A Corking Good Time Crafting

4"x6" 'cork' trivet

cardboard and cork wreath

cork wreath hanging on door

Recently, I came across a box-load of wine corks that had been accumulating in my basement for years. I just don't like to throw things out but watching those Hoarder shows on TV has had an effect on me and I've become more serious about throwing things out. Or, in this case, getting a bit creative with some of the old rubbish lying around.  I sorted the corks by type, that is, whether they were real cork or that new plasticky-cork stuff that you find.  I used these plasticky ones to make a hot plate trivet. I arranged them in some semblance of order and just glued 'em together with some clear transparent super sticky type glue that I found in a tube in a drawer in the kitchen. Yes, I'm dehoarding kitchen drawers too!  Then I sorted all the real cork corks and found a lot of them had lovely little pictures or numbers or words or letters on them.  After finding a wreath-shaped piece of cardboard (yes, I'd saved that too and it was up for either the trash, re-cycling or crafting!) which I painted red with some, you guessed it, left-over craft paint I found in another drawer. I used red paint as it was the only little paint can that was still wet enough to use! Once the paint dried on the cardboard I started to arrange the corks around the wreath, first a lower level and then adding other ones on top, in a sort of higgledy-piggledy design.  I should say here that I went out on the Internet first and searched "What To Do With Old Corks?" and found numerous websites where people had pictures and descriptions of making stuff with old wine corks. So, suitably inspired by their ingenuity, I made a wreath and hot plate rest meself and feel quite satisfied with the final results.  I've already had some compliments from house guests about them, including questions. One asked about "how long it took to accumulate all those corks?" from my brother who is clearly checking up on me to see if I'm a wino or not.  The answer is "about 10 years of tippling," which seemed to disappoint him somewhat.  Another person asked "if the corks smelled?" which was an unexpected question.  The answer is "no as all the corks were quite old and dry when I used them." So, I will use these items for as long as I like and then I can either trash, re-cycle or upcycle them again whenever.  These items really didn't take long to make nor were they too complicated to put together as I had everything at hand somewhere ('hoarded'). And I do take pleasure in keeping things out of the landfill as much as possible though, don't you too?

There Goes that Elusive Verizon FiOs Truck!

Sometime in the past month I actually for the first time ever saw a FiOs truck go by me here in DC. Big and white and shiny with a picture of a giant TV with blue ribbons tailing along the side of the van, it surely looked like something new in town as I sat at the bus stop watching the traffic go by.  You have to realize that in my neighborhood no-one has Verizon FiOs as they haven't laid the fiber cable yet here and I've heard it will be years before it will happen. While there's some diehard over-the-air free TV types, most either have cable or satellite TV and most get Internet either via DSL or a bundled cable TV package. Some spring for 4G wireless but that really adds to the bill.  As a DirecTV subscriber AND a Verizon DSL subscriber, we'd like to lower the costs of all our electronic communications so we keep hoping FiOs will come to our neighborhood soon.  We receive Comcast promotion cards in the mail all the time, trying to persuade us to switch back to cable TV in a bundled package with their phone and Internet. We also see Comcast trucks a lot.  And I have a neighbor who works for Comcast and he says it's a great company.  Somehow, though, we've come to really like our satellite TV service as the service people are extraordinarily nice when you talk to them about adding a TV channel or two or otherwise adjusting the bill. But, there I was at the bus stop and there went that elusive FiOs truck and I started to imagine having all my communications service on one bill, and a really fast and strong connection and maybe even a bit cheaper than all the different providers we have now.......hmm....

No Longer Eligible for A&E #Hoarders

Hoard for Removal

De-hoarded garage space

Today I went out to the garage to get the Christmas decorations but, inspired by A&E cable TV channel's program called Hoarders, I found myself clearing out a small hoard of papers, tools, coiled wired, old lamps, books, a chair, a table and a wheelchair. We bagged it all up and then put it out in the alley for a Bulk Trash Pickup which I signed up for online right away to avoid getting a Trash Ticket from the City Trash Ticket Lady.  I did relate to the people on the TV show a little as I found myself saying "I don't want to give this up" about a couple of the items such as my son's baby things or a school paper I'd written years ago. Mostly, however, I found myself saying "Why do I still have my ex-husband's rusted tools?" and "Why am I keeping this bag of nails?" After all, if I'd needed them or he wanted them back, in the twelve years we've been divorced, they would have been used! So feeling very pleased with meself, I then went in to photograph the cleared space. A sleepy little field mouse, looking very large and pregnant, was making her way out from the leftover rubble and dust, and I'm sorry to say, I picked up the baseball bat and whacked her dead. Well, it's not as if mice are an endangered species, now, is it? So with a little clean up -- which took about two hours -- I've gotten rid of some of my hoard. Now, I'm thinking about what else to tackle. Fortunately, I don't have an attic, but the basement and some of the closets could do with some serious garbage bag de-hoarding, so once I get some Hefties, maybe I'll tackle those. Purging is good! 

Aggravating Glitches in the Ole City Today

I should have known when I missed the bus this morning that this was one of those days when things would go wrong. Once at work it turned out my computer was infected with some nasty virus that SOMEONE had sent me so I couldn't use it. I tried to use another available computer but all the settings and seating and configurations were not familiar so I gave up and took a break. I went to the bank to deposit some checks and guess what, there was no pen to fill out the form that goes with the deposits and I hadn't carried my bag with pen with me as I'm trying to carry less with the slipped disk I have. There was no one around to borrow a pen from so I trudged back to my office for a pen and tried it again. Lo and behold there was a pen at the bank by then and which I didn't need. Some trick that! Then I went down to the Metro station to see if I could get loaded on my Smartrip card the money that WMATA owes me -- from when a bus ate my $40 when attempting to add money to the Smartrip card on a bus. Guess what? I waited too long at Step #3 of the Smartrip reload process and it timed me out. Guess what? I tried it twice more and it still said 'Transaction Canceled.' Determined to get MY FORTY DOLLARS, and at the suggestion of the Metro station manager, I trudged again, in the heat, back aching, to another Metro station, and Lo and Behold, the card loaded the $40. So something worked. Determined to see if I was now on a good luck roll, and looking forward to lying on my back on a nice soft bed, I went home and found all the electric clocks blinking again --a sure sign that PEPCO turned the power off again. The neighbors tell me they do that to save power but I think it's because this is an old neighborhood with old wires and overloaded transformers and the demand is high (all those YOUNG PEOPLE with their always-on battery charging laptops & iPhones & iPods & iPads, air-conditioning on all day set high and X-boxes and TVs going all the time). But fortunately for PEPCO, they had the power on and I was able to lie down in some cool air and gather my wits from all the glitches of the day. Then I looked at my garden and thanked God for green and pink things.

World Cup Connections

The World Cup Finals have actually got me watching sports, something I usually don't do but these games are quick and diverse and it's clear millions of people the world over are engaged in this. For my own part,I've noticed how despite being in America, people are drawn to supporting their home country team. Half a dozen people have initiated talking to me about how disappointed I might be because of the U.K. team's lost goal. I found myself high fiving one of the guys in the garage where I sometimes park the car; his car had an Argentina flag hanging from the rear view mirror and I said, "Hey, Argentina go!" or something equally stupid. But he lit right up with a big proud smile, and said "Yeah, we're good" or something -- my Spanish isn't that sharp. Another colleague whose parents are Italian was raving about the Italian team and my neighbor whose father is Nigerian talked about how Nigeria didn't get into the finals. Since our satellite TV basic package doesn't get the cable channel with the games, we've been watching on Telemundo, the Spanish language channel and finding it very enjoyable; we may even be learning a little Spanish alongside. If only all patriotism were worked out through football! Maybe God works that way too, sometimes.

Sounds & Sights of the City at Solstice

You'd think things would have quieted down about 8:30 pm on this summer solstice eve but I just sat down on the porch and listened to a loud assortment of sounds. This is the front porch on this glorious evening in the city. Firstly, there's the dull roar of the NORAD planes up there in the sky over Washington DC doing some drills. Now a helicopter makes its blade-noisy way over to the nearest hospital. A motorcycle just roared by, slowed down by the Fedex truck groaning along looking for the right house. A bunch of birds are tweeting somewhere and a bunch of others are making coo coo noises while a few seem to be cawing and squeaking conversations about the street's residents. They're probably sated from the large assortment of bugs flitting about annoying us humans. Then there's two batches of cicadas grinding and clattering away in chorus at either end of the street. It's always hard to tell which tree they are in or where they are located but they usually all stop at the same time. Quite mysterious. Somewhere in the distance a siren goes off, perhaps it's police or an ambulance and one wonders momentarily what the disaster is, and then, martini in hand, I just forget about it as I'm distracted by some fireflies lighting up the myrtle. And with every breeze -- and there's more than a few -- wind chimes on people's porches are jingling and dingling in the erratic breezes sending soft tinkles out. Closer to where I'm sitting on the porch is the roar of my electric fan -- set up to blow away any flies or mosquitoes that dare trespass in my personal space. Some neighbors have someone banging on their door and the dogs are barking, not recognizing it's the owner's sister visiting. Every once in a while a car does it double toot as the driver locks it up automatically and double clicks the key. A porch door slams tinnily as someone goes out to work the night shift. I can even hear the noise of the TV as someone else watches the World Cup game tonight. Earlier, there were some little girls giggling on their way from the car to their house with their dad telling me how pleased he was that they made it through the first day of summer camp. Thank God for giggling little girls.

Blogging and Ads

I had no idea that this blog could lead to me making money. That is, when setting up this blog there's an option to "monetize" the blog. So I clicked on that tab and filled in my name and address and slam bam wham, thank you God for the ham, I could get paid depending on if people click on things in the right hand column. I'm not supposed to click on them, so I won't. But the question is, why can't I click on the ads I'm serving up to readers too? If I am interested in the product or service or whatever. Oh, well, seems to be one of those blog mysteries. But don't let that stop you from clicking on them all. Don't worry, you don't have to buy anything, it's okay to look. It's because we don't read newspapers anymore. Or watch the ads on TV.