Thursday, June 29, 2006

Great Genes

True story. I am a knitter. What!? We can do other things beside knit.
I also spin yarn. What!?
OK, I am a fiberist. Anyway, I digress.
Once a year we FIBERIST’S, get together for a whole weekend and have loads of fun. Not much sleep, but lots of knitting, spinning, weaving and fiber, fiber, fiber!!!!
This year I had worked my schedule so I could arrive at a decent hour on Friday and leave on Sunday morning. Not to be. My other life as a wife interfered.
I had taken a couple of vacation days so I could get some ‘girly’ things done Friday before I left town like get a manicure. My daughter was to be in school and husband at work. At 7:15 am he is flat on the floor in agony with back spasms and I’m dialing 911. Long story short, I did make it to SPA around 7 pm to hook up with my girlfriend whom I’m sharing a room with.
We unloaded my car and dumped everything in our room then I took a spin around the vendor area to scope out possible ways to spend my cash for the next day.
By now it’s waaay past time for me to eat so we decided to grab a quick bite and drink in the lounge. They had a DJ set up and the music was acceptable to me – early 90’s dance stuff with some newer stuff thrown in but the volume was such we couldn’t hear ourselves talk so we moved to the bar out of the high volume area.
Keep in mind, we are both in our mid-40’s, married, etc. It’s been a long day for both of us and it’s getting past our bedtimes.
So here we are, sitting at the bar with a drink in front of us, checking out the bar menu for food when this young man (he probably was in his late 20’s –early 30’s) can up to us and asked “ Are you ladies alone?”.
I looked at S. and didn’t say the first thing that came to my mind (which was NO! We’re together, you young thing. Go away!) What I did say was “No, we left them at home.” We chatted a couple of more minutes, he got another beer and went back to his table.
I leaned over to S. and said that he probable would be back and I was going to drop the bomb on him if he did.
He did return and I did drop the bomb on him! I forget exactly what he said but it was perfect thing for me to respond with “By the way, you are talking to a grandmother.” The expression on his face – mouth dropped open, eyes widened and I could see the brain cells trying to grasp that word – grandmother.
“You can’t be a grandmother, you are too young. You don’t have enough wrinkles or gray hair!”
(Meanwhile, I can see S. is about falling off the bar stool with laughter). And with a straight face I responded with “I have great genes.”
He said, “ Yes, you do.” And rubbed the knee of my jeans with his finger and walked away muttering a little bit.
S. and I got our food, ate it and headed back to our room. Waiting for the elevator, we looked at each other and starting giggling. Neither one of us had been hit on like that in years! Poor boy didn’t know what hit him!

Monday, June 26, 2006

In which we get a new house phone

My first post!
‘We’ have issues here with cordless phones. ‘We’ replace the cordless phone about every 12-14 months. Now every cordless ‘we’ve’ purchased tells you not to have it mounted close to a microwave. Where is the only place in our kitchen to plug in the cordless phone? Yup, right next to the microwave! Has HE every read the instructions for ALL the phones HE has had to buy? Does HE every remember this when I read it to HIM every time a new phone is installed? NOPE!
This time I tried to ‘save’ him money by going to Radio Shack for a replacement battery. Never trust the clerk that DOES NOT check their computer that the replacement battery you hold in your hand is the correct one for the cordless phone you brought with you and are holding in your other hand! Two batteries and plus $20's later the phone is toast!
So today ‘we’ decided to get another cordless phone. I mentioned about the microwave problem and it might be a good idea to move the mounting away from the microwave. I literally could see the light bulb go off over his head!

'We' have a long phone cord that would reach through the doorway into the dining room where there is a short bookcase that has an outlet next to it!
So HE went to K-Mart to buy a new cordless phone. This time HE got a little smarter. HE purchased a unit with 2 cordless handsets complete with a new answering machine and both handsets have caller ID. Bonus! (The old machine has had issues since we bought it. Every other message that was left was garbled. Sorta like the trying to listen to a cassette tape that had be previously chewed up.)
Now comes the fun part! HE hands me his cell phone to call the house phone to check out what the new machine message is. This way I can decide to replace it with a differant one if I don’t like it. (That’s another story). So I call the house - Ring! Ring! Ring! And it’s not picking up!
Duh! It’s not plugged in to an outlet!!!!!! It took about 20 rings with him asking questions like “Is it ringing? It’s not picking up!” Then the good one – “I used the old power pack.” Different manufactures AND it’s not even plugged into the phone.

PS – correct power pack plugged in, phone picks up after 4 rings! And I like the message on the machine. Very male and the exact message I would have put on it.


PSS - a few hours later, after the handset were charged we got a call. I couldn't figure out how to what button to push to answer it! Got that straightened out (niece calling long-distance to see if she could use our couch for a few days) and asked where the instruction book for the new phone is.
It's in the box.
In the basement that has a river running though it.
Taped up!

Sigh........ I do love him.

Fiber Content - I've finished knitting the striped raglan cardigan and have started to sew in the ends. If all goes well, this will live at work for the summer.