Nine Hours to Philadelphia

I'm back from Germany, having finished just one pair of socks on my two-week trip, and those on the flight home. I'm going to insist they count, especially since I lost so much potential knitting time by being the official driver for our travels around Northern Germany. I need to teach Aaron to drive a stick, or to knit.

An aside here - when I was in High School, I dreamed of one day driving on the Autobahn. Part of my mind designated Germany the Coolest Country Ever, with its fast cars and absence of speed limits. I even made a lifetime "to do" list a year or so ago, and I think "Drive on the Autobahn" was part of it. The part of me that kept track of all my speeding fines was especially enamored of German road rules - but I also looked forward to really finding out what a car and I could do.

This turns out to not be much fun when the car in question is a Peugot, a vehicle that sounds like it's powered by two angry hamsters on an exercise wheel. I love little cars. I think my Honda Accord is huge. I dream of owning a Miata, or an MG. I can't wait for the Smart Cars to come to America. But I still want my little car to have a feisty engine. After all, my little dogs can keep up with the big dogs - shouldn't the little cars do the same thing?

The Peugot can't. I rarely put it in fifth gear, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to accelerate fast enough when entering the highway or passing trucks. City traffic caused it to make the same noises that you get when you stick a piece of paper in a fan. And I never got it above 150 km/h - a tragic waste of the Autobahn, really. Scary, too, to see a big Mercedes flying up to my tail as if I was stopped. So now my dream has been revised, to "Drive on the Autobahn in a bad-ass car" (and preferably one I personally own, so I don't have to worry about scratching it while intimidating other drivers and cyclists).

Anyway, I crossed the Atlantic at about 850 km/h, and I didn't have to drive. So that left time to finish my Entrelac Socks, featured above. I really wanted to have them finished in time for Boot Camp for Socks, and so I got to show them off. I'm sure the River Knits blog will have pictures soon, and a review of Boot Camp.

And yes, the socks are posed on the empty seat next to me. That almost - almost - made flying US Airways worthwhile. But if I set up an account at airlinemeals.net, you'll see one of the many reasons I'm creating a personal no-fly list of my own, with US Airways right at the top. My luggage - with those 22 precious balls of yarn - may or may not be on its way to Philadelphia by now, but that's a different rant.