What a Life!

When you design something, you have this picture in your mind of how it is going to come out. But even if you do everything exactly like you planned, it doesn’t always look exactly like what you had in mind. Case in point…

The closure – yes? no? Am I just hung up on what I expected it to look like? or do I need to go to plan B? Does it look stupid at first glance? or does it look balanced in a masculine sorta way?

I have it lying on the table where I can glance at it as I walk by it at various times during the day. I’m hoping either it will grow on me or I will decide it really doesn’t look right and it will occur to me what might work better.

Ah, the joys of designing…

I’m still dealing with the aftermath of our computer hard drive failing over a week ago. I had to order a new copy of our financial software and it didn’t come in until Friday. We did our town thing yesterday in order to pay a visit to the bank since I’d gotten a check we were waiting for so we’re home today messing around. And yes, messing around is really the only way to describe it.

I am one of those people who likes to bank online. If I can pay a bill online – and see that it went through as well as not have to do business with the USPS – I am a very happy camper. I also like to reconcile my accounts weekly (I know, nerd alert) so that I know where we’re at on things. Apparently I had backed up my data for my financial software about two weeks before the hard drive crashed, and of course life has continued on since then. So I’ve been reconciling…

…and getting really peeved at how banks do security online. It seems that if you log into your account from a different computer, just knowing your password is not enough. No, you have to answer all these security questions.

Questions like What was your maternal grandfather’s first name? Okay, it’s a joint account. Whose grandfather’s name did I use? And how did I spell it when I answered the question originally?

Or What is the last name of your favorite teacher your senior year of high school? Clearly, I gave them the answer to the question at some point, but I really have no idea which teacher I would have said. If you answered that question today, would you know what answer you gave four weeks from now? I might have remembered my least favorite teacher my senior year of high school, but that’s not what they asked.

One company must have gone through my husbands credit report and picked out street names from previous reported addresses. Well, I have known my husband for six and a half years, and none of the street names they listed sounded familiar to me. What I wanted to do was ask them a few questions to see how well they knew him…like What color of underwear did he wear last Tuesday? Like, we could have a contest to see who could think of the most idiotic questions, no? [For the record, I don’t think either of us would have a chance at answering the question about the underwear.]

If you don’t know the answer to one question, they can’t ask an alternate. Nope. You’re stuck. So perhaps I should write down the questions and answers for each account for future reference. Then someone could break into our house, get that information, and steal our identity. Hurray for security questions! [For the record, none of our passwords are written down in their entirety or entered into our computer anywhere.]

But no, they would ask these dumb questions, and I would get locked out because I didn’t know the answer. Ugh! So I would have to call Steve, tell him what I was trying to do, have him call in, then he had to call me back…though when he called in, since he has a masculine voice and I don’t (ironically), they only ask him the basic questions, all of which I had answered correctly. They didn’t ask him stuff like What color was the carpet in your first apartment? or anything like that.

I mean, I’m glad we have security and all. But there comes a point when you can ask questions that are so obscure, even the real person will not be able to answer them correctly. Really. And when you answer the questions initially, yes, they do give you a choice as to which ones to answer. But sometimes it’s a choice between bad questions and really bad questions…which should explain my inability to recite the answers that I once upon a time supplied.

Who was my favorite teacher my senior year of high school anyway?

It’s been a month since I decided I wanted to buy a Bernina sewing machine.

I had been pondering trading my machines in for a Bernina for a while, and it just so happened that the first weekend of May when our knitting group meets at Wilderness Perk, I spotted the Bernina Sewing Center in the same strip mall and stepped in for a minute. I had previously visited the corporate Bernina store located in Hancock Fabrics, and the gal there had told me they were coming out with another machine in the activa line that would have fewer stitches than the current basic machine and probably cost a little less. According to her recollection, they typically had a sale in July as well as at the State Fair. So I decided to make my move slowly and deliberately – I would put up my machines for sale, see how that felt, and go from there.

The serger sold very quickly to a friend of mine who also cloth diapers and wanted to at least make her own wipes, if not her own diapers. I listed my snap-press online, also used to make diapers, and it sold fairly quickly as well. This weekend I listed some yarn from my stash online – the yarn I bought with my birthday money – and it sold right away. Even though I hadn’t yet sold my Viking, I was just a litle short of what the gal at Hancock had mentioned as the lower end of the price range she thought the new machine might be introduced at. I had listed my Viking for $200 but hadn’t gotten any interest, so I was thinking I might have to let it go for $100 or less just to get something out of it.

This weekend, we again met at Wilderness Perk to knit. Before I joined everyone at the coffee shop, I made a little side-trip over to the Bernina Sewing Studio to see if the new machine was available yet. Sure enough, it was. They had just received their first one the day before. In fact, they hadn’t even put it on the showroom floor yet, but since I asked about it, they took me back to where they had it and let me see it.

It is exactly what I want in my next machine. It has the eleven basic stitches, including the handful that I typically use. [The next machine up has 118 stitches, which is more than I want. I am a simple person and I don’t want the machine to have all sorts of bells and whistles that I don’t want or use. I am especially not interested in paying a couple hundred extra for features that I probably will not use or love.]

I asked what the price was.

Now you would think that if you have maching B, C, and D (B being the bottom of the line and D being the top) and you’re introducing machine A (a new, even more basic, bottom of the line machine), it would be introduced at a new, lower price point. But no. The new machine is what the next one up used to cost, machine B now costs what machine C used to cost and so forth. Instead of being a little bit short of what I need for the new machine, I am a lot short. Like five times as much.

The look on my face must have said it all.

I told them I had been saving for the new machine, the price range the other store had mentioned, and all the things I had sold to raise the money to buy it. I told them I still hadn’t sold my Viking, and asked them again about doing a trade-in. Previously they had told me that on trades, they have to take the trade value off the full retail price, which is more than the price that they had told me for the machine, and that even what they would be able to credit me for the machine would be less than what I could get out of it by selling it myself. They confirmed their trade-in policy as I understood it.

There were two salespeople there this time. The owner (who wasn’t there the first time I visited) asked me about my machine, including how old it was, how much I paid for it when I bought it, and where I had listed it. Then he told me that his cousin could sell it for me on consignment out in Grand Island as there is a much better market for my Viking out there than here or anywhere that I’ve listed it online. The amount he volunteered that he thought they could get out of it is actually much closer to what I would like to get out of it and would significantly narrow the gap between what I have saved up and what I need. I’ve seen machines like mine go for prices like he mentioned, but it’s when they’re offered by an actual sewing machine store that sells and repairs machines, they can vouch for it’s condition in a way that I can’t, and thus people are willing to pay more for such machines. Considering the cost-of-living out in Grand Island, my machine is a good machine at a great price point. So I am optimistic…

He said he would be going out to Grand Island this weekend. So tomorrow when I head into town to see the chiropractor and ship the things I sold online this weekend, I will be taking my Viking and the walking foot to the Bernina Sewing Studio so he can take it out to Grand Island and they can sell it for me on consignment.

Deep breath.

Granted, it would be nice if we had enough money that I could just go and buy whatever machine I wanted (which probably would still be the same one I’ve been saving for). But our budget is such that we must squeeze the most out of every single penny we have. My yarn budget, for instance, comes out of the clothing and gift allotments – I can go spend half as much on yarn that I would like to spend on someone, have the pleasure of knitting it up, and then give them something much nicer than would I would otherwise be able to afford. I must confess that I relish the pleasure of getting the biggest bang for every buck we have like that. Life is more interesting that way. Even if it includes heart-stopping moments such as these. A set-back is only a set-up for a come-back, right? If you really want something, you can find a way or make a way to get it. And once you have it, you appreciate it so much more because you remember what you had to go through to get it. Perhaps going through all this to get a Bernina and then making different choices about when, where and what I choose to sew, just perhaps I will be able to rediscover my love for sewing again. Perhaps. No promises or anything…

I’m sitting here on the couch typing on our notebook computer. The windows are open, the birds are singing, there is nice classical music playing softly on the radio. Ben is outside playing. Joey is asleep. It’s just about as close to perfect as you could possibly get.

And I deserve it, after all.

Joey has got this whining-turned-into-wailing thing going on that I just quite haven’t figured out yet. I mean, he used to just whine when his pants needed changing or if he was hungry. But when he whines all the time and you did both those things within the last fifteen minutes, it’s hard to know what to do. Yesterday at the chiropractor, he cried the entire time I was being treated [God bless the saint who was kind enough to hold him].

He’s been crying every morning on our walks, starting about when we’re halfway done which is when we’re just about as far from home as we can possibly be so there’s no cutting it short or anything. This morning, though, I figured out a magic trick to use while we’re walking when he starts to fuss. At first I talk to him and tell him I’m there and blabber to him for a moment. That worked for a while, but then he got more intense. So I started singing. At first, just when I needed to. Then more and more until I was singing the entire time. [I know, I know. Exercise isn’t doing you any good if you can sing while you’re doing it – you should be more out-of-breath than that. I say, To hell with the experts. They should be glad I’m taking a 45 minute walk instead of sitting on my duff on the couch.]

Ben’s favorite song was Shall We Go for a Walk Today? I’d stop singing and he’d start right up singing that one, no matter what other songs I had sung in the mean time. He loves riding in the stroller when we go on our walks. Ah, the simple things that make children happy.

We got back from our walk. I fed Ben breakfast, then sent him outside to play. That is, work. If you asked him if he played outside today, he will tell you, No, I worked. Must. Use. Correct. Terminology. So he’s working, and I’m playing.

Really, I am going to be productive today. But such a perfect morning was meant to be enjoyed. Perhaps some knitting is in order. I love it when I sit on the couch and listen to classical music and feel the soft breeze on my face. It’s one of those places I image I’m at when things are, well, not like that. Which sometimes they are. But that’s okay. I always have these moments to come back to, even if only in my mind.

Breathe deeply. Relax. All is well. For now.

If only I could take pictures as straight as the rows in this cornfield…

Seriously…I took over 300 pictures this weekend, and there are more from last week that I still need to go through. I really have every intention of sharing them, but considering the large mass of them as well as the editing required…plus a whiney baby…it’s coming along rather slowly. I’ll get there, I promise.

Until then, here’s one of my prizes from the weekend.

My statistical analysis is correct.

What statistical analysis? you say.

Well, when I was pregnant with Ben, there were about ten of us in the class. Eight of the moms knew what they were having. One was having a boy, the rest were all girls. I decided we were probably having a boy…and we had Ben.

With Joey…we are part of a playgroup that meets every week. When we started, all of us except for one had only one child. The first mom to get pregnant already had a girl…and had another girl. The next mom already had a boy…and had a girl. The next mom already had a girl…and had a boy. So I decided we were destined to have another boy…and we had Joey.

So…that leads us to the latest statistical analysis. My sister [my only sibling] is expecting her first baby. I have two boys, no girls. Is she having a boy or a girl? Hmm… Now that’s a hard one.

Yes, today, she found out that she’s having a girl. I am so jealous!

But, if I cannot knit cute girly things for my own little girl since I have none, at least I will have a cute little niece to knit for now.

Let the knitting begin…