Well that was fun

I was on the way out the door to have lunch with a friend. My mom had come over to watch the kiddos...and the earth started shaking. I live probably 10 miles from the epicenter. It shook quite a bit here. Only the shower doors fell off. Thank God they fell into the shower and that the glass didn't break. I was able to fix that easy enough.

6 is still pretty shaken up. I found some color pages from the USGS that explain the earth's crust, mantle and core, and also show types of faults. I hope this satisfies his curiosities. The other kids were less disturbed by this afternoon's events.

So while that was fun...my lunch was the real FUN!
I got to meet a knitter at the local Corner Bakery. I went to high school, college, and even China with this special knitter. Then when we lived in different cities, we lost touch with one another. I was so surprised to see her in Michael's a few weeks ago. And really excited to discover that she's a knitter and even on Ravelry too. It will be so fun catching up...and maybe soon we can start exploring some of the not so local LYS in our area together. Thanks for a fun lunch. =0)

Stereo Update #3

I think we're getting closer. I did ask M if we'd be able to watch the Olympics, and he wasn't sure. I don't think I'll sign up for the Ravelympics. My knitting time is totally sucked up by the construction project. And if I'm not watching my favorite sports on TV, then I probably won't be sitting knitting.

Here is the speaker in the backyard. Those wires need to connect to the back.


Here is the left side of the fireplace. The main channel speaker will go in the MDF panel that's there. There's another panel like this on the right side of the fireplace for the sub woofer.


Here's the end of all those blue tubes. Each wire needs to be connected to something on one of those plates.


There are a few holes like this in the house. They were cut when there wasn't space in the attic for the drill to access the wall. These will need to be patched. Then the wall repainted. There's some discussion about what color the wall should be. M is leaning towards metallic blue. That has me a bit nervous.


As of last night, all the holes in the ceiling are cut and speakers are connected to the wires in the attic. We can't test them until the wires are connected to those plates and then the equipment is brought in. When we get there, M will pop little grill plates on each of the speakers. They'll be white except for the wall speakers that will be painted wall color.


Each of the bedrooms and the kitchen now have these little power/volume controls next to the light switches.

Our kitchen light gave out, and since he was in the attic anyways, M looked to see if we could put a can light in this hole, or locate a speaker here. Neither works as there is house structure in the way. We need to pick a new light...so I can see to cook, but we're having trouble agreeing on one we both like.

Here's the entry light. (Ballard Design)

Here's the light over the kitchen table. (West Elm)

The kitchen light will be between these two. We tend to like lighting that we can't afford, so we search forever to find something that we like that's inexpensive. We have this one in our front bathroom, but would consider buying it again. I like this one, except it's more than we can spend on a light, and fabric isn't a good option in my kitchen with all the little ones (you wouldn't believe the number of times I've cleaned yogurt off the ceiling...and my kids are good...it just splashes when spilled). I like this one, but wonder if it looks more like it belongs in a bathroom than a kitchen. This one (in the checkerboard) is M's favorite. I think I like the pleats, but I'm not sure. And this one is good too, but M doesn't like it. Any opinions?!? Suggestions?!? Please help! If we can't decide soon, the time will change, and I'll be cooking in the dark. For now, we're lucky that it's still light at 8pm and we have lots of windows.

I almost forgot...and here's the speaker in the garage. This one is connected at the speaker, but M needed a soldering iron to install this switch and the one for the backyard. Yes, those are Christmas lights. M strung them from the rafters last year, and decided it was too much work to remove them, so we've been enjoying them all year. We have a little remote switch for those.

3-isms

Last year, I'd post 2-isms. I've been saving a few good ones and meaning to type them out.

In a public restroom with my mom, 3 says: "Hey, they have bird houses in here!" (She was looking at the feminine waste receptacles. The ones that sit on the floor between 2 stalls with the swinging lid.)

After church: "I got to stand on church's couch so I could sing!" (She meant the pew.)

Walking up to church last Sunday: "Ope! That's my church's hat!" (I went to their website and I couldn't find a photo to show what she means. But, our church's main building sort of looks like a pizza hut.)

Bullet Points

Right now, I'm not sure how else to organize my thoughts. They're so random for this post.

• I've had internet all week, as not as much work gets done on the house during the week. Also, I anticipated the drywall going back up soonish. And that's another time I'll be un-plugged for a bit. I realize now, that won't be happening until next weekend at the earliest.
• M came home with paint samples, except it's a two part system. To even test out the colors we'll be mixing the parts. He's leaning toward a metallic blue. I picked a black cherry.
  
• We started staining the shelves that go on either side of the fireplace. I figure there's somewhere near 30 hours of work that need to be done on just the shelves. YIKES!
• VBS is next week. I'm in charge of the crafts for Kindergarten 1. There's so many kids...we have 2 rooms of Kindergarten. I'll post some of the numbers because it is just unreal to me. I'm blown away every year. This is my 3rd year working VBS since having kids.
• If I don't have time for email or blog next week...VBS is why.
• I ripped out my Sanity Sock. Last night I CO with 60 stitches. Taking out one of the purl stitches between pattern repeats seemed the easiest fix. I'll update when I get a few repeats in and can see where this is going. If this doesn't work, I found that there's a simple sock pattern on the Jitterbug Ballband...so I'll be trying that.
  
• Rosa's socks are still a toe away from starting #2. I might just leave these on hold until I can show someone in person and get an opinion. Photographing my own feet doesn't leave the most pleasing results.
• This week, I finally moved Square Cake over to a NEW bamboo circ. I'll have to figure out where I am in that pattern. I really want this for M's office Christmas party next year. It's one of the few times M and I enjoy a fancy dinner out.
• I CO for a BYOB. I didn't check gauge, just grabbed the recommended needles. I'm way off. But, I figure this will just make a bigger (not quite as sturdy) bag. I know I'll be making more than one...as a looser bag, this will be good for beach towels at the least. I'm using some stash and the yarn from Grace in my Dishcloth Swap package.
  
• I was cruising Ravelry and found a link posted in a group for a free CD download. I just downloaded it, so I can't give a full review yet...but if you go here...and get the CD for yourself, let me know what you think of these boys.
• I'm nervous for the start of the school year, but I'm looking forward to the return of routine. It's hard for me to remember what day of the week it is this summer.
  

Orange Day

The Friday before VBS we celebrated ORANGE DAY!

We started off the morning with our ORANGE collages. Early in the summer, the kids helped to separate all the craft supplies by color so it was easy to quickly pull out a box. Only ORANGE colored pencils, markers, crayons, stamp pads, foamies, stickers, and yarn. I let the kids have hole punches, scissors (plain and zig-zag), glue, glue sticks, tape, and double-stick tape. They have a ball with all these supplies.


Our snack before our friends came over to play ORANGE kitties.


In cleaning out her garage, my mom found a stack of ORANGE cones. They must have been from when my dad was my brother's soccer coach. The kids had a blast with 10 ORANGE traffic cones. And I know I'll appreciate these for setting up relay games in the future.

Our lunch was...mac-n-cheese, carrots with orange fiesta dip, mango, nectarine, mandarin oranges, cheetos, and TJ's tropical carrot juice. The kids all did great trying some new things. 3 LOVES mandarin oranges. Who knew?

And the highlight of the day....our little science experiment. In case you want to try this at home. Here are the supplies: shallow pan, milk, food coloring, dish soap.


Pour a enough milk to cover the bottom of the pan and drop food coloring around. Notice how it pretty much stays where it is. Here we used Red and Yellow...because we wanted to make ORANGE .


Just a drop of dish soap and BAM! This is so fun.

After about a minute, the kids decided this looks like Mars.

You can google if you want to know why this happens.