Krakauer kragen kauer

I’ve been a busy little bee this week.  I decided to go it alone with making the corduroy blazer.  So far it is coming out well, even without the aid of the tailoring book.  I remember just enough of it to get me through.  The basic pattern has small errors but they require a little bit more knowledge to fix that only comes with experience.  The instructions called for cutting a piece that is part of another garment.  Nothing like wasting fabric.  I’m taking the time to write because I can’t really do much else.  When I do the laundry, I have to wait until it is almost all finished because the electrical system in my apartment sucks.  For instance, I cannot use my steam iron while the washing machine is running or I blow the fuse.

I put in a bid on the tailoring book on eBay.   I won the auction for ten dollars.  I wanted it to be shipped air mail since it was being sent from Vancouver.  The person selling it normally sells magazine clippings of celebrities.  Dare to dream.  Their terms and conditions were a bit antagonizing and condescending.  The seller, “Geezuz” is his name, sent me an invoice for the book and ground shipment.  I wrote back to him asking if he could send it airmail, but after four attempts to contact him, I am a bit frustrated.  Ground shipment can take up to three months.  The reason for buying the book is that I need it now and not three months from now.  I found another one on eBay for five dollars from someone in Iowa of all places.  I will probably win the auction and in which case I will send an email right away asking for airmail.  I will eventually own two copies of the book, one for using and one for backup I guess.  I am happy with the results so far with the blazer.  Accurate cutting and marking are keys to a successful tailoring job.  I just wish I could remember the right side to use the tailor’s tucks…

I ordered some shoes from Schuhpaket.com this week.  I bought a pair of brown low heeled loafer style pumps from camper, brown leather and cork Paul Green sandals, and turquoise and brown cowboy booties from El Natura Lista.  The campers and the Paul Green’s fit well, but the booties make my feet look way too huge.  I think I will send them back and get something else.  I am trying to sensible about the shoes I want to buy for fall and as basic staples.  I have been able to try on most of what I have bought to avoid pain and having to return them.

I made it by the electric company to change my name with them on Wednesday.  The woman that I spoke with made it seem like no big deal.  She didn’t even ask for any substantiating docs.  She just asked me what I changed my name to and simply changed it in the computer.  That was by far the easiest name change of all.  

I went to the Kalkhofen after work on Monday with Helmut and Johannes.  It was a bit cool and damp after dark out there in the forest.  They have white deer there just like the ones on belle isle in Detroit.  Tuesday night I worked on the jacket after work.  Wednesday evening I had an electrolysis session for 75 minutes on my neck.  Afterwards I met Mari, Christiane and Helmut at La Bodega for a glass of wine.  I felt totally drained like I had been on that machine from princess bride that drained the life out of dray pirate Roberts.  I stayed for one glass of Rijoha and then went home to bed.

I have been getting closer to deciding what I want to do with my vacation.  I have to decide if I really want to spend a grand on flights home.  I have sort of planned out my holiday trip; I am able to work it where I will have a month off around Christmas.  Aside from that I will have ten or eleven days left over.  I want to make a decision within the next week.

I went to Bauhaus on Tuesday to get some supplies to start working on fixing the bathroom wall.  I plan on scraping the wall down before I go on vacation to let it dry out while I am away.  I will then have to paint it right away when I get home before I am able to shower again.  While I was at the baumarkt I also bought some acrylic fabric paint in white, cherry red, red metallic, and silver metallic.  Yesterday I bought some clear shelf paper to use as a stencil.  I have been kicking ideas around for a logo, and I think I will try a couple versions out in color.

I tried a dead sea facial mask today which made my skin feel really nice, except it brought all the crap in my pores out, like the fried hair follicles.  I guess that’s good and I should probably do it weekly to avoid getting pimples from the ones that don’t come out on their own.  I am to the point where I only need to shave every other day, and that’s only because I am so self conscious of my facial hair.  That front is getting much better thankfully.  I used a hair mask also today and then let it air dry.  I look like a puff ball chia pet.

I have been feeling good for the most part lately.  I am beating the procrastination back in a big way.  That feels good.  I don’t feel guilty because of doing something like sewing when I really should be doing something else more important.  I hope that I will get some money back on my German taxes to refill the reserves.  That will add another layer of comfort for me.  I have been able to keep an even keel lately, and the loneliness is not such a big problem.  Every opportunity that I have had recently to go out and enjoy the nice weather I have taken.  September is turning out to be a nice month.

I received a letter this week from the Telecom stating that someone was sending spam from my internet connection and that they restricted my outgoing emails.  The email thing was a non issue since I don’t use the account that comes with my service.  I had a hunch that someone had hacked into my wifi and was using it to surf the net.  I became nervous about the potential security breach on my system, but I think it was restricted to my wifi and not to my computer (at least I hope so…).  I called and requested a new gateway number and password which came yesterday.  The intrusion was my fault, as I didn’t take the time to set up the security correctly when I first configured my wifi router.  I set it all up again yesterday, this time defining which computers are allowed to connect and also configured the encryption security feature.  The encryption isn’t the best as far as security goes, but it is a start.  The more advanced security features require a bit more knowledge which I can only get through reading up on it.  I am proud of myself for figuring out how to set it all up successfully, it only took me four hours!?