violetismycolor

gunk alert...

So...a while ago, we got a new roof put on.  What I realized much later was that the upstairs (storage) crawlspace in our house (adjacent to the playroom) was nearly destroyed with crap that fell down from the roofing job and onto everything we have stored in there.  I have successfully avoided cleaning this space...till now.

I need that storage space and I need it to be clean!

In the process of cleaning it, I have managed to somehow totally screw up my vacuum cleaner, which is now the NEW victim of said gunk.  Great...now I have to fix the vacuum cleaner (this entails basically taking it apart) and then clean the gunk with a small broom and dustpan (which is not mechanical and cannot be plugged up with gunk, as such).  So much for the easy way out.

I have many other important tasks to do before the rush of folks start occupying my house over the next month and this is messing up my schedule.  Bah! (Humbug?)

tv, and me...

I got the COOLEST thing today.  The fact that it came to me today had to do with bad timing with something else.  I'll explain.

I was trying to free up some space on my computer and was burning images to DVD.  Just as I opened a bottom drawer, the DVD burner door sprung open and hit the drawer warping the drive door and making it inoperable.  Crud!  I had to call Larry, my computer guy to save me.

I have been talking to him about installing a tv tuner to my computer (it runs on Windows XP Media Center Edition) and we chatted about resolving this issue while resolving my DVD drive issue...we DID!  So, we got everything we needed (a cable signal splitter, more coaxial cable, a tv tuner card, etc.) and popped back to my house.  Larry managed to fix the DVD drive door AND successfully got my computer tv/recorder working.

The gist is:  I now have a TiVo, without paying a TiVo subscription fee.  The Media Center software finds your Cable TV listings and it allows you to record one show, while watching another...on your computer.  It is just too cool.  Now, I don't have to tape my favorite shows, most of which John hates...I can just schedule them to be recorded by my computer...YAY!!!

I have to admit that I am a gadget  geek...so true.  But I love it!

weather woes...

My header illustration is most appropriate this month. Our normal rainfall for the month of November is 2 inches.  We just broke the old record (set in 1942) of 11 and a half inches.  And there are still 3 days left in the month. 

To add insult to injury, it has started to snow (not the part I mind) and they are expecting the roads to freeze tonight (the part I DO mind) and then a possibility of freezing rain on Thursday. 

Oh yes, November...go out like a lion, why don't you?  Here's hoping that December will be a lamb to us and give us some lovely cold but sunny weather to enjoy while all my kids are home from their various school adventures.  Now, THAT would make me happy...

days of giving thanks are not yet past...

The past week has been a very busy one due to the repainting and repairing of Adam's bedroom and of the playroom above the garage.  I was rushing to get things done before my niece, Becky, arrived with her boyfriend Scott, and one-year-old son, Coye (pictured here).  They were a lot of fun to have around and they kept themselves really busy, taking Coye to the Oregon Zoo, the Children's Museum, the coastal cities of Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Astoria...AND visiting the hordes of relatives hereabouts.  Scott was amazing in getting everyone to love him...he's so friendly and chatty. 

They, as well as Ross (who was the only one of our three kids home for the Thanksgiving Weekend), left this morning.  The house is quiet again.  The cat, who fled the house the minute that baby showed up, is happily curled up on her heater vent.  I can go back to sorting the house out this week.  I can hang pictures on the walls.  I can get ready for everyone to descend on us for Christmas.  Happily on all counts.

Adam's room turned out very well...photo here:   

just stellar...

*Photo can be enlarged by clicking on it*

I have become enthralled with the photos that the Hubble Space Station has sent back to earth.  This one is called the Rainbow Nebula, for obvious reasons. 

I now have this photo as my 'wallpaper', replacing my charming Ross's first-football game-photo.  I plan to rotate the various photos that I downloaded from the Hubble site...all of which are absolutely phenomenal.

Hey, wouldn't I love to go out there and see this all for myself?!?  I think the beauty might blow my mind, literally!

relatives...

I come from a long line of Dutch dairy farmers.  My dad and both my grandfathers were dairy farmers, and with a very few exceptions, I think my forebearers were all in the same line of work.  There was a town notary here and a grain dealer there, but that's about the extent of the variety in my family. 

Not so for John's family.  He has hundreds of years (from like 1167 to 1550) of ancestors who were the clan lairds (lords) of the Colqohoun clan (Americanized to Calhoun).  His Calhoun grandfather was the founding librarian of the Calgary library system and has a branch named after him.  His maternal grandmother's cousin was a lady named Agnes MacPhail, the first women member of Parliament in Canada. 

And now he tells me that his great-aunt Katharine was J.P. Morgan's personal librarian. 

When he told me this, I wanted to go out and find something out about her.  I googled her but didn't find anything.  Maybe reading about J.P. Morgan would help.  Maybe John's mother has some interesting tidbits.  (I love that word, tidbits...)  I will have to do some digging. 

I wonder what else he hasn't told me...

unglued...

How many walls does Adam's room have anyway?  It seemed like a lot more than 4.  There was more gooey wallpaper paste on my fingers (and gloves) and tools and clothes and Everything than I care to think about.  But the job is finally done and now the painters can come in on Monday and rescue me from the nightmare that involves Adam's bedroom walls...mold and splitting at the drywall seams and plaster peeling away...ugh...

the best 5-0, ever...

Thanks to all of you for remembering  my big day. 

Adam and Bonnie called me this morning from Venice (whose birthday was it, anyway?) and we had a nice, long talk.  Then Ross called a little later from Oregon State.  So, this was the best part of my day.

John got me a carpet cleaner, which is what I asked for...what do I really need these days, after all?  So I asked for something useful. 

I met with my coffee friends in the morning, then went off and had lunch with John.  I spent the afternoon looking at books and furniture and paint colors.  Very laid back and relaxed.

My mother-in-law took us out to dinner at a fabulous French restaurant called Fenouille.  Just yummy!  All in all, about the perfect day.  AND I got these sweet notes from you!  Thank you for making my day all that much more special!

birthday...

Tomorrow is my 50th birthday...wow...

The best present I could possibly get is the gift of a Democratic-led Congress, but the American public has let me down before and I'm not counting on it.  But I will hope...

And what will I do with my exciting day?  I will be stripping wallpaper-backing paper with DIF, same as I did yesterday and same as I did today. 

I am trying to get Adam's room painted and ready for my guests on the 20th.  I will be using Adam's old curtains (which I made), so that SOMETHING will be familiar to Adam when he comes home for Christmas.  He has lived in that room since he was 2 and it has had the same old Marimekko wallpaper (though I went through three borders) all that time.  Now it will be painted a nice tan, and it will have soft red and green accents.  It will no longer have Mickey Mouse's Chocolate Factory as wall art, but something else yet to be determined.  Something from my personal photo collection, I think.

Other than that, I will be going out to dinner with my husband and my MIL and my nephew...somewhere in the Pearl District near the nephew's new apartment.  Something low key and not shouting "50". 

Not that I have any problem with the whole landmark birthday thing.  I like where I am in life right now and who I am, so the number is just a random marker.  At least, that's how I think I will feel in the morning...