Okay, so over the years I have found things to do in the days leading up to Christmas, some of which are nearly as important to me as Christmas itself, or maybe even more so.
For a time my family started having more of a big Christmas Eve and doing gift exchanges then instead of Christmas morning or later that day. Then we switched back to having it Christmas day. And now we have switched it back to Christmas Eve, so that my sister and her husband are able to spend some time with his family. So our gift exchange is on Christmas Eve, and then we might still see each other at some point on Christmas, or we might try to spend Christmas with grandma, and whoever else might stop by to see grandma.
In the past five or six years, I have exchanged gifts with certain friends at a Star Trek club. This is in addition to the official club gift exchange. This gift exchange has become more fun for me than exchanging gifts with my family, cause as my family members got older, I have more and more trouble trying to figure out what to get for them. But the gifts for my friends need to be ready about a week before Christmas, which sometimes makes us feel a bit rushed. This year one of them will probably not get done in time, but that will be okay, he won't care. Maybe I can get it done in time for the New Year's Eve party.
And then there is this charity thing that I do most of the time, if I have the time and the money. Last year I had the time, but not the money, and I was going to skip it, but I got talked into it anyway. This year I didn't have the time or the money, and it was a week earlier than it is usually scheduled. I was very busy. I had planned something, but I backed out about a week ago.
So, the first day of Christmas was Saturday, and I skipped it. I was at home. I was busy trying to finish a blue scarf. I guess the second day of Christmas was Sunday.
Sunday there was a party at Uncle G's place. Some years someone in my extended family will try to have all of us over before it gets too close to Christmas, but I rarely get to go. The first year my mother was elected for this, and my mother is just not social and never does anything like have a party. And I missed it. We had had already planned a trip to New Orleans, and we did not think that we could reschedule it, so we went there instead of mom's party, and she was very mad at us. Our plans were made first, and she could have rescheduled hers if she wanted us there so much. And there have been other parties when I had a job and couldn't get the day off, or we were working out of town, or we just didn't hear about it in time, or one of us was sick or whatever. And it isn't something that happens every year anyway, just whenever someone is in the mood to do it.
So Uncle G and his wife were in the mood, and they had a party Sunday. And my mom originally wasn't planning to go, but I accepted as soon as I was given the invitation. My mom kept calling me to tell me not to be early, or some such thing. My mom was micro-managing me, and it wasn't her party, and originally she wasn't even planning to attend. Yesterday she called a fourth time to tell me that maybe I didn't have to be a half an hour late as she had originally told me, just to be a little bit late, and then she was telling me not to bring food in Tupperware and such. I don't have lots of dishes. I have to use what I have. No one else will care about it.
So we got there fifteen or twenty minutes late instead of half an hour late like my mom said, and we were the first ones there. But I had a little bit to do with the food that we brought. When I had finished with that my brother showed up, bringing cookies from mother, though I'm not quite sure why she sent them ahead since she showed up five minutes later herself. Whatever. Anyway, I think that about half of our extended family were in that little house for a bit. Mostly Uncle G's kids and grandkids, and also his wife's daughter and grandkids, but also my mom and family and another uncle and aunt.
One of my cousins I hadn't seen since I was a kid, and another one I hadn't seen except for at Thanksgiving. Other cousins I have seen on and off, and some of them my age or just a bit older have children, and I have seen them, and I have seem them get older, and one of them even had a baby. So one of my cousins (not one at this party) is a grandparent, though I haven't yet seen the grandchild. And I am well aware that I am old enough to have children, and that I am even perhaps old enough to be a grandparent, if I had wanted to have children and had them. But of the two cousins that I had not seen for a long time, they are not that much younger than me, and I had heard that they had children, but somehow I still picture them being children themselves, and I just didn't quite get it. So some of the children of these cousins are teenagers, some of them soon to be off to college, almost grown themselves.
So after we had plenty to eat and played a few games, Uncle G gave his grandkids presents, and then the adults had a gift exchange. This was one of those gift exchanges where people steal stuff. I was very glad to see that my scarves were stolen a few times. My husband got some games, and I have a gift certificate for a restaurant.
So that all went very well.
When I got home, my mom called me again to tell me I had done a good job.
Back to work. I hope the next Christmas thing is as good.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
FREE BOB
This month there has been The Twelve Days of Whataburger, during which you can sign up to receive coupons on odd numbered days that you can use to get something free on even numbered days. So on the first they sent me a coupon that I used on the second to get free fries. Down at the bottom of the coupon is a note to your cashier, telling her which number button to use, and next to that is something like FREE FRIES or FREE SODA or FREE PIE.
The coupon we used yesterday was for a free breakfast on a bun. Since breakfast on a bun is a rather long thing to spell out, the notation to the cashier was abbreviated to FREE BOB.
FREE BOB rather amused me for a bit. Sounds like something you should write on a picket sign. Like maybe someone named Bob has been unfairly imprisoned. FREE BOB! FREE BOB!
Anyway, we had a free breakfast on a bun before we headed out yesterday morning, and we liked it so much we stopped at a different location and had another one on the way home.
So far I have bought something each time I've used a coupon, but I don't suppose that I have to if I don't want to. I heard that they tried this same promotion two years ago, and then decided to cancel it after they had already sent out coupons. I haven't had that happen yet, though one day I did have a bit of an argument with someone who tried to tell me I couldn't use the coupon cause I didn't print out the whole email. This is a stupid argument meant to drive away people when they get tired of giving away free food, but I am not that timid, and it does not work on me. I will cause a scene and still get my free food, but I will not pay for anything to go with it.
If for some reason they really want the whole email, they shouldn't have designed it to only print out the coupon, and it should say in writing that they need the whole email and not to cut out the coupon.
Anyway, after FREE BOB and some minor shopping, we came home and I finished the blue scarf, which took me longer than I expected, but it didn't take as long as trying to deal with that Innovations machine. Joining the panel ends together took longer than I thought, and the fringe takes some time, but still, with the sweater machine I can get the thing done all in a day, if I had the whole day to work on it and didn't have to stop because I ran out of blue yarn.
So I have one finished blue scarf and one finish red scarf, and both will go in a gift exchange later today. I just have to wrap them now.
My mother has now called three times to tell me that our hostess does not really want us to appear at the time given on the invitation, and that we should show up almost half an hour later. This makes no sense to me, but even after I've agreed to do this she will call me again and tell me the whole thing again. She interrupts my knitting to do this, and I have not yet started on the food. Without even getting into whether or not she is right about the hostess actually wanting everyone to show up half an hour late, she needs to leave me alone so that I can get ready for the party, and it seems a bit silly to keep reminding me not to be early for something that at this rate I will never be ready for at all. But I am mostly ready now, except for wrapping the gifts, and as it turns out my husband will be doing the actual food preparation, and we did manage to do the grocery shopping yesterday. So all is well, I think.
So I have a couple of things checked off of my list. As for the rest of the list, I need something for a different gift exchange, but at least I have my supplies now. J's gift is finished and wrapped and everything. R's gift is mostly done. The gift for Miss Allergies still needs some work. Another gift is finished but still needs to be wrapped. My sister's gift is here but needs to be wrapped, as is my brother's. I have to get a gift for another friend by Saturday, but as she will probably get a fruit basket I don't want to get it too much before Saturday.
And that leaves the pilot's gift, which will never be done in time, so I might as well forget about it and work on a nice card that says IOU.
Anyway, I expect to have a nice day today, in spite of having a cold and such. And then I have to get some serious work done before Saturday.
The coupon we used yesterday was for a free breakfast on a bun. Since breakfast on a bun is a rather long thing to spell out, the notation to the cashier was abbreviated to FREE BOB.
FREE BOB rather amused me for a bit. Sounds like something you should write on a picket sign. Like maybe someone named Bob has been unfairly imprisoned. FREE BOB! FREE BOB!
Anyway, we had a free breakfast on a bun before we headed out yesterday morning, and we liked it so much we stopped at a different location and had another one on the way home.
So far I have bought something each time I've used a coupon, but I don't suppose that I have to if I don't want to. I heard that they tried this same promotion two years ago, and then decided to cancel it after they had already sent out coupons. I haven't had that happen yet, though one day I did have a bit of an argument with someone who tried to tell me I couldn't use the coupon cause I didn't print out the whole email. This is a stupid argument meant to drive away people when they get tired of giving away free food, but I am not that timid, and it does not work on me. I will cause a scene and still get my free food, but I will not pay for anything to go with it.
If for some reason they really want the whole email, they shouldn't have designed it to only print out the coupon, and it should say in writing that they need the whole email and not to cut out the coupon.
Anyway, after FREE BOB and some minor shopping, we came home and I finished the blue scarf, which took me longer than I expected, but it didn't take as long as trying to deal with that Innovations machine. Joining the panel ends together took longer than I thought, and the fringe takes some time, but still, with the sweater machine I can get the thing done all in a day, if I had the whole day to work on it and didn't have to stop because I ran out of blue yarn.
So I have one finished blue scarf and one finish red scarf, and both will go in a gift exchange later today. I just have to wrap them now.
My mother has now called three times to tell me that our hostess does not really want us to appear at the time given on the invitation, and that we should show up almost half an hour later. This makes no sense to me, but even after I've agreed to do this she will call me again and tell me the whole thing again. She interrupts my knitting to do this, and I have not yet started on the food. Without even getting into whether or not she is right about the hostess actually wanting everyone to show up half an hour late, she needs to leave me alone so that I can get ready for the party, and it seems a bit silly to keep reminding me not to be early for something that at this rate I will never be ready for at all. But I am mostly ready now, except for wrapping the gifts, and as it turns out my husband will be doing the actual food preparation, and we did manage to do the grocery shopping yesterday. So all is well, I think.
So I have a couple of things checked off of my list. As for the rest of the list, I need something for a different gift exchange, but at least I have my supplies now. J's gift is finished and wrapped and everything. R's gift is mostly done. The gift for Miss Allergies still needs some work. Another gift is finished but still needs to be wrapped. My sister's gift is here but needs to be wrapped, as is my brother's. I have to get a gift for another friend by Saturday, but as she will probably get a fruit basket I don't want to get it too much before Saturday.
And that leaves the pilot's gift, which will never be done in time, so I might as well forget about it and work on a nice card that says IOU.
Anyway, I expect to have a nice day today, in spite of having a cold and such. And then I have to get some serious work done before Saturday.
Friday, December 11, 2009
A few words about the knitting
I am getting a cold now. I suppose it was unavoidable since my husband has a cold and I spent the last few days with him and ate with him and spent all that time in the car with him, etc... So now I am getting a cold, and I have all this stuff to do and would rather not do some of it. I would rather stay in bed watching DVDs and eating soup. But it isn't that bad yet, so I should keep doing stuff until I really feel so bad that I can't.
So the plan is to go shopping today, and pick up my sister's gift and my brother's gift card and some stuff from the craft store, etc.... Hopefully I will be done with that and can stay home the rest of the time until I have a party to go to.
Okay, so I have said a few things about the knitting and about knitting machines that confused someone, so I am going to try to explain.
One thing that is a problem is the word "new." I use the word sometimes in ways that it isn't meant to be used. Like there is new as in "new to me." I would refer to something that I just got as new, even if it is not new, maybe someone gave it to me or I bought it used. But then I sometimes say "new" when I mean the newer model, and again this could be something used. And then there is "new in the box" which might be an older model.
So that could confuse someone.
The first knitting machine that I bought was the Innovations knitting machine. I have recently said that this is a piece of crap. It is one of those round machines that you turn with a handle. Smaller things like this are sold as toys, and while they look easy enough on the commercials, I have never gotten them to work very well. Still I keep trying to get them to work. I had recently found a video on YouTube showing how to fix a slipped stitch. This is a wonderful video, as it explains the procedure correctly, and the instructions that come with the machine are incorrect and result in making a "rib."
Unfortunately, the machine just has too many slipped stitches and other such things, and even with the correct instructions on how to fix them, it just isn't worth it. But, I had it in my head that after watching the video I would be able to get the thing to work properly, and that it would only take me five hours or so to make a scarf. The machine makes a tube (which if I could get it to work would eliminate the extra step of having to sew the ends of the panel together) and is small and easy to transport, even if you are already working on something. So I had this idea that I would buy a bunch of yarn and take the Innovations knitting machine with me on the trip and make a couple of scarves for gift exchanges while I was in the motel room.
I practiced fixing slipped stitches while we were in the car driving to San Antonio. So I knew how to do it, and I imagined that once I was at the motel and able to work properly at a table, the scarf making would just zip right along. But, it takes time to fix the stitches, and as soon as you fix one another problem happens, and you just spend all day trying to fix things. I spent all day on a scarf that should have taken five hours to finish, and I only got done 120 rows of the planned 450. At that point, I gave up and decided to just make fringe and other finishing touches to some scarves I had worked on earlier.
Okay, so after wasting my money on the Innovations knitting machine (which runs about forty to fifty dollars, and I bought it new, new in the box from a regular retail store, but I had a coupon and probably spent about twenty-five or thirty), I went out and spent more money on The Ultimate Sweater Machine. This machine runs about a hundred and fifty dollars or more, but again I had a coupon, and I think I got mine for about eighty. This is a flat machine that needs a four foot long rectangular table to set up on. Since you don't always have that, I have bought a four foot long board to clamp to tables that either aren't quite four foot long or aren't rectangular, and then I can clamp the machine to the board and then clamp the board to the table. So this machine is not as easily transported, though I do often take it with me, but I can't take it with me when it already has a project on the machine, unless I want to go to the trouble of taking it off and then putting it back on, which is difficult and takes a long time, especially when you do not have a garter bar, and I don't have one.
So, I was already working on a project on that machine, and so I did not attempt to take it with me. Besides, I thought that after watching the YouTube video that the Innovations knitting machine would work just fine, and be much easier to pack.
Okay, then I have this other machine. This is where the word "new" becomes a problem. Last year we were at a place called Thrift Town, which mostly sells used clothing and other used things, but occasionally you find a few things "new in the box" or "new with tags" cause whoever donated the things just never got around to using them. We found a box marked "knitting machine" and decided that it was worth forty bucks. It was another 8mm flat knitting machine, also about four foot long, though it just said sweater machine instead of Ultimate Sweater Machine. Still, I would think that it was made by the same company (Bond). I didn't really need another machine, but for forty dollars I decided to take it, so that I would have extra parts. There are a couple of tools that I am always losing, and it is a hassle to get new ones. So now I had a whole second set of everything, though this machine was an older model.
So the forty dollar machine was "new to me" and "new in the box" but it was not the "new model." See?
The main difference in the older model is that the newer model carriage is plastic, and there is a piece of plastic that covers over the needles as they work, and the older model carriage is mostly plastic but does not have that piece of plastic that covers over the needles, and instead has this metal bar going across, but you can see the needles moving underneath. And the older model has one-sided key plates while the new model plates have two sided plates, so that the new model has sizes two and a half and three and a half in addition to the old one two three and four.
Some of the really older models have the machine all in one piece, which this was not. This was two pieces that snap together, same as the other one, though I have not yet tried to unsnap one once I've put it together. I suppose that having the machine broken down into two pieces would make it easier to transport, but I'm afraid to try it, as I might actually break the thing. And other older models used to come with two and three prong tools, but unfortunately this one did not, but I was still glad to get a second set of one prong tools, as I keep misplacing them.
So, I could have taken the sweater machine with me and I would have taken me about seven hours to complete the scarf that I was trying to make, but I didn't think of that, and I took the stupid Innovations machine instead.
Okay, so now I am home, and there is a not even a third of a complicated scarf on the Ultimate Sweater Machine. So I very carefully take the whole machine and move it a few feet away (with the scarf in progress still on it), so that I could use the space (which is the only space I currently have to work on such things), and then I set up the other sweater machine, and I started knitting the new scarf. It took an hour or a bit more to knit 120 rows, which had taken me all day fussing with the Innovations thing. I knitted a bit more, and then I tried something new with the weights (which I was afraid to try on the other more complicated project, but was now willing to risk on something that had only taken me about an hour or two to make), and then I knitted some more and ran out of yarn. So I have about three hundred rows on it, after working less than three hours. If I hadn't have run out of yarn I would have finished the part of the knitting that is done on the machine, and I would now either be joining the panel ends together or maybe even be working on the fringe.
Anyway, as rushed as I am for time, I still think that using this machine I will have a finished scarf in plenty of time for Sunday's gift exchange. And I have another scarf that I did another time, just a different color, so as soon as I finish the fringe on that I will have a second scarf, and again I don't see any problem getting them both done by Sunday, even with this cold, and even with having to spend a lot of time out shopping today.
It's just that if I had taken this machine to San Antonio instead of the Innovations thing, I would have finished both of them by now. And then I could go to bed and watch DVDs, right after I do this bit of shopping.
So the plan is to go shopping today, and pick up my sister's gift and my brother's gift card and some stuff from the craft store, etc.... Hopefully I will be done with that and can stay home the rest of the time until I have a party to go to.
Okay, so I have said a few things about the knitting and about knitting machines that confused someone, so I am going to try to explain.
One thing that is a problem is the word "new." I use the word sometimes in ways that it isn't meant to be used. Like there is new as in "new to me." I would refer to something that I just got as new, even if it is not new, maybe someone gave it to me or I bought it used. But then I sometimes say "new" when I mean the newer model, and again this could be something used. And then there is "new in the box" which might be an older model.
So that could confuse someone.
The first knitting machine that I bought was the Innovations knitting machine. I have recently said that this is a piece of crap. It is one of those round machines that you turn with a handle. Smaller things like this are sold as toys, and while they look easy enough on the commercials, I have never gotten them to work very well. Still I keep trying to get them to work. I had recently found a video on YouTube showing how to fix a slipped stitch. This is a wonderful video, as it explains the procedure correctly, and the instructions that come with the machine are incorrect and result in making a "rib."
Unfortunately, the machine just has too many slipped stitches and other such things, and even with the correct instructions on how to fix them, it just isn't worth it. But, I had it in my head that after watching the video I would be able to get the thing to work properly, and that it would only take me five hours or so to make a scarf. The machine makes a tube (which if I could get it to work would eliminate the extra step of having to sew the ends of the panel together) and is small and easy to transport, even if you are already working on something. So I had this idea that I would buy a bunch of yarn and take the Innovations knitting machine with me on the trip and make a couple of scarves for gift exchanges while I was in the motel room.
I practiced fixing slipped stitches while we were in the car driving to San Antonio. So I knew how to do it, and I imagined that once I was at the motel and able to work properly at a table, the scarf making would just zip right along. But, it takes time to fix the stitches, and as soon as you fix one another problem happens, and you just spend all day trying to fix things. I spent all day on a scarf that should have taken five hours to finish, and I only got done 120 rows of the planned 450. At that point, I gave up and decided to just make fringe and other finishing touches to some scarves I had worked on earlier.
Okay, so after wasting my money on the Innovations knitting machine (which runs about forty to fifty dollars, and I bought it new, new in the box from a regular retail store, but I had a coupon and probably spent about twenty-five or thirty), I went out and spent more money on The Ultimate Sweater Machine. This machine runs about a hundred and fifty dollars or more, but again I had a coupon, and I think I got mine for about eighty. This is a flat machine that needs a four foot long rectangular table to set up on. Since you don't always have that, I have bought a four foot long board to clamp to tables that either aren't quite four foot long or aren't rectangular, and then I can clamp the machine to the board and then clamp the board to the table. So this machine is not as easily transported, though I do often take it with me, but I can't take it with me when it already has a project on the machine, unless I want to go to the trouble of taking it off and then putting it back on, which is difficult and takes a long time, especially when you do not have a garter bar, and I don't have one.
So, I was already working on a project on that machine, and so I did not attempt to take it with me. Besides, I thought that after watching the YouTube video that the Innovations knitting machine would work just fine, and be much easier to pack.
Okay, then I have this other machine. This is where the word "new" becomes a problem. Last year we were at a place called Thrift Town, which mostly sells used clothing and other used things, but occasionally you find a few things "new in the box" or "new with tags" cause whoever donated the things just never got around to using them. We found a box marked "knitting machine" and decided that it was worth forty bucks. It was another 8mm flat knitting machine, also about four foot long, though it just said sweater machine instead of Ultimate Sweater Machine. Still, I would think that it was made by the same company (Bond). I didn't really need another machine, but for forty dollars I decided to take it, so that I would have extra parts. There are a couple of tools that I am always losing, and it is a hassle to get new ones. So now I had a whole second set of everything, though this machine was an older model.
So the forty dollar machine was "new to me" and "new in the box" but it was not the "new model." See?
The main difference in the older model is that the newer model carriage is plastic, and there is a piece of plastic that covers over the needles as they work, and the older model carriage is mostly plastic but does not have that piece of plastic that covers over the needles, and instead has this metal bar going across, but you can see the needles moving underneath. And the older model has one-sided key plates while the new model plates have two sided plates, so that the new model has sizes two and a half and three and a half in addition to the old one two three and four.
Some of the really older models have the machine all in one piece, which this was not. This was two pieces that snap together, same as the other one, though I have not yet tried to unsnap one once I've put it together. I suppose that having the machine broken down into two pieces would make it easier to transport, but I'm afraid to try it, as I might actually break the thing. And other older models used to come with two and three prong tools, but unfortunately this one did not, but I was still glad to get a second set of one prong tools, as I keep misplacing them.
So, I could have taken the sweater machine with me and I would have taken me about seven hours to complete the scarf that I was trying to make, but I didn't think of that, and I took the stupid Innovations machine instead.
Okay, so now I am home, and there is a not even a third of a complicated scarf on the Ultimate Sweater Machine. So I very carefully take the whole machine and move it a few feet away (with the scarf in progress still on it), so that I could use the space (which is the only space I currently have to work on such things), and then I set up the other sweater machine, and I started knitting the new scarf. It took an hour or a bit more to knit 120 rows, which had taken me all day fussing with the Innovations thing. I knitted a bit more, and then I tried something new with the weights (which I was afraid to try on the other more complicated project, but was now willing to risk on something that had only taken me about an hour or two to make), and then I knitted some more and ran out of yarn. So I have about three hundred rows on it, after working less than three hours. If I hadn't have run out of yarn I would have finished the part of the knitting that is done on the machine, and I would now either be joining the panel ends together or maybe even be working on the fringe.
Anyway, as rushed as I am for time, I still think that using this machine I will have a finished scarf in plenty of time for Sunday's gift exchange. And I have another scarf that I did another time, just a different color, so as soon as I finish the fringe on that I will have a second scarf, and again I don't see any problem getting them both done by Sunday, even with this cold, and even with having to spend a lot of time out shopping today.
It's just that if I had taken this machine to San Antonio instead of the Innovations thing, I would have finished both of them by now. And then I could go to bed and watch DVDs, right after I do this bit of shopping.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A few days in San Antonio
Okay, so I have been to San Antonio many times before, and while it used to be a very special place, well, I've done most of that and usually don't feel the need to spend a lot of money doing it again. I am sure that there are things in the area that I would like to do and haven't done, the main thing that I would like to do there and have never done is go to Fiesta Texas. (I never went to Houston's Astro World, and I regret that.) So while it is nice to go to San Antonio if I have the money and the time, I just don't make a special effort to do that anymore.
But there are a few things that are still very nice if you don't have to spend too much money. Like, if you are going to be in the area anyway, you might as well go to the Riverwalk. Except that they place that we would like to park the car costs ten dollars. But that isn't too bad. And we would like to eat lunch or dinner while we are there, though most of those places can get expensive. But we do like a certain place that is no more expensive than most of the places we would eat at here, so that's alright if we have the money. So that's a not too expensive dinner plus ten dollars to park.
And then there are the little boat tours. Tickets are about nine dollars. We took a tour the first time we were there, but we have skipped it most of the times since then.
So, I have been to the Riverwalk many times, though rarely at night. And I can't remember being there in December. So on Sunday we went there and had dinner and took the boat tour at night, when they had all the Christmas lights. So that was a very pleasant evening, and we spent a little over fifty dollars. The motel room didn't count, as it was a business expense, and he'll get paid back for that.
I guess I skipped over the drive there. It was pleasant enough. We stopped at a bakery in West, and then my husband pointed out another bakery in Waco. The new bakery in Waco is the third (that I know of) Collin Street Bakery. But Collin Street isn't in Waco, it is in Corsicana, which is not even on that same interstate.
If you do not know, Corsicana is the Fruitcake Capital of the World.
Anyway, we did not stop that time. On down the road we went, til we were nearly there, and we stopped at The Snake Farm. I do not believe that I have ever been to the place before, though the husband says that we have. Maybe we have, once, but mainly I remember trying to go there and being there too early or too late or at the wrong time of year, etc.... So we had made good time, and it was a bit after lunch, and it was a Sunday, so they were open. Tickets are about ten dollars each, which is a bit much for such a small zoo, since you could go to a much bigger zoo for the same price or even less. But I was spending the day being a tourist, and I wanted to go anyway. It is a big room with a lot of snakes, and some animals outside behind the building. Mostly average stuff in small cages, but there were a couple of wolves and a couple of hyenas. I tend to go to a lot of zoos, but I don't think that I've been up close to a hyena before. So that was cool.
There was this odd bit with the rats. There were rats outside everywhere, getting into the cages and stealing lunch. But these weren't your average wild rats, they were white with spots, like you would get at a pet store. I am wondering if a couple of them were meant to be someone's lunch, and they escaped, and now there are rats everywhere.
We didn't spend much time there. I found something at the gift shop that I will give my brother for Christmas. Then we got back on the road.
The room was nice enough, but nothing special. The cable sucked. Not even the SyFy channel. And I forgot my pillows. You can't take your bed with you, but you would be more comfortable in the motel room if you remember to bring your own pillows, but I forgot. Lucky for me, this motel decided to go with many smaller pillows instead of a few giant ones. So I did not break my neck on the strange pillows.
One thing with the room was a disappointment, no micro-fridge. I have gotten so used to that being standard that I forgot to ask, so we didn't get one. But it turned out okay, since we weren't going to be there but for a few days. There were plenty of restaurants to eat lunch, and after he went to work I had a dollar hamburger at a McDonald's two doors over. So we ended up not really needing the micro-fridge anyway.
There was one other thing that my husband wanted to do, but he wasn't feeling well one day, and it was rather wet and unpleasant the other day. So that left the day that we were leaving, which was a bit windy, and we decided that we didn't want to walk around in the wind anyway. But since the many point of going to the place was to take pictures of buildings and houses, we were going to drive over anyway and just get out of the car for the occasional photo. Only he didn't make any notes on how to get to the place, and he got lost, and almost an hour later we had to give up and head home.
We stopped at one of those giant sports stores, cause I had heard that they sometimes have glow in the dark paint and small amounts of glow in the dark yarn. That seems a strange place to find such things, but it is sometimes used to catch fish. They were out of the yarn, and I didn't buy any paint. This kind of paint has to be heated, and so it wasn't going to help me in any of my current projects. Still, it is good to know for future reference. We looked at the aquarium and the taxidermy stuff, and then we got back on the road.
I had no special plans for lunch, but with the husband not feeling well we thought Chinese food would be nice if we could find one, and we did. It was a really good one, so unfortunately I ate too much and got sleepy. He got sleepy too, and we had to stop and get him a Red Bull. From there it wasn't long before we were in Waco, were we stopped at the bakery. My husband is one of those people who actually likes fruitcake, but we don't buy any of these, because even the tiny ones are fifteen dollars. Regular and large cakes are in the thirty to fifty dollars range. Anyway, we bought a few cookies and got back on the road. Twenty minutes later we stopped in West and bought some focaccia bread.
So we got home just in time to deal with five o'clock traffic, but it wasn't bad. And while there are all kinds of things that we might have done then, we were tired and decided to stay in and watch TV and such. So that was pretty much it, except for the knitting, which I will write about later.
But there are a few things that are still very nice if you don't have to spend too much money. Like, if you are going to be in the area anyway, you might as well go to the Riverwalk. Except that they place that we would like to park the car costs ten dollars. But that isn't too bad. And we would like to eat lunch or dinner while we are there, though most of those places can get expensive. But we do like a certain place that is no more expensive than most of the places we would eat at here, so that's alright if we have the money. So that's a not too expensive dinner plus ten dollars to park.
And then there are the little boat tours. Tickets are about nine dollars. We took a tour the first time we were there, but we have skipped it most of the times since then.
So, I have been to the Riverwalk many times, though rarely at night. And I can't remember being there in December. So on Sunday we went there and had dinner and took the boat tour at night, when they had all the Christmas lights. So that was a very pleasant evening, and we spent a little over fifty dollars. The motel room didn't count, as it was a business expense, and he'll get paid back for that.
I guess I skipped over the drive there. It was pleasant enough. We stopped at a bakery in West, and then my husband pointed out another bakery in Waco. The new bakery in Waco is the third (that I know of) Collin Street Bakery. But Collin Street isn't in Waco, it is in Corsicana, which is not even on that same interstate.
If you do not know, Corsicana is the Fruitcake Capital of the World.
Anyway, we did not stop that time. On down the road we went, til we were nearly there, and we stopped at The Snake Farm. I do not believe that I have ever been to the place before, though the husband says that we have. Maybe we have, once, but mainly I remember trying to go there and being there too early or too late or at the wrong time of year, etc.... So we had made good time, and it was a bit after lunch, and it was a Sunday, so they were open. Tickets are about ten dollars each, which is a bit much for such a small zoo, since you could go to a much bigger zoo for the same price or even less. But I was spending the day being a tourist, and I wanted to go anyway. It is a big room with a lot of snakes, and some animals outside behind the building. Mostly average stuff in small cages, but there were a couple of wolves and a couple of hyenas. I tend to go to a lot of zoos, but I don't think that I've been up close to a hyena before. So that was cool.
There was this odd bit with the rats. There were rats outside everywhere, getting into the cages and stealing lunch. But these weren't your average wild rats, they were white with spots, like you would get at a pet store. I am wondering if a couple of them were meant to be someone's lunch, and they escaped, and now there are rats everywhere.
We didn't spend much time there. I found something at the gift shop that I will give my brother for Christmas. Then we got back on the road.
The room was nice enough, but nothing special. The cable sucked. Not even the SyFy channel. And I forgot my pillows. You can't take your bed with you, but you would be more comfortable in the motel room if you remember to bring your own pillows, but I forgot. Lucky for me, this motel decided to go with many smaller pillows instead of a few giant ones. So I did not break my neck on the strange pillows.
One thing with the room was a disappointment, no micro-fridge. I have gotten so used to that being standard that I forgot to ask, so we didn't get one. But it turned out okay, since we weren't going to be there but for a few days. There were plenty of restaurants to eat lunch, and after he went to work I had a dollar hamburger at a McDonald's two doors over. So we ended up not really needing the micro-fridge anyway.
There was one other thing that my husband wanted to do, but he wasn't feeling well one day, and it was rather wet and unpleasant the other day. So that left the day that we were leaving, which was a bit windy, and we decided that we didn't want to walk around in the wind anyway. But since the many point of going to the place was to take pictures of buildings and houses, we were going to drive over anyway and just get out of the car for the occasional photo. Only he didn't make any notes on how to get to the place, and he got lost, and almost an hour later we had to give up and head home.
We stopped at one of those giant sports stores, cause I had heard that they sometimes have glow in the dark paint and small amounts of glow in the dark yarn. That seems a strange place to find such things, but it is sometimes used to catch fish. They were out of the yarn, and I didn't buy any paint. This kind of paint has to be heated, and so it wasn't going to help me in any of my current projects. Still, it is good to know for future reference. We looked at the aquarium and the taxidermy stuff, and then we got back on the road.
I had no special plans for lunch, but with the husband not feeling well we thought Chinese food would be nice if we could find one, and we did. It was a really good one, so unfortunately I ate too much and got sleepy. He got sleepy too, and we had to stop and get him a Red Bull. From there it wasn't long before we were in Waco, were we stopped at the bakery. My husband is one of those people who actually likes fruitcake, but we don't buy any of these, because even the tiny ones are fifteen dollars. Regular and large cakes are in the thirty to fifty dollars range. Anyway, we bought a few cookies and got back on the road. Twenty minutes later we stopped in West and bought some focaccia bread.
So we got home just in time to deal with five o'clock traffic, but it wasn't bad. And while there are all kinds of things that we might have done then, we were tired and decided to stay in and watch TV and such. So that was pretty much it, except for the knitting, which I will write about later.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Maybe we will just call that a practice piece
Okay, so my husband is gone for the week, and I have dreams of getting the house cleaned while getting this knitting done. The piece on the machine is for a friend, and it needs to be done before the 19th.
If R and J are reading, they can either stop reading or keep their mouths shut.
Okay, so I imagined that on Monday I would at least knit 36 rows and get some cleaning done. And I got to work on the knitting right away, as soon as he left the house. And I would get some of it done, realize that I had made a mistake, and then have to unravel the piece back to row 9. I tried again, knitted a few more rows, decided that I didn't like the way it looked, and again unraveled the piece back to row 9.
At this point I decided that diagonals were the problem. I made a new design with rectangles and started again with that on Tuesday.
So that looked better, and by Tuesday night I was at about row 50. I hadn't do anything but knit and watch a little TV while I was eating or just resting. The knitting hurts my back, so my back is killing me. The knitting machine works better if I am standing up, but to see what I am doing I have to sit down. So it is stand up, sit down, bend over and look at something, stand up again, etc....
I make a mistake, and then I have to unravel a few rows.
I do nothing but knit, watch TV, and eat. I haven't had time to clean anything yet. I haven't done the laundry. I haven't even done the dishes. This is very bad. And my back is killing me.
Wednesday morning, I decide that the design is still a bit too complicated, and the glow in the dark part just isn't working. And I see a major flaw at row 9. I take the whole thing off of the machine and start over.
After spending most of Wednesday knitting, I am now at about row 70. I will have to add the glow in the dark stuff later. My friend might be getting an IOU for Christmas.
My back is killing me. I need a break. Today I will probably not knit anything before lunch. I really must at least wash the dishes. I plan to run some errands and watch a movie at the dollar place.
Okay, so I'm at row 70. By now I expected to have twice that done, plus have a lot of cleaning done. It is Thursday. I have to have a lot of cleaning done by Saturday or I cannot go out of town on Sunday, and I will be gone at least until Wednesday, so I can't work on that particular knitting project until probably next Thursday. That was why it was so important to do most of it this week, and I am only on row 70 of a project that has about 470 rows. Plus there is more work to do on it after I take it off of the machine.
I will be doing more knitting when I go out of town. I would usually take the knitting machine with me, but not this time. This piece is too complicated for me to move it. I will work on other projects. I will take almost finished pieces with me and add the fringe. And hopefully I will get the round knitting machines to work and make a new scarf (hopefully two) that I can put in the gift exchange that is on the 13th.
I am not getting enough sleep. And my back is killing me.
I had the strangest dream last night. My husband shot someone, and I was pretty sure that he was going to shoot me too. And then we were hiding somewhere. I had lied about the shooting, but then the evidence just didn't match up with what I had said, but by that time we were gone. I try to help him, but he just becomes this crazy homeless person. I go home and tell everyone that I lied because I was afraid of him. It takes me a while to get that I really was afraid of him. I have to get a divorce, and deal with all the hassles of that, and find out that there additional problems when trying to divorce a crazy homeless person who is wanted by the police.
So that was a pleasant way to start the morning. I sort of feel sick.
So, it is Thursday, and so far no one has called me about Grandma. I expected to hear something about her on Monday or Tuesday. I wonder if the plans were postponed, or if my mom just finally decided to leave me out of it. I should call her and find out what is going on, but I really don't want to. I think that I will have one more day of peace and not call her til tomorrow. I should at least tell her that I'm planning to go out of town on Sunday.
Okay, enough of this. Time to wash some dishes.
If R and J are reading, they can either stop reading or keep their mouths shut.
Okay, so I imagined that on Monday I would at least knit 36 rows and get some cleaning done. And I got to work on the knitting right away, as soon as he left the house. And I would get some of it done, realize that I had made a mistake, and then have to unravel the piece back to row 9. I tried again, knitted a few more rows, decided that I didn't like the way it looked, and again unraveled the piece back to row 9.
At this point I decided that diagonals were the problem. I made a new design with rectangles and started again with that on Tuesday.
So that looked better, and by Tuesday night I was at about row 50. I hadn't do anything but knit and watch a little TV while I was eating or just resting. The knitting hurts my back, so my back is killing me. The knitting machine works better if I am standing up, but to see what I am doing I have to sit down. So it is stand up, sit down, bend over and look at something, stand up again, etc....
I make a mistake, and then I have to unravel a few rows.
I do nothing but knit, watch TV, and eat. I haven't had time to clean anything yet. I haven't done the laundry. I haven't even done the dishes. This is very bad. And my back is killing me.
Wednesday morning, I decide that the design is still a bit too complicated, and the glow in the dark part just isn't working. And I see a major flaw at row 9. I take the whole thing off of the machine and start over.
After spending most of Wednesday knitting, I am now at about row 70. I will have to add the glow in the dark stuff later. My friend might be getting an IOU for Christmas.
My back is killing me. I need a break. Today I will probably not knit anything before lunch. I really must at least wash the dishes. I plan to run some errands and watch a movie at the dollar place.
Okay, so I'm at row 70. By now I expected to have twice that done, plus have a lot of cleaning done. It is Thursday. I have to have a lot of cleaning done by Saturday or I cannot go out of town on Sunday, and I will be gone at least until Wednesday, so I can't work on that particular knitting project until probably next Thursday. That was why it was so important to do most of it this week, and I am only on row 70 of a project that has about 470 rows. Plus there is more work to do on it after I take it off of the machine.
I will be doing more knitting when I go out of town. I would usually take the knitting machine with me, but not this time. This piece is too complicated for me to move it. I will work on other projects. I will take almost finished pieces with me and add the fringe. And hopefully I will get the round knitting machines to work and make a new scarf (hopefully two) that I can put in the gift exchange that is on the 13th.
I am not getting enough sleep. And my back is killing me.
I had the strangest dream last night. My husband shot someone, and I was pretty sure that he was going to shoot me too. And then we were hiding somewhere. I had lied about the shooting, but then the evidence just didn't match up with what I had said, but by that time we were gone. I try to help him, but he just becomes this crazy homeless person. I go home and tell everyone that I lied because I was afraid of him. It takes me a while to get that I really was afraid of him. I have to get a divorce, and deal with all the hassles of that, and find out that there additional problems when trying to divorce a crazy homeless person who is wanted by the police.
So that was a pleasant way to start the morning. I sort of feel sick.
So, it is Thursday, and so far no one has called me about Grandma. I expected to hear something about her on Monday or Tuesday. I wonder if the plans were postponed, or if my mom just finally decided to leave me out of it. I should call her and find out what is going on, but I really don't want to. I think that I will have one more day of peace and not call her til tomorrow. I should at least tell her that I'm planning to go out of town on Sunday.
Okay, enough of this. Time to wash some dishes.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Trying to make plans
Well, my husband will be gone for a week, and I have stuff that I need to do, and I had better do it. So I should not waste time on the computer and such. I have knitting to do and cleaning to do, and there are deadlines. One Christmas get-together on the 13th, and another on the 19th, and probably stuff to do with my family on the 24th, and maybe someplace to be on the 22nd or the 23rd, and something else to do on the 12th if I have the time. I need to finish Miss Allergies scarf and get started on the pilot's gift and get something for G and finish up with the gifts for R and K. I need to put fringe on scarves that I have already made and probably try to squeeze in two more scarves before the 13th.
And most of that stuff needs to be done this week, because there are plans for next week. I am planning to go out of town Sunday, and I plan to be gone til that Wednesday, if not longer. And that won't leave a lot of time for knitting or cleaning or anything else if I have to get stuff done before the 13th, and other stuff done before the 19th.
And then I still don't know what gifts I will need before the 24th, so I will probably still have stuff to do even after the 19th.
Anyway, on Sunday I hope to be out of the house for a few days. As usual, most of the time will be spent in a motel room watching cable, but there are other plans. We will be going to a place that used to be special to us, but we have been there so many times that after a while going there is no big deal. We have done most of the stuff there is to do and seen what there is to see. If it costs money we probably don't bother with it anymore. I have a couple of friends there that I don't even visit, cause I just don't want to have to explain what has happened, and I really don't know how to have the catching up conversation without getting into it. So there is this place that used to be very special, and then was sort of special, and then was sort of old hat.
But it was still an excuse to get out of the house for a while.
And while I was debating on whether or not I should go this trip, my husband really started to get into the idea of making this a nice trip. While we have already been to all the places in the area that we would really care about, I don't think that we have been in the area much around Christmas, and there are several places that we have not been at night, and so that would really be nice to see.
Of course that is next week, and this week Grandma is coming home, though I don't know what day. I had planned to help out some, even if I don't take the "job", and now I am planing to go out of town on the 6th.
So I'm sure that my mother isn't going to be happy about that.
This is one of the reasons that I don't want the "job", though it certainly isn't the main reason. But if I had a regular job and I needed the day off or if I wanted to go away for a few days, there would be a way for me to do that. I might not aways get the day off that I wanted, and I might not be able to go out of town during a particular week or month, but there would be a way to get someone else to cover for me for short periods of time, and there would be someone else who could do the work on my day off, if there was even anything that needed to be done on my day off. My mother has so far not even been able to tell me what hours I would have this "job", or what would be my day off, or what would happen on a day that I get sick, or what would happen if there is ice on the road and I can't drive, or if someone else could take over for a few days if I just needed a break.
I am afraid that my mother is going to try to talk me out of going out of town Sunday. And then the "job" will probably not work out, and after a week or two they will have to make other arrangements, and I'll have missed out on the trip for nothing.
And of course if I am going to go on this trip I need to get the house cleaned before Sunday anyway. In addition to the knitting and the usual stuff that needs to be done.
I am tired just thinking about it. I would like to go back to bed now.
And most of that stuff needs to be done this week, because there are plans for next week. I am planning to go out of town Sunday, and I plan to be gone til that Wednesday, if not longer. And that won't leave a lot of time for knitting or cleaning or anything else if I have to get stuff done before the 13th, and other stuff done before the 19th.
And then I still don't know what gifts I will need before the 24th, so I will probably still have stuff to do even after the 19th.
Anyway, on Sunday I hope to be out of the house for a few days. As usual, most of the time will be spent in a motel room watching cable, but there are other plans. We will be going to a place that used to be special to us, but we have been there so many times that after a while going there is no big deal. We have done most of the stuff there is to do and seen what there is to see. If it costs money we probably don't bother with it anymore. I have a couple of friends there that I don't even visit, cause I just don't want to have to explain what has happened, and I really don't know how to have the catching up conversation without getting into it. So there is this place that used to be very special, and then was sort of special, and then was sort of old hat.
But it was still an excuse to get out of the house for a while.
And while I was debating on whether or not I should go this trip, my husband really started to get into the idea of making this a nice trip. While we have already been to all the places in the area that we would really care about, I don't think that we have been in the area much around Christmas, and there are several places that we have not been at night, and so that would really be nice to see.
Of course that is next week, and this week Grandma is coming home, though I don't know what day. I had planned to help out some, even if I don't take the "job", and now I am planing to go out of town on the 6th.
So I'm sure that my mother isn't going to be happy about that.
This is one of the reasons that I don't want the "job", though it certainly isn't the main reason. But if I had a regular job and I needed the day off or if I wanted to go away for a few days, there would be a way for me to do that. I might not aways get the day off that I wanted, and I might not be able to go out of town during a particular week or month, but there would be a way to get someone else to cover for me for short periods of time, and there would be someone else who could do the work on my day off, if there was even anything that needed to be done on my day off. My mother has so far not even been able to tell me what hours I would have this "job", or what would be my day off, or what would happen on a day that I get sick, or what would happen if there is ice on the road and I can't drive, or if someone else could take over for a few days if I just needed a break.
I am afraid that my mother is going to try to talk me out of going out of town Sunday. And then the "job" will probably not work out, and after a week or two they will have to make other arrangements, and I'll have missed out on the trip for nothing.
And of course if I am going to go on this trip I need to get the house cleaned before Sunday anyway. In addition to the knitting and the usual stuff that needs to be done.
I am tired just thinking about it. I would like to go back to bed now.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Black Friday and Grandma
Well, it has been a while, hasn't it. I have sort of been busy. You would think that I have been busy knitting, and I should be. More like, I'm getting ready to knit, but I'm not really doing that much actual knitting at the moment, though I am still working on the scarf for Miss Allergies. I am getting ready to knit something for the pilot, but I not quite certain about it, and I haven't gotten started on it yet because I'm afraid that I will make a mistake and have to start all over again. And I really cannot make a mistake and start over, cause I don't have enough supplies. I must be certain of what I am doing before I get started.
Anyway, I did finally clean that bathroom that I haven't done anything about since I hurt my knee. And then after my knee felt better, I put off the cleaning for another week or two, as after I have put off a chore for a while the chore gets worse and worse, and it is almost like I become afraid of it. Anyway, now I also have to tackle cleaning the frig, which is also difficult to do with an injured knee, and I have to wash a very large pile of dishes.
I have no excuse for the large pile of dishes. My ability to wash dishes doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not my knee hurts. But after I don't do them for a few days, they reach a certain mass, and then it is just really difficult to deal with. So I will have to do that soon, whether I feel up to it or not.
I have had a lot to eat. Not like you might think. In spite of spending all that money on groceries so that we wouldn't be tempted to go out, we still managed to go out to eat twice, and have ice cream twice in addition to that. But mostly we have stayed in, except that I went out once with my mom (mostly without problems), and he has been cooking a bit, and we went to Thanksgiving dinner at Uncles G's place.
At Thanksgiving dinner I expected to have all sorts of things to eat that I would really like, but most of it wasn't quite what I wanted. Now, there were plenty of pies. We joked that there were enough pies for each person to eat a whole pie, and I did eat pie and I did take home half of a pie. But the other stuff wasn't quite what I expected, except for the turkey and the ham. But this year mom only made pies, so the rest of the stuff just wasn't as good as mom's.
I had been worried about what to bring, and that my stuff wouldn't be as good as everyone else's. After seeing all the Google searches for Rudy's creamed corn that lead people here by mistake, I decided to try that one myself. I found a recipe for two pounds of frozen corn, a tablespoon of sugar, eight ounces of cream cheese, a quarter cup of cream, and half a stick of butter. So I made that, except that I didn't find two pounds of frozen corn and used three twelve ounces packages instead. And when I got the idea, that seemed like plenty, but it wasn't. But it turned out to be enough as one of the families had something come up and didn't make it to Uncle G's place.
I have a turkey. I like turkey, so I buy one when it is on sale, even though we rarely make it for other people. So the turkey is thawed now, and I should cook it today or tomorrow.
So after Thanksgiving comes...Black Friday.
Now, I tend to go shopping on Black Friday, but as I am usually more organized than this, I usually shop mainly for myself on that day. Except that I usually also get a few more things, like I usually go get a few more things at Bath and Body Works. I didn't go there this year, cause I just didn't have the money, which is sad because they had the most excellent deal "while supplies last" and if you spent forty dollars you could buy this other hundred dollar thing for fifteen. And I really kept trying to reason out how I could do that, but I really couldn't, and I decided to be on the safe side that I should avoid the area.
This year the shopping was entirely for me. I bought two pair of jeans that I can wear now, and one to grow on. Or rather, one to shrink into, just in case. And I bought a mixer and a chopper.
Before you tell me how selfish I am for shopping for myself instead of Christmas presents, well, I can't do Christmas shopping for other people or do anything else for other people if I am naked. I really did need those jeans, and I have put off buying them till now, cause I was hoping that they would be about half price at Walmart like last year. And they were. And I got a free t-shirt with each one. I think having the bundle with the free t-shirt cut down on the confusion on which jeans were the sale price. Last year I finally figured out that the ones on sale had the bar code in a different place. This year you just had to find the ones with the t-shirt attached. This year's jeans were nine dollars, while last years were eight dollars, but I still think that it worked out better. I haven't tried on the t-shirts yet, so I'm guessing that they won't look good, but I'm pretty happy about the jeans. As happy as I'm going to be the way I look now.
And the mixer, well, I don't think that I have one, and I need one, especially if I might be expected to exchange baked goods with someone, or bake something for a party. So now I have a mixer for such an occasion.
Okay, for Christmas with my friends I need something for G (not Uncle G, and not S, different G), I have already wrapped something for J, I need to make final touches on stuff for R and K, and I am working on stuff for Miss Allergies and the pilot.
Christmas with my family still has not been discussed, though I can now cross my fingers and hope for a baked goods exchange or some really cheap gift exchange. That was half of what we did last year, and I actually thought that part was more fun. Less stress and all of that.
But now there is Christmas with my extended family, which I did not expect, and that is going to be in about two weeks. I am thinking about knitting a scarf for that, if I have the time. I haven't made scarfs for any of them, so they might actually want one. And it is one of those things where you "steal" gifts from other people, so hopefully someone who actually wants the gift actually ends up with it. I'm just not sure if I'll have enough time, but I'll try using the other knitting machine now that I have seen the YouTube video on how to fix dropped stitches.
So that should be fun.
My husband is going out of town for a week, so that should leave me plenty of time to knit. I just have to make myself do it, and all the other stuff that I will have to do that week. The next week he is going out of town for a few days, and he wants me to go with him. And, the way the schedule is now, he isn't supposed to work that weekend, so I could go with him and not miss anything that I have planned. However, if the schedule changes while we are out of town, I'm screwed. So I will have to give it some more thought. And of course, it will depend on how much knitting I get done, and how much cleaning I get done, etc....
And then, there is Grandma.
Now, those of you who have really been paying attention know that my mother has been trying to get me to help her take care of Grandma for the last four or five years. This has lead to serious problems between us, almost to the point where I have thought that the next time she mentions this I will totally cut mom out of my life. My mother claims that I haven't made myself clear on the subject, that I have said that I would rather not, that I haven't ever said absolutely not and do not mention this again.
So now I have said that, and that should be the end of it, right?
Anyway, Grandma had to go to the hospital for something, and when she got out they put her in a nursing home. Not the nice assisted living place that she used to be in, but a nursing home. So I thought that was the end of that.
But everyone seems to think that she is better now, except that the doctors do not think that she is well enough to live by herself, and if she is going home she will need someone with her 24/7.
Grandma wants to go home and does not think that she needs anyone 24/7. Her plan is that we take her home, and that she has someone there for the first few days, and then we just lie to the doctors and do whatever we want to do, not what they say.
So my mom calls, and she says right up front that she knows I don't want to do it, she's just mentioning it cause one of my uncles said I should have first refusal. So I think that she isn't really asking me to do this again, just that she's telling me what they are going to do, and that they are going to hire someone to help Grandma, just that the someone isn't going to be me.
And then as she goes on and on about it, I realize that she still is asking me, she just doesn't think that it counts because she's asking on behalf of one of the uncles instead of herself.
The odd thing is that I am actually considering it, if I can get a straight answer from someone, maybe one of my uncles.
Anyway, I would help on those first few days for free, cause I figure that we are all going to help out a bit for those first few days. And depending on how that goes, I would think about it. I do need the money, and at this point they are willing to pay me as much as they would have to pay an agency, which is a minimum of fifteen an hour for a minimum four hours.
I just can't quite understand what I would be doing for those four hours, would it be more than four hours, what time would those four hours be, etc...?
Sometimes my mother talks like I would just be running errands. But I don't really think that is it, because I have offered to run errands before (even for free) and I rarely get called to do that. And we would still have to talk about the important stuff, like what if I have an accident while I have this "job", and what if I get sick, and what if I just need a day off, etc.... When you get a real job, someone knows the answers to this stuff. My mother just seems to think I'm making stuff up.
So I am thinking that I will help out for a few days and see what happens.
I still don't have a flu shot. Grandma won't like that. Maybe mom will pay to get me one. Maybe this will get us all on the list for the h1n1 shot. That would be good.
I still don't think that I want to do it, but I'm thinking that if I did it for a few days and it didn't work out that would finally be the end off it.
Anyway, I have knitting to do.
Anyway, I did finally clean that bathroom that I haven't done anything about since I hurt my knee. And then after my knee felt better, I put off the cleaning for another week or two, as after I have put off a chore for a while the chore gets worse and worse, and it is almost like I become afraid of it. Anyway, now I also have to tackle cleaning the frig, which is also difficult to do with an injured knee, and I have to wash a very large pile of dishes.
I have no excuse for the large pile of dishes. My ability to wash dishes doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not my knee hurts. But after I don't do them for a few days, they reach a certain mass, and then it is just really difficult to deal with. So I will have to do that soon, whether I feel up to it or not.
I have had a lot to eat. Not like you might think. In spite of spending all that money on groceries so that we wouldn't be tempted to go out, we still managed to go out to eat twice, and have ice cream twice in addition to that. But mostly we have stayed in, except that I went out once with my mom (mostly without problems), and he has been cooking a bit, and we went to Thanksgiving dinner at Uncles G's place.
At Thanksgiving dinner I expected to have all sorts of things to eat that I would really like, but most of it wasn't quite what I wanted. Now, there were plenty of pies. We joked that there were enough pies for each person to eat a whole pie, and I did eat pie and I did take home half of a pie. But the other stuff wasn't quite what I expected, except for the turkey and the ham. But this year mom only made pies, so the rest of the stuff just wasn't as good as mom's.
I had been worried about what to bring, and that my stuff wouldn't be as good as everyone else's. After seeing all the Google searches for Rudy's creamed corn that lead people here by mistake, I decided to try that one myself. I found a recipe for two pounds of frozen corn, a tablespoon of sugar, eight ounces of cream cheese, a quarter cup of cream, and half a stick of butter. So I made that, except that I didn't find two pounds of frozen corn and used three twelve ounces packages instead. And when I got the idea, that seemed like plenty, but it wasn't. But it turned out to be enough as one of the families had something come up and didn't make it to Uncle G's place.
I have a turkey. I like turkey, so I buy one when it is on sale, even though we rarely make it for other people. So the turkey is thawed now, and I should cook it today or tomorrow.
So after Thanksgiving comes...Black Friday.
Now, I tend to go shopping on Black Friday, but as I am usually more organized than this, I usually shop mainly for myself on that day. Except that I usually also get a few more things, like I usually go get a few more things at Bath and Body Works. I didn't go there this year, cause I just didn't have the money, which is sad because they had the most excellent deal "while supplies last" and if you spent forty dollars you could buy this other hundred dollar thing for fifteen. And I really kept trying to reason out how I could do that, but I really couldn't, and I decided to be on the safe side that I should avoid the area.
This year the shopping was entirely for me. I bought two pair of jeans that I can wear now, and one to grow on. Or rather, one to shrink into, just in case. And I bought a mixer and a chopper.
Before you tell me how selfish I am for shopping for myself instead of Christmas presents, well, I can't do Christmas shopping for other people or do anything else for other people if I am naked. I really did need those jeans, and I have put off buying them till now, cause I was hoping that they would be about half price at Walmart like last year. And they were. And I got a free t-shirt with each one. I think having the bundle with the free t-shirt cut down on the confusion on which jeans were the sale price. Last year I finally figured out that the ones on sale had the bar code in a different place. This year you just had to find the ones with the t-shirt attached. This year's jeans were nine dollars, while last years were eight dollars, but I still think that it worked out better. I haven't tried on the t-shirts yet, so I'm guessing that they won't look good, but I'm pretty happy about the jeans. As happy as I'm going to be the way I look now.
And the mixer, well, I don't think that I have one, and I need one, especially if I might be expected to exchange baked goods with someone, or bake something for a party. So now I have a mixer for such an occasion.
Okay, for Christmas with my friends I need something for G (not Uncle G, and not S, different G), I have already wrapped something for J, I need to make final touches on stuff for R and K, and I am working on stuff for Miss Allergies and the pilot.
Christmas with my family still has not been discussed, though I can now cross my fingers and hope for a baked goods exchange or some really cheap gift exchange. That was half of what we did last year, and I actually thought that part was more fun. Less stress and all of that.
But now there is Christmas with my extended family, which I did not expect, and that is going to be in about two weeks. I am thinking about knitting a scarf for that, if I have the time. I haven't made scarfs for any of them, so they might actually want one. And it is one of those things where you "steal" gifts from other people, so hopefully someone who actually wants the gift actually ends up with it. I'm just not sure if I'll have enough time, but I'll try using the other knitting machine now that I have seen the YouTube video on how to fix dropped stitches.
So that should be fun.
My husband is going out of town for a week, so that should leave me plenty of time to knit. I just have to make myself do it, and all the other stuff that I will have to do that week. The next week he is going out of town for a few days, and he wants me to go with him. And, the way the schedule is now, he isn't supposed to work that weekend, so I could go with him and not miss anything that I have planned. However, if the schedule changes while we are out of town, I'm screwed. So I will have to give it some more thought. And of course, it will depend on how much knitting I get done, and how much cleaning I get done, etc....
And then, there is Grandma.
Now, those of you who have really been paying attention know that my mother has been trying to get me to help her take care of Grandma for the last four or five years. This has lead to serious problems between us, almost to the point where I have thought that the next time she mentions this I will totally cut mom out of my life. My mother claims that I haven't made myself clear on the subject, that I have said that I would rather not, that I haven't ever said absolutely not and do not mention this again.
So now I have said that, and that should be the end of it, right?
Anyway, Grandma had to go to the hospital for something, and when she got out they put her in a nursing home. Not the nice assisted living place that she used to be in, but a nursing home. So I thought that was the end of that.
But everyone seems to think that she is better now, except that the doctors do not think that she is well enough to live by herself, and if she is going home she will need someone with her 24/7.
Grandma wants to go home and does not think that she needs anyone 24/7. Her plan is that we take her home, and that she has someone there for the first few days, and then we just lie to the doctors and do whatever we want to do, not what they say.
So my mom calls, and she says right up front that she knows I don't want to do it, she's just mentioning it cause one of my uncles said I should have first refusal. So I think that she isn't really asking me to do this again, just that she's telling me what they are going to do, and that they are going to hire someone to help Grandma, just that the someone isn't going to be me.
And then as she goes on and on about it, I realize that she still is asking me, she just doesn't think that it counts because she's asking on behalf of one of the uncles instead of herself.
The odd thing is that I am actually considering it, if I can get a straight answer from someone, maybe one of my uncles.
Anyway, I would help on those first few days for free, cause I figure that we are all going to help out a bit for those first few days. And depending on how that goes, I would think about it. I do need the money, and at this point they are willing to pay me as much as they would have to pay an agency, which is a minimum of fifteen an hour for a minimum four hours.
I just can't quite understand what I would be doing for those four hours, would it be more than four hours, what time would those four hours be, etc...?
Sometimes my mother talks like I would just be running errands. But I don't really think that is it, because I have offered to run errands before (even for free) and I rarely get called to do that. And we would still have to talk about the important stuff, like what if I have an accident while I have this "job", and what if I get sick, and what if I just need a day off, etc.... When you get a real job, someone knows the answers to this stuff. My mother just seems to think I'm making stuff up.
So I am thinking that I will help out for a few days and see what happens.
I still don't have a flu shot. Grandma won't like that. Maybe mom will pay to get me one. Maybe this will get us all on the list for the h1n1 shot. That would be good.
I still don't think that I want to do it, but I'm thinking that if I did it for a few days and it didn't work out that would finally be the end off it.
Anyway, I have knitting to do.
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