KnitKnacks
Curios from the cluttered mind...
Details are falling into place nicely......
I found new shoes last night........hhhmmm....strangely enough the original shoes are no longer pink in the hotel light...hhhmmm...I'm confused but at least I have 2 pair of shoes from which to make my decision. Works for me.
The Bride and Groom are only half crazed....they are doing fine. Mom and Son went on a bonding trip to the mall for a shirt...had a nice chat. ;-D
What ever did anyone do before cell phones, though? Whew....
Morgan and Nora get married in just 2 more days! Oh my! Today I drive down to Poughkeepsie...the car will be packed with wedding stuff, Las Vegas stuff and New London stuff......that should hold us until we get back to Vermont. Everything is allllllllllllll organized and ready to go, no worries, everything worked out so we can have a leisurely few days and enjoy ourselves...
WRONG!!!!!!!!! Last night I thought I would break in the shoes that I'm wearing to the wedding...reasonably thing to do. they looked "funny".......ack! the are PINK! My dress is cream/yellow...I'l going to look like an Easter egg!! No I'm not because I just can't wear them...I have 2 days to find shoes that go with my dress...shouldn't be difficult! Right? SIGH!
I gave up sleeping at 3:45am this morning...decided there was no use laying there hoping I'll remember to pack certain things...just get on with packing them! Let the festivities begin!
Today I am roasting a few different kinds of beans...off to the left you can see some roasted Austrailian Skyberry beans; can't say that I like the way they smell. The Costa Rican, Brazillian and Sumatran beans are measured out and awaiting roasting. Those were part of yesterday's 22 pound delivery. Displayed is today's delivery...cupping trays, spoons, grinder brush, little cups. hhhmmm looks a little cheesy to me.
Of course I am also in the process of organizing and packing clothes for Morgan and Nora's wedding this weekend...and our trip to the conference in Las Vegas...and another week in New London. Don't think it likely I will need the same clothes for those places just to make it easy huh?
Morgan's aforementioned disturbing recollections.....
I can't believer Maura is 3 years old today! I don't have any real birthday party photos from yesterday or any from this morning either as a matter of fact. Maybe her parents will post some soon. This one of Pop Pop Greg and Maura was taken Saturday morning on their new swing set...
Okay...this table is full of the stuff I unpacked today.....I think there are 25-27 different kinds of coffee beans. assorted bags and books, electric kettle, grinder, balance pump maker, some vintage coffee brewer. Sorry for the size of the photo, I resisted sending full size but you do need to see it big for a better effect.
I count nine packages waiting for me when I got home...safe and sound, BTW
In Honor of Earth Day, I've decided to take the trash out, AND the recycling AND do the laundry. Well, I'll do the laundry if I can find my way through the warren of hallways and doorways in the main house...and out again. Don't let too much time pass before sending in the search team. update: I found my way in but finding the lights was another matter...spooky! Do I have to go back? Can't I just buy new shirts and underwear?
Nine days until the wedding........someone got smart and cancelled the $725 for 3 hour limo deal even if it WAS his parent's money. What a guy...not that we would have denied them but I'm sure we can find other transportation that doesn't include bicycles, old fenders and bumpers, removal of animal cracker scat and sippy cups or rearrangement of the contents of someones home who tend to live out of their car these days. We can do this. Hey Chuckie...you still bringing the Volvo? Wanna pick up Morgan and groomsmen on the way?
Speaking of home...there are a couple of Johnston phenomenon colliding as we speak.....not to mention the UPS and Fed EX trucks in the dirveway. One is the annual April spending spree ..it just sort of happens with the arrival of spring and someone's birthday and the other is the less often but extremely all consuming Johnston Knit. Either one of these events alone can be dangerous but occuring simultaneously?? Stand back. I'm afraid Colleen will be asking us to reimburse her dues/fees for being forced to join the teamsters if she has to cart too many more purchases into the house. Last night, as I was crawling into bed, I kiddingly chanted "Hey Hey what do you say, how many coffee beans did you buy today?" 20 minutes later and a discourse on how hard it is to find coffee beans from China and Haiti, I settled in with my own plans. ...I have always wanted to expand the dining area....I'm thinking maybe some granite counter space divided into roasting, grinding, brewing and cupping areas. We will need an exhaust hood as well for the roasting station. Well, we don't need to keep going outside to roast, now do we? Just how much room does 100 pounds of coffee beans take up , do you think? Stay tuned...I'm afraid I really don't have the full picture of what's been ordered either. Who is Sweet Maria and why does he keep calling and asking for Greg by name? Why does Greg keep mumbling in his sleep.. what's a mazzer mini and a hot top drum roaster?
Hey! He doesn't smoke, drink, chase women or watch sports on TV...and I like coffee. What more can a woman ask for?
I'm afraid I could sit here all day long reading one blog or another for days..weeks...months on end. I also feel so inept with all the witty stuff I read on other people's blogs too. Oh well......
Here are a couple more I have read recently and a few "old lady" jokes...a couple I had not heard before...snort...enjoy.
From Mindy's Aunt Ellen:
Two elderly ladies are sitting on the front porch, doing nothing. One lady turns and asks, "Do you still get horny?" The other replies, "Oh sure I do." The first old lady asks, "What do you do about it?" The second old lady replies, "I suck a lifesaver." After a few moments, the first old lady asks, "Who drives you to the beach?"
~-~-~
An old lady was standing at the railing of the cruise ship holding her hat on tightly so that it would not blow off in the wind. A gentleman approached her and said: "Pardon me, madam. I do not intend to be forward, but did you know that your dress is blowing up in this high wind?"
"Yes, I know," said the lady, "I need both hands to hold onto this hat."
"But, madam, you must know that your privates are exposed!" said the gentleman in earnest. The woman looked down, then back up at the man and replied, "Sir, anything you see down there is 85 years old. I just bought this hat yesterday!"
~-~-~
Three old ladies were sitting side by side in their retirement home reminiscing. The first lady recalled shopping at the green grocers and demonstrated with her hands, the length and thickness of a cucumber she could buy for a penny. The second old lady nodded, adding that onions used to be much bigger and cheaper also, and demonstrated the size of two big onions she could buy for a penny a piece. The third old lady remarked, "I can't hear a word you're saying, but I remember the guy your"re talking about."
~-~-~
Two elderly women were out driving in a large car. Both could barely see over the dashboard. As they were cruising along, they came to an intersection. The stoplight was red but they just went on through. The woman in the passenger seat thought to herself, "I must be losing it. I could have sworn we just went through red light."
After a few more minutes they came to another intersection, the light was red, and again they went right through. This time, the passenger was almost sure that the light had been red, but was also concerned that she might be seeing things. She was getting nervous and decided to pay very close attention.
At the next intersection, sure enough, the light was definitely red and they blew right through it. She turned to the other woman and said, "Mildred! Did you know that you ran through three red lights in a row? You could have killed us."
Mildred turned to her and said, "Oh shit! Am I driving?"
* Beautiful sunrise over the water......warming up.
*I found alternate routes home from "work" and "to" play.
*Talked to my PIC while sitting on the deck enjoying my coffee.
*Made plans with my college PIC to play on Friday.
*I took a walk to the beach and along the boardwalk...had to be the old lady chastising rotten little kids who were harrassing a pair of Swans, though..gggrrr
* Tom, the landlord put up the awningon the deck...and installed the AC in the bedroom...I'm sure I will appreciate it.
*Tom also showed me where the laundry facilities are...rats...maybe I'll have to use them sometime along.
*I can see 4 pair of swans swimming around out in the water...right from our deck. I like it here.
Here we are, back in our little place in New London. It's like playing house. Takes two minutes to make the bed and do up the dishes...putter around. It's too foggy this morning to see the water but I can hear the fog horns. Yeah I know, it will get old sometime along but for now I think it's kind of cool. We're making the place our own...adding those special little touches, you know, a blanket over the couch back, slippers in the closet, printer on the desk. Thank goodness we still have the computer graveyard room at home...even have another printer in there...back-up is key doncha know.
Our diseases seem to be abating....I drove to White River Junction before the talking book woman started to get to me. I would have liked to have told you the rest of the trip down was fine but I seem to have missed some...darn those talking books...snore. BTW....The Homeland Scrutiny people were set up again and this time he barely looked at me and did NOT stop talking to his cronie.
Seems the UPS man is going to be stopping by home today with a few more pounds of green coffee beans....ummm 40 pounds I believe from two different orders. hhhmmm....I didn't know there were soooooooooooo many kinds of beans to choose from. I think we will have to have some sort of a cupping party...we haven't roasted anything other than Ethiopian and Kenyan coffees as yet...maybe we'll get up the nerve to roast the Kona beans next and save the expensive stuff for when we get a clue. I think a new coffee maker is on the way too; I'll believe it when I see it since rumor has it that the price Greg paid for it is about a third of what most other places sell it for. Just in case you were ever unclear about what a "knit" is...I think this coffee thing is typical of a Johnston Knit.
Guess I'll go out to get my groceries so I can spend the "warm" afternoon outside...reports are of near 80 degree temperatures for around here. I think I can handle that! Have a nice day, all..........
* The sun is shining.......I'm in a better mood already. I'm disregarding the frost on the car this morning.
* The disease is abating but Greg has it.
*I get to see Morgan at the airport later today during his 1/2 hour layover/turn around flight. My aren't we the jet-setters. It's also weird to be on the other end; usually I'm the one sending out "I've got a layover, come see me" notices.
*Our quarter pound of Kopi Luwak coffee arrived......hhhhmmm. Some things are best enjoyed by possessing them instead of ingesting them...don't you think?
*Apparently we have more green coffee beans arriving sometime along. I roasted a few batches of Ethiopian and Kenyan beans yesterday. work work work. Isn't it a little out of control to have a spreadsheet of green coffee beans posted?
*Risa, the judogi is that white robe like thing they wear......
*I've started my lists....within the next two and a half weeks we have to be in New London, Stamford, Poughkeepsie, Las Vegas and have to deal with work, birthday party, wedding and conference. Somehow I have to have the stuff that goes with each occasion at the right place at the right time AND with minimal trips up and down the interstates of CT, MA, VT and NY. I can do this.
Today's major task was to get a notarized statement off to Morgan for their pre-wedding ceremony meet with the the priest on Friday. simple, right? Wrong, again, Bucko.
Well the task of getting a statement notarized is simple enough...50 cents and a little trip to the Town Clerk"s office get's that done. Coming up with a reasonable sounding statement attesting to the fact that something never happened is another story.
Some first attempts:
Please excuse Morgan Johnston his heatheness..his parents never had him baptized.
As Morgan Johnston's mother, thus being someone who has known him throughtout his whole life, I can attest to the fact that no Priest, Minister, nor Shaman et al has ever performed baptismal rites on him.
Furthermore, I felt compelled to expand on all the other things that were not done to him for which I have no proof either, but I guess that's an exercise for another day.
In the meantime, my statement has a notary seal and is in the US postal system as we speak. I can't even begin to tell you about the look I got from the city clerk when I asked her to perform her notary duties. "Yes, please, just notarize my signature...I'm not asking you to notarize the statement." I'm sure I heard snickering as I left.
I'm still left wondering why in the world verification for a non-event is necessary anyway. Did "the church" have a rash of baptized people claiming otherwise? For what purpose? Am I missing something here? Of course, I must, there has to be a logical explanation for this based in some theologial premise with which I am not familiar....being the non-practicing but baptized Methodist that I am.
It is with regret that I have to shut down the comment section of my weblog for the time being. The comment spammers have made it impossible to keep the old site up and running which is also the host for my sister-in law's blog. I'm just afraid they will find this new one soon enough and force it's shut down as well. Any one know how to deal with this issue?
I'm not even sure anyone should read this without a protective mask...germs ya know. What started as a slight dry cough on Tuesday sometime, exploded into some nasty coughing hacking fevered body aching mess...one morning I was convinced my hair hurt. I feel like someone ran over me with a truck and still hasn't finished me off.
Four ibuprophen at a whack tends to take care of the fever and body aches. Laying down still and quietly keeps me from coughing but then I guess it doesn't do much to get the crap out of my lungs. I can't say that I like this very much. I haven't been this sick in years..I mean the kind of sick where I actually went back to bed yesterday at 9am...none of this lounging on the couch stuff. I think the last time i was this kind of take to my bed sick was maybe about the time Morgan was 8-9 years old..I remember there was a Cub Scout issue and his needing a ride home after that meeting....and someone called on the phone asking to buy Greg's judogi. HHmmm.... maybe I hallucinated that last one but I could have sworn it happened.
Got my "rewards" card for The Big Y.......we get to earn coins too for freebie or reduced price items..be still my heart. We also seem to get a bit extra for our patronage...advice..
Me: I'll have a pound of the Mosley's Pastrami, Please.
Deli Lady: That's the fattiest stuff we have
Me: Oh, really?
Deli Lady: How about I give you the less fatty kind?
Me: Oh ok....
Woman Stnading next to me: So since when do the Deli people make commentary about what we buy..that happened to me in another store...same thing.
Me: I say we go home and stuff ourselves with Pastrami...Mosley Pastrami...that is if we can get anyone to sell us some.
Deli Lady: Here you go, anything else today?
Me: ummmm....No, thank you
So explain to me how I ended up with a pound of corned beef?
So we get all these coupons from Hertz for free rental days and such and I rarely use them. However, since we are in New London with only one car and I want to go visit some friends, I decided what better way to do this than to use the freebie rental ones. You realize they aren't really free, don't you? Excludes tax, so it's really $14 for two days; still not bad. So I make a reservation to pick up the car at the New London Amtrak since that is where it says I can in New London. Well sort of. The reservation woman reads me a script where it says that I have to call the local Groton Hertz office ( near the groton airport - not the big leagues) and arrange to have the car available to me at the train station or pick it up in Groton by taking a cab for which I will be reimbursed. I also had to do this with appropriate amount of time to accomplish this task. I called the Groton Hertz immediately after making the reservation...I was told they don't deliever cars to the train station..that I would have to take a cab from there and they would reimburse my fare. Now I was arriving on the Amtrak, correct? No I say, I was not..just wanted to rent a car in New London. Well then...that is only a service for Amtrak. Now I didn't ask if they would reimburse my cab fare but it certainly sounded as if I didn't arrive Amtrak, they wouldn't reimburse my fare. It was only 9 miles from here anyway so we drove over this morning to pick it up .... but still it was not a pleasant experience when I was expecting to pick it up 3 miles away at the train station. At least *I* was able to use the free day rental coupons and rent the car in my name instead of " the gold card man's name" This was a plus...however, I had to use my Credit Card and not the business one since it isn't in MY name. Woe is me...it isn't always easy being me AND it isn't always easy using freebie coupons either.
Isn't there a lesson in here...nothing's free?
So here is part of our new quarters in New London. I think this must be payback for all the time spent in Nowhere, NY. the first view is standing by the kitchen sink and looking toward the LR and bedroom. The bedroom is down those stairs...5 steps down into a large room with 2 huge dressers and two closets...queen sized bed. The second photo is looking out the sliding glass doors at the Thames River/entrance. I think. If you look closely, left through the trees, you can see the submarine pulling back into port this morning. ...and I thought it was cool sitting on the couch watching the sunrise and the ferry going out while I drank my coffee. When it gets warmer, we can go out those sliding glass doors and sit on the deck at the table and chairs ( next to the gas grill..under the awning) to have our breakfast. Our Landlord, Tom, deals with his place as short term quarters but longer than hotel stays. He however, stocks it as a hotel would; not exactly...MUCH better. We have more towels than we own at home. Full size soaps and shampoos. all the cleaning supplies we could ever use/need ( snort, but then you know what kind of a cleaner *I* am) The kitchen seems to be stocked well for dishes and cooking utensils. No dishwasher, BUT the was a huge container of Haagen Daz chocolate Ice cream and a huge container of coffee in the fridge and this morning I found chocolate chip cookies in the microwave. Phone, cable TV w/HBO, utilities are included as is laundry facilities in the main house. He supplies a big bottle of Tide as well. Cabinet space is at a premium so there is a lighted curio cabinet that holds all the dishes, wine glasses, etc. The LR has a bookcase with a few books and videotapes...smaller TV in the bedroom, of course and 2 air conditioners...ceiling fans.
Tom gave us a little tour of the "neighborhood"...yes the thought crossed my mind that we were in the truck with a lunatic who was kidnapping us but it worked out nicely. Ocean Beach Park is close by and... oh yeah..he includes a pass to that in the rent. Greg's work site is a whole 2 miles away along the water. NOW, I suspect the summer months are going to be a bear with beach traffic and all, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'm liking it here. We are also go to look at one of his less expensive units when it becomes available next month too...after all we don't NEED all this luxury...I'll enjoy it while it lasts and it's certainly much better than any of the suite type hotels we frequent...and those are plush by some standards!
Of course we have our priorities straight...we found Best Buy last night and got the high speed access set up this morning...obviously. Hehehe...I also just happened to notice all the "other" stores near-by...Talbots, Macy's, craft stores...Panera Bread...yes indeedy...I think this stint in New London is going to be better than I thought....;-D