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Posted by Kate XXXXXX on April 3, 2008, 12:16 pm
...Feels like round Three Million! ;)
We have just got back from collecting the herd!
After the FTL costume project went out the door, I had time top spin on
my axis before galloping off again...
Easter weekend Saturday is spent buying new clothes for James for
school: shirts and trousers. I'd have waited until the end of term
except that as the washing machine is out of commission, we have trouble
keeping up with things and a few extra at this time will not go amiss!
Easter Sunday was spent swimming, followed by making sample bags for the
trip to school and the Spring Bag Event. We also cut out vast numbers
of bunny and flower templates for the kids to use... I've been saving
cereal packets for yonks! James spends the afternoon sewing labels on
school shirts and trousers on one of the Elnas.
Easter Monday was spent finishing off the samples, packing up 7 sewing
machines (2 Elna Louses, 1 Featherweight, 1 Singer 367, 1 Viscount 2000,
1 Bernina 1005, 1 New Home XL-II), with bobbins, thread, scissors,
thread snips, quick-unpicks, sewing machine rescue kit (ALWAYS
necessary!), Bondaweb, iron and table-top pad, fabric scraps for
appliqué, fabric yardage for bags and lining, sewing machine manuals
just in case, extension cables, zip-lock bags and labels, pins,
pencils... It's a bit like moving house! I'm sure there was more than
this, too...
I also prepared my lesson plan, but fell over sideways in a cloud of
zed-waves before printing it out... I should have had time in the morning.
Tuesday James had a day off ('Baker day' - so called after the minister
for education that introduced staff training days for teachers), so was
co-opted to help me at school for the day. Gave him a chance to catch
up with his former teachers... He's grown a hell of a lot in the last
couple of years and is now bigger than most of them! He and Alan loaded
the car while I made packed lunches and tried to print out the lesson
plan and the certificates of achievement... Not playing nice! Pooter
won't be polite to laser printer and is having a sulk with inkjet colour
printer... Yah! Boo! Sucks!
Unload mountain of kit at school, and get into classroom at about
nine-ish... Need to sert up room for sewing. This is a sort of extra
classroom, imported while the building of two new rooms was being done
three years ago (wow! So long!), and is now used as a breakfast club
before school, and after school club after, so I can't get in before
nine, and have to pack everything away by three... Makes my teaching
day short and VERY hectic! This Tuesday they also have their Easter
Service in the church (next door to school: it's a church school), so
they don't get to me until quarter to eleven, as it's break time when
they get back from church.
I discover I have left three vital items at home: my mobile phone, the
box of scissors, and the lead and foot control for the Viscount... I'm
glad I manage to catch Alan before he evaporates in the general
direction of Peterborough! My knight in shiny shoes (well, fairly new
trainers!) gallops to the rescue!
Play all day (well, until 2:30 pm) in school with James and 16 10-11
YO's, which is fun, but one of the little cherubs manages to laminate
the Bondaweb to the iron rather than the bag... Fusing bunnies and
flowers grinds to a halt. Ah, well... I can delaminate it back home
later...
We walk home via the village shop, having earned a little treat. James
has a steak pie for tea, I have asparagus to make soup!
That evening I'm trying to catch up with newsgroups, forums, and the
printing off of the stuff I need for school, but the pooter is behaving
ever more erratically, rebooting at random and decreasing intervals,
giving me the Blue Screen of Death complete with message of pooter
version of The End Is Nigh, and finally I give up and call the boss for
confirmation: yup - pooter sounds terminal, call pooter guru!
So I call the pooter guru (I would NOT have spoiled her evening except
that I really need some of this stuff for school this week! As it is,
I'm flying by the seat of my pants, and if anyone wants evidence of a
properly planned lesson with aims, objectives, learning outcomes, etc,
they'll have to whistle for it! It's a damned good job I'm an
experienced practitioner (as they say these days!), and can work
without!). Diane and hubby Paul arrange to come over on Wednesday after
I get in from school...
Wednesday started well: I shovelled James out to catch his bus just
before 8 and set off to walk up to school at half past. I'm setting up
on my own today, but that's OK as there's a Friends of the school/PTA
meeting starting in the room at 9:15, so I can set up round them while
they talk. They want to buy some 'wet break' toys for the kids, to stop
them arguing and climbing the walls on rainy days... We have vast
mountains of Lego and Playmobil that James has grown out of in the shed,
so I mention that. We arrange for them to see what we have and offer
him a token payment. Sounds good! We'll never get round to ebaying it,
we need the space, and this way it gets used in a way we all approve of...
The sewing day goes well: we have the usual round of snarled threads
round bobbin cases because they WILL set off to sew with the presser
foot up! With the pooter failure of last night I didn't get the chance
to clean yesterday's iron, so they Bondaweb a second one to the table.
:D Not quite, but -! I trot home carrying the second iron...
Paul & Diane arrive at about 4:00pm, and I feed then gallons of tea
while Paul gives the pooter the Engineer's Glare and backs all my
essential data up in case we have to dimantle the thing and dig the hard
drive out for running in another machine and cloning... Diane has
brought her spare box along just in case. Pooter failss to exhibit any
problems for over two hours, and then does a self-reboot the moment Paul
stops glaring at it! Yay! At least we know it wasn't a figmernt of my
imagination! As this looks reasonably terminal, Paul takes the case
off... m Hm... Hard drive & mother board cool, fans OK, not a lot of
dust, but pong of singed summat nasty... Ouch! Graphics card hot as
Hades! The graphics card is basically fried. Old age and hard use...
Paul hauls it out and fits the one from the spare pooter (one of their
son's pre-loved rejects), and a fan. NO point putting in a new graphics
card, as 75% of this machine varies between 10 and 15 years of age! It
was a re-build of Diane's when I bought it 11 years ago. There have
been various add-ons and replacements, but basically it's all used up
and giving notice to quit. This replacement graphics card should keep
it going while I seek out a replacement machine. Need to get paid for
the school work, and then the hunt is on. I can't be having an
unreliable machine as it has all my customer data, research, tax info
and whathaveyou on it, plus patterns and other sewing related stuff...
Paul & Diane go, James and I have dinner, Alan arrives home... Busy day!
Thursday morning we shove James onto the bus and start printing the
certificates... Bums! Left margin is eating borders... Alan sorts
that one out while I make lunch, and then trundles me up to school,
leaving the certificates to print. He brings them up in time for me to
fill them in and the Year Six girls spend lunchtime laminating them for
us... They do a brilliant job.
The sewing goes well, with no more laminated irons. We do collect one
busted needle and a couple of very fine bobbin area snargles just as
it's time to pack up... Today is one of those days when the sewing
leaves the carpet totally invisible! A couple of the girls stay and
help clear up. Total angels, the pair of them!
Friday is a bit of a gallop: several shortened days and the weekly
assembly this afternoon put paid to finishing today, so I WILL be in on
Monday to finish up... Floor is worst yet, but we get cleaned up in
time anyway! it gets faster as the week progresses...
The weekend was quiet... I slept a lot! Swam on Sunday morning, which
was good. I did manage to buy chocolate for the kids to take home in
their bags, and decided to buy a laminator... Maybe this way I can fend
off the propensity the brats have for laminating the iron to the floor,
walls, windows, ceilings... :D
Monday I'm back in school again, and Alan is off to Peterborough
again... But we get all the bags finished, and at the end of the day I
have time to tidy up really well, present the certificates and
chocolate, and walk home in the sun! A grand time was had by all, but I
am somewhat shattered. The fibro is threatening to bite the moment |I
relax... As Alan is in Peterborough, I have arranged that we'll collect
all the kit on Thursday, about lunchtime(ish). Time is an illusion...
Lunchtime doubly so.
Tuesday I shovel James out to school and go back to bed, after sorting
out the premium rate text messaging service mess the lad has got into,
and which has slurped up £10 of the £15 I put on his pay-as-you-go cell
phone... I can barely keep my eyes open that long. I spend the
afternoon hunting the internet for replacement work tops as the
carpenter can't find one big enough... I need one 4.1m long by 900mm wide!
Yesterday was spent in discussions with the insurance folk, sorting out
the anomolies that arose from the floor not being fixed down last time
it was replaced... Unfortunately the company that did it went bust so
there is no record... Ho hum! The floor is now 'contents' rather than
'buildings'. Last night the fibro really caught up, and I keeled over
at about nine, going up to bed at the same time as James... Big
mistake! I slept well until Alan fell over the end of the bed, crashing
his shin on the bed frame! At half past three I got up again, and went
for a cuppa.
I did manage to sleep a bit more this morning, and we went up to school
at half past one and collected all the kit. I now need to service and
put to bed all the machines, after a bit of sorting out in the sewing
room, so I can fit them all back in...
Remove bobbins and needles
Clean and oil as per instruction manual
Insert new needles
Check for anything that need fixing (I know one has developed a dry
joint in the connector for the power cable, which I'll get Alan to look
at.) and fix...
Pack away!
Book service for any that need some OSMG TLC!
Lily and the Bernina serger both need the same before embarking on THEIR
next round, so I have a busy couple of hours ahead...
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
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Posted by Karen Maslowski on April 3, 2008, 12:06 pm
Kate XXXXXX wrote:
> <Long saga cut>
>
Kate, just reading this makes me shattered, as well! You certainly
deserve a good rest, and a shiny new computer.
--
Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati
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Posted by Pogonip on April 3, 2008, 3:30 pm
Karen Maslowski wrote:
> Kate XXXXXX wrote:
>> <Long saga cut>
>>
>
> Kate, just reading this makes me shattered, as well! You certainly
> deserve a good rest, and a shiny new computer.
Excuse me, I'm exhausted just by reading all that. I'll have a nap now.
--
Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth.milky-way.com
http://members.tripod.com/~bernardschopen/
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Posted by Kate XXXXXX on April 4, 2008, 3:48 am
Pogonip wrote:
> Karen Maslowski wrote:
>> Kate XXXXXX wrote:
>>> <Long saga cut>
>>>
>>
>> Kate, just reading this makes me shattered, as well! You certainly
>> deserve a good rest, and a shiny new computer.
>
> Excuse me, I'm exhausted just by reading all that. I'll have a nap now.
I've had a couple of reasonable night's sleep and just have to get busy
putting the heap away today!
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
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Posted by Kate XXXXXX on April 4, 2008, 3:37 am
Karen Maslowski wrote:
> Kate XXXXXX wrote:
>> <Long saga cut>
>>
>
> Kate, just reading this makes me shattered, as well! You certainly
> deserve a good rest, and a shiny new computer.
I'll certainly have earned it! Today I get to put all the machines to
bed, pack all the sewing stuff away, and cook dinner for guests: payback
for the pooter help! I help Diane out of sewing crises, she helps with
pooter collapses! :)
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
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