Thursday, September 27, 2007

And What To My Wondering Eyes Should Appear...

And I wish I'd had my camera. (but if I get time later today, I'll take some pics to share.)

Met The Husband at Lowe's last night after a great time at Late Night. We were going to get a couple of final touches for the most recent bathroom.

On my way in I saw-- Christmas trees. Lights. Tinsel. Great Big Blinking Snowflakes.

When I entered the store I saw-- Big inflatable snowman things with plastic snow flying around.

I Couldn't Bleepin' Believe It!!!!

It's September.

And 93 degrees outside.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Pictures!!!






In further news-- The kitchen faucet is still broken, and I'm awaiting the part from Moen.

And finally:

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Moving Right Along...

First of all, no pictures. That's why I haven't posted-- The Blogger is being difficult.

VT beat Ohio University last Saturday. It wasn't a blow-out, and Ohio made The Hokies work for it. The freshman QB Tyrod Taylor did a respectable job, and the game served as an offensive tune-up. We needed that-- the "tune up" and the win.

For those familiar with the chant that accompanies the offense inside the 20 yard line, you may not know that "Stick It In" has been prohibited to the band. No cadence, no words, nothing. "Stick It In" is very much a Hokie tradition-- as much as the lunchbox, as much as the "key play" on defensive third downs. The Student section took over, and did us proud.

Weaver-- worry about the IMPORTANT things!!!!

Weather-wise, it was about as perfect as you could expect-- sunny, cool, in fact downright chilly in our seats. Fall's on its way.

The first mitten is nearly done after many rip-outs. Number two was started on the way home. Most of the trip was spent snoozing, however, since I had to work Sunday night. WORK!!!! It's such a distraction!

In brief bathroom news, it's completely done-- looks really nice.

Wish I could show you the pictures....

And now, off for Blacksburg. Tomorrow's game is against William and Mary.

Should be fun.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Here We Go Again



The Destructo guys came in on Friday, took out the old tub, pot and sink, and installed the new tub. While plumbing the tub drain, they needed to cut a hole in the ceiling of the powder room below. Oh joy.


The Husband painted the ceiling, window and door frames yesterday.

Today is Drywall Guys. Apparently they didn't get the word about a major part of the wall being removed to accommodate the plumbing, but they're being mensches (that's a good thing) and getting it all done. They were actually scheduled for 2 days, but I don't think it'll take that long.

When we have walls, I'll paint-- might even be able to get it done today, because these guys are moving fast. The Daughter ordered up a rich, grey-toned blue. I have the paint chips and will head off to Lowe's this afternoon. (Must remember to get paint for the powder room ceiling).

The mirror and wall cabinets are a medium walnut finish, and I think it'll be a striking combination with the bluish-grey wall tile that will surround the tub to the ceiling. The tile accent at eye level is various tones of blue, grey and green stone.The floor is going to be a dark grey tile.

The big hole around the tub will have cement board installed, which I'm told is the Tile Guys' job. They should be done by Friday, and then the Plumbing Guys come on Monday for the final install.

There will be a mirror(Michael's), two wall cabinets (IKEA), a small pedestal sink, brushed pewter fixtures, brushed pewter towel bar, tp holder & towel rings (Lowe's) and I get to go shopping again for shower curtain, tension bar, and new towels (probably Bed Bath & Beyond). We got a small floor cabinet (IKEA) with drawers that complements the wall cabinets.

Meanwhile

In the rest of my life, I worked the last 4 days (Thurs-Sun) and am a bit tuckered out. The Hokies football game against LSU started at 9:30 on Saturday night. I was initially really happy, because I got home at 9 p.m. so saw kick-off wearing my VT scrub shirt (a Christmas gift from The Daughter her first year) which I wear when I have to work on Game Day. During football season, I usually have to work on Game Day for "away" games, since we have season tickets, and I arrange to be off for home games in Blacksburg.

Nurse=work when people are sick=days, nights, weekends, holidays. It's part of the job.

I went to bed at halftime because I had to get up at 5 to go to work.

Cost/Benefit analysis:
Cost: stay up for the rest of the game, be sad, get to bed at 1 am. Wake up groggy and grumpy for a 12 hour shift.
Benefit: not much.

I tried changing my shirt. I had my Team United bracelets on. I hummed Tech Triumph, The Hokie Fight Song and Carry Me Back throughout (somewhat to the consternation of The Husband), but it didn't seem to help. So with the score 24-0 at the half, I joined Sandman. I felt like I was abandoning the team, but there are hundreds of thousands of other fans, so maybe it wasn't my fault. I will say that as I drifted off, I envisioned the final score as 57-3, so 48-7 wasn't as bad.
I received many condolences at work on Sunday morning.

Might I say, in the greatest and most sincere spirit of Hokies Respect: LSU was awesome. If we had to lose, it was to a team that truly outplayed us.

But we'll be back.

Knitting-- yes, there is some: Restarted the Peekaboo mittens.

This time for sure!!!

Monday, September 03, 2007

Some Tears, Many Cheers, and a Few Fears


The Hokie Nation is alive, well, still a bit bruised, and back in force in Blacksburg.

We arrived Friday night after an uneventful ride down. I got about half of one Peekaboo Mitten (using Debbie Bliss Cashmarino DK from Knit Happens) finished for The Daughter.

In addition to her roommate, 2 of The Daughter's friends were visiting, so it was quite a little house full. Or quite a full little house. Or apartment. We had a great time-- we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings along with another of her visiting friends on Friday night and ordered 100 wings. I could never have imagined ordering 100 wings, but with 7 of us-- and 5 of them college girls and recent grads, we polished 'em off. Wish I'd taken a picture! I totally enjoyed being with all of them. I had a great time.



The game was very emotional-- tributes at the beginning videos, a flyover, and more than a few tears. The game itself was less well played than we were comfortable with, but we won, and hopefully will be a bit more focused for next week's game against LSU.

After the game The Husband & I walked back to the condo, stopping at the Kroger for provisions. I fixed spaghetti for the crew, and we had some rather "well done" garlic bread and salad. I told them they could do whatever, and that my feelings wouldn't be hurt, but that I felt like having spaghetti, and they could freeze it if they wanted to do something else. They seemed to like the spaghetti idea. They went through nearly a crock pot full of sauce. It made me happy.

Yesterday morning I test drove the new waffle iron The Daughter and I picked up before she went back to school. The girls went through a whole box of bisquick's worth of waffles. Hmm-- could it be that they miss "Mom's" (as in everyone's Moms?) cooking? (I'm not that great a cook. Good- not great.)

It was so great to see The Daughter-- and it had only been a couple of weeks. I hugged her as we left, and just didn't want to let go.

Of course, no trip to Blacksburg is complete without a visit to Mosaic, so we stopped by after leaving The Girls. I was lucky to get there just as Gina was leaving, so at least got to get a hug and say "hi". And they were having a sale, so a bag of Noro Silk Garden jumped into my arms. It was comforting, because there was also a huge sale at Knit Happens over the weekend, and I wasn't there!

We went to campus to view The Memorial on the drillfield. More tears. More aching in the heart. More sadness for the families who can't ever again be with their loved ones. More prayers, more thanks, more pride in our students and their school.

I completed all but the thumb on the Peekaboo Mitten on the drive back, but decided it was a bit too short, so frogged back to the beginning of the finger decreases. I'll probably end up making a whole additional pair of these, or rip the whole thing out because I probably should have used the smaller gauge pattern to begin with, and it's a bit snug around the palm.

So, off for a few days-- getting ready for another bathroom renovation-- and then back to work.