Irena Sendler, Hero

There recently was the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena Sendler.

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German). Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of her tool box she carried, and she also carried in the back of her truck a Burlap sack, (for larger kids). She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time and course of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it, and reunited the family. Most, of course, had been gassed. Those kids she helped were placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize....

She LOST.

Al Gore won for doing a slide show on 'Global Warming'.

(Google her name for more interesting info, including a CBS moving due out later this year!)

Wine, Weddings and Wool

Where to begin?? I've been a busy girl.

WINE: As you can see from the pictures - I've been wine tasting... it was very fun. We were in the Sonoma area of CA. We drove, our daughter, her husband & his parents flew up from Southern CA. Our daughter's sister in law (husband's younger sister) and her BF drove up from SF, the sister in law's BF's parents drove from the Bay Area.. all total - there were 10 of us! One great big happy family!! We rented a big van, which we called The Silver Bullet. This is the second time we've done this.. about a year ago we did the same thing, but in Napa. So - we did 3 wineries on Friday, 4 on Saturday and Sunday was a "go home" day... all in all very nice.

WEDDINGS: It was actually one one wedding. No pictures, sorry. One of our daughter's friends got married in South Lake Tahoe this past weekend. The chapel had a lovely view of the lake, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, etc etc. I have a few comments here on South Lake Tahoe - i've not been in about 20 years.. First - Harvey's Hotel/Casino - nice - i'd go back; MontBlu (the old Cesears casino/hotel) - seriously, don't waste your time/money. Here is the deal and go ahead call me an old stick in the mud. We met up with the bridal party after the reception... about 10p at the hotel's Club Blu - since we were not guests of the hotel, i got in free, but hubby had to pay a $10 cover charge.. EXCUSE ME?? The place was just about empty.. i think our group was about 1/2 the folks there. The drinks were served in PLASTIC CUPS! I ordred a vodka/cranberry w/Kettle One vodka.. you could not even tast the vodka in it.. horrible. The girls all went down to the bar to order shots of Kamakazi - all said it was the worst they'd drinken/drank/drunk... whatever. Then, and here is where I said "enough" - earlier we had kinda made fun of the 3 booth like things ajdacent the dance floor with brass poles.... you know where I am going with this?? So, i notice that one of the "booth's" lights are on, and who is standing there but some fairly flat chested young girl sporting pasties on her boobs and a g-string.... apparently it was body painting night.. I would have spent the money to write "my mom is so pround of me" across her tummy, but the idea of the body painting just made me want to puke. I did not go there for some strip club thing... it really pissed me off. So - MontBlu - you shall never again get a dime of my money.

WOOL: Before I headed off to SLT (south lake tahoe), I was checking out The Needlecrafters' Travel Companion (www.needlecrafterstravelcompanion.com) and discovered that about 3 miles from the hotel (on US 50/Stateline) was The Wool Tree, a lovely knitting shop. It's on the corner of US 50 /Stateline and Alameda Street, but that's rather deceieving.. in that its one of several shops on the corner in a little strip mall thing.. around the corner was The Yellow Submarine - where we grabbed some yummy sandwitches and had a picnic... but I digress.. The Wool Tree is a place I will go back to the next time I am in SLT... very friendly.. the ladies there at the Stitch and Bitch were very nice to me too. I got a little something in anticipation for SP13 to start too!

BACK TO WINE: So I can't recall all the wineries we went to, but kinda the funny part was - on Sunday just me and hubby driving home, we decide to stop at Kirkland Ranch, thinking its the winery that is at Costco, and joke, "do we have to show our Costco card to get in" ha ha ha. well, turns out - it has nothing to do with Costco, Kirkland just happens to be the name of the two brothers who have the winery. They had very nice wines - reds and white.. we got some of each. I'll do a better trip report on wines later.. but don't you think these pics are pretty?

My Life...

Well, another week has gone by (where?) - It seems I get back from some out of town thing and I am packing again. I leave in the morning for a b-day wine tasting weekend.. not MY b-day - my daughter's sister in law..... I've started The Girl Child's dress from Interweave Knits - Fall 2008?? I'll have to post proper pictures. and I finished the English Driver's Cap from a book written by the 2 owners of a LYS......not thrilled really with the pattern. There were two "errors" in it - I called the owner/creator of the pattern and asked her a question on my first "error" (seriously, I think the instructions could have been more specific, like "turn work" - oh welll, the same thing at the very end... if it had said "turn" - then I would not have had to take out a row or 2 ... ok, confession - I did not take out anything.. my yarn yenta did for me! The batteries are charging in that brick I call a digital camera.. So, when I get back from my weekend away, I'll post some pics..