General

We finally went to visit the newly re-opened Strong Museum today. I like the changes a lot, although it was a little overwhelming in places. We got there right around when they opened and spent a little less than three hours there, including having lunch, and we didn’t nearly see everything that was new.

The new Field of Play area had some fun things, but it was the most crowded so we didn’t spend too long in there. Carrie really enjoyed the toddler area there despite the fact that there were several kids who were way too big to be in there and were crowding out the smaller kids. (This is a real pet peeve of mine. If your kid is a foot taller than the very prominent “you must be shorter than this line to enter” sign then they shouldn’t be in that area. And if you see that sign and let your kids play in there anyway, shame on you. Nice example you’re setting for your child about following rules.)

Carrie, as always, loved the “old” area. We spent some time in the Sesame Street exhibit, where Carrie sang the alphabet with Elmo and played chess with Mommy. Of course, no trip to Strong is complete without a shopping trip to mini-Wegmans. Carrie picked out a peach, a fig, some oatmeal, a brick of cheese, and a carton of orange juice. And before we left we went back to let her ride the train. We skipped over the other parts of the original section so we could move on to…

Reading Adventureland! There were neat costumes in this section, wizards and princesses and royal capes. A play kitchen with green eggs and ham, as well as velcro’d fruits and veggies that could be cut apart (Carrie *loved* those) and a stove that had a talking chicken in it…I couldn’t quite catch what it said over the noise, but that was a little odd. A chair shaped like a hand next to a pillow shaped like a banana with a small selection of books to read aloud. And there were just tons of little hidey-holes, things to climb into/onto/under, knobs to turn, pulleys to pull. It was all storybook-themed, and I got the impression that it was all fabulous, but this was the part that felt pretty overwhelming.

If Denis hadn’t been there to be another pair of eyes and hands on Carrie I would have been worried about her disappearing somewhere. I’m sure a fair amount of that was just the sheer volume of kids running around and the rather high noise level. A weekday should be much calmer, and when I’d normally take Carrie by myself (or with friends) anyway. All in all, we’d give it 6 thumbs up! (Out of 6, of course – the three of us each have two thumbs, get it?)

I uploaded a few photos to Ofoto Kodak EasyShare Gallery. (Sign-in required.)

You know it’s bad when the pest control specialist (aka “the bee guy”) says, “This is strange…”

We’ve had several yellow-jackets in both of our upstairs bathrooms and a few scattered in other rooms on that side of the house (but mostly upstairs) for a couple of weeks now. None of the windows in any of those rooms are open, and the only place we could see an active nest was where the garage connects to the house. The bee guy says that it’s pretty out-of-character for them to walk along the house inside the walls or anything that would get them to where we saw them going in to where we saw them in the house. And they’re pretty sluggish once they’re indoors, so it’s unlikely that they’re flying from room to room.

He sprayed a bunch of outdoor areas, around the windows and doors, and a little attic area in the garage. Hopefully that will reduce the indoor yellow-jacket population to nothing within a few days. I’m not afraid of them – when they’re outdoors, anyway. I’d just strongly prefer that they not live in my house!

(Oh, and I’m totally mortified about where the bee guy was in my house – the living space and bedrooms are all in pretty good shape, but I’ve been a little nervous about cleaning the bathrooms with all those stinging insects crawling around so they haven’t been done in a couple of weeks, and he went in my closet. My closet. The “walk-in” closet that you’d have to be two inches wide to actually be able to walk into if it were clean, and that we use as a place to deposit stuff we have no other place to store. Clothes, too, but not much that we actually wear. I am the worst housekeeper (and pack-rat) ever.)

Today was “Hang Around Victor Day”. No, really, that’s the name they came up with for our annual town festival. It’s the 30th annual H.A.V.D., so I suppose there’s no changing the name now!

We spent the morning hanging around Main St., checking out the vendors and chatting with friends and neighbors. And although I’m leery of posting unprotected pictures of Carrie, Denis is in these too so if anyone steals them they have to explain him away. Here they are playing on a old fire truck during the chicken BBQ the firemen host every year:

(Carrie was thrilled when she discovered that there was a rope running the length of the truck that made the bell in the back clang.)

And just because, here’s a gratuitous shot of adorable alpacas. There’s an alpaca farm nearby that brings a couple of these cuties every year.

The rest of the day was spent just hanging around the house, and I just finished up a small-ish batch of pepper jam. I think last year we must have used bigger peppers, because we only ended up with nine jars of it this time around. And I really, really, really hope it turned out OK, because it also cooked down much faster than I expected and there were a few bits stuck to the bottom when I went to ladle it into the jars. I guess I’ll have to buy some cream cheese at the store tomorrow so we can taste test it. Darn.

I swear I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. I’ve even had whole blog posts written in my head, but for some reason I haven’t actually posted them. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up*:

Two of our nieces (oh, yeah, and their parents) came to visit Friday and Saturday. We spent Sunday at the outlet mall, where we bought a whole new cold-weather wardrobe for Carrie, including a great coat and snowpants. Monday, we went to my uncle’s farm and got a ton of fresh veggies and fed the horse and sheep, and then we went to Carrie’s friend Luke’s 2nd birthday party.

Tuesday, we went to playgroup. Wednesday…I don’t know what we did…went to the gym, I guess. Last night was Sit & Knit. And now it’s Friday.

In between all those things, I’ve been a busy crafter. Tomorrow I’ll actually get my camera out and take some pictures. I made two prototype gifts – which we’ll wrap up and stick under the tree for Carrie, she won’t mind the wonky stitching – for the under-ones and the toddlers on my list. I’m also working hard on an older project for myself, and might even have it done by tomorrow…?

*Please, tell me you know where that quote is from. Best. Movie. Ever. Made.

Ugh. I either have a summer cold or allergies. Either way, it sucks. I’ve been trying to be productive – cleaning the house, sorting through boxes in my craft room – but my head is just too heavy for my body right now. Sitting down and knitting is about as much effort as I can expend, and I even find myself staring off into space with my knitting stuck mid-row.

This is not a good way to be when your full-time occupation is watching a bundle of toddler energy. I feel like the worst mom ever, since Carrie watched a whopping 2 hours of TV today – a whole episode of Sesame Street and *two* Signing Time DVDs. It was a choice between that and letting her have free access to the snack cupboard and the play-doh. I think I made the right decision.

Now off to go stare into space knit some more. Did I mention I have 7 Christmas gifts done as of today? I think it’s only fair that I knit for myself some now, isn’t it?

Carrie knows the Cheerios logo so well that when I decided to pick up a box of their new fruity Cheerios today at Target, she started shouting “Cheerios!” excitedly as soon as she saw the box. The box looks completely different (colors, size, images) from our standard multi-grain Cheerios, except for the name written across the box in the same font.

Yep, that branding stuff really works. My nearly-two-year-old can pick a box of any flavor Cheerios out of a line-up of other cereals. I’m not sure if I should be happy or worried about that…

Why do the freaky spiders gravitate to my house??

This incredibly scary creature built an enormous web outside our sliding glass door in a matter of just an hour or two – we had some family over for dinner, and we were in and out through that door, and literally just a couple hours later Denis went to go out that door again and there it was. Oh, the unspeakable horror! If I had been the one to open that door and see it first, I’m sure I would have had a heart attack.

I’m going to live in terror of this spider for the next however many months until we get a deep freeze, because Denis just picked it up with the Swiffer and shook it into the lawn. Where it’s still alive. Somewhere. Waiting to attack me when I close my eyes. Whimper.

I know they’re really just extras, but I always worry a little when I build some pre-fab something-or-other and end up with extra screws and such:

But look what I built! It took me a whopping 90 minutes, I think because I was using a screwdriver that wasn’t quite the right size – I had to really lean into it to avoid stripping the screws. I don’t understand why it is that whenever I need a flat head screwdriver I can only find phillips head, and vice versa. (This happens to me even with the three or four multiple bit screwdrivers we have in the house. The right bits always seem to be missing.)


This is the Target Play Wonder kitchen. It’s wood, and cheaper than most of the plastic ones, and conveniently enough (probably since I shop at Target a lot) it coordinates with all the toy storage and such in the living play room. (I had briefly considered ordering this fabulous kitchen, but since absolutely nothing else in my house is modern looking I just didn’t think it would work. I still love it, though.) The only thing I can see that warrants the “3 and up” rating is that the pegs to hold the shelves in the fridge and stove in place are removable. I think we’ll just end up gluing them in place, and that will solve that little problem.

Carrie spent the evening baking lego cookies and giving her baby a bath in the sink. I think it’s really interesting that she dug through her legos and found the two that are actually food items (a honey pot and a cake from a Winnie the Pooh set) and used those in the frying pan. I guess wooden play food would be a good birthday suggestion when people ask. :)

I seriously need to copy Heather’s sign for my front door. My dogs start barking if the UPS truck even dares to stop somewhere on our street. And if the doorbell rings? They feel it is their duty to bark loud enough and long enough to make sure I know that the doorbell? It rang.

I’ve taken to listening for any delivery truck that might stop by during naptime (why is it always during naptime?!?), and I literally shove shoes on my feet and leave the house to meet them part-way up my driveway (rain, sleet or snow can’t stop me) so that they never have to ring the bell. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for all the neighborhood kids on foot and bikes who are selling tickets to car washes and raffles and what-not as fundraisers. The kids’ parents, though, might not appreciate the language on that sign…

I haven’t “fixed” the rss feed yet, but from this point forward any Carolyn-related posts are going to require a sign-in. I’ve chosen to use TypeKey, as it’s already tied into my commenting system. If you would like to continue reading updates about Carolyn, get yourself a TypeKey account, send me your username at sarah AT sarahsthreads DOT com, and once I’ve added you to the people who are allowed to read these posts you should be able to see them. Assuming I don’t know you IRL, please also send me a link to your blog or an email address you’ve used to comment here before. ETA: Please use the subject “TypeKey ID” – a couple of requests have ended up in my junk mail folder and I want to make sure I don’t lose any! This way I can filter them out before the junk filter gets to them.

I’m sorry. I really hate having to do this. If it were just me, just my pictures, I wouldn’t bother. But Carrie’s safety has to come first, and it really hit home last weekend just how sick people on the internet can be.

Now that I’ve made a decision and taken some action I should be back to posting regular old happy things again.