SUP-ER LOGAN!

It's been a long time since me and the socks have gotten down to business.  I thought winter might come-and-go without one single project even getting started!!  I've been distracted by a long list of unexpected house projects (for example, see our blog entry on the flooded crawl space), but a few weeks ago the stars aligned... and so did the socks.

 

Inspired by this photo of my co-worker's 4-year old nephew:  

 

 

Cutest kid, eh?

 ...I created SUP-ER LOGAN!

You can see SUP-ER LOGAN shares the love of the color blue.

He's sporting yellow "goggles".

His pillow case cape says it all: SHAZAAM!

This was one of the funnest critters to make. I really liked trying to re-create the essence of the photo.
SUP-ER LOGAN is destined for his Forever Home with his name-sake in the wilds of Wisconsin.


In other news - the Seattle Metals Guild Lecture Series has resumed!!  Aaron volunteers for the SMG setting up the series (7 years now!).   Last week was the second lecture of the year, with speaker Jenny Fillius (www.jennyfillius.com).  She is a tin "upcycler", which means she takes old cookie (and other) tins, cuts them up, and nails them back together again to make really cool wall hangings.  We'd have to say anyone with a shred of a sense of humor would LOVE her presentation.  Absolutely hysterical with great photos of her tins spilling out everywhere.  And, of course, images of her work.  She does wall pieces - sort of painting sized - that are very clever, all with cut up tins.

This is Aaron, as the sign suggests, welcoming everyone to the talk (he does a great job!).

Finally, on Friday it was time for our annual tradition: Leave work early and go to the NW Flower and Garden Show.  Apparently, it's the second biggest F&G Show in the nation.  We enjoyed smelling and touching all the flowers and this time of year, it's exactly what the soul needs!

Here I am by the Hobbit House display, one of the amazing full-sized demonstration gardens.

In an unprecedented event, Aaron and I made it all the way through the show and did not spend one cent!!! Unheard of!!! It wasn't for a lack of cool stuff.  Had we had a recent lottery win, we may have purchased this $28,000 fence.  You've gotta admit: It is amazing, and it was made by a metal artist right here in Seattle.  It goes on the bucket list of things we dream about.  I think imagining this fence around our front yard was worth the price of admission.

Birthday Month Gets Better and Better

It wasn't enough that we got a new roof for birthday month 2011...but this year Aaron carried on the tradition with yet another fine home improvement.

After several months of nearly no hot water in the kitchen, I lost it.  (That's right, only a small trickle of warmish water since Thanksgiving.)  All I wanted  was to wash my buttery spatula...which isn't easy with cold water.  Somehow I had come to my breaking point yelling out, "Can't we just have hot water in this kitchen!!"  (Aaron would say there might, just maybe, have been a curse or two in there as well, but I don't know what he's talking about!)  Probably about the time I threw the spatula.  Has anyone, besides me, noticed how aerodynamic rubber scrapers are?  Well, I'm sorry my Hubs had to pay witness to all that, because I know he doesn't appreciate the flight of the spatula the way I do.  He very calmly said he'd take care of it.  (eh hem..Aaron, I hope I thanked you.  If I didn't say it out loud, I did say it in my head.  I promise I did.)

The next day I get home from work to a kitchen faucet gushing burning hot water.  YEEHAW!!!  I was so happy I danced around the kitchen and planted a big smoocharoo on my Fella. I have the best Hubs in the whole-wide-world.

Then Aaron took me by the hand and sat me down.  He told me he had some news and I wasn't going to like it....

Apparently, part of getting the faucet fixed included a "free" inspection from the plumber. Hmmm, "free"?   I knew he was right; I wasn't going to like this.  The plumber says that our water-heater is on borrowed time and that we can leave it and risk flooding the mud room with 55 gallons of water, or, get a new water heater right now. 

I pointed out that the plumber had a vested interest in this diagnosis.  Aaron said he checked online and apparently 17 years is kind of a long time for water heaters.  I went to work the next day and ran it past my boss...he knows a thing or two about infrastructure, large and small.  When he didn't even ask one question and just said, "sounds like it's time for a new water heater" I knew the plumber was telling the truth.  Boss Man, is a thoughtful and methodical guy.  He doesn't just willy-nilly recommend a new water heater.  I expected a long list of questions, followed by a long list of options, followed by advice on how to do it ourselves.  When he jumped immediately to, "get that taken care of" I knew there was no room to negotiate. 

I called Aaron.  "I authorize expenditures for a new water heater.  Just don't tell me about it...in my head I'm pretending we're paying in pesos." 

By the time I got home, there it was: the shiny new hot water delivery system.  And let me just say the water all over the house is hot, Hot, HOT!  LOVE IT!!!!!  I can wash buttery spatulas for hours and hours and still have hot water to spare.

We also had some excitement with a broken sump pump.  The quick version of the story is: just days after the new water heater was installed, Aaron discovered that our crawl space was flooded with several feet of water. Okay, that sucks.  I said call the contractor.  He said "no".  I said, call a fix-it man.  He said "no".  I said, go get our way-ward-looking neighbor and see if he knows what to do.  Aaron said, "great idea".  Apparently in the next 90 minutes or so, our neighbor was in the crawl space with hipwaders and beer.  He fiddled with the pump and POOF in minutes the crawl space was drained!!! He's now my favorite neighbor and I'm feeling like I've had just about enough of house fix-it projects for the time being.

That's right...water at least up and over the first step.
One syllable: EWWW

Oh, and a new light switch was installed which doesn't sound like much, but that story has just begun...can't wait to see how it turns out...umm...
So that is how we end Birthday Month.  Hope everyone's houses are in good repair and you're off to a wonderful start of February.  Happy Groundhog Day!