n o d d y b o o m

bash + tomorrow

::  getting ready to party around here  ::

birthday + boy = four

A flag banner for Griffin's room.  I was inspired by this lovely thing, but I wanted something more simple in a color scheme that matches (nearly) a painting in the room.  The banner's 25 yards long at the moment,  too long, really, for Griff's room (what the hell was I thinking?), but a good length for use as a party decoration elsewhere in the house, like perhaps in the dining room (if I zig zag it back and forth across the ceiling several times).  I think I'll keep it long for Griffin's party (this weekend) and then trim it down to a more suitable size for use as a permanent installation in his room later. 

It's amazing that I even made a cake, considering everything going on at the moment in my personal life, but I did and Marley frosted it and decorated it and it was actually quite yummy, especially the frosting.  I liked this recipe.  Griffin picked it out from this Birthday Cakes book.  We cut the recipe in half, added an extra egg and substituted yogurt for buttermilk.  It was good.  Dense, and pretty moist, thank goodness (a lot of cake recipes I've tried turn out rather dry, except for the box mixes; why is that?).  I'd like to keep fiddling with this recipe and create a lighter, fluffier and even moister cake, somehow.  And maybe make a banana cake, instead of chocolate.  I like banana cake.  It reminds me of some of the good moments from my childhood.

I've been tagged by Ms. Vale for an eight-things-meme.  I ?%$##!!! these things (and this is only the second time I've had to do this),  mainly because I'm intolerably shy and self-conscious and don't know what to say and also because I have no one to "tag", because none of my friends have blogs except for one and Ms. Vale's tagged her already, so I will now have to reach my shy self out to the community(?), but I will play along because I like Ms. Vale and am flattered (regardless of my issues) that she cared enough to tag me, so on with it:

The Rules

1) Post these rules before you give your facts

2) List 8 random facts about yourself

3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them

4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they've been tagged

The Facts

1)  I was born with a cyst behind my left ear.  They removed it when I was six.  The surgery left half my face paralyzed for several months.  I remember trying to fall asleep with one eye open.  I couldn't close my eye.  I would close it with my hand.  I was very brave, but I didn't like having to sleep at the hospital alone.  For years after regaining feeling in my face, I hardly needed novocaine when I got dental work done.  Lately, I need nearly twice as much to numb the pain.

2)  I have eleven tattoos and three piercings, not including earrings.

3)  In my early twenties, my Ninjitsu instructor sent me to a psychic to "meet my guardian angel".  I know.  But anyway, it was a lovely experience and the angel's name turned out to be Alavra (unusual, n'est-ce pas?).  Anyway, I forgot about the whole experience.  When my daughter was two, she named her favorite stuffed bunny "Alavra".  A year later, I bought a second bunny, as the first was starting to fall apart.  She named that one "Alavra" as well and it was then that I recalled my own "Alavra" experience.  The other week Marley had an emotional couple of days with some "mean" girls at French camp, and while recalling her experience, she explained that her angel, Alavra was going to speak to the other girls' angels and tell them not to be so mean to her, (bless her).  I have never mentioned my own "Alavra" - angel experience to my daughter. 

4)  I have a very difficult time making decisions.

5)  I am afraid of heights.

6)  I attended eleven different schools between kindergarten and 12th grade.

7)  I very much dislike my handwriting.

8)  My favorite animals are stags, swallows and lambs.

I tag:

theeners

creature comforts

port 2 port

pluckyfluff

one good bumblebee

paper forest

hula seventy

hello yarn

w.i.p.

::  make bacon breakfast  ::
::  buy fuse for the washing machine a.s.a.p.  ::
::  plan b:  call repair man  ::
::  when all else fails, make cake, call it a day  ::

Speaking of cake, I've signed up for a cake decorating class.  There are three spots left, if anyone wants to join me.

::  making something for griff's birthday tomorrow + four years old,  my goodness  ::

letterpress

::  card from port 2 port ::

d.i.y.

::  agenda:  replace broken faucet in kitchen  ::

::  removing this bit was tricky  ::

::  there + all gone = breathe, wipe sweat from brow + sip tea  ::

::  this manual was a wedding gift (nearly ten years ago) = nice to finally crack it open  ::

::  getting the new faucet in was easier than taking the old one out = prettier now + works too  ::

hand + spun

::  the wensleydale  ::

::  plied with linen  ::

secondhand

::  cake toppers from ebay ::

::  gnome puzzle ::

in the mail

Something I ordered from Hello Yarn.  Look how pretty it's packaged.  Once she sent me a tiny plastic lamb with my order.  I love surprises like that.  And I love sheep.  I drilled a hole in it, threaded it and spun it into my last batch of yarn.  Fun.  Couldn't get a decent photo, unfortunately.  I'll have to try again, now that I have my real camera working again.

This is what was in the box.  It's Wensleydale wool top, beautifully hand-dyed.  Part of the delicious Spinning Fiber Club goods I will be receiving for the next three months.  Can't wait to see how it spins up.  No lamb this time, but that's perfectly okay.

on my desk

::  children + drawing  ::

::  pictures  ::

::  handspun + yarn  ::

::  got my camera back = happy girl  ::

body + shop

Woke up with a really horrible kink in my neck/back.  I haven't had one of those in years.  I can hardly move my head.  Hopefully it will work itself out by the end of the day. 

It's probably because of what happened yesterday at the body shop (my car's been in there for a week). 

One week to fix two tiny scratches on the bumper and a small dent in the fender.  So, for a week, Chris and I have been sharing a car and using our bikes, etc. which has been a nice experiment, considering we live in L.A. and nothing's really close enough to bike to.

We were given one estimate and then, naturally, the guy wanted to charge us double.  Double!  He didn't charge us double because we had gotten quotes from two other body shops that were the same as this guy's original estimate (and I reminded him of that), but he kept telling us the work he was doing was worth double and that he would have gotten twice as much had we gone through insurance (uh huh). 

Anyway, he called yesterday morning to say the car was done and that we had to pick it up by a certain time or we wouldn't be able to get it until Monday.  So in we came, paid...  waited 45 minutes...  and my car still wasn't ready.  Not only that, but the paint job was shoddy.  There were runs, bubbles, all kinds of things going on that shouldn't have been going on.  I pointed out the mistakes and the owner tried to have his men fix it on the spot which only made the paint job worse.  Now there were bubbles and buffed out spots that they were trying to shine up.  "Don't worry, no one will ever notice", he says.  Excuse me? "Okay, just take the car and bring it back on Monday for a couple of hours and I'll fix it", he says.  What?  No!!

Can you imagine?  We've been sitting there for 45 minutes, they've already had the car a week, I'm an hour late to Sweet's Craft Shop opening, the car's in crappy shape and this guy wants me to take it home and bring it back on Monday for a couple of hours.  Is he insane?  Definitely.  There's no way I'm going to let him keep my money, take my unfinished car home and then drive my kids to the shop for two hours on Monday so he can continue to try to fix my car.  Forget it. 

A screaming match ensued between him and my husband which ended in us getting our money back (thankfully) and deciding (reluctantly) to leave the car in the shop until Monday, when the owner swears it will be done and done properly.  We'll see.  But I'm very concerned about the whole thing.  Everything about it stinks of bad business and left me feeling taken advantage of in some way, or  like someone had tried to take advantage of me (they did) and still might.  You hear all these stories about body shops ripping people off and stealing their airbags and other car parts and charging them more than they were supposed to for the work they were to do and the problem is that we are completely at their mercy.  I mean, aren't we?  Unless you took some kind of body shop class in college, how are you truly going to have any idea how much it costs to fix your car and how to determine what's wrong with it, etc. so that you can make sure you don't get screwed?  I don't know.  With everything else in my life (except haircuts), I'm pretty much able to avoid this type of situation by doing things myself.  But I certainly can't fix the car.  I just am not capable of doing that, as much as I actually wish that I was.

If anyone has any ideas on how to proceed, please let me know, but for the time being, we're planning to report the body shop to the Better Business Bureau and also plan from now on to check businesses out with the Better  Business Bureau before we take our dealings there.  You just can't be too sure, I suppose, unfortunately.  I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner.  I guess we hadn't yet run into a situation where we had to.  Live and learn, I suppose.  Or take body shop classes in college.  Either way.

Now, if I could just get my body to a (different kind of) shop, perhaps I could convince this kink to go away.