There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

I should have listened more carefully to the lesson in the song. Cause and effect, cause and effect. What was I thinking.

This morning the rug in front of the sink was soaking wet. Checked under the sink - no leak. Opened the dishwasher - the gasket had come out of the groove along the bottom quarter on one side. Pushed the gasket back in, checked all around to make sure it was tight. Then I looked at the rug -- it could use a good wash so in it went to the washer. Then into the dryer.

Taking it out of the dryer I noticed a pile of sandy material. Easy enough, I got the vacuum and sucked up the dirt and for good measure vacuumed out the lint trap. Then the light began to dawn in my little head. I checked the washer and sure enough there was grit in the gasket around the door. Out came the paper towels. And again for good measure I checked all the nooks and crevices and got the gunk that seems to accumulate in the gasket. (Note to self: the front loading washer is very nice but it is not easy to clean). Then I ran the washer with some bleach. (Second note to self: It is very hard to trick an energy efficient, self adjusting washer into thinking there is something in there).

Looking back I should have put the rug out on a chair on the back deck and let it dry.

West Virginia winter

This is opening weekend at Timberline and there is snow - real snow on the ground, on the porches and the roads. It is the first time I can remember real snow on Opening Weekend! They are blowing snow like crazy on the slopes and we are all looking at the sky and doing the "let it snow" dance.

Bruce got to ski yesterday on fresh powder! The snow is packed into the tire tracks and Zed and I could actually take a long walk without picking out ice balls from his feet. This afternoon he could not resist and dove into a snow pile coming out looking like a little snow ball. The tree is up, a fire is lit, and I have dinner ready to go into the oven. Something about a snowy day makes me want to snuggle up and read a book.

Thanksgiving

This has been a wonderful Thanksgiving! It is the first year I didn't cook in a long time. Sandy and Betty brought a smoked turkey - very yummy. They were in charge of dinner and it was fabulous. Creamy mashed potatoes, rolls, turkey, green bean casserole and two kinds of cranberries - and to top it off it was all gluten free. Yeah! The weather cooperated and was balmy, today it returned to cold, windy and snow/rain. Got keep in the mood.

I got everything on my to-do-list done. The drapes are hemmed and hung on the new rod, and the Christmas tree is up and decorated. A truly cooperative effort. They guys moved the furniture - twice, the first time didn't work out - and hung the traverse rod. I got to stretch out the dining room table and layout the drapes where I could hem them sitting in a chair, not on the floor. All in all a wonderful week. Now we are off to see the family. I am looking forward to lunch with my Mom at a very holiday type place and then dinner with my sweetie at a little Italian restaurant around the corner from Meagan's house. Sunday is a girls day, when we get to shower Jade and Miss Madi, celebrate Elizabeth's engagement (oohing and aaahing over her engagement ring only seen on line so far) and celebrate Tiff's birthday. How often do you get to do so many things in one day? It will be hard to head home when it is all done.

There are so many things to be thankful for - good friends, great children + their awesome spouses (thank you for choosing so well) Sisters, brothers, in-laws and out-laws, nieces, nephews, wee tots and ones on the way. I don't get to see them very often and seldom in one place but this year has been a year of family. Starting with Ashby's birthday, then Ashley's wedding we have come together as a family more often this year some past. Let's keep up the good work!

Wildlife

I have to confess that I like my wildlife at a distance. When we are in West Virginia the deer are cute, the bears are not cute but they have stopped coming to visit since they installed metal lids with chains on the dumpsters. But I don't want wildlife in my nice suburban North Carolina home.

There was a snake skin behind the azaleas, we now have an Opossum in residence under the sun porch and a little but constant trickle of teenie ants. Time for the BUG GUY. No more Ms Nice Person killing the ants one at a time -- this is all out warfare. The wildlife guy promises to come as soon as we get home and bring a humane trap that he will then come back and get and relocate the Opossums and probably family to another county.

What was new is not as new

I have never thought of myself as a hoarder or someone who keeps electronics way past their useful life is over. No duct tape on my vacuum! But I think I am kidding myself. My last post was about my sewing machine, and it got me thinking about what else I might be hoarding and nursing along. One look in my office closet reveals not one, not two, not three but four laptops living in laptop retirement complete with power packs, external cd drives, even a zip drive. They live there happily with two cassette players, a portable cd player, a few wireless and ethernet cards and miscellaneous hubs all nestled in a tangle of cables and cords. They were all so perfectly wonderful when they were new! My first lightweight Dell - the one I loved the most is there. Of course it had to have an external cd, misc external storage, but those were small things in exchange for its slim line and light weight. Now I have a "red" external drive that is 2 years old and way out of date, being nudged out by thumb drives that can carry enough data to build and launch a rocket, or hold 10 trillion tunes, or 4 trillion books. You get the picture.

My question to the outside world is "Why can't I just get rid of this stuff and free up two shelves in my office closet?" What am I saving them for? They aren't museum quality. My grandchildren will not discover them and ooh and ahh. They don't contain that one great novel that I have beeen working on for years. I can't give them away -- three aren't wireless without a card, they won't run Windows Vista, two won't even run XP. So I ask -- anyone out there have any ideas?

When you solve that we can move on to my 'new vacuum' that turns out was made in 1990 and the repair guy doesn't think it is worth the $100 to repair it. When did I get so out of date? Where did the time go?

Sewing Machine Lust

Over the years I have been an on-again, off-again seamstress. When the girls were little I made dresses and play clothes, a prom gown, costumes and many, many drapes and curtains. I have a handy dandy Singer Zig Zag machine that my mother gave me when I left home oh those many years ago. This year in a burst of creativity I went on line to fine some attachments - a buttonholer and a ruffler foot. The ruffler foot was for bedskirts - so much easier than the method of zig zag stitching in dental floss and then trying to adjust the gathers for a king size bed. That is when I learned the very sad news that this lovely sewing machine was now so far out of date (40+years) and that parts were a pittance, usually arriving from e-bay in a musty smelling box with badly photocopied instructions. But I pushed on oblivious to modern trends. Then, last week the light blew out and the machine STOPPED.

This was a crisis, I am mid project finishing drapes for the living room windows in West Virginia so you can see the tv when the sun is out. Beautiful long windows make for a great view but also great glare. And I am mid project finishing the bedding for Madi's cradle. But I digress.

I went to my faithful research tool, Google, and looked up how to change the light bulb. I turned, pushed and nothing happened. My light bulb did not look like any of the pictures I could find. So next step I called a sewing machine repair shop near home. The nice lady said "Sure honey, just bring it in and leave it, he will get to it sometime in the next two weeks." That was not a good solution. So I tried another sewing shop about 15 miles to the south in Charlotte. The nice lady said, "Just bring it in, I am sure he can fix it while you wait." Music to my ears. I took out the sewing machine, put it in the back of my car and drove to the shop.

Well that is almost how it happened. When I took the machine out and put it on the kitchen counter I realized that it was horribly dusty and dirty. I had tape still stuck to the machine as guides for some long forgotten project, there was strange crusty dust in the nooks and crannies. If my Dad taught me one thing it was "A clean machine always works better than a dirty machine". This was a machine I could not have shown my Dad. If this repair person was going to have pity on me I was going to have to shape up. Out came the toothbrush, windex and some goo-be-gone. With a little work it looked pretty darn good.

Then, I headed out to South Charlotte to the Sewing Center. Little did I know what dangerous territory I was heading into. Worse than a whole shoe store full of cute shoes just my size.

I brought my little machine into the counter. He took one look at it and said "Oh". Got out his pliers, popped out the light bulb, put in a new light bulb, plugged it in and there it was ready to go. Salvation for $5.15. Except, there were two rooms with neat rows of sewing machines with samples of their wonderfulness. The walls were covered with projects that had been done by the many seamstresses who had come to the classes. Quilts, embroidered pillowcases, little girls dresses with flowers and initials, Projects!!! everywhere.

Being a good salesman he let me wander from machine to machine, each more wonderful that the one before until I came to the "one". It was not in a row, it was off by itself in the corner clearly not part of the group. What was this! Turns out it is a Baby Lock - sewing, embroidery, makes coffee and -- well just let it be said that it was amazing. Here it was just traded in that week by a seamstress who was moving up - he would sell it to me for a deal, it was less than a year old, had all of the attachments, instructions, case, (and it was clean) for $2,000. He said a new one was $3,500 -- that made this one a bargain and he would give me a full warranty and throw in unlimited classes too boot.

I ran my hands over its amazing little body, he set it up to embroider my name, and as quick as a blink there was Jinni in a lovely italic script.

I sadly carried my little 40+year old Singer Zig Zag machine out to my car (covered it's little ears so it wouldn't hear me yearn for the Baby Lock) and drove home. The drapes are almost done, it has done its cute little zig zag stitch to keep the edges from fraying and has so far resisted turning the bobbin thread into a rats nest - but if I was a girl who bought lottery tickets -- I would be looking for one of those $2,000 ones. Who knew you could fall in love with a sewing machine.

I was telling this story to my husband who rolled his eyes and said with a little fear in his voice - you didn't buy it did you? And when I asked him what he would do with a $2,000 windfall -- he said he would go on vacation. As a matter of fact I think one of the golf magazines was turned to a page advertising something about Play like a Pro. Ahh priorities.

Who knew babies were so smart?

Today Ashby read two books to me. No big deal right? Ashby is 14 months old. He can sign more than 35 words. He was reading a signing for babies book to me. He would turn the page and look at the picture and then show me the sign. I am amazed. He is very patient with me as I try to catch up on the new words. I am still in book 2 and cracker is my best word along with milk, water, more and all done. I think I will take the books to bed tonight and study up before breakfast. So we can go "outside" with the "dog" and put on our "hat" to go for a walk.