Kiss My Knits!

Our beautiful, wonderful TV that my father bought for us when my daughter was three months old has given up the ghost. For a while it was intermittently shrinking to a single horizontal line, then returning to normal. Then it was shrinking to a single line and we’d have to smack the TV to get the picture back. Tonight, no amount of smacking is helping.

I think we’re going to have to spring for a new one. Anybody got any good advice? We think we want a Panasonic 27″ TV. Panasonic because our HD/DVD/VHS combo is Panasonic and we’d like to stick with one remote, and 27″ because that’s what we’ve got now and it fits on our TV cart.

I don’t know what it is with the appliances today. I’m fully expecting the washing machine to come vibrating across the floor at me, demolition derby style.

Several weeks ago we noticed that our wireless connection was flaky. My husband realized that it was our cordless phone which was causing the problems. The further away we are from the laptops with the phone, the better the connection. So if it’s something mission critical that we’re working on, we may not answer the phone, for which I apologize in advance.

A few days ago, we noticed that the connection was still iffy, even when the phone wasn’t in use. Then my husband heard the *ding!* of the microwave finishing, and presto, our connection was fine again. So now the microwave is also hosing the wireless.

Yesterday I noticed that the phone reception got very crackly when the microwave was on, but cleared right up as soon as the timer dinged. So the microwave is ALSO hosing the phone.

What the heck? It’s like all the appliances in our house are conspiring to keep us off the internet. Are the robots finally rebelling? Should I be arming myself, or can I get by with a new microwave? Yeesh.

Sometimes I have moments with Emily that remind me that I have to be careful not to view everything through the lens of her problems. Today, for instance, we were behind a car with a bumper sticker on the back that said “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT, leading the way!”

Me: Look at that bumper sticker, Emily!
Her: (looking out her window)
Me: It says, “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT!” Do you see it?
Her: (glancing around)
Me: It’s on the car in front of us. A girl scout must be in front of us!
Her: (looking out her window with apparent disinterest)
Me: Do you see the bumper sticker? Look, it’s right there, on the black car in front of us.

At this point, I’m getting frustrated, assuming she can’t focus, it’s too much, I’m hectoring her, etc.

Her: (looks at the black car) “You’re behind a GIRL SCOUT!”
Me: Yes!
Her: What’s a bumper sticker?
Me: …

It never occurred to me that she didn’t know what a bumper sticker was, so she didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking for. So then she learned what a bumper sticker was, what a bumper was (she didn’t know), what I meant by “front bumper” and “rear bumper,” why we call them bumpers, and so on.

Sometimes it’s good to just remember that she’s eight years old. She doesn’t know from bumpers. I’m glad she learned something new.

Will this become a regular feature? We’ll see! I suppose it depends on whether I’m too lazy to make regular entries, but still energetic enough to make one actual post with content.

Anywho, click to see the week in pictures.

Still alive, folks. Just crazy busy, with the turbulence of school starting.

Am very happy to hear that the mill is FINALLY going to be spinning more of my Jayne hat colors. This is good, because I had to resort to ordering skeins earlier this month, and they had knots in them. I can work around it myself when I’m knitting, but I can’t send out kits of knotty yarn, some of my kit clients have never knitted anything before! I’ve only had the yellow ordered from the mill since April. APRIL, people. I know they know who we are, so they should be spinning this stuff up regularly, gorramit it! I thought I might be overordering, but now I think I need to up my order even more.

Emily’s doing fine in third grade, based just on the first two days. There was a depressing moment yesterday, when on her very first day, one of the girls we had made a point of moving into her class with her so she’d have a friend told her on the playground, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” (Depressing for me, but Emily seemed okay with it.) The teacher pointed out that they were all friends, because they were all on the same team. I know it won’t keep the kids from forming cliques, but maybe it’ll help. The teacher did say that she saw them hugging later. And Emily did talk about playing with her today. So hopefully it was just a momentary thing. Emily’s sharing more interesting moments with me about her friends, like “X told me not to put the feathers in my pocket, but the teacher said no.” Meaning that she picked up some goose feathers from the playground and stuck them into her breast pocket like a nerd with a pocket protector full of pens, and another kid told her not to do that, but then the teacher said it was fine. Emily told me this when I complimented her on her feathers when she got into the car today. I guess they were there all afternoon.

Lots of run-on sentences means Tvini is sleepy. Hopefully there’ll be a post with pictures, of which I have many, later.

Oh, Turtlegirl76 and , I’ll probably miss Wednesday night’s BAM gathering. The husband has a brewing meeting he wants to try to get to that night. We can take turns with our hobbies, I won’t be greedy. 🙂

Overheard on the GM channel during the Plat Taffelberry Fair, demonstrating once again why bards rule:

[Cardamom] If the entire weekend goes by and nobody buys a single flask, I’m invading.
[Reexa] LOL.
[MacFrae] I should buy one. I mean, why would Mac not?
[Cardamom] Well, they are, technically, pieces of crap.
[MacFrae] If they hold liquor, Mac’s happy.
[Cardamom] I give a free vial of bubbles with purchase.
[Cardamom] Or, really, without purchase, but it helps sales if people think it’s with purchase.
[Reexa] heh
[MacFrae] Hee!

[MacFrae] I’ll take a peek.

(MacFrae goes by the tent later and buys a flask)

[Cardamom] And thus, MacFrae averts an invasion. Good guildleader.
[MacFrae] I do my part.

I kind of feel like I should buy this Threadless shirt in a size smaller than I currently wear, just as a motivator. “Skip Dessert” indeed. Hee!

Lots going on, just not enough extra energy to blog. School starts Monday!

posted this over in and I had to share.

Hee!