mamacate

The Vacant Flames

Okay, so here's how the title thing went.  I couldn't think of a title (I still like my excel formula, but that's because I'm a wicked geek).  So I put in "random title."  And then it occurred to me that since everything already exists on the internets, maybe I could find a random title generator.  And indeed, the oracle of google did not disappoint.

I had five to choose from.  I thought The Vacant Flames was about right, but it's not like it actually means anything.  It could have been "The Lovely Voyage" but I'm home working 12 hours a day to try to get rid of the extra projects, and my family is in New Hampshire swimming in a lake and going to Storyland so I wasn't really going to go there (on the other hand, being in someone else's house with two four-year-olds isn't exactly a picnic either).  So anyway.  There's also this one for blog titles, from which you can choose funky ("Neon Moments") or formal ("Magnificent Images").  Eh.  Like I said, anyway.

I screwed up with Rhys on the phone today.  I said "I finished the big thing!"  She got ALL excited, told the kids, etc., before I had a chance to clarify that I meant the big NEW job thing that was making me crazy, not the big OLD job thing that has made me crazy for the last four years.  I mean, I made a bunch of progress on the old job thing, and dude, today will be a day of much getting done, but um, it was not so good to have to say "hey, I know you've been sharing a double bed in a damp basement with two four-year-olds by yourself but when I said done, I meant that now I can start on finishing the other thing."  She took it surprisingly well.

Partly that's because I was able to quickly slip in the following nugget, which makes me very afraid that someone is going to push the "smite" button: I met with the builders this morning?  And the end date?  The one they, and I told him I would hold him to this, committed to firmly?  That one?  OCT-FREAKING-TOBER.  OCT! Also?  TOBER, dude.  Like fifteenth.  If you recall, we were figuring January since they said end of November.  There was no real hope of hosting Thanksgiving.  My birthday (11/20) was but a faint dream, and one without carpeting or paint.  What I believe I am saying here is that I will have a house by Rhinebeck.  Probably not a carpeted or painted house, but a house!  OCTOBER!  I know!  If I may: *squee*!

Now, we must never speak of this again.  Because really, this is like looking up from your lace knitting and saying "hey, I'm good at this!  Lace is easy!"  And from what I understand (and from dire personal experience--we're serial renovators) the goddess of home renovation is even more vindictive powerful than the goddess who makes you miss a yarnover at the beginning of your 280-stitch row with no lifeline and makes sure you don't notice it until you're 40 rows past where you made the mistake and makes certain you can't drop down to it but instead must tink or rip.  You know her, I know you do.  We do not want her to laugh derisively at my dreams of October housing, as she has done so many times at my lace shawls.  So anyway, if we start getting all cocky about this, you know we can count on code violations and collapsed supports and that sort of thing.  And I do thank the goddess of construction for perfect weather and excavators who come at night and roofers who work on Saturdays and general goodness of luck.  So from now on I'll just whisper when I talk about this: (((October.)))  Dude.  Now shhh.

So yeah, I just sent off the last in a series of reports I was writing for the new job, and I'm taking a deep breath and doing some administrative tasks before jumping back into the stuff I need to do for the old job.  I have stopped exercising, have not cooked a thing in weeks (which sucks since it's harvest time here, and I'm eating frozen dinners), and I am tied to the computer nearly all day.  Once all this insanity is over (October!), I'm going to seriously have to get some semblance of balance back in my life.  Because I had let that go something fierce, and you know, I was doing okay with it, and then I let it all go crazy.  I am easily seduced by exciting but utterly mad projects and ideas, and I need to keep that in check.  Hopefully the process of feathering the new nest will keep me well-focused on home life.  Good goals for the coming year. (I always thought the Jewish calendar had the right idea--doesn't it feel like the start of a new year in the early fall?  We pagans are always saying happy new year, really.)

This is a photo-free post because Rhys has the camera.  But I'll have some house to show you when she gets back as you might well imagine.  Also some pictures of Elizabeth, though at this point I've ripped and reknit the neckline twice and will have to do so again, so it's not really something I want to talk about.  I need to pay attention to the pattern I'm re-enacting here for the millionth time: work too many hours--want something fun and challenging to knit to keep mind off work--try to knit something fun and challenging--screw it up royally because brain is no longer functional--repeat.  Duh.

I do have a photo found in the ether.  I went to Ikea the other week to check out some furniture options for the new place and of course had to buy chocolate. 

Daim these are good.

Somebody Get Me Some Spackle.

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List

Kellee, step away from the rusty farm implements.

Also, Mafia?  Is this proof enough that it is that bad?  And who are you and where did you put my fellow lefty paraniod conspiracy theorist friend anyway?

Speaking of lefty paranoid conspiracy theorists, thanks, mom, for the link to the article.

Randomest of Wednesdays

It's actually Wednesday, and I'm posting randomness.  Imagine!

• And it has been an extra-random day for sure.  The good news: I have a desk, a computer, and a phone, all of which are functional.  The bad news: none of the other workstations in my office are functional.  Okay, none of the other workstations in my office exist.  There's no other furniture, and who knows when that will change.  At least the bottleneck in the plan, the elevator to bring the furniture to the third floor, has been resolved.  After that it's anyone's guess.   
• The other not-so-good news is that there's some sort of issue with the painting that they have to pay extra if the painters are going to paint my office, and they don't want to pay extra, and people are arguing about it behind the scenes and at this point they're painting every part of the building except my office.  I have seriously, seriously considered counting out a few twenties from my wallet and seeing how far I could take things on my own, but please, I do not need to subsidize this wealthy institution slapping a coat of paint on my office walls. (Do I?  And would it be tax deductible?  Am imagining that CPA partner might categorize such an act as less in the category of "charitable contribution" and more in the category of "bribe."  Hmm.)  Anyway.  So here I sit, a good 18" away from the walls on all sides, waiting for a coat of paint.  Could be a while.  Which is okay because I still need my files.  And also file cabinets.  And bookshelves.
• Anyway.  This construction complaining is really interesting?  You sure?  I suppose the house stuff at least has the benefit of being fun.
• On that note, here's today's picture.  It doesn't look that much different from the last picture, but it does if you look closely.  Sock yarn to the first person who correctly identifies the BIG difference in the comments (hint: you can't really see it unless you embiggen).  ETA: Another hint, it's not the studs.  LOOK WITHIN!  ETA: WE HAVE A WINNER--Melissa got it: they took the roof off inside the second floor framing.  More had changed than I thought--sorry if it was a bit of a game of "guess what I'm thinking" lol.  Thanks for playing!

• So the other lousy thing about today was that I woke up with a wicked migraine.  Though I'm swamped at work, I was going to take a sick day because, you know, it's all very well and good to show up but if you're sitting in a darkened room moaning faintly, it's not the most productive kind of thing, plus with the dust and the paint fumes (from the hallway, not from my office) and all, well.  However, when I hunkered down to see if the Aleve would kick in (answer: not willing to stay in stomach long enough), they started demolishing concrete in the basement.  Next, the nail guns on the roof.  I swear there was some sort of rhythm section.  I crawled to my car and decided a hot and smelly office was better than a loud and, well, LOUD house.  Happily for me, the electricity went out around 9:30 and didn't come back on until well after 11, so at least I had an excuse to sit in a darkened room.
• Also, the bat (or another of his friends and relations) came back last night.  I was dashing off an email to the Mafia, just before leaving for the day, and in my peripheral vision, there's this black thing.  I made the mistake of looking up and of course I see a bat flying all around my outer office.  I slammed my inner office door, and after making a call to public safety (hey, physical plant was closed!  That's who they said to call!) and thoroughly embarrassing myself, the bat took a break from flying maniacally around, and I was able to sneak out.  I left a note for the second shift painters (the ones not painting my office) to watch out for the bat, and apparently someone else (code name: Farmer Joe) "took care of it," or so said an addendum to my note when I arrived this morning.  Farmer Joe, whoever you are, thank you.  And don't tell me what "took care of it" means, because I'm not sure I can handle it.
• Despite all this, I do knit.  Elizabeth is about to get armholes.  Look.

• I have moments of thinking that the yarn might pill, in which case I will fling myself from something or other, but I think the silk will prevent that (I hope I hope), and so far it's holding up well.  If it doesn't pill, well, man, this stuff is insanely soft and wonderful.  I can't wait to wear it, and my desire is keeping me monogamous for the moment.  No promises.
• That's it from the loony bin.  I'll let you know if I ever get painted.  Or if I discover new information about the deductibility of bribes. Or if you won sock yarn.  Heh.

You Can't Pick Your Nose If You're Going To Make Cookies.

These are words to live by, spoken this evening by mamarhys.  The sort of axiom one might want to needlepoint, I'd say.  Just remember that next time YOU make cookies.

Did I mention that my office has been under construction as well as my house?  Monday was move day.  Except for the part about my office being totally NOT ready.  At one point I was just milling around looking at drying plaster and wires hanging from outlets so I decided to sit down on the floor and read, yes, you'll see how stupid I was before I did, a draft report from a Department of Education committee.  You know, Republicans.  Margaret Spellings (they left off the bit about no lesbians on TV, though you know she watches The L Word because all straight people do).

So after that I asked the paint guys if I could help them spackle.  They thought I was funny.  I thought I was funny too until I totally screwed it up.  We all agreed I should keep my day job and I said I would as soon as I had a desk, a computer, and a phone.  By the end of the day, I had a desk at least.  And a recycling container, which now contains the Republican report.  At least my summer house-mates (we adminstrators camped out for the summer in student housing; the timing of our move back is more about need for the student space and less about the construction actually being done) had beer at 3:30 pm.  We all needed it, though they have such luxuries as furniture and phone service.

On the upside, it didn't rain inside my office.  Which is more than I can say for my house.  Something about a tarp and a downpour and pooling and foremen on vacation and blah blah blah.  On the upside, we're getting a new ceiling we weren't getting before.  Dammit.

Despite all that, I look at the construction and some small part of me keeps jumping up and down and going *squee* (to quote my friend Teri).  Those of you who saw the last pictures and said you didn't realize the project was going to be so big?  Look at this.

I know.

But the best part is here's what's going to be my living room.

And up there? 

That's going to be my bedroom on the left; Rhys' office/MY FIBER ROOM on the right.  Did you hear that?  myfiberroommyfiberoommyfiberroommyfiberroom!  Sure, it's also Rhys' office and doubles as a guest room, but...my. fiber. room.  That's the part when I start going *squee*!  Well, that and the fireplace.  Because spinning in front of the fire in between smores?  Job one, baby.

So yeah, I'm overcommitted, every part of my life is in total chaos, and I'm, um, just hanging on by a thread.  But it's all good.  Squ.  And also? Ee.  Indeed.

Pictures! I promised Pictures!

I found the USB cable.  It hadn't strayed far.  There isn't really far to stray when you're four people, a dog, and a cat living in 400 square feet or so.

I've provided handy headers for those who may become bored with endless construction talk.  I can't imagine how, except for the part about how I would be completely bored if it wasn't my house.  Like that.  Anyway.

CONSTRUCTION PICTURES, AND MORE THAN ANYONE COULD POSSIBLY CARE ABOUT IN TERMS OF RENOVATION DETAILS!

No bitching and moaning about my 400 square feet, because look at the progress!

That pink stuff is the fancy-pants stuff that is supposed to keep the water totally and completely away from our basement.  I'll believe it when I see it, but since we were digging the entire house up, it made sense to go all out.  I suppose.

That thar's a foundation drain, to divert the water away from the foundation in the first place, creating a marvelously redundant, belt-and-suspendersish basement drying system.  Plus there are french drains inside the existing basement that we installed when we first moved in.  And it's not even like we have standing water, it's just damp.  We hate damp.  We fight mold.  Seepage, begone!  Obsessive?  Moi? Nous? 

But really, it's all a part of the rationale for the reno: we could move to another house for about as much money as this is costing, but that house would have a bunch of problems that we'd have to, or want to fix.  We know the problems in this house--man do we know them--and the idea here is to fix them without creating too many new ones.  It's a theory.  We're going with it. 

Anyway, somehow we managed to not get a picture of the guys with the giant (GIANT!) chainsaws that spit water cutting into our concrete-block house.  I'm not sure how we missed photographing that, but it was the best, and freakiest part.

This will give you some idea of what they wrought, though.  I mean, not really, but see those lines coming down from the former windows?  Those are where the chainsaws cut into the concrete blocks.  It's crazy.  That's what color this house was 3 or 4 renovations ago, well before our time.  The honey mustard ranch.  The times they are a-changing here in Hamp.  I will miss that big wall of concrete that kept the house cool in summer.  Ah well, we're doing some serious insulating, our windows will finally be tight...hope for the best.

Here's a pile of what they pulled out from those cuts in the wall.

This experience has seriously produced some trash.  Here is a view of the big-ass dumpster that we completely filled with crap. 

Not including the concrete, by the  way, which was hauled separately as hazardous material.  Reduce, reuse, recyle...ahem.  We are giving the few-year-old replacement windows (there was wind coming through the old ones; desperate measures, sunk costs, sigh) to a recycling gig.  But jaysus.  The dumpster was hauled away earlier today and returned, empty.  I suppose when they take off half the roof *gulp* they'll need it.

My yard no longer grows grass weeds moss like it used to.  The excavators saw to that.  Now it grows lumber, apparently.

But look, we're no longer in pure destruction demolition mode.  Progress!

LOOK HERE FOR KNITTING!

Oh, right.  Also, there is progress on Elizabeth.  New yarn, new start, and some actual fabric.  The yarn may make it difficult to pay the mortgage on that pile of rubble house pictured up there, but oh but it is soft and oh but it is smooth and it's merino plus silk and they just had to throw some cashmere in there (but not enough to pill) and I'm just going to have to learn to live with it.  The Webs discount didn't hurt either.

Here's what it looks like now.

I know: red blob.  But it's moving along and I like it (I really like it!) so it might become a sweater at some point in the future.  Good, good, good.  I'll probably do some obsessing about short row construction at some point, but for now, all this picture taking and USB cable finding and blog posting is taking up my sleeping knitting time.  I now have some Claudia-colored DK Zephyr that needs a purpose in life.  And I may have fallen down and bought some red DK Zephyr in a coop when someone made me do it offered a good price.  I couldn't say.  Anyway, I'll have my eye out for nice DK projects when this is done, because that yarn is going to be knitted, no way around it.  The love is too deep and true to go unrequited.

LOOK HERE FOR CUTE CHILDREN!

There's been a bit of family creativity here despite it all.  We're working on decorating the Wall Where Once There Was A Living Room.

And here's Eleanor's reaction to our project of coloring with crayons and markers on the walls that will be demolished.

We should all remember to do that kind of a happy dance at least a few times a week, huh?

'Night!

Questions to Which I Need Answers

1. Why am I hormonal when it's not time to be hormonal yet?  Hmm?  (This may very well be the root question upon which all the others depend.  At least I'm aware of this, I figure.)
2. What is up with the *live* finale of Treasure Hunters?  How do ya figger, if they're in a "chamber" in an abandoned factory in Maryland (Delaware?) as of last week, and they leave a cliffhanger there, that they will have a *live* finale?  I know, it will probably be a reunion show, or something will be opened up at the last minute, or whatever, but please.
3. On the Treasure Hunters thing again, could I be any happier that knowing how to use a library card catalog is a pivotal skill in a reality show?  I could not.  At least I have an answer for that. 
4. Why the hell do I watch so very much bad TV?  Three years ago I had four channels on my TV and barely watched those.  Okay, I had twin infants and a job at that point too, so not so much time for vegging out.
5. Is it okay that a partially framed space outside my house got rained on this morning, right on the plywood that will be my subfloor?  They covered the lumber with tarps, but the actual structure?  Not so much.  Should this worry me?
6. Why does connecting the camera to the computer seem like simply too much effort to be borne?
7. How could I possibly have forgotten to call my father on his birthday?
8. When, oh when, will I finish my beastly second-job project?
9. How can I find a way not to be bitter about missing lunch with the wonderful knitbloggers who came to my fair city last week?

That's enough for now, I suppose.  Next time, construction pictures!  Elizabeth pictures! Pictures!  One more question--where's my USB cable?

Now, with 20% more of the 100 things about me.

Actually it's 100% more things about me, since I've only done twenty. 

21. I hate when people say "it's 10% more," when they really mean that it's 10 PERCENTAGE POINTS more, which, depending on how big your original percentage was, could be a lot more than 10%.

22. I'm fun at parties, as I'm sure you can tell from the above.

23. My Myers-Briggs type is ENTP, aka "the inventor" (aka "the visionary" in some descriptions).  In one book, it talks about how ENTPs will approach a task, like, say, taking the garbage out, from a creative, systems perspective.  They will examine the problem and try to come up with a complex and fascinating solution to the Big Issue of Taking Out the Garbage, perhaps working on a Garbage-Taking-Outing-Machine.  The book points out that sometimes the ENTPs JUST NEED TO TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE.

24. Ahem.

25. I actually *consistently* score at exactly the midpoint on the Introvert/Extrovert scale, so I suppose that makes me an E/INTP.  I've taken the Myers-Briggs test quite a few times now, and each time I find myself exactly even on this measure.

26.  For a while I thought that was a good deal--hey, I can understand both perspectives!

27.  But I finally realized that it's actually kind of hard.  Introverts need to recharge by being alone.  Extroverts need to recharge by being with people.  I need to do both.  It's quite time-consuming to be me.

28. On the other hand, I'm about as much of a P as you can get.  That means "perceiving" as opposed to "judging."

29. Rhys is a total J.

30. This basically comes out in decision-making style.  Js spend a lot of time weighing and obsessing about considering decisions ahead of time.  Ps feel their way through decisions.  However, once the decision is made, Js are DONE.  You hear me?  DONE.  Ps are never done with a decision--they're always collecting information and reconsidering.

31. Rhys took a class about the MBTI thing once where they said that if you have to tell a J that the plan has changed, you should walk up to them, tell them very quickly AND THEN RUN AWAY so as not to be present for the J-style freakout they will inevitably have when they realize that someone has fucked with stuff that they thought was all set, finito, DONE.  Then, after the freakout, they'll be fine, but for about 5 minutes, it's not pretty.  I am here to tell you that this is a Very Good Strategy, except for the part about how the J will FOLLOW YOU into the other room in order to bring the freakout to you.  I may need to learn to run faster.

32. As you may have inferred from the above, the P/J dynamic is especially interesting when one is doing something, like, say, home renovation.  And when one is making decisions, about, say, maple vs. oak flooring.  As a random example.  The extreme P thing isn't so great either, since despite the decision already having been made (twice!), I'm going to keep questioning it until the new floors are in, and then I'll spend the next 10 years thinking maybe I should have lobbied harder for oak. 

33. Basically we're a lot of fun to live with,  is what I'm saying.

34. So that's a lot about the MBTI, which I've found to be a very useful tool for understanding and valuing personality differences, but I also have a healthy skepticism about anything that reduces human difference to simple categories (remember the part about the SAT being On Notice?).

35. That said, I do like having a variety of lenses to look through.  I used to be pretty good at reading Tarot cards, which may sound like a non-sequitur to some, but I actually find a great deal of similarity between the MBTI and Tarot cards.  Tarot cards are just a lot more mysterious.

36. I haven't read Tarot cards in a really long time, though.  I wonder if I'd remember anything.

37. I found that it was quite easy and interesting to read people's Tarot cards if I didn't know them at all, or if I knew them really well.  If I didn't know them at all, I could just follow the meanings of the cards and not make any connections to what I knew about the person.  If I knew the person really well, I could interpret the cards in relation to the people and situations in their lives, and do a pretty good job of it.  If I knew a person a little bit, I found that I tended to jump to conclusions, and it was very hard not to use the little (and usually inaccurate) knowledge I had of their life to interpret the cards.  I remember reading a friend's mom's cards and really screwing up because all I knew about her was what her daughter had told me.  And she kind of inferred some of that.  And it wasn't all good.  Oops.

38. I don't think Tarot cards can predict the future, I think they're a good tool for helping you look at your life through a different kind of lens: one that might offer a fresh perspective.  There's something about the randomness of the order of the cards that adds to it, but I don't think it's supernatural.

39. I just think randomness is more complicated than we sometimes give it credit for.  Not supernatural, in fact, completely natural.  That's why I'm not clear on why anyone would want to argue with science to prove the existence of god.

40. But whatever.  Those people are the part of the random that I'm just a little less fond of.  You get snowflakes; I suppose you gotta have crazy fundies too.  Whatcha gonna do?

I think I'm not too good at this whole 100 things about me business.  I'll have to find some sort of MBTI attribute that causes me to be that way.  It'll make me feel better.

Now, I wonder if we can still change back to oak floors.  And about that garbage-removal machine...

An Accretion of Randomness

You know, the whole Random Wednesday thing came up because I had all this random crap stuff rattling around in my brain to blog about, and I finally just decided to stop trying to come up with a reasonable blog post about any of them, but put them down in no particular order and let everyone else try to figure out what the hell I'm on about.  I spend enough time trying to wrestle with my brain already, right? 

Anyway, now that I have carte blanche to be random at least one day a week (and you know, it's randomer if it's not on Wednesday, right?), I cannot remember even the Random Wednesday blog items for more than five minutes at a time.  Yes, it has come to this.  I think of this thing I've been meaning to tell you in the shower (no, I mean I thought of it in the shower...oh never mind), and then it's gone by the time I'm putting my socks on.  Or, you know, rinsing my hair.  I don't know.  Anyway.  I'm just going to keep this post in draft form, and then when I remember things, assuming I'm not in the shower at the time, I'll put them here.  And then at some point I'll post it.  Which, if you're reading this now, already happened.  Yah.  Anyway.

1. One thing I've been meaning to blog about is the Netflix "friends" doohickey.  Kat with a K added me as a Netflix friend when I blogged about having signed up for Netflix, and I love it.  We can recommend movies to each other and see each other's ratings.  It's pretty cool.  Despite the fact that I emailed Netflix asking them for a blogthing for inviting friends via the blog (and no, I don't want to be an affiliate, I was more thinking of doing free advertising for them), they haven't come up with a button or anything.  So anyway, if you have Netflix and you want to share movie recommendations, you can add me as mama at mamacate dot com, or email me at that address and tell me to add you.  And that would be cool. 

2. I've finally gotten some discipline and started biking to work instead of driving.  Walking takes about 40 minutes (it's about 2.5 miles), so biking is really the best plan.  The problem is that it's a bit of a hilly route, so there's one place where I have to walk my bike, and I don't like that.  I'm no Claudia when it comes to hills (actually when it comes to a lot of things, sigh).  But I'm proud of myself, and I'm hoping to keep it going.  I have a coworker I'm biking with, and that will hopefully keep me motivated.  My other motivation is that if I bike to work, I can eat whatever the hell I want.  I realize the math here doesn't exactly work (hey, it's a hilly 5 miles; both ways, okay?), but it works for me.

3. This is hilarious. Make your own "On Notice" list.  I'm here at work on Saturday, so you'll notice a rather work-focused theme.  Sorry.  Anyway, here's mine.  Thanks, Stephen.

Honestly?  The SAT will be "dead to me" as soon as I'm done with this project.  Hear that Gaston?  No chance of rehabilitation.  But then, y'all have bigger problems.

4. While we're on the topic of Things I Watch On TV, did you know about 30 Days?  I had just heard about it when the last season was over; the new one just started up, and dude, it's wicked awesome.  Funny, interesting, thoughtful.  A little stunt-like, but so far both of the ones I watched left me understanding both sides better.  Thumbs-up baby. Anyone for a little Reality TV Sociology? (Oh dear, just realized it's on at the same time as Project Runway.  More reason to get Tivo.)

5. About Project Runway, if you don't have enough Tim Gunn in your life (and who could possibly, really?), you can read his blog on the show site.  Oh wow, a podcast too.  Carry on, Tim!  But could you do something about the design of the bravo show site?  What *is* that?

6. I found yarn for Elizabeth!  I'm not sure I mentioned that I gave up on trying to resize the triangle design in the front while knitting it in DK instead of sport-weight yarn.  My row gauge (right on) and my stitch gauge (way off) were in completely different proportions to the original gauges, so, had I just recalculated for stitch gauge I would have wound up with a very short and squat triangle.  I'm sure the recalculation would be possible for someone who thinks in geometry, but that's not going to be me.  In the end, I wound up finding a yarn that is basically what I was looking for all along: Taj Mahal.  It even comes in my color, a dark red (scroll down).  Now to get focused and actually *knit* the thing.

7. Well, this is a two-part accretion; I guess I'll post it today.  I'll be moving the last of the furniture out of the living room this weekend; Monday they come and put plywood up so that we can't get into the upstairs or living room in our house.  That's before they come with the concrete cutters and the backhoes and pull the front half of our house off.  Fun!  Excitement!  Despite the abject chaos my life is in, I'm feeling optimistic.  There's nothing like grinding drudgery to make one realize that when one has a) 1 (one) job, b) a house with more rooms than people (total rooms, not bedrooms), c) kids in a new and closer-by school that doesn't add nearly two hours to the daily schleppage, one might actually have a good time.  So I just keep thinking about this winter (see how I'm being non-specific with the timeline) when all this will be behind us and we'll be reaping the benefits, and I will sit, knitting, in front of a new fireplace, enjoying ample leisure time.  That is, once we've cleaned up from the blegger I'll be having to celebrate. 

Anyway, it's all good.  Carry on!

More with the hole in the house and more with the wildlife

The big hole in the house saga continues.  But they've started building things in the big hole, which is encouraging.

Look, a foundation!

We have a ramp over the moat trench around our house (they dug a foundation in the front and then are installing drainage around the house, since we have water problems I *just* learned were caused by poor planning of a big parking lot around a medical building one street away--oops).  But anyway, we can now get into the house without significant peril.

This ramp is, perhaps surprisingly, an extremely comforting thing.

We haven't gotten to the part where they actually tear the front off the house.  I figure it's all up from there.

As for the wildlife, we saw a visitor when we brought the dog out tonight.  We saw this incredible sight on our back deck.

It's hard to get a good picture of a spiderweb at night.  I tried, but didn't get much.  This closeup of the spider was pretty cool though.  Look at the spiky legs.  Cassie, this one's for you.

Who's got the spidey sense--what kind of spider is this?  I wonder if she'll still be there in the morning.  Luckily, she's well-removed from the construction, and I'm happy to have someone to help with the mosquitos.  Yeesh.

Moving the last few pieces of furniture out of the living room this weekend, plus the AA wheel is off to Marcy's.  One week down, 17 to go (we hope).  When this whole thing is over, baby, life is going to be sweet.

The Whine of the Storm

This is the post I didn't post when Typepad refused to let me post photos last night.  Forgive the out-of-orderness of it all.

Thanks for talking me down off the ledge, peeps.  I did not, I repeat, did NOT buy the St*rmore kit.  The thing that really did it was the people who said, while not saying in quite this words, "dude, that thing is going to make you look like a marshmallow.  A bloated marshmallow. Who's retaining water."  And wrong they would not be.  And I have knitted lo these many sweaters that make me look alarmingly marshmallowesque, and I shall not do it again no I shall not.  So thanks.  Except for Marcy who said I should totally get it.  I think she does this for sport (news flash?).  Anyway.

There is complete chaos flying all around my life (big news, eh?), but the knitting?  It is boring.  Blah.  Ugh.  Some people have good advice about knitting for charity, but I have no stash access, and therefore must go out and Buy Yarns that I have sitting around for exactly this purpose.  Which makes me a little cranky. 

Despite a bit of relief in the hormone department, I'm still yarn shopping becuase I'm bored or diappointed in what I'm knitting.  Experience (and common sense, such as it is) clearly demonstrates that buying more yarn and starting something new is hardly the solution--because I soon tire of that too.  Too bad I'm so whiny.  Sorry kids.

Anyway, while I fantasize about pricey vesty things (and yeah, I have a plan to start wearing vests--they're about to go out of style so I figure I'm right on time to sport last year's look--this year!), I'm plugging away at my current projects.  I could be doing so with a bit more joy, but hey, I'm working 6 10-hour days a week and am about to have am in the middle of having my house ripped to pieces, not so much with the joy and mirth.  I'll try to be a little perkier when I finally finish the huge job for the old employer.  Dude, forget perky, I'm going to have a party.  I'd make it a blegger if I had a living room.  Oh, never mind.  There has been progress on the albatross project.  Not so much as you'd notice from looking at it, nobody can tell but me, but with the writing it's all about momentum.  And I have some.  A little.  Okay, more than none, and this is progress.  Rhys and the kids will be going away for a few days next week and then at the end of the month, so I've got some chunks of time.  And it's good.  Or its reasonable facsimile.

So right, the fiber and the knitting.  I have things!  To show you!

Marcy needs to come pick up the Alden wheel soon, so it can sojourn with her, which means I need to ply up the laceweight moorit shetland from Rhinebeck.  I started Saturday night.  It's two bobbins and dude, it's a lot of yarn.  It was this itty little shetland fleece and I've already given away gobs of it and have a pile still in the basement, but I have plenty for a shawl (stole?) just from these two bobbins.  I'm probably about a third through the plying.  Here's what it looks like now:

There's also the socks, which are moving really slowly.  I'm kind of slogging through these things--someday they'll be done.  Yawn.

Also, there's the Fair Isle.  I'm trying to go easy on myself with this one.  I actually kind of like the most recent stuff I've done.  Here's the newest motif:

And I actually wouldn't mind a sweater like that, it's just that the rest of it looks like this:

That first half?  The colors are so awful, the motifs so ham-fisted.  I'm going to change the name of this sweater to The Learning Lumber.  I'm trying to appreciate the fact that this sweater will memorialize, in wool, my learning process about colorwork in fair isle.  And I'm trying to appreciate that and not want to bury it deep in a hole and pretend I never thought combining blue and purple like that would look good.

Can I tell you what's not helping?  It's not helping that brilliant Eunny Jang is 23 years old and designed and knit THIS in five days.  FIVE DAYS.  I'd say I knew what Salieri felt like, but I would totally be flattering myself.  FIVE DAYS.  Jaysus.

Even if I don't burn or bury my fair isle (Learning Lumber! Learning Lumber!), I will be waiting at the door to the LYS when the winter IK comes out.  And I'll buy all the yarn, in her colors for that sweater, and I'll knit it as written.  Except I might change the cuff color.  If I can't get over myself before then.