To Keep Sane
So after the giant shipping extravaganza (and consequent set-to with the post office), it became clear that I needed to come up with a streamlined way to take care of shipping out books if I was to stay sane. Now, most books I'll never lay eyes (much less hands) on. The books generally go from the printer straight to Unicorn (my distributor). Then Unicorn takes care of sending them out to stores. Some go on to Amazon, who takes care of sending them out to individuals. But I do ship some. If you buy from the book's website, I generally [...]
And Yet More Progress
This is oddly thrilling, it looks all official somehow. Though to be fair, it's become ever so slightly less thrilling as they've sat in my living room for four days. I'm one of those nuts who really wants a tidy house. I like everything put away. I clean off my desk at the end of every day so there's nothing but the computer, its gizmos, and a lamp. So the pile of boxes is driving me a wee bit batty. But, that little bit of batty is providing excellent motivation. Yesterday I took all of these to the post office. [...]
Science
We have two sage plants in our back yard. They're at least four years old and they're huge and vigorous and more or less indestructible. They started blooming early this month, and by this weekend they were covered in purple flowers. Now, you're supposed to pick the flowers off before they bloom. Something about making more leaves that way. We don't need any more leaves (and we're kind of lazy), so we're not all that good about the flower thing. But Saturday we were doing yard stuff, and in a fit of unusual diligence, The Boy picked all the flowers [...]
Itchy
This weekend saw some serious time spent on the back patio (I know, such a tough life). The weather was perfect, the yard was not yet so horrifying I can't stand to sit out there, and I had a new book to read. I was likely out there for about 4 hours. This morning I counted two dozen mosquito bites scattered around my arms, ankles, and one particularly charming specimen on the small of my back. That one is vying with the one on my ring finger (aka yarn wrapping finger) for the title of most annoying thing ever. Each [...]
How to Fix a Yard…in 8 Hours
I'm now officially a fan of the 'hire a professional' approach to lawn care. I am not brave enough to show you any 'before' shots. It's too embarrassing. Just imagine the worst yard on your block. It was worse than that. Far, far worse. Instead of bringing shame on my household, I'll show you some 'during' shots. It all started with a backhoe. It carried on with the backhoe for quite some time. It was oddly fascinating to watch. Alas, they would not let me drive it. After all the old stuff was gone, there as a long period of [...]
More Lies
So that Thursday thing turned out to be a lie. It's the weather's fault, not the lawn company's. It's April, it's Cleveland, the weather is fickle under the best of circumstances. But, yesterday's predicted rain didn't show up, the forecast for today was good, and Thursday got declared likely to be rainy. So the guys are here today. Much as predicted, it is a bit noisy. It's also unreasonably engrossing to watch. It's kind of amazing what two guys with bulldozers can do. They're much faster than I'd be out there with a shovel. There's hope for this place yet. [...]
Any Minute Now
The nice men from the lawn place will be here any minute (hence my unusual state of being awake, upright, clean, and dressed at such an early hour). They came a week or so ago and killed off all the stuff that was destined to go away. Today they rip out the corpses, put in shiny new plants, and spray weird proto-grass paste (which we must dutifully water). They think they can do it all in one day. Should be fun. It will likely also be noisy, but I think it will be worth it. Of course the last time [...]
Why Knitters Have Kittens
It may, at first, seem an unlikely pairing. Kittens are not known for their restraint. They have been found to have an unholy love for yarn, which doesn't end well for either of the parties involved. They are often convinced that laps are meant for them, not for pesky bits of knitting. But they do have some advantages. If you come up the stairs and see this: You can be pretty sure there's some sort of flying critter somewhere up there. Kittens are excellent moth detection systems. Vigilant, diligent, and very very dedicated. The moth has now been snuffed out [...]
Encouraging
So you guys are awesome. Your reassurance on the matter of Yard (and our general neglect of) were tremendously helpful. The gentleman from the company who did our patio three years ago came out. He was not judgmental. He did not administer some sort of horticultural pop quiz. He did not chastise me for my amazing laziness. He said yes, we can make it simpler. He said yes, we can refrain from murdering your tree. He said yes, we can start next week. So yeah, that was easy. The nice men will come and make it less awful. He did [...]
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