I've Seen the Light

. . . Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the night, and I didn't much like it! I really love having Christmas trees all over the house, but I've slept--or tried to sleep--with the one in my bedroom the past two nights, and I haven't had a very restful sleep. I keep feeling like someone's shining a spotlight on me. Tonight it's getting unplugged!

No decorating occurred today. It should have--it would have been nice to go back to work tomorrow and have it all done--but I decided to spend the last day of my vacation playing with fabric instead. Want to see what the wool from four men's suit coats looks like after it's cut up and felted in the washer and dryer?

Not too bad a result for about $14! That stack is maybe about a foot high or more. What else did I play with? Well, now that I think about it, I guess this DOES fall into the decorating category, so I'll have to take that back. I finished and hung the trees wallhanging.

Still, the only tree I've actually gotten decorated thus far is the one in my bedroom that's been causing all the wee hours angst. So, over the next couple nights, I'll have to get the trees decorated. Hubby spent much of the day watching football and getting the big tree assembled, so I have to decorate that one too. He used to put the lights on for me, but it's gotten harder for him to move around, so now that's my job--and it's one I don't enjoy a whole lot, so I'll probably procrastinate and hope the tree light fairies pay me a visit. In the meantime, though, he's gotten five strings of lights coiled all over the living room so it's handy for me--he's also given me detailed instructions on how the strings won't tangle as long as I pick them up by the "male end." Why are men such freaks?

Gosh, do I sound a little grumpy tonight? Well, let me tell you a little story.

Some months back, a representative from Dish Network came to our door--they wanted to do an upgrade to our system. I was somewhere in another part of the house, so Hubby talked to the woman. Later, I asked him about it, and he said they just wanted to sell us something extra and charge him more every month. Hummm. Okay.

Fast forward to the present. Hubby got me a new TV with a DVD player through a promotion at his work--it will go in the Sweat Shop and provide me endless hours of entertainment. I DO have a TV in there, but no DVD player. The other day, the new TV arrived. Well, being in the middle of a frenzy of decorating, I was disinclined to stop and open the box and set it up right then. Last night Hubby decided he should open the box and get it out. It then sat in the living room until this afternoon when he decided it was in his way, and he moved it to the kitchen table. This evening I decided it was in MY way, so I figured I'd set it up.

Remember how I reorganized the Sweat Shop the other day? So today I had to crawl under my sewing table and move all the "stuff" I'd stored under there to try to find where the old TV was plugged in. Turned out I didn't need to get under the table after all--the extension cord ran up pretty close to the TV shelf. So all the stuff had to be put back. I took out the old TV, put in the new TV, hooked it up, turned it on, and pretty much had a blank screen. Oh, the power was on--the TV was working--but where were my TV channels? I called Hubby in to do the set up, but after reading the instructions and pushing random buttons on the remote, it was clear he was pretty clueless, and he soon got bored and wandered back out to watch more football.

At that point, I too read through the instructions and found very little about set up that was at all comprehensible to me, so I also started pushing buttons. Unlike Hubby, though, I didn't wander off. FINALLY I found the channel set up. Ah ha! Success!

Well, no. Turns out the TV couldn't detect any digital cable channels. About then the light dawned and I realized that's probably what that upgrade was all about--the one Hubby deemed unnecessary and simply an attempt to weasel more money out of him each month. So, no new TV. Of course, I then had to disconnect the whole shebang and bring the old TV back in and set it up again. ARGH!

Just before I killed him, I asked Hubby to pick a number for the winner of the Santa stitchery pattern, and he picked 9. Comment number 9 was from Lori Genovario--congratulations, Lori! I think I have your address, but just in case, email it to me anyway, and I'll get the pattern in the mail to you!

And don't forget--if you haven't already entered, I have one more giveaway tomorrow night for three patterns. If you'd like to enter the drawing, please post a comment on yesterday's blog entry.

Thanks for dropping in to listen to me whine!