Cute kidism

I often share the cute things that Jonas says with my friends at work, and inevitably someone will remind me that I should be writing them down so I don't forget them.

So, without further ado, my first cute kidism post:

J-man has a great vocabulary, both in English and Spanish, but as all kids will, he often forms words of his own. The most recent, and cutest, is "lousy". Yes, I'm fully aware that lousy is a perfectly valid word, but to J-man it doesn't mean the same thing as it does to the rest of the world. You see, somewhere along the line he's taken "noisy" and "loud" and combined the two into this new amalgam of a word which he uses to describe everything from the radio, the washing machine, to cars.

Still, it always makes me chuckle when he says "Wow Dada! Your car sure is lousy!"

Red on the head

I've been wanting to show you a picture of J-man from last weekend. We took him to get his hair cut, and the girl made him feel like a total rock star, complete with glitter and red dye. Of course, it was washable, and came out the moment his head met water. This meant it took me until Monday night to get him to wash his hair in the bath. Oh well, no one ever died of dirty hair, right?


I know it's not a good picture, but he's in this "no cameras" phase right now. I guess it just plays along with his rocker mentality. Seriously though, I haven't figured out a way to sneak up on him yet. We have better luck with Wil's iphone than with the actual camera because he doesn't see it coming.

This week my car's been in the shop, which has been interesting, figuring out how to get here and there without transportation. But we've managed to get by, and the car is now home, $500 and a new starter later. Why must my car be a total pain in the ass?

The knitting continues to be mindless with a pair of stockinette socks going on, and a pair of ankle socks requested by one of my doctors at work. I'm not using a pattern for either, as they're just plain old socks, but I'm not really happy with the requested socks. They're cute, but the yarn is more of a DK weight, and so acrylic that they squeak (loudly) on the needles! I think I'm going to try and find some 'real' yarn in a similar color and reknit them at a different gauge. These fit and all, but I just can't see how anyone would enjoy wearing socks this bulky. They'll be good for me to wear around the house. My feet are always cold, so it's not like this pair is a wasted effort.

Pictures eventually. I still haven't charged the battery in my camera, or located the cable required to load them. Call me lazy.

When it rains

My car is cursed. Seriously. It has a mind of it's own, and works on it's own schedule. Usually, when it's feeling snarky is exactly when I need it to be on it's best behavior-- much like my son.

For months now, intermittently, it's left me stranded somewhere. You get in, turn the key, and nothing. It's not the battery because I can still roll the windows up and down and the dome light works, as well as the radio. Twice, I've pulled it into the auto parts store to have the alternator checked, and it's passed with flying colors, too.

Yesterday, while out running errands in the too-hot-to-breathe afternoon heat, it decided to play it's tricks on me. Every time I give in and call someone to come 'rescue' me, it starts right up when they get there. And true to form, once Wil arrived, driving 20 miles out of his way, in his company van, it did the exact same thing.

Fortunately, I have a pretty cool mechanic, who graciously allowed me to bring it straight over. He thinks it's the starter. That's a simple fix, I suppose. The bad news is he'll need to keep the car for a couple of days while the starter gets rebuilt. Apparently, that's the cheaper way to go, and I'm all for that. The problem with him keeping the car is that I NEED my car. It's the only car that's really safe enough to put J in. I suppose the chances of having an accident in Wil's car in the two days or so that I'd have to depend on it are fairly slim, but still... who wants to strap their kid into a car with back doors that stick, has no a/c, and sounds like armageddon when it runs?

Yeah, it's only a temporary thing, but still... I'm going to have to suck it up. Right now I'm on pins and needles every time I start it up, not sure when it's going to decide it's done for good.

As a bonus, this means that I won't be going to Stitch N Pitch this weekend, which I really wanted to do. J would have loved the game, and how often do I get a chance to hang out with a bunch of knitters?

*sigh*

In good news, I got my new-to-me computer this weekend, thanks to Michele. Soon I'll have pictures to share and I can get back on track with all things net related.

And speaking of Michele, it seems we manage to find some excuse to get together almost every weekend for a little knitting time, and yet my FO count doesn't seem to go anywhere. Funny how that happens. I did finish up my puke monkeys this weekend. Pictures soon, I promise. Let me say this: I adore the monkey pattern! It was a great and quick knit, and the result would be fabulous in a different yarn. I can totally understand why Knit Picks discontinued the Dancing line. I love the elasticity of it, but the color? Total Fug. Still waffling on whether to overdye these, or just leave them as is. I don't know if I know anyone who's got a loud enough personality to pull off wearing them as is.

I cast on a new pair almost immediately. That says a lot for the pattern. I've never once had a desire to knit the same thing twice. There are just too many good patterns out there that I want to do. But Monkeys are great lunch hour, car ride, tv watching socks. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way this yarn looked in the pattern, either, and they were turning out huge, even after starting them three different times, on three different needles. So they got frogged. I contemplated Jaywalkers, but with instructions to cast on 72 stitches for the smallest size, I feared disastrous results, and so frogged those too. I think this yarn just wants to be plain old stockinette socks. Oddly, I've never done plain socks before. I'll keep these in my purse for mindless knitting, and maybe go stash diving for something more mentally stimulating.

Anyway, long post, no pictures. I'm sure you're yawning.

Another weekend done

Where does all the time go? Seriously. You blink and *poof* it's gone.

Yesterday I met up with Michele at a coffee house for a couple of hours of knitting and just plain relaxing. It was nice to get away for a little bit and just unwind. I needed it in a MAJOR way.

We parted ways for a bit while she went and pampered herself with a spa manicure, and then we met back up with husbands and J in tow to go see a movie. J's been aching to see Kung Fu Panda since the very first commercial. Me, I'm not a movie fan. Haven't been to one in years. And it was years before that since I went to any others. But it was a cute movie, and just watching him have a great time was worth it.

I secretly cast on a new pair of socks before going, just in case I got bored and my hands needed something to do. But I got the evil eye from hubby when I went for my knitting bag, so I figured that just might cross his personal threshold of 'crazy'. He'll never get it.

After the movie we had dinner together at a nearby mexican restaurant. I suggested it quite selfishly because I love their guacamole. It's made at the table, and so delicious! The waiter was creepy, to say the least, and the food only so-so, but it was nice to get out and have a good time with another couple. It's something we never do, and was a nice change of pace.

Of course, somewhere towards the end of dinner, J insisted he had to go potty, so we made our way all the way across the crowded restaurant to the bathroom. Sitting there in a booth was this merry old gentleman with a flowing white beard and mustache. Jonas stopped dead in his tracks to inspect him. The man and his adorable wife smiled at J, and the guy winked at him. I nudged him along to the restroom.

As we came out, the sweet old guy hopped up out of his booth and gave J a high five, asked him if he'd been a good boy, and told him how many days were left until Christmas. It was really all too sweet- him taking the time to play into J's little fantasy. Then he whipped a little card out of his wallet and handed it to him. It was red and green with a picture of him and his wife in full costume and read "I met Santa today!" Cute.

So we finished our dinner, and then mingled in the parking lot for a few minutes, when Santa and Mrs. Claus left the restaurant. Wil thanked the man for his time, and commented on how he must get that a lot- kids stopping him everywhere. The man smiled, winked, and said "but I really am Santa." Then they hopped in their red car, and drove away.

Now Jonas is convinced that Santa spends his summer vacation on the beach eating Mexican food. (That's how he stays so fat, ya know?)

Today was a day full of little errands, of which I can spare you most of the details. But we did find a new desktop computer for about $300, which we're considering purchasing. We'll still have to purchase an updated version of Word, which will probably cost as much as the computer, but we'll have to buy that regardless of what computer we get, and this cheap one will serve it's purpose just fine.

And as an added bonus, hubby also found me two packets of okra seeds, which I've been hunting for ever since we started the garden. I can't wait to clear a spot for them! Hope everyone likes pickled okra, cuz I have a feeling we'll be canning quite a bit this summer.

A Public Plea

After nine years of faithful service, my good old computer finally bit the dust.

And while I do not completely mourn it's passing, I do curse it just a little bit for going to the grave with everything I hold dear inside--- like all of my transcription stuff, my pictures, my bookmarks, and my email contacts.

I'm still hopeful that hubby can wave some sort of magic wand over the hard drive and make some of the stuff reappear, but as the weeks go by with no action, I am now putting out there a public plea...

If you were once in my address book, and occasionally enjoy a message from me, please, oh please, oh pretty pretty please, send me an email at mommyleek at gmail dot com, or mommyleek at cfl dot rr dot com, so that I might recover at least some of the addresses I've lost.

Further, if I seem to have been ignoring your blog for the past few months, I'd really appreciate dropping a link in the comments so that I might rebuild my bookmark folder.

Thank you.

One of the greatest things

in the entire world is opening your mailbox and finding an unexpected package inside. That's exactly what happened last Thursday. And yes, I'm a terrible blogger, and perhaps a worse friend for not posting this any sooner. But I think the sender can understand and appreciate the way that days tend to slip by you completely unnoticed sometimes.

A little history:

I met both Laura and her husband, Doug, many many years ago on a poetry website that we all frequented. Over the years we developed a great relationship, which finally culminated in Jonas and I catching a flight to PA two years ago for a whirlwind visit with them. The time at their place, affectionately known as "Barnhenge" was one of the most wonderful times of my life. Let's face it-- no matter how much you think you know someone on the internet, they can always turn out to be raving lunatics in real life. I'm proud to report that actually meeting them in person just solidified my love for both of them.

We planned on repeating the trip the next year, along with a side trip to Maryland for Maryland Sheep and Wool and a meetup with Gretchen, but Wil landed himself in the hospital the day before the trip, and well, I couldn't just leave him there alone, could I? So the trip got canceled with a "next year for sure" clause.

Now to this year. Who knew that Fairy Fest and the Sheep and Wool festival would be the exact same weekend that baby sister would be graduating? Honestly, there was no competition, but still, it sucked to have to take a raincheck for the second year in a row.

Over the past two years we've been lax in staying in touch. Time changes circumstances and everyone gets busy. Heck, on top of keeping up with the chickens and the garden, they even went and got busy making a baby, and then being parents.

So imagine my surprise when the package wedged in my mailbox, beautifully decorated in butterflies, was from Laura! I did a little happy dance in the seat of my car all the way to J's school and back before I got to open it.

A peek at the insides:


Gorgeous alpaca yarn, (Amazing, especially considering Laura has yet come to the dark side... ahem... learned to knit), a beautiful gold bag with a stuffed Baltimore oriole inside for J man, which was actually a gift from their friend, Raven, a jar of homemade raspberry jam, cute bamboo coasters, a party favor from L's baby shower, which sadly did not make the journey in one piece, and some Tibetan prayer flags. Of course, the best part of the package was the sweet notecard inside, and just knowing that, even after two years of less than stellar communication, someone out there is thinking of you. It's a beautiful thing.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that this little package meant more to me than you can ever imagine. Thanks Laura, for the goodies and for simply being an amazingly wonderful friend. I love you, girlie.