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I had a super productive weekend, starting Thursday evening, when I went home with my folks so I could walk my brother through making a particular stir-fry dish I've been cooking a lot. He did okay, though it's a bit tricky to work on a true stirfry when you're pathologically incapable of getting a move on (we preprepped everything; he just wouldn't stir fast enough). I racked up quite a few big sister karmic points this weekend, actually -- E and I played pool with A and an older friend of his from the county democrats (bro is way into politics, and got himself made PCO). It was a bit of a trick to manage gracefully after I'd also spent the whole morning with him 'helping' on my house, but it went pretty well. It's good to have a Thing To Do, and other people around.
The new pool hall on Devoe street has nice equipment, too -- though I enjoyed it a great deal more for the first hour, when the radio was playing classic rock and metal, than I did for the second, when they switched to country. My enjoyment of pool as a past-time is directly related to whether I have music I can feel cool to while doing it. :P
Saturday morning we got some more wire pulled in the studio, dad wired a few more outlets (a job I can and have done everywhere else in my house, but can't do in the studio because it's too damn cold :(), and put up blocking and electrical boxes for the two big fluorescent lights in the painting/drawing area. It was only a few hours of work, but a good way to get back into the swing of things after our two month holiday hiatus*.
I also finally know why I couldn't find the right wattage of light fixtures for the tubes I had my eye on, though I had to write Philips to learn it: they're European. Not even sold here, despite how easy it is to find prices in dollars on the internet. Aaaand that's the problem with lack of localization; I've been reading so many different articles and comments on blog posts I never realized the people touting this particular tube for color work were all in Europe. *head desk* Soooo time to determine the runner up. :P
The studio is just one of the things I worked on this weekend, though! I wrote 1590 words, I made a terrific three-part Chinese feast for our gaming crowd that included things the vegans could nibble on (they bring their own dinner), I made it to yoga Friday morning, I started prepping the panel for my sheep commission, E and I had some really good practice sessions, I fixed a major weirdness in my kitchen that I've been meaning to get to for four years, and I sculpted teeny tiny things on teeny tiny figures!
(The teeny tiny figures are for pathfinder. I had to sculpt a new hand, because E had a flattering but exaggerated opinion of my abilities. I almost managed it, too.)
The four-years-coming kitchen fix took about twenty minutes to do, including time spent working on other things. *headdesk* In fairness, I didnt' have the saw I needed for it until a year ago, and I didn't have the comfort level with the saw until a few months ago. I had asked dad to cut the part for me, but he kept forgetting. See, one of the oddities of this house is that there's a hole between the under-sink cabinet where the trashcans live and the one where I store dry goods. A BIG hole, perfectly aligned with the second shelf of the latter cabinet, apparently to facilitate ambitious cats getting in through cabinet one and skimming meat packaging off the top of the trash. And trash spilling into the cabinet. :| It was gross (and that's one reason the cabinet's always had dry goods -- they're stored hygienically in sealed glass jars, so I wasn't too worried. And thank goodness I have cats, because it would have been rodent heaven). Now that I have the technology -- a circular saw, in this case -- cutting a left-over piece of OSB to cover the hole was a piece of cake, and the kitchen'll be much nicer for it.
Really, the only real downer of the weekend was realizing that our utilities for the month are sky high, and the automatic payments had overdrawn my checking account. I've been adulting so hard in other areas I failed to adult my finances. The account has overdraft protection, though, so I just wince and move on.
Now, I've given myself the day off work (as a sick day -- cramp attack), and have to figure out what to putter on next.
*it wasn't just the holidays -- it was the conjunction of holidays, me needing to make decisions about lights, and dad having work to do on HIS house.
The new pool hall on Devoe street has nice equipment, too -- though I enjoyed it a great deal more for the first hour, when the radio was playing classic rock and metal, than I did for the second, when they switched to country. My enjoyment of pool as a past-time is directly related to whether I have music I can feel cool to while doing it. :P
Saturday morning we got some more wire pulled in the studio, dad wired a few more outlets (a job I can and have done everywhere else in my house, but can't do in the studio because it's too damn cold :(), and put up blocking and electrical boxes for the two big fluorescent lights in the painting/drawing area. It was only a few hours of work, but a good way to get back into the swing of things after our two month holiday hiatus*.
I also finally know why I couldn't find the right wattage of light fixtures for the tubes I had my eye on, though I had to write Philips to learn it: they're European. Not even sold here, despite how easy it is to find prices in dollars on the internet. Aaaand that's the problem with lack of localization; I've been reading so many different articles and comments on blog posts I never realized the people touting this particular tube for color work were all in Europe. *head desk* Soooo time to determine the runner up. :P
The studio is just one of the things I worked on this weekend, though! I wrote 1590 words, I made a terrific three-part Chinese feast for our gaming crowd that included things the vegans could nibble on (they bring their own dinner), I made it to yoga Friday morning, I started prepping the panel for my sheep commission, E and I had some really good practice sessions, I fixed a major weirdness in my kitchen that I've been meaning to get to for four years, and I sculpted teeny tiny things on teeny tiny figures!
(The teeny tiny figures are for pathfinder. I had to sculpt a new hand, because E had a flattering but exaggerated opinion of my abilities. I almost managed it, too.)
The four-years-coming kitchen fix took about twenty minutes to do, including time spent working on other things. *headdesk* In fairness, I didnt' have the saw I needed for it until a year ago, and I didn't have the comfort level with the saw until a few months ago. I had asked dad to cut the part for me, but he kept forgetting. See, one of the oddities of this house is that there's a hole between the under-sink cabinet where the trashcans live and the one where I store dry goods. A BIG hole, perfectly aligned with the second shelf of the latter cabinet, apparently to facilitate ambitious cats getting in through cabinet one and skimming meat packaging off the top of the trash. And trash spilling into the cabinet. :| It was gross (and that's one reason the cabinet's always had dry goods -- they're stored hygienically in sealed glass jars, so I wasn't too worried. And thank goodness I have cats, because it would have been rodent heaven). Now that I have the technology -- a circular saw, in this case -- cutting a left-over piece of OSB to cover the hole was a piece of cake, and the kitchen'll be much nicer for it.
Really, the only real downer of the weekend was realizing that our utilities for the month are sky high, and the automatic payments had overdrawn my checking account. I've been adulting so hard in other areas I failed to adult my finances. The account has overdraft protection, though, so I just wince and move on.
Now, I've given myself the day off work (as a sick day -- cramp attack), and have to figure out what to putter on next.
*it wasn't just the holidays -- it was the conjunction of holidays, me needing to make decisions about lights, and dad having work to do on HIS house.
