A Little Yarn On The Side

I found my knitting and have actually convinced myself that it's okay to knit today. It's hard to go from full speed to it's-okay-to-relax, especially with everything going on.  But I am knitting today--or at least right now.  I might have to clean something later, but let's hope the yarn keeps me distracted.  :)

The good news is, five hours later, the carpet guy was finally done and the carpet does look great.  Originally, I was going to have him clean the couches as well, but then he'd have probably been here the rest of the week and none of us could take that.  The good/bad news:  we did get the house ready for pictures by the time the realtor got here, but he was so impressed with how the house looked that he's doing to bring in a professional photographer to do the pictures instead.  That's good--it will show better, I'm sure, but the house was CLEAN last night--I mean really clean.  We're hoping the photography can be set for tomorrow, but honestly, it's terrifying that we'll spill something between now and then.  The good news:  I have today off!!!!!!  Seriously, I'm not applying for ANY jobs, cleaning anything, or doing any sort of house prep.  The bad news:  I'm not sure that means any sewing because so much is put away that I'm not...

Today's plan:  have carpet stretched and cleaned early in the day, then mop the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room to be ready for photographs at 4:00.  The reality:  carpet guy shows up late, has been here almost 3 hours already and has only NOW started cleaning the carpets as there was a LONG personal phone call after running the hoses through our house, scaring the living daylights out of the cats who may never recover, and leaving us wondering if we'll have time to get everything finished in the next 3 hours, provided there isn't another personal phone call.  In the meantime, after wrenching every visible dandelion in both front and back yards out by their fat little roots and taking care of what was left to do outside, I actually have been sitting here with nothing to do, but the yarn is upstairs and after 3 hours, I certainly don't want to risk slowing this guy down.  We'd have to find him a bed for the night. Is this over yet??????????

I think it counts for Me Made May that I am lounging in my penguin pajamas while drinking my coffee. I haven't used pajamas for Me-Made Mondays, but Me-Made-May is a bit more of a challenge. Today I have a phone interview, but the rest of the day will be high-gear cleaning.  Yesterday for excitement I took my valuable jewelry to the bank to store in our safe deposit box.  And it WAS exciting.   Seriously, I walked into the bank and didn't have to check their paint for spots or their carpet or anything--truly exciting.  Yesterday launched the second Race To The Bottom challenge on Ravelry.  In 18 months, the idea is to use up (or donate) 30,000 yards OR use up the rest of one's stash.  I failed abysmally at the first challenge, but this time I saved the two skeins of acrylic to donate DURING this challenge to give me a bit of a boost, as my knitting time has pretty much evaporated right now.  It would take me closer to 18 YEARS to knit up my yar...

I know I've tried this before, and this month is likely to be quite insane as the photographing is SET now for Wednesday afternoon and that means listing the house and all sorts of craziness, but for right now, I'm doing Me Made May.  It's cold today , so it was a perfect day for this: It's the first of the jackets I made from my now-favorite pattern, and I honestly wondered at times if I would ever finish it.  Sort of like the house preparations.  Speaking of which, last night we repainted much of the hallway after the "touchups" with the unopened second can of paint didn't come very close to the original paint.  Today has been a cleaning frenzy, and tonight will either be cleaning or a bit more painting as I didn't go close enough to the carpet to "blend."  Seriously, after all this, we are SO ready to sell this house. 

So far, I've been locked in the bedroom, Andy got locked in a bathroom, all but one of Calisto's favorite sleeping spots are gone, and I had to brush some white racing stripes off of Theo this week. Selling a house is not for the faint of heart. We've had to push the photography back a bit so we can get the carpet stretched and cleaned.  But today is STILL another fun-filled prep day.  I have forgotten what we used to do on weekends, but I'm sure it was much more fun than house prep.  Then again, what isn't? Thanks for your encouragement, everyone.  The thing I realized this weekend is that not ONCE in any of the interviews I have done have any of the organizations acted IN ANY WAY like this was a mutually-beneficial arrangement or that my skills were something they should want.  All of them have been about why they should hire me.  That's a fair question, of course, but especially in the nonprofit world, I am nowhere NEAR entry-level and have often had...

Eke!  We said we would have the house ready to photograph on Monday.  Part of me is completely stressed out by that idea, but if we don't have a deadline, we could "prep" forever, and I think another house in our neighborhood is about to go up for sale, so it's time. Here's a question for you:  If someone tells you at the end of an interview that "they're hoping to reach a decision by next week," and it's now Friday of that week and you've heard absolutely nothing, has that ever not been a total blow-off?  No one ever hears a week later that something just came up right, and all the phones and email were down, so they couldn't let you know of the delay in any way short of smoke signals?  That never happens, right?  So I have just gotten the professional brush-off from another charity.  Don't worry--I'm not insane (mostly)--I'm not going to consider charities as an option anymore.  They don't generally pay well, expect l...