Saturday

Well, today went a little differently than I thought it would when I rolled out of bed this morning. I was up rather earlier than I am on a weekend, and raring to go. My goals were to:
- plant a peony that's been living in a bucket for far too long
- buy some fabric to modify my dress (I'm thinking of adding some coordinating side panels so that my belly-fat isn't so obvious... other options are buy a new dress, or buy spanx)
- buy some wood to make the raised garden beds I've been planning
- buy groceries

I was initially going to plant the peony first, but, since I know I can get a bit carried away while gardening, I thought perhaps I should shower & go to the fabric store first, since it doesn't stay open very late. After my shower, I watered my plants, trimmed the dead lobelia out of my hanging basket (it suffered from my inattention to watering, but the other two plants are still hanging in there), loaded dirty dishes into the dishwasher (I was a bit lazy the past few days), and flipped through this week's flyers so that I could get them into the recycling.

While I was doing this, Dad showed up. (He had arranged with the neighbour who owns a bobcat to get the lathe from the garage into the truck.) I sat with him while he ate lunch, and then decided to do gardening while he was here, since I figured I'd see more of him that way, and the store would still be open by the time he left.

Before I tackled the peony, I finally got around to putting those weeds from a few weeks back into a trash can. (Yeah, I've been lazy.)

Prior to dad showing up, the three trash cans contained only one bag of kitchen trash. (Okay, technically I didn't put it in there until after he arrived, even though I had put the bag by the back door last night or the night before... did I mention that I was lazy the past couple of days? I blame my lingering gastroenteritis.) Since that weekend I did all the weeding, I've only had one small bag per week. This week? Why does it all happen at once? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First off, the weeds from the other week filled one trash can. Oh... there was also a few things from near the big pile of weeds. For some reason, I went over by the blackberries, and noticed that one (which turned out to be several) of the canes had decided to grow *into* the air conditioner, between the outer cover and the cooling fins:

Although I hadn't planned on extracting blackberries from the AC unit, I didn't think this was something I wanted to put off. There ended up being at least four canes growing into the unit, plus one virginia creeper vine. Argh. The canes themselves were easy to pull out, but then I had to get the rest of the leaves (as much as I could, at least) out with a pair of needle nosed pliers. (At some point I should probably go out with a wrench and a vacuum cleaner, take the cover off, and properly clean the fins... but not today.) The blackberries also had a cane growing up the downspout:

*Why*, with all the other places they could grow, are the canes *trying* to grow into dark crevices?!? *sigh*

Dad got me to help him take the extension ladder out of the garage (so that he could open the garage door where the lathe was), so, since the backyard was an obstacle course of dad's junk, I asked him to take the trash can from where I had put it while filling it with weeds (and blackberry canes) to the pick-up spot beside the garage in the back lane.

I guess because he then had to use that gate, he commented that the raspberries needed tying up. I knew that they did (they grew quite a bit since I last tied them up), and had been planning on getting to them after the peony, but decided to do them next. Didn't I do a lovely job of this spot?:

(I forgot to take a "before" photo... partially because this wasn't what I had intended on doing.) Not only did I tie up the canes, but I also got my broom out and swept up the pine needles, and pulled some of the weeds beside the sidewalk. Since I had the broom out, I also swept the other side of the gate, shovelled the avalanche of pine needles off of the pad, and scraped them back from the edge of the dirt area:

Since there are no "before" photos, you'll just have to take my word for it that this is an *amazing* improvement.

When I went to throw out the stuff accumulated from dealing with that section of raspberries, I noticed that there were now only two garbage cans beside the garage, despite dad having brought the one full of weeds. Hmmm... looks like dad will be throwing out some stuff from the garage (a good thing), but that means I only have the smallest one left for anything I produce from now until Wednesday, when the next pick-up is. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but I tend to fill trash cans while gardening. (All those weeds that have gone to seed, branches that would take too long to compost, etc.) Oh well... I can always use trash bags, or just leave weeds in a pile for the next pick-up, like I did that last time. :P

So, I spent the next while working on the raspberry canes between the parking pad and the back lane, which also needed tying up.

After the lathe was loaded in the truck (plus the "workbench" dad got on freecycle, yay!), I ended up talking with dad and the neighbour for a bit. Dad remembered that the neighbour had finished his own concrete for his garage, and so was thinking we could hire him to do that job when we concrete the back parking pad. The neighbour was a bit skeptical about concreting the pad. After dad left, I talked with the neighbour some more. Before I continue, here's a bit of background on the back parking area: once upon a time, the area was gravel. After my parents divorced (I'm pretty sure it was after), my dad got motivated to concrete the pad, probably because it tended to be quite weedy. He had someone dig down quite a ways and (he says, could be) had 6" of 3/4" gravel dumped in the hole. However, (a), he didn't put any membrane between the dirt and the gravel, and (b), he figured the cars parking on it would compact the gravel, and so he could skip that labour. Um, no: Dad always parked in exactly the same spot, and so ended up with deep ruts under his truck wheels, and the gravel and mud probably got rather churned together. Back to the present: when the neigbour was driving the bobcat on the gravel, it moved a *lot*, indicating it was *not* going to provide a proper support for a concrete pad, and the pad would just end up cracking in a few years. (Thus flushing the money for rebar and concrete down the drain, plus I'd have to pay for someone to break up and haul away the concrete, since concrete with rebar can't be taken to the dump for free.) Since the bobcat was there anyway, my neighbour scraped down a bit to see just how much gravel there was, and how it was holding up. Turns out there's pockets of mud (as expected) in the gravel:

Neighbour's suggestion: dig down 12", put down a membrane, start with broken concrete chunks (which are cheap, and will interlock), put limestone gravel down on top of that (we might be able to salvage some of what is there), pack it *properly*, then put pavers on top. Dad isn't a fan of pavers, saying they move. Neighbour says that they won't, if the foundation is done correctly. However, the base for both would be basically the same, so I'm getting him to write up a proposal (with options) that I can present to dad. (If *I* say it, he'll think he knows more than me. If I come with the contractor neighbour's proposal, and break in the idea over time, I think I have a shot.) At any rate, the neighbour has said he'd give me a good rate, I've seen that he's done good work at his place, and I can always just park on the base for a bit (with a bit of extra gravel at the back lane edge, of course, so that I can get in and out of course) until things are more decided. Also, the neighbour put the gravel back level enough that I'll be able to park there for the winter, which is what I want for the short term anyway. (Depending on the numbers the neighbour comes back with, I may start the work this fall, or I may wait until next summer, when I have more savings. I've let him know this.)

Upside of playing with the gravel: a bunch of the weeds got chewed up. ;)

After he left, I went back to tying up raspberries. (How did that get to be such a big job?!?) Here's the tied up raspberries by the trash cans:

(Dad left me a bit of space in the third trash can, and now all three are full to the top.) Here are the canes beside the parking pad:

I still have more to tie up... but I ran out of the scraps of kitchen cotton I had outside, and decided to leave the rest until another time, possibly tomorrow. (Depends... I still need groceries, and I really should do that tomorrow, given what I'm out of and low on.)

However, while I was trimming the broken canes (argh, who keeps breaking them!?!!?), I discovered:

uh...

crap...

Looks like I have raspberry cane borers. (And the broken canes were probably their fault.) That would also explain why so few canes survived last winter. Of course, I only discovered this near the end of my time outside, plus I didn't know the correct course of action until after I came inside to google, so dealing with them properly (cutting damaged canes and burning them) will have to wait. (I'm going to leave the ones in the trash cans there, but new cuttings will get burned in the fireplace in the back yard that dad hasn't removed yet, using firewood also left behind... and the ashes will be helpful in treating the highly acidic bed piled deep with pine needles. Win-win-win: borers burned, more ashes for the garden, and less firewood lying around.)

Also on my to-do list, but not on the high priority list for today: weeding my tiny patch that has garlic, onions, and a few other things planted.

Since I wasn't planning on doing this tonight (by the time I ran out of string, I was feeling dehydrated and hungry), also no "before" photo. But, while I went past it, I figured I'd pull a few weeds.. and ended up pulling this whole pile:

(Behind the post... in front of the post is more stuff that needs pulling.) Again, you'll just have to trust me that it looks better than before. And, since my trash cans are already full, I just left that pile where it was. :P

Also discovered and tackled:

When dad moved a piece of his crap from beside the garage (yay, another piece left! ...I think), the neighbour noticed that wasps had started building a nest behind it, in a crevice between the trim and siding on the garage. I used some of the expired wasp spray dad had bought. Dad (previously): "they were clearing it out cheap!" Me (today, in my head): "...uh yeah.... that's because it expired in 1998, and the aerosol has pretty much all escaped..." However, it had just enough oomph to escape the can, and that's all that was needed in this case. The way the wasps reacted, I think it was still poisonous to them. I'll check again later, when I think of it, just in case.

To finish off tonight's post, a very clean deck screw:

This deck screw is not remarkable because of it's cleanliness... that can be explained by the fact that it accidentally went through the wash. What *is* remarkable about it is that there should have been *two* deck screws. (There were two left over from what I had borrowed from my uncle's supply in the garage, and I was intending to return, but had apparently forgotten in a pocket of my grub shorts.) I cannot find the other deck screw in the washer or the dryer. How does a 2.5" deck screw disappear? (It's not in any of my pockets either.) So far I haven't discovered any new holes in my clothes as a result of this misadventure... but then, I still need to actually *fold* my clean laundry.

Okay... off to fold the laundry, make the bed, and go to sleep. (How did it get to be so late?!?)

PS: The peony is still waiting to be planted.

But Does It Toast?

Last weekend I bought a $7, no-nonsense, not-oversized toaster. Mom asked if it toasted.

"Yes."

Note to self: after purchasing a new toaster, check to see what setting it's on before using it for the first time, especially if the bread isn't frozen. Try something lower than mega-char.

I think she actually wanted to know if it toasted both sides. After picking off the burned parts, here's the other side:

And the really toasted side, after:

It could be more symmetric, but it'll do.

(Note: the bread is "missing" parts because these are the slices where the paddle was, and the paddle was angled such that there really wasn't much left on the other side of the hole, so I ate those bits before toasting.)

PS: Also accomplished today, since the last post:
1. Laundry
2. Primed closet shelves and supports for ends.
3. Gave doggie another walk.

Doggie is funny... it's like he speaks sign language. At one point when I looked out the kitchen window, he spotted me. He looked directly at me, then went over to the gate and looked out. Then he came back to where he could see me, looked directly at me, and then back over to and looking out the gate. (Lather, rinse, repeat.) Yes, doggie, I'll give you another walk, but not right then. ;)

"Smooth Move, Exlax"

That's what we'd say to each other in grade school when we screwed up. Yesterday I was batting 1000, it seemed.

1. Even after the neighbour recommended it before I started, I forgot to run the shelf boards through the joiner before cutting the biscuit slots. (Recutting the biscuit slots afterward, several slots ended up wider due to not being lined up the same.)

1b. (I forgot to include this the first time.) Also, for some reason, the joiner wasn't cutting right up against the guide. Instead of figuring out why, I decided to just hold the board upright away from the guide. Apparently I didn't hold it quite correctly, because there's a bit of a gap on one side of the shelf. (Oh well... it's my first biscuit-joining effort, and it'll be hidden in a closet. It's functional.)

2. I put on the glue, got the boards together, *then* went to look for the clamps... and found that only one was wide enough. (At a bare *minimum*, I needed at least two.) Luckily a neighbour came to the rescue. (I just got an e-mail from my uncle... there should have been 2-4 pipe clamps, but I guess I wasn't looking in the right places. That's what happens when you've already spread the glue on a hot day, and are paranoid it'll dry before you get things clamped.)

3. I'm sure I saw painter's pyramids at Home Depot the other weekend when I was there, but I didn't buy any because I assumed my uncle's workshop would have them. When I went to buy them last night, I couldn't find them, and the store employee didn't know about them. *sigh* (To make it worse, my mom was *at* Lee Valley on Friday, and asked me beforehand if there was anything I wanted! Lee Valley is closed on Sundays.)

4. I baked cupcakes last night. As I was assembling the ingredients (*after* going grocery shopping), it occurred to me to check the expiry date on the baking powder: two years out of date. I decided to continue anyway (the stores were closed, and I had already started)... thankfully they turned out fine anyway.

5. After the batter was ready, I went to get the cupcake tins out... and realized I hadn't checked for the cupcake liners before grocery shopping. Thankfully I *found* them... sadly I was five short. (Out of two dozen needed.) I took a gamble and put the batter directly in the non-stick tin for those five. So far, my two attempts at getting them out have resulted in the top coming off separately, and the bottom coming out in crumbs. (Yum... being forced to eat "damaged" cupcakes!) Thankfully 19 is still plenty to bring in to work on Monday. (There will be enough for everyone to have at least one.)

6. After putting the batter directly in the tin, it occurred to me I could have cut circles out of wax paper to put in the bottom.

7. When I woke up this morning, I realized I could have *made* liners by squishing circles of parchment paper into the tin.

I will console myself on my stupidity by eating three more crumbled cupcakes. (At least there's an upside to my stupidity, this time.)

Solar Lights

I treated myself to a string of solar lights that were on sale at the grocery store:

I'm not impressed by how bright they are (they look brighter in this photo than they actually are), but I'm not disappointed enough to regret the $10.40 + tax I spent on them.

One day the yard will be suitable for company.

Speaking of yard not suitable for company, I think I should attack this area soonish, or at least put it high on the list for dead-carpet weed barrier:

I should probably wear long pants... besides the largish thistles, there's black raspberry canes with wicked thorns hidden in there. Hmmm... I wonder if there might be ticks brought by dad's dog too? (How long do ticks live without blood?)

Friday Night at Home Depot

I stopped in at Home Depot on Friday night, to get some supplies for training the raspberries. I ended up parked beside a Humvee, and whatever this thing is:

I think the people shopping at Home Depot should consider getting their testosterone levels checked. :P

Income and Expense... and Nice Things

Yesterday evening I sold a painting while drinking hot chocolate and eating a raspberry chocolate brownie. Then I snuggled an eight-week-old baby instead of knitting. (Well, a few other people wanted turns with the baby, so I did do a *bit* of knitting.) Then, on my way to the bus home, I petted a puppy. Can an evening get better than that?

There's an art supply store in Winnipeg going out of business (sad!), and so are having a sale on everything (happy!). Since I made $100 on the painting yesterday, I decided to reward myself with some new supplies: some nice paints to replace a few I didn't like, plus get some colours I thought would help with painting Mylo, and some brushes I discovered I needed the other day... and went a bit overboard.

I bought:
10 tubes of paint
1 bottle of satin varnish (I wanted to see how I liked it compared to the gloss)
4 paint brushes
1 mechanical pencil holder
1 sculpting tool (aka really cheap shawl pin)
1 charcoal pencil
2 8" x 10" x 1.5" canvasses

Everything was 40% off (canvasses were 50% off), I didn't pay PST (a benefit of belonging to the art club), the paints actually scanned lower than the price on the shelf (and then were marked down), and the canvasses actually ended up over 75% off, because they had been mispriced and *then* were marked down... and I still paid $120.

Granted, the paints and brushes will last much more than a single painting, but I definitely don't have to worry about declaring any of my sales income at tax time. (You get to subtract the cost of supplies from what you make... and if you keep declaring a loss, they apparently classify it as a hobby. ;) )

Scotty

I got this adorable little enamel and rhinestone scotty dog brooch yesterday at Sears:

(That's not a scratch, that's a bit of dust... this photo is really showing the dust!) Original price $16.99, marked down to $3.99. However, he's missing something that used to be dangling from his tummy. I'm creative, so I wasn't bothered by that... I could find something to dangle there, or, as a last resort, snip off the loop. One possible dangle is this little golden bell I happen to have on hand. It's not "perfect", but I think it works. What do you think? What do you suppose originally dangled there? I tried googling the information on the card it was on, to no avail.

AppleCare

I find this hilarious... it's from the work authorization form for my missing foot:

Issue: One rubber foot missing.
Steps to Reproduce: Visually, rubber foot has fallen off.
Proposed Resolution: Replace bottom cover.
Cosmetic Condition: Good condition minus missing foot.

(No shit, Sherlock. Well, I guess they're required to fill in a standard form.)

Oh, and that reminds me... when I went in to the Apple Store, I started off with the following conversation with a pair of store employees:
Me: I need a replacement foot for my laptop.
Them: (blank looks, look at each other for help)
One of them: Foot?
Me: You know, those things on the bottom of the laptop?
Them: (still blank)
Me: (pulls out laptop, showing the gaping spot where a nice black rubber foot normally resides.
One of them: Oh, that...

What do they call them these days, if not feet? Or am I the only one who has had one self-destruct on them?

Weird Stuff

Approximate e-mail conversation with my brother:
Me: Can I come over and borrow a teeny-tiny hex wrench? I need to take the PRAM battery out of my old laptop because it's not starting.
Brother: Sure, I have a T6 Torx.
Me: I don't need a Torx, I need a hex wrench.
Brother: The instructions say T6 Torx under "tools required".
Me: But the actual instructions say you need a hex wrench, but you can get by with a T6 Torx.

Since I was going in that direction anyway, I decide I'll just stop in at the hardware store and buy the correct hex wrench.

Approximate conversation with store employee:
Me: Where do I find teeny-tiny hex wrenches?
Him: (blank look)
Me: Allen key? A teeny-tiny one?
Him: I know. What size do you need?
Me: One that fits this. (Pulling out bricked laptop, pointing to screw.)
Him: Take it to the Apple Store.
Me: It's a *six* year old laptop that I want to fix for my sister. (Probably older now, and technically step-sister.) I just want to take out the PRAM battery to see if that fixes it.
Him: (Holding it close to his face to see better.) That's a security screw.
Me: No, it's not. Security ones have a post in the centre, this one doesn't.
Him: It's a security screw. We don't have screwdrivers for those.
Me: It's *not* a security screw, I just need a hex wrench.
(He takes me over to the right area.)
Him: We used to have security screw drivers, but we don't have them any more. (Starts looking at screwdrivers.)
Me: (Points to contraption with many hex wrenches.) Hey, that one has a teeny-tiny hex wrench! I bet that will work.
Him: No, you need a security one.
Me: *No*, I *don't*. Let me test this. (I pull out the laptop again, and insert the hex wrench.) Hey, it's the right size!
Him: You're sure? It looks like a security screw. (Still somewhat doubtful, but willing to let me buy a set of hex wrenches if that's really what I want.)
Me: It has six sides, and is convex. I'm pretty sure it's a hex wrench I want, and not a star.
Him: Convex?
Me: Well, since we're talking about the hole, technically it's concave.
(He wanders off, deciding I'm a lost cause. I look at the options for hex wrenches, and end up selecting a somewhat cheaper store-brand set that includes both metric, imperial *and* torx of various sizes... in case, one day, I want to open something that needs a torx.)

After the hardware store, I stop in at the big box bookstore next door, since it has free wireless (so that I can access the instructions) and decent places for me to sit and disassemble my laptop. (If taking the PRAM battery didn't work, the Apple Store was on my list of places to visit, and I was going to ask how much it would cost to de-brick.) Plus it has calendars, and I was looking for one for my grandma.

Shockingly, no one seemed to look at me funny for disassembling a laptop in the bookstore. (Or, if they did, they all did it from behind me, where I couldn't spot them.)

Happily, removing and reinstalling the PRAM battery fixed the problem. :) (Oddly the battery isn't just a battery, it's apparently permanently attached to a bit of circuitry... but the fact that I couldn't disassemble that didn't seem to be an issue.

Finding a calendar with both big numbers and pictures I thought my grandma would enjoy was *much* harder. (I suspect she will either enjoy or hate the one I finally got... but if she hates it, I'm willing to use it myself, and go back and buy the second choice, of which there were *many* copies.)

I did stop in at the Apple Store, but to get a replacement foot for my laptop. (I figured out where that black plastic was coming from... the part that went between the rubber foot and the laptop was disintegrating, and the other day it completely fell apart.) Apple used to supply free replacement feet. Apparently, for this model, they don't have them separate... but, since I'm under AppleCare, they're going to replace the *entire* bottom of the laptop for free. (WTF? The foot has a bit of double-sided tape, plus a snap-in bit. It really is possible to *just* replace the foot. Whatever... I want the foot, and if this is what it's going to take, I'll take it and be glad that it's free. *sigh*)

Also weird: The six-foot extension cord I bought came with a 7 3/4 inch warning label. Really? Are we really that stupid, that we need that many warnings on an extension cord?

Well, now I'm off to do my laundry after when I'm officially supposed to stop for the night. However, given the sounds of drunken revelry coming from Mr Party-Of-More-Than-One (He seems to have acquired friends), I don't think I'll be bothering him.

What I'll do for my grandma...

She wanted nail polish. "Pink, but not too pink." You can't really tell from the bottle how it will look on the nail, so I decided to test them.


Luckily I ran out of colours I thought might potentially work before I ran out of nails. (I even had one spare!) I did feel rather silly in the store, though.

(The ink you can see on the sides of my fingers were where I wrote down colour information for the better candidates.)

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down...

Disappointing:

Minute Maid has shrunk its packaging for one of my favourite juice concentrates. (I like its taste, and it doesn't contain apple juice, or anything else I'm allergic to.) I actually bought this a while back. I noticed the packaging was more squat, but I thought that they had realized that they can use less packaging that way (shorter and wider = less surface area for the volume, yay environment!). It was only after I got home that I realized the diameter was still the same, and so they had shrunk the packaging *and* volume without shrinking the prices. Boo! First off, I hate that sort of dirty marketing, where they subtly increase prices not by changing the price, but by including less product. Second, now I have to wash the pitcher more often, because I get fewer glasses of juice per pitcher. *BIG* thumb DOWN!

I haven't bought this product since I made this discovery, I'm so peeved.

Disappointing:

Turtles (real and fake) normally have 12 turtles per level. Sobeys brand has 10... so you end up four short of other packages. I feel this is another example of misleading packaging, making you think you're getting more than you are for the stated price. (Yes, there's a little number stating then umber of grams, but that's not as noticeable as the box size.) I will not be buying this brand of fake turtles again. Thumbs down!

Also disappointing: the package is now empty. (They were good while they lasted, though.)

Big thumbs UP:

Yum! So far I've just tried the chana masala, and it was great! No artificial colours, no preservatives, no MSG (MSG is a big NO THANKS for me), easy to prepare, and pretty healthy! I had it with rice, and so it ended up being a gluten-free meal too. (Mom wants me to try eating less gluten.) And, for those who look for such things, they're also vegetarian and Halal certified, and it looks like Kosher as well. :)

The package claims to have three servings, but I polished it off in one. Probably if I had other things besides it and rice, and wasn't quite so hungry, it would have been more than one serving. (Or maybe it was meant to serve one, but counts as three servings of protein? Those food guide servings are weird.)

Thumbs down: I bought a lovely mug at a craft sale yesterday, and managed to break it on the way home. I feel like a stupid clutz. It's only chipped and cracked, but still in one piece... so now I have another pencil holder. *sigh*

Thrift Shopping

It was a long week, ending in a long day. I was going to go to a spinning group today, but decided I needed to sleep until I woke up, and not to an alarm. By the time I was up and dressed, it was too late to go spinning, but early enough I could go to the MCC thrift shop on Watt, and properly check it out.

Mom and I both think this category is funny:

(Especially since it's misspelled.)

Hey! I took that shops class too:

(Since my father is a pack rat, I somehow doubt that mine has ended up in a thrift shop, though.)

I was tempted by this folding rocker:

It's actually my height. :) It's good wood, although it could do with either reupholstering, or cleaning the existing upholstery, plus reattaching the braid. It was $75. I decided against it... I have no space, no time, and little money.

I thought some of my knitting friends might be interested in these sock blockers, so I took a photo to post on Ravelry:

I've never seen resizable ones before!

This rocker is just like some chairs we have up at the lake:

Except ours are regular chairs, and painted black. (With the paint chipped & worn.) This one is $125... I wonder how much ours are worth? (Priceless... they belong at the lake!)

My haul:

That's 17 assorted glass containers (tea light holders, shot glasses, etc.) for mixing paint (I'll still need more to run a workshop), two plates, 30" of fabric that felt like wool, a doily, a decorative plant watering thingy, and some garlic bulbils. All for $5.90. :)

When I took the price tag off the fabric and opened it up, I found an unused label in the folds that looked like it belonged with the fabric:

Googling, I found this kit, which comes with 30" of wool fabric. A good sign! I snipped off a bit of selvedge anyway, so that I could do a burn test. Set-up:

After holding a match to the narrow point:

It's self extinguishing! And the ash was brittle, not like melted plastic. :) I pronounced it wool.

I'm very happy with my haul!

Home From The Chiro

Crunching better today, but still not 100% yet. Two more appointments scheduled for next week.

Spotted on the way home:

Yeppers. Although I used Transit's trip planner to find a bus schedule that would get me there 10 minutes early, or on time if the 2 minute transfer time was insufficient... I arrived 10 minutes late. Thanks, traffic. :P

(I like that the businesses at the corner near my place like to put up fun sayings on their boards!)

I got this great old hoe at an estate/yard sale not far from my place:

Old tools are the best... they're actually built to handle the Red River gumbo we have around here! Even better, when I asked how much, the guy said $1! I tested it in the front garden before coming up, and it uprooted a bunch of weed seedlings like a charm! (Once I have a place of my own, I really should have my own tools.)

I have no clue what the hole on the blade is for. It looks original, rather than added later. Perhaps for hanging?

*sigh*

Dear President's Choice Blue Menu,

I buy your fish for two reasons:

1. I like eating fish.

2. I would like to continue eating fish in the future, and your fish has the sustainability logo on it.

However, I am single. Thus, when I buy your package of two fillets, I intend to eat each fillet at a different time. Eating two fillets at once is both too much food, and dramatically raises the cost of the meal.

My mother taught me that re-freezing fish is not safe food handling practice. Thus, when you package your fillets together in such a way that the two are solidly fused together in a single block of ice... well... I regret having purchased your product.

I suspect you chose your packaging because it reduces freezer-burn. (Unless you didn't want to buy equipment to flash-freeze the individual fillets?) However, I would rather risk a little freezer burn, and be able to choose my portion size. Please consider changing your packaging methods.

Thank you.

Thrift Stores Rock

That's eight glass containers suitable for silk painting, for a whopping $1.35. I'm a big spender, I know! ;) (Although I only use a couple at a time, I need a bunch for when I'm teaching silk painting, for the students to use.)

I didn't make it to painting Wednesday (I was up too late finishing my colour design for the heron), but I did go with my mom today. :) I added a resist line that I decided I wanted, picked out mats for my block print, and then painted the sky and river on my heron painting. I may be able to finish it the next time I go!

Lovely Day!

This morning a friend picked me up, and we drove to another friend's place for spinning group.

Across the road, there was a flea market, so we stopped in for fun. I got a kick out of this old "wool winder":

Definitely hand made! The hooks are bent nails. I found an antique shoe stretcher for $2. (My grandma usually needs her shoes stretched, and mine could often use it too.) Plus it was neat, and only $2. (I left the $10 "wool winder" behind... I don't think I could use it.)

Then we continued on to the spinning group, where there were lots of animals to pet as well. :)


The llamas didn't come close, but Mikey the dog loved attention. And, of course, as the person allergic to cats, I was the only one who had the barn cat jump onto her lap. (Thankfully it jumped back down when I looked at her and said "NO".)

We spun outside (some in the sun, some in the shade... I chose shade), had lunch, then spun some more. (Some people knit, but that's okay too.)

It was a *beautiful* day, and not too hot. :)

After I got home, I had a nice nap (I didn't go to bed early enough last night).

I watched a movie I got in the "previously viewed" bin, it was quite enjoyable.

About an hour ago, I went out to take out some getting-stinky trash (I had shrimp for dinner last night), and did a little star-gazing. There were some clouds, but the rest of the sky was quite clear. I saw one shooting star (Perseid?), Cassiopeia, Polaris, Ursa Minor, part of the big dipper, and what I'm guessing was a satellite (moving south to north at a constant speed, but not an airplane) and possibly the space station (something extremely bright, to the left of the moon, apparently stationary). The police helicopter also circled overhead several times.

Hmmm... googling, it says that the space station isn't in geosynchronous orbit, so the bright thing isn't the space station. I tried looking it up on a star chart, but am having trouble wrapping my head around the placements. (I think I'd need to take my laptop outside, and hold it above my head... but I'd rather go to bed now.)

I hope you had a lovely day too! (I suppose tomorrow I'll have to actually cross something off my list... or at least tackle the dishes that have, somehow, once again stacked themselves up.)

Success!

With the summer heat, I haven't been bothering with a blanket on my bed, just a sheet. However, just a sheet sometimes isn't *quite* enough. Laying my terry-towel housecoat on top works, but isn't really blanket shaped. I was at Mitchell Fabric yesterday, but terry fabric costs more than I felt like spending. Then I went to Superstore, and found these:

That's a set of eight facecloths for $5, and a pair of bath towels for $10. (I also bought that awesome, squooshy, apple-green bathmat yesterday, but it's going to remain a bathmat... my current bathmat is a bleach-stained, ratty old thing.) The towels and facecloths are thin, but I was looking for something on the thinner side anyway. Here's what I ended up with:

Awesome! I love it when my hair-brained ideas work out! Now to run it through the wash, and I can use it tonight. :) (Hopefully the dark blue doesn't bleed all over the white, but I was too lazy/cheap to pre-wash the blue.) It probably won't lay as flat after being washed (the edges and trims of towels always seem to shrink more than the terry part), but it will certainly lay flatter than my housecoat. ;)

Sewing (& Spending!)

Yesterday I went out and spent way too much money. However, none were "frivolous" purchases, so I guess it's okay.

First I went to Lee Valley, and bought supplies for an upcoming workshop on printing with woodcuts. The main expenses were a chip-carving knife, and a pair of ceramic sharpening stones for maintaining said knife.

The stones came with fabric cases, but they looked like they would slide right out if I put them in a bag of art supplies. So I made a case out of old jean material to hold the pair:




I still need to sew on a snap. (The only snaps I appear to have are too small, although I have one or two more places to check before I buy some.)

After Lee Valley, I stopped in at a shoe store that was in the same strip mall. I hadn't intended to go shoe shopping, but (a) my regular shoes are ones I bought in 2006, (b) my sandals have a crack in the sole in addition to the sole being completely worn down, and (c) I can't wear my dress shoes for longer than an hour without my feet hurting. I ended up buying a pair of sandals the same as my old ones (but in the correct size, rather than one size larger, yay!), and a pair of "business casual" shoes that I think I can get away with wearing both as regular shoes (I think they'll be comfortable enough) and interview shoes (I'll check with the co-op coordinator first). Two pairs of shoes isn't cheap, even when shopping in a medium price range store. (Especially since my feet seem to like the more expensive shoes.)

Next came Zellers, since I noticed they had my jeans in stock, but I didn't have time to try them on the other day when I was passing through. (I like to double check that the tags are correct.) Since all my jeans were (I thought) looking decrepit, I bought two pair.

Today I turned one pair of my old jeans into jean shorts. I just grabbed the top pair and started the conversion. After making some cuts (and thus no turning back), I noticed there wasn't much wear on this pair. (There *is* some, but not as bad as I remembered.) Whoops! So I guess now I have two pair of good jeans, one pair of crap jeans (suitable for gardening), a decent pair of jean shorts (not a bad thing), and a crap pair of jean shorts. Oh well.

While in Zellers, I also bought a few more items, including a replacement radio / iPod dock for the kitchen. My previous dock was getting more and more annoying:
1. It doesn't display the time when the radio / iPod are playing.
2. The display flickers while on, and recently started flickering while off too.
3. I can't read the clock from a distance (when the music isn't playing).
4. It takes a half dozen or more button presses to switch between the iPod and radio (the buttons don't seem to be working properly... it should only actually take 1-2 button presses, if they were actually recognized).
5. It was designed for an older model iPod, so (a) it doesn't have the correct dock adapter, and (b) the iPod doesn't charge while plugged in.
While the replacement wasn't urgent, I found one in Zellers that wasn't too bad a price, had a readable clock, and, being new, would work with my iPod. (Turns out it says to go to "your iPod dealer" to get the correct dock adapter, though. At least my iPod doesn't tell me it won't charge every time I plug it in now.) The only downside is that it doesn't have a remote, but, that's not too big a deal. (I don't often use the remote on the old one.) It's also nice that it's smaller than the old one too.

Oh... and today I bought a rough and cracked piece of basswood, and then used my uncle's workshop to make it into two very pretty pieces of wood for the workshop. :)

I think I got too much sun yesterday on my travels... I've had a low grade headache for much of today. :P