Friday, December 26, 2008
Laundry Conversation
Ellie loves to help me put away the laundry, which is great for me. I get things folded and put them down on the bed and they're put away before I know it. Our laundry as well as hers. Recently she has told me I have to look away before she reaches for something. The laundry disappears in a flash, and she comes back and asks me what happened to whatever she just took. This morning she did the same thing, and when I asked her if elves took the clothes and put them away, she said, "No, the clothes used magic. They turned themselves into frogs and hopped away and put themselves in their drawers."
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Funny Monkeyspawn
She's lying on the couch sick and decided to hide under her blanket. She just said, "So, good grief you can't see me!"
My New Washer
Have I mentioned how much I love my new washer? It doesn't fold everything for me and it doesn't tell me what kind of mood my clothes are in, but it does get them clean, and it does the extra rinse without me having to go into the laundry room to set it manually after each load. When it's done it's done with everything. I love that.
Hopefully this one will last longer than the last one.
For your viewing pleasure, here's a picture of it.
Hopefully this one will last longer than the last one.
For your viewing pleasure, here's a picture of it.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Death of a Washing Machine
It's just what you want when you're sick: the clothes washer dying mid-cycle. If I'd been up for physical exertion, I'd have been at the range cycling my wife's firearm to see if cleaning and oiling took care of the feed issue it was experiencing. However, I wasn't, so I'm home reading a novel and playing a computer game from time to time as Spawn runs circles around me and tells stories about what her toys are doing.
Rest and recuperation were interrupted, however, by Death of the Washing Machine! Ours chose not to go quietly into the night. During the extra rinse cycle (useful to be sure my sensitive skin does not decide to react poorly to detergent residue) it started to squeak and grumble. Then, it simply failed. It was perfectly willing to make more squeaking and grumbling noises, but refused to run. Sigh. It could probably be fixed, but it wasn't an expensive machine to start with, so Bubbles went forth to shop for a new one. She's sick, too, so I hope the salespeople have the good sense to stand back as she deals with them.
Now, I know I didn't buy an expensive machine, but wouldn't you expect it to last longer than 4 years? Yeah, I would, too. So, the short-lived Whirlpool has just cost that manufacturer our business. On to Maytag! May it be a better tag. Er, brand. Looks like they'll be able to deliver on Monday, which is good. Thank goodness for a small emergency fund.
Next step: water retrieval. Spawn decided she was excellent helper for this stage of the operation, so she began running between the kitchen and the sewing room while I set up the shop vac and cleaned it out for wet work. Eventually she decided the vacuum was too loud, so she fled back into the living room and supervised my efforts from afar. She's good at that. I think she'll be a great manager some day. 3.5 buckets of water later, and presto, an empty machine.
Bubbles will be so pleased.
Rest and recuperation were interrupted, however, by Death of the Washing Machine! Ours chose not to go quietly into the night. During the extra rinse cycle (useful to be sure my sensitive skin does not decide to react poorly to detergent residue) it started to squeak and grumble. Then, it simply failed. It was perfectly willing to make more squeaking and grumbling noises, but refused to run. Sigh. It could probably be fixed, but it wasn't an expensive machine to start with, so Bubbles went forth to shop for a new one. She's sick, too, so I hope the salespeople have the good sense to stand back as she deals with them.
Now, I know I didn't buy an expensive machine, but wouldn't you expect it to last longer than 4 years? Yeah, I would, too. So, the short-lived Whirlpool has just cost that manufacturer our business. On to Maytag! May it be a better tag. Er, brand. Looks like they'll be able to deliver on Monday, which is good. Thank goodness for a small emergency fund.
Next step: water retrieval. Spawn decided she was excellent helper for this stage of the operation, so she began running between the kitchen and the sewing room while I set up the shop vac and cleaned it out for wet work. Eventually she decided the vacuum was too loud, so she fled back into the living room and supervised my efforts from afar. She's good at that. I think she'll be a great manager some day. 3.5 buckets of water later, and presto, an empty machine.
Bubbles will be so pleased.
All's quiet on the cold front
I'm up a bit early. Bubbles is sick and I'm waiting for Monkeyspawn to wake up so we can watch Survivorman together. It's a Saturday morning ritual. In case you're curious, Monkey, Bubbles and Spawn aren't our real names. That should be obvious, but in the modern world, one encounters all sorts of silly names. These online handles developed after I addicted Bubbles to an online game we play with friends (no, it's not World of Warcraft), and we find them amusing, so we tend to use them on the web. While Spawn doesn't do any online gaming, she needed a name like Mommy and Daddy's and is quite pleased with the one she got.
Much of this blog will probably be about her doings, because she's the most fascinating of us in my humble opinion. Little is more interesting than the development of a new human mind and its exploration of the world.
As a hugely biased parent, I can tell you Monkeyspawn is a very smart and funny little girl with an incredible stubborn streak she comes by very naturally, as Bubbles and I each share the trait.
An example of what she will come up with comes from about this time last year, when she was 4.
She can be just as surprising and random as her Daddy.
Much of this blog will probably be about her doings, because she's the most fascinating of us in my humble opinion. Little is more interesting than the development of a new human mind and its exploration of the world.
As a hugely biased parent, I can tell you Monkeyspawn is a very smart and funny little girl with an incredible stubborn streak she comes by very naturally, as Bubbles and I each share the trait.
An example of what she will come up with comes from about this time last year, when she was 4.
As we left church today, Spawn decided she could walk along the curb--it's one of those stand alone raised curbs, like a balance beam. As she walked along perfectly well, Mommy complimented, "Great balancing, Spawn."
"Thanks," replied my tiny daughter. "It's a gift."
She can be just as surprising and random as her Daddy.
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