Say It With Me.....95.......9..5......

Yes, dear friends, today it was 95 degrees in Minneapolis. And though we are 3 hours north, we had 88 degrees. The weather guy said Mpls. hasn't seen this temp on this date since 1897! Holy crap! It is waayy to early for this kind of heat! The humidity is about 70. More to come tomorrow.

I came home from work today to find all the windows still open (I am an optimist), the fans still going on "low" and the A/C not ON!! BH has been home all day - most of the time in the house. What is WRONG with him??!! I proceeded to shut the windows, turn the fans up high and power on the A/C. We still have one more air conditioner to put in the window in the family room. Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Would have done it today, but he was so tired (from the heat, no doubt) and we had grocery shopping to do. A LOT of grocery shopping. Son, his friend and our grandson are coming up Friday night for a weekend of fishing. We also have to pick up daughter as she wants to come home for the weekend, too.

This means lots of cooking, baking and BBQing. I sure hope the weather cools down a lot by Friday! Geezzz.

How's the Spring cleaning going, you ask. Glad you asked. I did manage to get the 2 ceilings painted and the dining room carpet shampooed. And the shades ironed and put back on the windows --- since last Tuesday(?). Then it all came to a screaching halt.

I don't know what is going on with BH, but I can't get anything done. I love to work around the house in the evening. This is my favorite time. But I'm hearing "you're not doing any more tonight?" "that's enough for today; you've done enough" "you're doing too much". Aarrgghhh. I want to get this done! Cleaning is low on my totem pole and when I'm in the mood, I want to keep at it til it's done!! I have other important (fun) things I want to do with my free time!

Now we'll have company for the weekend. No big whoop. We're going to be swamped at work, too. But I swear, come Tuesday night and Wednesday and Thursday, nobody better get in my way!

We still don't have the pool up yet. Yeah, can you imagine. Hot, humid temps for the past 4 days ----- no pool! The water would've felt like bath water by now!

Of course, with all this humidity and the thunderstorms we had yesterday, the grass needs to be cut again --- and weedwhacking too. Good grief!

Oh yeah. The shawl I've been working on. I finished up 1 ball of yarn, got about 8". I have 4 balls of yarn totaling about 13 ounces. You guessed it. Not going to be enough. This will be ripped out when I am in a more peaceful state. As of now, I took another ball and started over again. Less stitches so it won't be soooo wide; bigger needles. After I finish this ball, if it still doesn't figure out right, I'm chucking the whole thing. By that time, I should be able to get back to spinning. And no, I did not finish the sock yet, either. Right now I'm tempted to put all the knitting away until Fall. When it's cool. And my house is all clean and organized. And BH will be watching the World Series in the evenings.

Sounds like a plan!

Back At It.......

This has been a wonderful 4 days. I have gotten so much accomplished, I amaze even myself!

Went back to work today. It was great having a few days off after getting home from NY.

Got the yardwork done. Scrubbed down the dining room yesterday; did the kitchen ceiling tonight. Tomorrow I can paint both ceilings. Get the screens and windows washed; wash all the katchkis and finish cleaning the kitchen. BH cleaned the fans for me tonight. He's soooo good.

Today we were in the 80's!! Holy cow --- I think we better get the pool up very soon and get the air conditioners set up. What beautiful weather.

While I'm wading in gallons of Spic and Span with a spritz of 409, I'm daydreaming of the time to come when I can finally get back to spinning! I dream of my days off, evenings, BH gone fishing for the whole day ---and I can spin to my heart's content! I think this gives me the extra zap of energy to keep pushing to get this tedious housework done.

I have been knitting, though. I manage to get about an hour every morning before the routine of the day begins. I did start that shawl before we left for our trip. Nice easy pattern; 4 pattern rows. Nothing I haven't done before. I've knitted many sweaters with hardly any trouble. What could go wrong, right?

HAH! I ripped the damn thing out 6 ----yes, 6 times. Then I decided, ok, maybe this isn't the "mindless" knitting I thought it would be. Went to the stitch book, picked out another pattern. Ah, the Trinity stitch. I've done that many times. It's easy!

HAH! Somehow, my bobbles weren't staggered as they were supposed to be; kept lining up on top of each other! Riippppp. Again. Rrriiippp. Again. Rrriippp.
Switched to bigger needles; switched to circular needles. Finally! I now have about 2 1/2 inches knitted. All the while, the second red sock is sitting on the table and I can hear " you should've finished me first. I'm almost done; 2 more rows and then the toe. You could've had another pair of socks done. But Noooo. You had to start something new!"

I really, really need to get back to spinning!

There's No Place Like Home..............

Hello, one and all! There truly is no place like home. I can't tell you how many times I clicked my heels together.....

Our visit was not as long as we had thought it would be. Found out that my dad had no appointments after that Friday. The Doctor had put a hold on everything until Pop goes for a CAT scan tomorrow.

But I did take Mom out on a couple of errands; to the salon, grocery shopping. We could only spend the morning and early afternoon with them; then it was nap time and my dad was worn out. We didn't see them much in the evenings.

We stayed at my sister's house, which is about 25 minutes from my parents'. We felt very comfortable, but it's not home. You still feel that you're putting people out.

And our son was very happy to see us. But then again, he didn't know we were coming until the last minute, so he couldn't arrange to get time off from work. And our daughter-in-law works full time days, waitresses on the weekends and goes to college week nights. So..... Did see the grandsons a few times.

My hip finally, finally felt much better by last Saturday. I was taking ibuprophen as often as I could while driving to NY and for a couple days after we arrived.

So we told the family on Tuesday that we were leaving the next day. No body seemed all that disappointed, which was a good thing. We got home Thursday evening. It rained all the way home, but that was nice, too.

Then it started......

Messages on the phone. 2 from the brother of our friend who is now in a nursing home. He wanted us to bring her storage containers to her apartment because his family was coming up Saturday to clean out her place. We are 4 containers short because she had told us to go ahead and use them, give them to the kids, whoever needed them. Yikes!! Oh great!

Trip to Walmart on Friday to buy containers. (Walmart is an hour away from home ----- and we just drove 1200 miles in a day and a half!) Well, then, we might as well go grocery shopping on the way home ----- after we drop off the containers at her apartment.

Saturday was a beautiful day! I have not called into work yet to tell them I'm back. I really need this weekend to catch up on everything. Cleaned the house; weedwacked the areas outside. Decided I would clean the flower beds and bring out all the yard ornaments on Sunday. Which is what I did today; another gorgeous day!

Mountains of laundry; pay the bills; file daughter's paperwork. Called work this afternoon to let them know I'll be coming in tomorrow.

Tomorrow.......fans need to be cleaned; air conditioners set up (we're supposed to be in the high 80's by next weekend). Windows need to be washed outside.

And BH is going to putty, scrape and paint the living room and utility room windows outside, but I said I could get at it. He's still working on getting the grass cut - tomorrow will be 3 days he's been mowing!

Then I really have to get the kitchen and dining room ceilings washed and painted; clean kitchen cupboards, wash down the walls.

Shooting to set up the pool either next weekend or the weekend after. We're not quite sure if we're going to move it to the other side of the house or set it up in the usual spot.

I still haven't been able to find the sheets I want to make the dining room curtains. Walmart is revamping the stores. Supposed to be done in a couple of weeks. Good. Because you can't find a damn thing! And the stock is here one week, gone the next. I know exactly what I want; they just never have enough of them in stock at one time! Geezz. Work with me, people!!

Then I think we'll be done for the most part. The living room needs to be painted, but I don't care if I get it done now or in the Fall. Oops, except I do need to shampoo the furniture. Damn. Ok, I'll get that done. Might as well wash the blinds and curtains while I'm at it. Crap. Might as well shampoo the carpet, too.

Ahhhh, there's no place like home!!

Leaving on a Road Trip......

Well, we're 90% packed and leaving tomorrow morning for NY. BH says 5:00am, I say 6am. We'll see.

House is cleaned and our bedroom finally put back together, laundry done, fridge cleaned out, bills paid, children notified.

My hip is still kind of wonky; still on ibuprofen. It helps A LOT! Funny, though, it doesn't seem to bother me when I'm driving. Just getting in and out of the car. That's a good thing.

I have 3 more rows on the second red sock before starting the toe decrease. But I know I need more knitting than that to take with me. So I started a shawl this morning. A simple pattern. I need mindless knitting for traveling. It has only 4 pattern rows. Easy enough, eh?

Mind you, I did try a triangular lacy pattern shawl. Ripped it 3 times before I realized this might not be the time to start that. I love the pattern, just couldn't get my head around the increases; kept winding up with one stitch too short! Aarrgghhh.

Oh well. I really wanted to knit that pattern for my future daughter-in-law as a wedding gift. I plan on spinning white merino with irridescent firestar glitz and pearl beads, 2-ply, fingering weight. I envision it will be beautiful! I will need to get started on the spinning soon! Thank God there's no wedding date yet. Son is dragging his feet. Don't know why. They've been together now for almost 5 years! Geezz, I don't think there's too much more you could know of a person that you don't already! I think I've gotta have a talk with him very soon.

Hope you all have a very productive, happy 2 weeks. I shall return.