Much good news and meandering

[ellenmillion]

I got /all/ the art-plates printed for the RWH calendar. Finally. Gah... took a /lot/ of ink. Next step is the date pages, which are all laid out and only need printed in the appropriate order, and the cover. Then binding. May be able to finish printing tonight, bind tomorrow. *crosses fingers* Next step for RWH stuff is the prints, of which there aren't too many to do, then mousepads and magnets.

Got a new credit card for EMG that has 'Ellen Million Graphics' in shiny flat silver lettering across the front and a higher credit limit than my working budget. Be good, Ellen. *reminds self to order new mousepads... and figure out someone in the lower 48 to ship UPS ground to. Rotten asses at Blanx have better prices than anyone but they won't ship USPS and UPS only has 2nd day air up here. It's actually cheaper to ship the stuff twice. Grumbles.*

Also got several orders finished to mail today. Yay!

Need to write emails to: Jennie, Cindy, Jessi, Jason and probably about a dozen other people. Need to write /another/ nasty note to xdrive.com demanding my money back and explaining what assholes they are. Okay, maybe I should skip the assholes part. Though they have been.

Got CD written for RPG book. 28 ink drawings, ranging from 1996-this year, of much-varying quality. Hopefully they can use some of it. Need to write to that guy, too...

Bank appraised our houseplans at waaaaaaaay more than we thought they would (30 /grand/ more than our highest guess!), and had no qualms with not having a bathroom upstairs, or a second bedroom, or the stairs (which are psuedo-to-code), or having raceway instead of in-wall wiring (which greatly helps insulative value of the walls, but is 'non-standard'). If the final appraisal is even close to the plan appraisal I might quit my job and build houses for a living. If I survive this one. Still need to scan those plans for Mirar.

Dirtwork starts Wednesday, assuming soil conditions are acceptable. Frost went 7 /feet/ this winter because the snowcover was so low, so starting has been slow. Very excited about finally getting this underway, hoping greatly that thaw has been steady on our land.

Didn't get any drawing done this weekend, but I did get three swirly paintings done start-to-finish, and Melody's commission worked on. This painting has been driving me NUTS. I finished the birch trees, was moderately pleased with them, and showed them to Jake, who said 'Mmm... What're those lines for? It looks funny. I don't like it.' I appreciate that he gives me honest opinions, and I realize that it gives validity to his praise and generally improves my work, but sometimes I want to strangle him. I put it aside before I could paint over it in a fit of disgust.

I've got 6 of these swirly paintings done now... they're very fast and fun and Jake really, really likes them. I'm thinking of having a show of them, Gullivers is always looking for shows of local artists, and these are as good as any of the ones I've seen. Not anything like any of the work any of you have seen from me. I'll scan the three that are dry. My favorite is the purple glowy one that I did Saturday. I've got to start coming up with names for them.

Trying to figure out a better way to display single cards for the fair, too... thinking about a photo album book approach. I will /not/ ever put anything but wrapped packages in the racks... too many sticky-fingered children who like to spin the things, and they get too damp and limp and gross because of the humidity in the tent. And I can't do the boxes-behind-the-counter thing anymore... I get /way/ too busy with just having prints and coloring books behind the counter and answering endless questions. I have enough trouble keeping the racks updated with packages.

Another note. One of the things I love about Alaska is that we get Maxfield Parrish clouds. *happy sigh*

This ramble brought to you courtesy of my illustrious workplace boredom.

Comments

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Raceway is very common in log cabins where you don't have stud-walls to hide all the wiring in; it's plastic (or metal, or something) shielding that the wires go through, mounted directly on the walls, and outlets stick out from the wall, so it's not as pretty as in-wall wiring. The raceway itself looks like a square hat in section, with flanges that you screw into whatever is handy. It's soooo easy to repair... no need to knock out walls to find the wires, and you don't have to worry about penetrating the vapor barrior like you do with the in-wall outlets. That was probably more than you wanted to know. :P

[mirar.livejournal.com]

No, it isn't. :)
I get the feeling that your standard wiring differs a lot from our.

The standard installation base here is plastic tubing in the walls and floors (and ceiling), be it wooden or concrete. No cabin here lacks wall insulation to place the tubing in (even log cabins have an extra insulation layer). The wires are put in the tubes, and more wires can be dragged into the tubes when needed - the tubes are bent so there are no sharp corners. No need to break any walls. Outlets get a standard size round box in the walls at "surface" level - same size for power outlets as well as lamp switches, network, tv antenna, phone sockets. Things like vapor barrier is no worry, since the outlet is attached to the fixed box.

Sometimes you need extra outlets and stuff though, and then you just attach them to the wall.

But that Raceway doesn't sound too bad. At least it's simple.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Could be too that's exactly how they do it here and I just had fuzzy ideas. Wires are for EEs... I'm just a lowly ME. :P

[mirar.livejournal.com]

As a CS fellow I guess I like places to simply put more cables. And more cables.
Like the cable ladders there is at Lysator. Or - I can't find the word - the things you put on the walls like strips but with place for a ton of cables.

I hope you'll pre-place LAN cables, BTW. :-)
And has a server closet planned. :-)