Happy March!

Happy first day of March! It is starting here with a sunny but cold day, which is more than fine with me. It means that when I go outside to take a walk, it will be especially pleasant. And I definitely want to get in a walk today, since tomorrow is supposed to be continual rain all day. 

Well, the guys came yesterday to do the final measurements for our new front door. And it was somewhat dismaying. When we had the initial measurements, our door was already smaller than usual, so we had very limited choices, and only one that included any glass. I'd been hoping to have one of those panels on the top with a little fan window. But we settled for two little panes at the top. Then yesterday when they did the final measurements, it turned out the door was even smaller than originally thought. Which led to a choice between a door with almost ALL glass, or a door with no glass. Since the door is right on the street, we didn't want a glass door, since it would be like being on display. So now we'll have a door with no glass at all, which is disappointing. It will still look nicer than what we have, but you know how it is. You get excited about one thing, and have to accept another.

Now this is likely to be the only way we get an outside opening on our door ...

Definitely a first world problem, though, so I'll just get over it and be happy we can have a new door at all.

Guess what I'm doing today, though? Laundry - both in the washer and also in the DRYER!!!!! The Tim was able to get the venting set up when he got home last night, and so we're finally good to go. I already put a small load in the dryer earlier, and it dried in so little time, I was really surprised. This may just mean that laundry day will not go overtime into laundry evening, which is a real game-changer. Hallelujah!

So in the world of Operation Home Improvements, we so far have:

New roof - check

New dryer - check

Electricity hook up for dryer - check

New door - ordered, and not quite what we were hoping, but almost a check

Zooming right along, spending money like we have it! 😜

(kidding, we have saved a lot for these projects)

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Speaking of spending, I'm pretty proud of myself, because I'm not currently spending. Well, what I mean is that I decided that for Lent, I was going to give up buying things for myself unless it was something I actually needed. I wanted to get out of the habit of seeing something and thinking "Oh I can afford that, I'll go ahead and get it." Now it's not like I was buying big-ticket things, but I'd see a pair of earrings, or a shirt, or maybe even a really nice project bag, and buy it. I would be happy I had it, and always enjoy/wear/use it, but it was never anything I really had to have. So when I realized that Lent was coming along, I thought I would try to get out of that habit. Not that it was in danger of sending us to the poorhouse, but I wanted to get back into my former habit of giving something real consideration before deciding if I wanted to purchase it. 

And you know what is funny about it? There have truly only been a couple of things that I have felt any amount of regret about not buying. And that was only because they were things that I don't see that often at a good price. But neither item was something that I am suffering from by not having in my life. I feel like I'm getting back to my more reasonable self. And I'm saving a certain amount of money each week that I decided was an average of what I would normally spend to donate at the end of the season. So yes, I'll still be "spending" the same amount, but it means that I'm giving up something for Lent in order to give *to* something else, which pleases me.

(Lent gives me a good reason to try and get myself back to some positive behavior each year, a nice re-set, if you will.)

As for this weekend, I have to work as usual on Sunday, but other than that we have no particular plans. I'll probably finish catching up on the laundry, and otherwise I am reading a good book and have my knitting projects waiting for some attention. Rainy days are especially good reasons to just stay put and have a quiet time of it.

I hope you can enjoy your weekend, and have a chance to spend some time doing your own thing. Take care.

Happy Leap Day!

 

For reasons I am not certain make sense, Leap Day pleases me. Maybe because it makes no sense in some ways, but in the overall sense of time we have it. And of course I am fascinated at the idea of only having your *actual* birthday date happen every four years. But in any case, I hope your Leap Day is a good one.

In about an hour, two guys are going to come and do final measurements for a new front door. Because of course our door is not a standard size and will have to be custom made. We have nothing custom-made for our persons, but our door will be custom-made. Seriously. We have the estimate and although it's a lot of money (who knew doors were so expensive? Not us!), it will be nice to have a new door that looks nice and is not drafty. Exciting times around here, people, exciting times.

Now for a dryer update. Good news: It is not only in the house, but is now hooked up to the electricity! Bad news: The venting still needs to be resolved because of course the old vent was no longer working. But The Tim said he got the stuff to install a new vent and get it working. So theoretically, I could be able to do laundry tomorrow and/or on Saturday, which is both a relief and quite exciting.

I tell ya, our lives are just one big thing after another these days, it's hard to keep up.

However, all of these things are making Alfie's life so much better. As far as he's concerned, the more workmen that come to the house and have to be here for a while, the better!  I was telling my friend Lisa that when the electricians came to hook up the dryer to the electrical supply, Alfie was in a bliss. When they went to leave, he followed them out of the house into the rain and then to their truck! Of course then we had about half an hour of him crying at the front door and pawing to get out, because they had left. So she saw this and sent it to me, and it cracked me up.

At least today he will have some chances to "assist" the people coming for door measurements, and I tried to tell him that the electricians would be back in late March for two whole days to rewire a bunch of stuff, but sadly, cats have no sense of the future. I guess it will be a nice surprise for him?

And that's the news from here. I hope your week is going well - I know Vera's is ending on a good note - congratulations, Vera! 

Enjoy leaping around today, and I'll check in tomorrow. 🐸

Rainy Day Friday

Hello from dreary Philadelphia. The rain is supposed to stop soon, and then it will just be a cold February day. But it's Friday, so that means that once he gets home from work tonight, The Tim can hang and relax with us all weekend, which is the best.

To give you an update, the dryer arrived safe and sound. Much later than expected, but as long as it got here in one piece, we didn't care! Right now, it's sitting in the basement waiting until an electrician can come and get the connection set up and then I have a lot of laundry to do. 😊 But I have to be honest here - I actually enjoy doing laundry. I think the idea that it goes in to the wash dirty, wrinkled, and sometimes smelly, and then comes out clean and fresh appeals to my orderly nature. Having said that, I am grateful that doing laundry is not my life's work, because I am sure that would be exhausting and to some degree demoralizing. I mean, I face the fact that people get clothes and such dirty once a week; if I had to face it every day, I think I would, shall we say, feel less kindly than I already do towards humans as a whole ...

I worked for a bit on my Alpine Bloom Hat yesterday, and thought I'd share an in-progress photo.

I'm pleased with it so far. I did notice one spot yesterday where I stitched using the wrong color. But it was a few rows back, so if it really sticks out when the whole thing is finished, I'll duplicate stitch over it. I'm enjoying the knitting, even though it's not something I can do while watching a tv show or a movie, since I have to concentrate on what I'm doing. I feel pretty certain that I'll finish this by spring. If it fits my big head, I'll wear it next winter; if not, I'll probably give it to my great-niece Penn next Christmas as a gift.

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This weekend we have no specific plans, other than cleaning up things that we had to move out of the way to make room for the delivery guys to get through the door opening down to the basement. We live in a nineteenth-century row house, and to say that the doorways are not wide would be an understatement. So everything had to be moved out of the way and the door had to be removed. They made it with maybe an inch on each side - phew! 

I also want to pay some bills (well, I don't really *want* to, but there are consequences if you don't pay them, you know!), and I'm thinking it may be time to bake some brownies. We haven't had those for a long time and it would be nice to have some treats.

And that is about as exciting as it will get. Both of us are unreasonably tired due to who knows what, so I sincerely doubt anything much more elaborate or strenuous will be undertaken. Sometimes you just need a break from your exciting life, you know?

I hope all of you have a good weekend, doing what you like whenever you feel like doing it. We'll see what next week brings. In the meantime, thanks for reading and take care.

Hooray! It's Dryer Day!

Friends, relatives, and mere acquaintances - rejoice with me today, because after a year and a half of anguish and agonizing, at some point this afternoon between noon and 4 p.m., a truck from Lowe's will arrive, and a new clothes dryer will be delivered and the old dryer hauled away. To say I am excited would be an understatement. To say that I 100 percent realize what an adult kind of thing that is to be excited about would be true. But such is life.

Do not be surprised to see a post soon with a photo of said new dryer, extolling its virtues and full of stories of the slow death of the old dryer. Again, such is life.

In the meantime, I have been knitting. One of my projects is what I am calling my Birthday Socks. The colorway of the yarn is Pisces, and since that is my astrological sign, I'm making them to wear on my birthday. Whereas most people cast on a special project ON their birthday, I want to have these finished by then. 

I finished the first sock last week. I'm sure that my erstwhile (yet napping ) assistant was the inspiration to finish so quickly. I plan to cast on the second sock either later today (after the dryer delivery) or tomorrow, and I have every belief that I will be able to finish on time. 

Do you remember a little while back, when I showed you this WIP?

It is no longer a viable project. I kept going nearly to the arm division, and decided that it just was not what I was wanting. So I visited the frog pond, and have cast on for something else. I have a specific thing I'm hoping to end up with, and I think this time I'm on a better track.

I'm also going along pretty well on my Alpine Bloom hat, using the kit I purchased from Barrett Wool Co. It's slow going, but I'm enjoying it, and I just hope when it's all finished, it fits my big head! 😊

I shall do my best to get some decent photos of these items, once the sun sticks around for more than 20 minutes. Today would work, but my afternoon is dedicated to waiting for the dryer delivery, so I don't want to get started on taking photos and get interrupted, as it can be dangerous around here to leave a knitting project out of the project bag and unattended.

Yes, they are resting in a sunspot now. But the lure of a project laid out on the floor would be too much to resist, I'm certain.

And that's what is happening around here. I hope you are having a good week, and that your knitting is behaving well. 

Stay tuned for all of the dryer excitement! But please, don't let yourself get so worked up that you lose sleep until I regale you with the whole story ...