Schedule Changes

Allegheny River from Fort Duquesne Bridge. January 13, 2010.

Hi there. Long time no see.

I’m slowly accumulating things to show you and tell you about. Here’s hoping that I’ll have my act together and show you some of that stuff on this here blog later in the week.

Meanwhile, here’s a public service announcement:

If you are going to fall down the stairs, please try to fall backwards. That way, you simply bruise your backside and your pride. Hubster started last week by trying something new – going down the stairs head-first.

He broke his collarbone, and everything I had planned for last week went straight out the window. He’s doing much better now and I’m hoping that the upcoming week will be a bit more normal.

Guess Where I Am?

I’m spending this week at the Lake. It’ll be the last full week I spend up here this year, so I’m hoping I have the weather to enjoy it.

Today (Monday) was overcast from start to finish. These sunset photos are from yesterday (Sunday). I did get a good haul of glass today. I’ll take pictures of that tomorrow.



The lake has been very calm for quite a while from what I hear. The clarity of the water makes me think it’s been at least a week.



I was virtually alone on the beach, despite the fact that it was the middle day of the holiday weekend.



I had my beach chair and was parked down there for the sunset. Which was around 7:40 pm. I am so NOT OK with that. Proof that summer is nearly over, which bums me out a bit.

Then I remember that this has been the Craptastic Summer of Suck™ and that helps to remind me that the end of summer is a good thing.



Have a good short week, everyone!

Snoopy is Dancing

Doesn't he always look SO happy when he's dancing like that?

So what happened in the land-o-DPUTiger today?

Well, we designated August 31 as the honorary end of the Craptastic Summer of Suck™



That’s all the stuff belonging to Teh Crazy Lady (aka former boss), just before I took it to be boxed up and shipped back to the home office.

Which means that she’s now permanently out of my life. I’m still a little sick about being unemployed, but never having to speak to Teh Crazy Lady again is a huge bonus. Yes, I will be screening calls from her area code for the foreseeable future.



The Smurf Killer socks, following a three-day sprint, are also out of my life. They’ll get a well-documented bath tomorrow and will be headed for a FO-to shoot as soon as they’re dry. I’m almost as happy that these are done as I am to be done with Teh Crazy Lady.

Next knitty project is already on the needles. I have a few morning errands to take care of on Tuesday (September! Yay!), then I plan to spend the bulk of the day in the Dungeon, cleaning up and sewing.

How Do YOU Spell Relief?

Right now? Today? G-U-T-T-E-R-S

One of the more recent chapters in this Craptastic Summer of Suck ™ has entailed water in our garage and basement. This happened (for the first time in the 38 years my family has owned this house) because the gutters on half of the front of our house failed in spectacular fashion.

This has been the rainiest summer I can remember. And what happened every single time it rained here?



See the wet stone on the front of the house? That’s not from rain blown into the wall.



You can see the stream of water coming out of the gutter instead of going down the downspout like it’s supposed to. The gutters had also pitted out so badly that the water was going down the face of the house rather than, you know, into the gutters and down the downspout. This caused lots of water in the garage and a little in the basement. Eww.

So anyhow, we finally got the gutters fixed today. Fantabulous!

First up was ripping down the old gutters on that section of the house. We hired a great roofer who believes in not replacing things until they have officially worn out. I'm good with that.



It came down in pieces.



The piece of wood underneath looked gross until my buddies Riley and Bob scraped it down, at which point it actually looked fine. (Surprise!)



Because gutters are boring, here is a gratuitous puppy picture:



Back to the roof. The cool bendy thing that the roofers bought and I didn’t photograph created sheet metal to cover the wood that attaches the gutters to the stone.



New gutters! Woot!



Puppy got a bone today. It looks gross because she had buried it, then un-buried it. She was quite concerned about where she should stash the bone before she really started working on it



The final step in the process was to put a coat of co-poly (that's the red stuff. This is a before/after photo all in one!) on the copper facing of the dormer windows. The pink parts show where that copper was starting to pit out, but we took care of it in time. Yay!



Of course, I forgot to take a full front-o-house shot before it got dark, so you’ll just have to deal.

But bottom line? We have functioning gutters again. And I can sleep at night instead of waking up every time it rains completely convinced that water is coming in through the roof/ceiling. Hooray!