real estate

Tim-the-real-estate-broker called early last week to tell us an agent wanted to show our house on Sunday (tomorrow), then called back on Thursday to say there'd be another showing on Friday.  This requires, of course, that the house be spot-less, with no dogs or any sign of dogs around, the kitchen counters absolutely bare.... tidy, neat, clean, not my strong suit by any stretch!  so, i looked around and sighed a few times... then summoned my inner cinderella, and together with the mister, we got 'er done!  and you know, like when it rains, it pours?  on friday morning in the midst of this massive cleaning effort, some guy drives up and says he saw the for sale sign and could he please come in and look around??  he showed quite a bit of interest... but, we'll see... talk's cheap.

And beings as we have to be away from the house during a showing, we took our laptops and went to a cafe in Banks which has a wireless connection... and it felt like magic had been visited upon my computer!  I got 6 software updates downloaded, plus 3 other many-megabyte things, plus 5 books from audible, checked my email, read much of Huffington Post, and played a couple of games of solitaire, all in about 2 hours.  On my dialup at home, all those downloads would take at least 72 hours... HA!   how i do love wireless connection!  Tomorrow, we'll take my dad out for lunch while there are strangers in my house.  I'm so ready to have this step of the process done so we can move on to getting a house built in Duvall, get moved up there and be out of this limbo!  aarrrghh

If you are so inclined, please keep your digits crossed and hopes high that there will be a home buyer with money this weekend who will make us an offer that we cannot refuse.  and IF everything happened to move along as i wish, we could maybe possibly even go to Crete for easter again in April.  i'm certainly not counting on it... but would be delighted if it worked out that way.

the travel channel

I got sort of a taste of Crete tonight, watching Anthony Bourdain in several locations in Crete.  he is profane, irreverent, and a kind of goofy madman... but does put on an interesting show and doesn't just go to the known tourist spots.  he gets out and has some interesting adventures with the locals, wherever he goes.  although a lot of it is staged just for his show, there were "features" on tonight that were totally new to me... for instance, i've never been to a lamb roast where they shear the sheep, slaughter it and prepare some dishes that he calls delicacies involving intestine and spleen and other "goodies", then roast big chunks of lamb in a quite rustic manner over an open fire.  of course, the raki was flowing freely (Tony had some choice names for it, like paint thinner etc), and he did over-indulge in that and the local wine!  after the meal, some of the men dressed in the traditional garb did a rousing dance and shot off rifles... part of the ritual, i guess, tho not something i've seen there.  and the Travel Channel is likely the closest i'll get to Crete for awhile.  we are in a limbo waiting for the house to sell so we can move north to Duvall and get a new little house built on Chris and Kate's 5-acre lot.  my preference would be to skip all the intermediate steps and be living there right now!  i've always been in favor of instant gratification, and wish that were the reality... but it's not.  in the meantime, i've been knitting and working on a nap quilt, and enjoying both!

Inauguration Day

and a frabjous day it's been!  it would have been perfect to have been in DC with those 2Million or so people... even tho i dislike crowds and avoid them whenever possible.  we did spend much of the day watching MSNBC and the events of the day, often teary-eyed!  what can i say other than i am filled with joy and hope and overwhelmingly happy to see the end of the Bush error.  i really do believe that President Obama will be good for the country and the world.  the only thing i'd have liked to see different in this day is a separation of church and state... and if it's necessary to ask for blessings, don't stop at blessing the USA... bless the whole planet as we ALL need any help we can get.  and i LOVED that Yo Yo Ma played during the event, and that it was that piece even tho at the moment i can't remember the name of it.  and now i'll go to bed, encouraged with the thought that there's hope now of getting ourselves out of the pit in which we find ourselves.

ETA:  the name of that music is "Simple Gifts", written by Joseph Brackett in 1848

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right

Star Flower Cuffs

I knitted these cuffs using one of Lynne's latest patterns, with some of those left-over balls of yarn in my stash.  this is one of those high almost-instant-gratification projects.... fun to knit and even for me,  fast!!

xmas at last!

Chris and Kate and kids were finally able to get out of Duvall and make the trip to Banks, having been snowed in at xmas, then kept at home on new years day by flooding.  So they were finally able to open the gifts which had been sitting around here collecting dust.  On Saturday morning, Kate's mom came by for a visit, bringing Kate's 2 nephews.  Then Judy came with her 2 grandgirls and grandboy.... so there was a grand gathering of cousins having  (what else?) a grand time!  We opened gifts, had lunch, Maisy got to choose the bestest brownie in the pan, Chris became the major attraction with the kids.  He gave rides to each of them on his shoulders, then they ganged up on him and provided weight resistance for his push-ups!  he stood up to the challenge quite well!!

the top photo is Maisy, my great-niece, attacking the brownies.

then Alex about to get his "ride", with Zylie waiting in line.
kids helping Chris with his work-out.
more Alex and Chris.

UFO

I have pulled out of the pile of UFOs, this unfinished cardigan which was started in 2005, and has gone through lots of revisions and rippings.  Part of its problem (well... MY problem) is that i started it with no pattern and just a kind of glimmer of an idea of how it should look at the end of the journey.  It seems that it will  become a square neck, shortish, boxy cardigan in stockinette with 2 or 3 inches of garter stitch along the bottom and sleeve edges.  there will also be garter along the front edges and around the neck.  the main part of the knitting is finished, with half a sleeve and the finishing trim to do yet.  this time i'm determined to finish it and not send it back to unfinished limbo!!  after all, most of the yarn is purchased stash and is wool, silk and cashmere, and rather spendy.  the color work is mostly done in my handspun, also wool and silk and some cashmere.  so, now i've made a public declaration and i will have to finish it!

(top photo is front, 2nd one is back)

Also, i've now had almost a week of liberation after being confined to home with a driveway sporting about 18 to 20 inches of snow and an inability to get out of here.  it's not a bad place to be confined if the confinement is MY choice rather than out of my control (ah ha.. "control" is the big issue here!)  Anyway, at the point of my sanity being seriously in jeopardy, i was able to go out last monday, after 2 weeks of being snowed in.  and what did i do?  well, i went shopping, of course... Costco and Fred Meyer.  and since xmas was pretty much cancelled here due to snow and no electricity, we had the family holiday dinner on new years day.  but Chris and Kate and kids weren't able to get down here til next weekend, so we'll have more celebration then!