What an awesome house!!

In our travels yesterday, Ralph & I came across this magnificent house. Isn't it amazing? It had gargoyles, and crenelated walls, and that gorgeous lion statue, and the walls had the faces of lions, Green Man, and gargoyles embedded in it. It was on a corner lot & the crenelated walls went right along the side, too. There was an arched doorway off the driveway with a big wooden gate. I sooooooo want this house. We would have loved to have seen inside.




As mentioned on Friday, yesterday was our appointment with the tax people. It was supposed to be at 11:00, but the preparer called and asked if we could come at 9:00 instead. This was perfect, since it meant we were the first appointment of the day & while this place does a great job on the tax returns, they are horrible about estimating how long each appointment will take. They only allot 45 minutes for each appointment, and ours took twice that long. So, unless you are the first there is always a wait.



The appointment itself wasn't too dreadful though. We gave BJ all the paperwork, and while she sorted through it we went to Burger King & had a quick breakfast (she encouraged us to do this; I think our coffee-induced chatter was distracting her). When we got back, we went through all the detailed stuff. In the end we owed on State, although not as much as we expected, and got a refund on Federal, which we hadn't expected at all.


I also finished my blue socks, hooray! I wore them yesterday; they are very comfy, don't slide down, and fit my Daffy Duck feet quite nicely. And people wonder why I don't just buy socks (insert rolling eyes here). I also cast on another fish hat, this one in aqua and yellow. The lips & mouth shaping are in yellow, and it wasn't until I joined the aqua for the first section of the body that I realized the colors look like Flounder from Disney's The Little Mermaid. That was not at all intentional, but I like how it looks so I'm not changing it.

Speaking of knitting, I went to a yarn store I hadn't been to before. Sadly, I was not that impressed with it. Since I'm not going to be giving it a very good review, I shall refrain from giving the name of the shop or the city in which it is located. The yarns, while nice, just weren't really my style. Lots of cotton, and as the Teeming Millions are aware I prefer animal fibers over plant fibers. There were some wools, mostly in heavier weights and dark colors, and lots of synthetics & novelty yarns.

However, what bothered me the most was that at no time did either of the staff persons acknowledge my existence. Now, I'm not expecting people to fawn all over me in a shop--in fact, that would drive me nuts--but a simple "Hello, let me know if you need any help" is IMHO basic shop courtesy. Instead, the two of them chattered to each other in a language I did not understand pretty much the entire time I was in there. The only offer of assistance came from a customer, when I picked up a ball of rayon and said to myself, "This is pretty, but what would I make with it?" The customer overheard me, started to suggest a scarf and then interrupted herself to ask if I already knew how to knit or not. We talked a bit & I went on with my wanderings in the store. The only time the staff persons stopped their conversation was when a toddler started to fuss a bit. Not badly--she wanted her mother's purse, and the mother was steadfastly NOT letting go of it, and the child was making that "I'm not crying yet, but I'm seriously considering it" sort of whine, you know how toddlers do. Nothing really major. The older of the two staff members immediately rushed over to the child with a double-handful of candy, without even asking the mother if the child could have any. That really bothered me; first off reinforcing the fussing, and second not getting the parent's OK to do so. Not a shop I will be visiting again.



We also went to a reptile zoo/shop. It was pretty neat; they had a large pond set up inside with HUGE fish in it, and lots of red ear turtles. The north side of the shop was where all the reptiles for sale were kept, and the south side was a combination gift shop/party area. There was a party going on in one of the rooms while I was there. I would guesstimate maybe 30 kids, and it looked like three of the five adults in there were workers from the shop, which to me is a pretty good ratio of staff to children. They had lots of reptiles in aquariums in the room, and were showing the kids a huge tarantula (not a reptile, I know, but still pretty cool). One of the workers was giving a talk about the spider, and letting it crawl on some of the people there. The kids were really excited and you could tell they were having an absolute blast. Two of the other party rooms still had a bit of party debris in them (they were in the process of being cleaned, it wasn't just sitting there), so I would say the place is pretty popular.

Well, that was my Saturday. Going shopping today; need lunch shtuff & creamer, plus I want to get some corned beef while the prices are low.