Friday, April 16, 2010

Update on That House: fixing the broken wall

Wish us good luck? 11 contractors have come and gone; we're waiting for a bid from the last one--due today--and praying it will be the same (or less?) than the amount of the tax refund to replace the bricks with siding. If not, we'll go with the mason who offered to finance relaying the wall... but it would be so nice to have it done and paid for without having to finance it!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Oh! For Pete's sake!

I DID do something this Winter, filled a dream I had long had... and almost forgot to post about it!

I learned to knit.

Mind you, I cannot purl, lol... but I can cast on, knit, and cast off. I made Gryph a scarf, and myself one, too.

Unfortunately, it was knitting that started this recent flare of the carpal tunnel syndrome, and I had to stop. So much for warm wool socks, eh? *pouts*

But hey, at least I learned it!

The more things change...

Well, I can't believe that when I come back to this blog I'm in the exact same space as when I last posted... but I'm STILL looking for a contractor to fix That Wall. The city refused to do anything other than plumbing repairs, although City Guy said we would be on the list for a furnace this summer; and here we are, Winter past and well into Spring, and I cannot find a company to do this work. They consistently say, "the job is too big for us," or "we don't do exterior walls, only basements," and even though I consistently say, "I want concrete, not brick" they also all say "Gee, you should talk to a mason."

Sheesh.

In the meantime, I worked on some glue-burning over the winter, not much really, and spent an awful lot of time online doing a lot of writing.

I seem to only have enough wrist stamina to either write or make art, but not both.... and I also seem to only have enough focus to do one or the other. It's interesting, eh? We'll see how the Spring and Summer play out.

Gryph and I rescued a lab mix puppy with a broken hip in early December. Here's what I didn't know about very young puppies with severe injuries: they heal better than ever! Oh my WORD, I expected to have a slow dog who needed all kinds of care and coddling and what I got instead is an exuberant wildly energetic dog who can run rings around everyone in the neighborhood and who routinely jumps four and five feet in the air! Oy!

I'll have to get some pics off Gryph's computer later.