Well peeps, it’s done! I signed on the dotted line (about 30 million times by my count), forked over a very large check, and a few hours later was the proud owner of a new set of keys. Which happen to open my sweet new house!
Tag Archive for 'albuquerque'
I Haz a House! 10Jun08
I’ve been quite the busy boy this last week. Let’s see what I’ve been up to, shall we?
→ I bought a sweet new cabinet.
I scored this hutch on Craigslist, and it’s already been put to good use storing all my knitting accoutrements. I’m also hoping that putting my stash on display in the common area of the house will help curb any future impulse purchases. My stash isn’t the biggest (I’m looking at you Maryse and Adrian!), but it’s certainly big enough to provide months of exciting knitting, and in the interest of fiscal responsibility (more on that in a bit) it’s going to have to be content with itself for a bit.
→ I started Fiddlehead Mitten #1
Then ripped it out about 10 rows in. Since mittens are fairly small, they’re an effective swatch on their own, especially since you can’t really an accurate measurement of the stranded gauge when not in the round. I started with US #5’s, and quickly ascertained that it was going to be too big. So it’s back to the drawing board with #4’s. I don’t mind though, since it gave me something to do while drinking my Saturday morning Americano at my favorite local caffeine spot.
→ I brought home a spinning wheel.
Unfortunately, this one’s just a temporary fix, but it’s already got me wrapped around its flyer. (Ha, that was a spinning pun!) See, a little while ago, I signed up for the beginning spinning class at my local yarn shop, and this week was our first tryst with spinning wheels. Last week was spindle spinning, which I’d already practiced a lot, so I was anxious to try something new this week. The class includes a wheel rental for the next month, and every week we take home a new model to play with. This week I drew the Lendrum out of the hat, and we’re already fast friends.
I’ve already managed to spin my way through 6 oz of Corriedale Wool, and a bump of Yarn Nerd BFL in Denim Blues. I’m pretty sure my shins are going to be sore tomorrow morning. I don’t mind though, since I’m very smitten with the resulting yarns.
The blue one is the Yarn Nerd BFL, which I split in half by weight, and spun into the classic 2-ply. I really love how the semi-solid looks shows up in the yarn, especially with the sheen of the BFL. The white skein is a Corriedale single, spun up from the big bag of wool that they gave us at the start of class. The Lendrum’s bobbins are a bit small, making it hard to fit all the plied BFL on there. To use up the leftover bits, I plied it with some of the Corriedale to create the final mini skein.
I’m definitely going to get a wheel at some point, but that’s also gonna be put on the back burner. Why you ask? Well that brings me to the last thing I’ve been doing this week.
→ Buying a House!
I’m just as surprised as you are by this one, it’s all happened so fast! About 2 weeks ago, I started thinking that maybe it’d be a good time to buy a house. I’ve been renting for the last 2 years, and while I love my current place, I often wish that I was putting my money towards something I actually owned. So being the engineer that I am, I started some spreadsheets and forecasted a ton of scenarios. I was unable to find a decent reason why I shouldn’t buy a house, so I started looking around. I also got approved for a great mortgage, so all things were go.
After seeing 7 houses, I found it. The. perfect. house. It was everything I wanted and more. It was the right size, in my price range, and needed no fixing up. So I made an offer. I was on pins and needles for an entire day, and received a counteroffer from the seller. I accepted that offer, and now a week later I’m a future homeowner!
The house has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a remodeled kitchen, a huge sunroom, and an awesome backyard. Oh, and it has a big shed in the backyard with lights and electricity. That’s going to be the new Yarn Nerd headquarters. :) Now I just have to contain myself until I move at the end of May! So far I’ve been passing the time by driving by everyday, just like a stalker. I’m so giddy, I just can’t help it!
I think a sweet new house is a fairly good reason to not buy yarn and a spinning wheel for a bit, don’t you? (Oh and the cabinet doesn’t count, since I really bought it for the new house. Wink, wink.)
Life Resumed 30Jul07
Well that concert turned out to be just the ticket. Karin and Linford sure know how to soothe a troubled soul with music, because their music definitely calmed me down. I might have even forgotten about the Emergency Vet bill for a few minutes! ;)
I picked up Emma last night after the concert, and she’s doing very well. Although probably a bit irritated, since I’ve probably taken about 100 pictures of her today. She did insist that I not show her one shaved leg in photos (from the IV), so I tried to only get her cute side. That turns out to be a pretty easy task.
Needless to say, I’m super glad that she’s feeling better…a feeling I might have manifested in a few extra treats throughout the day. :) I’ve also hatched a plan involving multiple dog gates to keep her inside during the day; since I’m not willing to risk her getting another bug bite while I’m at work. There’s so many bugs in my yard during the summer, so I think it’d be better for her to stay inside.
Dallas won’t be too happy about this new plan, but I think he’ll learn to survive for a few hours. He can be very destructive when left to his own devices (he ate an arm of a leather couch in the first 5 days I adopted him!), and I can’t really risk him destroying stuff since I have roommates. It’s one thing for him to get into something of mine, but another thing to chew up someone else’s stuff.
Emma confirmed to me that she was back to normal this evening, when she climbed up on top of Dallas’ dog crate to sleep on top of my newly laundered sock pile. That’s her special talent, making a bed out of anything on hand, as long as it’s just a bit soft. It’s making me a bit teary just seeing the picture, so let’s just move on before I get all emotional.
I did capitalize on the remainder of the weekend to get a bit of yarn dyed up. I cooked up some great new kettle dyed colorways, I think you’ll really like them. Here’s a sneak peek! There will be a shop update sometime this week, with all these new colorways, plus a bit more roving. I’ll be going on vacation to Seattle this Friday, so I thought I’d get the shop nice and stocked for ya. Oh, and I’ll be having a killer back to school sale, so stay tuned for the details.
The last thing I have to share is this great shot of the Sandia Mountains that I got tonight. I was over visiting Scout, and I pulled over to grab this shot. Pretty sweet huh? Her view of the Sandias is so spectacular, you can’t help but be just a bit jealous!
Yarn is Squishy 20Jul07
I love Fridays. Especially when you have every other one off during the summer. It’s quite nice to stay home, kick back and put your feet up. In a pile of yarn that is.
The store is all stocked up with some new yarns, including a new colorway called “Love and Peace or Else”, that I absolutely adore. It has black, gray, red, maroon and a bit of white. Everytime I see it, I got into a sudden fit and begin drooling all over the place, because I love it so much. It’s perfect for Project Spectrum, and it’s guaranteed to bring out your inner Bono. Love and Peace or Else is the title of a U2 song in case you were wondering. I know, I’m so hip it hurts. ;) I guess it’s a good thing that I saved a skein for myself huh? I don’t have any red socks, so I figure I should rectify that. (This is how I rationalize things in my head at least.)
Now that’s some tasty eye candy!
There was some roving in the store, but some crazed people with itchy trigger fingers snapped it up in about 2 seconds. You know who you are ;) There’s more of that on the way though. There was something about dyeing that roving that turned on a switch in my fiber-addled brain…I don’t think I’m gonna be able to hold out on the spinning bug much longer. I’m currently shopping for a drop spindle, since a wheel would definitely blast the budget to smithereens right now. I know there are certain ones among you who might try to persuade me with links to inexpensive wheels, so don’t even think about it! I don’t need to be enabled right now, gosh! Idiots!
Now that I’ve packed up all this morning’s orders for shipping, it’s time to mentally psych myself up for tonight’s excitement. That’s right. I’m going to the Harry Potter release party…
OMG HP7!!! OMG!
Now I realize I might be a bit crazy, (and super nerdy), but I’m really excited for this book to come out. I joined the Harry Potter craze a bit late, i.e. after book 6, so I’ve never had to wait with baited breath for the next installment. Well now I have to wait, and if I have to wait, I might as well get all excited and go to the launch right? At any rate, I’m sure I’ll be staying up very late tonight reading this book…is anyone else joining me?
Whether or not you’ll be staying up late tonight, I hope you have a good weekend! I know I’m going to :) As long as it doesn’t rain during tonight’s Isotopes game, it’ll be absolutely perfect.
Oh, and one last thing.
It’s official. I’m a dork.
The Family That Bowls Together 13Jul07
Has it really been 9 days? Yeesh, bad blogger, no cookie! I was reminded of my extended absence by my Mom, with the kind words, “Hito, you need to write a new blog post, it’s been a week!” Ah, just like the days when we had to do journal assignments for school, what fond memories. ;) Anyway, here you go Mom, I’ll try not to neglect the blog for so long next time…but there are only so many “I’m working on gift knitting and reading books” posts that you can do without becoming tragically boring. (Not that all my posts are eloquent prose, but there’s a fine line that differentiates a mundane post from one that is capable of causing your eyes to hemorrhage.)
So what could I talk about that won’t cause your eyes to hemorrhage? How about a family evening of ruthless competition good fun?
See, last night was the weekly family get together, and we had decided to go out and do something, but were somewhat at a loss on what to do. Movies are expensive (and deciding on a movie everyone will see is nothing short of a miraculous feat), I’m really the only one who likes Indie Rock shows in small dives, and my Mom was swimming pooled out since she’s been taking my cousins a few times a week. So what do you do in Albuquerque on a Thursday night with 6 people, once swimming, movies and concerts are ruled out? Apparently, you go bowling!
how about these shoes for eye candy!? I think I’d even wear these as normal shoes!
Now I was a bit reluctant initially, since I was in a grouchy mood, and I’m as good at bowling as a fish is at flying, but I was persuaded by one phrase: “but you could have a beer at the bowling alley!” I’m not sure it’s a good reflection on me, that I was enticed to go bowling by the promise of beer, but what can I say? I’m a beer geek! ;) I did make sure that everyone agreed I was allowed to photograph them bowling, so that I could have something to show off to the Internets.
And without further ado, may I present my parents, the bowling champions!
look at that form!
Now I didn’t really know what to expect, but I figured that I might be able to school my parents, even with my meager bowling skills. Well was I ever wrong! They were awesome! I guess that just means you get better at bowling with age, ha! I was pretty proud of myself too, since I broke my all time record of 50 points (I told you I was awful!) and got a 64 and then a 73. Not quite my Dad’s high of 150 something, but not too shabby considering my bowling history. (I’ve managed to throw the ball backwards and trip and slide down the lane before…) My Mom thought I would be really good since, “you can understand the math behind it”, but I had to remind her that understanding the physics and translating that into movements are two different things. At least for my uncoordinated body they are!
I think now that we’ve gone bowling, we’ll have to go to a math competition or something next, so I can beat everyone at something! You hear that family? You may have beat me at bowling, but it’s on like Donkey Kong!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.
Be sure to go check out Yarn Nerd this weekend, since I’m having a 15% off sale! It was originally supposed to last through today, but I think I’ll extend it through Sunday to help clear out some more stock for next week’s update. I’m not sure on the date yet, but it will most likely be Thursday at 10 AM MDT. I’ll post more details when I know them.
And in exciting blog news, I bought a new camera! It’s on it’s way here now (DHL may ban my IP address since I’m refreshing the tracking page so often…), and it’s a beaut. A Nikon D50 with 2 lenses that I got for quite a lovely price on eBay. I did a lot of photography when I was a teenager (that’s so strange that I can refer to my teenage years in the past tense.) and am really looking forward to getting back into it. I’ve been saving up and searching for a good deal, and when this one came along I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, I’ve been using cameras borrowed from friends and family up to this point, so it’ll be nice to have something of my own to play around with.
Alright, I gotta go, time to check the DHL page again! Have a great weekend everyone :)
PS: Have you seen what Carole has sitting in her office? OMG! I offered her free sock yarn for life if she just nipped me one copy, but she has more moral fiber than I anticipated. Anyone else care to mount an assault?
