Impulse

I don't usually think of myself as a whimsical traveler, but sometimes, a friend calls you up on a Thursday evening and says, 'Hey, I'm going to New York City on Saturday. Want to come?' And I look at plans for the weekend- some work for my job I hadn't been able to get to during the week, cleaning the pool, laundry-- and realize that I'd really rather hit the road with a sock and some good company. I live north of Boston, so doing this as a day trip was going to take a certain amount of stamina. We were up at five-thirty, on the road at six, picked up our friend at six-thirty, arrived in Stamford CT in time for the 8:50 train and were walking out of Grand Central at a quarter to ten.


I should perhaps clarify that the stamina wasn't actually mine, since I got in the car and promptly fell asleep for another couple of hours...

We spent a lot of time looking for books at the Strand (we found them), and walking around looking at architecture. The afternoon found us at the Brooklyn Art Museum, and we walked some more before heading back into Greenwich Village for dinner. I liked this street in Brooklyn.


Notes for the frugal- We shipped a boxful of books back to (beautiful tax-free) NH- and it cost less than the NY state sales tax. Yes, shipping cost less than carrying them out with us. (Because when you ship to an out of state location, any tax is paid to the destination state, if applicable.) Whee! And two orders of excellent Chinese dumplings with two drinks, an order of steamed pork buns and a vast sesame pancake cost us $5.75 -that was lunch for two. Who says there aren't any bargains in the big city?!

The sock:


The Fools Rush Sock by Cassiana- a lovely design, just enough complexity to be interesting yet simple enough to show off the yarn well. You might remember that I recently used the lace ribbing from this pattern for the fan lace socks. The yarn is Trekking XXL. I'm quite charmed by the colorway- I had no idea what this was going to look like knitted. Clearly, I've been underestimating the potential of these seemingly odd-looking plies.


Sunday, not surprisingly, was a day of sleeping late, staggering around in a daze and knitting something uncomplicated. It rained off and on all day, so I didn't even feel badly about not doing anything. (Okay, the pool still needs cleaning. I feel a little badly about that.) Less complex knitting means the Log Cabin Moderne, now up to about 18 inches on a side. When I can get the cat away from it.


Also cooking- I keep thinking one of these days we need to declare a 'clear out the freezer month', and not getting around to it. But we made a good start yesterday- some cooked chicken, mashed potatoes, a random can of chicken broth and some ancient frozen corn got turned into *vastly* more attractive chicken pot pies... (there were some intermediate steps involving grilled onions and making gravy, but the end result was lovely). And of course this let us avoid anything as strenuous as grocery shopping (something which should definitely be considered when we run out of pot pie). Although-- what I mainly need is fruit, and I *do* still have that bag of rhubarb in the freezer ready to be made into sauce....generally motivating myself to do something isn't a problem if I can convince myself that it's an alternative to shopping!




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Finding a Round Tuit

This week Alison was talking about putting off starting something because there was a part of it she didn't like doing. And she said 'we all do that'. I'm not sure we all do- I sometimes think my mom's motto is 'never put off until tomorrow what you could have done yesterday'. But it's for sure that *I* resemble that remark.

I put things off all the time, and very often the trigger is uncertainty or distaste for some part of the project. I waited until the rest of the sweater was nearly done to frog and reknit the sleeve that irritated me, for example, in the non-Christmas cardigan. And I waited until it nearly expired before renewing my passport (despite the fact that it wasn't actually useful for some months before- a lot of countries won't let you in unless you have at least 6 months left before your passport expires- it's been on my to-do list since about February).

In a more immediate example, the chain broke on the toilet in our second bathroom. This is only a mild inconvenience- most of the time, one bathroom is sufficient for two adults, and the second bathroom doesn't get used a lot anyway because the main bathroom is more centrally located. And in a pinch, you can reach into the tank and raise the flapper valve manually. (Which is not nice, but you were going to wash your hands anyway, weren't you?)

This project is a double whammy in the project starting department. I don't know how long it will take, or if it will require parts. And mucking around in the toilet tank is not on anyone's list of ten favorite leisure activities. (I'm pretty sure.) Now you're probably wondering what the heck kind of engineer I am, and don't I own a paperclip? Well, on this particular toilet, the 'chain' is a plastic strap, which was apparently molded into top of the flapper.


If it was just a matter of wiring two broken pieces together it would be no problem. But no- first I needed to figure out how to attach a new chain to the valve. So, I put it off.

But yesterday, inspired by Alison and a lifetime of exposure to my mother's sterling example, I decided to tackle it.

My plans in order of least to most trouble:
a) Can I just shove a large needle through the tab where the old strap was attached, threaded with cording?
b) Dismount the flapper, drill a small hole through the tab and then rewire it with a substitute material (fishing line, most likely).
c) Replace the flapper entirely.

I wasn't too sanguine about a) but it was the only option that didn't involve taking things apart. (There wasn't room to wedge the drill in the toilet tank to put a hole in the flapper tab, even if I thought it was a good idea to get electricity that close to water.) And c) required a trip to the hardware store (irritating), spending money (see previous post on torturing small change), as well as the chance of getting a wrong part, which would require even more annoyance to sort out.

But once I'd turned off the water and drained the tank, it turned out to be fairly easy to take out the flapper, whisk it down to the basement workshop (which in a fit of energy I'd finally partially shoveled out a couple of weeks ago- only two years after the House Renovation Project of Doom that filled it with crap!), and drilled a hole in the tab. A few more minutes of messing around with fishing line (which I don't use for fishing but rather for minor repairs where water-proof-ness or transparency is advantageous). Et voila! (That's French for 'I finally got around to it.' )

One more task off the eternal House Project List. And the moral of the story? Not *every* project is doomed to enormous complications and added expense. Every once in a while the fates will pitch you an easy one to keep you off-balance.

Cheap Funnel Tricks

So, I was reading money-saving tips on my lunch hour the other day. I do this sort of thing. Despite a natural inclination to torturing pennies until they scream for mercy, I persist in looking for undiscovered sources of waste in my budget in the hope of squeezing ever more out of it.

This particular article listed a number of money-saving ideas that I already practice. I don't have a latte at Starbucks every day (or any day, really), and I don't buy bottled water. What I have are a collection of empty plastic bottles that I fill with water from my tap. But sometimes I just don't feel like drinking water. And when I found myself occasionally buying a package of single serving juice bottles to take to work, I knew it was time to make a change. So I replaced my kitchen funnel (the old one disappeared into the cellar for reasons having to do with paint thinner and is now officially No Longer Suitable For Kitchen Use), and started putting juice, milk, whatever, in smaller bottles as opposed to buying serving size.

Good for the environment, good for the budget. And with the advent of the summer iced coffee season? Cold coffee, a little sugar, some skim milk down the funnel, and I have a ten-cent replacement for a $1.25 purchase.


Eat your heart out, Starbucks.