Ralph is such a pansy. We have one fleece throw on the couch that he treats like his mama – lots of kneading and blissful zoning out. Last night I threw my coat on the chair instead of hanging it up, and Ralph discovered the fleece lining. He would like me to continue to be a slob so he can have happy naps.
Archives for December 2016
It’s a very hard puzzle.
The college staff has all been gone the past week and a half, so the long days get to be just an extra bit longer. I am spending the last half hour that we are open with the littlest ones in the classroom that is also the gathering room. (It’s the room we all start out in during the early morning hours before we branch out to our respective rooms, and the room where we gather again as our numbers dwindle.)
Throughout those times, there she is. The Sparkly Princess. Children bring her to me with the plea, “Will you help me with this?” We begin with her face, because that is easiest (two pieces), then her hair (sparkly crown), then the edges and her gown down to her impossibly tiny feet. Then she gets broken up into her 28 pieces….. and we solve her again.
*sigh* She is my nemesis.
Fun new pain
I have been staring at the screen wondering what to write about. I don’t have any pictures, so I’m kind of stumped. Let me tell you about my new old-lady pain.
It began on Sunday the 4th – the day I first sat around and felt sick. I was watching T.V. and a spot on my left thigh caught on fire. A sharp, hot, inch-long pain that was searing for a couple of seconds, then it went away. I thought for sure it was a blood clot and told Lloyd that when I was in the emergency room later with a stroke, he should be sure to tell them that I knew it. (I must always be right, even in crisis.)
Nope. It’s just a weird nerve pain. It happens about three times a day now. I consulted my internet doctor and people who have had this describe it as feeling like getting stung. I would describe it as getting stabbed. (Some people have it go on for a couple of minutes, so I’m grateful it’s so short.) It’s funny, because it’s AGONIZING and then immediately it’s fine. It makes me think about being a superhero and that’s what it would be like to get shot. “OWW!! I’m ok.”
We missed it.
The real celebration around here should have been last Friday. That’s when we took possession of this old house – 20 years ago. Yep, two decades in this house. The previous owners did such remarkable work…. have I told the story of house-hunting?
We rented the first floor of an old house when we first moved back to Seward in 1995 and took our sweet time looking for a house. (When we lived back in Maryland and considered staying there long-term, we looked at houses that cost *gasp* $90,000 and upwards that were just little post-war cracker boxes. Here in Seward, we took our sweet time.) Our dear realtor, Claude, showed us houses for nearly a year and a half, getting a sense that we were deadbeats of our taste. I was too stupid to realize that if I didn’t like the color of a room, it could be painted. We wanted something with character that could be fixed up, yet lacked the fixing-up skills.
He showed us an old home that could have been so cool if someone would just knock out a few walls and spruce it up. Then he showed us the one next door that had all that done. This one.
It was not on the market, as the owners were quietly going through a divorce. They were asking $95,000, we haggled back and forth and finally paid $89,500. I still have the daughter‘s handwritten command to ‘take care of this house’ written in my closet. (She’s got to be in her 30’s by now.)
Anyway, on December 16th, 1996, I took the day off of work and ‘cleaned’ this house because people told me that’s what I should do. (It was already really, really clean.) My boss brought over a poinsettia, the first plant I let die here. I believe we had pizza on the hardwood floors later that night.
Twenty years. In the days of ‘Trading Spaces’ I was gung-ho to change every room into something inspirational. Now, I wade through the clutter and don’t see the cracks. It’s just home.
A messy, messy home.
A Taco Fortnight wrap-up
Happy Birthday, Lloyd! I hope you find forty-seven to be satisfactory. If not, just wait 365 days and things will be different.
Taco Fortnight came and went. Tonight I think I’ll take him out for a real taco dinner, since as we spooned the almost-last bit of taco meat onto our respective creations he said, “I thought there’d be more variety.” Too bad, buddy. I know regular tacos, taco salad, and those taquito things, and Beth gave us some yummy chicken we ate for a couple of meals. I had plans for fajitas, but that three pounds of hamburger just kept lasting and lasting and lasting. Fish tacos were not even something I could attempt.
I’m just impressed we made it this long. Have a happy day, Lloyd. 🙂
Panel Day, part 1
First of all, Happy Birthday, ‘Mom’ Royuk! You’re the filling to our birthday Oreo. 🙂
Well, today was a day of acoustic testing. Lloyd – bless his heart – spent all day at the center with my putting that beautiful brain to good use. We did some sound checks with the panels up and with the panels down. They make a difference in intelligibility. (Woo! Correct spelling on the first try!) More panels would be better, but you go with what you can.
Then we worked on trying various ways of covering/coloring them. FabricMate sells an amazing system for covering them with fabric, but it is very pricey and just can’t happen now. We bought some cheap sheets at Wal*Mart and several bottles of fabric dye made specifically for polyester, which is what these are made of. (I have been doing a lot of experimenting on my own with the samples they sent me last spring.) The sheets are ok, but not great (a little too short), but I really like how spraying the dye turned out. They have a cool mottled effect that doesn’t show as well in the photos.
Spraying dye:
Cutting sheet seams:
The two brown panels are propped up. (They will not live like this forever.) I’ll ask the staff what they think. Lloyd thinks we should also ask parents what they think about our various set-ups, and only charge $5 per opinion.
Here’s a ‘before’ of the above-cabinets area. This isn’t my classroom – it belongs to a teacher who has her act together much more than I do.
Here’s the ‘after’ with two panels up. It reads more brown in real life. I just need three more panels up there to fill in the space.
Thank you, Lloyd, for your help! 🙂