A Day in the Life

This week was about more cleaning. Again, I really, really hate cleaning. But the house had to be presentable for Laura V's visit, or she'd tidy around me. Seriously. It's happened.

Poor Shawn got home from Minneapolis on Friday night, earlier than expected, to find me on the kitchen floor in my cruddiest clothes cleaning the hermit crab cage. And then he got impressed into service. I'm sure he was thrilled that he managed to get an earlier flight home, so that he could help clean for the next three hours or so.

Laura arrived on Saturday morning, and we played with the Wii Fit Plus so she could check it out. After several hours of silliness, we decided to grab Vietnamese for lunch at the Golden Bowl on Queen City Ave in Manchester, because Vietnamese is always good. Then Laura decided that she needed a Wii, a Wii Fit Plus, some assorted accessories, and a TV. Apparently the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus are in short supply in the Manchester/Concord area. It took us going to five stores to get everything she needed and we snagged the last Wii Fit Plus and the last Wii at two different stores by calling ahead and telling them to hold it. The saleswoman at the BestBuy in Concord told us to take the Wii Fit Plus out to the car immediately so we did not get mugged for it.

Once we got everything we came back to the house, and goofed off for a while before heading to Fratellos on Canal in Manchester for dinner. We had a bottle of prosecco, which I had not had before. It was lovely, but I'm a sparkling wine fan. We had the carpaccio, Laura had the Chicken Capri and I had Lobster Ravioli. And then for some reason we had dessert. Laura had a puff pastry sundae thing, and I had the toll house pie. It was wonderful.

On Sunday, I conned Laura into going to guild with me. Laura does not knit. The only time that Laura tried to knit when we lived together, she knit so tightly that her hands swelled up about twice their normal size. It was quite possibly once of the weirdest knitting related thing I've ever seen. She appeared to have a good time chatting with everyone, and I got to work on my hat. I've finished with the color work and I just need to knit the crown and the decreases and I can start on the mittens.

The other good thing about knitting on Sunday was that Sarah came with pictures of Gabriel in the Dale Liederhosen outfit I knit for her shower last year. He's so adorable, and I'm happy that it fit him, as I was slightly worried about the waist size of the liederhosen when I knit it.

After guild, I drove Laura back to Boston since it would be hard for her to take the bus back with all her new electronics purchases. After I got home my husband picked up dinner for at Hot Stone Pizzeria, and I crashed.

Stay tuned for further updates, stay warm New Englanders.

A busy couple of days....

Well, it's been a little while since I last wrote. I feel like I've been in a whirlwind, but this coming week should be calmer barring any unforeseen catastrophes. I'm knocking on wood as we speak, never fear.


Wednesday evening I cleaned the house as I had a knitting/Pampered Chef party planned at my house on Saturday, and planned the menu for the party. Thursday, I had to get a coffee cake fluted pan for the blueberry nut coffee cake I was going to make, so I picked one up on the way to my friend Alison's as I was headed there to knit. My knitting friends are hilarious. My face is usually tired when I get home from laughing so hard. I got home around 10 pm, which gave me a chance to clean the baby angelfish tank. Friday, I came home, went grocery shopping, picked up Vietnamese takeout at the Golden Bowl, vacuumed, did dishes and laundry. So, no major progress on any fronts except some net knitting at Alison's. (In our knitting group, net knitting means additional progress including any amounts ripped out. For example, if you knit 3 inches, but then have to rip out 4 inches, no net knitting occurred).


Saturday was the day of the party. There was knitting of course, and both Alison and I demo'd Pampered Chef recipes. My mom came down from Maine for it and to spend the night. In addition to the blueberry nut coffee cake, I made a rotisserie chicken in the Ronco Showtime Pro Rotisserie (I know it looks lame on TV, but I love that thing!!) and then used it to make a chicken and broccoli pastry wreath. I wish I took a picture, it was so awesome! Lora and Donna asked for the recipe, and it was really pretty easy to do, while looking fabulously gourmet. (Yes, I'm emailing the directions to you both later tonight). We also had some lovely fruit, as Alison tested out her new Pineapple Peeler/Corer. Alison made a fabulous coconut macaroon brownie pizza. It was so good! I also got to see some knitters I had not in a while, although it made me feel horrifically old. Liz and Mary, who are a mother daughter pair of knitters, took a class with me when I first started teaching at the Elegant Ewe somewhere in 1998 roughly. Liz was 14 then. She's now married...you can see how ancient this makes me feel. Also we had entertainment, as the angelish decided to spawn again during the party. I have another 200 eggs, the little aquatic rabbits.

After the party was over, since Mom had not seen the new wheels yet, we took it out for a drive and went to the Rockingham Mall. Given the disastrous state of colors available (everything appears to be orange, brown or teal, none of which I ever wear, unless I want to imitate a corpse), I bought two shirts for Shawn and some socks for me. Mom also bought socks. It was not a productive trip.


Today Mom and I hung out for a while and then I dragged her off to Goodale's bike shop in Hooksett to "look at" bikes. I ended up coming home with a Trek 7200 in eggplant. I spent a bit more than I wanted too, but the bike fit me, it was comfortable and it was purple! How could I not? I did have them put fenders on it though. I'm not into any type of splatter. I also got a doo-hicky that tells me my mph, has an odometer, and has a trip counter, temperature and time on it. After we got back, Mom headed back to Maine, and I headed up to the Borders in Concord for guild. I was pretty late, but I did get an hour of knitting in on the jacket I'm designing for Jen's daughter in New Zealand.

After guild, I met Shawn at his parents' house for dinner. It worked out pretty well, because his dad gave Shawn his old mountain bike, so now Shawn and I can ride together! Shawn is not terribly enthusiastic about the prospect, but it'll be good for him :) And if I can't cajole him into doing it, at least I can ride by myself, and we didn't spend any thing on his bike (other than getting it tuned up for him). Although I have to say, I'm pretty good at cajoling Shawn! I got home too late to try the new bike for a nice long ride, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow night after work.

I also I cleaned the baby tank tonight. There are 3 baby fish left from the first batch I tried to save, 2 left from the second batch, and now 200 eggs in the baby tank. They don't have great survival rates, but I swear I am not going to raise baby brine shrimp to feed these things.

Well, that's the blow by blow up to the minute. I am looking forward to finishing cleaning up the office reorganization this week, getting a writing schedule together, and riding the bike.