Sunday with Waffles… and a house

Sep4

We’re watching the morning shows before we head off for more cleaning. We have new appliances in our now-old house… and a satellite dish.

I took a 4-day weekend for the cleaning; don’t expect too much onlininess from me until Wednesday, really.

Last night I spent time signing up for All the Sweepstakes… mostly in the theory that, say, 25 grand for a kitchen remodel would be awesome.

Speaking of contests, ellenmillion: http://www.kolcraft.com/65-anniversary/sweepstakes.html Baby stuff contest!!

And a daily baby-stuff contests http://win.parents.com/?psrc=S10114EO75D045

And a giant directory of sweepstakes: http://www.winprizesonline.com/

And now I go off to scrub my new bathroom. And figure out where to put the cat box.

How’s your Sunday going?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/125363.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Meme MOAR

Sep2

1. Reply to this post with “UNICORNS”, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

limiinal gave me these:

Swirls!

Fractal swirls that remind me of tentacles, or trees, or tentacle trees.

Keep Sharp, Live Long.

I made this (image from Wikipedia, free texture, photoshop playing) when I realized I didn’t have an icon for my warrior character Lyuda and I wanted one.

Hammer

My go-to icon for DIY of all sorts, also sometimes crafts, because the line between DIY and crafts is a thin one.

KinkBingo

This is one of the kink_bingo standard icons for the community. Also, I like chains+throats *blush*

snow

I keep meaning to go out and photograph my own version of this (and write more of the story it’s from); it started out as a photo of what, I think, duck-footed walking looks like, but it fits the Blizarded story very well.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124946.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Meme

Sep2

clare_dragonfly gave me these:

Keyword: Aldersprig.

barbary made this for me! I use it when doing 15-min-fics from Barbary’s website, or for things that seem to suit it’s along-the-waterfront mood.

Keyword: Leaf

An alder leaf, just the color I feel they ought to be. Personal-writing stuff, mostly. Or stuff I don’t have an icon for just yet. This is related to why-I’m-aldersprig, which is a longer story.

Keyword: mermaid2 (I used to have several)
Originally yoinked from somewhere on the web back when I had less-good manners about such things, it serves for both Fish Story and the flood series, and other people’s mermaid stories, and Ysabet’s fishbowls.

Keyword: Bookglasses (i’m so creative)
For readerly things and mechanism-of-writerly things

Keyword: Tea3 (I have several)

For tea-related moments – family/kin/community/comfort stuff. Also, I have that teapot.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124779.html. You can comment here or there.

Thursday with Keys and tired

Sep1

So… we have a key to our house.

Let me repeat that.

we have a key to our house.

We. Bought a House. (mostly) O_O

The next … um.. ever… will be a lot of slow renovation after a lot of quick cleaning and some painting. In essence, we plan to gut the house over the next 10 years. But oh, how fun it will be.

We bought a house!

*boggles*

In linkage world… meeks updated the Rin drawing: DW and LJ.

According to her new perks, for every three new commenters who mention I sent them, I can get more work on the sketch (or another awesome icon)! So go tell her how awesome the goat is! (also? You get into a pool to win an icon of your own).

One more note of meeks news – she’s asking if people would help her crowdfund a Wacom Inkling. Go weigh in!

Strange link edition short tonight – Crayola tulip fields

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124162.html. You can comment here or there.

Wednesday with momentum and “dry closing.”

Aug31

I am full of chocolate, as T. messaged me that he would like some chocolate. He was very unclear on what sort, just having, it seemed, a vague craving, so I took a walk and bought chocolate mousse, mocha mousse, two chocolate cookies, and beer.

(The beer is not chocolate).

Today’s home-buying adventure is “dry closing:” http://www.fhainfo.com/escrowclosing.htm

It is still unclear how this will delay the beginning of moving in. Or, rather, the beginning of cleaning-and-painting, which is what we plan on spending the weekend doing.

Today is the last day to fill out the donation perk poll: Dreamwidth or LJ. Tomorrow I will collate the results and begin writing! (right now “Spring Break” and “Three-Way” are tied).

meeks has done it again! She’s updated Diapering Dragons (LJ). Check out that wall! More work on Rin is next…

Links of the day: an odd word… and an odder goat.

Vocab:
mam·mon noun, often capitalized ˈma-mən

Definition of MAMMON
: material wealth or possessions especially as having a debasing influence “you cannot serve God and mammon — Matthew 6:24(Revised Standard Version)”

Origin of MAMMON
Middle English, from Late Latin mammona, from Greek mamōna, from Aramaic māmōnā riches

First Known Use: 15th century
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mammon

So, I go back to Addergoole, to some time in the past, and Mike VanderLinden.

Mike had known for months that things were going to go south with Judith, but the woman was so tight about her emotions, he couldn’t get her to say anything. It was when she walked into his studio and wrinkled her nose at him that he knew they could finally be done.

“Mammon,” she pronounced disdainfully.

“Yes, my love,” he grinned, lounging ostentatiously on the silk sheets, “but it’s what keeps a roof over your head.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/123864.html. You can comment here or there.

Tuesday, With a Closing Date

Aug30

Hey, two dates is closer to a habit.

Important things:
* Irene left us a day of rain, that’s it.
* The earthquake shook my work building, just enough to notice it.

Tonight’s dinner was what’s-in-the-cupboard: pasta with tomato-and-sardine sauce
http://www.amazon.com/Roland-Sardines-Tomato-Sauce-5-5-Ounce/dp/B000UZXSZE/ref=sr_1_17?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1314747354&sr=1-17

We have a closing date on The House! Thursday at 3 EST!

Funky links of the day: One murphy bed, two murphy beds, and Fitocracy, which turns out to be pretty cool.

And vocab:in·vei·gle verb in-ˈvā-gəl sometimes -ˈvē-
in·vei·gledin·vei·gling

Definition of INVEIGLE
transitive verb
1 : to win over by wiles : entice
2 : to acquire by ingenuity or flattery : wangle
— in·vei·gle·ment noun
— in·vei·gler noun
Origin of INVEIGLE
Anglo-French enveegler, aveogler, avogler to blind, hoodwink, from avogle, enveugle blind, from Medieval Latin ab oculis, literally, lacking eyes
First Known Use: 1539
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inveigle

For this, I present Winter and Spring from Stranded World:

“Your hair looks really nice that way,” Winter’s littlest sister told him in her sweetest voice. “Brings out the blue in your eyes.”

He smirked down at her. “Thank you, Spring. But it will take more than that.”

“But I think it would look nice on me, too,” she said, saccharine dripping from her voice, “and I want to be just like my big brother.”

“You can’t inveigle this one out of me, sweetie,” he told her gently. “I’m sorry. It’s not my decision.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/122525.html. You can comment here or there.

Monday, with a new habit

Aug29

I like other people’s daily posts; why not try one myself?

Yesterday, we made Oops Soup for dinner:
“Oops!” When buying peppers at an Asian market, don’t assume the banana peppers are sweet (two mouthfuls of yogurt and a gulp of milk to stop the burning)
“Oops!” Also, remember WHICH Asian market has the rice you want (the stuff we got is strange, good, but not what we wanted)
“Oops!” (from last week): plan a lunch BEFORE the 2-hour hike – we had chicken carcass for broth.

It turned into something like Thai chili soup with leek, carrots, onions, and a chicken broth. Tasty, and HOT.

Still not king. Err, still no date on the house-closing.

Funky links of the day: hide-away house and Zoom Room, a new take on hideabed.

And back to vocab:
ad·um·brate [a-duhm-breyt, ad-uhm-breyt] Show IPA
verb (used with object), -brat·ed, -brat·ing.
1. to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
2. to foreshadow; prefigure.
3. to darken or conceal partially; overshadow.
Origin:
1575–85; < Latin adumbrātus shaded (past participle of adumbrāre ), equivalent to ad- ad- + umbr ( a ) shade, shadow + -ātus -ate1
Related forms
ad·um·bra·tion, noun
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/adumbrate

For this, I present Shahin from Addergoole at about twelve:

“It’s not precognition,” a young Shahin insisted quietly. “All it does is give me vague ideas and bad dreams, adumbrate the future. That’s it.”

“Adumbrate?” Her aunt lifted an eyebrow, and the petite girl flushed.

“It’s the proper word, Shadowy, faint, concealing. Right?”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/121489.html. You can comment here or there.

Redo/furniture/question

Aug28

Okay!

This blog has motivated me, and I am going to, sometime probably-this-winter, redo our old dresser (a hand-me-down from when I was a kid.)

It needs new feets, need knobs (doesn’t NEED those) and, I think, a two-tone effect to go with the bedroom-that-will-be.

My big issue: right now there is a bookshelf atop it. This shelf was made by Fatherman and I, but it needs to be re-re-done at this point into something more fitting. I’m thinking re-building it, with a back, into a basic bookcase the same size as the top of the dresser…

…then painting everything offwhite with darkbrown trim.

Yes, because gutting a house wasn’t a big enough project.

Fun link for bonus – http://www.slashgear.com/cave-the-bookcase-with-built-in-seat-094690/ A “cave” bookcase with built in seat!

And some really funky bookcases (some, clearly, for people who do not have books the way we have books).

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/121024.html. You can comment here or there.

House musings: under da stairs

Aug19

Thing I want in the house, but only in a for-fun way and would probably never actually do:

A mural of the cupboard under the stairs, on the stairwell, hiding hidden, well, cupboards.

Alternately, turning the area under the stairs into a tiny guest room (eseme 😉

More reasonably – there’s this page of ideas (the wine cabinets are a great idea but I dislike the execution; the bathroom’s awesome but the stairs are right next to the extant bathroom.)

A remarkably similar page of links: aquarium!!!

Several plans for storage under stairs.. I like the one that looks like library stacks.

And speaking of beds under the stairs: how about this?

This is nice, if practical

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/112788.html. You can comment here or there.

State of the Grove – excited and exhausted

Aug18

Guys! I totally saw a fox this morning! On my way to work, there was a fox (a little red one) trotting across a neighbor’s yard!!!!

Hee!

Aside from that, I have
3 bug bites
2 tomatoes
and
1 happy/tired from my parents’ visit yesterday & tuesday.

I have no closing date for the house yet (boo hiss)

and a living room full of boxes (Yay T.)

Pondering another prompt day (Since I came up with a prompt). When is best for you: weekend/weekday, soon/later, morning/evening (EST)?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/111557.html. You can comment here or there.

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