Why, for instance, has it taken me this long to change an aspect of my blog that I find incredibly annoying in other blogs? Archives are no longer showing excerpts, but full posts. My apologies if that annoys you as much as it annoys me.

Why don’t I ...keep reading]]> Monday seems like a good day for why questions.

Why, for instance, has it taken me this long to change an aspect of my blog that I find incredibly annoying in other blogs? Archives are no longer showing excerpts, but full posts. My apologies if that annoys you as much as it annoys me.

Why don’t I have any photos posted of the gorgeous paint job we did over the weekend? Quite simply, I forgot the memory card at home. Whoops.

Why haven’t I shown you pictures of the other projects I’ve completed (or started) lately? Worse than forgetting the memory card, I haven’t actually taken photos of some of them. Conveniently, the sun now hangs around much later, so it’s possible again to get good photos on weekdays.

Why haven’t I blogged since last Wednesday? I had Thursday and Friday off of work to paint our bedroom, as previously mentioned, and I had plenty of things keeping me busy. I didn’t even check my email (beyond what popped into the inbox on my iPhone, which is just a fraction of the emails I actually get), or look at Google Reader (1000+ in the Flickr category alone!).

Why did I have a Cinderella moment (and not in the good way) on Sunday morning? I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the bedroom floor with a sponge and some Murphy’s Oil Soap in warm water. Not exactly fun, but the floor does look great now (and all the paint drips have been cleaned up) – you’ll have to take my word on that until I get pictures posted.

Why, oh why, did both Valspar paint calculators (the square footage on the can and the one on their website) tell us we would need two gallons per coat? For the record, we used one and a third gallons of paint for the whole room, two coats. We’re saving the partial gallon to paint the spare bedroom potentially (the one in the basement that will get drywall in 2012).

Why would someone paint perfectly good ceiling tiles cream? Yes, technically they match the trim, also painted cream, but when I paint the trim in April (allowing plenty of time for the paint on the walls to cure so I can tape everything up), the ceiling will look stupid, and I have no desire whatsoever to paint the ceiling. Ever. I’ve never painted a ceiling, except for the tiny ceilings in closets, which hardly count.

Why is it not possible to keep the floors in our house clean? Three minutes after vacuuming, cat hair is clearly visible on the hardwood floors. It’s a lesson in futility.

Why is it that insists on eating weird things like plastic bags, leaves on plants, etc? I saw plenty of pretty things at Michael’s yesterday that would have made lovely decor in the bedroom (fake eucalyptus, other dried or plastic flower-like things, etc), but I’m quite sure they would have all ended up with little kitty teeth marks on them, and if they weren’t too big, he’d probably swat them all to the floor too. (Watching things fall off of surfaces is another past time of his.)

Why did I have to come back to work today? I was having such a lovely time. And why do I have to go to class tonight? I feel sufficiently learned (that’s learn-ed). Also, I was enjoying not doing homework, not being stressed out, and having time at home to spend doing non-homework things and being with .

Why is it that people ask me questions I have no business knowing the answer to or making one up for, and then get frustrated when I don’t give them an answer? I don’t have any follow-up on this, except to say that, again, I am not all-knowing, and for the fortieth time, I didn’t take the training on Outlook, and you will have to ask So-and-So.

Why does the combination of peanuts, caramel and chocolate taste so good? I don’t even like peanuts.

Why is it that the decorative stitch I attempted to use to hem ’s pajama pants (her Christmas present) turned out so terribly? So hideous, in fact, that after just a few inches, I had to stop and rip it all out (which took half an hour). , they’re still unhemmed, though the hem is ironed and all ready to be stitched, once my machine decides to cooperate.

Why does it upset me when people think I’m Irish? I have no idea. I have nothing against the Irish. It just happens that I’m not. I must remember to not wear green on Wednesday (shouldn’t be that hard, I have very little work clothing that is green).

Why am I inside, far from a window, when it is so gorgeous outside? I think I need to take my afternoon break outside today.

What are your whys?

I was reading one of ...keep reading]]> Today, between answering phone calls and providing technical support, I’m sitting in my cube reading my 1300 page book on Access 2007. Thrilling, I know. (It is a bit exciting that I am already on page 453, but deceiving since I’m not really reading most of the book, but rather skimming.)

I was reading one of the tips, and it said (I’m paraphrasing), “one way to do this would be to…” followed by the steps a novice-intermediate user would take to solve the problem (which would be a chunk of the intended audience of this book). Then the author says, “This would be an inelegant way to do this” (emphasis mine). Well, how lovely. I was not called inefficient or stupid or redundant or any number of other words that could be used to describe the first solution. I’m simply… inelegant. I can totally handle that.

Moving on…

I have not done any homework since Wednesday night, and am having a hard time keeping track of the days of the week right now. For most of yesterday, I was convinced it was Saturday, because I didn’t have the feeling of homework hanging over my head that is usually present on Sundays (since I have class Monday and Tuesday nights). This week, I only work Monday through Wednesday. I don’t have class Monday or Tuesday night, but tonight I am going over to ’s right after work. Wednesday I leave work an hour early to start volunteering with the Homework Hub. Thursday and Friday I’ll be at home – Thursday someone is coming over to give us a quote on new gutters, and Friday I will be priming the bedroom. Saturday my crew is coming over to paint, and I’m pretty sure that by Sunday I will have no clue which way is up.

All that said, I’m not actually complaining. I’ve been sleeping well, have had the chance to clean and organize and watch TV and do other things normally considered luxurious. (Yes, cleaning and organizing are luxuries sometimes.) I am feeling very relaxed, and that’s nice. Everyone needs Spring Break once in a while.

I have more I could tell you, but it would be better accompanied by photos, which I do not have at the moment, so I’ll just leave it at that. Back to my book!

… an extremely busy week at work, even though it has prevented me from starting my new book.

… Spring Break! Have I ...keep reading]]> … for Behr.com that not only lets me play around with color, but has useful information like how long before you can repaint and how much samples cost (the answer for both is 4).

… an extremely busy week at work, even though it has prevented me from starting my new book.

… Spring Break! Have I mentioned yet that it’s Spring Break? Yeah, I thought so. But really, it’s wonderful. I only did homework for an hour and a half last night. And maybe half an hour tonight. Yay!

… the combination of extra daylight and warm weather (and the afore-mentioned Spring Break) that not only sparks creativity but gives me the chance to be creative.

… the promise of a short work week next week, which somehow makes this one feel shorter too. Go figure.

… getting all my laundry done last night, and all the half-square triangles ironed. I thought I’d mentioned that project yesterday, but apparently I didn’t blog yesterday. Tuesday night we got out of class early (yay Spring Break!) and ERIC wanted to watch Lost (which I do not particularly enjoy), so I took the opportunity and finally sewed up the stack of charm squares I’d had prepped for months. I use the no-waste method, which means two half-square triangles out of each pair of white-and-print. I did up 38 aqua-schemed ones, and 60 pink ones (so, really, 19 aqua sets and 30 pink sets). I only had time to sew them up and cut them apart, so last night I managed to iron them all out. I added them to my existing stacks, and now I just have to play around with layouts. I have to projects in mind for these.

… headphones. Sometimes blaring loud music in my ears is the only thing that gets me to 4:00.

What are you thankful for this fine Thursday?

• Okay, Captain Obvious – Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger? – Captain Obvious sighting!
• Reuse Wine Bottles as Garden Edging – Recycling – Lifehacker – I heart this idea.

via Google Reader (Shared Items)

Last night, after getting all of my homework done that wasn’t lesson plan writing (which is all I have to do this weekend – one week of lesson plans for two ...keep reading]]> … that summer is coming. I think that was wishful thinking on someone’s part. The snow, while not growing in quantity, is not shrinking either.

Last night, after getting all of my homework done that wasn’t lesson plan writing (which is all I have to do this weekend – one week of lesson plans for two classes, which is not easy if you’re thinking it sounds that way), I braved the tape measure and had do my measurements, again (the last ones were more than a year old). Then I pulled out my Pattern Fitting with Confidence book (by Nancy Zieman) and figured out how to best augment Simplicity 7641. On modern patterns, pattern fitting is a bit easier than with vintage. I’d already traced out the pattern pieces onto Swedish Tracing Paper (which is lovely, btw), at which point I’d learned that someone had not only used every single piece of the pattern, but that they had not cared one whit for it and just shoved everything back into the envelope. Tape and a not-too-hot iron were required, and it still wasn’t pretty.

The problem with vintage patterns is that they’re one size, not the beauty of multi-sizing like modern patterns. For those I just draw a line between one size and the other (because my shirt size is smaller than my skirt size). I used Nancy’s pivot technique, after doing the math on how much I needed to add to the waist and hips (I’m hoping that I added more than I needed to and will be able to take the pattern in slightly). It worked wonderfully, and I used the new pattern to cut out a “muslin.” That’s in quotes because the fabric I used was not muslin but was, in fact, this bright pink floral that I’ve owned since the beginning of this century. I have five yards of it, so still more than a yard left. I figure if it turns out OK, I’ve got a second bonus dress, and if not, I won’t cry over having to turn all that fabric into charm squares.

Since I can’t spend all weekend long writing lesson plans and will need to take a break (to foster creativity, of course), I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sew up a majority of this dress. Unfortunately, most of the seams will end up being sewn at least twice, since I’ll baste first and check the fit, but I’m going to do French seams on the real version later, which also means every seam is sewn twice. It takes a lot more time, but I do love the end product. I’ll use my narrow hem foot again, and maybe I’ll get around to writing up my tutorial on it (because it is so fabulous and I can’t believe I didn’t know it existed until recently).

Tonight is the last meeting of my half-semester class, and I’m hoping that I have all of my work done for it. We’ll see in class if any of the instructions for our final project are clarified, requiring me to do some rewriting. Other than that, I’m done, and it will be nice to be down to two classes. It is also nice because it means Spring Break is one week away. Ah, one blissful week without homework. The luxury of it!

Did you know that the more I talk about school, the more comment spam I get? Term paper writing is apparently a big thing in the spam world. Sewing? Not so much. Thankfully, there’s a plugin that catches all of the spam, so you’re not subjected to it. Last month I was getting long paragraphs in Russian as spam. This month it’s tons of links and term papers. What are you going to do. (Do the spammers not know that I have less than 25 readers on an average day? Really not worth their time and effort, methinks.)

Here’s hoping your weekend is lovely, and that my lunch lasts me until 8 pm tonight!