First the pictures, then sort of a rant:

I finished the Prairie Stripes afghan last night. (I had to play with the image a little in my image software to get it bright enough to show up. It's a very dark afghan, even with the flash).



The borders ruffled a bit because instead of being precise and counting stitches, I just picked up as many as I thought I needed. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Second, here are some blocks from the Snowman quilt I've been working on. The lavender color of the center of the blocks is hard to match other colors to, and I'm not sure I'm very happy with the red-bordered blocks.




And now, the rant:

Someone stole a sprinkler out of my yard. Yes, a sprinkler. For which I didn't pay more than $12.

I am not so upset about the sprinkler itself, but about the fact that it was within ten feet of my front door. And it bothers and worries me. I did not sleep well last night. Every sound of the house settling, the refrigerator kicking on, a train going by, woke me up.

I do not know when the sprinkler was stolen; the last time I saw it was about 3 pm Sunday and it was around 6 pm yesterday I noticed it was gone. So either someone was willing to walk up to my house in the middle of the night - and either already knew the sprinkler was there and wanted to steal it - or they were wandering around my house and happened upon it and took it - or they were willing to walk up to the house in broad daylight while I was at work and walk off with my sprinkler.

They did leave the hose, which I suppose would be harder to conceal and carry. And the sprinkler in my backyard is still there, as is the lawn chair, wheelbarrow, and some flowerpots.

For the record, I have several neighbors who are retired and are at home most of the day. And the house directly to the north of me is a police officer and his family - an officer who works the night shift!

So it scares me. I went around before bed last night and made jolly sure every window and door was latched as tightly as it could be (and still slept badly) and today I'm almost afraid to go into my office. I don't like the thought that someone knows when I'm not home - or not vigilant - and that they can do that sort of thing with impunity.

And although the "typically" stolen items out of my house - computer, television, VCR - would not pain me to lose as much as some sentimental items I have, the fact that someone would steal a stinking SPRINKLER makes me feel like if the same person came back and broke into my house, random stuff would be gone, and probably most of it stuff I cared about.

I am not a mean or vindictive person by nature, but as I lay awake in bed last night I found myself wondering if there was a way I could rig a box - make it look like a nicely wrapped present or electronics box, but put inside a spring-load and some animal droppings and the horribly stinky anaerobically rotting leaves I found in a water-filled flowerpot in my yard, and just happen to leave it on my porch, in the hopes that the thief would come back, take it, and get a facefull of stink for his or her trouble.

I did phone it in to the police, as foolish as I felt reporting a theft of a $12 sprinkler. They sent out an officer to take the report, so at least if my house is broken into, I have the weak consolation of having filed a report on the first theft.

I keep telling myself that the kind of person who would steal a sprinkler, probably under cover of darkness, is not the same kind of person who would break into a person's house while she's at work, but I'm having a very hard time convincing myself. I've already locked the door between my sewing room (right on the back of the house; used to be a screened porch and it has the windows I think it would be most easy to jimmy open and come through) and my bedroom. I have a fenced backyard with gates. I've closed the gates and am considering running to wal-mart for locks for the gates - except my electrical meter is in the backyard, and the OG&E guy needs to get back there once a month to read it.

Argh. It really does feel like a violation, even a super minor theft like this. It's going to occupy my attention today and for a couple more days at least.

I keep fantasizing that the sprinkler will show up on my porch, with a note attached from a neighbor, saying they really needed to borrow it, but I wasn't home, and would I forgive them, so I could call the police back up and tell them it was all a misunderstanding, but I don't see that happening.