ARRGGHH!

It's just one of those days. Well weeks. Let me tell you why.

So the keyboard is still on the fritz, the homerow is persnickety and works when it wants to. I have been begging my husband to get a new one but he is holding out for a freebie - my father-in-law used to work for IBM and has loads of computer equipment. The problem is that Tim never remembers to get a new keyboard when he sees his dad. I am going a little mental over the whole thing. He just took Kendall to Wal-Mart to spent her birthday money (I have a 15 year old - ARRGGHH!) and she is going to try to get him to buy a new one.


Pretty 15-year-old (ARRGGHH!) Kendall models a Ruffle scarf

The plumbing is still horrific. Plumbing is expensive. I miss my bathtub. At some point I have to get downstairs and move around most of the basement and remove a huge chunk of the basement ceiling so that I can figure out what is wrong and what needs to be done (Tim can't get down the steps with his broken leg, so I get to be Bob Villa on this one). But luckily my dad used to work as a pipefitter and my father-in-law knows a thing or two about plumbing, so this won't be as costly as it could be.

I have a job interview on Monday. That is all I am going to say. I don't want to jinx things somehow. I know that this is a good thing, but it is also quite stress-inducing. I am nervous.

I was weeding a particularly thistley patch in my garden today that I have been meaning to get to since the beginning of summer and I got stung on the back of the neck by a wasp! I've been stung by plenty of bees, but never a wasp - it hurt a whole heck of a lot more! He didn't want to go away, either, he just kept walking around on my shoulders taunting me. His beady little eyes kept telling me that he wanted to sting me again and again and again. He was wasp evil incarnate.


My evil wasp was not nearly this cute.

On a happier note, I have taken up my knitting again. The legwarmers are in hibernation - I will finish them sometime, just not now. I have been working on the Fair Isle Rapids scarf that I started a few months ago in an attempt to learn colorwork. It's going ok. My knitting is too loose in some spots, too tight in others, and there are some wonky looking stitches here and there. But I am only done with 1-1/2 repeats of the 12, so I have a little time to figure out a better technique.


Earlier days - not even one repeat completed in this picture.

And I made a super delicious dinner, Bourbon Chicken from a recipe on Recipezaar. It was easy and my picky Collin ate it up with a smile on his face! The baby was quite impressed as well, as evidenced by the jumping dance he did every time he took a new bite. And it didn't stick to the old iron frying pan, which was just the right size for the recipe. Can you tell that I am in love with my pan?

So that's the scoop.

The sky is falling

I haven't posted for a while. My computer keyboard is cranky, and for the last week, the home row keys (asdfghjkl;') stopped working. The homerow is the homerow because these are keys that are very frequently used. It's difficult to type without a homerow.

The week before this, my daughter's friend (who happens to be very accident-prone) lost the "O" key on the keyboard. The "L" quit working for her, and in trying to pop off that key to get it to work, she popped off the "O" and lost it forever. The "Page Up" key is now the "O".


"Page Up" where the "O" goes

Our whole house is falling apart. One say when I was down in the basement, I noticed that the floor was covered in water. I looked up and found, much to my dismay, that the basement ceiling directly beneath the plumbing for our two bathrooms - the basement ceiling that a few weeks earlier was fine - had huge watermarks forming from about 4 different suspicious looking spots. I pulled off the ceiling where it already had a hole and was rewarded with a shower of grey yucky water. Now whenever anyone uses the sink in the main bathroom it sounds like the Niagra has moved to our basement.

There is no picture of this - it is too horrifying.

The computer, the plumbing, and the cooktop. My house has a vintage kitchen. Vintage because it has never been updated since it was built in 1968. It is so cool - a huge part of why I bought the house. But the problem with vintage appliances it that when they break, no one can fix them. I have the coolest stove-oven. It is a chrome Frigidair Custom Impereal Flair. The cooktop slides in and out from the unit. It is totally cool, clean, and cooks wonderfully.


Closed


Open Sesame!

But one of the burners has quit working, and it is difficult to find drip pans that fit it, so I am now down to 2 burners from 4. I have contacted Frigidair, local appliance repairmen, and vintage appliance repairmen and no one can do anything to fix my beloved cooktop. Of course, they all say, you could buy a new unit, but I love this one, and the last time I checked it, the money tree in my backyard had shriveled up. So I live with the two burners.


I have a Geneva Kitchen - the cabinets are metal and mauve. So 60's!


The Geneva Kitchen has cool features like a built in breadbox . . .


Lazy Susans (this is one of two) . . .


and a built in Plexiglass spice cabinet.

Did I mention that all of the cabinet shelves slide out? That I have a pop-up cutting board? That I am in love with my kitchen? My in-laws do not understand. About every 6 months they ask my husband when I am going to update my kitchen. But I am in love - how can I deny it? Besides, my kitchen is one of the few things Not Broken in my house (I can live with a few non-functioning burners). So I will continue to love my pink kitchen. Until it breaks, of course.