The Heathen Housewife

Warning – this post contains information of the Too Much variety. If you’re squeamish or just don’t care to know about the deeply personal life of the Heathen Housewife and her family, move along and come back tomorrow. If you’re a shameless voyeur who loves to know all the dirt, carry on.

Well, now Joe has blogged it, I feel it is fair game for me to discuss that which I was biting my tongue over yesterday. I am so proud of my husband. He did a brave thing today, which many lesser men would have made silly excuses against doing and he did it without any sort of martyrdom or any excessive whining at all. Joe got a vasectomy.

Oh, there are so many aspects to this story. There are the emotional ones – no matter how certain we are that we are happy with our two beautiful girls and that our family is complete (and boy are we certain!), it is sad to think that there will be no more pregnant bellies, no more birth stories, no more little people to love more deeply than I had ever imagined a person could love. I feel these things, I think Joe does not and that is just fine. Still, even though I am a stay-at-home mom and have my whole self to devote to my kids, there are many days when I feel stretched past my limits and although I know it will get easier in many ways as they get older, I don’t want my girls to have any less share of my attention than they currently do, and to be honest, I don’t want any less share of private time than I currently have. This is the balance that is right for our family, and I am happy with it.

There is the whole society macho aspect to this story. The whole societal relation between virility and impotence. The whole “Don’t mess with my balls” thing that men have. Never mind that women get poked and prodded down there every year by an OB/GYN, never mind the humiliations of childbirth and the related suffering that women go through. I have heard so many stories of men who will not even consider getting a vasectomy but insist that their wives get their tubes tied instead, even though it is a much simpler procedure for men. Not my husband – and this is why I am so proud of him. He is and has always been confident and secure in who he is as a man and as a person and he doesn’t need to know that he’s shooting out live rounds in order to feel like a man.

I have to admit that watching him go through this today – or at least the aftermath of it – has reminded me of what I went through after Sophie was born. I was really torn up down there and had surgery the day she was born to fix it, and was in really bad pain for weeks afterwards while it healed. I got very little rest or support about it from anyone, and although Joe did the best he could, I just don’t think he fully understood how bad things were for me. There was one point at which he was angry with me for wanting to go to the ER to have my stitches checked because it hurt so bad I thought they were tearing. He has since apologized deeply for that one.

Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. I’m just saying that I didn’t know how today would be for him. I did my very best to make sure that he felt supported and got the rest he needed and took some pain medication and didn’t do more than he absolutely had to. He spent most of the day in bed with an ice pack, his laptop (and wireless connection), his Nintendo DS, his books and magazines. He’ll get tomorrow completely off too. He has told me a little bit about how it feels – somewhat uncomfortable it sounds like, but not altogether horrid.

What surprised me the most today was how fast the whole thing went. I drove him to the doctor’s office and the girls and I sat in the waiting room for all of 20 minutes while they did the old snip snip. 20 minutes! From the time he went back there fully clothed to the time he came out fully clothed with a paper bag in his hand full of empty specimen jars for later. I’ve been known to read the Fly Lady’s web site now and again, and one of her sayings is that you can do anything for 15 minutes. I guess that’s somewhat appropriate today.

Okay, that’s more than enough. The girls and I had a mediocre day of our own. We went back out to run some errands, which kept us out of Daddy’s way for the rest of the morning. I managed to keep Julie downstairs for most of the afternoon while Joe napped, too. Sorry, no pictures today – it’s hard to motivate for pictures when you’re working with a crummy camera phone. Have I mentioned how much I miss my Canon? I may have to borrow our old one back from the in-laws to tide me over till I get ours back.

I don’t have anything interesting to say today, I’m afraid.

I could tell you about how it was rainy this morning, so the girls and I spent most of the day at the mall with some friends and had a very nice time – but that is so boring. I tried to take some pictures with the camera phone while we were there because the girls were doing cute things in the play area, but the camera phone sucks. I can’t wait to get my Canon back.

I could tell you about the chicken tikka masala that we had for dinner – super easy to make with this seasoning packet I found at the Wedge, and it tastes great too! But you don’t really want to know what I had for dinner.

I could tell you about how Joe got his new i-pod today – an early birthday present. He’s very happy about it, and that makes me happy.

I could talk about trying to decide what activities to sign Julie up for this fall – gymnastics? dance? swimming? This is on top of pre-school three days a week. There is only so much money for class fees, and only so many days in the week. I’m of several minds on this issue, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that either.

I’m not going to talk about what’s really on my mind – what’s happening tomorrow. It’s a good thing, but private and not the business of the whole wide world. Weird for me to say that since I am not all that private of a person, generally speaking. It would make a good story, but it’s not really my story to tell.

I could whine a bit about how Sophie fussed and cried for a few hours this evening, totally out of character for her little self. I know it must be teeth, but even the Tylenol didn’t seem to help. She finally wore herself out and I tucked her snugly in her crib, poor thing.

I still got a couple of squares knit on the blanket…but no yarn sorting done, and I feel badly that I’m not going to get the packages out this week after all. Sorry ladies! It is a top priority, I promise!

I’ll try to come up with something better tomorrow. Now I have to go get some sleep before our appointment at the crack of dawn in the morning.

I have only nice things to say today – how refreshing!

Let’s start with the absolute best part first. Here is the biggest smile I have ever seen Sophie make. She was watching Daisy cat walking around our living room and trying to grab a handful of fur as Daisy brushed by. She succeeded a couple of times and I had to pry her hand open and brush off the collected fur. It was a priceless moment.

Here’s another lovely moment that happened just after. Julie and Sophie playing together. You can’t tell it from this exact moment, but they were sort of interacting with each other. It was very cute.

Okay, and someone was complaining a few days ago that I haven’t shown the blankie recently. I didn’t think it had been that long, but it turns out it was almost two weeks ago. Time flies when you’re incredibly busy having fun. I layed the thing out on the bed and Harry came trotting into the room and jumped right up as if somehow he could sense from the living room that a comfy spot was waiting for him. That’s okay – it’s good for scale. Comparing this picture to the one two weeks ago, I’m afraid there’s not all that much visible progress, but I have been averaging at least one square a day. That’s pretty pathetic, but remember we’ve been having sleep issues and I’ve spent a couple evening’s worth of limited free time sorting yarn in the hopes of getting it sent out in the near future.

Oh! See that package with the yarn sitting directly below the blanket? That’s from Jennifer in Melrose, MA. A few more nice chunks of exactly-what-I-asked for. Thanks, Jennifer – you’re #94!

One last thing – a different Jennifer was asking about what kinds of cotton sock yarn I’ve been getting and which ones I would recommend. Most of the big companies that make self-striping sock yarn make a wool/cotton/nylon blend in fingering that is great for warmer climates and seasons, or just for people with warmer feet. I knit this type of socks for our falls and springs here in Minnesota for myself, and will wear them in the winter too, if the warmer ones are in the wash. Socka, Regia, Opal, Meilenweit, Sockotta, Jawoll, even KnitPicks. These are all pretty similar, although some make them with a little elastic mixed in and others are just the wool/cotton/nylon. There is also Cascade Fixation, which is more of a DK weight and very stretchy cotton/elastic.

Here’s where my personal bias comes in and I’m going to go ahead and get all opinionated, so brace yourself. I don’t care fore Fixation. The elastic feels weird against my skin, I don’t enjoy working with something so stretchy, and it is too bumpy underfoot when I try to wear it. It just doesn’t make me happy. Also, I really think the wool/cotton/nylon blends make the most sense for several reasons. Wool is good to have in there because it helps make the socks more elastic naturally. Wool has great memory and will stretch out less than all-cotton does, plus it is easier on my hands to work with, and it absorbs moisture well. Cotton – well, it’s cooler, which makes it great for warmer seasons. Nylon is really important to strengthen the fiber and keep you from putting a hole through all that hard work after a couple of wearings.

And, moving along with that train of thought, but away from cotton for a moment, I’m going to disclose an opinion that I know some of you will disapprove. All those luxury fibers people are selling and knitting up into socks these days? The pure merinos, the Bearfoot, the pretty pretty handpaints that make you drool on your keyboard when you see someone knitting them? I’m not going there any more. They just wear out too quickly on my feet. I need some nylon built in, and carrying it along for the toes and heels doesn’t cut it because mine wear out just outside the heel zone. I made a pair in Bearfoot last fall, and after about ten wearings they’re already getting thin in spots. I’ve had this happen with other expensive yarns, too. Not so much with the Regias and Opals and similar yarns. I think the luxury ones are better saved for things close to the face like scarves and hats, or maybe sweaters or, um, modular blankies.

Okay, and just one more step down that trail…I don’t like Jawoll either. At least, I don’t like the wool blend of it. They put acrylic in it, and it sucks. It’s too shiny, in a fake sort of way. Worse, it feels swampy in my shoes when I wear the one pair I made in Jawoll, and they stretch out on my feet and flop around after I’ve been wearing them for a while and take off my shoes. Okay, hopefully the people who were looking for all-positive-thoughts aren’t reading by now, but if you are – quick, go back up to the top and take another look at Sophie blissing out over the cat.

Among many other things, today the girls and I took my entries over to the State Fair. I always have mixed feelings as I walk into the Creative Activities building to drop off my work. I’m excited to see what everyone else standing in line has to hand over, and I can’t help looking around as the intake volunteers fill out my form. Today I noticed a woman with two crocheted afghans – lumpy ones that looked like they could use a good blocking.

I critique my own entries one by one as the volunteer inventories them on the receipt for me. The lace baby blanket, knit with vintage wool from my stash – I think this one may have a chance of winning the lot if the competition’s not too stiff. The little cabled sweater I designed for Sophie out of the same vintage Pomfret yarn. It’s sweet, and well executed, but I’m not endlessly thrilled with the design. Who knows whether this one will bring a ribbon? I won the same lot with a stocking-stitch sweater from self-striping sock yarn a couple years ago, but the competition varies from year to year. The little hat – probably not going to win – I bet there’s more competition in this category, but I had to throw it in there just for fun. The most expensive socks I’ve ever knit – very simple ribbed socks, but there are a couple of details that make them interesting despite the limitations of the category. Still, socks is probably the most popular category in the knitting competitions at the fair, and I don’t expect to get a ribbon.

I feel a little sad and lonely for my woollies as I walk away, hoping they’ll be okay for the next few weeks till I get them back. I know the judges are meticulously careful, and everything is kept behind glass to keep the sticky fingers from pawing at it. I have never had a problem before, and I have only heard a couple of horror stories of things coming back stained or with holes.

Julie is excited for the fair to open next week. She wants to see the animals and ride the carousel. I’m sure she will enjoy eating what she can of the fair food as well. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last day for entries, so it’s not too late to enter, you Minnesotans. Just drop by the fair grounds and head over to the Creative Activities building. It’s free to enter, and the people are very nice – it’s much less intimidating than you might think. I have entered for four years now, and won some and lost some, but even if there is no ribbon on your garment as you walk in and find it in the cases, it is still a thrill to see it there displayed with all the other lovely things. It is a thrill to stand in front of the case and observe someone pointing your things out to their companion.

Oh, and one other thing. Stephanie is coming to Eau Claire next month. I asked her if she thinks she’ll make it to the Twin Cities this time around and she says she’s not going to be any closer on this tour. I’ve checked with Joe, and he says I’m clear to make the road trip as long as there’s enough milk in the freezer. The blanket wants to meet Stephanie (and I do too) so we’re going to go. It’s only two hours. Anyone want to carpool?

Sophie wants to crawl. She’s getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. She wakes up from a nap or evening sleep and practices this without making a peep – Joe caught her doing it this evening when he went up to get a fresh diaper for Julie – we thought Sophie was asleep, but there she was, wide awake and trying to crawl around her crib! I can’t believe this is my tiny baby, growing up so fast!

I don’t have any big, coherent thoughts or even a theme tonight. I have lots of bits and pieces – but I guess that’s pretty business-as-usual around here.

To answer a reader question, MIL doesn’t make Dolsot Bibimbahp at home because she doesn’t have the right bowls or a commercial oven. Bibimbahp is a dish comprised of rice, topped with various korean condiments like seaweed, a fried egg, bits of meat, and some other vegetable items that I can’t describe – and to be honest, it varies by cook and mood of the cook. When you sit down to eat it, you put your desired amount of chili paste sauce on it, and mix it all together before you eat it. Dolsot Bibimbahp is the same thing, only it is served in a stone bowl heated to some insane temperature. The egg is served raw on top, and when you mix it all up, the egg is cooked right there in the bowl. It is awesome, because you get these crunchy bits of rice that have browned at the bottom of the bowl and they even have a name – and I know I’m not spelling it right, but it sounds something like Nulr-un-gee.

Next up, I wanted to mention that on Wednesday I will be teaching clinic at the Yarnery. Normally, my friend Jean teaches clinic on Wednesday nights, but she has an important obligation and asked if I wanted to do it. I quickly took her up on it – any chance to get out of the house and go play grown-up knitting instructor suits me just fine. Plus, clinic is especially fun because you never know what you’re going to get. Clinic is free, and it’s basically first-come first-serve help on your knitting or knitting project. I’ll have the blankie with me, so if you’re local and want to come say hello, you’d be welcome to.

Finally, tonight’s dinner, and with it a trip down memory lane. Tonight was scrounge-in-the-fridge-and-find-something-to-eat-with-these-left-over-porkchops night, and as I was digging I found the tube of polenta that I picked up on impulse at Trader Joe’s last week. I figured now was as good as any time to fry it up, and so for the first time in a few years I ate what I grew up calling fried mush. When I was a kid, as a special treat, my mom would make fried mush for breakfast and serve it with pancake syrup. Sounds gross, but tastes great. I love the crunchy-chewy texture of the mush, and the syrup makes it over-the-top yummy. It is so funny how “polenta” topped with fresh tomato-basil sauce is oh-so-highbrow; yet “fried mush” served with syrup is the lowest of the dirt-poor south-Kansas white-trash lowbrow. Either way, it tastes good. My mom didn’t make it very often because it makes a huge mess when you fry it, and I spent a few minutes wiping up olive oil splatter after Julie was in bed. Next time, I’m going to cook it in the oven – I’ve done it that way before, and it make much less mess but tastes just as good. Julie got to eat it plain, but she snarfed it up so fast I had to ask her to slow down because I didn’t think she was chewing.

This post was started on Saturday night, but it got too late and I’m finishing it up on Sunday afternoon/evening.

I have lots of little things to mention today. First, I took a little trip to the UPS store and sent off my digital camera for repair this morning, so for the next couple weeks at least, we will all have to limp by with some very shabby camera-phone pictures. I know this is unfortunate for all of you looking for your sock-yarn-scrap fix as I open the mail each day, but luckily that’s tapering off anyway. It feels very sad for me, since whatever pictures I take in the next couple weeks will not be scrapbook quality, but I don’t think the girls will notice a couple missing weeks in the grand scheme of things.

While I was out, I sent off a box of yarn that I can’t use to Jo-Anne in Ontario, the one who makes bears to donate to children in need. I’m really glad to be able to share some of this stuff with her, and I hope she has as much fun opening her box as I did opening all the packages that brought it to me. We’ll do the rest of the yarn at the end of the post. In the mean time…

Sophie had her first taste of non-breastmilk food today. She has been grabbing at our food, staring longingly at our faces as we eat, and even opening her mouth to mimic us eating for a while now. I wanted to wait longer to feed her solids because of the allergies in our family, but I decided to go ahead and slowly start introducing a few things. Today she got a very thin rice cereal gruel, and not all that much of it. She seemed to really enjoy it, opening her mouth and leaning into the spoon in anticipation of the next bite, but most of it ended up down her face and front, and tucked up in the crease between her neck and chin. Yum!

The second Yum is for tonight’s dinner. We had our neighbors from across the street over – M, G and their two boys who are 6 and 10. I think Julie ate more than the two boys combined, but that’s my girl for you – she likes to eat just about as much as I do. We had barbecued ribs (I think this is my summer of ribs – I’ve made them three or four times this summer, and we all love them. Too bad they’re so fattening.) We had corn on the cob, baked beans, corn muffins, and sliced cucumbers in vinegar and oil. The neighbors brought over their special homemade bloody mary mix, and it was really good. I could have slurped down a couple glasses, but even just the one gave me a pretty good buzz, and I never have more than one drink a day since I’m nursing – usually not even that much. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, we are really lucky to have such good neighbors!

Now for the yarn – Kathy, who lives nearby me, the one who I accidentally stood up a few weeks ago, was visiting her friend Judy in South Carolina and brought me some yarn that Judy wanted to contribute. So I got to meet Kathy finally and also got some lovely yarn out of the deal. You can’t see it very well, but that’s Koigu on the left, a full ball of Regia Jubilee, what looks like maybe some Opal, and a couple cotton-blends

Suzanne from Philadelphia sent a nice package of bits and ends with a note neatly describing them all (and which I very much appreciate).

That brings our package total up to 93! Thanks, ladies!

Okay, and I’m finishing this up on Sunday afternoon – Joe was headed to bed last night and I realized that I was very tired too and could do this later – and I’m going to add a couple of things.

I got an e-mail from Cindy that she has already finished one sock for her daughter out of the Koigu I sent her, and she included a picture! I’m SO happy that this yarn is going to a very good use, and Karly is still very excited about getting her socks.

Here is Julie, excited to be wearing her rain coat and rain boots as we headed to Target this afternoon. She loves this new-to-her rain coat that we got from a friend the other day, and didn’t want to take it off even though she was hot in it.

Finally, to answer some questions that came in through the comments…

Someone asked where I go to eat Korean food in Minnesota. Usually, I get my fix at the in-laws’ house. My mother in law is an awesome cook. Granted, I’ve never been to Korea and haven’t had the food there, and I’m just working with my standard American midwest (albiet open-minded) palate. Still, I’ve been to Koreatown in L.A. on two visits now, I’ve tried a few of the restaurants in the Twin Cities, and MIL Kang makes the best of everything I’ve tried – with the exception of Dolsot Bibimbahp, which she doesn’t make at home. If you’ve ever had it, you know why. She makes regular bibimbahp, and it’s awesome. Her cooking is what I ask for on my birthday. And all that said, I know that doesn’t answer your question. The place the in-laws pick when we go out is King’s in Fridley. It’s up by where they live, but they also like the way the food is prepared best there. You can find that restaurant and some others listed here.

Now, I’m off to block a lace blanket before someone wakes up. But first I have to clear some yarn off the guest bed.

Never mind me while I write up a little list of a few things that need to be done…

1. Raise two happy daughters without damaging their little psyches any more than I can help. Even if one or both of them is refusing to sleep when she should, leaving me little time to do anything else but this number-one, never-ending priority.
2. Find interesting, delicious, healthy things to cook and feed my family. Without using wheat, dairy, eggs or soy. (Tonight we had a pasta salad that was pretty good for a 6:00 punt.)
3. Do something with all this yarn that has taken over my office room. This includes sorting it, winding it, mailing some of it off to interested parties, and of course knitting it. Minor progress is being made in each of these categories somehow, despite points 1 and 2.
4. Write a blog entry. Well, here I am – sorry, no pictures today. I just don’t have it in me.
5. Block the items I plan to take to the State Fair – drop offs start on Monday – ulp.
6. Get some stuff to the store regarding my fall classes. It looks like I’ll be teaching toe-up socks, a very cute slip-stitch baby hat, and two-color, or Fair Isle knitting while designing and knitting a hat.
7. Knit up those pants and that sweater that are begging to be finished before Winter sets in.
8. Print all the pictures from December on and get them into scrap books. (All you knitters out there, pretend I didn’t mention that. Scrap booking is my dirty red-headed stepchild of a craft, and I do not get all crazy with it, I just get the pictures into books and write some captions while I’m at it.)
9. Eventually, some day, get some sleep.

Okay, someone explain to me why despite all this huge list of things begging to be done, why is it that I looked at this today and felt the sudden urge to order some white sock yarn from KnitPicks and pull out the Kool-Aid? I mean, as if I had the time to knit up a swatch, figure out the yardage per round, wind the yarn in a proper length, dye it, rewind it back into a ball, and then HA! knit it into socks. As If I didn’t have a slightly-out-of-control stash of sock yarn at the moment. I’m not saying I’m not going to do this project. I’m just saying, it’s not going to happen tonight. Nope. Not even going to look at that KnitPicks page again. Closing the browser tab right now. I’m going to go to a little bit of number 3 and then a little bit of number 9 before it’s time to start working on number 1 all over again (hopefully in the morning).

We’ll get to Jen in a few minutes, but first I want to tell you about my day. Many cute kid and family pictures were taken today, but I did not take them. We drove out to across-from-Stillwater and visited our favorite professional photographer, Jeff Dunn at his studio. He did our wedding and a photoshoot when Julie was six months old, so we figured we’d better do another one while Sophie is at the perfect baby-photo age – able to sit up but not crawling yet. (And speaking of Sophie – the little scamp is laying in my lap blowing raspberries into my arm right now. She just doesn’t want to go to bed!)

Anyway, the drive out to the studio was an hour each way, so I had quite a bit of free knitting time. I chose to work on Julie’s leggings – the blankie is getting a little big to transport, and I really need to work on these pants before Minnesota’s early fall hits us. I made good progress, and the legs are 10 and 11 inches long at the moment. I need them to be 15 inches before I join them, but they’re getting there. I noticed while I was taking the picture that one is slightly wider than the other overall. Not sure how that happened, but I think the difference is small enough I can ignore it. I’m kind of excited about this project – I mean, how many three-year-olds get to wear pants handknit in fingering weight by their moms? I’m going to get her a plain little overall dress to wear them with, andI think she will be in heaven.

So anyway, Jeff did a great job at the photo shoot. Julie was being a bit of a pill and not cooperating very well. Idonotknowwhy. We should have picked a morning appointment instead of an afternoon one, and that probably would have helped, but we didn’t. Even so, he got some great photos from what I saw on the digital-camera screen. As part of the deal, he’s going to give me web-quality digital copies and permission to post them here (after all, most of his business comes from word of mouth), so you’ll get to see them eventually. The drive back involved some whining and more knitting, but we made it and ate out at our favorite, Chipotle.

When we arrived home, I found one package at the back door. The surprising part was that it is from my friend Jen, who lives right here in St. Louis Park, who has two little girls the same ages as Julie and Sophie, and whom we saw last week and whom we have plans to see this Friday again. Jen has a little obsession with paper and stationery and mailing things. She’s talked about this obsession a few times in the past (I think of it as her version of yarn and knitting obsession), but I didn’t realize how bad it was till today. The package has the kind of postage on it that you get when you take a package to the post office. This tells me that Jen had to drive to the post office and PAY to have it delivered to my house when she could have just waited two days and brought it over herself – and I only live a mile from the post office. Silly girl.

I do love the little card she included, and her daughter Maymuna included a letter for Julie in the package. The yarn is lovely, too…very nice, shiny, soft cotton that looks about like DK weight to me. But it is SO not sock yarn. Jen, I’ll keep it if you want me to. I’ll make sure it finds a good home. But it’s not going in the blankie. You could whip up a really cute little hat for Hafsa out of this if you wanted. Or something.

Oh, and finally – I’ve been having some intermittent trouble with my camera for a while, and it’s gotten worse lately. Bad enough that I had convinced Joe I needed a new one. Bad enough that I was ready to go ahead and buy a new one tonight. But then, as a lark, I did a Google search on the problem I’m having to see if anyone else has been having it. Apparently, enough other people have had it that Canon decided to fix it for everyone who has this camera and this problem for free even after the warranty is expired. So says their web page, anyway. Aside from this memory card issue, our camera has been a loyal friend, and it is still high enough resolution that I could live with it for a couple more years. What I’m really hoping for is that they’ll say it’s cheaper to give us a new camera than fix this one. ‘Cause what I was planning to buy was the current model of the same camera. I really like my PowerShot Elph – and this is the second one we’ve owned. Joe’s parents are still using the first one. If I do end up sending it in for repairs, and I plan to, the only drawback is that I’ll have to live with the 1-megapixel camera built into my Sidekick for a couple weeks. You won’t notice a difference in the quality on the blog – but it will probably be noticeable when I get around to printing them.

This morning I had the rare opportunity to get out of the house by myself. Joe’s parents came over and watched the girls while I went and got my teeth cleaned downtown. I used to work downtown, so it made sense to go to the dentist near my work. Now, I keep going down there because it is a good excuse to go walk among the big tall buildings a couple times a year. Today, I got there early and had plenty of time to stroll through a book store before I headed up to the office. I was in no rush as I got on the elevator up to the fourteenth floor.

The elevator was busy as usual for this building and on the second or third floor, there was a UPS guy waiting to get on with his cart. Even though the compartment was pretty full, he pushed his way in. I stood there feeling angry at him and frustrated as the rest of us all squeezed together trying to make room, and I cringed as the guy at the back facing the door almost got banged in the privates by the hand cart. The guy scrambled to pick up and balance his packages on the cart as we climbed a couple of floors and I thought about making a snide comment to him about how he could have waited for the next car. A couple of us had to get off to let the lady in the corner off at her stop. I started to feel badly about my initial mean thoughts, so I blurted out something like “Sure is busy today” – sort of neutral.

That opened up the conversation for the UPS guy to mention that it was almost 10:30 (the cut-off for the express deliveries to be made) and he still had six packages to get signed in. He said only two of the elevators were working (in a bank of about 6 or 8), and as he said this he looked really frazzled. I felt awful – I almost slammed him for just trying to do his job, just trying to meet the deadline imposed on him by his company. I was so glad I had kept my mouth shut those few extra moments. I got off on the fourteenth floor feeling relieved.

Oh, and I’ve still never had a cavity in my whole life. I hope I can continue to keep it that way.

There were no packages in the mail today, just a Netflix movie and some bills.

Tonight we took Julie to our friend Max’s third birthday party at Choo-Choo Bob’s Train Store. She had a good time playing with the train tables they have set up there, and was thrilled to wear a party hat and take home a balloon. She didn’t even notice when the birthday cake was served because she was busy playing in the main room. This was a good thing, since all I had for her as a substitute were some allergen-free cookies that had been riding around in the diaper bag for at least a week, and were a little smooshed. I had brought some Oatscreme in a little cooler too, but sincet they weren’t serving ice cream for the other kids, I don’t think I would have offered it to Julie and risked making them feel bad.

Thanks to everyone who wrote such supportive comments on yesterday’s entry. I was surprised by what a strong response I got. I even want to thank Linda, who chimed in just a little while ago and dissented from the rest just a bit. I appreciate that you spoke your mind instead of just being a knee-jerk yes-girl. (Not that everyone else is that, I’m just saying that it takes some courage to say what you think when it’s not what you think the person wants to hear.) Linda, no worries – you’re right – this wasn’t a hill worth dying on, and I didn’t really get any deep wounds. I am pretty darn comfortable with who I am, and with who my family of choice is. I do think that sharing my feelings on a conversation like this might help make people think about what they’re saying and be a bit more enlightened about understanding each other, though. I especially like the way Linda said what she had to say in a very nice way. So thanks again, everyone! It’s nice to have all these new internet friends.

Speaking of new internet friends, I got two e-mails thanking me for the yarn I sent out last week, and I’m glad to have made a couple of peoples’ day. I’m especially happy that there is a little girl named Karly out there who will soon be wearing pink Koigu socks and that she is excited about it.

I also got three packages in the mail today, all very nice indeed.

Cassa in Midwest City, OK sent a nice pile of yarn, which she says she has fallen out of love with. They tried to deliver this package on Saturday, but I wasn’t here to sign for it – what a pity! At least I have it now!

Danielle in Stoneham, MA sent a very cool hand-made card with some very nice bits of yarn.

Katy in Chicago sent some leftover Regia jacquard – the purple one that was so popular at the same time the 5181 was first out, and a very nice note too.

Thanks, Internetties, for bringing our package total up to 90 today. I’m going to have to cut this post off since it’s 12:30 and I’m trying to contain my fussy little one in the sling, but she is flipping herself over backwards trying to help me type. Exactly 6 months ago, I was starting true contractions and going into labor with this little one. It’s amazing how quickly things change.

Today Julie wore that yellow hard hat all day. She also had her play cell phone tucked into the neck of her shirt pretending to be Bob the Builder. You can’t see it in this picture, but she is wearing big-girl underwear and nothing else on the bottom. She asked to wear panties when we got home from our morning errands, and she didn’t wet them all day. Despite about a million trips to the bathroom she didn’t pee in the toilet either. She did fill a diaper the moment we put her in one for bedtime, though. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I’m just going to follow her lead. If she wants to wear underwear, fine – as long as she keeps them dry and is willing to try sitting on the potty. If she doesn’t want to wear them, diapers are fine by me for now, too.