Sunday, January 18, 2009

It Must be Winter

The washing machine never fails until every piece of underwear is dirty...
The oven never fails until Thanksgiving morning with a twenty pound turkey to cook .....
The furnace never fails until the temperature is the lowest in the last three years!!!

Wednesday night I was listening to the wind howl around the eves and remarked to the DH that it was wonderful to be warm and cozy on a night when the wind chill would be in the minus range. Of course it was inevitable that the following morning the house seemed unusually cold (we keep the temperature down to 61 degrees at night, so it is a little chill when I get up). Checked the thermostat and sure enough it was only 52! A call to the emergency number for our furnace service brought a quick response and they fixed a coupler and we were once again toasty. Friday night I again foolishly remarked on how wonderful it was to be warm and sure enough Saturday morning the temperature was again in the 50's. Again an emergency call and prompt service. This time, however, the service repairman (why is it they all look like they're twelve years old?) took a little more time investigating and discovered a drain that is getting clogged and backing up and making the furnace go off. This is going to involve a much bigger fix and cannot be started before Monday. It is almost balmy today at 25 degrees and the furnace is still humming along so hopefully we will remain warm until we get completely repaired.

I really wasn't going to comment on the weather because, hey, it's Buffalo, it's winter, it's cold and snowy and we are really much warmer than say, South Dakota. But I have to be grateful for warm woolen sweaters and gloves and hats and a gas fireplace.

This week:

I put more books on Paperback Swap, about 40 in all and I think that's about it for all that I have on bookshelves at present. All total I have put on 256 books. Here is my bookshelf .

I have been busy working on hats and mittens. Love the mittens. Finished the Give a Hoot mittens to go with the Who? hat and am working on some more Lopi mittens.

Received the yarn that I won from Knit Picks to make the Amused sweater. I will start that after I finish the Lopi mittens. It is Marine Blue in Swish worsted weight super wash wool. I haven't used this particular yarn before and love the feel of it.

Made a hat for DH since he has lost his knit hat. Will have to make him some more hats.

We had our first yoga lesson on Friday with Stephanie.

Made a great bread yesterday. Dilly Bread that was on, I believe, the Yarn Harlot's blog but I can't find the exact post.

Monday I took Jordyn to the library for the three year old Storytime. We played games and sang songs and made a pictureand learned all about shapes and I had such a feeling of deja vue. I know I took Amy to the very same library for story time.... it may have been the very same stories.


Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year


Had a very quiet New Year's Eve and New Years day. Just puttered around yesterday knitting and reading and watching old movies ("It Happened One Night").
I put about 25 more books on Paperback Swap (that was just the first shelf of the bookshelf I'm trying to empty).
Finished "American Wife" which I though was a disturbing attempt to try to explain how any one with brains could be married to George Bush.

Joined three groups on Ravelry that should keep me busy.

1) 52 books in 52 weeks (reading a book a week is sometimes easy, sometimes not). My first book of 2009 is "The Miracle at Speedy Motors"

2) NaKniMitMo (knitting a pair of mittens in January. I started "Bella's Mittens" out of 2 balls of gray Lopi I had in my stash.

3) Hat of the Month knitting or crocheting a hat every month which should get me through more of my stash yarn.


We're having Nathan and Jordyn sleep over tonight. Probably more playing in the snow (it's much warmer today, in the thirtys, and tomorrow for breakfast we can try out the new waffle iron.