Something old, something new

I have been in my new house for a little over two months.  You'd think I'd be able to eek out a few minutes for this blog, huh?  Well, better late than never.

Here's a picture I took shortly after our move in here:

In the process of the move here, several things were lost.  I had three vacuums.  One, my favorite, of course, was lost.  A step-stool was lost, but we recovered it from the movers.  And one box of random kitchen stuff.  Immediately upon unpacking, we discovered this box contained the can opener.  We had another one, but it was one of those weird ones that takes the whole lid off and it doesn't work that well.  I can't tell you how many places I went to to find the exact same can opener that I lost.  I finally hit pay dirt at the local Linens n' Things.  The really sad thing?  This can opener had been waiting for me for 8 years to come and get it.  I didn't take a picture of the tag on the back, but it had a date code from 1999.  There were newer ones of the same opener, but when I wound the handle, I could feel that the gears on the newer ones were not as well made as this one, which is good, since it spent all of it's 5-year limited warranty on the shelf at the store.   If you read the package, you can see that it was "selected by NASA for Skylab", although I'm not sure that's a terrific recommendation either.

As time goes on, we are slowly discovering what else was in the missing box.  At least two spatulas, ones we used a lot, of course.  My favorite set of measuring cups, like these .  They have already been replaced off Ebay.   I was greatly annoyed to find out that my pie server and two mini-spatulas from Pampered Chef were in the box as well, and a set of expensive stainless-steel measuring spoons.  What the heck do you call that thing that you use in a wok to turn the food?  Well, it's gone, too.  I'll be going to the local Asian grocery and replace that cheap, though.  It's kind of become a running joke between Howdy and I...."where's the XXX?"  "Oh, it's in the box the movers lost".  

So, you might think the "something new" from the title is the new can opener, but it's not.  We have a camellia in the yard.  That's where the blooms in the photo are from.  Aren't they pretty?  I am suspicious that it is planted in a bad place, because it's already started dropping buds, but it's not dead yet, so all's good.

Also new is Howdy's business!  Of course, he closed on it the day before we moved in, so he was conveniently unable to help unpack, but he has a real job now, and one he can't be fired from.  Woo Hoo!

As far as knitting or any other crafty endeavor?  I dug in the "room of doom" for a hour yesterday to find a lowly crochet hook.  I was eventually successful, but with no furniture to unpack the stuff to, it might as well stay in boxes for the moment!

Stay cool, people, it's already in the high 90's in Houston!  It's going to be a hot summer!