norsegirl

Have spent the morning mulling over the concept of a baby-cart for Georgia. I think I've got it all worked out so tomorrow I will go and pick up the lumber and maybe I'll start playing with it over the weekend. I figure it will run be about $60 for parts, then another $30 for the mattress and maybe a bit more to cover it with a pretty fabric. Or I might just end up making some very expensive firewood, we'll see.

Also in the plans is cutting out more Eura dresses and an apron or two. Might even go and cut out the first apron right now while G naps.

In other news, the house stinks. It smells like garbage and I have no idea where it is coming from. I have dragged the garbage out of the garage and aired it out. I have taken out the kitchen garbage, I have run the sink disposal and put lemons down it and I have searched the fridge for bad food. I've opened the windows (and it is shittingly hot today I might add) and burned scented candles and still I am defeated. Off to take another pass at it I guess...

I've hit the Ugh Point in my efforts to clean my sewing room. You know how when you're cleaning and organizing you put away the things you love first. Then the things you think are just okay but are easy to find a home for. And finally you get down to the point where all you have left are things that you look at and go "ugh". It's the stuff that you could maybe throw out, but if you hold on to it you might find a use for it. Or the things that are an awkward shape to store. Or the weird odds and ends that simply don't fit into your organization scheme anywhere so you can't really figure out where to put them that you might have a chance of finding them again if you wanted to.

The curtains are hung, the wall of fabric is all stacked and sorted neatly and I've stashed as much ugh as I could into boxes and baskets, and still I have junk on the floor and not a single surface is entirely cleared. Sunny is coming over tomorrow to help me fit a euro dress (not that much fitting, I'm just having trouble figuring out the math with the gore that runs from wrist to ankles) and she brings with her a very mobile but very young baby so I really have to have the place spotless. Up to now we've just closed the door to that room, but that won't do when the whole plan is to work in there. I'm thinking I might just call it a night and tackle it again in the morning.

In other news, the yard warming party went well on Sunday, though not entirely as I'd planned. I got the house mostly cleaned, with just a few dishes and the mopping of the kitchen floor left to do. Outdoors it was perfect. I hadn't refinished every piece of furniture yet but it was all perfectly serviceable and nicely arranged. It was an ideal set up except for one little thing I hadn't counted on... the muggy hot weather. People showed up, said "nice yard" and immediately fled to the air conditioned comfort of the kitchen. The kitchen where there are only 5 chairs. Not exactly ideal for a group of 15 people. At any rate, everyone got fed with plenty of everything left over. Everything wrapped up around 8 as planned. It's still not completely cleaned up (I've been too tired to face dishes and G was a bit cranky today so I was all for using that as an excuse).

Saturday was a local SCA thing. Jason elected not to come. Georgia and I attended. I mooched my way through the pot luck meal. I had intended to just run home to eat as we lived a mere 10 blocks away or so but someone insisted I borrow a plate and eat since there was more than enough to go around. I figure I had enough karma points as I've hosted a few things at my place and had a free eats table at an event here when I was pregnant. There was live music which G enjoyed. And other children which were at times a pleasure as Georgia found them interesting and at other times an irritation as they insisted they should be able to play with Georgia's things without letting her touch any of theirs and they were often not as careful as I'd have liked them to be around the baby. G bit me while I was feeding her as I tried to move while doing it so I've been a bit tender for the last few days. Seems to be clearing up after what has felt like forever, but which I realize is only 2 days. Used one of my fancy new slings to back carry her for a large portion of the event and she seemed very pleased with that arrangement.



The gentleman I'm speaking to is Stefan of Stefan's Florilegium. Really nice guy and one of my favorite people here. And one of the few people with whom I was not talking politics that day.

The event concept was an interesting one. It's something they call "land court" and the idea is that you petition the B&B for land for your persona based on your titles and the taxes you promise to pay by your intended use of the land. I was asked to head up the local fiber arts guild so promised I would use whatever land was due to me to raise sheep. I was given the 400 acres accorded to my status and an extra 100 for the promise of woven trim to be given as largesse. I was also gifted with 100 acres to hold in trust for Georgia. They had someone calligraphing names and the size of the plot on charters (like scrolls but photocopies on nicer than standard paper) which I thought was really cute. I had mine displayed on a bookshelf but I see that it has moved so I should probably ask Jason in the morning what he has done with it. You then get to write in on a giant map of the city and surrounding area where you would like your land to be. Very cute concept and a bit of fun persona play.

Other than the actual in-court stuff people spent a great deal of time discussing the mundane. Especially the health care thing. Very polarizing issue. The native Austinites all seem in favor of the plan. Anyone who has moved in from the more conservative parts of the state (ie everywhere else) seemed to actually believe the whole Obama death panel bullshit the republicans have been throwing around. One guy actually said something to the effect of "my wife and I are resigned to the fact that we'll die under this new plan because the funds will be allocated to certain races and on a priority level by age and there just won't be anything left for us if we need it" Funds allocated by RACE?!?!?! What kind of crack is this guy on? He followed up that gem with "this bill will kill the insurance companies. Maybe not immediately but in the next 10 years. And then it will all be handled by the government" My retort was "and you say that like it's a bad thing." He changed the subject very quickly when I stated that I'd done some research when I was pregnant that indicated our infant mortality and maternal mortality rates were the worst in the civilized world, even when you take the uninsured out of the equation, and that we also spend the most per capita. How can a system in which you spend the most but get the least be a good thing? He quickly changed the subject after that. Typical republican. When faced with actual data and facts that don't fit their world view they just pretend they didn't hear it. Much better to blindly believe the hyperbole and outright lies coming from their leaders and Fox Newscasters. *sigh*

People keep pointing out that their health care must be good because people come from other countries to get care here. Yes and no. There are 2 types of people who come here for care... people with the money to buy whatever they need and the people who enjoy the charity of coming from a third world nation with some kind of strange affliction that will get the attention they need to get people to donate to their transportation and treatment. Of course it's better care than what the person in the third world nation is getting, and that other person is coming for one of 2 things, either they are too impatient to wait for something non-critical in their country's socialized system or they need some cutting edge thing that is only being done here. That's not to say that all the cutting edge work is being done here either, just that the particular thing they need is. But the truth is that people do the exact same thing in Canada except for the queue jumpers. We also have third-worlders come and get charitable donations to have treatments performed in our system and people coming to enjoy cutting-edge procedures being performed only inside our borders. But we also get Americans crossing the border into Canada to get health care less expensively than they could in the States. If the system is so great why would someone with access to it choose to go elsewhere eh?

On one hand I feel very strongly about health care and don't mind letting people know where I stand. On the other hand I feel like the people on the other side aren't going to listen to me anyway, so other than stating that I disagree with them (just for the purpose of giving them an idea that maybe they are not as much of a majority as they'd like to believe) I don't see much point in having the discussion. They are never going to convince me that the for-profit model is the right way to do things and I never see myself getting through to them so it's rather a lot like banging my head against a brick wall, and at the end of the conversation I always have a head ache like I've been doing just that. There are so many things that I feel so strongly about that are coming in under that "too frustrating to discuss" category (abortion rights, gay rights, women's rights and the importance of labor laws that promote healthy families and support equal opportunity for women).

However, even when people share my views, and there were many there that did, it's still not the kind of talk that puts you in a medieval mindset.

to sum-up: socialized medicine = good, idiot rhetoric-spouting republicans = bad. Talk of nothing but modern politics at an event = bad.

G baby spent most of the event playing happily on my cloak on the floor and charming everyone that walked past. Everyone complimented her on being an excellent, well-behaved baby, which of course she was because we were out in public where she could flirt.



Finally, a bit of Georgia news. Jason insists that she did her first sign on Saturday. He thinks that she asked to be changed twice that day. He noted that she didn't struggle or squirm as much during the change as usual, which confirmed his opinion that she'd asked for it. She hasn't done it since though, so I'm not sure if it was intentional or that her hands just made the gesture by accident. However today she definitely accomplished something that she hadn't before. I had her standing holding on to the rail at the side of her crib while I ran her diapers down to the laundry. When I came back a minute later she was facing a different direction and holding on to a different rail. Later in the afternoon she repeated the feat while I was watching, side-stepping her way along the railing from one end of the crib to the other, screeching with delight the whole way. Step one of cruising is complete. She's still got a ways to go before she's walking, and she has yet to master pulling herself up to a sit much less a stand, but the days of a relatively easily contained child are coming to a close. She's also getting much closer to a crawl. The tummy still drags on the ground but she can really motor around the floor now, crossing the entire room to the exact spot she wants to get to in a minute or less.

For years I have wanted a sewing room of my own. At my parents' place I had to share my sewing space with the "teenagers social room" in the basement. This meant that a lot of the time I had to share it with my sister, and even when her and her friends weren't over, there were non-sewing things like couches, bookcases of books that weren't mine, a TV, and any time anything was cluttering up my Dad's office that's where it got dumped. There was also the plants that came in for the winter, complete with all the sap and stickiness that wasn't great for sewing either.

In Edmonton I had a room, but the heating situation was sketchy, the layout was poor, I didn't like being all alone upstairs when we moved Jason's computer downstairs, and it was also the dumping ground for all the clutter that didn't have a home anywhere else. To make matters worse, all the fabric ended up in the basement under everything else we stored down there. It was a major production in an unlit space to look for fabric.

Since the move I've had a really nice, dedicated room but the treatment has been much the same as in the past. Dumping ground for all things without a home. This week I'm finally putting an end to it. I've bought some proper curtains so I'm not on display in the front window any more. I've bought pretty shelving to store all my fabrics on so I can get rid of the ugly stack of rubbermaid bins. I'm hoping this helps me to "shop at home" instead of running off to the fabric store every time I have a project. Really, at this point I should have enough on hand to do something with what I've got. Seeing it all laid out like this might also help me to finally part with those ugly pieces that I really will never use. Up to this point I've been using the "well it's not like I could get to it to use it before" excuse. Time to get over that.

Got me a lovely pair of Expedits in birch. Even managed to get one half off because it was dented in the box. Unfortunately it is on the side that faces into the room, but it's so little and I've put it down at the bottom corner up against the wall so no biggie. Got one shelf assembled LATE last night. Today's task has been to bolt it to the wall and fill it with all the junk from the other side of the room so I can move out the ugly white rubbermaid pantry and assemble the second shelving unit. I'm through all the stuff in the pantry and am slowly hacking away at the stack of rubbermaid bins.

Baby is down for her second nap so I've got a chance to make some good progress here. Wish me luck.

I aspire to be a good neighbour, but the truth is I'm only good as long as it doesn't inconvenience me. Our landscaping is finished at last, and it is everything I dreamed of. The wind rustles in the bamboo in a soothing, zen-like way. The scent of jasmine is both thrilling and relaxing. I delight at the tiny spots of colour from the little flowers on each and every bush. And the prospect of a fresh, weed-free lawn thrills me like only a woman who has cleared three garbage bags of weeds from a yard can be thrilled by such a thing. Everything is beautiful and perfect and self-maintaining. And this is where the problem comes in... there's a sprinkler system, which is doing a lovely job of getting my plants all happy and damp, but the run-off from said system is flooding the neighbour's yard.

Now I think that the real source of her problem is the builder. They didn't grade the property correctly and water just pools between the houses along the bottoms of the fences. It was doing it on the side I share with Rhonda and Greg before I had all this work done, and now it is doing it on Maria's side of our shared fence. It never created a problem between Rhonda and I as it was obviously the fault of the builder and a particularly wet spring, so I could hardly resent them for it. Maria says the problem is worse since I had my work done, but I suspect it is the same as it has always been, as she has always complained about it, it's just been more noticeable since the work was done because I've been applying water daily. Funny thing about poor drainage, you only notice it when there's something there to be not draining. Of course the existence of this non-draining water is clearly my fault, so I'm not entirely blameless here.

The builder should be fixing it. In fact they have been by several times now to "fix" it, but so far their fixes haven't really done much of anything. They've just been tossing dirt on to the surface of her grass, making her dogs a muddy mess every time it rains or I water. Which was bad enough when it was just rain, but the daily deluge of my sprinkler system is getting her down and she's getting tired of the mopping.

She hasn't been too vocal or demanding with her complaints, which is why I'd feel really bad just ignoring her problem completely. But I also don't want to ignore the watering I have to do to get my plants established. I did just pay a small fortune for this retreat of mine and I don't want to lose it over fears of getting her floors a bit muddy.

I can fiddle with my system, maybe watering twice a day for less time would be better? Maybe I can find out when she goes to work and locks the dogs up and water after that? But that still doesn't solve the problem that this is simply poor drainage. I can't control the rain after all, and while it hasn't rained in a few days and might not rain much all summer, it will be back in the fall.

Suggestions?

And yes, pictures of the finished yard will be along shortly. I'm just re-finishing all the furniture and when it's all out there and completely done I'll take some pictures. That might also give the bamboo a bit of time to get over the shock of planting and green up.

Super-productive week. I managed to get the fence very near done. All that remains is to replace the one board I broke while painting. I also seem to have managed to lick this virus without an OSRI so I'm pleased as can be about that. I just realized this weekend that it's about the first time I've felt like I had my old energy levels since I got pregnant. Nice to have things going back to normal at last. And just in time to start the mountain of sewing for Pennsic.

Posting from ikea where I've just enjoyed a cheap brekky and am off to hunt for living room toy storage for G. It will be nice to have somewhere to easily stash the stuff when she goes to bed so we can feel like grown ups again. Wish me luck on the search.

I decided to take the plunge and see if I couldn't get the fence painted while the guys worked. I've got 2 days to do the whole job and I think it should be possible. If everything goes right that is. I chose the colour last week in a lightning fast decision without actually bringing the paint chip home or looking at it in the sunlight. Not that I think seeing a 1x1 square would have helped much. Anyway, I'm 1 gallon into my work and a little over half of one fence done and I HATE it. I wanted a black-brown stain similar to our indoor furniture. Jason wanted a red-brown stain like our outdoor furniture. He wasn't even with me at the paint store so heaven knows why I let him win. Aaargh.

I have him coming home for lunch so I can steal the van, run out and buy a replacement. So here's a question... I was using a semi-transparent stain. If I'm going to cover the existing experiment I'm going to have to go opaque. Will I have to finish the section of fence I was working on in order for it not to look weird or will I be able to recover by just painting over it?

Update a few hours later... no one at Lowes knew jack about covering up a bad stain choice. Surely I can't be the only one who has ever made that mistake? Anyway, have decided to go with a solid stain in "chocolate". Wish me luck.

Michael has shown up to start on the landscaping. I'd hoped to get the fence painted before he started so I wouldn't have to work around plants. Bought the stain and everything and then it rained off and on for the last week. Even on the days it didn't rain it never got the fence dry enough to paint. Something I'll have to do later I guess.

In related news, hounds make terrible guard dogs. There's three guys out in the yard, only one of which they've ever seen before (Michael) and they haven't so much as stirred from their beds to see where the voices are coming from. Never mind alerting me or objecting to the foreign presence.

This weekend I accomplished some things but certainly not everything I had wanted. My wish list of accomplishments included painting the fence and backing up files and reformatting my computer. The fence I have an excuse for. The computer on the other hand is totally my bad. I looked at it and have done some sorting to figure out what needs to be backed up but I haven't gotten around to it at all. Have I mentioned that all virus-writers should die, painfully, in a fire?

What I did manage this weekend was waffles for breakfast for Jason on Saturday (he's persistently sick so I wanted to give him something that wouldn't irritate his scratchy throat), Dinner Sunday night and leaving the kitchen spotless after it, and finally making a mobile for Georgia. What I actually ended up making for her wasn't really original or as complicated as all the ones I made for friends. She's got butterflies made from glued together felt and a bit of cereal box cardboard to stabilize them. I didn't do a single embroidery stitch or stuff them or anything. It's also not finished quite to my satisfaction yet. I was eager to get them up and didn't have exactly the right supplies. I'd like to hang them from a hoop but all I had was wire, so they're on a wobbly wire ring at the moment. I'll re-hang them all later this week after I get out to the craft section at Wal-Mart. On the bright side, Georgia is clearly impressed with this addition to her room. On first viewing she giggled happily and grabbed at them and she just can't take her eyes off them. Jason even had a hard time putting her to bed last night because if they caught her eye while she was drifting off she'd snap awake and just stare at them. I'm sure the novelty will wear off in time. I'll take and post pics once I've upgraded the hanging apparatus.

Off for some breakfast, knitting and whatever else the day brings.

I now officially have more finished objects than WIPs. And even the WIPs are mostly done. Georgia's doll needs a dress, but that's going to be sewn, not knitted, so the knitting is done. The rollerbooties have been re-purposed as Christmas ornaments so they've moved to low priority. The one mitten I made for Georgia doesn't fit great so I'm not sure I want to bother making a second one. My hat just needs a pom pom. The socks and bags are still legitimate long-term WIPs.

That said I'm thinking of taking a week or two off knitting to tackle some other projects. I've got fabric for baby gifts for the neighbour and I really should get those done before the shower.

Speaking of the neighbours, they came over yesterday and the day before and I am really suffering as a result. They own cats and of course that set off my allergies. Also, on Sunday when they came over Greg was wearing too much cologne and it's rubbed off on the couch where I always sit, so that's setting me off too. Not to mention I hate the smell. I'm torn about whether to say anything or not. It's unpleasant for me to smell this days later, but it's also one of those things you're not supposed to criticize. A few months ago my family confronted my Nana about her over-perfuming and she was genuinely and deeply hurt and felt like it was a personal attack (and no, I'm not just thinking that's how she felt, she was very clear with all of us about the subject). I wasn't there for the confrontation and she did ask me my opinion about it later. I can't remember if I stood by them or sold them out on that one.

In other news, Georgia hates when I sneeze while she's feeding. Pulls off to glare at me for interrupting her meal. And heaven forbid I cough to open the lungs a bit (seems to help me breathe when the asthma sets in). She's settled very nicely into Jason and my schedule. She likes to go to bed some time between 10:30 and midnight and wakes between 6:30 and 8 depending on how hungry she is. She plays in her crib by herself for a while every morning (we can hear the thumps of her kicking and sometimes she squeaks her giraffe or gets the music toy going) before calling for us. Life's good. I'm settling into this whole "being a mom" thing. The laundry is piling up, the kitchen is rarely clean and I haven't vacuumed in weeks if not months. But I'm happy and so is Georgia, and I'm thinking that's all that matters in life.

I've now got 3 projects on the needles. I'm not sure if it's a better idea to do something start to finish before starting something else, or to have a lot of projects on the go so I can rotate when I get bored. I guess we'll have to see how many of these actually get done and then I'll be able to tell.

I'm still working on the black holiday hat I'm making for myself to match the one I made for Georgia. It's about half way done I think. Haven't even seen it since Wednesday.

Wednesday after the knitters meeting I stopped in at Jo-Ann's for more supplies and cast on my first pair of socks. I got this lovely merino/bamboo/nylon wool for that project. Took a long time to find a sock yarn in something other than acrylic. And while that would be good and washable, I'm pretty sure acrylic would not be good for your feet. I'm working on ity bity #2 needles so it is taking FOREVER. Because of the time involved I'm thinking these might be the only pair of socks I ever make. In two solid evenings of knitting and a little bit of extra time here and there I've only managed about a quarter of one sock - sigh.

In a reactionary move to my frustration at the slowness of knitting the socks, on Saturday I cast on the beginning of a felted bag. It's a lovely thick wool that I'm working on #9 needles, so it's going relatively quickly. It is also a massive amount of knitting compared to previous little projects like hats and mitts and ornaments so I have no idea how long it will take. I'm taking a photo every evening so I can track my progress. I'm hoping it will make a good diaper bag. I've tried two diaper bags now and I'm just not sold on either one. I'm not sure exactly why I don't like them though, or what I would rather have in a bag, so it's hard to decide what I should make or buy for myself to solve this problem - sigh.

Also in the queue in my brain are "podster" mitts for myself (with a flip-back flap on the thumb so you can ipod with your hands covered) and version 2.0 of rollerbooties for Georgia. I'm also tossing around some ideas in my head for designing my own pattern for a baby blanket. If I come up with something really good on that last one I might even try to sell the pattern as that would be a nice little side-project. Even if it just paid for supplies it would be a help.

This week I'd like to maybe visit some of the other yarn shops here in town. I've given myself a one-box limit for my knitting stash and I'm just a little over half full right now, so I'll have to be careful what I buy. My craft room is a complete disaster from all my other passions and projects, so I think it's good to set some limits on myself right from the get-go this time.

This weekend we got a love seat on sale for cheap at Ikea, so we finally have proper seating for more than just the two of us in our family room. I think I'm also going to move my desk out of there and up to Lauren's room as planned so we have a bit more breathing room around all the baby stuff. There's all kinds of half-finished projects all over the house. Time to list them all just so I can wrap my head around it:

- secure bookcase at top of stairs to wall
- hang organizing hooks in my closet
- move desk upstairs
- filing
- hang new pictures
- hang clocks in Georgia's room and the game room
- finish putting away Christmas decorations

The kitchen is also an unholy mess, so maybe now while Georgia's napping is a good time to address some of this stuff.

Oh, and FYI, with the holidays and all I have fallen WAY behind on my friendslist reading. I went back with a few of y'all (mostly new moms who don't have time to post ;) but for the most part I think I'm giving up. If anything important happened that I should know about, drop me a line.

Anna has taken up a not-so-silent protest on the weather. This morning she refused to go outside when she was retching. I chased her around the kitchen trying to get her to go outside, but even while working on puking she is a fast and slinky creature. She finally ran into her cage and I decided that was an acceptable place for barfing and we were all good. When she was done she demanded a cookie for working with me and coming to a compromise. I didn't figure that was the best thing to do for her tummy though, so she's now sulking in her bed.

Jason tells me last night that there were blossoms all over our lemon tree. He didn't mention it until 4am when the wind started and was so strong that it blew things off our patio and rattled our windows. The rain started around 4:30 or so and though I haven't ventured outside to look yet, I'm sure the flowers must be miles from here by now. Bummer, I would have liked to see them.

Earlier this week we went shopping for new plants to put out front. The African Daisies aren't responding well to the wet and they're annuals so I figure it's time to rip those suckers out. One of the mandevillas died and the other is looking okay but not great. I'm not sure if I should pull out the still living one so I can plant something new and matching for the porch. Matching is nice, but I hate killing things. I'm a big softie so I'll probably just go and buy another planter. In November I'll probably winterize the garden by bringing the hibiscus inside. Once I make all those changes there will be no flowers out front other than the bottle brush. While the bottle brush has perked up significantly in the wet weather and is pushing out some very impressive blooms, I'm thinking the garden needs a bit more colour than that. So far we've picked up some mums to replace the daisies and I'm thinking the front edge of the bed would benefit from some snapdragons as they seem to do well here. We've bought the mums and the mulch, we just need the snapdragons and some peat moss. And for the rain to stop so I can actually get out there and do my gardening. I'll take some before and after pics if I ever get a chance to get out there and work.

As for the photographer mentioned in the last post... they called this morning and canceled. Which was fine by me. The place is an embarrassing disaster as I still haven't managed to get my shit together since the trip home. I'm not sure if I'll rebook or not, but I'm happy to have the day to clean and maybe bake and just chill at home.

Yesterday was a frustrating day of accomplishing almost nothing. Had a cavity filled at 10am and the freezing kicked in to full potency around 1pm, 2 hours after the dental work was done and right around when I was dying of hunger. Made for a shitty, uncomfortable lunch that I couldn't enjoy at all. Spent the entire afternoon with my face feeling tingly and itchy and knowing that I wouldn't feel scratching and that it wouldn't help the itch and might result in me hurting myself so I had to try to control that instinct. In the end I decided to just sleep it off and got absolutely nothing done all afternoon. Georgia wasn't impressed either as apparently mum in pain is not terribly attentive. All said, I think the freezing caused more pain and discomfort that the filling. Next time I'll skip the freezing.

Georgia is making up for yesterday's frustration by insisting on lots of attention today. So I might just get nothing done today either. I guess I'm okay with that.