The O-Zone

First order of the day was to grout the floor tiles.

The grout lines pretty much blend in with the main color of the tiles.

And then the busiest wall was completed, the one with the cubby hole for soap and shampoo containers to sit.

Debated whether or not to use the 2×2 floor tiles in the back of the cubby hole, and we had enough left over from completing the floor to make that a reality.

Now the rest of the shower is whole pieces of tile so that should go fairly quickly today.  Maybe by Monday this will all be completed.  We hope so anyway 🙂

The floor tile has been set and will be grouted on Friday, and then the wall tiles will be set. Also the tiles on the outside of the curb are in place.

For some reason, we kept thinking we’d selected whiter tiles. We were so happy to see our memory was wrong! This means I won’t have to paint the bathroom a different color. Whew!

The cool part, and leak proofing part, is a membrane which is applied to the entire interior of the shower, and is in overlapping pieces like roofing tiles so that water is directed to the drain even if it were to get underneath the tiles themselves.

The mortar needs to dry out before the next layer can go on.

The cubby hole in the wall also needs to have two more pieces of concrete board installed to get to the proper depth for the tiles. It will be a little shallower than before but the shampoo containers will fit nicely and it will look better with minimal grout lines.

The mortar is all dry this morning, so the next layer can go on without further delay.  Yay!  A shower is sounding really good right about now.  Really really good.

Somehow missed seeing this moon set picture yesterday on the camera, of the moon sitting on top of Mount Baldy.  It disappeared moments later.

Just so pretty outside this morning at -8F thought I’d share. You’ll have to imagine how the air feels, yourself.

Still really dark outside, so I used a tripod this morning. It was too cold to have any grandiose ideas about holding a camera still long enough without it.

It got even prettier as sunrise approached.

The last full moon before the Winter Solstice.

Easy to see why they were calling this one a super moon. It looks larger than normal.

What a difference a day makes.

Two pieces of concrete board are yet to be installed in the cubby hole with the shampoo containers will live, have yet to be installed. They are cut and waiting for a next step.

Today we have concrete board on the walls, and the base sub-floor system including the curb have been cut for size and put in place. Just now the thinset mortar is being mixed, so there is concrete dust in the air in the bathroom.  I have no desire to even look at the moment.  We’ll clean up afterwards.

Moving right along 🙂

Apparently we need our heads examined as here it is December and we’re starting a remodeling project.

Replacing the shower with new tile on the floor and walls.

Yesterday was the dust and destruction part of the process.  Our poor cat just can’t understand why it is we keep allowing people into the house who immediately begin to tear things apart and make loud, rude noises.  He does his level best to keep them out and protect the place from intruders but then we won’t let him shred them apart with his claws that he keeps nice and sharp.  It’s all just a mystery.

I told Mish that ‘man’ was coming back today, and got a patented cat look that said, “You’re talking to me but I don’t know what you said so it must not be important.”

Cold here today.  -6F so far seems to be the lowest temperature.  Might warm up to a balmy +4F.  Great weather for remodeling!

Timing is everything. We had discussed turning the cages upside down, to protect them from being crushed by the snow, but then things sort of interfered with that project.

No footprints in the snow on the garden path, not even any snowshoe hares.

The garden is sleeping and getting the annual covering blanket of snow. So far the past week we’ve gotten about five inches of snow, an inch here, an inch there. It adds up.

It’s amazing how heavy snow it. Should have remember how heavy it is on the end of the snow shovel, but just didn’t think of that in time.

The cages definitely needed to be turned upside down. Unfortunately when we tried to do that yesterday, we discovered the framework has frozen solid to the ground, and it would break them to try to force them loose. So we’ll just hope that the snow load doesn’t crush the wire cages. Even if it does, we should be able to straighten it out somewhat. Rats.

Kind of amazing how little snow made it through the wire. The flakes just stuck to the wire instead, and then built up on top of the stuck flakes.

The strawberry bed in particular may be in trouble. Those plants rely on the insulation supplied by a blanket of snow to protect them from the super cold temperatures of mid winter. We may lose all these plants.

Whenever the weather warms up, there will be plenty of water for whoever wants the first spring bath.

Just  plain cute.  And very fat.  I stuffed the kitten quite full.  Obviously has been eating well.

Finished a new knitting project, a fuzzy kitten. Mishkin was curious as to what that little thing might be but not really enough to put forth any energy.

“You’re short.”

Big cat, little cat.

Fuzziness abounds with this little guy.  Green eyes, pink nose, red lace collar.

I made the collar out of some super fine handspun cashmere yarn which I dyed using black cherry Koolaid.  It turned out this really nice dark red.  After I dyed the cashmere yarn, I started knitting a lace edging using size 0000 needles, just to see how the yarn would look, and didn’t really have a plan of what to use it for and so this worked out perfect.  I can consider the lace edging knitting project done, and I still have almost all of the little ball of yarn left for something else.  Giving the kitten to a friend for her young daughter’s stocking.

Now that I’ve gotten knitting cats and dogs out of my system for the moment, I can go back to knitting my lace shawl project. 🙂 Only 10 more edge pattern repeats and then I can cast on the body of the shawl.  The edge is just so boring!!  I keep letting myself get distracted.

We were up really early on Friday, and by the time the sun started to come up, we were pretty much awake, and enjoying a particularly gorgeous sunrise that lasted for quite some time.   Normally they are over in a couple of minutes, but not this one.

It started out with just some pink in the sky to the southwest.

Then it spread to the west.

The snow clouds were closing in on us fast, and the closer they got, the more intense the colors became.

And the clouds farther north became pink, with what was going to be left of the clear skies peeking through.

The whole sky was pink at the last, and the fog in the valley below us was picking up and reflecting the color of the sky.

Then it started snowing, the first real serious snowfall of the year.  We were looking forward to a nice relaxing day, playing with the birds and our cat.  On Thursday, Dan had filled the wood rack on the porch because we knew this storm was coming, so we didn’t even have outside chores to do.

Then at 2pm he had a TIA (a mini-stroke) affecting pretty much the whole left side of his body.  And all thoughts of a nice relaxing day went poof.

It takes about 40 minutes for an ambulance to get up to us, assuming they could with the road conditions being what they were, and about 45 minutes for me to drive to the hospital in good road conditions.  So we got into the Forester, and I drove to the emergency room is absolutely horrible driving conditions.  The only thing that would have been worse is freezing rain, and I think it was doing that at the very end of the drive into town.  I’m pretty sure the 45 minute drive (I was pushing it), took at least 3 hours!  Or it felt that way anyway.  We passed two car wrecks on our way into town, no doubt people who didn’t have winter tires on, and/or simply can’t drive on super slick roads.  It did slow me down a little bit.  We have really good snow tires, I was driving a Subaru, and I was in a hurry.

So at the emergency room with Dan hooked up to all sorts of machines, they ran pretty much every test they could think of, and one Dan wouldn’t let them do (MRI).  And his symptoms kept improving.  Ultimately we left against their advice because we’d had all the fun we could take, and came back home, thinking that a good night sleep would be the best thing to do.  The roads were super slick coming home, but it didn’t take hours to get there.  The day was definitely improving!  Fixed something hot and quick for dinner, and got the fire going in the wood stove, fed the cat (he thought that was obviously something we should have done first), and then went to bed by 9pm.  Exhausted.

I woke up at 1am Saturday morning, and no way was I going to be able to go back to sleep.  We both got up a couple of hours later because I was keeping Dan awake.  More improvements to the numbness lessening in his left hand during the day on Saturday – yay!

Saturday evening we were watching some Buffy’s on DVD, and I asked Dan if we were going to make it until 8pm.  He said no.  So I asked him if we were going to make it until 7pm.  He said no.  I said good!  And we slept 10 hours.

So we’ll go see the normal clinic we go to in Colville this next week (hopefully Wednesday since we have an eye doctor appointment that day, and I don’t want to drive over the pass twice in one week, but will if we need to), and see what they think about all the bazillion test results.

The emergency room doctors couldn’t see any reason why he had had a TIA, which is quite concerning.  It could be one of those “shit happens” things.  I keep telling Dan we need to take up drinking alcohol, smoking, and using drugs, as this clean living stuff doesn’t seem to be very beneficial.

This morning his left hand is feeling somewhat better, and hopefully in a day or two it will be back to full functionality.

This is Togo before he pulled himself together. Sort of resembles me before I’ve had some caffeine.

Post caffeine, and making the acquaintance of Mishkin. Togo always needs to keep in mind their relative size difference and always remember that the cat is really that much bigger than he is.

I asked Togo if he wanted to use the computer, and he said he was an abacus kind of dog.

Togo plays chess, too. What intellect! Unfortunately, the pieces were a bit too heavy for him, and after just a few opening moves he was done for the day.

Togo asked Mish if he could share the chair for some quality nap time after all that chess and mathematics.

Mish giving Togo the silent treatment.

So, Togo investigated the orange growing in the sun room. He was impressed by the size and color of the largest orange, and thinks it should be ready to eat by Christmas! Wow, he’s a horticulturist, too.

Terry and Togo having a tête-à-tête in the kitchen. I’m not sure what they were discussing but it looked like they were in total agreement.

Santa Mice and Togo discussing their travel plans for the holiday season. The mice plan on working; Togo plans on some playing in the snow (if available), playing with toys, eating, and sleeping. He has a full schedule, no time available for work!

Togo hitting the road, heading home and hoping to get past the mountains before the snow falls. Have a safe trip!

It started snowing this morning, and we have many days in a row with one to three inches accumulation forecast – promises, promises….

To quote one of my favorite characters in Star Wars.

Santa Mouse enjoying a snack of cheese and crackers, and hot chocolate.

I was seduced to the dark side by yarnharlot.  She’s a good,  err bad, influence 🙂  As soon as I saw Santa Mouse on her blog I had to make one.

Can I only make just one?  The jury is out on that at the moment.  I’ve figured out a way to give him a red coat, and fluffy brim on his hood.