Eye injury slide show

I wanted to make a slide show of my black eye when I dumped my bike back in May and I finally got around to it. It's impressive to look back.

I'm still riding to and from work and have managed to keep myself upright, so this is a good thing.

No house is perfect.

Be that as it may, I'm still pretty smitten with this one.

Now that the inspection is complete and we know what we are getting into (and we are ok with it) may I introduce you all to P's and my new home.

It will need some TLC (and a really good cleaning) but it will be ours officially and for real on August 15th.

Some of you have already figured out that we were doing this, others were in the dark. Sorry to be so vague, but buying a house is a serious pain in the ass and it was not something that I wanted to be reminded of or discuss every day. It would just be depressing.

We are excited, nervous, and a little in shock, but we are very happy that we will be calling this place our new home shortly.

I'll let you know how I feel in a few months when I get our first heating bill....

Photobucket album of the exterior: http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f335/valkyr8/House/

Zero Hour

Noon, today, West St. Paul.

Fingers crossed.

Second childhood

Sweety and I got home from work last night and collapsed in the LR. I rode my bike and only had to stop on the big hill once, so I consider that pretty good. I let the cats out and watered the plants. The tomatos are going to be in full force sometime next week.

Yesterday was filled with a lot of ups and downs, but appears to have landed up a serious up note and we are both a lot calmer.
Supposedly EVERYONE who buys a house has issues and it is rarely a smooth process so I will keep reminding myself of this.

While decompressing we heard the van outside selling ice cream and blaring it's siren call.

P: "You know? We've never gone out to get ice cream before."
Me: "You're right, we haven't."
P: "You want to?"
Me: "You have to ask?"

So we went and got ice cream came into the AC and sat down in front of our respective computers and killed monsters in Diablo 2 for far too long. Dinner consisted of grapes.

Tonight I'm going to concentrate on cooking, cleaning, packing and organizing like an actual adult. Inspection, Wednesday Noon. Third times the charm.

Sore legs....

and glutes.

I moved about a billion boxes up and down the stairs this weekend. The eat in area off the kitchen is now a shrine to boxes. The shelves in the kitchen, bedroom, LR and Computer room are all taken down. I'm quite horrified to see all of the dust wolverines that have been uncovered by moving large pieces of furniture. We have a moving plan, contingent on a satisfactory inspection. All we do know is come September 1 we will be someplace else.

The cats keep retreating to the sewing room, which is still relatively put together. Probably seeking normalcy. They spent a good deal of Sunday afternoon sleeping far too close together on the spare bed.

My home improvement projects were epic fails. I did get the new blinds hung and 1 of the 2 window screens replaced. I require yet another trip to Menards for more screen material. Ugh! They look really nice and actually fit the window, unlike the former screens. I took the time to clean the outside of the windows on the ground floor. Icky.

Since tomorrow is supposed to be HOT and HUMID I decided to ride my bike to work today. I finally made it up the big hill without stopping on my way home Friday. Yes! I really need to ride more.

Ball Winder

I finally broke down and ordered my own ball winder. In my defense, I needed to order some yarn that I missed on my last Knit Picks order, and the shipping is free over $50 and the ball winder added it up perfectly.

I'm sending good thoughts to G2 on her taking the Bar exam Tuesday. Fingers and toes crossed!

Yummy

8 years

Packing up 8 years of clutter is never fun, but we are taking it room by room and taking our time. I'm taking the opportunity to cull some of my things. Chotchkies are going away, yarn is being reduced, clothing is being cycled out, even furniture and appliances are leaving.

This is good.

There is still too much stuff.

The new place is larger by almost 900 sq feet, and trust me we will fill it all. Unfortunately.

First stocking done!!!!!!!!

e stockings 3, right cuff
Originally uploaded by Valkyr8

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Good lord did that take me a while, but I am so happy with how it looks. It is just beautiful and fits so well. I cannot complain at all.

Stocking #2 is already started, but I have a long way to go before the cuff is even complete.

The end is insight

I will be starting the toe decreases on silk stocking #1 today. I have 9 more rows before I begin and then 32 rows to decrease. Almost there......

Eleanor Stockings #3

e 3, 7-1-08 other side leg
Originally uploaded by Valkyr8

Actually this is #5 of the 6 stockings I am knitting this year. This pair is for me and it is slow going. Mostly cause I have had other knitting distracting me. After about a month of slogging along I finally got to the calf decreases. The decreases went pretty quickly and soon I found myself at the heel flap. I'm attempting to keep the pattern going throughout the whole leg and the only way I could think to do this was to have the gusset done in the rice stitch and reduce the stitches until a band of 9 worked in rice stitch remain.

So far I think they are looking good. My goal was to have the pair done for the State Fair, but I'm not going to make it. Too many other things have suddenly come onto the docket.