Melon!

The cats lucked out today when Chris decided to share his honeydew with them.

In other good news, Ratchet has landed in the US, and is very healthy! Hopefully I’ll get to meet the celebrity dog at Gwen’s homecoming party. She mentioned arranging a play date with Nigel and Puck, too. Fun, fun.

My candles just about sold out at the Eveland Family Farm, so I took a trip down last weekend with a fresh stock. I’m hoping they sell out, and I have to return next weekend with more! One lady came just to buy candles, and she raved about them for a long time. Pretty neat.

After buying countless sample wick packs, I finally found a series of wicks that work well in the feather palm pillars. I don’t know if I want to try and sell them (if anyone would even buy them), but I’m making them for Jenny’s wedding next summer, so at least now I know they will burn for 8 hours without making a mess.

Ratchet & Gwen Need Help!!

Gwen is a friend of mine from highschool. She rescued Ratchet from burning rubble a few months ago, and earned him a ticket back to the US through the Baghdad Pups program.

On Ratchet’s way to the airport, he was seized by one of Gwen’s commanding officers. And they are threatening to kill him.

Links follow, please do what you can to help Ratchet:

Article on DIGG

http://www.spca.com/press/item/56

Norm Coleman’s Office

Amy Klobuchar’s Office

Palm Pillars

Palm Pillars

I’m making these palm pillars to sell at The Eveland Family Farm this fall. Scented Pumpkin Soufflé, Cinnamon Buns, Buttery Gingerbread, Apple Pie, Apple Jack & Peel, and Candy Corn. Kind of fun… I hope they sell well, and I have to reorder wax and FO.

We had a good house showing last night. Apparently, our house is one of the only houses in town that is actually getting showings. So that’s encouraging. But it’s been on the market 90 days now – that’s not so encouraging. I’m still hopeful that we’ll move before the year is out, but we’re playing it by ear. Meanwhile, the dogs are enjoying their trips to the park when we have showings, and the cats are getting really good about going in their kennel in the garage.

The food co-op is having a going away party for me tonight. It’s even a Vegan Pot Luck! I just finished making pita bread, and I’m also bringing artichoke dip and dukkah.

Fun with Photoshop

This is my brother’s cat, Oscar, all done-up in watercolors. I was playing around with Photoshop yesterday, and “digitized” some cats. I can’t quite get people to turn out right though – I think because people just look boring. Click on Oscar to see him full-sized… the smaller picture doesn’t quite do him justice.

I also talked with my Realtor yesterday, who said that installing Air Conditioning may help make the house move. So, he added to the listing that A/C will be installed before the buyer moves in. He thought this was a better option than dropping the price – and since the air isn’t actually installed yet, if the house still doesn’t sell we can drop the price and say no A/C again.

I guess in the last week, they have only shown houses to one person. Sigh.

… we’re still here.

Niko & Puck

Niko and Puck, just waking up.

Unfortunately, we haven’t had a house showing in two weeks now… this is getting a bit frustrating, and we’d like to move before this winter.

We’ve changed our criteria a bit. After looking at houses we can afford on 5 acres and seeing the shape they are in (one said “DO NOT ENTER FOR YOUR HEALTH. HAZARDOUS MOLD.”), we decided to look for slightly more expensive houses on one-acre lots in the Twin Cities Suburbs. Blaine, Coon Rapids, etc. There are a lot of nice places in Ramsey – so there’s a possibility.

But… I think we need to put off the house hunting until my house starts looking like it’s going to sell. Blech.

A house in Zimmerman

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Last weekend I looked at a few more houses. Chris is taking a second look at this house today. It’s a modular home, on 5 acres of land about 6 miles out of Zimmerman. The house itself neds a lot of work – the people who owned it before were obviouslly in the process of updating it when they were foreclosed on. But the price is not bad, and we might just be able to put in hardware floors before moving in. Mostly, the work that needs to be done is cosmetic… paint, carpet stretching, trim, etc.

The proprety line actually goes back quite a bit farther than I am standing taking this picture. Here’s an aerial view:

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