The $200.00 Turkey

We have recovered from the tryptophan comma following the Thanksgiving feast..which featured the $200.00 Turkey.

S. was off for the entire week preceding the holiday. I left a list, as I was not only working, but was on another road trip. He was supposed to get the turkey (his idea) while I was gone.

S. waited until Tuesday afternoon to get around to it. He called me as I was on my way home, relieved to be done until next week, and thinking about all of the little details involved in entertaining house guests and the holiday extravaganza as well as other meals for the crowd..... He had no turkey!! The store was out of fresh turkeys! (if you are female, have ever bought holiday turkeys, you are saying "duh!)

I did not mention that on the preceding Sunday, I had suggested that we throw the turkey in to cart...Exasperated, I stop at the warehouse club on my way, and low and behold they have many boxes of fresh turkeys in the town where he wasn't!...so once I obtain the birds (kid 2 also needed one for their T-giving 2)...I shopped....and with postage for the holiday cards, the two turkeys (along with the other stuff in my cart) came to $200.00.

I could have taken all 10 of us out to dinner, kept the house clean, and not been exhausted for that amount.....but I do have stamps!

trying it out

Holidays are a time of family fun. Part of our family fun was for kid 1 to teach me how to add pictures to my daily rantings!

So , this is a test, this is only a test. In real uploading, there will be more interesting subjects....like lots of socks!

Sheen

Much effort over the last two weekends has gone into the "revitalizing" of the hardwood floor in the kitchen. We bought the house three years ago, and this is the first time I have lavished tender loving care on the kitchen floor. Until now it has been vacuumed, swept, spot wiped, and only seriously washed once. Its luster was gone!

Thanks to a bargain clearance item, I was equipped with the "floor revitalization" system--cleaners, wipes, mop, mopheads, "revitalization"--took awhile, but it is beautiful!! Reflects the sunlight, "glows" in the moonlight, looks rich, and "hardwoody". Truly fitting for stately Wayne Manor!

Now everyone is out to sandpaper my sheen....The cat with his litter tracking, the S. with his garage tracking, the Z. with all kinds of outdoor tracking, little bugs that have grit on their little feet---a vast conspiracy by all who did not slave to achieve the sheen!

I sweep twice a day--where does all this gritty stuff come from? How long can I hold the line on the particles determined to wear away the shine? How long will I care?

Think I know why three years went by without caring much about the floor--it is high maintenance---and even harder to be motivated to care enough to drag out the vacuum cleaner every hour on the hour!

It will be nice while it lasts!

Shopping in a new venue

So, work takes me on the road again, but this time to at least a "civilized" place--they have a mall and bookstores! I find some time to wander the mall--big sale on some sleeveless turtle necks--never mind that this is an oxymoron, and a few years ago I would have said who in the world would want a sleeveless TURTLENECK? Now I know it is middle aged women dealing with temperature control. It is blowing and snowing and very chilly, and I am out looking for sleeveless turtlenecks! Fortunately, I now have a new assortment of colors to take me through the temperature extremes.

The next day was the bookstore. They are soothing--nice music. Pretty good public bathrooms--handy when on the road. Found a book I was looking for, and a sock knitting book I was not--got sucked in! Of course had to immediately run to my hotel to begin to knit toe up socks. Much fun. No pattern, just theory. Ratios, proportions, interesting increasing and decreasing to make a toe in space, then build a sock around it.....Now you may ask how could this be? Wander into a bookstore, and have yarn and needles in your hotel--but I have become good at this travel thing...Bring only the essentials, which includes knitting bag with more essentials!!! So I now have two tiny little red/grey toe up socks. A good time was had by all.

More of the travel next week. Not as much fun as everyone might think--but I will have new knitting to keep me amused!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Wow! 70 degrees on Nov. 11. Fabulous. Planted the 30 bulbs--the last. Cleaned up some flower beds. Haven't been this nice at this time of year since we moved here. Have Day lilies and Roses still blooming! Think that may come to a screeching halt this week. Usually we have snow now.

Finished another pair of socks. Have also been working on a Christmas stocking. Also some purple socks in super socks color yarn. Don't like the yarn. The color is good, but the "hand" is scratchy. Also already pills. Must remember that I don't like this yarn!

The last pair of socks was so nice to knit. Swedish yarn. Knew my ancestors were worth something.

Must go put some more finish on the floor. After three years, finally decided to so something with the kitchen hardwood floor. Is looking better, but was lots of work. Now my body aches==bulbs and floor finishing in one day--too much for the old bod, apparently.

And the finish line keeps moving...

I returned to my office cube today, after much time "in the field"--which has nothing to do with empty lots--but lots to do with being in the "real world". The stuff was piled 2 1/2 feet high in my chair--phone message light was frantically blinking, and the email folder was brimming.....No finish line in sight here.....

Did finally get the last of all those daffodil bulbs planted last weekend. The bag said 100---I swear they multiplied in there when I walked away. Know I planted many more than 100! Can't wait to see what survives the critters--who have been known to dig up and munch them! Of course, on three acres, another 100 + daffodils will hardly be noticeable.

Not that I am at the finish line yet---as succumbed to another "impulse purchase"--of 30 bulbs ---yet to be planted. If I work fast, I might get them in before the ground freezes solid! They are great---actually repel the deer. Oh, how my gardening has changed! Now it is not about color, height, smell, or my likes. It is only about finishing with things the deer detest and will leave alone!

Will let you know if I ever catch sight of the finish line--either in my garden or at work!

Mothering and tulip bulbs

So "child" 1 had some "minor" surgery on an outpatient basis (what they call almost everything these days, short of replacing all of the patients internal organs). She had to have a "responsible" companion accompany her, so I got the job. It was sort of boring sitting around the Hospital ALL DAY, but I did manage to read a whole book, knit some of a pair of socks, watch Martha Stewart make a pizza, and visit the hospital cafeteria. After several hours of waiting (stay in this room so the surgeon can talk to you were the orders), a cute young (to me) surgeon dutifully reported on her condition, then indicated that I should wait some more until she was in the appropriate stage of recovery for me to join her (vague translation--until the medical profession is done collecting money from her insurance company, and they are going to return the "in the old days would be hospitalized for days" relative to you to take home and deal with as best you can.)

Fortunately, I had four kids and two parents, and between them and their escapades, and illnesses, I got good at the blood and yetch handling. It probably also helped that I was once in a former life, and admitting clerk for an urgent care, where people would routinely bring me the body part that was detached by the hedge trimmers, and offer it up, (like the admitting clerk was prepared to do anything about it!)

So we take the woozy, bleeding patient home, and give "home nursing" our best shot. Since 1 is an adult, you can only do so much. I suggested it was time to take her antibiotic, but she insisted that she had already taken it. Choose your battles--push the pain meds....Makes them sleep more and are easier to care for. So I made sure that she did not bleed out, kept breathing, and was relatively comfortable. That leaves a lot of time to knit--cute pair of socks from Swiss yarn is almost done.

Yesterday was 70 degrees--amazing for our climate--so during a nap for 1, I tidied 1's gardens (not hard, they are smaller than my kitchen table) and planted 30 purple tulip bulbs in her newly created beds near the sidewalk. Such fun to 1) be enjoying the warm sunshine in November and 2) have some decent dirt. 1, who is still to young to appreciate the dirt in ones yard, is oblivious to my enjoyment of the process. In May, she will be thrilled with the purple display at the end of the sidewalk. Happy Birthday! (got the bulbs on end of season clearance sale--very nice collection that might just be a little up market for her neighborhood, but will look stunning I hope).

Since we were both bored, we dragged the convalescent to my house--more space, bigger screens to watch, and stashed yarn!! Things are looking up for the surged upon, and more days will make things still better. It is still not fun, even if you can convalesce in your own home--or your mothers! At least her flower beds look nice.

Is your refrigerator running?

When we moved in, the refrigerator that was in the house had 1) not been cleaned when the prior owner moved out 2) been turned off from September to January and 3) was, as a result, unusable.

The husband declared with glee that we should buy all new appliances, which was where I was going anyway. He had the hots for a Ice/water dispenser in the door (which my genetic link to my father told me was a useless gadget that would just be something else to break--except in my case, I substituted "clean" for "break"). He carefully researched, compared, shopped, and selected his fridge--my only stipulation was that it be white (I have done the other than white appliance game, and refuse to pay again).

When the enormous fridge was delivered, it would not fit into the space.(I could point out that I did ask if he had measured the space prior to the purchase, and he assured me that they were "standard", but that would be one of those things that annoys husbands). The fridge was parked near the opening, and more power tools were purchased to take down the edge of the cabinet. Lots of muttering, whirring, and expletives later, and with great effort, the frige was jammed into the space.

When it runs, which is often, everything vibrates--the floor, the cabinets, everything in the cabinets, and I suspect everything in the walls connected to the cabinets. People often ask (in a frightened manner)--WHAT IS THAT?!?--It is just the refrigerator running (or rather the "symphony" of my kitchen). It sounds like an earthquake is beginning and we are at ground zero! You get used to it after awhile--just like people who live at the end of an airport runway or next to the railroad tracks do!

In defense of the husband, the floor is too high, which we did not discover until quite some time after moving in. He has removed the floor to make the stove and the dishwasher "fit". Turn out that appliances are "standard" (sort of), but our kitchen is not.

I am not excited about the floor removal under the fridge....So live with the noise--and know that the next time, I will measure the openings before he selects a model! Once they push the fridge into that opening, they are not going to take it out to further reduce the cabinet--no matter how awful it sounds!