Friday, January 29, 2010

long day

Beware, dear readers, there's a swearing rampage at the end of this post.

The dog needed to go out right away this morning...not so bad since the moon was just setting behind the trees.

I didn't think the photo would work. The orange glow is the street light on the corner, the bright white is the moon behind some trees, weird eh? The camera has dead batteries now but I'll get more so I can try this again when the moon is away from that alien orange light.


These are long fingerless mittens for Megan, one of the baristas at the old job. A fun knit...sort of socks with out turning a heel. She thought I'd make something in your basic gray and black...ha! Knitted jewelry.

Most of the morning was wasted on paper work and b.s. so I wanted to put up pictures before I whined. The most annoying is the state of Alaska announcing that one of the investment companies they use "lost" the personal data of people who were in their system in 2003 and 2004. Nice. Thanks so much. Tried to get a free credit report from the site they linked...only to discover they believe I took out a mortgage on this house in 2004. Years before I even moved to Haines, I apparently had designs on this house. A house I didn't even know existed!

Blogger just deleted part of my rant...adding fuel to my fire are you? Ahem.

Then there is the god damned bead order. (ahh extra swearing for the slight deletion) January 8th I ordered nearly 100 dollars worth of beads from Whim Beads. I wasn't going to mention names, but there ya go. January 8th. Two weeks later, I emailed them. 3 times. Then I called them. "We didn't call you?" No. That is why I am calling you. Part of your order just got here, we shipped it today, it should be there by Thursday or Friday. Yup, it's not fucking here. I'm sorry Whim, as much as I love you I won't be making big orders via e-mail any more. You will be paying for my call to your 800 number so I can KNOW if you are fucking going to fucking delay my fucking order for nearly a fucking month.

My apologies to any one that might find my language offensive... go wash your ears out with soap.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Erika's having a baby

My jr. high friend Kris is going to be a grandmother again.  Amazing.  I remember getting the message that Kris had given birth to Erika when I was living in a beat up old rental in Bellingham.  Erika Ray is having a second baby boy today.   I made my first baby quilt, and might just have to make more, they're fun!



I had some really nice flannel from ages ago and was already working on this shades of light and dark pattern.  So quick and easy, even the quilting part was fun!  Sliding a baby quilt around under the needle is so much easier than a full grown quilt.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

busy


I have been getting a lot done this week now that the snows are more gentle. The above is the snow on the hood of the car very close to the end of that elephant snow fall. The snow on the hood of the car with the dead battery!

Lots of googling and reading about changing out a battery and I was ready to fix the car. It's fairly simple, but 12 volts is a serious amount of electricity so I'm cautious to paranoid about messing with a car battery. The logistics of actually fetching a battery from the parts store are a pain in the ass too. They're too heavy to carry when you're walking any distance and you need to take the old battery back to be recycled. The old one is going to be covered with acid because that's what happens when a battery is in bad shape. (more paranoia) I ended up borrowing my neighbor's car...it was half buried under the elephant snow, but the good plow guy had cleared the 4 foot berm. Anyways...the car is running again thanks to help from a friends car and the last minute assist from another friend who installed the beast! Yay friends!

On to this week:

After going to the Extreme Dreams gallery for Sunday art night, I'm re energized about finishing the collar of beads and cabs. Two of the artists were totally jazzed about the colors and the cabs while a third whispered 'go for the highest bid'! We also had a "we'll all go to Tucson" next gem/bead show moment. oooh.


And (drum roll please) It lives! It has sleeves, it has cut steeks, it is a sweater! I need to decide on the neck and hem the waist and sleeves but look at this it's nearly done!
Yes, I'm standing on the table to get the shot. I wanted to show the lighter top/darker bottom aspect.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Winter arrived on elephant feet

View from the front door...looking at what should be the driveway. 7a.m. 1/12/01
That lump on the left is the front of my car, I had to stand on a short stool to put up the thermometer on the woodshed.
I dug out the trench between the car and the house a couple of times...it just fills up again when the wind blows across the lump that is the car.

It has snowed, it is snowing and it will snow. Then the wind will slap it around and fill in all the paths you made. If it rains, I'll never get the car out.

Update...driveway cleared (no photos yet) but when the dog and I went out she vanished in a drift! She's a medium sized dog about 18 inches at the shoulder...she stepped off the porch on to the stairs and poof. Poor old dog didn't appreciate that.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

going dark for a while

Just for the heck of it, I'm going to test out the minima dark look.

No really exciting news from here. Sipping coffee looking out at the snow.

Sweater progress shot with helper cat inspecting for mistakes and woolyness. I believe it has passed inspection because the helper cat has taken the cat-loaf form on the sweater body. As you can see, one sleeve is finished and the other is about 1/2 way done! I will have a sweater soon. Amazing.