Kiss My Knits!

Pat’s quilt.

A few days ago, Emily suddenly took an interest in the Entertainment Weekly magazines I sometimes pick up at the store. I didn’t notice she was reading it until she came in and asked, “Who’s this?” There was a two-page photo closeup of Lucy Liu in a magazine from a few weeks ago. (It takes me a while to get enough time to read through these things. Jayne hats, you know.) Now Emily is absolutely fascinated with Lucy Liu. “She’s so pretty!” she keeps saying.

She and Steve searched for pictures of Lucy Liu online today, but unlike 90% of the people searching for Lucy Liu on the internet, they searched with safesearch on. Tomorrow she wants to draw pictures of Lucy Liu. In the meantime, to divert her from Entertainment Weekly, which has language which is a bit salty for an eight year old, I stopped by Borders and picked up a copy of Discovery Girls magazine. She flipped through it, but I don’t think it’ll hold her interest until it starts featuring articles on Lucy Liu. It’s all Lucy Liu, all the time here.

I’ll be out of town tomorrow, and Steve will be home to watch Emily since it’s a teacher workday. Hopefully they’ll have lots of fun with Lucy Liu. I should be back late tomorrow night.

This morning, Steve and I had been talking with Emily about going to the zoo at some point. She’s very excited, but clearly doesn’t want to go right now. She wanted to set a date far in the future, to give herself some time to get adjusted. She picked Nov 12th at random, and then we settled on a date in August. So after all that, she told us, “I want to go play now.” That’s fine. She’s eight, and we had been talking about something fairly directed and focused, and she was still in her PJs, for Pete’s sake.

Shortly thereafter:

Me: I need to go to the post office later, do you want to come?
Emily: No, thank you. I want to stay here.
Me: Okay, that’s fine, but I’d still like you to put on some daytime clothes.
Emily: Okay. Then will you leave me alone?

Heh. I think she was worried I’d still make her go to the post office. The thing is, she really doesn’t mean it rudely! Any more than she does when she says, “I don’t want to answer that now” or “I’m done talking” and then launches into an involved story involving someone imaginary. She really does mean what she says, and she says it very matter-of-factly. She’s had enough of whatever I’m forcing her to concentrate on, and she needs to do her own thing. The tough part is getting her to communicate that in a way that doesn’t come off like “talk to the hand!” We seem to have curbed a flat “Stop talking” from her.

So what’s a short, effective, direct, polite way that you can tell someone that you need to not talk with them anymore? Something an eight-year-old would understand would be ideal.

The list as it stands.

This evening I was at the video store, and a roving reporter from our local Fox News affiliate made the critical error of asking me if I’d talk on camera about the snow for a “man on the street” kind of thing. So assuming I made the cut – and I think I did – the entire city will know about drinking cocoa to make it snow. Soon I’ll have the entire nation drinking cocoa! Mwahahahaaaaa!!!

Yesterday when we were out in the snow, I couldn’t find my gloves. The first thing that came to hand was this truly giant mitten. I believe this was the first mitten I ever knit. I have a history of knitting my first of any garment truly huge. Because it was huge, I didn’t bother knitting the other one, but neither did I get around to unravelling the first one.

This may be a bust as a mitten, but it was a huge hit as… THE MITTEN MONSTER! RAARRR! This giant mitten now belongs to Emily. It comes out periodically and tries to eat people. I offered to put eyes on it, but apparently it’s fine as it is. Well, not exactly fine – now she wants a middle-sized mitten and a small mitten so that it can be an entire mitten monster family. Heh. This was handpaintedyarn.com‘s “merino bulky” in mint, a colorway I don’t think they offer anymore. I think I’ve still got some stashed away, so we’ll see if we can create Bride and Son of Mitten Monster.

On the needles, a Berroco Jayne for the German Browncoat who sent us those care packages. Woo!

Pat passed away last night, very peacefully, in her sleep.

Thank you for all the good wishes and support you’ve given during this difficult time.

Emily’s had great fun playing in the slush today. However, my feet are cold! I’ve made at least six pairs of felted slippers for other people, but none for myself – maybe that’s something I need to fix.

Pictured: A 2004 gift for . Big Kureyon with decorative ties and Plasti-Dip sprayed on the soles to make them grippy. This may be my favorite pair.

Good teamwork, everyone! Your cocoa-drinking efforts paid off nicely.

We got a nice gentle snow all night, the roads stayed clear, and we got a chance to go out and play before it started to melt. Perfect! Next time we’ll go for greater volume.

At right: the world’s smallest snowman.

Last night I finally had some of that cocoa concoction with the peppermint schnapps. My heart was racing like a hummingbird’s. Note to self: schnapps are sweet. Next time, cut back on sugar in the cocoa.

Today, I find there’s a winter storm advisory for tonight. Snow from midnight to three, but then sleet and freezing rain.

Ack! Everyone knows that drinking cocoa is how you appease the snow gods. If you want snow, drink cocoa! Did the addition of demon alcohol anger them? I’m sorry, snow gods! I didn’t mean it!

All I know is that when I go to the grocery store today, I’m getting mini marshmallows so I can make traditional hot chocolate tonight. Maybe it’s not too late!

We’ve got chicken and schnapps!