Follow the Links!

Sometimes I think people are reading my mind. By which of course I mean to refer to this guest, or this one, but not the current one. Though her little pigeon laugh will get on my nerves before the visit is through. Why am I not a better person?

Maybe it's not so bad...

This morning we returned the rental car--thanks Kathryn, that was a GREAT idea. Do you really want a recap of the weekend? Oh, all right.

On Saturday, we picked up the car and went off to Lancaster. We went to the Amish Farm and House. When we pulled into the Target parking lot, I thought this was going to be the worst tourist trap ever, but we learned a lot of interesting stuff about the AIM-ish as FIL and GF are calling them. Thought GF, judgmental as she is, finds the AIM-ish's changing lifestyle and renegotiation of the world around them to be...hypocritical. Yes, that's the word I often think of when I think of the Amish. We planned to go to the Central Market for lunch but it was 1/2 hour from closing by the time we got there, so we ate at a nearby restaurant which everyone seemed to enjoy. Then we went to Wheatland, home of Pennsylvania's only president, our only bachelor president, James Buchanan. (DD, I am so sorry your tour of Lancaster was so crappy, esp, since you love presidential-alia.) Then we drove around in the fading sunset looking at Amish farms before going to Good 'N Plenty for three helpings of buttered noodles dinner. Oh, but first, after lunch, we had to pull over to McDonalds so FIL could fight his IBS. While we were waiting, the GF starts talking about FIL's heart condition. She turns to the dude, the kindest most concerned person in the world, and says, "Were you at all concerned when your father [found out about his heart condition]?" I almost lept across the table and slapped some sense into her. What a malicious thing to say! She was on a roll, though, because at dinner she asked me, "How do you justify that [third helping of buttered noodles] on Weight Watchers?" I just said, "I don't" and then watched her eat two pieces of shoo-fly pie, two helpings of tapioca pudding, and a small scoop of ice cream. What is her problem?

On Sunday, I hightailed it over to Joann's because they had flannel on sale for $2/yard, and I picked out some cute stuff to make a rag quilt for my niece (photo at a later date). On the way out the door I told the dude he should have a plan to leave when I arrived. We shepherded everyone in the car to go to Valley Forge and we were trying to decide how to fit lunch in. There's nowhere to eat near VF, and we couldn't eat first because they had just finished breakfast (11:00). So the dude decides we should go to the Brandywine River Museum, even after I said I didn't want to go back there--it's a really small museum, and I've been there 5 times in the past two years. Six. But I did forgive him for two reasons. First, 90 year old Andrew Wyeth has a new (2007) painting in the gallery. Stunning! Worth the trip. And secondly, lunch there was cheap and fantastic. (I know, at an art museum!) Then we went to VF and walked a bit and rode a bit and hung out with deer a bit (seriously, they were so intent on the acorns, they didn't really care about us). Then my cousin invited us over for dinner, thank the baby lord jebus.

When we arrived, I walked in first, and my cousin's husband pulled me inside and asked what I wanted to drink. The next thing I knew I had a Manhattan, and things got better from there. It was weird because I tried to see the GF from their POV. And she's not really that bad. The dogs loved her (makes you think) and she liked them. She was genuinely interested in everyone. She hugged my sister goodbye. (She doesn't hug me.) It was crazy. So I'm trying to figure out if she's really okay, or if she's only nice to people who aren't related to my FIL....

PS--Alison, you did tell me three skeins of Concord but #1, I'd already bought only two and #2, I sort of doubted you since I had done the other stocking with only one skein of chablis. Sorry about that.

Applique IV

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Very kind of you.

I've got nothing to show from applique class--we're using Janomes at the high school and no one has a manual. So we spent an inordinant amount of time last night trying to make a blanket stitch. Then trying to make a buttonhole stitch work like a blanket stitch. Oh, you think they're the same, until you try to sew it on a machine. Usually on a machine, the straight edge of a stitch would be on the right, with the decorative bits pointing left. But with buttonhole stitch it's the opposite, so you have to "stitch backwards" which is easy enough until you have to turn a corner. (Or you're me and can't rotate shapes in your head.)

So I spent most of the time in class using the seam ripper. I think I'm going to work on the placemats on my machine at home and just use a satin stitch...if I can fit it into the cleaning schedule. FIL arrives Friday. Boy, time flew! They are arriving Friday night, leaving Tuesday for DC and coming back Friday to spend another weekend with us. They seem to think that this is somehow better. But really, it's all the togetherness that I find so difficult. I wouldn't give a crap one way or the other if they were in Philadelphia so long as I got to go to work. But being trapped in a two door Honda Civic driving to some local tourist destination is going to suck the very life from my soul...

Home Alone

The guest is gone. Thank god. Is it just me who thinks a 12-day visit is seven days too many? When I was growing up, we never had people stay at our house longer than one night. One night is a slumber party. Even four nights is a long weekend. Anything over seven and you should get a hotel room. Because if you can't afford seven nights in a hotel, you can't afford to travel. It's a known fact that is the very reason people invented camping.

So is this an English thing? Going to people's houses for forever? Am I having trouble bridging the cultural gap? I need a little help here.

Having people in the house makes me cranky. I just need more space and fresh air. And I so do not need the kind of conversations that make me nearly post rants on my blog. (I wrote one last night, but had to go to beer class before I could edit.) Instead I called the best pal and let her hear it. (Thank you!) Of course, I was also a little perturbed because the dude brought his friend to the airport at 5:30 and was still there at 7:00. When did beer class start? 7:00. His excuse is that he hasn't seen the guy in five years except for the twelve days they just spent together. Maybe I'm just not cut out for having relationships with other people. Sometimes even the dude annoys the crap out of me. And he is so inoffensive.

How ugly will this blog get when my fil and his girlfriend come to stay? Stay tuned!

I don't know; I'm not allowed to watch tv in my own house

DIY is debuting Uncommon Threads designed to showcase the latest trends in needlecrafts. Will this bring us to the heights of popularity experienced by knitting and scrapbooking?

We're on day 5 of the 10 day British invasion. My nephew is cute, but his parents are starting to drive me insane. I came to work early because I had to get out of the house.