Bad things come in three's

I'm sure you've all heard that expression. My life is living proof.

1. I lost my cell phone this weekend. Not sure where it is. I know where it isn't. I suspect it somehow got packed in a box.
2. Got a spastic phone call from Mom yesterday - Dad is back in the hospital. Needless to say, I tore out of here like Grant took Richmond. Now, here is where I get a little pissy. The man had a hugely BAD reaction to the chemo. He has not kept down a solid meal since Friday night and has had bad diahrea (like physically uncontrollable and reoccuring every hour) since then. How many days should pass before you go to the hospital? In my world, about 6 hours. In their world, she finally called the doctor yesterday morning. Argh! So, they're treating him for the diahrea, dehydration, etc, etc. But, he has decided he does not want to continue treatment, which I personally think is a good decision. We have no hope of a cure. We've known this from the get go 3 years ago. Originally, we were told 20% chance of surviving 2 years. Not survival - 2 years. The chemo is killing him quicker than the cancer, and he has absolutely no quality of life. Living is not being carried from your bed to the comfy arm chair and not being able to eat. So, the plan is to stabilize him, and then transfer him to the hospice unit for some time period to build him up enough to enjoy whatever time he has left. It was during this crisis that the lack of phone really became an issue (you know, coordinate between mom, me, work and bill). So, while we were waiting on a room for him to be admitted to, I scampered off quickly and got a replacement phone (same # ladies!). However, since I have no old phone, I have no phonebook. Not an issue, I have everyone's phone #'s on my computer. heh-heh-heh.

3. we had a power outage yesterday and fried my computer (either the CPU or motherboard). As I have neither the time, energy, or patience to deal with this - the computer is going to Best Buy this weekend so Geek Squad can tell me if the damage is repairable. If its the CPU, no big deal. If its the motherboard, its time to pull the hard drives and get a new computer that I can slave them into.

Inventory got moved from Saturday to Sunday so I will be working on Sunday instead of Saturday. I still plan on going to KY crafted - give me a call if anyone is planning on going.
Also, could someone please forward me a copy of the phone list? I need to reprogram my phone... Steph, I promise I will pick up those gd cookies soon!

The small silver lining is we have someone coming to view the house today. Keep your fingers crossed and send good karma my way! I need it!

Another weekend almost over.
The good news is: the house is officially listed and almost ready. Bill's painting trim in the den as we speak - and the trim is the last project to finish. Of course, the shelves that I was staining at 7am are still a wee bit tacky, but life goes on. We will have to straighten up and put everything back together tomorrow after work. I'm getting a quote on cleaning services on Tuesday and we're doing the 2nd walkthrough of the house that we're (hopefully) going to put an offer on with Mom tonight.

Its been a very, very busy weekend! We got: the outside cleaned up a bit (dead flowers pulled up and trees trimmed), 2nd coat on the bookshelves, 3 trips to storage (2 vehicles each time!), the trim cut and put up in 2 rooms and (mostly) painted. Bill managed to find someone dumb enough to actually pay for the pantry that we're getting rid of - hopefully he'll find a sucker for the ugly blue chair of his too! I'm absolutely exhausted and every muscle in my body aches.
Keep in mind, that we were originally not planning on moving for 2 more years! And then, when we first agreed to do it this year, we weren't going to list until after Derby! So, we're moving way ahead of schedule to try and catch the hot portion of the spring market. I feel pretty good about our progress - right now the only rooms that are not ready for photos are the game room and den in the basement. Huge, huge progress!

Next weekend is inventory at work and Kentucky Crafted with Mom at the KY Fairgrounds on Sunday! See you there, its a good time (much more interesting than the Cattle livestock show that we went to b/c we heard there was going to be fiber. There was sheep but very little fiber!).

Unfortunately, I didn't keep count of boxes this weekend - but Bill made 3 trips to storage so you do the math.

9 more today and 2 large bags of trash.

My craft room is almost organized. I kidded Bill about thinking he'd never see it that empty ever unless he managed to outlive and had to get rid of my crap!

We list tomorrow - they will have to take pictures next week because we are SO not ready!

MIA

Yep. I was this last week and probably will be this week coming.
We're making the final push of getting the house ready to list, the realtors are coming by Thursday to begin the paperwork. We've decided which mortgage company we're going with, and I'll be starting the preapproval process this week.
Bookcases - check and first coat of stain done
Trim - waiting for next weekend and warmer (slightly) weather so I don't keep tripping the breaker
Cabinet doors and bathroom - check, check; both caulked
Dog holes - see trim
De-clutter - in progress. I ran out of boxes. Ordered more, they should be arriving Tuesday or Wednesday.

Knitting - almost none, but I did finish my mittens. Good thing as I can't currently knit due to a microwave induced accident (don't ask). I have a huge blister on the inside of my ring finger of my right hand that makes knitting excruciatingly painful. (and typing with a 1 1/2" wide bandaid is no joy either). Sigh. I actually started seaming the white sweater. Too bad the rest of the yarn is in storage. I need it for the neckline (I think - I actually need to go unbury the pattern from the shambles that remains of my craft room). Then I'll start seaming the other sweater (which is the one I will actually wear this season - sometimes I think my priorities are backwards). So no new projects for the moment. I may start working on my spinning technique (I screwed around with the "exercises" for a bit today - I think I may be starting to understand what they are talking about. Finally).

Got to run.

3 down, multitudes to go!

Well, Sunday and another weekend almost over...
But we made a lot of progress this weekend. Yesterday, I got my car an oil change (only 3k over due - oops!), raided my boss' house for boxes and went out to dinner (Bill's birthday is tomorrow). We also roamed through Lowe's looking at sinks and kitchen cabinets and daydreaming a little bit. Oh, and we looked at 2 more houses (one of which is in dire need of a kitchen remodel, hence the trips to Lowe's). We now have 2 houses in serious contention. We're basically going to wait until the house is ready to list in a couple of weeks, then do a 2nd walkthrough (with Mom) of any houses that we really like that are still available and then make our final choice. Stay tuned.

Today was home improvement. I built the 3rd bank of bookcases for the basement and its in place - now they just need to be stained. Bill finished up the floor trim in our bedroom closet and is currently cutting the last piece of baseboard trim for the kitchen. He also caulked the bathroom and took the kitchen cabinet doors off of their hinges (they need a new paint job).
And I took Mom grocery shopping.

Its been a busy week and I am whipped! Next week does not bode to be any better! I've only got about 50 boxes to pack and get into storage (you think I'm kidding, just wait. I'll do a box count!). I've got 3 packed and ready to go so far. Should only be about 20 more to pack just the books! Ick. I should probably go through my clothes at some point and take this as an opportunity to get rid of anything that doesn't fit. Grr. That will be most if not all of my spring/summer wardrobe. Which will then require clothes shopping before the cruise. I hate clothes shopping. Unfortunately, I'm so picky about clothes fitting absolutely perfectly, that I can't even pay/bribe/sucker someone into doing it for me...

Does anyone with fashion sense want to volunteer for this fiasco?

I'm going to go do something useful. Or at least pretend to.

Ciao.

YFC & Some other Updates

Well, its Super Bowl Sunday and I'm getting ready to head to a party at my LYS.
I'll probably be using my monthly freebie for YFC #2 (I heard a rumor that there was going to be a killer deal on Alpaca with a Twist and we're getting a free pattern too!).

I've finished my first Jaywalker sock - another and I'll have a pair. Shouldn't be a problem since I don't normally suffer from SSS. I'll take a picture when I finish the pair (this way I won't have to take my shoes off - my feet are cold today!). I made a few mod's to the pattern (I didn't care for the dd and the toe shaping), but it turned out pretty well. I made it out of Trekking ProNatura that my PS9 sent me. :)

Work is going well. I get on really well with my new boss. Inventory this weekend went as well as it ever does. We found a few more systemic issues, so hopefully next month will finally go well!

Unfortunately, no good news on the home front. Da has a CT scan scheduled for Tuesday after he collapsed at treatment last week. I'm not expecting good news. *sigh*

But doggie's doing well. We got the pass for the doggie park for this year! Now, if it ever warms up beyone 20 degrees, maybe I'll take him. And, fortunately, there was no tape/dog related incidents....

Ciao

help me!

The *shudder* de-cluttering process has begun. We finished the closet last weekend (don't ask - another home improvement project from hell) and Bill's upstairs gluing down the quarter round in the baby's room. Yes, yes, I know you're supposed to nail it down, but this is some polymer crap that we bought so we wouldn't have to paint the wood quarter round and its shattering when he tries to tack it down. And yes, we are attempting to use the correct size nails/tacks whatever you want to call them.

My day has been a bit more painful. Still sick - very glad that the Dr.'s appt is tomorrow morning. I feel like I'm also getting ready to have another of my weird 4 month interval outbreaks of whatever the hell it is that the Dr. can't figure out. Great. Just great. I've been sleeping like 10 - 12 hrs a day which is a bit unusual for me so now I'll probably get slammed with insomnia one of these days. Grr.

As I mentioned, I'm starting to de-clutter and pack up as a prep for putting Case de Paine on the market (hopefully by the end of February to catch the Spring market season). So far, I've managed to pack up my scrapbooking paraphenalia (I promise I will finish scrapbooking my damn wedding album! And then I'm giving it up forever. Useless hobby. Takes up way too much room! And you have to buy too much crap for it). I've also decided that my feeble attempts to make clothing are probably not going to happen. So, Mom is going to go through my fabric collection and keep what she wants - I've already got rid of my collection of patterns. The cross-stitch projects in process are now neatly packed up in their own Ziplock baggies and packed up with the rest of the supplies. I need to get some more boxes to start doing books but its too damn cold to go look for them in the garage. And the unopened jigsaw puzzles are also going to Mom's - she's going to see if her neighbor wants them (she works for a nursing home).

This was all relavtive unpainful. The fabric was a tough call but a necessary evil. It just kills me to give up something that I've wasted a serious amount of money on over the years, but lets face it - I haven't done any sewing other than hemming pants in a couple of years. And we won't discuss what my last "project" looked like upon completion. *cringe*

The books, baby's room and knitting are going to be tough. I just re-organized the yarn stash so I think I'm good there. I need to get a new bin for baby yarn (current bin is a wire mesh basket not so good for semi-long term storage) and then I think that and the bin of "not sure what I meant to do with it but I'm sure I can think of something useful for it" can go bye-bye's for now. I mean, its not like I can't get to it if I suddenly have a burning desire to knit a baby blanket for someone! That leaves the "I know what it wants to be when it grows up" bin, the sock yarn bin and the bin of leftover sock yarn. These need to stay for right now. Therefore, most of the books of all craft items except knitting can go, most of the knitting books can take a 6 month siesta (except for know projects and sock items, obviously). And probably a fair number of fiction books can go for right now. I'd like to finish up making the last bookcase for down stairs, so the books will have new home after they're stained. Then all of the bookcases can go to storage (yes, I have a lot of crap).

I guess I'll do the baby's room last. That's not going to be easy for several reasons. I think we all know what they are. I feel guilty for wanting to just get rid of it all and move on, but I don't think that plan's going to go over too well with a variety of people. Well, at least that room's not real cluttered up so it can stay until we're actually ready to move I guess.

On a more cheerful note, finished up a pair of socks for the hubby out of the most evil skein of yarn I have encountered in a long time. This "yarn" tangled up like a briar patch at least 3 times, requiring about 5 hours total devoted to untangling! Yikes! And it was Mountain Colors! I've never had that happen before. So, now I'm flying my way through the first sock of the Trekking that my SP sent me -

Ok, break from picture download. Bill just walked through here with a roll of masking tape. Now, for most people, this is not a concern but given his lack of mechanical aptitude for anything home improvement related, I'm not officially scared. Unless, he's decided to tape the dog's mouth shut. Hmm, I wonder if he needs help. Doggie has been awfully whiny lately... Nah, I still love him too much to do that to him. Its tempting, though (well, no not really). I better go save him, Bill really likes taping these a little too well.