Erica’s Blog

OK, these are the pictures of the actual car we bought.  They’re from the Craigslist advertisement.  Hard to tell the color from the picture.  When we first pulled up on Saturday, it looked green, but up close it looked blue.  Could have been my sunglasses, though.

These are the features it has:

17K Miles
All-wheel drive
3.5Liter V6 VTEC Engine (very fast)
Automatic Transmission
Navigation System
All power (steering, locks, windows, etc)
Full extended factory warranty until 2010 or 100K miles - transferable to the new owner CD/Cassette/Radio
AC, Cruise control
Leather seats (light grey) 
Fog lights 
Backup (parking) sensors 
All-season floor mats + cargo tray 
Auto-dimming rear-view mirror 
Full-size spare 
Rear splash guards 
Roof rack with cross bars
Dark grey (sagebrush) exterior
Tires almost new
Driver’s and Front Passenger Airbags
Driver’s and Side Passenger Airbags
ABS
3-point Seat Belts
Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children
Security System
Remote Keyless Entry System
8 Passenger Seating with Split Folding 2nd and 3rd Row
Driver’s 8-Way Power Seat
Cruise Control
Alloy Wheels
Power Door Mirrors
Rear Privacy Glass
Rear Window/Wiper Washer
Rear Window Defroster
Grocery Hooks
Child safety window locks

Well, hubby eventually changed his mind again, but now it’s for sure.  We’ve both seen it, we’ve made the deal, and it’s paid for.  We should have the new car this weekend after it gets the key scratch on the side fixed.

It’s a 2003 Honda Pilot.  It seats eight, and it has all kinds of extras — GPS, back-up sensors, stereo, fancy cargo mats, leather seats, etc., etc. 

I forgot to take a picture of it on Saturday, but I will ASAP.  For now, here’s a link that shows what they’re like.

Well, the Things had a great sleepover at cousins’ house.  I took them out there Friday midday and hung out for a bit.  Thing One came up to me and asked, “Mommy, when are you going to LEAVE?”  I guess I was cramping her style.  She couldn’t work over Uncle and Auntie with me there, I suppose.  They had a big water balloon fight with the boys later which, I’m sure, was great considering the heat.

I think I’ve already mentioned my trip to the cemetery on Friday.

Friday night, we went to Restaurant Las Trancas for dinner.  HUGE portions, good Mexican food.  We knew it would probably be good b/c when we walked in, 80% to 90% of the customers were Mexican.  That’s always a good sign.  They had live mariachi music, too.  The waitress clearly thought we were insane for not wanting tortillas with our meal; it was pretty funny.  Granted, for true Mexicans, not having tortillas is pretty much heretical, but we’re not exactly true Mexicans.  (Though it’s funny when we go to Mexican restaurants, and the waitresses take one look at hubby and speak to him in Spanish, and I have to translate for him.)  Next time, we’ll just order one thing and split it.

I must say it was nice having a short time w/o the Things.  I didn’t get out of bed until 9:00 on Saturday.  If I hadn’t desperately needed to pee, I probably could have stayed in bed longer!  Later, we strolled over to the Famer’s Market and bought some veggies and some flowers to take to the cemetery.  It was blazing hot.  Now, if it’s blazing hot here, it’s scorching hot everywhere else in the Bay area. 

On the way to pick up the girls, we went to the cemetery.  In trying to get together all we needed to take to Poppa & Nana’s, however, I forgot the flowers, so we had to stop at Albertson’s and get some.  It was nice to be able to sit as long as we wanted.  We even took Jenna; she was really good (thank goodness she didn’t need to poop!).  I really like that so many people visit that cemetery.  All the graves are so well tended.  It’s nice to see flowers everywhere. 

Adri seemed to like her bag.  I’m bummed that the handle came out short, though.  I felt guilty — the one bag that was a special request/commissioned bag, and the handle came out goofy!  Oh, well.  At least the rest of it looked good.

We had fun at Poppa & Nana’s, celebrating their anniversary (which is actually the day after tomorrow).  42 years married.  These days, that’s practically unheard of.  They really liked all the gifts we got them.  I FINALLY did Nana’s fuzzy flip-flops.  She seemed to like them; she put them on right away.  It was miserably hot.  Poor Jenna, with all that black hair.  (Sunday, we found out why it was so miserable — it was 100 degrees out!)  Poppa & Nana enjoyed their trip to Montana and brought back very appropriate gifts for all of us — socks for me and the Things, and a “Moose Drool” pint glass for hubby.  From what I hear, Moose Drool ale is about as dark as the Diet Pepsi he actually uses it for. <g>

Hubby & Marky Mark went golfing again yesterday afternoon.  They’re really enjoying being able to do this, and they even met a guy who wanted to come to church with his girlfriend.

Ran by my friend Joyce’s house last night to give her the “Double Sophie” for her birthday.  She really liked it.  You know how you can tell when someone’s just being polite and when they really like something?  Well, she really liked it.  I felt good.  After all, what’s the point of making something for someone if she’s not going to like it?  She deserved a good birthday this year, after losing her mom.  Funny, they just got a Roomba, too. 

Finally put the button on Miss Claudia’s bag.  Whoopee! 

Adri’s Sophie is done, too.  Double Whoopee!  I’m not sure why the strap came out so short, but it’s still cute.

Well, I stopped by the cemetery today.  This was the first time I’d ever been there by myself, and it went OK.  I had dropped the girls off at the cousins’ for a sleepover and decided that going to the cemetery on my way home was a better use of my time than stopping at IKEA.  (I’m sure hubby will give that one a hearty second!)

It’s a good thing I went b/c we must have attached too many things to Paul’s bud vase on his birthday — when I walked up to the urn garden, his bud vase was lying on the ground.  The balloons and flowers were gone, but I had pretty much expected that.  Everything else was still there.  A little worse for wear — the sprinkler water had made the blue bear or maybe the blue ribbon run onto the white bear, so now half of her is blue, and Grandma & Grandpa’s card was half disintegrated — but still there.  I cleaned things up a bit, then took the bud vase to the office.  They said they’d put it back on.

NOTE:  If any of the family members who visit St. Joseph’s read this, please check next time you’re there to see if they’ve re-attached the bud vase.  If they haven’t, please stop by the office and ask about it.  Thanks.

I also stopped by Grandpa Paul & Grandma Jennie and pulled out some crabgrass, etc.  Wish I’d taken flowers for everyone.  Maybe when hubby and I go to pick up the girls tomorrow, we can stop by there.

Because I knew I’d hit Friday traffic on the way home and b/c I knew Jenna would be eagerly waiting to be let out, I didn’t stay long. It was nice, though, not to have to worry about if the girls were getting antsy, etc.  I could just sit on the ground in front of the urn garden (I just figured out today that that’s what they call the big marble thing with all the niches for the ashes) and talk to Paul or pray or just sit there.  It was nice.  Sigh.  This is one of those things that makes me wish he weren’t 45 minutes away.  Oh, well.  You can’t have everything….

Senate Bill 861 is the latest cause among the Pitt Bull owners.  The problem with this is that it singles out a specific breed and that it doesn’t address the fact that irresponsible owners are the problem; dogs are not.

Check this out:   http://www.sorryagain.com/sorry1.htm  It’s a BUNCH of great Pit Bull (and friends) pictures against breed-specific legislation in general and SB861 in particular.

OK, I know Adri reads my blog, so:  ADRI, DON’T WORRY.  I HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOUR SOPHIE.

I’ve been posting so much about other bags I’ve been making, I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t making hers, which I promised to give her on Friday.  This picture is where it stands right at this very moment.  I will finish knitting it tomorrow and felt it tomorrow.  This will give it till Friday to dry.  Maybe I’ll even let it dry till Saturday and bring it when we go to pick up the girls from their sleepover.

Anyhow, just wanted to give a little reassurance.  (Now, if I could ever get around to Nana’s fuzzy flip-flops that were supposed to be for Mother’s Day!)

…It’s not YARN, anyway.

One off-kilter fuchsia button was used on the “Double Sophie” for Joyce’s birthday.  The other one will go on Claudia’s BHB.  The other pink buttons will be used in the future with my other wool stash.

The bar pins for the backs of those felted flowers like I made for Teacher Sherin.

The beads — the silver ones and the cheap black plastic ones — and the charms are embellishments for felted bags to come.  If I knew how to do jewelry-type beading, I’d make some really cool stitch markers, but I know better than to start down THAT road.

Well, this attempt at a Buttonhole Bag went much better.  The last one came out tiny b/c I made it using two strands of Galway worsted instead of Lamb’s Pride Bulky.   Being on a “yarn diet”, I had figure out how to use what was in my stash to make one in a more normal, usable size. 

ALTERATIONS:  I made the base 15 sts wide instead of 11 and 60 rows long instead of 40.  I did one extra repeat of the increases.  On the “knit 10 rows straight” part, I did 15 rows.  I did one extra repeat of the decreases.  I made the handle 4 or 5 rows (can’t remember!) instead of 3.  Oh, and b/c it was going to be bigger, as an afterthought I added a loop for closing it.  I’ll put the button on after it dries (I wanted to wait to see how much the loop would felt).  I’m not terribly thrilled with how the loop turned out, but it’s OK considering it was an afterthought.  I have a cool, lopsided fuchsia button that I’m going to use on it.  I was afraid to put it in the washer too long, but as it turned out, I ended up having to put it through three 10-minute cycles to get it to felt sufficiently.  You can still kind of see the stitches, but that’s how every picture I’ve ever seen of a Buttonhole Bag was (except my tiny one!).

This is for Thing Two’s teacher, Miss Claudia’s, birthday.  It’s not till mid-August, but they won’t be in class then, and she’ll be in Europe on a cruise (ooh, la, LA!).  Thing One took a few classes from Claudia, and Thing Two has been taking classes from her for about two years now.  She’s become very special to us.  She even mailed Paul and the girls presents when Paul was born and came to his memorial service.  One day last year, she offered to watch Thing Two all morning for me one day so I could get a break.  Soooo, I wanted to give her something special for her birthday this year.  She’s a blonde, so these colors will be good for her.  I think she’ll really like it.  Hopefully, it will be useful on her trip.

We’ve found a new form of family entertainment.  This Roomba robotic vaccuumer is SO cool!  Check it out — in this picture, it’s figuring out where the dining room chairs are so it can clean around them. 

I’ve never seen hubby like this.  When the UPS truck pulled up, he went outside, clapping his hands and jumping up & down like a little boy on Christmas.

Watching it in the living room was cool.  It went under the futons, figured out how to get up on the hearth, etc.  This should really help with the Jenna hair!

Now, why did we spend a bunch of money on this thing?  Well, ever since I was pregnant with Paul, I haven’t been able to vaccuum and do the floors b/c it wrecks my back.  Hubby has been doing it ever since then, but he hit the wall where he just couldn’t do it any more (on top of working, etc., etc.).  I’ve hired a teenager to come over once a week to clean the floors, but with Miss Jenna Who Sheds, the place needs to be vaccuumed every day or two.

Soooo, hubby got the idea in his head to get a Roomba, did his research, and got one on Ebay.  Should help make our lives much easier.  At the very least, it’s cheap entertainment and a way to get the girls to clean up (“You dont’t want the robot to vaccuum up your toys!”).