ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Or something like that.

I am cranking steadily down my to-do list. And, when sanity hits, I am even taking a few moments for reading and knitting.

What I have to really do in the next 24 hours is figure out why it seems that everything has expanded all over the house like an explosion of books and cds. And how, of course, I am going to manage to pack it all in the car since it really looks like I might have the Mole as a passenger going back to Germany.

His ship is still out there – not the first of the Tall Ships by any means, but certainly not the last.

It is the little things that matter, drive you nuts, just leave you standing there with your head shaking. Like why did the cleaning person shut all the doors in the place? Every last freaking door – 7 of them.

Ok, I might just need to back up a moment. Mentioned, didn’t I, that I am living in temp quarters that belong to the Mess?

It seems that staying here has the same support as the Mess – they are responsible for maintenance, That includes cleaning services. Really! The nice lady comes into scrub, polish and hoover a couple of times a week.

Perhaps she closes the doors as she finishes an area as a visual reminder a room is finished? I don’t have a clue.

But coming in last night to the front entry and being confronted by emptiness and closed doors was a bit upsetting. Not the way I left, making it obvious that someone had been there.

It also make the small place feel unfriendly & uninhabited. Just an empty location punctuated by white, shiny, closed doors.

Everything was quiet. I had to take a deep breath before cracking open a door and peering into the lounge.

After all – you shut doors to keep monsters in.

Making progress.

I started today with an initial to-do list composed equally of long and short term deadlines and problems.

Say – 23 things off the top of my head.

By noon I had managed to complete seven. The short, easy to do seven – top off mobile so I can use it again, pick up Hanne Falkenberg kits from the regional post station, get a J5 cable long enough to move the computer from wall drop to the top of my desk.

Those sort of things, with happily adding only two items on the list – both of which are legitimate current job.

The afternoon – well, I did find a scanner and have been busy turning certificates and other stuff into PDFs which will reside out there “in the cloud.” Till I am done with the army.

It has been a long day, I might just go home and spend the evening ripping more cds…

I did not mean to be quiet this long. I have sixteen days left in the UK. Since being back from my lovely vacation I have cleared housing, moved into temp quarters (spending no more than one night camping in my office), driven all over the place, done some knitting and otherwise been stressed!)

I have a couple of rooms and bathroom and sitting area. I don’t have any of the following: phone, telly (nothing new there), Internet, cooker, refrigerator or curtains that actually provide privacy.

Since I turned off BT, that also meant loss of my mobile. Found out the hard way that Vodophone on the pay-as-you-go does charge for certain inbound calls (like mobile international).

I have all the photos from the trip downloaded and am backing them up. Promise I will get them posted along with a catch up on the knitting.

In prep for deployment, I am ripping a lot of movies, some TV series and a ton of audio books onto a portable hard drive. I also have prepacked some small knitting projects and patterns so that the family can drop them in MPS every couple of weeks. That is, of course, unless I decide to take just one major project (Shetland shawl?).

I promise to do the catch ups, go visit your blogs and generally keep better in contact. An evening at the office? Feels like …Bosnia, Kuwait, Qatar…..

fraid there will not be photos today. It is not that it is Sunday and everything is closed. (Except for the museum which is closed for two weeks on another account). It is because the wind has been blowing, the sky overcast and the sea a bit rough. Enough so that instead of docking, the ship is at anchor and we came in by tender. I was not about to try and haul along the laptop, settling instead for my very portable iPad.

It really is too bad, there is a wonderful looking yarn store here which I would have loved to visit.

No free internet cafes either, but the Artic Suvenier Shop has wifi for a price much much less than that of the ship.

I have finished the back of my sweater and now am on the left front. I need a break from blue, so will switch to the vest again for a day.

Did I mention the town is small and the streets rolled up. Or that the lovely woman in the Information location was wonder and loves it here in the north saying it is a good and safe place to raise a family?

Off to face a tender full of white faced elderly cruise commrades….

(photos added 8 June 2010)

yes, it is for real that we are headed out again. I started the year with 60 days on the books. I earn 30 a year. Since I can not take leave after 1 Oct due to being in Afghanistan, I decided to vacation this year. So far I have managed to use almost 30 days and am working on the second 30.

(Did I mention that I have the Greek Isles and Australia to go?)

I will be down to around 30 days when I head downrange.

(dropped off the laptop case and chose a sock instead. Need something that was a bit more portable and besides, there was a new Cookie A sock pattern available for free…)

We pulled into Dover at 0700 this morning. Then there was walking, taxis, a few trains (three) and another cab.
Lunch and laundry – then ready to head to Gosport for a conference!

Back on shore, I think the Mole covered miela thia morning just walking around the city. I know that I did, partly just because I was looking for an In ternet connection. MacDonald’s is the answer here for free wiif.
The area near the harbor is both industrial and obvious post WWII hasty, ugly construction. Never the less, there are some wonderful parks, greeen avenues and benches on which to rest. Numerous monumnents to the towns people, the Resistence and the deported hold prominent place on a main square.

I skipped yarn stores today (surprised
you there, didn’t I?)

I wandered through The Docks – a former warehouse area that has been converted to stores with wonderful interior areas. Guard came over to tell me that photos were not allowed, but I am not deleting those I took.

Tomorrow morning we arrive in Dover. Before then, I am going to try and upload more photos.

Knitting count to here is two scarves, one cowl, three pairs of socks and all but the border on a full size shawl.

Not bad!

This is our last day in port till we see the French coast on the 18th. Docked at the port no more than a couple hundred meters from town we have arrived at Sydney. (Sydney is Cape Breton Island in case you were wondering).

Another classical Canadian port town, it features clean, friendly and an obvious Scotts heritage.

From the rather large fiddle monument on the dock to the groups playing at practically every tavern music forms a major part of the culture.

The architecture is functional; mostly wooden houses, brick office buildings and stores. The Fiddle, Light House inside the visitors center and exhibit provide great photo opportunities. In my spare time, I have started another pair of socks, collected a list of email acquaintances to whom I will be sending pictures, and listening to audio books (Mike Resnick’s “Stalking the….” series).

If the wifi connection here were not so slow, I might just pull the new CSI episodes, but I want to see more of the city.

I don’t expect to be back on line after this afternoon until Le Harve

-Holly
Cabin 6190, Costa Atlantica

Since it is another day of going ashore by tender, of course the temperature has dropped, the wind is up and it looks like rain inbound.

Bar Harbor is a lovely town, especially a couple blocks back from the main drag sitting in The Morning Glory Coffee Shop. Free Internet is a concept here and I should be good till the battery runs down on my MAC.

I skipped a bus ride out to Acadia National Park in favor of spending time in town. It seems, however, that Monday is not terribly popular with the shopkeepers. Most seem to be restocking or relaxing after the weekend invasion of Boston visitors. I should really not be surprised, but the scrapbooking, fiber and yarn stores will be sadly missed.

Since I have a decent connection here, I am going to try and start posting some of the pictures from earlier in the journey. (look under images)

(and I decided not to rent a car and drive to Webs. I have to get home from Dover on the train. I have lots of yarn with me. Avoiding both Buttons and Yarns seemed like the smarter thing to do…..)

The sun is shining while the wind is cold and almost strong enough to knock me off this bench in Boston Common. The city, as it turns out, does have free wifi in parks. The coffee shops all feature one carrier or another. Not being local, AT&T is not in my vocabulary.

The fog rolled in yesterday while we were on shore, making the remainder of our historical walk rather interesting. Seeing wooden houses oveer two hundred years old is quite impressive for the US. The fact that they areer wood means that they are far more liekly to have decent insulation than the brick refridgerator in which I currently reside.

I found the yarn shop at 555 Thames. Nice woman behind the counter but not much exciting in the yarn, book or magazine front.

We wandered through a lovely nautical book and map store, noticed more yacht agents than reaal estate agents. Empty store fronts along most of the streets quietly speak to economic hardship even here.

After 30 minutes of standing in line for a tender back to the ship, we had the experience of motoring along in fog so thick that the ship arose white hull high only visible 20 meters out.

My plan to accomplish anything today got derailed. Not only was I not able to manage anything useful with the computer system (nothing like software that will not run on one’s computer or the AF computer such that it is impossible to do a simple thing like sign a document…..) but then there was this traffic problem.
From my house to RAF Croughton is 112 km. It takes about an hour, fifteen. No sweat, easy peasy. Lakenheath, on the other hand, is just a bit over 200km. Slightly more than 2 hours on the way up.
Four and a half on the way home. Not only was the road construction slowing everything down but some fools on the Orbital decided to have themselves a traffic accident or three. The resulting Staus would have done any Autobahn in Germany proud.

But first -

I am definitely making progress on the cardigan. Around the neck, down the front, across the bottom – I am heading into the home stretch of the second front. That is not to say that I don’t need to do the sleeve ends followed by sewing the under sleeve seams, but the end might even be in sight.

Which is great because these two books arrived in the mail.

I really enjoy Mary Scott Huff’s knitting (the stranded book) and have been meaning to pick up her book since knitting the Faery Ring last summer. The other book I bought on a whim, simply because I have been enjoying knitting garter stitch. She has some interesting miter projects (there is this vest, you see…..

For someone of his age and generation

Even better, I got him out and about for dinner tonight for his birthday.

I think he might just be still awake but reading Terry Pratchett

Just on a whim, I turned on my laptop while sitting outside Gate 122 in Dubai. Imagine my surprise – Internet! Free Internet at that.

I have been through most (but not all) of my email accounts but still have to download all the pix off my camera which means that it will be a day or two before I can share pictures of Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and the ship.

What can I say? 8-15th in the Arabian Gulf with sunshine, smooth seas, warm temps, more food that anyone in their right mind would eat and a relaxing time spent with the Eldest. No snow, no rain. No shoveling, cursing or cars that slide across the road and into a ditch.

I still have an hour before flight time. A quiet transition when not quite on vacation but not yet returned to the world of deadlines, laundry, house repairs and uniforms.

I knit a scarf while underway, half a shawl and the body of a raglan sweater. Never did get to the socks….

nor am I completely confused. Again, just behind with a number of drafts built up while I try to sort out photo issues.

Meanwhile, this note is coming to you from the Marine Memorial Club & Hotel in San Francisco. It is Jan, therefore JP Morgan has its Medical Technology annual meeting. Smaller every year, I think they would rather pay themselves bonuses than fund this conference which is not at all cheap.

Anyway, expect to see a bit in the next couple of days.

-H

Sparing you pictures, but I made what is likely going to be my last yarn purchase of this calendar year.
Army-Navy is a store that helps anchor the Camberley Mall. They actually belong to House of Frazier. Said organization is getting out of the yarn business. As a result, the remaining yarn has gone to 70% off. I did not know this when I got back from my cruise. In fact, I learned of this interesting fact early this morning from reading one of the Ravelry Forums.
At 70% off, obviously there are gaping holes in stockage. Almost all of the worsted weight and aran weight rowan yarns are gone but for the odd ball. The colors left in most yarns are a bit strange.
I did score some Lima (a wonderful cabled yarn), 3 balls to go with the ones already on hand so that I now have enough for a particular sweater I want. Silky-Tweed in a couple of colors – one of which will replace my current choice for Fäfner – now to be frogged without guilt.
Finally, I picked up some weird colors in Kid haze (the 225yards/25 gm kind) to knit some soft, fluffy scarves.

Then there is Prime Suspects and Madam Fate, neither of which can be played while talking on the phone. DH calling from the Lufthansa Senator lounge while waiting for his flight from SF to Frankfurt to be called. Work proceeding on new house well, he found good tenants for the next year and met more neighbors. Oh, yes and did some work in his spare time.

Once more, my piece (peace?) of mind is being fragmented by various running, screaming and obnoxious small children. Oh, and the large one on the piano across the room who is starting a round of “name that tune.”

This is the last night on the ship, we are headed into Barcelona in the morning.

Not to sound like a crab, but the small people (IMHO) should be in bed by now. The teens have been great, and are all packed.

I should have the photos up tomorrow (Sunday).

I have not fallen off the end of the earth, but with the cost of connection from the Norwegian Gem, I am limited my connect time to almost nothing.
We started in Barcelona, went on to Malta, spent yesterday in Naples and today it is Citiavecchia (actually the girls and I are turning down the high price of a coach in favor of taking the train).
Tomorrow will be Livorno, (and off to Pisa – see above) with Sat in Cannes before getting back to Barcelona on Sunday in time to catch a flight back home.
Shopping wise we have done none. The girls are spending time on both studies and the hot tub with regular forays into the gym.
There are a lot of people on this ship, but no one else likes the gym at 0500 so I have not had any problems having lots of time on the treadmill.
Knitting is going well (2 prs of socks done, one sleeve to sew in on the first sweater and 15% into the second.

Admittedly, I managed to get a great deal done today, including a number of things that had not even had a chance to make the list. Heading off to Germany this weekend in preparation for a course in München this coming week, I packed a suitcase.

Did I mention that I am taking leave the week after and need a completely different set of clothing for that journey? I will have to check the bag. Phooey.

Ready for bed, I double checked everything – suitcase, computer, camera, knitting, meds, toys, Ms Maus’es book and coat. Only thing left was to make sure that I had my railpass.

Which is in my wallet which wasn’t to be seen.

30 minutes later, I still did not see it after searching all possible rooms, car, bedroom x3.

As I headed for bed, the thought was that it might just still be in the office and set the alarm for just that small bit earlier.

Grabbing my suitcase and backpack, the wallet was just sitting there on the floor underneath my boarding pass.

Bedtime.

Perhaps I am getting old? Or developing Altzheimers? Or just plain not paying as much attention to my surrounds as I should.

The car keys and house keys? Why, doesn’t every one manage to misplace them more than once? Admittedly, spending more than a week not knowing where one passport and my ID card had vanished was a bit disconcerting. Turning up in my suitcase pocket when packing for the next trip, the memory of tucking them in when leaving UK customs flashed bright and clear in my head. And we will not talk about getting all the way to Folkstone only to find that my wallet had not made the trip with me.

So why is it now, when I am in a hurry to get on the road that my wallet seems to have taken a walk? Checking in all the usual suspect locations, nothing. Not in the living room nor the front hall. Not in the mess of my bedroom or yesterday’s backpack.

I have tried to be consistent since my return from München (all what four days?) and return it to the same place every time. Front pocket of the backpack.

Disgusted I heave it off the bed to search among the bedclothes. The penny drops. The backpack was too heavy to be empty. Three pockets, front two nothing significant. The laptop pocket? Heavy black wallet in the bottom.

Somedays – I am not sure if I am winning or losing.

I have had a quiet afternoon. Sitting in the airport, I found an unused for hours gate and plugged in the computer. Even more importantly, I managed to get onto the Internet for only the second time since I left London.

My planned meeting with one of my colleagues fell through when he became ill. Instead I wandered slowly out to the airport, looking at the scenery from the S-Bahn, the non-excitement of Feldmöching, and parents trying to get young off spring off escalators and through gates.

My plane leaves for home in an hour, I am past the armhole division on Fäfner, and Stalking the Vampire by Mike Resnick is really quite funny.

I will release the missing days as soon as I get the pictures from this week uploaded (airports, sweater, Medical Museum, Oktobert Fest, more airports).

Thanks so much for the interest, condolences, and comments on the house. We have backed off for the moment on house hunting.

Better we should keep the money in the bank, investments and current property.

Meanwhile – Ms Soprano has been entertaining herself

Concourse A simply is not that bad.

I am keeping a positive spin on my emotions. Since we paid to log in from Ms Sopranos computer, I still haven’t uploaded everything from Anticipation (tomorrow – I promise).

Meanwhile – NWA and Detroit

The long story – the weather was not as good as it could have been leaving Montreal.

The flight path given to the pilot was about 20% longer than expected. Received, of course, after we had pulled back from the gate. Because it is Canada and fuel is more
expensive, he did not have enough fuel on board to make the flight.

End result is that we had to taxi back to the gate and refuel which accomplished a 90 minute delay in departure. Arriving in Detroit 5 minutes after our connecting flight was scheduled to leave, we high tailed it over to the gate.

Empty. Completely empty. we walked a bit farther then headed back toward the center.

This time spot a woman standing at the gate; she had just locked the plane door so could not admit us to the flight. The very full flight. The one on which our three seats were the only vacant places in the plane.

When we had blasted past the gate, she had been down the jetway tagging plane side check ins.

It is now past noon, there are no connecting flights available and the next two direct flights are full. Rebooked to Delta, or perhaps it is NWA, I can’t tell and don’t care.

We might standby, but have guaranteed seats on the 1935 flight, first class seats. It is cattle car for any of the other options, most of which would involve several plane changes. The girls have voted to wander the airport and fly first class.

go figure.

Better to arrive late than to be stranded in (pick one)
1) Memphis
2) Atlanta
3) MPLS
4) ????

She went dashing after a deer in the yard this morning, sailing along a golden flash. Elena was starting to move better, the arthritis in her hip finally responding to medication.

Something happened. Ms Soprano who was standing there watching said the dog seemed to flip, land on her back and started screaming. Screaming from a dog can not be described; from upstairs, I thought that one of the neighborhood children was seriously injured.

With much struggling, she was loaded in the car and taken to the vet. Since then, Elena has been medicated, x-rayed and dosed with steriods. No fractures, but the spondylosis is pretty obvious and explains the paralysis of her back legs and tail. It isn’t complete, so we are hoping that she will regain neurological function.

Odds are about even and the next 24-48 hours will tell.

Friends

Not enough shocks for me today? I started out 4th of July weekend figuring on unofficially participating in Tour de Fleece. Not having a TV, I am not exactly following the race in real time. Today I noted that one of the teams  was spinning in the memory of Ruth Schooley. Huh? I had known Ruth over Knitlist, swaps and emails since 1995. I thought that we just lost track of each other. She died suddenly July of last year, only a couple days after her last blog post.

I still have a skein of yarn she spun and gifted me years ago that is so fine and beautiful I have never been able to bear using it. Now that seems silly. I will figure out some small lace scarf and enjoy the wearing and the memory.

blooms (hopefully) to this

I am resting up. The house is a disaster and I need to get back to the Eldest’s wedding shawl.

Listening my way through Brothers in Arms – Bujold.

Angeluna was right. There are a lot of clocks which have to be reset manually. I did the watch, the one on the mantel and the kitchen clock. Noticed the one in the car today when I was totally confused at the mismatch between it and my watch.

My microwave doesn’t have a clock, but the stove does. Not a clue on how to reset it. Will have to find the manual, find the right page, read it three times. After I fail to figure it out, I am going to have to haul the laptop into the kitchen so as to be able to read the directions and work it out.

Yes, you guessed it. No manual other than the one that I finally found on line.

Oh, there is also one in my camera that seems to exist in a world where no one has daylight savings time, time zone changes or 29 days in February.

I finished the lower jaw (birds head) on Phoenix today but you are going to have to wait for pictures. 44 Rows to go on the body…. and I really can’t knit any more on the sleeves till the body is complete just to make sure that the sleeve width and the armholes match exactly.

I am off to Yorkshire (RAF Menwith Hill) in the morning and will be home late on Wednesday night. One of my colleagues is going to stop by for the dog so she gets out, fed and has people during the day.

I am off to make sure that the garbage is out, the dishes are washed, uniform packed up and the house does not look too disreputable when the dog is picked up.

Oh, and to make sure I have the addresses so those skeins of yarn can get on their way!

(I will finish the spread sheet in the morning, hit the Random Generator (www.random.org) followed by sending off some emails.

So if you get an email from me asking about what color you like, or for a mailing address, please don’t mark it as SPAM…..

Of course, that assumes that this post will load. I managed finally to access the house backup drive. Something about not remembering where I had put the basic log-in information. I stood there in the disastrous remains of the torn apart office and could visualize the booklet in my mind. But not in the office, and not in Ms Soprano’s room (where the router and drive are actually located). Nor in any miscellaneous boxes, shelves or yarn baskets.

I have no clue why I thought that placing it in my nightstand was such a brilliant idea, but there you have it.

Phoenix

Even at just a few rows a night, the Phoenix is steadily growing. 15 more rows and it will be time to start the armhole steeks. The shift from lighter grey to darker seems starker than many of the other changes, but I still like it. I have to admit, the black/red contrast is still my favorite. Might explain why I have picked that combination in stranded work before. Also interesting to note is that I am still working on the first two balls of yarn.

Future Projects

Been contemplating Katherine from Tudor Roses or, taking the elements and repositioning them in a effort to take the sweater size down to something I might actually wear. It is either that or the Cat Sweater from Norsk Strikk lengthened for an adult. Obviously, no emergency on either one…..

Videos

I just finished watching Season 8 of CSI which lead me to buying the first episode of Season 9. iTunes is really dangerous that way. I could also get Season 4 of Bones, sparing myself the higher expense of buying it. Since I watch everything on my laptop……

Work, as you can tell, is not exciting.

Spinning

While wandering around, looking for something else (like a source of Finwool outside of Finland), I came across a lovely site on the Northern European Sheep Breeds. Not only have they correlated history with current sheep, but have also accomplished the supporting scientific analysis. More breeds of wool to sample?

Sock Wars

No, I haven’t forgotten about it. Or been killed. Still alive here. My assassin apparently died right before I left for Finland, sending off the unfinished socks that she had started upstream to the person who had killed off her.
My target apparently finally got her socks, and has socks on the way to me.

Obits:

Kneedle Meister is now at peace.

There she lies brokenhearted.

Got her socks and ‘poof’ departed.

SKP2008

Think I forgot to mention that the second pattern in the Sock Knitting Olympics was released 1 May. Since there seemed to be some pattern errors, I held off till it was sorted out. I am recycling the yarn I had selected for Sock Madness – much happier with this pattern called Berlin Mȕster.

Hard to tell, coming back in on a Monday.

There are a few emails in my work box, a couple more in my pseudo-work email account. There is a spindle of CDs that I need to finish burning. Some papers I need to write.

It is raining, there is no heat in my house (don’t need it anymore), and the fridge is as empty as when I left.

grumpy here. I think we all have these kind of days.

Finished a couple of books and went to bed early. Might even go back to knitting tomorrow.

-Holly

Every once in a while my sister sends me an email that has me rolling. Currently, she is out in the back end of beyond, AR (population 2140 and shrinking). She is attempting to clean out a house that had been occupied for a number of years by a couple of elderly relatives. Said relatives really couldn’t manage for the last couple of those years; things really went downhill for the last months before nursing homes. I didn’t ask her permission to share, so hopefully she will still be speaking to me after she gets back on-line.

Now, you all remember that Pete Seeger Song Called Little Boxes? Which were all made out of ticky tacky and they all looked the same.

To Quote:

” Ticky tacky, this house brings a new meaning to the word ticky tacky.

Two of the kitchen drawers were off their tracks. So I emptied out the cupboard below and removed the drawer. Oh my.

“Track” consists of a nylon grove (there are no wheels involved here) that slides along a piece of particle board that is stapled YES I SAID STAPLED to the back wall of the cabinet. The nylon piece ends in a wider nylon drawer stop that is AGAIN STAPLED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE DRAWER. Alrighty then. Of course staples are hanging at various angles and prime to remove slices of skin from the person attempting repair of said drawer.

Person in charge of drawer repair (that would be me) wishes they had never started, and looks for something to mop blood leaking from various points on hand.

Then I get out my tool kit, I am prepared. We have screws, small nails and ah yes superglue. I patch missing pieces of particle board and superglue. I look for something to unglue the fingers on my hand that are stuck together, noticing that superglue does stop the bleeding rather well.

I then find a couple of screws and put them in place and straighten the few tin foil( I am sorry was that really metal) pieces that need to be screwed to the wall, then I slap more superglue on the whole thing.

I notice two things at this point, my super glue tube had adhered itself to the linoleum, and the fingers on my hand are once again in tandem.

I tackle drawer two; I am now an expert. I extract the drawer without drawing blood. Replace all staples with screws and replace drawer. Only one finger stuck to itself. Glue tube on floor leaves its label as I yank it loose.

Day’s work accomplished, two drawers fixed, not bad.  Did I mention I had to empty the cupboard underneath each drawer?

Yeah, one contained all the heavy steel pots and pans, inspect, dirty to the dishwasher. Dishwasher full? of course, set aside. I look around appalled. I had to empty one other cupboard as well, all the baking dishes cookie sheets, all that stuff, mixing bowls. Are they clean? No of course not. Now I have a really big pile on the floor, and the dishwasher is full.

The cookie sheets are relatively clean because I have used them. I decide to place them in the drawer under the oven. Which is not empty. It is full of another set of pots and pans, which are what? Dirty. so I empty it out and decide I can’t possibly put the cookie sheets in, it’s too dirty.

So I pull the drawer out from the oven, which gives me a view of the underside of the oven and the floor under said drawer. Need I say more??  I scrub that, and scrub some more. I place cookie sheets in now clean drawer, dishwasher still running, I look around the floor and find I can’t walk anywhere. I place some of this stuff in the cupboard next to the oven. I open , it is dirty and full of more pots and pans and baking stuff.

What is that stuff ? Dirty. I am beginning to really hate these two drawers. It gets worse. Do you wanna go there ? I think not.

That was somewhere about a week ago, I keep running things through the dishwasher, four-five times and  stacking them in the dining room for packing.

Result kitchen counters trashed, dining room floor trashed, cupboards all clean but empty.

That label is still stuck to floor, two fingers still glued together and I am still running the dishwasher, and finding more dirty dishes faster than it can wash.”

End Quote.

I look around my kitchen. The food is all put away. There are a few crumbs along with dirty dishes in the sink. But everything in the cupboards is clean.

I appreciate my DH and kids a bit better!

-Holly