Later that same day...

I had to go out and run errands, pick up my crop share, go to Chinatown, and stop at school to meet with a student and pick up stuff from my office. All in the pouring rain. I left the leaks with buckets, and when I came back, not only were the buckets almost full, but the leaking was more extensive. What to do??? I got a ladder and poked holes in the ceiling to see if there was a low point and to get the water to come out in one place. Then, out of desperation I called the phone number on the invoice from Wally figuring I'd get an answering machine so I could leave a sob story and hope to hear from him on Monday. It wouldn't solve the problem, but at least I would feel like I had done something to get going in the right direction. To my surprise, his wife answered the phone. She took a message and to even more of my surprise, half an hour later, Wally rang my door bell!
He looked at everything. Even poked a hole in wall. I didn't look but he said there is water just running down the back of the wall. Great. The water is coming into the wall below the third floor window. Obviously the water has been coming in there for a while. That's probably why the stones over the 2nd floor window were falling out. We took a shower curtain and blocked that space off.
Hopefully it will slow the drips down. I really hope so, because I'm running out of big buckets.
Things to do on Monday:
1. Call Jeff and cry him a river. See if I can persuade him to come sooner than May.
2. Call insurance company. See if this is covered by home owner's insurance.

As the pendulum swings...

It's pouring rain in Philadelphia today. sigh.
I woke up to find massive leaking over the window that Wally fixed in January. Thought to myself, must call him on Monday.
Came downstairs to the first floor, heard very suspicious dripping sounds. Yep, the leak is running down through my walls and leaking through to the studio. Ruined some of my rubbings from Korea. Now what?
I guess I can spend all that money I'm saving on my gas bill to fix this new problem.
AND - who do I call for this on a Saturday???

For the doubters....

As I was doing my bills today, I realized I was paying quite a bit less on my gas bill than I have been all last year. If you recall, my gas bill last February was in the neighborhood of $780. Thank goodness there is the option to average the gas bill out over the year, it sure makes it easier on the bank account. But since I noticed that my bill was about half the amount as usual, and not wanting to be caught off guard, I called PGW. It turns out that I'm using half the amount as last year. !!! My monthly bill was $300 and change. What is the lesson here? - Insulation works! It's the only thing I did differently. I've even kept the temperature the same, and kept the windows covered with plastic. I just plugged all the drafty holes in the basement. Hmmm, :), feels good to do something right.

The Garden Bites Back

The weather was so beautiful on Saturday I spent the afternoon attacking the garden. Too bad it attacked back. I pulled down a bunch of vines. I knew which ones I wanted to yank down and got quite a few of them. It felt pretty good until I tried to start cleaning up. Some of those vines have thorns. Nasty ones. I tried to bag up as much as I could. But those darn thorns kept scratching me. My wrists and ankles got all chewed up. And worst of all, it turns out I had a blister on the bottom of my foot. I didn't know about it - wouldn't have made much difference if I had - but it broke.
After deciding my foot was in enough pain and I should probably wash my hands, I assessed the damage. The worst on my hands were the three punctures to my left index finger.
Not only that but it began to swell up somethin' fierce. I tried to see if I could pull a thorn or something out - nothing doin'. My finger was completely puffed up yesterday. I put calendula on it over night and it was a bit better by morning. But what finally did the trick was washing the dishes. I can't believe it.
When I was younger - maybe 8 or 9, I had a some sort of a cut on my finger. It was probably just a paper cut, but I was moaning about it after dinner and my dad said, "Wash the dishes, that'll clear it up." And he was serious. My mom, sister and I scoffed at this - dirty water can't be good for a cut! Somehow, his mother was quoted because she was a nurse, and we of course didn't buy it - and on and on and on. I remember it being a little bit of an issue, and I've remembered this for what, 20 years? Well, Daddy, I owe you an apology. I washed the dishes this morning and promptly the swelling in my finger started to go down. It is almost back to normal now. Go figure.
Now my foot is an entirely different matter. It is a completely unprotected blister, open, located in a spot on my foot that gets too much movement to keep a band aid on it. Grrr. Talk about painful. Whew! At least it's nice enough weather to be able to ride my bike to work tomorrow. That will save my foot a little.

More Than Persephone Got

Ta-dah! Finally - the first batch of ten of the book for my dad is finished! And I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. I decided that the book I found at UPenn on Wednesday was the perfect binding. I stayed up until midnight making paste papers, and made a mock up.


It's very satisfying to look at the finished pile.

Of course, non of this would have been possible without the help of the inspector:

Lookit!

So I met my friend Mary tonight for a "beer". On our way home, we went through the UPenn Bookstore. I found the green journal. When I got home, I decided I needed to make it - and I think it's okay.
Actually I think it's pretty cool, I'm going to do a mock up tomorrow morning to see if this is the enclosure for my dad's book!

Quick post

Hello. Just a quick post to update you.
The snow is finally receding and we are finding interesting things beneath it all. For example this book. Which I must have taken umpteen images of. People thought I was a little weird. By the way - all of the snow you see here is completely gone. Took this last Saturday, and actually hung my sheets out in the sun yesterday.
However, we are supposed to get another inch this afternoon. So far nothing.

I took the week off so that I could get some art related stuff finished. It's been really great. I re-printed the book for my dad. Spent most of yesterday setting up gigs and backing fabric. I'm going to make some paste papers now and then get back to editioning. It's a good feeling, and I'm listening to Harry Potter - so it's all good.
That's the first 11 books there on top of the pile (no covers yet) I'm going to squeak by on my edition, I think I will just get 70. (70 because my dad turned 70 - get it? :)) It was your basic printing nightmare. Whatever could go wrong, went wrong. But it's done, moving on....

I'm also managing to move along on the silver sweater which is a source of a little jealousy from guess who. Here he is, ahem, guarding it. He's been incredibly funny and cute lately.
Yesterday while I was on the phone I looked up to find him sitting on top of the fridge on my shopping bags. Totally blasé. This actually kind of explains a lot. I keep hearing heavy thuds of him jumping when I'm downstairs. I think he sits up there so he has a better vantage point to watch the mice coming out of the stove.

I also bought some beautiful beaded silk which was 40% off. I wound it the other day, isn't it beautiful?
But that will have to wait for now.

Okidoki, that's enough.

Deja Vu

Well?...
I'm not sure what's going on with the weather. We have a snow day, and it's been snowing ALL day but not a drop of it is sticking. Feels a little guilty to be at home. I'd rather be at work doing things.
Crazy right?
To update you all on my first floor ceiling - the plumber came on Monday and figured out that the trap from the drain had fallen out. Great. So he's supposed to come back tomorrow and put a strap on it, and then someone is supposed to come and fix the ceiling. Of course, all of this depends on whether we get the storm of the century or not.

The Fates

Apparently the fates don't think I have enough to deal with.

I just discovered the bathroom ceiling on my first floor:
and the stuff that landed in the tub:
Oh yay.

OMG

I think we just had an earthquake in Philadelphia. Not joking. It was a little lurch, my seat moved and then the bookshelves or the door shook gently. Nothing strong enough to worry about. Either than or my house settled a bit strongly. Well, Lois Johnson, one of my profs at UArts always told a story about feeling an earthquake in 1968 (or something like that).
I really hope we don't start having earthquakes on the east coast of the US. Everything is comin' down if we do. Nothing has rebar in it. Okay - I'm going to stop now.

Because we didn't get enough snow

There are huge snowflakes falling outside. Have been for the last five hours. It's not sticking too much though. This is a good thing. We can't too much more of this. I thought I'd show my icicles from the other direction. They are pretty nice. Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day - I did my taxes. :)

Snow, snow, and more snow

I had to run errands in center city today. What a nightmare. The sidewalks are still full of snow, crossing any street is an obstacle course of ice, slush, puddles, and other pedestrians. I got what I needed and got the heck out of dodge.
Jacques was glad I was home. He's tired of the snow, he can't run around and check all of his stations. He came outside for the photo shoot, but was very glad when we headed back in.
I have the most amazing icicles all around the house. They are really beautiful, but a bit ominous.
And it seems like it's not over yet. There is a prediction of snow on Monday. We could get another 6inches. ! This is not helping the "global warming" argument. But switch that to Global Climate Change - yeah, that works. We have not had this much snow once in my 6.5 years of living here. In fact two of the years, there was no snow. Not a snowflake.
I am using the time to get through a list of things to do that is 15 inches long. Not joking. I just measured it. That doesn't count the notes of other stuff to do on the side. So far I've got six things crossed off. Up next, boring stuff I don't want to do. But if I can get these things crossed off tonight, maybe I can make some art tomorrow!

Snow Day Thursday

Good Morning!A couple of pictures of the view outside my bedroom window. Above, the beautiful snow on all the bare branches.
Icicles hanging from the ledge. They are about three feet long.
And my poor pine tree is so heavy with snow, the top part has split in two.
We have clear blue sky today. A record of all time, 71 inches of snow has fallen on the city of Philadelphia. I've got to do my part today to dig ourselves out. Rumor has it, the city doesn't have any more money in the budget for snow removal. The only things running are the ambulances. The mayor has called for a "transition day", whatever that means. But there are still some bosses making people go to work! It's treacherous out there! One of my poor friends has to go to work, and a lot of the public transportation isn't running. I say she should protest formally, tell her boss is a crazy old git, and call it a day. But then, she might not have her job on Monday morning. (sigh). Thank goodness my boss is reasonable and has said when the Phila. Public schools are closed, so are we.
So, for the agenda today is:
1. dig out sidewalks. While this isn't exactly fun, it's not that bad either. It's definitely great for the abs. And Jacques will get to go out which he is desperate to do.
2. I have a lot of business type stuff to do. Including getting going on my taxes.
3. The saga of the silver sweater:
(ugh)
I've been working on this thing for over a year now. I thought I'd move along while I was in California and make the second sleeve. Well, I did, and I did it wrong. There is one too many rows of twists! How did I do that?
Last night, with Jacques help, I layed everything out, and looked at it. The thinner sleeve is much nicer and so I decided to knit - yes - a third sleeve for this sweater.
It looks better already. Maybe I'll get to wear it next year.
Jacques, is still the king of finding the warm spots. Here he has found the sunbeam du jour. He sat here for a while as I worked on my photos. But really he's going a bit stir-crazy. Poor guy. He wants to be outside so badly, but he does not like the snow. We'll see what he does today when I go out to dig up the side walk.

Lovely lovely Snow day, again and again

Snow day today! Good thing too. We got about 6 inches last night. It let up a bit this morning. Then around noon, just as I had finished my sidewalk, it started up again and hasn't stopped yet.
So guess what? Snow day tomorrow too!!! Lovely lovely....
Here's my car this morning: And here it is just now: Didn't do anything really today. I did weave in the ends of my gloves. They are ready to wear. But I tell ya, never again. Gloves are a major pain in the neck. I think I'm a mitten person. I'm actually thinking I should knit myself a pair of mittens in the same pattern. It sure would go a lot faster and I wouldn't have to worry about the color changes.

No Snow day today

Snow day yesterday!
I got lots done. Ran errands, prepped for class tonight, took care of some business, and finished my gloves!!!I still need to weave ends in, and I'm probably going to re-address the fingertips. I don't like how they've been finished. And this was a good lesson about thinking through what you are doing with which yarn. What a pain in the tuchus to get the gradation to work on the fingers. Look at the state of my yarn. What a mess! Will have to deal with that as well.
I was hoping for another snow day today, but no dice. That's okay, it's looking like we'll have another one tomorrow, maybe Thursday as well. As always, we live in hope.

Snowy Weekend

Lookit how much snow fell! The reports this morning were 27 inches. And it's beautiful beautiful beautiful! Big powdery drifts in my yard. Jacques braved the outdoors for a few hours today. I think he must have stayed under the porch the entire time because there were no kitty footprints in the yard. And actually with the 2 and half feet we got it would have been a sinking kitty, no footprints.
I spent yesterday on the couch (except for the hour I was out shoveling the sidewalk) knitting: I only have two fingers to go! The right glove looks so much better than the left. Probably because I didn't try it on 19 million times, and I did a much better job of making the gradated color even. I'm really happy with them despite the unevenness. I just looked on KYW our news station for school closures. It says schools are closed on Monday. I hope it still says that tomorrow morning. Then I can do all the stuff I should have been doing Saturday.
The storm stopped yesterday around 2pm, and started to clear up. We had an absolutely beautiful sunset:
view out the front window.
View out of my bedroom window.
We are supposed to get another storm on Tuesday, which according to NPR is supposed to dump even more snow than this last one. Positive thinking people! Snow day snow day snowday!

Lovely Weather

Well, we got a little snow last night.
17 inches by 10am with another 3-5 predicted by this afternoon. I'm leaning towards the five the way this stuff is coming down. And there are people out there! Unbelievable. But mostly is just quiet. So quiet. Every once in a while I can hear a snow plow or some knucklehead who wants to drive somewhere go by, but mostly its so quiet.
Jacques wanted out badly this morning. We went to the front door and he bounded out. Without a change in rhythm on the third bound he did an about face and hopped right back in the door. This was followed by some severe complaining as he stalked around the hallway.
As I went to shut the door he came running back. Possibly hoping that it was all a big joke and that this time when I opened it, everything would be gone. I let him out again and you could see him trying to figure out how to be out without sinking into the snow. He knows to step in previous tracks, but when the tracks don't go where you want to go, what then? Do you walk closer to the wall? does the step help? Nothing really helps. I think what he doesn't like is the surprise of sinking. If he could walk on top of the snow that would be fine. He quickly gave up and came back in to whine some more. I'm not complaining, this means I am now his favorite sleeping spot. He sleeps on my legs and is nice and toasty warm. Mary texted a bit ago - let's go play in the snow in the park. Not me. I'm staying in my flannel jammies, cow-girl slippers, day glow fleece with the cat and coffee. I will have enough fun in the snow tomorrow clearing my sidewalk, thank you very much.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the library and checked out some dvds. I tried going to the store but it was total madness. There was no way I was going to wait an hour in line to buy one bunch of scallions. Wontons will have to wait until I can get back to the store. Instead, I came home last night and baked an Apfel Torte. I love this cake. It's just a thin layer of dough and cut up apples, a little sugar and Cinnamon. High fiber, low calories.
I'm working on my gloves today. Here's where I am, so close and yet so far. I've got a lot of other projects I'd also like to do and I have some business type stuff to do as well. But it feels like nothing else is functioning so why should I? I'm desperately hoping that the city of Philadelphia will not get it's act together enough tomorrow (Sunday) to have things clear by Monday morning. Snow day! Snow day! Snow day!

A Big Aquisition

Isn't it beautiful!?
My very first MAJOR appliance. It's bright red (duh) and spins so fast everything is practically dry when it comes out! I washed four or five loads of laundry this weekend. No dryer - I'm going to stick with my environmentally friendly creed for now... air is free and I'm spending a bundle to blow hot air all over this house, it might as well at least dry my clothes while it's at it.
Jeff came on Friday to look at tightening up the third floor and he did not have good news. First of all he can't come until May and second of all it's going to be pricey. Maybe I have to do one half this year and another half next year. He was not surprised at the washing machine's color. Just said, I new it!
First priority is to get the Raccoon hole plugged. We had crazy rain last Monday and that blew the precariously stapled piece of cardboard off of the hole. I really don't want to have to climb up there again, but I don't think Jeff is going to do it. I think I'll rent a ladder from the tool library and clamber up there myself and do it right. (if I can).
Other than that I haven't done much to the house. I did clean on Friday - that's a good feeling - and good timing. Thank god I'd cleaned the bathroom before Jeff inspected it. That would have been embarrassing.
I tried cleaning up down stairs, I did get out the shop vac for the entrance to the basement, but really - I just feel like I'm moving piles of stuff around the studio. What I really need to do down there is build some floor to ceiling bookshelves/storage thingies. Then I think I can get most things put away.
and PS: did you notice the wierd crop of the image of my new machine? That's because I didn't have the heart to crop out the stained glass window my dad made for me when I was 8 or 9? That should explain the subject matter.

Life's Little Affirmations

I must be doing something right.
My first class of the spring semester Advanced Book Arts class met tonight.
Most of the students were there early. While we were waiting one, who'd taken the other class the previous spring asked, "Are we doing that Edible Book assignment again?" I said, "yes". She said, "Good, because I made my friend take the other class so we could do it together, we have it all planned out. That's okay, right?"
Ah - you are already planning to complete an assignment before the class even started? "Yes, that's okay. :)!"

A Really Long Time Commin'

Uh Boy.
Where do I start?
Happy New Year! That's a good place to start.
So to fill you all in on the cliff hanger, Jacques is fine. Well, sort of. He has recovered nicely from the expanding foam catastrophe. But it's been a rough time for him otherwise. I was gone for a week, then I turned back up to abandon him again to go to work, and then in the last few days it's been grand central station around here. Too many people for comfort, so of course we all have to hear ALL about it. But I'll get to that in good time....
I'll back up to almost the last post when I was frantically trying to finish my dad's Birthday present. He turned 70 on Jan 5th. I thought I might make him a book. I was going to post the whole book here but the images are no good and I'm not trooping downstairs tonight to take more. I'll do that sometime soon. Anyway - this is what I was working on back when the huge snow storm happened in December. The trudging home in the snow and the nice bus driver was all because of this. And wasn't it worth it?
For his 70th birthday, in addition to the book he got a new knee. Lucky him. Actually he's been pretty miserable. It's quite a job - getting a new knee. Not only is there surgery, but then there is recovery with some machine that makes you flex your knee. He has to be on this machine for 8 hours a day. Apparently this is not his cup-o-tea. Hang in there Daddy - you'll be so happy when it's all done. :)!
House project when I got home was to plug the darn hole where the raccoons were getting in. I decided to put cardboard up to see if they'd rip it down. It's been up for a week or so with no issues. Then I tried to get up there and put the bracket back in. No dice. I couldn't get it to fit back into where it'd come from. And since I was perched so precariously on the edge of the roof, I thought I'd quit while I was ahead. I did realize while I was up there how much work needs to be done up there. It looks really terrible. All of the wood is rotting away. It really needs to be replaced. I've been trying to see if Jeff would do it. but he doesn't seem to want to. I had a quote from someone else, but I don't trust this other guy to do a good job. I don't want a patch job, I want a fixed job and for that I'd rather pay a bit more to get it done right. Too bad I can't do it myself, but this is not a one-woman job.
Knitting: I spent most of my holiday in California knitting a sleeve for the silver sweater I've been knitting for over a year now. Unfortunately I got home and discovered that I added one twist too many. Ugh. I've got to rip out the entire thing and redo it. Since I couldn't face that, I started on the Stitch 'n Bitch, Knit-a-long, a pair of herringbone gloves. Aren't they gorgeous! While they are super complicated, I really enjoyed the challenge of working on them. But knitting is on hold this week... school starts tomorrow and I've got to get my syllabi and planning done. (so what am I actually doing?, blogging....)
While that may be the overall goal for the weekend, except for today, it didn't happen.
Saturday, the Guild of Book Workers, Delaware Chapter offered a workshop on Paste Papers. I learned so much - as I always do. The ladies at the Library Company of Philadelphia hosted it and showed us how they make their paste papers. I'm pretty excited to take what I learned and work with my students. Making paste paper is usually a pretty popular night. I don't pick up my papers until tomorrow so I can't show them here.
After picking up my farm share on Saturday afternoon I came home, had lunch, and took a very long nap. Luxury.
Yesterday I went to Pearl Art Supply - our branch is going out of business - very very sadly. But there are deals to be had. I bought a TON of paper, and supplies in general. In the afternoon Mary came over to help make Lime Marmalade. It's so much nicer to have someone to work on those sorts of projects with. We made a lovely puckery-tart batch, and since we had limes left over we had margaritas... which lead to inventing a cookie recipe. Which let me tell you is THE BOMB. We used the rolled cookie recipe in The Joy of Cooking to which one can add spices and stuff, so we added a Tablespoon of cardamom and two Tablespoons of Poppy seeds. The jelly in the middle is the lime jelly, the red is the strawberry. The lime one are really good, the strawberry, not so much. The strawberry hides the other flavors too much. These are really yummy. Do you think I'm ready for spring or what?
But of course, it can't all be good.
About two months ago, I noticed that some of the stones above my second floor window were looking like they were at the wrong angle, as in, falling out. I thought this was worrisome, but didn't think much more about it. Then Jeff (the contractor from last winter) stopped by to look at my third floor issues and I asked him what to do about it. He recommended Wally. Wally came on Friday to look at the situation, and said he'd be back THAT DAY to take care of it, that they were "ready to go". Well, that didn't work because I had to go to school for a workshop, but he was back today to pull everything out and repair the damage. I'm pretty relieved.And of course that couldn't be all of the issues right? My washing machine has said "good night." This is not surprising, more disappointing. It still works, it just doesn't stop filling with water anymore. First thing this morning, I had a flood. Now, I can put up with a lot of things, but I don't think I can put up without having a washing machine. I've had enough of laundromats. So I called Eric the plumber. He came by to check everything out - he knows Wally too, and he'll be back on Friday to fix me up with super dooper lines for a washing machine. I won't be able to buy one until this weekend, and boy, that was an expense I really didn't want. But maybe the turquoise one is still available...
And Jacques? he's just trying to keep warm. Here he is, squeezed between the heater and the trashcan, the heater is on, and it would be the warmest spot in the house.