Incoherent Scribblings

Monday Mistakes

Here is the progress that I have made on “Catch the Wind” since Friday. I will be working on it again tomorrow (Cathy and I have decided that Tuesdays will be our SAL day) and then I will probably put it away in favor of the baby sampler for my soon-to-be nephew that I haven’t started yet.

Anyway, I would have had a bit more progress on CtW to show, except last night as I was stitching along I discovered I made a mistake. It was late, I was tired, and I couldn’t pinpoint the mistake so I put everything away for the evening.

This afternoon when I looked at it with fresh eyes I was able to count back and find what I thought was my mistake. However, after I ripped out at least an hour’s worth of work I found that it wasn’t the only mistake I had made!

By the time I got everything straightened out I discovered a total of three different mistakes in three very different areas! It was kind of funny because when I finally found what would have been the first mistake it didn’t surprise me at all: I remembered thinking that something was potentially off there anyway.

And I think I know what caused me to make the mistake in first place: When I got my issue of The World of Cross Stitching about a month ago it came with a free magnetic board and chart markers. I had never used them before, but since CtW is a larger project, I thought that I would give them a try. Well, I must have moved my magnet at the wrong time and covered up a row. As a result, I didn’t stitch the row and everything ended up off.

Apparently, for me the magnetic chart markers are more of a hindrance than a help so, like the q-snaps, I doubt I will be using them again. Oh well. Though some new methods may not work for me, some (like the “loop method”) do. And I will never know which ones do work for me and which ones don’t if I don’t try them, right?

The List

Wow how time has flown! As you can see from my little ticker, I now have just about a week before I leave for the US and I still have about a million things to do before I go!

Of course being the librarian that I am, I have made a list of things that need to be done in order for me to be ready to leave. So, in case you are curious, here are the things that I need to accomplish before this time next week.

Get money!

I will be taking some traveler’s checks and some cash. I ordered the traveler’s checks (in US Dollars) today and have to pick them up on Wednesday. I went ahead and got the cash today though. For the first time in nearly four years I held an American twenty dollar bill in my hand today… and boy with that orangey color on them now they sure do look weird!

Do laundry.

Not only do I need to have all of my clothes washed up, I want to make sure I leave A. with clean socks and underwear. I will be gone for six weeks; therefore I have informed him that he must do his laundry at least once because I will be most unhappy if I come home to find six weeks’ worth of his laundry piled up in the closet!

Check baggage allowance for US Air.

I am going to try to travel to light. However, coming from might be a different story!

Check on travel insurance.

We have travel insurance. We just don’t know how long (or if) it will cover me in the US.

Do a hard disk backup.

Just to be safe.

Buy:

Contact stuff (for me)

Cat food (So that A. has no excuse not to feed the cats while I am gone.)

German souvenirs for family and friends

Clean kitchen and bathroom.

I am one of those people who has to clean before I leave. Both rooms need cleaned anyway and besides, I don’t expect A. to use the kitchen while I am gone so I may as well leave it clean.

Leave instructions for A. concerning:

The cats

The dishwasher

The washer and dryer

How to get a hold of me in case of emergency (a.k.a. Mom’s phone number)

Pack!

This is a whole other list in and of itself and has not been created as of yet.

Change the cat litter.

A. has promised to change the cat litter and clean up hairballs while I am gone, but since I am so sweet I will do it one last time before I leave.

As you can see, most of these things are trivial and won’t take that much time. However, I know that if I don’t write them down somewhere I will forget half of them and only remember when I am over the middle of the Atlantic and by then it will be too late!