7 Quick Takes (Vol 103)

It is that time of the week again. Inane blathering in short form rather than the usual long form. So after you read my weekly blatherings click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of my house cooling down with only one working furnace, over to Conversion Diary.

Let the blathering begin.

1.
Duct Tape how I love thee. You can fix just about anything with duct tape. Have I ever told you the story about our boat excursion on a remote river in Denali National Park in Alaska, the sputtering boat motor and the duct tape fix?

No?

I will once I find the pictures.

At any rate. Back to the story. HHBL makes a lovely fire every Sunday afternoon in the winter. He is a master at fire. And one of his favorite tools for said fire is his blower thingy. I know it has a name I just can’t remember it at the moment. And his blower thingy gave out in a big way a couple of weeks a go. It had a blow out of biblical proportions.

Buy a new one? Do without? No! Deb to the rescue with her duct tape.

Good as new!

 

2.
I am knitting myself a new purse. I don’t change purses all that often, maybe once a year. And I don’t want to buy a new purse right now. So I will make one instead. I don’t have pictures yet. And I have never done this particular thing before, knitting something and then felting it.

Well, except for that pair of socks that I inadvertently felted by putting them in the washing machine on hot. That was a sad day let me tell you.

But this time I am knitting with the intention of felting. Wish me luck!

My friend Jess made this same purse and the minute I saw hers I just knew I had to have one.

And it will be red.

 

3.
We really dodged the old weather bullet this week for once. We did get some snow on Tuesday but the bulk of the precipitation that we received was in the form of freezing rain and sleet. I get very nervous when we have ice because if we lose power we are dead in the water, literally. No power = no water around here. As well as the whole no heat thing.

But we retained electricity and even though it was really slippery on Wednesday we didn’t get the weather that TMO and TSiL got….which amounted to about 2 feet of snow.

I am grateful even though I know that it won’t last. I am just enjoying the sunshine while I have it.

 

4.
Oh there are things that I live in fear of in the winter time. And one of those things is issues with the furnaces. It makes my stomach go all kerplunk and makes me nervous and want to move to Georgia where they don’t need furnaces nearly so often.

So Wednesday, as I was puttering around in the kitchen late in the day I smelled something hot. And not hot like cooking hot but hot like something overheating hot. It seemed to go away after a bit and so I just shelved the feeling of impending doom.

Then yesterday afternoon we smelled it again, both HHBL and I. And we determined that it seemed to be coming up through the vents on one side of the house. And then we determined that it must be one of the furnaces.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes.

So I have turned that one off and hopefully they will be able to come out today and fix it. Stay tuned because I am sure that it will just be something stupid and it will cost an arm and a leg.

And I was going to do some scrapbooking today but until the furnace is fixed that ain’t happening because scrapbook central is on the side of the basement that is affected by the non-working furnace. It is COLD down there. And when your fingers can’t work very well due to ice build up then it is hard to scrap book. I will just have to sort through boxes on the warm side of the basement instead. Rats.

Can I move to Hawaii now?

5.
HHBL and I have started a new tradition…..”Friday Movie Nights”. We have been doing this for a couple of months, usually with one of our Netflix videos. But we have also decided that we are going to be watching some of our own DVD’s that are now, finally, all in one place. For most of our DVD lives the DVDs were actually housed in three different places. There were some in the basement that were more for the progeny. HHBL kept “his” in his office and I kept “mine” in the bedroom because I seemed to watch them the most up there.

And then came the year of the non-selling house where we packed up all the DVDs in boxes and shoved them in the basement.

And then came the period of time when I couldn’t find the box with all of “my” DVDs. Frantic searching. Opening of vast numbers of boxes. And finally finding the right box, mislabeled. Sigh of relief.

And then there was the “I am putting these all back on shelves in the basement and we are watching them darnit!” moment. And now all the DVDs are united in one place and living in blessed media harmony.

And tonight HHBL and I will be watching “The Fellowship of the Ring”, extended addition, as we begin to make our way through the LOTR films. Not that I haven’t seen them a ton but they never get old with me.

I can hardly wait.

I hope the furnace is fixed by then.

6.
It was a brilliantly blue sky day yesterday, one of those days that we so rarely experience here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio. Seriously, especially in the winter time it is partly to fully cloudy most days. But yesterday, most of the day, there was not a cloud in the sky. I actually had to look for my sunglasses when I was out in the car.

Honey what is that bright orb in the sky?

Enjoy them while you can is my motto. They are predicting snow tomorrow.

What a surprise.

 

7.
Sunday we will be going over to the home of LookLeap and Mr. Technology for the annual Superbowl Extravaganza. It is so far to travel to watch a football game…..300 feet down the road. And yes we will be walking it. I will be fasting on Saturday in preparation as I will be eating entirely more than is good for me on Sunday. I will be bringing Jana’s Doo Dads and The Pioneer Woman’s Pico de Gallo. Yum.

And may I just say……

GO PACKERS!!!!!!!