Six Hours in the Car with 5 Kids

So this is what we did yesterday. We needed some oils for Richard's soapmaking. We also wanted to go to Seymour (which is about an hour's drive for us) to see about a minibike for the kids. We also had lost our internet connection that we pay so dearly for, the night before.

So I got on tech support and got the internet back, and while I was at it, had them reset the password to an email account I have been locked out of for 6 months because some idiot at the cable company didn't know how to spell the word I asked them to reset my password to the LAST time. I had 753 unread, mostly-spam emails. I cleaned out the inbox.

We made a batch of soap... Fish Away, which is an odor-removing cook's or gardener's or mechanic's or fisherman's soap with sweet orange oil and coffee in it.

I started moving code for our infamous Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge, to a free site so we can relinquish the Rossoaps website we have had for 12 years, and which costs us big bucks but doesn't net any sales. I got about half of it done. After years of writing code, where if you left out ONE little quote mark " or caret > you spent an hour looking for it, now they have made it just about idiot proof. I could just cry.

UPDATE: I finished the N2Quilting Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge page. If you want to see the quilts (and you are very brave), click the link above (it will open a new window) and enjoy!

Then we all piled in the car, and off we went. First South and East about 25 miles to a warehouse grocery where we have been buying our cottonseed oil for the last 4 years. Guess what? They don't carry it anymore!! So we got some cookies, toothpaste, and packages of eco-unfriendly styro plates and all piled back in the car.

Next about 20 miles North and East into Knoxville, to the oils supplier. We smelled fragrance oil samples until I was sick with a headache and bought gallons of olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil.

Then we plunged headlong into Knoxville Rush Hour traffic on the Interstate. Please note, unlike some major metropolitan areas, Knoxville does NOT have backups going 15 MPH on the interstate at rush hour. NO. Knoxvillains (great pun, LOL) go 70 MPH in a 55 zone, right through town, no matter what time of the day or night or how heavy traffic is (with the occasional officer passing you). You take your life in your own hands here at rush hour. The good news is, you get where you are going in record time. The bad news is, if you are in the wrong lane when your exit comes up, you are S-O-L.

We took the wrong exit. But fortunately we only drove around the bad part of town for about 5 minutes before we got oriented and headed South to Seymour. Then we took the wrong branch of the turnoff to the guy's house and only drove 3.5 miles out of our way on a twisty country road.

Turns out the minibike was a pocket bike... nothing wrong with that really, but this one was styled like a crotch-rocket, with the handlebars down level with the seat. And the whole bike was only 3 feet long. Josiah fit on it fine, but I think he would be a danger to society in general on it. Veronica and Diantha, both of whom I would like to learn to ride about now, were both WAY to big for it. Their elbows were down behind their knees and no way could they have controlled it. ~~ sigh ~~ Happy thought: it saved us a bill and a half.

Meanwhile Beverly wet through her pants. Too much DEW! So we hit the closest Big BoX store where we found that you can only buy Capri pants or Shorts, because it is 50 freezing degrees outside, but some buyer decided it was SUMMER. Finally found a pair of little stretchy pants for her on a bottom shelf and after 20 minutes of milling around and buying bullets, we left.

BACK into Knoxville, where we ate at the only Rally's in the area, and it was the greasiest hamburger I have had in a while. Maybe YEARS. And then 25 more miles back home. Got home just in time to have missed all but 10 minutes of Bones. Arrrggh. And this is what we have to show for the day (not pictured: the disappearing cookies and the eco-unfriendly plates). The fabric is fuzzed out because it is the ugliest fabric I have ever seen and I don't want to scare anybody.