Road Trip

There's something about a trip to IKEA that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, huh? Last Spring, when the kid and I went to visit friends in Germany, she fell in love, both with Europe itself and IKEA; she made me promise that when we bought a house, I would take her there so she could decorate her room.......being such a *good* parent, I couldn't refuse.......never mind, that I'm a fan as well. So yesterday, I loaded up her and her super-good-friend and we made the suicide mission to the great blue palace. Her room now looks like this and her "reading area" looks like this. If only she could have decided on some curtains.......owell, maybe next time. I, on the other hand, picked up these cute vases and a bunch of other stuff including a few rugs and some kitchen stuff, which I love. If the car could have held more, I probably would have bought more......so, 8 hours and $500 later, we made it back, in one piece.

On our ride home though, the girls were talking about 9/11, which was mildly unsettling for me. We have friends serving in the military, and Syd knows why they are doing it, however, it was the first time that she was able to connect the act of 9/11 to the war itself. She and her friend were both too young to know what was going on at the time, yet they know so much about it now and the way they talked about was in such a mature tone - it took me by surprise. Of course, now Syd wants nothing to do with an airplane ever again so our trip to my brothers wedding should be a nice adventure.

Anywho, time to get moving. After a knitting group this morning, and picking up a play date for the kid, it's time to get house stuff done. I just wanted a lazy Sunday damn it!

So discouraged.

Although I love Spring and Summer, so, so, so much I get incredibly discouraged when trying to buy clothes this time of year. For example, yesterday, I went to Target after class to pick up something for the kid. Naturally, I swung by the clothes department and found some super cute stuff that I was actually really psyched about. I got it in my basket and headed for the fitting room and everything I tried on just didn't fit right. And we're not even talking about pants.....I'm talking about tshirts. For the longest time, I've been a steadfast medium and suddenly, it doesn't fit anymore??? I haven't gained any weight. I don't think. Are clothes just being made smaller? Anyway, I was so disgusted, especially when I was stuck in there with a bunch of 15-year-olds catwalking it up and down the fitting room aisle in their brand, spanky new bikinis......I considered tripping one of them.

Needless to say, I was bound and determined not to walk out of there with only three packages of Hello Kitty skivvies and a box of mac-n-cheese in my basket. I ended up leaving with a bunch of more sensible, less trendy tshirts that I'm less than in love with, but are probably more 'appropriate for my age' as my mate informed me. Nice.

Technical Difficulties

I've been having some lately. A few weeks ago, I was assembling one of those shower cleaner things....and I spilled shower cleaner all over my cell phone. So, I replace that one, send out the desperate plea to everyone for their phone numbers so I can get myself back in order and then last week I dropped it in the toilet! Actually, it was almost flushed down the toilet. So, once again, I find myself shopping for a new cell phone. And I'm thinking that I would have been better off to just pay for the insurance that they tried to sell me.

My computer also seems to be on again, off again. I'm not sure what's going on with it.....but it is three years old.....and I've heard from different people that that's about the lifespan for one of these so I'm probably going to be shopping for one of these too. Any suggestions? I'd really like to go with an Apple this time but I don't know if I can afford it. It's kind of like the Dyson vaccuum that I'm lusting after, but can't quite justify spending the $500 on it.

Anyway, hope you're all well. Gearing up for another rainy day tomorrow it sounds like, poo poo.

So much to do!

Today was gawgeous! And of course, I'm feeling mildly flu-like symptoms coming on so I spent the majority of the day, in bed......doing one thing I love, love love! And that is reading. What made today particularly enjoyable was the fact that I was recently notified that little miss me has been *selected* to participate as a reader-juror for Elle Magazine for the next six months! What this means is: I get un-released books, delivered to my door by DHL to read and review..... who knows, maybe I'll have some majorly brilliant literary-ish thing to say and I'll get to see my review published! Wouldn't that be fun! Of course, I don't get paid for such fun, but, no matter, I get oodles of new books way before anyone else can buy them. I'm so excited!

This week brings the beginning of the knitting class that I will be teaching at the kid's school..... which should be interesting. Besides her, I don't know that I've ever taught a younglin' to knit. Lot's of patience.......I've been working on putting together their own little knitting books for each of them......again, very exciting for me. You know, directions to cast on, knit, some sample patterns for them. We've only got six weeks so we'll see how far we get.

As for my own knitting and crafty creations, I am going to start working on these bad boys as soon as I'm feeling better. The pattern for such gorgeous things can be found right here.

The Wal-Mart Experience

I realize at times, my sarcasm may drip a bit too thick; but yesterday as I am leaving the Wally World parking lot, I realized why I am not a frequent shopper there, and it's not just because of this.

As I roll through the check-out, I am encountered by an overly friendly cashier named Beth. Now, we're not talking, like "hey, how's your day going" I'm talking super wattage smile so big they could have turned out the lights and the place would still have been functioning. Almost that hyper-active "I'm going to jump out of my skin" smile that you get when you find something entertaining, but you've just polished off three shots of espresso, so you can't quite control yourself. Anyway, I swipe my card and pop it back in my wallet and I get "opsie! it's asking me for your card so I can verify who you really are!" Now, I've always had a problem with this because if they don't ask for your drivers license, or something with a picture, how the hell do they know that you're really the person it says on the card? Anyway, I stray......

She sees my last name and she like "McClintock! I know a Lisa McClintock right up in Athens Maine, yes I do! I'm from Athens myself!" If you've ever been to Athens, you know why this is a statement that should never be uttered to anyone. If you live in a village where the goal is to marry the girl with the most teeth and your house is decorated with mounted deer heads, you don't admit that you're actually from there. The cashier rambled on for almost 5 minutes about how she knew my step-mum......it actually turns out that she doesn't know her, but has a friend that has a friend that knows her.....the beauty of small-town Maine.

So, I get through that and we head for the parking lot and I'm almost plowed down by a Dodge Intrepid with the license plate "IM MEME" - this is obviously someones mother who has embraced the nickname that her grandchildren have given her. And this always makes me wonder, what is it about these nicknames that are so appealing? It's almost as though, when women become grandmothers, they suddenly lose all sense of judgement. The same thing has happened with my mother. When Syd was little she loved Teletubbies - particularly the yellow one named LaLa. Guess what she calls my mother? And guess who mailed us a sweatshirt with a glittery princess on the front, along with the words "Lala's little princess"........needless to say, the sweatshirt has never been seen outside the walls of our home.

When the lights came on in Portland

Nearly 36 hours after losing our power, and subsequently, my sanity, we are back up and running. And let me tell you, Al Gore be damned, I'm using the washer, dryer AND the microwave, all at the same time. I am so disgusted with our weather as of late......and I'm also wondering if all the ups and downs prior to buying this house was a sign from someone way smarter than us......we seem to live in a neighborhood where more families than not have generators. Now, why could that be do you think? Is it possible that they are used to having no power? Being the inquisitive little chicka that I am, I asked the neighbors.

"Oh, the power? Yeah, we lose it all the time......you'll be sitting out on the back deck and just hear a transformer blow down the street. It's really weird. But, you know, CMP usually fixes it within a few hours or so."

WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me??!! Clearly, this was a little something that the sellers just failed to mention to us.....along with the small lake that seemed to form right outside our back door yesterday. Dan will be a busy boy this summer, what with all the re-grading and drainage pipes he's going to be putting in.

I wonder......Is it too soon to sell our new house?

Prepared

Well, in preparation for the big storm that is seemingly headed our way, I have spent the last hour and a half catching up on everyone's blogs, plus discovering a few new ones that I enjoy. Shameful, really. Anyway, I intend on happily continuing my bloggy reading until I've either A) seen all I want to see or B)the coffee runs out. Either way, I'd say I have another two hours or so to get my fill......I've also been planning what I might do with all my electric-free time if we lose the power. I've got a stack of books and magazines next to the fire place, along with a quilt my grammie made me and a few knitting projects.....should get me through a few days at least! If you live in the area, enjoy the storm!!