Cute Kid in a Dulaan Hat

So, I was going to stretch out the knitting of this hat since I can't work on anything too complicated right now because of the whole moving thing. I was going to watch the American Idol results show I had taped and then go to bed at 10pm. But then one of my favourite movies came on TV and I had to stay up to my favourite scene - the funeral scene from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" when the W. H. Auden poem is recited. So, the cool stripe hat magically got finished last night:



The model was actually in a posing kind of mood - although she wanted me to take a picture of her with her french fry hanging out of her mouth. I declined. Here's a side view:



The cool stripes did get smooshed a bit when it came time for the decreases, but I kept them to a quick (over 8 rows from start to finish) decrease - so it kind of looks like there is an aqua berry on top of the hat.

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Word of the Day 9:
salmagundi

1674, from Fr. salmigondis, originally "seasoned salt meats" (cf. Fr. salmis "salted meats"), from M.Fr. salmigondin, coined by Rabelais, of uncertain origin, but probably related to salomene "hodgepodge of meats or fish cooked in wine," (early 14c.), from O.Fr. salemine.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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It's funny - some days it is harder to find a good word that I don't know the meaning of. I usually start on Dictionary.com and do a free-flow association with a theme in mind. Today's theme was 'mixed feelings', and somehow I lucked into a word meaning 'mixed salted meats.' See? You never know where you'll go!

The reason for the mixed feelings? There was a freaking lake in the backyard of my new house today! Granted, we had about 3 inches of rain in less than 12 hours last night - but I had gone out yesterday afternoon and bought a 10 foot section of corrugated pipe and an adaptor to connect to my drain pipe in a valiant (and pretty damn smart, I thought) attempt to divert the water away from the corner of the basement with the known water issue. For those of you who don't live in Delaware, this is not a shocking thing - We are near the ocean and two large rivers - the ground is pretty damp here. I didn't know what a sump pump or french drain was until we started looking at houses. So, at lunch today I stopped by my new house (how I love saying that!) to drop off some stuff. I was standing in front of the kitchen window pulling stuff out of bags and I looked out the window and saw a FREAKIN' LAKE! I dropped what I was doing, ran downstairs to the basement, half expecting to see a few inches of water in the basement... and all there was was a small trickle from the known corner, moving straight to the drain. I turned on the dehumidifer and went outside to investigate. My new piping system apparently worked because that corner of the yard was dry. The water is at the back of the yard - it doesn't start until about 15 feet away from the back of the house. I checked out the neighbour's yards and saw similar pools, to lesser degrees. I frantically called my father-in-law, and he assured me this had to to with the fact the ground was frozen and the water had nowhere to go. Willow and I went back to the house after work and saw the lake had receded quite a bit - so keep your fingers crossed that we have a few dry days, okay?

The good thing that happened today? Willow was accepted into the Kindergarten program we were trying to get her into. Yay! One less thing to worry about!