Hi all! You may or may not have read my friend Olinda’s comment, everything is fine here. There hasn’t been any posting because my laptop was in the shop.

Here’s what happened. Well actually I should start with, have I mentioned that Isabelle broke the other hinge on my laptop and I had been propping it open with the help of pillows or a cup. Well after weeks and weeks of propping it up Alan finally convinced me to get a new laptop. It was him asking what I would do if I lost all my files and pictures. That pretty much scared me into getting a new one. So I got a new laptop two months ago.

Everything was working great! I love my new laptop! It’s faster and has a larger hard drive. Well the day after my last post, almost 2 weeks ago, I couldn’t log onto my web site. So I went into my panel and checked my password and noticed it was weak so I changed it to some super hard pass. I didn’t write it down anywhere but put it on a file in my computer. Well the next day I was surfing the net and the laptop just shut off. My two month old NEW laptop shut off and would not turn back on. So I had to bring it into Apple. They had to replace the logic board. Well in the meantime I couldn’t get into my web site or check my email because I so smartly had changed it to a super hard password and didn’t physically write it down anywhere. Super smart huh?

So I decided I’d take a computer break. No blogging, no reading blogs, and no email. Pretty easy since I didn’t have much of a choice. I mean I could have reset my password but didn’t want to hassle. It’s so funny because Secret Agent Josephine asked the question If I didn’t blog, I would… Well I was planning on writing a big post on the answer to that question. But there was just too much on the plate. This post is long enough. I’ll spread it out in several future posts. But it’s good to be back. Looking forward to reading what everyone has been up to.

Oh and I’ve changed my email. I’m going to try Gmail for a change. No more problems with worrying about people getting their emails and I can access it anywhere.

Posted in: Illustrations
4 Comments

Isabelle turned another month older this past Tuesday. But with all that was going on we FORGOT to take our monthly picture. We were finally able to today. So here are some pictures from this past month.

In this picture Isabelle had pushed the box we keep her toys in about four feet from it’s regular spot. But that wasn’t good enough. She also knocked it over and emptied it mostly out and then lay inside of it.

If she’s not doing that sometimes she just likes climbing inside.

Ooh even more fun, putting alphabet mats on Waldo! Well not fun for Waldo…

We were at Barnes and Nobles and she just loved this umbrella so much we got it for her. And Alan makes fun of me now about how before she was born, I used to say I wouldn’t spoil her.

I don’t spoil her…much…I type that as I think about yesterday when I bought her a Gymbo doll for the car even though she already has a Gymbo doll at home. Sorry honey, forgot to tell you, I bought the baby another Gymbo doll!

Go read month twenty.

Posted in: Family, Monthly Family Picture
10 Comments

Today I was planning to take pictures of Isabelle in the backyard wearing her newly finished circle skirt. But before we could go out, she fell asleep. Yes, fell asleep unexpectedly. She was sitting in my lap nursing and I look down and she was out! So no pictures of her new skirt. Instead here are pictures from the weekend. Alan was putting in new plants. Yes, gardening or in our case, let’s see how long it takes for this stuff to die.

We’ve been going out there these past few days to water them. The temperature here has been around 100 so we’ve been giving them a cooling shower at the end of the day. One of the new plants is called Dragon’s Breath. Alan liked the plant and in his words, come on, you HAVE to get a plant called Dragon’s Breath!! I think it’s holding up good, along with all of the other plants Alan chose. Mine on the other hand are not faring so well. He doesn’t think the ones I chose are going to make it, it’s a conspiracy I tell ya!

This post is entirely for my sake, to keep a record of when we planted the new plants. Otherwise how would I know that it’s been almost three years since we’ve done anything to the backyard. THREE YEARS HONEY!! (That last remark is to my honey, Alan, not the internets)

Posted in: Family
6 Comments

I’ve been meaning to post but Isabelle has been a handful even though she doesn’t have a fever anymore. Yesterday we went to a farmer’s market and the drive home was a nightmare. She was basically crying non-stop, so bad that she was making gagging noises. I wonder if it’s because of our awful Monday and her being stuck with me in the car while I ran all around? And then once we were home she just wanted to be held and cuddled.

And when she wasn’t being held she wanted to play with this empty box. But she didn’t want to play with it alone. She kept trying to get me into the box and then climbing in after me. There was barely enough room in there for me much less her too!

Then this morning she was still super grumpy. More cuddling but no playing in boxes. That lasted for about two hours and then even the holding wouldn’t do. She threw a royal fit. No reading, no cuddling, no eating, and no nursing. Finally I just put her to bed for a nap and what an improvement. That’s why I can finally FINALLY post now.

So let me tell you briefly what happened with the installation guy. Well on Monday night, I had left him a message to call me back. By around 1pm on Tuesday I still had not heard from him so I called his business again and left a message for him to call me back. He finally returned my call a little after 5pm right as I was about to put Isabelle down for a nap.

As you know, I was already stressed from Monday. On top of that you add his asinine message to a day of waiting for him to return my call and you get me: super ass pissed. I was basically talking over him and jumping on every little thing he said. I’ll spare you the details. Happily it is resolved and we won’t be having them installing anything in our house.

And moving on now, not only from that drama but from the potato dress. I have some patterns I want to try. Being so used to sewing things for Isabelle imagine my surprise at how many yards and yards of fabric I will need to sew me one of these dresses.

I don’t think I have that many yards of fabric. I just have a yard or two or three here and there and there and there and there… But more than that? Nope. Guess it’ll be more clothes for Isabelle until I get off my fabric diet. Did I mention that? I’m on a fabric diet until we get our heater thing resolved. So off I go to sew Isabelle a circle skirt from one of the patterns Shanna sent me. I wanted to sew something from one of those patterns right when I got it but I hid it away from Isabelle’s little grabby hands. You know, out of sight out of mind. In fact that Butterick 4919 has been rescued from her twice now. The second time she actually got the tissue paper out and the directions and was in the act of scrunching when I took it away.

Posted in: Family, Sewing
9 Comments

Thank you for all the comments on the potato dress. I have a solution. If I’m wearing it I will only let people look at me from behind! I will walk backwards. I will talk to people faced away from them. No just kidding. On the weekend I was thinking of reworking it and trying to make it a v-neck but that was not to be.

Isabelle wasn’t and isn’t feeling well. She’s been grumpy and needy and wanting to be held. I drew this with her in my lap. In fact I’m typing right now with her in my lap.

On Saturday we noticed she felt a little warm. And then that night she was tossing and turning and basically uncomfortable. We checked her temperature and she had a slight fever of 101. And then on Sunday she wanted to be held. And then this morning her nose was bleeding. BLEEDING! She’s never had a bloody nose! At first I thought she just scratched herself. We wiped the blood off and went back to sleep only to wake up with a little pool of blood under her head. Then we freaked out. But she’s ok now. Still grumpy and a little warm but nothing to get freaked out about.

And that’s what this post was originally going to be about, Isabelle and that’s it. But I AM SO MAD, SO PISSED. I need to talk about it. I’ve been totally stressed and running around for like 7 hours and poor Isabelle just wanted to be held today but I was too busy dealing and getting the run around.

So what happened? Well I have to start with the heater installation guy coming out last week, he’s from a company that contracts with a big home improvement store. The total he gave us was in the $12000 range. $10000 range with rebates. He said he could go ahead and sign us up and if we changed our minds we could call him. No big deal. I really trusted him. I was very impressed with everything he showed us. So we signed up, gave it a lot of thought, and then decided we didn’t want it. It’s just too expensive and I would be stressing about it for the whole year trying to pay it off before we got 21% finance charges. So I called him and told him we would like to cancel. Then he says: it’s too late. The stuff is ordered. We only had 3 days to cancel. I told you this. He says he needs to talk to corporate and he’ll have someone call me back. This was around 1pm.

Ok first of all NO he didn’t talk to us about what to do about canceling. If he had said we had 3 days to cancel we would have decided before then. But that’s my fault for trusting him. I was absolutely stupid. I didn’t even look at the paperwork. So when I look there is a cancellation paper. But it’s not even filled out (the last day we can cancel) because hello he did not go over that with us! So we had 3 business days. Alan said 3 business days would be today midnight. My friend said so too. But I’m not sure.

So I called all around trying to figure it out. I called consumer affairs who directed me to the better business bureau who directed me to consumer affairs! I told the rep that and then he gave me the number to the contractors state license board, the district attorney’s office, and the legal aid society. The contractors state license board said 3 business days is 72 hours. The person I spoke to at the district attorney office said 3 business days is Monday to Friday. So confusing.

So I decide to mail the cancellation papers in today to be safe. So I rush to the post office to get it sent certified mail. But there’s a hitch. The paperwork doesn’t say where to mail it. So I call the 1-800 number for the big home improvement store and they don’t have a clue. We get the run around and several calls later they say to send it to the contractor. I’m not sure so I photocopy everything, mail it certified to the contractor and walk into the big home improvement store to hand deliver a copy.

The girl at the big home improvement store says I’m at the wrong store. How can it be the wrong store when I called the 1-800 number to set up the appointment. But I don’t argue. I fight traffic and go to the supposedly correct store. And the girl there has no idea what to do with the cancellation papers. After several tries to call the 1-800 number she finally talks to someone who says it’s canceled. Great, right? Wrong. See the story doesn’t end here. If you’ve noticed I haven’t even gotten to the threatened part.

I get home after running around stressed, Isabelle crying her poor eyes out in the car, to a voice message from the CO of the installation company. The CO’s message which by the way is past 6pm says he got a call from the big home improvement store saying the contract is canceled and he’s not sure what’s going on. He knows there is some concern about the price so maybe they can put in a lower efficient system. And he ends the call with saying our furnace is leaking gas so by law they have to notify PG&E and he will be doing that in the morning.

Ok first of all when I spoke to the rep earlier at around 1pm he said they had already ordered our equipment. So how come now he’s talking about switching it out. Second, why didn’t anyone call me back earlier? Shouldn’t the rep have already spoken to the CO about this oh say 5 fucking hours ago?! Third and the worst is him saying he’s going to call PG&E because he’s required by law. It sounds threatening to me, as if we were doing something illegal by not calling PG&E. Were we supposed to contact them? If we were why didn’t they fucking call PG&E a month ago when I told them I smelled gas? I never hid that fact. Every call I have made regarding the furnace has started out with I smelled gas. Why does he inform me of this now when I’m talking about canceling?

I tried calling him back but there is no answer. I will have to deal with him tomorrow. For now I’m done. I didn’t even mention the crying and yelling. And Isabelle is really fussing now and my head is killing me.

So hope I have a better day tomorrow.

Posted in: Family, Illustrations, Little Rain
13 Comments

I took pictures of me in the potato dress. But I’m having a hard time sharing all the pictures. Is it really that bad? Yes and no. I waffle back and forth on it. I put it on and I think yeck and then other times I think it’s not that bad. It doesn’t help that Alan says it looks like a potato sack ha ha ha! I never think ooh I love it. That’s not a good thing is it?

In the book they didn’t show the front of the dress in photos, just a diagram. Maybe they didn’t like the front either! So instead of using nice fabric I did a test with muslin. This color really adds to the potato sack feel.

Ok on to the pictures. Let me ease into showing you the dress. Here’s the back, which I do like:

And the top of the sleeves. Love them:

But from the front, eeeeh.

Hate it? Don’t hate it? Opinions? Do I make this for real? Or no? I will be using a different color. I say that to Alan but he says it will still look like a potato sack. It really is basically a sack. The shape is all from the ties. Here let’s imagine it in a different color.

Opinions internets? I cannot decide.

Posted in: Sewing
23 Comments

I’ve been working on a potato dress. Well I’m not really working on a potato dress. But Alan says it looks like a potato sack so that’s why I call it a potato dress.

I’m sort of bummed because I was really excited to be making myself something. I’ve been meaning to show pictures. But all the ones I’ve taken look terrible! Maybe because the dress looks like a potato sack. Could that be it? Huh? However nice one tries to look in a potato sack you just can’t because well…POTATO SACK!

I’ll try to take some pictures tomorrow so you can see what I’m talking about.

Posted in: Illustrations
2 Comments