Befuddled and bemuddled

I have allergies. I don't really - have never ever before in my life! But for the last month or so, I've been miserable. Today's been the worst so far. And I just feel like whining. So. Woe to me...I feel like I've got a head full of cotton balls.

The roses around the front door are blooming again. They were blooming when I bought my house. I can't believe its been three years.

Raspberries are on their way. I can't wait!!!
Primroses are blooming:

The blasted porch project is not moving along as fast as I'd hoped. Probably mostly because of these allergies - they just wipe you out. I need to get some drugs. Better living through chemistry.

I don't know what this plant is, but I'm pretty sure I planted it. I'm hoping it's a hollyhock? But so far it just makes leaves.

A little more garden in the garden:
More tomatoes planted, beets, turnips and zucchini's. Hopefully something will grow!

Another mystery plant but I think these are lantern plants. This is where I planted them last year and they didn't do anything. This year... explosion! Plus the package said, plant this year for blooms next year.
Baby Blueberries. I was afraid they didn't get enough sun - but maybe they do. Yum.

Yesterday was a beautiful day - sunny warm, perfect day for reading on the deck.
Jacques surveyed his domain. Watchin' out for the other black kitty he had to chase away earlier in the day.

We are very happy when there is a fresh barrel of rain water in the house.
And a very cute Swee'pea. He loves to help me make the bed. He's very good at making the sheets stay put.
And we are just cute.

And if that's not cute enough, we have taken to wanting to be under the sheet on the chair we always sleep in.
still working out the situationhappy now. Rear end sticking out and everything.

Jeff the Giant Orange Cat

Hi Everyone - I have a new blog I'm following. And yes, this blog is really only for cat lovers. Click on the link for Jeff the Giant Orange Cat. Jeff is a hoot. From being the sheet tamer to funny sleeping positions, to the laziest playing I've every seen. Check it out. Jeff has staff. 'nough said.

Garden Work

Last Tuesday I decided it was time to put the screen door in. I bought it three years ago without really examining the doorway it would be going into. The door 's been sittin' in the first floor kitchen for three years because there were a few problems. For one thing, the door frame is metal, for another there was a great big pipe sticking out of the lower left corner for no apparent reason. I just couldn't face trying to saw the thing out. Turns out - there was no need to worry. I wouldn't have been able to saw it out because the saw wouldn't have fit in the skinny space between the doorframe and the pipe. Fooey. So I got the sledge hammer. Bent it right flat down flush with the door sill. Ready to go.
Now of course it still didn't go very smoothly. I didn't have the right drill bit for the metal door and it was a little precarious trying to reach the top stuff. On Friday, after going to Home Depot and getting the right drill bit. I finally gave up on trying to drill holes into the metal and used gorilla glue and clamps. Ya know what? Works just fine.
Part of the motivation for getting the screen up was so that I wouldn't always have to lock Swee'pea up on the 2nd floor. He likes to be where I am so the "open" door is a good trade off.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my herb garden.
The before:

Last fall I put in this tulip bed. Unfortunately the chili powder I threw all around the place didn't keep enough squirrels away and half of what I planted was not there to bloom in the spring.
The plan was always to put in a next row - but I wasn't sure what it would be planted there.

I've had a thyme bush, melisse, rosemary, and chives hanging out in pots on the porch. I thought they deserved a bit of earth for their own. I also added basil, chives and parsley. I hope everything makes it. It's supposed to rain for the next few days. This is a good thing, but I'd really like to get my tomatoes in the ground too. That's a whole 'nother weekend project.

Oh right, I have a blog!

Here it is the eve of the three year anniversary of owning my home and I should really post. I've been meaning to since last time. But you know how that goes when you have too much to do - sometimes you just let it go until it really IS too much to do and well... this is one of those times.
Since the last post - I had to purchase a new computer. Yes, my poor baby kept kept suddenly falling asleep on me. Having a narcoleptic computer is not fun when you are trying to create new documents. Each time one fears that everything has crashed and all is lost. So I preemptivley bought the new one.  And it is fabulous! Moves at the speed of light, everything uploads quickly, and oh there are so many wonderful bells and whistles.  But I lost a few of my favorite things from my vintage computer. There used to be a button to press and all of the open windows would go away so you could see what was on your desk top.  That's gone. And I don't like the screen. It is too reflective. It's beautiful in the dark - but working outside in the yard is a nightmare. My face starts to hurt from squinting too much.  But let's talk about the life of the house shall we?
So after putting up the o-so-subtle-10ft-tall fence, I decided to add a "deck." I don't like having my table flying around in the middle of the grass. It makes it a pain to mow. Because of course I don't move it. So I decided it would be nice to have a deck that would be level. I've been thinking about laying bricks or flag stones down in the back to create a bit of a patio. But funds are low and that is a heck of a lot of work. I'm not sure where the brainstorm came from to get four shipping palettes from work, and lay decking wood across them. Looks good, eh?

Looks even better with the decking on it But you'll have to trust me on that because I can't find the picture. That's what happens when you wait so long to blog. 

My outside garden finally came to life - six weeks later than last year. We had such a cold miserable April. Most of it was the 50s and 60s. We finally had a few scattered days of 80 and the garden took advantage of that and exploded - weeds and all.

 Who knew? Violets are weeds? Well I'm okay with that. All of the violets I transplanted last year came up exactly where they were supposed to and the yard was very purple.  After the initial blooming, the wild strawberries bloomed too - it was quite lovely to have the little purple and yellow flowers everywhere. 

The indoor garden was also started at the beginning of April. I started all kinds of seedlings from various seeds. My most proud achievement are the tomato seedlings made from the seeds I brought back from Germany. I really hope they are as good as the ones they came from. 

They were transferred outside this week and then next weekend I will put them in the ground. I need to get some more compost and decide where to put all of these plants. Flowers from last year are coming back stronger than ever. The echinacea flowers and mini sunflowers are doing very well. And something that I know I planted is back in full force. But beats me what in the heck it is! I guess we'll find out together. 
And for some reason blogger has "updated" all of its fabulous features and I cannot upload vertical images!? So you will have to use your imagination.
Of course my house has not been without its charming problems. Towards the end of April, we had some really crazy rain storms. It must have been residual from the tornado madness from the south. At any rate my window-of-the-perpetual-leak on the second floor couldn't take it. It just started raining right through. It did not go to the 1st floor thank goodness. But I had to have some major buckets ready. 

 A roofer came on Monday and caulked everything up. It leaked a bit the the following storm but nothing like before.
And Jacques and Swee'pea? Oh they are getting along famously.

Yup, those would be my boys snuggled up together. I wouldn't go so far as to say they are best friends but I think Jacques is happy for the company. They play together a lot, but Jacques is happy when he gets to be in the garden with me - without Swee'pea. Swee'pea is happy when we are alone together in the apartment. He's my little buddy - he follows me everywhere. It's fun having him. We are still at the learning stage where Swee'pea is learning to trust me. Before when I would pick him up he would freak out and have to be up on my shoulder. As of a few days ago I can cradle him in my arms. Water is still a fascinating thing and he has finally discovered the toilet - Jacques favorite fascination as well.

Of course the month couldn't pass with all good things. My great aunt died on April 19th. She would have been 100 in August. And while I am very sad that she has passed - it is still okay. She lived a great life. She lived with no fear or worry. She enjoyed people, talking, good company, and good wine. I am so glad I got to see her in March. Despite her delirium it was a good visit with good memories. My poor uncle though... I don't think he knows what to do with himself. They were together for almost 60 years. I talked to him this morning on the phone and he said how much he misses her. I can only imagine what he's going through right now. 

In other news, today was spent working on blogs - this one and the Pinkknit-a-thon. This was the knitting project we did last year, and I hope that this year goes even better than last year. Check out the new design. I even had postcards printed. I spent this morning down by the Art Museum passing them out to all the awesome people doing the Komen Race for the Cure. I had some good responses so I hope we get some people to join.  Feel free to let all your friends know.

And last I will leave you with a recipe.
Sesame Beets.
a bundle beets
sesame oil
sesame seeds
salt - optional

slice beets very thin. Toss in sesame oil. Roast in the over at 350 for half an hour, tossing every 10 minutes. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the dish before serving. Enjoy!

Can I get a HALLELUJAH!

Hallelujah! for two things:
1). I have my computer back! Yay! And what a riggamarolla that was! They had the part, then it didn't work, so they "ordered" the part, it didn't come, then they called, it wasn't going to come because it was a vintage computer, so they looked again and lo and behold! oh my goodness there was another part sitting there all along and they could have tried to put that in. And in all of this they managed to lose my power cord. ??? But they ended up just giving me one, because they have some that come in and don't need it, because (all together now) my computer is a vintage computer! Bottom line - I am not complaining. I'm back into functional mode. Thank goodness. Let's hope its for a while.
and 2). Fence up! Privacy Privacy! Yay!
This is what I was looking at before. And I never felt I could go to that side of my yard. Someone was always lurking there. Plus the giant creep who lives next door's girlfriend is the back door. Yesterday when I was excavating roots who popped out? The creep. I've had enough of that.
So off to Home Depot I trotted to get potting soil and seed starting mix, and in addition to that I ended up with fence materials. (And lots of nice help from two guys in the lumber dept who tied it all to the top of my car.) Putting up a fence isn't that hard when you have the right stuff. They make these really cool stake-things that you can just pound into the ground and then a 4x4 fits into the cap thing on top. Once those are in ya throw up a couppala 2x4s, then the slats and before ya know it...voila! Fence. Okay - well it's even easier when your friend Mary gets tired of doing her taxes and comes over to help.
There's my 10ft. fence. No one can see over that. Finally some privacy in that corner. Now I can start to put in some "furniture" like a table and maybe some sort of a hammock??? Oh, I'm still in the dreaming stage of that. Because I'm still in awe that the fence went up today!

So many things and then some...

Okay - first of all you should all know that I don't have my computer at the moment. In the whirlwind prep to get to Germany I was vacuuming and caught the cord of my laptop and my poor baby landed right on the power supply. ugh. I was able to jerry-rig it while in Germany but two days after I got back it was done being rigged and said "good night!" So I took it to a repair place a week and a half ago and I still don't have it back. Apparently my little laptop that is ONLY seven years old is - get this - a vintage laptop. I paid extra money to get it back faster than most, nope - they can't get the part. They tell me their computers say the part has been shipped, but they don't have it. I'm going to have to go tomorrow to do an IM chat (whatever that is) with the supply company and the shop to see if we can get some answers. Why they can't do this without me there is beyond me. At anyrate... I am at school on a Sunday internetting.

So yes, after a whirl wind trip to California to visit a ton of conservation labs, (and my dad) it was off to Germany. (The issue came to a good end - just fyi).

My Aunt who is 99 and 1/2. is still hanging in there.

However, now there are no less that 5 people in the room at any given time. She, my uncle, and I are the visible ones. Then there is a little boy, a Lady, and someone sitting on the ceiling. She talks to all of us, and tell stories from any given time in her life. She was always able to talk a blue streak, now we just have a bit of a challenge understanding. It's really fun when she tries to switch to Spanish.

So I spent the time prepping for the PinkKnit-a-thon. We launch in May (all things willing). I designed three hats for the project and I think they look pretty good.

My aunt helped me with this one:

It was the most amazing experience. I was just working on the hat while she talked and decided to try it on. She stopped in the middle of her 1940's world to turn to me and said, "no - not like that." Reached up and tugged at the edge a bit, and then said, "that's better - that looks right," and without missing a beat she turned back to who ever was listening to her on the other side of the bed and kept telling them something. This happened a few times. It was amazing how she would come right back to the present instantly to comment on the hat.

While in Germany I also got to visit the conservator at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.

She gets to work on incredible things like this while looking out the window at the cathedral. She really has a nice space and spent about an hour showing me her space. It was nice.

Back at home with a failed laptop, unable to continue PinkKnit prep - I just had to knit a pair of spring socks. These are Jennifer inspired. She said that you can make right socks and left socks. What genius. I also wanted to try knitting socks from the toe up. It was the perfect opportunity to try both.

I'm pretty happy with them. The only thing I need to know now is, Jennifer, do you block your socks?

Spring keep pretending to be in the air. We had a very wonderful warm day a few weeks ago, but since then it froze and snowed again. I am finally getting fed up with this. I have some daffodils blooming, tulips are coming up and I'm itching to be out in the yard doing things.

But since it snowed last Thursday (it didn't stick) I worked inside on a few projects that have been calling for attention for months.

Firstly, the shelf in the living room:

It started to fall down.

So before it landed on anyone, I pulled all the books off and did the best I could to get it back up where it belongs.

The next thing that needed to happen was the addition of some small shelves next to the door.

Now I have room for the miniature books and some pottery. It doesn't have to clutter up the top of the china cabinet.

And then I decided it was high time to put the shelf in the kitchen in. I've been threatening to do this for .... oh dear probably since last summer!

Tah DAH!
but that of course prompted much cleaning. Here are my copper pots getting all shined up with the ketchup.

But of course there are other projects which will need to be addressed rather sooner... for example the squirrel that got stuck up in the rafters (its right in the middle of the image), and in the process of trying to get free kicked off a 12ft piece of molding on the top of my roof. I crawled out there today to get the wood off of the roof so it doesn't fly down on someone one, and then I tried to get the corpse down. Nothin' doing. But that has to happen soon so the damn thing does fall down in to the wall and start rotting. So maybe the cold was actually a blessing!!??

And in the most amazing news of the spring - I received the first two copies of THE COOKBOOK! The rest of the shipment should come in this week. It's beautiful!

Okay - and now I need to go. I might have figured out why all of my students are sick all the time. I'm sitting in this classroomwith the "air conditioning" blasting right on me. It's cold, and we can't open windows to air the stale air out. Yuck. I'm going to go eat some veggies now.

I also have to consider getting a new laptop. This computer is working at the speed of light!

The Yarn Thief

There he is - The Yarn Thief. This has been the biggest part of the adjustment of having a new kitty - that he is not like Jacques. Jacques couldn't care less about yarn. Every-once-in-a-while he would steel a ball of yarn for two seconds. But with this new little guy -balls of yarn are THE BEST. I haven woken up to this sight many times...And it doesn't matter if it's crummy yarn or very expensive cashmere - it's ALL up for grabs. So what do you do? You wind it all up and start over again. Or you go to IKEA and get new boxes with lids! That is a fantastic thing! This little guy also has fur for days. I've had to vacuum more than ever since he's been here. But he is so sweet! I can't help but love him. He's become very shy. Doesn't want to meet new people. Not interested in going outside. So when Jacques is checking on his yard, Swee'pea is following me around the apartment. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, cleaning, cooking, knitting, folding clothes, taking a shower, Swee'pea is sitting right there with the great big curious eyes that say - "What are you doing!?" What a little sweetie-pie.
In other news - spring is coming. Really. Punxsutawny Phil (The groundhog of authority on the seasonal matters) said spring was around the corner and maybe he's right. Thursday and Friday we had a heatwave. It almost made it to 70° on Friday. But then Saturday it was very very windy and today it didn't break 40°. It's supposed to rain, maybe snow, tonight and probably snow on Tuesday. sigh. I am trying to be patient - but when the little crocuses are starting to poke their little green heads up, you really want them to come out! But you have to say to them - wait wait, not yet! Don't come out yet! It's going to be freezing in a few days. The nice thing is that Amaryllis grow indoors. Mine are beautiful this year. Its so rewarding to have something grow so fast.
My orchids, back on the rain-water diet, are coming up as well. They aren't very exciting at the moment, but they'll get a post once they decide to bloom.
And my other issue is still with me. This poor little guy (okay he's not so little), just wants to be loved. He is so sweet. But he does. not. like. cats. Not at all. I decided to see if he would be able to tolerate my babies. No. way. I opened the door (he was in a harness), Swee'pea jumped down from the sofa back, he snapped at him and Swee'pea lost his mind. Swee'pea turned into a whirling vortex of fur and claws. Got a couple of good swipes at his nose - there was blood - and then came after him as I was trying to drag him out of the apartment and shut the door! It wasn't until Jacques came around the corner and shocked Swee'pea that Swee'pea's attention was diverted and I could drag him out and shut the door. We went down stairs and I wanted to wipe the blood off of his nose, but I think he was embarrassed. He hung his head facing the wall and wouldn't turn around until I made him.
Ugh - these four-legged guys just break your heart. There's no bullshit in them. There's no passive aggressive crap. They are genuine - the way we just want people to be. Unconditional love as long as you feed them and pet them. If only people were so simple.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope your day will be filled with love.
On Valentine's Eve in thelifeofahouse we had a special first - at least that I've witnessed:Two kitties shared the same chair. A little while later Swee'pea had slipped down a bit and they were right next to each other. After I took those pictures, Jacques had had enough and got up and went to his basket.
Happy Valentine's Day anyway - hope you get to share your chair or basket or whatever with someone you love.

A week in Review

It's been quite a week. Monday was second class for the semester - everything was fine until we approached headbands. Then there was a lot of moaning and groaning but once we got started there was a lot of, "oh, is that all it is?" Yeah. We finish our books this Monday and then we do decorated papers. Should be a fun class.
Tuesday was not so great. We have had some pretty horrific weather this week. Really rotten. We missed the giant end-of-the-world blizzard, but we got freezing rain and ice instead. Tuesday I went out to go to work and a woman shuffled past my front door. I sort of scoffed inside - but only until I hit the sidewalk. It was slick. One giant sheet of ice. It is an experience let me tell you. So I started the icy-sidewalk-shuffle too. Got all the way down to the train platform and realized I'd forgotten a bag of very vital things I needed - like lunch. So up I went again and I thought, well, since the powers that be sent me back here I better salt the sidewalk. So I did... felt good about that and headed back to the train. I got the the next block and suddenly there was a moment of pause where I was hanging in mid-air with my feet slipped out in front of me and I had enough time to think - I'm going down. And I did. I landed on my elbow and my rear. Now there is plenty of padding on the rear - good design feature - but there is not so much padding on the elbow. It hurt like crazy. But what do I do? What I always do - go to work. I was concerned that I had cracked it or something - it was pretty painful. But when I got home I did Arnica therapy and the next day all was fine, except for the muscle I missed on the back of my arm. That stuff is amazing. So I arnica'd that up the next night and I'm fine now. Well, except that I am even more careful than usual on icy sidewalks. There are some creeps who don't clear their walks. Makes me want to knock on door and say, "What is wrong with you!!??" Problem is, they are usually just tenants and god forbid they should do anything about it - even for their own safety. Okay - rant finished.
The rest of the week went by rather quickly. At work I've been working on that cookbook. I'm SO close and yet SO far. You have most of the stuff finalized and yet there are a hundred little things to do - page numbers, degree symbols, how to make fractions appear and on and on. When I come home I knit. I might be addicted. Could be...
I finally bought a hat pattern I've been thinking of off and on for a while. Last weekend I tried to design my own hat with no luck. I thought I'd treat myself to the pattern. And then of course one must find the correct yarn in one's stash.
And I found this: This is a ball of yarn, leftover from a sweater my grandmother must have knitted at least 40 years ago. I can't remember when I inherited the yarn or the sweater. They seem to have always been there. At any rate, I decided it would be great to have a hat to match the sweater. Turns out, The sweater has faded a bit, the yarn in the bag felted itself a bit. But I kind of don't care. I really love the fact that I have something she knitted and something I knitted from the same stash. I barely made it too. The hat is supposed to sit much lower but well I squeezed it out!
Then of course, I felt the need to keep things going in the family. I knitted the same hat out of the beautifully soft alpaca Aunt Lois brought me when she visited last April. It is so soft. A dream to knit with. Sorry the picture is fuzzy - I'm too tired to go take another one.
When Aunt Lois and Aunt Alice visited last October, they brought some more beautiful alpaca so I decided to try out another interesting pattern. This will be a neck wrap. It gets an interesting button. (Don't' worry Aunt Lois, I'll model it when I'm done! :)) I'm really excited about it.
I was so excited about it, I actually went out in the really crummy weather today. It was just a misty rain- all day. I wanted to get rose water and a button. That's all. Well. There was an emergency on the train so we all had to get off, got to the other side and get on a train specially routed for us. Okay. but then there was the oncoming train and I was in the front car and so many people were freaking out about that train - even though it was going backwards that I had to get off early. Walked all over South Philly and they didn't have rose water. So I walked to get the button - thank goodness they had some beautiful ones, but by the time I was done, I was pooped. I came home, had lunch and took a nice long nap.
I'm surprised I was so tired, but maybe I made coffee too strong this morning. I tried out Hannah Penn's (as in Mrs. Penn of William Penn - founder of Pennsylvania) recipe for coffee. Turns out we have her recipes as well! Her recipe for coffee calls for boiling water, coffee grounds, 3-4 sprigs of rosemary and 20 grains of saffron. Verdict? Tastes more like dirt that usual. But after I added some sugar and cream (milk) I have to say it was very palatable. Its different alright, but it grows on you. I'm curious as to why she did it that way. Was coffee too strong? She didn't like the flavor? It wasn't possible to understand coffee as one ingredient? Interesting.
The cats? Oh they are fine. We had a lazy day after I got home and did nothing. Everyone has their favorite place and we snuggle accordingly. I'm having some trouble with my phone line, I'm getting a lot of static and my internet is being funny. So I tried to check everything out on my end first. This involved moving a bookshelf, books etc. And of course promptly Jacques needs to occupy the empty shelves. Poor Swee'pea couldn't figure out what was going on. But now they are uninterested.
I called my phone/internet provider and they weren't especially helpful. But they are supposed to come out on the 10th. What they did say was that they have been having a ton of problems "in my area". Interesting. But I need this too work. I need to call my aunt and uncle, and I need the internet! Cross your fingers for me until then.