This blog is rated PG

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They gave me a PG rating because "knife" was used 3 times, "crap" was used 2 times, and "kill" was used once.

If you decide to give this a try for a your blog, you might want to remove the tail end of the code they give you for your blog, cuz it is an ad/link to an online dating site.

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Sorry, no real knitting content lately. It's mostly been about the new house and other things. I do have knitting to blog about, I have a few scarves to show, but haven't got photos of them all. Side effect of having packed them into boxes and moved them to the new house. I'm sure they'll resurface before the next Ice Age.

I do have to figure something out with the itty bitty baby spiders in the house. I've seen them in the closets. Yes, the same closet where I've moved some of my knitting boxes. When I was at the house last weekend, I went to a box in the closet and opened it... eeks! I see two little spiders crawling on the box. These are itty bitty spiders, smaller than a nail head, but they're still spiders and I have an aversion to spiders. I'm worried about spiders crawling through my yarn, but most of all, my clothes!!!

We finally got carpets installed. It feels so much more like a home now. It's slowly coming together...

We were wondering why we didn't get carpeting in the hallway too. I guess if we got hallway carpeting, then we might as well have gotten carpeting in the living room, dining room, and family room too. But I do like having hard wood floors, even if they're not very nice hardwood floors (they need refinishing, especially in that middle bedroom in the photo above). And I figure I can better see M's food droppings on hardwood floors.

This is our family room full of boxes, photo taken last weekend. And that doesn't even show you all the stuff we already unpacked (mostly in the kitchen), or the stuff we put in the dining room and living room. Now that we've got carpeting in the bedrooms, we've started to move boxes to the bedrooms and bedroom closets.

I found this during my last Costco run. They're foam mats, kinda like the colorful ones you find at Toys R Us. These are boring grey, and have a slightly bumpy surface, but I think they'll still work out OK for blocking scarves and shawls. There are 8 mats in this package, 2 ft square. I think that should cover any size shawl I might make in the future. I think this was under $12, sorry don't recall exactly, but it was definitely cheaper than the $20-40 mats at Toys R Us. If this doesn't work out, then I'll use these mats for some other purpose around the house. I haven't even opened the package yet. I figure it'll be easier to move to the new house if I don't open them now.

DH gets tennis balls at Costco. They used to come in this plastic box, but the last time I went to Costco I noticed that they're packaged in cardboard boxes again. Boo hoo. After DH goes through all those tennis balls, the empty plastic box is mine! What do you think I'll use it for? Hmmm...

(Did you guess yarn?)




You've seen my Swiffer Mop in all my Swiffer Mop posts. My mom gave me her Swiffer mop clone and it is quite a bit different from the real Swiffer I have. It's great to have two of these mops now, since I will have so much more floor to clean at the new house. And M is always trying to "help", so there'll be a mop for her and a mop for me, and we can both Swiffer at the same time. Won't that be nice?

There are no brand markings on this yellow mop, so I have no idea who made it. Does anybody know? This Clone less flat than the Swiffer I have, and maybe smidgen narrower? Anyhowz, what this really means is that I have to figure out which swiffer mop cover fits this Clone best. I think I took the photo above with my first modified mop cover; it couldn't be my second modified mop cover because it isn't green. Good thing I made them different colors, lol. It looks like the first one will fit this Clone best, and the second one will fit the real Swiffer best.

I still have to show you photos of that second modified mop cover after washing....

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Violacieous Painting

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Click here to create your own painting.
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http://www.createpaintings.com/result.php?id=11876675148210

Eeew... what's that?!

This is the cabinet underneath the master bath sink at the new house. What's that dark stuff way in the back? Let's take a closer look...

This is the left side. It kinda looks like some sort of dried plant matter?

There's more of the same stuff on the right side...

And it runs across the back edge too....

Is that gross or what? I have no idea what this stuff is. Why is it growing out the back edge of the bathroom cabinet?

One bedroom closet is on the other side of this bathroom wall, and the closet side looks fine...

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State Quiz

I gave this quiz a try just for shishkabobs & giggles and was surprised that I would get this result. Yes, I'm in California, but I thought the quiz would spit out some other state instead. And I'm really amused at the last sentence below...
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You're California!

In many ways, you are larger than life and almost defy description. You
certainly love to shake, rattle, and roll with the best of them. You have a generally
sunny disposition, but are capable of resorting to harsh extremes when pressed. You are
more likely than most to become rich, or famous, or perhaps both. While you have the
golden touch in so many regards, your respect for actors is a little over-zealous. This
endless faith in actors needs to be terminated.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

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In denial...

I received something in the mail today from my high school. It didn't look like the usual mailings they sent out... asking for donations, selling raffle tickets, selling tickets to their current play/musical. When I opened it up, I found a slim CD case. The cover announced our 20th reunion next month. Eeks! Has it really been two decenniums since I graduated from high school? Surely not. I remember it like it was yesterday.... ;-) V, you're not far behind... surely you must agree that it hasn't been that long...

I opened the CD case and found a CD containing what somebody deemed the "hits" during our 4 years of high school:

1. Wanna be startin' somethin - M. Jackson
2. Sweet dreams - Eurythmics
3. Goody two shoes - Adam Ant
4. Jump - Van Halen
5. Love is a battlefield - Pat Benatar
6. I would die 4 u - Prince
7. Oh Sheila - Ready for the World
8. Part-time lovers - S. Wonder
9. Pleasure principle - J. Jackson
10. Walk like an Egyptian - Bangles
11. What you need - INXS
12. Livin' on a prayer - Bon Jovi
13. Where the streets have no name - U2
14. Push it - Salt-n-Pepa
15. Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys

I have to wonder whether it is even legal for them to burn these songs onto a CD...

I vaguely recall recall a girl in school who was a major Adam Ant fan, she had her own ant farm. I do like some Pat Benatar songs, but I have a hard time listening to her ever since working with a neurotic psychopath a decade ago. I think that Eurythmics song was what we used when we learned some dance routine in a dance class I took.

No plans to go to the reunion. I have better things to do.

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We got carpets installed today! Yippee!!! DH called to ask me whether I wanted the edge (where the carpet meets the hardwood floor hallway) to be (1) tapered and stapled down or (2) or clamped down with some sort of metal strip. I had no clue. He said the carpet installer recommended option #1, since it may look weird seeing the carpet-metal-hardwood transition. I suppose the metal strip would look less out of place if we were going from carpet into a room that had tile (like a kitchen or bathroom)??? Well, we'll be going to the house tomorrow so I will get to see how the carpet looks.

We chose a berber carpet for the bedrooms. My inlaws have berber carpets and I really like how they look easier to care for. In the old house, we have higher pile dust/dirt/crud-attracting carpet, and I definitely didn't want that with a toddler in the house.

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Ugh. We received our cell phone bill today and I couldn't believe it was $165. We went over our allotted 400 free minutes, so have to pay for 166 minutes @ 45 cents per minute. Ouch! It's all DH's fault for using his cell phone to dial into his conference calls, etc. On the upside, he won't do this as much after we move since we'll be living in the same city he works... :-)

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Knitting Ladies at SFIA

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I've found the photos I took on June 15, when M & I spent the afternoon visiting the Knitting Ladies at the San Francisco International Airport, and thought I'd share some of them with you. Like the previous visit, it was a fun gathering. And M managed to find things to do while we ooh-ed and aah-ed over all the knitting and shared ideas & techniques.



I think Marisa made this vest.



Here's a ruffle scarf. Looks neat, but I think all the stitches on the needle would drive me batty, lol.



I think Andre knit all these socks. I still have yet to start my first sock. I hear it's addictive once you start...



This is Bette's shell & scarf. She finished the shell with yarn to spare, so made a matching scarf. I'm afraid I took pictures of the wrong side of the scarf. Sorry about that.





Aren't these cute hats? You can find the pattern for the 2 hats in the last photo here. I can't remember what the other hat is, perhaps Emily can tell us.



You can see all the knitting sprawled out on the conference room table here.


This scarf and sweater are knit with the exact same yarn, but knit by two different people.



This is Marisa's(?) child's top. It looks like something I might be able to knit since it is seamless, knitted in the round.


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This is Tina's beaded scarf. It has a gazillion beads in it!



This is a little pouch that is really soft. I think it was made with bamboo yarn?
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Booking Through Thursday

Here's this week's question...

Monogamy

One book at a time? Or more than one? If more, are they different types/genres? Or similar?

(We’re talking recreational reading, here—books for work or school don’t really count since they’re not optional.)

Oh gosh, I don't think I could read two books at the same time (not even before I had a baby, lol). I need to concentrate on one. However there was a brief period recently when I was listening to an audio book (A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George) and reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the same time.

Right now I'm listening to The Art of Detection by Laurie R King, it's my introduction to this author. I don't see how I could ever find the time to read/listen to another book at the same time.

I used to do much of my reading during my commute. Ever since I quit my job and had a baby, I have had limited time for pleasure reading. I've only recently gotten into audio books, trying it out to see if it would work out better for my current situation. It's not exactly a replacement for reading, but I do like being able to kill two birds with one stone ... listen to an audio book while knitting. I know that there are people who can read a book and knit simultaneously. I'm definitely not one of them.

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Rockin Girl Blogger again

Thanks Cat for nominating me for the Rockin Girl Blogger. This is actually my 3rd nomination, however this time I am not going to wait over a month to mention it, lol. I've already tagged five people here.

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Click on pictures to enlarge.

Bets mentioned something about rubber stamps for her HUGe project, then I stumbled upon some of my old rubber stamping stuff while packing for our house move, so I thought I'd share some of the rubber stamp mail art I've received in the past. These people are way more creative than I am. I'm not actively rubber stamping these days. Knitting keeps me busy enough, lol. While going through old stuff and packing, I found two boxes of rubber stamps, plus extra stuff like paper, envelopes, sponges, colored markers & ink pads, & embossing powders. I think I'll save the rubber stamps for M to play with when she's a bit older.



There are some people who do incredible rubber stamp art, April W (Woodbridge, VA) being one of them. Another name that pops up in my mind is Audrey F in Jacksonville, FL. And there's someone in Van Nuys, CA, what's her name? V, maybe you can remember?

I'll share more pics of rubber stamp mail art in future posts. I don't want to overwhelm my readers with them all in one post.

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Well, we were supposed to get carpets on Monday but the carpet installer was a no show during the 9 am to 11 am window. So carpet installation has been rescheduled for tomorrow (Thurs 8/16). I think this place will start to look like a home after we get carpets in the bedrooms. I'm so excited!

The FixIt guys came by on Tuesday (yesterday) to finish painting the master bathroom door and the trim around that door.

I've been spending a lot of time driving to the new house. We get very little done on the weekends when we drive there with M. Last Saturday was a good example of that. We expected her to nap during the hour long drive to the new house, but she was resilient, staying awake the entire time. We moved more stuff into the new house. Went to get lunch. Stopped by two places to get house stuff, and dropped off the items at the new house. M was clearly in need of a nap, and it was obvious we would not be able to get any more work done at the house, so we headed home instead. Not a very productive day...

So last Sunday, DH stayed home with M, while I drove to the new house to move more stuff and get stuff done. It was quite productive.

And on Monday, my Mom came over to take care of M while I drove to the new house to get more stuff done and move more crap to the new house. I cleaned the bathroom medicine cabinets, counter tops, and the cabinets beneath the counter tops. The cabinets were very filthy, and I saw something strange in the master bathroom cabinet under the sink. There was some sort of plant-like/mossy growth at the back along the bottom & side edges. I didn't have the camera with me so I couldn't take a photo of it. I steered clear of the stuff, didn't even want to touch it. Maybe I'll just place a big shelf liner sheet over the back so I don't have to look at it. If I don't see it, it doesn't exist...

Since I've been driving to the new house every weekend (and more), I am getting quite acquainted with lane changes on the freeway, and the odd thing about Wolfe Avenue in Cupertino/Sunnyvale. Are you familiar with this street? If you drive between Ranch 99 (near the Wolfe Ave exit on 280; I think the street name is Homestead?) and El Camino Real, the street on the whole is pretty straight... however, the lanes swerve so much that you feel like you're doing a slalom!

Oh, we're planning to move in a week and a half. I guess we better find some movers for the big furniture. And I need to get cracking on emptying bookshelves and cabinets before the move.

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I recently saw the movie "Batman Begins". It was a good movie. It was definitely darker than the previous Batman movies. Next movies queued up are "Elizabeth I" (Helen Mirren) and "The Good Shepherd" (Matt Damon).

I've started Laurie R King's "The Art of Detection" (audio book).

M is going to wake up from her nap any minute now. So I better finish up my ghetto chocolate (100 Grand fun size bars) and my tea (Yamamotoyama green). Since my tea pots are packed up and moved to the new house, I am drinking from tea bags until we move...

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Yup, I'm moving to Suburbia

I discovered Walk Score from Bets. The site rates a neighborhood's accessiblity for people on foot. The site lists some restaurants by type (with drop down arrow to expand). However the info is a little outdated as it lists an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood which has changed into a Mexican restaurant within the past year. And it seems to think Tully's coffee is the closest at .72 miles distance, when I can name a few others within 4 city blocks from my house.

Old house in San Francisco: 83/100. (I live out in the "boonies" of SF)

New house in Sunnyvale: 60/100.

Moving to our new house will be a culture shock for me, even though I'm still living in the San Francisco Bay Area and not even as far as the "outer" Bay Area either. I've lived in San Francisco for so many decades, it would just feel weird to not be able to walk to places or easily take public transportation a short distance to places. What do you mean I will have to drive somewhere if I want to go get coffee, pick up groceries, or visit the library?!

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Update on our move. We thought we would move during the week of July 4th. Well, that week came and went. Then we thought the weekend of July 28th. Nope. Still not ready. Now that carpets are coming in on Monday 8/13, DH asked what I thought about moving in a week or two after that. Eeeks! I'd love to move but are we ready? I still have more stuff to pack! Stuff to throw out!

We still haven't gotten our shutters yet, so our living room and dining room (both facing the street) are fishbowls. I'm not sure I would want to live in the house before the shutters get installed.

I still haven't decided what to do with our large dining room table. It is about 8 ft long (~100 inches or 2.5 m). Even at 5 ft (~60 inches or 1.5 m), with the 2 center panels removed, it is too large to fit in the dining room at the new house. :-( Well, it'd fit, but we'd never get chairs around it. What to do? I've entertained the idea of placing it in our living room. Of course this would look pretty weird...


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Booking Through Thursday

This week's question:

Do you have multiple copies of any of your books?
If so, why? Absent-mindedness? You love them that much? First Editions for the shelf, but paperbacks to read?
If not, why not? Not enough space? Not enough money? Too sensible to do something so

Yes, I'm pretty sure I do. Like DVDs or CDs, I can't remember which ones I already own. There are two that come to mind, only because I recently came across them as I was packing stuff for our house move. I came across two copies of The Other Side Of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon. I was in a Sidney Sheldon phase way back when I was in high school. I haven't gotten around to reading some of his newer works. I also came across two copies of Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas. He's one of my favorite authors, and out of his novels I have read, I'd have to say The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite. Gotta love a good revenge story. Oh, another book I came across two copies of was Fundamentals of Data Structures in Pascal by Horowitz and Sahni. Eeks! I'm not kidding, here's a photo of both:

We have 2 copies of K&R's C book, a couple of Andrew Tanenbaum books. We have 3 copies of Stroustrupp's C++ book, of varying editions.

Here are some of the OLD geeky books we came across. We put some on one of the shelves at our new house. Several of these were duplicates, so we'll keep one copy and toss the dupes. We probably should have sorted through all our books before moving them to the new house. I'm thinking we'll toss these ones you see on this shelf. Not to worry, we've got plenty more geeky computer/math books in the "keep" pile...



My Shelfari Bookshelf, http://www.shelfari.com/Smariek, will give you an idea of what kind of crap I have... lol. I'm still entering more books as I come across them. Next to be added are a bunch of PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie books. I'm a bit frustrated by not being to add everything into Shelfari as many books are too old, obscure, or foreign so they don't come at all in the Shelfari book database.


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