Laundry, with mother's little helper

I don't mind the washer-and-dryer phases of doing laundry. What I hate is the folding-and-putting-away part.

I've perfected dealing with my work clothes: three stackable baskets on top of the dryer. Bottom basket is underwear, middle basket is work pants, top basket is work shirts (black t-shirts). Work socks go in a pile next to the baskets. (For work socks, I bought 12 identical pairs of black socks. No sock matching. No worries about missing socks or one sock with a hole in it. Any sock goes with any other sock. Heaven!)

But all the other laundry--sheets (which never fold neatly), towels (hey, it's not like they're gonna wrinkle), the off-work clothes--I hate dealing with that stuff. In my condo, the washer and dryer are in a wide closet on the upstairs hallway. On the other side of the hallway is a half-wall (overlooking the living room). It's a nice, sturdy half-wall, just two steps from the dryer. It's a great place to drape sheets, towels, etc., as they come out of the dryer. I mean, there's no place in the laundry-closet to be folding and stacking clean laundry, so that half-wall is terrific.

Until you start using it as the extended closet, and never put the clothes away. Until you have to move all the winter clothes off the wall so you can get to the summer clothes that are buried beneath them.

Today I did several loads of clothes, and I put away the mountain of stuff piled on the half-wall. I started by pulling the sheets and pillows off the bed, which meant first moving Jacey off the bed.

While sheets were washing, I started folding piles of clothes (two laundry loads from today, plus the wall-mountain). I made Jacey stay on one of the two dog beds in the room, and Sam took the other one. Both dogs were a bit sulky.

At one point, I had to go get another pile of stuff off the wall. I came back to this:



Jacey had abandoned her dog bed and settled herself on the largest of the piles of folded clothes. And Sam? He'd moved from "his" dog bed to hers.



As I started whittling down the piles of clothes, Jacey started to get nervous. I was pulling clothes out from under her, and she decided she was going to run out of soft stuff to lie on. At one point, she moved to another pile:



Finally, the poor bereft baby was left with just the mattress and mattress pad to lie on.



Is anyone holding auditions for The Princess and the Pea? I know someone who'd be perfect for the part of the princess.

Finally, I got the sheets on the bed and pillowcases back on the six pillows Jacey hoards at the head of the bed.



Her universe is finally back in order.


The dogs are slowly recovering from a horrendous bout of the stomach nasties. At least this time, they got sick in unison. They're taking Metronidazole and eating lots of rice and yogurt. They seem to feel fine. I'm the one that jumps every time one of them whines and glances at the door. I suspect chicken backs are to blame for this incident, although I'd pulled the excess fat off the backs first. At any rate, I'll be keeping a careful watch on what they get to eat for a while.

Stuff

I have to go to Forest Park today to pick up some blades and shears that were being sharpened. I've tried all morning to call to see if the stuff is done, but the line has been busy. The line's not busy now--but they're all at lunch. I'll try again after noon. I'm already not happy about driving 27 miles (each way) in the rain, so I'd like to get this done and over with--especially since I'm taking more blades and shears to be sharpened, so I have to do this whole thing again on my next day off (Friday). (Finally got through to them on the phone, and my stuff is ready. Now to kill 90 minutes picking this stuff up.)

I've had to order new safety eyes for the stuffed greyhound. The pattern calls for 18mm eyes, which I can't find in stores or even on-line from the big-name retailers (Crafts, Etc! or Jo-Ann's). I bought some 15mm eyes (Hobby Lobby) and put them in, but I don't like them. (A greyhound with little beady eyes? Never!) I found an Etsy store selling eyes, and I've ordered from them. They have a set of "mixed" 18mm eyes, one pair in "brown" and one pair in "translucent brown," as well as several other colors. I also ordered a set of 20mm eyes, five pairs in "translucent brown." I may go with the larger eyes, but we'll see how they look when they get here. Meanwhile, I already put in the 15mm eyes, so I'm going to have to rip back to that point (only a dozen rounds or so) to get those out. I think I'll put the head on hold and just go work on legs. I'm thinking this dog will have white toes, but I haven't decided whether she* should have white toes on all four feet or not. Suggestions are welcome. (All the toes on one foot will be a single color--either the buff color or white; the pattern doesn't lend itself to three white toes and one brown.)

But before I can work on the legs today, I have more greyhound files to do. Last night I finished up the NLCC rules book and sent it to Kinko's. (I haven't heard from them today, so I assume it's going okay.) Now I need to do a tri-fold brochure for NLCC. I'll do that when I get back from the blade place.

*The greyhound doesn't have boy bits, so I'm calling it a girl.

Another greyhound...

...eventually.



At present, the dog is earless, eyeless, and bodyless. Brainless, too. (I can't stuff the head until I get the eyes in place, and I'm not up to that wrestling match tonight. Safety eyes are hard to get out--or in. That's what makes them "safety.")

Progress on this dog is likely to be slow. Crocheting in the round is rough on my wrists, so I will have to limit the time I work on this.

This dog will go to Second Chance Greyhounds for "adoption" (i.e., fundraising).


The Sunburst doily is still alive and well, and hanging on to its shape. As long as it continues to behave itself, I'll be happy.

I also finished a baby sweater I was working on. This one (toddler-sized rather than infant-sized) is going to a little girl.



I've started another BSJ as my lunch-time project. I may start another one to work on at home when too much crocheting is bothering my wrists. Friends are having babies faster than I can knit.


Finally, Jacey's doing better: no stomach troubles since the incident on Saturday. This morning was full of errands--blades and shears for work to be sharpened, then the bank, Costco, gas, Michael's, Target, Walmart, recycling, and Subway ($5 foot-longs!). My next day off is Monday--when I have to go back to the blade-sharpening place to get my stuff.

Hanging by a thread...

The future of this doily is in doubt.



The Sunburst pattern is supposed to make a doily that is 22" in diameter. This puny thing is 17" right now--fresh off the blocking board.

Worse: this doily, when first finished, rolled, waved, and rippled like the Atlantic Ocean, and a seasick doily is not a very useful one.

I've blocked it, let it dry (at least 3 days), unpinned it, measured it, and photographed it. Now I'm going to let it sit overnight and see what it's like in the morning. If it's staying flat, I'll weave in the loose ends and take new photos. If it has shrunk up much more, or if (as I fear) its present flatness turns out to be temporary, I'll frog this. The doily took way too many hours and uses a ball and a half of good DMC Cébélia thread. If this turns out to be a useless doily, I'll recover the thread; the time is gone for good.


I'm nearly finished with the current BSJ. I've taken a while with this one, and while I've been working on it, I've learned of three more babies (one of which was born already!). So, just a request to my friends: I'll knit as fast as I can, but no more babies until I get caught up. (I've ordered yarn from KnitPicks for the new sweaters, and the yarn shipped Thursday.)


Work has been frantic. Saturday was hectic, and today was long and unpleasant.


Jacey has had a couple of incidents of diarrhea. The first time was two weeks ago, and the dogs had had chicken backs. After they both had issues with some soft, um, output, I defatted the next backs they had. Sam was fine; Jacey was not for a day or so.

Since then, the dogs have had no chicken or anything else off their usual diets. Sam has been fine. Jacey was fine at 9 am Saturday morning, but at noon she had a full-fledged blowout. I was due at work 30 minutes later, so there was no time to go to the vet's to pick up any meds. I called in a request for meds I can pick up Monday (tomorrow) morning. I gave Jacey an Imodium AD before I left for work Saturday, and she did fine on it. Both dogs had rice for dinner Saturday night. And Jacey's been okay since then. But there's something going on with her GI tract, and I'd like to knock out this bug--whatever it is. I'll check with the vets--tell them she's better now--and see if they think I should go ahead with the meds. But I'm sure she didn't get into anything she shouldn't have: she's crated when I'm not home, and both dogs are leash-walked outside and don't get to run around, snarfing up whatever little goodies they find.