fredlet

While the living room is very scary:

I keep reminding myself (and Tex) that it is only transitional and that it will be better soon.
Also, the living room is kind of the catchall for everything, so there are little hamster trails to necessary bits of the house and some seating during this month-long slog to house floppityness.

There are little oases of finished places in the house. Some just can't be finished because there are dependencies (like my closet) but I did manage to get several places done.

The Bedside Table:

Those are my great-grandmother's suitcases (+1) and her train case all stacked up to a reasonable facsimile of level (little shims of those rubber feet helped to go that little extra bit) and it will be my bedside table when the bed moves in to the room. I found a charger station of basket material and a little lamp. Its almost exactly how it will be when I get my clock there.

The Window Wall in the (soon to be) Living Room:

I don't know what I will be doing with the computer yet, but everything here (mostly media storage) is pretty much in place. Its lovely and tidy and it makes me happy to look at it now (as long as I put the blinders on and don't look around.)
Tex finally looked at this setup with something other than a gimlet eye and said "Yeah, I can see how this will be better", so he's on board and that might make it easier to finish.

My office:



It isn't totally done, but I can sit in there and use most everything…. I still can't get a good picture as I can't open the french doors all the way. I will get a good one eventually when its done. (Probably 10 minutes before the party starts…a.k.a. The cleanest my house ever gets.)

Next weekend (or this week and SAT) might be just organizing and clearing out landing spots for the couch and the bed… so I might have the big move on the following week as originally planned.
But you never know just how motivated I actually will become between now and then to dispense with the dependencies.

FRI was a work at home day, very nice, and I got lots of web work done that never seems to get done at my cube; curious that.
However, I did have to stop to go get Tex and take him for a tetanus shot. His last one was a while ago and he cut his finger inside a telly. So that ate up quite a bit of the day. And as I usually have all of SAT alone to get things done, I didn't get as much done with him here. Not really a huge problem though, I think I was tired.. I ended up reading all night FRI and then sleeping until 2pm SAT.
Oh well.
SUN we celebrated Timmy's birthday with a traditional cherry pie and a non-traditional run to Target for shirts.
We also found him a new hat which doubles as my laptop bag.

It may not seem like it from my narrative, but I did actually make progress on the house.
I think I'm almost at the halfway mark. More than halfway on the major moving stuff, but all the little things and sorting and tossing and selling and recycling is where 90% of the effort is.
Bunny, as usual, remains unamused by all of this shuffling.

There are some slight changes I am making in the overall design, I figured somethings might change so I left those as fluid.
Such as:
-The steamer trunk will be open against the wall facing the bottom of my bed instead of by the window or on the side of my bed as previously envisioned.
-I will leave one of the short shelves in the new bedroom next to the big shelf (which is good because I still have enough books to fill them both); the other big shelf will go to the garage. I had thought about wrapping around on the other wall, but the 4 fit so nicely that I will leave that clean line well enough alone.
-The NE wall will not have any plugged in things as previously thought, I will keep the battery chargers on the little shelf that is staying behind in the future bedroom.
-That also means I need to find a different location (if there be one) for my little TV that we currently play games on… hopefully we can use the new monitor that we got to play those.
-My wing chair will be sitting next to the 4 short shelves NOT facing the "telly", but that's ok, I mostly want it for sitting and reading or knitting. I suppose I could drag it around pretty easily to see the telly if I really wanted and Tex was hogging up the love seat.

I had planned to take a breather next weekend from big moving and just sort and store stuff for the garage sale and make more hard decisions; as well as whipping my closet into shape, but I might find that my closet can't really be addressed until I get my bed out of there.
Also, I haven't seen my couch in a while. I assume its still there, but the pile in the current living room is almost as tall as I am. Scary stuff that.
In any event, I am now pooped and I still have LOTS of cleaning to do… murderous dustbunnies are on the prowl as I write.

Proto-garden, originally uploaded by fredlet.

Just planted two days ago…

I suppose I got a bunch of stuff done this weekend; it just didn't seem like it. (even with taking 1 vacation day on MON)
I'm following the rule that even if I don't check off every scheduled detail by the end of the weekend, that as long as I can get it checked off before the official start of the following weekend (Saturday morning after coffee) that I will consider myself on schedule… and I have checked off all the scheduled things from my list of rearranging things, however, to look at the house you'd never know.
Its a bit dispiriting. And it might mean that one of these weekends is going to be hell on earth. I predict next weekend will be that weekend.
Its just like when I move. Will I ever learn? Most likely no.

During part of the move this weekend (line item 15c…just kidding; its probably more like 500j) I found that where the Lactated Ringer's bag that I use on Bunny every night was hanging had dripped, and consequently had started to eat through a portion of the STOLMEN ring clamp holding up a shelf. So I sacrificed it to Bast in thanks for letting Bunny stick around and found a new place to store the bag when not in use. Also replaced that shelf piece, and figured since I was unscrewing it, that I might as well optimize the shelf position and made it part of the nascent "entertainment center". It will hold the blu-ray/Netflix/Google video/Pandora player we are going to get when the discretionary funds savings account has enough in it to buy one.

I hope I get more done next weekend (this last Saturday was too hot to move much); I have a really big part of the swap scheduled. It probably will be the most involved part of the whole thing as there are so many moving parts (and painfully, this will be where I will need to get rid of a LOT of stuff, too. And I'm really trying not to just store it all in tubbies; I'm marking it for the garage sale scheduled upon moving out.
Keeper stuff on one side of the garage, garage sale cruft on the other.)

I planted some onions, lettuce and some salad greens in old coffee cans (Cafe du Monde, Lavazza and BusteloCafe La Llave) and also more in an old aluminum pail on the porch; rather colorful even before the plants show up. We'll see if they grow to maturity; I've spotted a squirrel near my front window peeping in. Also managed to plant a pail full of nasturtiums in the front as well. I'm not as worried about them, but anything that I start strictly from seed is always a concern. Its not quite a victory garden, but it should yield a salad or two. I could eat the nasturtiums, but I probably will just enjoy the colors.

I'm also sensing inevitable change in a lot of my friendships and friends' lives and, as a fixed fire sign, I don't like it. A lot of it is making me sad as well. So I shall ignore it as long as I can. One successful distraction was "Lost in Austen" that Tex found and Netflix'd. Very cute flick.
I'm not a big swooner, and while Colin Firth was a nifty Darcy, I have never been one of those folks who obsessed over Darcy per se.
In this case, I will make an exception for Elliot Cowan's Darcy.

Me-ow.
He gives exceptionally good scowl.

The view at my new desk., originally uploaded by fredlet.

She seriously is not letting me work ;) (But I am getting good at using the
mouse under her… and she kinda digs watching the browser window scroll…)

While I know I am overweight, I also know that once I get warmed up and get the proper pace established for the terrain and pack weight I am carrying (I have a tendency to want to go FAST and that eats my lunch), I could get out on the trail and do 500 miles (not in one day…); it might take me a little longer than people with faster paces or longer legs, but I could do it. Just ask my mama. I recently did a crap job of it with a raging cold. I felt like shit day in and day out and yet I enjoyed it and was only about 10 minutes behind the group. (..and I will be doing it. I have the Virginia section of the AT in my sights when I get the $$ in place and when Bunny decides she doesn't need me anymore.)
Quite frankly, I know people with higher BMI than myself who put me to shame in terms of endurance and capability.
(and if we are basing the BMI system then according to the news, my BMI means that I am sick all the time, that I have diabetes, that I am in the hospital and using up tax payers' money and I am causing the world to collapse. Yeah, sure. I don't by the way.)
Sweeping generalizations are for shit.

In any event; BMI is not measurement of capability. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurricane Fredlet hit my living room this weekend.
I have the whole "RoomFlop" planned out over several weekends, each weekend doing some change and prepping for the next weekend's change. This Saturday was only to be the Emptying of the Living Room Closet, but it ended up being the actual Move the Ultra Tiny Office Into the Closet weekend.
The closet is behind those french doors..

and here is some of the stuff that will go into the closet

I am kinda sore now, nothing terrible… but the living room still looks like I lobbed a couple of grenades in there.
Bunny wasn't terribly amused,  but she climbed all over everything and inspected my office space when I was done. I think she wore herself out, Tex says she's pretty tired today.
Its hard having no blood.
I still have to hook up everything as there is no power in the closet, but I need to make a run to the hardware store to get a few things to finish up the install and I also need to redo the ergonomics of my shelves to put things that I need to touch on a regular basis on a shelf that I don't have to stand up to get (USB hub, speakers, external drives, scanner, etc.) All the other stuff will be arranged about the same as before on the lean-y shelves.
Also, while I was up to my eyeballs in junk from my closet and office, I got a call from Mike and Lee who wanted to go to dinner…also, since I live close to Ikea, they wanted to stop there (DANGER!) to get them a new hamper.
I, of course, couldn't escape the place without getting something and got this nifty lamp (low energy LEDs and about what I would have made on my own)

But this is better since its all white and I can hang it at the level of the top shelves and they will be disguised and I'll get the low light environment (enough to offset the monitor brightness) that I need. I mostly just need enough light to discern letters on the keyboard and that's it.
I am still antsy to get things done, but Mondays always kick my butt so I will probably get home and WANT to do more work, but be too tired to hook up my office… I'll just work on the bed for a while.
Next weekend is moving the side of my bed stuff to the newly empty corner where my office was and rearranging STOLMEN to accommodate  the "TV" area (23" monitor hooked up to whatever input is handy…laptop most likely.) which will allow for moving the short shelves I have in the living room to the wall under the windows in the bedroom.
This whole process is like those 15 tile puzzles… except in my case you end up with an improved apartment rather than a number sequence

Anyhoo, I saw part of Twilight this weekend (I had been avoiding it) and while I liked Robert Pattinson as Edward, he was more playful than in the book and I liked that… I HATED whatsherface as Bella. I mean really, how you can deliver dialog in one big grunting exhale and consider it acting I have no idea.
I stopped watching when the bad vampires showed up as I figured it would be grunting melodramatic dialog from everyone after this point, so I cut my losses and bailed.

This weekend was good, but so far today sucks monkey balls; everyone and everything is irritating, so I'll avoid talking about it.
Pics will show up when I can upload again.

are starting to be a non-entity.
I have the most marvelous intentions of getting up and puttering around a quiet kitchen with coffee and some cute little breakfast nosh, however, after being woken up by Bunny’s latest (successful) technique of pawing at my nose while standing on my chest so that I can have the great honor of feeding her smelly food at 4 AM, I go back to sleep and then don’t get up until 11.
Ah well.
Actually, I’m perfectly happy that she wants food. So shall it remain.
She’s pretty perky lately. eating well, hydrated, *ahem* regular and all that stuff you worry about in an ancient (but not acting ancient at all; I’ve seen that, and Bunny ain’t) severely kidney compromised cat.
Thank you universe. I seriously appreciate every single extra minute she’s still running around happy to be here (that’s the key, she still wants to be here).
OK, that’s out of the way.
I think I got all the Hamthrax out of my system. I survived a full week at work (a gruesome and barbaric practice that) though my stomach acid is in overdrive for some reason. I think I might have to follow Bunny’s Pepcid schedule. Like mother like daughter; she and I are frightfully efficient acid producers.
Through various Twitter posts I found david lebovitz’ blog where he has heart failure over, effectively, the gallic shrug (non exact measurements for a tart shell) in the kitchen. Actually, this kind of cooking is right up my alley and I’m sure that most chefs would have heart failure of my cooking methods. But, as people seem to like the products, I’m reinforcing my bad habits and continuing on…

“But she started by saying, “You take butter. And you take water. You put them in a bowl. Then you put it in the oven for 20 minutes and let everything boil until…” which, of course, stopped me mid-swallow of my Côte du Rhone. I almost started choking.
“Surely, you jest!” I wanted to cry out in disbelief.
Except I couldn’t, because I don’t know how to say that in French.
So I just sat there with my mouth agape, which is a pretty uncharacteristic position for me to find myself in.”

davidlebovitz.com

This is really pretty:

Looks like the perfect recipient of a lemon meringue filling… and as soon as the baby Meyer lemon tree starts to kick out fruit, then it shall have one.
Pfft… speaking of… my poor rosemary plant died a painful death as did my Benjamin Ficus… I can’t live without a rosemary plant for some reason (not that I like the flavor, but the smell is a good thing) I decided to redo the disastrous front porch of mine and got a new baby rosemary and the aforementioned dwarf lemon tree.
Looks better already.
I’ve still got a lot to do, but I was stricken with Hamthrax after I got started. I might be able to get it done this weekend. I’ve decided I have the gumption to do a lot this weekend. Last night, in fact, I cleared out a lot of crap from the built in side of the kitchen; looks a million times better. I’ve also decided to continue on with the swapping of the living room and bedroom. If nothing else, it will be a pre-clean out of the house before I find the mystical apartment that doesn’t cost a billion dollars a month, is close to work and has parking…and it will show up when I get this place exactly as I want it. You know how that works.
I’m also taking the Monday before Memorial Day off so that will give Tex and me 2 short weeks to hang out. (I’ll be doing swapping chores both weekends-this weekend kicks it all off with the emptying of the living room closet-moving the Metro shelves down to the garage and moving my office in there. Yes, yes, pictures will be posted.) And we’ll be half-way through Mercury Retrograde by then-sort of a mid retrograde breather. I still have to get trough the peri-retrograde stuff, but that’s just me, not other folks.
Spring is definitely in the air. I even have started the process of luring someone over to lounge on my veranda (I’m fancy, I have a veranda) and eating my divine rotisserie chicken (though technically its Tex’s divine chicken since I refuse to touch the actual chicken) sometime in the nebulous future. Maybe the house will be done by then…
Cross your fingers and watch for the photostream.
Bunny says hi:”dsffffffffffffbggf[-opppppp-=====================”

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Bunny in her bed, originally uploaded by fredlet.

Only slightly squished from my pillows being pushed against it…