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.