Where's a Potholder When You Need One?!

This is what happens when people think they can transport hot things
without a Perky Potholder! You drop a hot dish and the next thing you
know, poof, half the town is on fire. OK, it wasn't half the town, but this
lumber yard fire was the biggest in East Dundee's history -- and that's
including all the times I set off my smoke detector making toast.

Sadly, this historic lumberyard provided a charming, albeit rickety, visual
terminus to River Street in East Dundee...but now it's just a pile of
charred rubble. Below are a few pictures that Lenore took the next day.
I heard propane tanks exploding that night, but somehow slept through
all the sirens... though I do remember the power going off. Now we have
a boil order, because so much of our water supply was used to fight the
fire. At one point, the firefighters had to pump water out of the river.

An excerpt from the local paper:

The lumber company’s century-old timbers raised flames more than 200 feet
high, East Dundee and Countryside Fire Chief MarkRakow said, its glow clearly visible as far away as Randall Road and South Elgin.

“We’re down in the valley, too,” Rakow said. “So there wasn’t a point where you could not see this.”

In all, 27 departments answered the five-alarm fire call to the four-story building at 311 Barrington Ave., some from Des Plaines and Roselle.

“We had 15 fire engines, five ladder trucks, two squads and two ambulances,
plus change-of-quarters companies to man our towns,”Rakow said.

“The lumber company itself covered approximately 150 feet wide and 200 feet
deep. The whole property is about an acre total, a combination of sheds and structures,” he said.

The fire was called in at 11 p.m. and put out by 2:30 a.m., he said.

The little corner business to the right is where Lenore gets her hair cut (the commemorative plaque is on order).

This Just In...

Be sure to check out Laurie's Hip Knitting blog for documentation of my long lost relative, Seamus Lauer (I call him "Sea"), and his rare potholder artifact! Also, help me figure out what movie this is from, so I can be a frontrunner in Laurie's movie line contest:

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

I Love a Parade!

We had fun showing off our wind-up Minis in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Lenore's new neighbors Seleena and John have a red Mini, so they joined our convoy. It was fun to hear people laugh and comment about the "wind up toys" as we went by.

Here of course is a Mini wannabe. It's so cute witness the earnestness of these car owners who just want to fit in. Bless their hearts.





Shortly after this shot of the parade in progress, we reached the end point and veered off to head back home. The car club behind us must have thought the parade was continuing, because they followed us all the way to Lenore's house. I'm not sure if they were as amused as we were, but it was fun having our own little private parade.

Here's one more fun car picture...



Speaking of faces, Cora won the "most chocolate on your face" contest at Roland and Amy's party. I'm not sure what possessed me to suggest it, other than it sounded like a good idea at the time.



After the parade, Lenore and I went to the Mini dealership to check out the fundraiser they were having to raise $$ for kids' Cancer research. Our Mini Midwife, John, and others raised over $17,000 in pledges. They in turn had their heads shaved that day. Unfortunately, I didn't get John's picture because I was too entranced by this pimped out Mini. There was a somewhat more subdued blue one outside -- note the cute wheels (upper left of the photo). We drove the new 2007, which was SWEET. John said the whole car is different (and so is the price, yikes!) I'm not sure I like it better, but it was fun to test drive. I should have taken a picture of the new dashboard and do dads inside. You'll just have to go drive one yourself!

Deconstructing

There's a reason I didn't have a St. Patrick's Day potholder picture...
Here we have Lenore, taking my festive attempt apart because I discovered an unfortunate weaving error after it was all done. Better luck next year.

We do have documentation, however, of the first antique loop potholder. I like the shade of green; the loops themselves are not the best, but at least they're all cotton.



This is what the St. Patrick's Day potholder would have looked like ... only, you know, green and white.



Hoops says, "Whatever. Just get this stupid hat off of my head!"

Tired of Being Sexy

If you like indy (indie?) chick music, try the podcast Rubyfruit Radio. We'll not get into the meaning of "rubyfruit" here; the logo is very tame and fruit-like and provides a suitable veil, kind of like that owl on the Hooters logo.

Laura spotted the group CSS on one of the play lists and, ever the fountain of fascinating facts, informed me that CSS stands for the Portuguese phrase "tired of being sexy." (That's way more fun than "cascading style sheets"!)

Also, I for one am SO tired of being sexy. (Exaggerated sigh) Justin Timberlake thinks he’s bringing sexy back? Honey, I already been there done that. I’m bringing lazy back.

Anyway, check it out while you're waiting (you know you are) for more potholder news and photos from our Mini convoy in this weekend's parade. You can listen on your ‘puter if you don’t have an mp3 player.

On another note, I made a loaf of sunflower seed bread and it was HUGE. A personal best I think. However, we ate about half of it before it could be documented. (burp)

Birthday, Phase I

We can't seem to have just one birthday or holiday celebration around here -- they are frequently in phases, depending on various schedules and what not. Here's lieber Roland all grown up with his German birthday potholder. And then the first of what we hope will be many dessert courses to come this month for both Roland and Amy. Note, the green bowl contains a lovely bread pudding Lenore and I made with all the leftover hunks of bread we had on hand since Lenore (proud owner of a sweet new bread machine) has been immersed in a bread baking extravaganza. After inheriting another machine from my mom's friend Audry last week (this one makes cake and jam!), we have four bread machines between us, and we have the chins to prove it.

This is What I'm Talkin' About

Here's Hoops checking out the loops. See what I mean about them looking antique? Or maybe they were just stored in a sunny environment. At any rate, there are some unique colors in the mixed bags, and it's always nice to have a good supply of white loops. Speaking antiques, Amy has a friend who hung a small collection of antique potholders in her house. I'm hoping next time Amy visits her friend, she'll have a camera with her.

Co-Worker Sweep!

Pat and Molly are going to have to join my "I need to get out more" club, because, as you can see, they were extremely thrilled to win the first movie-line drawing for potholders.

Molly (shown here putting her potholder to immediate use) got two since David had such good intentions to send in his favorite line, and he has cooked several meals for Lenore. I'm confident he will put his potholders to good use, possibly even by baking us some lovely muffins. Not that I'm hinting or anything. Potholder fans, subsequent drawings will be forthcoming...heck, you may have already won!

Also, I finally got my much-awaited-for e-bay loops! I think they're antique, which is both charming and odd. I got shorted one bag, and I was kind of disappointed that some of the loops are faded with age; however, the seller was very nice and has offered a reimbursement, so I'm still pleased. Since the loops are all twisted and squished in the bags, the fading is uneven and looks a little like tie dye.

I'm happy to report that Hoops seems to be recovering from her alien abduction. She slept with her head in my armpit last night and brought me her plastic measuring spoon (the best toy ever) to play with at 5:30 this morning. Imagine my delight.

Almost Famous!

Shout out to Pat's daughter Brynne who linked me to her way advanced knitting blog. It's blogs like this that keep my potholders in the comical genre of all things homespun and also make Martha WISH she could knit like this. But that's OK, I'm content with my place in the crafting universe because I know Karate, so I could still totally kick Martha's ass if I had to. Only I'm not supposed to use my powers for evil. But I could. If I had to.

I was going to do a potholder drawing last night, but Hoops seems to have suffered an alien abduction and was compLETELY freaked out, so I spent the evening trying to calm her. I think she's seeing dead people. Seriously. Instead of her usual greeting when I got home, I found her hiding in the basement rafters. Then when I carried her upstairs, she was all comando-like and slinking around with her belly low and her tail twitching like she had never been in the house before. She kept looking off into other rooms and jumping at every little noise. Really strange. When I let her back out into her quarters, she just stared through the door to the basement like she was afraid to go in. Does anyone have any kitty Xanex?

Xena, on the other paw, is the picture of relaxation as she embarks on another high-energy workout. She's such an inspiration. And never without her trusty water bottle of gin.


(*&%#$!, I *still* haven't gotten my new supply of potholder loops! So now my mailman is watching my movies AND making potholders! Dammit.

Um...

I was on my way home from a meeting last night and saw this. One too many alcoholic snow cones perhaps? It's all well and good 'til somebody loses a torso, people! I like to point out that East Dundee has all the bars, while West Dundee has all the churches. East Dundee town motto: "If you're going to hell, you might as well be buzzed."

OK, so here's the latest batch of potholders that YOU COULD WIN, some of which were crafted with 100% cotton loops from a new source. It's a limited edition run, because I wasn't crazy about the color selection ratios, but they do make nice unmelty potholders (apparently some of those poly-cotton loops have not held up well to extreme temps -- Perky Potholder quality control specialists advise that you NOT handle molten lava or attempt to forge horseshoes with your Perky Potholders. All potholders come with a money-back guarantee of course, just fill out the appropriate paperwork and send it along with $7.42 and a moon rock).

How do you win? Well, currently you can post a comment containing a favorite movie line and the movie title, which will automatically qualify for one of several drawings taking place now and again. Winners will be notified by carrier pigeon (they love carrying potholders, those pigeons!). Be sure to identify yourself if you don't have an account, otherwise you come up as "anonymous."

Coming soon... 100% wool potholders! Guaranteed to work in volcanoes! Also, don't miss the results of my ebay shopping excursion for more loops! Eight bags!! (But they haven't arrived yet and I'm beginning to worry...I've been having mail issues, including my Neflix DVDs that someone in my neighborhood is getting by mistake AND WATCHING (!!!) thanks to my careless mailman. What's up with THAT?! Yesterday I found in my mailbox an obviously opened and taped back together Netflix envelope that had been missing for over a week. I can't get behind that. Or maybe the mailman is watching them. I'm going to have to start ordering more foreign films about feminism.