Birthdays and Bathrooms and Presents, oh my!

This is for my mother-in-law, a wonderful lady who gives lie to all those mother-in-law jokes by being warm, welcoming, kind, and generally fun to be around. You don’t have to spend too much time with her to understand where Mr. K gets his tremendous mind. She crochets rather than knits, but she IS a nurse and I love her dearly…so I’ll forgive her that one aberration…..Happy Birthday, J. I love having you as my cybermom.




In other news, the bathroom. You know how some people keep….er….reading material in the bathroom? This may be taking that idea to a new extreme:

I don’t understand this one bit….I mean, we have chairs and everything…..

No, in truth this is the result of Mr. K’s somewhat frustrating struggle to install a new toilet in the bathroom. You remember the bathroom—the one that taught me the meaning of the phrase “I’ll just rip down the wallpaper and slap on some new paint and it’ll be beautiful in no time?” Yeah, that one. If bathrooms could laugh, this one would be cracking itself up right about now. Anyway, “some new paint” became a new light fitting, a new window treatment, new towel bars, a new mirror—and a new toilet. Sadly, the floor turned out to be warped, and poor Mr. K spent a whole afternoon to get the thing to sit flat, to no avail. Finally, he piped the sealant around it and then looked for something to weigh it down……and, even though the thought of having to sit in one place for 24 hours has its temptations (bring me some yarn and a few bottles of water—I’m good.) I declined to provide that weight. Hence, the books. Those observant souls among you have no doubt noticed the Harry Potter book on top. I promise you, no wizards were harmed in the making of this photograph. The toilet doesn’t even have water in it.

I was going to wait until the whole room was finished and then wow you with my decorating prowess (which, in my terms, means I didn’t accidentally set anything on fire or cause a flood, I didn’t nail my foot to the floor, and the towels and stuff are at least remotely in the same color family) but had to show some kind of progress, if only to pretend to some kind of remodeling efficiency. So:

The shower curtain (which is actually really pretty) with the way cool little shower curtain rings that each have a different leaf painted on them:



I think you can sort of see the paint that taunted me so terribly in September. I like it, but I admit that only reluctantly….the paint and I still don’t speak and it would be fair to say that I carry a bit of a grudge.

I was going to put up a picture of progress on the Samus jacket, but it is quickly turning into one of those projects where 12,000 stitches somehow becomes a row and a half when you measure it. I haven’t even finished the waistband. My mom used to complain that real time bore no relationship to football time; I would add that it bears little resemblance to knitting time, either. In theory, the damned waistband should be about 37 feet long by now. The socks are moving along and the first one is well past the ankle—and that, of course, is the other problem. I can stuff the sock in my purse and knit between classes on Mondays and Wednesdays (2.5 hours between classes on those days) once I finish any homework or studying, but I tend not to take the sweater with its accompanying complex pattern and cable needle and row counter and…..you know. So the sock gets the bulk of my attention and appears to be the favored child while the poor Samus languishes at home feeling unloved. I’ll finish the waistband this weekend, promise.

The exchange draws near (which is better than me….I can’t draw at all, much less a “near”…..) and I am in need of some info. Here’s what I know:

Jill—I have all your info and you’re ready to go
Jo in the UK—I still need a street address for your pal
Faren—I have no info for you at all
Peg—I have your blog info, but no street address
Kim—I have all your info
Amber—I have no info on you
Suburbaknit—I still need a street address
Charity—You are good to go—I have it all
Pat in England—I have your blog address, but no street address
Marianne—I have it all, Baby

If you see your name with missing info, please send it to me today or early tomorrow, as I’m hoping to pair folks up and send you all the info you’ll need tomorrow. I’ll also post a questionnaire that you can copy and paste to your own blog with your answers (or in e-mail to me if you don’t have a blog so I can get it to your gift-or). If you’re having trouble accessing my personal e-mail, sing out in the comments. We’ll find a way to get together.

Oh, and it's not too late to get involved. If you're not on the above list but want to be, just zip your info over to me. As long as I have it before I blog tomorrow afternoon, you're in.