Dragon*Con 2011 and water damage

Husband and I went for the second time this year, which was also D*C's 25th anniversary.

There are tons of pictures on the web, on Flickr, How Stuff Works, CNN, etc. I didn't take many pictures myself, unfortunately.

When it began, I wanted to go to sessions about Whedon, Dr. Who, Writing, and Alternate History/steampunk and Silk Road, the "Asian" track. For the first time this year there was a Dragon*Con app, which was so cool! With a few clicks, I could add the sessions I wanted to attend to my iPhone calendar. I double, triple, quadruple booked myself for nearly every time slot.

What I actually made it to:

• A few steampunk panels, including one about Steampunk and Orientalism, a term that makes me cringe. However, the panelist was very clear that it was a very Eurocentric term to include anything East and South of Europe. One person asked for recommendations for steampunk books set in Asia. The panelist said he couldn't think of any that are available in English.


• A reading by Jammy Wurtz. I want to broaden my reading horizons and picked that reading randomly. She gave out copies of her 4th book in a series of 7 to newbies. I was the only newbie. That one was alright. I wish I went to the author that preceded her; sounds like she wrote romance fantasy/sci-fi. Good thing I can look her up on the app or paper schedule.


• A fan panel where Snape, the Winter Queen from Narnia, and another villian explained their side. Was the weakest of the panels I went to, but they can't all be gems.


• Urban survival in case of zombies -- now I know what the Y2K survivalists are doing. Husband suggested that I take a class on how to use a shotgun. Hmmm.


• Market trends in sci-fi/fantasy -- It was an interesting peek into the business side of publishing.

Spent a lot of time wandering the exhibits. Didn't buy anything. Other than the cost of the membership, my money went to food and drink. A lot of drink. Which is kind of why I missed a lot of the sessions.

Another reason I missed alot of panels: the night before Dragon*Con started, some of the sprinklers in our condo building malfunctioned, spewing water. So I had to stay and take care of that with the maintenance people, calling insurance (which could not find our policy at first), etc.

All in all, however, it was a great time. Definitely thinking of going again next year. Thinking of making a little Jayne hat as a fascinator or headband. I'm not one for dressing up but would like to let my geek flag fly a little. Let's see what's on Etsy....

Moved in!

This weekend was busy, busy, busy. Moved from the western suburbs to downtown Atlanta, and I have pretty much set up and unpacked the study and kitchen. Still lots yet to be done, like getting a closet set up, drapes (hi neighbors! Hope none of them have binoculars), and other odds and ends.

There are still things left at the suburban house to get, like a fish sculpture, pictures on walls, but nothing major.

After 5 days away from work, now I'm back and trying to get into it again. But my mind is still back at the condo. Maybe I'll take Thursday afternoon off. I have a lunch meeting just a mile from the condo. What's the point of coming back to the office?

Plus, by then, then next Torchwood DVD should arrive from Netflix. I am so totally crushing on the Jack/Ianto relationship. The Jack/Gwen thing bores me. Yeah, yeah, newest female character has unresolved sexual tension with male main character, but that's so standard. Hot male main character developing a relationship with hot, young, male administrative staff/sometime field agent -- now that's interesting.

Torchwood is here

I got my copy of season one of Torchwood. Husband's away half of next week so I'll be doing some serious TV watching.

Last Friday, I missed Dollhouse because for some reason, I thought it came on at 10pm not 9pm. And I was all engrossed in watching Serenity, again and missed it.

This blog for the next few weeks will focus on either TV, knitting, or moving. However, reading about other people's moving adventures is about as exciting as watching contractors lay bamboo flooring. And my knitting is all about the Sean Scully Malabrigo garter stitch blanket. Again -- exciting!

So TV it is.

Soothing Garter Stitch

Work is very stressful and dealing with contractors for the new-to-us condo is stressful but in a positive way. I feel like I can't deal with anything more complicated than garter stitch and it's Malabrigo to the rescue!

I have a feeling that the majority of the next few months of posts will be about knitting and the new condo, aspects of my life that are about moving forward, that are fun and exciting for me. There are so many other things that are stressing me out that I don't want to spend the time blogging about unhappy things when that time and effort could be spend doing things that make me happy.

So, here's a pic of the Sean Scully Malabrigo afghan (scroll down) to date. Instead of black and white, I'm using orange and yellow, specifically, Tigerlily and Pollen, with some KnitPicks Merino Bare. And I'm adding an off-set strip of purple and grey, specifically Purple Mystery and Pearl, to the bottom. And the rest will be big green and little blue vertical stripes. Perhaps I should sketch it out, but instead, here's picture showing roughly where the elements will be:

Close-ups of the the pieces that are done or mostly done:

Basically, I'm holding 2 strands together and knitting on size 10.5 US needles. Malabrigo is kettle-dyed and so some skeins will be more solid, and others show more variation in color intensity. You can really see that in the purple above. I ran out of the darker, more solid purple, so went to Knitch to find something comparable. (Knitch doesn't sell Malabrigo worsted, but does sell the silk/merino DK weight. The Needle Nook does sell Malabrigo worsted, but was out of the purple.) I picked up 2 skeins of Manos del Uruguay in Aster, a purple that matched very well.

Knitch has a huge selection of Noro yarns and as much as I've seen on other blogs about Noro, I've never worked with it. I've heard they're scratchy. Considering that I'm surrounding myself with the ultrasoft Malabrigo, I wasn't interested in working with anything scratchy.

An aside, on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me last week, Mo Rocha made a crack about handmade sweaters always being itchy and this week, he made an apology because the knitting community contacted them to protest (the words knitting community made the audience laugh. I swear, we get no respect). They also mentioned Ravelry.

However, I found some Noro with high cotton content and walked away with not one, but two skeins of Noro: Taiyo in color 2 (grey, green, and peach) and Furisode in color 1 (grey, orange and lime green):

Clearly, I have cast on for another project -- a center top-down triangular shawl, garter stitch, on size 9 needles. I'm telling you, I can't deal with anything more complicated than that.

The peach from the Taiyo will echo the orange from the Furisode, and the lime green in the Furisode will echo the bright green in the Taiyo. That's serendipity because I sure didn't plan that when I bought the yarn.

In other knitting news, I finished the commissioned baby blanket: Basically it's one strand of blue and one of white Cotton Tots and one strand of navy blue Cotton Classic, using size 11 needles, cast on about 100 stitches and knit stockingnette and reverse stockingnette to make a square with in a square effect. Finish with three strands of Simfonia navy blue yarn held together and single crochet the border with a size N needle until bored. Took me about a month.

I call it the commissioned blanket because it's for a client of Husband's. Today, Husband was at the office working on a case for that client and I was at the condo with the client's husband who we will most likely hire to lay down our bamboo floor. I gave them the baby blanket today for their new grandson.

Closed!

Today, we finally closed on the condo! Woo hoo!





Currently, my commute looks like this. That's the Atlanta skyline below. The exit sign says Six Flags over Georgia. That's how far out of town I live. In my commute, I start way out on the west side, drive through the city, and out the other side, to my office.



Yeah, 26 miles/45 minutes one-way.

At my new place, the commute will be only 10 miles. But I'll be using surface streets, not the freeways, so it'll still take me some time, about 30 minutes. Yay! If I choose the right route, I can easily swing by my favorite yarn shop, Knitch in Virginia-Highlands. Double yay!

And I have options for a pottery place: Callanwolde (near Virginia-Highlands), Chastain which is way on the north side, or Mudfire, which is 10 minutes from the office. Hmmm. But it'll be a while before I start pottery again. Need to figure out all the house stuff first.

The condo has a terrible mold problem, so tomorrow, we're having a mold remediation service come in. Once that's done, we'll have the HVAC people in. Then the duct cleaners. Then the flooring people. Then the painters. Then the roller blind people. Then we move in! Yay!

And at some point in there, we'll buy a refrigerator. And figure out what to do with our current house.

All that's yet to come. For now, I'm just celebrating that after 3 months, we finally, finally, actually got to close!

It couldn't last

Project monogamy is just not for me. I've been working on a baby blanket that was commissioned by one of Husband's clients. She offered to pay but of course I turned that down. How would I price it? She's a gatekeeper of sorts and has the ability to keep referring cases to Husband. So it'll be a freebie (as always).

The baby blanket is all cotton and knit on size 11 US needles. It's flying by and great mindless knitting, especially when speed reading through the Twilight series of books. Now the books are done and the baby blanket is no longer enough. Plus it's too big to keep carrying around in my purse.

So last night I started a beret, using a purple varigated Manos del Uruguay yarn. This will be my portable project and will replace the beret I lost last week.

In condo news, we're a chapter 34 of the on-going saga. After some last minute revelations about a huge lien on the condo, it seems we may finally be able to close next week, about 12 weeks later than the original closing date. I'll believe it when I get the keys in my hands.

Forget it!

Pretty much, no lender will lend us money to buy the condo because 23% of the HOA fees are late and there so many foreclosures in the area.

So we are going to ask for our earnest money back since we're not the reason for the rejection and then take a break from the condo hunting thing.

Dang. We both really, really liked the unit, the area, etc. I was really looking forward to having no yard and to cutting my commute from 26 miles one way to 10 miles one way.

Double dang.

Not again

Our mortgage application has been turned down again. Something about too many foreclosures (including the unit we want, hmmm) in a 2 mile radius, etc. Commencing Operation Lowering Expectations now.

I have to remind myself that this condo is a want, not a need. Yes, it's a great deal (if we could get a loan!) but the building won't disappear. At some point, the housing market will stabilize and we can take a look at it again.

The old waiting game

Still haven't closed on the condo. The mortgage broker is saying that the as of January 1st 2009 there have been 500 changes to the guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The mortgage lender we're going with is not approved by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or any government lenders and they are the only ones doing loans right now. Plus, the condo property we're looking at is in a declining market with 15 foreclosures within a 2 mile radius of the condo and there are also 25% of residence in that specific building that are defaulting on there HOA dues.

All kinds of happy news, eh? At least we do have a house already, and have no pressing need to move, so all in all, it's not a stressful situation. Unless you consider waiting stressful in and of itself.

What is stressful, on the other hand, is work. A funder is coming to do a monitoring visit at the end of the month and we have not been meeting our client numbers (duh, it's a recession! No one's starting businesses now). Plus I'm trying to balance our organization's budget and again, the recession is making it hard. I have nightmares that all our funding is pulled and we have no money and I have to lay everyone off and I'll lose my job. The impending visit from the funder is not helping my stress levels.

staycation

Aaaaaaaaand I'm back!

From Dec 24, 2008 to Jan 4, 2009, I was on staycation. Loved it and didn't want to come back. I slept in every day, watched hours of TV, finished knitting projects, read "trashy" novels, started a painting, and did some packing. I packed up the wedding china, the wine glasses, and all the small pictures. The walls are looking a bit bare.

Sorted through the jewelry, paring it down to the stuff I wear regularly and the special occasion pieces, and ended up with only about a third of what I had before. The rest is stuff like $12 earrings from Kohl's or clip-ons my mom gave me. Not really anything with any resale value. I'm thinking of donating it to Dress for Success or something.

There were days I didn't leave the house, not even to walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail. Towards the end, the computer at home conked out so I didn't even have internet access. It was kind of nice to be all cocooned and incommunicado with the rest of the world, except through the TV.

Husband was very jealous. He did not have a staycation, and he was sick.

Good thing we didn't go anywhere. We still haven't closed on the condo and every few days I had to make copies of our personal documents and run them over to the mortgage broker. Gah.

Who's the bailout for?

So the banks get a zillion dollars for the bailout and my mortgage company won't lend us the money to buy the condo unit. Their "excuse" is that 20+% of the units are in arrears on their homeowners association fees.

Fine. If they don't want our business, we'll find another bank that does.

What burns me is that our current mortgage is with that bank and we've never been late with a payment.

So, we haven't closed on the condo, but have deferred it to the end of the year.

Gah.

Measuring for the drapes

Still have not closed on the condo yet -- that's next Friday. However, Husband and I did go back to the condo yesterday with the mold inspector. We do have black mold, aka toxic mold. Great.

On top of the stove, frig, and washer and dryer we will need to buy, we can add new water heater and entirely new HVAC system. We were going to leave the w/d in the current house, but they may be making the trip with us now.

While we were there, I took measurements, including the bank of windows that stretch 11 ft tall and 26 ft wide.

Once home, I started measuring our furniture and was happy to see that it should all fit in the new place. Eventually, we will replace our foam and fabric couches with corners scratched up courtesy of a dearly departed cat, with the leather couches we've been wanting for years.

Tomorrow, Husband and I are off to Miami. He's got a work related thing, and I'm just along for the ride. Lucky for us, it's the same weekend at Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami.

Only knitting, now

Yesterday I went to the pottery studio to pick up pieces that were fired. It was kind of sad, because now that I'm moving, I won't be back at the Mable House to do pottery.

Actually, since all our pennies will be going towards the condo, the repairs (it was a foreclosure property, so the former tenants weren't too careful in removing things), a new refrigerator, stove, and washer/dryer. So no more pottery for a long while.

That leaves knitting and reading as my only hobbies for the foreseeable future. This is when having a stash comes in really handy.

Made a bid

Over the weekend, Husband and I went to look at condos in downtown Atlanta and this morning he put in an offer for a condo on the 23rd floor in Museum Tower, overlooking Centennial Olympic Park, the World of Coca-Cola, and the Georgia Aquarium.

So. Excited.

Because of the down economy, the asking price is ridiculously low. I mean, in good times, the asking price would have been at least half a million dollars if not more (totally guessing here). But now it's nowhere near that amount.

Now we wait to see what the sellers say. And no more new trips for us, not even to Wisconsin for Christmas and especially not to Taiwan for Chinese New Year.

Shopping for Condos and Cars

Yesterday Husband and I went to see a 2 bed/ 2 bath condo in downtown Atlanta, at Twelve Centennial Park. Husband wants to live in a highrise in the downtown area, not trendy Midtown, nor upscale Buckhead, two areas seeing many new condo towers go up.

The unit we saw was about 1200 sq ft (including balcony), about half of the 2100 sq ft (not including patio and yard) that we have now. We saw about 3 units: facing SE towards the city, facing SW facing Centennial Olympic Park, and then a furnished unit, which gave us an idea of how much space we would have to move around once we had furniture in there.

Atlanta may not have a river, lake, or any other body of water, but it certainly has the freeway. I can imagine sitting out on the porch, watching the never ending stream of cars go by, especially at night. Husband likes the sound of the cars, of the feel of being in the city, so different from the quiet of the suburbs.

Given the softening housing market and possibility of interest rates dropping even more, now is a great time to buy. On the other hand, what would we do with our current house? We would probably rent it out.

We walked around the neighborhood, to get a feel for it. It's next to a MARTA stop so getting to the airport would be easy. A W hotel/condo is going up next door, it's in between Georgia State University (my alma mater) and Georgia Tech, and there's a possibility of a grocery store being built in a few years across the street.

Interestingly, 70% of the units at Twelve are one bedrooms. Guess that tells you what kind of people live there.

From hip, downtown condo, we went out to the northern suburbs of Roswell and Marietta to go car shopping. I think it's time to retire my 1997 Honda Accord for a newer 2005 Honda Accord. Yesterday was about test driving, not really about buying. Which was good because I didn't find the one I really liked in my price range.

In the end, we went to Harry's Farmer's Market in Marietta (possibly even the one that Alton Brown films segments of Good Eats at), got some kabobs and sausages, and went home to our suburban house to grill out. Certainly if we lived in a condo we wouldn't be able to do that.

All this is speculative, but it's certainly whetted our appetite to see more condos. So I went on line and contacted several more condos.

Come Monday, we'll see how many e-mail us back.