Thursday, June 2, 2016

Life at Home

My life.

Today, for the first time this school year, my daughter, Justine took the bus to school.  There are 10 days to go and then school is out. (And she's officially a Senior but that's incidental to the story.)

Why is she just now taking the bus to school (and none too happy about it, I might add)?

Her boyfriend has graduated and isn't picking her up for school in the morning. Graduation was last Friday.  The poor boy wants to sleep in for goodness sake!

Oh, then why, now that she has her drivers license, doesn't she drive the family car?  Because...and I know this is hard to believe...I have a life and need the car during the day.  Mean mom, oh yeah, that's me.

But don't fret for the little dear, her boyfriend is picking her up from school.

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And the AC is still out.  Technician is scheduled for Monday.  Fingers crossed!
Temperatures are supposed to cool a bit too.  Humidity not so much. I'll be in the basement dyeing yarn if you need me.

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So did I mention...

Justine has also started working!  She got a job at a local marina, The Ferry Point Marina, doing maintenance work (pulling weeds, cleaning bathrooms, directing traffic and other misc boat marina stuff).  She seems to really like it and they like her.  She is a hard worker so, of course, they like her!  It's part time and I'm sure after school gets out, she'll pick up more hours.

All my kids have jobs!!!!!

So last weekend when Mike and I went to lunch it took on a special meaning.  Both Joey and Justine were working!!  And we were out playing!!!!!!!  I don't know...it felt like we were getting away with something.  LOL  (I guess we should get used to it, right?)

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Day 6/Ten on Tuesday

Good Morning!

Day 6 of no AC around here.

Yes, the AC was inspected and seemed to work fine when we bought the house (remember, this was in November) but when we turned it on last Thursday, it fired up but is not blowing cold air.  Sucks.  So we're re-living our San Diego days with no AC while I work through the Home Warranty company to try to get a technician out here to inspect the AC unit and hopefully replace it.  Repairing it could be a problem since it's around 29 years old.  Fingers crossed we get a new one soon or old one fixed!!  In the interim, we do have a whole home fan and that helps a bunch!

So Ten on Tuesday's topic:  10 Things I Did This Weekend!

It was a long weekend for us of course, Memorial Day and the official start of Summer in these parts.  That means pools open, all ice cream shops open, people are outside and the route to the beach is packed every weekend.  Ahhhh...summer.  For me it means hats, sunscreen, small knitting projects, canoeing and enjoying our new community beach!  Most of the weekend was beautiful and sunny (read: hot) but the last two days have been cloudy, still pretty warm and humid (read: ugh).  Ok...here's some of what I did:

1.  Saturday morning was knitting.  Our group meets at a local grocery store cafe and we knit/chat/laugh etc for a few hours.  There was still show and tell from Maryland Sheep and Wool...our group knows how to shop yarn!  I worked on my new Notch Shawl.

2.  After knitting I went to my friend Teri's house for lunch.  We had so much fun catching up.  We knit a little bit and laughed a lot.

3.  Mike and I spent a little time with our new neighbors down the street.  When the estate of the owner of the house we bought had an estate sale, Mrs. Neighbor bought a writing desk and in it were papers and negatives from the owner of our home.  The negatives were of our house being built!  Very cool!!  Anyway, Mr. & Mrs. Neighbor are so nice, it was great talking with them and learning about the neighborhood.

4.  Mike fired up the grill and cooked burgers for us on Sunday night.  Both kids were there...a nice sit down at the dining room table dinner.  They are both working now so evenings where we're all there for dinner are rare.

5.  I dyed a bunch of yarn this weekend.  One skein will be for PicnicKnit's Summer Shawl KAL that starts tomorrow.  Hurry up and dry yarn!  The rest is for a Fiber Fest I'm a vendor at on June 18th.

6.  I pulled weeds in the veg garden.  There weren't many but I got em!

7.  Mike and I decided not to allow our daughter to go with her boyfriend's family and him to Rehoboth Beach over 4th of July weekend.  It will probably break her heart but she'll get over it. Parenting is not a popularity contest.

8.  Mike and I tried to find a replacement remote for the ceiling fan in our bedroom to no avail.  We found one online at HomeDepot.com but they are out of stock online.  This, however, does not stop the pop up ads I keep getting telling me to buy the remote at Home Depot, online, yup...buy the one that's out of stock.  So stupid.  Anyway, he's calling the fan company today to see what else we can do.

9.  I got a bunch of cute photos of Veronica this weekend from her trip to Chicago!  So cool!!  It was really great to see her having so much fun.

10.  I got my new knitting magazine called Making in the mail on Saturday.  It's got knitting patterns...plus, a bunch more ideas/patterns for other stuff to make.  It's beautifully photographed, quite inspiring.  I already made something from it!  I made something for a little someone who shares my birthday with me.

Hope your weekend was great.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Family Visit

The in-laws came to see us!  It was a great visit, weather not so much, but we had fun in spite of it!  When the weather was really bad, we stayed home and when it was nicer, we ventured out!  

We took the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry to St. Michaels for a lovely lunch.
20 life jackets were plenty...only us four and two others on the ferry.  I guess not everybody goes adventuring mid-week on a cloudy day.



This plaque was in a gazebo in a park.


We drove to Frederick and visited the Civil War Medical Museum. Here's Mike "measuring up" to soldiers from the Civil War.  The display showed the shortest soldier (3'4") to the tallest (7' something"...I don't remember).  This museum is really neat.  So much more than just medical info, too.  But the medical info is really interesting.  For instance, did you know that 2/3 of the deaths in the war were due to sickness and disease not battle wounds?  If you find yourself in Frederick, you must visit!

And of course, what trip to visit the Pirie's wouldn't include a trip to Annapolis?!
We had to show the folks the new State House exhibits.  Here they are posing with George Washington (and yes, that's his correct height).


 Pinky, my little pink elephant mini-mochiland (hand knit tiny elephant for you non-knitters), sure does get around.  She's checking out George.

 And the kids listening to Alex Haley read them a story about their Roots on the City Dock.
 The clouds parted today and the sun shined!  
We had a great lunch at the Federal House, too.
 Soaking up some rays at City Dock.



 Pinky got in on the action, too.

It was so nice to see our family.  We miss them so much! 

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

iFit Vue...next adventure

Mike and I just celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary.  We usually don't do much to celebrate.  Go out to dinner, usually.  Well, we did go out to dinner.  And then he told me he got me something.  What?!  I had asked for an iFit Vue for Mother's Day/Birthday this year.  But he found it on sale and had a friend order it with her Amazon Prime account so no shipping...so now I have one!  What a sweet guy.  Really, I didn't expect this.

What is it? It's one of those wrist bands that keeps track of your fitness efforts.  This will also sync with my treadmill.  There are apps involved and a HUGE learning curve but that's ok.  I'll figure it out.  Here's what it looks like:
You can also set it up to nag you.  You know...it buzzes when you've been not moving for 30 minutes or so and that translates to "get off your lazy butt and walk around a bit, girl!" Might be a good thing.  My hip (oh, God, that makes me sound old) has been sore from sitting too much.  Now, before you start clicking your collective tongues...I sit while I knit.  So I'm doing SOMETHING!  I guess I just need to work on more movement in all that knitting.  I'll keep you posted.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday:  10 movies I have to stop and watch while I'm channel surfing.

Ok...I'm gonna do this...but I'm making it for Mike.  Truthfully, I'm more likely to stop on a TV show than a movie (unless it's a good musical...but they rarely show up).  He has certain movies he ALWAYS stops on while surfing.

1.  National Treasure
2.  National Treasure 2 (I can't remember the exact name.)
3.  First Blood
4.  Jurassic Park
5.  Die Hard
6.  Ground Hog Day
7.  Singing in the Rain
8.  Raiders of the Lost Ark
9.  Ghostbusters
10.  Legally Blonde (He loves Reese Witherspoon...who doesn't?)

And truth be told, I'd watch them all too.  Well, except First Blood.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday:  10 Albums I love

1.  The Great Unknown by Rob Thomas
2.  Gold Motel by Gold Motel
3.  Summer House by Gold Motel
4.  Songs About Jane by Maroon 5
5.  Supernatural by Santana
6.  X by Ed Sheeran
7.  Greatest Hits by The Bee Gees
8.  Gordon by Barenaked Ladies
9.  Medusa by Annie Lennox
10.  Night Visions by Imagine Dragons


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Ten On Tuesday

Ten On Tuesday:  10 Things You Do to Calm Down.

1.  Knit.  Knitting is repetitive.  You need to calm down to retain consistent gauge throughout a project.  I don't think I could get through the day without knitting.  Not that I need all that calming down but the repetitive movement and pretty yarn is what my soul needs everyday.

2.  Deep breathing.  5 in, 5 out. It works to slow the heart rate and focus attention.

3.  Picking up the clutter.  I work on putting away all the paper work and stuff that accumulates around the house.  Then the cleaner surfaces help me stay calm.

4.  I work on a Zentangle drawing. It's very repetitive and relaxing.

5.  Taking a walk...outside or on the treadmill.  Exercise will always help (I'm finding out).

6.  Looking at my phone...reading all the FB stuff and photos on IG help to distract me and calms me down.  Some of the pictures and stories are really lovely.  

7.  In reference to #6...I find if I read some comments that are pretty outrageous, troll quality, then I feel calmer.  Weird, huh?  If I witness people more upset than me, it calms me down.  I think it makes me push the emotion to the side and look at something more logically instead (cuz I don't want to be like them!).

8.  A nice cup of coffee or hot cocoa will help calm me down.

9.  Organization calms me down.  Looking at something organized or actually organizing something really helps.  Something simple like organizing my knitting bag or my knitting "nest" in the house works wonders.

10.  Looking at water.  I love to look at water, especially when I'm in need of calming down.  When we lived in Florida we had a pool, and even looking at a swimming pool had a calming effect on me.