The Mrs. gets a gadget

Mr. Gadget, in his quest to lure me over to the dark side of gadgetdom, recently bought me a new gadget of my own. I now have a west coast sewing machine. It's out of the box and sitting on a table, but I've been slow to plug it in and actually do any sewing. That's because I'm not a big fan of reading instructions. You can see I made a valiant effort. About five minutes into it I was ready for a nap. Today I will try again....right after I finish this blog post....if it isn't almost time to start dinner. I just wish my fairy godmother would wave her wand and put this information directly into my head.

This afternoon I took a ride over to the local mall to look for some items of clothing for the upcoming China trip. One of the downsides of living in two places is that what you thought was hanging in your closet here is actually hanging in your closet there. While I was out, I popped into Sears to have my watch battery replaced. The very nice clerk had me perplexed. While she was helping me and several other customers, it seemed she was carrying on a conversation with some sort of imaginary friend. Well, of course she had one of those cell phone thingies hooked to her ear, but not so's you'd notice. Her slightly bouffant hairdo completely covered it, and I was pretty sure she had little elves down under her table building things out of old battery parts and maybe giving her a foot massage.

So the other day I mentioned my fear that Tech Guy might be overextending the hospitality to a certain chipmunk who lives in our Connecticut neighborhood.

"Don't worry Mom," he told me. "He just hops in the bowl, eats some seeds, and then heads right out the door."

"But what if he runs further into the house and starts chewing on wires and stuff?"

"Oh, he won't do that," said TG. "He's a smart little chipmunk."

And earlier today I had the following conversation with Mr. Gadget....one that I'd been putting off.

"Do you have plenty of socks for the trip?" I asked.

"Yep, I'm all set," he replied.

"How about when you're wearing shorts?" I asked. "Do you have some sport socks to wear with your sneakers?" (Note to my west coast friends: We call them sneakers on the east coast, not tennis shoes....maybe you knew.....)

"Because I promise, you'll be walking alone on the Great Wall if I notice you're wearing your dress socks," I told him. "Don't even think about it."

Mr. Gadget and I get along famously, really. We are very respectful of each other's different opinions on things. But there are a few things on which I just can't compromise.....