Ducks in the Amazon River Basin…

I swear…Amazon does occasionally listen.  Either that, or they’ve been stalking my blog and decided to do something nice for me in hopes that I’ll boost their 3rd quarter earnings.

THIS particular offering actually had me drooling.  Pliers?  Oh, yea, baby…bring it on!

Right now, I’m practically wedded to my Xuron Chisel Nose pliers.  They are my go-to’s.  I loved the Chisel Nose so much, I ended up going out and buying a second pair for those REALLY tight spaces…which, in my world, is almost anytime I build something.

Sculpture inherently demands the removal of as much ‘wiggle room’ as possible.

 

I’ve looked at, and drooled over, the Tronex tools for quite a while, as there are plenty of other maillers in my group who swear by them over my beloved Xurons.  There are only 2 reasons why I’ve not jumped at new tools.

1. I love my Xuron’s, and they might feel ‘cheated on’ and
2. HOLY SHIT – look at the PRICE of the Tronex!

Right now, though, my credit card is in time out status, as I’m not buying anything I don’t absolutely NEED because I’m gonna have to dump it in a box and move it, so the Tronex/Xuron/Me love triangle will have to wait until probably September.

Hmmm…my birthday is in September.  Maybe get myself a little something? 😀

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In totally unrelated news – last week, I got to walk to work exactly 1 time.  Rain, a wicked cold, and running for house-related things kinda ate up the rest of my week.  But that one day I did get to march my happy feet on the pavement, I had a solidly FUN experience.

Because of the rain, my normal route was slightly flooded.  The park IS right next to the river, after all, and when it rains, it retains.  We had enough standing water to flood out the walking path right along the river bank.  But looking at the bright side of things, the new puddles did serve to amuse the ducks…

The good news was, the park wasn’t flooded enough for me to have to turn around.  I could still get up the hill and take ‘the high road’ as it were.  Up by the street, the park has not flooded since I’ve been walking things.

When I got to the park on the walk home, I wanted to see JUST how much water was standing, figuring I could hike up the rise if things got too soggy.

And soggy, they were.  There were a couple of large patches of water covering the footpath and surrounding grasses.

But then, I took inspiration from the little duck I’d seen in the morning…

Shoes and socks came off.  Pant legs got rolled up.  And I SPLASHED my way through the standing water.

Why do we stop doing things like this when we’re adults?  It was FUN.

Knock it off, Amazon!

I tell ya…you look at ONE thing on Amazon…

Let me make this perfectly clear, Amazon…I am NOT having a baby.  I’m 50 years old, ferkristsake, and THE BABY FACTORY IS CLOSED!

I will welcome any grandkids once they appear, however…

At least I know where this recommendation comes from…

 

As I’ve got an accepted offer on the new house, and the bank has tentatively accepted my mortgage application, I’m gonna be moving.  The kids and I are splitting up our current household’s stuff, and they use the living room furniture more than I do.  We’ve decided they can keep the couch and chair we got from the Restore shop when we moved into our apartment.

Restore is part of the Habitat for Humanity group – they take in donations and resell them to support their objectives, and I’m happy to have bought used stuff from them.

So, seeing though I’m gonna be living room furniture-less when I move, I’m scouring the ‘net.  One of my regular stops is (of course) Amazon.

While I was clicking through various end tables and daybed frames and other stuff, I came across an object I had to look at, just to clarify what it was.

It was a changing station that you could attach to any level surface (like a dresser or nightstand) to safely change the diapers of any child currently in need of a dry bottom.  Now, I’m not gonna lie – the thing has great potential as a mobile workstation for chainmaille (if it can contain a child, I’ll bet it can keep rings from rolling all over the place!)…BUT….

I’m not in a position just yet to buy things for the new house.  I refuse to buy ANYthing for the new place until I actually have keys in my hot little hands 😀

And, seriously, Amazon?  Ya’ll are 100X worse than the worst office gossip.  I’m surprised they didn’t send me a congratulatory email welcoming my new addition to the world!

/endrant

Now, just to reward ya’ll for getting through my latest Amazon rant…here’s a shot I took of the future Chainmaille Central.  The current owner still has a LOT of stuff to clear out of the house…but I’ve got around 6 more weeks until I can start spreading MY stuff all over this bench!

 

Boxing a Pair of Ears

The SQO and I have been binge-watching the Walking Dead.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a post-apocalyptic story, where a zombie outbreak happened, and the dead almost entirely rule the world.  After the first season or so, he said “It’s like a soap opera…but with zombies.”

I have to agree with his assessment.  We’ve got the tragic triangle:  “I thought you were dead, so I started sleeping with your best buddy.”  We’ve got the child conceived RIIIIIGHT around the time the hubby came back.  We’ve got the moody teen-aged boy, and the outaw’ish brothers who just don’t quite ‘fit,’ but we’ll keep them around because they know their weapons.

And, of course, we’ve got the packs of reanimated dead humans roaming the cities, eating anybody they can get their hands on.

In later seasons, they introduce all these little colonies of live humans, who are (kinda) surviving.  Sometimes, they clash.

I find the show interesting, in that the real monsters in this show aren’t the zombies…but the various humans attempting to carve their own little piece of kingdom out of the wasteland that remains.

If you’ve got a strong stomach, I’d recommend a watch.  Seasons 1-7 are available on Netflix, season 8 can be found on Amazon (but not Prime, so you’ll have to pay for it), and season 9 is set to air in the fall.

So what’s this got to do with ears?

(otherwise known as…get to the freaking point, already??) 

There’s a character they introduced in season 7, the leader of a group called the Scavengers.  She’s got a long face, abbreviated eyebrows, and an extremely Vulcan haircut.  My first thought was:  slap a pair of pointy ears on her, and move her to a new set…

See…

She even cocks one eyebrow just like Spock always did!

 

So, I amused myself today and browsed Amazon for Spock Ears.  It’s a good thing I’m currently in a ‘don’t buy ANYthing, because you’re gonna have to move it!’ mindset, else I’d have a couple new pairs of socks and a coffee cup.

 

Sofa, so Good

A little update for ya’ll on the housing front…

-Home inspection complete.  Some cosmetic stuff, nothing Earth-shattering (or home-dropping) revealed.  Yes, the interior is dated (did I mention the bathroom is SOOOOOO 70’s, with mint green tile and a complete trio of pink fixtures?), but I could see that for myself.  Yes, the roof is older, and will need to be addressed sometime in the next 5-ish years.  And yes, we will need to regrade the land around the foundation ASAP…BUT…this is all stuff I can plan for, deal with, or pay someone to address.

-The prospective mortgage has cleared the first round of underwriting, and is back for the 2nd.    They had a couple of pointed questions that were (surprisingly) easy to answer.

-They’ve officially ‘locked’ in my interest rate.

-The appraisal was Friday, the 1st.  The report has come back, and the home appraises out for a bit more than I offered on the house.  YEA!

-The long and arduous task of cleaning out the home (the gentleman who lived there has been moved to a long-term care facility and his progeny have to remove 30 years of accumulated stuff) has begun.   They’ve a long way to go, however.

-My own personal ‘purge’ of stuff has also begun.  All those wardrobes I accumulated (yes, I mean the fat clothes) have now been donated to the local resale shops in the area.

-Limited New furnishings have been browsed and budgeted for.  I need a lofted bedframe (my bedroom is TINY, so I’m raising my bed off the floor to get more available space), and we’re putting a daybed in the living room instead of a traditional couch.

I’m surprised at how calmly I’m currently taking this…but, then again, the official closing isn’t until July 27th, so I’m still 7 weeks out.  I suspect the gremlins in my head slammed on the panic button so hard and so fast they broke the damn thing, and are currently scheming through several alternatives.