8 Things Friday

1. Part of the "deal" to start trying for a baby this fall was that we get the office cleaned out gradually. I guess so Matt has time to get used to the idea? (A full year??) Well, whatever makes him feel better about it. Anyway. In order to get furniture out of the office so it can become a nursery, we have to pare down the furniture in the living room, which means one of the big stand-alone bookcases has to go. Last night I got the built-in shelves which serve as a divider between the living room and kitchen cleared out. I still need to find a place for the boxes of pictures and memorabilia that were there, and the five million (at least) Star Wars paperbacks that were in the big bookcase, but all the books that were in the big one are now in those shelves! I also re-stacked the CDs so we have a little more room, and alphabetized the DVDs. (We'll see how long that lasts.) One project at a time, right? :)

2. I got all the patterned squares for the baby quilt cut out at Weekly Fiber on Wednesday! I have 99 of them, if I counted correctly (which is possible, but maybe not probable). I'm just going to wing it! If I need a few more squares toward the end to finish the blanket, I'll cut a few more! Or if I'm about done, but have some squares left over, oh well! Maybe I'll make a little matching patchwork pillow. The next step is cutting out the 3 1/2 by 4 1/2 white rectangles (so they'll be 3x4 when sewn) to go between the patterned squares. After that, I'll need 3 1/2 by "however long" strips to go in between the strips of pattern + white. Confused yet? It's simple really. Or at least I hope so!

3. I haven't knit anything for a while. Last Weekly Fiber, like I said, I cut out squares. The one before that was spent detangling a very weird, maybe slightly chewed or cut (it had about seven loose ends) hank of sari silk that another member brought. I rolled it all into little balls, and she let me keep one for my trouble. The only things I have on the needles (that haven't been abandoned/forgotten for ages, and therefore don't count) are a baby hat that just needs the leaf at the top knit (and I can't count and talk at group at the same time) and another "beehive" style baby hat which is just not terribly interesting right now. I'm wondering if I want to make some little mitts for shower gifts. Those would be very fast and very simple.

4. Okay, enough about crafting. Here's what my weekend looks like:
-Saturday 7-9am: All-store meeting
-Saturday 9:45-12:30ish: Work. I took another girl's shift today, so she's going to take the rest of my Saturday shift, thank goodness!
-Saturday after work: make potatoes au gratin for Easter dinner the following day. I won't have time to make and cook them ON Easter (see Sunday's points) so I'm baking them then and just reheating them Sunday
-Saturday at 6pm: Easter service at church
-Saturday after church: vVsit my friend, Megan, who's in town for the weekend

-Sunday at 9am: Help in the nursery at church
-Sunday about 11am: Drive down for Easter lunch/dinner with family
-Sunday evening-ish: Come home and SLEEP

5. Man, it has been a good year for strawberries! I just finished my second small box of them last night. They're pretty cheap, which is always a bonus, and so red and juicy! They don't taste like they were picked green and then left in a warehouse to ripen toward reddish. I mean, they probably were, but they don't taste like it. I've had strawberries in chocolate fondue (nuke equal parts peanut butter and chocolate chips, stir til smooth) and strawberries dipped in sour cream, then in brown sugar (it sounds gross, but it's amaaaaaaazing). Now I need ice cream to put strawberries (and bananas!) on! Ooh, and maybe smoothies!

6. I signed up for Freecycle last night. Since we're going to be getting rid of stuff with all this clearing-out, it might as well go to people who could use it! We are certainly NOT having a yard sale at any point this summer, and while I always intend to bring boxes and bags of stuff to Goodwill, they usually ride around in my trunk for two months before I actually do it. So if we're not going to make money off this stuff anyway, let's give it to someone who does want it.

7. We're thinking of getting a new car soon-ish. We've replaced practically the whole engine in Matt's stupid Toyota Celica, so we could probably get a decent price for it. And Matt's been browsing online. So far we really like a Subaru Impreza hatchback like this one. Apparently it has really high ratings for safety and control and yadda yadda, and the price is something we could afford (with some leftover!) after we sell Matt's car. Hmmm, things to think about...

8. Another 8 Things post with no pictures, sorry! To make up for it here is a picture of myself with sheep sculptures, taken by Matt on my Blackberry. I wish it was bigger and clearer so you could see how awesome these things are!