good visit

Dad made it down all safe and asound.

Richard and I offloaded everything, and set most of it up.
Dad wound up having to work with Victoria's bed. The frame was 3" shorter than her box. So she has a headboard. Which is nice and gives her a place to put her books when she's reading in bed (her usual state)

The kitchen table is perfect fit. The tiffany lamp didn't rewire right, so Dad's doing to see about getting it done professionally, and I'll pick it up in May.

And i got my grandmother's crochet bag. I finished her last project (a 24x24 granny square) and will donate it to charity as she had intended. She did it at the end of her life. I can tell her eyes were going because there are flaws in it here and there: an extra stitch, a triple crochet instead of a double.

I also found most of my cutlery when i cleaned the kids' bedrooms.
magpies. Sheesh.

Dad is on his way home, GS cookies for himself and my mom with him. Least Jon won't eat his grandma's before we get them delivered this year.

Found out Vic pulled the Great Christmas Candy Caper, the one I punished Jon for. Moot point 3 mo later.

Today, I will cross-stitch while watching Sentinel, and plow my way through Laundry Mountain. I also now know why Vic has no socks.

poor hubby got off work at 7, home at 8 and to bed around 8:30, only to find Dollface curled up in my arms. She's been a scaredy-cat for about a week. She doesn't want to sleep if I'm not cuddling her. Since I'm a tummy sleeper, this is pretty uncomfortable for me.

On the plus side, i now have all the SW radio plays as MP3's and can replace my cassettes, with CDs. Only took 2 months. I also have all of the BBC LotR.
21 hours of stories! Yay!

I also have a couple of old-time radio plays. Wish i could find some Charlie McCarthy.

The Great Februarum (cleaning) is over, or at least slowed. I will finish Jon's rooom and Vic's.

And it would be nice to have a path through mine, as well as some empty laundry baskets. Mine are full of yarn and such.

Current projects:
cross-stitch exchange
Darren's Afghan
SW afghan for MWC

Talked to Darren yesterday. He's looking for an artist. He's heard me rave about Alex, so I showed him her work. He can't spell "elusive." But I got him there, and he took a look at Gift of the Tides. Said it looked like they're wrestling, and Han's about to perform a Mike Tyson.
I wanted to smack him. But he likes her style. The more I talk to him, the more ignorant I realize he is. Ignorance is curable, and if nothing else, he learned elusive has only one l and one i.

double-take

So there I was. I hung up the phone from my Dad (He'd made St. Louis w/o mishap despite icy roads). Settling in on the couch with my cross-stitch and Working Girl, dishwasher running, planning to go shopping after the dishwasher finished and I started the Conquest of Laundry Mountain.

There's a knock on the door.

I open it and there stands my mother! Richard said my jaw hit the floor!
Mom and Joe were on their way home from Lafayette Lousiana, where they'd been to the funeral of Joe's brother.

Mom looks super. She's getting around really well. She's dropped a bit of weight. The house was still reasonably clean, which was nice.

Richard knew. They'd checked in with him at the Sheraton last night. The kids were tickled to see grandparents on two days.

We had a nice visit, went through some bags and boxes (Mom wanted an Avon travel bag and one of Grandma's coats fit her) and I took them on the scenic tour of Memphis. Dinner at Shoney's and they decided to get a motel room. Something about 1/2" of ice at Cape Girardeau.

Mom commented I'd lost some weight (I have, about 15 lb since Christmas) and asked if it was deliberate. I grinned and said "yes, but stress really helps."

She laughed when i squee'd over an afghan. Grandma had made me one like it, and Bunny had taken scissors to it as a toddler. Now I have a new one. Kids did some afghan squeeing of their own.

It was so good to see her. I really miss Mom living so far away.
I'll see her briefly in May. She's keeping the kids part of the time I'm at MWC, but we won't have much of a visit. Not the usual "Let's go garage saling!" or "Let's get Brenda and the girls and go to the zoo" level. Or even the "Let's go through the storage room."

The latter is always an adventure.