House Update

Not much to update today. Is it procrastinating to avoid working on house stuff by working on a shower gift? (Shower is in a week and a half.) If so, I was bad tonight.

However, this morning after my shower, I packed a paste of borax and water into the gap between the tub and shower surround:

(I'll remove the excess when I caulk, and stuff left behind inside the crack will be a mildew preventative.) Borax is a curious substance: too much water, and it completely dissolves; too little, and it forms hard rocks. There is a narrow range of "just right" to make a paste.

Public service announcement: borax is slippery. I had noticed this in an academic sort of way previously, but my brain didn't put two and two together until I was lying horizontal in the tub this morning. (Chalk up a few more moving-in bruises.)

Another house mystery: why are there four (from a quick glance, may be more hiding) shower heads in the cabinet beside the shower? One is identical to the one in use, two match each other, and the fourth is that inexpensive one traditionally found in rentals. I can see there being one (say, if my brother replaced the shower head without asking dad, and didn't want to throw out the one that had been there), but *four*? What are they doing there? Are they functional, or broken? I'm pretty sure they've all at least been used, which probably means that most are broken. (If they're broken, why weren't they thrown out? If they were kept for parts, that would only explain the one that matches the one currently in use.)

Speaking of house mysteries, I finally remembered to have a close look at the transition between the kitchen and dining room floors, where there's a height difference.

Looks like a plywood base with two layers of linoleum on top. For a better look at the two layers of linoleum, we need only look at the back stairs:

The orange stuff on the treads is what my mom put down when I was a kid (I'm pretty sure I vaguely remember the kitchen being redone), and the older stuff is on the risers.

The plywood subfloor must have been installed properly, because there's no "wear along the edges" that you get when linoleum is installed on an uneven subfloor. (We have that wear at the cabin, and the two linoleum floors in the bedrooms here were definitely *not* put on top of plywood subfloors.)

While working on the shower present, I watched another Holmes on Homes. Take-away lesson: kitchen cupboards should be installed on *top* of the flooring that covers the whole kitchen, since appliances depend on the standard height to fit under the counter top. Since I'm not planning on re-doing the cabinets (mom designed some pretty great ones), that pretty much limits my flooring options to another thin layer of linoleum. (Not that I was really thinking of other options... and the orange stuff is in remarkably good condition for being ~30 years old. It's just... orange.)

Well, time to stop procrastinating going to bed.

Yay Bike Ride!

It was a *lovely* day for a bike ride!

A friend needed something, so I decided to bike over to Wolseley Wools so that she could pick it up tomorrow.

My route took me through the Forks, where the Museum of Human Rights is making progress (above). Because of the construction on Osborne, I decided to bike down Broadway instead of the bike route. The car fumes made me decide to take the slightly longer route on the way home. :(

I was feeling a bit short of breath when I got to WW, so I petted the yarn and talked to the lady staffing the shop for a while.

I had planned to go all the way to Sargent Sundae, but decided that I was ready to head back. (There's ice cream at the Forks too, and my lungs were voting for the shorter ride.)

Since I was stopping at the Forks anyway, and it was getting close to dinner time, I decided to wander around the shops and have dinner while I was there. :) I *almost* bought a gorgeous painting, but decided that transportation by bike wasn't the best idea. I'm pretty sure I'll go back for it, though. (I know my walls are already crowded, but one day I'll have more wall space.)

After dinner and ice cream, I biked home. On the way, I rode past this truck that hadn't been there a few hours earlier:

Must have been some eedjit kids joyriding. (This is a *bike* path, not a road!) The tow truck driver arrived a few minutes later, and was not impressed with how far down the bike path it was. (At the bottom of a dip, too.)

I managed to spend enough time at the yarn shop and Forks that there wasn't really time to start on the tree stump tonight.

It's like today was a vacation! :D

Thrift Store Finds

I stopped at the thrift store on my way home on Thursday, because my dad wanted me to look for teaspoons. (The stores he had been looking at were out, I knew this one had lots in the past, and I love stopping at thrift stores!) I thought I'd share some of my fun finds with you. :)

Cookie Cutters:

I have an awesome gingerbread recipe, and enjoy making gingerbread houses at Christmas. (When I have the time and space, that is!) There was a bag of cookie cutters for $2.50, and I could tell it had some I wanted... like the Christmas trees. (Useful for both separate cookies, and decorating the "houses".) I didn't need as many as were in the bag, but I didn't want to ask if I could break the bag up, and I think that copper tree would cost around $2.50 by itself if it were new. I think the duplicates would make fun Christmas tree ornaments if I tie a ribbon around them. :)

Thread:

The bag of thread spools was $1.99, and I bought it for the cool old wooden spools... they would also make awesome tree decorations! The newer thread I've added to my stash. Again, the whole bag was cheaper than a single spool of decent quality new thread. (The spool of purple thread is puzzling... it looks hand wound or something!) I'm a bit undecided about the Aero thread spools... their thread is still in excellent (and thus usable) condition, but they'd also make great ornaments.

Canadian Social Studies Atlas:

I love atlases, especially old ones. Although old ones are out of date, it lets you know what the world looked like at that time. (This one is copyright 1952, last printed 1953.) For a while now, I've been wondering what was where Israel was just before Israel was created.

In 1815, it was part of Turkey! That doesn't quite answer what it was around 1940, but it was still interesting.

Another fun fact. People often wonder where my online username, "Noricum" comes from. Well, here's a map:

See that province just above the boot of modern-day Italy? Around where Austria is these days?

Well, that's the Roman province of Noricum. (Of course, *I* discovered Noricum by randomly flipping open my dictionary, looking for a reasonable username that wasn't already taken.) My heritage is half Austrian. :)

One of the fun things about this being a schoolbook is that you can make guesses about what different homework assignments were.

I think one of them was to count all the indian reservations (IR) in Manitoba. (The student missed a few.)

Other fun facts in the atlas:
Routes of the crusades:

Routes of the explorers across the oceans:

Routes of explorers across Canada:

There's *lots* more fun things too!

This isn't all of what I bought at the thrift store... I bought a few neat pieces of cutlery for myself, three more neat pasta bowls (probably actually soup bowls, but I use them for pasta and salad), a nice plaid shirt that doesn't wrinkle when washed, a few cute buttons, a tin with mallard ducks on it (that will make a nice gift for my dad if I fill it with baking), and a sturdy wine bottle opener. (My neighbour bent my wine bottle opener, and so returned it bent, plus a rusty one she found somewhere.) Including my dad's spoons, I spent a whopping $15.03. Definitely cheap entertainment!

I need a shower

This afternoon I went biking with my uncle again. (Yay! We're going again tomorrow if it isn't raining. :) ) We biked to The Forks (and a bit past) and back: 12 km. (The part where we lost the bike path added a wee bit to the distance.) It's the last day of the Truth and Reconciliation Event, so we got to see a bit of the pow wow.

After coming back, I started my laundry, and then took my caretaker for a walk. We had a longer walk that last time... about 50 minutes. (I know, because I was timing my laundry so I knew when to flip it.) We don't walk very fast, because he's not a fast walker. The mosquitoes were nuts out, and I have a zillion bites.

So... three reasons I want a shower: sweat, chain grease (not as much as last time, but both legs), and mosquito bites. However, my good towel, bathmat, etc, are all in the wash. *grump* Perhaps I'll figure out dinner while I wait.

While I was walking my caretaker, one of the things he told me is that the daughter of the couple in my building that gets drunk on occasion, who has basically been living here for a while, from what I can tell, works "the oldest profession there is". Ew. And apparently the guys below me have hired her. I'm not sure he knows this for sure, or just strongly suspects it... but still. Ew.

That reminds me... a guy from my credit union called last week, wanting to know if I wanted to invest some of that lump of cash sitting in my account not earning much interest. (He suggested a TFSA, but I've already maxed that out in another account that has higher interest rates.) I said that I wanted to keep that available, because I was hoping to buy a house once I had a higher income. He asked me a few questions... and it looks like I could actually get a house *now*, with my current income! (They can approve a mortgage that's a higher percentage of your income than what the online calculators say.) I still think I would like to have a higher income before buying a house, but it's something to think about...

Miscellany

The calendula had me rather worried when several days had passed and only one of the five had sprouted, but a second sprouted yesterday, and another this morning. *phew*

The dianthus started popping up yesterday or the day before too. :)

I just discovered something really cool... McNally Robinson books are much cheaper online (I suspect to compete with Amazon), and if you choose to pick up the book in-store, there's no shipping! Woo-hoo! I looked there for Ann Feitelson's "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting", because KnitPicks didn't have it (a friend is doing a KnitPicks order, and KnitPicks has their 40% off book sale until the end of the week), and so it occurred to me to check McNally. McNally is Canadian, and lets us knit there once a month (even moving things and putting out chairs), so I like to support them. I can't afford to do so very often, but I did order this book. :) (They didn't have it in stock, and so said it will be a week or I could cancel my order... however, since knitting is there next week, if I'm lucky, I can pick it up when I'm there anyway!)

Yesterday I listened to an interesting podcast episode of CBC's Ideas, Aboriginals and New Canadians: The Missing Conversation. It talked about the effect that aboriginal culture had in shaping Canadian culture (among other things). It made a lot of sense, and explained a bunch about why Canadians are different than Americans.

Cool News

Cool news from my cousin:

hi friends!

sorry to bother all of you again, but i wanted to thank you for voting in the first round, and ask you to vote again for my video in the finals. voting takes place right now until the 15th at:
http://roots.rcinet.ca/vote/index.php?categorie=2

the three videos in the last row are the ones to vote for, mine is the last one. roger sinha's is also very good.

you may have noticed a formatting error in the video, which i hadn't seen yet when i sent out the last email. the top and bottom of the frames are cut off, so some heads are missing. frustrating because i am such a stickler for perfect cropping, but so it goes.

*another very exciting piece of news is that cbc called this morning and is contemplating sending 'life stories' to further film festivals in canada or latin america. i just need to subtitle it in spanish. anyone know spanish?

take care and thanks so much for your time and feedback that you've sent me. it is much appreciated:)

...so if you voted before, please vote again!

Scary

Not only do kids these days not know how to use the command line, but they can't conceive of a time before Windows.

Student: "There were computers with only DOS?"
Me: "Yes."
Student: "Why would you buy a computer with only DOS?"
Me: "That's all there was. DOS existed for a long time before Windows."
Student: "People should get degrees for using DOS! It's so hard!"

I didn't tell him about the punch card days. A time of computers before keyboards and monitors... that would really blow his mind.

More Hilarity

Knitting Instructions on Punch Cards

I'm just full of chuckles today! Flipping through a knitting book my friend gave me (it used to belong to her mother), I found knitting instructions copied out on punch cards. (Jacquard would be proud!) The woman has good taste, too... those are stitch patterns from Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting".

My brother and I also found many uses for punch cards as a kid. We would draw on them, staple a bunch together to make note pads...

What sort of "not the intended purpose" things did you do with punch cards?

Drawing Parallels

My father's parents were born in Austria, and moved to Canada. During the second world war, they were classified as "enemy aliens" due to where they had been born (a country that was unfortunate enough to be occupied by the Nazis), and they had to report weekly to the RCMP. Also during the second world war, ethnic Japanese in Canada were rounded up and put in internment camps. All for no more reason than where they, their parents, or some ancestor was born. The Canadian government eventually apologized.

I was studying in the US when 9/11 happened. Afterwards, students of certain nationalities had to report to Homeland Security. Some of these students were imprisoned. Some students who went home for Christmas break weren't able to return to their studies for months. There was "racial profiling" at the airports and borders, and I suspect there still is. At any rate, people are still being held at Guantanamo, *including* a Canadian, without being convicted of anything at a proper trial. How is this any different, and when will we learn?

Sifting Through Memories

I'm going through a box of old stuff... boy, are there some memories there... both good and bad. This box has been pared down some, but much of it is being kept. What is being kept, though, is being assigned "away" locations, so that things can be "put away", and the box (that I had gotten down to half-empty at some point in the past) can be recycled.

Although most strangers would think my office is a disaster zone, I have made considerable improvements this holiday. Hopefully I'll make a bit more, yet. (Before the madness of term descends once more.)

My First Camera

My First Camera

Hee! The first camera I got as a kid! I took a photo of it for posterity, then tossed it. (It suffered a lot of abuse, and I seem to remember it was developing problems. Not a good candidate for donation.)

The Singing Revolution

The Singing Revolution

Wow. Estonians are heroes. This movie was uplifting and inspiring, and the singing revolution was truly amazing. I wish this movie was a required part of the school curriculum.

Another Clue?

I'm starting to think the green and blue glasses *aren't* actually by the same company. I was checking out this list of Jennette Glass, which seems pretty comprehensive, and the blue knights aren't in it. Then, while wandering around a thrift store today (not the one with the sale, I didn't get there before they closed), I found these:

I loved the Japanese ladies, but I didn't buy them for several reasons... they don't seem as well made as mine (no gilding, and missing parts on the transfer), I already have enough glasses, and they were $5 for the set of three. However, they did have a mark on the bottom:

Flipped the correct way around (as would be seen while drinking), we see a script L in a circle between the numbers 4 and 5:

This mark is different than the one used on some Jeannette glassware, which is a J, sometimes in a square. (Jeannette glassware is frequently unmarked, as are my glasses.)

Now, I did see one etsy seller with my pattern being sold as Jeannette, but that person could have been mislead by the similarities, as I was. Given that I've now seen patterns by at least two companies, I suspect that it was a somewhat common style during a certain period, sometime in the 1950s. (That's the date range I've seen associated with the Jeannette pattern.)

Bingo!

IMG_1761.JPG

Success! Found it! I finally got a lucky break with my google-fu. :) (It was searching for "Wedgewood blue" that finally gave me the break.)

The glasses are made by the Jeannette Glass Company. The green glass pattern is "Hellenic Green" (or possibly "Grecian Hellenic Green"), and the blue pattern is... dang, my google-fu has run out for tonight. (The Hellenic pattern is suspiciously similar to a Wedgewood pattern... I wonder if it was "inspired by", or if they were in collaboration?)

Another useful keyword: Jasperware.

To do: find out the name of the blue pattern (I found a listing on Etsy given Jeannette as the company, but without a pattern name), and a date for both. The date appears to be 1950s, but I'd like a better source.

Par-Tay!

Woo hoo! All the refinishing steps requiring toxic chemicals are done! (Now some more sanding, transportation, finishing, transportation, assembly...)

Well, I'll be... I didn't think my neighbours to the south would manage it, but perhaps there's hope for you guys after all!

Antique(?) Barometer

Antique? Barometer

This barometer used to hang in my parents' house when I was growing up. Then my brother claimed it. (The glass was broken when he moved in with my dad... he didn't package it 100% securely, and dad apparently treated the box roughly... not really the fault of either, but the fault of both.) I got it from my brother when I was wondering if my joint pain was pressure related. (I never did make a properly documented study.)

I asked mom (without it there for discussion), and she thought it might have been a wedding present (and therefore not antique).

Dad thinks it might be an antique... he said it wasn't a wedding present, and might have come to the family when my great-grandmother (on my mom's side) moved into a nursing home. Mom... does that sound right?

At any rate, I think it looks cool, and I like how I used a copper-coloured ribbon to hang it from the side of my hand-me-down furniture. (The ribbon goes up over the top, and I screwed a hook into the hidden part of the particle-board side.)

Desk Update

Wednesday I stripped three more drawer fronts:


I thought you might find some of the construction interesting too:

Does anyone know how to date a desk? I'd love to know how old this actually is, or any other history related to it. :)

And last, but not least, this remnant of paper glued on the underside of one of the shelves amuses me:

I wonder what sort of reference it was? What are the numbers? I love it! (It is staying!)

My Grandmother's Cutting Board

My Grandmother's Cutting Board

This is my grandmother's cutting board. Dad brought it back after she passed away. There's a deep dip in the top (and a less deep dip in the bottom) from where she cut all the time, and some brass strips on the ends to repair the crack. Dad doesn't know if there's a story to it (beyond the fact that it was hers), but we both suspect that grandpa made it for her. I would guess it's oak, and I think there is a wax finish on it, given how it looked when wet. The small hole in the upper right hand corner is about the size of a nail hole. I don't know if there was originally a strap or string or perhaps a loop of wire there, or if it was hung directly on a nail... or even if the hole was there from before the wood was a cutting board.

I wish I knew more of it's history, but it's kind of neat having my grandmother's cutting board. You can tell it was with her a long time.

Great Weekend, and My Grandmother's Box

I had a great weekend! I accomplished a lot, and I like that feeling.

Saturday morning and early afternoon I pulled a trash can full of weeds. I didn't get to the front garden (B started to mow, and I'm allergic to freshly cut grass), but I did all the rest, and even pulled a few weeds in the lawn and driveway before B got to the back yard. (Heh... I initially spelled "yard" as "yarnd"... think I have yarn on the brain?) Afterwards I relaxed, then knit some squares on the blanket while watching some painting videos with mom.

Sunday I hung my grandmother's embroidery floss, plus some embroidery wool, in the sun to air out.

They're still a wee bit musty smelling. I'm not sure if I'll try hanging them in the shade some more (I don't want them to fade) or if I'll try washing them (I'd have to take all the labels off, and hopefully not tangle them!) Then I started working on a box that my mom found in my grandma's stuff (it contained the embroidery floss):

When mom gave the box to me, it was musty, and had a green velvety lining that was long past it's "better days". I pulled out the lining (the fabric was wrapped around cardboard which was glued in) to find even rattier red paper. I spent several hours Sunday morning and early afternoon scraping off the red paper. (It was very brittle, but stubborn.) Then I left the box in the sun to air and had lunch.

Dad called near the end of lunch, so I finished up and went over to help him put up siding. The office he had added to the house 25 years ago only had painted particle board, and now desperately needed siding. I manned the miter saw and passed the boards up to him (the office is above the kitchen). We did one wall up to the window, and then one side of the window to the roof. Once we had done that much, dad needed to go get cleaned up for a date. He gave me $20 for my help. Woohoo! (Yes, I'm long past the age when $20 should be exciting, but I'm not there yet. I need to graduate and get a job first.)

Then I went back home and painted the inside of my grandmother's box:

One coat of gesso primer, one coat of yellow acrylic, and two coats of "gold" acrylic paint. I *love* how it just *glows* inside the dark box!

Finally I watched some TV with the folks, and knit more squares on the blanket.

More on my grandma's box: Mom suspects it's from before 1940. Grandma got married in 1939, and mom says she probably never got anything so frivolous as a jewelry box after she got married. Grandma also got married in an emerald green velvet dress... so the ratty velvet lining *could* have been made from leftovers of her dress, which she would have made herself. (Mom hadn't mentioned that back when I threw out the lining.) However, the velvet in the box really didn't look anywhere close to emerald green, it was more of a dark, dingy green. So unless it faded, or something degraded in the dye?...

More speculation: Grandma's father had given up farming and was a carpenter. Could he have made the box? Mom doesn't think so, because she doubts he would have done the "shell" inlay. However, last night (when I couldn't sleep), it occurred to me that the odd inlay looks like it could have been made from a button. The box definitely has a handmade feel to it... it seems like it was made by someone who knew woodworking (there's a veneer over the cheaper wood, plus that inlay), but perhaps wasn't accustomed to doing fancy woodworking (no dovetailing, just nails at the joins, and the spot for the lock mechanism is really rough hewn).

The hinges are rather wobbly, but I can't do the toothpick & glue method of repairing the wood because the screws (at least, the one I managed to get out) aren't pointed. They have flat ends. (Repurposed screws?) I'd have to replace the screws with proper wood screws. Well, I think they'll hold, so I'll leave them for now.

I haven't put the lock mechanism back in because we don't have the key. It's stiff enough that I don't think anything I could fashion out of bent wire would be stiff enough to turn the lock.

Yes, it's entirely possible I could have "destroyed the value" of the box as an antique, but both mom and I suspect that it didn't have any to begin with. I'm quite happy with the changes I made, and now it will be both useable and a cherished heirloom from my grandma.

PS: Nicky couldn't figure out why I was playing with wood instead of taking him for a walk. ;)

A little personal history

These were in an old jewelry-style box that was in with my grandma's things. My mom gave me the box, and I'm fixing it up. (It's kind of ratty, and is smelling musty.) I'm not keeping these... the embroidery is stained, and not that nice looking anyway (besides being incomplete), this particular skein of floss is badly faded, and there isn't really enough of the mending nylon to be worth saving. (I'm saving the other skeins of floss, if I can get the mustiness out of them, though. The boning also bit the dust, though.)

It's kind of entertaining... the mending nylon can be used to repair sheer hosiery if you separate the plies. Not much repair of hosiery goes on these days!