I have been a machine knitter for twenty some years and have never taken to hand knitting. I can’t explain why – there’s just no attraction. However there are yarns out there that don’t do particulary well on the knitting machine – namely the fun fur, eyelash, and bulky flake types sold in 50 – 80 gram balls. The bulky yarns knit up so fast, but that still is no comfort for those of us who just don’t do 2 needles.
Something that happened at our house the other night reminded me of this short movie called “Food for Thought.” For 8 minutes, Food for Thought delves into perceptions and how people act in situations based on their perceptions.
I have had the Maytag Epic pair for over a year now. Overall, I am very pleased with the pair. One thing I am not used to is the lack of sloshing water when washing clothes. I had always used the most water possible with my toploaders and I liked being able to control the amount of water. The Epic doesn’t allow me to override the amount of water used during a cycle, or the water temperature for a certain type of wash cycle, or the spin speed. While I get why that’s done, some of us actually do know how to do laundry. The only way I have found that I can override the amount of water the washer uses is to run the soak cycle a couple of times and then run a normal wash. The washer won’t spin out and will continue adding water. I find that trick helpful with towels and sheets, or stained items.
Another thing I don’t do is load the washer to its limit. I still like to wash “like” clothes together (I don’t mix shirts with knits or jeans with anything else), and with only 2 of us, we don’t have big loads unless it’s sheet day. I don’t feel too bad doing small loads since the water usage is very low.
Another great thing about this pair is the dry time. The biggest problem when doing laundry was having the washed clothes stack up while the dryer was drying loads. Now even jeans dry in about 35 minutes. That means I can have a load washing while I dry, fold, hang up, and iron what’s in the dryer (not that I do that all the time – but I could) before the washer is finished.
I consider myself a pretty smart computer person, so imagine my frustration when I tried to load LifeScan’s OneTouch Diabetes monitoring software on my laptop and it could not “find” my meter. I have to say that LifeScan does not recommend putting the software on a laptop because of all the ports. I’m not sure what the difference is between a laptop and a desktop (from a port standpoint), as my desktop has more USB ports than my laptop, but apparently there is an issue.
I don’t give up easily. I installed the software on my laptop a month ago and never could get it to find the meter – other software packages had no trouble – but this one was not going to make it easy. Actually it is easy, if you know where to look, which was a problem as the documentation doesn’t give you a hint as to where to look.
After a year-long hiatus from dieting I am back in the saddle again. I really despise dieting almost as much as exercising, but I haven’t found any other way to control my weight.
Without getting into specific numbers, I’ve regained everything I lost between 2002 and 2004 and added 10 more pounds. Not liking the result at all because I was definitely making headway. So I reactivated my Calorie King membership and started journaling faithfully starting April 24. I haven’t been able to bring myself to start working out yet, but I managed to stay within my calories for the entire week and lost 4 lbs. OK, I know it’s mostly water, but 4 pounds is 4 pounds. My next goal is to add 3 15 minute exercise times per day for the entire week. No, it didn’t happen today, but I was out and about walking all day, so I don’t feel too bad about not doing formal exercise.
Well, the great people at Norm Vogel and Sons came out and pronounced the dreaded news – the washer needed a new transmission at the bargain price of $379. I don’t think so. I paid the $65 trip fee and broke the news to my husband and then signed up for Consumer Reports online. Washing machines have changed so much in the past 10 years that I didn’t know which way to go.