It’s never a good sign when you lead off your post with a weather report. Perhaps I am running out of exciting blog post fodder.
But it’s true. Today was a very blustery day around here. Trees blew down. The power went out. When my neighbor and I went out walking at 6:00 this morning the storm was already a-storming. We walked down through the Village, past the Starbucks umbrella that had blown into the street, stepping over the small and not-so-small branches littering the sidewalk. I tripped on a hubcap. Let’s hope the wind wasn’t responsible for that.
First thing this morning, after braving the storm, I tried to register for the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. It did not go well. The registration service’s server spat me out mid-registration twice in a row with a very helpful message telling me that ‘An Error Has Occurred’. Gee, thanks. By my third attempt the registration service was telling me that nearly all the classes were full, a mere 20 minutes after registration for the event had opened. I was… displeased. I wrote what I believe was a clear, concise, profanity-free recitation of my frustrations with the registration process and emailed it off to the nice people in charge of the event.
Whenever I do something like that, namely write a complaint email in the heat of the moment I start feeling bad almost as soon as I hit ’send’. I worry about whether my tone was too sharp, my email too wordy, or even worse, whether I had committed some terrible typo which made me look like a complete idiot.
Much to my surprise less than 2 hours later I had an email from the conference organizer. And, at least this time, I was very glad that I had sent that email. It seems that the registration service had run into some technical difficulties when presented with the hoards of fiber-crazed folks all trying to register for the same event at the same time. (I will refrain from all sarcastic comments here…) Happily, a few hours later they were able to re-open registration and I was actually able to register. This means that in a few months DH will be full-charge single parent for a few days.
Do you think I should start cooking and freezing meals for him now?
We’re home again. We had a wonderful morning in Seattle. The girls had another romp in Rogers Playground first thing this morning, this time surrounded by the big kids from the neighboring elementary school who wisely begin their day with recess. Heike’s summary of the experience: “Big kids loud.”
On the way out of town we stopped at the Tom Bihn Designs showroom/factory. The staff were incredibly gracious and helpful. Dirk had lost part of a buckle from his backpack, which he LOVES, BTW. The kind folks at Tom Bihn simply replaced it, no questions asked. Then they gave us a tour of the factory and showed us a very-soon-to-be-released new product which will almost certainly end up under our Christmas tree. Oh, and I got one of these. Yep. I am now the proud owner of at Tom Bihn Swift Bag. There is a very good review of the bag on indigodragonfly’s blog. I am really looking forward to packing it full of all of my knitting stuff tomorrow.
In sadder news, Oliver is not doing very well. His heartbeat has become irregular and he’s lost another 3/4 of a pound. His vet suggested adding another cardiac medicine which might help regulate his heartbeat. Right now he’s still soft and shiny and happy, but we’re very concerned about him.
Please send some kind thoughts his way. (He’s particularly fond of whipping cream and laps that don’t get up and move out from under him.)
November 3, 2007 at 7:28 pm
· Filed under family, knitting
It’s Birthday Weekend around here. My birthday is today, and girls’ is tomorrow. We’ve taken a road trip north to the Big City to celebrate.
My wonderful husband got me a ticket to see my TV boyfriend tomorrow, live and in person tomorrow afternoon. He even got me tickets to the VIP reception afterward. (Be still my beating heart!) I am very, very excited. He’s planning to take the Cupcakes to the Aquarium for the afternoon while I’m at the seminar. I’ve promised D not to throw my panties up on the stage…
We drove up this morning after the girls went to their Princess Ballet® class. I got in some solid knitting time on my latest sock-in-progress, Hedera in Wollmeise Sockenwolle. It’s lovely. The socks are intended to be a Christmas present, so I won’t say too much more about them right now.
The very nice hotel gave me a bottle of wine and two bags of truffles as a birthday present. And since the Cupcakes have surprised us all by going right to sleep I’m going to go indulge.
Will wonders never cease?? Thanks to the venerable Internet, and Popgadget(DH, don’t click on that link. It’s my little secret.), I now know where I might purchase a cupcake table, should I need one. That’s right, a table shaped like a cupcake. For only $900. Don’t tell the Cupcakes. I couldn’t possibly fit two of those in their room.
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