I have a bunch of random non-knitting related stuff I’ve been meaning to throw up, so brace yourself – here it comes.
For Mother’s Day, Joe got me an awesome new knife. It’s a ceramic chef’s knife from Kyocera. I wanted one after I read about them on Samurai Knitter Julie’s blog a while back.
I love having a good, sharp knife. Chop, chop! I’ve only had it for a couple weeks now, but so far so good. It’s very nice. Now let’s hope I don’t drop it on the floor or find some other way to break it.
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Look how cute these girls look using their little stencils and pencils and markers to make pretty pictures. Don’t they look just like sweet little angels?
Yeah, and ten minutes later, one trip by me out of the room for five of them the stencils, pencils, markers and paper are all over the floor, and nobody knows how they got there. Oh, I love my children, yes I do.
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Last weekend we did the semi-annual wardrobe switcharoo around here. It’s finally warm enough for summer clothes more days than not. When I pulled out the Crocs from last year, it was clear that we had none for Sophie. Julie’s hand-me-downs covered the sizes above and below the one that currently fits Sophie’s feet. Damn!
We went on a search for new Crocs, which turned out to be a little more difficult than the last time around. Long story short, after three other stores and two other malls, we ended up at the Maul of America. This was my first trip to the MOA with the girls sans stroller, and WOW! They did just fine.
I wasn’t planning on buying new Crocs for Julie because I was thinking that hers fit just fine. But then as I was helping Sophie try on her new ones, I glanced over and noticed Julie’s toes sticking out of the holes of her old ones. New shoes all around, and a couple new sets of Jibbitz too.
Do we care about the fact that my kids are wearing new pairs of ugly but very comfortable and versatile summer shoes? No, I thought not.
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We had another little neighborly dinner party last weekend. It totally rocked. I never can get over how great my neighbors are. We had this spontaneous idea to get together for a potluck centering around barbecue ribs, and three days later there we are feasting and hanging out together.
The budding young saxophonist from across the street gave us a little concert over dessert, and the little ones even did some dancing along with him.
And then the super-cool kicked in. We sent the whole pack of kids out to the yard to run around (little ones supervised by big ones). The grown-ups got a good 20 minutes of adult conversation while we watched the kids’ antics out the bay window.
I swear I live in a Norman Rockwell painting.
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Except at the moment, because we are in the middle of a crazy construction scene right now. Here’s a picture of my roof yesterday afternoon. See the pretty new chimney up there? That’s a $2500 new toy, so I did my best to enjoy it. We knew we needed to rebuild the chimney when we moved into the house, and since we have to replace the roof due to last year’s hail damage, the time is perfect to get it over with.
Then, this morning at the crack of dawn, a giant dumpster appeared in our driveway, a work crew arrived to tear off the old shingles…
And make a crazy mess while they were at it…
And by this afternoon, they were already bangin’ on the new shingles
Those guys worked hard, and at this point they’re close to finished with the roofs of both the house and the garage. Hopefully the neverending noise will actually end some time around noon tomorrow.
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Hey, look! I’m doing another tiny little bit of my own part to keep the earth healthy or something. I’m finally putting my ugly laundry line that came with the house to good use. Now that the weather is bearable, I’m really going to try to use my dryer as little as possible this summer.
I feel so warm and fuzzy inside. I just hope my family doesn’t rebel at the somewhat stiffer fabric and whatever other issues they might come up with related to clothes dried in the wholesome fresh air.
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While I was out taking pictures, I snuck a couple new photos of the house next door. It’s even more insane than last year.
Oh, the tacky! Do you see the two geese statues there on the porch? They have many different outfits to wear depending on the season and weather.
Don’t even get me started on the hateful old biddy that lives inside.
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And finally, for those of you who are still here after all my little ramblings. The beginnings of a new knitting project. More on that next time.
We had a neighbor who had 2 teenage boys and left them alone every single weekend to go to the shore with her new husband. Needless to say the boys got into all sorts of bad trouble. The brought the gang to our neighborhood and it was miserable. Then they sold the house WHEW and a couple moved in. She put all sorts of stuff in the yard – including plastic geese. We all were shocked at the plastic geese…. but decided that the plastic geese were 1,000 times better than the bad element that used to be there… so we embraced our new neighbor and her plastic geese. She really was a gem.
Wholesome fresh air can contain heaps of pollen, so if your family’s allergies act up while wearing the air dried clothes, you may need to go back to the dryer, or get an indoor drying rack. Hopefully, you won;t have an issue, but I just thought I’d mention it.
I used to live in a place with a clothesline in the backyard, but was always afraid to use it. My allergies? They are mighty.
Love the house next door and feel for you with the roof. Any kind of reno is messy but it’s good you’re using your clothesline. You can always soften the clothes by putting them in the dryer on ‘Fluff’ or ‘Air’ with no heat for a minute or two.
What is shopping at MOA?
If you have the energy for it, toss the sun dried clothes in the dryer, and tumble with no heat for 10 minutes or so. That should keep them from being too stiff.
We have a lovely neighborhood too, with a wide range of children’s ages. I love where I live!!
We recently had some roof work done too–though not as extensive. Our rubber roof needed patching at the seams, and the skylights needed new flashing–still a multi-$K job, but what can you do.
I’m a little scared, I think I own all of the books in the stack under the yarn-even the japanese one.
re- stiffer laundry-when you take the clothes down, you can tumble them for 5 minutes in the dryer set to no heat-that way, no environmental evil.
Hey, thanks for the link, and glad you enjoy reading. Hope you use the knife in good health and no bleeding, for a long time. Wishing you good food, too.
I, too, wear ugly yet comfortable shoes (Birkenstocks) so I see nothing wrong with dressing children accordingly. My kid wears crocs too.
Happy knitting!
There is a lady near the school that has a Hot Pink Fake Christmas Tree!!! with Fake Kids, and Fake Pink Flowers and a Pink Mail Box!!!!!! and it’s a two family home… so she has all this… umm…. stuff… all crammed on her side of the yard.
Talk about UGLY! Yuck… yes, it’s good that she does not live *near* me….
I have always had significant pollen allergies, but never found that air drying laundry increased them. Perhaps they just can’t get much worse! I LOVE the smell of laundry dried outside.
Remember: what we say about others says more about us than it does about them!
Your statement about your neighbor does not reflect positively on you.
I suggest your read Zen Ties by Jon J Muth with your children. It is a lovely book about being neighborly.
I loved hearing about your neighborhood and neighbors.
My oldest daughter wanted to spend her own money on crocs but wouldn't spend it at the mall. She was really bummed to only be able to find black ones in her size at the outlet mall!
And at our house, we call them "Kronks!"