The week; a list

1.  I fell down the stairs. My 100 year old stairs in my 100 year old farm house are narrow, steep, and painted. About once a year I forget these facts and test the limits of friction and gravity. Usually on the third step from the bottom. It's an evil step that's out to get to me. Or at least my big toe. I have a strange square shaped bruise where my toe attaches to my foot and a sore spot on my bum.

 **note to self - buy gripper strip for evil third step.

2.  I'm going to put a hex on my former chimney contractor.

 The five year saga of the wood cook stove has come to an unceremonious end. Bad chimney people, I shall call them Soon to be Hexed (StbH). Insisted we have a dedicated chimney installed for the cook stove. I paid StbH a lot of money to put in the new chimney so everything would be safe and to code.

The chimney leaked.
StbH came back.
The chimney leaked less.
StbH came back. 
The chimney still leaks.
StbH came back. Spent three hours doing something and then said it was my roof and not his chimney and for $$$$ he would re-roof half the house.
StbH was asked to leave and never return.
The chimney still leaks.
New chimney people come for annual cleaning/inspection and joy of all joys for an insurance certification.
Wood cook stove does not meet code requirements. Boo. Wood cook stove has been installed too close to combustible materials. Chimney pipes have water damage and are rusting.
"How long ago was this put in?" New Chimney people ask.
"5 years ago." I say showing him the work order documents.
"5 years, really? This doesn't look right." New guy scratches his head looking at the paper work. "You don't have these braces or this heat shielding. And these pipe pieces don't exist."
"What do you mean they don't exist?!"
"They are imaginary pipes. Sorry ma'am."

Wood cook stove is disconnected and still leaky chimney is capped. All work done by StbH will be removed from the house later this month.

I need a voo doo doll. 

3. The raspberries are producing 2 pints a day.  Yippee!

4.  The allergist has proof I'm allergic to shellfish, weeds, mug wort, a mystery preservative, and paint. The shellfish I knew about, and anyone not allergic to mug wort is surely an alien. The preservative is apparently what causes my head to swell and gain pool sized lips; weird. Good to know.
I should have been Amish or a least a hippie.

 5.  I found three balls of mohair yarn. I don't know why I have mohair. I hate working with mohair. It tangles, knots, pulls, and is itchy.  Maybe this was part of a mad chemo induced yarn binge that had gone undiscovered until now.

 

I started a shawl.

6.  Bill brought 6 new Nero Wolf books from Paperback Swap! 

What, you don't know your mail man by his first name? 

Bill brought Bucky a bone, too. 

Everyone likes Bill.

7.  I got 15 rows into the shawl pattern and remembered why I hate mohair.(see # 5) I put it aside to go shift the sprinkler before ripping out three rows. I came back to see the cat shredding it. She'd helpfully separated the work from the skein and was running thru the house with the tattered remains stuck to her back foot. 
It was very traumatic for all involved.
The cat hates mohair too.


8.  Adding wheat germ to waffle batter gives it a nice nutty undertone. Adding raspberries to the maple syrup is even better.