Drawer Pulls Redux

Well, I think it worked. The muy expensivo new hardware did update the dresser set as much as it could and I think it looks pretty good. You be the judge.





We're both pretty happy with the change. Like I said, the quality of the pieces is a level I can't afford at current prices. Stan showed me the original price of the chest-on-chest: $169.95. That was in 1961!

My sister Amber asked if the lamp ever made it to Elise & Pedro's--I had tons of trouble getting it from NY to FL. We finally took it down in Stan's bag, swathed in bubble wrap. It made it in one piece, but there was no way to get the shade there too. So I have a perfectly good lampshade tucked (as much as you can tuck something that size--they are truly obnoxious!) into a closet. And Elise got a shade that she likes for the lamp, a beautiful wine-red color. Fitting, don't you think?

Today my goal is to stay alive. This upper respiratory thing both Stan & I have is really a killer. I'm pretty sure mine morphed into a sinus infection. (I think his did too but he won't do anything about it for at least another week--anything as in, see a doctor.) I have an annual check-up scheduled for tomorrow so I'll ask then for antibiotics. Keep your fingers crossed.

Florida in January

We're back from our Florida trip and I'm currently watching it snow ... again. In FL, of course, there was no snow. And that was nice. Very nice. No jacket needed. Sun warm enough to really enjoy sitting in. Too cool for getting into the pool but warm enough to sit outside next to it.

Stan & I haven't done a southern vacation for several years. Last time was our 2d trip to Tiamo, a lovely resort on South Andros in the Bahamas. Stan loved bonefishing and I loved snorkeling and sunning. But Tiamo would cost about $7K for a week now, far far far beyond what we're willing to spend. Next southern winter trip may be a 1-2 month rental in FL; I'm thinking Homossassa area (1 hr north of Tampa) or the Sebring area (about an hour east of Tampa). I'm going to have fun looking!

We went to an NHL game while in Tampa: the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. the Buffalo Sabres. It was a ton of fun, especially since Pedro had tickets that got us into the free-food-schmooze area that's used by many corporations. What an amazing smorgasbord!! Good food, free wine/beer, great desserts AND a pro hockey game! I just don't think you can ask for more in one night. Luckily the uber-wicked cold that Stan got didn't really check in until the next day ... and I didn't get my own update of it until we got home. Both of us would be more than happy to be the first volunteers in line for head transplants, or even just exchanges for sinuses.

Kyrin was a perfect child as usual. She has grown so much since we saw her in December! One month and she's a rootin' tootin' toddler.

I'm sure I know the model for the Energizer Bunny! She's getting ever cuter as her own darling personality infuses her looks. This picture was taken on our trip to Tampa's excellent aquarium. All of us had a good time.

The last photo is of Pedro playing "monkey man" (he created the name, not me!).

Pedro & Elise had their kitchen floor retiled while we were there and none of us thought about the fact we wouldn't be able to walk on it for a night! So Pedro got into the cabinets for things like plates and silverware--we hadn't planned to order out but had to. (It was a good thing we had the hockey game the next night because the stove was still in the family room!) He did a great job balancing! Stan & I have to say again how much we enjoyed the visit and say a giant thank you to Pedro & Elise.

Drawer Pulls

I know, I know, a weird topic for a blog. But my morning was not fun and all because of drawer pulls. I "inherited" a very nice dresser set when I moved in with Stan--he & his first wife had bought it in the '60s and it's made with the quality that was readily available back then. Both my dresser and the "chest on chest" style highboy (Stan's) are completely solid wood, maple to be exact. And they're in remarkably good shape--a few nicks but I don't notice them often and I'm the one they have to please!

But they're not too fashionable. How can a dresser set be fashionable, you might ask. I don't know how to answer that except to say that this one looks like it's a few years out of style. So I thought I might use some of my royalties to get a new set. Well, I can't afford it. Not unless I want to spend $3K for a set. Anything that's solid wood these days is priced in the stratosphere. So I had this brilliant idea to update the set by getting new drawer pulls. How much could that cost? Certainly not what a whole new good quality set would.

I found a terrific site cleverly labeled knobsandhardware.com that has more drawer pulls than anyone could imagine. They're not cheap. AND I had an additional problem: because of the age of the set, they have pulls that are a somewhat unusual size in this day & age. There are 10 handle-style drawer pulls and 12 knobs for the smaller drawers. The 10 big ones use 2 screws to hold them on and the screws are 6" apart. That's what makes them unusual. Before I found the Web site I'd looked at Lowes and all handles there have 3-4" spaces between the screws. So I was ecstatic when I found that I actually had a selection of 6"-spaced pulls. And they all had matching knobs. So I selected and ordered ($350+ for the order!!!! But still cheaper than a new dresser.) and the hardware arrived yesterday.

I went to put them on, pretty excited at getting a new look this easily--no moving furniture, no having to get rid of old furniture that Stan would surely want to hang onto. And then I discovered that the stupid drawer KNOBS were put on with 2 screws too. HEAVY gnashing of teeth! Who on god's green earth would think to look at knobs before ordering replacements just in case the old ones use 2 screws? Obviously not me. More heavy gnashing. And more. And more.

So I just ordered another $72 worth of brass: plates to go behind the knobs to cover up the extra holes. I'm not taking anything out of their individual plastic packages until the plates arrive and I see if they'll do the job. If I have to send everything back it'll cost a fortune--those drawer pulls must weigh 20 lbs. If the plates do work, I'll be sure to take before & after photos and you all (all 1 of you interested reader out there) can tell me if I accomplished the seemingly simple task of updating my bedroom.

Just one other whine and I'll go away. I made a very neat lamp for Elise's house. She & Pedro have a bar in their home (Pedro's dad built it) so I took a clear glass lamp I've had for ages and filled it with wine corks. It looks pretty cool.

I even had on hand a box big enough to ship it WITH lampshade, only to discover that FedEx (cheapest way at Mailboxes Plus) would cost $55 and USPS would be $33. Aha, said brilliant Starla, never one to be overcome by surprise disappointments. I can take the box to FL on the plane, checking it as luggage. Not so, said JetBlue. No boxes allowed at all.

So the shade won't get shipped or checked or sent or anything. But Stan is willing to put the lamp, already bubblewrapped, into his checked bag, wrapping it in his jeans for extra cushioning. It'll be interesting to see if it makes it to FL.

My dentist won't have much work in the future if I gnash my teeth down to nubbins!

Queen for a Night (or Two)

I stayed in this amazing building on Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week. (More description far below.) I was in Philly at Rosemont College to present a workshop on my favorite topic, Teaching As Performance. It was a great workshop: I was asked to do something different from group-work-with-reports so I came up with the idea to do demos of both bad teaching and good teaching. The workshop participants got to play bad students in the second demo. They were challenging! But it was truly fun to model behavior I'd talked about, and I do believe that I've done in my own classes just about everything I did there. What fun. I gave out my own evaluation forms and asked "The strongest characteristic of the presenter was ______." There were two common responses: enthusiasm and confidence. Even better than that, however, were the answers to the question: "One thing I will remember from this workshop is ______." I'm happy to report that those answers were all over the map. That says to me that I didn't beat any one thing to death. One of the nicest comments was that I kept the participant's attention all day. And for me it was a LONG day!

A nice little anecdote for my workshop war stories is that there was a fire drill halfway through my first presentation. I recovered from that, got everyone back on track, and then some maintenance worker decided to move a large metal ladder and a 4x4 metal platform off the stage behind where I was talking ... WITH the curtains open. Did he not hear me or see me ... and the 60 workshop participants? I finally asked him if he could find another time to do that job and he went away. I have to say it was funny even at the time.

So I came home sort of optimistic because I met a corporate librarian who works for a giant drug company and she thinks my workshop would make a good Continuing Ed. "course" for the Medical Library Association. So I'm beginning to complete their application form and since she's head of their marketing division, I believe I'll get some great support. Wow.

I bought myself a reward on the way home. It's a lovely chocolate brown watch: dark brown metal mesh band with a brown watch face that's sort of marbly-reflect-y like abalone shell. It supposedly has 4 small diamonds marking the 12, 3, 6, 9 spots; I'm not sure I believe they're diamonds. But I think it's pretty classy and will figure out something to wear with it at my next gig.

That has put me in a great mood for the last few days. I'm even beginning to work on creating my own Web page. I have one on the college's server but I'm not sure I really want to update it. I'm thinking I'd rather be my own creator. I'm really a dumbo about this so it'll take me forever to get a good page together. A big part of this goal is to get my brochure Web-accessible. The drug co. librarian asked me to send her the brochure as an e-mail attachment and she'll print it and distribute it, so I know I can do that and it comes through all right. But boy, I'd love to tell people to go to http://..... You know, give myself a bit more of a tech-savvy look (all smoke and mirrors so far but maybe I'll get better).

Now. As for the castle above, it's "Main Building" on the Rosemont campus, a small Catholic college near Bryn Mawr and Villanova. There's no "the" before the title, which sounds strange to me, but what do I know. I was told that its original name was Rotholla, supposedly the Celtic word for "house" or "home" or "stone house," something like that. Google doesn't come up with anything close under that spelling so who knows. Anyway it was the SUMMER house of a wealthy family around the turn of the last century, it being 10 degrees cooler in Rosemont than in the heart of Philadelphia. "The Sisters" bought the place in the '20s and began the college with it as their only building. Now there's quite a nice little college there. Little as in miniscule--I just looked it up and there are 400 women students. My.

Large portions of the house have been kept in their original design with incredible woodwork and more leaded glass than you can shake a stick at. I wouldn't be surprised if one window was a Tiffany; it certainly was the right color blue. An elegant dining room is on the first floor and each of those round towers contains a room that's connected to the dining room; in one there's a grand piano and the other holds a round dining table for eight. There were at least two lovely chandeliers in that area; I can't remember for sure if the round rooms had them also but I think so. Several giant fireplaces were surrounded by sculptured rock or wood, and a beautiful main staircase split into two that continue up to the third floor with overlooking gorgeous woodwork bannisters all the way up in an open hallway. As big and overly sumptuous as it was, I could definitely see a family living there, particularly in the summer with its veranda and upholstered window seats for rainy days. Very beautiful.

My room was much quainter, with a single bed! When is the last time YOU saw or better, slept in a SINGLE bed? Verrrrrry old furniture in that room. But no drinking glass in the bathroom (spotless) or hangers. Odd. And since I was the only one in the building on both nights, very quiet! A nice stay but I missed having tea in the morning. So I was probably only a princess for two nights, or maybe even a mere lady-in-waiting. I would have liked the gown.

Eve of the Eve

I borrowed the title from a note from stepdaughter Linda; I think it's a nice name for Dec. 23. But I'm feeling pretty blue today. It's just me and Stan for Christmas, no other family here. Even Stan said yesterday, "I was just thinking it was a lot more fun when Jane and Dan were here." Now they're in Omaha, Elise, Kyrin & Pedro are up from Tampa and visiting his folks in Oswego (we'll visit them Dec. 26, weather permitting), Linda & Art are in Heber City, and Lana is in Austin, TX. Such a spread-out family sounds impressive--and it really is--but it's not as much fun on traditional family holidays. Since they are so far apart we'll only see them together at chance occurrences like weddings, or god forbid, funerals. So on other holidays we all travel as much as we can afford to. And I know that statistically there's apparently more people who visit relatives at Thanksgiving, I can get along alone with Stan on that holiday. This is the one that's harder. Maybe next year Stan will consider going to one of their houses for Christmas .....

Meanwhile, the weather is as gray as my mood. It's 43 degrees in Plattsburgh and our icicles, which were pretty impressive, are mostly melted. That's a good thing (in Martha-speak). Stan was up on the roof all afternoon yesterday shoveling off the snow. Nearly killed himself, the over-zealous idiot. But we do know that when the rain comes tonight it won't add weight to the roof because the snow is gone from it. That's Stan sometimes, safe but stupid. He keeps forgetting he's not 35 anymore!

Well, I did my treadmill like a good girl. Now I'm off to the showers. And maybe I'll make another batch of Spritz cookies, my favorites.

A Blue, er, make that Green-Ribbon Day

I did wrap gifts at the mall today. I arrived at 2:00 and there were two young lovelies working hard--just past college-age. (I asked later if they were students. Oh, NO, the one said. She'd graduated in 2004.) They were sisters. They stayed for about another hour and I was very grateful. The more assertive sister didn't quite want to leave the post to an oldie (that would be me), but the younger was ready to go so she just kind of hung around waiting for her sister. Like I said, I really was grateful for the help. Business was VERY steady! A couple had left about 8 gifts, ranging from a Scooby-Doo lunch box (no box around it) to a dinosaur in a sort of cardboard tray--you know, the kind that hangs on a rod in the store: has a back and bottom but no sides, front or top. Read VERY challenging to wrap! The sisters left me that pile to work on while the one handled the walk-ups. However, I did take one. He had only 2 things and brought his own boxes; well, they were Victoria's Secret boxes (nice boxes!). One was a very nice jog set and the other was a selection of 5 thong underwear. He was about my age. (Boy, I'd like to be the size that could feel attractive in a thong.) But the most challenging came later, a lovely older English woman who had bought gifts for grandsons. The hardest was an ice-fishing rod ... WITH reel attached. I KNEW all my Martha genes would pay off sooner or later! I got it wrapped and pretty attractively, too, I might add. Obviously I had fun.

But that was my second fun for the day. I bought myself a new toy yesterday.


Yup, they're snowshoes. I was just back from my first walk with them. There's about 10" powder to plow through in our back 40 and it was FUN. The dog of COURSE had to lead the way. I don't know how she can even walk for the rest of the day. This is how deep she was in, breaking trail for me!


As you can see, she's up to her chest. Boy it was tough going for a bit. Of course, the trail home was much easier because I was just pounding down what we'd opened up on the way to the dam. Whatever those muscles are on the outside of your hip joints were letting me know I should learn their names! Just sitting here now (10:00 p.m.) my fanny tells me it worked today.

But I remembered to take the camera so I got some nice pics. NYSEG had some crew working on the dam in the fall. Unfortunately they didn't get finished before winter hit. I wonder where they thought they were working that they could begin a rebuild on a dam in about October.....



Anyway, I think you can see rebar sticking out of the dam through the snow. (Faint dark horizontal lines at about 10:00 in the picture.) The crew didn't work for a few days while it rained, leaving their materials where they were, and then we got snap hard hard freezes for several nights. So much for their stuff. I wonder in the spring what will survive--the water pours over that dam with enormous power. In the inimitable words of daughter Jane, Oh well.

And I have to include a shot of my favorite photo subject at the dam, the tree that sits just opposite where I stand to take pictures. I love it in most seasons because it sits so nicely above all that ledgerock, and it has the chutzpah to keep growing!


Then Hollydog and I walked along the penstock and I took my "artsy-f_rtsy" shots. The little isolated weeds that managed to stay above the snow, even though their stems are only about 1/8" in diameter, never cease to amaze me.



Sturdy little buggers, eh? I'm always impressed at their hardiness, their determination NOT to be done in by something as inconsequential as 18" of snow. (That 10" powder I mentioned above is only the top layer.)

So it was a good day today. Stan came to the mall to treat me to a soda after my draining stint wrapping and we had a nice dinner of spaghetti (whole wheat, of course) and baby veggies. I'll be out snowshoe-ing again tomorrow. What fun.

The "Big Storm"

So we got the "big storm" over the weekend. Really, it wasn't as devastating as the forecast seemed to be. We got about 12 inches of snow--measured before and after with a yardstick on our patio table, which is not overshadowed by trees and is a pretty good fall-where-it-lies location for measuring. However, I didn't measure last night because I would have had to wade through about a foot of snow just to walk out to the table, so Stan measured this morning. Meanwhile the wind had picked up considerably and I'd guess we lost 1-2 inches to that. The excitement around here is that Peru, NY, made the national news because it got 18 inches, apparently a big deal (to everyone else) in this nor'easter. So while it's a bit blurry, here's what the pretty front yard tree looks like--note that the snow is right up to and a little over the bottom branches as compared to the earlier shot.


Tonight it's very cold, expected to be around 0 in Plattsburgh and you can usually minus 5-10 degrees from that at our (very modest) elevation. Just say cold. I'm sentenced to my treadmill: I don't go walking when it's below 10, especially if there's a wind.

I'm going to staff the Christmas Bureau's wrapping station at the mall on Wednesday, and I'm actually pretty excited about that. I love to wrap presents and will do the best I can. I don't plan to be Martha-y at this, just do the job. But I really do love to wrap so this will be fun. And I think I'm pretty good at gently asking people to pay for the service. I'll try to remember to post my results.

I'm revving up to do my workshop in Philly in January. This is one I'm really looking forward to. It's more creative than most, with me doing a "bad teacher/good teacher" and "bad presenter/good presenter" (to faculty) acting job and juggling questions/attitudes from my audience. This should be a lot of fun. REALLY fun. I've not done improv like this before and it's something I can add to my brochure if it's successful.

I hid the rest of the cookies I baked last week; Stan was going through them at a rate that meant none for Christmas. I did Spritz, Pecan Fingers and Peanut Blossoms. I like the first two and can definitely live w/o the peanut-butter ones. I'll bring them out Christmas Eve and hope they last till New Year's!