The Heathen Housewife

Let’s start off with some nice warm fuzzies before I get into the meat of what I have to talk about tonight. Joe’s home. Life is good. I was able to cook dinner with him here to watch the girls while I stir-fried. Nothing fancy, but it is nice to prepare a hot meal in my kitchen again. I do not know how single moms of babies do that part. Joe came home tan and rested, and he was happy to see all of us, and Julie was thrilled to see him. We are back to our regularly scheduled programming, and that is just how I like it.

Today, I took this picture of Sophie wearing a hand-me-down shirt from Julie. Joe posted about the shirt on his blog last week, wondering what had happened to it. I dug around in the storage bins and found it with the next size up clothes, since Julie wore it for a couple of seasons. Joe bought it for her and thought it was great. I think it is cute in its intended subversive way, but also it doesn’t match the other pieces of clothing we have very well, and – well, when we’re out I sort of like to blend in most of the time and not wonder what people are thinking about what kind of mom I am to put my kid in a t-shirt like that. But I do find it cute and funny, so I stuck it on Sophie as a welcome-back greeting to Joe.

She’s also wearing the socks sent to us by Carolyn. Julie didn’t get to wear her socks today because she wore them yesterday and they are in the wash today so she can wear them again tomorrow. She loves them, and has been calling them her “Bob the Builder” socks because everything she loves most is labeled her “Bob the Builder” whatever-it-is right now. She asked about them several times today. Sophie had some fun trying to grab the beads on her ankles without tipping over sideways.

I suppose I could leave it right there, and we would all leave this post with a warm fuzzy feeling. The argument could easily be made that I should leave it right there and not bring up the topic I’m about to mention. That the boat shouldn’t be rocked, that I’m overly sensitive, blah blah blah. I’ve heard those lines too many times in my life – times when people were manipulating me not to speak up for myself when really I needed to. So now, I sometimes speak up when I think something is wrong even though I know I’m probably putting my foot in my mouth and maybe hurting myself or someone around me. But even though I know all this, I sometimes can’t stop myself from saying what’s on my mind. So here goes.

Last night, my neighbor M from across the street came over for a beer on the front steps. We were sitting there having a friendly chat about mild matters – neighborhood issues, our kids, the weather, the bunnies hopping around in the yard – that kind of thing – when we noticed another neighbor’s light on and decided to invite her over as well. D came over, and somehow it was mentioned that Joe is Korean and therefore our kids are half and half. D said something like “Is that what he is – don’t they have some really nasty food?” I was stunned at what she said right then and there, because even if that were true (and I’m not totally denying it that there are some things in korean cuisine that don’t especially appeal to me) that’s not the kind of thing you say to your neighbor when talking to her about her husband’s culture of birth. I mean, that’s not the first thing you’d say about your Norwegian neighbor even though they eat lutefisk at the holidays (bleaaaacth. I’d much rather eat a freeze-dried anchovy than slimy lutefisk any day. As long as it hasn’t been rotting in my deep-freeze for a couple of months) .

But I managed to control myself and said “Nasty food? What nasty food?” And her examples were kim-chi and spicy ramen noodles. She went all off on how kim-chi is traditionally buried in the ground while it ferments, and she refused to listen to me when I explained that it is simply pickled cabbage, that lots of cultures bury foodstuffs (in jars) in the ground to preserve them for winter. She didn’t want to hear it when I told her how much I enjoy eating korean food, and she kept making fun of it for about five minutes. I finally told her “I think I’m a little offended by that”. Then, she made a kind of back-door apology saying “Oh, you know I was just kidding” but then she immediately followed it up with another barb about yucky korean food. At that point, I took a look at my watch and reminded her that she was due to pick up her partner at the airport and she didn’t want to be late.

D left, and M and I talked about the conversation for a minute. M seemed to think that I had overreacted a bit – that D was joking the whole time. I’m sorry, but her tone was not joking – it was serious, and even if she had been joking, it wasn’t funny. Nobody wants to hear that what they eat and enjoy every day is disgusting. And if you’re making fun of korean people, you are making fun of my entire family. Even if I am a big loud white girl. The whole “joking” excuse is a great way to piss me off. It is such a standard manipulation technique. You float a thought or an idea to see if the crowd is willing, and if they’re not, you brush it off with “Oh, I was just joking.” It surprises me that *anyone* thinks they can get away with that, and it surprises me even more when they do.

Okay, so to clarify – it’s fine if you don’t like korean food. Some of it is quite spicy, and I know a lot of people who just can’t handle it. (Especially living here in Minnesota surrounded by people of Norwegian ancestry). That’s fine. But you have no right to write off the cuisine of an entire culture without even trying it – and I mean really going in with an open mind and sampling more than one dish – for yourself. There’s plenty of non-spicy korean food to go around, and if you asked nicely, they’d help you figure out what to order at the restaurant.

That conversation? To me, it’s a great example of latent racism. Us versus them. Calling someone a racist in modern America is a pretty hard insult, because it is pretty taboo to admit to it these days. I don’t take it lightly. But the thing is – people like D don’t even realize their bias. Here’s an admission on my own part. I know for a fact that I am not color blind. I know that I have cultural and racial biases. I just do my very best to recognize them and overcome them as they come up.

Today was Day Three of the home-alone experience. It was a good day, and even bedtime was under control. I took the girls out to dinner again, though, and I’m really not sure what we’d do long-term if I had to cook dinner every night without at little help managing Sophie, at least while the stove is going. In the mean time, I had a good excuse to go eat at Cap’s, which has awesome barbecue. I didn’t take any pictures today, so unless you saw us in person (Hi, Ozayr!) you’ll have to take my word for it that they are still pretty cute.

I thought it would be fun to answer a few questions from the comments, and I’m still not sure about the protocol for having discussions in/around/through blogs works, but I’m pretty sure it’s okay to do it this way. Sometimes people ask me stuff through the comments, but then they don’t leave their e-mail address, so it’s hard for me to respond any other way. I don’t think there’s really a guidebook on how this is supposed to work out there anywhere.

Nicole asked about the study that Sophie was in what they were trying to figure out, how it works. They took us into a room where a video screen was set up in a black background so there wasn’t much else to look at. I had to put on some blackened sunglasses so Sophie couldn’t look to me for reaction to what she saw. There was a video camera built in right below the screen so they could watch her reaction and where she was looking. Sophie sat on my lap and we watched the pictures shown on the screen – mostly involving a rubber duckie, moving around on different backgrounds. At first, we were just looking at two a static-sized ducks moving around in two dimensions, then they had line drawings of a tunnel behind each of the ducks, one on each side of the screen. On one side, the duck got bigger as it got closer to us in the picture and on the other side it got smaller as it got closer. The idea was that if she spent more time looking at the “wrong” duck, she probably understood perspective. So far, it’s looking like babies her age do recognize it. Hope that makes a bit of sense. I think I offended the professor doing the research when I asked if there is a practical application to this research, and the short version of his very long, slightly huffy answer was no. I was all, “That’s okay – basic science is a good thing. We’re here helping you out, aren’t we?”

Okay, this one isn’t related directly to the blog, but I’m going through my in-box looking for things to reply to, and my friend Jen sent me this link about a study I think is cool. Breastfed babies have lower levels of stress later in life. I’m so not surprised by this, but I’m glad that the study proved it. Thanks for the link, Jen, and we both deserve pats on the back for nursing even when it’s not always the easiest thing in the world – but that said, it seems a lot easier than bottlefeeding and I’m not trying to say we’re superior in any way. Not trying to make anyone feel bad about their choices or abilities to nurse or not.

Jo-Anne in Ontario says she knits teddy bears for various charities and could use some of my yarn bits for her bears. Jo-Anne, I would love, love, love to give you some yarn bits. Nothing could make me happier. Yours sounds like a great cause – little gifts like a teddy bear to a child in need – well, it doesn’t solve all their problems, but it lets them know someone cares. Send me another e-mail with your address, and give me a clue on preferences as to yarn weight, color, whatever might help me send you yarn that you’d most enjoy knitting with. And yes, I would love to see a picture of the bears. Especially if you’ll give me permission to post it on the blog! I think I can safely assume that anyone who sent me their yarn wouldn’t mind knowing that some of it went to your cause. Thanks for doing what you do!

Judy wants to know if she can send me some yarn via a friend of hers who lives near me and is visiting her right now. That’s fine with me. Just have her drop me a line at shellyk at shellykang dot com and we’ll set up a meet.

That’s all…time to get in bed – Joe will be home before dinner tomorrow night, so I know I can make it till then, but getting a bit of sleep would still be a good idea.

So when I posted last night and I mentioned that Joe was out for the evening, I thought I was being all smooth and cagey. I don’t like to post information like “Hey, we’re going on vacation and our house will be empty for the next 5 days come steal everything we own” or, “Hi, my husband is going out of town for a weekend. Come on over and rape and murder us all”. Unlike many bloggers, I’m not anonymous. My full name and location are right out there for everyone to see, and it’s not that hard to look up our phone number and address on Google. So, I didn’t exactly lie when I said he was out for the evening, but I just didn’t give you the whole truth. Why am I telling you this now? Because my darling husband already did it for me. It was less than a month ago when we went to L.A. for his grandfather’s funeral and I specifically asked him not to mention it on the blog till we got back. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking. So – all you rapists and murderers out there – I have sharp, pointy sticks and I know how to use them! At least now I can tell you all about single-parenting as it happens instead of summarizing on Monday.

The girls and I had a fine day today, even without Joe around, even though Julie did wake up asking about Daddy and even though she randomly commented once “Joe went with the guys this weekend” so I know she was thinking about him.

Our neighbor Megan across the street invited us to go to the Hennepin County Fair with them, since her two boys participate in 4-H and had something on display there they were going and she thought we’d like to tag along. I said yes, please! and we packed ourselves a little lunch and got the car seats in her van and off we went out to Corcoran to see the fair. I haven’t been to a county fair since I was a kid growing up in Columbia, Missouri. This didn’t match up with those memories very well, but it was still a fun day overall. There was one minor mishap, which happened five minutes into our arrival there and was actually very scary in the moment but then just pretty much embarrassing the rest of the day.

There was a construction contractor of some kind with a display just inside the gate – a display inside a trailer, and outside they had a sign that said “Free Hard Hats for the Kids inside!” Well, Julie is going through a Bob the Builder obsession phase, and has even renamed two of her favorite stuffed animals Baby Bob the Builder and Baby Wendy. Don’t ask me where the Baby part comes in, I have no idea. They’re both bunnies, too, and used to be named Archie and Peter. But that’s way beside the point. We were lured up the shiny metal ramp and into the trailer where we admired the towel warmers and other bathroom fixtures on display, got our yellow plastic hard hats and left. I followed Megan and her two boys and Julie down the ramp, and as I did so I sort of stuck my hand out to help Julie because I was thinking it looked really steep and slippery.

Before I knew it, I slipped and fell right off the ramp, about two or three feet onto the grass face-forward. I, myself, was pretty much unhurt as far as I could tell at the moment, but I freaked the hell out because I was carrying Sophie in the sling and I landed ON TOP of her. It took her a second to start screaming, and she didn’t even cry that hard or much, but I started screaming at the top of my lungs pretty loudly that I wanted some help, a medic, a doctor, an ambulance, someone to check out my baby. I mean, I know that babies are resilient. I know that their little bones are rubbery cartilage and unlikely to break. I know that I protected her as best I could during the fall, but I also know that a good chunk of my weight landed On.My.Baby. It was a horrible feeling.

Suddenly a very nice woman in a pink shirt was standing in front of me and asking if she could help. She explained that she was an emergency room nurse and she could look at the baby for me if I wanted. I said yes, please. While she was checking us out, a Corcoran police officer showed up, and had called for an ambulance to come, but by then it was clear that Sophie was okay, the nurse took a good look at her and I could see that she was alert and calm, so I felt much better. The cop called off the ambulance, but invited us to come sit down in his trailer for a few minutes to regroup. I took him up on it, and sat down to nurse Sophie just to reassure us both and I let a few tears of embarrassment and relief out. Then, we were on our way to what we came for, and I almost could have forgotten that it even happened except for the occasional nice onlooker who asked us “you all okay now?” I am a little sore tonight, but I’ll be okay, and Sophie seems just fine too. Now let’s get on to the fun!

Julie loves to ride on the carousel. This carousel was overpriced (they made me pay for a ticket for Sophie too – so 7 dollars for one time for the three of us) and really crummy. Like filthy, and parts held together with electrical tape crummy. But it made Julie happy, and that’s what matters. Try not to look at the adult in this picture. That can’t possibly be me looking so weird. Look at the cute, happy children.

We saw a toy circus made out of Tinkertoys and construction paper. See the hard hat? Getting her that stupid thing was almost worth the fall. She loves it.

We went to the petting zoo, where Julie fed the animals food pellets, then carrot slices. It is so funny how she is going throug a stage where she is shy and holds back at first but then warms up and enjoys herself. It was good that the boys were with us today – they helped her get out of her shell.

We also ate greasy fair food, jumped on the moon walk, and looked around the craft tent and the 4-H tents. I have to admit I was curious about the knitting competition. It was a little sparse, and I have to admit to thinking I could totally blow the contest away next year, till I realized that all of the entries were sitting out on open tables where everyone could touch them. Every sticky-fingered child could stain them, someone could easily walk off with a smaller item and nobody would notice. I think I’ll stick with the State Fair, where items are handled a little more securely.

By the time we left, I was exhausted. When we got home, I plugged in a Bob the Builder DVD and sat on the floor and chilled with my girls. For dinner, we went out to Chipotle, then came home and took a bath and the girls went to bed almost exactly the same as last night. Here’s Sophie showing that she is no worse for the wear after her tumble at the fair. She seems to love sticking that little tongue out when I take her picture. She’s also getting so good at sitting up that it’s much easier to stick her in the high chair while we eat than try to hold her.

Today’s mail included one amazing package. Carolyn in North Carolina didn’t send me any of her yarn, but she sent me some things far better! Beaded socks for Julie and Sophie, and a pretty dishcloth for me. Carolyn, I don’t know what on earth I can have done to deserve this, but what a huge treat! I can’t wait to get the socks on Julie and Sophie probably tomorrow. And the dish cloth – I’ve been secretly wanting to make dishcloth(s) but haven’t gotten around to it and also worried about how I would feel wiping up spills in my kitchen with something hand knit. Is it really okay to just use it? In the kitchen? To clean up? Anyway, thank you. I really don’t deserve such a fine treat, but thank you anyway. It’s like Christmas in August.

The blanket says it thinks I am ashamed of it or something since it hasn’t gotten to be on the blog for a few days. No, no shame here – just that it’s not all that different than the last time you all saw it. You can’t see it, but there are a lot of yarn ends hiding in the back. It’s time for another weaving-in session before they drive me crazy. In fact, I’m off to sit on the couch, watch Monk on DVD and do just that for a few minutes before I go to bed.

It is 8:04 p.m. I am sitting in my office by myself. The kids are fed, asleep in their beds, the house is quiet and I have the mythical Time to Myself staring me in the face. Okay, maybe Julie is still talking to herself, but she is in her bed and not screaming or anything, so that counts. Joe is out this evening, so I got to put the girls to bed by myself. I tried reading to Julie with Sophie on my lap, but Sophie was squirmy and fussy, and I really felt that Julie deserves her three books and cuddles almost as a basic right. So, I did what I normally refuse to do. I put Sophie in her crib and let her cry. I wrapped her up tight in a blanket, I turned on the mobile, I told her I would be right back, and then I shut the nursery door and the bedroom door and I read through Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel at a normal pace and gave Julie her bedtime hugs, kisses and cuddles. By the time I went back to check on Sophie five minutes later she was asleep.

Do I feel bad? Maybe a little bit for Sophie. The second child does get the shaft sometimes, I’m afraid. But Julie needs more attention than she gets, too – like all the days when she has to wait quietly while I get Sophie down for her nap. If Sophie had been awake still when story time was over, I would have picked her up and lavished her with hugs and kisses and carried on with our normal bedtime routine. And just as I typed that, Sophie somehow sensed my Blissful Aloneness and woke her little self up, but I went and soothed her, came back down and scooped myself some of that leftover ice cream from the block party.

To tie up some of yesterday’s loose ends, I’ll share computer and car updates. I did quite a bit of soul searching and a little bit of Internet searching today regarding the computer situation. Joe flat-out told me to take a thousand dollars and go buy a new computer. The idea was and is oh-so-tempting. But it boils down to this: the old computer can be made to work. We just have to drill a couple of holes in the floors and Joe can run the LAN line between his office and mine – just like we had it in the old house. I’m pretty happy with my current set-up. Yes, it would be nice to roam with a laptop all over the house and yard, but I’m not sure how much I would really do that, and I’m not sure that I need any more incentive to be on the computer during the day. Most importantly, I think having that thousand dollars in the bank will make me feel better than having a shiny new toy that will take hours and hours for me to configure and get right – hours and hours that I could be knitting.

About Joe’s car – it needed a new battery. The old one was so completely and totally dead that it hadn’t responded to jumping when he tried it the other night before calling the tow truck. We are thrilled. We can put off tough decisions about buying new cars versus paying big repair bills a little longer. Not only am I a strong proponent of using a car as long as you possible can because it is the right thing to do in so many ways, but in reality it would be a stretch for us to make a payment on a car every month.

Today I received three more packages in the mail, and we still have yesterday’s – let’s open them!

Bonnie, a local knitter who I have met before at the Guild (even though it’s been well over a year since I made it to a meeting) sent me a nice little package. Included are another nice chunk of that Regia 5181 that I and so many others have knitted. By far, that is the most popular one I’ve received so far. I think because it was one of the first flight of Regia self-stripings, and such a wildly fun colorway. I gave away a big bag of it to Connie for CIC the other day, but I’m sure I’ll find room for this chunk as well. Also, Bonnie included a card showing two women in uniform knitting – maybe a WWII photo. Very cool. Bonnie, maybe I’ll make it to the September meeting – I love seeing the State Fair entries up close and personal.

Michelle the Knitting Librarian sent me a nice packet of leftovers. Everyone go check out Michelle’s blog. She doesn’t post very often, but she makes beautiful stuff. Michelle, I love that little baby sweater from the blue and black sock yarn with the white sleeves! Very cute. Your recent Philosopher’s Wool sweater is very nice too.

Karen from Durham, NC is obviously highly caffeinated. My first clue was the exclamation point after my name on the outside of the envelope. Second was the awesome-smelling coffee she sent me along with the yarn – coffee debuting at the coffee roastery where she works. Karen, you are a temptress. I am so sadly decaffeinated these days due to nursing a baby. I haven’t done caffeine since I was pregnant with Julie back in 2003. Most days I don’t miss it too much, but today I sure do. My husband Joe will drink it gladly, though. I will enjoy the scent.

Sarah from New York, New York sent a little collection of odds and ends.

Thanks, ladies, for bringing my package total up to 86! I have been slowly sorting through the fingering-weight wool/nylon blends and the plan is I’m going to keep about 1/2 to 1 ounce of each type. So, if 20 people sent me Regia 5181, I’ll keep the first ounce of it for the blankie and pass the rest along to others. I’m going to go through the giant bin of just this one type of yarn first and sort it between “mine” and “give away” so that I can get some other people started on blankets of their own. But it is going to take a while. Be patient with me – so far I’ve only managed to consolidate the colors as best I can and split up the ones that have already appeared in the blanket at least once. I think I’m going to take a Flylady tip and set a timer for 20 minutes a day on this part of the project.

Sorry, I don’t have any good kid pictures today. We spent entirely too much time in the car ferrying Joe to and from work, among other errands. Sophie was in a little research study at the U of M about how infants see perspective in drawings. It was interesting and painless. Tomorrow – we go to the county fair! Hopefully I’ll have some good photo ops then.

I’m starting to think our house has become some sort of Bermuda Triangle for all things related to electricity.

We just had the electricians out today to fix a light switch that needed replacing, and had so many extra wires in it that I had to force Joe to give up on doing it himself after he had exceeded his allotted number of curse words per project. Luckily, the electricians were able to figure it out quickly despite their own initial confusion.

On a sadder note, Joe’s car had to be towed to the dealership this morning because it was completely dead. We parked our cars outside during the block party last night, and it rained pretty hard. Some piece of wiring must have gotten wet, or maybe whatever part went wrong just decided it was a good time to give up the ghost. We’re still waiting to hear back from the mechanics, and in the mean time, the girls and I are chauffering Joe to work and back so that we can have some freedom during the day. Tomorrow, Sophie’s going to participate in a study at the University of Minnesota involving infants and whether or not they recognize visual perspective. Can’t miss that!

On an even sadder note, my wirless internet dealie connecting my computer to the home network is dead. I’m ashamed that I once was a computer programmer, and still know a lot about some things, but the networking stuff completely befuddles me. Anyway, Joe ran out to get a part and tried to fix it, to no avail, and now he has me hooked up temporarily with a LAN cable strung through the closet that connects our two offices. He says I need a new computer. He says this weekend I should decide what new computer I want.

I have so many mixed feelings about this prospect I don’t even know where to start. I mean, YAY! New toy! Boo! I have to make sure I pick out the right new toy to last me the next five years hopefully like this one has. Yay! Faster, better, prettier! Maybe even a laptop! Boo! I will have to transfer everything from this one onto the new one, probably involving hours and hours of digging out install CDs, copying files, fiddling with settings, deleting all the pre-loaded crap that comes on computers, and dowloading all the updates and browsers and stuff that I depend on regularly. Yay! Flashy new toy! Boo! We’re spending money that makes me so happy sitting there in our savings account waiting for a rainy day. Boo! Joe needs a new computer too, and he’s telling me to get one instead. Talk about some guilt – the internal kind, not the kind imposed by the husband.

Anyway, I’d better go look at some computer sites and then get myself to bed so I can get up at the crack of dawn to play chauffer. I got one lovely little package in the mail today – sorry, no picture but I’ll get one up in the next day or two.

Sophie is still teething up a storm, and like an idiot I made her life worse by indulging in chocolate again. It was just one of those tiny little Lindt bites that I got in a package of yarn, but that was enough to have her barfing all day and screaming at me too. When will I learn? I am such an addict.

Last night as I wrote my post, I was struggling to avoid that whiny tone that sometimes creeps into my posts. That woe-is-me, life-is-hard note that often sounds despite just how wonderful my life really is. Last night as the sun went down, the temperature in our house crept up. All day long, the temperature had hovered at 80 despite the thermostat being set at 78. By bedtime, it read 84. A nasty, muggy 84 of the kind that you get when there are thunderstorms coming and even though the temps outside are about the same or cooler, you don’t want to open the windows for the breeze because it is at least as damp out there and there is hard, windy rain on the way.

Worse than sitting in the actual heat was the thought of sitting through heat for potentially days to come as we might have to wait to get the air conditioning fixed or replaced. Worse than that was thinking about spending our savings on a new air conditioning unit to replace our model from the 70s just days after our home warranty expired. And to top it all off, Sophie was restless at least partly from the heat. I ended up going to bed with her just to get her to settle.

First thing this morning, I called the HVAC guy, and lucky me he came right out at 11 – right at the beginning of the window he promised when I called. Solving our problem took all of two minutes and involved our garden hose and the screen over the vent in the back of the unit. It had been clogged with dirt and those fluffy seeds that float around from the trees in the spring. D’oh! That was an expensive lesson in homeownership, but a cheerful relief after a restless night of worry.

It rained most of the day today – I took Julie to the park this morning, but we didn’t stay long because everything was wet, and the rain started back up to boot. I had things to do at home in preparation for our block party. My neighbor across the street asked me if I would be the block co-captain and I said sure, so we were in charge of organizing a little neighborhood get-together. We had been planning to block off the street, but by late afternoon it was clear the rain wasn’t going away. Miracle of miracles, both girls went down for naps at the same time and I ran out to the garage and swept it up enough so that we could have the party in there. We have a freakin’ huge garage – it’s a large two-car, but is very deep, so all the bikes and mowers and snowblowers and crap fit into the back room, leaving quite a bit of empty space when the cars are on the street.

We ran to the store for ice, set up some tables, I printed some signs redirecting people to our house, and we called some neighbors to spread the word. I was sure that nobody would come, and we’d end up with three cases of root beer and three giant tubs of ice cream sitting around in our basement tempting me. I was wrong. We had a nice little crowd – I want to say about 30 total, including 8 kids. The rain poured outside, but everyone stayed dry and cool in the garage – the temperatures were back down in the 70s by this evening. The root beer floats were a hit, and the kids had a good time. Police officers and fire fighters stopped by to say hello, and the rain stopped long enough for everyone to check out a rescue vehicle. See?

We moved here a year ago looking for a better neighborhood – one without drive-by shootings and insanely noisy neighbors. We SO scored in that department. We have some awesome neighbors here. Julie took a while to warm up to the crowd – she’s going through a sort of stranger-anxiety phase – but she ended up having a great time. I brought out her own tub of Oatscreme so she could share in the treats, the kids all got glo-sticks to wear and play with, and she had fun playing tag with the big kids even though she didn’t really understand the rules. Luckily, they’re really good kids, so she didn’t have to.

Oh, about the blankie. There were no packages today. There are a few new squares, though. I spent more time winding yarn today than I did knitting. I’m not complaining, but *my* some of you sent me some tangly balls of yarn – and I’m a little O.C. about having nice, neat, center-pull balls to work from.

Looking back on my day, I’m almost a little surprised that we did so much, especially given the 100-degree heat we’re having. Uh, that’s 38 degrees to the rest of the world. Really really hot. So hot that it was a little scary putting the kids in the car – I started the air conditioning right away, but I still worried that the heat would fry their little brain cells. Anyway, here’s a run-down of our day. First we went to the coffee shop to meet our knitting friends, but we were the only ones to show up this week, so the three of us sat in the cool shop for half an hour while I drank my iced decaf mocha latte drink, Julie drank her juice, and Sophie slept and then woke up and smiled. Then, we headed over to the Wedge and picked up a case of rice milk and a few other things. I picked up some Hyland’s teething tablets to see if they would help Sophie feel a little better while those two bottom teeth come in. She ate them without fuss, and although she’s wide awake still, at least she’s not screaming. I took a picture of her gummy smile just to make sure I caught it one last time before it becomes a toothy grin.

Just after we got home, I got Sophie down for a little nap and the phone rang. It was Connie, a local knitter who makes socks for Children in Common, a charity that sends clothes to children in Russian orphanages. Connie was ready to come over and pick out some sock yarn. I put on a video for Julie, and Connie and I had a great time pawing through the piles and chatting about knitting, kids, and all manners of other stuff till Julie’s video ended and Sophie woke up and Connie finally extricated herself from my conversational grasp. I sure can talk up a storm if you let me. It felt *so* good sharing the joy that is this pile of yarn from the Internet, knowing that Connie will have fun knitting it up and some needy child will have warm feet. Connie let me take her picture with the blankie. I think it looks happy with her holding it. Thanks for coming over, Connie!

Not long after Connie left, the mail arrived, and whatever she took away was more than replaced by the two packages that came today. First, a little package from Anne with some Trekking and some Regia, all very nice.

Then, a good-sized box, which when dumped out revealed this amazing pile of odds and ends from Ellen in Cambridge, MA. This is what she calls “a bit of leftover sockyarn”. I’ll say. Quite a bit. Yummy!

Thanks to both Anne and Ellen for sharing your yarn with me.

Okay, so after Connie left and the mail was opened, I took a look around. Our house was pretty warm even with the air conditioner cranking away full blast, Julie was looking kind of bored after entertaining herself for almost an hour during the yarn-pawing chat-a-thon, and I’ve been promising her for days that we would go to the water park. So I scrambled all around the house for fifteen minutes collecting swimming suits, sunscreen, swim diapers and towels, then for another ten minutes trying to find our season passes. I couldn’t find them, but I decided either they would just let us in anyway or I would go ahead and pay the admission. Luckily, they let us right in, and as we were getting dressed afterwards I found them – in the bottom of the pool bag. D’oh! The pool was a perfect outing. Julie had a great time, mostly listened to me when I asked her to do something, and we all stayed cool. During the hourly break when they make everyone get out of the water, I took Julie to the snack bar and got her a giant popsicle that I thought for sure would melt before she could finish it, but she surprised me and slurped it right down. Sophie seemed to like being in the water sling and didn’t mind being dipped in the cool water, either. We did have to go hang out in the locker room for a few minutes so I could nurse her, but then she slept the rest of the time we were there.

I wa going to tell you all about the amazing BLTs I made for dinner, but Sophie woke up for the 10th time fussing and I decided to just go to bed early with her. So I’m finishing this up Tuesday morning while she nurses again. Tonight’s post – adventures in air conditioning!