We had such a fun visit from Pokey and the gang (could that be a band name?) The Empress and That Man came for dinner on their last night here. My husband did the cooking and the clean-up, for which he gets a whole lot of points. The boys took a day off from school to hang out with their big sister, and the whole crew went to the mall. Not my idea of fun, but I think that for many people this is a recreational activity.
We also played a lot of games, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am pleased to report that the kids did some studying, and there was some
music. I even did some knitting.
I also went to Target to buy a hot water bottle, to make sure that the bawks will actually fit. The newspaper said this morning that we ought to expect a cold, hard, expensive winter, so it seems reasonable to lay in a good supply of hot water bottles.
This is easier said than done. They are available at Target, but I couldn’t find them. I asked the young woman in the pharmacy area, and she looked at me blankly. “To drink hot water from?” The term “water bottle” clearly meant a thing for drinking water, so the “hot” part confused her.
No, I said, it was made of rubber — At this point, she looked askance, as though I were seeking some kind of sex toy. “Like a heating pad,” I tried. While this didn’t make any sense to her, it did lead us over to the heating pad section. There, on the bottom row, with the Epsom salts and other weird old people stuff, were hot water bottles. This could be the winter for them. Also for sweaters, quilts, afghans, and possibly even allowing the cats and dogs into the bed.
I also bought yarn at Target. I surprised myself by doing so. I don’t care for novelty yarn, I don’t do stash enhancement and obviously do not have any project in mind that calls for 36 grams of vari-colored nylon fuzz, and this was definitely not on my shopping list for the day. But the colors were so pretty together.
You probably already know that Target now has yarn in the $1 bin. There is this fuzzy nylon, there is some ladder yarn, and they were just unpacking a scratchy acrylic. When we can buy 50 grams of wool for under $2, 12 grams of nylon for $1 is clearly not a bargain. But there is a sort of fascination in the $1 bin, isn’t there? I have noticed that otherwise reasonable people will fill their carts at the dollar stores with items which cost less than a dollar in the grocery store. I guess this madness infected me, too. I’ll let you know how it knits up.
If it turns out to be lovely on the needles, I will get some for a bed jacket I admired in Rebecca Home #7. It is shown in Amelie, which would put the finished object in the $100 range. But if heating prices are as high this winter as the papers have been predicting, a bed jacket might be a practical item. As well as allowing one to feel like Ginger Rogers in her satin boudoir.
thanks for the comment. i’m realizeing that letting my life unfold how it “normally” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
oh, no, i’m not a red head. I’m actually a Eurasian. But I’m attracted to redheaded girls. I dunno why…
Emily had to have some of the Target $1 furry yarn. She’s 2–It’s purple–she threw it in the cart–I had no choice! So I made her a scarf from it. That stuff is REALLY hard to work with! Slippery, sticky (it grabs onto itself like Kidsilk Haze does), and so thin. But it is so soft, isn’t it?
Sounds like a perfect weekend/weekday break.
Halloween gets noticed more here than it did when I was a kid – we sometimes get youngsters coming around trick or treating – I always try to remember to have some bits and pieces for their bags. I forgot one year and apologised to the youngster that I didn’t have any sweets and asked how he’d feel about a piece of fruit. He reluctantly agreed and then asked if I had any of the instant noodles that are common over here. I said yes, his face brightened up and he asked if I’d mind letting him have those instead of fruit. I handed over the instant noodles (he just wanted the noodles, not the stuff that you add to noodles to give them taste) and decided that kids are weirder today than they were in my day.
wow. that was almost a prophetic comment.
i met her tonight, which is to say she sat right next to me in the library lounge and i heard her speak. it sounds like she is a normal person. it also seems like she’s an oridinary person, although that’s not the fairest way to say it. i don’t know. maybe i like her more as an ideal, as an ideal. cuz when she talks she loses her glisten. but i want that glisten more than i want her. that’s what the “ID/ideal” poem I wrote is about, me actually having the ideal within myself.
does the ideal exist? should I lower it? I want “her” to be stupendous. Then again, I’m willing for her to be boring, as long as I can understand why.
with that said, thanks.