Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

It’s cold this morning even though the sun is out. Definitely fall for sure.  We apparently broke a few records and there’s still a bit of frost on the garage roofs around us. Seems that my remaining lettuce is still ok though. It’s mature enough to withstand a bit of a chill. The other greens are somewhat hardier so I’m not worried for them but I’d like to harvest the lettuce before it turns into a pile of brown goo.

Luckily I have the heavy handwoven woolen blankies on the bed so we didn’t freeze ourselves but I haven’t put on the flannelette sheets. Which reminds me – I haven’t mentioned My Adventures in Laundry yet. It’s a long story. When I last posted I was going to hunt for bedsheets in the mall and yes, I found some. It was a difficult search but I managed to find separates in regular sheets but apparently flannelettes are hard to find in anything other than sets. Our odd bed situation really requires a double fitted sheet, a queen-sized flat and 6 pillowcases (preferably at least 4 of them king-sized). Not exactly a standard set, huh? I’ve tried a queen set with “suspenders” to hold the fitted sheet on properly but there’s always uncomfortable wrinkles. I’ve tried a standard double set but the top sheet is really too small and comes untucked. And either option still only has 2 regular pillowcases so I still have to buy 4 more king-sized ones. Yes, we have a bunch of pillows on our bed. We sleep on 2 each plus an extra each for comfort when reading or watching TV – or in my case (as I’m doing right now) using my little netbook computer. Why not? And I like king-sized cases for the queen-sized pillows because otherwise they escape out the ends of the regular ones! I tuck the long ends in to make a neat package.

Yup. Our bed situation is unusual. But for some reason single sheets are not only limited in choice but more expensive than sets. So I got what I could since I had been putting this whole thing off until we were pretty desperate. Then I made my first Laundry Mistake. I put all the new sheets and pillowcases in the same load to wash them before using them for the first time. And ended up with dark green lint all over everything from the flannelettes! It’s obviously been too long since I last purchased these or I would have remembered that they fuzz badly for the first few washings. After two rounds through the dryer (cleaning out the lint trap several times) and a tedious session with the lint brush, the regular sheets are nearly free of fuzzballs. At least they are dark brown so the dark green doesn’t show too badly.

The Second Problem I encountered wasn’t my fault. One of my purchases was a set of lighter green king-sized pillowcases and one of the seams popped in the first wash! Instead of taking them back and complaining to the store and replacing with another set I just spent a minute with the serger and fixed it. Done. Dare it to come loose again.

The Third Problem however was definitely my fault though it didn’t have anything to do with the new sheets. The dark load seemed to mysteriously come out with grease stains all over several garments in places where I was sure they had no business being. I mean, I’m kind of sloppy and never wear an apron but I’m not that bad! When I came across a tiny little lid in the bottom of the dryer I realized that I had perhaps left a tube of lip balm in a pocket. Argh! I never did find the rest of the tube. Only the lid. Weird. Did the rest of it dissolve? Happily not all the clothes were affected. I tried washing the stained things several more times in good old Synthrapol but this time it didn’t help. I’m several kinds of sads about my favourite cotton ribbed turtleneck. And a pair of sweatpants that still had some life in them. Maybe if I just wear them around the house where nobody will see? Sigh.

Poor T-Man has to work today, holiday or no. Our Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday went really well except for the fact that we only had 17 people instead of the quadrillions we were expecting. Family. Gotta love ‘em! Nevermind. It was fun. I just have a few more dishes to do today and we’re all tidied up. And there’s tons of leftovers so I’m well ahead in my meal planning for the rest of the week.