Meme of Reading Questions:

This is a pretty long post, so I’m putting it behind a cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

M and I painted our living room this past weekend. Here’s a before and after:

So, how did we get there? Well, when we moved into our house in 2008, it had really awful brown walls that made our couches fade into the background:

In addition, the paint job was just BAD. They clearly only used one coat of paint, but it wasn’t enough because there were streaks where the white undercoat was still visible. Just a sloppy, lazy paint job. I really think that if you’re going to do something, you need to do it right. So, we figured it was time for a new paint job.

But first, I had to spackle the bajillion holes in the walls:

Who the frig makes this many holes and then paints OVER them? How lazy can you get? Argh! Spackle, spackle.

Next up: primer, woohoo! (Sorry the pic is so gray; I took it with my iPhone before the sun really came out.) We used Valspar High Hiding Primer, which is really good, but since the brown was so dark we had to use two coats.

Two walls primed, but at this point, we ran out of primer and had to go back to Lowe’s for more.

I can’t say enough about how important it is to tape off the edges! (Yet something else the previous owners didn’t do.) We used Frogtape, which is apparently treated with something special to ensure sharp lines. We were kind of skeptical at first because it felt like regular masking tape, but were very impressed once we removed it. Out of four walls, including the base boards, ceiling, and two doors, we only had to touch up two small spots after removing the tape.

And we have blue walls! woohoo! We used Valspar Signature Colors with high-def something or other, eggshell finish, in the color Surf’s Up.

This is pretty much what our living room looked like all weekend. We had pushed the furniture to the center of the room and covered everything with plastic. The floor was covered with plastic, too. We were very careful and managed not to get paint on the furniture or carpet. When I took this pic, we had one wall left (the wall with the windows)–but we had to pause because we ran out of paint. Arrrrrgh. Time for another trip to Lowe’s. We didn’t need that much, so we only bought a quart to finish the job.

And here’s the finished product! I’m so happy with the result. Our furniture doesn’t blend into the walls anymore, and the room overall is just so much lighter. I really hated how gloomy the brown was, but now, it’s light in the room, even at night time.

This was my first time painting and I thought it would be easy…haha. I mean, it was easy, but it was a lot of work–we dusted the walls, spackled/sanded spots, primed (two coats), taped off, and then painted the top coat. My feet were KILLING me by the time the work was done. I didn’t wear very good shoes for this, so as a result, my feet and back really suffered. We were constantly on our feet or bending/crouching to reach every spot. Again, it was a lot of work, but so worth it. Now I don’t hate sitting in this room. Plus, it’s easier to see my knitting or reading.

I finished reading this over a week ago, but hesitated writing a review. There’s so much contained in this book–so many questions and even fewer answers–but I think it’s a book that needed to be written. Dave Cullen is a journalist who covered the Columbine tragedy as it occurred, and spent the next ten years researching it and ultimately writing this book.

I was 18 when the Columbine massacre happened in April 1999. I remember seeing the images on the news: high school kids running out of the school, falling out of windows, milling around outside in grief. And of course, the photos of the two boys who were identified as the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Then came the media onslaught: theories, rumors, erroneous reports, and speculation. Everyone wanted someone to blame. It wouldn’t do to blame only the killers, who had committed suicide at the end of their gun-fueled rampage. For months after, and even now–years later–it’s still not quite clear what turned the two boys into killers.

There are plenty of theories, to be sure, and Cullen’s book attempts to narrow them down. It almost seems like a pointless exercise, after the fact–to examine the boys’ childhoods and journal entries and attempt to read between the lines, to try to understand more, beyond their violent tirades and (at times) nonsensical words. But in an age of media oversaturation, and the fact that Columbine had been probably the most widely televised school shooting to date, it seems reasonable for us to seek answers, to try to placate the most nagging of questions–”Why?”

I don’t think this book glorifies the killers in any way. Rather, it seeks to set the record straight, to dispel myths surrounding the tragedy, to clarify who the victims were (and who they were not), and also, to try to understand how two teenage boys could lash out at their classmates and teachers in such a violent, irreversible way.

It’s been 11 years since the Columbine tragedy. Although it permeated the media when it happened, over time, news stories faded and eventually diminished. There are exceptions, such as the anniversary of the shootings (April 20), when perhaps a news blurb flashes across the TV screen, reminding us what happened years ago. But I think of the families and friends of those who died that day–all of them, the victims and even the killers–and I can’t imagine what they have to live with every day. For them, more than for any of us, the unanswered questions will always be there. Unlike us, they cannot simply close the book, ponder it for a while, and then move on. The memories and impact of that day will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

This is a very confusing novel.

The thing is, it doesn’t start out confusing; in fact, the first chapter drew me in. However, I began the book with the awareness that it’s about three pairs of people whose storylines ultimately converge in some way. So, I read every subsequent chapter trying to figure out how everything and everyone could be linked.

Maybe that was an exercise in futility, because the final third or so of the book is when the plotlines become very crossed and very confusing. In fact, the resolution of the story is ambiguous in many ways and that was frustrating.

As for the quality of the writing, I don’t have any complaints. I think Chaon is a good writer, but the twists and turns of the narrative distracted me from being able to appreciate the writing itself. I would read this author again, but I won’t be re-reading this particular title.

I made a lightbox. Look:

I decided to build one in order to get better quality shots of my yarn and knitted objects. I found this really awesome tutorial from jyoseph.com and pretty much followed it step by step.

Here are the materials I used and where I found them:
- 5 sheets of Elmer’s foam board (20″ x 30″) from Michaels craft store. They were $2.99 each, but I got them on sale–buy 1, get 1 free!
- 4 clamp lights (5 1/2″) from Lowe’s, $6.48 each
- 60-watt GE Reveal Full-Spectrum light bulbs from Lowe’s, $3.48 for a 2-pk
- 2″ white masking tape from Lowe’s, $2.48
- power strip from Lowe’s (didn’t have an extra one at home–4 lamps = 4 separate plugs)
- box cutter (already had this at home)
- straight edge & cutting mat (already had these as part of my sewing tools)

I wound up spending around $50. Not too bad, considering the results look pretty good! Voila:

Originally, I only bought two lamps but I could tell from this shot that I needed an additional two. The colors look great, but there are some grayish shadows around the edges. (The yarn is Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, btw.)

I bought an additional two lamps (for a total of four) and the result is much better. Still a wee bit of shadow, but I think that’s more because the skein is so puffy and not because of lack of light. (The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Handpainted.)

Here’s another test with all four lamps turned on. (Knit Picks Imagination)

Lastly, I took a pic of a WIP. I think this shot turned out so well since the sock-in-progress is flat (no shadows). (Just a basic toe-up sock; yarn is Universal Yarn Ditto.)

I’m really happy with the results of my lightbox. Now I don’t have to try to find daylight or perfect indoor lighting before taking pics of yarn, WIPs, and FOs. It was easy to assemble and (best yet), affordable! Can’t beat that.

I absolutely loved this book.

I first heard about it on the Books on the Nightstand podcast. The novel starts with an interesting premise: Paul’s wife, Lexy, has died unexpectedly. The only witness to her death was their dog, Lorelei. In a desperate effort to understand what happened to Lexy, Paul (a linguist) decides that he’s going to try to teach Lorelei how to talk.

That’s a general overview of the plot, but the book is so much more than this. It’s exquisitely written–I found myself pausing to re-read a sentence or paragraph not for clarity, but in order to relish the beauty of the words. To illustrate (this is from one of the early chapters, so there are no spoilers here):

The day was warm, and we drove with the windows open. Breeze on my arms as I drove. Savor it now, the day, the breeze. Run the memory of it over your tongue. Speak it aloud; there’s no one listening. Say “sun” and “hot” and “day.” Close your eyes and remember the moment, the warm pink life of it. Lexy’s body in the seat next to mine. Her voice filling the car. Let it wash over you. It ends soon enough.

I’ll stop here, only to say that I highly recommend this book. I loved everything about it, to the point where it moved me to tears. Of course, the fact that one of the main characters is a dog probably had something to do with that since I have quite a weakness for dogs. But beyond this, it’s a haunting tale of love, loss, and memory; one that I think will stay with me for a long time.

Do you ever listen to book-related podcasts? If so, which ones and why?

This is a timely BTT question because I’ve just recently started listening to Books on the Nightstand, a really fantastic podcast about books and reading. I found it a couple weeks ago when searching iTunes for new podcasts. BOTN was one of the top results when I searched for “books” and “reading.” I downloaded a couple of episodes and was hooked. It’s hosted by Ann and Michael, who are sales reps for Random House. I like their opinions about books because they clearly know what they’re talking about and they’ve recommended dozens and dozens of books I’m not familiar with, but would love to read. Most of the recent additions to my To Read list on Goodreads have come from BOTN and I highly recommend the podcast if you’re a bookworm like me.