My regular readers know that I began knitting again so that my hands would be busy and I would refrain from clutching spasmodically at the car door handle as #1 Son learns to drive. I’m happy to report that #1 Son is turning into a decent driver. While I still knit in the car, the number of stitches dropped while grabbing for support or stomping on the non-existent passenger-side brake has lessened considerably.

#1 Son passed the written test necessary to get a learners permit on the first try.

Then there’s Seo Sang-moon of South Korea. After 272 tries, the 70-year-old repairman has finally passed the Korean written driver’s license examination. Seo can’t read, you see, so he used the exam questions to teach himself the “rules of the road,” paying some $1000 in fees to do so. Test officials have been cheering him on over the last 5 years, and are thrilled to see him finally pass.

I bet they are!

Seo is now preparing for the road test and discussing with his wife what kind of car to buy. Said Seo:

Driving seems a bit hard. But after trying 271 times to pass the oral exam, what do I have to be afraid of?

Well… other Korean drivers might have cause to worry a bit… I wonder if there’s a limit on the number of times one can take the road test?

Closer to home, #1 Son is now enrolled in a driver’s ed course, which means that I am now learning every time we are together what an unsafe driver I am. I will be happy when he finally reaches the lofty goal of possessing his license, and the spate of driving habit corrections will slow to a trickle. June 23rd, but who’s counting? 😉

And less the gentle reader wonder… I have had a driver’s license for nearly 35 years. In that time, cars I owned have been involved in 5 accidents — and during one of those I wasn’t even there, as the passenger side of the car was wiped out in a parking lot by a jerk who neglected to leave contact info. Of the other four, one (the first) was my fault and four were not. I’ve had one ticket — for speeding. I was going down hill in a manual transmission car and was bit distracted by #1 Son (small at the time and riding in the back seat) insisting that I remember all of the reindeer’s names in order. The nice officer clocked me going 31 in a 25 MPH zone. I was pulled over once because my tags had expired, but since I had the tags (I’d forgotten to put them on when I got home from the DMV), all was forgiven.

I’m a pretty safe driver, #1 Son’s opinion notwithstanding. At least I think I could probably stack up fairly well when compared to Seo Sang-moon.

On the knitting front, I made it to the ankles of the Wildfoote socks last night. Now it’s just around and around until done. I’ll try to get a picture posted.

After a big push the last two evenings on the Wildfoote socks, I’ve managed to finish the gusset increases. I’ve turned one heel, and I’m about 1/2 way done with the other heel. If all goes as planned, I should be into the ankles by this evening.

I have to admit that I really like Queen Kahuna’s “no-wrap, no gap” heels. Even after reading through that section of Crazy Toes And Heels a couple of times first, I wasn’t sure exactly how it was going to work. But, thanks to Mary Ann Beattie’s
step-by-step instructions and great pictures, I made it through with flying colors! (pun intended) There really are no gaps! And the socks fit very well. 😀

I did add a couple of my own innovations (you knew I would, right?). I followed Mary Ann’s suggestion to use a slip-stitch pattern for the last few rows under the heels before doing the turn, but I used an eye of partridge stitch instead of heel stitch. I am using heel stitch on the flaps. On the next pair of socks, I think I’ll use eye of partridge all the way up.

On the first heel I followed Mary Ann’s instructions and added about a gazillion markers into each row as I turned the heels. On the second sock, I used only four markers: two where the gusset stitches meet the heel (these were added in when the gusset stitches were started) and two at each end of the “live” stitches. The last two I moved each row as necessary to mark the correct place. That worked better for me. Using eye of partridge on the bottom meant that every heel-flap row started with a slip stitch, so using different colored markers to indicate whether to start with a knit or a slip wasn’t really necessary.

For the next pair of socks (the ones for #1 Son), I plan on using Mary Ann’s toe as well.

I’m looking for creative and innovative ways to get a teenaged boy out of bed earlier in the morning than he would like. I’m especially interested in methods that will not result in the slamming of doors or raised voices (on either his part or mine).

Suggestions gratefully accepted!

On the knitting front, I’ve started the gusset increases on the Wildfoote socks. I like the blueberry waffle pattern with the Wildfoote yarn. It’s working out well. And it appears that the socks will fit well. Can’t wait to finish them.

Of course, that means I have to actually work on them, and I can’t seem to manage more than 4 or 5 rounds a night.

Last night #1 Son asked when I was going to “get those things done” so I could start on his socks. Oh… and I was going to make him some gloves, too, right?

“They” did something to my work email over the weekend. In the process, every email message received in my account since March 1st was remarked as “unread.” This poses a problem, because I normally leave messages that I need to respond to unread so I remember to follow up. There are now about 600 email messages I need to go through to determine what I was doing with them, and whether they should be marked “read” or left “unread.”

But even worse is my calendar. Every item since mid-January in my already full calendar has been duplicated, triplicated or quadruplicated. Every one. From January through next December. Many are repeating entries, but I can’t delete all of the repeats, or it deletes all of the duplicates also.

After several long conversations with techie support guys, it appears that there’s no solution but to delete all of the duplicate calendar entries one by one. Well… there is another solution, but it would involve losing all of the email I’ve received since Saturday, which is not OK.

I’m shuddering to think what’s going to happen when I try to sync my Palm.

In searching for a Latin dictionary to make sure I spelled requiescat in pace correctly (spelling… not my strong suit), I ran across the Free Online English To Latin Translator. Not limited to English and Latin, it will translate either a phrase or an entire web page from a dozen languages to a dozen languages, all for the nominal fee of $zero.

It’s fun to play with. Want to read Pertinax Simulatus instead of Persistent Illusion? No problemo.

I had the most fun, though, in translating from English to English. One would think that the oustput would be substantially similar to the input, but that is not actually the case. There must be several “interesting” intermediate steps.

In the previous post, I said:

There’s a rumor that the Homeland Security Threat Advisory System of colors and threat levels will be discontinued. I’m sorry to announce that, should that prove to be the case, the Persistent Illusion Magical Lucky Charms level will also cease to be. Requiescat in pace.

This is helpfully translated from English to English as:

In situ’ a publish special loveDisplaced Safety Defiance Expedient Order incomplete variegation with defiance be uniform resolution exist be discontinuous. Im’ unimportant be the cause of predict special, support special number be the cause of exist, loveLive to fight again Imperfect vision Magic Opportune Motive be uniform resolution also discontinue be the cause of exist. Requiescat internal successive change of place.

I hope I’ve made that perfectly clear!