free.)

So, in the end, I got the car I wanted, for a price I never imagined, in the exact color I loved.  And, I had fun in the process!  When I pulled out the paperwork for my old subaru, I realized that the cost of the new car was significantly less than I paid for my subaru 10 years ago.  But now I have a car with bells and whistles!

Let me tell you about the firsts!  This is my first new car.  First car with a moonroof.  First car with a CD player.  First car with cruise control.  First car with intermittent adjustable windshield wipers.  There are a lot of firsts with this car!

And now for your pictures….

The color is urban titanium metallic. The interior is beige, which will be nice after looking at gray for the last 10 yrs.

It is a very pretty little car, but roomier in the back than the subaru, and plenty of room in the front even for my dad.

Dashboard looks pretty cool too!
I had a little trouble putting it in my garage because it is a little bigger than the subaru, but the real problem is that I cannot see the end of the nose of the car. So there was a lot of stopping and looking to see if I had pulled forward enough. I am sure I will get used to it.

I loved my subaru, and really had trouble deciding not to buy another. It took a lot to move over to a honda. But in the end, the leg room in the back combined with the better gas mileage, honda won out. We will see if I become as thrilled with Honda as I was with Subaru.

I mean it, really!

I need to steal a little from Margaret and Helen blog for a moment, since Helen has managed to sum up quickly what concerns me so much and what weighs heavily on my heart.

From this post:

“As Americans, many of us just can’t understand why terrorists from the Middle East would want to destroy us.  The very idea of their hating us so much is almost unfathomable.  Never mind that we have been occupying their homelands for more than 60 years.   Never mind that today we have dozens of “enduring” military bases just in Iraq and dozens more in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar…  Is that really so terrible? We’re just there looking to send back a little oil to help run our cars and our factories back home.   Why do they hate us so much?  I don’t know, but I wish it was a problem we could finally solve.

Speaking of problems I wish we could solve…  What are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants coming into our country uninvited?  The nerve, I tell you.  The very nerve of it just gets to me.   The  idea that those Mexicans would come here in hopes of earning money to send to their families back home is just too much to bear.  Before you know it, they’ll want to build a military base.  I mean can you imagine if those Mexicans were to start arriving inside tanks rather than inside trunks.  Imagine if they start taking our land rather than our landscaping jobs.  The very thought just makes me want to blow something up…

Is the whole situation becoming a little more clear?  People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.  It ruins the view and makes for a lot of sharp edges.

We need to educate ourselves if we are to finally understand our problems and how to solve them.  Did you know that  the US operates and/or controls between 700 and  800 military bases worldwide.   These facilities include more than 850,000 different buildings and equipment.  The underlying land surface is about 30 million acres – almost a third the size of California.  (Interestingly enough, the Hispanic population in California is about a third of the state’s population.) The total land area occupied by US military bases domestically and internationally is about 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide.

Margaret, I don’t even know what a hectare is.  Do you?  So what does all this mean? To most of us – probably nothing.  And that’s the problem.  I mean it.  Really.”