The Master Knitting Program that is. (I know. You can say it...I am a geek.) I got my instructions on Friday. I read them through once and almost had a panic attack. But then, I broke them down into swatches, questions and such and I realized, it wasn’t as overwhelming as I first thought. I was going to cast on for the swatches this weekend but (1) I wanted to finish the City Mouse and (2) I just couldn’t seem to find the energy.
As the title says, my NEW car. It is a 2001 Blue Nissan Sentra. I was a little worried when the salesman told me the year but then I looked and saw that it only has 64,000 miles and the interior looks brand spanking new. Mom, Princess Ivi and even my brother deduced that it must have been owned by an old person and I have to admit it has a bit of an old person smell, a bit like moth balls and some stale cleaner. But that is okay, I bought a three pack of lime-vanilla Yankee Candle air fresheners, threw one in the trunk and one in the back window and all is well. All in all, I am really pleased with the car and the cost. I will take some pictures and post them here soon.
Speaking of moth balls, Mom found a snake in the chicken coop and almost keeled over with fright. She had my brother Dan remove it for her. It was some sort of non-venomous snake that was about 4 feet long. Can we say ick? Anyway, as a way to combat the snakes in the chicken coop, bugs in the house and storage shed, and rats in the bird houses, I bought 4 boxes of moth balls. Mom then proceeded to throw a handful (or two) under the porch, sprinkle some around the chicken house, throw some under the shed, and she will put them in the bird house tomorrow. Hopefully they work and keep the pests away.
Mom and I were discussing the fact that Barbie is turning 50. Here is our conversation:
Me: Barbie is 50? Wow.
Mom: She is looking pretty good for 50 but it is clear she has had some work done.
Me: Yeah, she's all plastic.
See, as Princess Ivi says, geekiness is genetic and it abounds in our family.
Well, my lunch hour has flown by so I will say adieu for now.
Showing posts with label City Mouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Mouse. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Champagne Bubbles
I just finished House of Daughters by Sarah-Kate Lynch (as in about 10 minutes ago). I started this last night at about 10:30, read for about an hour, and then read for about two hours here at work.
This was a good book but it was difficult to read coming from a girl who didn’t have a father or any evidence of that father’s love. I love the story of the sisters coming together and the wonderful details about the champagne. It makes me thirsty for some.
The best champagne I ever had comes from a vineyard in St. Augustine. All the others that I had give me migraines.
Anyway, I would recommend this book to people. My daughter wants to read it but I think I will warn her a bit about the father part. She has no father. Well, she had a father but no dad which is his loss but I fear that the theme of daughters, fathers, neglect and love may be a bit much for her. She normally handles the situation pretty well but there are those rare times when it hits her that she has no father and that he doesn’t love her. I don’t want this book to bring on those thoughts.
Reading the section about the author reminded me that I want to read her other books, Blessed are the Cheesemakers and By Bread Alone. Those will go on my "to be read" list.
I worked for a bit on the City Mouse Toy. I tried really hard to finish it up last night but I couldn’t do it. Princess Ivi and had some mommy-daughter tickling time and then I got a shower. By the time I sat down to knit, tapioca pudding was up and that took precedent over knitting. Maybe I will finish it tonight.
I am taking tomorrow off without pay to go car shopping. Given the state of my mom’s van, I don’t want to put it off any longer. I am so worried every time I drive it that the constant state of panic seems to be eating a hole in my stomach.
I had planned to go on Saturday to pick out the car and then get the insurance and tag on Monday morning but I really can’t put it off any longer. The battery light is now constantly on, even though it is testing okay at Advanced Auto, and the stalling while you are driving down the road is very stressful. I always have a vision of stalling and getting plowed into by someone behind me.
So Mom and I are going to go to Palatka tomorrow. I am going to get my Florida license and then we will car shop, go by the insurance company and hopefully drive home with a new car. If I have to, I will pick it up on Saturday but I would prefer to do it all in one fell swoop. Hopefully, all will go well.
This was a good book but it was difficult to read coming from a girl who didn’t have a father or any evidence of that father’s love. I love the story of the sisters coming together and the wonderful details about the champagne. It makes me thirsty for some.
The best champagne I ever had comes from a vineyard in St. Augustine. All the others that I had give me migraines.
Anyway, I would recommend this book to people. My daughter wants to read it but I think I will warn her a bit about the father part. She has no father. Well, she had a father but no dad which is his loss but I fear that the theme of daughters, fathers, neglect and love may be a bit much for her. She normally handles the situation pretty well but there are those rare times when it hits her that she has no father and that he doesn’t love her. I don’t want this book to bring on those thoughts.
Reading the section about the author reminded me that I want to read her other books, Blessed are the Cheesemakers and By Bread Alone. Those will go on my "to be read" list.
I worked for a bit on the City Mouse Toy. I tried really hard to finish it up last night but I couldn’t do it. Princess Ivi and had some mommy-daughter tickling time and then I got a shower. By the time I sat down to knit, tapioca pudding was up and that took precedent over knitting. Maybe I will finish it tonight.
I am taking tomorrow off without pay to go car shopping. Given the state of my mom’s van, I don’t want to put it off any longer. I am so worried every time I drive it that the constant state of panic seems to be eating a hole in my stomach.
I had planned to go on Saturday to pick out the car and then get the insurance and tag on Monday morning but I really can’t put it off any longer. The battery light is now constantly on, even though it is testing okay at Advanced Auto, and the stalling while you are driving down the road is very stressful. I always have a vision of stalling and getting plowed into by someone behind me.
So Mom and I are going to go to Palatka tomorrow. I am going to get my Florida license and then we will car shop, go by the insurance company and hopefully drive home with a new car. If I have to, I will pick it up on Saturday but I would prefer to do it all in one fell swoop. Hopefully, all will go well.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
76 trombones in the hit parade...
What is it about that line from that song that always pops into my head at the strangest times? I find myself singing that song or humming that song on an almost daily basis. Why? Maybe there is a study on this subject that I should enter to find out what attracts me to this song. Maybe I am a cylon. It isn't All Along the Watchtower but I can still hear it. (For those who watch Battlestar Galactica). Can anyone else hear it?
So it has been pretty quiet at work for the past two days. I spent yesterday afternoon browsing TasteSpotting and printing out recipes. I found some yummy ideas for weekend dinners, cracker recipes for my mom, and, of course, some dessert recipes that look so good. I love TasteSpotting. My goal is to someday make it through the entire thing. Given how bored I am today, it might happen.
As far as knitting goes, I have put the feather and fan shawl to the side for a faster project. I want to see results and I am not seeing any with the shawl. Right now, when I look at it, even after working on it for days, it looks like it hasn't grown at all. I need some instant gratification.
So on Monday, I cast on for the City Mouse Toy from Lion Brand. I am not yet sure what I am going to do with this. I have an idea rolling around in my head but I just don't know.
See, there was this girl when I was little. Well, when we first met (when we were like 5) we hated each other but then when we got older we became friends. She was there through so many milestones in my life - first drink of alcohol, first "real" boyfriend, etc. She taught me how to inhale when I smoked. She helped me deal with my parents' divorce. I will always remember the summer I went back to Massachusetts after I first moved to Florida. I was staying at my step-father's house with his new wife. I hated it but she came and rescued me and I spent the rest of my time with her.
Unfortunately, we drifted apart. I am not going to say it was all her fault or all my fault because that isn't the case. All I will say is that I miss her very much. There are so many times in my life when I want to pick up the phone and talk to her, really talk to her. Or when I want to see here and just hang out. And when I look at my daughter and think that I always wanted her to see my kids grow up and I always wanted to see her kids. That didn't happen but there is this small part of me that wants to try. I know we can never get our friendship back to the place it once was but I want something.
The mouse toy brought this up because everyone referred to us as the County Mouse (me) and the City Mouse (M). See, I lived in a tiny little town that had more cows than people it seemed and M came from Newton which to me was the city. We were so different from each other in many ways but those differences balanced each other out.
Anyway, my idea is to find a book with the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse and to make up two of these little mice and send the whole package to her and her boys. I just don't know if I can handle it if nothing comes of this. I don't want to take these steps just to realize that the damage we did to our friendship all those years ago is just too great and we can't come back from that. For now, I think I will finish up this mouse and cast on for another, in another color, and when they are both done, make the decision.
I had an idea for a decoration for Princess Ivi's room. I got the idea from Kim who I became friends with on Facebook. Kim is my old friend and fellow Sunday school teacher. Well, after checking out her blog, she has done this really cool decoration. She took a cardboard S from the store and decorated it and hung it on her door. Well, I thought I would cut out a D for Princess Ivi (as that is what her name starts with) and let her decorate it. She could do a collage of things she likes, or just draw on it, color it, etc. and then we could hang it on her wall. She could even just paint it with some purple sparkly paint. I think I am going to propose that to her because I think she will really like it. Thanks Kim for the great idea.
I have been busy writing emails to the superintendent of our school district and the school board members. The superintendent has put the idea forward to close Princess Ivi's school. If that happens, she will have to be bused further so she can go to a "C" school. Her school is an "A" school and is the only school in the district that has a surplus of money (revenue v. cost) so it makes no sense to me to propose to close our school. My idea is this...since there are two middle schools in Palatka and two in Crescent City, I would propose combining them so there is only one middle school in each city. Then the district would be paying for four middle schools instead of six. They haven't made a decision yet. I emailed them and told them that they need to show us that closing our school will really save money. If it won't then it is jeopardizing our children's education for nothing.
It may seem selfish but I am hoping they decide to stay open for next school year since Princess Ivi will be in 8th grade and her last year of middle school. Then, when she is done, they can close since she will be going into a different school anyway.
Princess Ivi and I have discussed that if they close her school, we may look into homeschooling for next year (8th grade) but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that they keep it open. I know this is a hard economic time but this doesn't seem to be the answer.
Okay, enough rambling for one day....
So it has been pretty quiet at work for the past two days. I spent yesterday afternoon browsing TasteSpotting and printing out recipes. I found some yummy ideas for weekend dinners, cracker recipes for my mom, and, of course, some dessert recipes that look so good. I love TasteSpotting. My goal is to someday make it through the entire thing. Given how bored I am today, it might happen.
As far as knitting goes, I have put the feather and fan shawl to the side for a faster project. I want to see results and I am not seeing any with the shawl. Right now, when I look at it, even after working on it for days, it looks like it hasn't grown at all. I need some instant gratification.
So on Monday, I cast on for the City Mouse Toy from Lion Brand. I am not yet sure what I am going to do with this. I have an idea rolling around in my head but I just don't know.
See, there was this girl when I was little. Well, when we first met (when we were like 5) we hated each other but then when we got older we became friends. She was there through so many milestones in my life - first drink of alcohol, first "real" boyfriend, etc. She taught me how to inhale when I smoked. She helped me deal with my parents' divorce. I will always remember the summer I went back to Massachusetts after I first moved to Florida. I was staying at my step-father's house with his new wife. I hated it but she came and rescued me and I spent the rest of my time with her.
Unfortunately, we drifted apart. I am not going to say it was all her fault or all my fault because that isn't the case. All I will say is that I miss her very much. There are so many times in my life when I want to pick up the phone and talk to her, really talk to her. Or when I want to see here and just hang out. And when I look at my daughter and think that I always wanted her to see my kids grow up and I always wanted to see her kids. That didn't happen but there is this small part of me that wants to try. I know we can never get our friendship back to the place it once was but I want something.
The mouse toy brought this up because everyone referred to us as the County Mouse (me) and the City Mouse (M). See, I lived in a tiny little town that had more cows than people it seemed and M came from Newton which to me was the city. We were so different from each other in many ways but those differences balanced each other out.
Anyway, my idea is to find a book with the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse and to make up two of these little mice and send the whole package to her and her boys. I just don't know if I can handle it if nothing comes of this. I don't want to take these steps just to realize that the damage we did to our friendship all those years ago is just too great and we can't come back from that. For now, I think I will finish up this mouse and cast on for another, in another color, and when they are both done, make the decision.
I had an idea for a decoration for Princess Ivi's room. I got the idea from Kim who I became friends with on Facebook. Kim is my old friend and fellow Sunday school teacher. Well, after checking out her blog, she has done this really cool decoration. She took a cardboard S from the store and decorated it and hung it on her door. Well, I thought I would cut out a D for Princess Ivi (as that is what her name starts with) and let her decorate it. She could do a collage of things she likes, or just draw on it, color it, etc. and then we could hang it on her wall. She could even just paint it with some purple sparkly paint. I think I am going to propose that to her because I think she will really like it. Thanks Kim for the great idea.
I have been busy writing emails to the superintendent of our school district and the school board members. The superintendent has put the idea forward to close Princess Ivi's school. If that happens, she will have to be bused further so she can go to a "C" school. Her school is an "A" school and is the only school in the district that has a surplus of money (revenue v. cost) so it makes no sense to me to propose to close our school. My idea is this...since there are two middle schools in Palatka and two in Crescent City, I would propose combining them so there is only one middle school in each city. Then the district would be paying for four middle schools instead of six. They haven't made a decision yet. I emailed them and told them that they need to show us that closing our school will really save money. If it won't then it is jeopardizing our children's education for nothing.
It may seem selfish but I am hoping they decide to stay open for next school year since Princess Ivi will be in 8th grade and her last year of middle school. Then, when she is done, they can close since she will be going into a different school anyway.
Princess Ivi and I have discussed that if they close her school, we may look into homeschooling for next year (8th grade) but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that they keep it open. I know this is a hard economic time but this doesn't seem to be the answer.
Okay, enough rambling for one day....
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