Saturday Fun

Yesterday I woke up in terrible pain thanks to Mother Nature's little joke and after having been unable to sleep well.  Jason was planning to go troll the junk stores, and I decided that I would go with him. We drove around and found several old books good for my mixed media crafts, and a candlestick and a little frame for my make-do project, and some ABC blocks I plan to use to make another make-do base. I usually avoid going to the junk/antique stores because he often goes with his parents, and they'll spend -hours- talking to the shop owners, and honestly, that's just not enjoyable to me. But with just my honey, it was kinda fun. I ended up with a bunch of books for like $2, and all I'm gonna do with them is tear the pages up for decoupage and art journalling, plus half a dozen small bottles destined to be made far prettier than they are right now, a little baggie of old-style ABC blocks I'll turn into something for Brittany and her baby.

Somewhere along the way we were treated to the most amusing sight; a snowman made of hay rolls.

This is how you know you live in the south.  Come fall, we see these hay rolls everywhere, dotting fields as they're left to try, piled on the edges of fields and in barns. But I have never before seen them fashioned into a giant ... I'd say at least 15'-tall.  While I was taking this picture, there was a dog barking at the house you can see in the background. He wasn't on a chain or lead or anything, but he didn't come after me. just barkbarkbarked until I got back in the car and we left. Just warning me 'don't come closer, this is my house!'

We had dinner at a place in Bessemer City (which is not a city) called The Gondola (pronounced gone-DOUGH-luh here, not GONE-dough-luh as you would think).  I was gonna get a steak, to reinforce my iron levels, but instead got the Butterfields Chicken. And it was a good choice.  It's chicken, sauteed onions and mushrooms and ham (or pancetta, I'm not sure which it was) in an alfredo sauce over spaghetti. I ended up only able to eat a bite or four before getting a to-go box, so Jason and I could share dessert, which was Peanut-butter Thunder cake. And oh, was it good!

We ended the day with two trips to Hobby Lobby. One in Gastonia .. which ended up with us walking out without purchasing anything because they were -rude- .. after which we went to the store in Rock Hill and ended up getting everything we needed there, and a little more, including the lined clear stamp Jason's been wanting badly. Yay!

I never did post pictures from the snow day we had this month.

We don't get a lot of snow, but this 'storm' kept honey home for a couple of days. It was nice .. even if we were sick for it.

Christmas Recap

Okay. So.

After dealing with the aftermath of being burgled, we still had to deal with Christmas. Our tradition is to got to Brandon's for Christmas eve, bringing all our gifts to eachother as well as for them, and we spend Christmas morning there, then drive up to Cary to have Christmas with Jason's family. This year, his parents decided not to go to Stephanie's, which made Jason and I a little upset, because that meant they'd be alone for Christmas, but we couldn't exactly cancel our tradition, so the plan stayed.

I was a busy little beaver the couple of days before Christmas, sewing and stitching and wrapping gifts that had been put aside in the aftermath of the break-in. I had already come to terms with the fact that not everything was getting done, and I was fine with that even. I still had things to get done that I knew that I -could- get done.

Well, Christmas Eve day, I'm making cookies. Another tradition is that Johnny gets a batch of snickerdoodles for Christmas, because i apparently make them the best. The first batch burned. Horribly. I had tried to cook them on the lower rack and the upper and switched them halfway through baking .. bad idea. I was so frustrated that I threw up my hands.

That was when we discovered the leak. Jason was working on cleaning up so we could make a second batch .. when water started pouring out of the cabinet beneath the sink. Horrors! We open it to discover that the garbage disposal .. which has been making an awful sound the last few times we've used it .. is leaking. Badly.

We think back at this moment to a time several weeks back when we discover a truly horrifying odor coming from said cabinet only to discover a bowl of stanky, moldy, disgusting water curiously under said disposal. It was not placed there on purpose, but served to hide the leak from us apparently, and we didn't realize at the time that there was a leak, so never had it checked.

The upside to this is that we thoroughly cleaned out anything under the sink that we just don't use .. old cleaning products and the like .. and now everything we have kept sits happily in a basket that can me kept under the sink but keeps things contained.  We dealt with the water on the bottom of the cabinet and on the floor, placed a vase under the main leak, and went on with our plans. Nothing to be done about it at that moment, except to avoid using that side of the sink.

Of course, this event set us back a bit, but we managed to get on the road at a fairly decent hour .. only for me to remember 20 minutes into the 45 minute drive that we'd forgotten one very important present. Back home we went to pick it up, and then we -finally- got to Brandon's around 9pm. Christmas Eve was lovely, filled with good, simple food and watching the outtakes of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. Actually, just one outtake .. the one with the drum.

Sleep was broken by occasional peeks outside to see if it had snowed yet - it hadn't- and I finally woke at 7am and texted Brandon to see if he was awake. Then I got up and nudged my husband awake.  Christmas day is always a time of joy with Brandon and his family, and from what I could tell everyone loved their gifts. I was pleased that Jason's slippers fit him .. though they were inexplicably still damp that morning, though they'd been finished days before. He got me some pretty wonderful things .. in addition to the ring which was stolen but I got back, he also got me a beautiful freshwater pearl set, some pigment powders to play with, a rusting and a patina kit to play with, some wood wick candles, a yarn tasting, and a new pizza stone.

After a leisurely breakfast of eggs and bacon and sausage, we got on the road to Stephanie's. Christmas there is usually rather chaotic, and once Mike (their brother) got there with his three children, that trend continued.  IT was mixed with hilarity however as Savannah broke out her new Wii game: GLEE Karaoke Edition.  We watched her sing a few songs, all the while trying to get David, Mike's eldest who thinks he's a rapper and looks like a thug most times, to get up and do 'Golddigger'. He refused, even when bribed, so I got up and did it. And did pretty good if I do say so myself. David thought it'd be funny to record me doing it, but I got him back, because they -finally- got him to try it .. only he didn't even know half the words. Only the chorus. So I have him on video just standing there like an idiot.  I call that insurance.

We woke the next morning to snow. And not just a dusting .. there was a good 6 inches on the ground, and it was still falling! I took several pictures, and we all got ready and went to IHOP for breakfast because Joe wanted to see how his truck handled. (It handled fine.) Brittany and Brett came over, with the crazy dog Numa, and we all hung out for a while, waiting to hear from mike so he could come over again. We never did get in touch with him, and though it seemed to stress Stephanie out, we decided not to bother trying to get him to come over. Steph's chili was delicious, Britt and Brett went home before the roads iced over, and we went back for seconds of the singing, this time with Sing Star .. Jason and I did a couple of hilarious duets, though this time there's no video proof anywhere.

We went to bed kinda early, but not -too- early, and woke up -way- early. Like 2am early, and were wide awake. We decided that it was probably best for us to just head home then, while stupid people were sleeping .. than to wait and try driving home that afternoon. So we showered, packed up, and slunk out of the house like a couple of runaways.  I felt bad, especially for Savannah, but it really was the best option. Both of us were starting to feel bad by then, so had we waited, we would have been just miserable by the time we got home.  As it is, we got home around 7am and crashed out for a nap, and woke up both obviously sick.

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday, though I do wish Jason's parents had come to Stephanie's, if only for the day. I understand that Steph stresses them out, and so does Mike. Being around them for a weekend stressed me out. But .. it's a time for family, and I just wish they'd have been there.

Post Holiday Crud, and other news

Jason and I came home from Stephanie's house with the crud. We used to call this sort of thing 'con crud' because normally you picked it up at whatever convention you'd been to that weekend. But since he and I aren't part of that world anymore, it's the 'post holiday crud' now, because typically, we get it from having gone somewhere other than our house. Mostly it's sinus issues, though he seems to have gotten it worse than me. Either that, or (as he suggested to one of the ladies he works with) I'm just not as much of a baby when I'm sick as he is.

A lot has happened since my last posting .. which really wasn't all that long ago. Two weeks ago exactly, at this time, I was dealing with the aftermath of a burglary in my home. Some 19-year-old nitwit broke into our home and stole Jason's and my wedding rings, the Wii and our games, Jason's laptop (but left mine sitting in plain sight), and a ring Jason had bought for me that was hidden well in Jason's office closet.

The whole story starts like this: I left that morning to pick Brandon up. We were planning to spend the night at Jason's parents' house since they were supposed to be out of town. Well, on the way back I had to stop to get gas .. I hadn't been planning on it but when the gauge says 'E' you kinda have to. Anyway, we got home about noon and I sorta half noticed that the laptop wasn't where I remembered it being. Then I saw my jewelry box and the drawer it was in were sitting on my desk. And I went upstairs .. looking for the laptop .. and saw the jewelry armoire honey got for me on our honeymoon was standing open too.

All of this didn't necessarily add up to being robbed though, and I continued to go about my routine, commenting to Brandon that "Jason must have come home and got the rings because he's gonna have them sized for Christmas .. how sweet is my honey?" I decided, however, to call him anyway, just in case. I started to go about my business and emptied the dishwasher, and Brandon commented 'Someone's been in the presents.. ' and I remember fussing at isis for it.

That's when I reached Jason, and he told me that no, he hadn't been home and that if the deadbolt was locked I needed to get the heck out of the house.  Which I did. We went and sat in the car while I called the police and waited for them to get there. I was starting to fall apart then, realizing that someone had been in my house .. in our bedroom .. and had taken our wedding rings. That was the worst part, really. I was terrified we'd never see them again.

The police responded pretty quickly .. first with a single officer who checked the house out for me, figured out the guy'd gotten in through the back office window, and assured me the house was empty, then with the K-9 units and finally the forensics units. Jason got home not long after and helped reassure me everything was alright. Brandon and I went over to momma and diddy's a few hours later, while the cops were searching the neighborhood .. one of the K-9 officers told me they were sure he hadn't managed to leave the neighborhood.

The story does have a happy ending. About 6pm Jason called me to tell me that they'd caught the guy and that all our stuff had been recovered. We stayed at the in-laws' house that night, though the window was 'secured' by use of a 2x4 jamming the window in place, and spent a lot of the time stalking the York County Sheriff's Current Inmate's website to get a look at the idiot who was caught.  His name is Gavyn Michael Lovett, and he just turned 19 on December 1st. Come to find out this is not his first time at the rodeo, and he's more than likely ruined his life with this most recent run of burglaries.

The next day I was on my way to bring Brandon back home to Kannapolis when the detective handling the case called me to have me come pick up my possessions. If I hadn't gone then, I'd have had to wait because everything would be in the evidence locker. Of course, i went and picked it up .. including the ring Jason bought me for a Christmas gift. So we have everything that was stolen .. except for our peace-of-mind. But that will come in time. We have to send our laptops in for repair .. mine got covered in magnetic fingerprint dust so I want to checked, and Jason's using the opportunity to have it fixed finally. In addition, we have to have the back window replaced, and are using the burglary to get the bedroom door replaced and probably replacing a couple of chairs as well. There's lots to get done still. But we're getting there.

Survived

Well, on Wednesday, our AC went out. It didn't go out until the evening, but by 7pm it was 78-degrees downstairs.. add ten degrees for the temp upstairs with no AC working.  By 7:30pm it was 81-degrees downstairs. We couldn't sleep in that, so we packed a few things and spent the night at Jason's mother's house. Thank the gods that she lives close by, we'd probably have had to stay in a hotel otherwise.

The following morning I came back to the house to check it .. still not working. So I filed a request for service with American Home Shield and proceeded to do some last-minute cleaning up. It didn't need much really, luckily - thanks to the RTH group on Ravelry, I'm inspired to keep my home neat enough for visitors all the time - but I had to vacuum downstairs, and put a few things away, and wanted to close blinds and curtains to try to keep most of the heat out. At 9am it was already 85-degrees downstairs; again, add ten degrees for upstairs, at least.  The man called, said he'd be here between 2 and 5pm and I went back to MILs house to spend the day there. I did some homework, I knitted a lot, and I waited.

Three-o-clock came and went. Four-o-clock. I went over to the house around 4:30pm to make sure I had a checkbook, but it was too hot to stay. Closer to 88 downstairs. Probably a hundred upstairs. Five-o-clock came and went, and no phone call, nothing. I finally called the main number around 5:45 to get an update. Then again around 6:15 when I still hadn't been called. The owner called me about 5 minutes later, then 5 minutes or so after that to let me know the man was in my driveway. He could have called, I'm thinking, to let me know he was on his way, but I'm being Southern, and holding my tongue.

Jason was closer even than I was, so he went to the house, waited while the guy replaced a capacitor that was apparently the culprit, and packed more clothes for himself for today. It wouldn't cool off in time for us to sleep there sadly, so we had to spend another night not in our own bed.  Isis had to spend another night not in her home, using not her own litterbox, but she survived it, bless her little heart.

Thankfully, it only cost us $60 .. well, plus the $500 for the AHS contract for the year. But that covers everything in the house through this summer and most of next. And by then, hopefully, we'll be in a better financial position. For one thing, I -should- have a job by then.

Things and Stuff

We cleaned out the closet this weekend. I'd already done a fair bit, going through my own clothes and pulling out anything I don't wear, or is too big/way-too-small for me, but I have been trying to get Jason to do the same. he resists it, because of all the money that's in the clothes we buy him, but I keep trying to tell him to not think about it. We already spent the money, it's being wasted whether we give the clothes new homes or whether it sits in the closet unused. He was grumpy though, which makes for not-so-fun times. I think he's happier now though, especially since we can actually hang all of our clothes in the closet again. We can get dressed somewhere other than the laundry room!

That bench on the short wall in this picture is where my half of the three bags had been sitting for months as I waited for him to get in gear and go through clothes himself. It's actually empty no. We could, feasibly, use it to have people over to eat! Not that most people want to eat our crazy low-carb diet. We got rid of our heavy down-like comforter and the duvet too, plus some blankets and shams and stuff. So much stuff collecting dust in our tiny home. Yay us!

It's nice to know that starting now, I don't have to worry about ironing Jason's shirts every night. We finally took a bag of them to the cleaners, and from now on that's what we're gonna do. No more ironing every night, especially since I'm not good at it.

Chicken soup for dinner tonight. Jason and I are both getting colds I think .. which considering the crazy weather lately isn't very surprising. I probably should change the filters too. I've suddenly noticed they're both rather covered in a thick layer of dust. has it been that long already?

Deck the halls with boughs of haul-y!

Otherwise known as the requisite 'What I got for Christmas' post.

This year, as has become our tradition, we spent Christmas Eve at Brandon's house. There was an incredible amount of gifts under the tree, and we were all very excited to get to sleep so morning would come quickly. Of course, no one could sleep. We turned the TVs on to the 'Yule Log' show, which was literally a tv channel that was broadcasting video of a fireplace burning along with holiday music. Coolness!

We awoke that morning at 7:30am to Brandon chiming out 'Merry Christmas!!!' ... in his usual exuberant fashion, of course. We all hit the bathroom and then the extravaganza began. I must stress extravaganza because it took us 3 hours to finish with all the gifts. Of course, we take turns opening, because then we get to enjoy the experience.

I gave to my loving husband both seasons of Carnivale on dvd, a quick-change flyer and extra bobbins for both flyers (for his spinning wheel) and a nostepinne (an old fashioned ball winder), all stained to match his wheel, a Scene It dvd game, another dvd of Reba in concert doing South Pacific, candy for his stocking .. and that's all I can recall at the moment. Bradon received a clock radio (for his room at our house), flex-needles in 4 sizes he uses often, enough yarn from Elann.com to make himself a sweater .. and again I can't remember anything else. There was more .. but I'm blank. I'll have to look at the pictures to see if I can figure it out. Sassy got a rawhide house with rawhide treats in it, which was a huge hit with the little bundle of ruff to my great delight. Kathy much delighted in her felted tote which I finished in the nick of time .. ie, Christmas eve I was felting the strap and putting it together. And she of course loved the frames she got too. Johnny got books and a dvd from us, as well as a frame with picture of Kathy to keep with him in the truck.

I made out like a bandit. I received yarn in abundance, to make a coat (Llama/Wool), a sweater(Alpaca/Silk), a smoke ring (which is like a cowl but it functions as a hood too)(more Alpaca/Silk), a beaded bracelet kit (which doesn't use yarn exactly but it's still knitted), and hand-painted yarn which will probably become a shawl, but I've not decided yet. In addition to the yarn, I got the patterns for the coat, the sweater, the smoke ring, the bracelet, and about a half-dozen more patterns for socks and shawls all together in a binder. I also got two pairs of Lantern Moon Destiny circular needles, one of which I'm already using to work on a project I've wanted to work on for a while. I also got a knitting book, Domiknitrix. I got a few halloween themed things too - a little snuffer, a Limoge witch's hat, a silk scarf, a pumpkin-head doll to go with my pumpkin man statue, and a candle holder. I also got a pirate devil duckie for the bathtub *squee*. I got kitchen-y stuff too - a mini cuisinart, a set of stone mixing bowls, a chocolate fondue fountain, and a deep fryer. The fryer was really to both Jason and I, but it's still a kitchen thing, so I'm counting it. Oh yeah, and I got beautiful snowflake earrings, and a hand-made quilted tree skirt that will go with our blue & white theme when we go back to it, the new Loreena McKennit cd, and my 2007 Witch's Calendar.

So .. yeah. I got spoiled rotten. Not all of it was strictly for me, but a lot of it was, and I feel incredibly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Oh yeah, and all of this is before we have our christmas with Neely and with momma & diddy.