Organizing space

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I am not going to provide a picture of my upstairs studio/craft/sewing room prior to my recent organizing and cleaning spree. Let me just leave us with – it was not pretty. I was able to walk through the room, sort of. Other than the fact that all the items in the room are actually in excellent condition and useful, it could have been a demonstration for an episode of craft-hordes.

I have supplies for: quilting, sewing, cross-stitch, machine embroidery. Oh, and knitting and spinning. Does that sound like a lot? I never think so until I write it all down and look at it. Familiar with the abbreviation “SABLE?” Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. You get the idea. If I devoted all my time and effort for the next, oh, let us say 10 years, I could not complete everything on my “want to do list.” Practically speaking, it means that I need to hone down that list, share supplies with others so that I don’t feel guilty, complete all those UFOs and otherwise develop a more realistic view of what I can manage.

Right. And then there are those two papers which are hanging over my head….

Back to the more fun of creativity. End of last week and over the weekend I spent time cleaning and organizing. Dani helped me move several boxes of cables, electronics and “who knows what” down to the garage. I relocated the contents of one cupboard and proceeded to fill it will all the hard copy audiobooks which freed up some shelf space. Taking the time to put all the embroidery threads back into their boxes – I marked the top of each in order to better locate particular colors –

thread box

That was the easy part. More complicated is the fact that the room is upstairs with a ceiling that slants on both sides (if I can locate a picture of the room before the 2014 renovation. For whatever reason – most of the photo links vanished when I imported  ww.proseknitic.de to this site about three years ago. One more thing on my “todo list” – find those photo archives, upload the photos and activate the links…

anyway –

looking toward the door

and toward one of the two windows

I was delighted to find that there was still a nice hard wood floor in reasonably good condition once threads, debris, and the occasional spot of temporary adhesive had been removed (hint–it isn’t all that temporary when used as manufacturers’ recommended amounts..)

Among the projects completed today are these –

Robo Warrior

Once Upon a Time

they have been added to the Georgia bound box leaving me only short 1 item….

Oh, right. we made the run to UCSF this morning. In spite of leaving home at 0800 it took barely more than an hour including a coffee stop at Peet’s. The secret was to drive by the North Berkeley BART and pick up a ride share passenger. This meant HOV lane and reaching the Embarcadero Exit 25 minutes after leaving the house. The rest of the time was devoted to wending our way through the traffic choked streets of SF without getting back on the freeway.  Everything went excellently, George was able to walk from the car up to the clinic, around while up there and back which meant the old wheelchair has been removed from the back of the car and is now residing in the garage. Next week should be the last of the 2x/week visits.

And then there are flowers

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I have this sewing machine that is also capable of embroidery. Over the last two years I have accumulated various assorted items (towels, t-shirts, napkins, placemats, quilt squares) that are all lacking in “that special decorative touch.” To add to my insanity, there are a couple of websites (EmbroideryLibrary and UrbanThreads) that sell professionally digitized designs that stitch out perfectly.

You can see my dilemma, right? Besides the-oh so tempting sales, there is the occasional design that just announces that it perfect for [fill in name].

Which lead this afternoon to knocking unannounced on a Alison’s door with yesterday’s stitching project.  This particular flower has a special meaning for her. And I could happily decrease my stack of towels by two.

This evening I completed the next two projects on my list-

They should be in the mail to Georgia later in the week. After that, I need to plan for my next victim. I have been told this is all “creative procrastination”. Oh, those outstanding papers. Right. 1 August start; expect whining.

And not a flamingo

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Inspecting the invader

The Eldest is amused, but not enthralled by my flamingoes. She has an extensive side garden but has given me the evil eye when ever I have suggested “improvements.” Apparently, our tastes don’t exactly match. She is also the cat mom to Onyx and Ghost. When I saw this particular item while flamingo shopping, I just couldn’t resist.

Passing both the sniff and taste test (Cat Scan), I still don’t think this particular solar beastie will stay in the house.

Otherwise, I added a bit of color to my sewing area while planning my next embroidery projects.

except that it is!

Flamingos? I can explain

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the whole flamingo thing started in 2003 when this particular set of wind chimes, seen hanging from an internal second floor window here in Berkeley, arrived in the mail while I was serving in Kuwait

flamingo wind chimes

I still don’t have a clue as to why Carmen thought I needed a wind chime. No one ever spent time outside except in transit between trailer, office, mess hall, meetings. I arrived just as we were headed into the warmest part of spring where temperatures often hit 40*C by lunch. It definitely severed  served as a conversation starter, hanging from my ceiling light in the middle of the room.

A bit later in the year, the flamingo was joined by a menagerie of origami animals courtesy of Pat. Unfortunately, I can’t offer a picture as they hid from packing when getting for my move back to Germany in summer of 2004.

Since that time, I have been gifted the occasional flamingo ornamented item, such as birthday candles, dish towels and a pair of leggings. I have, on occasion, also purchased the occasional flamingo decorated socks. Additionally, I have accumulated a number of machine embroidery files, should I really, really need to add a flamingo to something.

If I want to be honest, the whole flamingo thing started in 1978 when George and I received a couple of pink plastic flamingo lawn ornaments for a wedding present. We included them in our house hold goods for years, but some time in one of those transAtlantic moves they were lost.

The single metal flamingo that was standing guard over the lemon tree when we purchased the house is still in its location atop the retaining wall. Looking down, it can see my own flamboyance of flamingos, four with solar collectors to light the night and the other two anchoring both ends of the small area between the patio and front door.

 

home for four weeks

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which means 6 weeks post stem cell transplant.

George is doing better each day. The traffic into the city. wasn’t all that bad. His blood work was all stable which means we completely avoided having to hang out for any transfusions. I survived the battles with Wahlgreens (local pharmacy put one of his meds in as a routine refill and didn’t call the supplier. The tech was disgusted – said the pharmacist both should have called and has to be the one that calls – to take something out of the routine drop ship so that it is expedited. As a result, I made a detour to the same chain across the street from UCSF who, of course, carries this particular med in stock. Makes sense since I think they have 1-3 patients a day going home on it.

A detour through Heath Ceramics on the way home netted me a couple of thirds and a creamer/sugar bowl set of seconds.

Then I worked on clearing out more in the sewing room, actually found the iron (don’t tell anyone that), planned the next “kids” quilt and watched the Twins-As game. Which the Twins won by dint of more home runs than I wanted to see….

Missing my kitchen fairy

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some how, in my willingness to ship off Engineer Guy to six weeks of internship in Connecticut, I forgot an import point. One of his main contributions to the household since returning from school in San Diego has been taking over most of the routine household tasks. Those simple but annoying things. He was taking out the garbage (this is California – recycling here requires sorting), 90% of the cooking and, most importantly, cleaning the kitchen.

He caught a flight on Saturday, spent the weekend with his sister in New York, then caught a train on Monday morning. Happily back working  But not here. So there I am, washing dishes, loading and unloading the dishwasher, and taking out garbage, trash, and watering the lemon tree.

(whine, whine, whine)

Yesterday I worked on sorting out and cleaning the studio/sewing room/storage area while the Eldest did some sewing. I had been thinking about doing a bit more today, but abandoned the idea in favor of heading to the Coliseum to watch the As wipe the Mariners off the map and out of the park. Our pitcher was, frankly, not great. Theirs we’re worse. Two of the As clobbered  a pair of home runs each. End result? 10:2 with 10:8 as far as hits. And, amazingly enough, no errors on either side. For the fans listening on the radio – RF149’s apologies for the lack of drummers. Four cowbells and a woodblock just can’t carry the same level of sound.

The latest bird

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added to the flock

the kind delivery guy actually managed to drop off the box containing this metal bird at the downstairs door. I am impressed. Not tossed in the bushes, not left next to the mailbox, and certainly not left in the driveway where someone might run over it.

The only downside of this pretty pink creature is the tail feathers. They are not suppose to rotate. But I am sure that they should be facing out, rather than toward the bird. Now, if the small bolt by which the tail feathers are attached were the right length, that would be the case. But it is too short to hold the wing nut in the correct configuration leaving me with the choice of a bird with a naked rear or one with the feather pointing forward.

In the manner of Joe Pike (in the series by author Robert Crais) – forward is the only direction to travel.

I am working on shoveling out and organizing the sewing room as I am finally investing in a decent sewing cabinet which arrives next week. Since it might be nice if I could get it up the stairs, through the hall and into the room….. otherwise, some knitting, machine embroidery, and the As game this evening….

Flamboyance

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of Flamingos according to a lovely, and slightly sarcastic reference that I found. Apparently the simple word of “flock” just wouldn’t do for something that is so obviously eye catchings. After all, they aren’t LBJs (little brown jobs in birder parlance) or high flying scolders/mockers like ravens and crows. They are that fun, bright pink color that comes from their diet.

I drifted over to Wiki to learn that there are six extant species of flamingo. The funny looking, long-legged birds really aren’t related to any other bird except maybe the grebe. They are scattered through out the world – from Africa to India, to South America, Asia, the Caribbean + Florida. (well, there are some that consider Florida it’s own separate world). Looking at the list, I think I have actually seen four/six – not the Andean or the James.

If you wonder why I am nattering on about Flamingos – just look back at the last few posts and my current entertainment.

Otherwise, I would need to focus on getting up at 0500 to drive into the city for George’s 0730 appointment (everything is going well), returning through much less traffic followed by a trip to the pharmacy, the grocery store, a couple of load of clothes, emptying the dishwasher, lunch, taking out boxes, rescuing the garbage cans …. and so it goes.

It is barely 1430 and I am tired. If I still didn’t have a list of chores, I might just take a nap…

oh – the boys are back…

you light up my night

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Yes!

the solar collector works!

both heads and bodies!

 

Not bad for 0dark30. The birds don’t provide enough light to be able to navigate, but, hey – they are fun!

I am thinking about getting

 

(the game was much harder fought today with the As pulling out a 3:2 victory in the bottom of the 9th thanks to the White Sox’s short stop who bobbled what should have been a double play ball, with the subsequent throw being off. Pinder meanwhile blasted past second and kept on going. Crossing the plate with the winning run – it was secondary to an error rather than a hit, but no one cared. It was incredible to watch and it is great to have the Sweep. Jon Jay? Left field today – but we chose to use his name rather than Tilsen who pulled right field duty. Never let it be said that we don’t know the name of the opposing team’s right fielder.

 

two is a lonely number

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I looked at those two flamingos – and all the empty space around them.

Sad.

two for the price of one

 

so there are now four birds (these two also have solar cells attached).

I am taking my entertainment where I can find it – and it normally is in small and quiet moments. These make me smile.

(As did the As game – it was a 13:2 rout.   Then there was the issue of the White Sox’s right fielder. Jon Jay. Apparently he couldn’t understand the post run cheer – “we love you Oakland, we do (x3), not you [right fielder’s name]” and filled in something else in his head. Complained. Security came to talk to us. We looked at them like they were insane. Said they should talk to any of the security who had been working the park for more than a day. Like the cheer hadn’t changed in at least 10 years. The end result is that there was a replacement right fielder starting with the 7th inning. Didn’t change the cheer – nor several repeats of “we want Jay….

I don’t think the White Sox have been in Oakland for a few years. Certainly this particular right fielder seems to have played for enough different teams over the years that he should have know about RF149. My prediction is that he will be in left field tomorrow. Since the left field bleachers had been know for flags, chants, and noise makers, I don’t think that will be any more peaceful….

and a solar friend

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lights up!

One flamingo, all alone, that just wan’t right. You don’t see single flamingos, but small numbers to huge numbers. But not a single flamingo. The Eldest and I attempted to locate a companion by checking with the local gardening stores and hardware stores. (I attempt to buy local before reverting to amazon). Apparently it is just too late in the year and they had all flown off. After checking JoAnn’s, East Bay Garden Supply, an Ace Hardware and looking on line at Home Depot- I gave up.

This lovely bird has a solar cell (that black thing part way down the stake) which charges over 8 hours, then is supposed to light up for at least eight hours.

We will see….

Number 71

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It wasn’t all that exciting a birthday for George. He had what turned out to be an all day appointment including a transfusion at UCSF. He was pretty wiped out by the time we got home. Since he is still restricted to home (except for those clinic visits) we didn’t have many options for celebrating. A couple of friends joined us for dinner (which the Eldest and Engineer Guy created).

We didn’t sign happy birthday, but there was homemade cheesecake.

 

Look what I found

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when running errands.

my new lawn ornament

On sale at Daiso for only $2US.

Now, I used to have grass around my patio area. It had started to recover from the dogs fertilizing it for about a year. It was green. Ok, it was also long and full of weeds. But it was green. I like green. Apparently the weeds offended both my husband and the landscaper. I came home the one day to find that all my lovely green was gone and I was stuck with this absolutely horrid colored wood chip stuff.

Ugly doesn’t begin to describe it. I would haul it out and replace it with something else – anything else – crushed gravel, wild flowers, weeds, artificial turf. But I am too cheap to wind up paying again to fix something that is totally functional, but ugly. Oh, so ugly. And do not, under any circumstances attempt to walk on this stuff in your bare feet. You have been warned. What I really wanted, to tell you the truth, was the whole area paved.

Anyway – that poor lonely flamingo was the last one – which is why I suspect he was so cheap.

Now, anyone going in or out of the door gets to be treated to a bit of whimsy along with those ugly chips.

 

Today it is trains

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My mind is blank, or rather, I am drawing a blank when trying to figure out whether or not I accomplished anything todayNo trip into SF.

No knitting. But dishes.

Errands – oh, right – Post Office – mailing out packages to Georgia and Ohio. Picking up pizza and fresh fruit at the grocery store. Driving to Richmond to pick up one son and getting backing fabric for the little girls quilt.

Otherwise? Trains –

the program list on the sewing machine

which

looks like this in progress

and winds up being a series of train cars –

along with the engine

on hand towels for a young man who keeps informing everyone that he “is the engineer.”

Driving in a bubble

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The time was 0930 in the morning and we had left the house on the way to UCSF. The HOV lanes were still active so after making a kamikaze series of four lane changes to the left, we sailed along to the left sided flyover headed toward the Bay Bridge. There isn’t all that much traffic in the left lane, made even less by those single drivers smart enough to get out of the HOV lane before the cameras documents their law breaking activity. From there the flyover lane crosses to the right side and meets up with the HOV lane coming from the Oakland direction. Sailing through the toll plaza, we entered the main portion of the traffic just past the metering lights. To our left, and ahead of us was a small, reddish Fiat. There was no one around the Fiat by 10 meters or so in any direction. In a location where traffic was almost bumper to bumper, there was this bubble of “no drive” around the Fiat.

From there, all the way across the bridge, no matter the speed for the rest of the traffic, this Fiat seemed to travel at a slow and constant speed with everyone avoiding it. Traffic going 40? The Fiat is going 30 and everyone passes it. Traffic going 20? The Fiat continues to sail along with everyone avoiding it. Admittedly, I didn’t see much with it traveling faster than everyone around it. More like it turtling along with every single last car, truck and motorcycle avoiding getting anywhere near the Fiat.

When last seen, it was puttering south on the freeway, its bubble space still intact.

Arriving at UCSF early, George had his labs drawn and his follow up appointment. From there it didn’t run as smoothly as I would have liked. Because his feet hurt, someone hadn’t been drinking enough fluids. Not drinking fluids puts one’s kidneys at risk. Instead of heading home, we wound up spending almost an additional  four hours while someone (fill in the name yourself) received a significant amount of IV hydration.

The drive home was painful as the afternoon rush traffic had already started. My afternoon errands had been completely and totally taken over by hanging out at UCSF while someone’s IV went drip, drip, drip. Taking a deep breath here and releasing the last of the pent up anger, frustration and general disgust….

But the next time someone doesn’t drink enough on his own – he can Lyft or Uber home….

Too far to the game

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Since yesterday was a holiday – the waiting room at UCSF was jammed to the gills with both the Friday and Thursday patients. Since there was little to no traffic, the drive in went smoothly, the clinic was running at full speed and we were able to get out of San Francisco before what would normally be Friday afternoon traffic.

I was tired when we got home. Heading upstairs to finish off (finally) the one quilt, I pulled out the stitching and redid the quilting.

all but the binding

 

and then I moved on to this –

another Liberty Puzzle

with a lot of fun pieces

and decided I was just too tired to think about going to a baseball game. Sent off a message to a fellow member of the group that I wouldn’t be making the game. Then I pulled up At Bat (the app) and sent her off a second message. She concurred as well; Seattle was just to far to go in the next 30 minutes….

enough to gag a horse

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just in case

you were thinking that the medication fun stopped when he was released from the hospital – the pill progression continues. Technically there are 5-6 times a day that something on the scheduled kicks in. The first thing we did after returning home was to take an extremely good look at that schedule.

Of note – the reason that there are 0600 medications in a hospital is that shift change is at 0700. This allows the nurse to make sure that all meds are administered and computer logged prior to the end of the shift. In the bin are those which are once a day, those which are q12 hrs, one which is three x a day, one which is twice a day. Not being completely stupid – I started from the end of the day and worked backwards. My night owl is going to be up past 2100 in the evening, especially with naps during the day. So 2200 is more sensible for “bedtime” meds than 2100. That means that the q12 hours are 10 & 10 and while I am at it, twice a day can follow the same pattern. 3x a day can be distributed between 0700->2200. Those that have to be taken with meals are assigned to breakfast, lunch and dinner and the rest in the morning. (on the basis of that old adage about doing the worst thing first and getting it over with – something about a frog?).

did I mention that there is also a few hundred cc’s of IV magnesium every day?

thought not.

And all of it needs to be balanced around those really essential things in life – naps, meals, news programs, baseball….

Not Vanished

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A quick summary:

Contrary to public opinion, none of us have up and vanished. Life has just been a bit of a slog, more so probably for George than the rest of us, but still, the days have sort of blended together in an unending cycle of up, meds, meals, more meds, naps, work around the sleeping dude, more meals, meds and attempting to have enough energy to do all those basic life functions that involve laundry, grocery stores and cooking (hello? I made a deal 40+ years ago that my life did not include kitchens or bathrooms. Something is seriously wrong here….)

Between 2x weekly trips through insane traffic to SF and running various and assorted errands around here, the last week and a half have sort of slipped by in a blur. Life has been defined in 5 x day medications, sore feet (George), taking out trash & kitchen clean-up (Noah), filling our freezer with tasty goodies (Shana), dog visits (Gwen) and attempting to straighten out the amount of “stuff” that is trying to take over our lives

other than that – the Minnesota Twins are in town for a three day series over the 4th. Tonights game was a bit of a slug fest (3 home runs on each side). For the Twins – Jason Castro is local to the Bay Area. He had a huge number of family and friends present. If someone wThere as going to hit two home runs for the Twins, I am glad it was him. If someone was going to hit a grand slam – it was terrific that it was our brand new catcher in his first game in the majors.

And believe it or not – there are some rude Twins fans. LA and Houston fans have come to understand that there is always sound coming from the Coliseum Right and Left Field Bleachers; it is not worth complaining about. Especially if one attempts to do it a al D Trump on Twitter. Hello? There is no such thing as “too much Cow Bell…..” Oh – final score? 8:6 As