Pickers

The kids have Thursday, Friday, and Monday off from school.  Since Hubby's out of the country I brought the girls and dog up to my folk's and sister's houses, respectively.  The dog plays with his cousins and the girls and I play back and forth between the two houses.

Today we picked apples.  The girls most enjoyed riding around on my and my sister's shoulders, but they're also pretty good tree climbers.

I went pretty high up one tree and Thing 1 came right along behind.

We picked 9 boxes of Golden Delicious and 3 boxes of Jonathans.
My parents were trying to talk us into as much as we could take, but one box is really about all I can go through.  My applesauce is the only thing I cook that Thing 1 really praises. 

Ladies

I just posted a complete brag about my knitting, but had to add this.

Hubby is in Sri Lanka this week.  He's been to India several times, but never to Sri Lanka.  Ask me how jealous I am when you've got some time.  But anyhooo...

He just sent this from his iPhone.

Apparently they send Men and Women through separate security lines.  I just LOVE how there's no one in the women's security line.

This is karmic revenge for the comparative shortage of stalls in the women's bathrooms at every major public event. 

And I also have to say that I can no longer hear the word "ladies" without translating it in my head to the way Demetri Martin says it.

Five Year Sweater

I finally finished the sweater I started for Thing 1 FIVE YEARS ago!  I think.  I think I started it when she was about four.  Maybe five.  In any event I had finished the body and was halfway up the sleeves when I put it down.  And didn't pick it up until a couple months ago.  So what was Thing 1's has become Thing 2's.  They're practically the same size, but Thing 1 won't wear anything that has more than two of the following: 
1) has THAT much of THAT shade of pink on it
2) buttons up the front
3) doesn't have a pocket on it where her hands can touch each other
4) itches AT ALL (the yarn on this has just a smidge of wool in it)

It's not perfect (there is a slight puckering where the left sleeve joins the body) but it's done!  Yippeeee!  And Thing 2 gets to wear it.  Between the quilting and the knitting and getting Hubby out the door (he left yesterday for two weeks in India and Sri Lanka), the house has gone to pot.  But the SWEATER IS DONE!

I had to hand sew all those little flowers, which is a stretch of my embroidery capabilities (I have none), and sew on the buttons, which I was so tickled to find because they're practically perfect in every way.
Thing 2 stepped away from the computer long enough to let me take this picture, hence the, "Are we done here?" expression.  I was tempted to just lop off her head, which would also have cut out some of the mess in my kitchen, but the headless sweater seemed a little weird.

Tent City

In my description of myself I wrote - well, you can read it for yourself, right there to the right.
So it was pretty amusing to me that this afternoon the girls constructed not one, but two tent forts.  Thing 2 built hers in the family room, and Thing 1 built hers in the living room.  Between the two of them they've confiscated nearly every blanket and chair in the house.

Thing 1 claimed the dining room chairs first, but then Thing 2 trumped her by claiming the whole family room. Not many tent forts can claim a 42 inch flat screen TV.

Party Edition

I don't think I've won anything in my life except for a cakewalk in 3rd grade, when I won a somewhat tired looking cake slathered in crusty  boiled icing.  It was my first experience with boiled icing, I remember finding it fascinating, and picking off large divinity like chunks of it.  My mother raised her eyebrows when she saw me coming with my wonderful prize, which I remember because it was certainly not the reaction I was looking for, and I think her comments were somewhat restrained.  I believe I was the only one who ate a piece before it found its final resting place, plate and all, in the trash.

This week I won a drawing on the wonderful Buried With Children blog. I confess I probably should have told the lovely Jen to pick another winner because my kids are a little older than the target audience for this level of Dr. Suess, but the thrill of winning and the possibility of bequeathing this anniversary addition of Green Eggs and Ham upon my progeny or some other worthy child was too tempting to pass up.

The book arrived in this morning's mail, and it is certainly shinier and prettier than the edition I read to my own kids, with a glossy metallic orange cover and the "50th Anniversary" label in the corner. Just beautiful. Thank you, Buried With Children!!!!

What gave me pause, though, was the words "Party Edition" printed on the cover.  "Party Edition"?  I looked through the book, but found nothing different from previous editions... Sam I Am didn't raise a glass to toast the eventual consumption of the Ham and Eggs...  There are no musical notes wafting from a Suessian sound system on the last page while the furry critters shook their collective groove thangs...  I see Sam I Am as more of a loud music and beer kind of partier, where the Do Not Like guy as maybe more of a Wine and Cheese sort of individual.  Neither sort of celebration is depicted.  So I guess it's a make your own sort of party.  But it's a lovely thing to have won, and totally eclipses the Boiled Icing Cake.

The other joy of my life is that I have finished the Primary program. I should distribute it to the other members of the presidency to have them give it a once over before I copy it to distribute parts to the children, but I'm still in my pajamas, despite the fact that it is 4:15 pm. 

And last but not least on my list is the 12 quilt blocks, of which I have completed 5. I think I can knock out the last 7 tomorrow, the exchange is on Monday.  Here is one block, I'll post pictures of the whole thing after we exchange.

I am too lazy to get out my real camera to take a picture, and upload it to my computer, but not too lazy to try four times (unsuccessfully) to get a picture from my phone that isn't blurry. Sorry.

January 2002

From back when I kept things short and sweet.

Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: Christmas photos


we had a marvelous Christmas, hope yours was good too!

...and another one...
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 1:54 PM
Subject: Vacation photos


Hubby and Thing 1 and I went to Oceanside CA to get away
from all this snow! We had a lovely time, and Thing 1
was a huge hit with her baby sunglasses!

Some of my best friends...

Scooba, affectionately known as "Scooby," is one of my dear friends.  Along with Roomba, and Garmin we have become something of a family within a family.  I have counted on them so many times, and they have come through for me so many times.  That last minute realization that I have company coming, and my kitchen is a disaster, there are dishes in the sink and not one square inch of kitchen counter showing?  No worries, Scooby will mop while I take care of the rest.  And I'll have a little friend to keep my company while I'm washing, clearing, organizing: a bumbling friend who wanders around drunk while I wash the dishes.  I occasionally have to rescue it from under the cabinets where it wedges itself too tight to move, but once I pull it out it staggers off leaving a trail of cleanliness behind it.

For a year my upstairs was the cleanest area of the house because we knew Roomba was coming out twice a week, whether the kids were ready or not.  There was no clutter because we had to stay ready for Roomba.  Sorry kids, gotta clean up, Roomba comes out tomorrow!  And that lovely feeling of walking upstairs to find it vacuumed while I was out, priceless.


Garmin is more my husband's friend.  He takes her on his business trips, I only get her on vacation.  But I learned to love her as I was wandering around Florida a couple years ago in a rental car that felt very strange to drive, with a sick kid threatening to throw up at any minute.  We had checked out of the conference hotel and I was trying to find the Disney hotel we were moving to for the remainder of our stay.  There's no way I could have followed even the most clear google map directions.  I needed someone sitting next to me calmly telling me where to turn...  and I had that in Garmin.

But Roomba's been sick for a while.  It makes a distinct persistent knocking when it starts, then stops.  There is a system of diagnosis, counting the beeps to analyze the problem.  I wish it would just tell me, but no, I have to count the beeps.  Roomba is my oldest electronic companion, and is way past warranty.  My understanding is once past warranty the nice people at iRobot become surly and monosyllabic.  If you're under warranty they're happy to help you, shipping of complete replacements without even raising their voices.  I know this because I've had both Scooby and Roomba replaced under warranty.  This of course does not bode well in the long term.  Scooby had a minor hiccup recently but a quick online search gave me a quick solution, and we were back in business.

I'm feeling better because my house is somewhat cleaner, my primary program is half written, and I was able to steal some time to work on the sweater I'm trying to finish (pictures when it's done).  Today while the girls were distracted with playdates, I made the felted rose for Thing 2's purse which my mother knitted and felted for her. It is the first time I've felted anything.  I have to buy a magnetic clasp thing to sew on it, and it will be done.

Please excuse the fuzziness of the pictures, they're from my phone's camera. Too lazy to drag out and upload from the real camera.