Measi's Musings

Archive for September, 2005

Maine was, as always, a wonderful weekend getaway. We got home last night. It turns out to not be that much further – maybe 45 minutes – than we were driving before, which is good. I wasn’t sure how well we’d do on the drive.

And I forgot my camera, so no pictures for this entry, sadly.

The weather was pretty icky for most of the weekend with the bands from Ophelia coming in. Friday night was extremely foggy. Saturday, we took the brunt of the weekend rain. It was chilly and muddy all day as we did our errands. The insulated hoodies we bought over the last trip came in handy.

We spent a good portion of the weekend at Erich’s mom’s house, playing with the cats. She has become the crazy cat lady in Maine, filling a decent sized one-bedroom apartment (and an outdoor cat run that’s half the size of her apartment) with six cats. Three are brothers that she originally was fostering, but has fallen in love with and decided to keep. She was doomed to this– when she first got them, they were only days old, and so tiny that she fed them with an eyedropper. (I wouldn’t be able to resist). Three male kittens just shy of five months old are a riot to watch. They were all very affectionate, though. At one point when they crashed down from romping, I had one curled up next to each hip, and Erich had two cats sleeping on him.

We kept insisting we were stealing at least one, but that wasn’t going to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did a cat head count when we were gone, though.

Over the course of the weekend, we stuffed ourselves with lobster (two rolls each plus a full steamed lobster), chowder, and completely unhealthy hot dogs. I’ll be eating salads for a month to recover, but it’s all good.

The only damper on the weekend was a sudden on-rush of sinus issues. I was fine through dinner on Saturday night. We came up to the room, and in the course of one hour, I went from normal me to a complete ball of sniffling, suffering head explosion. Erich jokingly thought I was allergic to Stargate SG-1 (which happened to be on TV at the time). By 11 p.m., it was so incredibly painful that I begged Erich to go out and try to find something to help knock me out. Of course, this is a problem– in coastal, small town Maine, not much is open at 11 p.m., even on a Saturday night. A gas station up the road turned out to be the best help, and he came back with some decongestant pills. I promptly took the dosage, hoping to get to sleep.

No such luck. The pressure just got worse and worse. I couldn’t blow my nose. I couldn’t swallow. I couldn’t tip my head over. I definitely couldn’t sleep. My sinuses felt like they were being pulled by a vaccuum cleaner. And on top of that, I started tripping on the cold meds, getting the shakes and paranoia that is the “if nervousness and sleeplessness occur, discontinue use” warning on the back. Here I was, in a hotel room in Maine after midnight. Erich’s asleep and I don’t want him suffering with me, so I don’t turn on the TV, don’t turn on the lights. I was convinced it was going to be a long, difficult night feeling completely stir-crazy.

Ugh.

By about two a.m., thankfully, my exhaustion overtook the meds and I managed to get a few hours of sleep. We grabbed better meds yesterday morning that seemed to do the trick. But I don’t recall ever having a night that bad. And now I know that Actifed is on that list with Nyquil of “never, ever give to Mel at bedtime, or else.”

I’m still a bit congested today. I’m not sure whether it’s a headcold, or it was just a massive allergy attack brought on by all of the moisture (mold, perhaps?). I know the pollen and mold counts are very high around here today. But other than the sniffles, I feel just fine. So who knows? In any case, despite the sinus attack from hell, it was a great weekend. I’d already planned on taking today off, so I’m catching up on some laundry and house chores and will otherwise just kick back and relax in case this IS a cold.

Time for coffee and the first load of laundry.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Arrrr….

~ Mel.

After work today, Erich and I are heading up to Maine for the weekend to visit his mom. We haven’t been able to get up there since Easter, so it’s long overdue. I’m leaving work early to catch the Commuter Rail up to Newburyport, Mass. Erich’s working in Westboro this week, so he’ll drive up and meet me there, and we’ll continue up I-95.

Autumn has officially welcomed itself into New England with a combination of heavy downpours and that annoying misting rain that soaks everything, regardless of umbrella usage. It’s grey, dreary, but it signals that the weather is going to cool down, so I’ll take it. I just hope that it isn’t this damp up in Maine, because that implies a lot of mud on the ground to trudge through.

We had some heavy flooding near the house yesterday from the downpours. Parts of Cranston had water flooding up to the lower edge of car windows on Oaklawn Street. Our house was fine. We had some mud rivers from the off-flow on our driveway, and some water seeped along the floor in our garage. But otherwise, things are fine. It rained VERY heavily at home yesterday– almost 2.5 inches in less than 90 minutes. And Ophelia may bring more this weekend. I’m a bit concerned, but by all of the estimates, it’s not going to hit us head-on. We’re fairly above sea-level for Rhode Island, so we should be okay. I imagine we’ll have a few more problems with the garage, though.

Leaves are starting to turn here and there. A couple trees in Copley Square seem to have noticably changed over the past two days. They are nearly half yellow/orange already. I don’t remember them being that way on Monday, when I was sitting under them. What a difference a few days make! I wonder if it’ll be a bright autumn this year…

Back to work so I can run away early!

I’ve been neglecting my questions, so I’m doing some catchup today on the SBQ’s for the past few weeks.
But first, a couple updates on stitching, sans photos… (the photo below is not mine… it’s a downloaded image for complete project reference)…

I finally am wrapping up my rotation on Egyptian Sampler this week. The center three figures (Horus, Osiris, and Isis) have all of their basic stitches completed. The eyelet stitches in the headpieces are not done– I’ll do those when I do a backstitching rotation. Over the weekend, I began working the over-one cartouches in the center panel. I’ve never done over-one work before, and I’m finding that doing them on raw-style linen is very, very tricky, since the individual squares are so uneven.

I’m at a bit of a decision point. I’ve completed my goal for this rotation (which was the stitches on the three figures). I’m thinking that perhaps, since I’ve taken so many weeks to complete this rotation, maybe I should hold off on the cartouches, and focus just on those next round. With how many counting mistakes I made just making the left-most cartouche ring, I imagine that the four cartouches might actually take an entire 10-hour block of time.

I think I have an organized approach to how I’ll go about completing this piece, which makes me feel very good. Since I’m working this piece on a scroll frame (which is driving me insane, but that’s a rant for the SBQ below) due to its size, I’m going to work horizontal sections of the entire piece. So both birds will be done at the same time, and matched sections of the border will be done together. Now that I have those three figures done, I can appreciate how big the final piece is really going to be. Each of the god figures is just about the length of my hand, from middle figure tip to wrist joint.

In any case, I’m happy with what I’ve done so far. And it’s going to look amazing when done.

For the trip to Maine this weekend, I’m going to bring along The Castle. I’m stitching it on-hoop (what I feel most comfortable with), and despite all of the blended threads, it’s an easy piece to port around. I do have a very good chance of finishing it by the end of the year, which would thrill me to no end, so I’m pushing to really get some work on it. Other than Ivanna’s wedding sampler, this really is the piece I want to focus on. Depending on what happens in the next month or so, I may drop my rotation for a bit and just work between those two pieces exclusively until The Castle is done.

We’ll see…

Anyway, onto the Stitching Blogger Questions…

9/14/05: Do you stitch for events like weddings, engagements, or other things that might not last? If you have been unlucky and the two people broke up, what happened to your stitched gift?

Ivanna’s wedding sampler is the first special celebration gift I’ve ever stitched. Thinking about a break-up to me is a bad-luck thing, and I simply don’t do it. I realize such events happen in life– both Erich and I are children of divorces (both sets of parents married at least 20 years), but I’m not going to focus on the negative because it’s counter-productive and just seems… wrong… to me. If anything, as I stitch her sampler (and next year, my own), I’ll be trying to infuse the stitches with good tidings for the years to come.

9/07/05: Which way do you stitch (/// and then \\\ or \\\ and then ///)? Can you (or if you haven’t done it before, do you think you could) change the way that you stitch temporarily if it is asked of you?

I stitch /// then \\\. If I were asked to change my stitching for a specific project (like a stitching round robin) to match the owner’s stitches, I know I could. I’ve stitched both ways, and really only stitch the way I do because it was the way I decided to align my stitches to keep them going the same direction. If I were asked to change, it would probably be easier for me to just turn the fabric 90 degrees so I’m stitching sideways. I’ll stitch in my normal direction, but the end result would be reversed. *shrug*

8/31/05: What do you use to hold your fabric while you stitch? A hoop, a Q-Snap, a scroll frame, something else, or do you stitch in hand? Have you always used just the one thing or have you tried one or more of the others? Which do you like best? Why?

I prefer a hoop. No discussion. It’s what I learned on, and I simply feel more comfortable with it. I was thrilled… THRILLED… to take the plunge and try plastic hoops this year, rather than the cheap balsa wood ones from Michael’s that I’d been using. I even have an old metal hoop that my mom gave me when I first started stitching. But I keep it more for my stitching history’s sake and as a novelty, since I haven’t seen one on the shelves in years. Due to how nasty metal hoops stain fabrics, I won’t use it.

But I have about a half-dozen plastic hoops in different diameters, each a different color so I can quickly tell them apart. They’re durable and easy to tighten. I love ‘em.

I bought a scroll frame and lap stand, after seeing Michelle’s work on her frame. As I mentioned above, I’m using it for Egyptian Sampler, but I’m finding it very awkward to work on. For one thing- the fabric does NOT stay tight on the frame. It’s constantly loosening, and amounts to really being stitching in-hand with the assistance of a frame to hold it up. I’ve tried rolling it in different ways to see if anything helps, but it’s just not working.

And sadly, the lap attachments for the frame are just BARELY wide enough for my hips to fit in. I have a fat ass, and the lap stand really forces me to stay in ONE position as I stitch. I’m debating a floor stand because I know there are many larger projects, like Egyptian Sampler, that would work better on scrolls so I don’t have to wrestle the extra fabric out of the way. But I need to figure out how to keep the fabric on the scrolls better.

I’ve never tried Q-snaps. Since my hoop works fine, I haven’t had a reason to try them. I have tried stitching in-hand before. For really small projects on stiff Aida cloth, I don’t have problems with it. But otherwise, I’d find it difficult to keep my stitches clean.

Gotta get back to work…

Dear Melissa,

Next time, please remember that not all spices are the same. Particularly ones that tend to vary in heat. Like chili powder. We appreciate that you took the initiative to halve your normal amount of chili powder for dinner last night and only put in two tablespoons for the double batch. That was quite thoughtful of you, and we’re very grateful for the effort.

But you should have remembered that Indian chili powder may still be far more potent than the normal Durkee stuff from the store. After all, it has that extremely orange-red color, which may or may not actually be an actual warning label (but we think it is). We’re really not quite sure what you were thinking, but needless to say, the dividing of the recipe, two tablespoons sugar, extra 28 oz of tomatoes, full can of tomato paste, 7 additional tablespoons of cocoa powder, and two additional tablespoons of cumin helped make it somewhat edible.

But still, ow. Really. Ow.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you at work today.

Sincerely,

Your Innards

Exactly what’s talked about in this article. And for the record, before taxes, the two of us are well over this “family of four” basic needs. While right now we can chalk our finance struggles to adjusting to the new house (and the expenses incurred therein), we lived paycheck to paycheck in our apartment.

from The Boston Globe (via Fark)

Report rates Boston most expensive city – Housing drives up cost of living

By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff  |  September 8, 2005

Propelled largely by high housing costs, Boston is now the most expensive metropolitan area in the country, outpacing Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and even New York City, according to a report that will be released today.

The report found that last year, a family of four living in the Boston area needed $64,656 to cover its basic needs. This was $6,000 more than in New York City, and about $7,000 more than in San Francisco. Living expenses, which include healthcare, child care, and other basic needs, were $44,000 or less in Austin, Texas; Chicago; Miami; and Raleigh, N.C.

The third annual ”Housing Report Card,” produced by the Boston Foundation and the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, concludes that even an uptick in housing production could not halt the relentless climb of Greater Boston’s housing prices, which are increasing far more rapidly than are wages.

The result: In 2004, there were only 27 Boston-area communities in which a household whose members made the median income could afford the median-priced home in that city or town.

By comparison, in 2003 there were 59, and in 1998 there were 148.

In 2004, the median price of a single-family home in Greater Boston was $376,000, up 9.5 percent from 2003, the report says. The median price of a condo was $282,000, up 9.3 percent. Even though Massachusetts was the only state to lose population last year, prices continued to rise because demand is still higher than the supply of many types of housing.

The price increases in the Boston region slowed in 2004 relative to other parts of the country; the national rate was 12.5 percent. But home prices in Massachusetts have increased more over the past 25 years than in any other state; they remain among the highest in the country.

The high cost of living is prompting many residents, especially younger ones who can’t afford to buy into the housing market, to decamp for other states, the report said. It is the latest to warn that such an exodus could have dire consequences for Massachusetts, which was the only state to lose population last year.

”Continued out-migration may solve the housing problem by reducing demand,” the report concludes. ”But, the cost to the Commonwealth’s long-term prosperity of losing its workforce is practically incalculable. Much more housing, appropriate for young working families, must be produced if this is to be avoided.”

Barry Bluestone, coauthor of the 64-page report, heads the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. Bluestone described the study as a compilation of data from a variety of sources, including the US Census and real estate firms.

The cost-of-living ranking comes from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank Bluestone helped start. In addition to housing, the institute weighed the cost of healthcare, child care, taxes, and other necessities.

Bluestone said the report has ”strong warning signs” for Massachusetts. ”Dealing with housing costs is absolutely integral to the economic development strategy of the state,” he said. ”It may be, in the long run, the most important thing we can do.”

If the state doesn’t do anything, it is at risk of losing thousands of people like Lynn Walder.

Walder, a 27-year-old Watertown resident who owns an engraving business, grew up in Connecticut, but fell in love with Boston while attending Northeastern University. She and her husband, who owns a record store, would like to stay, but they’ve given up on trying to buy a house.

Three years ago, she said, the couple had $60,000 for a down payment, but were outbid on three houses in Dedham and Canton that were probably too expensive for them, anyway. For the time being, they are renting in Watertown and have decided to delay having children.

When they can’t delay any longer, they say, they may have to leave the state.

”To get anything affordable, we’re talking about being an hour to two hours away,” Walder said. ”At that point, I might as well move back to Connecticut and be near my family.”

Jennifer Norris, a 34-year-old Medford resident, said the struggle to buy a house is a wrenching topic of conversation.
Norris, who works for an environmental group, and her husband, employed at Harvard Law School, make a combined salary that exceeds $100,000. But that isn’t enough to buy a house near their jobs, they say, and for five years they have rented a two-bedroom apartment.

”At every gathering of people our age, this is the topic of conversation we inevitably end up on, and we all get depressed,” Norris added. ”It’s something we’re all angry about and obsessed over.”

Boston-area renters are also under strain. The report notes that even though there were 34,000 fewer rental households in 2003 than in 2000, 19,000 more rental households were paying more than 50 percent of their incomes for rent in 2003 than in 2000.

The federal government recommends that families spend no more than a third of their income on housing. ”There’s a close link between adequate affordable housing and economic competitiveness in the region,” said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.

”We continue to lag behind,” Gornstein said, ”and although we have made some modest progress on increasing housing production, it’s still falling short for many moderate-income families who can’t afford a home and are, therefore leaving the state or considering leaving the state.”

The report does note that in 2004, there were 13,556 building permits issued in Greater Boston, the highest figure since 1987.

And for the first time since before 1998, both single-family and multifamily production were up. The authors also praise state lawmakers for approving a measure last year that rewards communities for relaxing their zoning to make way for mixed-income housing near transit stops and in town centers. Many people contend that overly restrictive zoning, rather than a scarcity of land, is the cause of the state’s high housing prices.

But Finley Perry, president of the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts, said there are still barriers to producing single-family homes. ”There is no incentive for the home-building industry to do anything at the starter-home level,” Perry said. ”Land is so expensive, you can’t really afford to put an inexpensive house on it.”

While I realize most of the people who read my journal have never seen my house in person, I’ll give you the rundown on the comparison…

We bought our house for $250,000. It’s approximately 1,800 square feet, 3 bedrooms (all small), older bathroom, older kitchen. Oil heat. Window boxes A/C on 1st floor. Detached 2-car garage. Just shy of 1/4 acre of yard. Erich, due to fabulous credit, managed a fantastic fixed rate 30-year mortgage, and we’re paying just shy of $1,600 per month on our mortgage.

In Massachusetts, even in east bum fuck, we would not have been able to find our house– in the condition that it’s in- for less than $450,000.

We literally had to move to another state– and most specifically, the state to the south (since southern New Hampshire is as obscene as Massachusetts is… it was “discovered” first, I suppose) to be able to afford anything. And I was part of that “paying over 50% of income to rent” crowd until I moved in with Erich. The Beast was probably closer to 2/3 of my take-home income per month. Once I was in that apartment, I literally got trapped there because Boston landlords require at least first, last, and a full-month’s security (and if you use a realtor to find the apartment, as most people do, that’s another month’s rent on top of that).

It’s really sad, but not surprising at all to me.

Due to a late night last night, I really struggled to get up this morning. I’ve had coffee. It hasn’t helped. Gah. And since we had to drive into Boston today, it was a very long commute. A few cars decided to destroy Providence traffic. Quite impressive what a couple cars can do on I-95. Cripes.

Anyway, didn’t do all that much last night. I watched Mythbusters and was highly amused at the tests to see the fastest way to chill a six pack of beer. Apparently a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher is the best method, followed by salt poured into ice water (both were at or under 5 minutes). I think I’ll choose the latter. Cheaper. Less spray in the air.

Speaking of six-packs, Rhode Island grocery stores are retarded in one distinct area. They no longer sell normal six-packs of soda on the shelf. They have those midget 8-oz cans, but no normal ones. Only 12-packs. BUT… at least they don’t have the annoying 5 cent additional surcharge bottle deposit like Massachusetts does. I saw the store brand soda in normal 6-packs, however. The store brand ones were also the only ones to be in older style 12-pack boxes (aka not “fridge pack”). It’s funny how only in a couple years, the older boxes look weird to me. Whomever designed the fridge pack is a god of engineering, I must say.

…

For a brief moment last night, I almost considered scrapping my Saturday plans and headng over to Middleboro, Mass. for the annual Southeast Mass. Pagan Pride Day festival. I’m yearning for a good drum circle, after my bad experience at Arisia in January. But I know that it’s really not a good idea. This weekend is our only one through the beginning of October that has no plans involved in it. We have two full-weekend trips coming up in the next three weeks. I really want to get some of my to-do list done around the house and hopefully have some time to just chill out, too.

A big part of my concern is getting the plants on my back walkway into the ground before it gets too much colder in the evenings. I want them to have some time to get settled. Mom suggested just bringing them into our sunroom for the winter, which would be a great idea if there weren’t cats who need to chew on everything. So sometime in the next couple weeks, I need to get some new topsoil, a couple bags of mulch to help protect them over the winter, and get out the trowel. It’s not a lot of plants- one hyrangea, one lemon basil, four asiatic lilies, and a mess of day lilies (which will be planted in clumps, anyway).

And of course, we have boxes. The ever-present supply of boxes. I’m convinced they have procreated in the two months they’ve been sitting in the house. I didn’t pack this many. Honest.

But we are going to roll into our weekend with some fun first. Tonight’s the NFL opening game, Pats. vs. Raiders. We’ll be testing the wide-screen TV that Erich bought just before we moved. During the game I’ll finish up my final stitches on Egyptian Sampler for this round before going on to my next piece for the weekend. Tomorrow night we’re going to the drive-in to catch Red Eye and Four Brothers.

It should be a good time.

Anyway, off to work. I need more coffee.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already a week into September. This year has flown, but at least this year I know exactly why!

Anyway, now that the weather is cooler and I can be upstairs and actually DO the things I want to in my office… I’m setting myself some personal goals for some “autumn organizing.” Ideally, I’d like to do this by the end of October, but realistically, it’s November… and more realistically, I have no hope of getting all of this done, but I’m going to at least try it because I’ll be extremely happy if I can get it all done.

Important Dates to Remember
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Sept. 9th, Dad’s birthday
- Sept. 12th, World’s Largest Dungeon game
- Sept. 16-18th, in Maine to see Erich’s mom
- Sept. 24th, Erich’s game, Frank’s birthday
- Oct. 1st, Ivanna’s wedding (in PA/NJ Sept. 30-Oct. 2)
- Oct. 10, World’s Largest Dungeon game
- Sometime in October, King Richard’s Faire
- Oct. 21-24, mourn not being at JournalCon, but drink anyway
- November 1st, NaNoWriMo again owns my soul (but not in an ML capacity this year)
- November 10, Erich’s mom’s birthday
- November 22, Marya’s birthday
- November 23, Ivanna’s birthday
- November 24, Thanksgiving (at home, if anyone needs a place to eat)
- November 25-27th, on Cape Cod for annual LANness

Things to do…

KITCHEN
~~~~~~~
- Clean out and reorganize butler’s pantry
- Unpack rest of boxes currently out on mudroom porch
- Figure out how/where all kitchen supplies go to reclaim counter space
- An honest hands and knees scrub of the kitchen floor (bleh)

BEDROOM
~~~~~~~~
- Reorganize dresser
- Put away heaping pile of clean clothes on dresser
- Stablize bedside table

CLOSET
~~~~~~~~~
- Resort shoe rack
- Organize top shelves
- Set aside place for assessories (belts, scarves, etc)
- Get dry-cleaning done

OFFICE
~~~~~~~~~
- Fix storage cart wheels
- Empty all boxes currently in the room ** IN PROGRESS **
- Organize things into storage carts & label carts
- Organize bookshelf
- Set up lamp
- Gather and sort all computer CD’s by computer type

OUTSIDE
~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Buy some bags of topsoil
- Plant hydrangea in ground
- Plant day & asiatic lilies in ground
- Plant lemon basil in ground
- Help Erich with raking and trimming as needed

STITCHING
~~~~~~~~~~~
- Gather all WIPs and UFOs, make sure they have all supplies
- Photograph all WIPs and UFOs
- Update website WIP pages
- Create list of all stash supplies- charts, threads, kits, etc.
- Finish Egyptian Sampler rotation
- Cats on a Staircase rotation
- Astrology sampler start/rotation
- The Castle rotation ** IN PROGRESS **
- Smoky Mountain Cats rotation
- Home is Where the Cat is rotation (finish?)
- Purchase fabric for Apache Wedding Blessing
- Apache Wedding Blessing rotation
- Purchase floss organizer boxes for each individual project in WIP list

SWAPPING
~~~~~~~~~~~
- Update status report on lists by Sept. 8th
- Repost new swaps Sept. 8th
- Get all overdue swaps done and out by Sept. 9th * IN PROGRESS **
- Finish all current swaps ** IN PROGRESS **
- Bag and send all excess supply swaps by Sept. 12th ** IN PROGRESS **
- Bundle penpal letters for replies

SORORITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Meet with Tricia to do website updates ** POSTPONED **
- Meet with Maureen regarding alumni help needs
- Attend meetings as often as possible (at least one per month)
- Host Stitch-n-Bitch during fall semester (with Michelle? Alumni event?)
- Attend at least one rush event that isn’t the Tea
- Attend the Tea

They’re focusing on the very spot of this whole tragedy where it makes more than perfect sense for us to make a difference…

They’re opening a disaster fund starting with $500,000. They will match all donations to it or any other related charity we choose. We can arrange for it to be taken out of our paychecks directly if we wish, or write a check, wire money, etc.

They’re focusing the company’s disaster fund on helping the schools and students recover– to rebuild, to help schools taking in the displaced students, etc. Educational supplies are now on their way to Texas, and they’re coordinating with other school districts to do supply drives, replace textbooks, and help as needed. Divisions of higher-ed will be doing the same on its level, the trade publishing division is sending books to the the temporary shelters. Other divisions will help the Red Cross with behind the scenes work at the call centers.

I’m thrilled that my company has taken this approach, and focused on an area – education – where it can make a direct impact. While I am donating some time (and little blood bits) to the Red Cross in the next several weeks, I think I will focus my monetary donations in that direction to help give these kids some shred of normal life as soon as possible. AND it makes much more sense to take the opportunity to have my donation doubled.

I’m rather proud of my company today.