Kat with a K

Note to self:

The iron only heats up if you ACTUALLY TURN IT ON rather than just plug it in. Sigh. I do this every single time.

Daring

Not only did I take the extra comforter off my bed on Saturday, and put a bag of winter clothes in the attic on Sunday... but I just put non-flannel sheets on my bed for the first time since, oh, October? So yes, New Englanders, if it snows again, you can totally blame me.

When appliances attack...

Yesterday, I was trying to wash one of my comforters before putting it away for the season. I have washed this comforter before without incident, so I didn't really think it would be a big deal. But no: as I was about to leave to meet up with some friends last night, I discovered that the unbalancedness of the load had somehow made the washing machine turn about 100 degrees, which in turn had made the dryer move and disconnect. Gah!

My downstairs neighbors were asleep when I got home last night, so I didn't want to start moving large appliances around and decided to wait to deal with it until morning. Which I did. But in the process of trying to move them back into place, I managed to pretty much barricade myself into the bathroom with the washing machine in front of the door. That was a somewhat troubling few minutes.

I finally got it to move to where it is both usable and not blocking anything. And now both machines seem to be functioning correctly. During this process, I did find a dollar, a missing sock, and a few other small items, so at least that's something... But whew. It was a bit alarming. I think I deserve some cocoa after that.

New toy!

I've been wanting a toaster oven for a few years now. Isn't it cute?

My new (empty) bedroom

I'm not sure whether I mentioned that I'm switching bedrooms. I've been sleeping on a futon for the past few years, which is doable but not comfortable, so when Defulct decided not to move his bed to North Carolina, I bought it from him. I liked his bedroom better anyway, so instead of moving his bed, I'm just moving into his old room.

And so far, everything I've moved is what you see in the picture. Bed, table, lamp, alarm clark, book, teddy bear. (Oh, and a fan that you can't see.) And you know what? I really really like it. I'll probably add a few things - a real nightstand instead of a folding table, a dresser so I can have my clothes in there, maybe a small bookcase and a chair. But I really like the minimalist look. And how uncluttered it is. So I have hope that I might actually be able to keep it that way. (Yes, I know that all of you who have ever seen any of my other bedrooms are laughing at me right now.) But maybe I can do it! With the extra space I have now, I can keep all my yarn and other craft stuff in a separate room, so that will help a lot.

I do know that I've been sleeping SO much better in there. Part is the real bed, of course, but I'm sure part is how calm and relaxing it is.

Hard work

So we're having kitchen sink issues. Basically, the faucet works fine, but anything (including water) that we try to put down the drain ends up in the cabinet under the sink. (Yes, the landlord has been notified; he's in the Ukraine at the moment so it's taking him a bit longer than normal to get it fixed.) This means that dishes have to be washed in the dishpan, and then the dishpan full of icky water has to be dumped into the bathroom sink whenever it gets full. Which is about every three minutes, it seems. And I cooked a few times this weekend, and had social obligations that meant leaving soon after eating both times, so when I got home this evening there were a heck of a lot of dishes to do.

Now, I read a fair amount of history, especially social history. I know that, until all of the huge advances in household technology in the past fifty to one hundred years or so, routine, everyday housework was a much bigger deal. The phrase "backbreaking labor" is thrown around, and I never doubted it. But now, having this one common task be so much more time consuming and physically difficult than usual is giving me a glimpse of what all that actually means. And wow. I really am impressed by the strength of those generations of women (and some men, of course) who did all of that work every single day, and very grateful that I have all of these conveniences that mean that I have time to knit and read for fun and write a blog and everything else.

And I'm also trying to remember the feeling of accomplishment I had when all of those dishes were done and the last basin of water was dumped out and the kitchen was all clean. Maybe it will help convince me to clean more often.

If I blog it, I have to do it.

I'm feeling vaguely out of it today, and have been for most of this week, actually. Part of it, certainly, is a need for just a bit more sleep than I have been getting. And I just have no focus. I don't know. Maybe it's because of spring. And actually being fairly happy sort of leaves me at loose ends. I can't decide whether I want to go run around crazily in the sunshine or take a road trip or hide under the covers and read obscure British novels. So. Um, anyway, where was I? Oh, lack of focus, right. I think I've made my point.

SO. Anyway. My plan for the evening is to go home, get some stuff done, RELAX a little, and SLEEP. Early. Theoretically. And because we've seen how scattered I am today, I'm going to put my to do list right here so that you all can harass me about it tomorrow. Okay? Okay.

1. Clean a bit. Honestly, my main point with this one is to find my copy of Last Minute Knitted Gifts and my missing Netflix envelope, but I'm planning to look for them in a way that makes the room look tidier rather than messier.

2. Finish translating Lauren's diploma. Yay Latin!

3. Block Branching Out.

4. E-mail my professor about my final paper topic.

5. Work on the Call for Submissions for the new online magazine I mentioned yesterday. (Thanks for all the enthusiasm about that! More details soon!)

6. (Finally) finish knitting the second ball of Dave's Scarf. I think it has entered the black hole phase - I've been knitting and knitting and nothing has been happening. At least if I finish a freaking ball of yarn I'll feel like I'm making some progress.

7. Start a grocery list. I'm out of hummus and pita. This can't be good.

8. Finish reading Knitting Rules and Bad Kitty.

Okay. That's totally doable for an evening, right? And theoretically it will result in pictures of a blocked Branching Out for you tomorrow.

So close.

So I had a very "almost" sort of day yesterday. Shall we review the day's goals?

1. Sleep late. Sort of. I woke up right at seven but managed to doze for a few hours. So... almost.

2. Clean room. More or less. I cleaned, which is not to say that the room is clean. But it is firmly in the "better" category. I got a bunch of boxes and such moved, so it's probably cleaner than it's been since I moved all my stuff in. But it's far, far from done. And I still have not found the heating vents... think they might be in the corner with all the yarn? Yeah, I thought you might.

3. Do homework. Mostly. I did my whole big project due Wednesday. I also have to read and respond to an article - I read about half the article. So I have a bit more to do. But the big thing I was worried about was done. So... almost.

And finally...

4. Finish the baby blanket. Almost. I am so, so very close. I have to knit about four rows, cast off, weave in the ends, and send it to Texas. So so close. I won't be getting home until midnight tonight, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow. Finally. And then I can knit, you know, something else. Really, at this point... anything else would do.