Drawing Lines in the Sand..er, Garage Floor

A while back, when we were first (or second) discussing what we would like to do around the house, LB turned to me one day and said, "If you could decorate one room in the house any way you like, do anything you want, would it be okay if I did one room any way I like?" I must have looked a little wary, or confused at least, and when I didn't answer right away, he rushed on. "Which room would you like, would you like the master bathroom?"

Um, blink. Blink, blink.

I'm trying to come up with an answer to that while simultaneously running through all the options for which room/what the hell he's planning on doing with it that would require a bribe like that. I mean, come on. It's not like we can afford to replace the hand towels without running up a budgetary impact report, but pie-in-the-sky dreaming of doing "whatever I want" with the master bath could some distant day translate into a Japanese soaking tub, skylight and fireplace. Knowing me, and knowing that, what's he got in mind for his room? Los Angeles Valley Community Broth3l? Black-velvet-painting Elv!s shrine with mandatory white sequin jumpsuits for all guests? My brains are rocketing back and forth between visions of copper tubs and corner steam showers (good), and our living room someday looking like a goth-dungeon threw up on a tiki lounge (very, very bad).

"S.s.s.sure, honey..." I stammered. "Whatever you want." I tried not to flinch. "What room did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking... I'd like to do something with... the garage."

The garage? Is he serious? I mean, he must be since he's still standing there, staring at me as if he really needs to wait for the answer. But, the garage? Seriously? I do know it's ATTACHED to the house. It's a PART of the house. But... I'd never really considered it a room IN the house. Still, I can't believe that's it. There's got to be a catch. Does he really think that he's coming out ahead in this deal? That I'd say "no" to what he knows I would consider a legally binding agreement to someday pick out any tub I want in order to, to... to what? To reserve the right to decide what color the concrete floor in the garage ends up? To have veto power over which side of the room the workbench is on?

"No, that's great," I finally managed to say.

Today, while I slept (back around to working nights, long story), he went out and bought fancy track lighting for the garage. Hmmm. Still a little vague on details, but he has assured me it's not going to be the Neighborhood Br0thel, so I'll keep you posted.

Knitty Issues

I'm not a very good knitter yet (I'm being optimistic with that "yet"), but am rather proud that I managed to finish all the Christmas presents. Out of 26 projects begun in 2007, I've gotten through 24 and 2/2s. The "2/2s" are 1/2 of a sweater for me (tubey from knitty.com, in burgundy with black stripes... my first attempt at stripes), and 1 of 2 out of an alleged, and at this point entirely apocryphal, "pair" of socks. Everything else is off the needles. Since "everything else" includes 16 rectangles...


aka scarves, I'm not expecting any real knitters to be too impressed.

I, however, am ridunculously pleased I managed to get through this...

I haven't got the hang of beading, lacework or blocking (aforesaid blocking occurred post photo-op, you and the recipient will be relieved to hear) yet... and I'm embarrassed to admit that I knit an entire "test scarf" of this one - down to all the beading - before I started on the "real" present. All in all, I'm relieved I ended up with anything vaguely recognizable. I owe blocking a beer.

And, for me, the penultimate in overweening delusions of grandeur...

The price tag for organic cotton made me hesitate, remembering my only other foray into sweaters (no evidence, I mean pictures, for that mess), but I figured even if this one ended up too big, kids grow. I'm a tiny bit over gauge, but it's sized for a "2-3" year old, and the kid's just now getting into the 2's clothes, so I'm probably good. Right? I mean, yeah. I'm good.

Sanctuary

May I present... the new bedroom (sunglasses may be required)



My camera can't seem to handle the colors we've got going on in our new room. It's got the richness down, but seems to have gone to town with the saturation. Believe me, it's almost this vibrant. The "almost" is key. I admit, it's not a room where someone would walk in and say, "How... subtle". Beige, it ain't. But neither is it quite as eye poppin' contrasty as this looks. I use Photoshop all day for work, many hours at a time. And I just couldn't force it to make the photo colors match reality. This next picture is closest, if a bit dark. (and yes, the lens on my camera was spotty as hell... but I'm not quite sitty-uppy enough this week to retake it, so I'm going to pretend it's fine)




Still, it's a long way from the original dirty pinkish beige carpet, white popcorn ceiling, and white white white walls. BTW, the doors haven't been painted yet, so we've got the one you can see above covered temporarily with a curtain.

Happy 2008

I've been gone so long, I wanted to post the perfect post to catch everybody up on things (all two of you who are hopefully not yet fed up with my sparse-posting ways). And then I realized that if I waited until I wrote that post, I may well be wishing you both a happy 2009.

So, in a nutshell.

1) Bad - Writers' Strike has put both of us out of work. Merry Christmas... as long as no one is too stuck on having a roof overhead or food on table.

2) Good - One of my former web jobs totally came through, and has provided both Laughing Boy and me with part time work. It's at half our regular rate, and no benefits, but it's better than we'd make on unemployment so... yay us! Not quite enough to cover all the bills, and will probably dry up by middle of February. But we won't have to give up eating until March at the earliest, so I'm calling it a "good".

3) Bad - The day after the last of the TV shows we work on closed down, my car had to go into the shop. And again the day after that... and again two days after that. And again yesterday. All for different things. The best part is, the one this week is from a sensor that one of the mechanics or tow truck drivers broke off and GLUED back together. We're on our third mechanic in a month, so there's no way of knowing which one did it, so we can't present them with the bill for that last piece of nonsense. The universe has a crappy sense of humor. And if you've got an address, I'm planning on sticking it with the combined invoices. $2,200, all told.

4) Good - We finally - after 7 months of construction, and 5 YEARS of treating the largest room in our house as a giant hamper and cat sanctuary - moved into our master bedroom. Pics to follow, as soon as I can track down batteries or my USB card reader.

5) Bad - I've spent the last month sick, having been knocked out with a kidney infection, followed two weeks later by a cold/cough/sore throat for Christmas. Which I passed on to LB, of course. Sorry, honey!

6) Good - As of today, we both seem to be finally over it.


The rest of it's pretty boring. I managed to finish all my Christmas present knitting projects (all sixteen of them). We've cleaned up most of the debris from the 9 months of construction displacement. We had the excuse of being out of work, so we were able to spend Christmas under the radar, thereby avoiding all of the usual pitfalls. And Banana Dog didn't get bitten by the Opossum she tried to befriend in the backyard last night. So we're hanging on.

And now that we can both sit up and breathe at the same time, I like to think 2008 will go better.

Hey Universe, don't disillusion me yet.