mchin's Profile

@arturner - some of us don't have fireplaces or a space for an outdoor fire. waiting for my yearly summer camping trip is WAY MORE trouble than a few minutes scrubbing with salt and a potato ;-)

and @phil.cooper is correct about the soldering vs welding. my dad was a machinist and foreman for the railroad for 25 years, then became a professional welder as a second career, so he knows what he's doing! I wouldn't necessarily walk into the local Hacker Space or Maker Space and fire up the torch on my own without some expert oversight.

@Staceysk - my thoughts exactly! I nearly did a post on them several months ago, but (believe it or not) couldn't find enough good photos. When I was a kid, my dad had made an entire outdoor dining set and a tree swing for me out of spools he collected at work. So cool!

I think anyone who welds could help you. Maybe a local mechanic or machine shop? Or maybe get in touch with a welding instructor at a local college or junior college? Usually professor types can get behind such devotion to a beloved object :)

I usually use a bonded local petsitter, but I was going to be gone for 23 days and had an old friend who wanted a break from her current living situation. I was glad someone was here 'round the clock for the kitties, but not so sure having someone who hasn't had a lot of pet experience was a great plan. When I got home, I got a blow-by-blow description of every puke and hairball that happened over the previous month. Fun!

When I left, the only two things I forgot to tell the house/pet sitter were: where the extra Cat Genie litterbox cartridge was at (the poor girl had to listen to incessant beeping for over a week) and where the extra toilet paper is kept. Other than that...I have no explanation for why the smoke detectors decided to freak out on her.

Thanks for adding to the list, @THEOBVIOUS and @VICTORIANINBLOOM!

@CACTINA - I traveled alone from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar on the Trans-Siberian. I met friends who live in UB, but the first two times my friend (a woman) traveled there, she was alone. I met a lovely South African woman in front of the statue pictured at the top and she had been traveling solo for over a year. The guide companies I listed are great and the folks at Black Ibex speak and write very good English. There are a couple hostel-type places where a lot of Westerners stay. Zaya's Guesthouse is the nicest of them because she doesn't put up with rowdy shenanigans. Zaya can also help connect you with tour guides to take you to the country...since that's where all the real beauty is.

@HHRI my example shows ziplocs, use your imagination for drying other sorts of plastic produce bags. Personally, I use small woven fabric bags at the farmers market, but they were kind of spendy and aren't for everyone.

Dalila, do you live in Los Angeles? If so, I'm sure you've noticed it has a history of long stretches of road without anything of interest to a pedestrian.

As stated in the post, look further down into the comments section on The Purl Bee's site. They suggest a less expensive yarn. Or, you can find your own in a similar weight. I usually buy all my yarn on closeout :)

Have always slept with a fan on to muffle any street/roommate/neighbor noise. When that doesn't work, I go speak to the neighbors in the friendliest way possible. When I lived in a loft and the lease holder would go out of town for work, he'd leave his stoner 20-something nephew to dog sit. With him came death metal at 2am and a girlfriend in stilettos who likes to pace A LOT. They all ended up getting evicted some months down the road.

I'm ashamed to confess, I used to be the neighbor hitting snooze for over an hour (or totally sleeping through the alarm). I was always sleep deprived from long hours at work, so I sometimes needed a backup alarm, even. Once someone told me they could hear my alarm every day, not only did I feel terrible about it, but it was a good clue that I needed to get a better grip on my sleeping (and working) habits.