Monthly Archives: October 2010

Oct 18 2010

How times have changed

Posted on by

Today I went down to the laundry room and discovered a CFL bulb had leaped to its death off the shelf while I was hammering floors down, and there was broken glass EVERYWHERE (mostly from the globe around the bulb, though). Out of curiosity, I wondered what the government had to say about cleaning up CFL bulbs, since they contain mercury (a possible 4mg!).

Don’t use a vacuum or a broom on hard surfaces, try and manage with cardboard and duct tape. Put everything in a sealed bag or canning jar. Clothes came in contact with some glass? Discard. Take the waste to a recycle area. Wipe down your vacuum. Ventilate the area. For FOUR MILLIGRAMS.

Then I remember at the family reunion, the talk amongst the folks of the baby boomer generation talking about playing with mercury. As in rolling it around on their hands and such. Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

Oct 12 2010

Windfall

Posted on by

After Anya and I came home from school today, I drug her out to the apple tree. Most of the apples have fallen, but there were a lot on the ground that were still fine and a few really nice ones with a cut or small blemish. Anya got bored quickly, and I told her she could go back in the house but no tv or computer. Hrmpf. I guess apples are more fun than the house-tv-computer. Plus Buddy finally joined us, and he’s fun to talk to. Anya seemed upset when he crossed through the barbed wire fence to the neighbor’s yard and I wouldn’t let her follow. I was tempted to toss her over because it looked like lots of nice apples had fallen on that side, but I figured I’d hit my ‘bad parent’ quota for the day when I sent her to school in pants that were apparently so large her teacher pinched and sewed the waist in two spots to keep them from falling down. (Yeah, Andy dressed her, but I didn’t notice and change her.) Even sticking to our side of the fence, I collected a very full paper grocery bag of apples to add to our hamper.

Anya and I gave one of the more damaged apples to the chickens, but it seemed to confuse them. I told Anya we’d check back tomorrow to see if they’d figured out what to do with it. “Yeah!”

Oct 9 2010

Car Knitting

Posted on by

Sometimes I think about all the hundreds of hours I spent sitting in the car going to work, shopping, wherever…everywhere here is far away…all those hours when I could have been knitting. (It makes me almost as sad as thinking about the lost hours of my youth spent watching Little House on the Prairie reruns.) Why did it take me so long (maybe two years?) to make the connection? Riding in car = Perfect time to knit. Since I realized this, I rarely go anywhere without my knitting bag.

Not only does car knitting make the time go by more quickly, it keeps my eyes and mind off Andy’s sometimes crazy driving. He doesn’t think it’s crazy, but, well, he’s crazy. I do often worry we’ll have an accident and I’ll be impaled with a needle. I try in particular to keep the pointy parts from aiming towards my eyes, and I make sure if I rest a dpn in my lap it’s parallel to my body. Is this weird? Do other car knitters fear having an eye-kebab?

Things I’ve learned about car knitting:

  • The commute to/from work is exactly one hat long.
  • ALWAYS finish a row before exiting the car (trust me).
  • Let the yarn balls run free in the floorboard; sure they’ll get a bit dirty but it makes the yarn flow a lot easier.
  • Be 100% sure you have everything you could possibly need in your bag before you hit the road. It really sucks to finish a color and not have brought the next color and have to waste all that knitting time with your eyes closed trying not to scream as the car careens around a curve.
  • Don’t do anything too complicated. Of course it depends on you as to what that means, but for me it means anything where I have to use a stitch counter.
  • NEVER leave your metal needles in the sunlight. (I just learned this one yesterday. Ow.)

Here are two recent products of my car knitting.

Anya’s backpack…

…and a pair of felted slippers that were supposed to be for Anya and will be…in a few years when her feet are a couple inches longer.

Oct 3 2010

A bushel and a peck

Posted on by

Today we picked a bushel of apples. Okay, it’s really a laundry hamper full of apples. I estimate we cleared out about half of the non-tiny apples from one of our trees.

And here is Anya using her new magnetic chalkboard wall. Only the magnetic part can be used right now – according to the can, we should wait 3 days (THREE DAYS!) before priming with chalk dust and using. I’m not sure Cabol can wait that long.