DISCOVERY!!!

Yeehaw! Ah gots a forsythia bush in mah yard!!! Hot diggity!!!
Lookit:
I discovered this fact after wanting to go over and hack away at this bush to get it out of my yard. I tried last fall when I started clearing things away. But I gave up. I thought I'd have another go at yankin' things up from this portion of the yard, only to look up and see the yellow buds! Oooeee, this is so exciting! These bushes grow like crazy around here and they are spectacular! What a nice little surprise this morning.
Unfortunately, the rest of the yard looks like this at the moment.
Would you believe - that's progress? (the forsythia bush is on the left between the ugly blue tarp and the dark green drum).

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring Everyone! The crocuses are blooming! The daffodils have spears and the tulips are growing.


Even the raspberry bush is growing leaves. So far we've had a beautiful weekend in Philadelphia - thus the long wait between posting. I just wanted to be outside! I'm still cleaning up debris from the back yard - maybe a bit more today. I'm also prepping for the workshop I'm doing with Melanie this weekend for Southern Graphics Council and I'm working on a book performance. Mary put me in touch with a technical friend of hers (thank you Mary!!!) who is going to save my butt for this project. We spent the afternoon in the Wissahickon Creek washing paper. :) Once the performance happens I'll post it here, so that you can see what I'm talking about.
Hope you are all having a lovely day as well!

It's spring! It's spring! It's spring!

Ooh! Stuff is blooming in my yard! Things are budding. I took lots of pictures - will post soon!

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!