It's Saturday - No One Is Even Reading This

I think this is the post where I am supposed to announce the winner of the Yarn Harlot book, but I haven't gotten around to figuring that out yet (not least because some people who want the book are commenting on the wrong post, so I have to go find those comments and include them and WHY are you people making my life so difficult, anyway?). So, yeah, you have another day to comment (ON THE CORRECT POST) and let me know you want the book.

Who knew giveaways could be so hard?

It's like a hotel...

In other news, let me introduce you to our new shower doors! It's been an entire 24 hours and they still stay on track, don't get stuck, and have not once tried to hit me over the head. I call that a home improvement win, don't you? I took my first shower in there today, and it would have been a marvelous experience if we weren't having this weird problem lately with our tankless water heater - i.e., we never know if our shower will be hot, warm, or barely tepid. It's like Russian Roulette, only not as fatal.

Yes, I HAVE called the repairman, who couldn't find any error codes on our electronic wonder and left with a vague promise of calling the manufacturer to find out if there have been similar complaints. In the meantime, mornings (which were already a little unpleasant, although not hiding-out-from-the-Nazis unpleasant, I'll admit that) have become downright unsatisfactory. Turns out I really need that hot water shower to start my day off right - who knew?

See the toilet in that picture? It's new. It flushes in one fell swoop and then refills in under 30 seconds. It would be perfect except that it has a self-closing lid. You can't close it on your own, or it will break. Instead you have to lightly start it on its descent and it does the rest.

I hate this.

One, I resent the implication that one needs automation to close a toilet seat lid all the way down to the bowl. Two, how long will it be before someone mistakenly tries to push it down and breaks it? Three, YOU CANNOT SIT ON IT.

There are actually innumerable instances when you use the closed toilet as a seat: when you are spending half an hour straightening your tween's hair and she wants to sit down; when you are watching your kids in the tub and want to sit down somewhere that is not wet; when you are applying lotion to your feet and don't want to stand on one leg and then the other to do that, because you don't want to end up in the ER explaining how you got that gash across your forehead from falling face first onto the edge of the vanity.

Okay, maybe that last one is just me. Still, who would want a toilet that you can't occasionally sit down on its lid? Who would be stupid enough to buy one?

Me, apparently. I now own three of them.

Let's end this post on a positive note: I am finally blocking the Nurmilintu shawl.

Please note the thousands of tiny stitches that went into this piece of work. Think about the hours spent pulling the yarn through one loop and then another, over and over and over. And then wonder at my complaining that blocking this shawl was the single most tedious thing I have ever done. But it was - I thought I would jump out of my skin by the time I finally threaded through all those wires and pushed that last pin into the foam pads.

Experienced knitters will note that I got the shape wrong. I know. That bottom part should be more to the left. I am still trying to decide if I have the fortitude to redo it.

Oh, who am I kidding? I'll have to. Just looking at that picture is upsetting me.

Knitting - where OCD calls home.