Weekend Statistics

This past weekend we joined our friends Sara and John, and Jennifer and Heather for the Newport Seafood and Wine festival. We drove down on Friday, and then home on Sunday. We had a great time. Here are some fun facts from the weekend:

• Close estimate of Oysters ate by entire group (excluding myself)- 200
• Close estimate of oysters eaten by Lucas- 75
• The best food at the festival (my own opinion)- crab melt (ate two and a half... I had to make up for all the oysters I wasn't eating)
  
• Number of bottles of wine bought by entire group- 14
• Number of bottles of wine bought by us- 5
• Time that our hotel stops serving food in the bar: 9:00pm
  
• Amount of money spent at Taco Bell (5 drunk people, one pregnant one)- $57.79
• Amount of money the 6 of us spent on Sushi- $260
• Approximate number of pieces of sushi $260 will get you: 110
  
• Number of pieces of sushi left after we gorged- 3
• Number of hours until I was hungry again- 10
  

Overall, a very fun weekend. I can't wait until next year when I'll be able to drink some too!

I am my mother's daughter

We decided to turn our "guest room" into the baby's room. By guest room, I mean it did have a queen sized bed, and Jill will attest that it did work for sleep. But I also doubled for our storage room for the past 5 years. So whenever we needed to use the room for a guest room, the large amount of junk and prized possessions moved from the bed to the closet, the floor, under the bed, or anywhere else in the room, so that our guest could sleep in the bed.

So, one weekend, two truck loads of stuff to Good Will... and a few storage bins packed with stuff sent to our garage, we had a clear and clean room... the carpet is BEAUTIFUL... (amazing how clean it can stay if there is a layer-o-stuff on top of it!!)

So, the next step... decoration. We bought a very cute border from Baby's R US that matches our bedding... It said it was easy to install... but knowing the story of mom and dad putting up wallpaper, I knew that even though it SAID it was easy... not to believe it!

So Lucas and I got to work... we washed the walls, and set up our supplies... water, straight razor, cardboard, level, towels... and we brought our patience too.

The first 6 feet almost caused divorce... it was not easy, it wasn't even close to easy! Making the dang stuff stick to the wall... in an even line... quite challenging. We almost gave up... does little Baby Friedler really want borders!!??

But we tried again... we cut the next piece... I was in charge of aligning the seams...

Let me stop here a moment... I am not a perfectionist. That's my mom. I am not super anal when it comes to straight versus crooked... matching things perfectly again... that's my mom....

But when it came to aligning those seems... with its little green gingham pattern... my "mom's genes" came through... it was PERFECT... little white square to little white square... little green square to little green square... you can't even tell there IS a seam... except by feel! YUP... I may have patience with knot's from my dad... but I have wallpaper perfectionism from my mom!

Mom v. Dad

Let's start this story with a little preface. I just finished working seven nights in a row... call it greed, stupidity, or poor planning... but I survived (just like Gloria Gainer said I would). Lucas also did a seven night stretch, he also survived.

Lucas and I carpool into work. It's a little awkward, since I start at 1800 and he starts at 1900, but it works. I have gotten into the habit of taking my knitting to work with me, so that when I clock out at 0630, I just knit for the hour until he comes and gets me. I works nicely. And we save some money on gas, and the environment one trip to work at a time.

After working night number six, I started a new package of yarn. The theory goes, grab the innards out of the skein, and it will not tangle. Although this theory has worked in the past, on this beautiful blue skein, it FAILED miserably. I soon had about a 5 foot stretch of yarn tangled into a big mess. I tried to untangle it at work. I worked on it for about 15 minutes, I am sure making it worse than it started. I was VERY tired. I was about to just cut out the big knot, when a co-worker suggested I try again when I wasn't so tired.

The Knot sat in my bag two days.

So today, after I actually slept, I tried again.

The Knot reminded me of tangled necklaces which my mom would give to my dad to untangle. He has endless patience. The Knot also reminded me of times when a comb or brush would get caught in our hair growing up. My mom would either just cut it out, or drive us to dad's office for him to untangle it. Again, he has endless patience.

So, there I was, on the couch, with my 5 feet of tangled, knotted yarn.

On one shoulder was my dad "just work on it, it will come out just have PATIENCE"

On the other shoulder was my mom "just cut it out, it will be faster, then you can start knitting again"

Cut... patience... cut... patience... cut... patience...

Five minutes passed... I couldn't tell if I was making it better or worse.

FINALLY a breakthrough... I saw the path to un-tangle-ness. I worked for about 10 more minutes. Finally my dad's voice coming through... yes PATIENCE prevailed! (or you could call it stubbornness) I beat the Knot. I won.

Yes, today I show yet again I am my dad's daughter.

(I think this also counts as passing Yarn-ology class 104. Just one more step into my yarn-ology master.)