A scary movie

For Christmas E and K received tickets to a comedy show.  Clay and Caitlyn checked with them before buying the gift, but somehow the event wasn't on the calendar or at the front of E's mind so when the week of the show arrived she had not arranged for a babysitter.  Although our dinner and games group was set for that night, I volunteered to watch the children, figuring they would be in bed most of the time.  And I got off work early that afternoon since I would be returning after supper.  While it's true ec was put to bed before they left about 6, Friday night is movie night for es.  So soon we put "Frozen" in the DVD player and sat on the couch together to watch.  She laughed a lot, but other times she said, "This is a scary movie," and cuddled close.  "Save me, Grandma," she said, and I did.  She went to bed about 8:40, and I watched one episode of "Shetland" on Netflix.  During the second episode, Randy arrived; one of our group members dropped him off on the way to drop off someone else.  Soon ec woke up, and as I was deciding whether I should give him a bottle his parents arrived home.  EK really enjoyed their show.  Randy and I drove home together a little past eleven.

Brrr!

Our furnace has been making a strange noise for a while.  Sometimes it sounds like a truck has hit the house, a loud bang that startles me badly.  So Randy called the landlord.  "Change the filter," she said.  We had already done that, but we put in another new filter.  No change.  This past Wednesday she sent over her handyman, who checked that the filter was installed correctly.  At one point Randy suggested he might stand back a bit from the furnace, but before he could move, it kicked on with the huge bang and he jumped back.  "That's not a filter issue," he said, "that's a liability issue, and I don't do liability."  He reported to the landlord who then sent a furnace guy on Thursday.  He determined what the problem was and told us to leave the furnace unplugged; he returned last night with the new valve, but it was not the correct size for this 38-year-old furnace.  Now we are on hold till at least Monday. 

Fortunately the outside temperature warms up to the upper 50's or even low 60's these days, but when I come downstairs in the morning it's often in the low 40's outside.  Getting out from a warm bed into chilly air is not fun.  This morning I was reminded of Lynne Cox, a female endurance swimmer who swam 2.7 miles across the Bering Strait in 1987; the water temperature was 43 degrees F.  In 2003 she swam a mile in the waters off Antarctica with the water at 28º.  I read her autobiography, in which she discussed how she acclimated her body to the cold by taking cold showers, sleeping without blankets, and so on.  I guess adapting to an inside temperature of 52º for a few days is not so bad.  We have lovely quilts, long underwear, woolen shirts, caps and gloves to help.

Can you believe it?

This picture is somewhat embarrassing.  Our old vacuum was wearing out; I recently had patched the hose with duct tape when I couldn't order a new hose.  It still worked but the case was cracking, and since the on/off switch was broken we plugged the cord into a plug with its own switch.  That worked just fine, except every time I wanted to turn it off or on I had to go to the wall plug, a bit tedious.  With so much going on, buying a new vacuum was not at the top of my to-do list, but when I looked in the machine's manual and saw the receipt indicating we bought the vacuum in 2002, I realized it was time to start researching on Consumer Reports for a new one.

EK beat me to it, buying us a Shark Navigator with a lift-away canister for easier use on stairs and off-floor cleaning.  Now, I have vacuumed the house weekly for years.  I may not dust that often, but I do vacuum.  The first time I used this new machine, which claims to have really strong suction, this is the amount of dirt it picked up.  Wow!

Hair

A waterfall of hair cascades down es' back to her waist, lovely but tempting to touch.  Sometimes ec pulls his sister's hair hard enough to make her cry.  He probably doesn't really know what he's doing, but it hurts just the same.  Recently when this happened, I suggested we put her hair into pig tails or braids so it might hurt less if grabbed, but she said, "I like my hair this way," even as she wiped away tears.  On the days she goes to school, she allows her mom to put up her hair so it stays out of her way.  Maybe that's why she likes it loose on other days.  Because her hair is so fine, even braids don't stay neat all day.  I am curious to see how her hair changes as she gets older.

Unraveling, part two

As I finished the foot on the second sock, I realized I had made another mistake.  I had knit 40 rounds instead of 36.  How did this happen?  I keep a running tally of rounds knit and referred often to my record of the first sock of this pair, but it turns out I was not looking at the right tally marks.  So I stopped before switching to double-pointed needles to work the toe.  My error meant the foot was nearly a half-inch longer than it should be.  After some consideration, I decided to unravel just two rounds then move on to the toe.  If the yarn were thicker and the stitches larger, I would probably just take out the needle and pull the yarn to unravel it.  But this sock yarn is quite fine and the stitches quite small, so I get best results when I pull out one stitch at a time, which actually takes longer than the original knitting.

Why these errors?  I'm not sure, unless it's just a lack of concentration these days due to tiredness and stress.  Perhaps instead of recording the rounds for a couple of pairs of socks on one sheet of instructions, I should tally just one pair per sheet.  Or maybe using a different colored pencil for each pair would help.  I need to do something; unraveling my work is just no fun at all!

Here is the finished pair using a pattern called Cath Socks, with a bit of basket-weave-like texture.  The yarn is Patons Kroy in Cameo Colors.  I really like the shading of the pink, purple, blue, but not how the stripes don't match up very well.  I followed the advice of a blogger who has knit many pairs of socks, and used a new skein for the second sock rather than finishing up the first skein; she said she has better luck with matching by doing this, but I sure didn't.

Magical shoes

Hiding in the closet were these wonderful shoes which es has now appropriated.  When she puts them on, plus a purple headband with a bow, she becomes Dorothy traveling in the land of Oz.  I get to be all the other characters in the story.  She especially likes me to pose as the Tin Man so she can "oil" me.  We've watched just a couple of youtube clips from the movie, ones that I thought weren't too scary for her.  We've sung our way down the yellow brick road, off to see the Wizard.  She can click her heels together and get back to Auntie Em.  To help the Wizard return to his home, she summons Peter Pan, who sprinkles fairy dust on his balloon.

After watching Minnierella, a version of the Cinderella story that features Minnie and Mickey Mouse, es turned the red shoes into the marvelous glass slippers that Minnierella wears to the ball.  When she hears the clock strike twelve, she stops dancing with me (playing Prince Mickey) and leaves quickly, stepping out of one of the shoes.  Then I pick it up and go door to door to find the owner, usually receiving a big hug when she shows me the matching shoe.  This afternoon, I found Daisy Duck first, and she told me where Minnie lived.  Later es actually allowed me to wear the shoes and be Princess Minnie, a first.

This little girl has a vivid imagination, and I usually enjoy helping her act out these stories, at least the first two or three times.  We also did Little Red Riding Hood today, though without the red shoes.  Since we don't have toy food items, she chooses blocks and ring toys to be the goodies in her basket, and a length of a red rayon print from Hawaii serves as her cape.

Little things

Has it really been just two years since es was eleven months old?  I don't remember little things, like did she do what her brother does when he's tired?  He will walk up to me as I sit on the couch, lift his arms asking to be picked up, then fall asleep on my shoulder within a few minutes.

He's walking most of the time now, though he still can't stand up from a sitting position without holding on to something...or someone.  He holds his arms up a bit for balance and toddles around the house.  He continues to be a happy little boy, smiling and laughing a lot.

Since E and K had a holiday yesterday, I had the day off, also.  I sorted through more stuff, emptying a box full of old Sunday School teacher's materials.  It hurt to put those lovely pictures and activity guides into the recycling bin, but I knew I wouldn't use them.  I taught the two- and three-year-olds class for a couple of years, 1986-1988 or so.