How I made . . . a mess

I've been trying lately to think about Monday's posts as "making Mondays", without being too obsessive about that theme.   Well, with the traveling I did last week, I didn't have too much time to make something new, aside from making a mess in the garage.

So, to keep loosely on the theme . . . this is how I made a mess.  (Anyone who likes is welcome to play along at home!). 

We've been trying to rearrange the garage -- not just "clean it out", which is understandably the standard example of everyone's least favorite time-sucking task.  No, our garage has actually been fairly tidy and open, but we're trying to Re-Zone this space to act as a staging area for moving.   So instead of tidying the garage, I've moved things that used to be neatly stacked away so they're now things in piles and more piles.

The idea is to break the garage into well-labeled zones.   We have a zone for things we're going to put out at the early-July yard sale.   We have zones for things that go to special places -- Habitat Restore, a craigslist buddy who collects packing materials, a scrap metal dealer.  We have zones for things that are staying here for the new owners, zones for things that go in the first wave of moving, and zones for things that will go in the second wave,  late in August.  We're working on creating a zone that the new folks can use for storing their stuff before they move in.  It's a big garage; we can share.

But of course, moving stuff around in a garage uncovers dirt.  And also, I realized as I started moving things that my incredibly well-organized stack of scrap wood happens to include a lot of stuff not fit for moving to the new house, and definitely not suitable for the Habitat Restore place. 

We have a buddy with a wood-burning stove; he declined a lot of these scraps because they're too big to fit in his stove, though.

Prewash pretends that she cut up this wood,
but actually she stayed in the house while I did it.

So I spent a few hours on Sunday and early Monday with my circular saw, chopping things down into burn-able sizes.  And a circular saw with wood -- especially when it's particle board wood -- makes a clean place into a messy place VERY quickly and efficiently.

So, lots of sawing.  Lots of sweeping.  Soon I'll haul out the shop vac and do lots of vacuuming.  But hopefully then I'll be able to use the space more efficiently and the ZGP (Zoned Garage Project) will proceed smoothly.

Prewash wants to know: anybody want any scrap wood pieces to burn?

And that's how I made a mess in my garage.

You're welcome.

Miser Family updated: family and friends edition

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family household.  This particular week has been particularly rich in friends and family.  I got to kick off the week with the friend side of things, heading out to Morehouse College in Atlanta for the TPSE-math meeting.  There I got to reconnect with some of my fave mathematicians, and also meet some of the next gen in my field:

A panel of young mathematicians, talking about their experiences
majoring, getting jobs, and getting PhDs
(takeaway:  good mentoring makes a huge difference).

I'd told J-son I was going to Morehouse, and he was kind of taken aback: "Mom, you're going to hang out with black people?!?"   Um, yeah, I do that sometimes, you know.  He thought about it. I asked for advice; he said, "don't act black".   So I didn't.  I acted like a white woman.  Yeah. 

A sad sphinx covering her face with her wings
at the National WWI memorial

After that, I headed to Kansas City to give a talk at the AP Calculus grading (or "reading", as they call it).  That's an amazing operation:  there are 1170 readers/graders in a conference center exhibition hall, grading/reading 445,000 calculus exams from all over the country and even the world.  It's stunning to see how carefully they train all together, how they ensure that each problem is scored consistently, that every single problem on a particular student's test is scored by different readers who can't see the other scores . . . it's an operation research problem come to life.  

Happy friends at the Zoo

And then the next day,  I got to hang out with my best friend from childhood, who happens to live in KC.  We went to the National WWI memorial and then to the zoo with her mom and her son.  It was a great trip, all the more so because when I came home, I got to come home to a great family of my own. 

J-son started training for his new job this week; he's a camp counsellor.  He showed me a certificate that showed he's good to go on everything except rappelling.  And N-son is having a great time at school.  Here is his experience, in his own words: 

Hey mom,
How are you doing today? Life is amazing in [my school town]. Building maintenance is amazing I met some really good friends in the class. 

The kid in the wheelchair is my roommate who went home with a broken ankle.

I also got to use a riding mower yesterday as well so that was really cool.

Hope everything is going well for you and the family at home. Can't wait to come back and see you.
Love your son,
N-son

As I mentioned above, I came home from my various trips and into the arms of my family. My two sons are both in town this weekend.  We had waffles, cheesy zucchini chips, and kale salad for brunch today with K-daughter and A-child and a friend.  So much fun, especially when my boys ate so much kale salad that I had to make a second bowlful.  

Family and friend.  Ahhh.

 And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous. 

What's in our river?

What's in our rivers?  Our city celebrated "Water Week" with a whole bunch of events, including a bunch of river clean ups.  This is the second year I've participated.  Last year, we mostly cleaned up a patch of woods near a river; this year I wish I'd brought some good wading shoes because a bunch of people hopped right into the creek we were assigned to.  Instead, I was relegated to the shore, hauling out the things that the waders handed up.

We've heard so much about plastic in our oceans, and I picked up so much plastic from the woods last year, that I would have thought the main stuff we'd haul out of the river would have been, well, plastic stuff.

One of the most adventurous waders,
pulling plastic bags that had gotten swept into the branches in the river.

But the river moves along at a pace that moves the plastic along with it.  The only place we really found plastic trash was on the shore, or at a natural dam that acts a bit as a sieve.

Instead, in this particular river, our really major haul was shopping carts.

There were lots and lots of shopping carts. 

Shopping in the river, with four carts for three people.

At least it was not too difficult to transport the carts back to the trash dump site.

Heading for that orange fencing in the distance

There were about a dozen of us at this particular site; we spent about an hour and a half cleaning up a half mile stretch of river.  The ranger in charge said she was surprised at "how little trash we found". 

Our trash haul.

Maybe next year we can make the ranger happy (?) and find more trash in the river then?

How to repair a dog with velcro cable ties

Velcro ties.  I keep stocked up on a stash of the ugly gray/black 8" ties that I got at a hardware store, and I am so glad I do.  There are prettier colored versions, but the primary-color ties I've found tend to run only 4.5" long, so they're just not as useful.

There are at least 101 uses for velcro cable ties, of which 98 are basically: wrapping up cords of one kind or another.  I use these for my long extension cords, so I can hang them on a flat hook without their falling off.  I use them for wrapping my computer cord when I travel, so it doesn't get tangled up with everything else in my suitcase.  I use them for my sewing machine cord, so I can carry my sewing machine to the dining room occasionally without tripping over it.  I use these for Christmas lights . . . but you get the idea.  The list goes on.  And on.  (and hopefully the Christmas lights go on, too, but sometimes they just die).

So, with those 98 uses out of the way, there are three other uses for velcro cable ties I've discovered recently.  One, which I wrote about before, is that you can sew them to fabric to make a strap for something that rolls up.  Not everybody needs a cloth drill bit holder that looks like a knitting needle holder, but if you do and you also happen to have velcro cable ties, man, you're set!

My drill bit holder, wrapped up with a sewn-on velcro tie.

Similarly, recently I used a cable tie to replace the worn out umbrella strap that closes up (or rather, no longer closes up) my favorite umbrella.  The umbrella is yellow, so a black strap is a little striking . . . but the handle is black, so it doesn't look completely odd.  Eh, I can live with it.

Here's the most recent use I found for these straps though: repairing  the dog.  Prewash suffers from seasonal allergies, and sometimes her allergies makes her lick herself so much she gets a sore.  By "sometimes", I mean "last week" -- she got a sore on her toe, which she couldn't stop fussing with.  Even if I didn't want to heal my dog, the fussing was starting to keep us up at night.  So I put a sock on her foot, to keep her from messing with her toes.  And I velcro-ed the sock both below and above the ankle, so it'd stay on.

(Just so you don't worry, we also took her to the doctor and got a spray med, plus antibiotics for her UTI, plus vaccines, plus her yearly heartworm and flea/tick meds.  And she's already doubled her allergy meds.   Ooof, she is not a miser dog!  However, the doctor heartily approved of the velcro sock strategy.  So that at least is a frugal solution to a vexing problem.)

In case you want to see up close how she looks with her adorable sock on her foot, here it is.

And the sock/velcro strategy worked.  With the sock on, she was a bit confused at first, but she quickly adjusted, and better yet, started ignoring her foot.  She rested, the toe is healing, and we're sleeping at night.  If the sock gets wet or dirty (nix that: when the sock gets wet or dirty), we just remove the velcro and use it on a clean sock.  

Miser Family update: pens and needles version

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family household, this week being particularly full of pens and needles.  As in, witness!  J-son got his tatoo(s)!  I've pasted here the one you can see; the other tattoo has a family name, so I can't show it on the blog.   But just to say, he's super happy, as you can see from the emails back and forth: 

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 3:40 PM <J-son> wrote:

It was a success!! I love how they come out thx mom ur the best! ️🥰

(I see that he got MY name tattooed, quite large, on his right forearm.)

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 7:11 PM <Miser Mom> wrote:

Man, you've got some gorgeous arms!

Did you get your own name on the other arm?

Mom

To which he responded,

Nope I got a cross ✝️  an thx mom I get the arm from the best 

It's so good to see him so happy!  

In other news, my husband drove out to visit N-son and to spend time not getting him a new ID.  Of course, the plan was to actually get the ID, but bureaucracy being what it is . . . they'd double-checked that the office that issued ID's would be open until 4:30, and it was.  But the office that authorized the issuing of ID's was closed.  So the two guys got to spend some time together doing father-son stuff instead.  N-son's counsellor gushed and gushed about what a great kid he is, which was a bit of a relief and a lot of a delight.  So that's good.

What else?  Early in the week, I got to go see Ragtime, a musical adapted from E.L. Doctorow's novel of the same name.  I-daughter took me, after seeing it herself and then nearly jumping out of her skin to get me to go back with her.  And it was FABULOUS.  The music was great, the cast was terrific and powerful, and the message of the show just kind of left us trembling by the end.  A different kind of feeling pens and needles.

Our home inspection (on our current home) was early this week, and the inspector discovered (per usual) lots of little things that ought to get fixed by a conscientious person, but nothing really big.  Phew!  The folks that are buying the house are going to get a roofer to come and replace some cracked/sliding slates, but that's it.  Meanwhile, friends give us gifts of cardboard boxes, and we continue to fill our gifts with the good things we've accumulated during our two decades in this house.  

Prewash got her own pens and needles this week: allergy season is in full force, and although I upped her meds to help get her through, I was a tad late.  So she got to go to the vet to get treated for a UTI and a sore toe, plus get topped off on her vaccinations.  We love modern medicine; she's already back in her element by now, although we'll keep those meds going for a bit longer.

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.

It's a wonderful shelf life

What goes around, comes around, when it comes to shelving material in my house.   One of my favorite sets of shelves that I made out of  rescued-from-other-discarded-shelves boards is this crazy CD case on the left.  (Remember CD's?)  Over the years, this set of shelves holds fewer and fewer CDs and more and more knick-knacks.  The different heights and eclectic spacing goes a long way toward hiding the fact that I am not particularly good at enforcing right angles in my projects.

Sketching out designs for this baby and turning it into a reality was such a lovely challenge.  (Wow, I still look back on this fondly.)

Another of my favorite set of shelves isn't quite as picturesque, but continues to come in super handy:  the canning-jar storage I made out of old fence board a few years back.    Yeah, those.

But I'm not exactly elegant when it comes to woodworking.  I'm in awe of the amazing kitchen renovation that Mrs. Planting Our Pennies undertook a few years back  . . . wowzers!

Given my propensity for slapping things together rather than undertaking fine carpentry, I'll admit that making my own shelves, fun though it may be, pales in utility compared to adding shelves to existing cabinetry.  I've added shelves to my kitchen cabinets (measure, saw a board to the correct size, add a few of those funky shelving brackets that let you adjust the height of existing shelves, and voila).  I've added shelves to clothing closets in my sewing room to make space for storing paperwork and family tree stuff (measure, saw a board, add shelf supports, and voila).  I've added shelves to the funky-shaped, built-in corner cabinets in our dining room (same as above, but add in a painting step).

And not because it's any trickier than any of the others, here's a before-and-after of my latest add-shelves-to-exisiting-cabinets project.  These are cabinets I bought unfinished and then stained and varnished myself about, oh, three decades ago.  They came with a closed cabinet on the bottom, an open almost-square space in the middle, three drawers that you can pull out all the way, and an open shelf on top.

The cabinets, with a wine-rack added on the left and
and extra shelf added toward the bottom on the right.

A new shelf on top holds hot mats,
the second shelve holds plates, and below that
we have space for bowls.  

I've discovered through experimentation I love keeping dishes in the dining room instead of the kitchen.  Since we're moving to a home with much less shelf space (yay!), and in particular the new dining room has no built-in cabinets, I'm getting ready in advance by adding a few extra shelves to these destined-for-the-dining-room cabinets.   I built these 'new' shelves by sawing apart some boards from old, disassembled bookshelves that used to be in our bedroom.  They color doesn't exactly match, but I figure it's close enough.

Underneath, the shelf makes space for
 serving bowls, extra flatware, and napkins.

In this cabinet, we've added a wine rack
and two shelves, so now we have space
for cups, serving bowls, and candles.

Why do I love this latest project?  Well, first, it's just fun to make things and rearrange them.  I grew up playing with dollhouses, spending hours with them.  I almost never touched the dolls.  Instead, I rearranged furniture, added new items, moved walls around . . . I was a little architect.  This shelf project is partly like getting to play dollhouse again.

But I also love it because this arrangement lets family and guests help themselves and help me.  Here, for example, is my four-year-old granddaughter.  If I pull out the flatware drawers so she can reach them, she can (and does) set the entire table by herself.

A-child has already put plates and napkins on the table;
now she's getting forks and knives.

She knows forks go on the left and knives on the right.
She also knows who's napkin is whose.  

Having my dishes and such gathered together and easily visible makes it much easier for me to take guests up on their offer when they ask, "Is there anything I can do to help?", and it makes hosting dinners for many people run all-the-more smoothly.  (In this sense, shelf-engineering projects spill over into social engineering).  I think this rearrangement is going to work great, . . . if I do say so my shelf.

(har).

Miser Family Update: rich in vegetables edition

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Family Household.  We have been particularly rich in vegetables and full of fiber this week.

Vegetables: we live in an area with some of the most fertile non-irrigated soil in the nation.  Non-irrigated is no joke; this week, our local climate seemed to mistakenly be calibrated to August, with thunderstorms rolling into the area several afternoons.   Meanwhile, the soil keeps bursting with living green stuff.  Our CSA gives us more salad than we can figure out how to eat, and then gives us more. 

And we celebrate in a variety of ways; the park right up the street from my house held a giant "Veg Fest", with bands playing, gazillions of vendors, people, dogs, even a pet boar, not to mention face painting, cooking lessons, and of course lots and lots and lots of vegan treats. 

My husband doesn't get to enjoy the vegetables the way that I do, for intestinal reasons that I won't describe in any detail.  (You're welcome).  He, instead, is making the most of fiber.  And speaking of fiber, my very own birth daughter bubbled over with happiness because . . . well, in her own words . . .

My new spinning wheel! (Name: Christy Burgh, Theme song: Lady in Red)
I'm making yarn!

Behold Christy Burgh:

Likewise, behold yarn!

This looks too even to be beginner yarn, doesn't it?

Memorial Day

And a related Mama-brag, as long as we're on the subject of I-daughter:  She's been teaching knitting classes, and it's just so encouraging to hear how fulfilling that is for both her and for her students.  As one of her students told her, gratefully:  "You are so patient and gracious".  I-daughter called me almost in tears: "I feel like you, Mama".  I may or may not be patient, but I don't think I'm gracious.  She wins. 


N-son came home for the weekend, and got to spend time today with both his local sisters.  In the morning, he and I-daughter sang (with their choir) the National Anthem, to kick off our region's annual 5-mile run through the city.  And then later in the day he teamed up with K-daughter and A-child, visiting our nearby science museum and eventually heading out to a barbecue.   Where of course they will have vegetables and fiber.  Of course.  

And J-son is getting excited because (how the heck to I relate this to vegetables or fiber?  I don't think I can figure that out) . . . because I offered to pay for a tattoo, now that he has successfully made it through both high school and his Sports Therapy program.  In his own (quick texting) words:

I found another tattoo place, Well ik there tats are really good I here. Love u 

He wants his name down one forearm -- I guess so that when he's in the boxing ring, the other guy will know who it is that just punched him in the face.  I suggested he get my name down the other arm, and J-son reacted with immediate refusals!  "No!  Mom!  You'd have to be my girlfriend."  He paused, "Or dead".   Okay, so not my name on the other arm.

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be in the salad days of our wealth and adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.