A Week of Letdowns

It has been a landmark week at Casa del Curry. Things have been going wrong left and right. Our alternator on the car (who is named Lucy, by the way. She's a persnickety Redhead, what do you expect!?) was replaced, with much effort on the parts of myself, David, and our dear friend Molly.

She alternates fine, but there's an electrical short somewhere that makes the car impossible to drive at night. Any time we hit a bump (and this is southeastern Ohio, there are bumps everywhere, and our street is mostly brick!), the dash lights flick, the headlights go nuts, and our tachometer and heat gauges jump all over. So what's a girl to do except bring it to a service station? We have to take her in on Thursday.

David and I have been fighting due to the stress from the car. That hasn't been so pleasant. David has been trying to finish his website for the client he currently has, and in the midst of it all - his computer died. Died. It's fixed, now, obviously, or I would not be typing this. I'm still waiting on the power cord for the laptop to come in, and it could take up until the 22nd of this month. Sigh.

I have not been as productive as I wish I would. The lack of computer and lack of proper cooling to the apartment make things tough to do during the day. Our living room flourescent lights dont' seem to want to operate properly, so we're using our deceased iguana's heat lamp when necessary to find things. Have I mentioned I really, REALLY hate this apartment?

I've been trying to get my job done - ghostwriting, mostly. It's tough, because I have no good writing works to my name that are published. I'm trying to make a name for myself via my Associated Content site, which can now be found in the sidebar of the blog, and my Ehow site, but that's all slow going.

I've been making a marked attempt to be more active and get more done, it's just so hard when it's too hot and too dark and too everything. This week has just not been a good week, and perhaps next week will be better. More later, I suppose.

Graduation

Our friend graduated today. We spent the good majority of the day at his ceremony. I did not view it, unfortunately, since the venue was packed, crowded, and hot, and no amount of anti-anxiety medications could ward off a panic attack of that proportion. So I stayed outside, and chatted with a military member. It was, enlightening, to say the least. My banana bread was a big hit, as was the apron I had made.

Our neighbors, with the absurdly good garden, gave us green french onions, and we made onion and potato soup last night. I got only one bowl, but it was good. We shared it with friends and the neighbors who gave the onions originally....I guess my cooking skills are as good as the happy grad's. Here he is with his mother.

I also got photos of the stray he took in, Tom, to get the Humane Society adoption process started. Also, a photo of the happy grad and his dog, Jake.

The crafting has been going well. I crocheted around one of the cheapy waffle-weave dish towels we'd gotten at wal-mart using cross stitch cotton thread from an old kit I had purchased thrifting. Others are still to come, it was a pack of seven. I purchased a small rug to use as a yoga mat, and it's much preferable to our uneven, hardwooden floors. I want to "special it up" a bit, but don't know how just yet.

The socks are coming along. I frogged it, because I misunderstood the directions, but they're going well so far on try number 2. I've also started planning again. One of the things sent from my grandmother's effects was a big pile of patterns - including all of the afghans she'd made for the family. My cousin Dave and his fiance, Holly, are getting married in October. I hope to have an afghan for them, as well as projects for using up my odds and ends. I really want to reduce my crafting supplies since I've got two big tubs of yarn and a whole dresser full of supplies of various sorts. Wish me luck on that! I want to re-fashion some of my wardrobe, or at least mend more, since a lot of it is too small, too large, too awful shape or just not "me". I'm planning hot pink shorts. Hot pink. Bear with me on this, since I think it will look good.

It's been a long day. A very long day. I've got anxiety over the car (Tuesday is when we should get the new alternator and install it. Hopefully that solves the problem). Our dear friends are moving a while away, and they need to find a home for their cat, Django, an orange tabby, but don't have the time to be able to foster him to go through the Humane Society process. Molly, one half of the couple, is really broken up about it. It's sad, and we'll miss them, and their house.

I've got anxiety over finding a place for us to live, and am heartsick over having to try and find a place. I wish I could move back to Pennsylvania, but the odds are looking slimmer and slimmer. Purdue has been giving me such a run-around about applying to their distance learning vet tech. Columbus State seems more inaccessable. College of San Juan looks good, and they seem to have a low application fee and high acceptance rate for their vet tech distance learning program. Cross your fingers!

I'm also going to find some time for Molly and I to go horseback riding before she leaves, as well as some time to invite her and her signifigant other, Amanda, over for dinner one night. This week has been very unproductive as far as work, since the family laptop has been out of commission due to a broken cord, and David usually uses the desktop for work for his client's websites. I wish we could find steady income, but this is as good as it gets. In the meantime, I've been trying to clean, organize, create, re-use, craft, make, and re-make. I've been listening to more podcasts. U sually when I craft, I stick on a television feed from the 'net for background noise, but I've been listening to one podcast specifically lately. Well, two, I guess.

Cast on, by Brenda Dyne, is the best knitting podcast I've heard thus far. It's NPR, but with knitting. And audiobook reviews (she's sponsored by Audible.com, and really making me lust for an account!). Her voice is soothing, her music choices are superb (my collection has grown by leaps and bounds since starting to listen) and she's well spoken and eloquent about a variety of subjects. And fun. She's very fun. Give her a listen, and you will not regret it. Check out the blog, as well as maybe access the podcast from the site, Cast On. As I said, it's very NPR style...and I like that. The interviews and audio blurbs from everything she has is just wonderful. I am in love. And she's from Wales! Bonus points.

The other, BarknKnit, is put out more sparingly. But it's dogs and knitting, so how could I resist? Check out their whole fuzzy family at BarknKnit, also here on blogger. Dogs, knitting, and a wonderful hostess. Her voice is more upbeat than Ms. Dyne's, and even when speaking about a bad day, the hostess manages to cheer me up, make me laugh, snort so hard that milk comes out of my nose, and maybe tear up a little all at the same time.

And that's pretty much that. More tomorrow!

Our friend Munch is graduating from college with his Associates in culinary arts. He graduates Sunday (tomorrow!) and we just recieved the invitation yesterday. I spent all last night whipping up the appropriate graduation gift - an apron! It's not your typical apron, and it's made using all scraps I've got. It's got sort of a mad scientist feel - very messy, but very him.

One of the reasons he's called Munch is his favorite Pac-Man t-shirt, which he wore the day my husband and I met him. So I took a rubber glove, cut it up into a vaguely pac-man shape, and backstitched it to the denim pocket. I added an eye with some black acrylic paint, in homage to our dear friend (His name is also painted on.) The ties to the apron are a tye-dyed tee shirt that didn't turn out too well...Apologies because, in the photos, I had not yet ironed the project or cut off the strings. I was just too excited! The whole thing took about three or four hours.


I also decided to bake him banana bread in a jar. I used This recipe, and had to reduce it because it makes (7) SEVEN jars. Oops. Well, it turned out well. I also made my husband and my favorite banana bread, from the Teens Cook cookbook. I love that recipe, and no matter how I mangle it, it always turns out well. It was also my first time using my grandmother's passed down kitchen aid mixer. I'm in love!

I wrapped the apron, tied a piece of the tye-dyed shirt around the jar bread, and that's that. Here's photos of the wrapping. The card is the top half of an old card my mother had sent me. It seemed appropriate, and it's more of a "graduation postcard" than it is a card-card.



I plan on updating later again, with photos of my garden. We're going into town to get some stuff done, so we'll see what happens! If I don't write again tonight, I'll write tomorrow!

Let's begin with something sensational...

My life is far from what you would suppose to call sensational. I'm a housewife, I guess. Domestic engineer, I guess is what you would put on a resume. I live on the unglaciated portion of the Appalachian Plateau with my husband, a web designer (then why, oh why, am I still on blogger?), our two dogs and two cats. This blog is the chronicle of my everyday adventures with crafting, animals, trying to keep order in the house, mental illness, paganism and poverty.

That's my life in a nutshell, I suppose. But how to begin, in media res as it were? With the mundane details or a sensational event? Why, sensational, of course! My car caught fire this morning.

Well, it didn't so much catch fire as it did short the battery and cause a bit of fire and smoke. My beautiful 1998 Pontiac Sunfire, who had been a gift from my family, has been good to me so far. She's had a few minor problems, which basically amounted to me not realizing a spark plug wire was burnt out. But yesterday, she died. Just died. Right at a stop sign.

We promptly got a jump and ran her over to Advanced Auto Parts. They tested the battery. The battery, of course, was dead. They sold us another battery just so they could test the alternator. Totally unecessary, of course. But the alternator, of course, is shot.

We took our new battery home, and put it on a separate battery charger. Installed it this morning. The salesman had informed us that even though our prior battery had side post terminals, and the new one had top post terminals, everything would be fine as long as we used the handy-dandy conversion kit he sold us.

No.

We installed the battery, ran it for a bit - definiately alternator problems. Shut the hood, and POOF! Fire, smoke, and a hole in my hood.

The long and short of it is, we threw a fuss about the fact that their technician majorly messed up. We got a full refund, and a brand new PROPER battery, one that is designed for our car. Now I've got to figure out what to do about the hole. I've got to sand, prime, and paint it...just to keep it from rusting. It will look like crap-ola no matter what I do.....and I am sad.

In other news, our friend is graduating from college in two days. I am sewing him an apron and assembling a "bread in a bottle" or "cookies in a bottle" kit. He's graduating as a chef, of course!

I'm knitting a pair of mosaic socks, from the book "Sensational Knitted Socks". I need to get my knitting mojo back. I have been unable to pick up my stix ever since my grandmother, the woman who taught me to knit, passed away in February. But I want to try.

I've also just started new medication to try and get my menagerie of mental health conditions in order - Klonopin (clonazepam). So far, so good. I'd forgotten what "normal" felt like, and it's a good feeling. Let's hope it lasts! The only side effect I've seen so far is decreased appetite and increased productivity - neither of which is a horribly bad thing.

But this is my life, and welcome to it.