Lisa: sewer gas may be affecting my brain

We have a drain in our laundry room floor! Yay! That is something I never thought I would be cheering about. Anyway, we rented an electric jackhammer thing from Diamond Rental and found that the potential drain was indeed a (totally corroded) drain with a (concrete-filled) U-bend right beneath it connected to a pipe that goes directly to the sewer. Short of a perfectly preserved and functional drain, this was the best possible scenario. Our friends at Action Plumbing came back and--for the low, low price of $400--cut off the old U-bend, installed a new U-bend, bowl, and drain cover, and ran a bunch of water down the pipe to make sure it drained the way it was supposed to. Then they filled up the hole around the pipes with cement and cleaned up the mess. I spent yesterday cutting and sticking down vinyl tile, caulking, filling the gaps under the wall with spray foam, and applying vinyl coving (I think that's what it's called).

When it came time to install the washer and dryer, the washer went in fine but we didn't have a power cable for the dryer--probably because we bought it at Costco instead of a real appliance store. I snuck into Home Depot at 9:15 pm when they came out to lock up the snowblowers for the night (suckas!) and made them sell me a cable, but it was all for naught. Our dryer hose isn't long enough to reach the hole on the back of the dryer, which is at the very bottom. So, it's back to Home Depot today to get a longer dryer hose.

BUT! A drain! We are almost there.

For the final entry in the saga of the laundry room, click here.

Lisa: And now, the news we have all been waiting for

Here's the latest picture I took of my second try of the Ribby Cardi back piece. It's actually about a foot long now, and going much better! The shorter needles (and the pattern correction) helped a lot. Next up: not screwing up the decreases.

For the next entry in the saga of the Ribby Cardi, click here.

AND! The laundry room ordeal is over at last. The washer and dryer are hooked up--we even did a bunch of laundry yesterday. The drain is working fine, and the only problem we had after moving the washer and dryer in is that the sink doesn't fit in the laundry room any more. I can live with that!

(As always, click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture.)

Lisa: no turning back now

I finished programming the Concert Black website yesterday and have been submitting it to search engines all morning. Scary! Anyway, check it out and see what you think.

For the backstory on Concert Black, look here, here, here, and here.

Sarah: No House, No Husband, No Pictures of Crafts

Things I've been doing and not telling the internet about: knitting, sewing, and otherwise crafting for Christmas gifts; preparing to move out of my apartment; studying for finals (obviously.); working at The UPS Store for the holidays.

I've been meaning to tell the internet where to get good Christmas gifts for itself or friends. Some places have been suggested by other sites I visit, but they're all good!
Amyville because, how cute is that fortune cookie bracelet?!
paperdoll is pretty expensive, but it makes me want to become rich and metropolitan with a new wardrobe.
So, I know it's weird to suggest Old Navy for Christmas shopping, but if you look at how much stuff is on sale for cheap, you will think it is weird NO MORE.
C.D.s are always a good gift, and Virgin Record Stores are by far the best for selection and price. Well, maybe a grocery store would have better prices, but Virgin has better prices than those unnamed book/movie/music/cafe stores, and you'll feel so much cooler than if you were in Walmart.
I discovered Method tonight through ljcfyi, and it's totally cool. Pretty design and good for the environment too! I got the Come Clean screensaver for myself tonight, and I can't stop watching it. Funny.
Any Apple dealer would sell you an iPOD, my personal recommendation for someone that you REALLY love.
One stop shopping for everything that is fabulous and fabulously priced? You'd be looking for Target.
I'm sure I've forgotten some places, but I like the ones I gave you, dear internet. You'll just be jealous that you couldn't recieve a gift made by me. Those are reserved for close friends and family. But I love you too, internet.

Lisa: Trillian

I downloaded Trillian the other day, and I have to say it is pretty cool. You can use one central program for instant messaging through AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN (Hotmail) and Yahoo!. Also, you can sign in with more than one account at a time on each service. To make it even cooler, you can install Trillian on a network drive and then run it from any computer on the network, or on a USB key and run it from any computer you plug the key into--while maintaining all of your preferences, buddy lists, etc. Unfortunately, Trillian isn't Mac compatible--if you know of a good Mac alternative, post it in the comments. I know Sarah, for one, would be interested. (Has anyone used Adium?)

In other Trillian news, I saw the trailer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie before watching National Treasure with my family the other day. My little brother and I were the only ones in the theater who clapped after the preview, and everyone in my family craned around to see who the big dorks were and give them a disapproving stare. Hey, what can I say? I think the movie has a lot of potential, and certainly has more credibility with me than a certain other book-turned-movie Jim Carrey-starring Harry Potter coattails-riding popular phenomenon. (If you know what I mean, and I think you do.)

Lisa: Learning is hard.

I ruined my new sweater. Right before Thanksgiving, I got a gorgeous light pink lambswool sweater with a wide ribbed band at the bottom and a sort of open cowl neck with a pretty pointelle (?) pattern. The brand is I.N. San Francisco (so easy to search for on Google!) and I bought it at Dillards. I wore the sweater once and it was fabulous. Anyway, the tag said "hand wash cold, lay flat to dry," but for some reason I figured "machine wash warm, lay flat to dry" would be fine. I was wrong. The fibers have irreparably shrunk, and no amount of re-wetting and stretching will make a difference. Dillards won't exchange it because I don't have tags or a receipt (because I never anticipated returning such a perfect sweater), and besides, they are sold out of the pretty pink and only have a dirty-looking off-white left in stock. I can't find the sweater on the Dillards website, so I can't even order a new one and just chalk the cost up to experience. ARRGH! I just want my sweater back! I promise to follow the washing instructions next time!

Lisa: Unexplainable

Why am I always liking the novelty t-shirts? Especially the geeky ones?

Lisa: fancy pants

I am wearing new pants today (at least, they feel new because I finally got around to hemming them up to a wearable length), and although they are very cute, the number of closures they have seems a bit excessive. A zipper, two buttons, and three hook-and-eye sets might be a little much for someone who has to go to the bathroom as often as I do.

Today's question for the interweb: What do you know about Boston Terriers--and what do you think of them?

Lisa: O, Tenenbaum!

I procrastinated putting up holiday decorations this year, but I'm glad I finally got around to it. There's nothing like a Christmas tree to make a house feel homey. Now we have a whole year to figure out how to string up Christmas lights outside with no handy electrical outlet.

Somehow in the holiday madness I found some time to work on my Ribby Cardi, and you can actually see some progress! Here's a picture of the finished back panel (click on the thumbnail for a larger image):

The instructions for the neck shaping on the left front piece kind of confused me, but with the help of a Christmas gift from Dave, I unpicked only what I had done wrong and redid it. I'm now about 10 inches into the right front piece. Woohoo!

For the next entry in the saga of the Ribby Cardi, click here.