Bloody Fantastic!

This has been the fifth best thing that has happened to me in my life - all of the kidlets are finally in school all day.

I have big plans for this school year. Every closet in this house(that's 8, one of which is a walk-in) will be cleaned out and organized. Now that the kids are finally past the coloring on the walls phase, every room will get a new coat of paint.

After nearly 8 years of living in this house, the front room will finally become what it was destined to be - a living room. It will not be a 'toy room', a 'PS2 room', or an 'empty room because we came from a smaller home and didn't have furniture to put in said room' room.

This year the front room will get built in bookcases(I'm trying to convince the Husband that I can build them and save us some money), a new wood looking laminate floor(we have kids and animals), and furniture. I have the furniture. So far I have an antique settee and matching chair(I could have the matching platform rocker, but that is a rather sore spot with me) that came from my grandmother's house. Unfortunately, the settee has been stored in the attic for a gazillion years and the chair had been in the house that is like a really big petri dish(don't ask, that's a post for another day). So, in order to save money, I need to learn how to re-upholster furniture.

So I have the coming 9 months mapped out. But I've taken the first week off, because dammit, I deserve it. I've been doing this,

the Absorba bath mat from Mason-Dixon knitting with Peaches 'n Cream, and some more of the Husband's aran.

I also started my first toe-up sock from the "formula" in the Fall 07 IK. I needed something that I could work on during the 4 soon to be 5 evenings a week I sit at the dojo while the kidlets are doing karate. I had been working on the Husband's aran, but found when I got home that I had made many mistakes(too much gabbing with the other Moms) and had to selectively rip back a few pattern repeats.

I also decided to make them knee socks to eliminate any left overs(Plymouth Dreambaby DK). I hate it when you don't have enough left overs to make another complete meal, and you end up with just a snack.

MMMMMM



A box of red summery goodness, fresh from the farm complete with dirt.

Bleh

In spite of playing on Ravelry, I have done some knitting. But I've mostly ripped. I lost my place on the Husband's aran and couldn't figure out what row I was on in the pattern.

Maybe it was because of the raging headache I've had for the past two days. It's hot as, well you know the cliche, and we are under a smog alert. They have been advising people with respiratory problems to stay indoors. That would be me.

I just found out last week that I have asthma. I've had this annoying non productive cough for weeks now, and last week I was doing some heavy cleaning and stirring up cat hair, dog hair, and dust. My chest felt tight and I was short of breath. While sitting still. Great.

So one inhaler and extra strong allergy medicine later, I'm stuck in the house with a raging headache. I'm not sure if the headache caused the losing of my place, or the losing of my place caused the headache. Hmm, anyone, Bueller?

Woohoo!!!

I'm in! I got my Ravelry invite! I'll be incommunicado for a while. See ya.

30 More Days

That's how many days are left until it is blissfully quiet around the house. I have been looking forward to this day for years. August 27th is the day that all 4 kidlets will be in school all day! No more of the half day for preschool or kindergarten crap! No siree, all blooming day! That thought will be the sustenance that gets me through the next weeks. When you go shopping for office supplies, I'll be the one dancing in front of the two pronged folders.

Not much to show on the knitting. I'm still plugging along on the Husband's aran. I've finished the second sleeve of the Spongebob sweater, and I'm on the ribbing of the front soon to start the face.

I haven't done much knitting this week. I've been busy cleaning the house for the cleaning lady! My sister-in-law set us up with an immigrant(I'm assuming she's legal since she holds down two other jobs that with hold income tax). In order for her to actually see the dirt, I had to pick up all of the crap that was hiding the dirt. This has taken me days. I kid not.

Mt. Laundre has become a mountain range in the laundry room. I'm off to scale the mountain, because it's there and it's the last unconquered frontier! If I'm not back in 3 days, send help.

Lazy Days of Summer?

I don't know about you, but the "lazy days of summer" are a load of crap! Even though the kidlets are out of school(48 more days until school starts!), we've been just as busy as during the school year. Thus, very little knitting has been done.

The kidlets and I spent 5 days camping at Robert Treman State Park near Ithaca, New York. My two best friends and I have been taking a camping trip around the 4th of July for well over 20 years now, and it's evolved over the years to include the spouses and children. The Husband didn't go. Camping isn't his thing. We swim, hike to falls, and taste wine. The Finger Lakes region is beautiful. I have no pictures, the Husband needed the digital camera for the weekend for some free lance work and snatched it out of the car right before I left the driveway.

After returning from NY, the Husband had oral surgery, Thing 2 has had some dental work done(we have another appointment tomorrow at 8am), all four kidlets have eye exam appointments in the next week, and the Girl has an appointment with an orthopedist at Children's. It's nothing serious, her pediatrician just wants to have the duck foot waddle walk she tends to do checked out.

Two weeks ago, while the dishwasher repairman was here, I managed to chart the Spongebob intarsia sweater for Thing 1. After I finished it, I realized that I have the design too close to the neck shaping, so I'm going to move the whole design down a few rows. Sorry, I have no pictures. It's too big to fit in the scanner, and I can't find the camera. I'll post pictures next time.

I'm on sleeve two of the sweater, and I'm not too much farther along on the Husband's aran. In fact, I'm a few rows back. I saw that I had accidentally done a few rows of ribbing in the middle of one of the diamonds and also in the moss stitch section. So rather than dropping back a few stitches to fix just those parts, I ripped back 6 whole rows. I was rather pissed with myself, and ripping was much more emotionally satisfying.

I need a nap...this must be the lazy part.

I have a Deep Dark Secret





Hi, my name is Karen, and I've been crocheting(it's still evil). Last weekend we were at my Dad's house. While the Husband was taking care of fixing some computer problems, I was rummaging around the closets. Don't judge, I used to live there, and I was digging through the closet in the bedroom that had become my Mom's craft room.





I found a baby blanket that Mom had been crocheting for my nephew, who is now 15, and never finished. She had time to finish it while he was a baby, she just never did. Joey was 5 when Mom died. I thought it was a shame that it had never been finished. I immediately made a vow to not let projects go unfinished for years in order for my children to find while cleaning out my closet and wonder why I never finished it.





So, it became my mission to compete the blanket. She had easily 3/4 of the blanket done. The whole thing is done in double crochet. Easy enough.





Except I've not been able to stop crocheting! I've actually walked past the Husband's aran to work on the blanket. I rationalize it this way: The blanket has Mom's mojo so that is why I'm drawn to it(I'm also getting Mom's gauge). Also, it's a dream of mine to open a yarn shop, so I'll need to know how to crochet because I don't want to discriminate against crocheters. So, I also consider this research into the world of crocheting.





There will be no pictures. It's being made from inexpensive acrylic 80's pastel variegated yarn, and I'm still too ashamed to admit that I'm actually crocheting.

The Greatest Generation

We have lost another member of the Greatest Generation. This past Friday, Walter S. of Indiana, passed away. He was the Husband's grandfather. He was 84 years old, married to Dorothy("Mother") for 66 years. He was the father of 5 children, and the total number of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren number close to 50!

He served in the Army Aircorps during WWII and helped to liberate Luzon and the Bismarck Archipelago. He was quick with a smile and laugh, and loved to hunt turtles, fish, and woodworking. We are losing members of this generation at a good clip, and we must never forget their sacrifices for our country. But to hear them talk, it was no sacrifice. You just did what was expected of you at the time. A good tenet for anyone in any time.

I heard many good stories about Papaw Walt after his military burial. My favorite personal memory was when we were together around my in-laws round dining table having a good old country dinner of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc. Mother was sitting next to Walt with a chicken leg on her plate. She had taken two bites of the leg when Walt, with a gleam in his eye, reached over and snatched the chicken from her plate and began eating it.

No one else at the table paid any attention to this, but I looked at Mother with a surprised grin on my face and a little chuckle. She said, "I never get to finish a piece of chicken." Everyone else in the family had seen this move for so many years, they had become used to it.

Walt proceeded to skeletonize that innocent chicken leg, and then broke it open and sucked out the marrow. The Greatest Generation that also lived through the Depression were not wasteful!

Another one is assimilated

Bwahahaha! Several weeks ago we were at a family gathering/cookout. I, of course, brought along the knitting for the after feast stupor sit around and visit time. I didn't realize it at the time, but my 9 year old nephew must have been watching me knit.

Later while said nephew was riding home with us, he asked me to teach him to knit. I told him that learning to knit while in a moving car wasn't the best idea, but I would teach him the next time I saw him.

Several weeks later, we went to a family camp for the weekend(like summer camp for kids, but for families) and said nephew's family was also there. I pulled out the sleeve to Thing 1's sweater and started working on it, when the nephew reminded me that I said I would teach him how to knit. So I gave him his first mini lesson using the sleeve. He was actually interested, and kept it up for a while. I promised him that the next time I saw him I would have yarn and needles that he could keep. Of course I waited until he was out eyeshot to rip out his efforts.

I really want to encourage this, because Nephew has been diagnosed with ADHD, and if you observe him for a while, he just doesn't seem to have the happy-go-lucky attitude a 9 year old should have. I think he has been diagnosed with depression, but don't quote me on that. He's the kid in the family that you just want to grab and hug tightly.

As he was proudly looking at the rows he had accomplished, he requested a turtle sweater. I said, "What like Leonardo?" He said, "No, a box turtle." Thank goodness, I don't think I could stomach another cartoon character. Cowabunga, dude!

Sure, they look innocent now







Don't let them fool you. They'll suck you in with their cuteness, and when they see that glazed look in your eyes - they pounce. This is reason not much knitting is getting done. I'm busy putting out fires. Laundry, picking up, scrubbing, running errands - the stuff of life. There seems to be an inordinate amount of it lately.

I have managed to finish the back of Thing 1's (he's the one on the right)SpongeBob sweater and have started a sleeve. The Husband's aran is only about 3 rows further along. I keep ripping back a few stitches here and there, ala fixing a miscrossed cable, and tweaking wonky looking stitches. I don't trust a good blocking to fix some of the wonkers.

Dadgummit!!!




That's the Husband's aran. I had the perfect atmosphere for working on the aran(no kids, husband, or dogs in the immediate vicinity) and I still screwed it up! I still have the black eye from the knitting goddess' smackdown.

So, I valiantly used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches on the cable I had incorrectly crossed and get them going in the correct direction(a crochet hook's only useful purpose in my opinion), when I noticed that I had $%^&ed up the celtic knot center portion. Some how I had gotten on the wrong row on the chart and was blissfully knitting along for 3 rows before I realized it.

I can fix that I thought. Rather than use a crochet hook(this was too big of a job - 28 stitches with multiple crossings), I used dpn's and reknit it. Although I'm going to give it another go, because I used dpn's way smaller than the 7's I'm using on the sweater.




This left me with a very tight gauge and loops of 'left over' yarn that I don't think a severe blocking will correct. I knit on for a few rows thinking I could tug it into submission. No joy.

In the spirit of random Tuesday...Last evening was the Carpet Spotter's(Brunnhilde the German Shepherd-why am I using a knickname for her like I want to protect her privacy?) first night of training. We were kicked out in the hall for 'talking'!!!!

And we're back...

I'm trying to catch up on my sleep. So far, not so good. The two older kidlets and I arrived back home around 9m last night, and I'm sleepy. The hotel was nice and comfy, but the Girl insisted on sleeping with me. I would rather have slept with an octopus.

At about 1am the first night, I decided that I'd had enough of the random arm flailings and knee kickings to get up and crawl in bed with the Boy. Now at only 11 years the Boy is only a few inches shy of being as tall as me(I don't come from Amazonian sized parents), he was taking up most of the bed as he was stretched out from one corner to the opposite one. Being the self-sacrificing mom that I am, I didn't want to disturb his rest since he was the one that was going to be competing the next day, I pulled the really soft and cushy comforter of the bed that I had just vacated and made a nest on the floor. I figured that the Girl would be fine since it wasn't that cold and she is usually very hot when she sleeps.

I was sleeping very soundly and quite comfortably(surprising since I was on the floor), when I was awoken at 3am by the Girl to tell me she was cold. So I got back in bed with her to be kicked and punched until 5am when the Boy got up and flipped on the flipping t.v.!

"HOLY MOTHER GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?", I said. Although I'm sure it sounded more like, "Hug movr guh, wha'do?". The Boy said he couldn't sleep(though you couldn't tell by his snoring). I said "G'bed, stare seal." Translation: Get in bed and stare at the ceiling.

The next night I debated about just starting off on the floor, because I had found an extra blanket that I wasn't coherent enough to search for the previous night, when the Girl promised me that she wouldn't flop about. I also warned her that I was going to punch and kick back if she so much as crossed over the "line of death" that ran down the middle of the bed.

After pushing her back over the line to her mutterings of "stop it!" and putting the extra blanket on top of her, I was back in my nest on the floor. I was going to get in bed with the Boy, but he had rolled up in his blankets like a burrito. I was later awoken(again, after very comfortably sleeping on the floor) to, "Mom, I'm cold." So I was once again kicked and poked the remainder of the night. Besides that, I had the beginings of a cold, so breathing was not up to par.

Last night I got to sleep in my own bed, and I slept well, but I'm still nodding off at random times this morning. I think one more night ought to do it.

Oh yeah, the Boy came home with a bronze in sparring, and the Girl came home with a silver in sparring(I guess she was practicing on me during the night - had I stayed in bed with her, it may have been a gold).

If Nautical Nonsense be Something You Wish...

This weekend the Boy, the Girl and I are off to Gurnee, Illinois(north of Chicago, almost into Wisconsin) for a regional karate tournament. Those of you in the Chicagoland area will know how excited I am to be going(she says with sarcasm).

Since I'll be driving the 7 hours to get there, this eliminates any possibility of knitting in the car, that and the motion sickness. If anyone has figured out a safe way to drive and knit, I'm listening.

Sitting for 6 hours at the tournament venue and having to pay attention to the competitors(not just my kidlets, but the others from our dojo as well), eliminates working on the Husband's aran. I need something I can knit on autopilot. That would be this...

That's the beginings of Thing 1's Spongebob sweater. I figure that I can work on the back and sleeves while cheering on the competitors, because it's a mindless drop shoulder sweater and also because I haven't charted the front yet. The front is going to be an intarsia version of the Sponge's face.

Drop on the deck and flop like a fish!

So Where Was I?

Oh yeah, the Husband's aran. One fine day while we were out with out the kidlets(they were all in school, and the Husband had the day off), we were running errands. One of the stops was the library which happens to be a short mile or so from the yarn store. I dragged him there, under vehement protests of course, to pick out the yarn for his sweater. I think he didn't want to go there, because it wasn't, well, macho like a hardware store. (Insert manly grunting here.)

I wanted him to go, because I didn't want a repeat of the last sweater I had knit then ripped for him. In that instance, he picked out the stitch pattern but not the yarn(soft enough to be knit into undies, Malabrigo). He liked the softness factor, but he didn't care for the color.

The Husband settled on a yarn that is exclusive to the yarn store. Actually, I picked out the yarn, he just chose the color. It's Yarn Source Sol in grey. It's 100% wool, 100 grams per skein(approximately 220 yards) for $4.50 per skein. in a worsted weight. I think this yarn is excellent. It's nice and soft, and I've had no problems with splitting. It's a good utility yarn at a good price. Christine has lots of fantastic colors. Go on over to her online shop and check it out.

Now that I had the yarn, there was no excuse not to swatch. Besides, I was so excited to be working on something other than the #$% samurai hats, I actually wanted to swatch! For those of you that have an allergic reaction to swatching - get over it!(She says in her motherly "I'm tired of putting up with your nonsense" voice.)

To determine how many stitches to cast on for the Husband's aran, I swatched each panel and measured the width. For example, the diamond pattern panel with moss stitch in the center of the diamonds is worked over 25 stitches and it measured at 4.5" in width. The celtic knot is worked over 28 stitches and measured 4.5"

By adding up the measurements of each panel including the 4 cables I was using to separate each panel, that gave me the width of moss stitch I would need at either side to make up for half of the circumference of the aran(30"). I figured that I would need 5.75" of moss stitch on either side of the seam, which worked out to 26 stitches. I'm putting a lot of ease in this sweater, because the Husband likes them big and he will be able to hide his weapon and badge under it(policemen never go out in public unarmed and they don't like to advertise the fact that they are armed).

I know, I've been rambling, but here's how it worked out...I need a total of 162 stitches for 1/2 of the body.(I chose not to do this in the round so I could have the stability of seams, and I knew that it would be easier for me to keep my place in the pattern if I was only working on half of the sweater at one time.) So my pattern is:

26 stitches of moss stitch,

8 stitches for a 6 stitch right cable(this includes a rev stocking stitch on either side of the cable),

25 stitches for the diamond pattern,

8 stitches for a 6 stitch right cable,

28 stitches for the celtic knot pattern,

8 stitches for a left cable,

25 stitches for the diamond pattern,

8 stitches for a left cable,

and 26 stitches for moss stitch.

Using the EPS, I cast on 10% fewer stitches for the ribbing(2x2 for 2"), increased 16 stitches on the next row in purl stitch(making this the wrong side), and I'm off to the races! I increased in purl so the stitches would recede to the wrong side and that row wouldn't be noticable in the big scheme of things. I could have increased on the last row of ribbing, but quite frankly I didn't think of it. I also added a selvedge stitch to each side to make it easier to seam.

After all that, I think you deserve a picture.

I Failed Miserably

Oh, the shame...I failed to finish all the #$% samurai hats by the deadline. I had until 5pm on Sunday. I was this close to being hysterical when I realized at 3pm that there was no way on God's green earth I was going to have them done.

So I did what any self respecting knitter would do. Rather than save my honor and finish them(better late than never), I cast on for the next project. I'm now working on the Husband's aran.

There has been considerable work on the aran so far. Not knitting work, mind you, but planning and much math.

I can't use published patterns for the Husband's sweaters. I've yet to find a designer that has designed a decent looking sweater for a man that is larger than an XL. The Husband has a 55" chest. The largest published pattern that I have come across is for a finished chest of 54". As unselfconscious as the Husband is about his body, I don't think he wants to look like a 'sweater girl' of the 40's.

I wanted to make sure that the Husband was going to wear this sweater, so he was very involved in the planning stages, whether he wanted to be or not. First I picked his brain on what type of sweater he wanted. Which meant that I had to drag out many books and magazines. We consulted Tara Manning's "Men in Knits" and Debra Mountford's book. We even consulted a handknit aran sweater that I've had for close to 15 years that I purchased(yes, purchased) on a trip to Bath, England.

The Husband decided that he liked a twisty Celtic knot looking pattern for the center panel and a diamond shaped cable with seed stitch centers for the side panels. I decided to add a simple 6 stitch cable to separate the different patterns.

The next step was to chart each individual panel, because the only patterns I could find for them were written out. I've never worked from a chart before, but I figured that this would be the best way to go. I knew that I would be consulting my notes a lot, and it would be easier to keep track of where I was.

After charting the Celtic knot and diamond pattern, it was time to swatch.

Will our heroine faithfully swatch? Will she get the Husband to Lambikins to pick out the yarn? Will she be able to figure out how many stitches to cast on?

Stay tuned.

The List

The following post has nothing what so ever to do with knitting. You've been warned.

Last evening the Husband and I had an unexpected treat. We went to his parent's house for Easter dinner and the Ga-Ga(this is what the oldest grandchild started calling Grandma and it stuck- or sometimes she is known as the Gaggs - the Husband's family is big on nicknames) offered to let the Kidlets spend the night(I use nicknames in order to protect one's privacy). (I promise from here on out to limit the use of paranthesis.)

The Husband needed to go into the police academy to finish up some copying that had to be done by this morning so I went along to help. While on the drive there we started discussing "The List".

The list is a list(obviously)(Damn!-there they are again) of people, that given the opportunity, we would allow our spouse to have a fling with. It is also an unwritten rule that the names on this list must be someone with who(or is it whom? - Dadgummit!)that we have no chance in Hell of ever having a chance meeting.

We are each allowed five names. My List(in no particular order-AARRGGGH!):

1. Colin Farrell
2. Sam Elliott
3. Kiefer Sutherland
4. Jackie Chan
5. still working on this one - maybe Brendan Fraiser, or LL Cool J, George Clooney, or Johnny Depp

Now, I named my list off rather quickly, and not because I have put a lot of thought into it. I have always liked Sam Elliott. There's just something about the rugged good looks combined with that voice. The same goes for the rest of my list, I've just always liked them.

So, we began to work on the Husband's list. The first name was very easy - Salma Hayak. The husband likes them curvy with a bit of intelligence, which rules out Pam Anderson(The Husband greatly admires Condeleeza Rice because of her intelligence and piano playing ability, but he'd rather just sit and discuss politics and world events with her - I've given in to the power of this form of punctuation). But we were having a hard time coming up with others. It took close to two hours to come up with the next two, Viveca A. Fox and Tia Carrere.

The Husband then pointed out that I had a rather well rounded list of ages and nationalities. Whereas his had so far a good mix, he needed a woman of Anglo-Saxon descent to round it out. We had a very hard time coming up with this name. We finally decided it was because women of Anglo-Saxon, blonde persuasion value skinniness to the point of looking boyish of frame, i.e. Nicole Kidman, Rene Zellweger, Kiera Knightly(not blonde, but very skinny).

Remember when "Bridget Jones' Diary" came out and everyone was making a big deal about Rene Zellweger gaining - gasp!- 20 pounds? The Husband and I thought she looked fantastic with the 'extra' pounds, especially the Vicars and Tarts party scene when she shows up in the bunny costume.

I know that none of these skinny young starlets read this blog, but I have a favor to ask of all of you. If in your travels you come across any of them, please hold them down and force feed them a sandwich. You'll be doing all of us a favor. Those of us that look like Renaissance women will be in vogue, and the Husband will be able to finish his list.

This is Spring?


I spoke too soon in the last post. Today the kidlets are supposed to go to an Easter egg hunt, and there is snow on the ground. Now if we lived in Canada or Maine this wouldn't be a big deal, but this is southern Ohio, for the love of Pete(Rose). This past Monday was the Cincinnati Red's Opening Day which is a rite of spring in these parts and the day was beautiful and warm. Today, not so much.



The brace is off the thumb, it still feels a little stiff but thank goodness it wasn't as bad as Kate's. I've got one week to finish the #$%^ samurai hats and they will be out of my life forever! I can't wait to cast on the Husband's aran. Since even the XL size in most patterns don't accomodate the Husband's chest, I had to come up with a pattern on my own. The Husband was very much involved in the designing of this sweater. I don't want to be 3/4 done with this sweater and have to rip it like I did the Malabrigo that was supposed to be for him.

I checked out all kinds of books from the library, pulled all of the patterns for aran sweaters that I had in my personal library and had him look at all of them to tell me elements that he liked. Then I combined the cable patterns and went from there.

Once I cast on I'll post on the details. I really have to steel my resolve and finish the #$%^ samurai hats.

The Big Smackdown


Several weeks ago, the yarn shop that I frequent was having their spring sale to clear out the bulky winter yarns to make room for the summer weight yarns. I felt obligated to do my part.

So, I thought that since I was almost done with the Girl's hoodie I would pick up some yarn(Plymouth Dreambaby D.K. - very soft and machine washable) for Thing 1's SpongeBob sweater(of my own design). Although I have a pile of yarn waiting to be worked into the Husband's aran, I would now have a project waiting in the wings for those times I became disgusted with all of the mistakes I knew I would make on the aran and toss it aside for a few days.

Naturally the stuff I picked out wasn't on sale. While there I also picked up some yarn for baby booties. A co-worker of the Husband's just had their very own Thing 1 and Thing 2, and some friends of ours just had not only Things 1 and 2, but a 3!

As an added bonus during the sale, with every purchase you got to reach into the 'box of surprises' and grab a gift. Some were for discounts on future purchases, but I grabbed a $25 gift card! Woo-who!

To add to this elation, I finished the Girl's pink hoodie, and she loves it so much that she has worn it to the bus stop every morning, and I have not been able to get a picture of it.

(Finally got a picture since it's 70 degrees this morning, and she didn't need it).

Our weather has finally turned the corner to 'Springsteet'! A sweater is all the Girl needs in the morning. And just yesterday I saw as I was driving the first haze of green on a roadside bush, and a slight shade of yellow on a forsythia! I have crocus blooming in the front yard, and my Bradford pear trees are about to pop open their blooms. I love this time of year, in spite of my allergies.

Just when my heart was so full of silly joy that I felt like I might burst into song like Shirley Jones in "The Music Man" came the big smackdown. Tendonitis in my right thumb. I have a brace on my thumb, an anti-inflamatory prescription in the cabinet, and doctor's orders - no knitting for at least two weeks. Why don't you just tell me not to breathe, doc?


I also found out that D-Day for the #$%^& samurai hats is April 15. I have the knitting done, I just have to assemble. Doc didn't say anything about not assembling for two weeks.

Ready to Go

I've been waiting close to a month for this. The dishwasher was tired. Even though it was only 7 years old I figure in appliance years it was probably 15-20 years old. Here's how I see it: Dishwashers are designed to do one load a day, but our family of 6 ran the dishwasher with a full load at least twice, sometimes 3, times a day, hence tired.

Unfortunately, it decided to start leaking at the same time as the 13 year old fridge and the upstairs bathroom shower. Plus we were having highs of 10F when the Husband said he needed a new winter coat, because the old one just wasn't doing it for him anymore.

So the bathroom leak, coat(a gorgeous black leather number), and fridge repair came first, while I washed dishes by hand. By hand, people! For 6 people that must get a clean glass every time they want a sip of water.

So I sit here waiting for the handsome men(I know they are handsome, because any man that delivers a dishwasher after a month of hand washing is handsome). I'm so excited I could piddle on the floor like the bladder control issue, old spaniel.

I was about to hand wash those dishes in the sink, but then I realized that I need some dirty dishes to test out the new love of my dish cleaning life.

I think I'll make a cake, some cookies and brownies, and roast some big hunk of meat just so I can have more dirty dishes! I'm feeling giddy. I'd better have a lie down so I can get myself under control before they show up, if I don't I may not be able to contain myself.

I've been remiss

I've been remiss in thanking the Husband for the virtual flowers. I think he was a little hurt that the post immediately following the Valentine's post was not a post thanking him. John, I am sorry.

The flowers are beautiful, and the best part...much cheaper than the $60 you would have paid for real ones on Valentine's Day.

John is a fantastic husband that works hard for the family and has made many sacrifices and often gone sleep deprived for us. He is also a terrific father and best of all he gets to be the 'fun' parent.

Thanks, hon. I'll have your aran sweater done by this fall. I promise.