Crochet Cats A blanket made of rows of cat silhouettes. Perfect for the crazy cat lady on your list...oh, WAIT THAT'S ME.

Galvanized “tipsy pots” up-cycled garden planter/fountain. The spousal unit hates garden art (i.e., "all that crap in the yard") but I'm sure he'll get over it. Especially if I let him design the pump mechanism & wiring.

ROUS Foundation Pet Capybaras!! Last month I got to pet this guy. They are ADORABLE. Also, HUGE - large dog sized, strong, and very affectionate.

In other news, one of my coworkers evangelized me last week about how I just HAD to read this new novel, omg it's so SEXY and it has bdsm in it, I'll bring it for you to borrow, girl it's so hot! And in my head I'm thinking 'I read at least a half a dozen fics that are twice as kinky and three times better written this weekend, but I'll bite my tongue off before any of that comes out of my mouth to YOU'. Bless her heart.

Babysitting a six-month old baby. Good thing their standards for amusement are low.

Peek a boo! Peek a boo! Peek a boo! KISSES Peek a boo!

I just got home from a 14-hour day at the office trying to get everything squared away for my time off so my poor coworker doesn't have a nervous breakdown covering for me.

*flompzzzzzzzz*

...but that should surprise no-one.

Yesterday at work I mailed something to a client where the attention person was - i kid you not -

"Mr. Penrose Wolf"

How awesomely odd a name is that?

Today is going to be a day of DO ALL THE THINGS, and I'm not even joking. Ginormous pile of mulch to move, flooring to install, allll the laundry...and whatever else I can shoehorn in.

Lovely folk of the fannish internet, rec me some Avengers fic to read while I soak my sore muscles in the tub tonight? Or anything, really, but since Avengers is the shiny new toy right now, I'm leaning that way.

...and I'll watch ridiculously over the top movies if I want to.

So! Local folks - anyone up for seeing Battleship (is there an exclamation point? that seems very 40's) on Wednesday? If google is to be relied on, there is a 7:15 show at Alamo Lakecreek.

Ioan Gruffudd making some kind of PSA in Welsh. No, I have no idea what he's actually saying. No, it doesn't matter.

Hello, tailor. A delightful blog about movie costuming and fashion. Recently she's done a three part series on The Avengers (where DOES Steve Rogers get his smokin' hot khaki's?) and Hunger Games (why *isn't* Capitol fashion as outlandishly diverse as typical couture fashion shows?)

Vintage corsetrey In French, but appears to be an illustration of types of corsets for 18th C dresses? No context, of course, because it's off of $%$%!^* tumblr...

Doing laundry on the last day of the world poem by Jo Walton

And to end on whimsy, Saipancakes amazing pancake art!

Tags: links

I've always had a lot of issues with my feet, mainly because I have spraddly duck feet which are very wide across the ball and have big/little toe joints that stick out a lot. (I'd post a photo, but my pedicure is on the last sad stages of crumbling polish) I can't wear most types of dress shoes, and I've always relied on tennishoes for support, especially while walking.

Inspired by a post here lately (now lost in a fog of sleep deprivation and speed reading) I've been walking on the treadmill barefoot the last couple of days, and it's really comfortable. I don't think I'd want to run barefoot, but the increase in muscle engagement that I feel throughout my feet and legs when walking has been surprisingly painless.

In other news, I put down the last of the killz last night, and then, because apparently I have no common sense, decided at 11pm that the baseboards were filthy and since I was already doing painty things in the floor area, I might as well do the baseboards before we put the flooring in.

In my defense, I really love painting.

Tonight we are supposed to start putting in floor planks! I am excited! I will try not to bodily harm my spousal unit with any small home improvement tools!

Tags: adventures in home ownership

I actually should be writing in my trufax FEELINGS TALK ABOUT THEM offline journal, but instead my posting here has gone up dramatically.

Go figure.

Umbo has an awesome new tattoo! I am torn between wanting to get another and getting work done to clean up and add to the one and only that I have now.

I miss my knitting mafia.

Work on the house continues apace. Last night I sanded down all the concrete patches and painted Killz over the problem areas. For the first time in an embarrassingly long time, my dining room does not smell of cat by-product! Of such small victories are happiness made.

I used a thrown together sugar and olive oil scrub to get the paint smears off my hands and arms, and wow, that's some nice exfoliant.

Eight days until my birthday. I have FEELINGS about this, and about kids, and about lots of other things that my brain is busybusybusy avoiding.

On Mother's day I taught my niece how to (begin) to roller skate - actually, it was more like, 'how not to fall down' but it's a start. My shins may never be the same, but it was awesome, and also I really really want a pair of roller skates now. When I was a kid I had the old fashioned kind that buckled on over your shoes and I loved them so much. Running makes my knees hurt, but that swooping feeling of freedom...yeah. Think there will probably be a trip to the sports store for my birthday.

Forecast for the week: Installing flooring! Putting down astonishing quantities of mulch! (I've finally won, and we're turning all the bare areas under the trees into flowerbeds) Epic amounts of housecleaning, which I've been putting off on the not unreasonable basis that with all the projects, there's no point mopping the floor anyway.

Oy. As the spousal unit and I joke, if it weren't for inviting company over, we'd never get anything done around here.

/braindump

Tags: adventures in home ownership, feelings, ooh shiny, procrastination

Gentle Readers, thank you for all the supportive comments. The spouse is unharmed, although we are finishing off a drywall patch tonight and initiating The Intalling of the Flooring and so there may be additional mayhem. Stay tuned.

In other news, I mutinied and worked in the yard last night rather than finish sanding and prepping the floor, but it was good for my soul.

IMPORTANT GARDENING NOTE: make sure the bag of potting soil that one is moving to the back yard from the front has not become a home for fireants BEFORE hoisting it to one's shoulder and carrying it back. Thank god I was in the fenced part of the yard at that point, because the process went something like:

*hoist, trudge, drop*

*itch itch itch*

"Why am I itchy?"

*!@#$!@ THERE ARE FIREANTS IN MY SPORTSBRA*

*flail, swat, swat, strip, flail, splash water*

I have an antbite on my nipple, people. I take a lot of things in stride, but this was not an occupational hazard I had ever expected in gardening.

Tags: gardening