Planned Insanity

So, I know it's been a while.  There's a reason: I can't stop knitting socks.  In nearly 5 months I've knit 16 pairs of socks....well, perhaps 18, depending on how long it takes me to finish Maeva and knit the second sock of Skew (Nevermind.  Finished sock two while writing this installment).  I've learned that my limit (for sanity's sake) is 3 pairs of socks a month.  That's all I can really handle.  Besides, at the moment, I haven't been able to cast on anything else.

Which is why, for the month of June, I signed up on Sock Knitter's Anonymous to knit 4 socks. Actually 5, but I removed one because it didn't qualify for the time limit.

Yes, 4.

And I volunteered to test knit a pattern.  Thankfully, she only needs one sock complete (here's looking at you, Skew2!)

Six socks in one month.  And I won't be home until mid-month.

No, I'm not losing my mind.

It's already vacated the premises.

Something new to like

I hate to clean.

There, I've told the entire world (not that anyone really reads my blog).

I absolutely despise cleaning.  As a child, I was given washing dishes and dusting as a punishment, thus kicking off a lifelong hatred for any kind of cleaning chore.  As an adult, I clean begrudgingly.

I stack and run the dishwasher.  Hand washing is done only when I've stared at the same plate in the sink for 3 days straight and I'm leaving on a week-long trip the next day.  Besides, I heard that the dishwasher uses less water than hand-washing.

My bed is made when I put new sheets on it.

Clean laundry is consistently piled in my bedroom chair.....Rarely does it make it to the closet....not that my closet has a lot of room for it anyway.

When I had carpet, I occasionally vacuumed.

I still consider mopping the fifth ring of hell, and it's only done when I stick to the kitchen floor.

I never dust.  No amount of money on earth can compel me. When I dust, I end up spreading the dust around by sneezing. Besides, no matter what, you have more dust the next day. Given that I am now the proud owner of laminate floors, this is a problem.

And now that I've given you this litany of things I hate about cleaning, why did I title this post "Something New to Like?"

Because I have found something new to like.  Meet the Swiffer Vac and the Swiffer Duster/Extender!

Don't ask me why, but I'll load a Swiffer Dry cloth onto the Vac and take it all around the house.  I have no problem putting a dry cloth on the duster and quickly swishing the coffee and side tables or tackling cobwebs in my house.

These two products are so simple and easy to use that I almost have fun with them.  My only problem with the Swiffer Vac is the 10 minute suction time on the Vac part.  That sucks, but then again, I don't need to run the Vac all the time. Just when I get something I can't pick up on the dry pad.

Of course, Swiffer isn't solving my messy kitchen problem (anyone have a solution for that?), but at least my floors are clean and most (wood) surfaces in my house are now dust-free.

PS.  The people who made Swiffer aren't paying me a dime for this post.  I just really really like the SwifferVac.

Vacation Knitting

I spent 30 minutes packing my knitting for my (oh so necessary) 10 day vacation. I packed the last 2 skeins of KnitPicks Palette yarn in Fog to finish Henry


and packed the 4 Skeins of KnitPicks Palette yarn in Lipstick to start another Henry.


My problem is, knowing I'm fast but not that fast, I still feel as if this isn't enough yarn.
I really feel as if I need to pack enough yarn (and needles) for one more project. Whatever the project, it needs to be a project I can handle with a size 3 needle, because I'm not packing more needles.

Right now, I'm stuck on what project and yarn to pack.

Do I attempt another Print O' the Wave Stole? Or maybe the Icarus Shawl? Do I take socks instead? I dunno.

I have some Lacey Lamb I can use for the Print O' the Wave Stole, but I don't know if I want to.




This is the problem with having one skein of really nice yarn. Eventually, you simply don't want to knit anything with it because you don't know if another, nicer, prettier pattern will come along and make you regret using that nice lambswool on something else.

I think I will go with the Print O' the Wave Stole. I need to pack the yarn and pattern before I change my mind.

Last night, I finished packing the knitting before I packed the clothes.

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I leave in 90 minutes. Once I leave the school I have to:

• Swing by Albertsons and pick up the seafood I asked them to bag. That includes 20 lbs. of Snow Crab (on special down here and $8.99/lb. at home) & 6 lobsters.
  
• Go home, pack car, hit the road to Tampa
• Once in Tampa, hit IKEA. Pick up one small pink chair and 4 packs of mirrors (I'm going to end the night transferring a lot of money from Mom's account into mine)
• Hit the road to Georgia. I should make it in around 1 AM.

I'm actually looking forward to this. For once, I have the trip planned out.

We are not retreating

We are advancing in another direction.
--Douglas MacArthur

Sometimes I just can't win. Last weekend I built a server, a home file server. I was sooo excited about this. I should have known something would go wrong.

Sat., Aug 1: My new case arrives!!! It's a plain case from Newegg. This is a file server, not a gaming rig.

Wed., Aug 5: My 1 GB memory stick arrives. Finally, I have everything I need to rebuild my old computer into a file server.

Thursday, Aug. 6: I install the motherboard, the memory and the 200 GB hard drive into the case. On it goes....

"Secondary IDE Channel no 80 conductor cable installed"

Hmm...I wasn't expecting this...Google the error message on the laptop. Oh....the BIOS is looking for a floppy drive. I decided not to install one (who uses them anymore, anyway?), so into the BIOS to check all the settings.

Man, it's been a long time since I did all this.

Friday, Aug. 7: (this is really just a continuation of Thursday night). Hmm....I have Unbuntu running, but it says that it doesn't recognize my hard drive. This hard drive is brand new.....what's the problem?

Two hours, a glass of wine, and a longing glance at the vodka later....

Oh, I don't have any power going to the Hard drive....duh. Hook up power. Install Unbuntu. Go to sleep.

Late Afternoon: Hm....where the GUI? I suck at command line. Install GNOME. No GUI? Do some internet research. Crappers. I should have installed Unbuntu Desktop, not Unbuntu Server....

Wipe drives. Download Windows Home Server and burn to disc. Open Vodka.

Sunday, Aug. 9: Install WHS. This is great. . .wait, this is a stripped down version of Windows Server 2003! I feel somewhat cheated, but let's see how this works.

Late Sunday: In order to connect my 500 GB drive (the one with all my music and pictures, which is the entire reason I want a home server), I have to format the drive. . .which defeats the purpose of connecting it. Instead, I move all the music and pics to the 200 GB drive, then format the drive.

Tuesday, Aug. 11: Well, everything has been moved. Now for the moment of truth. Format 500 GB drive (it needed a cleanup so, why not) then connect it. Presto! 700 GB of space in my new server! Now, how in the hell do I activate this???

Wed. Aug. 12: How do I activate this?

Thursday, Aug 13: How do I activate this?

Later that day: Huge Rainstorm today. Knocked all the power out at my house. I know this because the microwave clock was blinking and wrong. Hmm...server has been knocked out. Will power on later...(need to buy battery backup for it)

Friday, Aug. 14: Turn computer back on. Greeted by

"Secondary IDE Channel no 80 conductor cable installed"

Crap. Reset the BIOS. Move battery backup to top of purchase list. Log into server.

"The Evaluation Period for this copy of Windows has ended. Windows cannot start. To continue using Windows, please purchase and install a retail copy of the product."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I've barely had this installed for a week. I'm supposed to be able to evaluate it for 120 days. It's barely been 120 hours!

Search Google again. Finally figure out how to register and get a product key. Then jet over to the Windows Forums (amazing how easy this stuff is to find when I'm in a blind panic) and get some help. Olaf tells me to do a server reinstall, not a new install, because a new install will wipe out everything on the drive. Message received. Reboot from CD, server reinstall . . .

At the moment, I'm back in business, but I'll tell you this now, I'm installing Unbuntu tonight and creating a dual boot system. I'm not going through that drama again.

A slight security Problem

I was burgled on Friday, July 17, 2009. I am still recovering from the shock. I wasn't at home at the time of the burglary, but I still feel very violated. These thieves took:

• My brand-new, just-replaced-it-2-weeks-ago 120 GB iPod Classic
• Silicone iPod protectors in Smoke, Clear, and Blue
• My 5 year old, 6.1 MP, still takes excellent pictures Kodak Z760 Zoom digital camera
• My shipment from Interweave Knits (unless UPS just didn't deliver)
• A half-empty bottle of Cabo Wabo Tequila
• 2 Cartons of Egg Beaters....

The last part is the one that confuses me. WHO IN THE HELL STEALS EGG BEATERS??? A geriatric burgler with cholesterol problems??? A tech happy knitter who loves Breakfast?? Seriously??

I mean honestly, don't steal the new laptop that was just sitting out in plain view. Or the attached 500 GB hard drive. Or the 42" TV (OK, maybe that is a bit big to hoist). Or the 19" TV (that would have made the burglary obvious). Or my Blackberry. Or any of the other expensive and sundry devices all around my home.

Seriously, take my iPod, which I just replaced on the 8th (literally, like 9 days earlier) after losing the one I had had for 4 years. Thankfully, I still had the box, and could give the officer the serial number. So if you try to fence that to a pawn shop, you are seriously screwed dude.

Take my digital camera, which I'm not too upset about since I wanted to replace it. But wanting to replace something and needing to replace something are two totally different playing fields. One pisses me off. The other sends me to Consumer Reports.

Take my Egg Beaters . . . which causes me not to call the police because I know that the ensuing conversation is going to make me sound like an idiot.

Me: I've been burgled.
Officer: Ok, what did they take?
Me: iPod, Silicone Cases for the iPod, Digital Camera, Knitting books, Egg Beaters
Officer: (thinking "I always get the nut jobs") Egg Beaters ma'am?
Me: YES! ...and a half-empty bottle of tequila.

Come on now, what would you think? I literally sat on this burglary for 24 hours because I thought reporting the Egg Beaters was inching toward the ridiculously sublime. Then I noticed the camera (and its charge dock) was gone and that's when I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had been robbed.

Actually, that's pretty close to how the actual conversation went down, only Officer K. Smith was kind enough to let me know that I would definitely be his Facebook status in the morning and that he was going to tell every cop buddy he had about this one. Thieves lifting an iPod, a digital Camera, and Egg Beaters. What's more, the victim noticed the iPod and Egg Beaters missing first. The digital Camera took a bit longer, like 24 hours....

Yup, ridiculously sublime.

But he was very very nice. My mother, who continues to harbor hope that I'll find a nice new man down here in Florida, was heartened by the fact that this was a 1.5 hour conversation. However, I noticed the Wedding ring and he mentioned his kids and that one had a license, which meant both she and he were too old for me.

Curses.

So, I'll replace the camera tomorrow with a brand-spanking new version. I'll wait a few weeks on the iPod, to see if it gets fenced.

I'll also replace my Egg Beaters. They're an important source of protein for someone trying to lose weight.

Spring has Sprung, but the Break is over

Last week was Spring Break at the college. I took off back to Georgia.


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Sometimes I still can't believe I used to make that 5 hour drive every other weekend... here's a quick run down of the week:

Friday: Watched the first part of the Battlestar Galactica Finale with Sue Ann. Tried not to cry.
Saturday: Slept in. Was rudely awakened at 8:30 by parents who assumed I had hit the road at 5 AM and were anxious for me to arrive (I'm still a bit concerned about that.... I never see 5AM unless I have been awake all night.) Went back to sleep. Hit the road ~4PM. Hit Albany around 9:30-10PM. Met up with Andrea and hit Waffle House. Full of sugar, I easily stayed up until 4AM.
Sunday: Slept in. Watched as parents tried desperately not to sit underfoot. Man, they missed me.
Monday: Mommy left around 5AM to go to work in Columbus. Sat around house with Daddy all day. Drove to Columbus to take Mommy out for her birthday and celebrate their anniversary. Drove back to Albany.
Tuesday: Sat around house all day. Snoozed on couch. Slept in bed. Very exciting day.
Wednesday: Daddy cut work to spend the day with me. So, we spent the day together just like we used to: he worked in the yard while I slept in every conceivable room in the house, including the kitchen.
Thursday: Daddy had to go to work today. Thank God. I went to Thomasville to visit the Grandparents. They were overjoyed when I arrived [Sidenote: Why did everyone feel the need to warn me that the cops were watching the road? I KNOW!!!! I'm not speeding (that much...)] and in their determination to spend as much time with me as possible, they stayed up until 3AM!!! Come on people, can't I get some alone time....?
Friday: Woke up with every intention of going back to Albany. Granny had different plans. She hid my keys, then put on the "sad-sack" face. I stayed another day, but warned them I was running out of clean undies. . .she did my laundry while I took a nap. Watched the BSG Finale. Cried for hours....I'm still not ready for the show to be over, but it is over.
Saturday: My keys returned, I set off to return to Albany. Met up with parents for breakfast, then a little mall crawl. However, my plans were rudely interrupted when some random teacher friend of my mother's showed up and started yapping her mouth. DAMN! I've been ditched. So I ditched her when Andrea swung by. I hit WalMart for the first time all trip (good looking out!), then a few more stores. Stephanie called me because my sorority was having an intake soon and the new DP and Pres didn't know what to do, so would I come by ~6PM to help them plan, since I had been the pres during one of our more infamous lines. Sure, so I split from Dree (her sister's on the line, so she didn't need to know anything going on) and headed home to get a few things. Wouldn't you know, Mommy's home and she's cooked. So, seafood night at the parents, then over to Steph's. She's cooked (I'm feeling the fat settle on) so a small plate of Spaghetti and let's start planning. I'm finally free at 3AM.
Sunday: Mommy wants to try our girl's day out again. Great, but all the rest of my clothes are in the wash. So she ditches me again, (how rude!) then calls me back 1.5 hours later to meet her at the nail shop. At that point, I'm ticked, but I go. She pays. My toes are hot pink.


NOTE: I had no interest in alone time. I have quite enough of that in Florida.

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When conscious, I spent my time in GA looking at plant catalogs and dreaming about Square Foot Gardening (the price of tomatoes is simply ridiculous!) . . . I feel rather confident that I can pull it off this year. I also looked at acquiring a few houseplants.

<--Like Dieffenbachia I grew up with this plant. Lost quite a few stupid dogs to it too (the leaves are poisonious).

Pothos: I grew up with this plant and it's also poisonous....What were my grandparents trying to do to us?

<--Philodendron: I grew up with this plant and it's also poisonous....I'm beginning to see a pattern.



Arrowhead Vine: My mother had this plant.....I'm seeing a disturbing trend here.


<--Cast-Iron Plant: Finally, a plant that isn't poisonous.


Well, I live by myself and I don't have a dog. I think I can manage not to chew on the plants.




I've stalked the Pioneer Woman's Gardening site for information on how she built her raised beds (not difficult at all) and I am almost living at Mel Bartholomew's site, but I may have a problem finding vermiculite. . . apparently it's tough to lay hands on.

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While at home I had a great time finishing projects that have been on the back burner for a while:

I now have a pair of Pomatomus Socks and they are gorgeous! I am in love with them. A little blocking and they'll be ready for wearing.


A Koolhaas hat in Cream: Daddy claimed the hat, then Mommy stole the hat, then Grandy decided she wanted the hat (but in Blue) and PawPaw wanted the same hat but in a different blue from Granny. Let the Christmas 2009 Knitting BEGIN!

An Open Letter to the Carpentras at the Villages at Avignon HOA

Dear Homeowner's Association:

I don't care how you feel about the fact that I purchased the property without you having received an application first. I purchased a foreclosure, meaning I purchased my home from the bank, not the builder. Also, since I haven't received the Declarations, Articles of Incorporation, or any of the other pertinent paperwork, I will **not** pay your ridiculous HOA fees. All I needed was the HOA articles. I don't have them. My realtor did not provide them. The selling agent did not provide them.

When I called today I get a copy of the legal documentation, your representative was very rude. That's not a good look for a quasi-governmental organization trying to recover money from me. Furthermore, I don't appreciate your representative threatening me with late charges because I didn't pay by the 15th. You didn't send anything, including an invoice, until the 22nd.

So, at this time, I don't consider myself a member of the HOA and if you continue to press the issue, I will take legal advice. If you want me to join your HOA, get me the Articles, get me the Declaration, show me where the HOA is mandatory in my title, and fix my Mailbox!

Otherwise, Leave me alone.

Sincerely,

Victoria

Moving Right along

OK, on the knitting front: I've finished 43cm of the Lordana Boucle Car Coat (click to review in Ravelry). For about 30 minutes tonite, I couldn't figure out the match to the armhole shaping and I was convinced I would end up with more stitches than I was supposed to.

Tequila helps a lot of things.

After tequila, I stopped overthinking the math and, lo and behold, the armhole math was correct and I had perfect bind-offs. Now I'm confronting the possiblity that I will run 1 skein short of yarn in order to finish this project.

On the house front: The bank countered me at $119,000. At that point I was a little sick of the game, so I sent over a firm and final offer. I loved the way Jaya put it in her email, "this is my client's firm and final offer."

They accepted! My contract has been accepted! I'm almost a homeowner!

(Panicking, panicking, panicking)

Am I really ready for this? Am I really ready to be totally responsible for a house???? I mean, a house means that I can't just pick up and move when I get ready. I can't be footloose and fancy free.

It does mean I own a little something in the world, which is a strange concept. I believe in the Indian ideal that one cannot own land . . . you cannot own something that will outlast you in perpetuity. Someday I'll be dead and gone and that land will still be there. The most claim you have to it is temporary rights of guardianship . . .

But I'm off on a tangent.

The bank sent over an additional addendum. I read it yesterday in the Realtor's office, had questions she couldn't answer and am now waiting for the answer to my questions. I also didn't receive the termite information for the house, so I'm waiting on that before I sign this additional addendum.

Being a first-time homebuyer is frustrating and scary.

I have one set of mortgage contracts but I'm waiting on the other two lender to respond to me. I'm hesitant to sign with this first guy (even though everything is great) because I want to see if I can get the interest rate down to 5.875% or lower and I want to run back through the math again. If this works out the way I plan (and the way I really need it to), my house payment will be about $1000 a month, I will get the $7500 credit back on my taxes which I will apply to the car loan, and I'll be broke for an entire year, but I'm ready to do this.

Meanwhile, I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing in the right order. Once I send the documents back, I can schedule the inspection. But since this is a foreclosure being sold "As Is", I can't get out of it unless there is major structural damage. So I might be stuck with serious house repairs that I can't afford. I'm really gambling here. Then I have to get insurance, which is ridiculously expensive in Florida, and work on getting a moving company and a timeline. I have to box up my clothes. My move to Florida taught me how to pack quickly. . . so I know that a week of dedicated packing will get my stuff moved, but still. . . I'm so nervous.

I can't continue to rent. This is pissing away my money to someone else so they can get richer while I'm at their mercy on rent. If I'm going to pay $850 a month to live somewhere, I might as well chip in $150 more and have equity (kinda kills that earlier paragraph, huh?)

Finally, I try not to comment on Politics in my posts (only a few times I've broken that dictum), but I will say this: I'm glad election season is over.

Let the GAMES Begin!

On Saturday, I put in a bid of $112K on the house I told you about on 10/30/08. Well, Jaya called me today to let me know that the bank counteroffered at $122K. NO FREAKING WAY!!!! I'm not trying to be house rich and cash poor. I want to be house rich and cash even (hey, I know it's too much to ask for cash rich).

I countered with $116K. They better accepted that or I'm going to start house-shopping again. I know that this is a normal part of the negotiations and that this is to be expected, but when I need to give notice to the apartment complex on Nov. 16 that I'm moving out at the end of my lease, we don't have time to play! I need an offer, an acceptance, and a firm closing date that occurs before the end of the year. So although I'm nervous (really really nervous) I need this to happen for me.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch/apartment, I cast on for the Lordana Boucle Coat last night. . .179 stitches of bulky KnitPicks Twirl (great way to use it up and if it comes out looking good, I'll do another in Lordana Boucle for me :) ) on a size 8 (5.00 mm) needle. I'm hoping that this will move along fast. Instead of doing the back and fronts separately, I cast on on for them and will execute all of it at the same time. This is worrying me a little (I have to make decreases every 8 rows, but the yarn is so thick I can't count 8 rows) but I'm going to perservere.

I also decided to start designing more. So, using Shirley Paden's Flame Stitch Cardigan as inspiration, I'm going to try to create my own cropped cardigan. . . wish me luck!

PS. Am I the only person planning to get in line to vote at 7AM tomorrow???

FO Report and New Developments

I finished the Undulating Socks tonight. Overall, I love the pattern and the socks, but I will never buy Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn again. The yarn is scratchy (I haven't blocked it yet, but I don't see this "hand" getting any better) and the twist of the yarn is incredibly uneven. In some places it's as think as a strand of DK. In other places it is like cobweb-weight yarn.

In other news, I've started house hunting. On Monday, my apartment complex left a note on my door to tell me that they were raising my rent by $100! That's a 13% increase! I would end up paying rent that is more than what my mother pays in mortgage. No way am I going to do that. So I contacted Jaya and we've started house hunting.

Tonight we found a gorgeous house in Palmetto. Specs:

1713 square feet
$124,900 list price
3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
2 car garage
small porch of the dining room
In a well-developed community
Corporate owned

Let's keep hope alive. I'm hoping this will work out. I have to give the apartment complex notice by November 16.