Mortaine’s Blog

Well, actually, people who live and/or work in Milpitas suck.

Why?

Here’s why:

On Tuesday, I went to lunch. It was cheap movie seat day and Spring Break, so the movie theatre next to the deli was very busy. Parking was hard, but not impossible to find. I parked 2 rows away and walked over.

I passed a minivan that was parked in a handicapped spot. No disabled plate. No placard. No sign. Three able-bodied people– two teenaged boys and a middle aged woman– got out and walked over to the movie theatre. They did not notice my evil eye.

I then saw them, as I got closer to the theatre, walking back towards the car. Ah, I thought. They have realized their error and are going to move the car. I went into the deli for lunch.

I got out an hour later and walked to my car. The fucking minivan was still there! An hour later. Clearly, they had gone back to the car to get their illicit jujubees and then had returned to the theatre. Fucktards.

But my wrath is not over with.

This morning, I went to Starbucks to get coffee. On my way in, I parked in the spot next to the handicapped spot and made sure I actually left enough room between the front of my car and the curb cut so a wheelchair could get through. The handicapped spot at this place is very poorly marked– the signs aren’t really clear and the blue paint is very faded, but it’s still a spot.

As I come out, a thirtysomething jackass in a red sports car (how cliche can you get) pulls into the handicapped spot. I, being a good Samaritan and figuring he must not have interpreted the fading blue paint correctly call out “you know that’s a handicapped spot?” I figure, after all, that only ignorance would prompt an able-bodied person to park in a spot set aside for the disabled, especially when the fines are so high ($175 the first and last time John made this mistake).

His response? “I know– I’m only going to be five seconds.”

Coincidentally, it took me as long to get my latte into my cup holder and my seatbelt on as it took him inside the gas station, so he really was only about thirty seconds. But even so.

This actually isn’t that uncommon. Milpitas is a heavily Asian community, and I’ve noticed especially in the Asian market parking lot that (1) there is never enough parking, no matter what time of day you go there (huh? the parking lot is huge!) and (2) people just do not give a damn if the spot is designated for disabled, and (3) the Milpitas police don’t give a damn, either.

I really need to get the “nobody is on fire” phone number for the Milpitas police station so I can call these fuckers in. Hey, it’s an easy $175 fine that they can levy against wrongdoers, and makes Milpitas just a little bit nicer for those who can’t get around so easy.

Yes, it’s been raining more or less non-stop (there was one clear day in there) since March 18th, when we closed escrow on the house.

Today, it is clear and sunny. FINALLY!

The piano is being moved and tuned today– yay! I try not to think about how much it costs– I think you can buy a new or inexpensive used piano for that much. On the other hand, you still have to move a used piano…. and tune it.

John and I took a break from moving last night. We went home and cooked dinner and I unpacked another box. We watched Idol (well, John watched, I half-watched while cleaning up in the kitchen and making yarn).

I finished plying the yellow yarn I’ve been working on. Man, that took a long time! I’m glad it’s done, though. Tonight or tomorrow I can put it onto the niddy noddy and set the twist. It should be a 3 ounce skein by this weekend and I can take pictures of it to post.

Last night’s dinner included fresh organic beets, which I love. John is not so much a fan, though he did like them well enough since they weren’t canned. With beets, there’s a lot of red juice everywhere, and the ends and tops and skins have just all this red stuff oozing out of them.

Hmm…. what do you do with a bright red all-natural dye?

Now, the last time I tried to dye with beets, it was a disaster. I tried dying yarn with it, and it wound up being a very pale tan (shown here– it’s the bottom right-hand yarn), which I then burned in the microwave trying another technique. I finally threw it away earlier this month.

Anyway, in the last month or so, I’ve joined and learned that, gee, what you really need for dyeing fiber is some sort of acid to bind the stuff together. Vinegar will do the trick most of the time.

So last night after dinner, I put the beet peels and ends and tops (all of which were otherwise going to be thrown away, since the compost bin isn’t set up yet) into the same Corningware dish we’d cooked them in, added about a half a cup of vinegar and a cup of water, and threw about an ounce of washed but uncarded wool in.

And I microwaved it for about 40 minutes, checking every 10 minutes or so for color.

Vinegar has become my new best friend. When I take pictures of this fiber, I’m going to have to photograph it outside in the sun so you can really see the color. It’s a really deep red-orange, almost a rust color. Very nice. I’m completely blown away by how well it dyed, actually. I totally expected it to do what happened last time and show up all pale and stuff. I have heard that beet juice isn’t entirely colorfast or lightsafe, so I’ll have to keep an eye on this and not spin it into a dishcloth or suncatcher, I suppose.

I’m now wondering how hard it would be to dye with the leftover coffee grounds….

Teh cute! Teh cute! (Quicktime)

Well, for a week anyway. DSL gets installed at the new house on Friday. Meanwhile, I’ve only got internet at work.

We moved the cats on Friday afternoon. Friday evening, I realized I’d left Allegro’s medication at the old house (d’oh!) so he had to go without. Also, we had a lot of fun deciding where to feed them and such.

Saturday morning I got his pills from the old house. I pilled him mid-morning. He had been hiding pretty much all evening Friday and all morning Saturday. By Saturday evening, he was making forays into the upper level of the house, and yesterday he got downright bold.

Saturday night was another round of the all-kitty wrestling junior vs. senior title match. All. Night. Long. I think we were woken up about 100 times by cat-wrestling. We did get some good kitty snuggling in, but it invariably ended in roughhousing.

Saturday afternoon, we ordered the futon for my office, which will also be the guest bedroom when people stay overnight. That’s pretty much where my quarterly bonus went, but the futon I ordered is really cute and I think it’ll look nice in my office.

Yesterday we returned the truck and started moving the last of our possessions by car. Still left: various odds and ends inside the house and everything in the garage.

My wrist is feeling better. Still twinges now and then, but overall much better.

Yesterday was our first breakfast at home. Nice. I also made breakfast today. Last night, John and I made beer bread and chicken breast salads, which we ate at our kitchen table. That was really nice– it’s cool to have a dining area that is convenient and not constantly cluttered.

John got the TV hooked up, so we got to watch some TV last night. Spending 3 days with only the barest information about the Terri Schiavo case has been remarkably refreshing. You should all try it sometime.

While we were watching TV, Allegro got very bold and hopped onto the ledge that runs along the living room. This ledge is what separates the stairs down and the living room, so it can be a really long drop to the unwary. And Allegro is… not terribly bright. Anyway, he at first scrambled to get up onto the ledge, so I helped him (figuring he was going to get up there at some point anyway). He moseyed along the ledge, and I kept trying to encourage him to perch on the back of the sofa instead– it’s the same height, and wider. But no, he had to perch on the ledge. Then Alladin came and got on the ledge. This usually means another round of wrestling is about to commence. Fortunately, Allegro had the good sense to jump off the ledge before being attacked.

John and I started dreaming about possibilities for the living room, including a new sofa or hide-a-bed for the second wall, for more casual seating (right now, we have the 2-person loveseat and the massage chair).If it’s a hide-a-bed, it would open up the possibilities for overnight guests as well.

In the yarn front, I think I’m about halfway through the spool. It’s slow going, mainly because I’m moving house. If I could spend a whole weekend spinning, I might be all done by now. Or maybe not.

I am gradually unpacking. It looks like it might be 1-2 boxes a day for a while. I still have a ton of books and, the real hassle, papers and things to be filed. I need to go through my old papers and toss a bunch of them– I had a 4-drawer filing cabinet full of stuff that I’m pretty sure I don’t need anymore.