A Few Things I Learned This Weekend

So, my father-in-law came into town from Florida this weekend. The circumstances surrounding his visit were weird, and I had 3 days notice that he was coming. I am not a housekeeper, though I try to keep things clean, they are very cluttered without a lot of effort on my part.

During the process of the visit, I learned a few things.

1. For some reason Ethan's grandpa could not resist making any animal noise that we were trying to get Ethan to say. This is one of our favorite distractions for Ethan when he gets bored in the car, but when we'd try it, there would be grandpa, barking like a dog, neighing like a horse, and bleating like a goat. I've learned that we must select animals that grandpa doesn't know the sound of, or choose those which will entertain us the most when grandpa says them.

2. In the event that I have to escape from the house, I can entertain myself for $12 or less, for a few hours. I left Sunday afternoon out of frustration, and found myself without any knitting, an extremely busy library, and $13 in my wallet. I wound up at The Studio, no knitting needles, no yarn, no pattern. I found some beautiful fingering weight yarn, some needles and worked out a little pattern in my head, and was taking the edge of my frustration in no time flat. Biggest lesson, I should always have at least $12 in my wallet when things are likely to be overwhelming.

3. My mother-in-law is much more like me than I'd previously thought. If you've known me for very long, you know that I can get away with pranks and such because people think I am quiet and innocent. My mother-in-law has this way of appearing very trustworthy by remaining quiet, drawing you into conversation by sharing her secrets and stories, just so that you'll share things with her. I've learned that you must beware. She will throw you under the bus.

4. No matter what I do, I will always have to wash every single bed linen in the guest room after the visit. I've hidden all decorative pillows, leaving only the comforter, the flat and fitted sheet and two pillows on the bed. I even turned down the sheets, and still, he slept between the flat sheet and the comforter. I just need to learn to deal with this.

5. There must be some advantage that I am unaware of to removing dirty dishes from the sink, and placing them on the counter, on top of the dishwasher. Not in the dishwasher, but on it. I see this as a waste of time, but clearly it does something, because the second I place a dirty dish in the sink, it is re-stacked on the counter. Another thing I can't understand, but should just learn to deal with.

I'm sure that I have learned more things I really didn't need to know, but these are the most obvious, and those that I can look at with some humor.