UN-dorsement: Pretty Nails in Mason, WV

 
So...

My vacation began on Wednesday, so Tuesday before work I checked out of the motel and then had a few hours to kill before work (which is 6PM to 4AM). I decided to get a manicure.

Driving around aimlessly, in the general direction of work, I left Gallipolis and drove to Middleport. Saw a salon there (Nails - walk-ins welcome) and walked in, but they were not able to manicure me unless I was willing to return in "a couple of hours," as their manicurist had just left for lunch. They recommended another place nearby (to which I should have gone) and added, "then there's the guy across the bridge; he does nails there too ...mostly acrylic, but I think you can get a manicure there too."

So I went to "the guy across the bridge," which was a franchise of Pretty Nails, in a strip mall in front of the Wal~Mart in Mason, WV.

Instead of the "gay" guy I was expecting --okay, I was hoping to find a gay-run salon, which stereotypically I believe would be the highest quality-- instead it was an empty little salon, oriental guy lounging in a chair in front, "He'p you?" and when I said I'd like a manicure he yelled something in another language and a petite young oriental woman came out of the back room. She wanted to give me acrylic nails, but I said, "just a manicure, my own nails," and she sat me down.

Then everything happened too fast.

She put my hands in a bowl of warm water, the guy got up and walked to the front door, SHE snatched up a piece of paper and raced halfway to the door (as if she was chasing him), wadded up the paper and tossed it in a trashcan, all the while craning her neck to see where he'd gone. He came back in.

She snatched up clippers and chopped off my fingernails, almost to the quick (too fast for me to react - I sat there in shock), ran a file across them (missing most of the snags), he walked into the back room, she raced to the back of the salon, again looking to see where he'd gone, came back to see me picking at a snag on my thumbnail and said to me, "don't worry, I clean later!" ...which she didn't.

Got some lotion and rubbed my forearms with that (felt nice, but I didn't come here for a massage, I came to have my nails shaped). She trimmed the cuticles with scissors (I had no idea anyone still did that - aren't you supposed to just push them back?), gave a perfunctory swipe at a little dirt under what was left of my forefinger's nail, snatched up a buffing stone & ran it over the nails (which are still rough-edged, still dirty, and much much shorter than when I came in), then said, "you pay me now?" with a big smile.

Speechlessly I handed over $15, somehow still supposing this PROFESSIONAL was going to repair the damage done... she swiped on a layer of clear polish and I was done.

I had been growing my nails carefully for weeks. I carried an emery board. I applied nail hardener every night. They were --all but one-- long enough to see over the edge of my fingertips. I wish I had "before" pictures. Here are the "afters:"



What was she thinking?

Did she misunderstand what I wanted?

Was this done maliciously?

Was it a cry for help; is she being held against her will?

Why didn't I stop her? (I know the answer to this: I thought, "she's a professional; she knows what she's doing" AND it all happened too fast)

I do not recommend Pretty Nails in Mason, West Virginia!

I'm just so thankful it was my fingernails and not my hair!

 

Ya well...

The aptly named Klutz rolled off my monitor onto my cuppa tea, knocking it all over my desk and keyboard. I knew a second cuppa tea isn't a good idea, didn't I?

We gotta go to the city for catfood anyway <sigh> ...though so far so good on the keyboard function otta pick up another, just in case.

vacation

Here begins a series of blog posts about our Florida vacation. I plan to leave them in "draft" form till we get back home.

Tomorrow, Monday, th'Mr & I will drive to Cincinnati and spend the night in a motel. Tuesday we fly out of Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale, for a WEEK with my folks! Daddy's 70th birthday is November 14th, and we're going to spend it with him and Mom. The following Tuesday, Nov 18th, we'll fly back home.

In the meanwhile Grrrl and Klutz will have to be kenneled. I wish there was another way, but there's nobody I can ask to come in and make sure Klutz eats, and keep Grrrl from roaming the neighborhood.

I'm just grateful we have a wonderful veterinarian who also boards.

brief everything update

We spent early May painting and reflooring half the house and now we're "destashing," to borrow a word from fiberholics. Both of us have tossed our closets a couple of times, weeding out more and more of the unused space-takers, and will continue to do so till there are open spaces everywhere. I have shredded and composted years worth of unnecessary paper. We have freecycled and goodwilled and passed on to family members furniture, furnishings, and books. Everyone's breathing easier, the house is easier to clean, things are easier to find and we're having more fun and more time to have fun in.

The garden looks good. This year it's closer to the house and already I can tell the weeds and rocks we made war on last year (organically: picking by hand) are not as persistent this year. The perennials all seem to have survived (maybe not the torch lilies), even the tiny yellow rose bush. We've cut back roses and apple trees. The yard looks better than it has in years.

The hummingbirds came in early May, and judging by early numbers it looks like we'll have more than ever.

Th'Mr is getting his health back and is back to work, with two separate projects going, and I'm looking into getting an advanced degree when my own work schedule calms down some. I love what I do, but some days I can really tell I'm not a kid anymore. The degree I'm looking into will get me out of the "bull work" of the trade and into the fine tuning: away from the mechanics of the operation and into the (climate controlled) control rooms. It's all good.

everything update

***
Health

Tonight we're heading to Lexington. Th'Mr's cardiologist thinks a pacemaker is a good idea, so that's where we stand now. He (th'Mr, not the cardio) doesn't seem as nervous as I feel, and I suppose that's a good thing.

Tonight we check in at the hospital, then go to a hotel, then tomorrow morning back to the hospital for the surgery. He'll probably spend a night or two.

I've told them at work I might not be back till Thursday, if then. The higher-ups are starting to whine about absenteeism, but some things can't be helped.

We've spent a lot of time splitting firewood and moving it to the porch - I doubt he'll feel up to that sort of thing after being cut on yet again. It's still too cold to do without a fire in the woodstove. Next year we will definitely make an effort to winterize this old house.

***
Knitting

Aranmor

I couldn't do Aranmor both sleeves at once after all, since I wasn't sure two balls of yarn would suffice per sleeve, and I have "enough yarn of one dye lot" issues. However, now I know, when using Lion Brand Wool-ease --which comes in 85gm/180yd skeins-- for this project, I'll need 3 skeins each for front and back, two skeins each for the sleeves, and (don't know yet) for the collar and finishing.

I've finished one sleeve to the saddle cast-off and finished the cuff of the other.


Fair Isle sox

Got hooked on Fair Isle. I've sat down to work on the socks only three times but have the leg done on the first and am past the cuff into the leg on the second (it's a habit I have, to work both at once but not exactly at once). I doubt I'll ever be content to knit a plain sock again.

Three-color sox

My movie knitting project is moving right along. I'm doing these toe-up and the first sock is done past the heel. I like the way the colors work together. This'll be a great way to use up scrap yarn on days I'm too distracted for stranded work.

Yet another sock

Yesterday when I checked my Ravelry message board found an invitation to join Sock Knitters Pentathlon, so I did. The first pattern won't be posted till March 1, but the specs are up and last night I swatched that ball of Opal Uni I bought in Florida almost a year ago. This might be a good project on which to learn to tighten up my knitting... using #1 needles I wasn't quite achieving gauge.

There's so much I want to do...

dry

My hands have been too dry and sore this week to knit. Instead I started a jigsaw puzzle on the floor of the apartment. Finally Saturday I was ready to tackle Aranmor again and took her to work with me. Saturdays (as I've probably mentioned) we're just on standby and spend a lot of time sitting around. I finished the cuff of the first sleeve to the point of changing needle sizes. Guess where my larger size is? At the apartment, of course.

With the van acting up like it was, I didn't go back to the apartment (east) after work but instead drove straight home (west). Oh, well. It's a one-day weekend anyway; Monday night will come soon enough.

short short weekend, long long week

Following one more Monday in January I didn't go to work (Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday), I returned Tuesday (after work) to the apartment to find icicles hanging out of the kitchen and bathroom faucets, a solid block of ice in the commode, and the shower hose broken off and lying in the shower stall.

Sigh.

This was not how I'd planned my Tuesday evening. I thought I'd grab a quick shower, then head to the KCYC for a little knitting companionship. Instead I'm off to the hardware store for a shower and a pair of channelocks (since my eleventeen pair are either at work or at home). By the time I got back to the apartment all was thawed and nothing broken, so I guess I got off easy.

Wednesday and Thursday must have been uneventful, as I don't remember them. Thursday night the temp dropped to 8 or lower, and Friday morning I let Astro-the-van warm up longer than normal. Then I drove to work. Arrived totally shivering, the van's heater was blowing only cold air. Thank the gods they keep the break room heater cranked up to eighty, and the 4/10ths mile walk in from the parking lot tends to warm me up too.

Friday evening I carried out tools for any eventuality and took US60 instead of the faster (but more dangerous) interstate, but Astro took me to the apartment without incident. One unexpected bonus came of driving the "back" road: I noticed a trusted chain auto parts store had a new sign up, proclaiming "now open 24 hours." I took down the phone number. No matter where I break down, I'll be able to call that number and find out what store is nearby. Smart, huh?

Saturday morning instead of letting the van warm up (not gonna happen with cold air blowing, anyway, right?) I cranked her up and put her in gear and drove right to work. If I'm going to blow a radiator hose apparently (judging by Friday's performance) it isn't going to happen in under an hour.

A lunchbox with all those tools AND lunch in it is heavy at 6:30AM.

Saturday afternoon --we only work eight hours on Saturdays-- I finally got a clue and checked the radiator for water. And added two and a half gallons. I'm so ashamed. But I am now home, 100 miles from work.

Still blowing cold air. Th'neighbor said he will replace the thermostat today.

Today's my birthday. Forty seven. I woke up at 6:30 (two hours after the alarm goes off during the week) and first thing drew a hot bath, lay in it reading for an hour. My apartment is adequate, but I do wish I had a tub there instead of just a shower stall.

Tomorrow I go back to work.

Happy Holidays; here's how mine were spent...

Two five-day weekends in a row.

Last Thursday I came home, we left Saturday for Muncie, had a real nice Christmas with all th'Mr's family (Saturday was great traveling weather - temperate, and not much traffic at all; Sunday and Monday were ice cold, windy, snowy; and Tuesday was again great traveling weather), drove home Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning I went back to work.

Sometime Wednesday afternoon I realized I'd neglected to bring the apartment keys with me, so Wednesday night I drove home again and Thursday again made the 200-mile round trip to Charleston, but now I'm home again for the weekend.

After work yesterday I went to the apartment to pick up a few things, most notably the Christmas ham AEP had given out. The bird feeders were dead empty, and I keep the birdseed in the freezer (there's no good reason not to: if there are mice it'll keep them out and there's really not another good spot to keep a big bag of seed in that small apartment), or I'd never noticed the power had apparently been out while I was away. Three pounds of bacon and another three of hamburger were completely thawed, and though there were some small chunks of ice cubes left in the big container I dump the ice trays into they were in a big pool of water.

The uncharitable thought that comes to mind is the neighbor (or whoever it was that came in over Thanksgiving weekend and drank cokes, moved the liquor bottles, used a huge glop of electricity and took an unopened bag of Hershey's cherry cordials), on discovering his key no longer unlocks my door, turned off my power for spite (since it was probable I would be gone all weekend). The electric panel is in the "basement" under the apartment, to which the neighbors have access.

Some more charitable (and less paranoid) thoughts are simply there was a power outage, or the freezer malfunctioned, or the breaker controlling the fridge was accidentally shut off for a while.

Last night on the way home I stopped at Target and filled th'Mr's Christmas list --yeah, I know it's late, but why risk duplicating what someone else got him, this is a better way to do it-- and this morning before he got out of bed I wrapped all the loot.

In Muncie we stay at th'MrSr's house and Christmas morning we go to Sis's place for a big breakfast and all the unwrapping. Before noon we were headed back home, and on the way home I started craving Christmas dinner (note above; we had breakfast, not dinner at Sis's), but not even Shoney's was open Tuesday, so today I'm fixing a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and anything else I can find in the cabinets (or send him after). The turkey, an 18-pound Butterball, is now nearly thawed, giblets and neck are simmering and most of the other stuff is ready to go in the oven when it's time.

Th'Mr has taken Astro to get my snowtires balanced, and I'm taking this brief break from kitchen to catch up on this most necessary blogging.

Take care.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig...

Finally got home last night, after almost three weeks away. This schedule depresses me, not least because after all that time away, after paying bills & such I end up with near zero bux in the bank.

Astro still coughs and chokes - maybe he needs a fuel filter? but now has two new snow tires on the rear, a gift from a co-worker. Sort of a gift. When I tried to pay for them he told me to wait till I could afford to. At this rate that could be a while.

Since last I blogged, I rediscovered the yarn shop in Kanawha City and have visited several times. Saturday they're open till five, and if I work Saturdays it's only till 3:30, so I got in a couple of hours knitting in the company of other knitters before heading to the apartment where th'Mr had arrived for another weekend.

Aranmor has been put on hold while I knat up a pair of fingerless gloves for Mom's birthday and housesox for Dad's Christmas. Now I'm 3/4 through with a scarf for the brother-in-law and plan to crochet a bear, fishing, for the other BiL before making th'Mr's requested housesox. Then I can get back to Aranmor, and to the worksox I've been wanting for myself.

I'm not in a very good mood. I don't like December. It's dark, and cold, and often wet, and traffic is nuts and everyone's in a hurry and the commercialization of Christmas drives me batshit (and like it or not, I get caught up in it too), and I never feel like my gifts to others are adequate and all this nifty stuff I'd like goes on sale but I don't buy for myself because I figure someone will gift me with the same thing (which never happens). January's just as bad with my birthday at the end of it, but this year by gawd I'm going to get myself something neat for my birthday.

Tomorrow we drive north for the holiday. Tuesday we'll drive back home, and Wednesday morning I'll head back to WV to work for two days, THEN I'll have a four-day weekend at home. I like the relatives and like seeing them on holidays or any time, but what I'd really like to do is just come home and hibernate, covered in cats, for a few weeks. I feel like I need healing.

DSL

Still need a router and ethernet card(s?) to get my box into the high-speed loop, but for now it's wonderful to be online the same time th'Mr is; not to have to take turns using the one phone line. He, wanting to demonstrate how fast pages load :) asked me to give him a url to a page I thought he hadn't ever been to... so I sent him here.

Continuing the new high-tech lifestyle, I now have a cellphone. Last time I had a cellphone they didn't make the "folding" models yet. How luddite-like is that?

About knitting, Friday night I'd made it all the way to the shoulder join on Q's modular Zimmerman only to --Saturday morning in the tub-- doublecheck the book and realize I'd done the split wrong - 1/8-1/8-1/2-1/8-1/8 instead of 1/8-1/4-1/4-1/4-1/8, and after only a little thought (and after getting out of the tub) ripped it back to the row where I cast off for the sleeve holes. Saturday afternoon I worked it back to where I'd been before frogging! Gratifying. But then, instead of continuing on into the hood during last nights' movie I chickened out and instead cast on a pair of socks in the Bernat pattern (I think that's where I'm going with them) in cranberry wool-ease. Aranmor waits patiently, within two rows of changing to larger needles.

I worked Friday, making a fifty-hour week, and th'Mr made the 200-mile round trip to pick me up at work, making my weekend a little longer. Tomorrow morning (Monday) he'll take me back to work.

Some time today I hope to finish the modular and get back into Aranmore. In the meanwhile th'Mr has requested another pair of "house socks," and hinted he'd wear a hand-knit cardi, as long as it isn't too colorful or textured. I welcome pattern suggestions.

WIPs and travel

The modular for Q as I predicted was too small, but now I have his little measurements to use next time. He'll be three in December. He loved the jacket anyway (such a sweet kid) --sorry I didn't get any pictures-- and when someone tried to put it on Black Bear he said, "no! that's my jacket!" Yup, I do have to make him one that fits, and soon.



I'm almost done with the Celtic Cable scarf. It was getting a little tedious, but I'm now able to work it without looking at the pattern, so it's going much faster (and thinking instead of reading the pattern takes away the tedium). Been a nice confidence builder, witness: I began Aranmor this weekend.



Swatched on eights, as the pattern suggested, and was much too loose. So off to the Muncie Hobby Lobby where I bought a couple cheap plastic circulars, #4 & #6, swatched on the sixes and was happy, and began the ribbing pattern on the #4 needles. I've finished rows 1-6 and have begun the row 7-12 3x repeat.

Trip to Muncie was nice, FIL looks healthy and says he feels great (he's had one chemo series so far), and it's always nice to see all the family there. Need to visit more often, but it's a 500-mile round trip...

While there, though, we went to Target to find him a Bunn coffeepot (no luck) and I finally broke down and bought a "purse" big enough to carry my knitting without looking ridiculous. It's a diaper bag. I love it so far.



I've had a sleeping pill & a cranberry/vodka; waiting for both to kick in so I can get some sleep and WORK ON A MONDAY for a change.

sleepless

I worked Wednesday and Thursday (we're scheduled four ten-hour days, M-Th). I'm having a really hard time staying asleep at night. Even with a sleeping pill Wednesday night I slept only from eight to midnight, then dozed till four-thirty, when I got up. I think I'd gotten a total of seventeen hours' sleep in four nights, then last night I tried a "toddy," Jack Daniels heated, with honey and lemon, and sure enough that put me to sleep, but when I woke up the dryer was still going, and it only runs a hundred minutes.

Today we're going to Muncie.

I'd write more, but it looks like I need to get ready now.

The week in knitting

This week at work I knat on Q's EZ modular jacket. When I say "knitting at work" I mean primarily at break & lunch - rarely do I have the chance to knit other times (while at work). It's hard to carry knitting around on a construction site --not as if I'm carrying a purse (well, a toolbag some of the time, but it's way too subject to getting dirty or shredded in there), though that is what I had in mind when I got cargo pants-- instead I have a block of wood and sometimes whittle a little when I'm in the field and we're having slack time.

Shit, this post was supposed to be about knitting and here I am talking about work.

So, yesterday I finished the hood, kitchenered it together and picked up stitches for one of the sleeves. Expect I'll finish it next week. Pictures will be posted here.

Sis sent a pic of Q and Black Bear, but BB is getting severely hugged and it's hard to see the jacket he's wearing. I'll scan & post it anyway. Hopefully Q will feel the same way about his own jacket.

VJ at work, when I was working on the cuff of th'Mr's red & black sock, asked was I knitting a beer coozie? And suggested I should. Yesterday I told him I'd try that and said since he'd given me the idea the first one --the demo-- would be his. He requested orange & blue (some pro sport team - I forget which) and accordingly I stopped at ACMoore on the way home to pick up a skein of orange Wool Ease.

There's no orange in evidence. Maybe after Hallowe'en it'll be an easier color to find. Of course I browsed the three aisles of yarn at ACM and of course something yummy was on serious sale; I ended up buying all the Moda Dea wool/nylon blend in the color blue Sara F once told me was most flattering on me. No idea what I'm going to do with it or how much yarn the eventual project will take, but it was half price and all one dye lot, so with a vague notion of "hat & mittens? scarf?" I spent my fifteen bucks and now have 625 yards of it.

The ball band says 20 sts 26 rows to 4" on #8 so I'm swatching on #6 (because I knit tight? No, because #6 is what I grabbed on the way out the door to pick up a pizza) and two rows into the swatch it looks like I'm 17 sts to 4". Not sure if this means I should drop down a needle size or I should finish the swatch & wash it. Maybe it means I should google up the Moda Dea website.

Another suggestion I got from work, when I held up Q's jacket which is now, with the hood sewn up, actually looking like a jacket, is that I sew a "union made" and/or my name into everything I make. I think that means they like the jacket.

I also got the suggestion --again-- that if I sew I could make out selling the "do-rags" so many of them wear under their hard hats. Just the other day I saw the pattern & demo I got from CG when he was my foreman (his wife makes them), and now I'm going to make a serious effort this weekend to (1)find the pattern & demo and (2)figure out what I did wrong last time (and (3)try again).

It's getting cold and th'Mr says it's time to exchange our kitchen curtain/cat door for something heavier. Another project for this weekend: find suitable material, pin it into shape, take it to Charleston Wednesday and run it through the sewing machine. Do I need a second sewing machine? Hahahahaha.

Mom keeps asking me what I'm going to do when I get "too old" to do this kind of work. Maybe sewing/knitting is the way out. I think it's too late to do anything with "going to college in order to qualify for a 'better' job." Most college grads --BAs and MAs, I mean-- don't make as much as I do; I know that; Mom knows that. All I really want is to pay off the mortgage, pay off our biggest debts, and do the repairs necessary around the house, then we could live on a fraction of what I'm making now. That's what I want.

Chaffin

The "Chaffin thing," as we call it, was Saturday. After the lunch & award speech there's a book reading/signing/sale over at the bookstore and after that we followed the award recipient (initials E.R.) to his cabin in the next county and sat around talking, drinking, listening to music. It was a nice day. At first neither th'Mr nor I was sure I'd go to any of it, since my weekends are more precious when I'm working, but I did go (to all of it) and we had a good time. Not a wasted day (unless you count that in an alcohol-related way).

Today I'm off work for another doctor appointment this afternoon. Then there's one next Tuesday, then hopefully I'm done with that for a while.

My apartment - I moved in last Tuesday. Tuesday night I still had no hot water but Wednesday when I got in from work there was plenty. It's very small, but big enough. The carpet in the room-that-is-not-the-kitchen-or-bath (which I'm calling the Other Room) is brand new. Tuesday night I went grocery shopping (wine, potatoes, onions, eggs, juice, butter, shampoo) and Wednesday I browsed through JoAnn fabric till I found a light flannel on sale, that I bought four yards of to make curtains. Thursday I cut & pinned curtains. Tomorrow among other things I'll take my sewing machine back with me.

lots to cram into a little weekend

The monitor got mailed to Xerox in California. Office Depot wanted nothing to do with it. Shipping charges ran $53.-

I'd like to find an independent computer supply store; I'm way past disgusted with OD.

Last Sunday night --after it cooled but before it got dark-- I thought I'd mow (Sunday morning I'd pulled a lot of yardweeds, now to chop everything down), but there seems to be a problem with the mower's carburetor. The gas tank was bone dry, so I filled it; it started right up but died after just a few seconds. Wouldn't start again, acted flooded IMO, and the gas was seeping out of the bottom of the carb. My inexpert diagnosis? Float is stuck. A simple fix (take carb off the mower, open up carb, clean four or five components, reassemble and replace onto mower) but I don't have time. Asked th'Mr to have th'neighbor look at it over the course of the week, but he forgot. The grass is long. It's only Saturday morning now, so maybe I'll decide to do it this weekend.

We put off the Lexington trip to this weekend (to pick up the desk and make a happy-splashy liquor store run) and I wanted to get that out of the way yesterday (Friday), early, but th'Mr slept till past noon and since he's not feeling well --something in his lungs, still-- I just let him sleep. We can put it off one more week. It's not as if they'll send the desk back; it's paid for.

My sock yarn arrived last weekend; I took it with me to work and finished the gusset decreases on the second sock, then couldn't remember how I'd done the foot on the first sock (continue the ribbing just on the top or all the way around) so I stopped working on it. Thank the gods it was Thursday, so I wasn't bored out of my skull for long.

The "li'l squatty sidekick" I knit, felted, and sent to the niece went over well. In return I got a handwritten letter asking if I could teach her to do that sort of thing :) which will only be difficult because she lives 250 miles away. But I'll keep it in mind for next time we're up that way. For now I'm going to knit her something small (a change purse?) and send it to her to felt.

plan rebuttal

Wow, what a lot of plans I had for last weekend.

So here's what happened. When I got to the tub (remember I'd drawn myself a bath) all the water had leaked out. I guess there's another thing to add to the to-do list: put a new drain/stopper on the old bathtub. It'd be more efficient to just replace the whole bath/shower stall, but I'm still holding out for the day we win the lottery and build a whole new house further back in the woods. This one needs a lot of work. It was built in 1923.

So, no bath, at least not right away, which of course threw everything else off schedule. Th'Mr phoned about his monitor --our place in town doesn't work on them at all, so there was no point dropping his off on the way to Lexington. Phoned his drrr and they told him to come in Sep 4 for a CAT scan, so the reasons for the Lexington trip were down to "pick up desk, go to liquor store." Not that we don't have a liquor store in town, but the big one in Lex is so much ...bigger.

We blew off the trip into the city.

C&S arrived earlier than expected, and the little neurotic pitbull greeted them and their dogs. A flurry of activity later she was on her way to the doggydrrr/kennel for the weekend. C&S were in town for the Fiddler's Convention, so C didn't go to the Sparky & Rhonda Rucker concert with th'Mr, nor did S go to knitnight with me. Instead we all went off in three different directions...

I got to knitnight and was the only one there for an hour, till N&T (mother&daughter) showed up. I really enjoy those two. I guess I'm about halfway between them in age and for some reason they both seem to really like me. Th'Mr says it's because I'm just likeable, but I find that hard to swallow. I don't see a lot to like in me...

shakes herself

So anyway, no grocery run, no dinner cooked, no desk picked up nor built, no old desk moved out, no wall painted (and that green doesn't look all that bad)... but th'Mr got his CD, I had my knitnight, C&S had their Fiddler's Convention, and it was a good weekend.

the list

Looking over the old blog I realized a list may help.

Four nights three days at home all in a row seems like an adequate --maybe even a long-- weekend, but when I think of all the things I want to get done it feels shorter and shorter.

While I was away, th'Mr informs me, the vacuum arrived (ordered online, so no more "can't sell you the display model" woes) and the desk is awaiting pickup. Not to mention (but I will) the ball of Paton's Kroy Whitecap I've been waiting for (not really waiting, but if I knit fast and often I'll need it this week) came in this week's ebay mail... Soon as I have some time I'll list what I've bought on ebay lately. I went a little nuts going over his amazon.com wishlist and as usual couldn't keep it a surprise, but I think he's been happy about all the books & music. Maybe a little amazed, even. I'm not a generous person when it comes to spending money...

Oh yeah, a list.

The VA phoned. He's still in bed, so he doesn't know yet, but his doctor --the one he told me this week he really likes-- wants him to call back. The pneumonia or whatever it is he's had since ...May?... still hasn't cleared up and this week she ran a slew of tests. He knows he'll have to go back and will probably argue not to "waste" my weekend with it, but hell, the desk is also in Lexington awaiting pickup. Two birds with one stone. My folks sent him the desk in check-form for his birthday (late May); last weekend we finally got around to buying it.

LIST, the list dammit!

Go to Lexington.

No, wait, that can't be first.

Go to the bank, deposit my check.

No, first, phone the VA doctor and then decide what to do next.
Phone the computer repair place and see if there's any point bringing him the flat-screen monitor which died suddenly yesterday; yes, the same flat-screen that I had to wait seven months for the $90 rebate on.
Go to the bank, on the way hopefully dropping off the monitor.
Double back to the check cashing place, repaying the $200 I borrowed two weeks ago.
Turn around & head to Lexington, pick up the desk, visit the VA doctor, get home before the veterinarian closes at 5PM.
Take the dog to the vet for boarding while C&S are here over the weekend with their two dogs (ours, if you remember, thinks it's her role in life to be the only dog. Unfortunately the pitbull blood means she tries to make this happen with literally her teeth in their throats).
Move th'Mr's old desk, clean a space to put the new desk, and paint the wall behind where the new desk will sit. I'm serious. I'll use the paint I intended for my sewing room. His room really needs paint (observe the sickly green behind my profile photo) and I haven't even started on my room yet, and the paint's here, so there.
Assemble his desk.
Get groceries, prepare for C&S' visit.
Attend the Sparky & Rhonda Rucker concert at 7PM (at least long enough for him to buy a CD) and my knit night, which also begins at 7. They're just a couple blocks apart.

Crap, it's already closing in on noonish (10:30AM) and looks like none of this will get done. I have a bath half-run (waiting for the water heater to do its thing again, which by now it's done), I'm going off in seven different directions on line, and he's still asleep.