sometimes being a parent is cool

At lunch today, ScrapMaven told us about her boys and their latest adventures involving the Tooth Fairy. Apparently, one of the boys is losing teeth like there's no tomorrow, and the other hasn't lost any. The first boy had a loose tooth a few days ago, and worked on it while lying in bed. This was his 2nd tooth, so he knew he'd get money when it came out. Out it came, and he promptly stuffed it under his pillow - without telling his folks.

Next morning, he flipped up his pillow. No tooth, and no cash. He made a distressed comment to ScrapMaven, who quickly filled in the gap (no pun intended) by telling him that kids have to tell their parents when the tooth comes out so the parents can make an appointment with the Tooth Fairy for a visit. After all, she's a very busy lady -- this is the time of year a lot of kids lose teeth -- and they have to fit her visit in her calendar.

ScrapMaven and her Beau promptly forgot about the tooth, and several days passed. Last night, as the boy was getting ready for bed, he bounded in to the Master Bedroom and asked ScrapMaven if she had made an appointment yet. Glancing in the hallway, she saw her Beau nodding vigorously and with a boyish grin. "Why yes," she exclaimed. "We sent an email a day or two ago. I think you're on her schedule."

Gleefully, the boy checked his pillow this moring, and found the $5 stuffed in the pillow case. $5??!! Oh my goodness, inflation is a (*&%@!! My nephews only get a $1 -- a shiny Sacajawea dollar, but a dollar nonetheless. To heck with allowances... let me knock out all my teeth...

Ok, so my final comment was "Sometimes being a parent is cool." No doubt.

What was really going through my head was this past Saturday with Critter. We spent the day running errands, the last of which was to find her at least 3 more pairs of jeans (I swear we're shrinking them in the wash...) and *maybe* a new dress. She has a dress or two in her closet, but I know from moving them to and fro that there's no way her adolescent frame can fit in them. And occasionally, she really needs to dress up, and doesn't have any options.

SOooooooo.... The MALL on a Saturday. Need I say more? The thrilling-est place for a teen; the bane of existance for parents. Actually, it was busy, but not horrible (post Christmas rush), and she was in relatively good spirits. We started at JC Penney, looking at dresses in the Junior Department.

Sidebar: Junior department -- the equivalent of every parent's nightmare in fashion for outrageous prices and of every brand name that every teen wants. All of the dresses in her size were either a) strapless or b) low cut halter-style in oriental satin prints.

She tried on a strapless red dress with a black satin belt and black piping. I have to admit, the dress looked gorgeous on her. But I was extremely uncomfortable with how old she looked in it. She's 14, for crying out loud, and she looked 21 in that dress. She is still pleasantly oblivious to the affects her figure could have on hormonal male teens... I wasn't about to let her have a dress that essentially said "Here I am, Boys. Come and get me."

So she tried a couple of the halter-style oriental prints. In various sizes. About 3 different styles. And they all had the same problem... they required, um, adult-sized chests to keep them on. NEXT!

The last choice was a dress I would have LOVED at her age -- a black and white strapless with white polka dots on the skirt. A toule underskirt "poufs" out the skirt. White piping creates a tasteful stripe along the top edges. She looked fabulous. Not drop dead gorgeous (thank goodness), but really stunning, and appropriately pretty. She agreed that it was a good dress - just needed a sweater or short jacket. And so, with dress in hand, we were off into the rest of the MALL.

We found a cute black/silver sweater at a weird clothing store called The Rave. Odd cuts of clothing, lots of shiny fabric and cotton blends. And black flats with zebra prints. You know, the kind of fashion store teens might populate... On the 70% off table was this sweater. It looks great with the dress, and was only $6.50 -- so a good deal.

Then we stopped at Mariposa. If you have a teen girl in your life, you will, at some point, go in to Mariposa. They have prom dresses, for one. We were there while a group of teens and moms were looking at matching halter tops in red/black/white for a dance team. Um, ewwwww. The style was NOT exactly flattering for all of the body types represented, but what can you do?

Anyway, we found a really cool evening/special event gown - one in red and another in blue. Lots of sparkles. Totally impractical fabric (can't be washed), and a gathered stomach (read: no way in heck I could wear it), and a neato ragged hemline. Amazingly, it did NOT have a plunging neckline or a back-splash (when your back is exposed).

I told her "trying on is free," grabbed the dresses off the rack, and steered Critter to the dressing room. I didn't even look at the tag. I mean, what are the odds that a) they'd look good on her and b) we could come up with any good reason to own one of these fancy, sparkly, things?
Odds were pretty good, actually. She tried on the red one first -- it looked amazing, if a bit tight at the hips. She tried on the blue one. It would have been my favorite (I LOVE electric blue), but it just made her look washed out. So I went back to the rack, found a slightly larger size of the red one, and came back. Sigh.... It fit. She looked really good in it. She promised she'd wear it for one of our upcoming musicals (we have season tickets), or maybe to graduation in the spring from middle school.

The dress is non-returnable. It is expensive. It is completely impractical. And for a brief moment, being a parent was really cool. I got to give my daughter something frilly, and beautiful, and special -- and she smiled a lot at me and thanked me.

We took pictures when we got home.

Yes, indeed. Sometimes being a parent is *very* cool.

Was It Kepler or Newton Who Shouted 'Shotgun'?

I discovered a fun little game Sunday evening called Cosmic Crush, where you steer your little planetoid across the heavens, eating up planets. Whatever you do, don’t play it before heading off for work on Monday morning or you will view every car, truck, and bus as a tasty celestial morsel. Lumbering down the Interstate this morning, most of my ride consisted of these observations:

1. Don’t get too close to the yellow school bus. Ah! Yellow school bus!
2. I can totally take that little SUV. I'm sure it has less mass than my car.
3. Where’s a motorcyclist I can crunch?
4. Two Semis? Pull away! Pull away!
5. That VW Bug is all mine…
6. Watch the oncoming headlights. Watch... Are they pulling me to one side of the freeway?
7. Pull away from the Semi!
8. (Sigh) I'm never going to get to Level Three...

And the Beat Goes On

Latest on recording our LPs to CDs...

If you go off and leave the album to record, then your first track is all of the songs on side 1. Your second track becomes all of the songs on side 2. If you want each song to be it's OWN track, you have to sit by the stereo and press "pause" between each song so the CD knows it is now recording a new song.

Which, of course, we didn't do with the 6 albums JewelGeek recorded, but that I did for my 1 double-album Christmas LP. Now we get to listen to all of JewelGeek's albums all over again...

"There was one room in her house that was always kept locked... It was... the garage..."

The Island of Misfit Decorations

It's time to say goodbye to our Christmas friends, our snowflake placemats and dishes, our gingerbread kitchen gadgets, and assorted Santa-capped stuffies. I'll miss Hermie watching over popcorn popping.

And having abominable sized help doing dishes.

We piled all the ornaments on the table and found the matching boxes to store them in.

Then there was this stash. The Little Man's haul this year--all the ornaments he pulled off the tree during the season and kept.

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

....unless you have made it yourself.

...out together in the deep, deep snow

The Rose City is blanketed in white today. Critter's school went from a two-hour delay to full closure. Even the place I worked, closed for the day (though the public school district stayed open).

The Little Man was quite interested in the snow and has been nattering at the birds all morning.

CrafterKat had cat holding duty today.

I ventured outdoors and was pleased to discover that I left footprints. Deep ones. Certainly deeper than last week.

I followed the tracks up the street and found a suspicious person...

And why is she laughing so much? Because she had just pelted me with a snowball. And was preparing another.

And so I left them. So they could continue their own Snowy Day.

I Groc My Geek

I had to take over the computer... JewelGeek wasn't telling the story right. When I got to "CrafterKat pushed me aside..." I knew I needed to intervene.

The reality was, JewelGeek's blood pressure was rising, and I could feel it across the room. Even over my LEGO Star Wars II computer game. And I was flying through a sea of TIE fighters. And I kept scattering my LEGO coins all over the universe because I was getting hit. But I digress...

So I asked JewelGeek if she wanted me to give it a try. [Yes.] And I asked her to put all the plugs for the in/out of the various stereo components back where they started. [Um, yeah...] And then I asked her where the manual was. It had been hidden on top of one of the stereo components since my last recording foray months and months ago. [I think it's on the dining room table...]

I read the manual. I looked at the back of the stereo at the net of white & red plugs. I read the manual. I looked at the plugs. I started the album. I didn't get any levels. I moved some plugs around, started the album. Sigh. Pause. Move plugs. Start the album. No levels. Repeat. Somewhere in there, JewelGeek began to offer some exasperated words of wisdom, and I told her to have a cow elsewhere.

In the end, I figured out the in/out plugs of the CD Recorder machine was backwards. Robin Leech's voice finally came through the speakers AND produced levels on the CD Recorder. Woo-hoo me! I out-geeked the Geek!

And for the next two hours, I went through a TimeWarp listening to albums from my teen years as JewelGeek recorded them for posterity. Oh, and I was kicking some serious Imperial Robutt, too. At about 11:30pm last night, I made True Jedi on Chapter 3 or 4 (I can't remember) of Episode VI, and could finally go to bed.

WEIRD dreams ensued... little LEGO Stormtroopers and Pig Guards rockin' out to INXS, and millions of LEGO coins jingling in space...

A Domino Effect In A Cloud Of Mystery

I'm unsure if any of you noticed, but CrafterGeek has turned one year old. Through our little door to the Blogosphere, we've recorded our kitchen remodel, trips to Seattle, summer camps, and family get-togethers. Our blog may need to be renamed, however; I may have to turn in my Geek card.

Last Wednesday, CrafterKat had a dinner meeting so I thought it might be a good time to try and record some of our old records onto CD. For those younger folk out there, music used to be stored on vinyl disks and came in large flat squares for safe-keeping...

For our anniversay, we bought a CD-RW recorder for our stereo unit. We've not used it much for recording, partly due to the time it takes and partly due to the stereo being in pieces for months on end during the remodel. But last April, CrafterKat re-recorded Treasure Island. All I remember of the process was this:

Jim Hawkins: In order to relate the story of Treasure Island...
CrafterKat: I'm not getting any levels.
Jim Hawkins: In order to relate the story of Treasure Island...
CrafterKat: I'm still not getting any levels.
Jim Hawkins: In order to relate the story of Treasure Island...
CrafterKat: It's still not recording.
Jim Hawkins: In order to relate the story of Treasure Island...

Go with something easy, I told myself. Not too many songs. I pulled out Aliens Ate My Buick by Thomas Dolby. This was an album that I remember driving around and listening to. A lot. The first song, The Keys To Her Ferrari, opens with Robin Leach. Yes, him. That guy who did the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous. This is what I recall of Wednesday evening.

Robin Leach: There was one room in her house that was always kept locked. It was...the garage!
Me: I'm not getting any levels.
Robin Leach: There was one room in her house that was always kept locked.
Me: I'm still not getting any levels.
Robin Leach: There was one room in her house that was always kept locked.
Me: I'm not getting any levels. (heavy sigh)
Robin Leach: There was one room in her house that was always kept locked.
Me: Shut up!

I ended up burning an empty CD.

This weekend I broke down and admitted to CrafterKat that I couldn't get the damn thing to work. ....

Not Exactly a Keats Day

When I was little, one of my favorite books was The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The pictures are charming but I always liked the concept of that much snow! Enough that it was piled as high as the traffic lights, that you could build a fort big enough that it would protect you from a barrage of snowballs, or that you could actually (gasp!) slide down a mountain of it.

It snowed in the Rose City today, blanketing the area in... powdered sugar. Barely. For about 30 minutes. No huge drifts that I once dreamt about, nor even the inches to make a decent snowball.

One radio announcer up here explained the snow ritual his daughter learned in school:

Step 1: Gather the family and have each member cut up a paper snowflake. Write down three snow phrases on the completed flake (e.g. "I love snow. Snow is great! I like snowflakes."

Step 2: Each family member must get their pajama bottoms, turn them inside out, and wear them to bed in that fashion.

Step 3: Each family member takes an ice cube and flushes it down the toilet, stating that they wish it to snow.

Step 4: Take the paper snowflake, tuck it under your pillow, and dream of snow.






I think it obvious that not enough people took part in the snow ritual...

New Year Frog?

On New Year's Eve, Critter and I had to run a few errands. On our long, winding way back home she said, "Be Your Fish."

"Be Your Fish?" I glanced at her and then at the car in front of me and understood.*

She nodded. "You know... Instead of Be Your Self, Be Your Fish."

My mind raced for a rebuttal. "Butter Your Flies."

She wrinkled her nose. "Ewwwww. I'm not a frog!"

I prefer her New Year's resolution. Being a geek though, I had to find out what kind of fish I would be this year (I went here). Unfortunately, my rebuttal is closer to the truth.

What kind of aquarium fish are you? Booger the Frog You are an energetic clown. You charm all with your humor and cute face. You're not the sharpest fish of the flock but we all sure love you!

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

* We often play the License Plate Game, taking the letters off of car plates and making a simple phrase out of it. The car in front of us on this trip had the letters BYF.

These Potatoes Are So Creamy

As Critter has grown into our family, our holiday traditions have also expanded. One of them is to watch "While You Were Sleeping," one of my favorite romantic movies which occurs over Christmas. Another is all the eating and partying...

We had our first party celebrating the Jedi Racoon's birthday. Even Lumpy joined the festivities.

We had fun playing. CrafterKat picked up Jedi tips from the Master himself.

And Critter got some toddler time with her newest cousin.

We debated the Seven Wonders of the World.

And played lots of card games.

But the tradition which I didn't think would happen, has. Last year, on Christmas Eve, Critter left a note. This year, I made sure to do it right. I made pumpkin cookies; she set up the tray with carrots and left a new note.* And Santa was one happy elf.

* The note reads:

Dear Santa,

Hope you like the cookies! They're pumpkin and JewelGeek made them special. They taste really good with milk so I put that out too! Please give the extra long carrot to Rudolph. Say hi to Comet for me as well as Chet!

--Critter

Holiday Catch-up And A Bit Of Mustard

The Christmas holiday usually lasts about two weeks with our families. One weekend or so with my mother, the Social Butterfly (minus any dire Kringle emergencies), and another with CrafterKat’s family. Then we tend to celebrate New Years for another week or until the leftovers are gone.

We began the holidays with a festive start, Critter’s first choir concert.

Then hung up more lights on the new deck.


Evil PXE brought his kids to work as their daycare center was closed for the winter storm we had. His littlest attempted to fix a keyboard with a monster truck.


And the mustard? Well, in case there was a power outage we were prepared...

...with Critter and her glowing mouth toy…

You('re) Better You('re) Better You Bet

It’s been a pretty busy holiday break for us—lots of family get togethers and lots of stomach flu. Because nothing says Happy New Year like multiple trips to the bathroom.

Critter was the latest to get ill (unlucky number 7 in the immediate family) and has been home from school for the last two days. She’s back on solid food and beginning to go a little stir crazy. I drove her to get a burger at McMennamins when The Who came pouring over the radio. I sang the chorus. Badly.

When I say I love you, you say you better
You better you better you bet

“You know,” says Critter, “it should be better than sliced pickles.”

“What?”

“That saying… ‘Better than sliced bread.’ It should be ‘better than sliced pickles’.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because I really like pickles.” Yes, Critter’s definitely feeling better.

Christmas Kringle

Last May or June, the Evil PXE (pronounced Pixie) attended the last campus administrative meeting before everyone went on summer holidays. It's a time for all entities on our campus to let the other administrators know about upcoming projects and concerns that might affect other departments. He returned to our tiny office bearing two small paper plates with a frosted pastry on each. "I thought you might want to try this. One of the other managers made it."

My eyes lit up at the sight and I almost burst into tears. "You brought me Kringle?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Do you want some?"

I gushed. "You brought me Kringle! My Mom only makes this at Christmas! I can't believe you brought me Kringle! Do you know how tough this is to make? Well, not really tough, just time-consuming compared to how quickly it gets eaten."

Last weekend we drove down to Eugene to spend Christmas with my Mom, the Social Butterfly. She called Mr. GoGoGo's house where we were staying, in a panic. "I can't find the Kringle recipe."

"But I rewrote it for you last Christmas when you made it," I continued, trying to keep my breathing regular.

"I've looked in the recipe box. It's not there. Don't you have a copy of it?"

At home, yes. "But I re-wrote it. On one of those new recipe cards CrafterKat made. The same time I did the Peanut Butter Fudge card."

"OOOOooooh! Then it's in the other recipe box. The one I don't use."

I exhaled slowly, relieved.

Christmas with my Mom was wonderful. And the Kringle one of the best ever. Even if I did forget to write down how much flour went into the pastry filling...

Christmas Kringle

Step I: Pie Dough

1 c. flour
1/3 c. butter
2 T. water

Mix the above ingredients like pie dough and then separate into two equal sections. Smooth each pile of dough into a long strip about three inches wide on a cookie sheet.

Step 2: Pastry Filling

1 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1. c. flour
3 eggs
1 T. almond flavoring

Bring the water and butter to boil. As you take from heat, add all of the flour at one time. Beat until smooth. Add one egg at a one time. Beat until smooth. Add the almond flavoring and beat until smooth again. Pile the filling onto the two pie dough strips, about one inch thick.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45-50 minutes.

Step 3: Frosting

1 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1 T. butter
1 T. almond flavoring

Sliced almonds (traditional but optional)

Mix up the frosting ingredients and frost the Kringle pastry while it is still warm. Sprinkle with the sliced almonds.

Step 4: Aftermath

Eat. Go back for seconds. Then thirds. Wonder why Kringle is all gone.

Holly, Merry Times

It's been a little over a week since our state had A Perfect Storm, according to the weather reporters. Lots of rain, high winds, and power outages throughout the metro area. In fact our long-term summer intern, Princeton (now home for the Christmas holiday break), informed us that it took five days to restore power to his house. Critter had a second choir concert that evening over at the high school and had dressed up for the event only to have the concert cancelled a half-hour before she needed to be there.

The radio and TV began reporting power outages and highway closures due to fallen trees and car accidents. The rest of the evening CrafterKat and I finished up our holiday decorating. It was a But First evening.

First we had to separate out the boxes that we weren't going to use.
Then pile the boxes that needed to go upstairs.
Then climb into the attic and re-organize the boxes so the Christmas boxes are on the west side.
Only to discover the plywood panels hadn't been replaced after the kitchen wiring was done.
Redistribute the pink insulation into each bay.
Then push boxes out of the way to grab the plywood panels.
Wedge plywood panels into place and discover that one doesn't fit that spot.
Find an electrical outlet for the drill.
Pray that the power doesn't go out.
Perform acrobatic maneuvers to drill the plywood in without falling through the drywall into the kitchen below.
Perform human chain to carry boxes up the stairs and into a spot on the west side of the house.

We all clambered down and got into pajamas. CrafterKat, now coming down with a cold, scooped up her sleep gear to recover in the Craft Room. Critter brushed her teeth and began singing Christmas songs, "Have a holly, merry Christmas..."

CrafterKat stopped on the stairs. "Holly, jolly Christmas," she corrected.

Critter gave an annoyed sigh and almost stamped her foot in frustration. "If the English can say 'Happy Christmas' then I can say 'Holly, Merry Christmas'! It's just wrong!"

We chuckled, said our goodnights, and went to bed. Five minutes later the lights went out, the power returning a few short minutes later. Critter was back at my door the instant the lights returned. "The lights went out."

"Yes, but the power came back on." The Fuzzy Slug settled down across my legs, oblivious to the outage. I continued in a calm, unconcerned manner, "It may go out again, or it may not."

Critter remained in the hallway, unconvinced.

I chuckled to myself. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

"YES!" She grabbed her quilt, pillow and stuffie and leapt into bed, wrapping herself up in the blankets. I wished her goodnight after she was settled. "Goodnight, JewelGeek. And thanks for the Slumber Party!"

Clarence, you been rehearsin' real hard to get a new saxophone?

The day after Thanksgiving, we all piled into the Tink Tank for leftovers at Mr. GoGoGo's house. CrafterKat pulled out of my Mom's driveway, turned on the radio and tee-hee'd. Christmas music poured forth from the Eugene radio station.

"I found the one station here that is playing Christmas music all the time." She laughed again.

I sighed comically just as Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus is Coming To Town came on. "So, this is the first of 300 times I'll hear this song this season." I sighed again, resigned.

For the record, I don't mind Christmas songs. Nor am I anti-Bruce (well, maybe a bit but mostly because the radio stations overplayed him so much in the 80's). I do, however, get ticked off with the repetition of the same songs every season.

Alas, my prediction is not proving true this year. It's the 14th of December and I've only heard Bruce's version of this classic three times.

Instead, every station seems to be playing the Snoopy/Red Baron song and the one about getting a hippopotomous for Christmas. Once or twice is fine--they are cute--but come on! Not every day!

Sigh.

I'm now half-expecting to see a hippo in my garage on Christmas Day.

After all, there's lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage.

Well, Merry Christmas mein friend!

Dipping In The Pocket Of Her Raincoat

Ah, rainy days in the Rose City. Now that the carpet and most of the furniture have been installed and delivered, we're beginning to sound like a Paul McCartney song.

Slipping Into Stockings,
Stepping Into Shoes,
Dipping In The Pockets Of Her Raincoat.

Ah, It's Just Another Day. Du Du Du Du Du
It's Just Another Day. Du Du Du Du Du

We're watching the new neighbors...

Spending time with our healthy friends...


Fighting for control of the couch...

Overseeing the melting of ice...

It's been a pretty busy few days!

House of Cards, Part 2

Note: House of Cards, Part 1 can be found here.

It’s been a little over a week since the new carpet has been installed in our home. Here’s what happened:

Friday, November 17
CrafterKat posts sofa, two chairs, and rocker on Craigslist at 9:15 p.m.
Phone rings non-stop beginning at 9:16 p.m. until we disconnect it at 10:00 p.m.
Furniture is brought upstairs and stored in Critter’s room.
JewelGeek sustains Craigslist injury moving overstuffed chair—bangs wrist against doorknob. Lovely bruise is just now fading…

Saturday, November 18
JewelGeek bakes cookies beginning at 6:00 a.m.
First Craigslist reader from Washington state shows at 7:00 a.m. to pick up furniture.
JewelGeek bakes cookies.
Second Craigslist reader shows up to claim remaining items.
We marvel at how empty living room is without comfy furniture.
JewelGeek bakes cookies.
CrafterKat brings up crafting supplies.
Cleaning. Baking. Cleaning. Prepping for party.

Sunday, November 19
JewelGeek bakes cookies.
Final cleaning and prepping for party.
Annual Craft Party!

Monday, November 20
Extra cookies taken to work.
We marvel at how empty the house looks without furniture.

Tuesday, November 21
Pack for Thanksgiving vacation.
Scritch kitties.
Dream of new furniture and carpet.

November 22-25
Thanksgiving in Eugene.
Eat too much food.
Play card games.
Scritch the Captain’s dog. Scritch the Egyptian Queen.

Sunday, November 26
Dismantle computers.
Move majority of furniture into dining room.
Take crafting party supplies downstairs.
Unpack, clean, recover from Thanksgiving.

November 27-29
Watch kitties race across open living space, devoid of furniture
Sit on wooden chairs in middle of living room, meals balanced precariously on laps.
Give up on eating while sitting on wooden chairs. Go to restaurants or get take out to eat in bedroom.
Move large oak bookshelf into kitchen, slightly blocking the refrigerator.

Thursday, November 30
CrafterKat stays home, feeling poorly.

Jewelgeek greets Homer who has come to install the carpet and the vinyl floor for the bathroom. JewelGeek states that the vinyl is for the landing where he is standing and tells him it should match the vinyl located in the kitchen.
JewelGeek checks the van and is assured that it is the correct carpet and vinyl.
Kitties locked in master bedroom with CrafterKat.

JewelGeek visits eye doctor at 9:45 and learns she needs new glasses.
Optometrist assistant urges JewelGeek to buy thick plastic frames popular in the 80’s.
JewelGeek declines and orders pair that is the same model she currently wears.
JewelGeek returns home to mariachi music playing on portable radio for the contractors.
The carpet is mostly laid out.
JewelGeek checks on CrafterKat’s health and invites her to lunch.

Shatter.

Homer and his crew break the sidelight window next to the front door with their equipment.
We fetch heavy plastic from the summer remodel and tape up both windows, inside and out, in case the glass explodes.
We attempt to exit the garage through the car port doors only to find them blocked with rolls of 20-year old carpet. Exit through garage back door.
Back Tink Tank out and around two contractor vans to go to lunch.
Visit to Lowe’s after lunch to inquire about putting in new sidelights.

Returned to find first layer of smoothing agent on the front landing for the vinyl. Have to step on dry areas to get up the stairs.
Living and hallway areas are carpeted.
We retreat to master bedroom to wait for vinyl to be finished.
Critter returns home from school.

Second layer of drying agent on landing is not dry. Fetch heaters and crafting heat guns to dry the landing (it’s about 30 degrees outside).
Notice carpet installers are huddled around gas fireplace trying to get warm.
Circuit for heaters and crafting heat guns blows.

Notice carpet is not wall to wall in the living room as per our specs. Homer’s crew had carpeted to where the old fireplace mantel sat. This carpet was supposed to be one large piece from the fireplace all the way down to the end of the hallway.
Homer says he can melt the pieces of carpet back together and refinishes the living room.

Mariachi music doesn’t help the vinyl sealant dry faster.

Remind Homer’s crew to install the metal bars between the carpet and the existing vinyl (holds the carpet down and provides a threshold as you enter the kitchen).

Critter and JewelGeek sneak out for hamburgers and milkshakes from Mike’s by crawling over the living room furniture blocking the rear door to the deck.
Dinner was scarfed in the master bedroom as we waited for the vinyl sealant to dry.

Noticed that the carpet was laid over the wooden threshold to the master bedroom so we have two different colored carpets meeting about three inches inside the bedroom door.
Crew replaces molding on landing with regular nails instead of finishing nails and have nailed over the tape we used to keep the plastic from flapping away.
Crew leaves house at 7:00 p.m.

Move stereo stand into living room, under window.
Slide TV off of stand and onto wooden chest.
Attach wheels to TV stand and, eventually, lift TV back onto stand.

Check for hernias.
Family retires to bed, exhausted.

Friday, December 1
Recover.

Saturday, December 2
CrafterKat leaves for mandatory training at her office.

JewelGeek takes down the old light in the hallway.
Confirmation phone call with the Renaissance Man about electrical wires.
Critter helps install new light purchased at Lowe’s.
Circuit blows.

JewelGeek drives to Home Depot.

JewelGeek figures out that both the red and the black wires are live. Returns home to install the new light fixture the same way the old one was installed.
New hall light is beautiful. No circuit is blown.

JewelGeek carves carpet away from floor outlet so cover can replaced.
Critter replaces heat vent covers with new ones.
JewelGeek and Critter move oak bookcase back.

Lunch is scarfed.

Critter vacuums. Sort of.
JewelGeek empties clogged vacuum tube filled with five years of kitty fur. Vacuum works beautifully.

Cherry bookcase is unearthed from dining room clutter and moved back.
Critter and JewelGeek watch Christmas movies until furniture shows up.

Furniture arrives at 3:30 p.m.
JewelGeek and Critter test the furniture, exhausted. It’s been two full weeks since we’ve had a sofa and chair.

Desks are brought back into the living room.
Computer is set up. Friday, December 8
JewelGeek's blood pressure is considerably lower and can now write this blog entry.

Luck Be a Lady

Critter is definitely learning cribbage FAST. A game we played after Thanksgiving taught me that Luck prefers young ladies. She scored a 24-point hand! (She lost the game to my advanced pegging skills. And the fact that she led to me.)

The next game, she scored a 20-point hand. (She lost to my last-minute 16-point hand, which I got to count before she could earn her remaining 3 points. Neener neener neener.)

The deck and board sit on the diningroom table, in the middle of a game, covered by the mayhem that was carpet installation. We'll get back to it soon, I assume, and hopefully with no card drama!

House Of Cards

It’s been just over a week since we have had computer access at home. And quite a bit has changed in our Rose City castle. We left for Eugene the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for lots of good food, stories, more good food, and card games.

A typical Thanksgiving conversation at Mr. GoGoGo’s house:

Critter: (perusing her cribbage cards) I need help with this hand.
CrafterKat: You can figure it out on your own. That’s how you learn.
Critter: But I don’t know what to put into the kitty. Grandpaaaaaa!
JewelGeek: Sweetie, try and figure it out yourself.
Critter: Arrrrgggggghhhh!
CrafterKat and JewelGeek: One Eyed Pete! *

We ate far too much turkey, raved about the seafood The Captain brought up from Gold Beach, and helped (?) Chef Flip Flop prep for his cooking test on sauces. Cooking school is serious stuff—he had over 50 sauces to learn that weekend. “My teacher is going to give me a meat and say, ‘Cook this pork with a such-and-such sauce. You have to use this starch for the base and you have one hour and ten minutes. Go!’” No pressure…

Our food bliss ended Saturday with one final leftovers lunch. CrafterKat had a friend from the Seattle area stop by on their way home. She and her husband had been with vegetarian in-laws, dining on tofu turkey and nut stuffing. Their Thanksgiving dinnercan be summed up thusly: “No meat should squeak in your mouth.”

The rest of the weekend was spent preparing the house for the carpet installation on Thursday. Which meant we had to move everything back into the kitchen, an interesting jigsaw puzzle.















But a puzzle which The Little Man enjoyed immensely. The ceiling fan is soooo much easier to play with when you can stand on the television!



* The name we have given Critter's Pirate Cow