New Beginings?

It has been far too long since I last spent time blogging.  Moving to an iPad stalled me for a very long time!

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Curl Up With a Book

A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another fun read! I have been reading some heavy books and my book club has had a run of less-than-thrilling tomes, but this one was a winner. I will warn readers that it is not all sweetness - life isn't always pretty. Still, there are some great characters here. The meddling mother-in-law, Audrey, is an absolute hoot.



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Curl Up With a (Long) Book

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Yes, this is the current "it" book. Yes, it is an HBO series. Yes, it is long and filled with manly men and feats of valor and all that rot. I don't care. This was a fun read and I enjoyed almost all of it. Notice that I didn't give it a full 5 stars. Some of the gore and sex wasn't really necessary in my opinion and it truly didn't need to be that many pages. Even so, I will be going back for the rest of the series that is available and then waiting on edge for the rest of the books to be written and published. Call me a sheep if you want, but I won't care because I'll have my nose stuck in another 800-page book.



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Curl Up With a Book

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Amazing book! This was very far out of my range of what I know about. I have never lived in (or even visited) the South. I have never had hired help and have no experience with most of the situations in the book. Still, I am human and Ms. Stockett did a fabulous job of bringing out the humanity of her characters (or utter lack of humanity in at least one case). This was absolutly one of those books that I had trouble putting down and I have the dark rings under my eyes to prove it.



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Curl Up With a Book

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This reminded me quite a bit of The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Goff. There was a similar going home and discovering yourself vibe, but this is no knock-off. The character development of the sisters was very good and the (very) frequent Shakespeare quotations weren't too annoying. As I finished I will admit that I was a bit disappointed. Somehow, I felt that the ending was rushed. Then again, I must give the author credit for staying absolutely true to her characters. A tidy ending wasn't really in the cards for these women, but I will admit that the ending was perfect for the book. I get completely annoyed with authors who end their books with events that just aren't true to the story or have the characters do things that are completely out of character. All in all, this was a very good read that kept me company through a long set of flights home and a recovery from a cold.



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Week 4

We are already (finally) in Week 4! The family is getting quite tired of workers coming and going and not knowing where things are. Thankfully the next door neighbors have come through with necessities (like a corkscrew with our one unpacked version wasn't up to the job) and niceties (like home-cooked dinner). Day 22 was a busy one. Mr. Engineer and I left work early and took my Photoshop designs back to the tile store to pick our backsplash. The choices are overwhelming and we became hopelessly lost until the nice tile man helped guide us through the choices. When we arrived at home that night we were greeted with a pleasant surprise. The carpenter was there installing the newly arrived handles and fixing some of the things that needed attention.


Day 23 brought more surprises, but they weren't all pleasant. Young Man had come home the night before feeling unwell and he was much worse in the morning. I quickly informed my co-workers that I would be working from home and spent the day attempting to work. I say attempting, because Day 23 was the day the electrician installed a new electrical panel. Yes, the power was out for about half the day. Luckily we have good batteries on our laptops and the wireless modem has a battery backup! It was quite noisy and the last surprise was when we realized that the electrician had poked a hole through the master bedroom wall when he removed the old panel! That was not a room we intended to have worked on!

Day 24 came and Young Man was not better. He hid out in the master bedroom while the granite guys came and went to work. By the end of the day we had many square feet of Uba Tuba granite.

Photographing granite is a lesson in futility, but trust me when I say that it is quite lovely. It is mostly black with some ivory and gold throughout. It is dark like we wanted, but not completely black and is interesting without being gaudy.

The new sink is also very nice.

The week isn't quite over, but we aren't sure what more work will happen. The tile for the backsplash won't arrive until mid-Week 5 and we still need to pick up the new range hood (it is in but didn't make it onto the appliance delivery truck). There are several things that need to be fixed and touchups needed, but we are getting close. Very close.

We can't wait to move in!

Week 3

After the disappointing end to Week 2, we were very happy to see some good things in Week 3.

On Day 18 of the project, the carpenter returned with cabinets that were now the correct height. He and his assistant worked all afternoon and into the evening to install cabinets.

Lots of cabinets.

Lots and lots of cabinets!

On Day 19 we picked out granite for the countertops. On Day 20, we tried really hard to figure out our tile backsplash and on Day 21, I spent much of the day playing with Photoshop to design a backsplash. Day 21 also ended with another delivery. This time (most of) the appliances were here!

Week 2...

After the excitement of Week 1, things settled a bit. Oh, that was dust, wasn't it? Yes, Week 2 saw it's share of dust. The week started off very quietly. President's Day found me staying home to have an off-day with Young Man. We watched Gnomeo and Juliet and generally goofed off. I did order the cabinet handles, Amerock BP26204-G10 satin nickel finish. In the evening we made the final selection of floor tile, Tilecrest Fantasia in Almond.

Tuesday was a completely quiet day, but things started to get interesting again on Wednesday. That was the first day of The Great Tile Invasion.

I know, it doesn't look like much, but that was the progress for the first tile installation day. The goal was to get the kitchen done quickly to prepare for cabinets. Thursday, the tile seemed to grow.

In fact, by Friday, the tile had grown all the way through the family room and entry!

It even grew to take over the dining room!!!!

Yes, the spreading tile did what 20 years hadn't: it pushed out the disgusting green (formerly brown) carpet from the family room and entry and even took out some of the nasty stuff in the dining room. Only one little patch of disgusting carpet remains and its days are numbered!

All this growing tile made way for Saturday's event: it was cabinet day!!!!

Hmmm. Something doesn't look quite right. Can you guess? Well, when the carpenter made the cabinet design, he estimated the new ceiling height. When the final ceiling height wasn't as high as the estimate, the project manager neglected to pass on the new measurement. So on cabinet day, the carpenter showed up with full-height cabinets that were all three inches too tall! The carpenter took all those cabinets away and promised to return with proper-height cabinets in a few days.

Thus, Week 2 was filled with ups and downs and ended on a bit of a downer. We remained hopeful that Week 3 would be better.

Pardon Our Dust?

Things have been a little crazy here at Chez Engineer. You see, the great procrastinators have finally taken a rather large plunge. We have lived in our little hovel for 20 1/2 years and we have done a number of home improvements, but we have been reluctant to tackle the really (REALLY) big jobs. Painting and such are no problem, but we both knew that we were not up to dealing with a kitchen remodel. Believe me when I say that we needed a new kitchen. You don't believe me? Well, I offer up Exhibit A. Go ahead, marvel at its 1968 loveliness.




One of our favorite parts of the kitchen (in this case "favorite" is used to refer to something akin to a thorn) is the original 1968 wall oven. When we moved in the temperature markings had long ago been worn away so we calibrated the oven with an oven thermometer and etched marks for our most-used settings. The top door also had a charming habit of coming off in your hands if you didn't open it just right. We had long fantasized about taking a sledge hammer to the thing. Well, on Valentine's Day, we paid people to do just that! This was the sight that greeted us when we returned home that day:


Yep, all that old hideousness was gone!!!! We even had them remove the ceiling and bring it up to the level of the old lighting soffit. In case you were wondering, those dark patches on the walls were the original blue board from when the house was built. No, it had never been painted behind the cabinets.

Once all that mess was gone, we moved to anticipation each night as we came home. On Day 2 we had a new ceiling and plumbing! the drain and supply for the sink was moved several inches over to center the sink to the window and the gas lines were given new valves. Oh, and the (probably illegal) gas line to the outdoors that we had previously capped outside was gone.


Day 3 brought even more fun as the rough-in electrical was installed. We needed to bring a new circuit from the panel for the new electric oven and many outlets had to be moved or reworked to follow code and to allow for wiring for the new under-cabinet lighting. Oh, yes, and the new recessed lighting cans were installed.

Day 4 was pretty boring as it was spent by our contractor twiddling his thumbs waiting for the city inspector. Apparently 3 p.m. is still a morning appointment. Day 5 was really exciting since all the rough-in work could be patched, taped, sanded, and textured. The drywall/paint guy was busy all day

The painter was back on Day 6 to prime and paint! Yes, there is color on them there walls!

So, in one week we went from nasty, depressing kitchen, to utter chaos, to painted walls! Not bad. Not bad at all. Stay tuned for Week #2!

Beware the Tiger

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed reading this book. I will say that some of the descriptions of the victims were hard to read, but overall I was impressed with how restrained Vaillant was in these passages. It would have been easy to over-describe, but he maintained respect for the deceased. It was a little hard to follow the book as it skipped back and forth in time and around in geography. I know that some readers cannot stand books that do that and they will not like that in this book. This technique doesn't really bother me, but it was sort of distracting. Given the real paucity of data on the actual events, the need to fill out the book with the background was real and interspersing the background with the events kept me reading through all of the data. I'm sure I retained more of the background than I would have if there would have been an extensive background separate from the event descriptions. The background research was very thorough and made the book much more than a voyeuristic journey of gore. I knew that tigers were endangered and that man was the primary reason for that, but it was very interesting to see just how our economic journey impacts the tigers. All in all, a very worthwhile read!



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Curl Up With a Book Sunday

1984 by George Orwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this one for the first time years ago and I remember being fascinated by the idea of The Party and its stranglehold on its members and utter control of all in Oceania. This time around I read it because it was is the January book for my book club. Either the book isn't holding up or I have changed. I kept waiting for it to get to the point and was frustrated with Winston and Julia's affair and their blind trust in certain persons who all proved to be completely untrustworthy.

There are books that I enjoy re-reading, but this wasn't one of them. Perhaps it is because too much of the book has come to pass. My every keystroke can be monitored at work and there is no privacy online. There also seem to be those who would whip us into the mindless frenzy that The Party loved to create. Then again, I believe that one of Orwell's aims with 1984 was to make us uncomfortable with the parallel between his fictional world and the one we see out our windows. In that, this book still succeeds.



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Happy 2011!

New year, new times. Comments are back on. Play nice.

Endings, Beginnings, and a Pattern!

To enable my obsession with reading, I ended 2010 with a new toy. I am now the proud owner of a Nookcolor. I love it! Young Man and I both scored them for the holidays. Young Man picked out a nice book-style cover from B&N for his. I haven't decided whether I want one of the heavenly tooled leather covers from Oberon or an easel-style for hands-free reading. Until I decide, I figured that my new toy needed a cover, so the Nook Cozy was born:

Nook Cozy

Yarn: Any worsted-weight will do. Mine is knit is a Malabrigo kettle-dyed worsted that is just lovely and soft, but way too busy for most projects.

Needles: US 8 (5mm) - I used double-pointed needles, but a 16in circular would work too.

Pattern:

Using Judy's Magic Cast-On (or your favorite for toe-up socks) cast on 52 stitches and join for working in the round.

Body:

Rnd 1-5: k7, p2, k8, p2, knit to end of round

Rnd 6: k7, p2, cable cross left over 8 stitches (put 4 stitches on cable needle, hold in front, k4, k4 from cable needle), p2, knit to end of round

Rnd 7-8: k7, p2, k8, p2, knit to end of round

Repeat rows 1-8 six times more (seven cable crosses in total).

Top:

Rnd 1: p9, p2tog four times (four stitches decreased), p9, knit to end of round

Rnd 2: knit

Rnd 3: bind off 22 stitches in purl, p3, k20, p3

Flap:

At this point you will be working back and forth to complete the flap.

Row 1: purl

Row 2: p3, k20, p3

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until flap is approximately 1 1/2 inches long (I did five more repeats), repeat row 1 one more time.

Buttonhole rows:

Row 1: p3, k9, bind off 2 stitches, k9, p3

Row 2: p12, cast on 2 stitches, p12

Garter stitch edge:

Purl 2 rows and bind off in purl.

Finishing:

Weave in ends and add a decorative button over the top cable cross.

Credits: I used parts from both of these eReader sleeve patterns: Kindle Pocket and Cabled Kindle Sleeve.

Witchy Hunts

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a much quicker read than my days reading would indicate. Life has certainly kept me away from books! This one was very good. While it is a stylized version of the Salem witch trials, it was also a review of the McCarthy-era Communist witch hunts. There were so many parallels that I can see that the topic was just too good for Miller to pass up. There are also some parallels to current events of today that many would do well to note. It is far too easy to take a little heresay and comments made from those with axes to grind and condemn innocents.



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Go Another Round with Lisbeth

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow! That's not a particularly insightful review, but it was exactly what I said after I finished this book. I should probably amend that to say, after I dropped everything that "should" have been done and finished this book. As much as I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, I enjoyed this second book much, much more. The first book took almost 300 pages before I was fully engaged. This second book grabbed me from the beginning and didn't let go. Larsson's style is like nothing else I have read. It is stark and completely reporter-like, but gives everything I need for the story. Lisbeth is a completely messed up character, but much of that mess is understandable after reading this book. Of course, now I am having a horrible time restraining myself from buying and starting the third book. I am again saddened that Stieg Larsson is no longer with us to grace us with more books.



Seriously, if you have read the first book in this series, what are you waiting for? You will like this one even more!



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Back in Time

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the third book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series and I enjoyed it much more than the second. Adelia can be a bit much, but I do like the idea that there were strong, educated women even in Henry II's day. There is less of the the Adelia-Rowley romantic tension in this one and that is probably why I liked it more than the second book. The mystery this time is also better. In this trip through time Adelia is trying to determine whether a dying monk's vision was indeed Arthur and she is trying to find the dear Emma from the second book who has disappeared. The ends get mostly tied up at the close and Ms. Franklin again does her best to promote Henry II as more than just the king who called for the death of a bishop.

Ariana Franklin (a.k.a Diana Norman) did another wonderful job of fitting in her story more or less with historical fact. Yes, she did bend a few dates, but I forgive that for the sake of the story. I also very much enjoy her writing style. Of course, slipping in the first chapter of the fourth book was a nasty trick. I stayed up much later than I should have and now I need to get another book! Yes, it is an effective device.



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Rincewind Returns!

Eric by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read several reviews and comments that indicated that many readers didn't particularly like this romp through Discworld. While it wasn't my favorite of the Discworld books (hey, this was only my seventh), it wasn't bad at all. First of all, it answered (mostly) the question of how Rincewind came back after Sourcery. Next, it featured The Luggage nicely. Third, there were bemused and befuddled demons. How could any of that be awful? Learning that Hell is much like business caught me slightly off guard, but didn't particularly surprise me. All in all, this was a very nice diversion.



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Just Because...

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Hope for a Troubled Teen

Willow by Julia Hoban

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After reading this one I had to remind myself that I am not the target audience. This book was definitely meant for young people, um, a few years younger than I am. For someone my age, the character development and plot were a bit shallow. However, when I was, um, a few years younger, this book would definitely have been one I would have read. It hasn't been so many years ago that I was a teen and I do still remember the confusion and absolute certainty I felt about many ideas that later turned out to be completely wrong. It is always hard to predict how others will react to you and when you throw in some extra-tough circumstances, the predictions go completely awry. Willow is a teen who was behind the wheel when her parents' car went out of control and both of her parents died in a horrible accident. That Willow would then blame herself is believeable, as is her certainty that everyone else blames her as well. Her reaching for something to get her through this is understandable and many girls do end up cutting. The resolution of her pain was certainly easier than it would be in real life. Still, seeing that there is a way forward would give the intended audience for this book one thing they really need: Hope. And, really, that is what is important.



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