George's Grand Exit

George was spotted leaving the men's restroom yesterday afternoon. I decided that we really needed to try to get the little guy back outside where he belongs, but as soon as I approached, he scurried back into the bathroom. I literally cornered him hiding with the plunger, toilet brush, and bathroom cleaner.

As I removed each item from the corner, he crawled under the plunger in his hasty attempt at retreat. I simply ran with his idea...

I knew our paper applications would come in handy someday! Now George is back outside, enjoying the afternoon sun on the deck as any good skink should. Doesn't he look happy?

Look Who's Back!

Our friendly trailer skink was out and about this afternoon. The student intern noticed him creeping across the conference room (aka our office). I got out the camera, kicked off my shoes, and went chasing after him to get another picture for the blog. I have named him George, just like all of Aunt CSI's classroom critters.

About 20 minutes later, the intern noticed George near the outside door. We were going to chase him outside, but he decided that he liked it under the intern's desk better. Not too much later, he ventured out again. I tried to corral him towards the door, but he went in the oposite direction and is now in one of the counselor's offices. We don't mind having a critter in our office trailer too much... he's better than the ant traps in the kitchenette.

Intruder Alert!

This little guy startled me in the ladies' room at work this afternoon. And now he is under the student intern's desk... lucky her!

Me vs. Nature

When I first bought my house, I had already targeted a few "psycho attack bushes" for removal (see pink X's above). The bush in the turquoise box was moved into the front planter area where it has much more room to grow. I wasn't sure whether or not it would survive the transplant because of all of the roots I had to cut, but it seems to be doing fine now. Compared to the giant bush next to the garage that was causing drainage issues, all of those landscape modifications were a piece of cake.

The project began by pruning the bush until the stems were too thick for my pruners. It took my a couple of months to get back to the project, hence the new leaf growth. Step two involved clearing away the mountains of pine straw and removing the roots that had grown up onto the driveway (causing some of the drainage issues).

Another month or so passed before I returned to the partially exposed bush. I thought a large planter would work well to hold the dirt from the hole... judging by the pile below, the dirt that filled the new planter was but a drop in the bucket.

Despite the giant pile of dirt and the fact that at least half of the root ball was exposed, the bush didn't want to budge. It was getting windy and dark, so I decided that this round went to the bush.

Two days later I started off fresh with the impossible-to-uproot bush and my giant mound of dirt that was spilling over onto the driveway.

After much digging though wet clay with a small shovel and my gloved hands, I found the root of the problem (pardon the pun). There was a root almost as thick as my wrist that went straight under my driveway.

I got the giant clippers around the root, closed my eyes, and prayed that they would be able to sever the bush from its last lifeline.

Nature finally gave in without much of a fight, and the bush was dragged to the back of the house where it was unceremoniously dumped in the thicket of weeds and thorns that compromise most of my sloped backyard.

Now I have a nice parking pad for my dumpster and hopefully no more garage drainage issues. Yippee!

Beijing Olympics

Congratulations to Michael Phelps for winning the record-breaking eighth gold medal in a single Olympic games this past weekend!

Monday Cuteness

A nice dose of hammie cuteness (courtesy of I Can Has Cheezburger?) to make up for the fact that it is Monday once again...

Scarves

Joke sent by a fellow knitter:

A Highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window and turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "Pull over!"

"No!" the blonde yelled back - "It's a scarf!"

Two of my first scarves from back in 2006: a simple garter stitch scarf out of Red Heart Foxy eyelash yarn for my sister, and a second scarf in miniature for Loretta the crocheted turtle (the turtle was made by my grandmother and given to one of my adoptive mothers)

Hammie Hurdles

Garfield has gotten into the Olympic spirit! His chosen sport is the hurdles. Being nocturnal, he wakes up around 9:00 pm and starts gnawing on the bars of his cage. Since this annoys me (and I quickly run out of things within arm's reach to throw at his cage to make him stop for a few seconds), I usually let him run around in his ball while I watch TV, knit, play on the computer, etc.


Garfield lives in the playroom, which is upstairs. I don't like closing the door because it cuts off circulation, making the room hot and stuffy. So that Garfield doesn't make a sprint towards the staircase, I have found many things to use as door blocks, or in his eyes, hurdles. At first, I used my bean bag chair, but I would trip over it going in and out of the room because it was so bulky. Then I discovered that my rolled-up yoga mat is the perfect length to fit in the doorway.



Undeterred, Garfield continues to try to conquer this hurdle despite the fact that he has some trouble getting over the small bump up from the linoleum to the carpet when he rolls himself into the bathroom. In the meantime, I have discovered other great blocks to use in the doorway. I have been trying to teach myself to play the piano for over a year, so I have a battery-powered keyboard in the playroom (which is probably a big part of the reason that I practice so infrequently). It's been more useful as a hammie hurdle lately.


And since the Harry Potter paperbacks came in so useful when I was measuring Molly Weasley's First Scarf, I brought them out again to use in the doorway. Watch as Garfield tries to conquer his newest hurdles... maybe he'll get it by the time the Olympics are (maybe) in Madrid in 2016!

The Finally Finished Project

I could have called this post "No-Sew Valances," which is a great description, but it is extremely boring as a title. Since I cut the fabric for this project last summer and just now got around to actually completing it, I believe that it has earned the title of "The Finally Finished Project."

I took advantage of one of my free days (thanks to the summer four-day work week) to get the ironing board out and use some "Fusible Bonding Web" to baste the raw edges (instead of having to hem them with the sewing machine). Usually, when I get a project idea in my head, the final product isn't nearly as nice as what I had in mind. I must admit that I am very happy with my valances. As my mother said, they make my playroom look a bit classier. On a more practical note, the dark fabric blocks more of the intense summer sunlight than the khaki tab curtains alone. That helps keep the temperature at a more comfortable level so that I can still *play* in my playroom during July and August.

Hide & Seek

"She'll never find me here with all of her yarn!"

"No fair! You peeked!"

Gwinnetian Sunset

Ralph wanted to know what Mom and I were doing outside...

¡Viva España!

I emailed Julie and asked her what she thought of doing a little "decorating" to celebrate the return of our good friend Melba from Spain this weekend...

Obviously, she thought it was a good idea. So last night, after a run to Wally World for red and yellow crepe paper, the two of us regressed to our college days of rolling cars and created some marvelous yard art under the cover of darkness.

I had to see what our adornments looked like with better lighting, so I stopped by to snap a picture on my way to Gwinnett this morning.