Avec le coton

The Coton is a weird one

The boy has been gone since Monday morning at Outdoor Education.  They go to a "campus" and do hiking and outdoor activities in 4th grade.  He gets back this afternoon.

Since he wasn't home, I decided to make tacos for dinner last night.  They aren't his favorite, but the little one LOVES them so it was a good time.  I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up a few things.

I unpacked most of the groceries, but had a bag sitting on a chair containing two boxes of cereal and a loaf of bread.

Fast forward to 9pm when I was heading upstairs to watch Damages (John was watching the baseball game) and I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water.  I saw the bag and put the cereal away, then thought I should make my lunch and put it in the fridge.  I couldn't find the bread.....but I knew it had come home with me.

I found it hidden at the back of Alvin's cage.....completely untouched, but squirrelled away like we don't feed him ever.

Don't call me! PSA

     REMINDER....all cell phone numbers are being released to
     telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive
sale  calls.

     ....YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

     To prevent this, call the following number from your cell ph one:       888-382-1222

.

     It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute
of your time
     It blocks your number for five (5) years.  You must call from
the cell phone number you want to have blocked.  You cannot call from
a different phone number.

Wow, time flies.

I'd appologize, but if you know me well, you know that life has been more than hectic with taxes, construction from the flood, and life in general.

Here are a few pictures from the storm of the 3rd week of August

 

The back of my next door neighbor's house.  They sustained the worst damage on the block....and of course this is the house up for sale!

This tree fell right over my neighbor Trish's driveway.  Luckily, both she and the nanny were elsewhere with their cars.

This is a picture of half of the stuff that we took out of the basement.

And here is a picture of the basement when gutted.

Isn't it pretty?

The work is coming along...not as quick as I hoped, but my guy Nick says that unless John gets crazy with Heather the designer, then we should be done a few weeks before Turkey day.  John and Heather keep coming up with ideas, which are very cool, but time consuming.

The walls are a pretty wine color with cherry chair rail and Ralph Lauren black suede paint below the chair rail.  Sounds odd right?  BUT, don't forget that this room will be a movie theatre, so John is going for an old world library kind of theatre look.  Make sense now?  Didn't think so!

T, C, and I went to YarnCon yesterday.  It was WAY smaller than I expected, but since the Renegade Craft Fair was SO much bigger than I expected I guess we are even.  I did manage to make a dent in the wallet with just three vendors...one of whom was Shannon Okey.  She was SO nice.  I am not sure why I was surprised at that but I was.  When I told her that I have made quite a few of the ponytail hats....she asked me to take a picture of all the kids I have made them for...together.  I will have to see if they all still have them.  Of course I didn't tell her that I borrowed the book.

My purchases were limited to three skeins of sock yarn, a skein of yarn dyed by Shannon, and a really cool bag using the awesome Michael Miller Fabric.  The bag also has a tiny notions bag inside, so after figuring the cost of the fabric and the time that I DON'T have to spend sewing it, I figure it was a bargain indeed!  Don't get me wrong, I love to sew, and I know I could make this bag, blindfolded, but I simply do not have the time right now.  We went to Nina on Division Street, then hit a place for lunch called Smoke Daddy.  It was great fun....and made me realize how much I have missed hanging out with girlfriends on a Saturday!

Next up is the DIY Craftfair on November 17th, and also there is a Fiber event at the Chicago Botanic Gardens coming up.  I have forgotten the name, and haven't successfully found it on google, so I will post later when I see the poster tomorrow morning on my way to get my coffee!  I am pretty sure that the Windy City Knitting Guild does a lot with this fiber event.

Speaking of the Windy City Knitting Guild...Nancy Bush is coming in January, and I am pretty sure I am taking at least one class...just can't figure out which one!

ta-ta!

Six weeks and counting

Until Thanksgiving. 

While I am sure that no one else cares or counts this down....but since my house gets descended upon by loads of relatives....my countdown to turkey day starts now.  With the construction going on in the basement, I am getting just a tad scared that I won't sleep the weekend before the big event.  I normally do a complete "spring" cleaning in every room.  (The plan is one room a week)

The basement is coming along....I am stopping by the carpet place again to pick up a sample of the carpet in order to match the paint.  When I reminded John that it might be a REALLY GOOD idea to paint first (wine colored paint) BEFORE the brand new really expensive carpet gets installed the lightbulb went on in his head.

In other news, I believe the time has come where my siblings and I have to take a more active role in my parent's finances.  My dad came up with a crack-ass scheme to donate half of their assets in return for an annuity.  My father consulted both of my brothers 10 days ago, (neither of which have ANY financial knowledge) and waited to talk to the CPA of the family (me) until this past Sunday....when he mentioned it in the most offhand manner.

Needless to say I have managed to put together the numbers enough to talk him out of this and make him realize that it wasn't a good deal for him and my mother.  It is scary when they get to an age that you have to worry about a charity ripping them off. 

It is sad when you have to make your parents promise to not do anything stupid with their money.

Podcasts & Ravelry

I am a very fickle podcast listener. 

I was all gung ho and added a ton of podcasts to my I-tunes, downloaded a bunch of them.....then crashed and burned.  There are too many out there.  Some you really need to go back to the beginning...and honestly, who has time?

I did listen to this one today - http://www.stashandburn.com/2007/09/episode-30-jess.html

It is Casey and Jess the creators of Ravelry.  If you love Ravelry, it is worth the time.  My favorite part is where they talk about when they can see spikes in usage - which corresponds to when people are at work and looking for a bit of down time or a little break and go on Ravelry. 

The time they mention is exactly the time I need a break.  Who knew?