The saga continues

Now that I have a new bed, my old nightstand was too low. Naturally, the solution was to make new ones.

The advantage of having two is that I don't have to dive across the bed to turn on the reading light - I can have a light on each side. It's awesome.

And, of course, then it's time to re-evaluate the dressers. One of them could be replaced by the drawers in the bed, so I just had to build one more.

I finished on Wednesday and transferred everything from the old dresser to the new one. That caused a minor issue, because I had to get rid of the old furniture, and I have company arriving tonight. Luckily, Wanda helped me load the furniture in the car, and yesterday morning I dropped it off at a thrift store. Problem solved.

Zzzzz

Back in January, I came across these plans. I had three thoughts:
1) Cool!
2) I am in no way qualified to do this.
3) I'll have to wait until it warms up outside, because I don't have room to do this inside.

It's warm outside, so two weeks ago I started. I didn't want to use plywood for the head and foot boards, so I used the techniques described here (but the measurements from the first plan). I started by buying the wood for the headboard and footboard, with the exception of the posts.

(See point #2 above - I didn't want to commit to buying all of the wood if I failed miserably on step #1).

To my surprise, it was pretty easy, so I went and bought the posts, cut them, and attached them. The first wood I bought was knotty pine, but of course I couldn't get untreated pine 4x4s, so I bought cedar and thought "rats, I'm going to have to paint this", but once I got the posts attached, I liked the mixed-wood look.

So far, so good.

Then it rained for three days. I waited impatiently for it to stop, then went and bought two sheets of plywood to start on the drawer cabinets.

I finished the cabinets and decided to go with a tung oil finish. I did one coat, then waited a day and did the second coat. While that was drying, I started on the drawer boxes. I cut the drawer fronts and oiled them.

On Sunday, I took apart the old bed. I installed all of the drawers (which took a long time) and got Wanda to help me carry everything inside. The bed is heavy - I can barely lift the headboard.

I installed felt pads on the legs and Wanda helped me attach the drawer cabinets to  the headboard and footboard.

Then I measured the length of the slats, cut those, and installed them. While I was doing that, Wanda brought the drawers inside and installed them (minus the fronts and handles). After the slats were done, I had to call Wanda back upstairs to help me lift the mattress over the footboard.

Yesterday, I installed the drawer fronts and today I added the handles. They're not perfect - some of the drawers stick, and none of them are flush with the edge of the cabinet - but I love the bed anyway.

Cooling off period

In the middle of November, I got home from work and walked into the kitchen. The floor was cold - so much so that I thought "wow, I'd forgotten how cold the tile floor gets in the winter".  A half an hour later I looked at the thermostat, and noticed it was 10.5 degrees Celcisus in the house. I called the furnace company, and they came out and fixed it.

In December, I woke up one Sunday and noticed it was cold. I checked the thermostat, and the furnace had stopped again.  (Well, it was still working, it just wasn't heating).  I called the furnace company, and they got it working again.  At that point, I knew it wasn't fixed, but they couldn't figure out what part was broken, so they couldn't fix it.

I was worried about leaving it, but I warned my house sitter and got on the plane. I was lucky - it didn't stop at all when I was gone.

I got back on Wednesday, and Friday night it stopped again.  This time, it started spontaneously working as the guy from the furnace company arrived. By the time I went to bed, the house was warm again.

Saturday morning, I woke up to a house that had dropped to 9 degrees.  The guy from the furnace company came out again and had a lot of trouble getting it going. (The one thing you don't want the guy fixing the furnace to say to you at 11 am on a cold Saturday is "Do you have enough firewood to make it to Monday?") Luckily, he got it going again, and he figured out what part needed replacing.

Saturday afternoon, it stopped again. I started calling around borrowing heaters from friends, and it spontaneously started working again.

Sunday, Wanda and I bought (and carried) a lot of firewood.

Monday I stayed home so they could fix it, and they had trouble getting the part. It wouldn't be in until Thursday.

Amazingly, the furnace continued working, and Thursday they came out and fixed it.

Now I just hope they replaced the right part.

* * *

My new years resolution was to change the temperature in my car to Celcuis. I figured it out on January 2. That's two new things in a row, and January 3 I started wearing my new orthotics.  I even considered trying to do a new thing every day, until the furnace went out and I was more focused on not freezing.

* * *

Here's a picture of the many things I got from our family friends who are downsizing.

Christmas wrap up

I started my trip to Saskatchewan in a panic. I left Friday, December 20, which those of you in Ottawa might remember as the day of the snowstorm. Wanda called a couple of hours in advance to order a cab, but DJ's didn't start looking for an available driver until the cab was supposed to be here.

Since they weren't likely to get a cab here in time, we unexpectedly had to drive to the airport. We parked at the Park'n'Fly lot and made our flight without much time to spare.

***

I made a quilt for my sister for Christmas. I started it in July, and finished it in December.  Here it is:

***

The dog is still awesome, and I'm still her favourite auntie.

***

I got to see a lot of family on this trip, most of them multiple times. It was great to see everyone.

***

I went to three of my niece's ringette games. She got her first goal in one of the games, and her team won another one. I attributed it to her favourite auntie being at the game. (B: "Auntie Wanda?")

***

The trip back was in eventful, but man the 6:20 am flights kill me. The Park'n'Fly bus was just leaving the terminal when we got out of the airport, and he stopped to wait for us when he saw us coming. The car wasn't too bad, but there was a fair amount of snow behind it, so our driver came back to shovel out the back and, when we were stuck in the spot, another driver came over to help get us out. I highly recommend them.

***

First day of the year, and I figured out how to renew an ebook from the library. Yay for new things!

***

Yesterday, I went downstairs at mom's to find my cousin's three-year-old son zipped into the dog kennel. I asked if someone put him in there, and he answered (in the saddest voice you can imagine

), "no, it was me".

***

Airlines have a 50 pound limit for luggage, and I know if I can easily lift my suitcase, it's under 50 pounds, but the instructor at the gym has been working on an evil plan to make me stronger. My suitcase squeaked through at 49 pounds.

***

Some family friends moved into a senior's home from the house they lived in for almost sixty years. I helped them go through stuff for a couple of hours, and they gave me a few things, including some pans and an awesome pickle dish that survived the trip home.

***

Winnipeg airport has stores and restaurants in the secure area. This is new, and a big improvement from a few years ago, when the only store was closed and the water vending machines broken when I was there.

***

Before Christmas, I love having the tree and lights up, but as soon as I get home, they just look like work to me.

Not that I put them away today, but it won't be long.

***

And now I'm home, and I'm exhausted, and there is no food in the house, and I go back to work in the morning.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

Adventures in laundry

A few months ago, I started using vinegar instead of fabric softener.

I haven't really noticed a difference.

I wasn't sure how well it would work after it got nice enough to hang clothes outside, but I've hung them outside for the last few weeks, and it's not a problem.  The clothes get stiff, but no worse than when I wash them with fabric softener.

(The exception was the summer that I lost the cap for the fabric softener - man, my clothes were soft that summer.)

A bottle of fabric softener lasts a long time, and I was afraid I'd go through vinegar a lot quicker, but I'm still on my first bottle. I haven't done the math to see which is cheaper, but I suspect it's vinegar. It's also a lot fewer weird chemicals, which is really my motivation. 

I'm glad I tried it.

Rollin'

Remember when I used to do new things? By the end of the year, I was all "oh, it's so much easier to do new things now".

Then I stopped.

This week (last week? Sometime recently) I heard about a roller derby open house. I've always thought roller derby looked like fun, but I didn't want to buy all the gear, and I was afraid I'd hurt myself.

When I found out I could rent shoes, I was in. After all, I didn't think I'd get terribly badly hurt the first time.

Today I left work, promised I'd be back on Monday if I didn't kill myself at roller derby, and promptly picked the worst possible route home. (Stupid construction.)

When I got home, I just had time to change before Wanda and I were back in the car. It was good to have someone along to keep me from chickening out.

We got there, paid our $15 for the time & the shoes, and started getting ready while the people who knew what they were doing did some sort of loaves and fishes thing with the other gear. ("We're out of knee pads ... oh wait, here's some more.)

I got gear before Wanda and went for a lap around the rink.

Have you ever taken someone who has never seen snow ice skating? You know how they kind of shuffle along as steadily as a boulder balanced on a stack of tea cups? That was me.

I eventually made it around the rink and back to where Wanda was still getting ready. By that time, I was tired and would have happily gone home. That seemed kind of pathetic, though, so I talked myself into staying.

I got a few tips from people and tried it a few more times. I had conversations with other new people about how much harder it was than it looked, and how none of us knew how to stop. Wanda finished getting ready and joined us and we skated around again.

Eventually, we broke up into groups - people who had been there before went off to do something involving exotic skills like stopping while the rest of us learned how to fall, stop, and, eventually, skate.

After a while, the entire group came back together and did some things in groups of five. One of them involved 5 people in a train with only the middle person skating. Another was "pass the gross thing". I'd explain, but I'm sure you can imagine how that worked.

By the end of the night, I wasn't good, but I was a lot better than at the beginning.

It was a lot of fun.

Despite my fears, I never felt like I was in danger of hurting myself. Between the knee pads, the elbow pads, and the wrist guards, I felt pretty secure.

But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

The snow is mostly gone and the Halloween stuff is mostly away (except for a couple of things that weren't dry yet). The pumpkin is cooking on the stove, and it's time to face the fact that it is November.

I'm going to try to post once a day for November, in the interests of actually getting into the habit of posting regularly again. The biggest hurdle is almost past - I remembered to post on November 1!

I'm hoping that having to post something will encourage me to do things that I can then post about. I have a couple of ideas in mind, but make no promises.

Let's start in familiar territory - I did something new today. I gave away bags of popcorn for Halloween - specifically, Freaky Fruit popcorn. (I did not realize that it was candied popcorn until I was already home from the store, and we all know I'm too lazy to return it.) Today, I tried one of the remaining bags.

It was better than expected - kind of like popcorn dipped in Jolly Ranchers.