A Scintillating MMP – and other nifty words

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
261

I’m home, too, tho I didn’t have the same adventure as **Taters **- I just went shopping in the wilds of Dale City, VA. We found the teacher supply store that daughter sought and she got some good stuff for her classroom. Then we had a little time to kill before lunch, so we walked thru a furniture store. There was some incredibly expensive, FUGLY furniture in that store, but I did get a couple of good ideas for furnishing our living room.

We were first at Olive Garden and I asked for a table for 13. While waiting, I got a phone call and learned that 3 lunchers weren’t going to make it, so I informed the hostess that we only needed seating for 10 (turned out it was actually 9.) It was a very nice lunch, and much merriment ensued. I got to put faces to 4 names. And I’s still stuffed. Very nummy lunch.

Daughter and I spent 2 hours and not too awful much money in IKEA, wandering around, talking about stuff, generally sharing quality mother/daughter time. The original plan was to go thru Potomac Mills Mall, but we were both too tired, so we came home, stopping to pick up a copy of Mama Mia.

It was a good day. I’m now going to settle in for an evening of knitting. And we might get a little snow tomorrow.

262

So I’m driving back to Tech Monday. Anyone know a remotely efficient way to get from Harrisonburg to Blacksburg without using 81?

263

I got all my unemployment paperwork today. I think. You’d think they could send it all out in one packet, instead of multiple mailings. :eek: on the $ amount and then realized it was the weekly amount, not monthly. I’m working on my resume today.

264

I know you’re all just gagging for this so without further ado: Genius Grandboy and the Jazz Ensemble!

This was my daughter’s comment in the email accompanying the link:

Naw, we ain’t proud of him or nothin’… :wink:

265

Do you remember when the biologist went on The Colbert Report and named a spider after Stephen Colbert? You can choose a name for one of the remaining nameless spiders.

Picture of a spider here

This makes up in part for the fact that I couldn’t get in to the departmental hard drive to do any work today. Dear library administration: when the servers are all offline, you go offline too. You can’t Serve the Public if no one can search the frickin’ catalog or check out books! Jeez!

266

I’m here. Not much happening. I go to work. I go home. I pet my kitty.

I can do with my life being pretty quiet right now. I’ve had a lot of personal drama in the last couple of years.

267

Urgh. Tired. Very nice party, at least for the grownups. :slight_smile: Nat was an angel, and has experienced chocolate cake. His opinion? Grabbing for more. :smiley: Not to brag or anything, but he’s a nice little kid, and usually very well-behaved. During the day, at least.
Did I mention tired? Going to start getting ready for bed.

268

Yay for birthday parties! Glad everyone had fun.

And yay for housecleaning fairies (forgot that one earlier)!

Welcome back, Taters!

I went off to babysit just before 11 and apparently missed all kinds of neighborhood excitement. A building on the main street of my neck of the woods went up in flames. I got home at 4 to no electricity and could see that the intersection a block away was blocked, but I thought there had been a car accident or something. I decided it would be prudent to run errands while the electricity came back. Among other things, I acquired an additional lantern, since September’s power outage was a major pain because my lanterns weren’t quite bright enough.

Took a little ride around town to see the extent of the power outage and was surprised to see it involved several blocks on either side of the main drag. During my reconnaissance, I saw that there were firetrucks on the main drag and noticed that at least one of the trees along the street was covered in ice.

When I got back from my errands, I walked around the block and joined the gawkers. The firefighters were apparently making sure everything was out. They had one of the ladders stretched all the way up and were looking down at where the roof of the building used to be. :(:(:(:(:(:frowning: I’m sad, because there were some really nice little businesses there. They interviewed the owner on the news and he’s going to rebuild, but I’m sure it’ll be a big blow to all the businesses in that building and maybe to some of the neighboring ones. I’m hoping they can make it through.

I was impressed at the amount of damage. It sounds like it burned very hot, very quickly. I’m going to try to take pictures in the morning.

Babysitting was fun, although the kid’s nap failed to materialize. She was clearly tired and I put her in her crib. It sounded like she was asleep for a little while (like 15 minutes), but then she started talking and I could hear her messing with the crib. Didn’t really want her to take a header, so I retrieved her. We cuddled on the couch a bit and then she resumed her puttering. She’s a really funny little kid and was all smiley even though she had the sniffles and is apparently teething. We built things and read books and sang and danced and generally had a fine old time. Except that I really really wanted to take a nap and she didn’t. :smiley:

So, I’ve given up and bought needles and yarn. Nothing fancy. A cheapie acrylic to practice with and then a fluffier alpaca blend to make a scarf out of. Bought a magazine for some inspiration and a book so that I can learn semi-properly.

Now I’m tired and going to watch a movie and play with yarn. We’ll see what comes of it.

I know I’m forgetting something, but can’t think what…

::Toddles off::

269

No bum butlers, no door to door hookers. Looks like it might be a quiet night at the doghouse.

Glad the sales picked up a bit, Pie, and glad real food helped.

Welcome back Taters!

270

Yay for returning mumpers! Taters from training and Dotty from vacation - hey, I forgot to welcome her back earlier, so my bad! And doesn’t HRH look like a real sweetie even with bed head?! Seriously, she’s a lovie and what beautiful hair! :slight_smile:

Geez, Doggio, I guess you have to be thankful the guy didn’t take anything and well… he did clean up stuff, right? But still … geeze!

I made some veal stew today. Tomorrow or Monday, I’ve got a corned beef brisket that I’ll put into the crock pot with some cabbage, onion, carrots and potatoes. I put a little can of tomato paste in the stew today; I’m not sure I’ll do that again–it was pretty tomatoe-y. LOL I also added 1/4 cup of barley. It was pretty good stew.

I’m making good headway on the new afghan. I can’t believe how I’ve taken to crocheting – I’d tried it many many years ago and just stopped after making a few things. This time, though, I’ve kept going. It’s fun! And I’ve actually used the afghans I’ve made to stay warm the past few nights. Hehehe…

I know I’m missing things I wanted to say. For that, I apologize! Hugs, trout slaps and commisserations, as necessary.

271

I’m back. Yesterday’s headache just felled me; I fell asleep in the recliner watching Jeopardy, so gave up and crawled in bed. At least I’m feeling better today, even though I couldn’t get to sleep again once I got into bed. :smack: So I swatched the lace shawl I’m going to knit for our niece’s wedding next spring – I figure I need plenty of time to knit it, it’s a pretty but rather large lace shawl – and to my delight, the center section is an easily memorizable pattern, so at least that section should be easy to knit. Of course, then I blocked it today, and I’m going to have to go down at least one if not two sizes in needle and re-swatch it, so clearly this is going to be a long process. I tend to ignore swatching, as do most knitters, but sometimes it’s a good idea.

1800 yards of lace yarn is a lot of lace yarn, however.

Other than that, I’ve just been puttering today. At least the Big Chill is easing off here, too – it’s warmed up 10° since suppertime – which is a good thing because if I put on many more layers, I wouldn’t be able to move. This house is damned cold when the temp is below 20° out. All except our bedroom, which is an addition and thus well-insulated, so it gets too warm. I’d rather have a warm office and cool bedroom, but that ain’t happening in this dumb house!

Anyway, I haven’t read much, so apologies if I missed anything earth-shattering from anybody. But now I’m going to go back to puttering, or maybe even just give up and crawl in bed. Ta, y’all!

272

Yep, MamaTigs’ house can get damn cold. But instead of freezing my behind off there I will sit here in my seemingly incredibly well-insulated log cabin in the mountains, which stays nice and warm even when it gets to -15F…runs away

Oddly, we’ve been having a warm spell. Apparently there’s some sort of wacked temperature inversion over the mountains, so it’s been extra-warm up here for the past week or so. I’m sure once that goes away the cold will start kicking our asses again. At least I hope so (within reason!) The snow has been melting! In January! Not that there isn’t still quite a bit around. And I’m told the skiing is excellent.

Time for bed!

273

Hey, it’s me again, Downer Woman. Things are not looking good for Lucy, they inserted a feeding tube today, and she is still on the respirator. Every time I close my eyes try to sleep I see her in the coffin, instead of Babe. Am I in shock, ya think? I feel quite detached, almost disassociated. Maybe I should call the doctor on Monday if things are not looking up. I apologize for dumping this on you people, I just don’t know how to handle this.

Babe and I were friendly, but Lucy and I are as close as real sisters. I feel as if my heart is bleeding.

274

Oh kaiwik! Sending hugs and prayers to you and wishing there was something more I could do to help. Prayers and good thoughts for Lucy too.

MamaTigs is right, the temps have gone up a bit - it’s actually above freezing right now. My bedroom is in the farthest corner of my three bedroom apartment, and thus it’s the last to get heat and often when the temps are really low it doesn’t get enough. So the past few nights I’ve been bundled up beneath two quilts, with an afghan underneath them, just atop of me. This morning I was a bit too warm, incredibly enough! It was kinda comical too, I guess, when I was tossing off quilts.

I’m up and caffeinating for now. I’m going to put my chicken thighs in my tandoori paste and yogurt to marinate in a bit. I’m also thinking that I might just make pancakes for brekkie this morning. I’ve had a taste for them! Believe it or not, I’ve also had a taste for molasses atop the pancakes, but alas I have none. Ah well, pancake syrup will have to do. I’ll also probably sneak a slice or two of regular bacon … LOL Safeway used to carry Jones all-natural sausages, the patty kind; they were in the freezer section and already cooked, all you had to do was pop them in the microwave. For the past year or so, though, all they’ve had are the links and for some reason they’re not as good tasting as the patty sausage. I wish turkey bacon tasted better.

275

{{{kai}}} Yes, by all means, call you doctor. Any help they could give you would be a good thing. And never worry about dumping your stuff on us. That’s what we’re here for. Heaven knows I’ve done it too many times to count myself. Hang in there.

276

Did I miss this story?? :confused:

:wink:

I wouldn’t mind a bum breaking in here and dusting for me. But I don’t have any beer in the house, so it won’t happen.

**MamaTigs **- pretty shawl! Not the sort of project I’d take on, but I can see the appeal of the challenge. I’ve just never had any desire to do the teensy tiny yarn for knitting or crochet. Lack of patience, you know.

But I did start on the second helmet liner, and it’s going quite fast - I think I got half of the initial ribbing done while watching stoopit TV last night. Today’s plan is for laundry and more knitting. I’d like to get 2 done and on their merry way.

**tarra **- it’s warmed up here over night. I just took the dog out and it was about 30° - a nice change from yesterday’s 6°!

{{{kai}}} - doggone it, it’s about time things looked brighter for you. Be strong - you’ll get through this.

Humidity in the house is still ridiculously low at 33%, despite the vaporizer running in the living room all night. But today’s forecast is 50% chance of rain or snow - I’m hoping rain. Heck, I was thinking of cleaning the carpets just to get a big wet area inside to evaporate!!

Anyway, happy Sunday, all! Stay warm, stay safe, and stay off my lawn!! :stuck_out_tongue:

277

I’m so sorry about Lucy, kai. Lots more hugs and good thoughts and prayers headed your way. Please keep us updated and feel free to vent and share stories. I’m glad you realize you need to take care of yourself; definitely go to the doctor if you keep feeling like this.

The door-to-door hookers were some time ago, FCM. I’m sure doggio will be glad to recount the story. All I remember is that I went :eek: .

So, it turns out that if someone teaches you to knit when you’re 5, you remember it forever. I knitted a few swatches last night with the cheapo yarn and then started in on a ribbed scarf because I was too impatient to make it through the book in detail once my hands had remember how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. It was really interesting to see how it all came back as soon as I’d remember how to cast on. (Well, the binding off part took a couple of tries, for some reason, but the knitting and purling? All securely stored in the recesses of my brain.) I figure it was filed under “in case of knitting emergency.”

Once again, I was up till way too late, so I’ll be napping later. But I’m up and about to make a potato and leek omelet. Then I’ll work on some of the productive stuff I was going to do before babysitting and power outage got in the way.

ETA: forgot to say that that’s a lovely shawl, MamaT.

Back later.

GT

278

I was going to 10:00 mass, but at some point it started snowing, so car-cleaning time would have made me pretty late. I’ve cleaned off the car so I can go get a few groceries before 12:00 mass and also walked over to where the fire was yesterday. It looks even worse in full daylight. There’s still one firetruck there and a bunch of firefighters winding things up. A couple of them were talking to property management company employees. Here’s the story from today’s paper. They have some incredible pictures in the paper, but I think you have to subscribe to get to them online. There’s a video on one of the local TV station’s home pages right now. Here’s a set from someone on flickr. In the paper, it said that there were 7 ladder trucks and 127 firefighters involved. More :(:(.

Off to the grocery.

GT

279

Good morning my lovelies. It was nice to sleep in my own bed again.

I’m so sorry about Lucy, kai.

It’s cold and foggy here.

I don’t really have much to say, I guess. I’m still tired. I got up at 2:00 am yesterday and didn’t go to bed until 11:30 pm. Unfortunately, I just can’t sleep anymore.

I have to call my sister because she and my BiL want to come hang with us today. I’ll need to clean the house before they get here, though. It was obvious the hubby and kids were here by themselves.:rolleyes:

280

Anyone know how to set up a group on facebook? I need to [del]fart around[/del] mess around with it this afternoon for a bit…

Off to run errands and then do nothing. I love Sundays!