Goodbye Olympics

Ms. Packratty has pretty much given up on the Olympics since they opened competition up to professionals, but the latest, where some jock-sniffing law student working as an intern for USOC wrote a very snarky letter to the Ravelry website complaining about their Ravelympics - a knitters observance of the Olympics in which knitters were challenged to start and complete projects within the duration of the Olympics, tackle new techniques or dig out ancient Works In Progress and finish them.  Mr. Brett Hirsch found it necessary to comment that a "sweater triathalon" somehow denigrated the efforts of our noble athletes.

Clearly, Mr. Hirsch needs a humor transplant and, frankly, I suspect that some of this attitude stems from the perception of knitting as women's stuff and relatively valueless.  Although he appears to be from New York, apparently he's never priced a handknit at Ralph Lauren or Barneys.  And after this boner, I rather suspect that not only will he never own a pair of hand-knit socks, he's probably going to be the laughingstock of his final year in law school

Now, Ms. Packratty was not going to participate in the Ravelympics - her nod to the Olympics was going to be to pledge to swim every day during the games and NOT spend the time in front of the tube because between the adverts and the endless commentary and color, Ms. Packratty has just flat out found the last 4 or 5 Olympic Games utterly boooooring.  However, this reminded her of what complete tools the USOC was during the Atlanta games when they nearly forced a 30 year old institution on Marietta Boulevard - the Olympic Diner - out of business.  Not to mention the high handed and abusive way some of the visiting Olympic committee members behaved.  So Ms. Packratty will not be watching any of the Olympics and she will be looking up the names of major sponsors and putting them on her "buy from these people LAST" list.
Too bad there aren't enough of us to really make stupidity painful.

I did agree that there were patterns on Ravelry that were for sale that did infringe on the Olympic trademark - although a pattern that was free that just shows how to knit 5 interlocking rings - well, face it, no one knitter making cotton dishclothes is taking money out of the USOC coffers with it.  It's not like it's competing with a commercial product.  But the tone of the letter was appalling and the pettiness of it, as well.

If USOC had a brain at this point, they would offer to license the term Ravelympix for a peppercorn charge and turn it into a public relations plus on how ordinary people can be challenged by the Olympics to be more and better and motivated by the Games.  But I bet they won't have the brains, humor or the imagination to do anything but continue on their heavy-handed way.

Cool and Rainy

So far (knock on wood) this summer hasn't had much in the way of teeth.  Of course, technically speaking it doesn't arrive for another 11 days, but anyone who has ever enjoyed a summer in the Deep South knows that the calendar has little to do with the heat.  There have been a few days in the 80s but ever since Beryl gave us that little sideways smack, we've been getting rain even when the weather people have been predicting sunny and dry.  Ms. Packratty does not mind and she really enjoyed standing outside Marleen's house this evening smelling the damp gardenias and listening to a cacaphony of frogs breeeking and braaacking in the foliage.  Ms. Packratty is remembering a summer 12 or 15 years ago when it rained so consistently every weekend that the Lenox Mall 4th of July Fireworks were postponed week after week until they were finally cancelled when summer was clearly gone.

Whoops

Whoops, time has gotten away from Ms. Packrat.

Work in the temporary quarters has turned out to be immeasurably more pleasant than she expected.  There are windows and we can actually see the light of day more often than when we are scurrying in and out of the building.  It's near I-85 and there is some traffic noise on one side of the building, but it is also not on the fringes of the city's red light district and it is near Buford Highway, which is Atlanta's ethnic food paradise.

Ms. Packrat's commute is slightly longer, but it is also somewhat faster because it is almost all highway and runs counter to the normal commute pattern at that time of day - and although she's driving about 30 extra miles a week, she is also skipping $1 a day in GA 400 tolls.  That toll has given her a certain amount of dyspepsia ever since it was ended (because revenue had paid off all the road costs) and then brought back a week later to fund more porkbarrel projects for the Georgia Department of Transportation (aka) We Build Roads, Roads and More Roads and You Don't Need No Steenking Mass Transit - she finds not seeing feeding the toll booth rather soothing despite the couple of extra miles.

Sadly, this move takes her a long way away from Il Bacio but the aforementioned proximity to Buford Highway is something of a consolation.  The range of ethnic spans the globe and ranges from Rather Americanized to Utterly Authentic.  Some of the Packratty coworkers are showing a bit of culinary courage, but there is one who has eaten nothing but Chik-fil-a, Mickey D's, etc. since the move, despite the fact that it takes a lot more effort to find chain food here than good food.  Sad.  Oh well, more for me.  Ms. Packratty finds herself particularly fond of the roast pork bahn mi sandwiches at Lee's Bakery and the proximity to the beloved Havana's new digs.

The other new thing in Ms. Packratty's life is a Kindle.  She finds herself quite surprised that a> she purchased one and b> that she really really really likes it.  It started with an email from Amazon Local offering a $20 voucher on a refurbished $79 Kindle, which sells for $69 and has the same guarantee as a new Kindle.  That dropped the price down to $49 with free shipping, so Ms. Packratty took the plunge.  Between free books offered on Amazon (of varying quality and age, to be sure) and the fact that Ms. Packratty can "borrow" Kindle books from the Atlanta Fulton County Library, she is delighted with the little gizmo, although she is still sure that it will never replace the paper and ink book for bedtime reading.  It is a game changer for the possibility of living overseas, though - because it means that American books, magazines and newspapers are available on the device.  Living someplace without bookstores or libraries with English language books was never a reasonable possibility for Ms. Packratty before.

The garden is going OK, although we have had a tomato wilt scare.  Ms. Packratty had to pull up a couple of plants, and trim some others, but it looks as though there is some hope for the tomato crop.  Maybe.

We made a trip to the Roswell Farmer's Market and bought some gorgeous strawberries and blueberries with the idea of making a berry fool.  Otherwise, Saturday kind of slithered away, leaving quite a bit to be dome before Monday, but Ms. Packratty is rested and that's a good thing.  And the allergy attack that hit her last week has subsided.  She suspects the residual sleepiness is just the aftermath of that attack. Next week is on call, so Ms. Packratty will not be a sound sleeper lest she manage to sleep through the phone ringing.