So which is it?

It started the other night. Last Wednesday actually. You've probably heard about it. There was a huge Natural Gas explosion here in Allentown. A 3 block walk from my house. Almost.

We're fine, no damage to our house or anything, but let me tell you, the shockwave from an explosion can leave a lasting impression. Knowing that 5 people died in the resulting fire kinda sticks with you too.

My heart goes out to all of the families affected, this is a true tragedy. And made worse by the fact that our Natural Gas infrastructure is a mess and at the rate they're currently fixing things, it'll be roughly the 2nd of Never when the upgrades are finally finished.

We sat and did some math. The necessary upgrades will cost $13 billion to complete. But I was curious, what does that much money look like? How do you get your head around that many zeros. I looked up the population of Allentown and at the most recent estimate it's roughly 111,000 people. Then we said, a Grande White Mocha is $5.50 give or take.

So:

$13 billion divided by 111,000 people, divided by $5.50 per White Mocha, equals approximately 21,000 coffees per person.

21,000 coffees per person divided by 365 days in a year, works out to 58 years and about 2 months.

In other words, the cost of repairing that Natural Gas infrastructure in our little city, is roughly equivalent to free coffee for the entire city for the next 6 decades.

WOW!

That's all very fascinating, but I'm not sleeping now. I've been up until like 2am for something like 7 nights in a row now. Granted Saturday and Sunday I had off and some of those nights I did close at work, but still.

The question is, is this just insomnia triggered by a rather frightening event (a friend of mine actually needs to have repairs done to her living room wall from the shockwave) or am I having some sort of existential crisis. Add in the fact that I have OCD and it's anybody's guess.

All I know, is right now Tylenol Simply Sleep is the only reason I'm getting anything close to enough sleep to keep going. Bleh.

Sock it to Me!

A sock making tutorial, finally. From the top down.

Knit in the round for desired cuff length in desired pattern.

Heel:

Knit halfway around your sock, turn, slip one stitch knitwise, purl back across to second last st, turn, slip one stitch knitwise, knit back across to 2nd last stitch of previous Row. Continue in the pattern, working one less stitch each time, until approximately 6 stitches remain.

Starting next row, work on more stitch each row until you've worked 1 stitch past first row of heel.

Foot:

work in desired desired pattern until foot comes up to base of toes.

Toe: knit 1, knit 2 together, knit until 3 stitches short of halfway point, knit 2 together, knit 2, knit 2 together, knit across until 3 stitches remain, knit 2 together, knit 1

repeat until 6-12 stitches remain (depending on weight of yarn - less stitches for thicker yarn), sew toe closed and finish off.

I have a new baby! (sorta)

I am the proud owner of a brand new laptop!!!! We finally bit the bullet and bought a brand new Toshiba Satellite! This should help my productivity and upload schedule significantly, especially since I'm working on a new pattern book.

Also, I've had a couple of brainstorms for the Fishin' Buddies booklet. As soon as Open Office finishes downloading I'm going to get started working!

Good things are happening and I hope that you all will feel that it's been worth the wait.

Baby Steps.

I have a decorated wheat sheaf hanging in the kitchen, my wreath is back up on the living room wall and I hung the curtains in the master bedroom and bathroom. It's not much but it's a little step in the direction of putting my house back together.

I also bought window candles for the front bedrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Then I put them in the windows. On the 3rd floor, the cords miraculously, but just barely reach the nearest outlet and that's only because the sconces in that room have outlets on the bottom.

Then for the second floor. Three windows, three candles. 2 outlets and one of them has something plugged into it. None of which occurred to me until I tried to plug in the candles. Oops. Now I need to buy an adapter. And probably some battery candles for the front window for this time of year and over the winter when the Christmas tree isn't up.

A single candle in each window. It seems so simple. Yeah, right.

My Mother-In-Law

I love my mother-in-law. She's a sweet grandmotherly type, who almost makes me feel guilty about not being the type of woman who could her son into kids he doesn't want. Almost. Her name is Dot. (I'm not kidding.)

She called us up the other day and asked if I wanted to take her arts and crafts supplies off her hands because she wasn't going to be doing anything with them anymore. Because it's no fun without Lois (the neighbor lady across the street who has also given up doing arts and crafts). Because she doesn't like to shop for supplies without Lois, who won't tag along because she'll be tempted to buy something that she won't use anyway because it's cute.

So the husband tells his adorable mother that I said yes, I''ll be down to take a look at what she has. I called her back later when I had my work schedule handy and told her when I'd be down. I get the in-laws house and I can't hear the pugs barking (Ollie and Ruby) and Dot is talking absolutely forever to answer the door.

Just when I've almost decided that "Something Terrible" has happened, she finally opens the door. Turns our she broke her foot. I can't hear the pugs because she let them out that morning and the porch steps are a giant pain in the ass with the huge orthotic boot she's wearing and she hasn't bothered to let them back in.

So I look around the living at the half dozen or so totes and decide that I'll just take it all. Then Dot points out that there's more totes down the hallway (which is about three more, plus a pile of grapevine wreaths). So at this point I'm thinking no big deal.

I asked Dot if she wanted me to go through the stuff at their house or bring it home and return what I don't want or what? She says that anything I don't take she's just going to throw out. I said, do you just want me to take everything, and if I can't use it, just find another home for it?

Dot says "Could you?!?! I mean I don't want you to be stuck with stuff you won't use. I don't want you to take it home and then tell everyone that your mother-in-law stuck you with an incredible pile of shit and that you don't want any of it and don't know what to do because you couldn't say no, but it's a bunch of useless shit and you don't want it."

I said confidently, "No, no problem, I can find homes for anything I won't use." Secretly wondering how I'm going to do this, but I've already volunteered to take it all.

Then Dot says "There's more in the spare bedroom."

"That's okay, I'll just have to make a bunch of trips, we'll have an excuse to visit."

Then she shows me the spare bedroom. Then she tells me there's more in the closet.

****

So at this point, we've made nearly a dozen 45 minute round trips to my in-laws, 4 of which it took to even make a dent in the stack of totes Dot had. I think we're about 2/3s of the way through getting it to our house.

I have no idea where I'm going to store all of it, or how I'm going to get rid of what I don't want/need. What I originally thought was 12 or so totes, has turned out to be more like 40. But I finally have a wreath for my front door and so does Lisa, and I have another to give to Jess & Mike and I have a heart-shaped wreath to hang between the sconces in my living room. I'm also a long way toward replacing all of the Christmas ornaments we couldn't keep after the fire, and I'll be able to get Jess & Mike a good start for their first Christmas in their own apartment.

I ended up spending $12 on specialty floral picking pliers (that was after 50% off) and I'm sliced open 4 of my fingers (I'm running out) with the stupid steel picks for the pliers. There's styrofoam fake berries all over the living room. My back, third floor room looks like a floral supply warehouse, and much to my husband's delight/dismay, I'm happier than a pig in shit and so is his mother!

That being said, anybody need any floral supplies??