A Historic Occasion

The following are all from This Day in History:

On April 29, 1862, Union troops officially take possession of New Orleans, completing the occupation that had begun four days earlier.

On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army's 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany's Nazi regime. A major Dachau subcamp was liberated the same day by the 42nd Rainbow Division.

On April 29, 1974, President Richard Nixon announces to the public that he will release transcripts of 46 taped White House conversations in response to a Watergate trial subpoena issued in July 1973. The House Judiciary committee accepted 1,200 pages of transcripts the next day, but insisted that the tapes themselves be turned over as well.

On April 29, 1992, a jury of 10 whites, one Hispanic, and one Filipina in the Los Angeles suburb of Simi Valley acquits four police officers who had been charged with using excessive force in arresting black motorist Rodney King a year earlier. The announcement of the verdict, which enraged the black community, prompted widespread rioting throughout much of the sprawling city. It wasn't until three days later that the arson and looting finally ended.

And on April 29, 1968, I backed into the world at St. Luke's Hospital in Marquette, Michigan. Yep, back then they let us breech babies have a go at it. Just ask Mom how much fun that was, and remember that there were no epidurals way back then.


Yesterday I began an early celebration of my birthday by driving 2 hours to Madison to see the Yarn Harlot. I left early enough to get to the Borders store at 12:30. I got comfey and started working on a washcloth. If you read her blog you'll know that people have been giving the Harlot washcloths, mostly in the shape of the state she's visiting. Initially, I wasn't sure which state I should make. I live in Illinois, we were at a signing in Wisconsin, and my spiritual home is Michigan (the U.P. anyway.) I decided that I'd represent for all of the Chicago area knitters who were not able to see Stephanie because of the thunderstorms last week, and go with Illinois.

I actually started the whole washcloth plan the night before, but my first couple of attempts weren't that great. My first go-round created a washcloth that was 9 inches by 6 inches, but not in the right orientation. Illinois is a long skinny state, and I managed to create a very short, squat looking thing that would have been an embarrassment to cartographers everywhere. Then I tried a diagonal option before remembering that the top of Illinois is almost as wide as the middle, so it wouldn't fit on anything less than a huge washcloth.

Once I got to Borders though, I had figured out how to fix my problems and ended up making this:

Not too bad, it does look like Illinois this time.

After finishing the washcloth I worked on firebird #2 until it was time for the show to start. I met a lot of nice people there, including a lot of the members of the Madison Knitters Guild. This is what the room looked like about 45 minutes before the Harlot came out:



When she came out, she took pictures of the sock and the crowd:


And then spent the next hour and a half entertaining us very much. She signed my book and wished me a Happy Birthday, and then I drove back to Chicago. It was a lovely prebirthday day.

Today's starting out well, too. Husband let me sleep in, there's a luncheon for volunteers at the assisted living facility that I volunteer at, and Husband is coming home early so we can go out to eat. It's going to be a great day.

Now please excuse me, I have to go wash daughters bedding as some mysterious fluid got spilled on it. Then I need to clean up the pet stain on the carpet that I steam cleaned Saturday. Also, the guest room is covered in craft stuff and Mom and Dad are coming in to visit tomorrow. Yeah, it's going to be a great day.