Aftermath

No power. No damage to house. Posting from my phone so keeping it short. Will try to get some pictures up. Hope all are well and safe.

Frankenstorm

We have already lost and regained power here, so I figured I should post while I can.  It's been pretty uneventful so far, but we are still early in the storm. John hooked up an inverter to one of the car batteries, and rigged power for the hot water heater, sump pump, and stove.  He can also add in our fireplace (gas, with an electric gas valve and igniter) if it gets cold. He was supposed to fly to Toronto this morning, that got canceled Saturday night. They rebooked him for tomorrow afternoon, but that got cancelled already. So I don't think he's going to make it to Toronto this week, and that's fine by me.

So far, the biggest emergency? My children trying to figure out what to do with themselves without power.  Oh, the horror!

Unfortunate Trends

Dear Knitting World-
What is it with all these cardigan patterns that button at the top and are open below?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tea-leaves-cardigan

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cardigan-019-t8-630

There are many more. All of these sweaters are lovely on the models, and some of them look really fun to knit, but... none of them would be flattering on me.  I have a stomach, it's bigger than I'd like it to be, and the last thing I need is some lovely lace contrasting with my shirt and drawing attention to it. Or a sweater that looks like I knitted it a size too small on purpose.

I'd love to see a trend of v-neck cardigans that button at the waist (or just above), and have clever ribbing or something that makes it look like I have a waist!  Yeah, that's it! I could get excited about that!

If you could arrange that, I'd be most grateful.  Thanks, Knitting World!

Love,

Me

Magic

We have pea gravel in our playground area. It's mostly cream colored, but there's the occasional piece of clear quartz.  When Rachel was little, say 3 or 4 years old, she would collect stones from the playground, particularly quartz ones, and ask me for a container. They were, I was informed, "meenie minie moe" rocks, and they were magic.

She never explained why they were magic, or what they did, or even how she selected them, but we had little containers of rocks stashed here and there for a long time.  I even found one a few months ago, cleaning out the back hallway.

William has friends over today, and when they came in from playing in the back yard, the little brother had his pockets filled with rocks.  I gave him a baggie to put them in, and you know, I guess they're still magic.

Perils of Suburban Living

I walked out to get the paper this morning, and there were three deer in the front yard - a doe and two fawns.  When I came out the door, one of the fawns panicked and started to run towards the back yard, but then realized that brought her closer to me (sort of). She totally lost it, and ran one way, then circled around, then back towards Mom, and was doing these crazy loops around the yard.  Her twin ran across the street, then stopped, and came back, and clearly didn't know which way to go.

Mama Deer? She stood there, watching me carefully as I walked up the driveway, got the paper, and walked out to the mailbox to get yesterday's mail.  It didn't spook her even when I picked up the recycling bucket and brought it back to the house. Granted, I did move smoothly and fairly deliberately and didn't come any closer to her than necessary. But she never moved her feet the entire time I was outside.

I wish I had a video - babies running all over the yard, Mama standing like a rock.  There's probably a metaphor there.