Dishpan hands

The weather since Christmas has had it's ups and downs.  We've been getting up early to drive down and work on The Other House and this was my view at 7:30 am on Boxing Day.  Very dark and dreary.  

Each day we've been going down early and coming home for a short lunch break and to spend some time with the dogs.  On Thursday I found this at the foot of our driveway.  The Creature is back!

We've been in and out of WalMart, Lowes and Home Depot more times than I can count this week.  We also seem to end up returning one or more things from each shopping trip.  Thank goodness they take things back without a fuss and also don't get shirty if we bring the wrong thing into the wrong store.  The house needs so many bits and pieces I've become perpetually confused about where they came from!  :-)  We've also managed to return things we bought for the house three or more years ago and never installed!  Amazing.

Besides all the repairs, cleaning is the big chore (hence the dishpan hands).  Yesterday we ended up stripping aftermarket solar film off the south-facing windows.  It was beyond my power to clean up and make look nice.  It turned out to be relatively easy to peel off.  "Great!", we thought.  Well no it wasn't.  It left a tacky film coating the windows.  After a bit of experimentation it turned out I could soften the film with rubbing alcohol and then scrape the icky sticky residue off with a blade.  Something reminicent soft chewing gum, snot and rubber cement.  Ick.  What an ugly, messy job!

I took this photo mid-job so the sidelight is clean and the windows are still ugly.  After several hours high on alcohol fumes, all was clean.  Whew!  I hate to think what tomorrow might have in store for me.

One of the pleasures of our drive back and forth is getting out of town, out from under the trees and enjoying open spaces and expanses of sky.   Today it was an interesting combination of dark sky on one side of the road and bright sun coming from the other.

The scenery changes rapidly from bucolic.....

to residential.....

and back again.  :-)

Of course with digital cameras you can just keep snapping away at what ever you fancy with no worries.  In this case I was just trying to get a picture of the sky, but I couldn't seem to hit a spot without a power line in the way.

Again and again and again.  I suspect there is a message in that.  Sigh.

After all the physical work of the day it's really nice to lotion up my hands and sit in my cozy corner in the evenings doing a bit of hand stitching.

I had to put this BOM aside during the Christmas rush and I'm enjoying spending time with it again.

And this!......this is a Christmas present from The Tramp.  Woot!!  It's red!  I can't wait to get back into The Sandbox and play with it!

Knowing.

What do I know?  There are certainly days when I'm at all not sure.  :-)  But I do know it's been a few weeks since I posted as Mom and Dad mentioned it several times in the past couple of days.  Oh oh!

I know that even though I've been sitting here grumbling at my computer, Preview, Finder, Blogger, and what-have-you, TheTramp (my Geek God) still loves me.  (More roses arrived Christmas Eve too!)

I know our laptops are running better after a little enhancement surgery.

It's really nice knowing the last of the Christmas rush t-shirt and memory quilts are out of my house!

I love the new purse I made last week.  I know I need a purple winter coat to go with it!

For a change of pace, I had the best time making two new Tiny World pin cushions.   Look at that mess though.  I know I'll have to clean it up.  Sigh.

This one was given to Julianne of Patchwork Memories for her birthday.  The business has moved to a new location so I made it look roughly like the new store.  I know we are all loving being part of Julianne's new venture.

I love how the birds seem to know there is the safety of glass between them and gawkers like me.

Dog?  What dog?

I was frustrated not knowing what large creature was leaving big white poops on our roof (last post).  It looked even stranger on the road.

The imagination runs wild!

I don't know about the road but now we know who hangs out on our roof!

We have lots of Christmas lights.  I know The Tramp was pleased when we unexpectedly unearthed three more strings he could add to the show.  :-)

Knowing we would have visitors, I had some "fun" whipping up batches of gluten-free cookies.  Here are three of the five types I attempted.  Some are better than others.....it's an ongoing crapshoot experiment.  Timing is everything..... I did all this knowing the dishwasher is non-functional.  The part is on order 'till after Christmas.

And of course you know what happens when you let the three-year-old get his paws on your camera.  More shots of the Sailor Son's tongue.  :-)

Nanny and Papa always manage to look good.

Mimi, however.......

That's ok.  I turned it right around and took a picture of his double-chins too.  :-D

We knew the Sailor Son and grands would enjoy the luminaries around the pond on Christmas Eve.

From the front porch....

Ivy liked the view too.

And from across the pond.  Gotta love the Star of Bethlehem effect.

At setup time it was cold and rainy but by the time the grands were finally in bed it had dried and warmed up enough for the Sailor Son and I (in my pjs!) to stroll around the pond.  Sailor Son had a good time relighting all the ones that had gone out.  You know the little boy pyromanic in him couldn't resist!

Christmas morning, how fun is it to know Santa is magical enough to find them at Mimi and The Tramp's house.

Of course they knew Santa would like the milk and cookies, and the reindeer the carrots, but it's so exciting to discover the empty glass and crumbs.  And those messy reindeer left carrot bits in the fireplace!

It wasn't so fun knowing they had to eat breakfast before opening presents.

But that's ok.  The time finally came.

We made "patterns" with our gummy Angry Birds, did puzzles, took pictures with our new cameras, ran around outside with the neighbors and had a darned good time.

The dogs didn't know what hit them.

And the hardest part was knowing it was time to go home.

Come back soon!!!