Score! (Part Deux)

I started this post a week ago but was rudely interrupted when I happened to stop to check my e-mailbox. Lo and behold, my mailbox was empty. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Not even mail in the trash. Not.a.single.piece.of.email.

I couldn't imagine where my emails, received and sent, had gone, when they had been there only moments before I'd started this blog post.

I ran frantically to my iPad: no mail; I ran frantically to my iPhone: no mail. I hollered to Ken, who was upstairs at his computer in his study, and asked him if he was having a problem with his mail. Surely, I thought, this must be a temporary glitch at iCloud. It would be over soon, and I'd be able to check my mail. Breathe deeply. Breathe deeply.

Ken said his email was fine. I explained that my email had suddenly, totally disappeared.

There was a bit of silence from Ken. Then he confessed he'd begun the process of emptying my old computer (iMac '08) so he could claim it as his own, replacing his iMac '06. You see, I just got a brand new computer (iMac '14) and he gets my hand-me-down.

It seems Ken had forgotten one teensy detail about emptying out my old computer:  WI-FI WAS ON!

If the computers, my iPad, my iPhone are connected to WiFi simultaneously, what major changes made to one..., are made to ALL. Hence my email was gone because Ken had not only put it into the trash on iMac '08, he'd EMPTIED THE TRASH.

I tried to remain calm and think this through.

Then I remembered: I'd purchased a new external hard drive, a cute little item not much larger than a pack of cigarettes, called "My Passport for Mac," just two days before purchasing my new computer.

I'd never had to retrieve anything from an external hard drive  before, but I figured I'd best learn to do so because this was a golden moment, if ever there was one.

I clicked the Time Machine icon at the top of my computer screen, found "Enter Time Machine," wondered if I dared step through this door into another dimension...but did so, and voila! There was a duplicate of the contents of my computer's internal hard drive. Phew.

I loaded the contents of the external hard drive into iMac '14, including my e-mail posts, and I was back in business. Best $139 I ever spent, that My Passport for Mac.

Moral of story: If you don't have your computer backed up with an external hard drive, you just might be playing with fire. (Or your spouse might be upstairs wiping your computer clean.)

(In fact, I was at the Apple Store just days before this incident, having a guy at the Genius Bar remove some junk from my computer, when the lady sitting next to me with an iMac was told grim news: Her hard drive had crashed and there was no way to retrieve what was on it. She hadn't back up any of it, unfortunately.)

But all of this isn't actually the topic of this post. Guess I got a little side-tracked.

Top photo: A scarf I completed last week. It's the Cat's Paw Scarf, free pattern on Ravelry. Double-click on that photo so you can totally enjoy what I'm about to point out. I didn't notice this until I'd finished the knitting, bound it off, soaked it in Eucalan, and blocked it: There's a major mistake in my knitting! It sticks out like a sore thumb, now that I've noticed it. Do you see it? Of course you do. I purled an entire row that I was supposed to knit.

I toyed with the idea of raveling back to the mistake and redoing it, but then I said, "Naw." I'll call it a  "design feature" and hope the person who receives it as a gift doesn't notice it.

The other two photos are of my great finds at Montsweag Flea Market, along with the table cloth which I wrote about earlier. The pitcher, a Watt Ware, was a mere $10. I collect Watt Ware but seldom find a bargain like this. A price tag of $50 or more, in fact, would not be unusual.

The cast iron Dutch oven, the one on the left, is my other Montsweag treasure. As you can see, I now have two cast iron Dutch ovens. I feel rich, I tell you. I've had my old one at least 40 years, and I absolutely love it.

Soon I plan to write a post about cooking with cast iron, so I won't say any more about this now. Stay tuned, though.

Score!

Ken and I had been waiting for the Montsweag Flea Market to open for this season. Since it opens Mother's Day Weekend, we decided we'd be there, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on that Saturday.

But it rained that day. We didn't want to  browse in the rain, and we knew vendors wouldn't want to display their goods in the rain. We waited patiently for Sunday, Mother's Day itself. Although I've always said that Saturday's vendors have more interesting items than Sunday's, I was proven wrong this time.

Score #1: Beautiful hand-crocheted table cloth, large-table size, with only a few minor repairs needed. It was badly stained, so because I wasn't sure the stains could be removed, I talked the vendor down to $10 from $15. Once I got it home, I soaked it in OxyClean for an hour and it's now stain free!

I assured the vendor she had just sold the tablecloth to someone who would treasure it, and I wasn't kidding.

Anyone who knows me well knows I love needlework masterpieces. I appreciate the time and talent that goes into making something such as this.

I do a lot of needlework myself, but I've never made anything as grand as this. I have a great deal of respect for the creator of this work of art.

It now graces our dining room table, and I admire it several times a day.

I scored two other treasures at Montsweag that day: a cast-iron Dutch oven and a Watt Ware pitcher, $10 and $8 respectively.

Since I haven't taken photos of them yet, I'll save them for another post.

After leaving Montsweag with our treasures carefully tucked into the trunk of the car, we drove a short distance up the coast to Wiscasset.

We had lunch at Sarah's, a favorite spot when we're in the area.

We also checked out the growing line at Red's Eats across the street from Sarah's. That's Red's in this photo. It's a great place to go for a lobster roll, if you don't mind standing in a long line before being served.

We also drove down a side street in Wiscasset and spotted a mansion we'd never noticed before. I did a little googling of "Wiscasset mansions" when we got home and learned this is Castle Tucker, built in 1807. It's open for tours, so we'll no doubt check it out some time this summer.

So although we didn't visit Montsweag and Wiscasset on Saturday, we certainly found Sunday to be just as enjoyable.

Spring cleaning

I've said this before, and it's the truth: I was a much better housekeeper when I was working full time and barely had time to do anything other than lesson plans. Still, somehow, I managed to discipline myself to keep the house in neat order.

Now I'm retired, and have all the time in the world,…and my housework doesn't get done on a regular basis.

Oh, I scurry around and do some marathon cleaning just before company arrives, sure. But the twice-a-week, every-Thursday-and-Saturday-without-fail cleaning that I gave my house while being a teacher?

Nope. No way. Too many other things catch my interest, I guess. I finally have time to do the things I've always wanted to do, and cleaning house apparently isn't one of them.

Also, "back in the day," I was religious about starting my spring cleaning immediately after my school's February vacation and making darned sure the cleaning was completed by my school's April vacation. Year after year I followed this routine. I liked to have the spring cleaning completed before May arrived. May can be beautiful in Maine, and I like to spend my time outdoors if possible, not inside cleaning.

This year I started a little half-hearted spring cleaning in March. I wish I'd kept at it, because now Maine's glorious May weather has arrived,

and washing woodwork and windows, rearranging the pantry, taking down curtains and washing them,…simply don't appeal to me.

I'll get 'er done, I guess, one way or another. But I really want to be outside, weeding flower beds, removing last fall's leaves tangled in flower stalks, carrying garden decorations from over the garage to the flower garden.

(This morning I did manage to get this quilt washed and ready to put away. It's the last quilt I made, and it's entirely quilted by hand. I kept it in my quilt cupboard for years; then, this past fall, I asked myself what I'm saving it for?

We might as well enjoy it while we're still able to appreciate the work that goes into a handmade quilt. It certainly kept us warm on those cold nights this past winter.)

Maybe tomorrow I'll wash the bedroom curtains. Or maybe I won't.