a much better day
May. 5th, 2005 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchahappy cinco de mayo, everyone. after my cranky post yesterday, here's a happier one today.
my happy day started early this morning, about 8 a.m., when a very nice lady called and told me that her husband, a regional manager for a local chain of restaurants, had found a rattle we'd lost a couple of months ago. i had been sooo bummed about losing it, even weeks later, that i found a photo of the thing and mailed it to them in hopes that someone would have turned it it (we'd already looked several times in the lost and found, but no luck). turned out that the manager was opening the mail that day, and saw the photo and recognized the toy... he had picked it up and stashed it in some cabinet somewhere, instead of putting it in the lost and found. he hadn't heard about us looking for it, because he's only there a couple of days a month. so it was quite serendipitous that he opened the letter! (and maybe next time he'll put lost things into the lost and found, hmm?).
i know, you're thinking "why is this lady all het up about some rattle?" well, it's a really nice wooden one that all my kids have played with, and i can't find a replacement. it sounds really nice, clayton loved it, and it was the first object lincoln reached and held by himself. i am so very pleased at the thought of it coming home! (here's a picture of linc on the day he first grabbed it.)
then bill made me a really yummy decaf mocha, without me even asking for it. AND he made the bed (which i didn't find out until much later in the day, when i took the baby up for a nap... i don't know why we don't make it every day, because it makes the room such a nice place to be). and THEN he called me with great news... he got that raise from stowers!
i dropped cord and julia off at penn valley community college (last week of classes before finals), and picked up clayton to head to a local YMCA. we haven't found a regular swimming place for clay yet, and i can't do the gym at stowers by myself or with lincoln. my friend angie works at the olathe Y, and loves it. i'm thinking about doing a part-time desk thing there, and then we'd get reduced membership (plus they have on-site baby care, so linc would be really close and i could nurse often). anyway, they offered to give us a free day to check it out, so we headed over. linc hung out with the other kids, while clay and i played racquetball. he only hit me once, but i have a nice round bruise on my thigh from it. there were a couple other close calls, though, so we quit that and he went swimming (the childcare closed at 1, so i had to get linc and couldn't swim). there are a lot of classes like yoga and pilates, a circuit training center, a cardio room, a weight room, three racquetball courts (which are great for juggling in, too)... we'll have to see what kind of part-time hours they need.
afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and stopped by the knitting store for some yarn. i want to make some felted balls to sell on ebay or mothering.com, see if i can make a couple bucks that way (or at least support my knitting habit). i got a rainbow selection of lamb's pride wool, six colors, plus a couple other things, and found that my little membership card there was filled up and so got $15 off this purchase!
we headed home and hung out. linc got a little fussy, and since he had only had a tiny nap during lunch (which we ate around 2 p.m.), i tried to nurse him back to sleep around 4 (and then discovered the nicely made bed and rejoiced for my wonderful husband!). next thing i knew, it was 6 p.m.... i had fallen asleep with linc! he was still snoozing, so i started knitting one of the rainbow balls.
turned out that the pattern i was using had ten sections, not twelve. but i wanted to use six yarns, not five, so i pondered and counted things and figured out how to change the pattern to do what i wanted. i'm not sure if it will work, but i'm about halfway through the first ball and so far it looks quite ball-shaped.
julia and bill came home, and i asked jules if she'd watch baby while bill and i went out to dinner to celebrate his raise. she agreed (turned out clay did most of the babywatching) and off we went.
we decided to head to Gojo Japanese Steakhouse, a place we've driven by since we got here but hadn't tried yet. it was a little dicey going in... we had to dodge a couple of staggering winos and a determined panhandler, and the entryway was kinda sketchy... raw wood with graffiti carved in it and rebar showing through the cracked wallboards. but once we made it inside, it was a pretty typical teppanyaki place (four couples circled round a grill where everyone's food is cooked).
there were some pretty amusing alterations to the midwest version, though... instead of oil, the cook used lots of butter. the stir-fried veggies included big chunks of red potatoes, and the carrots were the frozen kind (!). the funniest thing, to me, was that the chef smothered the shrimp appetizer in "yellow sauce" -- several diners commented on how much they loved it, wouldn't miss it, can i have extra on my rice please -- so bill got some. and it was a hollandaise sauce, pretty much butter and eggs! yep, classic japanese cooking!
still, it was fun and i didn't have to cook or clean up, so that's a win-win in my book.
all in all, a wonderful day!
anyway, i just wanted to let you all know that i'm out of my whiny-butt phase for the moment.
my happy day started early this morning, about 8 a.m., when a very nice lady called and told me that her husband, a regional manager for a local chain of restaurants, had found a rattle we'd lost a couple of months ago. i had been sooo bummed about losing it, even weeks later, that i found a photo of the thing and mailed it to them in hopes that someone would have turned it it (we'd already looked several times in the lost and found, but no luck). turned out that the manager was opening the mail that day, and saw the photo and recognized the toy... he had picked it up and stashed it in some cabinet somewhere, instead of putting it in the lost and found. he hadn't heard about us looking for it, because he's only there a couple of days a month. so it was quite serendipitous that he opened the letter! (and maybe next time he'll put lost things into the lost and found, hmm?).
i know, you're thinking "why is this lady all het up about some rattle?" well, it's a really nice wooden one that all my kids have played with, and i can't find a replacement. it sounds really nice, clayton loved it, and it was the first object lincoln reached and held by himself. i am so very pleased at the thought of it coming home! (here's a picture of linc on the day he first grabbed it.)
then bill made me a really yummy decaf mocha, without me even asking for it. AND he made the bed (which i didn't find out until much later in the day, when i took the baby up for a nap... i don't know why we don't make it every day, because it makes the room such a nice place to be). and THEN he called me with great news... he got that raise from stowers!
i dropped cord and julia off at penn valley community college (last week of classes before finals), and picked up clayton to head to a local YMCA. we haven't found a regular swimming place for clay yet, and i can't do the gym at stowers by myself or with lincoln. my friend angie works at the olathe Y, and loves it. i'm thinking about doing a part-time desk thing there, and then we'd get reduced membership (plus they have on-site baby care, so linc would be really close and i could nurse often). anyway, they offered to give us a free day to check it out, so we headed over. linc hung out with the other kids, while clay and i played racquetball. he only hit me once, but i have a nice round bruise on my thigh from it. there were a couple other close calls, though, so we quit that and he went swimming (the childcare closed at 1, so i had to get linc and couldn't swim). there are a lot of classes like yoga and pilates, a circuit training center, a cardio room, a weight room, three racquetball courts (which are great for juggling in, too)... we'll have to see what kind of part-time hours they need.
afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and stopped by the knitting store for some yarn. i want to make some felted balls to sell on ebay or mothering.com, see if i can make a couple bucks that way (or at least support my knitting habit). i got a rainbow selection of lamb's pride wool, six colors, plus a couple other things, and found that my little membership card there was filled up and so got $15 off this purchase!
we headed home and hung out. linc got a little fussy, and since he had only had a tiny nap during lunch (which we ate around 2 p.m.), i tried to nurse him back to sleep around 4 (and then discovered the nicely made bed and rejoiced for my wonderful husband!). next thing i knew, it was 6 p.m.... i had fallen asleep with linc! he was still snoozing, so i started knitting one of the rainbow balls.
turned out that the pattern i was using had ten sections, not twelve. but i wanted to use six yarns, not five, so i pondered and counted things and figured out how to change the pattern to do what i wanted. i'm not sure if it will work, but i'm about halfway through the first ball and so far it looks quite ball-shaped.
julia and bill came home, and i asked jules if she'd watch baby while bill and i went out to dinner to celebrate his raise. she agreed (turned out clay did most of the babywatching) and off we went.
we decided to head to Gojo Japanese Steakhouse, a place we've driven by since we got here but hadn't tried yet. it was a little dicey going in... we had to dodge a couple of staggering winos and a determined panhandler, and the entryway was kinda sketchy... raw wood with graffiti carved in it and rebar showing through the cracked wallboards. but once we made it inside, it was a pretty typical teppanyaki place (four couples circled round a grill where everyone's food is cooked).
there were some pretty amusing alterations to the midwest version, though... instead of oil, the cook used lots of butter. the stir-fried veggies included big chunks of red potatoes, and the carrots were the frozen kind (!). the funniest thing, to me, was that the chef smothered the shrimp appetizer in "yellow sauce" -- several diners commented on how much they loved it, wouldn't miss it, can i have extra on my rice please -- so bill got some. and it was a hollandaise sauce, pretty much butter and eggs! yep, classic japanese cooking!
still, it was fun and i didn't have to cook or clean up, so that's a win-win in my book.
all in all, a wonderful day!
anyway, i just wanted to let you all know that i'm out of my whiny-butt phase for the moment.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-06 04:19 pm (UTC)I love hearing what is going on in your life. Thanks so much for sharing.
So, how do you make felted balls? I really want to do some felting (never tried it before) and felted balls sound like fun! (though I'm only working on my first non-square project now, so perhaps I'm not quite ready for a round object)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-07 12:41 am (UTC)