  Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net |
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25 February 2007
The New Bookcases Are Restocked
 24 February 2007
"Ding, Dong, the Oak is Dead..."
 Upon rising this morning, we got the two dark bookcases and one of the oak-finish bookcases into the truck bed. Unfortunately the second oak bookcase would not fit, so I popped the hatch on the car, folded down my back seats and the passenger front seat. The other oak case just fit in the body of the car, although we couldn't latch the hatch. James and I bungee-corded it in, and I bungee'd the door to the latch and we wended our way to Goodwill. Watching the hatch door in the rear view mirror was a quick lesson in aerodynamics; as I speeded up it rose, as I braked at stop signs, it lowered.And so the oak monstrosities are gone. James gathered his models and trucked (literally <g>) to the IMPS meeting. I backed my car out into the driveway and swept out the garage, which hadn't been done since last fall. Since I was out there anyway, I also got out the Ortho and sprayed around the garage doors and also right at the foot of the steps where we had the ants running last August. I'm not taking any chances with the little buggers. When that was finished I had a WallyWorld trip, since I was out of oatmeal and yogurt. Got a few other groceries we needed. I can't seem to get out of WallyWorld for under $50 most times. $51 today. Back at the house, I assembled the record stand I had bought a month ago at Linens'n'Things. At some point I will get the Crosley phonograph so I can play Mom's 78s, but right now all I can budget is a stand. I am going to put James' records in it. I want the stand that is $20 more, since it has a shelf for my 45s (it's linked here). When we get the Crosley I will either put it downstairs, or put the stereo-phonograph I have downstairs; then James can play his records when he's modeling. (I should get rid of a few of my LPs. I have bought all the George Winston LPs I have on CD as well, so I could play them at work.) So tonight we made a quick stop at the Borders in Buckhead (man, and I thought we had trouble driving through Buckhead years ago; the traffic is even worst now, with all of the upscale restaurants and bars). James finally found "Launch" magazine, which is only being sold at selected Borders; the Buckhead store is the largest in the area. I found a very interesting book called Huck's Raft, a sociological study of American childhood. Then we went to Ikea for supper—I'm very fond of their chicken marsala—and we bought two more Billy bookcases. They're now downstairs waiting to be assembled. (Ikea also had some little scatter rugs for $2. We bought one for Willow, who is very reluctant to stay downstairs with James when he models; she wants desperately to be with him, but she also is upset when "the pack" is not together. We have put the scatter rug in her crate so it will get her scent on it, and then we'll put it downstairs. Maybe it will make her more comfortable. Also, in the scratch'n'dent room, we found a little plastic dog food bowl in lime green for twenty cents. This can go in the car with the free Lassie bowl we got last year and these can be Willow's bowls when we go traveling.) [11:20 p.m. Bookshelves are up. Took us an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe a few minutes more. Did make one boo-boo. The bottom shelf on one case is backwards, with the raw side out. Unfortunately we didn't notice it until everything was hammered together (the back nailed on and all that). Hm. Delta Apple Barrel Gloss has a similar brown. Maybe I can cover it up with my trusty paintbrush, or at least make it less noticeable. It doesn't make any difference to the strength of the unit, it's just an esthetic thing. Oh, here's the stand, Emma.] Labels: books, bookshelves, dogs, Ikea, records 18 February 2007
Project Library, Part 1
When last we met...James and I went to Ikea last Saturday and bought two 31" wide Billy bookcases with the height extensions. We had emptied the old bookcases, piling the books haphazardly nearby, and moved the shelves out to the hallway temporarily—since he was working this weekend—for transport to Goodwill next weekend, vacuumed the space, then we put together the new bookcases and put them in place.At 10:30 this morning, after eating breakfast during an episode of Wishbone (how appropriate!), I trucked downstairs. The "reloading" took awhile because I wanted to categorize the books, so I had to pick through them as I reshelved. I started with a bottom shelf of oversized books of every persuasion, including James' big Buck Rogers in the 24th Century strip compilation volume, and another bottom shelf of full-color heavy paper aircraft magazines. There are also three shelves of books about airplanes, one of paperback books about aviation during World War II, then hardback books about World War II aviation, a shelf just of World War II, a shelf of military-type books (including Tom Clancy's nonfiction), a shelf of books about Vietnam and Korea, a shelf of science fiction oriented nonfiction, a miscellaneous shelf which includes medieval books, and a shelf of rocketry/space/modeling books. We managed to collect, before they quit making them, a black tower unit that is 12 inches wide. Presently it was beside to the two oak bookcases that I hate, next to the door opening into the room. But when we buy the next two Billy units to replace the oak bookcases, the three units next to each other will not fit and allow the door to open all the way back to the doorstop. So I emptied the tower unit and "walked" it across the room; it fit just right between the side of the Billy and the window ledge. Then I reshelved most of what was in there: things like the Red Cross survival manual and other books about dealing with crisis, the money management/smart shopping books, etc. I had some nonfiction books about children's literature that I had stored there, too, but I put these on top of the bookcases with the St. Nicholas volumes. Here are the two Billy bookcases and the tower:  Would you believe all those books in the Billys were in two of these?:  While I was down there I also rearranged the shelves in the St. Nicholas bookcase (in part to show off the beautiful St. Nicholas statue my cousin Deanna made for my mom and who now "guards" the magazines), and rearranged the Christmas/seasonal books. Then I started emptying out the oak-finished bookcases, but only managed one before Mr. Stomach started to growl. I'd worked down there nearly six hours on a cup of latte yogurt, a glass of milk, and one of those Special K protein bars. St. Nicholas guards St. Nicholas:  Half the "icky oak" bookcases emptied:  When I got upstairs to have some more milk and a SlimFast meal bar, there on Design on a Dime they were re-doing a couple's library! Came out too cool, too! (But we have more books...LOL.) [Update: 6 p.m. James is home with Boston Market chicken. After Design on a Dime I emptied the other oak bookcase and vacuumed again.] Labels: books, bookshelves, library Happy Anniversary!
11 February 2007
Lots Bigger Than a Breadbox
I had to raise myself from torpor this morning. I don't know what is with this cold, but it is leaching away so slowly. I still get hoarse at night and still cough occasionally and am so damn tired.Anyway, it was time to get back to business, since all the holidays are over. We went to Ikea and bought the first two Billy bookcases of the remainder we need to finish the library. These are the two that will be used for James' nonfiction books. We bought the extenders for the top, so we have nearly nine feet of bookcase (by five feet wide). We assembled them tonight in about 90 minutes (we were moving fast on the last one because we wanted to see the AKC Agility Championships). Right now the old bookcases are out in the hall near the laundry room and there they will have to stay for two weeks since James has to work all of next weekend (he's got a class on a new system). The next weekend he's free (knock on wood), we'll take them to Goodwill, since they're still good (just not large enough). So that's my project for next weekend, reshelving the books. I'll try to keep all the different categories—aviation, space, military history, etc.—on their own shelves. The next bookcases to go will be the ones near the door to the library. These are still good and will go to Goodwill as well, but I'll be glad to get rid of them. They are "oak" finish and I loathe oak. This set will be for the biographies, the travel books, the animal books, the space program books, the trivia books, the few science books, and the miscellaneous books, like The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection. Oh, and we did actually buy a breadbox. James has complained that our potatoes always sprout or turn green before we can use them. He was reading a book or magazine about keeping food and it said that potatoes age quickly in light and in the open. Ours are in an open bin on top of the microwave, near the kitchen window. So last Thursday after work I did a major clean out of the pantry and left enough room for one of Ikea's wooden breadboxes. We'll be keeping potatoes in there from now on. Labels: books, bookshelves, food, kitchen, library 10 February 2007
All In Red With a Hint of Pink
Valentine's Day decorations, of course.Late afternoon was not a good time to take a photo of the porch: everything is too contrast-y. Some of the winter decorations I replaced outright, like the wreath, and with others I just applied hearts. You can't see it, but both snowmen in both chairs are holding heart-shaped "balloons" (red hearts on wire stems).  The snowflakes and mittens are gone from the foyer for a while:  Here's a detail of the table—those bright hearts are from Hobby Lobby; I think they're candle holders—and the Valentine tree. It's actually a bottle-brush Christmas tree with the requisite hearts strung on with embroidery thread.  Hearts and mirrors and bouquets in mugs.  Perked up the winter decorations with some Valentine decor on the table:  Since the kitchen/dining decor is cows and apples, the pink cow was definitely a keeper:  08 February 2007
One
Missed an anniversary between being busy and not feeling well: last Saturday was one year that we closed on the house.Now look at it: full of books, a dusting of Christmas magic, and the main feeding point for several dozen birds. :-) Labels: anniversary |
