Space Case Disgrace

I've been having sleep problems on and off for a few years now and I'm finally doing something about it.  I saw my doctor today for my routine checkup and I told her what's been happening, which is that I sleep 5-6 hours straight, then wake up and can't go back to sleep before my alarm goes off.  She is going to put me in a sleep study that I can do at home!  I don't know yet what that entails but someone else has to call me from the clinic about it.  My doctor thinks the sleep thing might be the cause of a couple other minor health issues I've been having, so I have even more reason to look forward to a solution.

As a result of this problem, housework has been neglected and I'm a little cranky.  I really have no business handing out housekeeping advice to anyone under these circumstances.

Did you ever see something that was so amazing that when you thought about it later, you didn't know if you remembered it right?  That's what happened to me and this place I drove by with my sister and my mom about 5 years ago near Madison, WI.  It wasn't just the massive ducttape lettering or the words "beer lube" that grabbed my eyes:

It was the deer lawn ornament that graced the roof of the building:

What?  Is it a "stag" joke?  Take note that the deer is smaller than any one of the letters in "Naughty Novelties".

I wish I got pictures of my own but this was all they had on Google Images.  Sadly, this landmark burned down some time later.  Photographing it then would have involved a lot of awkward explanation to my mom about what I found funny about it, or hearing my mom reading the sign in her Midwestern accent.  Now, I'm not sure what made me think about it today, but didn't this make your day too?

The Successful Closet

I can't believe I never went into detail on the linen closet.  This was the first part of my house I really went overboard on sorting.  I touched on covering the shelves before but not much else.

Common sense has to rule in your linen/bathroom supply cabinet as elsewhere, probably a little more than in other areas of your house.  If you're like me you probably have medicine, soaps, toilet paper and other necessaries in there besides towels and sheets.  I don't have a normal medicine cabinet inside the bathroom.  This is where the first aid supplies are so it's important to keep everything orderly for an emergency grab, like when I dropped a brick on my foot last year and it bled for 3 hours straight.  

February marked two years since I started Fake Job Inc., that is, my volunteer position at the museum, but I'm celebrating this month because my ID runs out in April.  It gets its place of honor next to Real Job With No Paycheck (Sparkplug/Bad Apple), Real Job I Almost Forgot I Had (CAD position 2012), and the present Real Job Inc. where I work now and where I'm very happy.

I visited Table City II and III (or III & IV?) in a huge way over the weekend, with Linework both days and the Twilight Rummage Sale on Saturday afternoon and evening.  It was a little too much, what with Gridlords starting things off on Friday night.  It was fun and exhausting and maddening.  The hammer blow to the face came with the after-party at White Owl Social Club.  We arrived to a rave in full swing in the back patio.  I had a sandwich and hugged my friends and took off for the night.

This song, especially with the video, always makes me feel better.

Hella Tight

My friend Lark came by and fetched all the books she chose for herself and a mutual friend she's visiting soonish.  I had few enough things on the bookcases to move the whole thing over a few inches and clean around it a little.  Behind them I found a small pair of scissors and a wire hanger.  I can't begin to guess what else is back there where I can't see.

Soooo...I have a lot more freedom to move around.  I think my drum kit should go in here!

Now that I've got the books more or less situated, the next thing is to handle the flat file and everything in/on it.  It's going to be like that huge chest of drawers Pippi Longstocking had.

No chest of drawers still - here's some awesome noodles instead.

PS I wrote this a couple weeks ago but forgot to post it.  I've got a few old posts that I just never got around to adding pics or something so they're lingering in the queue.  

Table City

I spent a whopping 14 hours in comics thralldom on Saturday, February 28th, at two different events.  The first one, Frankenstein's Comic Book Swap  was organized by my friends Tim and Andy of Cosmic Monkey Comics.

I was there with the bulk of Dylan's comic book collection, which I had rather painstakingly organized in my nonprofessional way.  I borrowed a car and got everything there in two trips.  The location was the Eagles Lodge at SE Hawthorne & 50th, so I didn't have far to go.  I made it for the early bird hour and we were really off and running. 

I did really well but was surprised that the overall volume of stuff I had to take back did not decrease by much.  I took most of the boxes back with me at 6pm, but left some things for the next thing on the schedule: Comix Thing.  That went from 9pm until midnight.  I had my own stuff and I was also selling work published by Sparkplug Books.

Comix Thing

Here are some important things I learned about my years working at swap meets:

1. Use the space under the table(s) if you can.  Don't limit yourself to the tabletop.
2. Get an extra table or set of shelves if you have the room and put more stuff on it. 
3. Box lids are really great for holding things together.  Use them like trays!
4. I try to bring a variety of things to swap meets.  Even at comics swaps I have art and dvds.  I don't just want to see a sea of comics.
5. Labels, even crappy ones, really help people find things and help you organize the table.
6. Be ready to negotiate, because it's better to get a little less than the marked price if you can shift the thing you're selling.  You get paid and someone else gets something they like, and the comic (or whatever) isn't hiding in a box in your garage.  Everyone's happy!
7. ...But don't be afraid to stand your ground or ask for more if necessary.  A guy offered me a price for a bulk deal and I told him I needed 2 1/2 times more, and I got it.  The worst anyone can say is no.
8. Customers at these things can be messy.  Let them drag things around but stay on top of the disorder.    

 Both shows were super fun and I got to see so many friends and make some new ones.  Yay comics! 

Glacier-Like

There's something about this room that simply resists progress.  But, it's obvious now that something is taking place:

Here's what I did: moved a bookcase out of here and donated to Better Bargains.  I placed the original particle-board shelving on the 2x4s that are built on either side.  They are sagging because they are old and crappy.  I'll have to get some plywood to replace them eventually, or build more supports.

Here's a fun fact: do you know why 2x4s are called that, when they are not 2" thick by 4" wide?  It's because that's how large they are after they are milled, but they shrink after the lumber company kiln-dries the moisture out of the wood.  As if anyone cares, but that took me years to figure out.

My mom was staying with me for two weeks while we did some serious work.  First, she reupholstered my Mid-Century Modern sofa with new fabric.  It's a heavenly glowing vision now, and it's so comfy to sit on.  And yet, it still has Mad Men-esque streamlined perfection.  Come on, half the reason to watch that program is for the interior design, right?

Next she and I tore up the carpet in my living room and hallway, to reveal the hardwood floors that had been there all along.  Not satisfied with merely buffing out the staple wounds and scrapes of past installations, my mom went over many of the bumps and gouges and puttied/painted/polyurethaned to camouflage the worst damage.  Now it looks sooooo great that I feel like I have a new house!  Thanks Mom!!!

I'll add a pic of the sofa later.  My camera was nearly out of batteries when I took these today.

Good News/Bad News

It turns out that Powells Books no longer goes to people's houses and buys stuff, unless you have thousands of books.  Apparently hundreds are not enough, you must have a store's worth of material to merit a house call.  Ah well, time for plan B.  I found out that Friends of the [Multnomah County] Library will do pickups, so I shall donate the bulk of what I have left.

This week is a year since I started my car-free life, with no end in sight!!  I feel a "Clapton is God" moment coming on:

In the vein of "good news" is another thrift store that does pickups of furniture.  Better Bargains, one of my favorite places in town, actually will take furniture if you make an appointment.  I'm timing the book donation right before the bookcases get taken away.  I could have opened a furniture store, but I chose to generously give.  No really, the thrift stores are doing me a favor by driving to my place and hauling sh*t away!

I've started blogging again in earnest as a way to cope with the winter blues, yuck.  They're not bad but December was a stressful month and I'm finally starting to accept that we're in a new year.  Be back soon!

The Hot 100!!!

It's blog post #100!  Time for a little celebration.

Once a year the citizens of Iceland blow up their whole capitol city and rebuild it from the ground up.  It keeps things fresh and exciting.

Those aren't words I'd use to describe my next big task, but it will be a lot more so once I get into it.  That is, I'm cleaning the nerve center of the basement, the storage room where Dylan kept about 5 million books and papers.  I've started a little but there's a lot to dig through.

I've shown a similar pic before.  The room is too small to get a good panorama shot, so I collaged it.  How can such a small room be so intimidating?!

If there's one thing I learned this year, is to recognize when I'm afraid to mess up, then find a way to start anyway.  I got more art done that way.