Me: I last saw my pants on Tuesday when I wore them to a doctor’s appointment. I came home, changed into comfy clothes and they have been missing ever since.
And that’s how people will introduce themselves in my new group: Missing Pants Anonymous or MPA. I’m still working on details for the first meeting and recruiting other members.
I routinely misplace my jeans. I have one pair of good jeans and one pair of older kind-of-ratty-but-I-can-make-them-work jeans. I don’t actually go out much, therefore these two pairs of jeans are enough. Until I lose my good pair.
And the really disturbing part of losing them this time is that they have yet to turn up. Usually they show themselves when I get back in my older pair and go to change into my comfy clothes again. They show up where I had looked about a dozen times before–either on the bed or the ironing board.
I’ve come to the conclusion the black hole that sucks in socks, hair clips, combs, and brushes has now taken my pants. Usually the outlet of the black hole is under the girls’ bed, but I have not had luck looking there yet. If the black hole didn’t suck them in, then gnomes took them and cut them up to make new gnome clothes. I hope they look good in denim!
ETA: I found them! In a laundry basket, if you can imagine that. The black hole spit them out. No cut marks, so no gnomes this time.
I have my writing mojo back! Last weekend did the trick, from learning about the publishing industry on Thursday to an awesome time at Mary’s house reading her new play on Friday and Saturday, I got the kick in the butt I needed to go out and write.
So why so long to post this week?
Painting. And more painting. The girls’ room is being transformed from a baby room to a young girls’ room. The wall paper border is down, and the walls are primed. I just did the trim today, and soon will be taking on the ceiling and the yellow for the walls. Then it’s just making curtains and a headboard, and we’ll be done. I hope.
So, instead I give you a few things related to Kirstin.
She is raising money for Jump Rope for Heart again. She explains it all in this video:
And then some writing of hers from the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s house:
RECIPE:
This is for making your sister mad. Take her head and put it down. This should create the claw moment. Next, say mean things. It should make her even more mad. It should create the hiss moment. Last, say “Na na na na boo boo.” It should piss her off. I have tried this and it works.
Bye,
Kirstin
I talked to her about the one word in there. She knows it’s not really appropriate for school. I think she was having some issues with Emily at the time in which she wrote this. I’m not sure what my first clue was.
I’ll be back again after the painting is all done. This weekend should get it finished up. Thanks!
This is part one of a four part series that I have planned. The title for this series is (as evidenced above) “Things I do that make Matt say, “Seriously?” Obviously there are more than four things that I do, but these have been the biggest ones lately. Today’s “Seriously?” is about yarn (imagine that!)
I have an obsession with yarn, I think. As evidenced in this post, I have way too much and just don’t always get around to doing anything with it. I know I have a bad habit of collecting yarn and then letting it sit. One day in a moment of insanity, I told Matt, “I’m going on a yarn diet. I won’t get any new yarn until I finish up some of my projects.”
He agreed. He was all for it.
I did try to be good. I honestly did. But I also read a lot of message boards on Ravelry.com. And one of them is all about how to get yarn cheaply by unraveling sweaters found at thrift shops. And my short downward spiral started there.
Cue closet clean out time: I spent a few days going through clothes and sorting them into three piles—keep, donate, and toss. I was going through the donate pile and refolding all the clothes to put into boxes and I came across a sea-foam green sweater. I could tell by the feel of it that it was a mostly cotton yarn. I looked at the tag, and found I was correct in my assumption. 60% cotton and 40% acrylic. This would be perfect first sweater from which to harvest yarn!
I looked around. No one was in sight. I put the sweater aside on top of my sewing box. I was going to unravel the thing and just see how much and what quality yarn I would get out of it. I finished boxing up the donate pile and grabbed the sweater and my seam ripper. I was happily undoing the seams when Matt asked me, “What are you doing?”
Caught! “Um…I’m taking this apart to see how it was all put together?”
I knew as I said it that even though that was ONE of the reasons, Matt would know that wasn’t the real reason. So, I quickly added, “And to get the yarn from it.”
Matt just looked at me and said, “Seriously?”
He was not amused by my excuse.
“But it’s not NEW yarn!”
While correct, it was obvious I was trying to justify taking it apart.
I did a good amount of yarn from it:
That’s a whole lot of yarn to use up!
And I’ve only ever unraveled something one other time, and that will probably be the last time. This sweater dress I got at the thrift shop:
The yarn in this told me it didn’t want to be a sweater dress anymore. What I really liked was the really dark stuff toward the bottom.
Turned into this:
Not much yarn this time, and full of knots!
And it was while I was unraveling the sweater dressed that I found not everything is meant to be unraveled like that. The yarn from the sweater dress is filled with knots and is so fuzzy I don’t know that I will be able to make anything from it.
Now I KNOW I can be good about not bringing in other yarn. Although…
So, I didn’t write anything last week. I just didn’t have the gumption to write. A nice case of the winter blahs descended, so I took a week off. I still did some research for my one story, so it wasn’t a completely lost week. I’m back, feeling more like I should. And then I get to today and find I can’t figure out what to write. So, I give you the Christmas/New Year letter that we never sent because…I don’t know. We just didn’t this year. I wrote it and then all of a sudden it was too late to send it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It’s time for a quick catch up again. We all survived this busy and sometimes chaotic year and are looking forward to next year. We didn’t do as much with our garden this year—rain came before we could plant everything and the ground stayed too wet for a long time. We did get some tomatoes and lettuce, and that was about it. However, we did get our flower beds around the front deck done and they looked wonderful this year! I’m very proud of how they turned out.
We also took in a lot of theatre this year, both local and in the cities. Locally, Matt and the girls went to see “The Mouse Who Roared” done by the Prairie Wind Players in Barrett; he and I went to “Greater Tuna” there as well. We also went to a play at the University called “A Midnight Dreary” which was about Edgar Allen Poe, and just by chance were able to see a play in Brainerd with our good friend, Mary, called “I Hate Hamlet.”
Mary also introduced us to a new-to-us theatre: The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. We first went there to see a short play called “Balloonacy.” That got our interest and since then we have seen “Busy Town the Musical” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” there. The kids love going to plays, and in fact a recent conversation with Kirstin told us just how much. “When are we going to see another REAL show?” she asked. She’s been perusing PBS Kids for ads to the next show at Children’s Theatre. Matt and I were also able to see “Book of Mormon” at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. We had fun that night riding the light rail to and from the theatre, and the show itself was phenomenal! We’re still singing the music from it.
We also took a trip to the cities this summer and spent a few nights there. We went to the sculpture gardens at the Walker Art Center, the Science Museum, the Mall of America, and Como Park and Zoo (and conservatories). It was a long weekend and a lot of walking, but we all had fun and no one complained TOO much.
Of course life isn’t just about going to shows and taking trips. The girls are growing up way too fast for my liking. Emily is now four years old and busy in preschool. She goes two days a week for all day. She loves riding in with her dad in the pickup and then riding home with her sister on the bus. She is very close to reading and is already picking up words here and there. She surprises us with her knowledge every day. She is very enthusiastic about everything she does, and even her teacher has commented about how refreshing her attitude is.
Kirstin is seven (and a half, as she always reminds me) and in second grade. She loves school and has tested really high in both math and reading (actually highest in her class for reading). She is fortunate to have an awesome teacher this year who has found her opportunities to continue her learning while still being in the classroom for most of the day. Kirstin has a “special” math class four days a week and a book club one day a week in addition to her regular class work. She thrives on learning new concepts and keeps us guessing what she is going to learn next. Science is a favorite subject, and she was thrilled to get a microscope and science kits for Christmas gifts.
Matt still works as an application developer and server administrator at the University of Minnesota, Morris; he also does some freelance work for a few clients on the side. This year he took the challenge of taking down the chimney. Floor by floor he worked until there were only three bricks left in the concrete of the basement floor. He hauled them all out by the bucketful and figures it was about 4.75 tons of “stuff.” The bricks will find new life as flower bed borders. The next portion of that project is finishing up the walls in the girls’ room and in the kitchen.
I’m still at home with the girls. At first it was a little strange to have two days a week alone while both girls were at school, but now I find myself looking forward to those days. I use the time to work on a few projects I’ve got going on and doing housework. I’m still a companion of an elderly lady and really enjoy the time I get to spend with her. She’s a wonderful conversationalist and we have some really good times, even though coming from California she doesn’t think much of Minnesota winters. She always gives me a new perspective on life in general. I took some time out of a few days one week to go skating with Kirstin. I was rather apprehensive about being on skates again as the last time I fell and hit my head pretty hard, but nothing bad happened. Emily came along and we all skated together. I really enjoyed watching the kids as they learned how to skate.
That is our year in a nutshell—busy and full, with a lot of family time.
God bless!
Matt, Beth, Kirstin, and Emily
And then we were going to send out a picture with the letter:
Every now and then we can get them to sit somewhat still and smile!
It is January in Minnesota. Cold is a known factor, and we deal with it every year. So what makes this year so different? We have very little snow.
Usually I welcome a year like this: generally warmer than usual and little to no snow. Heating costs and transportation are easier not to mention my mood is much better. However, this year we still have no snow and we wound up with the bitter cold. We’re talking wind chills down to -40 type of cold.
Even though we (as in humans) can adjust to this quite easily by hunkering down in the house under blankets and having good reading material at hand, our poor pup, Koshka, doesn’t have that option.
Our usually happy pup.
The years that are cold and snowy Koshka just burrows in and lets the snow insulate her. She stays nice and warm without any issues.
Warm in the snow.
This year, however, she is exposed and cold. She was shivering a lot out there, and we knew we had to do something. I came up with an idea to keep her warm while waiting for Kirstin to be done with a dentist appointment, and put it into place after the girls and I got home. I went to the basement and found a few boxes to block off the doorways into the kitchen. I then went to the garage and grabbed some dog food and the leash and headed out to Koshka. I should have aborted this plan when Koshka balked at the back door and tried to get away. Instead, I made her go inside. I admit freely that this was not a good idea. She hates being confined and won’t even use her doghouse unless there’s a bad thunderstorm. She was shaking more indoors than she was when she was outdoors. Eventually her nerves got the best of her and she wound up pooping on the floor. Plain failed. I couldn’t keep her inside, so out she went again. When I left her she was much happier and no longer shaking.
Cue the next day. I knew it would be even colder, so I had to find some other way of keeping her warm. On my way into town for my own dentist appointment and other errands, I pondered the situation. I couldn’t come up with anything. I talked to our daycare provider when I dropped off Em, and she said, “Too bad you can’t find something like a horse blanket for a dog.”
I had my answer! Really, I think there was a light bulb above my head and everything.
I headed for the thrift shop and picked up a lined flannel jacket. I put it on Koshka and buttoned the top three buttons. It took a few tries to get it set up so she could walk, sit, and lie down. Finally with some extra fabric I had on hand used as a belt and the sleeves tied on top of Koshka’s back, she had her “horse blanket for a dog.”
Under her tree with her blanket. She moved enough that it was coming off, but it was warmer during the day.
She is much happier and no longer shivering. She kept on her blanket all last night and all day today. I was just out there to readjust the jacket for tonight, and she’s very content. In fact, she was talking to me like she always does, so I think this makeshift thing is working.
I do a lot of random reading at any given time. Internet articles (good sources only!), children’s books, banned books, science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction. You name a particular genre, I’ve probably read something from it. Lately, my reading has turned to essays. I’ve read essays by A.A. Milne, Zora Neal Hurston, E.B. White, D.H. Lawrence, and Ernest Hemingway among many others.
My goal in reading so many essays is to figure out what exactly an essay is. I’m no nearer to that goal than when I started. Indeed, I think I’m even further from that goal now. However, as I read I come across words that require more investigation and/or explanation. So, I keep a note card and pencil handy to write down the words I would like to look up. At this moment I have 21 words on my list.
My favorite word to say is snickersnee. It’s fun. It sounds like something to laugh about. And it was, until I looked up the definition on Dictionary.com: A knife, especially one used as a weapon.
There is really no humor there.
Another word I found without a reference in my vocabulary was buncombe. So I dutifully looked it up. I actually do have buncombe in my vocabulary! Just not spelled that way. I’m used to seeing it as “bunkum” and it means nonsense. I don’t see it as nonsense when spelled buncombe. There should be something to buncombe instead of nonsense! It looks important. But by definition it is not.
Boobery made me snicker, I will admit. It has the word “boob” in it, and I have a pre-adolescent mind sometimes. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about a slang word for breasts (typically a feminine attribute) being in a word that means stupidity, but I will go with the etymology that places boob’s emergence (another snicker)somewhere between 1590 and 1600, and was meant as a stupid fool. The usage as a term for breasts came later.
The last word on my list that interests me is calaboose. It’s just a slang word for jail. It’s fun to say, though, so I’m going to work it into every day conversation more often.
“Oh, did you hear about Frank? Yah, he is in the calaboose for stealing donuts from Casey’s!”
And now I have to go off and read more and in the process find more fun words. I may even post some of the more fun/interesting ones here.
