Today I was in search of white baseball pants with black/red piping. Of course, I first called the Fuquay Sports Shop because I like to buy local when I can. When they didn't have them, I decided to go to the big box sporting goods store's website.
For future reference, their website address is DICKSSPORTINGGOODS.COM. What I typed in came up with something completely different. AND I TYPED MY BASEBALL PANT SPECIFICATIONS IN THE SEARCH BOX!!!!!!
Di
Although today the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s, there is a possibility of snow flurries tonight. In the Raleigh-Durham area, snow flurries result in at least one day off from school. Any snow that sticks is good for at least two. We had a crazy blizzard (18 inches overnight) the first year we moved here in 1999 and the kids were out of school for two weeks! The next few days promise frigid temperatures in the teens and twenties.
Most people here are not prepared for such weather. I mean, why buy all kinds of winter accessories when we really only experience a few days a year of what anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line would call winter. On those days, I wear a Columbia ski jacket that I think I got in 1997 when we were living in Florida and went on a ski trip. The worst part about being outside in the cold is having cold ears and if you wear a hat, having your hair look really stupid when you take the hat off.
So, I present my latest creation. Unfortunately, my model refused to wear this fancy ear warmer on his ears. Maybe he heard that others of his breed have their ears surgically cropped and was worried that having something cover his ears was step one.
This is, by far, the most complex knitting project I have attempted...and I've made sweaters and cable knits and everything. But it was fun and I'm proud of how beautiful it came out! My model looks utterly unimpressed!
Di
I think there might be nothing sadder than melting snow...well, in North Carolina anyway. As we were catching snowflakes on our tongues in New York City, snow was falling in Raleigh. SIX INCHES. To my readers in Europe (there are surprisingly quite a few), that is like 15 centimeters. I'll pause while they snicker in Germany, Belgium, Wisconsin and British Columbia.
Naturally school was closed on Tuesday. Of course school was also closed on Wednesday. And today school is operating on a two-hour delay. We are not wimps here...well, maybe a little. It has to do with infrastructure and snow plows and stuff.
Here it was:
Hurley took this when it was really coming down.
Quoth Toby, "WTF is this stuff? There is no way I'm walking out there. I can hold it until it goes away."
"This is just wrong. I'm a Florida dog. Whose idea was this?"
Kind of charming, huh?
I just love the look of snow on Adirondack chairs. It's kind of the antithesis of the covers of all those summer beach reads.
Beautiful!
Di
I have this weird combination of qualities...stubbornness, resourcefulness and impatience...that often leads me to fix stuff around the house. When something needs done, my kids are more likely to yell, "Mom," rather than "Dad." They might someday find themselves paraphrasing that great philosopher Jeff Spicoli, saying, "It's OK, my Mom has an awesome set of tools." (From my husband's favorite movie of all time...anyone?)
Lately I have noticed that my beloved washing machine (seriously, I love my washer and dryer so much that I wrote this blog about them) was filling up very slowly when it started and when it rinsed. I had two possible paths. I could call GE and set up a service call, which I imagined would be free because it's under warranty. Or call the company that services our well and have them check the pressure which I knew would cost money. When I called GE, I found that my warranty expired and I wasn't about to pay for a service call!
So I decided to do it myself. I downloaded the manual from the GE site. Of course, I can't be bothered to keep and organize all the manuals I get with the stuff I buy. I can, however, locate the manual for my 1986 Beta VCR if I ever need it.
I got my tools (yes, MY tools) and got to work. It was relatively simple. I got it done in about 20 minutes and it's all better. I was so excited that I immediately e-mailed my friend Tony who can fix anything and said:
I am so [insert macho expletive here]-ing proud of myself!!! I fixed the washing machine all by myself. Followed the instructions from the manual, used all kinds of tools as well as a bucket, and now it works! The water comes in at full pressure!
How many women do you know who would do that?
Tony's response?
Follow directions? Not many...
We've come a long way, baby. But we've still got a LONG way to go!
Di
FUQUAY-VARINA, NC --- After lengthy discussions and intense negotiations, one family in the small town of Fuquay-Varina, NC has announced that they will not petition the school district to make the day following the Florida Gators' win over Oklahoma in the BCS Championship a holiday nor consider it an excused absence.
Sponsor-friendly, but viewer unfriendly, networks chose to air the game at 8:30 which meant it did not end until after midnight on Thursday. Despite the late hour, the father (who has chosen that he and his family remain anonymous) insisted that the son report to school as usual the following morning. The father himself had to leave the house at 4:30 to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. His decision was communicated to his wife, the child's mother, via text before he boarded his flight.
Wake County Public Schools supports this decision, with a representative stating, "If we give them this day off, pretty soon we will start having teacher work days every month, a day off for the NC State Fair, excused absences for the first day of the ACC basketball tournament and a day off for all of the high school kids who didn't miss an exam. Wait we already do all those things? Well, we're still not giving a day off for a team that isn't even in our state! We applaud the unnamed family for supporting educational values and helping to enforce our policies."
The family is aware that further discussion, peppered with excessive whining, will ensue. The mother is calmly drinking coffee and steeling herself to wake up her son who led the negotiations for the day off.
Di
...where everywhere you looked there were signs and they all seemed to be pointing at you? My friend Stef had that day yesterday. On her way to work, she found herself behind this van:
On here way home, she saw this:
And then it gets really weird. She called our friend Marcy to tell her to go outside and look at the rainbow. While Marcy and her daughter and friends were watching the sky in awe, a neighbor who was walking collapsed and fell into a ditch. Marcy went to help and had one of the kids go call 911. It has to make you believe that things happen for a reason!
Di
If the MomLogic post, Breadwinners vs. Bread Makers, made you as angry as it made me, you must come visit my Saturday contribution to the News & Observer's Mom2Mom site:
They are even going to publish it in the printed newspaper on Tuesday! I feel so famous when I'm published in print! If you come by, PLEASE leave a comment! The site is new and I don't know if most of the readers realize how important comments are to us feedback-starved bloggers! Since my compensation there is, um, oh, nothing, my motto is, "Will work for comments!"
Di
School is out!!! The high school kids got out one day earlier than the middle school kids, so I agreed to take Haley and her friend on a field trip. I'm trying to win Mother-of-the-Year.
First we went to Big Ed's, a Raleigh institution, where you can get those staples of Southern living (not capitalized, not the magazine)...sweet tea and banana pudding:
Served on a red-and-white checked plastic tablecloth with antebellum silverware. Big Ed was not there, but just to give you the full effect, here he is. Seriously. My friend Paula and I were invited to dine at his table one day!
Lest you think these SOPHOMORES were less-than-sophomoric, two minutes later they were fighting over who gets to push the button at the crosswalk. We don't get to the big city much.
And then off for some ed-you-kay-shun-ul stuff.
And I just might have found the name for my next blog!
What are we going to do for the next 77 days?
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