Category Archives: Home

Another Country

Posted on by August 13, 2017 1

Just in case you are worried, all that has been going on here is a lot of construction. Both ours and our neighbors who just happen to have a flat roof which in turn translates to horrendously smelling asphalt. In turn that lead me to about three days running of blistering migraines.

Everything is better with meds, but that means that I lose more than a few hours of time. More than a day or so, to be honest.

wall bracing for foundation pour

floor poured

So as you can see, progress has been made.

and I will not talk about the As and their ability to sustain truly embarrassing losses.

Choosing stuff

Posted on by August 13, 2017 1

I missed most of the challenges from the upstairs and bathroom renovations since we were still living in Germany. This time? It is amazing how many details have to be decided.

tiles

and counter tops –

none of which thrill me

so it is going to be another trip for Dani and I to find something that is reasonable, sturdy and won’t look like it is dirty all the time.

and we still have sinks and faucets and ….. to go.

Not a No-Hitter

Posted on by July 1, 2017  

Is probably the best thing that can be said about tonight’s game. A solo home run by Matt Olson in the bottom of the ninth was the As only score. Next batter up hit a double but that, unfortunately was followed by a few too many swings and misses.

I otherwise slept in, messed around with my sewing machine and attempted to avoid screaming at people.

(grin – a good day all around. Except for the As…..)

Wonder Woman

Posted on by June 29, 2017  

I am not sure what I was expecting from this particular movie. I hadn’t seen any of the trailers and hadn’t looked at comic books for years.  Yes, they were definitely comic books when I was a kid. What the difference between a comic book and graphic novel is eludes me completely. Discounting the issue of length and cost. Those perhaps contribute to which category one might apply.

Anyway. Wonder Woman. The movie, what I saw of it was well done. Costuming, fight scenes and all the usual paraphernalia involving the imagining of an ancient but sophisticated culture. Otherwise – I hated it. I never, ever, ever go to fight, war, or violence movies and would not have gone to this one had I known.

I’ve done my time, seen enough death and weapons. Seen what they do to people and can’t see anyway to put heroics, a positive spin or to rewrite history for the sake of a plot. I certainly don’t read fiction related. And besides – this movie doesn’t match the original story of Wonder Woman which was true to the time period in which it was written….

Your mileage may very

Alameda County Fair

Posted on by June 28, 2017  

It is not that I go all that often to county fairs. The last one, if my memory serves me correctly was in 1988 where I was the weaver in a Sheep-to-Shawl team. Considering that I was pregnant with Daughter #2 at the time what I mostly remember were smells, heat and nausea.

I hadn’t even thought about such things for years. In fact, I had no idea that there were even such things as county fairs in this area of the country till I was given a free ticket at an As game a week or so ago. Since I had the ticket, it made sense (sort of) to use it. Canvasing the household, Alex was the only taker.

So off we went – Alameda County encompasses a huge portion of the East Bay (including, but not limited to Oakland, Dublin, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Berkeley, Emeryville). Rather large in population as such places go. The fairgrounds are in Pleasanton, which is just about as far from my house as you can get and still be in the county. We drove south and east….

Parking cost, of course. Fairgrounds entry didn’t. Alex took my free ticket and the fairground doesn’t charge either active military or veterans. There were the usual midway rides, games to separate you from your money with cheap prizes as a reward. There was junk food galore.

Of no surprise to me were the buildings containing vendors hawking knives, cookware, magic blenders, massage chairs, windows, siding, sports related souvenirs. Except for the teams which were most prominently displayed, I’d swear it was the same old guy from another state and decades ago. There has to be a fair circuit and things that are only and always sold there.

After an hour or so of wandering we finally found the buildings housing the hobbies, exhibits, small animals and other fun. The hobbies building turned out to have old people (whoops – folks of my age) demonstrating various crafts) while the rest of the hall was filled with cases featuring various “collections.” There is no way I can really put words to this strangeness so I will add in photos as soon as I track down the USB cable.

The small animal barn had bunnies, lots and lots of bunnies along with ducklings and chicks and a few other small birds. The Agriculture and Wine building had plants, bee keeping and one wine merchant. In the building labeled “Exhibits” I struck gold (for me). Not surprising, quilting seems to have taken over here much as it had 30 years ago in Maryland. There were a few entries in the knitting, spinning and weaving categories. More in the crochet (yes, the obligate baby stuff). Nothing in needlepoint, only one entry in cross-stitch. There was also a category which I found extremely strange – place settings. Like the hobby entries, these can only be seen and not well described or understood.

I never did find the large animals, but the hour was getting toward heavy traffic and we decided to skip both the rides and the late evening concert. There wasn’t any horse racing today, not that I minded at all.

Tomorrow’s plan? Wonder Woman.

Up from the depths

Posted on by June 24, 2017 2

the only way I can describe this past week is like a deep well. It has been a combination of the chemo hitting me, the house construction with the jack hammering and pounding to the point where it seems like my whole body vibrates to a complete lack of interest in people and/or food.

I think I am starting to get it together which means that I will release the last weeks worth of blog posts as soon as I have a chance to go back and clear out the worst of the evil thoughts and bad languages.

Tonight I am allegedly participating in a class over at Rodeo Beach on the Marin headlands on night photography. The only challenge, besides going completely manual on my camera is going to be if the fog – aka marine layer – doesn’t cooperate enough to let us see the sky. It is pretty hard to photo the night sky when all you see is a blur of white descending to the tips of the closest dunes and hills.

Another day

Posted on by June 10, 2017  

and another pile of debris –

todays dig out

which provides a slightly different view than out and down from the living room window. The smeary glass is obviously the result of dog noses…

down on the right side toward the steps

toward the left and the debris pile

and lastly a bit more toward the middle featuring steel beams and the top of one of the stacks

I took it easy today, mostly reading but also back at the fractal-54 after organizing a few supplies –

10 June 2017

Gaping Hole

Posted on by June 9, 2017 1

We have this gaping hole where the lower level and foundation used to be.

From the driveway it doesn’t look that bad –

Upper level, bracers below

It is just when you get up close and personal –

and see the water and sewer lines

just sort of hanging free that a slight chill starts creeping up the back.

I guess it is comforting to know that there is plenty of bracing, altho it doesn’t look all that sturdy to me

the last of the foundation on the forward corner

I would not advise walking under the house –

unless you are comfortable with also seeing electrical connections reminiscent of the snarls one saw in Delhi or Kathmandu, just on a smaller scale.

but we do have lights and wifi!

 

You can also see the steel beams across the tops of the bracers. Me? I did play with Lincoln logs but still…

The noise is getting to me. Time to escape to the upper floor. I just try not to think about the house accidentally coming down….

Who are you?

Posted on by June 8, 2017 1

This dude (dudette?) came into our garden, pecked around for a few minutes then took off. I can’t find him in the quick guide to birds in the Bay Area and otherwise know little about identifying birds. I noticed him because of the intense blue to his body. The black crest on top wasn’t visible at first.

If anyone has any ideas?

Small things

Posted on by June 1, 2017 2

There are those days where the important accomplishments are small things:

  • a box of patterns dropped off at Lacis
    a daughter gotten to a job interview
    guest taken to a couple of sports stores and the Rosie the Riveter Museum
    a nap or two
    an audiobook finished
    finally finding a skein of #720 DMC so that the empty spots in the current Fractal can be filled before moving on to the next page

I still have a long list of things which need to be accomplished and little energy.

Ah well – there is always tomorrow…

Not fit for civiliazation

Posted on by June 8, 2017  

It is not that I have fallen off the face of the earth exactly. It is more that the bounce after steroids this time was slightly beyond belief. I won’t tell you that I am ever the most even tempered individual, but but being totally and completely evil is not what I want to think of as my normal mode.

Especially once the temper gets out of control and doesn’t easily want to be reined in.

What really doesn’t help (ok, lets just be honest here and say that it makes things even that much worse) is if the individual with whom I started a discussion starts to argue with me.

Hello? I am the mom. Even if I could be wrong (which of course never comes into consideration), I am still the MOM and therefore right.

I think it is time to go and hole up once more…

27 May 2017

House update

Posted on by May 29, 2017 1

In case you were wondering – construction is proceeding apace. Actually, at this point it is more destruction. Let me demonstrate:

in other words – all the stucco is gone from the areas being affected, the complete area for the new foundation has been dug out. There are supporting towers and steel beams holding things up. Multiple large piles of dirt have been formed and removed. Rock has been drilled out. New pipes have been put in so that we have water and sewer. Unless someone forgets, we actually have gas as well. If the vibrations that day have been heavy, the automatic shut off kicks in and the gas goes off. Now that we know how to handle it, no longer a problem. It is also reassuring that the earthquake upgrades we did actually work.

Next to be done are the changes to the front entry to include digging out for the interior stairs going down.

Obviously, it isn’t quiet during the day. The dogs don’t seem to care. Unfortunately, it is just one more external thing I can blame (who me? admit that I am just naturally cranky? I don’t think so….)

Last flight out

Posted on by May 6, 2017

All of us who fly to Europe are used to the “leave in the evening and arrive the next morning” method of travel. For years when traveling from the East Coast, this meant a flight leaving somewhere after 2000 and sometimes as late as 2230. After moving to the West Coast things changed a lot. If you are stuck (schedule or expense) changing planes in the US it normally means a morning departure. You have to account for 4-5 hours of flight plus three hours of time change. And, if you are smart, at least 2 hours at the change airport just to have 1/2 a chance of making your flight.

Even the direct flights from SFO seem to leave early afternoon. But then, my most recent flights have involved Frankfurt, a plane change in Frankfurt or Copenhagen. Imagine my surprise when informed that the flight to Munich (why wouldn’t I fly direct?) didn’t leave till 2055! Of course, it doesn’t exactly arrive in the morning, now does it? This is not a flight for someone who needs to be able to work the same day they arrive. But it is totally and completely perfect for someone who needs to get there, have a light supper and crash for the night.

Oh, I didn’t say? It doesn’t arrive till 1715 in the late afternoon. For me, this is perfect. I need to be at the SanAK the next day for registration and my conference is Tue-Thurs. Makes complete sense; within the week travel for everyone in Europe and in country.

My studio is almost clean. There are several hundred books and a dozen or so audio books ready to go to the used bookstore. I passed along a couple dozen weaving books to a new weaver and 500 gm of beads to a friend of the Eldest. Between College Guy and myself, there are three bags of clothing to go to the Charity Shop and three baskets of craft supplies are going to be rehoused on my just emptied shelves in the garage.

I’ll have phone and wifi while gone. I will miss the family (no, not you dogs) but not the construction noise. The Eldest is documenting the whole process for me.  Meanwhile, there has to be something interesting to snack on here in the United Lounge (no, I’m on Lufthansa).

Ah!, cookies….

The House – Part 2

Posted on by May 6, 2017  

Ok, so we have this house. It has all these interesting levels. Four steps up to the entry way where, after you are inside on the landing you have to go down three steps on the right to the kitchen or go straight ahead followed by three steps down to the living room. If you don’t want to do either of those, you have your choice of heading off 90* to your left and …. up four steps (or is it five?) to reach two bedrooms and the main bathroom. If none of those appeal to you, wrap a 360 to the left and head up to the second floor. The second floor to the left is sort of above the kitchen and dining room and houses a hall, a closet and the room I have claimed as my studio. To the right you face five steps up to two small rooms that were dubbed bedrooms back in 1931 with a bathroom tucked between.

 

So now you need pictures. Unless I mention otherwise, these are all lower level.

New hole in the wall reinforced so that the Bobcat can go in and dig

dirt and foundation dug out so far (minus what has already been hauled away)

the former laundry room. This will become a bedroom with three windows plus a door to the 3-season porch

outside corner of that future bedroom.

another view of living room window above, Bobcat below and a lot of debris

The construction here was upright boards on the inside, slanted boards on the outside and stucco over the top. And no – I am not going to have siding on the lower level when we are done.

All of this looked much better than the As tonight who managed to pitch horribly, strand runner after runner on base and otherwise leave me feeling absolutely no guilt for heading home after the 7th Inning stretch to get warmer.

The best that the score board looked all night. Before the game…

Babi Yar

Posted on by May 5, 2017  

Is
1) a location in the Ukraine where early on in WWII the Nazis – with local complicity and probably help shot and buried over 34000 Jews in mass graves
2) A poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko published in 1961.
3) Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich).

The first event was glossed over in the World History courses I took in High School. Rural Minnesota did more old and western history and pretty much stayed out of WWII. The Shoah was well known, at least to me, but not all of the details.

The second was introduced to me my freshman fall in University by a fellow student in my math class. It was his reason, he explained, for taking Russian as a foreign language since the poem, tho powerful had to be better in the original language than in translation. I bought the concept, what did I know at 17? Now, really? Yes works are much better in the original language – Le Petit Prince comes to mind. But then there are the dense and heavy German tombs which kind translators have turned into almost readable volumes with sentences that don’t run on for fourteen pages.

The third I really learned about this year. Having never really been a fan of Shostakovich (Glorify the Russian Revolutions? Ok, and keep out of Siberia – I get it), I never noted how many he had written. This particular symphony in five movements was inspired by the poem (see above) and then was extended with the addition of four more poems.  Did I mention that this is also a complete choral work with male basses. And only male basses?

Tonight’s performance was by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, plus four actors reading the poems prior to the music (two of which should have been removed for all of their emoting since it seemed to be more about them than the poem. The other two were excellent). The solo singer was excellent but he could have been singing Italian for all the specific word emphasis he placed. The Men’s Choir was amazing. In order to gather enough men they raided the Berkeley Choir, The Russian Orthodox Church’s Choir (St Stephans?) and Alumni from the Oakland Boys Choir.  There was an interesting discussion ahead of time which included a shoulder shrug as to why this particular piece had been scored this way – essentially only one male voice.

Easy Peasy in my opinion. Deep Russian Voice? Male dominated society especially at the time Babi Yar occurred; these men are standing for all Russian Men. They are acknowledging what was done, how people thought, what they did, what remains to be done. I can’t think of any way more fitting than what was chosen.

 

The House

I went and looked up past mention I have made of construction, renovation and my otherwise disgust with the house. A lot of it was scattered here and there and never quite in anything coherent. So my apologies for sounding sharp. I had individually answered a lot of questions over the last couple of years, but never put it in a format which would make sense to everyone.

Since I spent most of the morning in the garage sorting out stuff – I emptied 20+ boxes. Most of them are books which will be finding another home. Two boxes of which I dropped off to a new weaver today (she took my Baby Wolf off my hands) so that she can add research and theory to the practical lessons she has taken. I’m also working on the studio, but don’t think I am going to show any photos of that particular disaster in progress….

The House – part 1

Posted on by May 4, 2017

Ok, this is the last time I am going to be answering the question of what we are doing with the house, It is not like I haven’t explained before (yes really, but I don’t expect anyone to remember what doesn’t personally involve them.

To backtrack – we bought the house here in Berkeley in 2009. Well, actually George bought the house and I just went along with it. Thought he knew what he was doing. Claimed it was just what we always wanted. Husband’s don’t exactly lie, but they are really capable of deceiving themselves when they find what they really want.  My criteria were access to public transport, near a synagogue and accessible.

The house is on a freaking hill and there are stairs all over the place. The other two factors are satisfied. Provided you only want the bus before 2000 at night and don’t mind hiking up the aforementioned hill from the shul.

We took the house back from tenants in fall of 2014 when Shana came out here to go to grad school and Noah decided to make a serious stab at University. They oversaw the third floor and bathroom renovations. George and I moved in Dec 2015.

Since the beginning, I have maintained this house is not mobility or age friendly. Trust me, this past six months have more than proved both of the above to me. In concession, a couple of years ago we started the process to finish the lower floor into a one level accessible unit. The permit process wound up being insane and took us almost two years from start to finish.

We are trading in dirt floor crawl space, totally disorganized utilities with vents going everywhere and a laundry room that doesn’t connect to the rest of the house. What we will gain is a self contained 1 bedroom unit with bath, great room and pullman kitchen. Did I mention the sunroom?

When I am old and grey I will move downstairs, sit in the sun and have meals delivered…

(Ok, I am already older and have a fair amount of grey…

actual construction pictures tomorrow…20

Construction

Posted on by May 3, 2017  

Well, we are really and truly into it.

The basement has been emptied except for the washer and dryer. Our contractor (brilliant man that) has figured out how to run a couple of lines up to the deck and will relocate the machines for the duration of the construction! Cold water? I can do that vs spending time at the laundromat!

Last Friday they started stripping the stucco and some of the boards.

Today it was framing a couple of openings, tearing out everything inside, jack hammering the foundation and other noisy bits of fun.

bit of a change

 

I took a few photos late at night – they are even scarier

 

Oh, and they are not exactly silent when working either.

Rehoming posessions

Posted on by May 1, 2017  

One of the things that happens when you start to sort and clean is finding an amazing number of things that need to go and live somewhere else.

Take for example this shawl –

Hoxbro Winged Shawl

which I knit late in 2011 and managed to use up a lot of yarn (over 2000 meters) worth. I loved knitting it, the Shadow knit pattern was interesting but the colors were just not mine. So it got hauled around a bit, occasionally worn but mostly it hung out on the shelf.

On Friday, after having lunch with a friend we came back to the house. I was tossing things out of the closet and she said – that does not go out – it is beautiful. Her colors, and it went home with her.

So now I just have to go back to the garage, make a place for a few hundred books. Organize the sewing room, find another place for a couple of dozen puzzles…

Nap time sounds so much better.

Blech

Posted on by April 29, 2017 14

a morning dose

Now, for some people, that handful might seem like nothing.

But for me? Blech exponential. I have gone from taking one small thyroid replacement in the morning (20+ years) to this handful of horse choking pills and tablets. Admittedly, some are temporary – those four nasty round tabs are 20mg each of Prednisone and that is only for a few days. The pretty blue and white are Acyclovir and help protect me from the idiots out there who don’t stay home when they are ill. Same for the huge Levoquin which is gag worthy. This only leaves a tiny pink tab – anti-nausea. I am just safe siding it with that one. The chemo isn’t really bothering me, but I can’t think of anything worse than having to repeat this dose!

The rest of the day was much better. Had lunch with a friend, Started on my closet and actually discovered the floor along with some electronics which I thought had been lost for good!  The evening saw me out in Richmond at the Eldest’s to celebrate one of her friends birthday’s.

Now – back to cleaning…..