Category: Fun

Katie, my niece who lives in Texas, wrote me a lovely letter asking me to help her with her school project.

“Our class has finished reading the book Flat Stanley. It is about a little boy who becomes flat in the middle of the night when his bulletin board falls on him. While he is flat, he has many adventures.
Our class is working on our own Flat Stanley project. I am sending Stanley to you to go on a new adventure. If you don’t mind, would you please write down any adventures that Stanley has with you while visiting”.

Unfortunately, Stanley arrived too late to go to London with me. So, for a while I was at a loss with what adventures, if any, I could take him on. For a whole week, Stanley lay on our coffee table folded up in Katie’s letter. Feeling terribly guilty that I hadn’t done anything with him, I stuffed him in my purse last weekend before heading out to meet a friend at Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, PA.

The plan was to hang out with her and knit while her husband performed in the free chamber music series. However, before her husband took the stage with the rest of the quintet, a local Pottstown High School student played several traditional Scottish instruments. He started with my favorite: the Scottish Highland pipes (bagpipes).

Halfway through the young man’s performance, it occurred to me that this would be a great ‘adventure’ for Stanley.

Later in the week, when Dan and I headed to center city Philadelphia to catch an opera, Stanley went with us.

Mike, one of our friends who went to London with us, plays the bassoon. Through him, we often learn of the latest operas, ballets and other performances in the Philadelphia region. While in London, he told us of the latest opera he would be performing in, L’Enfant. It is an opera about a little boy who is very naughty, refusing to do his homework and frequently destroying the items in his house. When his mother leaves one day, the furniture, books and wildlife take their revenge on him. It sounded like such a fun and interesting concept for an opera that we were excited to see it.

L’Enfant was performed by the Opera Company of Philadelphia inside of the Academy.

On Saturday, we also took Stanley with us to see the St. Pius High School drama club perform the Into the Woods musical. They were great! Dan and I really enjoyed the entire production. We were actually quite impressed by some of the young singers/actors. Unfortunately, the pictures didn’t come out because it was too dark.

Can you think of any other adventures I can take Flat Stanley on before I have to send him back next week?

It’s exactly what I wanted: a new floor!

On our anniversary (two days before Valentine’s Day), Dan was away on business in Virginia while I stayed home and supervised the installation of our new floor. YES, Dan and I did celebrate our anniversary the proper way with a night out on the town. He even offered to make the long drive back home Thursday night so we could be together on our anniversary. Practical Me told him to not bother. He loves me; that is good enough.

Before I tell you about the long and arduous installation process, I first want to thank everyone who offered their opinion on which floor I should choose for our bathroom. It helped us make the decision. Even Dan read your comments and found the information helpful. Thanks to your warnings, we eliminated the white floor tile immediately. It was difficult deciding between the vinyl fake hardwood and the ceramic tile. We eventually landed on the vinyl for a number of reasons: less of a gap between the bathroom floor and the bathroom floor, softer underfoot (my heel periodically causes me pain when I stand on hard surfaces for any length of time), warmer, counterbalances the cool blue tiles, no worry of cracking or breaking, and I loved the fact that it would blend with the rest of the house.

But, can I tell you about the installation process? What I thought was going to take 4 hours, took all day. This is what the floor looked like at the beginning of the day.

First, the old, rotten plywood was removed with a crowbar.

Then, a thin piece of plywood was placed over the patch in the floor so that everything would be of the same height. Afterwords, he feathered in a compound to smooth the transition between the old linoleum floor and the new plywood.

At 1pm, Gary the installer announced that the installation of the new floor could begin. Mind you that he showed up at 9 am. The next two hours were dedicated to piecing the plywood over top the entire bathroom floor.

The process involved an air compressor to power the staple gun and the nail gun. Jake quickly decided that he did NOT like the noisy contraption. He tried to hide between the couch and the coffee table at first.

After ten minutes, he ascertained that his nook was too close to the machine and moved to the farthest corner of the house he could find.

Poor Jake. He was so happy when the installation was complete and the noisy man left.

Jake and Marie will play.

“Play” = knitting in Marie’s book.

“Play” = bark at any little noise and find
sticks in Jake’s book.

I’d love to show you pictures of the knitting
I have accomplished, but Dan took the car
and the fancy new laptop to Virginia. Hal, my
11-year-old-computer, won’t talk to my
new camera or our new monitor.

(The car has nothing to do with the reason
why I cannot show you the pictures.
I just wanted to get Dan in trouble with his
mother. It brings me such joy. [evil grin])

The BSJ is coming along quite nicely. I have
recently begun the many increases.
Every time I pick up the jacket, I fall in love
with the yarn color all over again.

The big news is that by tomorrow this time
I’ll have a new bathroom floor. It hasn’t come
by easily. I’ll give you the full story along with
the pictures next week.

Have a great weekend!

First, I wanted to let everyone know that my Dishcloth class at Pottstown Knit Out went well. Thank you to everyone who left me comments with encouragement and advice. I appreciated it. I didn’t take pictures of the event because even though I brought my camera it never occurred to me to pull it out of the bag, but I’ll post pictures of my loot in a day or two.

Right now I need your help in deciding which flooring to put down in my bathroom. I’ve stared at the 3 choices for over 48 hours and I am no closer to making a decision.

Option A:
Vinyl flooring made to look like hardwood.

Pros:
Matches the flooring in the rest of the house, except the kitchen. However, when the kitchen is remodeled, hardwood flooring will be put back down. I could try and explain in 100 words or less how closely the vinyl hardwood matches the hardwood we have in the rest of our house, but a picture speaks 1,000 words.

More Pros:
Vinyl is just as good at resisting water damage
Easier installation
Softer on the feet
Warmer in the winter months

Cons:
As Dan would say, “It’s silly to install fake hardwood floors”.
Only a 15-year warranty. Practical me never wants to relay the floor again. Ever. (Dan dismissed this concern. He says that 15 years is the minimum time frame; it should last much longer than that. Besides, in 15 years we may want to relay the floor.)

Option B:
Concrete tile

Pros:
Notice the similarity in the old vinyl flooring and this concrete tile? It matches the blue and maroon color scheme very well. Even Dan was surprised at how closely it matched the old flooring. Eerie good.  
Lifetime guarantee
Surprisingly cheaper than the vinyl flooring

Cons:
Hard
Cold
More labor intensive installation

Option C:
White porcelain tile

Pros:
Brightens and lightens the room
White tile matches all the accessories: white sink, white toilet, white tub, etc.
Lifetime guarantee, same as concrete tile

Cons:
Same as concrete tile: Hard, Cold and More labor intensive installation
Most expensive option
Every speck of dirt shows up on white. It will require me to be more diligent in my cleaning habits.

Options A, B, and C lined up like little soldiers.

Which one do you think looks best in my blue bathroom?