Lost in Fiber Space

We went to SAFF this weekend. I'm still having trouble remembering what happened. The yarn fumes overwhelmed the four of us as soon as we walked in the door. The first thing we saw when we walked in Friday morning was this:And this:

That, my friends, is an entire rodeo arena full of fiber-related wonderment. There was all manner of fiber porn everywhere you looked. It became impossible to avert your eyes. The four of us were in shock for the first 4 hours. And to top it all off, there was more outside. Can you believe it? It was like Christmas, but better.

Then we gathered our wits about us and the buying commenced.

Among other things too wonderful to contemplate, Amy and I bought 5 pounds(that's not a typo) of yarn. We plan to dye it and make something magical out of it, but that has yet to be determined. It will need a bit of work though.
I also bought cashmere from Miss Babs, alpaca yarn to make a sweater, fiber to spin and of course, sock yarn. Because there isn't enough in the stash already and what would happen if they just stopped manufacturing the stuff?

We also saw disapproving Llamas
And curious Alpacas:
And we spun , and Bob came to the party!
And we bought
And Katey inspired us all to bigger things by winning first place, second place, and Best in Show for her handspun fiber.In general, a good time and many things were learned by all. The most important thing I learned is not to let a stupid piece of wood get the best of you. And that it's important to have really good friends without which I would laugh a lot less and take myself way too seriously.

Got Fish?

For many years (yes, years, something like maybe 3ish) my fishtank sat neglected. It was the source of much ridicule for me. My poor husband tried when he was home, but finally gave up. And as the years went by, it kinda became something of a science experiment. It didn't stink, it was all natural, and it was obviously low maintenance. What's not to like? See for yourself:
Ok, so it's kindof an eyesore. Well, I finally thought so too. And so came the day that I got a wild hair and decided to clean it up a bit. I took the filter apart (which was surprisingly unclogged), changed the water and scrubbed the sides. Lo! There were 2 fish living. They looked lonely, so I added friends today. See how pretty?

Holy crapmuffins, Batman! If I do say so myself, it looks right pretty. There are now 7 fishies in there, and they seem to be happy and content. We'll see if I can keep this up. But it sure looks better, don't you agree? And I have an angelfish. I love those.

In other news, Zoe wants to say thank you to mommiesfriendamy who made her this sweater. She said to tell mommiesfriendamy that she feels like a pretty, pretty princess and that she likes it especially since it keeps her tummy warm now that it's cold out, yes she does.


'Cause it's important to be warm when you are such a small dog with no hair whatsoever on her tummy. True that.

Today's post: Car Stereo Repair

This morning on the way home, I noticed that my subwoofer in the back of the Exploder was buzzing like someone had stuffed it full of marshmallows or maybe violently ill pixies (I checked. Sadly there were no marshmallows. Or pixies.). The thing sounded terrible. It had to die.

A little online research convinced me that this could cost a little or a lot. So instead of going somewhere and paying out my dupa(Polish for "bottom." Stop looking at me that way) with money I don't have(because SAFF is coming up and there must be money for fiber), I decided that I can work a screwdriver(as well as read a knitting pattern, and make a mean beef stroganoff) and that it would be an adventure to fix it myself.

Off I went to my local stereo store where there were a bunch of tattooed guys discussing speakers and sound quality and whatnot with each other. One of the tattooed guys was very nice and gave me just the right speaker for the car. He very nicely explained that since my old subwoofer had two male (use your imagination) connectors and that the new one has 4 male connectors, I would have to wire it up differently to install it. I needed to go to Radio Shack to get my female (you can do it) connectors. No problem, right?

Well. I walked in and the guy at radio shack took one look at the old and new speakers in my hand and said "No". "No what?" I asked. "We don't do car stereo here" he said. Wow. Like it hadn't occurred to me that Radio Shack WASN'T a car stereo place. How stupid of me. I politely explained that I needed female connectors to connect the wires. He proceeded to tell me that he does a LOT of car stereo and what I wanted to do wasn't possible because he'd never seen a subwoofer with 4 male connectors before. It took a lot of explaining and visual aids before he was on board with the project. I bought a soldering iron instead of female connectors (his one good suggestion) and left. He told me to have fun on my way out. Thanks dude, rock on.

Anyhoo, here's what my old subwoofer looked like once I ripped it's guts out:


And the new subwoofer all soldered up and ready to install:
And the finished product:

Ok, so it's not perfect. In taking out the panel, I broke it a little bit, but hey, it's an 11-year-old car. It has a few dings. Given how most of my cracked-up, post-call plans I usually hatch explode in my face, this one went surprisingly well. And it sounds pretty good too.

I'm gonna go celebrate and eat some marshmallows. And if I find any pixies, I'll let you know.