lots…

Saturday. the Village Fire Engine came to Village Sister’s house for the Mr. W’s Birthday Party (to celebrate turning THREE!)

Here’s the cake… notice the decoration!

Unfortunately, he was a little taken aback at the size of the fire engine – but after awhile he came out and sat in the Driver’s seat and in  he crew seats – and had a good time after all.

Here are my two brothers-in-law (an uncle and the father of the birthday boy) talking with the Fire Chief – I guess little boys who want to be fireman grow up to be men who want to be firemen!

Then there was pizza and playtime and cake and party favours. … and then the adults collapsed while the two nephews went to sleep and the baby nursed.   I went shopping (for yarn and tea) and listened to last half of Act Two and most of Act Three of MADAMA Butterfly from the MET.

Before I left at 9 am, I had set my Total Recorder for the Royal Opera’s hit FILLE DU REGIMENT with Natalie Dessay and heartthrob Juan Diego Florez (sigh).  I wasn’t able to hear it until Sunday afternoon as there were more visiting sisters here for the weekend – so we had a big family dinner that night. 

So Sunday afternoon – after a nice long lazy morning, I sat down at the computer and listened – heavenly, divine, incredibly funny – I envy everyone who had/has a chance to see that production.  I hear that it is coming to NYC and will definitely be there!

Then Tuesday morning the local electrician came and did this:

for this:

And here it is after the clean up:

And he installed a programmable thermostat for the furnace and fixed the small chandelier in the den.  That was an interesting thing to do – its as old as the building – about 1900 – it uses a pull chain switch with a central piece containing both the connections to the electrical lines and the pull chain switch mechanism (unlike a normal chandelier with the electrical works in the box under the ceiling plate).  Anyway, it had been acting up last fall and I asked the landlord to look at it – but he said it was broken.  So I went to the internet = there was a part number and the name LEVOLIER in pretty script on the part (brass) (i didn’t take a photo and its installed now).  Anyway, after much searching I found that McGill Electrical had Levolier switches.  So I called several of the companies listed as distributors – but NO ONE had one or would help or would call back or reply to emails.  SO finally I called McGill and after a little bit of conversation and questions, the kind woman asked for my address – and in TWO DAYS I had all three parts that I thought would work.  And YES One of them fit. 

I really should write a letter to them thanking her for her help!  (although I cant imagine any of them were more then 3–5 dollars still…)

So that was a big day… I don’t know what it cost – he was here from 830 – noon – I will be getting a bill – but I had asked the main guy if we could keep the labor around 200…. so fingers crossed.

Now, I am having a big debate about the placement of the chandelier – I think I want it more centered over the workspace – about six inches closer to the window.  However I do like the plate being in the center of the room – I guess we could put a hook and swag the chain over for the chandelier to hang from… but I will see . 

Village Sister’s nanny’ husband (got that?) Martin will come and repatch the old plate (there was a HIDEOUS old two round tube fluorescent light with NO cover there) and the other two holes made in the search for the right spot.  (at least that’s what I was told…)

And then a little touch up paint and done!

The other little thing is to install a dimmer -the light calls for five 60–watt bulbs – i put in 40 watt and they are mighty bright – but I haven’t had a good light on in there since I moved in so it could be just getting used to it – but I think I do want a dimmer.  I wonder I could do that?

And in other news – I upgraded to Adobe Photoshop Elements (the one you have to pay for) and spent most of Sunday (while listening to FILLE and a few other goodies stored up ) and Monday Night reorganizing and finding all the photos on my hard drives into some semblance of order…feels good!

ps where is the snow? it is winter right?

pps more knitting stuff soon.

I have been holding off on this due to my utter disbelief that I was actually able to finally find one.  But since I received an email saying its in transit, I feel a little less superstitious about mentioning it.

Guess what item that tout internets has been lusting after – a certain object for the making of a certain bread touted by the NY Times recently?  And its red?

Hmm?

Just read this on THE PANOPTICON about his books:

I've never counted or catalogued them, until now. That nice Brenda Dayne, hostess of Cast On, mentioned librarything.com many episodes back and I was intrigued. I opened an account and am slowly working my way to the finish line, enjoying the process of handling every book individually. I estimate that I'm a bit less than half done.

The Panopticon: Bookish.

and of course I had to go and see what Library Thing was about – OH DEAR how wonderful.   I SO need to do this – i have a few bookcases in my apartment – ahem, well like , hmm, let’s just say more than 10.  In fact when I moved in (Sept 05) my landlady looked at a set of boxes coming in marked books and with a three digit number ….and looked at me with arched eyebrows.

oh well. I love books and have a hard time getting rid of them – I mean you can’t get rid of Knitting books and Gardening books and then there are all my music books and scores and operas and… let’s not even get started on the mysteries (mainly paper but I add judiciously to the hardback mystery library each year with favorite authors). 

And let’s not get started on DVDs or CDs (especially opera).

I guess its a good thing I live on the first floor.