Yarn-A-Go-Go

Look at That

I have many things to say, and I'm not sure that my brain cells will last long enough to get them all down. They're running on reserve battery, and I know you feel me. Moving has a half-life of about forever. Every time you make that last trip, there's still one more carload left behind. I helped Lala with her apartment tonight, and I feel badly that I was too tired to make more than one trip, but it just wasn't safe for me to drive in this weather any more than that. My brain, after firing at high speed for twelve hours without a break (sat on the busy radio board at work today, and oh, my god, they worked me over), really feels like a sponge. I understand spongey brain matter. Squish. I think I can hear it.

And I have a couple of things to say about traffic and tailgaters (don't I always?).

To the tailgaters of this world:

You are morons. All of you. What you don't understand is that the more sensible of us drivers will actually increase the space between our cars and the car in front of us if you are on our ass. That way, and I know you've never thought of this, when you hit us at high speed because you WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP if you're right behind us, at least we only get rear end damage because we've left enough damn space in front! Doesn't that piss you off? Know what? We know it pisses you off. And the more you flash your brights at us for leaving space in front of us (still going at the exact same speed as the car in front of us, mind), we revel in your ridiculous fury.

And know what else? You know how you always feel like you just can't pass, and that the whole world is against you? You know how you feel like the car in front of you and the car next to it JUST WON'T MOVE OVER, and you can't get around, and it must be a conspiracy? It might be. We sensible drivers DO pace each other to block morons like you and piss you off more, from time to time. Yep. It's fun, too. Back off, and we'll be nice.

This is true in many things.

In other, happier news, the house is coming along. Lala is being a saint in accommodating my anal need for order in common areas, and I just adore her for it.

But. Heh. Ahem.

I have to tell you about this. We were driving down this hill, and saw a guy selling things on the sidewalk. You know us, we lurve sidewalk things, so we stopped. A nice guy named Fred was selling interesting antiques, and giving good prices to the locals. I found the strangest little silent butler, seen here:

It's an ashtray. Three bucks. Yep. Your servant would hold this out to you to collect your ash, and it has a spinning wheel on it. Coolest thing ever, only why?

Then, we saw it. It was one of those "look at THAT" moments. I realized, in a matter of moments, that we were saying that phrase VERY differently.

Lala, reverentially, "Look at THAT...." Almost whispered.
Me, loudly and crudely, "Look at THAT!!!" Holy crap! WTF!?

She had to have it. I thought it would look quite fine in her room. But her room has no room, so it ended up here:

Wouldja look at that.

Somehow, I grew fond of it within the first two hours. It's like if Lala owned the ugliest dog in the world (which she doesn't, her dogs are gerjess). I would love it, because she loved it. But wow. (Aside: That dog? Sam? I love that dog. Somehow, I'm obssessed with him. I know he's no longer with us, and that's sad. He's frikken cool.)

Also, we got the side table it's resting on and the coffee table seen below for $20.

Camellias ours. From the front yard. Dude. We have lemons in the back. It's good.

Against the Clock

No internet yet at home, and I have only minutes left on my laptop here at the cafe but I had to drop in to tell you WE LOVE IT.

Also, living with Lala is cool. Yep. Good stuff.

Quick pics:

Strong Young Movers. Both Lala and I want to marry Josue, the head guy. Hot, handsome, nice, and funny -- he's the total package. And he carries them, too. Bless him and his crew.

Three animals in one place! We are surviving well with all the animals, only because darlings Kris and Jodi gave us that wonderful cat pheremone plug-in thing called Feliway -- makes Digit almost mellow around the dogs. Amazing.

Home. Ahhhh.

New bed! Good sleep!

That tangerine wall suits us.

My old table, given to me by a friend a few years ago, looks perfect here. And swing! Outside!

Scarlet!

Thank you, for all your comments and love and kindnesses. (Dani, the bagels you sent us (from New York! The real thing!) have sustained us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Literally.)

Internet soon! I hope!

Exhausted. Whew.

Moving Day

Okay! We're moving tomorrow! It's 10:18pm, and we painted all yesterday afternoon/evening (four rooms in six hours, whoo-hoo!) and Won-ju and I cleaned the house today, and I've been packing frantically all night, and the movers come at 9:30 tomorrow.

I hate moving. Have I mentioned that? Lala just pointed out that while she also hates moving (who doesn't?), for her it's just a pain in the ass. For me, it's physically and emotionally upsetting. I hate it. I hate this feeling of things not being in their places. Completely stressed out. Bleah. It's for the BEST reason in the world, and I can't wait to move, and I'm overjoyed to have the chance, but I'm quite overwhelmed tonight.

Also, DSL will be off for a week, starting tomorrow, so I really will be MIA for at least a week. I'm packing the computer up now, and hopefully in the week that it's put away, the discoloration on the screen from the glass of wine I spilled on it will go away. Sigh. (But it works just fine; god bless Apple.)

So here are a couple of pics to tide us over till then, eh?

The painting party. We went with yellow for the walls in the living room and two walls in the dining room (my choice) and one tangerine wall in the back of the dining room (Lala's). It's awesome. It was a little (read: a lot) alarming when I cracked the paint can, but I love it. Thank you Jodi and Kris, for the cake and the crack painting, Jenn, for the mammoth gift of the table, Geena, for the use of your truck, and Christy and Beth for hooting in the bathroom while you painted it scarlet. Many hands really DO make light work.

And thank you, Won-ju, for keeping me sane during the cleaning today.

Ta-da! The fabulous table and chairs were free, from a house that my realtor is selling for someone else, and my friend Jenn somehow got that enormously heavy table into the back of the truck by herself to bring it to me. Life is good.

And now I have to pack the bathroom. The kitchen is done, at least. I HATE packing the kitchen. I can't wait to sleep. And I really can't wait to sleep in our new house tomorrow.

MWAH!

HOUSE

Let's photoblog, since I have time to do nothing else. And please, forgive my absence from these pages for a while, since I have SO MUCH TO DO in the next week. But I knew you needed JUST a little more, so here are some shots from yesterday, the day Lala and took possession of OUR HOUSE.

(Hang on. I'd like to say it again, please. Our House. Ourhouse. OURHOUSE. The house that is ours. Day-um. I'm fanning myself.)

Anyway. My little mama was adorable and said that she really, truly wanted to drive up from the Central Coast (a four-hour drive at 65mph that, for them, always turns into an exhausting nineteen-eleventy hours in the car) to see the house in its bare-bones ain't-nothing-in-here state. And bless her, she was right. It was like breaking a bottle of champagne over its bow, only without the wasted alcohol. Mom and Dad and my sisters and practically-related-Becky and Lala's brother and sister-in-law came, too, and the almost the whole dang family was there to wish us well in our new home. It felt just right.

No, I'm photoblogging! Sorry, I forgot.

Here you go:

I think I have about nine different favorite spots, but this is from the glassed-in front porch. What a place for wicker furniture and a basket of sock-yarn, huh?

Coming in from the sunporch, that'll be my writing/knitting room. That's the wool room. Hooo boy.

Turn to the left, and that's a little dog in a big room. You can see the hallway that leads to the bathroom and the other two bedrooms (ours in the back, Lala's in the middle).

I love this one. (She has a can of 7-Up in her hand that we found in the fridge. She held it out and dubbed it the most expensive can of 7-Up we'd ever bought.)

I can't stand the pink. Really. HATE it. It's more mauve and it gives me a headache, even though everyone else seems to really like it (including Lala, and it's kind of her to humor me in this). We're going to do yellow instead. Yay!

Oh, yeah.

Kitchen. Laundry-space (vacant now) to the right.

Back yard! New deck! Can't you see a hot-tub? And my other fave place is down there at the bottom of the yard -- that gate opens and there's another little fenced in area, overlooking the creek. A secret garden. We'll have another little table down there and a place to write and drink coffee. Oh, oh, oh.

Harriet is well chuffed.

Red walls. Heck, yeah.

Well, hello there!

The 'rents out front. I love how the little mama dressed to match the house.

Hangin' on the stoop.

All of us. I love this one, too.

House! Our house! Hoooooooray! Thanks again for the well-wishes, you darlings, you. Now, to pack and then unpack. Wish us luck. See you in about a week!

Keys!

We have keys.

Know what that means? We have a HOUSE. A real, house-house. Seriously, words can't even start to say how we feel. And Lala liked it! Loved it! She hadn't seen the inside until this morning, trusting that I'd made a good choice (oh, the pressure). We actually don't take possession until tomorrow at noon, and the ex-owners (that means we're the new ones!) were there, the house full of boxes and furniture. But even picking around all that, Lala loved it. Hooooray! Can you IMAGINE if she hadn't? She would have, even if it were a dump, but it's not, and she's thrilled, and I'm over the moon. (She actually said the other day that she couldn't be happier if she won the lottery. I said that was silly, because then she could buy a house. She said, yes, after she bought a house with the lottery, THEN she'd be the same level of happy as she was with buying our house. I love that.)

Now I must pack. I am SO behind, and I have about half of a day to get the rest of the condo packed. Movers don't come until a week from today, but I'm working, and I want us to paint a bit before the move, and the 'rents are coming tomorrow to see the empty house, and and and and. All good stress! Day-um.

We have a HOUSE! Oy. Joy. I am overklempt.

Also, we have a dog the size of a coffee-cup:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
Thank you, for all your crossed fingers and dpns. Thanks, with all our hearts. More pics to come, as the movin'-in continues.....

Hic!

I've had the fuckin' hiccups for the last hour. I hate the hiccups. I hiccup big, and I can't talk while I'm hiccupping because I make the BIG noises when I do. Luckily, I don't have to talk right now. But they last a day or two, off and on, when I get them, about twice a year.

OHMIGOD. They just stopped.

This is after:
*drinking water upside down over the sink
*a spoonful of sugar
*two matches dropped in water, water sipped (I made big waitress tips off that one, back in the day)

The winning method:
*Mom's tried and true fingertips-to-fingertips over the head, breath-held trick. Trust the little mama.

What's your trick?

The Shut-Ins

I keep wanting to post, but it's been so crazy and busy and all o'that good stuff. I'm feeling a little off today -- not sure if it's a cold or allergies, but feeling funny. So I'm going to bed early and I'm going to sleep.

But first I have to send you over to take a listen to the Shut-Ins. They're the band we're having for the wedding, because Lala said she wanted them and that's good enough for me. I know one of the lead singers, Mike Roper, and I adore him, but I'd never heard them until the other night, when I realized we're going to have a PARTY with them there. They freakin' rocked. I loved them. Hulabilly, baby. Whoreshoe-Joni actually called Lala that afternoon and said she had tickets to the Violent Femmes, did Lala want to go? Lala said that we were going to hear the Shut-Ins, and Joni said, "The SHUT-INS?! Oh, that's where *I'M* going." And she did. They're that great. Go listen. Enjoy.

Sale Pending

Dude, dude, dude.
DUDE!

We signed the loan docs. The next thing on the list to do with the realtor is meet her there next Friday (or Saturday, depending on the sellers) and get the keys. Things could still go wrong (why do I find the need to remind myself of that?), but the chances of them going wrong are very slim now. It would basically be the sellers backing out that could kill escrow, and since they're all packed up (we've been peeking), I doubt that will happen. Oh, please, let us have the house that we're in love with......

Ohmigod ohmigod, I think we're really gonna move. I would be out-of-this-world excited to be moving in with Lala, period. But to be moving into Our House, it's like nothing I can describe. A good way to start a life together, eh?

But that means I have to pack. I started that last night. I started, as you would, with the yarn because 1) it takes up the most room and is therefore the most visually significant and 2) it's the most fun to pack. Of course, when that fun is over, as it is, then you have to get down to the crap packing, which I do. Sigh.

Also, I thought I had less yarn. Quit laughing. I haven't bought yarn (in excess) in a long time. Really. And I've been using stash! Why do I still have so much?

    Stash-face

Stash:

    Cat in foreground for scale

    Guitar for scale. That's a BIG bin.

Also yesterday, after we signed and then went and took that official photo seen above, we got sushi to celebrate. AND we went to the Big Longs at 51st and Broadway and found the food of the gods (Cheryl pointed me there, and god, do I love her for it).

Oh, yes. They're here. It was SUCH A GOOD DAY.