mamacate

Thankya, Thankya; Gift Knitting; Shall We Unleash The Knitters?

The Thanky:

It was a very nice T-day.  We had all the grandparents who usually come but not the best friends, which was too bad.  The turkey was overcooked by moi who did not put the thermometer in until it was way, WAY too late.  I managed to overcook the pecan pie too, and advertised it as "blackened, caramelized pecan pie."  Despite being a wee bit, um, caramelized, it actually was quite edible.  As was the turkey when doused with some pan juices and smothered with gravy.

I was trying to take it easy, cooking-wise (I confess to a certain amount of obsessive behavior about thanksgiving dinner--my standard is no room for the plates on the table and more pies than people).  Somehow, we managed to have more food than could fit on plates despite missing salad and rolls and creamed onions and a couple of spare veggies and the homemade vegetarian nut gravy, etc.)  Maybe I'll dial it down again next year, even if there's no reason to.  Yeah, right.

Four days off in a row was kind of amazing.  We stayed home, unpacked (our closet shelves and hanging bars came Friday), puttered, and played.  Man, I needed that, and the kids did too.  I don't think anyone was trying to play me guilt-wise, but there were a lot of comments about how I wasn't at work and I was able to play and such.  We flew kites and went on expotitions and sat in front of the fireplace and watched the Wizard of Oz.  All good.

Coming back to work was hard, but it's okay.  I sure am looking forward to a week off at the end of the year.

Gift Knitting:

I've been starting the Yule sweater for the last three weeks.  Every year I knit a sweater for the person I draw in our family gift exchange.  It's usually a lopi sweater, but I thought this year's recipient might like something different.  Well, I've now been through two yarns and two patterns, I've swatched and ripped and knitted inches of sweater and yanked out the needles and now I finally think I've got something.  It's the Cabin Fever Top-Down Swing Coat and this thing is a blast to knit and it seems to be coming out vaguely the right size plus I can adjust it as I go, which after having ripped out this many times is the only thing likely to keep me sane.  Pictures when the camera, me, my computer, and a charged battery are all in the same place.  No promises.  Anyway, right now it looks like a big lump.  I'm about halfway through the yoke.  Elizabeth is on hold but might get finished when (if) I get sick of the Swing Coat.  She just needs a sleeve cap, some sewing, and a neckline.  Maybe three night's work, and I could wear her for Solstice.  Hmm.

Unleashing the Knitters:

So there's this guy who's doing a panel at the MLA, and he's checking to see how a meme or, depending on how you look at it, a chain letter, moves through the blogosphere.  We knitters have a rather populous corner of the blogosphere, and one that I think routinely buffaloes those who attempt to study blogs and blogging.  Who are all these knitters and what do they want?  (Wool.)  If blogging is concerned with social change, what the hell are all these people doing talking about yarn? (We'll get back to you when the plans for world domination are available in pdf format.)

Anyway, Jody explains it all in a way that is far more interesting and complete than I have the patience for, but do please play.  All you need to do is mention and link to the project, beg ask others to participate, and then ping technocrati.  Let's show the MLA a little knitting mojo, eh?

Blessed

It was a wonderful night and our house and our family are very blessed.  Thank you for the online blessings too.  All good, all good...

Something Approaching A House

I have not had much head space or time for blogging, what with the travel and the catching up after the travel and the house and all that.  But I have some pictures and I want to show them to you because...well....look!

It's like, almost done.

Which is a really good thing, because we are really sick of living in this:

(The piles of laundry are not usually this bad, but this is pretty much our space for the last four months.  We are ready to be done.  Really.)

Still life with bouncy boodle (and paint).  Should the wheel go there?  Or there?  How about the other one?  Sigh.

We even have a dramatically-lit bookshelf.  Also with boodle (incognito).  Do you like our fancy-pants lighting?  Eleanor has declared it "too fancy," though as Jo points out, this is sure not to last once we're actually living in it.

As I told a few people at Rhinebeck, it turns out that although I, like the model spouse I am (shut up), agreed to maple floors despite my personal preference for oak.  Everything was set for maple floors, including the contract.  Then they put them in.  Oak floors.  Red oak floors.  The foreman nearly fell over when he found out, and there was a fair amount of muttering about "maple--right here--in my own handwriting...and I ordered oak!" and such.  They were all in, and Rhys loves the oak and we were sure as hell not going to lose a week on the timeline, so oak floors we have.  I'm happy.

The tile in the entry is going in right now--done tomorrow.  Also the slate on the fireplace.  Then it's just paint...and closet hardware...and drapes...and...  But whatever.  There's an upstairs too.

There's even a downstairs.  A basement playroom!  Pinch me.

The movers come Saturday, and we have some serious work cut out for us.  It totally won't be ready, but we kind of totally don't care.  We'll be doing a house blessing and lighting our very first fire in the fireplace on Saturday night.  It's going to be a good day.

In Which There Are Pictures, Significantly More of a House, a Kid-Induced Bad Hair Day, Some Reasonable Outrage, and News of a Coming Toaster Award

The house is starting to look real.  I sort of believe it might someday be finished.  I mean, not counting on anything, but it does appear that there may, in fact, be at point at which I'm not sleeping in my dining room.

Also,

J (aka Jerry Poppins aka Governor aka the new male in-home day caregiver) and I were able to talk a bit because we were having our hair done by a pair of short hairdressers.  It was really hard to get the full sense from a photo (truly, it had to bee seen to be believed), but here's the best photo of it I have (with the artist in the picture--Henry did J's hair).

Truly, there's rather a lot of hair bling in there.  Anyway, it was a good talk, and we're happy, he's happy, and the kids are happy, and man, I'm just hoping the wind doesn't change.

Now for the outrage.  (For those not tuned in to the US news cycle and its cynical horrors, look here if you can stand it.)  I mean, it's horrifying that the hypocritical republicans let this go on.  But now they're trying to turn it on us truly boring gay people.  I mean, we're the ones whom you're trying to write out of the constitution just want to be able to get married.  You know, to be, um, monogamously committed to one (adult, consenting, power-equal) person.  Some of us don't even need the piece of paper to maintain our extreme boringosity.  The idea that you can claim a gay cabal in the republican house of representatives, and then blame this on gay people?  I...I....I mean...I just...what can you say?  How do you respond to something like this?  Excuse me while I scream now.

Before all this happened, however, I was doing something a bit more constructive than screaming.  I've been making calls for get-out-the-vote efforts in key races across the country.  It's easy to do and you can do it from home, and truly, most people are very nice and those that aren't just hang up.  So if you feel like it, I gather they need people to call in Foley's former district.  Go here to sign up.  Also, I've contributed to the exciting Mass. governor's race.  You can too if you like, here.  And then I think all we can do is keep screaming, because it seems like a pretty reasonable thing at this point.  And calling and contributing and volunteering, and...whatever you can, I guess.

Oh, and go me, I've biked to work every day this week.  I have a new bike on order, delayed with a shipping mixup--I'll tell you all about it when I get it, but i'm psyched.  I've got to get totally in the habit before the bad weather and really early nightfalls come.  I'm on my way.  And seriously, Riin, thanks for the inspiration.

As for toaster, master enabler Shannon Okey will be stopping by here tomorrow morning (hopefully fully recovered from her tête-à-tête with Dolores) with tips for the enabler and the enablee.  I love her new book: she gets a toaster for the thousands of new spinners she will no doubt create through it.  See you tomorrow!

 

Weekend Update

So it's really, really great to have the old job project over.  There's some small chance that the project will get some press, at least in a small way, so I'll link if it does.  My name will almost certainly not be mentioned, so no worries there.  There were a bit more than 5 pages in total, over the four years, grin.

But I think things should be better than they feel at the moment.  The whole kid crisis thing continues, and probably will for a while.  We have good days and bad days.  Saturday this weekend was a good day: we went to the Big E with the kids' godfather (we like to pronounce it "god fathaaaaah".  The kids rode another mini-coaster with Rhys (yes, she's actually holding her arms up).

And they danced:

It was fun.

We woke up this morning to torrential rain, and had, well, a heck of a day.  It always seems to work that way--if we have a fun, big day one day, the next day is pretty hellish.  The rain and our need to run errands and the lack of any actual place to play in our house didn't help.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  RIGHT?

My friend the drywall guy was here all weekend, bless his heart.  Like, including today.  We have sheetrock everywhere, it's kind of cool, though things look smaller with the drywall up.  It's okay, though, it's progress.  The dust is pretty major (and they haven't even sanded yet) but it's all completely contained in the construction zone, so the paltry furniture not in storage is safe.  From dust, at least.  It's a little--lived in--let's say.

But I took a couple of photos before drywall (and even a little siding, till they got rained out) went on.  Here's one of the outside of the house.  Look, windows!  A chimney!  A roof!

Elizabeth continues to blah.  I had this whole idea of how the weekend would go that involved finishing the front.  The knit goddess guffaws.  Oh well.

Seven A.M.

Ah, to awaken, on a rainy morning, to the sweet and melodic sounds of drywall being hung.

These are the moments that make a renovator's heart glad.

No, really.

Roller Coasters

I'm exhausted, and tomorrow is the kids' first day at their new preschool and we're all kind of keyed up.  Four has brought some worries for us, though it's likely just the combination of changing schools and, you know, knocking down our house at the same time.  Oops.  Please send good, calm, happy adjustment to the new school vibes Henry's way--Ellie's too, but mostly Henry's--tomorrow.  I don't always blog about this kind of stuff, but I'm worried.

It didn't help that I went to the parent meeting tonight and it was so...Noho.  It was me and a room full of a bunch of other upper-middle-class liberal mostly white pretty much intellectual types and though I completely cop to being exactly that girl (lesbian variety), something about it just was so...ugh.  The upside is that this is a pretty good piece of information about our likelihood of electing private school next year, which is to say that I'm looking forward to public school saving the tuition money.  I don't mean to talk trash about the people there--they all seemed totally nice and friendly and smart and sensible and not overly anything except I felt like I was stewing in my own juice, and like the kids would be too.  Yet this school has small classes and experienced and well-supported teachers and....well, there you have it.  And thus we end our review of inequities in US education.  Ahem.  Also, duh.  Anyway.

We went to the county fair in the rain on Sunday and it was pretty fun.  We got very wet but warm pierogies helped with that.  Also fried dough.  Um, and cotton candy.  The festival of carbohydrates!  The kids LOVED the mini roller coaster.  And Rhys, who lives in fear of roller coasters, went on it too.  I think it was just about her speed.

The house appears to actually be happening.  I continue to listen for shoes dropping, because I think we might be violating some law of physics if a construction project ends early.  I suppose the fact that I've been in my office at work for two weeks and they just brought my files and finished painting as of today, and there's still regular construction going on and one bathroom for the entire building, perhaps that is the universe's expression of balance.  But here's a somewhat recent picture of the outside.  This was last week.  The rough framing is now done.

They found a built-in bookcase blocking an old doorway...right where we're going to put a built-in bookcase.  Unfortunately, since it's 2 inches deep and made of paneling (woo!), we won't be keeping it, but it's a funny little relic of the many renovations this house has seen.  There is a little graffiti from the last renovation--it reads "Les + Jill 1987."  Since everyone else on our street has lived here since before the flood, we happen to know that Les is now minus Jill, and I'm not sure whether Jill wants to talk about it, though we could tell her since her mom and dad live across the street. 

I'm thinking that a time capsule in there would be pretty cool.  Advice on time capsule items (must fit in 2 inch cabinet space) welcome.

There is knitting, but it's not terribly interesting.  Eliz spent but one day in time out, and then was sprung and her neckline finally corrected, well, correctly (as opposed to the four times I corrected it incorrectly, yah).  She has the beginnings of a front.  It's a nice sweater.  I'm having dangerous thoughts about Beadwork.  There will need to be some Solstice knitting, and I do hope to spin again someday, and of course there's Rhinebeck so I'm trying to be good.  It's not easy.

That's it.  No knitting photos.  This was supposed to be a drive-by post, but well, I do go on.  G'night.  And extra thanks for good thoughts for school tomorrow.

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.

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!