Isn't technology cool?

Last Monday, my Berroco Sales Rep was in town and stopped by to show me some buttons, sock yarns, etc from some other lines she reps. On Mondays, I leave the shop early so I can meet the girls when they get off the bus. So I asked Andra to meet me at home. She hadn't been to my home since our very first meeting, over 7 years ago to write my very first order.

Helen and Sophie have a great after-school routine. Owning the shop is more than a full time job for me, so when I leave work early those few days during the week, I usually have another hour or two in which I need to work. Helen and Sophie fix their own snacks and get started on their homework and only interrupt a few times if they have questions. Then at 5pm, it's family time. We get any homework questions cleared up, and move onto family activities. So when Andra came, we still stuck to the routine. We sat at the kitchen table and the girls were at the island. They did interrupt once or twice, and told us they were confused with their math homework. Andra said, "Oh, math! My favorite!" And when we finished up our yarn business, she jumped right in and started explaining the power of 10 to the girls. The power of 10 is actually the easiest thing I've seen recently - math was my best subject throughout school, but this whole "new math" thing that my kids are learning? It's for the birds... IMO. If I have to help them with math, I'm sorry, but I'm going to do it my way, the old way.

Anyway, Andra, with her background in engineering, did a great job explaining the power of 10, and then she and I spent a few fun filled moments comparing apps on our iPhones. I told her about Grocery IQ - a fun grocery list. I used to write down my grocery list like every other human being. But this way I can add to my list at any time of the day - which is when I usually remember I'm out of a key ingredient for some recipe I want to make. And an added bonus... it's a great way to bribe my children to come to the store with me..."I'll let you check off the list on the phone!" I also have a couple of math games for the kids, to help with multiplication and division. Andra showed me some fun apps that she has, including StitchMinder, which I am totally addicted to. It's a Kacha-Kacha for your phone!

I used to just use a pencil and a piece of paper to make hatch marks for each row I worked. Now I'm using StitchMinder and so far so good! This was my Noro Iro shrug (Jenny Watson Designer Mini Knits) late last week: I'm another 18" in now - I had plenty of good knitting time this past weekend. Soon it will look like this:

Speaking of technology, and how things have changed, when we were at our camp this past summer, my husband found something interesting at the dump. There are two days each week that are dump days. It's the time to clear out your camp of gabage and recyclables, and other things that may have accumulated over the years. I don't think Marc has every come home from the dump empty handed. After all, one person's trash is another person's treasure.

Last summer Marc went, left the trash and recyclables, and came back with a computer! Not just any computer, but a 20 year old vintage Mac SE with dual floppies. Can you believe this thing sold for $2,900!? Think what kind of Mac you could get for $2,900 today...

Anyway, it was dirty and had been out in the rain and mud. He cleaned it up and some guys he works with got it all fixed up. It works! Helen and Sophie were in his office recently checking it out.

They thought it was broken because the "touch screen" didn't work! :) They also laughed pretty hard at the floppy disks. They have never seen anything so silly, apparently!

And while we are on the subject of dirt and mud and rain (in this case, snow) tomorrow Polly will be posting her first post about a bit of bad luck she had this weekend. It's pretty funny, and part of it has a very good ending. Tune in tomorrow to see what we were all laughing about.