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Okay, so our new apartment here in Amarillo is about 85% put away. It's the remainder that is going to take some time to get situated. I got the books put up this weekend and now i have to sort out hers from mine and get them all "put right" in the shelves. While doing this, i have been screaming at myself over our french doors and the two other windows off of our living room. In Garland we had three windows in the whole place, not counting the sliding glass door to the balcony. I have recycled the one in our living room there to go in the dining room and it's okay, until i find something i like better. Though that does leave the three windows downstairs and our bedroom upstairs to make drapes for.

I absolutely refuse to pay retail for fabric unless it's for something i can't do anything else about. To cover the French doors, i figured i needed about 9 yards in drapery material and the same in blackout panel. Well when you figure the cost of what i like, which was right at 29.00 a yard and then i'd need another 6 yards for the other two windows, the price was completely out of reason. I mean it isn't like i can run over to the apparel district here and go to the warehouses or anything. I have one lonely JoAnn's and that's it.

So, i'm cruising through JoAnn's and i see a fabric i really like and i'm thinking if i can get 10 yards of it i can make it work. See, i wanted the extra fabric so the drapes at the French Doors would puddle. I just thought it would look cool and help to keep the air out. However, at nearly thirty dollars a yard, no way. So i'm eyeing this fabric and i see a red tag that says 6 dollars a yard. I'm thinking woo hoo, just please have 10 yards on the cob. So off to the cut table. 6 5/8th yds. I wanted to scream like Charlie Brown!!! So, back i went to see if there were any other red tags and as fate would have it, why yes there was. It measured out at 5 1/8th yds. Boy, i just couldn't catch a break. Everything else be it regular price or on sale i just didn't groove on. So, i'm wandering the store and something clicked. I went back and bought both cobs of material and enough gimp to go crazy with.

After that, all that was left were the blackout panels. Between the rods and the material and some other stuff, i had pretty much exhausted my drapery budget. Even with the red tag fabric. Okay, for some guys it's Home Depot, for me it's a fabric store.

I was sitting here thinking i could just go ahead and make up the drapes and do the black out panels later, when it occurred to me i should check my fabric stash. My fabric stash is in six Rubbermaid tubs. When stacked, they are nearly eight feet tall. I checked them all and to no avail. I just didn't have enough. Then Zeke came in dragging a bundle of bolts of fabric i had cling wrapped together. In that was the prize!!! A bolt of pale blue/teal denim with nearly 20yds on the bolt. Woo Hoo!!! I started doing my happy dance. It's not traditionally what i'd use, but my silk is Sage green with spots of a pale blue in it. The denim will work fine for protecting my silk from the sun.

I'll post a pic as soon as i get them done. Now, don't get your hopes up, it's what i like which means it's going to be either weird or really weird.

Oh, and just for the Tally Sheet, when i got to the register i discovered the fabric and gimp i picked out were both on sale an additional 50%. I'm happy, but at that price everything in the house would have puddled.

Until next time, Peace be with you, Dave

Go West Young Man...

As it turns out, Horace Greeley didn't coin the phrase he is credited with, but I did it anyway.

Without retelling my last post, i'll say that this move came on short notice and everything had to fall into place just right for it to come off reasonably smooth. It didn't, it wasn't, and it still isn't, but i'm gaining on it. Now here are the facts: 1500sqft 3bdr apartment in Garland => 370 miles => 1600+sqft 3bdr apartment in Amarillo. The biggest truck U-Haul has, two teenage boys and half the offensive line, bundles of boxes and a refrigerator dolly. Two sheep to get butchered, one car to get fixed, one week to pack, and a whole bunch of friends to say goodbye to.

Okay, so the last week in Garland, Donna had my car in Amarillo, i got the sheep to the butcher, and all i had to do was pack. Firstly, this left me without a car. Thankfully, i have a couple of friends, Julie and Tina, whom i love terribly, who didn't allow me to want for anything. I really do Thank You Guys!!!

At this point all i really had to do was pack. I set a goal of ten boxes a day over and above whatever it was i did during the school day. I'd love to say this was a good plan, but i can't. One kid packed and watched TV at the same time and the other packed with one hand, the other one was needed for texting. I just love teenage boys. I mean i really had a plan on how things needed to roll out and it got started off wrong and got worse. Donna flew back in on Friday night and we were supposed to go eat dinner afterward. Naturally, her flight was delayed and she got home late. We still had dinner, but it was during the time we were supposed to be doing something else. Ugh!!

On Friday, i picked up the truck and the boys from school. They were amazed that i could drive it around town. I never really thought too much about it. I had errands to run and it was transportation. The only time things got a little weird was when i went to take our mechanic friend some money for the car and had to negotiate that monster through his neighborhood, but not a problem.

Saturday morning, i backed the truck up in the only place i could get it. It was about sixty yards from our apartment. There's nothing like lugging stuff for a move, unless you add a hike to it. The football players showed up en masse and i thought all right, we're going to get this knocked out in no time. OOPS!!! silly me, what was i thinking. They carried the boxes one at a time instead of using the dolly because they said it was easier. The funny thing is two of them would carry a box and two more would walk with them to the truck. Kind of funny, but kind of annoying. Then my worst fears about the Tourister Luggage Ape came true. Among other things, they dropped my wife's Lane chest, her cabinet Victrola, and a box of green glass. I just cringed and went on. It's not like i could yell at these kids, they were doing us a favor. Then the most remarkable thing happened.

First i have to say that during the week i went to the dollar store and bought fifteen rolls of that cheap cling wrap. You know the kind that doesn't stick to anything but itself and i wrapped everything i could with it. Including my chest of drawers that all my office stuff and sewing patterns are in. Okay, now for the remarkable part.

One of the kids decided to use the dolly to move things and he started with my chest of drawers. I'm standing in the back of the truck watching him come down the side walk, attended to by two other boys, and i noticed that my chest looked funny. So, i looked around and found a good place to put it in the truck and in they came. My chest was on the dolly upside down????????????? Oh Lord. The only way to keep from completely screwing things up was to roll the chest end over end to right it without losing everything in the drawers. I really wanted to scream at this point. So, as we promised we took the kids to Ci Ci's Pizza and let them chow down. I took a xanax and a nap.

It was too late in the day, so we stayed over and left Sunday. Everything was going fine and we stopped in Decatur for lunch. I remembered that my crochet bag was in the back of the truck and i needed my glasses for driving in the dark. So, while we waited on our food, the boys went out and got in the back of the truck to get my glasses.

What happened next, seemed to happen in slow motion. The boys were rooting around for a bag that was on the top of the small filing cabinet at the very end of the truck. Something they futzed with moved my wife's three foot statue of the Virgin Mary and it fell out of the truck. I was looking on in Horror. I know how she is about that statue i gave her many years ago and there wasn't a damn thing i could do about it. I went to get up and she was standing at the table, frozen, grey, and tearful. I went out and picked up the three pieces of Mary and put them back in the truck. Both of the boys were crying and i assured them i could fix her. That remains to be seen. Then i picked my bag off of the filing cabinet and closed up the truck. Lunch was kind of sad and quiet with lots of assurances all around.

We made it to Amarillo and i parked the truck. We kept the truck an extra day and got everything inside our new place. For the next eight days i only had one of the eight Chicago Screws i needed to put our bed together. We found the other seven and it took us a day or two to find the one i had. The boys got their own rooms which puts me without a sewing room, which in turn means there is a lot of boxed and tubbed crap stacked about, but i'm gaining on it.

So far my only complaints are the stove, which is a nightmare and they've assured me they will fix or replace and the water which smells like something i would mop with. YUK!!! However, it is quiet and Donna's commute went from forty five minutes to just five. The kids start school Monday and i'm looking forward to that. Now all i have to get used to is paying three fifty for a gallon of milk instead of ninety nine cents. Well, that and being cold all the time.

Until next time, Peace be with you, Dave