Spring Break and Other Oddments

Sasha is helping me quilt.

I haven't posted in awhile I know but I have lots of pictures and things are progressing.  I now have bunches of cabinets in my kitchen and I also have a convection oven which I used for the first time last night to warm up my Tofu Scramble with mushrooms which I'd made the night before.  I'm not entirely clear on the racks and pans, so I think I need to read the book more (although it has very little info) or wait for Leigh to get back to help me as she is an actual cook, but I did have a lovely hot dinner and I liked the effect of the oven baking on the food.  It had a different texture.  Not sure how to describe it, but then I'm not a cook or at least not yet, but it was even better than it had been fresh the first night.  And as far as my kitchen and cooking go, I'm planning to make the carrot ginger soup I did ages ago again tonight now that I have a place for my Vitamix and I have a pantry with pull out drawers so I can find things, etc.

Great Room with Sasha and Thackeray

Meanwhile, on the construction front it has been a quieter week as Leigh, my fabulous contractor, is on vacation visiting her mother in Florida.  This coming week will be even quieter, I think.  But the plumbing for the rebuilding of my home is nearly complete.  There is just some water meter stuff outside to finish to be sure there is enough pressure for the fire sprinkler system.  But I now have a pump installed so there is hot water at all faucets right away instead of having to run tons of water waiting for it and that is very nice indeed!

Great Room with Sasha up high

The electrical is likewise coming along, although there is more of that to come.  I now have all my track lights up, and I have something called an "L-Pad" in my bedroom so that I can adjust the volume of the bedroom speakers separately from the living room and that is quite fantastic.  And all my outlets are functional which is a plus.  Gary, my electrician, will be here tomorrow fixing the panel cover and hopefully hanging the outside lights provided the painter is done with them as the electrical inspection is scheduled for Tuesday.  After that, there is still the matter of digging up my septic tank to get the pump and alarm for that properly wired and then there are some electrical anomalies which need correcting so it will be awhile longer on the electric, but it is chugging and the main thing from my perspective is that everything is functional!

Great Room with an island of cat furniture!

There is still, of course, a lot of finishing to happen with baseboards and framing windows and making shelves for closets and hanging closet doors, but that is something which can just happen at its own pace.  I have everything out of storage that I need.  Once a few pieces of baseboard are installed I can get my books and dvd's back but we don't want to fill those cases while they still have to be moved.  Otherwise, I pretty much have everything here and it is all settling in.  I discovered that the gorgeous enormous cabinet on my quilting counter is big enough to hold all my weaving yarn and that was a big discovery and really helped things to settle down nicely.


Speaking of weaving Charlotte, my loom, had a project on her (hand towels) when I had to send her off to storage last December and I worried about how that would affect the yarn on the loom, but there was no choice.  Well, Charlotte is a real trooper since she came back and I opened her up and it all looks just fine.  I haven't yet done any actual weaving, but I'm hoping to get to that at least to try it out today or tomorrow.

One of the first quilts I've made in 4 months!

Poosa finally figured out how to get up on the counter!
The bench has since been moved!

Kitchen area of Great Room

I have been quilting, catching up on the quilts for island newborns and young siblings, and I made three quilts last weekend and hope I may manage 2 or 3 this weekend also.  I have the tops for two dinosaur quilts for a newborn and his two year old brother nearly done and the backs are washed and ready to go, so once I get showered and moving for the day, that is on the agenda.  Then maybe tomorrow and Tuesday I'll get the other one on the docket done, for a little girl born last week.  I'll be caught up then although there are another 4 which will be needed very quickly, a soon to be born with an older sister and brother, and a first daughter soon to be born, but so far, I haven't heard of their arrivals so I'm not yet overdue on them.

Sasha in all her glory!

Sasha got a week's reprieve on her second chemo.  Her vet, Dr. Nell, came out on Wednesday and took blood and urine but the oncologist had already decided to wait a week.  Her lab results were good, and we will now do it again this Wednesday with the plan of having her second chemo on Friday.  Meanwhile, I'm having some trouble with her peeing on my bed and there isn't a clear answer about that, whether it is old age incontinence, or a behavioral thing with Thackeray and Laoise harassing her, but needless to say it is troubling and annoying.  Last night I went to go to bed only to find it wet.  I stripped it all down and remade it.  I've gotten, thanks to Amazon.com, another waterproof mattress cover so I can now just swap out and I've also ordered a waterproof pad to put on top of things so if she has an accident in the night it might not soak through to my bedding.  And last night I brought a litter box back into my bedroom.  Sasha likes my room the best now, since our incarceration earlier, and so this way she has a box close by and doesn't have to brave an excursion into the Great Room if Thackeray is on the prowl.  As someone who lives in fear and doesn't like to go out my door even, I can sympathize with Sasha's need for security and having a litter box in my bedroom is a small price to pay for her security.  I will now see if this makes a difference.  Right now she is sleeping on my bed, naturally right next to the waterproof pad rather than on it (although she was on it all night) and so I should be able to monitor this to discover whether it is incontinence or behavioral.

Great Room showing quilting areas

So that's the update from this end.  When Dr. Nell was out here she also checked on Thackeray's eye, which is all healed up, and Chauncey's ears (still need drops), and then she looked at Poosa who needs drops in her right ear and then Dr. Nell took blood from Poosa to see if there was a reason for her overweight status (there isn't--her blood work came back fine), so now I have the unenviable task of trying to limit food for Poosa.  Gads that is a challenge, but we shall see if we are up to it as she is not quite 6 and so loosing some weight so we could at least find ribs would be a healthy thing.

Kitchen with new range hood, oven, pantry

This week will see school and hence tutoring resuming so I'm going to be busier than and my Spring Break ended up being a break only for about 3 days, but still it was a break and I will hope the resuming of tutoring goes well.  My antibiotics finished up this morning and the left ear still isn't what it ought to be, but I'll be seeing my doctor on Thursday and meanwhile it has at least gotten to being only annoying instead of painful.  I am trying to put together a submission of some of my haiku for an anthology for women haiku poets and that submission is due by next Friday so I need to get on top of that.  Our weather continues cold and rainy but there were some lovely sun breaks and Friday especially saw lots of sun.  Hoping this finds you all well and happy and on the path you have chosen.  Until the next post that's it for now.