Miscellania

It's been quite a while since I last posted, mainly because I would think of topics but forget them when I got online. So here's a short synopsis of the last few months.

January: Had a sinus infection and went a little crazy winding balls of yarn with my nostepinnes. Joined Ravelry.com and listed a few of my yarn projects.

February: Gah, what did I do in February other than not get to work as much as I'd like? I know I spent a lot of time at the Unofficial Etsy Forums, which has now been reborn as Creative Breakroom. Oh yeah, I made three baby blankets for my sister to give to new moms. And I sold several items from my destash shop, including one that went to Spain!

March: We celebrated my mother's birthday by going out to breakfast. I finished up some cool ties that had been half done for months, and bound three toddler aprons. I made sales to England and Greece, and a few here at home. Otherwise, mostly wished for more hours and worked on the computer.

April: I was cleaning out a closet and found 15 more doll dress panels and listed them. So far, I've sold almost all the Daisy Kingdom ones. I also found some vests that I plan to list. We did a major housecleaning and cleaned the carpets, so that disorganized my business area. A couple of my sisters came in to help. In the process we filled up a 6 cubic yard dumpster and still have more junk to get rid of -- not surprising when you live in a house for 50 years. My parents celebrated 61 years of marriage last week (63 if you count from the day they met). In the not-so-happy department, we got a call that an old friend died yesterday. They were friends for 60 years, meeting a few months after my parents were married. The month's not quite over, so who knows what might still happen.

Happy Anniversary to My Parents (and Other Calamities)

Today my parents celebrated 59 years of marriage, and 61 years since they met. They raised 7 kids and sent us all to 12 years of private school on one salary. That would be impossible these days due to the skyrocketing cost of tuition.

The day started out good. They got up early and went to Mass, and they went out for lunch. Then the trouble started. Dad had to take the car in for service and ended up having to get a rental --- the oxygen sensor is bad, and probably something else too. As he was starting home, a car backed into the door of the car, so he had to go back to the rental place and get a different car, plus fill out a bunch of stuff (and probably will have to pay more). It's a nice enough car for a two-door, but you have to climb through the seatbelt assembly to get in the back seat. And getting out of the seat is even worse because of the strange design -- the actual seat is deeper at the back and you have to haul yourself up to the edge before you can try to get out of the car.

When he got home, the garage door wouldn't open. Turns out the spring is broken and the wires have jumped their rails. So tomorrow we have to call someone to come out and replace the opener. More $$$ going out.

All we can do now is hope the weather stays good, so we don't have to clamber in and out of the car in the rain.

Happy Annivery!

Today is my parents' 58th anniversary. Not only that, it's also the 60th anniversary of the day they met in a semi-blind date. Dad worked with my Aunt Rose, and she offered to see if her sister Louise would like to go to some function with him. They've never really looked back.

They've had 58 years of married life, 7 kids, 14 grandkids, and too many cars to remember --- and exactly 2 homes. They bought their first home while engaged, and moved in a few months after the wedding. After living there 9 years, they built another house, where we still live. Dad plans to die here, too. In comparison, my eldest sister has lived in Virginia, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Virginia, California, Virginia, and Colorado since she married a naval officer in 1974.

Considering that they're both over 80, their health is pretty good. They still drive, but the days of cross country road trips are over. We used to do a circle tour of the sisters who lived on the east coast, :o) but only one is left there now.

They gave us lots of advantages: 12 years of private school, cross country vacations (including taking 7 kids to Montreal for Expo '67), visits to museums, most college expenses for those who wanted to go, and much more. At least 2 of my sisters have said they've realized how lucky we were to have parents who did so much for us. We didn't get everything we wanted, but they made sure we got what we needed.

I don't say it often enough, but I love you, Mama and Daddy.