The Actuality of Moving

Oh. My. Gosh.  When I started actually LOOKING at my house to see what a buyer would see, I see clutter.  Clutter.  More clutter.

It is good stuff, don't get me wrong, but there is a lot of it!  Stuff all over.  Organized to MY mind, but probably not to someone else's.  And would my rooms look bigger if there weren't such a pile of stuff in every corner, nook and cranny?

For example, what IS all that stuff on top of the fridge?  I am height-challenged, therefore I never see that, but if the real estate person takes a picture of it?  Bad news!

Not the top of MY fridge, but close!  Mine is not this neat.

Boxes.  I need boxes.  There are many things that can be packed and put in the garage, but I need boxes to do that.  We have been diligently cutting apart and recycling all the boxes we've gotten when we order by mail, and now I wish I had saved a few.

I wish we had had a bit more time to think about this before we decided to move.  Well, we didn't actually decide; our tenant decided to move and that made our decision for us.  Which is fine, but whoa!  The stuff. 

I have a lot of sewing and craft stuff in my basement.  I'm determined to cut kits and return the church group's fabric to them all ready to sew.  That will eliminate some of the stuff.  But not enough, and of course it all depends on what we find to move into! 

I have two or three large bins of fabric scraps suitable for making doll clothes.  My girls are beyond dolls now, and the craft fair business is no longer on my bucket list.  I loved making the clothes but you really need an outlet for that stuff.

I think I may pare down my stock of sewing machines too.  However, I'm not sure how I will go about that.  A rummage sale takes time, and there may not be that much time left.  My real estate guy thinks the house will sell in a weekend.  Well, he is young, optimistic and he hasn't actually been inside!

The rental unit needs to be cleaned and painted.  A few minor repairs are required, as in every house that actually gets lived in.  Some of that can be hired out once the tenants are out.  I guess it's not the end of the world, but we spent lots of happy times here, and it is sad to leave.  We love the neighborhood too, and have good neighbors on the block.  The next owners will be lucky.

All in all, I'd rather be sewing!

Move on...

Moving On, or Just Moving?

Today I am going to call a local real estate agent and list my house for sale.  we have been here for 11 years.  We've been happy here for the most part.  It's the only house Miss A has ever lived in, she was mere weeks old when we all moved in.  But it's time.

DD is getting married and moving them all in with her soon to be new husband.  He has a nice little house that will hold them all, and no desire to sell it and move into our rental unit.  An certainly no desire to buy OUR house and have us as tenants!  LOL!

The idea of living somewhere else is fun, exciting even.  I relish the idea of living in a condo or a house on a smaller lot.  I know DH would appreciate not having so much grass to cut, or so much driveway (two, actually) to shovel.

But moving?  UGH big time!  Have you seen my Resource Room lately??  Or for that matter, the garage/shed/basement/spare room??

Dear oh dear oh dear, how did so much STUFF get into my spaces?

The jobs we need to do to get this house ready for an open house boggle the mind.  The big stuff, like installing new patio doors and painting, can probably be hired out.  But things must be sorted.  Things.  Too many things!  All important at some time or other, or they would not be here.  Or so I'm telling myself.

And having a rummage sale?  Oh no.  There just seems like too much work to that.  How big a deduction can I get for donating to Goodwill instead?  I almost wish I could hire those 'got junk' people you see on TV and ask them to make it all disappear with a wink and a point.

But what if it was something I needed?  I guess I could become a hoarder very easily.

Maybe it's good to move every 11 years...

I hope the real estate market holds out at a boom for just a little bit longer.

Moving on...

August Doings

The month of August is going to be fraught with excitement at our house!  Lots of little things happening like DH's birthday coming up and lots of cleaning up along with a few much needed home repairs, but the big deal is going to be a family wedding.

DD has been divorced for about a year, and of course they were split up for quite a while before that actually happened.  Meanwhile she met someone new and now there is to be a wedding!  For a second wedding for both, they're going to a lot of trouble to make it a big occasion, but that is just my humble opinion; which when combined with a dollar may get you a Coke at McDonald's, but not much more.

This week I'm doing dress alterations for the bride and bridesmaids.  The bridal gown is a shade of pink that is called blush, and of course I don't have any thread that color!  White will do for the interior seams but it's got a lace train that will definitely need to match.  I don't recall seeing this color at the quilt shop, so off I go to Joann's...

Blush pink, apparently all the rage!

The two bridesmaids, Miss E and Miss A, have blue dresses.  They're identical in size, but one girl is a teen and the other is a tweenie, so the challenge is to adjust the tweenie dress to a tweenie shape.  The teen fit her dress almost perfectly.  I have to ask though, why do bridal shops think those dresses need so much padding in the front??  I could remove it from all three dresses!

Bridesmaids' dresses are blue.

I finished up my four part Sock Toolbox class last week.  That was so much fun, no stress about getting things done in a certain amount of time, just learning various ways to do each of the parts of sock anatomy and finding the one(s) you prefer.  If you want to know about socks, the place to go is Cream City Yarn in Brookfield, WI (no, I don't work there and no one paid me to say that!).  The class was taught by Lindsay, and she knows whereof she speaks!

 My first sock was Hermoine's Everyday Socks (a free pattern on Ravelry) knit with Twisted Owl fiber and I think the colorway was something about water, but the label is misplaced.  I finished the first one, successfully performed the Kitchener Stitch on the toe graft, thanks to YouTube, and cast on sock number two.

Sock two was pink bamboo and cotton.  I started it on the same sized needles as the first pair but the sock was about an inch wider!  They could have been giant socks!  So I frogged the ribbing and sized down with fewer stitches.  I actually tried twisted rib on them, and it looks nice.  It's kind of fussy to knit since you have to remember to knit in the back loop and purl normally, but I did learn something.  That sock is at the heel turn at present.

 Do you like my yarn holder?  I found this small blue ceramic ice cream cone at the Goodwill for 99 cents.  I was thinking pencil holder, but it turned out to be just the right size for a small cake of this wool sock yarn, with the small ball of alternate color for the heel sitting in the bottom.

 This yarn, having no nylon in its contents, needed a contrast heel to stand up to wearing.  The wool is nice to wear, very soft, but won't stand up to the tugging and rubbing of actual walking, so contrast yarn fixes things right up.  I thought the sock yarn was black and white, but in daylight it looks more like navy, so red was the perfect choice.

This sock is now finished, although here you're seeing it before the toe graft.  This one was also successfully Kitchener'd.  The second sock has been cast on.

Did you know that in WWI there were jillions of women knitting socks for the troops overseas?  Here is what I found on the blog "loveknitting.com"

Not only did knitted socks play a role in World War I, but conversely, World War I has had a lasting impact on the knitted sock. Until World War I socks typically had seamed toes, and these seams caused great discomfort for soldiers on forced marches and in the wet and muddy trenches, where those seams rubbed the men’s toes raw, which in turn could result in dangerous infections. The British Secretary of State for War, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, associated himself with the Red Cross drive to urge women to knit “comforts” or items for the men in the military, particularly mittens, socks and scarves. He was concerned about the foot problems the sock seams caused and personally contributed a pattern for socks which included a seamless grafting technique that would come to be known as the “Kitchener stitch”.

So thank you, Lord Kitchener, for being so concerned about your troops that you invented the seamless toe graft!

The Princesses are out of bed, so it's time now to move on to project number two for the day, breakfast!

Knit on..

Where Does The Time Go?

A few of my friends said that when I retired I would run out of things to keep me occupied.

Not so much...

It's Friday again, and I don't know where the week went.  Well, I do, and it wasn't necessarily spent on the things I had planned last week!  Again...

Working two four-hour shifts at the quilt shop took some of the time.  I finished up the last of my four knitting classes, and between those times I worked on my knitting class homework.

I now have two socks done to the point of doing the Kitchener finish on the toes.  I'll have to rewatch the YouTube video to do them.  Not that those two socks match each other!  So no, I don't have a pair of socks yet.

One sock, ready for Kitchener!

Upcoming quilt guild meetings require some prep time, and I have cut exactly ONE kit for the church group's use.  I have to get on the job here, people!

The wedding of the century is in three short weeks.  I have dresses to alter for the bride and her attendants.  They keep promising to bring them over but so far I have seen nothing.  I did hand stamp all of DD's thank you notes using my vast collection of Stampin' Up stamps and ink pads.  They want a small fortune for cards at Hallmark or wherever they sell those things, and the bridal section -- well, just forget about it!  I already spent the $$$ to buy stamps and ink, so for under $5 a pack for 25 blank notes, we did custom cards and had a fun afternoon doing it.

The completed note cards...

What happens if you don't wait long enough...

Last Sunday and Monday (for After Weekend Worship) our church guild had a little informal 'quilt show'.  We make and donate dozens of quilts throughout the year, and once a year we usurp the choir seats to display what we have in house at the time.  This year we had about three dozen to show.  We make a brief announcement of what we do and why we do it, and then ask the congregation to pray for those who will receive the quilts.  Most of them are experiencing some sort of trauma or loss, so they need prayers, along with the quilts.

The ladies who do the sewing and quilting do a tremendous job, and what we do with the scraps turns out so beautifully, I'm both proud and humbled to be part of the group.

Another week nearly gone... but a new one is coming on quickly!  Enjoy it...

Happy Friday, Again! Birds and Socks

Since retirement, I've learned to really appreciate Fridays.  No longer the day when I have to sit on a two hour conference call, listening to the pluses and minuses of life in the engineering business, it is now the restful, slow starting last day of the work week for everyone else.

It's also going to the dump day for my hubby and his buds.  So sometimes I get a nice quiet hour where nothing's moving (the eleven year old has turned into a late sleeper) and I can sit on the patio with my tea and a book.  Or I can just listen to the birds calling and watch them at the feeders.

Blue Jays are loud and very scrappy; also
they love peanuts in the shell* and are fun
to watch.  (*No salt please!)

Cardinals make a nice sound.  We
have a couple of pairs who come
to our feeders.

 

Finch feeders are also fun to watch.  Finches
invented the term 'flitting'.

Of course, we have a ton of our State bird, the
Robin...

OK, so much for ornithology (thank you, Jeopardy!)...

Today I spent the morning reading a book I checked out of the local library on Wednesday, a new J.A. Jance Joanna Brady 'novel of suspense', at least according to the book jacket.  The heroine is I guess a thirty-something County Sheriff in Arizona; I'm assuming her age as it's not given in the book.  In earlier novels her back story says she was married young and had a baby right away, then was widowed and elected to her then-husband's job, which is how she became a sheriff.  In this book she's send her oldest daughter to college, has a five year old son with her second husband, and author, and is pregnant again with a second daughter.

Sometimes imagining the life that would be is exhausting!  But the books are fun reads, and they go fast.  I also picked up another of Jance's novels in CD form so I can listen while I sew.  Multitasking!

Tomorrow I want to go to the farmers' market before I go to the quilt shop.  I've been longing for a tomato that was just picked today, rather than the ones picked a week ago and shipped in from wherever they come from these days.  I want tomatoes on toast with butter and melted mozzarella cheese!  And fresh asparagus, I mean really fresh, just picked. 

Sock progress is being made... slowly but surely.  (I signed up for a class -- Sock Tool Box, Cream City Yarn Shop, Brookfield WI).  From Session 1: Cast on and ribbing, my homework was to try different types of casts on, and different rib patterns.  I have enough needles, so why not make multiple socks, right?  I cast on three socks, and did various ribbings, two by two, one by one, and even tried twisted rib, which is putzy but looks nice.

Session 2: Legs, Legs, Legs! homework was to continue the sock in pattern to the point of the heel, which I did on two of the three socks, thanks to recorded Midsomer Murders and Masterpiece Mysteries. 

This sock has two by two rib and an easy
pattern.  It's called Hermoine's Every Day
socks, the pattern is free on Ravelry.com.

This sock is also two by two rib, and the pattern
is knit three, purl one.  This yarn isn't sock yarn,
no nylon content, so the heels and toes will
be a contrast color using sock yarn, I chose red.

The third sock is out of a bamboo/cotton yarn mix, and it knit up so big that the cuff was almost an inch larger than the other two, so that one got torn down and restarted using fewer stitches and a smaller needle size.  It's crazy because the other two were on 2.5 mm needles and that is very much smaller than I'm used to, so going down to 2.25 mm seems like knitting on toothpicks, especially since I love wood needles!  

Session 3 was on heels.  I had three different heel versions in my patterns, and Lindsay taught us how to do each one in a big overview.  I was the only one in class who had the "Fish Lips Kiss" heel pattern (cost is $1 on ravelry.com, it's really more of a sock 'recipe' than a pattern, and the designer didn't write up how to do the special stitch, although there is a YouTube video) so I stayed a few minutes after class ended to get some tips on that one.

By the time I got home I had forgotten what Lindsay told me.  I knit on anyway... and the heel looked OK, but after watching the video I realized I'd done it wrong, I added an extra step that wasn't needed.  It looks fine so I'm calling it good and leaving it in...

The side you're seeing is the good side, the other side is pulled a little and looks a bit like a gather.  But there is some give, so I'm hoping once I get it on my foot it won't show.

The last session is on toes, and finishing, probably to include blocking.  I hope I get at least one sock to that point, so I can learn the Kitchener stitch once and for all!

Knit on...

Socks

I love being barefoot in the summer, but since this summer is so hot, and the air conditioner seems to be running all the time, my feet get cold so I wear socks in the house.  I have slippers but they get too warm sometimes.

Miss A wears socks inside her tennies and during the school year she would often come over without socks, or with one sock.  We wear the same size shoes so she's prone to borrow both my socks and my shoes (if she can get away with that!)

I have noticed that when she wears my socks, I often never see them again!  Since we get her morning laundry which is mainly pajamas, and her evening laundry gets washed at home, I have no clue where the socks go unless she happens to bring them over.

We discussed that the other day with her mom.  It would appear from that conversation that the socks have gone into the black hole of kid laundry, where sometimes they come back and sometimes they don't!  But if it's any comfort, her mother's socks have joined mine in that mystery place...

I particularly love hand knitted socks.  I have successfully (more or less) knit three pairs of socks and quite a number of single socks that never became pairs.  I guess I have Second Sock Syndrome, that is, I can knit one but I have trouble finishing the second one, or getting it to match the first one so that they can legitimately be called a pair.

Hand knitted socks, NOT knit by me.

Self Striping yarn is fun.

I own a lot of sock yarn... which has the potential to be socks if I just get my act together.  I admire people like Stephanie McPhee, aka Yarn Harlot, who can knit socks while she rides a bike or climbs Mount Fuji.

I struggle.

I have knit a couple of pairs of yoga socks... which leave off the hard parts like heels and toes!

Yoga socks, also not knit by me...

I signed up for a four part Sock Toolbox class at my local yarn shop, Cream City Yarn in Brookfield.  Hopefully by the time the class is over I'll have gotten over Second Sock Syndrome, at least partially.  I'm sure if I don't it won't be for lack of trying on their part!

I can't decide between two yarns.  I love the blue one in the center but it's really skinny yarn and would take longer to knit, but the black & white is already wound into a cake.  I'm leaning in that direction, although the blue would make beautiful socks!

I just found out I am supposed to be knitting a test swatch of the yarn I pick, then wash and dry it before class!  If Miss E gets up and decides we need to go shopping that will cut in on the swatching time and narrow the choice to the one swatch I can actually finish.

Boy this knitting stuff could be stressful!

Swatch on...

Whirlwind

Last time I blogged it was July 2, Day One of my retirement.  Next thing I know it's a week later!

The first week went like a whirlwind.  I honestly can't believe it's passed!  I got a text on Friday morning from my successor, and she said "I'm sorry to bother you.  I was trying to get through a whole week without having to ask you any questions!"  I said "Congratulations to making it all the way to Friday before you did!"

Things I did this week instead of going to work:

1. Got a haircut, and didn't have to rush to the appointment, or home from it.
2. Had lunch with some friends and lingered over iced tea after the meal was done.
3. Spent three short shifts at the quilt shop and didn't spend as much as I earned.
4. Went shopping with Miss A at the book store and enjoyed our usual beverage and cookie... again unrushed.
5. Had a great time with the hubby at a family wedding.
6. Sewed one column of blocks for my Escher quilt top.
7. Cleaned up my sewing room so I can invite my friend Pam over.
8. Went to the library and picked up my books on CD.

Things I did not do:

1. Drive in rush hour traffic.
2. Set my alarm clock.
3. Put on heels.

I would call this week a success!

Rock on...

Day One

I know you all know that Charles Dederich quote, 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life'.

Today was my first day of retirement.  So guess what I did?  I went to the office!!

I didn't really want to drive downtown on Friday because it was hot, the traffic was going to be bad, and that was the first day of Summerfest so there were bound to be a lot of people going downtown.  I let the office know that I would be turning in my keys and my computer on Monday.

I was only there for about 15 minutes, but you know that one of those smart aleck guys would have to say "hey, you didn't retire after all, did you?"

Ha ha.  Yes I did, here's my junk, I'm outta here!!

Job two was to go get my hair cut.  That took about an hour, then home.

Job three?

There was no job three!  Although I did have to make the tweeny some lunch, and clear up some papers that were no longer needed from around the desk upstairs.

Ahhhh… retirement is fun.  No deadlines, no worries, right?  But someone said to me, you know when you're retired, there's no such thing as a day off!

Tomorrow I have to work at the quilt shop, and Thursday I'm having lunch with some friends.  In between there is the holiday, and on Friday there's a family wedding so I need a card and a gift.

Ah, well, tomorrow is another day...

Rock on...

Adventures in Las Vegas

The week of June 11, I was in Las Vegas, yes, Sin City, Nevada, for my day job.

For people who travel for pleasure I envy you a bit, but it's nothing like that for business. 

I had to be up early for the 3 1/2 hour flight and due to the time change it seemed like extra early to me.  I arrived there at noon Pacific time, and it was already in the high 80s.  I am a Midwestern Girl, and we don't experience that much heat in early June.  When I left the Milwaukee airport, it was 66 degrees. 

When we arrived, the baggage carousel was having
an issue.  Everyone stopped to wait for the bags
until an airline employee stood up in the shute
and started tossing bags up to the crowd!

The days in Las Vegas were packed with work activities, Monday was about 16 hours long from airport in the morning to bedtime at 11 p.m.

 

Our convention was at the Mandalay Bay Conference Center.  The building is VERY LARGE.  It was a 10 minute walk from my elevator to the meeting room.  Of course it had to go through the casino!  They still allow people to smoke in there, but they must have really good fans because the air was not blue like it used to be, with clouds of smoke hanging over everything.  At least you could breathe, even if you could still smell it.

Our client event was at the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum.  We were dropped via Uber at the Venetian Hotel taxi stand because in Vegas there is no parking on the Strip.  Who knew?  So in our dress clothes (mostly black) we four ladies (in heels) walked across a pedestrian bridge and waited on the corner for a green light to cross, and MELTED! 

Once inside, there was air conditioning (duh, wax!).  The manager wanted to put our registration table at the entrance, but that was outside... and melting, people!  I said I'd prefer to be inside, and thankfully that was arranged.

I spent the evening sitting across from a white curtain that cordoned off our area from the general public, and next to the statue (is that what you call them?) of Brad Pitt.  We put a name tag on him and invited him to the event.  We also snapped a pic with the boss to prove it. 

that's my red bag in the lower left corner...

There were lots of very recognizable people there (in wax form) and some who looked vaguely familiar but maybe it's just me... I don't follow the Kardashians or whoever is the flavor of the minute like some people.  And being in charge of the registration table did not give me a lot of time to view the attraction.  I did see a homeboy from Milwaukee...

The amazing Liberace!  All glammed up too.

 

At the hotel we decided that a good place to connect to go to the various locations was the statue of Michael Jackson in the lobby.  "Meeting at Michael" became the code.  I'm not sure it really looks like him, at least you knew what people meant by it.  I will say he is huge!

 

 

On the way home I was part of the big blackout at McCarran Airport.  Power went out about 10 minutes after I sat down in the boarding area.  As I was flying Southwest and was in the last boarding group I figured what did it matter anyway.  It was going to be 107 degrees in Vegas, and the airport did get a bit stuffy, but what can you do in a case like that?  Keeping your cool takes on a double meaning.

 

Light was coming in through the windows, but all the monitors
were out.  The gate agents had computers but no microphone
so all messages were shouted from the desk by a woman who
was having trouble projecting!  Most people were pretty patient.

I was reading when a nice man sat down next to me to try to use the outlet to charge his phone.  No dice, only select things are powered by the generators that had come on.  He was anxious because his boarding pass was on his phone and his phone was at 4% power.  Ooops!

 

An hour or so later, the power came back on and he was able to charge his phone to 10% and get in line.  Lucky guy, he was in group A, so he got on before it went dead again.  When my turn came, only middle seats were available, which I knew would happen.  I was fortunate though, I got a seat in Row 3.  Right next to the phone charger guy!  We had a nice chat while waiting to take off.

 

Arriving at home I discovered that it was hot here too, but much more humid.  Fortunately the car is air conditioned.  Hubby and I went for lunch and when I came home I unpacked, put on comfortable clothes and crashed on the couch. 

 

As I get older I find that recovering from travel takes longer too.  Even the vacation trips take their toll.  Changing time zones got me worn out.  The first day was so long, I got to bed at 11 p.m. Pacific Time but my brain was still on Central Time so that meant it was really 1 a.m. to the old bones!

 

I am so happy not to be traveling anywhere that I cannot get to by car for the foreseeable future!

 

No more 'day job' for me, today was my last day.  What do they call that emotion, bittersweet?  Glad to leave the job, sorry to have to leave the people I so enjoyed working with, my work family if you will.  But WOOT WOOT!! I'm officially a retired person as of about noon today!

 

Rock on...

 

 

TWO Weeks to Go!

I have two weeks to work before I retire from my 'day job'.  I can hardly believe it myself.  It seemed for along time that I might have to literally work forever.  One day, I opened up my statement from my 401K account from work and realized that I'd saved more than I expected and the company match was making the account look pretty good.


Not that i saved a fortune!  A little bit taken off my check on a weekly basis made it seem not too painful for today, and added up over time for the future.


If you have a 401K match at your company I am telling you right now, you are foolish in a major fashion if you don't take advantage of it!  It's 'free money' and you will thank yourself later.


So I have two weeks left to work... and what I'm calling work is not really work!  I have a successor and she's pretty well trained by now.  We have one or two things to complete, and really I am just there in case she has a question about something.


We did our final conference last week.  We ran a client meeting and an internal meeting together, and the fun part of it was that when the events were over, SHE took home the paperwork and my briefcase was pretty empty!


The company sponsored a client appreciation event at the Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum.  I don't know what I was expecting, something kind of cheesy i guess, because that's what someone told me was their reaction to the one they saw in New York.

The entrance, next to the Venetian Hotel.

 

This is in the 'musician's lounge'... not the best likeness.

 

Brad Pitt was a guest, see his name badge??  LOL!

 

Liberace, in all his glory.  He's a Milwaukee home boy.

 

Sports were big at the Wax Museum!  NASCAR
was well represented.

Random guest with headgear from Senior Frog's.

 

Traveling for business is always less fun than it sounds like it will be.  On the way there, the baggage carousel decided not to work and I had to wait for my luggage to show up.  On the way back I was in the  airport at 7 a.m. and shortly thereafter the power went out!  Our flight was delayed by about an hour.  The temperature in Vegas was supposed to get up to 107F, I just wanted to get home and take a nap!


I've been sewing on my Escher blocks, I'll update the blog with that progress tomorrow.


Nine and a half working days left...


Sew on!