The moving sale began at 7:11 am.  It slowed down by 10 or so, and I was so happy to sit outside and wait for people.  They came fairly steadily so I could sit outside,  and I finished my pink and white socks.   I even got out this gray Hermione hat that I have been knitting on for awhile.  It wouldn’t take long if I’d just focus, but I hadn’t.  This is a good time when I need something fairly mindless.

We had a good bye lunch with two of David’s former students.  They’ve also taken great care of our pups on occasion.   That was nice.

I had to go back to the laundromat where I almost melted.   By the time I was finished folding the toasty warm laundry in the steaming hot room,  I was in danger of sweating all over those clean clothes.

Poor Davey is tired.  “Mommy, I want to stay in Arkadelphia”.  So I tried to tell him about familiar things he will see there in Denver.  It seems to help.  Strolls, parks, Chick Fil A!  Chuck E Cheese!  The library.  Then he starts to get excited again.   “We can play games?  At Chuck E Cheese?”  As he gets excited, he reminds me that there is a playground at the apartment complex where we will be living.  He is very happy about that.

He also likes to discuss the route.  “Mommy, how do we get to Colorado?  Mommy?  Let’s talk about it.”  Then I have to tell him the entire route including all highway numbers.

I need to take some pictures.  I have not picked up the camera in a couple of days now.  That’s kinda unusual for me.

As long as I can knit and blog a little every day I am doing pretty good.  Good therapy!

I feel  like Radio Delilah with that title.

Today was a jump out of bed and don’t stop all day kind of day.

7:20 am – I am putting my contacts in.  I hear David yell, “How much you want for that scrapping thing?”  The moving sale was supposed to start at 8:00 am.  I think that by 8:30 sixty percent of our stuff was gone.

David counted each trip he made up and down our hill to help people take things to their car.  12.  He was working hard.   We were a cool (mentally not physically), calm (relatively – David more so) and collected.  A moving sale team.  Oh and an integral part of the team:  Davey.  He ran out with glee – I mean total glee every time a child came to the moving sale.  I think some of the kids were a little taken aback with his unbridled enthusiasm.  He has no concept of personal space at this point.

Davey also regressed.  He played with his infant toys on and off for at least an hour.  The toy where you put the infant on the floor and they reach up and play with the hanging fish.  He crammed himself in there and had a good time.

Once the moving sale was over, David had to go pack his office.  So I packed the house all afternoon.  As the afternoon went by, I grew increasingly panic stricken that we would not be ready by Monday.  I kept moving faster and faster.  It became fairly aerobic. (Davey watched too much tv, but he also helped me and played really well by himself for quite awhile.)  By the time David got home, I was a bundle of nerves.  He would probably attest to that although maybe not publicly.

Luckily we had a good-bye dinner with some friends.  I finally started to calm down, and we had a really nice time.  We took Davey and their son to the playground and it was just beautiful outside.  I could have sat there all night.

And now it’s time to work a little more.  We found some more things to put out for the moving sale.  Here’s what happened by about 9 am.  It was already fairly slim pickings.  We started to feel a little embarrassed as we imagined what people were thinking as they approached our sale.  “This is all they have got?  They call this a moving sale?”  David kept coming out with new things to sell – some of which I had to convince him to take back inside.

Tomorrow more moving sale.  We also had 15 yards of dirt dumped in our yard today.  Holy Mackerel, it is a lot of dirt.  I mean a dump truck full.  We have to fill the retaining wall/ flower beds that we had built in the front.   Several helpful OBU football players are coming to help transport dirt tomorrow.  It should be another interesting day.

Oh and knitting:  I did get a chance to knit for about 30 minutes.  I am almost finished with the pretty pink and white sock.  My boyfriend has been abandoned for the moment.  Oops, I mean my boyfriend sock.

This has been another long day and it isn’t over yet.  I still have to go finish getting the moving sale ready.   I figure 10pm will be a good time to get it finished up.  David just got back home so he can help me.  It will go faster with him.

This afternoon, David was moving the piano out.  He had the help of a couple of guys.  They took the piano out through the back, and they left the gate open.  Timber the husky and Daisy the half o’possum (as David calls her) chose to come inside since the back door had also been left open.  Koko, the almost 15 year old Chow, took the opportunity to go on a grand adventure.

I returned home with Davey.  David said a few minutes later (after we noticed Timber and Daisy inside), “where’s Koko?”  We searched the yard.  We searched the house.  We saw the open gate.  No Koko. (This does have a happy ending.  I do not like stories with any animal tension that do not resolve very happily!)

So off we went.  David roared off in the car.  Davey and I started looking around the back and next door houses and woods across the street.  Davey didn’t want to go into the “forest”.  I didn’t either.  It was so thick and brushy and hilly though, that we really didn’t think Koko would either.

Then David returned.  No Koko.  Davey was getting tired of walking so we switched.   Davey and I took the car.  I decided that she’d probably take the path of least resistance.  Most ways out of the neighborhood involve pretty big hills.  We took the no hill route into another neighborhood.

I was yelling  “Koko! Koko Puff!”  I was frantic that she’d already become exhausted and had fallen somewhere to die.  I was about to panic.  Then we came around the corner.  There was Koko doing a seriously crooked trot  (She has those vestibular issues.)  Her black tongue was hanging out of the side of her mouth halfway to the ground.  I ran and picked her up and hugged her all the way to the back of the car.

She scared us to death with her little crooked jaunt.  It was very unlike her to take off like that.

So it’s been another long day which is not over yet.   Not a chance of progress on my Boyfriend socks.   I knit about 4 rounds on my other sock while I was watching Davey play in the tub.

David also said good bye to his old Mustang today.  It went to a childhood friend, so that made it easier.

David, Davey, and his Mustang:

Davey and me and the Mustang.  (I first rode in it when I was 16 and the Mustang was olive green.)

Goodbye Mustang.   We’ll see you again!

Ok.  It’s time to finish getting the moving sale ready.

I kind of like this late night blogging.  Once again, I am trying to remember what we were doing this morning.  It also seems like 100 years ago.  Davey and I went to buy boxes.  And then I packed and packed.  Packing is always an opportunity to weed out unnecessary things, so I like that part of it.  Nothing makes me more tired than packing though.  So much so, that I didn’t trust myself to knit on my Boyfriend sock tonight.  I was afraid I’d make too many errors.  Instead I worked on these:

I am knitting these from that Plymouth Happy Feet DK weight that I love so much.  They knit up pretty quickly, and the yarn is soft and just feels good.

Michael and Holly sent us a package today.  Davey had so much fun opening this up:

Here’s the main reason I wanted to share this.  Did you ever see a kid so happy to have a brand new jar of fig jam?  Deceptive isn’t it.

Bedtime!

The day is almost over,  and I have not blogged yet.  Not a chance the entire day.  I am desperately trying to remember what I did this morning.  It seems like 100 years ago.  Something Davey and I did.  OH now I remember.  I had completely drawn a blank.

I so rarely go to the laundromat that I’d completely been unable to place myself there.  We sold our washer and dryer, so I had to go do some laundry.  David dropped Davey off with me, and he (Davey) was quite interested in the process.  It was his first trip to a laundromat 0r washateria as some people call it.   We had to walk all around and study the numerous washers and dryers.  He found it all very fascinating.  I did too.  It’s kind of nice to go there to do your laundry in that you can get it all done at once.  4 loads washing.  4 loads drying.  Fold and done.

It’s the folding part that I am kind of fascinated by.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I may not have been doing things quite right.  It starts with just taking the clothes out of the washer.  I was observing the other people in the laundromat.   They don’t just take the clothes out and slam them into the dryer like I do.  There is instead a lot of snapping and flapping the clothes so they are not so wrinkled and bunched up.

But even more important is the final folding.  It was very interesting to watch.  They carefully folded and maintained crease lines.  They buttoned up the shirts and pants.  I am not sure if they did zippers too, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

While I am on the topic of laundry.  Another thing I will never comprehend is the folding of the fitted sheet. My mother-in-law has tried to explain to me how to fold a fitted sheet.  I will never master that skill.  I don’t understand it.  I just absolutely do not get the concept.

As Davey and I were getting our dried clothes ready to go, I found myself snapping shirts to remove wrinkles.  I folded towels slowly and carefully.  I tried to fold jeans and shorts along the seams.

However, personally, at this point in my life if I am wearing something that is not wrinkled or stained, that’s an accomplishment in itself.  Davey loves to run at me full-tilt for a tackle wrinkling hug.  He also thinks nothing of using my clothing as a napkin for his spaghetti fingers.  I’ll just enjoy these days and be pretty much wrinkled and stained.

And that was our laundromat experience.  After that, the day continued to just fly by.  I went and spent my last Tuesday evening with my friends at the shop.  I knitted on a simple but pretty sock.   I am going to miss my friends.

No pictures today.

Sock number 2 is coming along.  Still no signs of 2nd sock syndrome.  I am hooked on fair isle I think!

I think these two are going to make a nice pair upon completion.

Let’s see.  Davey filled up another potty sticker chart this morning.  So I took him to Walmart to pick out a toy.  You can not be in a hurry for this process.  Actually, Davey is really not too interested in taking a toy home.  He just wants to carefully look at each one for up to 5 minutes before he says, “Ok you can put this back on the shelf.”  Most of the time, I am happy to let him play as we are rarely in a hurry, but all this moving stuff has me a little stressed out and so it was not as easy for me today.  I let him have at it for awhile though.   This little cash register turned out to be a good choice, because I could barely get him to eat lunch.  He said, “Ok the cash register will watch me while I eat.”

Time to get back to it!

It suddenly got very hectic around here!  We are moving to Denver in 2 weeks.  It’s crazy to think that it will happen that fast, but off we go.  David and I will both be teaching.  I will be there as an adjunct, but I do have 3 classes this fall.   It’s a great opportunity for David – well for all of us.  Plus, I won’t be complaining about the heat anymore!  So we are excited and a little overwhelmed.

But, I am blogging to escape having to think about packing at the moment, so I am going to talk about knitting.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to talk about.  I did work on my sock last night and am working my way through the fair isle again on sock #2.  I am enjoying it as much as I did the first time.  No second sock syndrome on this one.

My Perseverance Shawl is all done.  It blocked up nice.  I still need to get David to help me take pictures.  He’s become somewhat obsessed with Craigslist.  The more he sells, the more he wants to look for more things to sell.  Just as long as he stays away from the yarn.   Davey and I may soon be sitting in a room on the floor staring at bare walls. (and my yarn).

Last night I really wanted to get back to my Boyfriend Sock, but the shawl was calling me to finish it.  It’s been a fun knit, and I only had about 4 rows to finish up.  So I finished it last night and it is blocking some now.

Davey wanted to help me.  Here I was getting ready to start pinning it down, but he came racing over to get into the picture first.

Davey on the move (always!  And it seems like in every photo that I post lately of Davey, he is either without shirt or without shorts.  We do actually put clothes on the child occasionally.)

Tried to show some of the texture close-up.  It’s primarily stockinette, but the “switchbacks” are reverse stockinette and 1/2 linen stitch.

And now it’s blocking.   I hope to enlist David to help me get some good photos  later.

I always learn something with everything I knit.  For example, I can now confidently spell perseverance.  Per + Severe.  I never thought about that.  Then I just have to remember that it is an ance ending.

MIL and MIR.   These two increases have always slowed me down because I have to look them up every time.  Pick up the increase from the front or the back?  Then do you knit the front of the back of the stitch.  I could never remember.  Doing these 4 times every other row throughout helped me really get this down.  At first I figured out a memory trick.  This may seem silly, but these kinds of things work for me. For the Make one Left (MIL)  – I remember a blood test for liver function called LFT.  So whenever it was time for a MIL, I’d think LFT.  Which to me meant pick the Left up from the Front.  Then I’d have to knit in the back because it was always the opposite.  That sounds crazy and convoluted and probably makes sense to  not a person on the planet but me.  But it worked for me.

I also love the look of linen stitch.  I love the triangular shawl – with the ridges.  As the designer described it – the ridges are like switchbacks on the mountain.

So that’s that!

Now back to my boyfriend.

I’ve been looking for the opportunity to use that as a  blog title since I started knitting these Boyfriend socks!  I began the second sock last night.  It was great to be going on a sock again.  (You’d think that I’d been away for years instead of just 2 days.)  I really really really like fair isle though.  This time the challenge is going to be to make a more seamless seam.   I think giving the yarn a good tug when I come to a new round to kind of bring it together better will help too.  I was so worried about the tension on the first one, that I might have been a little loose at the seam.

We went to Little Rock yesterday to meet my parents as they passed through town.  We met at Chick Fil A where Davey had a high time as usual, although there were a few brief moments of drama.   It must have been everyone’s last hurrah before school started, because the place was packed. I’d been watching him from right outside the door, but when I went in to check on him and get ready to leave,  there was a little girl just pulling on Davey’s arm yanking him all over the place.  Davey had about 2 inches and 5 pounds on her, and he could have knocked her flat.  He just wanted to play peacefully poor little gentlemanly kid.  I guess?  He was looking overwhelmed, and he desperately wanted to get away from her.  When he saw me, he burst into tears.  Poor kid.  I rescued him from the wild little girl, and we left with one of the balloons that they’d been giving out.  As soon as we got to the car, he semi-accidentally released the balloon.  I couldn’t believe how fast it traveled way way way up high.  We watched it for a long time.  Davey alternated between thinking it was cool how high it was and being sad that his balloon was gone.  “Come back balloon!  Come back!”

My brief moment of drama on that trip was being backed up in traffic for 30 extra minutes as we drove into Little Rock.  Stop and go with lots of just stop in almost 100 degree temps.   What I couldn’t believe was what was causing the back-up.  We finally made our way to the end (front?) of the back-up.  There we saw 2 guys with little shovels.  They were meandering around the lane, delicately placing asphalt into small potholes.  I watched them slowly drop the asphalt into the little holes basically by the cupful.  Then tap tap tap as they spread it around.  (I am very glad that our roads are being maintained, but there has to be a better time than the middle of the day in 100 degree weather – with 18000 semis trying to make their way down the interstate.)

Speaking of the weather:  100 degrees again today.  I am not complaining.  at all.