Detente.

I have a cold in my head, and you know I'm not happy about that, but other than that we're having a lovely holiday. Scott and Carolyn and the boys are staying with us, Rich's parents were here for a couple of days, and Rachel brought Maddy over, so we've had everybody together!

The weather is oddly warm, so all the ice is melted off of the front steps! I don't know how long it will last - I heard that it might get really cold tonight, and in that case the steps will ice over again. That's how they are all winter, because there is a little slanted roof over the steps, and the sun melts the snow from the roof during the day, causing water to drip down onto the steps, then the water freezes at night, and we have icy dangersteps!

Soren was very afraid of the dog when they first came to stay, but he is so used to having the dog around now, that he is actually sitting next to Sonny on the rug right now, playing with Legos. They aren't playing together, they are ignoring each other, but it's peaceful.

In which I am tired of listening to the radio in my head.

We had some big snow today! I went out to lunch with RA, and when we started out there were a few light flakes in the air, but when we came out of the restaurant, there was some real snowfall going on, and as we went to do a couple of errands, it was snowing more and more.

It was coming down heavily when we got back to my house, so I asked Rich if he would drive Kim and I to get a Christmas tree, because he is the one you want driving if you have to go out in bad weather!

We went to the grocery store to buy a tree, because we are cool like that, instead of going out to a tree farm and riding in a wagon and cutting something ourselves, like Some People do (Sarah), and the trees in front of the store were all snowy and pretty! It was very festive!

Since it was all snowing and whatnot, we went inside and bought some staples - bread, milk and Diet Pepsi - just in case we got snowed in! The probability of getting snowed in was looking pretty high by the time we left the store, and I was glad we didn't have far to drive.

It kept on snowing all afternoon and evening, and it is deep out there, I tell you what! While I took my evening nap, Rich had been outside shoveling around my car and cleaning it off so I could drive to work, but I had to scrape the windows again before I could drive it.

Kim goes to college in the Southern part of the state, and she was laughing about how surprised her friends down there would be if they saw all this snow! She's going to take pictures tomorrow to send down to them.

What I'm reading today: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. Still have The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell for bedtime reading.

What I'm knitting today: I re-knit the thumb in a mitten for Rich, and I was very gratified that he asked me to do it. He doesn't appreciate handknits as much as I wish, but he really likes this pair of mittens for wearing to walk the dog. They are double-stranded mittens knitted in the Spruce pattern from one of Robin Hansen's books, but I didn't have the pattern handy, and I wasn't sure I could match the yarn, either, so I just ripped back a few rows, picked up the stitches and knitted the top of the thumb in solid green. The original thumb was green and white.

Tonight at work I'm making the first of a pair of fingerless mitts for myself. I like wearing fingerless mitts, and I started this winter with three pair and now I only have one pair. One pair was loaned to someone, and then I lost one of the other pair. It's okay, they are a fast thing to make.

What I'm humming today (and wish I wasn't!): I'm so tired of Baby It's Cold Outside! It's been playing on the radio in my head for two weeks and I'm so very sick of it! The first time I heard it this year was in a delightful video clip from Glee (I hate that show, but I have a crush on Darren Criss), and I've been humming it ever since! Make it stop! I wasn't actually humming it today until I read my sister Sarah's journal and she was complaining about that particular song, and that started it all again. Thanks, Sarah.

In which there is cake and my phone gets all sticky.

Oh man, I ate so much cake! Rachel made a beautiful layer cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and served a huge piece to me on a plate that had been drizzled with raspberry syrup, and I ate the whole big piece! It was really good, but I think I will never be able to eat cake again.

She made the cake because Rich told me tonight as we were leaving the house how much he wanted to eat some cake, and I ran back and grabbed a can of Hershey's cocoa to take to Rachel's with me. I checked the back of the can, and yes, there it was, the recipe for chocolate cake, and for chocolate frosting!

Rich dropped me off at Rachel's, carrying my can of cocoa and also bearing a bowl of quinoa salad. Rachel and Ash are making an effort to have dinner every night, sitting down at the table, and this was day one of that new plan. They grilled chicken, made rice, and salad, and I brought the quinoa salad I made - it was a wonderful dinner.

Then I played with the baby while Rachel made cake. I had a lovely time, and the baby was so much fun! She did get my phone all ooky, and I just had to clean it up because the keys were too goobery. Yuck.

So that was my night, and Rachel sent home a huge slab of cake for Rich. He was very grateful and enjoyed it muchly.

What I'm thankful for today: I'm so glad that I finished my class last week so that I am unencumbered by finals this week and can be free to talk everyone else off the ledge while they finish their finals!

What I'm reading today: I just got Making Money by Terry Pratchett from the library today and brought it to work to read. Also, I'm in the middle of What the Dickens, by Gregory MacGuire, and my bedtime reading is The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell.

What I'm knitting today: Still working on the first sock of a pair of man's grey socks. Men's feet are so big! It takes forever to finish the foot!

When I'm going to put up my Christmas tree: When Kim gets home from college, and not a minute before, and I consider the week before Christmas to be still a bit too early! When I was a kid, my parents put the tree up on Christmas eve after we were in bed, and that is, in my opinion, the perfect time! When we got married and Rich wanted to put up the tree two weeks before Christmas, I was shocked! I have compromised through the years, but a week before Christmas is as early as I can go with it, and it comes down on New Year's Day! (I will probably buy the tree tomorrow, though.)

In which we find that dogs don't like to potty in the snow.

It's winter, I'm bored, I'm done with Intro to Chem, and so now it's time for me to do what I do every winter - go to the movies! I do this every year - always start to feel like I never get out of the house, and I tell Rich we have to go to a movie every Saturday, and then we go, maybe two or three Saturdays, before I forget or we can't find anything that we want to see and that's the end of it.

This weekend we finally went to see The Deathly Hallows. Yes, I know, we are the last ones to see it, but I can't go on opening weekend because there are too many people, and then I was busy studying, blah blah woof woof, and now I've seen it. I liked it very much. The kids get more attractive every year (especially those Weasley twins, yum!), and why did no one mention all the lovely knitted garments they wear in this movie? There were a couple of things I would really like to make!

When we came out of the theater, it was raining and cold, but as the evening went on, the rain turned to big wet flakes of snow, and then it just went on snowing all night! When I went to work, all the maintenance guys were out plowing the parking lots, and they kept at it all night.

It was so snowy that church was cancelled, and I was happy about that, because I was so tired, and I just wanted to go to bed! When I woke up, Rich made a fire in the fireplace, and I made a pot of chicken noodle soup for supper. I love a snow day!

In which I did not fall apart, but someone else did.

Whew, the chemistry final is over! Afterward I was supposed to meet Diane to go sell back our books and then take Rachel to lunch as a thankyou for tutoring us through it, but after I had been waiting for an hour, Diane came out of the classroom where we had been taking the test, and said she was going to stay to double-check her answers! She had already been taking the test for three hours!

I went home to meet Rachel, who usually drives when we go out, because she has the carseat for Maddy in her car. We went to the restaurant and had just gotten seated when Diane called. She sounded so crazy, and was ranting about the test, so I went into Calming Mode, and talked her off the ledge, because hey, that's what I do.

Once she settled down, she came to join us at the restaurant, and after lunch I did some shopping with Rachel and Maddy and then entertained Maddy while Rachel got a haircut.

Now that Intro to Chemistry is over, I have to start working my way through the Intermediate Algebra book during Winter Break, because Rachel says the reason I have so much trouble with chemistry is because I don't know algebra. For crap sake, who knew I'd ever need it for anything?

In which I have lost the will to study.

Yes, it's true. I did suggest to a couple of people that we do Holidailies again, but it was already December 4 when I thought of it, which is a bit late to get started. I was studying for the Everlasting Chemistry class at the time, so I emailed three people that I thought might be interested in posting every day, and scratched some notes on a scrap of paper to remind myself of what I had done for the first three days of the month, but then I went back to doing equations and forgot all about it. Until today, when Sarah said she was doing Holidailies at my suggestion, and guilted me into making an effort to post something.

So I found the scrap of paper that I made the notes on - I was surprised at how unhelpful the notes are! Here is what they said:

• Dec. 1 - Test in Chem. Compared grades.
  
• Dec. 2 - Day off - did what?
  
• Dec. 3 - Beans, handbells, snow.
  
• Dec. 4 - Practice problems. Dog in snow! Top Gear. Shoveling out a spot.
  

And now it is three days later, and I'm wondering what I can possibly make out of those cryptic notes!

I have spent the last few days reviewing stuff for my Chemistry final, and going to Rachel's to work on things that you'd think I'd know by now. She has been so helpful and kind, but I'm beginning to see cracks in her veneer and I'm wondering if she is breaking up under the strain of pulling me through Chemistry like a dead seal.

I'm feeling pretty much at the end of my rope also, and I have that flatlined, brain dead feeling you get when there is just nothing else you can learn, and if you keep trying to push stuff in one end of your brain, then things will fall out the other end, things that you don't want to lose, like important memories of your life or what pie tastes like.

So I've done all the studying I can do and tomorrow is the final and I don't even care about it anymore. I'm going to get in bed and read and knit and warm up my cold toes, because hey, it is only 11 degrees outside!

Tomorrow I will be done with my final and I can write about something else. Something maybe more interesting...

In which Rachel was working like a rented circus monkey.

It's getting near the end of the semester, and there are many chapters in our Intro to Chemistry book that we have not touched on at all. Our teacher said she was going to give us a take-home test over the last unit, and then we would spend the rest of the remaining classes reviewing for the final next week.

She gave us the take-home test last week, but I didn't even look at it until after we finished testing on the previous unit, and then there was Thanksgiving, so I really didn't start working on the take-home test until Friday night at work. Which is when I found out that it was all over my head.

I told Rachel I was going to need her help, so Saturday afternoon I went to her house and she looked over the test and started coaching me through a couple of the problems on it. I did those, with her help, and then she suggested that I do some of the practice problems from the book, so I did that for about another hour, which is pretty much as long as I am able to focus on Chemistry before my brain melts and starts running out of my ears.

Sunday there was no time to get together with Rachel, but I did more practice problems at work. Rachel was at work, too, so she was trying to talk me off the ledge through it over the phone in between taking care of her patients.

My friend Diane, who is taking the Chem class, too, was at work on Sunday night and then we both went to class in the morning to sit through review and she was complaining about how tired she was, but I had no sympathy, because I have worked the night before and gone to class in the morning this whole semester! I blame my poor test scores on having taken every test while I was half-asleep!

I went back to Rachel's yesterday in the afternoon for more practice problems, and then last night at work, Diane and I had to really put our heads down and work on that test! We did all of the fill-in-the-blanks questions and but then today we still had the equations section to work on!

I went to Rachel's at 4 in the afternoon and started working on blah blah woof woof - you know you don't care what it was, but it was hard, let me tell you! Diane got there at about 6:30, and by then I was unable to focus anymore, so I took Maddy off to the other room and played with her while Diane and Rachel went over some of the things I was done with.

Ash took over amusing Maddy when I was ready to go back to doing horrendous equations, and he played with her and gave her a bath while we made the final push to finish my test! Yay! It was done and I was as wrung out as a used dishrag, so I went home at 8 to get a nap before work.

I'm at work now, and I just talked to Rachel, who said that Diane stayed until almost 9, and then she had to leave for work, but she got through it all. Rachel is exhausted, and Ash pointed out that she had been tutoring us for five hours!

What I'm thankful for today:

I'm thankful that Rachel was willing to spend the whole evening teaching us to do ridiculous crap that we will be unlikely to ever need to know in real life.

Now I just have to review all the stuff we covered early in the semester that I immediately forgot after we were tested on it.

I'm sore all over!

Ouch! I'm sore all over after Rachel and I did an exersize video this afternoon. It was fun to do, especially with Maddy crawling all over us, but now I am feeling it!

The semester is almost over - only two more weeks of this chemistry class, and I'll be glad to be done with it. My friend Diane is taking the class too, and this week she is working all night and then going to class in the morning, like I always do, so she is finally seeing how hard it is for me! We were both being bitter about it this morning, but as I said, it's almost over.

It's been gray and rainy all day, and a couple of people I've talked to are having some hard times in one way or another, so I'm trying to stay upbeat and positive to help them. Instead of whining about my sore muscles and my stinking class, I am going to think of something to be thankful for...

Today I'm thankful that my cat vomited on my new leather couch because the shiny surface was easier to clean than if it had been on the old cloth-covered couch. How's that for gratitude?

Thanksgiving

We went to Rachel's and had a wonderful dinner there. She made homemade rolls! With butter! She made Mexican Wedding cakes!! She made some delicious stuffing in the crockpot, with pork sausage and cranberries! She made some Brie in a crust with carmelized onions! She did some amazing cooking!

I made the mashed potatoes, and it was a really good batch. I made polenta and squash casserole, too, which is just mashed winter squash cooked into corn meal mush along with a big handful of parmesan cheese! I love that, and so did Maddy.

Then Ash went outside and deep-fried the turkey and it was fantastic! I've never had the turkey cooked that way before and it was so good! It only took an hour to cook once the oil got hot enough, but Ash had to sit outside and keep an eye on the fryer the whole time, and it was really cold! He was wearing gloves, a scarf, and a hat, his winter coat, and had a thermos of hot cocoa! (No one went outside to keep him company - it was freezing!)

Maddy nibbled along with us all day, and she never got her afternoon nap, but she was having a nice time playing and crawling around. She finally got so tired that Rachel put her in bed for a late nap, and she woke up again in about an hour. Rachel said Maddy was furious when she saw that all the company had gone home and the fun was over! She didn't go back to sleep until after midnight, just to punish her parents.

After dinner, we all felt so sleepy, you know how it is after turkey dinner. Ash took a nap in the bedroom and the rest of us sat on the couch and watched Kim play a video game, and talked about how sleepy we were. It was lovely and peaceful. I love to watch my kids play video games while I knit, especially Mario games, and the one Kim was playing is one of my favorites. (I don't know which one it is, either Mario 64 or Mario World. I think it was Mario 64.)

It's only 24 degrees outside today!

Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.

This has been a long day, what with the cold, rainy weather, and the chemistry test this morning, and then I couldn't sleep this evening like I usually do before work. I used what would have been my sleeping time to catch up with Diana over the phone, so that was good. I played solitaire on my computer while I talked to her, and she played Vampire Wars on Facebook. (Just a reminder - if you see updates on Facebook that give you the status of my Vampire Wars achievements, that is not because I am playing VW, it's Diana. She plays my character as well as her own.)

So it was very cold and wet all day, and I had to go out to the college this morning to take a chem test. I felt really prepared last night when I was reviewing the Gas Laws and doing some practice problems. When I started the test I was fine - I had the Gas Laws memorized, and I had no problem with the multiple choice questions, but then I got to the problems, and hey! There was no indication of which Gas Law went with which problem! I was supposed to figure it out myself! Eeek! So I am expecting to have done very badly on the test, and I don't think I'll be getting a B in the class now.

When the weather is gray and rainy like this, it is good weather for sleeping during the day. Kim brought her laptop and got into bed with me this morning, and I slept until 3:30 in the afternoon.

After dinner Kim and I went to Rachel's to see Maddy. Rachel is all excited because she and Ash are making the Thanksgiving dinner this year, except for a couple of side dishes she asked me to make. She has been making lists and shopping for several days, and tonight we all went for a ride in the car to give Maddy her daily outing, and to pick up the propane tank from my garage. (Ash is planning to deep fat fry the turkey.)

Maddy started out wearing a jacket, a hat and little socks, but she pulls those off as fast as she can, so you have to keep distracting her from that activity. She was busy looking at things in the store where we stopped to get bread for making stuffing, so the hat stayed on while we were there. I never saw her do it, but somewhere between leaving the store and getting back into the car, she stripped off the hat and socks again! When I looked down at her, she was dozing comfortably, but was barefoot and bareheaded.

I'm back at work tonight, and expecting a quiet night. I'll sleep in the morning when I get home, and when I wake up we'll make the mashed potatoes to take to Rachel's. Yay! I love Thanksgiving dinner!

Here's an old post, it was too boring to publish. Until now.

Kim was home this weekend and she left this afternoon to go back to school. She drove the van back and left her car here, because Rich saw a crack in her tire. We'll get her tire taken care of and she'll bring the van back next week when she comes home for Thanksgiving break.

It was nice to have Kim home, but we didn't do anything special. I worked all weekend, and she spent some of her time writing her Nano story. Sando brought a new video game one night and they stayed up late playing that. So it was just the usual, but I was glad to have her for company.

In which we drove a long way and got a bad case of roadbutt.

Someone reminded me today that I haven't written anything here in a while, and said that she still checks every day to see if I've updated, so I'm going to write something just for Sue's Birthday! Happy Birthday, Sue!

Where I've been:

Rich and I took a driving trip to Salt Lake City to visit Scott and Carolyn and to spend time with Soren and Carl. It was a good trip - we had some good audiobooks to listen to, including Bulletproof Mascara, which we both enjoyed, and if Scott had time to read I would suggest it to him because the main character is a linguist who couldn't get a job in her field, but she falls into another job by accident and her skills as a linguist are unexpectedly helpful!

We visited two museums in SLC, one was the Museum of Natural History at the U of U, and the other was a children's hands-on museum. I am the worst sight-seer in the world, and also I pretty much hate nature, so once I have glanced at the exhibits I am done, so the natural history museum was not so great. It's very small, too, and on the day we went it was full of fifth-graders. Ugh.

The hands-on museum was slightly better, not because I am interested in child-oriented science or shopping in a grocery store full of plastic pork chops, but because there were a lot of cute kids and their parents, and I like to watch people and how they interact. I spent some time sitting on a bench with my knitting, talking to Scott, while Rich played in a very cool playhouse with Soren.

One night Scott had to go out to a meeting, and Carolyn dressed the kids in their Halloween costumes so we could walk over to visit a deaf friend of theirs who lives a couple of blocks away. (Side note: It's embarrassing to see how much my signing skills have declined.) Soren was the Cat in the Hat, and Carl was Yertle the Turtle. They were great costumes! Carolyn made them!

What I knitted in Utah:

I promised Carolyn's friend Monique a sweater for her baby when she first got pregnant, and I finally made one while we were visiting. On Tuesday morning we went to a lovely yarn shop called Black Sheep Wool near Temple Square, and I bought yarn for a Wallaby for Ethan. I spent the next three or four days knitting on that sweater, and finished it Friday night!

Scott took a couple of days off while we were there, and one afternoon he and I walked for blocks to visit another yarn shop called Blazing Needles! It was about a mile and a half away! That's right, I walked three miles round trip to go to a yarn shop!

It was a very nice shop with a lot of beautiful samples hanging up, but the most amazing thing was the Bison yarn! There were small skeins of it, probably an ounce or a little more, that were selling for 60-80 dollars! I felt a little shy about fondling it because it was so expensive! I didn't want to get it all rubbed up!

Carolyn wasn't with us at the hands-on museum because she was sick with a cold that spread through their family the whole week we were there. By the end of the week, Carolyn was almost completely well, Soren and Carl were still sick but Carl was on his way to wellness, and Scott was starting to come down with it. I'm sure you can guess who's got a cold now!

While I was gone I missed two sessions of my chemistry class, in which we started a new unit on moles and stoichiometry. I didn't take my book with me, and because there is limited access to the internet at Scott's house, I didn't see any of the notes or practice pages on the website, so when I got back to class on Monday, they were ready to take a quiz on things I was clueless about.

I looked blankly at my quiz paper, and then I scribbled a mole joke on the bottom of the page, hoping to get points for being funny. I stood up to turn in my paper and leave, and suddenly our teacher announced that everyone who showed up for the practice quiz would get full points and then she did some more review problems! Yay!

That afternoon Rachel tutored Diane and I for a couple of hours, so we were able to do the mole-converting, and I went back to practice more on Tuesday, too. We took the real test on Wednesday, and I am hoping to get very lucky and maybe get a C! If not, well, I will have to do better on the next unit to make up for this one. I never did get through the stoichiometry chapter.

While we were in SLC, we had a chance to meet up with some friends who moved to California last year, and see their new baby! So that was fun and unexpected. I did some cooking while Carolyn was sick, making chicken soup and chocolate chip cookies, which were so good I amazed myself!

I made some bacon quiche the last night we were there, and Carolyn had shopped for the groceries for it, but since she is not me, she had shopped for the kind of groceries that she buys - cheese in a block and bacon that has to be cooked in a pan, instead of a bag of shredded cheese and that instant bacon that you make in the microwave! I felt like a pioneer! I was just grateful that we didn't have to milk a cow, too!

We had a good drive home, including a stop at a place in Iowa where I like to get hamburgers, but I found it depressing this time, and I don't think I want to stop there again. The burgers are good, but the ambiance not so much. We listened to the second half of Bulletproof Mascara and started another book that was also good, but we only got through about half of it before we got home.

Rachel and Ash brought Maddy over to see us when we got home Sunday afternoon, and as they brought her up the steps, I opened the door and she started yelling in a happy way and kicking her feet and waving her arms with a big smile, and I said, "I know! I know!" because I was happy to see her, too.

Dumb it down.

I got a new phone today. I know that right now you are saying to yourself, "But didn't she just get a new phone two weeks ago?" and you are right about that. I did get a new phone two weeks ago. I bought it on the run on the day Diana left town, and had no training at all in how to use it, so for the first few hours I didn't know how to answer a call! I had to let the call ring until the caller hung up and then call it back from the call log until I got back from dropping Diana off, and then Rachel showed me how to answer the phone. (I figured out hanging up on my own, thank you.)

Two days later I went back to the store to ask how to find my contacts list! There was a Contacts list on my Droid, but it was a list of my Facebook contacts, which wasn't helpful at all. I don't call any of those people! Heck, I hide half of them because their status updates are so dumb (not you, of course, yours are brilliant)! My phone contacts list that had been transferred from my old Blackberry was in an imbedded menu about three menus deep! I would never have found that on my own!

There were some other irritations, too, and two frustrated weeks later, I was tired of it, so today I went to the phone store and traded the Android for a new Blackberry, and tonight I am happier. I know, I know, you want an Android, all the cool kids have one, even the white-haired old dear with her Android in a zebra-striped gel skin who was standing in line ahead of me today is hipper than me, but I can live with that.

When will it end?

I've been taking this chemistry class and one thing I've learned is that I don't care about chemistry. I can't believe anyone does! So I'm studying for a test tomorrow and all I can think about is when it will be over and I will never have to think about chemistry again.

In other news, my phone is still smarter than I am, and also smarter than my dog. It has a lot of functions that I will never use, and a lot that I probably could use but only once, and then I will forget how I made it work the first time and will never be able to use again. I'm thinking that when Kim's contract is up in February, I will give her this ridiculously complicated phone, and I will get a new, simpler, phone. I'm looking forward to it.

We had a fun trip to Michigan over the weekend. We went for my niece Kate's wedding, so there was a lot of family time, including time with my brother Ed and his wife. I got to meet Jenna's son Chase, who is darling, and get manis and pedis with Jenna and Sarah. We got to know Inger's stepdaughter Heather better, and she is a lot of fun and really appreciated the armwarmers I knitted for her. (I love people who love my knitting!) Rich got to play golf with his dad and Jenna's husband on a really fun golf course, and we saw some old friends at the wedding reception.

Okay, that's the update. I have to go study chemistry.

In which I am dumber than my phone.

Diana left today, after spending a hard-working vacation painting, sewing, and playing with Maddy. Before we left to drive her to where she would catch the bus to the airport, we stopped at the phone store to get a new phone for me.

I was planning to keep my Blackberry until Kim's phone contract is up in February and then get both of us a new phone on the buy one get one free plan for Android phones at the phone store, but then this week my phone started failing! It might have been heat or water damage, I don't know, and the guy at the phone store switched the battery for me, but it didn't help much. I was able to baby my phone along all week until the contract ended today!

So we stopped at the phone store and I got my new phone and all is well, except for the steep learning curve with this new *smart* phone. Sadly, my phone appears to be smarter than me.

In which Diana is Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

I'm sitting here at work, trying to breathe through a stuffy nose, and I'm hoping that it's stuffy because I was out walking tonight, and inhaling dead leaf mold, and not stuffy because I'm getting a cold! Rich has a very bad cold this week, so bad that he didn't go to Tae Kwon Do classes or his Wednesday night meetings, so you know that is bad! I don't want to get sick! I have too much to do!

For one thing, I have company! Diana got here last night, and I drove to the bus stop in Rockford to pick her up all by myself! RA is out of town, and she doesn't like to drive late at night anyway, because her night vision isn't good, Rachel had to work, and Rich was too sick, so I had to pull up my big girl pants and go by myself! It went okay in spite of the construction on the highway and also, my Garmin is apparently a big fat liar who told me to take a turn that sent me the wrong way when I was almost at my destination.

In spite of everything, I got Diana back to our house, and she had to go in and clean the boxes of yarn off of the guest bed herself while I went to work! Because all of the days she is going to be here? I have to work them. Kathy, the other night operator, is on vacation for the exact same 10 days that Diana is here!

Diana is really here to visit with Maddy, and she got a great start this morning when Ash had to go help a friend with something, and Rachel worked last night so she needed to sleep in the morning, so Diana went over early in the morning to play with Maddy! They had a lovely time together!

When I woke up today, I had a call from work, telling me that we were having a disaster drill, and if I came to work as a responder, I could get my flu shot as well as education credit for showing up. I brought Diana to work with me and gave her a tour of my department, which was thrilling for her. Rachel came to get a shot, too, and then she and Ash took the baby to do some shopping.

I had someone coming over to have a little knitting lesson, so Diana and I just had time to grab some lunch and then go back home. While I was helping Summer knit, Diana decided that the piles of DVDs on top of the entertainment center looked messy, so she organized that area (and dusted - hey, maybe that's why my nose is stuffy! All that dust that was floating around!)

Sometime this afternoon, my phone died, so after supper we had to go to the cell phone store to get help! That was an experience! The people watching was entertaining, the young man who helped us was charming and had beautiful eyes, and my phone wasn't dead, it just needed a new battery. When he took the phone apart to look at the battery, the cell phone guy said it looked like it had gotten wet, and smelled like Dawn dishwashing soap. We laughed and assured him that me and my phone do not go near dishwashing soap! That is not my job! He replaced the battery and it's all working just fine now.

Tonight we went for a walk with the dog, Rachel and Maddy, and I spent the entire walk trailing behind eveyone, talking on the phone, because while my phone was dead I had gotten several calls that I needed to take care of. Diana and Rachel took advantage of my phone-calling to make me walk through the cemetary with them, in the dark! I was too busy talking to have more than a moment of misgiving. I didn't get possessed, so it's okay.

After the walk we went back home so I could get a nap and Diana could watch some cable TV. She's enjoying it because she doesn't have cable at her house right now, and so for 10 days she can watch all the Food Network and E! she wants to. When I was leaving for work, she was reluctantly getting up to go to bed, and she was sorry to have to turn the TV off. I told her to get some pillows and sleep on the couch - she can leave the TV on all night, and I think she might be doing that.

In which Fruit Loops are not dog food.

So it has been a busy weekend, and I'm back at work tonight with studying to do and another pumpkin hat to make. This is the fifth pumpkin hat I have made in a week, and after this one I have only one left to make and then I am done -DONE- with pumpkin hats. For another season, anyway.

The fun project that I would like to do more of is mitten knitting! Someone asked me to make some mittens, using her Civil War-era pattern, and her lovely wool that is grown on sheep raised by 19th century sheep-raising methods, and I said I would be happy to, because it is so pleasant to work with that wool of hers! (Also, she is paying me to make them.)

So I told this person that I had several other projects going on right now, and that I wouldn't get to the mittens right away, but then the mitten pattern looked interesting and the yarn was lovely, and I thought it wouldn't hurt anything if I just swatched a little swatch, just to see how it knitted up...and now it is two mittens later, and I have just discovered that what I thought was a mistake in her pattern-writing is a mistake in my pattern-reading! (Is anyone surprised at this? I'm sure my children aren't because they always say that I only read my favorite words!)

I will be doing some ripping back on the mittens tomorrow, but for tonight I have this pumpkin hat to work on. And chemistry practice problems to do.

In other news, we have had a couple of incidents with the dog, where he has been all crazy hyper, running like a wild thing in one direction and then back in the other direction, and you can't even calm him down, it's crazy! The first time it happened was after Maddy had visitied and shared some Fruit Loops with the dog, and then later, when Rich was juggling Maddy in one arm and a half-eaten Twinkie in the other hand, he dropped the Twinkie and Sonny barcuumed it right up! Tonight the dog was able to score a few dropped Fruit Loops again, and now I wonder if those few pieces of cereal are triggering the crazy behavior? He didn't have that many! Maybe 10 Loops! What do you think? Does the dog need a Ritalin milkshake, or will keeping him away from the Fruit Loops fix the problem?

In which we visited a farm, and Kim got duck poop on her shirt.

Kim came home to meet the dog this weekend. She got here last night, and Sonny was happy to see her! He was sleeping on the floor in her bedroom this morning when I woke up. It was very cute.

I didn't realize how late she stayed up last night, and I didn't care anyway. I woke her up at 9 to start getting ready for the Alpaca Festival! Rachel and I have been planning to go to this event all week!

It wasn't all that early anyway. I went out at 9 to get an Egg Mcmuffin with RA, and I woke Kim up before I left. I told her I would bring back some breakfast for her if she got up and dressed while I was gone.

When I got home, she was up, and it didn't matter that she wasn't dressed, because Maddy was taking a nap, so we couldn't go yet. Finally Rachel said she was going to wake the baby up to go!

On the way there, Rachel and Ash took Maddy in their car, and Kim and I drove our van. Kim was complaining a little about a song that was playing in the car, because she said she had to listen to it the last time she was home, and then it got stuck in her head but it drove her crazy because she only knows one line! I am tired of all of my CDs, and can't get excited about listening to any of them, so I invented a new game - CD roulette. You reach into the CD notebook, and pull something out without looking at it, and whatever it is, you have to listen to it.

It was a great day to be outside! The temperature had dropped overnight to something like 57, and the leaves are starting to turn colors. We drove out to the country to find the farm where they were holding the festival, and we only had to turn around once to find the right road.

The Alpaca farm was beautiful, and so clean! We looked into the barn, and it was spotless! There were supposed to be displays from eight Alpaca farms, and there might have been for all I know. There were big Alpacas and small ones - the baby Alpacas were the cutest things!

We really enjoyed looking around at everything. Maddy was riding in her sling on Rachel's hip, Ash was carrying his new camera, and I was hoping to find some yarn for sale!

The first thing we saw was a pen containing some goats, baby ducks in a smaller pen, and some big white ducks with cool fluffy topknots! What kind of ducks are these? I never did find out, but here is a picture of Kim holding one:



Kim spent most of the time in that pen, corraling ducks. It was pretty funny to see her slowly sneaking up behind them, and herding them into the corner so she could hold one of them.

We showed the ducks to Maddy, and she was entertained by them. She looked at everything and seemed interested in all of it. We showed her the alpacas, who were so cute! They didn't seem to be as interested in us, though, and they were shy of being petted. We were trying to coax one of them to let us pet his topknot, and then we saw Kim, luring them to her with a handful of grass! That's when we started calling her the Alpaca Whisperer!



I did manage to score some Alpaca yarn, which is possibly the softest thing in the universe! Also, someone pointed out that there was a woman spinning yarn on a spinning wheel by the barn so I went right over to take a look, and it was someone I know from the Fiber Festival! She had some of her homemade soap with her, so I bought a couple of bars of that as well as some lovely Alpaca yarn!

On the way home Kim reminded me that we had talked about going to the apple orchard, too, and I was so tired, but she really wanted to go. I did talk her into stopping at home first so we could eat some lunch and use the bathroom! When we were ready to go out to the orchard, Rich and the dog decided to go with us.

We drove out about 30 minutes North to get to the orchard, where Kim got her cider, some donuts, and an apple-caramel pie! We bought a bag of apples, too, and at the last minute I thought of getting a caramel apple for Rachel. She loves those, and she was very grateful to get it.

It's been a long day, and I'm so tired!

In which Sonny takes a little trip.

So Sonny is doing very well at housebreaking, and he is charmingly friendly and cheerful, but his hobby of humping legs? Very annoying. Sonny will be making a little visit to the vet tomorrow to get some shots and have some surgery. I'm sure he will come home a humbler dog, one who is less apt to molest us. He can find a new hobby, like maybe crochet.

In which we do not name our dog Sir Buttered Wafflebutt.

Okay, here he is:



I called him Pinky Johnson all morning, and laughed every time I said it, because I think I am so darn funny, but Rich didn't think much of that name, if you can believe that, and he was calling him Waffles. We both called him Waffles for a while in the afternoon, but I think we are agreed that we will just let him keep the name he came with, so his name is still Sonny.

First day with the new dog.

Some of the names for the new dog that we have tried and rejected:

• Sparky
  
• Snoopy
  
• Lord Wafflebutt
  
• Stinky Boogers (thanks, Beck!)
  
• Snickers
  
• Hobbes
  
• Dumbass (well, we haven't completely rejected it, it's his default name)
  
• Foogerhead
  

None of these names were quite right, so we are still calling the dog Sonny, in theory, but mostly we call him The Dog.

I told Axel about the new dog when I saw him at work tonight, and he told me about a childhood friend who named his dog Patches, but the poor kid's father insisted on calling the dog Pinky Johnson. When I stopped laughing, I told Axel that is my pick for my dog's new name, and I'm going to start calling The Dog Pinky Johnson immediately!

I gave The Dog, I mean Pinky, a bath this morning with some dog shampoo I bought years ago, and for some reason never threw away. I tried bathing our sheepdog Babs once, and there is nothing on earth like the experience of hoisting a 100 lb dog into the bathtub and keeping her there against her will while she makes every effort to jump back out of the tub! I never washed my own dog again, but I still have the shampoo.

This dog is so good-natured and cheerful that he was perfectly okay with getting a bath, and he is easy to lift in and out of the bathtub, too! He smells much better now!

I got a crate and some dog bowls at the store this morning, and RA bought him a beautiful purple braided rope for playing tug-of-war. The Dog (Pinky J.) didn't seem to be familiar with tug-of-war, but he's catching on.

In which I lost my mind and woke up with a new (used) dog.

So last night I was on a walk with Rachel, Maddy and Ash, when I got a phone call from Rachel's friend Kat. She was driving back from Chicago, where she had gone to her aunt's house to pick up a dog.

Kat loves animals and she has three dogs, and now this aunt, who seems to be a little nutty, is moving to Montana to live with her daughter, and she wanted Kat to take her dog - supposedly this is temporary. So Kat and her mother went to pick up the dog in Chicago, and ended up coming home with the dog, a cat, and an extra dog! She said her aunt was keeping this other dog in a crate and that it has been staying in the crate for hours at a time, and also seemed to be afraid of the aunt!

So Kat said she had to take the dog, because the aunt was just going to take it to the pound, but Kat couldn't bear to let her do that, so she brought the dog home with her, but since she already has 3 dogs of her own, plus now her aunt's dog and a cat, she wanted to know if I could take the dog. That's when I temporarily lost my mind and said yes, and now I have a dog at my house.

Oh man. This dog is not housebroken at all! And he's three years old! He is very friendly, and is having a great time playing with a squeaky rubber duck that used to be Maddy's but it is the dog's toy now. It was a set of three ducks, a Momma and two babies, and Maddy only played with the babies because they are small. The Momma was too big for her to hold, but it's just right for a smallish dog to squeak the heck out of!

I shut the dog in the bathroom last night so he wouldn't pee all over the house while we were sleeping, and he was fine. He is used to being in a crate, so I imagine the bathroom was like a castle to him! I'm going to look for a crate for him at Walmart today, just to sleep in or to stay in when we aren't home, until he is housebroken. When he's housebroken, we'll just use the crate for traveling or for when we are going to be gone from home for a few hours.

The cats hate him, of course. They are avoiding him like crazy, and I put a baby gate across the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, and closed the french doors between the living room and the dining room, so the cats have the dining room and the downstairs bathroom to themselves - a dog-free zone!

My new dog's name is Sonny. Rich says he is too old to change his name, so I guess it will stay Sonny. Kat's Aunt said he was a Lhasa Apso, but he isn't. Rich took a look at him and says he is a Cockapoo, which is better, since they have a good temperament and are smart, like poodles. Also, they don't shed much, so that's good! He's laying by my feet now, chewing his squeaky duck.

In other news, Maddy crawled last night! She was trying to get a little cracker that was just a bit farther than she can reach, and she crawled two steps to get it! Rachel immediately laid a little trail of crackers for her, and she crawled again, twice, to get the crackers! So apparently when properly motivated, Maddy can do new things! Just like Kung Fu Panda!

Pedicure socks are open-toed!

Kim got up early, packed her car and went back to school this morning. She didn't even forget anything! Well, she did forget something, but she came back for it. When I woke up this afternoon, I called to see if she got back okay, and she said she had already unloaded her car and was on her way to class.

So with Kim gone, when Maddy came over to play tonight, I had her all to myself - Rich was at Tae Kwon Do. She looked through the toy basket and I had to make the one toy work for her over and over, because she is too little to make it spin around, but she really likes the spinning!

Then she got distracted by my phone because Kim was texting me, so I let her play with it for a minute. She is not so interested in the toy cell phones. Then I remembered that Rich's old cell phone was upstairs so I ran up and grabbed it, and she had that one to play with (chew on) so I could rescue mine and wipe the drool off of it.

Maddy has had a terrible diaper rash this weekend, so I decided to give her a dry diaper to help keep her skin in good shape. I took off her diaper, and her bum looks much better, by the way, and then I remembered that Rachel read on the internets that you should let their bottoms air-dry and leave them uncovered to help heal them, so I didn't put a diaper on her right away. Like a sucker, I left her bare for a few minutes, and of course she peed on the floor, and also on the little one piece thing she was wearing.

I mopped her up and put a dry diaper on her and dressed her in a dry nightgown I had from when she was smaller, so it was a close fit, and she was a little annoyed with it. I distracted her with a bottle and a Youtube video of Voltaire, and then Ash came to pick her up and take her home. Whew!

Tomorrow I have a chemistry test that I have been reviewing for all weekend, and I just had a text conversation with Kim about it.

Kim:
Good luck on ur test. Don't panic!

Me:
I will use my Rescue Remedy drops and not sit staring in terror like a deer in headlights.

Kim:
U will be ok. Do u need a Xanax?

Me:
No, I will be too tired in the morning. If I take a Xanax I will pass out with my face on the desk and drool on my paper.

Kim:
Haha, so pass on that idea.



Okay, I'm going to study now. When I'm done reviewing, I will just relax and knit on the pedicure socks I'm making for Kim.

Labor day weekend.

I'm tired of the month of August, in which I was on antibiotics for cellulitis almost the entire month, and I'm tired of taking antibiotics, which gave me an allergic rash, and I'm tired of taking steroids to chase away the rash, and the antihistimines to stop the itching.

But now it is September, and the weather is beautifully cooler, and I finished the last of the antibiotics on Saturday, and I'm almost done with the steroids, and hardly need the antihistimine at all, and all that, along with the much cooler weather, is really making my whole life look better.

Kim is home for the weekend, and has been in her old place on the couch, with her laptop on her lap and cats sitting next to her. Sando hasn't been around as much as we would have expected, because he's working every day this weekend, but he came over after work on Saturday and signed my copy of his book, and then stayed until late.

Kim and I have cooked a little, and taken a walk every day, and today I showed her how to repair a hem on one of her favorite t-shirts, and gave her a little sewing kit to take back to school with her for future repairs.

It's not very exciting stuff, but it's been nice.

Everywhere I go, damn, there I am.

So it's my day off and I had a dentist appointment - just a cleaning. I went to that, and look ma, no cavities, so that's good. Then I had to stop at the store for cat litter and milk, and one of those roasted chickens that you take home hot so you don't have to cook it yourself, so I got that, and for some reason, the whole store and everyone in it was annoying!

I was trying to be zen as I got my few things and then as I checked out, the bagger was being all cheerful and friendly, and for some reason that I haven't figured out, she thinks we are good friends (maybe because I've been shopping there a long time? I don't know.) so she was being all chatty about the stuff I was buying and it was just getting on my nerves.

She was babbling about the cat food I was buying, and I don't know why I responded at all, except that it is expected of one, to be civil, and I made a remark about cats peeing in the house and that they don't even deserve to be fed, and omg, she told me about the psychology of cats and how they have to mark their territory and if I have moved to a house where other cats have been living, that is why the cats are peeing, because they can smell that other cats have been there...

I could not be bothered to tell her that we have lived in this house for 16 years and the cats have nothing to be marking territory for, unless they are just trying to show us who is boss, so I just shrugged and walked away and did not roll my eyes right to her face, which I think shows great personal growth.

Scratch, scratch, scratch

I have a rash from antibiotics, and even after my doctor changed my medication, I still have an itchy, itchy rash! This is making me unhappy! Rich told me this morning that I should just stop taking the antibiotic, and I did actually skip the morning dose, but when I woke up I started taking it again, because people, you should not stop taking your antibiotic before you are finished taking all of it. That just helps the remaining bacteria develop immunities, and we don't need to grow stronger bacteria!

So I am taking Benedryl to help fight the itching, and it helps a little, and I'm using a clear Anti-itch lotion that Rachel had at her house. I'm still itching, though. Don't be jealous of my beautiful life.

I am still slaving away over my intro to chem class, and ugh, it's no fun at all. I could not be doing this at all without Rachel's help, and I am grateful for it. My friend Diane is taking this class, too, and she asks me for help, which is so humorous if you think about it. It's truly the blind leading the blind. She is impressed by my mad chem skillz, y'all!

Every night I go to Rachel's house and work on chemistry while the precious fat baby rolls around on the floor by our feet, playing with her toys, and I pick her up to love her, but then Rachel makes me put her down and figure out metric conversions. It's so unfair! I just want to blow raspberrys on the baby, but no, I have to slave away on chemistry instead.

So that is the story of my life this week - I scratch, do homework and play with the fat baby. The baby is the only part that is fun.

In which I remember our family motto: Cs get degrees.

I know it's been a few days, but I've been busy, and not with anything very interesting to write about. I'll try to write more of the boringness, though, because people are starting to complain that I never write.

Since my last post, I have continued going to the chem class, but it hasn't been anything worth journaling about. The kid with the completely tattoed arm hasn't been back to class, so he must have dropped. The annoying whiskey-voiced woman came in one morning and sat down beside me, but then she left the room to go smoke or whatever, and I got up and moved away from that seat. I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wanted to sit by Diane, and there wasn't room at the table for all three of us!

We had our first exam in the class on Wednesday and I got a B, thanks to Rachel's tutoring. I am not learning anything in class, because I go to class after work and I'm too tired to take it all in. Since I go over the notes and homework with Rachel, sometimes class is like a review of things I've covered, so it's not a complete waste of time.

We got Kim back to school last week. It was my working weekend, so Rich took her back by himself. He went with the van so he could take the harp, and she drove her car. Even though they took two cars full of her stuff, she still forgot things, so I'm filling a box with the things she asks me for, and she'll be home next weekend and can take the box back with her.

What I'm knitting today:

I'm working on a little shrug for Maddy to wear to church over her dresses. The air conditioning is always too cool at church, and Maddy has one little sweater that she wears every week, so Rachel and I are both knitting sweaters for her! I had mine about half done when I noticed the stitch count was off and I had to rip back 3 or four inches. It's a pattern from a Debbie Bliss baby pattern book. I'm looking at another sweater for her that has a fair-isle design around the yoke, and some beading that is sewn on after the knitting. (Yes, Sarah, it's the same one you made for Eugenie's little girl. Where did you get the beads?)

I'm also excited about the Bella hat that Diana knitted for Chanelle, so I'm going to make one for Kim. I still have a sweater on the needles for Carolyn and I need to get that one done soon so she can wear it this Fall! Rachel got very excited about making the fancy buttons for it when we were talking about it yesterday, so I will probably finish it soon with Rachel's encouragement!

What I'm reading today:

I'm re-reading a mystery that takes place in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, and I bought the next book in the series and downloaded it to my Kindle, so I've got that to read this weekend.

What I'm watching today:

Rich and I are planning to stay in tonight (not that we ever go out) and watch Kung Fu Panda. I just got it from Netflix on Scott's recommendation.

What I'm cooking today:

I'm planning to make chicken noodle soup because Rich says he is sore all over from TaeKwonDo last night. I haven't been cooking much for about 3 weeks, maybe a month, because it's been so stinking hot, but now I feel like cooking again. I made spaghetti last night, with turkey sausage instead of ground beef and it was really good.

So that's what is going on here, at the House of Boring. Aren't you happy I wrote something?

In which I have no class, but I had to go to one.

Today was my first day of Intro to Chemistry. This is the second time I've taken the class, and this time I'm taking it as a lecture class instead of self-paced. Last time I took the self-paced class and it was horrible, because I am not very motivated, and also, I don't like to do things involving numbers - they make me feel woozy and I have to lay down.

I had to go straight from work, so I stopped and bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi to keep me going, and I met my friend Diane outside the building and we walked in together.

I think the best part about the class will be making fun of some of the other students. It certainly won't be my amazing new knowledge of chemistry.

One woman followed us down the hall to class, talking in a cigarettes-and-whiskey voice about the stressful summer she had, and after class, she followed us outside and joined us in talking to someone Diane was introducing me to. Whiskey Voice lit a cigarette and started babbling about herself, and her kids, and her love of chemistry class - ugh. I was so tired from being up all night that I just stared at her and nodded, wishing she would go away, and finally Diane excused us. As we walked toward the parking lot, Diane said, "We need to avoid her in the future!" and I couldn't agree more.

In which I am not a doctor, but I can dose a baby. Sort of.

Friday is always such a long day! I went to bed early last night and woke up at 8, and went to do some errands with RA. I was back home finally at 2, but Kim needed some Mountain Dew and Ramen soup, so I went back to the store one last time.

Rachel brought Maddy over around 4 or 5 so that Rich could keep her overnight while the rest of us go to work. Maddy was having a bad day and Rachel had given her some infant Tylenol, but forgot to bring the bottle with her, so I had to go back to the drugstore later to get some. I accidently bought the wrong kind - I bought Children's ibruprophen instead of Infant ibuprophen, and there was no eye dropper in the bottle for measuring out the dosage and giving it to the baby.

I was looking around in the kitchen for something that we could give Maddy the medicine with, since she is too little to sip it from the tiny cup that comes with the bottle, and Rich suggested that we use the dropper from the cat's antibiotic. Kim had given the cat the last dose today, and she said she threw the bottle in the trash, so I went through the trash bag and found it!

I rinsed the eyedropper out carefully and then I had to figure out how much of the ibuprohen to give Maddy, based on the recommended doseage for a two-year old, and then I had to figure out how many of the tiny cat-size doses in the eyedropper would add up to the right amount for a baby. When I told Rachel about it on the phone at work just now, she figured it out on paper and told me I hadn't given her enough, but hey, that's better than giving her too much!

How to change a printer ribbon.

When I got home from work this morning, I was feeling very bitter about my life and my job, mostly because ever since we had an 'upgrade' (it turned out to be more like a downgrade) to the switchboard at work a couple of years ago, there are things that don't work the way they should and you have to do them in a roundabout way, but since I work in the middle of the night, I hardly ever have to do those things.

Mostly I just transfer calls to the ER or one of the nursing floors, but this morning some guy wanted to make a collect call or two from his room, and this is one of the things that is all bass-akwards now and had to be done a special way instead of quick and straight-forward like it was before the 'upgrade', and Barb wasn't at work yet to remind me of how she does it during the busy day shift.

So the process wasn't working like it should, and I was trying to do it, but the guy misdialed and had to make the call again, and then he had to call someone else collect, so it was going on and on and was very frustrating for both of us! I have no idea why he wasn't just using his cell phone to make the call, like any other person on the face of the earth would have because even small children and my mother-in-law have cell phones now. Although my mother-in-law would probably have been calling me to help her make a collect call, too, because she has a cell phone, but she doesn't really know how to make a call on it. My father-in-law has written the instructions for her and taped them to the back of her phone, but he's hoping she never has to use it - and so is she.

Also, earlier in the night I had to change the ink cartridge on the big printer, a job that I hate because it goes wrong every damn time I have to do it! It's not just like slipping a toner cartridge into a tabletop printer. I have to put a giant ribbon cartridge into a large printer that stands alone and is about chest-high to me (or waist-high to a person of normal height).

Here's the thing - I have to put in the ribbon cartridge and jiggle it into position so it drops down onto two spindles and OMG, the stinking cartridge just will not drop down onto those two spindles! There is a knob on top of the cartridge that can be turned counter-clockwise until it all drops neatly into place, and I turn it and turn it, and jiggle it and jiggle it and jiggle it, and it just will not go and then finally it does!

And then I start the printer again, because I still have more reports to print and the printer runs a little and then it beeps and shows me a red light and I look at the little window and it says "Ribbon Fault", which means something is wrong with the ribbon! So I clear it by pushing the Clear button, and start it again and it prints a line or two and then BEEP, Ribbon Fault. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I can clear it and start it as many times as I want to, but I might as well not bother, because in the end, I just have to take out the ribbon, throw it away, and start over again with another ribbon cartridge. Last night I had to use two cartridges, and the third one worked the way it should, so that was good, and at least I didn't fall into a pit of rage like last time and slam the faulty ribbon against a cabinet, causing the plastic casing to break and release pleated ribbon all over the place. I cleaned it up (covering my hands with paper towels) and put it all into a plastic bag, and gave it to the midnight housekeeping guy to throw away so no one would see it sitting in the wastebasket. It is important to hide the bodies evidence.

So that was my night and by the time Barb came in this morning I was pretty cranky and tired and I was so glad to come home and just go to bed!

Baby's first butter!

Rich mentioned tonight that there were a lot more dishes to wash since we got home! Yes, since he was just eating Triple Baconator sandwiches from Wendy's instead of cooking, he didn't have much to wash at all while we were gone!

Rachel brought over a cookbook for babies today, and she wanted to look through it for ideas on what to cook for Maddy. I had been shopping with RA, and bought a bunch of leeks, so when Rachel saw a recipe for Potato and Leeks with Peas, we thought it would be fun to make that!

When the kids were younger, potato and leek soup was one of my favorite things to make, and Rachel recently confessed that she didn't like it at all when she was a kid, but she remembers it fondly now, so she was excited to make a batch for Maddy. We made a bigger pot of it for ourselves, too.

We didn't use peas, because the recipe I use calls for carrots, and we like it that way. Maddy loves pureed carrots (from a jar - when Rachel made some steamed carrots and pureed them herself, Maddy thought they were disgusting!), so Rachel used carrots in her little batch of soup.

So making this soup requires two pans, one little pan for Maddy's version, which is pretty much the same as ours, but with no salt and no added milk. Just potatoes, leeks, carrots and butter. Baby's first butter!

So where was I, before I got distracted by butter? Oh right, the pans, one little saucepan for Maddy, one big soup pot for us. We need the blender, a big bowl for the pureed adult soup, a little bowl for the pureed baby soup, and then some soup bowls for the adults to eat from. Various utensils - knives for chopping and spoons for stirring and eating, so yes, the dishes added up.

The soup was very good though - well, we thought it was, but Maddy wasn't so excited about it. Rachel put her little portion in a bowl with a lid and took it home to try it on her later, and maybe mix in a little rice cereal. Sometimes babies don't like something on the first try, and sometimes they don't like something until they are adults.

How I spent my summer vacation.

A lot has happened since I last updated. That last post was written Friday July 16 at about noon, and a couple of hours later, Rachel showed up with Maddy and some boxes of books and announced that she was going to have a book sale on our front lawn!

We spread a quilt on the lawn and set up a couple of long tables that she got from the church, and while I played with Maddy on the quilt, Rachel spread out the books. She brought out a box or two from our garage, but there were some boxes in the garage that she couldn't get to easily, so she didn't bring them all out.

Judy, our next door neighbor, came over and sat with us for a while. She brought her camera and took pictures of Maddy on the blanket, and I'll post one or two of them tomorrow. Dan from across the street came over to talk for a while, too. That was the most neighbor-interaction we've had in a while.

Kim's friend Phil showed up to hang out with Kim, so they took over the living room to play video games and watch Ghost Hunter shows far into the night. Phil slept in the yarn room, and since their friend Catsy slept up there a couple of weeks ago, I had to change the sheets. Catsy didn't mind sleeping on the bed knowing Phil had used it last, but I told him he didn't have to sleep in Catsy's cooties. I am such a good hostess.

Rachel came back Saturday morning and set up her tables again, and Maddy and I spent another day on the quilt. It was a beautiful day, and Maddy loves to roll around outside, looking at the leaves and feeling the grass with her toes.

Rachel's friend Kat came over in the afternoon and sat on the quilt with us, so that was fun. Kim and Phil stayed in the house to continue the video game they started on Friday.

Rich brought more boxes of books from the garage, so there was more to sell, but altogether Rachel only sold about 50 books. We had fun looking through the books ourselves and decided to keep quite a few of them.

We closed down the sale by dinnertime, and Ash grilled hamburgers for us, Kat went home, and Phil finally left. Kim was pretty tired of his company by then! She was ready to start packing to leave on our drive to Utah, and she told him it was time for him to go so she could get to work.

While Rich was putting the borrowed tables in the back of the van to take them back to the church, he noticed a big crack in the rear axle! I told him I kept hearing a big noise back there, but he doesn't drive that car much, and he wasn't worried about it.

That changed our plans for our vacation! We were going to have to stay home and get the car fixed! I called Scott to tell him, and he was so disappointed, that he offered to buy our tickets to fly to Utah to visit them!

I couldn't let him buy the tickets, but I booked a flight for myself, and when I called him back to tell him about it, Carolyn said they still wanted to help pay for the trip, so I let her buy a ticket for Kim to come with me. Rich had to stay home to take care of the car.

So Kim and I left on Monday and flew to Utah. We stayed in the basement apartment at Scott and Carolyn's house and had a nice time playing with the kids and visiting Temple Square. We didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing because I really just wanted to see the kids, so that's what I did. We spent a lot of time sitting in the backyard drawing things on the patio with sidewalk chalk, and reading out loud to Soren and Carl. It was a nice trip.

We left at 5:30 in the morning on Friday, and traveled all day, arriving home in Freeport almost exactly 12 hours later. Apparently there was a lot of heavy rain while we were out of town, and parts of town are so flooded that no one can drive on the roads in those areas! Some people have flooded basements, but for once it isn't us, and I'm grateful for that, although my basement smells like cat pee, thanks to Patsy, who is mad about getting a dose of medicine every day!

No matter how nice your vacation is, it's good to get home. Ahh, my own bed! Ahh, my own kitchen! Ahhh.

I've had a day already!

Patsy had to go to the vet before 8 this morning, so I got up at 7:30 (didn't work last night) and dropped him off for a Lion cut!



There he is, in all his pissed-off glory! He had a small cyst on his shoulder drained, also, and now he has to have a dose of oral antibiotic every day, but since we are leaving on our vacation Sunday, I guess Nurse Rachel will be in charge of that!

Once I was up and about this morning, I also stopped to get the oil changed, and went to Walm@rt to get some groceries. As I was leaving the grocery area, I got a call from the vet's office to say that Patsy was ready to be picked up, so I called home and woke up Kim so she could go with me.

I dropped off the groceries and picked up Kim - I just needed company, it wasn't to wrestle the cat! So now we are home and I feel like I've had a full day already!

This afternoon Kim is going to use some carpet shampoo on the basement stairs, because Someone's Friend dropped a large cup of Mountain Dew as they came into the house last night, and if it was diet pop, it would just evaporate, but since it was full of sugar, well, someone has to clean that up.

As a bribe/reward, for cleaning the stairs, I bought Kim a bottle of Vampire cologne when I was shopping (and a pair of poison green flipflops!). She says it is better to smell like a vampire than a werewolf, because werewolves smell like a wet dog!

Okay, I'm going to go do some laundry and then just sit in a chair and read for a while. I've already had a full day and it's not even noon.

In which I stayed home like Cinderella.

Kim left for Chicago today to visit a friend for a couple of days, and while she is gone I'm cleaning her room! It's piled up with books, papers, boxes of dishes and computer cords and her printer and who knows what else, and also, enough clothing to clothe a third-world country. Hmm, maybe I should send some of her clothes to Haiti...

Last week I sat on her bed to keep her company one day while she cleaned out her closet, and we filled a bag that I took to the Goodwill, but the rest of the room is still so terrible that I can't walk through it to get to the bed. Maddy slept at our house last night, and she was asleep in my room so I went to Kim's room to take a nap before work on her bed, and ugh! I had to pick my way between piles of stuff to get to the bed!!

So today RA sat on the bed, folding clothes and putting them in piles, and I sorted out some of the boxes, deciding which ones can go to the basement, and filled another box with crap for the Goodwill. The clothes are piled on the bed, because her dresser drawers are so full that she can't put anything else in them, so my plan for tomorrow is to empty the drawers and give away more of her clothes!

I took a couple of boxes to the basement and Ash carried a heavier one down when he came over later, and it already looks much better in there. I've got it to a manageable state now and Kim could probably finish cleaning it up herself, except that she's out of town and I want to get it done now!

Kim texted me tonight and said she is having a great time in Chicago! They waded in Lake Michigan, went to the zoo (briefly), shopped a little (oh no! she bought a new shirt and a pair of shorts! More clothes!) and ate at a sushi place. I wish I was there, but I was home cleaning her room and eating leftovers. What's wrong with this picture?

Two weeks later...

Kim and I finally went back to the gym today! The last time we went was on a Friday, and then she went to Cedar Point with Rich and Sando on Monday, leaving me home alone - and you know I don't want to go and exersize by myself!

They got back on Thursday, so we walked the two-mile walk two or three times over the weekend and finally today, we dragged ourselves back to the gym. We were bitter, we were hatin', but we went and we worked, and really, it was better than another walk in the miserable humidity!!

Maddy has been gone with her parents since Thursday (do you see how that overlapped? and I was alone for almost a whole day? Thank goodness I had RA to keep busy with, so I didn't die of loneliness and boredom!) and I was really missing her, since I see her almost every day under normal circumstances.

Tonight they got home and I went over to play with Maddy while her parents unpacked the car. Oh, the happy fat baby! I think she's grown since she was gone! She's big! She rolled all around, and laughed when I jumped and said boo! She was really tired from her travels, but I forced Rachel to give her bath that she didn't want, and then Rachel gave her a bottle while I read The Dangerous Alphabet and part of a nursing textbook out loud to them, and then she fell asleep. So sweet!

I had to go home and take a nap before work, and Kim sat on the bed and edited a chapter of her novel while I tried to sleep. Kim turned on a recording of a gentle rain with some thunder in the background to soothe me, but after a while, she turned it down and said, "Is it raining outside?" and we could hear it through the open window, a nice, soothing rain. Another case of art imitating life.

In which we are aching all over!

When I woke up today I went out to get lunch at Subw@y with RA, and we took our sandwiches to the park to eat them. We sat in her car with the air-conditioner running and watched the peddleboats go by on the river while we ate.

When I got home Kim told me we were going to Rachel's to babysit for Maddy while Rachel and Ash go to the movies. So here we are, and Maddy is sleeping in her swing while Kim plays Monkey Island to entertain me, and I am looking things up on the internets to amuse myself.

Kim and I are both a bit achey today because we went to the gym yesterday in the afternoon and worked like animals - we are such gym rats, har har. Actually we are the laziest ones there, and we don't go enough, either. We keep saying we're going to go three times a week, and really, it's a good week if we go once, and a miracle if we go twice!

Yesterday I was almost done and the next-to-the-last machine I worked on was the chest press, and when I finished with that I went over to Kim to tell her something, and as I crossed the floor, reached up with both hands to get my hair off of my face, and omg, my arms were so tired I could barely lift them to my hair! Today they are sore, but we have vowed to go back tomorrow and use our muscles again. Ouch.

When we left the gym, we stepped outside and gasped - or we would have gasped if we had been able to breathe in the thick, soggy air! It was like a sauna! It was so hot and so wet, I swear, we could barely slog to the car! Wow, I am so glad we went to the gym instead of doing the two-mile walk! I imagine that a walk would have been like cutting our way through a rainforest, only my arms were too tired to lift a machete!

So here we are, in Rachel's air-conditioned apartment, playing video games and watching Maddy sleep in the swing (with her head all laying over on one side - it doesn't look comfortable), and we are just enjoying the quiet and the cool. It's not as humid today, so we might take a walk later.

Let me tell you about some weather...

So Rachel brought Maddy over for a walk tonight, and it was looking grey outside, but it had been sunny and beautiful yesterday and today, with some rain last night, but nothing major. Rich, Rachel, Kim and I took Maddy, with Rich pushing her in the stroller, for a walk to amuse her until her bedtime. She's been a bit cranky for a couple of days, and we think she's teething.

We walked our usual two-mile walk, down our street to the cemetary, through the cemetary to American St, where we walk past the parking lot for the city pool, and the Little League baseball diamonds, the skateboard park, and then some more residential blocks, and turn up the street that brings us back home. When we turn to leave the cemetary, at the corner of American, (that's the point at which we are halfway home) we heard the siren that means everyone needs to get out of the pool! The sky had been getting darker, and we had seen a couple of raindrops, but it still wasn't raining.

Apparently when the siren goes to indicate that the pool is closing, it means the baseball games are over, too, because as we walked, we could see people leaving the games and getting into their cars, and then it started to sprinkle a little. We were walking as briskly as we could, which for Rich is pretty fast, since he has long legs, and he was about half a block ahead of us, but he kept turning to wait.

I was really dragging on the walk today because it was so humid I felt like I could hardly breathe! Rachel had been walking beside Rich, but at this point she had dropped back to walk with me, and Kim was just ahead of us. It was starting to rain lightly as we went past the parks and back into the residential neighborhood, and people were taking in their plants and things, and as we turned the last corner to head back to our house, we were getting pretty wet.

It was raining steadily as we went those last few blocks, and Rich was a good block ahead of us, pushing the stroller, when we were about two blocks from home, and he turned to wait for us, under a tree, so Maddy wasn't getting rained on, but we waved him on, and Rachel yelled for him to go home, "Just go, save the baby!" Haha!

By the time we got to the house it was really raining, and all of us were wet! Rich was already inside, drying Maddy off with a towel, and the rest of us were drying off and Rich turned on the Weather Channel to see what they had to say, and apparently there was a severe thunderstorm warning!

As we watched TV, the rain outside got harder and harder and was coming down in sheets, and Rich was running around closing windows, and we started hearing hail! We all ran to the front door to look out at the hail!

The heaviest part of the storm only lasted about 15 minutes, but it was pretty exciting while it lasted!! We were lucky to have gotten in before it got bad!

In which there is walking, and cooking.

This morning I gave a ride to a friend from work who needed me to follow her to where she was dropping off her car and then take her to the college for a morning class, and by the time I got home, I was so tired, I think I might have been endangering myself or other drivers!

I went right to sleep when I got home and when I woke up, Kim was just getting done in the shower. She must have been up late last night writing her 5000 words! (She's writing 5000 a day this month in a determined effort to finish her novel.)

RA was going out to get her nails done, so Kim and I rode along and did some shopping while she was in the salon. Last night Kim was craving cake, so one of the things we bought was a cake mix and also can of frosting, and she was planning to make that tonight.

When we got home, Kim mentioned the cherry tree in the backyard and said she wanted to pick the cherries that are getting ripe. She picked cherries last year with her friend Catsy, so she called Catsy and invited her to sleep over and pick cherries. I haven't seen any cherrypicking so far, but they have been playing video games and cooking. They made shrimp linguine for their supper and they were talking about making that cake.

Rachel showed up with Maddy and insisted that we needed to take a walk, and not only that, but she wanted us to walk three miles instead of our usual two! Eek! She talked me into it, so we fed Maddy and got her ready to go (wearing a very sassy hat), and we set off.

It was hot, and the sun was shining and we walked and walked, and there may have been some whining, but mostly it was okay. Maddy slept for about half of the walk, and then she woke up and just watched the world go by, and we kept her covered with her hat and a light blanket because the sun was really bright, and did I mention that it was hot? Because it was!

When we dragged back into the house I sat on the floor to change Maddy's diaper while Rachel put the stroller away and oh my goodness, I was so hot that sweat was running into my eyes while I changed the baby!

I took a glass of ice water and sat down to watch Kim and Catsy play a video game where they were cooking various recipes and doing chopping and sauteeing, and Maddy was laying on the floor on a blanket. Pretty soon Maddy had rolled onto her stomach and was watching the video game! She watched it for a while and then rolled over onto her back and played with her toes.

Rachel made some dinner for us, but after we ate she needed to get back to her house, so she packed up Maddy and left. It was time for me to get a nap before work, so I went to bed and left the girls in the living room, still 'cooking'.

In which Kim is gone and I have to sleep by myself.

The great baby sweater craze of 2010 is dying down at last. I'm finishing the last two baby sweaters, and then I have plans to dedicate my knitting time to finishing Carolyn's Christmas sweater and another little project that is going to be a gift. Then I guess I will make a lot of socks? Or maybe a shawl would be a fun, well not fun, but interesting, long-term project.

Kim went to Wisconsin to visit a friend today, and she'll be back tomorrow. They have plans to hike to some caves, so I told her to pack some long pants and boots, thinking that would protect her from poison ivy and snakebite. She was reaching for her purple patent-leather Docs, but I thought that look was perhaps a little too fancy for hiking and suggested some black ones. Those purple boots would probably attract some snakes!

Rachel brought Maddy over to play this afternoon, and Maddy was a bit cranky. We gave her some holistic teething tablets that were recommended by a friend, and then a dose of Tylenol, just in case the natural remedy didn't work. She took a little nap, but not much and when she woke up she was still pretty fussy, so I don't know how effective either of the remedies were.

Rachel wanted to take the baby for a walk, but I was tired from not sleeping long enough this morning, and also, it looked like rain. It has been one long stretch of rainy days and the wooden frame around the downstairs bathroom door is swollen from roof leakage and humidity - again! Today it was RA's turn to get stuck in that bathroom and Rachel had to help her escape!

So about the time I was talking Rachel out of taking a walk, she got a call from work to say they needed her to come in, so she packed up the baby and headed home to change her clothes and go to work.

As soon as Rachel left, I took my book and went upstairs to read in bed. Kim will sometimes bring her laptop and sit on the bed, computing, to keep me company while I sleep, but she was gone to Wisconsin, so when Rich passed by the door, I asked if he wanted to watch TV on our bed to keep me company, but he wasn't interested. I read for a while and went to sleep, so I guess I showed him!

The weekend is a blur. I think there was cake.

I had three days off and I can't remember anything I did. Oh wait, I went to a wedding reception on Friday, but I was only there for about 20 minutes. On Saturday I spent an hour at an open house for a friend's son, and I cut cake and poured punch the whole time, so I was busy and talked to lots of people as I passed out cake. But what was I doing the rest of the time? It's a puzzle.

There was an hour or so on Saturday afternoon when I went to RA's to see her grandchildren, and I was quietly texting Rachel to come over because I have to tell you something - I am not that interested in children that I am not related to! So I was holding a sleeping baby, and watching the other little girl run around, and I just wanted to leave! But you know, RA is always kind enough to pretend to be interested in my grandchildren, so I felt like I owed her.

Rachel brought Maddy to RA's house, and then RA's daughter and Rachel went to get ice cream and left the babies with us! I had already had enough of kids by then, but I am always happy to see Maddy, and she rolled around on the floor to amuse me. Thanks, Mads!

On Sunday, Heidi, my knitting friend who moved to San Diego but is visiting for a few days, came over to my house in the afternoon to knit with me. She worked on a Baby Surprise Sweater that I had just started, so now she knows how to count ridges and do the double decreases, and while she did that we talked and I sewed up two and a half finished sweaters and grafted together the toe of a sock!

So now I have finished Baby Surprise Sweaters to show you, and I will, really I will, just as soon as I cast off the one that is almost done. Then I'll have an unsewn one to show with a sewn one.

What I'm reading today:

Mrs. McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie. I have lots of Agatha Christie books at home, but I do not have all of them. This is one I know I read a long time ago, but I couldn't remember it, so I bought it for my Kindle and read it at work last night. Tonight I am going to read Murder on the Blue Train.

What I'm eating today:

Rachel and Maddy came to our house this afternoon and we all went for a walk. Afterward Rachel made Chicken with Mushrooms in a really good mustardy sauce, and it was great.

What I'm knitting today:

I've got one Baby Surprise Sweater, almost done, on the coffee table at home, and another one about halfway done, sitting here at work with me. I have yarn for one more at home in the Yarn Room, and I think when that one is finished, I will be done with these little sweaters for a while. I have baby gifts for everyone! Now I really need to focus on finishing Carolyn's Christmas sweater!

Another night of writing dangerously.

Rachel just put a new post on our cooking blog, so if you want to take a look at it, go here.

Kim and I went to the gym today and we worked hard! Kim is using an ab machine called the Red Devil, and I took a couple of pictures to show. They're a little blurry because I took them with my cell phone.

Here is the machine itself - note the horns at the top!


And here is Kim, working her abs!


After the gym, Kim and Sando started working on their novels again - they wanted to do another 5000 words, but they were having a little trouble getting focused. They usually write in the living room, but Sando's brother had come with him and was playing a video game that was distracting them, and then Kim got a phone call, and I had a funny story to tell them, so they just couldn't get any work done. They took their computers to the dining room, and set up in there, along with their animal mascots, a little panda bear for Kim, and an orangutang for Sando. The monkey was borrowed from my desk, because Kim didn't want to share the panda.

I went upstairs and cleaned my room, and then I stayed up there to read my book and knit on another Baby Surprise Sweater (this is the fourth one, I think, no maybe it's the fifth!). I'm reading a book on my Kindle called Talk of the Town by Lisa Wingate. It was one of the books that were offered for free, and it's pretty good.

I was dozing later and I heard Sando leave and come back, and also, there was a pizza delivery. When I woke up to come to work, I found that Sando Jr. had gone home, and Kim and Sando were hard at work at the dining room table, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and Mountain Dew bottles, so it looks like they are getting some work done.

In which I am not required to do my duty.

I could not be happier! I got called for jury duty - again - and first the case was postponed, and I was supposed to go on Tuesday, but I called yesterday to see if I need to show up on Tuesday, and woot! It was cancelled! Is this not happiness?

Maddy had a sleepover at our house last night, and when I got home this morning, Rich was sitting on our bed, giving her a bottle and watching television. It was so cute! We played with her on the bed until Rachel came to take the baby home.

Kim had to get up early to run a booth at the farmer's market (she was helping a friend who couldn't be there today), but I was asleep by the time she left. When I woke up, Kim was back home and had brought home some good bread and a jar of plum jam!

Rich spent most of the afternoon cutting back a bush in the yard and then disposing of the branches, and when he was done he took a nap. Kim went to Rachel's to watch Maddy for a little while, and when she got home, she took a nap too!

While they were sleeping I made some ratatouille and grilled turkey burgers, which were really good! I'm going to buy those again! Rachel and Maddy came over to eat with us, and Rich and Kim got up from their naps, too.

After dinner, we took Maddy in the stroller and all of us went out for the two-mile walk. We walked it backward from the way we usually go, so that we could look for a neighbors missing turtle! That walk is a lot harder when we do it backwards! There is a lot more uphill walking! (We didn't see the turtle.)

And I'm back at work tonight, with some knitting and a book. I'm reading The White Cat by Holly Black. I'm almost done with another Baby Surprise Sweater, and I'll take pictures of this one before and after it's sewn together and post them for your delight.

Road Trip!

Okay, I didn't go anywhere near as cool as Diana did this past weekend, but I can guarantee that the bathrooms were cleaner on my trip!

Rich and I went to Michigan to visit his parents with Rachel, Maddy and Kim, and it was very pleasant and low-key, in that we hardly left the house and we all just sat around admiring Maddy. My sister Inger came over to join in on the baby-worship, too.

It was just a quick trip - we got there late Friday night and left again on Sunday morning, but I did have time to drop off three boxes of yarn for a friend who makes lap blankets and slippers for charity. Don't panic, it was three boxes of yarn I would never use, just some skeins of yarn that people have given me. In ugly colors.

When we got home again, it took Maddy a few days to recover from the trip and we thought that maybe she was traumatized by all the strangers around, but today when she was at my house for a couple of hours while Rachel went to a meeting, Rich reminded me that she doesn't need to be entertained all the time, it's okay to let her play by herself for a while. That's when I realized that Maddy wasn't traumatized by all the attention, she was just a bit spoiled by it. She got used to people playing with her and talking to her every minute, and maybe had a hard time getting used to being home again, without so many of her loyal subjects around.

What I am knitting today:

Starting another Baby Surprise Sweater, because they are fun to make, and Maddy looked so cute in the one she wore on the Michigan trip. I have had the pattern for years, but I misunderstood the pattern the first time I made it, so it didn't look right when it was done, and also the sleeves are too short.

When Karin was talking about how much fun she was having, making these little sweaters, I got a copy of the pattern from her, since mine is lost somewhere in the Yarn Room, and I made it again, but when it was almost done, I ripped it out, because the sleeves? Were still too short.

However. I made another one, for a friend's grandchild who is a little younger than Maddy, because Karin said they were fun! And it's true, the making of them is fun, but the sleeve length was still bothering me. Until I tried the finished sweater on Maddy, just to see how it looked, and oh my goodness, it was darling!

The sleeves are still short, and I have seen versions on the internet with instructions for longer sleeves, but after seeing Maddy wear that sweater all weekend (it was cooler over the weekend, not sweltering like it is now), I can see that the shorter sleeve length is perfect for the babies! It's about a three-quarter length sleeve, and it stays out of the way of their little hands while they are chewing on them, or while they are twisting their hands together or whatever they do. I didn't even put buttons on Maddy's sweater because Rachel grabbed it as soon as it was done and said she never buttons sweaters anyway, and nothing makes a sweater better, in my opinion, than not needing to sew on buttons. And it was darling without them.

I have made another one since we got home and I'm casting on for one tonight. Baby Surprise Sweaters for everyone!

What I'm cooking today:

Kim and I worked together on dinner, and we made a recipe I got from the internet that had chicken, mushrooms and spinach over bow-tie pasta. It was very good and garlicky.

What I'm reading today:

Tuesday Tells it Slant by Holly Christine. It's a book I got for 99 cents to read on my Kindle, and it is pretty good. I recently discovered a Kindle discussion forum where people are mentioning books for the Kindle that cost less than two dollars, and I have bought a few of them, and not been disappointed in them. Anyone can write a book and publish it for the Kindle, and we are encouraging Kim to finish one of her novels so she can sell it this way.

What I'm whining about today:

Since Kim came home from school for the summer, she has been happy to take the two-mile walk with me, and if Sando is around, he is always willing to go, too. Today Kim and I walked the walk with Rachel and Maddy (in her stroller), and it was 85 degrees out and the humidity was about 100%, so it was one of the sweatiest walks I have ever been on. Luckily for all of us, I got a phone call from a friend I haven't talked to in a long time just as we were leaving the house, and talking on the phone kept me entertained for the whole time we were walking, so Rachel and Kim didn't have to listen to me whining about the miserable weather conditions!

That's the news for now - I have to go cast on for a baby sweater!