Day in the Life of an Idiot

Image: Octoquilt! A quilt with lots of octopuses interspersed with colored squares.

I am finally working though all of the leftover sea-themed fabric from Mason's quilt. (A quilt that I still need to finish actually QUILTING, but it is now fully pieced, at least.) Several weeks ago I posted a picture of the colors I was thinking about for this quilt on Facebook and did my usual, "Anyone I know need an octopus quilt?" and I got a shocking number of "Oh! Pick me!" The first person was Nisi Shawl--someone I didn't even realized followed me, though I have admired their work from a distance. So, this is Nisi's quilt.

I am in the process of finishing it. I got it all quilted last night (while finishing a weird donghua called Link Click on Crunchyroll and catching up on the final season of Star Trek: Discovery before my Paramount+ subscription runs out.)  Now I am having a small conundrum. I had planned to sew the edges over the back, but when I do that, I lose a whole octopus. No one wants to lose a whole octopus!  So now I'm trying to decide if I have enough odds and ends of the fabric swatches to build an edge the I can fold over the front.  I may try that?  I also have a coral reef motif fabric in very similar greens to the ones I used that I might just add as an edging. 

Anyway, you will see it again once it's all the way finished. 

The only other excitement around here is that Mason is building a retaining wall (of sorts for our hill). 


Image: Me showing off Mason's handiwork, while Mason stands around looking tired.

After finishing this, he and Shawn decided that it actually might need a couple of more rows, so there is a palate of bricks on my boulevard right now waiting for his return from his uncle Keven's.  Given that our across the street neighbor is having their house painted, the street was really congested this morning when the Home Depot people needed to get in. I would have them deliver in the alley, but 1) I doubt they could get out, once they got in (we have a very sharp, hard T-section at the end of our alley) and 2) we have no place for them to put them because our back is basically a berm and a tiny space next to the garage where our garbage can sits. 

Oh yeah. 

Other fun news. Someone stole our recycling bin. I am extra impressed because it's actually missing its wheels. So someone was really determined when they hauled that away.  I put in a call to the city, so hopefully we will get one soon. We are a big recycling family so it will pile up in the meantime. 

The only other thing is that I attended my friend Ember's funeral on Sunday. It wasn't the official funeral. That will be in her hometown of Ironton in Ohio, but there are a bunch of us who can't make the drive, so we organized (actually Mel, another friend of mine, organized) one for here. It was held at the Loft, which is where I met Ember. She was a student of mine over a decade ago. Mmm, well over a decade at this point. At any rate, that one probably deserves its own post.  The only other thing I will say about that is that Ember's death has me thinking about a lot of people with who I feel close enough to call friends, but yet aren't really ALL THAT close? This may be a Midwestern problem, but I have a large number of people in a kind of close inner ring that I absolutely adore, right? I know them well enough to have maybe been to their house a couple of times, enjoy going places with them, but like there's this weird distance--like, maybe we're just not quite close enough to actually have contact information saved on speed dial.  Someone I can direct message for a get together, but in an emergency couldn't call. Ember was in this class of people for me. I have some really fond, personal memories of her, but we drifted apart when she married and moved to Owatonna, Minnesota.  And, so, I don't know. 

Let's not lose touch, okay??

 Like many of you, I imagine, I've been suddenly getting a bunch of spam on my AO3 fics. It only finally occurred to me yesterday to ask someone more in the know and check their Twitter account to find out what I could do about it, besides hitting "spam" on each of the comments individually. I have over 400 fics on AO3, so the "change all" did not work for me.  I spent several minutes last night doing small batches of "registered users only" comments. 

Hopefully, that will help.

In other news, work on the kitchen continues. 


Image: Lyda with a power tool and a crazed expression.

Yesterday, however, I had a break from the physical labor of it all because Shawn had her long-awaited cardiologist appointment to see if someone could figure out what the heck has been going on with her fluctuating blood pressure/strange heartbeats. Right now the doc is speculating that it is either pvc tachycardia or pac (which Google seems to think is the same thing, different name)? But, no one seemed super-duper worried at the moment, which has de-stressed Shawn a lot--though, I'm not particularly any less stressed, since no one has offered an explanation of why this might have suddenly started.

HOWEVER, Shawn got to come home with a heart monitor, which she gets to wear for two weeks so that they can get a good picture of what her heart does all day. They gave her a burner phone that is installed with a single app that is transmitting the information to the cyborg mothership, I think? I dunno, I missed the details of that, but the point is, if something goes awry, they will know and call. 

Other than that, life proceeds apace. 

I am hoping to be finished with this revitalization kitchen project by this weekend. This weekend is kind of the deadline because Mason is home from university on Tuesday next already, and we have a tree that is currently barren of all decorations. Shawn and I would really like to trim the tree before Mason gets here. I mean, if either of us had any energy left after dinner, we could probably do it any night this week, but, yeah, no... that has not been happening.

In other news, my Star Trek gaming group is celebrating year FOUR of its on-going mission. It's hard to believe, but I love that group so hard, it's not even funny. (I am reminded that I should write some super-meta fan fic that one of the characters will write of a fictional TV show that is often referenced in our campaign: "My Space Love.") And tonight? My poor beleaguered elf barbarian is going to discover that he's even more fey than he thought he was... we are leveling up, and I've decided to go with the Wild Magic barbarian sub-class, which basically involves him leaking Fey Wild magic while raging... which should wonderfully complicate everything for everyone in the party (the GM is on board, never fear. I would never make a choice like this without checking in that it goes along with any planned story elements.) 

Anyway, I apologize for my days of silence. I think I should pre-plan that my New Year's resolution should be to be better about journaling. 

 
Image: Checker-board red and black quilt with strange, fun buttons at the corner points.

My favorite thing about this quilt is that, on Facebook, when I posted this I got an extremely Minnesotan response, which was, "Well, that's certainly bold." Which, if you're not Midwestern might be confusing as, on the surface, that's just innocuous and a little wishy-washy with the "Well" in front, like that, but to translate, if this person were a Minnesotan, they would be saying, "Wow. Actually, that's hideous." It's understood in Minnesota that bold should never be the goal. As is said in a country with a kinship in heart, "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down."

That I elicited this response doesn't actually bother me. I've been hearing from my wife that she straight-forwardly (rather than passive-aggressively) dislikes it and thinks it's too much. Good news, everyone! I'm making this quilt for me and no one else!  And I'm almost done with it. I have one more corner of buttons to quilt and then I will hand sew the edges. I'll probably have it done by the weekend. 

I've been trying to decide if I should put in a final push for the second ugly Christmas quilt that I started so that I can give it away on our local "Buy Nothing" holiday giveaway or if I should move on to the silly sheep one that I want to make to donate. Perhaps when I feel more organized, I'll take some pictures of these projects and let you all vote. 

In other news, the kitchen painting project continues. I have started on the cabinets finally, and that's the last leg of the journey. It's also a LOT, so it's going slowly. We are more than on schedule to have it done by Thanksgiving. I'd wanted it done by my birthday, but that's Friday already and I'm not willing to push myself too hard every day. Plus, we've been doing this in a way that the kitchen remains useful, so it's like, do one drawer, let it dry, put everything back in, move on... not the fastest? But since it's just Shawn and I, it is working fine.

Our washing machine broke a few days ago--almost two weeks ago, actually--and we bought one at Warner's Stellian. In preparation of delivery day, we've been doing a ton of work to make sure the delivery people had a clear path into the basement. I mean, I have a LOT of sympathy for these guys. It's been so hot. Our stairs into the house are steep; the stairs to the basement are worse.

BUT.

They scratched the front of it bringing it in.

And, worst of all, they left with out leveling it.

We bought one of the high efficiency washing machines and they spin a great speeds. It's clearly listed as part of the installation process and, while this is close, this is not quite level.


Image: bubble sitting just shy of level.

Does this matter this much? I'm not sure, but my wife would sure like that bubble to be sitting exactly level... and I'm not sure she's wrong?

Anyway, once again I am not telling you all what I am reading despite the fact that it is Wednesday. This time, at least, I am not telling you because I'm deeply embarrassed by the fact that I went down a yaoi smut rabbit hole (as it WERE) and if you really want to read about it, you can check out my manga review site: mangakast.wordpress.com



Anyway, how are you all? It's been forever! Tell me about your life!

 
Image: Newly blue bedroom wall, obviously still being touched up with a ladder and paint containers in full view.

The photo does not do this color justice. We have begun repainting our bedroom "Baskerville Blue," so named because of a funny story. The story goes like this. Shawn and I were watching Sherlock on the iPad back when it was popular. We got to the "Hounds of the Baskervilles" episode, which wasn't one of the better ones, BUT as we were watching it we noticed that the Baskerville dude had a LOVELY blue library wall. It is seen, in passing. We must have circled that image several times before finally getting a decent screen shot. I took the screen shot to my local paint store and said, "Match this color." They claim it is "bluebell," but we know this is "Baskerville Blue."

I only did one wall, because I am OLD (and only recently recovered from my back injury). And, because we only had one full day for this project, as we planned to spend yesterday (Sunday) making a fancy meal for Shawn's brother, Keven, who was over for dinner. You can see the old color, which Ralph Lauren called "Kalahari Sunset," but which we have long though of as "dusky rose." We liked the rose color for decades, but we are generally feeling like the house could use a pick-me-up and so it was time to unearth Baskerville Blue to see how it felt. It feels wonderful, so I will be painting the next wall next weekend. 

I am also starting to seriously plan my Lawn2Legumes "pocket habitat" project. As you know, Bob, I got a small grant to do something that would be pollinator friendly in our yard. Today, I went out to take some "before" pictures of the site we are considering. 

We have this hill in front of our house that has been at a loss since we lost the giant pine tree to a storm several years ago. I actually despair to imagine EXACTLY how many years ago, since we have done almost NOTHING to this area since. The one thing we did do is make a path for the postal carrier at the top of the hill. 


Image: The path Mason and I lay at the top of the hill for the postal carrier.

Obviously, the flat section of this part of the yard would be an ideal place to start putting in a pocket habitat. We have a ton of unused space here, with literally nothing except weeds to pull out and replace with natives.

However, I would LOVE to be able to use some of this money to do something with our hillside as well. 


Image: Hillside with our little free library--taken this morning when it is cast in shade.

It might be too ambitious to try to conquer this hill at the same time. However, I feel like the grant is such a good time to consider our options. We've long wanted to add a bit of a retaining wall, and the grant will reimburse us for a percentage of landscaping. As I mentioned, we had Shawn's brother over for dinner last night and we were talking about this project. He has access to a literal (as well as figurative) TON of rocks and boulders which he can harvest from a section of land that he owns just north of here. So, if we could enlist his help (muscles and trailer, or at least just trailer), we could actually get the materials for a dry stone retaining wall for FREE. All we would need to "charge" to the grant would be whatever fill we would need behind the stones, like gravel, sand, etc. We get to count our labor as 'in-kind" donation, so I mean... it's something to seriously ponder. We do need to so SOMETHING about the erosion problem that this hill represents, otherwise we're not really  doing our part to upkeep the natives. Because, you know, with no SOIL, plants, natives or not, aren't really sustainable.

But, the upper section is absolutely going to be doable this year. 


Image: Empty space (8 x 12) waiting for native plants

Shawn would also like a small water garden somewhere in here, if only because out drain pipe really needs somewhere for the water to flow other than backwards towards our house. (We had new drains put in some time ago and they really were not the best at actually angling them in the right direction.) So, now I am thinking about how that might be done, too.

Besides the "usual suspects" like Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia,) Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa,) Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta,) and  New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae,) I am considering:


Purple Prairie Clover


Common milkweed

and nodding onions


Of course, we are supposed to get colder than average temperatures for the next two weeks, so I guess I'll have lots of time to plan???? (<--she says, disappointedly.)  I did make Shawn go with me to Mother Earth Gardens just to talk to the people and see if they had anything out yet (nothing but pansies and a few perennials, of course.)

Anyway, that was me this weekend. I went on one HeyGo tour, but it's nothing to talk about just yet. I will save it for a round-up of any others I might go on this week. 

 Y'all, I fixed our upstairs toilet. This fix involved having to turn the water off, so I feel like a SUPER butch.

That is all.

Thank you for coming to my moment of self-appreciation TED Talk.

Apologies for the long absence. School has started up and I'm getting used to the new schedule and, more emotionally, we've been dealing with a dying cat (details will be under a cut below.) I haven't had a ton of spell slots at the end of the day for anything more than staring blankly at Solitaire.

I did manage to get both of the outside stairs repaired in between the rainy days. There's still more to do to "finish" them--as in make them prettier and fill in the remaining cracks, but they are entirely functional as they stand.



So, that's I project I can check off my "to-do" list that's been there for well over a year.

Yay.

The other thing I did was turn the compost pile, which is something one ought to do regularly, but yeah, no, I tend to do it as much as I weed the garden, which is to say almost never.

My publisher at Wizard Tower Press dropped me an email saying that now would be a great time to put out a press release for Unjust Cause (the sequel to Precinct 13,) which has, understandably, lit a fire under me. I have been working fairly steadily on the book, but now, shall we say, it is time to get serious. My deadline is November 1.

When we had our ladies get together on Friday, everyone there had good news to report, which was very inspiring.

Which was nice because home has been very sad, with Deliah beginning to really fail.( sad cat stuff )

So, that sucks. I hope the rest of you are doing better than that.

 Shawn's birthday was yesterday, a Monday.

She took the day off, in order to have a three day weekend birthday celebration. We went thrifting, shoe shopping, and out to dinner/lunch numerous times. Shawn loves to go to Taste of India, so that's where we were Sunday night in celebration. On her birthday proper, we stayed in, had a favorite home cooked meal, and watched "Into the Spider-Verse," which you probably already know, is a supremely awesome movie.

Today, I took the car to Dave's to prep it for Mason and my road trip down to Chicago. Dave called a few minutes ago with the bad news. We need new struts, which is actually going to set us back a pretty penny. On the other hand, I'd rather spend the money than have the car brake down somewhere in Wisconsin, or gods forbid on one of those insane by-ways in Chicago.  Boo. 

Shawn is also thinking very seriously this year about entering one (or two, depending on the categories) of her rugs into the State Fair's competition. Last year, when I went to support Mason's robotics team. their demonstration happened to be in the tail end of the craft barn, so I ended up wandering through all of the exhibits of knitted things, quilts, and all the usual stuff  you expect to seen in such a place. I was surprised to see a category for rag rugs and only two place winners, first and second. We found out that that's because only two people entered. If the odd stay like this, Shawn is pretty much guaranteed a third place.... I mean, of course, now the secret is out and they might be flooded in the rag rug division.  

We're keeping our eye out for when those applications are due.

The other thing that's going to have to happen this spring, probably even before we fix our bewitched tub, is the front steps. The concrete is finally crumbling beyond our ability to apply patches. Shawn sent me the name of someone to call and give us an estimate for that. 

Ah, at least work called today and asked if I could go to work at White Bear on Monday from 10-2. Believe me, with all the bills coming due, I signed the f*ck right up.

When I left the house to head for the coffee shop this morning, Loki was still alive.  He's completly shell shocked and hiding under the filter, but so far so good. 

I had a HORRIBLE fish dream last night, though, clearly about the recent fish-related trauma.  I dreamed I had a tiny fish, like a white mountain minnow, who kept flopping out of his tank and I had to try to pick him up off the floor--except in my dream, every time I got my hands on him, he'd slip back out and fall into some horrible new place.  The most memorable image?  Him getting tangled in a huge spiderweb, and when I finally got him out of that he was gasping and covered in dust and webbing.

Clearly, I feel like a terrible fish mommy.

Since I was asked to provide some pictures of the recent house project, I have a couple for you:



This is a view of the picky bits.  It may not be obvious in the photo, but the crown moulding is painted brown.  In the furtherst room visible in the picture is what the real moulding should look like.  But all of the crown moulding in the downstairs was badly mistreated by our previous owners.  They used that popcorn plaster spray on the ceiling and, for reasons known only to the dark recesses of their twisted minds, they sprayed the same crap all over the lovely hardwood moulding.  Possibly because owners previous to them had painted it as well.  I know this because in the golden room, our dining room, I scraped all the popcorn plaster crap from the moulding and then used a heat gun to remove several layers of paint.  Underneath it all is a beautiful dark (red?) maple or possibly even oak.  But that's a sh*tload of work, and not anything resembling a weekend project. Shawn and I have decided that painting the moulding will work for now, and that eventually, when Mason is off to M.I.T. or Yale, we will tackle the messy, arduous project of refinishing the moulding for real.

I also painted the walls, which used to be a dirty, grayish sort of white, but are now a color that doesn't show terribly well in the photos but is a sort of creamy yellowish white.



Here, perhaps, is a slightly better sense of color.  The "new" paint is the lighter colored one.  The other wall of the foyer is the deeper gold of the dining room.  I also painted those radiator pipes going up the wall and the crown moulding you see there.  The ceiling still needs to be done at some point, but that's a little less critical because it's held up fairly well and will be repainted a very similar sort of egg-shell whitish color.

You wouldn't think such tiny bits of wall and moulding would take so long, but I spent nearly all of Sunday working on this stupid project.  The upside is that it really looks quite lovely now, and it's done.  We shouldn't need to repaint for several years.

And, now for something completely different:



Here's the latest of my fan art: Renji and Zabimaru.  Yep.  Still obsessed.