The History Channel is running a series on the States in the US. Tonight one of the states profiled was Minnesota – fun for us – prominently featuring Garrison Keillor (rumor has it he lives near us – I’m probably wrong about that – but we don’t live far from the Governor.)
At the end of the segment he said,
“The thing about Minnesota is that if you come you’d better be prepared to stay. It’s that good.”
Yes, it certainly seems to be. Tickets for the PHC show at the Minnesota State Fair go on sale on Monday. Gerry’s mom will be visiting from NY, we’re going to take a chance and get tickets for all of us, hoping that Gerry will feel well enough to go. Next week we’re supposed to have a consultation with someone at the U of M Hospital, where Gerry will get his chemo, to explain the whole process to us (stem cells stuff) and what we can expect.
Appliance Heaven
Last night we went to our local Best Buy to pick out a new washing machine – the one we bought in Feb hasn’t worked well since we got it, and it’s not even spinning anymore. Lovely. Soggy, wet, nasty, not-clean clothes. We had the third repair person out on Friday – she gave us the magic code that allowed us to stroll into Best Buy and pick out a new (different manufacturer) washer. It’s a much nicer one – an LG (to match our LG dryer that Gerry got on sale and would NOT leave in NJ.)
Because of the months of bad laundry we got it for just a few bucks more than we’d already paid for the Frigidaire. If you’re looking at a Frigidaire front loader, research the control panel. The one for our washer is backordered for MONTHS because just about everyone who has it is having the same problems.
The annoyance was that the first repair person we had out told me that I was using too much soap, or had too many clothes in it, or too few clothes – but he insisted it wasn’t the machine. But it was.
The beauty part, though, is that BB will be able to deliver the new washer on Sunday and take the old one away – so tomorrow morning I’ll worship at the alter of the new LG and do about 5 loads of laundry.
We also bought a dishwasher – we don’t have one right now – and we got a nice deal. It’s a brand we hadn’t heard of (Ariston), but in the research we’ve done we found it was pretty well loved by many who own it.
This was a floor model, and had been reduced twice ($1200 to $699 to $329) but we won’t be actually picking it up for a month or so because we have no place for it in our kitchen. Besides, the warranty doesn’t kick in until we take possession of it – so why rush?
And finally we bought a ceiling fan today. We looked at attic fans (demonstrating great hopefulness on our part that we’ll be able to FIND our attic… How to get up into it is a mystery.) Afterward I took the kids to the library and the park.
We had lunch at Snuffy’s and I introduced the waiter to the concept of the egg cream. To our delight he and one of the soda guys made one up and thoroughly enjoyed it (could we be seeing the Brooklyn treat on a Minneapolis menu in the near future?)
Knitting Work Out
Then I came home and figured out some bra shaping. I have a project that I’ve been working on for almost a year now, tweaking and reworking, and I’m ready to unveil it on Memorial Day. It’s not really so great – it’s just a pattern (or, rather, a series of patterns) but I’ll alert everyone on my email list at the end of May (and may even send out a free sneak preview pattern!) Oh – now I’m committed!
I’ve found Joan McGowan Michael’s book, Knitting Lingerie Style, to be incredibly helpful as I work through some details. I just love her designs, and this is a very well laid out book. Good, clear instructions, easy to follow, lovely designs – it’s an excellent addition to a knitting library.
I had a moment of lip biting when I thought this beautiful book might be direct competition for Romantic Hand Knits, but I think – as similar as they could seem (same photographer – oops…) – they really cover very different types of garments.
It’s odd that two designers I admire so much – Joan MM, Iris Schreier (Lacy Little Knits) & I all have books coming out this year that share themes. Great minds think alike!
It ought to be an interesting TNNA!