November 29: And in good news, they were on timeAnd that's the best that can be said for the cabinets. Some days I'm not competent either. November 27: The first Thanksgiving weekend that felt like a four-day weekendEver get the feeling you're the only person in the world whose employer cares if you screw up? The refi check arrived, made out to "George and Susan T." Um, hello, could we use the bloody names on the paperwork? There is actually a George T. in the area, and, because the Federal government will require my bank to report the check to them, I don't want to suddenly find Jorj's name changed! And, of course, the check issuer (the title company, not the mortgage company, don't ask me) wouldn't issue a new check without having the check in their possession, necessitating a trip to FedEx. I sent it Saturday delivery. Unfortunately, even that didn't raise the cost above $20. And please, don't give me that b.s. that I should have changed my name when we married. T. is my identity. This is the 21st century; women in Christian cultures doesn't assume the identity of some appendage to their husband. So, this followed two days of mostly unsuccessful phone calls to the doctor to get some information. Maybe there are so many malpractice suits because factory health care doesn't work. Both my ob/gyn and gp are a practice, where I don't have a specific doctor. Right now, I'm seeing everyone in the practice, so no-one is on top of my case, and, of course, they see so many patients they don't remember me. The nurses at the blood draw place (specialization -- factory medicine) know me better. And, of course, the data vendors who, after weeks of test files, and live files, still can't get the stupid order of the data correct. Are these people doing this by hand? And the township, who can't stick to their leaf collection schedule, and is turning every street in town into a one-way road. But Mary hosted Thanksgiving (while Jorj laid subfloor), and Sandy and I made Chruschiki at her house (while Jorj cut floorboards), and I laid flooring with Jorj. This was the first relaxing Thanksgiving I've in years. I keep thinking every day is Sunday; I'm all set to go to meeting! November 20: Quickly, before I go to bedNanette Blanchard, who writes Knitting in Color, wrote a lovely recommendation for the site (look at the bottom of the post). Aren't those some amazing knitting projects? Wasn't what she wrote just so wonderful? Her personal recommendation made me nearly as happy as getting listed on Yahoo! You know what's even more amazing? Nanette mentioned she wrote this book. Wow. For poker night last week Lynn, Lori and I arranged flowers. Peace and Sasha
helped! An hilarious review of cooking magazines for Thanksgiving. I have paint in my hair. November 3: 36 2/3Heard the news from Mom this morning. Apparently, a lot of people -- at least the people my friends link to -- are making noises about moving to Canada rather than face four more years of eroding civil liberties and guerilla warfare. As much as I want to move to Germany (and England) for a few years, I'm staying right here. First, I have that kitchen renovation (pictures Real Soon Now I Promise). Secondly, someone has to stay and be a mouthy liberal. In good news, I found the fonts I bought years ago, and managed to install them on the Mac. Oh baby. I love fonts, about as much as I love baking catalogues and really good knives. The Adobe site promises hours of enjoyment, just viewing fonts. (They have one that is the same typeface used in German license plates and road signs. Homer Simpson noise goes here.) Now all those fonts that cost, well, not that much money, are usable again. It might even be time for business cards again. Well, back to cleaning. Election nightFour years ago, Jorj and I were in the den with a bottle of sparkling wine and the glasses from Prague. As midnight drew closer, and it really looked like the electoral vote would go the way of the popular vote -- and Pennsy had gone for Gore -- we cracked open the bubbly to celebrate. Tonight, Jorj is in the kitchen with the TV, while I am in the living room with iTunes. I refuse to watch the coverage. I want the bad news all at once tomorrow morning. He is making motzah ball soup (more clean out the kitchen effort) and I am updating web sites and web pages. Wake me when it's over. October 17: William Gibson wants Bush out tooHe's started blogging again because of it. October 15: Once more into the brinkBreak time tonight, updating news of the house. October 10: And so it begins ...To paraphrase a famous, talented and short-tempered science fiction author:
I have no stove and I must bake. More accurately, we have no roof over half the
kitchen and the stove has been moved to allow a support to be built to keep
the rest of the roof from falling. After last summer's rebuilding, we knew the termite damage extended into the roof. We planned to re-shingle and probably replace the sheathing this summer. In the Spring, Tobi and I noticed paint peeling from the ceiling by the new wall. The conclusion was that the rafters were sagging, exacerbated by jacking up the floor and rebuilding the wall last year. Long story short, the kitchen roof is in two parts, an A shape over the orignal room, and a shallower slope over an addition. In building the addition, past owners removed a retaining wall and left the roof of the kitchen addition balancing on the original roof. This may be acceptable for a house of cards, but it's less so for a house of stone and wood. Essentially, the roof was slowly collapsing, as Jim reported to Jorj last Wednesday night. Jorj duly called me from the restaurant where he was having dinner, and told me I had to have everything out of the upper cabinets in that section of the kitchen soon. Amazingly, we had no empty boxes, except one for wine glasses. A trip to buy boxes the next day (before learning the company has been buying lots of new HP computers) and I had packed the dishes (leaving out place settings for two), glasses, mugs, tupperware (if you can call a plastic trash bag "packing"), spices and herbs, tea, baking chocolate, and other stuff just hanging out at that end. This is nearly half the kitchen packed. This only leaves pots, pans, small appliances, bakeware and the pantry.
And the roof fell off. When the last of the shingles next to the addition roof came off, nothing was holding that end of the rafters down, and they just slid into the back yard. It was not nearly as unexpected or dramatic as that last paragraph sounds. I'm almost disappointed that we didn't have a Thanksgiving highlighted by the roof collapsing. That would have been hard to top, and would have made the undercooked turkey nuked in the microwave pale by comparison. A blue tarp now covers the roof. The engineered lumber needed to create a load-bearing beam will be installed soon, and a roof should be back on soon. A few weeks with a limited kitchen, and enough food (chilli, lasagne) should be frozen to get us through the renovations. |
What I'm readingThe Thanksgiving issues of Savuer, Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Living, and the Christmas issues of Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Living. I think there is a difference in the attitude of the magazine with Martha backing off from control of the magazine. In preparation of Tobi leaving, I bought an armful of books from Powells. This is what I haven't finished yet. Mostly, I'm reading The New Yorker, Science News, Cooks Illustrated.
What I'm listening toMore CDs to replace the tape & bootleg collection
Things that make me happy (in no particular order)
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Thursday shingles started coming off the roof, and the full extent of the
termite damage was revealed. It's bad. Friday the upper cabinets on the inside wall came down, the stove came out,
the cold air return for the HVAC was found, and a temporary
support went in place.