Weekend triumphs

DH got the toilet repaired and reassembled and it works great. It doesn't even look half bad in our weird old bathroom in a mixing tile with vinyl flooring kind of way.

After conquering the toilet, DH moved on to getting the electrical wiring done that would allow his shop tools more power. Of course, he had a small helper.

I stitched some, this weekend, but as I'm doing confetti stitching, progress is slow.

I'm going to attempt to upgrade my Windows Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 this afternoon. Hopefully, it will go well and you won't hear any yells and moans of anguish, whining, or the sound of a computer being chucked out a window.

More plumbing fun

DH took the day off to tackle the toilet. After he gets it properly piped and reinstalled, he is moving on to tying in the plumbing supply for the new bathroom. So far today, he's only made one trip to Lowe's, but the day is still young. ☺

We've filled our log rack (which holds a rick of wood or half a cord) three times this winter. We're down to half a rick left and hoping it lasts until warmer weather. We've had a very unusually cold winter down here in south central Texas. Bring on spring!

And Linda asked for information about my WIP. It's a pattern from Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery called "Wild Things" from a watercolor painting by Sachi. It was a limited edition pattern and is no longer sold.

I hope to get a lot of stitching in this weekend along with some boring must-do sewing. Sometimes I like to sew; this project is not one of those times.

BAP WIP update

As promised, here's a picture of my WIP as of this morning.

Augh! Ack!!

I would have posted this yesterday, but my internet connection went wonky, probably because of the weather.

It was raining when I woke up; just after lunch, it started doing this. AUGH!

By suppertime, it looked like this. ACK!!

I hate snow (unless I'm skiing on it). Thankfully, it was all melted off this morning by about 10:00 a.m. and the sun is out today. The only good thing about yesterday's weather is that I got to stitch a lot. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

The travails of a woodworker Part 2

Yesterday afternoon, DH set out to finish doing the electrical stuff he needed to do in order to better get electricity out to his shop to run his tools. Then he discovered that our only working toilet was acting up again.

So (with much muttering, grumbling, and banging about) he set out to remove it from the floor and clean out the pipe underneath as he has had to do several times lately. (We know the piping under this toilet is badly done; we were hoping that we could live with it until we get the new bathroom finished. So much for hoping.)

After working for over an hour with both the piping and the toilet itself, DH still could not get the toilet to flush properly. Worse, water suddenly started appearing under the house near the bathroom (we have a pier and beam foundation). DH figured that a pipe must have sprung a leak. We decided that the only logical thing to do would be to tear up the floor under the toilet to inspect the pipes.

DH did that (with much muttering, grumbling, and grumping). There was no water evident near the toilet pipes. DH took part of the pipe apart (including the flange that connects the toilet to the floor) and it seemed fine; no clogs. There we were with a large hole in our bathroom floor and no working toilet for no reason we could see. We stood in the bathroom and racked our brains trying to figure out the problem.

The clean out for our septic system is near the bathroom, too. DH noted that that it didn't seal properly and leaked at times. Suddenly, the light bulb went off over DH's head. The water was getting out past the leaky clean out valve. It shouldn't do that unless there's something wrong with the septic system. He checked the septic system. It was turned off.

The septic maintenance guy had come out last Wednesday and he had turned it off to check the system and, apparently, had forgotten to turn it back on. We didn't check it because the man is a professional and we pay him to inspect and maintain our system; he should know to turn it back on! The septic system had been off since then. An overloaded septic system will cause the toilet to act like the pipe is clogged.

So the toilet is fine, but now we have a cardboard-covered hole in our floor and - after an emergency trip to Lowe's - jury-rigged under toilet piping. Oh well.

On a positive note, with the floor up, DH can better access the water main to the house to tie in the new bathroom pipes. He will do that this coming weekend and then fix the floor. Until then, we are "sitting lightly" on the toilet as it is put together temporarily. So if you hear a loud yell of surprise from my part of Texas, it means the fix didn't make it until the weekend and either DH or I fell through the floor along with the toilet.

How was your weekend?

The travails of a woodworker

DH has been trying to make doors for the bathroom cabinetry that he made. He had to have a cleaning frenzy in his shop to unbury his router table before he could start which took half a day. He was then able to make one door, but was not happy with it. His router table is the problem.

When DH bought his plunge router, he didn't want to spend the bucks for a router table, so he made one. The top is from a kitchen sink cutout that was left in our house in Arkansas. The bottom is the bathroom sink cabinet from one of the bathrooms we gutted in our Oklahoma house. It is a tightwad triumph and it has served him fairly well for over eight years. But for making nice cabinet doors, it is severely lacking.

DH decided to research possible router attachments for his Shopsmith. This entailed a couple of trips to Lowe's and several electrical wiring schemes. (The shop does not yet have electricity out to it; DH has been running tools off an extension cord from our flood light pole.) The Shopsmith pulls a lot of electricity and needed something more beefy than the extension cord to run properly. While he solved the electricity problem, DH decided that he'd rather use a conventional router table than the Shopsmith attachments available.

So, DH had me search the internet for a suitable router table after he looked over the ones that Lowe's had. In the end, we ended up ordering this router table made by Bench Dog. DH is fairly salivating over it. Luckily it won't rust. ☺

I have been stitching quite a bit this weekend and plan to stitch most of this afternoon. I'll post a picture tomorrow or Tuesday.

A kitchen antique

Years ago, my dad was an HVAC subcontractor. His main supplier ran a contest one year. For every item you purchased, you received points and could earn "fabulous prizes." At the end of the contest, Dad had enough points to "buy" several things for our home. (Unfortunately, he did not have enough points for the vacation trip my mom was hoping for!) While I don't remember all of the things he bought with his points, I do remember the lawnmower and the microwave oven.

Microwaves had been out for awhile, but were expensive back then. My mom wanted one, but wanted the new-fangled ones with an automatic turntable so she didn't have to rotate the food herself. Our new microwave was one of the first models with the turntable, made by Panasonic. This was back in 1978.

DH and I still have and use daily that microwave. It was "passed down" to me sometime after college. Occasionally, the turntable will stop turning. DH then takes it apart and replaces the rubber band that turns the turntable. We don't use official replacement parts; the rubber band off of a bunch of broccoli works fine. Notice the timer knob instead of an electronic keypad!

This week, after 32 years of use, the light bulb finally burned out in it and we had to replace that. They just don't make things like they used to. ☺

Wednesday, DH took the day off and spent the day cutting more firewood. We've gone through a cord of wood and now have an additional rick. This has been an unusually cold winter for this part of Texas. Next year, we shouldn't have to use so much wood. (Although DH really enjoyed using his manly chainsaw and the tractor during the gorgeous sunny day we had!)

I haven't stitched a lick in two days as I have been busy with life, but I hope to stitch some today, and of course, stitch this weekend.

Best laid plans...

Well, I did stitch yesterday, but not nearly as much as I planned to - only my usual time spent stitching, no stitch-a-thon. Oh well. Here's the picture of my WIP as of this morning.

President's Day Stitch-A-Thon

Apparently, there are stitch-a-thons going on all over as many people have today off for President's Day. I didn't formally sign up for one, but I intend to get as much stitching in today as I can in between loads of laundry. I did get to stitch quite a bit this weekend. Here is where I am on my WIP as of this morning.

I'll post another picture tomorrow and we'll see how well I did with my stitch-a-thon intentions. The sun is out today so all is right with my world.

Afternoon doings

Yesterday, DH worked on some woodworking projects for the bathroom. He made a face frame for the larger wall cabinet, and made the smaller wall cabinet. Here is the small cabinet. (Yes, it needs painting and caulking.)

Today, he is working on making the cabinet doors for these two cabinets. He also hopes to get a window sill made for the window. He probably would have gotten more done except he was overcome by a cleaning frenzy as he was unable to access his router table due to "stuff."

I was able to stitch a lot this weekend and hope to stitch more tomorrow. And best of all, THE SUN HAS BEEN OUT!!

WIP and grumpifying weather

I finished the third page of my WIP last night. The orange blob is part of a large tropical flower. I've done three out of fifteen pages. As it is STILL cloudy, rainy, and cold here, I plan to plant my bohonkus in my stitching chair and stitch the afternoon away.

Last night, the weather had the audacity to spit sleet and a bit of snow on us here in south central Texas. I hate snow (unless I'm skiing on it). It melted off by mid-morning, but I still hate the stuff.

I've been reading this week, too. I saw the commercial on TV for the upcoming "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" movie and wondered if it was based on a children's book. It was, so I got a copy and read it. It was a fun enough read that I bought the next three books in the series that are out in paperback (the last book in the series is out in hardback; the paperback edition comes out in July) and read them, too.

And I haven't blogged much this week because the yucky weather has made me grumpier than a starving bear. I am sick of winter, wet weather, and cold. Yes, I am whining. Spring can't get here soon enough for me and summer better be close on spring's tail.

Monday musings

Remember that rick of firewood that I proudly showed off a couple of weeks ago? Well we burned it all and DH spent the weekend cutting more and filling up the log rack again. The wood came from an enormous pile of brush that the previous owner "thoughtfully" left on the property, so all the wood we cut from it was very dry and burned quickly. Spring is on the way, so hopefully the second rick will last us.

We enjoyed watching the Super Bowl although we both hated having to listen to Phil Simms commentate. It's like hearing fingernails being scraped down a blackboard. GEAUX SAINTS!!

Here is my WIP as of this morning.

Emma is feeling much better and wants to eat like a horse. Unfortunately, we must feed her like a small dog recovering from a severe case of gastroenteritis. We spent the weekend enduring the "gaze of doom and condemnation of a hungry dog with dumb humans that won't feed me enough." She's been getting small meals of special canned food four times a day.

Thankfully, we get to start leaving dry kibble to her bowl today so the gaze of doom should diminish. Emma is a grazer; we leave kibble out for her all the time and she eats as her attention span allows her. It bothers her when there is nothing in her bowl and she will go and clank it until we put food in it, even if she is not hungry. There's been a lot of bowl clanking going on in the last few days.

Six trips to the vet

Emma was very ill this week and after six trips to the vet, she's finally on the mend. Her humans were very worried about her. She's back to being her ADHD self, although we do need to put a bit of weight back on her.

The IH35 Stitchtogether was a lot of fun today. We had great fellowship, great food, and even got a little stitching in. AND THE SUN WAS OUT FOR THE WHOLE DAY!!!!

As promised, here is the box I covered in cloth and lined with paper to give away as our door prize. The first picture is of the outside of the box, the second picture shows the inside lining.

GAH! Clouds and more clouds

It's been cloudy here for days and it will continue to be cloudy and rainy here for more days. I'm turning into a mushroom and wilting...ting...ting...

I'm still plugging along on the BAP. I'll probably only show progress pictures once a week - probably on Friday.

I'm looking forward to Saturday as it is the IH35 Stitchtogether. I haven't decided on what project to take; should I work on the BAP or my ongoing Stitchtogether WIP? I'll decide later.

Emma is not allowed on our bed unless invited. Occasionally, she sneaks up there. "Who me? I'm not up on the bed."