Archive for September, 2009
What will we do when the renos are done?
August was a jam-packed month around here. Just ask anyone who knows me. I’ve barely brought my head up for air. No one’s heard from us, or seen us for ages. Some likely think this is a blessing.
The first week was given over to Sock Summit in Portland. I returned from that to the monkey’s two weeks off for summer vacation. Ha! Vacation? No vacations around here. There were new windows to install:
Yup, that’s a big hole in the front of our house where glass should be. Monkey looks pretty proud of himself doesn’t he? That would be due to the fact that he installed all of the new windows himself. Alarm sensors and all. Our house is very old. It’s a shotgun shack from around the very early 1900s. No one wanted to install new windows for us. The two companies we found that would do it gave us what we fondly refer to as “fuck off” quotes. These are quotes so ridiculously high that either you’ll laugh at them or agree. Either way, the quoter wins. One way they don’t have to do what they think will be a troublesome job and the other, they get stupid amounts of cash for the troublesome job.
So the monkey did it himself. Clever monkey.
Then there was the “hey, the backyard still looks like crap after 13 years of living here” landscaping project. Again, there were some quotes, very similar to the window quotes, so we did it ourselves.
It took us three days, six yards of topsoil and several hundred dollars worth of plants. It took us another three days to recover.
The monkey went back to work so he could have a rest.
This is the second delivery of soil. Try not to laugh when you read that we thought 2 yards would be enough.
The finished beds:
The backyard is almost done. Just a couple more things to do and a bunch of crap to be taken to the dump this weekend. Before the inlaws arrive.
In the midst of all this I decided that I hadn’t done a swap for a while (several years) and went ahead and joined a spindle one.
I was partnered with blogless Rain from North Carolina and she sent me some really great fibre, tea, choco and a spindle from a maker I did not have in the massive collection.
And yes, that’s Looshkin. He’s a teen now, with the charming habits that go along with it. He apparently thinks that Uzume is prettier without fur on her back. He is wrong.
Such a little bastard.
In other unrelated news, we bought a lathe last night. Make of it what you will…
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