Erica’s Blog

…I just KNOW there was a house there two hours ago….

Feeling much better today, we are.  Both Things are at school, though Thing Two woke up with big sniffles.  I told her she’s not allowed to get sick! 

Actual sunshine for a couple of days in a row.  Amazing.  Amazing.  I’ll have to force Thing Two to come with me to take Jenna for a walk later. 

Finished the wrist warmers.  Eh, they’re ok, but just ok — not even OK.  I may show you a picture later, and I may not.  If I had a set of #4 dpn’s, I’d try a pair on that size to see if I like ‘em better that way.  Did…gasp!…a mini swatch on #3’s, and that’s OK, but I knit tight, so I want to try #4’s.  Hmmm.   Feel a purchase coming on.  Maybe not.  Jeannette probably has a set I can borrow.

Sad News:  Grandpa Gil’s stepdad, Frank, died yesterday afternoon.   His health had been bad for a long time, and he died peacefully sitting in his chair, watching TV.  To add insult to injury, the paramedics took TWO HOURS to get there after Maria called.  TWO HOURS.  That’s ridiculous.  The only good thing about that is that he was still there for Grandpa Gil, Grandma Ruthie, and Gil’s brother Felix to say “good-bye” when they got there.  We only met Frank once, but we have fond memories of him and the fabulous Puerto Rican dinner he fixed us on Christmas Eve, 2001.  So, raise a glass and a forkful of beans or platanos and say a toast for Frank.

EDITED LATER TO ADD:  Here’s a picture of Frank from December 24, 2001…

OK, fine.  I’ll show you.  Here they are.  Seeeee, I told you they weren’t that great.

Just a quickie today, maybe more later:

EASTER:  Hubby & Thing Two had a great time at Bill & Judy’s.  I’m really kicking myself for being sick and unable to go b/c I found out that, not only were Cindy & Charlie’s kids there, but Cindy & Charlie were, too.  Gah!  I haven’t seen Cindy since…before I was pregnant with Paul.  I’ve known her all my life, and she’s one of those friends you can pick right back up with, even if you haven’t talked for ages & ages, one of those people you have a two-hour talk with and one of you says, Are you sure we aren’t sisters?  I don’t get to see her often anymore b/c she lives in Virginia and it takes a lot to fly a family of seven (yupp, they have five kids) to CA from VA, so usually Paul & Carol go to them instead of the other way around.  Anyhow, I know Thing Two had fun b/c I had to soak all her clothes in about a gallon of Spray-n-Wash, then do the soak, pre-wash, wash, second rinse thing on them.  Hubby brought home a bunch of food, so I don’t have to cook for a while.

THE CRUD:  Made a judgment call and kept Thing One home today for one more day instead of letting her go back to school.  Turns out she could have gone.  Oh, well.  I would have felt pretty bad if she’d gone and been miserable or gotten half her class sick.  Thought I was doing better, but then my fever broke.  Yupp.  Must have been a low-grade one for me not to realize I had it, but I didn’t realize it till it broke (you know, the whole sweating thing).  Soooo, no Knit Night for me tonight….

KNITTING:  I have one and a half of my new lace-edged wristwarmers done.  Not sure yet if I like them. Actually, I think I kind of don’t.  Well, I mean, they’re OK and all, but something about them just isn’t hitting me right.  I need to wear them for a while to figure it out.  There are certain things I like about them and others I don’t.   The first one got knit and frogged so many times that I’m surprised the yarn is still holding up!  Hubby seems terribly unimpressed.  He’s more impressed by things like colorful felted bags and Noodles’ sweater.  Oh, well. 

OLD FRIENDS:  Speaking of long-time friends, a friend I’ve known since I was three years old resurfaced this week.  He’s gone through the wringer the last couple of years.  Sooooo, here go kudos to you, “Cousin” Marc.  Hang in there, friend! 

Back to bed now.  I don’t feel so guilty for spending the morning in bed now that I know I was sicker than I thought I was….

I have it on good authority that the Easter Bunny came to our house around 6:00 this morning.  See, I was awake, and  I couldn’t breathe, so I took more decongestant.  I happen to know that the Bunny came around that time.

All the egg-hunting pictures can be seen here, but below are a couple of highlights w/comments.

Any eggs in here?

How ’bout in here???

Yes, due to the yukky weather, the Bunny had to hide the eggs inside the house.  It was cute — when Thing One went to go wake up Thing Two, Thing Two immediately put on a sweatshirt and the ubiquitous cowgirl boots.  Uh, no.  Not going outside in the rain.  At least it’s not like last year, when we thought we were going to have to build an ark!  The Bunny brought some Bible-type books, new hairbrushes (they had been sharing forever), bunny pens, and a bit of candy.  He also left Hubby’s Bible open to Matthew 28 so we could read about the resurrection.  He’s a spiritual bunny who knows what Easter’s really all about.

The crud is still here.  Hubby & Thing Two went off to Bill & Judy’s for the usual Easter gathering (Cindy, I wish I could have seen your kids!), stopping off in the City to drop off crutches, a cane, and the moon boot for Son of Pethuel, who sprained his ankle the other day.  Thing One, Jenna, and I are hanging out here.  Right now, she’s doing the “bonus” DVD of The Polar Express (we all watched Curse of the Were-Rabbit earlier — thanks, Auntie Diane!).  I’m headed off to the shower.  After, we’ll both have “reading time”, and I’ve promised her I’d paint her nails. She was pretty bummed that Hubby left b/c I haven’t spent much time with him this week, but I’ll do what I can to help her have fun.  We’re missing the big feast, but I’m roasting us a chicken and veggies (I can just barely smell the mushrooms from time to time).  I’ll also work on my pattern for stockinette wristwarmers with a lacy border…

Happy Easter, y’all!

Feh.  They didn’t work!

Neither Hubby nor I make meringues more than about once every 15 years or so, so at first, we didn’t realize that you have to use a metal bowl to beat the egg whites, not a plastic one.  Sure would have been nice if one of the 87 copies of the recipe online told you that!  Anyhow, after beating for about half an hour, Hubby had a vague memory about metal bowls and checked the trusty Fannie Farmer.  Yupp.  Gotta be a metal bowl.  We dumped out what we had and started over (thank goodness the pecans go in at the last minute and weren’t in there already).  Meanwhile, Thing One fell asleep in her bed.  Thing Two decided to go to bed, too.  The second batch never got to the “stiff peaks” stage, either. Feh.  We put it in the oven anyway — one big, flat meringuey pancake instead of mounds. 

By morning, it was still gooey inside.  It was supposed to be hollow cookies so that when you bit into them, they were empty like the empty tomb.  Oh, well.  Next year, we’ll get the big Kitchen Aid down from the attic and beat the egg whites in there.  If that can’t do it, nothing can.

Feh.

Here’s how it looked when it went into the oven. The other pictures are in the Easter album.

H is for hair.  Click below, if you dare…

I could tell you what it is, but then I’d have to kill you…

EDITED LATER:  Aha!  OK, it’s fixed now.  Apparently, it was b/c of the size of the pictures I was posting.  Bummer. 

[NOTE:  Yes, I know the sidebar has for some reason moved to the bottom of the page.  Sorry about that.  It's been doing that ever since blog.com "upgraded" their software...] 

Received a box from Grandma & Grandpa today, just in time before egg-dying time.  As you can see, the Things (and I) had a blast.  Not quite sure what Hello Kitty (thanks, Auntie Diane!) and bugs (thanks, Grandma!) have to do with Easter, but that’s OK.  Eggs for Easter probably come from some ancient pagan practice, anyhow.  I should ask Suzanne; she knows about pagan practices (Hey, this IS the SF Bay Area, and Mill Valley is/was the national witchcraft capital!)

Highlights below.  Click on the album for all the pictures.

The secret April project, close-up.  NO, it’s not a sock.  I haven’t ventured into socks.  I’m afraid of that b/c I keep hearing how addicting sock knitting is.

I’m having trouble with uploading pictures.  For some reason, blog.com doesn’t want to let me upload the latest picture of Noodles’ sweater.  The body is knit, sewn together, and ends woven in.  I started on the hood and…ran out of yarn.  Jeannette is going to check & see if she has one more ball of the yarn.  I double-checked to make sure I didn’t have any more of it.  If there isn’t any more, I’ll frog back what I have of the hood and make a ribbed stand-up collar instead.  I feel goofy making a dog sweater, however, it’s taken away my fear of sweaters, so I’m scheming about sweaters for the Things, possibly in school uniform colors so they can wear them more often.

Thing One is doing better today.  Thing Two seems OK.  I felt rotten when I woke up, but I’m doing better now.  I can feel it settling in my nose & throat, though.  Of course.  Tomorrow’s the big Easter service, and Sunday we’re supposed to go to Bill & Judy’s house with the rest of “The Group”.  Of course.  It wouldn’t be a holiday if we didn’t have someone sick, now would it????  I’m determined that this year we’ll finally make the Easter Story Cookies.  Should be cool.  Better make sure we have all the ingredients….

Jenna got filthy when Hubby took her out last night, so we had to give her a bath.  Poor dog.  Took her a while to forgive us.  She feels SOOOO soft now, though, and she doesn’t stink.  Nice.