Showing posts with label the stuff I do. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the stuff I do. Show all posts

15 December 2008

postdiluvian post

I don't know if I spelled that long word in the title correctly, but I know what it means so I get points for it anyway.


I have to expound upon the day's adventure... because there always is one, you know...

My plans for today involved a lot of laundry, as much crocheting as possible (to finish up Christmas gifts), and wrapping presents in any spare time I had.  So after breakfast I got right on top of the laundry and did, lemme think about this... a load of colors and had a load of socks going in the washer.  The socks were washing away and I had already finished folding and putting away some stuff that had been sitting the basket waiting on me and getting wrinkly, so I wasn't in the back of the house folding anymore (unfortunately).  At some point, thought, I came back to the bedroom to do something (no clue what), and thought I could hear water running in my bathroom.  The bathroom door was shut which muffled the noise, so I figured I was just hearing water in the pipes from the washer draining.

I got a little closer to the door... and the water noise got louder.

I opened the bathroom door and there seriously had to be a waterfall happening... it was loud.

The faucet wasn't on, so it had to be something going on with the toilet or the shower.  So, I started into the bathroom to check it out...

... only to find myself WADING in water up to the bottoms of my pant legs.  I'm pleased to say that I refrained from cursing because (you're just going to have to take my word for it) I do not make a habit of using fowl language, but for whatever reason when I'm taken by surprise or am startled or am about to be rear-ended by a very large and quickly approaching red truck, it's the first thing out of my mouth.  I think I said "schneikies" (thank you, Tommy Boy).  Whatever the case may be, it wasn't anything worse than that, and I really felt like that was worth mentioning.  Maybe my subconscious is becoming better behaved...

But I digress...

So yeah, there was water pouring over the side of my shower stall.  Don't panic too much... it's just a step-in shower, not a full-on bathtub.  That really would have been terrifying.  Not that it wasn't... because it was.

The first thing I noticed was that I had set my foot down right next to my little electric shaver deal which was, of course, plugged in.  Thank the good Lord above that He was looking out for me and I didn't get electrocuted.  The next thing I did was either call David or turn the breaker off for the back part of the house... I don't remember what I did first.

Regardless... at some point, I called David and said something like, "There's water like pouring out of my shower, what do I do?" and his response was, of course, "Call your dad," which is what everybody says when practically anything goes wrong.  Computer crashing? Call your dad.  Transmission fell out on Plano road? Call your dad.  Having a mental breakdown because you're newly married and can't figure out how to live with another person in your space? Call your dad.  Bathroom flooding? You get the picture...

Another aside here... my mom will tell you that she is not electronics savvy and it's pretty darn often that their small collection of remote controls gets the best of her.  Every grandchild that knows how to speak so far knows the solution when Mam-ma's about to lose it because she can't get the TV and the DVD player to jive: "Call Poppy."

So I called my dad and basically all I had to say was, "There's water coming from the drain in my..." when he delivered the joyous diagnosis that the septic tank was backed up and I needed to call somebody to come pump it out.

Now there's a fantastic occupation.  How does one settle on septic tank work? It's like proctology or driving the dead wagon or working at Wal-Mart.  Four guys came and dug a hole in my back yard.  One of them literally sat on the side of hole and stared down into it... another one stirred.  Yes, I know... lurvely.

What is the dead wagon, you may ask? It's a large truck in which a man drives from farm to farm collecting any dead livestock.  I assume they do this year round, but it's really the most obvious in the summer.  And you, ya know, hold your breath when you see you're gonna meet him on the road... and, ya know, dead carcasses swell and split open and stuff like that.

I think I'd still rather do that than deal with other people's crap for a living.

Back to the topic at hand... obviously when I turned the washer off, the water eventually stopped running out of my shower.  It was such a mess though... oh my gosh, was it a mess.  And after the dudes came and took care of stuff (p.s, there was a root growing into our septic line, by the way), everything drained properly and did fine.  So, everything was happy in Carter land again.

I still had to clean BOTH bathrooms, though... since water backed up into the tub, too.  Errr... not pleasant, but oh well.

We discovered through all this though that Scotty is capable of sleeping in the daybed in his room.  I would explain how this relates, but it's another long tangent and I'm sure anyone who's reading this is utterly exhausted and probably a little (or a lot) confused by now.

There's my interesting story for the day.

Oh and...

Amount of laundry done = 2 loads 
Number of presents wrapped = 3
Amount of crocheting accomplished = zip, zero, zilch-a-roonie

Best laid plans...


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02 June 2008

...and the night closed in.

Night time used to be my favorite time of the whole day. When I was in high school, I loved the time I would spend alone in my room while the house slept around me. I would usually talk to folks on instant messenger while I was getting ready for bed and then I would settle in with my 47 different pillows and a good movie. Many nights, though, I would spend at least a little bit of time writing. Just writing... about nothing and everything. Getting my heart out there on the page. There was time for it then and I needed it; I loved every second of it. Getting all that angst and passion, love or lust, sometimes anger, sometime jealousy, sometimes just nonsense out of me for a little while.

So many times still... all I want to do is pour myself out of an ink pen. It's the call of the open page that I long for so often, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. These 11-o'clock-and-later blog entries certainly show the truth of that.

But I didn't really sit down with the intention of writing about my writing habits and lack thereof. I sat down with the intention of just writing about normal life stuff in a helpless, grasping-at-straws sort of way to regain some normalcy in this brain of mine.

I planted flowers in my window boxes today. Celosia in the long one under the livingroom windows (to go with the begonias which were already there); pink and white impatiens paired up with asparagus ferns in the 2 shorter ones. They look nice... we'll see if I can keep them watered throughout the summer. Maybe it won't be as hot and dry as it was last year.

The rest of the day prior to that was uneventful... just the normal never-ending cycle of laundry interjected with the occasional dishes and Scotty-tending.

We did get to go hang out with my sister's kids while she and my bro-in-law went out for the night, and that was fun. It had been a really long time since I'd spent such a long time with the 3 of them. My niece fell asleep on me before we left, which reminds me of the Thanksgiving after she was born. She would have been nearing the 2 month mark and she fell asleep on my chest after lunch. I think I fell asleep, too. That seems like a lifetime ago. She'll be 4 in October. She was playing with her kitchen set tonight and I asked her if she was making my birthday cake. She informed me that it was not my birthday, so I asked her if she knew when my birthday was... and she said, "NEXT TO MINE!" Hehe... hers is the 8th, mine is the 18th. She's a sweetheart.

And then we came back home and it was dark and the day was over.

Depression or something grey and creeping has been an all-too-familiar companion these past months. I don't have any desire to be jubilantly happy every second of every day, but I know there was a time when I felt like there was some hope for tomorrow. My mind is weary with racing and my heart is tired of living in the shadows.

Night comes at least once every 24 hours for me and I watch each time as it approaches knowing that this will be one more time that I struggle to stay in the light as darkness closes in.

Night time used to be my favorite time of the whole day. But it's not anymore.

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08 April 2008

SPRING!

Spring has arrived! Ok, ok... I know I shouldn't get too excited since we have about 14 false starts before warm weather actually sticks around for good. But I am anyway.

Because, oh my gosh... have you been outside? The grass is green and the sky is blue and the trees look all furry because they have little buds all over them. Phlox and forsythia and bradford pears are blooming. And have you even smelled the air? Ahhhh... I know it HAS to be better than Christmas.

I planted something today! I dug in the dirt and got it under my fingernails! Yesterday, I started seeds in 72 peat pellets and stuck a hydrangea in a pot to get started. It all just makes me happy.

Best of all (maybe not, but it was awfully fun), I busted out the
sidewalk chalk yesterday and decorated my driveway.

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19 March 2008

OUT OF THE CLOSET!

Made ya look... haha.

No really, my maternity clothes are OUT OF THE CLOSET! Completely. Well, ok... there's one pair of fat pants still in there because I forgot about them until I had totally taped up the box and I didn't want to re-do it, so I just put them waaaaay back in the catacombs so I'll never see them (and probably won't remember them the next time I need them, but oh well).

So, yeah... I also cleaned out all the stuff I never wear anymore and am sick of looking at. Aaaannnnd... you should see my sock drawer. I also finally went through my terrifying underwear drawer and threw away all the hooker-looking
things I wore in high school (had I any idea of the trashiness of which I was capable back then? Not the first clue, unfortunately...).

My little man was a complete and total angel the whole time I was doing this, but I kept him well entertained...

That pretty much sums up my productivity for the day... I'm so behind on laundry it's not even funny.

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08 February 2008

fast friday

So today has disappeared like a fart in a whirlwind and I really shouldn't be using time to write this post, but I wanted to, so hey...

Just wanted to start posting my daily projects (as I pretty much have a different one every single day).

Here's the first thing that I spent a significant amount of my morning doing was cleaning out my baker's rack. Ugh... what a mess. It's been my catch-all point for about the past year and a half. I also cut out a ton of paper hearts to stick up on the front door as well as the kitchen window. I made a V-day decoration for Scotty's jump-a-roo, but he seemed none too impressed. Ah well... that's a man for, ya.

Yaaaaaaay! I finally put together the highchair. Haven't tried it out yet... he may still slump to one side, but I guess that's what the fancy-shmancy 5-point harness system is for. My little baby all grown up and strappin' in like a race car driver. Yeehaw!

The trashy looking boxes you can see in the edge of the picture there are part of my stockpile of shipping materials for my newfound love of eBay selling. That's right... when you can't find any other place, just stack it up in the kitchen floor (or entrance hall, or office floor, or on the kitchen table, or right inside the bedroom door, etc.).

Just as a side note here (because I'm particularly overjoyed with it), I also FINALLY made myself a designated stitching basket. And just as another bit of a rave... the brand "I Love This Yarn"... well, I love it. "So, it's not just a clever name..."

And here's my latest longer(ish)-term project. This is a scarf that I started at the beginning of the week. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it, but it's about 3 feet long (I think) so far. My grandmother is actually using the same pattern (and the same color thread, I might add), but she left for a cruise this past Saturday, so I STOLE it from her. HA! That's what she gets for going somewhere tropical in February while the rest of us are wanting to hang ourselves by our underwear rather than endure a whole 29 days of gray blah-ness. No, really... today is very pretty and rather un-February like.

...but I'm still jealous.

Anyway, here's the pattern instructions. It's got a lot of stuff about the gauge and all that on there, but I didn't pay attention to it in the beginning and mine is turning out fine regardless.

Size 7.00 mm (K) crochet hook

With crochet hook ch 22. Dc in 3rd ch from hook and in each ch across - 21 dc's (turning ch-3 counts as 1 dc). Turn.

FOUNDATION ROW: Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), work 1 dc in next 2 dc's, skip 3 dc's, * work (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) all in next dc, skip 3 dc's, rep from * across, end work 1 dc in next 2 dc's and 1 dc in top of ch-3. Turn.

NEXT ROW: Ch 3, work 1 dc in next 2 dc's, * ch 3, work 1 sc in next ch-2 space, rep from * across, end ch 3, work 1 dc in next 2 dc's, 1 dc in top of ch-3. Turn.

FOLLOWING ROW: Ch 3, work 1 dc in each dc and ch across - 21 dc's counting turning ch-3. Fasten off.

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Like I said, I just swiped this pattern from my grandmother, so I don't know who to give credit to. Neither of us created the pattern, but I know somebody out there did. If you see this and recognize it as yours, please let me know so I can give you credit! I think it's gorgeous and had to share it!

(i. e., please don't sue me...)

That's all folks!

Happy Friday!

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