We took a mini-vacation this past
weekend, which was WONDERFUL! We only went about an hour away from
our house to crash/house-sit at my parents’ house while they were
away. So, while we were a mere hour away from our apartment and
staying in my old home, we reasoned that it’s a vacation as long as
you don’t have any major responsibilities and you aren’t sleeping
under your own roof.
We got to relax, hang out with high
school friends (we’re from the same town), and I cleared out my old
room. That’s right, I went through the last boxes of my high
school things and sorted it all out into four piles: Things to Keep,
Things to Goodwill, Trash, and Not Quite Sure. The Not Quite Sure
pile included two porcelain dolls and some kid crafting kits that I
tried, but failed, to rationalize a value for in my current life.
This pile I left in my old closet to keep my sister’s items
company. I hauled the Trash pile off to the dump and I took a
variety of things to Goodwill this past Monday. I must admit,
though, that I did consider leaving my parents a note saying that
they could take the items to Goodwill, but thought better of it and
just did it myself. Phew, my mom has been nagging me about doing
this for THREE years and it is FINALLY done. I must admit that I was
a little surprised when all was said and done about just how easy it
was to sort and throw stuff away.
While my fiancé, James, and our close
friend played Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and talked games I relaxed and
worked on my Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick Winter Set. To
provide a little bit of background, I purchased two balls of
Wool-Ease Thick and Quick on a Black Friday sale in 2008, one
Charcoal and one Navy. It was long past time for this yarn to make
its way out of my yarn stash, and I needed a quick project to get the
“yay, I’ve completed something” feeling to help me keep going
on my mom’s sweater (which only needs sleeves and finishing
touches). I started it Tuesday June 19 by chaining on for a pair of
cottage slipper socks. I did need to
purchase one additional skein of Charcoal to ensure that my socks
would match! These are my first handmade socks period. I’ve never
made socks before and I’ve never been given socks. They are worked
top down with a ribbed cuff at the top. So my socks have Navy
ribbing with a Charcoal body. In order to use up the now leftover
yarn, most of a skein of navy and about a third of the Charcoal, I
made a matching cowl and wrister set alternating the body and edging
colors. Since I had the most Navy left, the cowl is Navy with
Charcoal edging and the wristers are Charcoal with Navy edging. I am
so excited about this set, even if I can’t wear them until this
next winter.
While rooting through my mom’s
craft/book closet I found a piece of cross stitch that my mom did
commemorating her marriage to my father.
I’m going to frame it and present it
to them for their upcoming (19th) Wedding Anniversary.
Or, maybe, I’ll hold onto it for a year, make an appropriate and
complimentary gift and present both items to them for their 20th
Wedding Anniversary. I feel like that might be more appropriate just
because people always make a bigger deal about round anniversaries
than just the fact that you made it another year.
I don’t know if you are aware of the
old trend of dressing ornamental stone geese in absurd outfits, the
trend never really made it down as far south as Virginia, though I
believe some Florida residents have a thing about dressing stone
manatees. There was a time, however, when it seemed like every house
in Ohio had one of these geese and they changed their clothes
regularly. My grandmother gave my parents one of these stone geese
years and years ago, and for a while my siblings and I would change
its clothes regularly with the season, or when we felt like it. Over
the last several years though it hasn’t been changed at all and the
clothes were looking a little… gross. I mean, this sits outside in
all sorts of Virginia weather and in the middle of the woods. So,
James and I decided to change her into a sunflower print bikini that
was appropriate to the hot weather we’ve been experiencing. We
also put on a little black hat to serve as a sunhat for lack of more
appropriate attire. Perhaps this is another thing that I will need
to craft for…
All in all we had a great, relaxing
weekend, until we went to pack the car and we couldn’t find
Trousers. We have two cats, Trousers, a three year old grey tabby,
and Harlequin, a two year old calico. We tease that they are His and
Her cats because He likes James best, and She likes Me best. We took
them with us mostly because our apartment has no A/C and the forecast
was quite hot for the weekend. Plus, it was only an hour in the car
with whining cats, right?
But anyway, we looked everywhere we
could think to look in the house, under the couch (which wasn’t
even pushed up against the wall the cats spent so much time under
it), behind furniture, in piles of stuff, in closed rooms, and
nothing. We searched the house until James took it into his head
that he must have accidently let Trousers out when he was coming and
going. So, we searched the woods around the house to no avail.
I must admit that I had, at this
point, two conflicting ideas about where Trousers was. On the one
hand, I firmly believed that really he was still somewhere
inside the house, maybe in cat space [link to article?], but in the
house none-the-less. The second thought was that if he had
indeed gotten outside that he must surely have been found by a larger
animal and we would be lucky to find his remains. I mean, in all
honesty there aren’t many bear sightings in that particular
neighborhood, but there are occasional sightings. Not a pleasant
thought.
I was on the verge on going into to
town to get more cat food to tempt the wayward cat back, when I did a
sweep of the house to make sure we knew where Harley was since James
had picked her up and chased her around and out of her easy hiding
spot (under the couch). Apparently when James chased Harley around
the house it roused Trousers in a way that all the calling and
searching we did couldn’t do, because when I turned into the dining
room there the stupidly, wonderful, jackass of a cat sat blinkingly
under the ironing board as if he just woke up from a long and
refreshing nap. I don’t know exactly where he had been hiding, but
I snatched him up and James likes to tease that I cried into
Trousers’ fur, which simply isn’t true… though, I do admit to
being misty eyed.
We promptly shoved both unwilling cats
into their carriers, packed the car and headed home only an hour
behind schedule. Luckily, we didn’t have any plans or commitments
so this was less stressful than if we were on a tight schedule. And
honestly, we weren’t going anywhere without both cats in the car
with us, and since they’ve both been found it’s all good.
This past week, since we’ve been
home, I’ve been busy trying out different Pinterest pins, mostly
cooking. I’m preparing to report back on those various attempts in
the near future, but for now I am going to run and get everything
done for the evening. James decided that we should have a Romantic
Comedy Evening and curl up with a movie tonight. I have an Awesome
fiancé.
