My upcoming Labor Day weekend

Tonight I have to disassemble and pack up my computer, and I won't be back on until Tuesday. I'll be too busy to go through computer withdrawal, thankfully. This is our twelfth move in 20 years of marriage. Hopefully, it will be our last for a LOOOOONG time!

I'll leave you with a picture of our dog, Emma. She is "killing" her favorite stuffed toy - a frog that croaks - by tearing the stuffing out of it. She allows Froggie to "live" for around six months, and then all of a sudden, she'll completely gut him and then I have to make a trip to Petco to get her another one. Silly dog.

Are we there yet?

First off, I'd like to thank Sharon and Rachel for nominating my blog for blog awards! Now, to participate fully, I have to pass on the nominations to other bloggers. And I'll do this in a later post. This will be a quick post to let y'all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (although I might get some rest if I did!).

Right now, DH and I are so busy we're not sure which end is up. We have to be out of our rent house by August 31st. We're still working on the new house. I'm doing last-minute packing. The P.O.D.S. truck comes out to get the P.O.D.S. on Friday. DH is taking off work Thursday so he and I can finish loading it. We still have lots of work to do at both houses. We're tired. We're cranky. I haven't stitched hardly at all for nearly three weeks. DH hasn't had his bow out yet to practice and bowhunting season starts very soon. ACK!!!!

Here is our recently finished (all by me!) new 9' x 7' closet. Here is DH's side:

Here is my side - the funky grey thing at the right of the picture is DH's gun safe; it's built into the wall where my long hanging clothes will mostly hide it:

I'm off to the new house to unpack and organize kitchen stuff.

Whee-ee-o!

A friend shared the story of being in his first spelling bee in the second grade. He was given the word "wheel" to spell. He got so excited (he knew that word and could spell it!) that he skipped in place and blurted, "Whee-ee-o!" I thought that was cute. So whenever I get excited, I say the same thing. DH thinks I'm silly.

WHEE-EE-O!! I snuck in half an hour of stitching time this morning. I was even happy to see the frog when he poked his head up briefly. I think my project was purring while being stitched on, too.

As usual, we went out to the new house last night to work. DH was installing some door trim molding and accidentally stabbed himself with his Stanley knife. Dummy. Luckily, it wasn't bad enough for stitches. Once again I patched him up with a butterfly bandaid and tape. This time I actually had medical tape so I didn't have to use duct tape.

I've been packing up "last of" boxes. I hate packing "last of" boxes. They take more time than any other kind. For example, you have the last of the kitchen spice pantry to pack. You end up with the box being half full. So you spend 20 minutes running around trying to find other things to fill the space that's close to the same item category or doesn't grossly clash with it. Some people may pack kitchen spices together with bathroom toilet cleaning supplies, but this gal won't.

No, I'm still not stitching!

I still haven't stitched a lick since August 3rd. I do fondle my current WIP occasionally and promise it I'll be back soon. I just don't know how soon.

DH and I had a weirdly productive weekend. We finally finished our glue-down wood floor. It took us much longer than we anticipated. Then I began to laboriously remove the excess glue and I couldn't get it to come completely off with the recommended mineral spirits. DH called the flooring company and the guy said, "Oh. Y'all will need to get some Bostick Urethane Glue Remover. Nothing else will get it up." Gee. Why didn't you sell us some when you sold us the glue and the flooring? *sigh*

DH discovered some more electrical problems. So up he went into the attic to run more new wire. Then, as he was doing electrical work at the wall between the kitchen and utility/old bathroom, he discovered more problems. Up he went into the attic again with more new wire, and then he ended up tearing all the sheetrock off the kitchen wall between the kitchen and the utility/old bathroom. And he found MORE problems. But, he got them all taken care of. We'll slap some paneling up on the wall studs for now as we plan to gut the kitchen soon anyway. I feel much better knowing my stove will have a proper plug-in, and that the refrigerator won't need a 15-foot extension cord to reach a plug. Of course, this wasn't what DH had planned to do during the weekend, but it needed to be done.

Last night we drove out in the truck to spend the evening working and encountered a problem. Our 1000-foot driveway has a big and narrow hump at one place followed by a big water-retaining dip. It was raining hard and we slid right off the side of the hump and got stuck in the mud. DH had to call a tow truck to winch us out. I did manage to measure and cut closet rod cleats while DH waited for the tow guy, but otherwise, the night was a waste of time. Oh well.

What you orta do?

I recently learned that an SBQ is a stitching blog question, and I like this one: what do you do to your thread clippings? Do you just scrap them or do you use them in something else?

I was delighted when I learned that the common name for thread clippings was "orts." What a fun word! And I chuck 'em in the trash. I'm not sentimental about them. I use a small plastic Darice box to kit up my current project. If I have room, I stick the orts in one of the sections.

If I don't have room (HBP with lots of floss), I use a small plastic cup that I've elegantly suspended with clear packing tape that is held in place with my stone drink coaster.

When I'm done with my project, I unkit and throw out the orts.

Floored

I haven't stitched a lick since August 3rd. ACK!

Working on the new house is wearing me plumb out. We've come so far on it, yet still have so far to go. We have to be out of the rent house by August 24th. We'll deal with it and survive, but right now all I want to do is sit in my rocking chair and stitch. Oh well. *puts on big girl panties*

Even though DH and I are veteran wood floor layers, this one is taking a lot longer than planned. We've worked two and a half days on it and we'll still need two more evenings of work before it's done. Then I'll spend half a day cleaning all the glue residue off of it before we can do the trim molding.

It's a glue-down wood floor which a lot of people don't like because of the mess of the glue. Even though it is VERY messy to install, we like it because it gives a very solid floor underfoot with low noise. And for a wavy or uneven floor (thanks to our contractor), it's the only way to go as the glue is very elastic and forgiving; it helps hide the imperfections.

Unfortunately, due to these desirable properties, while this particular glue dries, the wood planks can move around. So you have to tape each plank to the previously set one as you go. All this taping takes tons of time. And then you have to remove all the tape within 24 hours. It means we're spending lots more time down on our knees than we planned. Even with knee pads, DH and I both have blisters on our knees. We still have a small alcove and half the closet to finish.

Here are progress pictures. DH is getting ready by fueling up on Gatorade.

DH troweling the glue.

One-third done - DH removing tape from the day before.

As of last night.

"Whingeing"

As I read several stitching message boards, most of which are international, I love it when I learn a new non-American word. I recently learned the word "whinge." It is pronounced hwinj and is used in the U.K. and Australia to mean "to complain annoyingly or continuously about something relatively unimportant." It's pretty much the same as good ol' American whining, but with an over-the-pond flavor.

Today I am whinging about not stitching since last Sunday. I may run off to a desert island somewhere to hide and stitch. I am going into withdrawal. I'd go fondle my stash but it is all packed up in boxes. True, this is not important in the overall scheme of things, but it is important to me! *whinge*

However, work on the new house is going along. DH and I started laying the wood floor in the bedroom yesterday. We should finish it today. Pictures later as the camera is out at the house.