Hot Finish

From the Official Rubberneckers' Olympic thread:

Bronze - you signed up but bonked the whole thing but cheered everyone else on.

So that's it for me and the Ravelympics. Signed up in a blaze of enthusiasm, dropped the baton and finished--one baby hat.

Winter Knitting Olympics in two more years. Maybe I'll do better then.

That is all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging!

Hot Box

Since I keep talking about "the boxes" I thought I'd share the current state of the box collection. The top picture is the "studio" as seen from the French doors.

Now, you will notice that there is a clear pathway to the garage door over there--not something that has been there that long!

My rough count is that there are over 2 dozen boxes in this room. That's not counting the tubs of fabric and yarn; they are another whole situation.

The brown desk-like thing in the foreground is my sewing machine cabinet. Luckily, it folds down pretty compactly, but it does open up nice and roomy. I can hardly wait to empty all those boxes and have room to start sewing!


There are also boxes outside. Here's a sampling. Actually, today I emptied the one that's under that empty box in the middle. Most of the stuff made it in, but there are a few things from that box still outside. It was just too blazing hot out there today to do any more.

How hot is it?

Well, look at my lawn!

This is the back yard, which after two days of watering is beginning to show a few blades of green. Of course, the area that's full of paint and plaster debris isn't going to come back as fast.

If ever.

Yes, that dirt patch used to be thick green grass. Funny what having construction debris mounded on it will do, isn't it?
The other half of the yard looks even worse. Here it is, with the sprinkler hose going on it... I don't know if there is any hope at all.
It crunches when you walk on it!

Finally, just in case you despair of my ever getting rid of stuff, here are my bags of magazines ready to be moved on out. These will go to a local thrift shop, w hich sells them. They ought to love this collection: Victoria, and lots of "shelter" magazines like Architectural Digest, Country Living, Sunset... all good stuff. I know, I know, but I just can't bear to throw them away. Especially when I know there is a place that will welcome them!

More depressing pics on my Flickr page. At least, it's a baseline so I can measure progress as we make it.

We WILL be making progress! Those boxes have to be gone before the first rain!!

Sleepy Hot

Yes, that's me. Tuckered out, probably from yesterday's exertions and also from some heavy-duty baby wrangling. Little Missy is teething, looks like tooth #2 is about to pop through, and she was very fussy today.

Tomorrow morning I have an MRA appointment at 7:30. No, that's not a typo; it's a Magnetic Resonance Angiogram, and much less invasive/painful than the standard type. Just a checkup, nothing major (I hope!).

So, I've taken my nighttime analgesic, and Mort* is waiting for me.

(*Mort is Death's apprentice. It's the fourth Discworld book. Great bedtime reading!)

Hot, Tired, and A Few Less Boxes!

Here's a view into the office, after today's decluttering/unboxing session. I really should have taken a "before" picture, because you couldn't get near the bookcases in the corner! I counted 13 boxes in here--now down to just two, plus a couple of bins of CDs.

I think I am going to get a couple of those book-type albums for the CDs, and get rid of the jewel boxes. They take up a lot of room, and once I get the contents of the albums loaded into iTunes, I'll have ready access to them whenever I want to. And a lot less stuff to store!

This room (the "back room" "family room" or "studio") is still pretty full, but it's a lot less full than it was this morning! I know, you have to take my word for it, but believe me... a LOT of stuff went out of here today.

Picture of the new bar stool. There are two more, but they are still in their boxes. They are very comfortable, and will be nice to use once we get the bar cleared off and the area is functional! We're getting closer all the time.

D5 came out today to work for several hours, and she's a really good influence. She claims she enjoys it, and Little Miss got to spend the afternoon with her other grandmother and her grandfather, while Daddy played golf. I also got a lot of help from friend B, who gave up his workout at the gym in favor of helping me shift boxes. He got a workout, all right!

We even managed to completely fill the back of the Explorer for a trip to our local Goodwill. And, I have a big pile of magazines bagged up for another thrift shop which sells them.

There are still a lot of boxes outside, which kind of worries me as we are getting more cool nights now and the boxes are showing the wear and tear. Unfortunately, they are full of books and papers and puzzles and... the kind of thing that doesn't do very well in dampness. So there's a certain urgency in going through them, to be sure to get everything sorted and distributed before we get rain.

Because, if there is ever a chance for rain at this time of year, it's when we have something out there that is susceptible to it! I'm reminded that, back when we did the addition, we had barely taken the roof off the back of the house when it stormed all Labor Day weekend! Yes, it was also a weekend I was working at the Fiesta at the San Gabriel Mission--worked the corn on the cob booth, and we sold out!