to build

2006-04-25

Okay, so that whole business last week with the evil pharmacy from hell; I'm over that. When something angers me, oh BOY does it anger me, and I can go from placid to Senora Furiosa in microseconds, but it burns itself out quickly and then I'm happy again. I've been wanting to update for the past several days to get that entry off the front page, but haven't had the time or energy; probably mostly the energy. This is due to feeling stressy at work (busiest month, as you know) and at home, what with needing to get our house on the market pretty soon--lots of work to be done. On Sunday I did the very minor chore of planting a bunch of marigolds in the front flower bed ("curb appeal"--oh how I Hate that term). Francisco, on the other hand, performed the huge and odious chore of stripping the kitchen floor and resealing it, on Saturday, which took hours and hours while my marigold planting only took about half an hour (it would've been quicker if a million ants hadn't moved into the front bed since last summer--I had to be careful in case they were fire ants). The cats (especially Lucy) very much enjoyed the floor stripping, because it meant all the kitchen furniture was in the living room for awhile, and OMG cats Love a new arrangement:

That's Lucy standing on the butcher block, something that is normally Not allowed but which was tolerated for the few seconds it took me to get a picture of it. Butcher block disinfection: Check.

Something else I did this weekend which took a lot of time, if not a lot of physical effort, was finally finishing the sweater I've been making for Francisco:

I'm really quite pleased with it (but Not pleased with the spots on the photo from the dirty camera lense. note to self: do something about that). When it was first finished, I wasn't all that happy with it, but then I steam blocked it? Which I've never done to a knitted object before? It was like effing Magic, people. I guess the steam caused the stitches (wool) to tighten up or something, because it looks so much better than it did before. I crossed that sweater off my master to-do list with a flourish. There are a few projects I want to finish before we move, and that was one of them.

So, my calorie-restricting experiment is kind of on hold for right now. I'm still eating tiny amounts of food during the workday, but then I have a normal sized dinner, with wine [Dear Wine, I love you. Love, Your Lover]. Obviously not much progress is being made right now, but I was having a lot of trouble sticking to the experiment, I think because work has been so busy and home has been so busy, and GOD being hungry all the time just feels like so much of an effort for some reason. I KNOW I'll pick up the experiment again, fairly soon, but right now it's on a short hiatus and we're holding at 9.5 pounds down.

Sharky's at the doctor again right now, getting his rancid, disgusting cast removed and having a new one put on, or at least I think he's getting a new one, based on what the doctor said a week ago. I hope he chooses a different color, just for variety. Oh, I forgot to tell you one thing that happened last Tuesday, when Shark and I were in the midst of the whole trying to get from one part of the hospital to another. It was almost noon when we arrived at the hospital, and I suggested we take our respective lunches in there and eat them in the waiting room. He was a little hesitant and I asked if he wasn't hungry. He said he was but that he didn't want to take his Barbie lunchbox in, so I volunteered to carry the Barbie box and let him carry my lunch tin thingy. Problem solved, right? But when we were walking around in the hospital, he was trailing behind me by several paces, and I asked why he wasn't walking with me. Answer: "Everyone's staring at you because of that lunchbox". Good one, little man.

Songs of the Day:

Of Montreal -- A Cloud Crashes, at You Ain't No Picasso.

Soul Position -- Hand Me Downs, at Gorilla vs Bear.

Camera Obscura -- Let's Get Out of This Country, at Largehearted Boy.

Something I'm super excited about, even though it's a long way off, is the next house we'll own. Our tentative plan right now is to rent the house in Ellensburg for three years (so Shark can stay at the same high school until he graduates), but to buy some land during that time and build a house. The house we want to build, though, is what I'm excited about, because our plan is to make a house out of 40 foot shipping containers. Did you just recoil in horror? Don't be such a baby. We keep throwing around ideas for the floor plan of the house, and the one we're talking about right now (we've gone through so many) would have 5 containers lined up side by side, with holes cut in them so you can go from one to another (I'm fixated on the doorways looking like the sort of top-heavy oval ones in the Firefly/Serenity spaceship DON'T YOU JUDGE ME). Because there would be a problem with condensation with the metal containers, what we're thinking we'll do is use straw bale construction techniques to insulate the containers from the outside in, and of course the bales would be finished with the standard stucco substance, so the house would look totally normal from the outside. We're also talking about having the roof be like a big patio, since after all those containers are built to be stacked, like, 7 high on ships, when packed full, so they can take the weight. Oh man, I so love the idea of that house, and I hope we can make it happen. One thing that would make us change our plan is if an old church came up for sale, because we would really love to live in an old church, especially if it wasn't right in town--we want us some land.

I guess this is all I have to report for now--have a great night!

Love,
E |

cats-kittens

come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25
let's not say goodbye - 2011-02-23
the Rachel Zoe collection - 2011-02-10
I feel happy today - 2011-02-04
the tiny snow stalker - 2011-01-25