Yarnivorous

G'day all! Moving house for us is like one of those interminable trips you did as a kid. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? NO! Argh all right already, I want this thing over and done with!  We haven't even moved most of the furniture or the boxes.  We have no idea where everything will go and we've farmed out a heap of stuff to a lovely friend.  This is the problem with moving from a place with three large closets to a place with one large closet and a coat cupboard.  We have lots of shelving too. I think moving brings out the worst in people.  It certainly does in me.  I lose all patience with DH and get snappy, then apologetic, but honestly sometimes he just seems to lose all mental capacity, probably because he is stressed too. Google likes to snowify some scenes. Don't we have pretty houses to look at? We have a habit of buying a small place and stuffing it full of Stuff....

G'day all! It is just over a month since we left Oz and now four weeks and one day since we arrived in Seattle!  It seems to have flown past.  I still have not had a meltdown.  Am starting to think there must be something wrong with me... Tonight is our last night in our Belltown hangout.  We've been here nearly a month and tomorrow is our move out day. We spent the day, strangely enough, moving stuff from here to our new rental apartment.  Given we started off with three and a half suitcases of stuff, you would think it would not take long to move it all.  Except 8 boxes of our stuff arrived, and I've been buying stuff for the place that we will need, and suddenly it is four loads in the car...   One of our friends helped out (and very useful he was too - thanks, Mental!), so we bought him tea (aka dinner) at a Thai restaurant he recommended.  Hooray - real Thai food, not the weird stuff we had the other week. Move out means no more inter...

G'day all! And I've been doing lots! This has been a pretty incredible year.  Not necessarily the happiest year ever but all sorts of things have happened. We have seen lots of stuff - going to NYC and back to San Jose was pretty darned  good.  We've made some good friends.  We've lived comfortably in Australia's largest city. And the New Year will ring in changes. On New Year's Day, I'm driving back up to Sydney to supervise the packing of our gear and its removal to the States.  Plus I'm taking some extra bits.  On the 4th, I am going to the airport and getting on a plane for Hawaii (meeting up with DH at Sydney airport), where we will spend a couple of days.  Then we get on the plane to Seattle and a new life. I'm going to miss family and friends and Australia and the long days and summer.  I am a long days person.  DH isn't "validating my feelings" about this, which causes arguments.  I am sure things will be fab in Seat...

G'day all! At last I can make an announcement.  Hooray!  This has been weighing on me for a while. Today DH resigned from his job.  Yep.  We are blowing the big G off and going off to a new and exciting location. Sydney's weather, grey and a bit cool, is preparing us for what awaits. We are going to a place renowned for its rainy, foggy, cool weather.  Am not looking forward to that part.  It is a couple of states up the coast from where we lived for a couple of years. Any guesses yet? In the meantime, we have had an extra exciting weekend.  But blogger just ate my great long ranting post - it completely lost 90% of it and I am now peeved with it and do not want to play with blogger any more today.  Plus it made me log in again.  Humph.  I think that deserves a flounce.  It even gave me a 404 page not found error. There is so much to do, so many places to see before I leave Sydney next weekend.  Sigh.  We are...

G'day all! Well with all slaving we've done this week, I am pleased to say that we are nearly there! No the house isn't finished by any means but the cornices are on, the toilet (room, yes we have separate rooms for toilets here) is painted a most startling couple of colours (not finished yet), most of the plasterwork is done (not sanded = not primed or painted) and things are looking much better than they did. Hooray! One more load of washing has to be done. Some stuff is coming to Sydney with us dirty - we don't have a drier. We have to clean up the loungeroom and get all the tools out of it and the kitchen, and then we are done! The car is half loaded up with Stuff - we have a hybrid! I am not so keen on its boot (trunk) arrangement - yes the back seats fold down but ?because it is a hybrid? only one area actually opens to the cabin. Not much point having fold down seats in my book if they don't open to the boot! Plus the side that opens is right behind t...

G'day all! Our stuff has gone! Now we just have the detritus of a life lurking around us. It is quite quite amazing how much Stuff we packed into a 750sq ft flat. I am rather good at spatial stuff, if I do say so myself. When it comes to packing a car boot (trunk) I can get a lot more stuff in than Nathan can. I didn't have a good night's sleep. We were up until after one am last night and I worried worried worried that we had Too Much Stuff (I forgot to take a pic of the mound of boxes...) until nearly 4am. Then I woke up at 7:30 (am!) and the removalists rang at 7:40... I don't think I'll be much good today! It is sorta sad looking around at all our stuff or what remains of it, the sad bits, the big bits, the stuff that we just plain can't take with us. Thank you to all those who have helped us dispose of stuff. I hope it brings you joy, happiness and/or peace. Or at least is useful. So in two days, I have to have the place emptied out. It has to be ...

G'day all! Things are coming together! Tomorrow our cargo leaves. We have sorted out the money problem. We have decreased the amount of Stuff in our place but OMG I have a LOT of Stuff to get rid of yet, and clean up before we have to pack the rest of our cargo. I hope I have not packed too much - I don't think so at this stage. I may have packed too little, just looking around the place! Nathan has to get off his butt and pack his stuff but that means losing his computer. We know how much he wants to pack that away! Oh dear. It is 20 past one in the morning and we think we have only one box to pack, the box of randomness that takes the last lot of anything that we realise OH CRAP! Forgot that! Forgot to pack that! Oh my, the fridge magnets! Crap. have to sacrifice my bright rainbow umbrella. Ah well. I can get another one back home... anon!

G'day all! Well we have tickets back to Oz. Dangit, if we had chosen the 9th, we'd be on another A380. Yes, they are better than jumbos. More space, less noise, higher cabin pressure. That adds up to less jetlag. But we are still leaving on a jet plane (don't know when we'll be back again). The cargo is booked in to be taken away on the 8th, I hope. I sent the form and the credit card off yesterday. I've just sent off an email to make sure it was received - I hate not getting any form of acknowledgement on these sorts of things. OK, it's acknowledged. I have soooo many things to fix up. And today I am going for a drive before I sell the car tomorrow. I need to get out of the house before the last round of packing frenzy hits and the freecyclers start coming through the revolving door. I need to go say goodbye to some places, have one last drive on that crazy end of Skyline Boulevard, the little narrow windy unsealed bit that clings to the side of the h...

G'day all! My heart is a little heavy this morning. Our stuff is flying out the door. I'm freecycling stuff. So far this week, I've given away about $300 of stuff. I hate giving away good stuff but I hate throwing it out more. I have no idea why I am attached to my stuff. Some of it, actually pretty much all of the stuff that has gone so far, came home either on the back of my bike or in the bike trailer. Maybe that is why I am attached to it. The cherry red round Black and Decker electric kettle was very popular. Lots of people wanted it even though one of the windows leaks sometimes and not others. I'm pretty sure I bought that kettle in Target up in the "market" area of San Jose (it isn't a market any longer). It came home on the bike - the box just fits in a shopping pannier. (Grand Teton NP) The silicone gloves - no attachment to them! I hooked them out of the dumpster, along with a plastic fishtank set. Both of those were extremely popular. ...

G'day all! I can tell I am a stress head at present. I can't focus on anything for more than about 10 minutes. I have not finished my pair of socks for the month, for the first time in over a year, maybe 18 months. OK, I only have to do another 5 rounds or so of ribbing on one and the leg of the other but I don't think I have time to finish them. We are into serious packing now. I have not yet booked sea freight for our stuff. I have a pretty good idea of how many boxes we are looking at so I reckon by the end of tomorrow I can get a couple more quotes from places that seemed reasonable. (If that is a repeat, please excuse me. It is from 9 days ago when we drove up to SF to get a drum carder and then drove around a lot not quite in circles) I can also tell I am stressed because I am shopping madly. Sometimes it is real shopping, sometimes it is online virtual window shopping. I want so many new fabric lines that I am seeing online that it isn't funny. I want th...

G'day all! We are going back to yesterday tomorrow. Yep, we are off to the States to pack up our stuff and move home. I really hope they will let us in. So we cross the dateline, which means we are in today, not tomorrow, for a while and then tomorrow will dawn for the second time. Golly it is confusing doing that! Then when we come back we will lose a whole day! If we leave on Saturday, we basically lose Sunday and arrive on Monday. Anyway, no new knitting to show off. I have been knitting on stuff but I don't seem to be making measurable progress even though it is clear that I am (12 row repeats are easy to count!). I have to shove it in the suitcase we are borrowing. Hope the wheel doesn't fall off this suitcase. It is deucedly inconvenient to have one less wheel than the case should have. It's going to be sad, sorting out my US life and packing it for shipping or packing it for our friend who is moving to SF after Christmas or putting it on Craigslist or on ...

G'day all! I am so proud of myself! I finished TWO items on one day! (That was yesterday.) But in my usual dumbo way, I forgot to take pics. One is the shop model of a Nashua Handknits top - verra pretty, if yellow, and the other is a little top down (almost) all continental knitted bolero in Wick by K1C2. So pics will have to wait, for tomorrow we move! If any locals just love lugging stuff to a U-Haul truck, I know someone who would love the help, LOL. Our new apartment is a one bedroom, so any visitors will have to put up with either sleeping on a (very comfy according to my MiL) airbed in the loungeroom or going to the local motels (2 within 5 minutes walk). I think we will need some extra shelving cos the wardrobes only have one shelf and the clothes hanger pole, plus we have one less cupboard = where do I put the linen and towels? (Isn't it funny how we say linen when none of us have slept on linen sheet ever? Its all cotton, poly cotton (ICK!), even bamboo and s...

G'day all! Happy solstice! I doubt I'll be blogging until we get set up in the USA, or at least until I find a net cafe or something. We have the last minute panics happening - one of our house sitters moves in tomorrow, we have not cleaned out his room yet, my computer probably gets unplugged tomorrow and returned to its rightful owner, we have not cleaned out the house, only half the rooms are half cleaned.... I have not sent off all the paperwork that needs to be sent off or fixed all that sort of thing up yet, nor sent some mail to the USA that will keep me occupied for a while... nor gotten all our tax stuff together (our tax year ends in 9 days). Some people are wondering what is happening with my yarn site. Welll, amongst the gazillion things I have to do tomorrow is take pictures of all the yarn that is not up on the website. I have labelled it all, plus some lovely tops I dyed, and it is all going to a friend to mail out to the lucky lucky buyer. (Thank you Peeved...

G'day all! Awooga, awooga! Visas are here! This means we fly out on Saturday - we have flights booked. PANIC! I'm a teapot! Yes the house is in a much better state but we have not done all the legal stuff yet. Eeek! anon!

Early morning all! Why am I awake at 2am worrying?* Why am I worrying about handing over my car to his new owner? Why am I worrying about me not having an income? Why am I worrying about having our house sitters in? Is it because we made various promises with the idea that we were leaving last week and now the possibility of staying here for an extra three months is rearing its ugly head? Our house sitters need a new place to live ASAP - their current landlord is making things very difficult for them. We effectively said they could live here from last weekend. Umm, how? There isn't room for us all! I've effectively sold my car. Soon I will be carless, which will be blasted inconvenient. I'll just have to get used to catching PT and riding my bike to the shops that I can get my GF food at. I have promised various people various items (in particular one person). I hate breaking promises or assurances. That is probably what is fussing me most. Other things are fussing ...

G'day all! You know that picture "The Scream"? Well that is me. I have parcelled and boxed up most of my yarn and fleece, then what do I find? A secret cache by the couch. ARRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! I am cleaning stuff out. I have taken about a thousand balls of yarn to the charity bin, and tomorrow I head for the op shop with a heap more stuff cos we filled the bin up. Oops. Hope the old ducks enjoy knitting cos they have enough yarn now..... I have nearly got the fibre room cleaned out but it still looks a mess cos it has a huge drift of empty boxes in the corner and a lot of bags hanging around for "just in case>" I've kept waaaay too much stuff for just in case." I blame my mother in particular for the "waste not, want not" outlook on life that people who grew up in the Depression and WWII have. It is a very good outlook but honestly we have so much access to consumer goods now that it is hard to not fall into the trap of waste not, w...

G'day all! What a good weekend so far! Nathan went ballistic in the fibre room yesterday and cleared out all the junk that I had been sorting from the good stuff. Suddenly there was CARPET! Goodness me! There is hope that we will get stuff sorted out in time - we only have four days now! EEEEK! We had a housecooling yesterday so peoples started dropping in and chatting from about 2:30 until 10ish. We got to catch up with a number of people we haven't seen for a hwile, so that was good. (OK I told my friends, Nathan didn't tell his so it was my old social group that showed up). It was quite excellent. Why do I need a doctor? (Because I've had a muscle spasm in my side for over a day now and it is only just starting to ease up? Feels like a stitch. Makes it hard to breath. It is definately muscular cos if I rub the bad bits it eases a lot. No, it will go away eventually. It is just my body objecting to something I've done - I am overly flexible and things...

G'day all! In less than a week I expect we will be in Colorado. FREAK ME OUT! But we don't have the visas yet. We may not get visas. This means we don't go. But we most likely will get visas. But it is possible that we won't. They have our passports and the rest of our entry documents too. Makes it very difficult. Today we are having a little house cooling. I have so much to clear out of the loungeroom, but we have the study almost clear now. The study suddenly seems spacious, now that the stereo with its huge speakers, the two sets of hammerlock shelves, the lounge chair and most of all the JUNK have been moved out. It is now our swap space and the space where we can sort out what we really want to take with us. Assuming we get the visas. I have the feeling that I will have to dump some of my fleece with friends and family, and when they come to visit they can bring along some of it with them, like a couple of largeish ziplock bags or something. Posting stuf...

G'day all! Ah still fun and games here. We are moving stuff out of the house and into the garage and also to Nathan's parents' place (someone asked why not to my parents' place. Umm, well they don't have one except for this little plot of dirt out in the Lilydale Memorial Park under a rose.... not much storage space there! But it does have a nice view of the Dandenongs ). Still no camera progress. Quite annoying cos I keep forgetting to get Nathan to download pics. As I clean out more and more stuff, I keep making discoveries. Mostly they are nasty discoveries, like I have a LOT of stuff that I really don't want, I have a LOT of stuff I do want, and I just in general have a LOT of stuff. I really don't know what do to with some of the yarn I have (and I still have to fix up the cottons with three people!). Most of the pure wool went to the Uniting Care bin yesterday, just before I was asked about it. Mostly it is single balls of yarn and leftovers f...

G'day again all! Our house sitter was around again today helping out with stuff. Tonight he asked "So is it all going to be ready by the 8th?" Umm, no. No it isn't. The 8th is Friday. THIS Friday. The 8th is the day after we do the visa interview. We won't even know fer shure that we are going until then at the earliest. List of things to do this week: a) finish the bathroom (entails a sub list: ring the company to find out why the silicon is still sticky after EIGHT days measure up the next tiling sheet twice, cut it to size, check it, check it again, drill out holes for the plumbing fixtures, check again and glue onto wall. Sounds easy but it ain't. paint the waterproofing membrane around the bath and wait at least one day for it to cure. measure up the next tiling sheet, check it again, cut it, drill out holes for the plumbing, check again and glue onto wall fix up plasterwork behind vanity and along wall (possible job for house sitter's dad who c...