Lace Knitting Before Blocking

Someone told me once that you could always tell lace knitting, because before you washed it and blocked it to size, it looked like the dog's breakfast!

So here is the dog's breakfast, two-thirds cast-off and waiting to be washed and blocked, along with my husband's favorite-color purple dishcloth.

Last night's weather forecast was for "dense fog". I guess all the school officials around here got worried, because once again we drove up to school and found the windows dark. My son was luckier than the two kids who got out of the car ahead of us -- their mom or dad drove off, and we all walked into the dark school building together! Fortunately one of the teachers was already there, otherwise I would have taken them home with me until the two-hour fog delay was up.

Did I say I mowed the grass Friday? Hah! It rained from about Saturday night on. Four days of rain has made that grass grow like I can't believe! If it gets dry enough, I'll have to mow it again Thursday. (Not tonight: that's my fiber arts guild meeting.)

I can't resist adding this shot I took of Ajax. My husband says it should be called "But the grass is WET!"

I had to go look out the window to figure out what that green thing on the left side of the picture is -- the green part is a metal fence post we use to make the dogs move the paths that they wear in the yard. The gray part, that looks like it's connected to the fence post, is the post driver that my husband used to set the post for his new grill.

See the new grill? Yes, it is "just like a park grill". My husband saw this in a catalog somebody brought to work. He said he was tired of buying cheap charcoal grills that rusted out in a couple of years, and what would I think about buying one of these? I said, "Good idea".

But then the weirdness started. He tried to order one online, and after he had put the billing and shipping info in, his browser crashed. He called them on the phone to ask if the web order went through. No, they said. So with their assurance that they didn't already have his order, he ordered one over the phone.

When UPS delivered them -- yes, them -- one grill was fine, and the second was missing the support post. But he didn't want two in the first place. He called the company back, and they gave him a return number. He told them one was missing the post, and they said that would be the one to send back!

The next day, I looked at the invoices that were attached, and saw that they said to "Call the carrier first if a package arrived damaged." Missing a necessary part was sort of like damage, so I called UPS. The first thing I said was that my husband had already called the vendor, so they might have two reports on this. No, the customer support guy told me very firmly, "Ma'am, I would see that on our system if that had happened." "Okay," I said, "I just don't want to make the driver try to pick it up twice."

Monday the UPS driver came out and picked up the grill with the missing post. Since he had delivered both, he could see what the good one had looked like.

Tuesday he came out to deliver our coffee. And he had another UPS return sticker! (Is there an echo effect to this whole grill adventure or what?)

He said, "You didn't want to return the other one, did you? I told the dispatcher I didn't think so!" I was glad he had a real delivery for us, so he didn't have to make the trip just to hear me say we only wanted to return the extra one.

And the grill: my husband loves it!

PS: I go off and read "WendyKnits!" and she's knitting Tiger socks! Tiger socks! Oh! I want tiger socks! And maybe Zebra socks, too!