Nationwide Construction

This is a roofing company.  They repaired our roof last fall.

June 15, 2012.  The problem is not fixed.  I have contacted two other roofing companies to take a look.  The contractor has been out twice and failed to fix it.  I did notify Bryan at Nationwide that we are bringing in others to look at the problem.

The contractor was out here a couple of weeks ago because it leaked again.  I had hoped it was fixed.

May 20, 2012.  We had a really hard rain last Saturday.  The roof did not leak.  This does appear to have been fixed.

Before hiring them I researched them online.  They have been in business for a number of years and I could not find any record of complaints.  I also researched license history and there was nothing which means no disciplinary action either.

Until a few days ago I thought they had done a really good job.  We started getting water coming in the side of the house a little over a week ago whenever it rained hard.  Last Friday a carpenter/handyman came out and informed us that the problem was with the roof.

Over the week-end we had lots of water come in and major damage to the ceiling.  I called on Monday and Bryan said he would notify the contractor.  I still hadn't heard anything Tuesday afternoon so I called again.  Bryan told me the contractor would get back to me and hung up on me.  I called again about 10:30 this morning because I still hadn't hear anything.  I left a message that I expected someone out here in the next two hours.  Bryan called me back a few minutes later, said that calling him every day wasn't going to get any faster results, this wasn't a priority and they would get to it when they have time.  I told him that response is not acceptable, he hung up on me again.  I called him back and threatened further appropriate legal action.  Then I posted new entry to my blog.

I just got a call from the contractor.  He is going to come out sometime on Friday to look at our roof.  Something worked obviously.  I should not have to threaten further appropriate legal action and put a rant up on my blog to get them to do what they are supposed to.  I really hope we don't get any more major rains before they get this issue fixed.  I do expect them to fix both the leak problem and the water damage.

Edit: May 13.  The contractor came out on Friday.  I'm hoping the fix worked.

Edit:  April 9, 2013  They were out several times after that.  It didn't rain very hard after the last time they were out so we didn't have any leaks until today.  The water is just pouring in.

It was not leaking before they re-roofed the house.

Later:   And -- it looks like the roofer is only partly responsible for the water coming in.  So they aren't that bad after all.  They could have and should have been able to determine the cause.  The guy who did the temporary repair had it figured out within five minutes and confirmed it one minute later with a bucket of water poured over where the water was actually coming in from.

Warning about Nexus Mod Manager.

This utility for managing mods for Bethesda games is not safe to use.

1.  I have received clarification that no mod has the ability to deal with this issue so I'm deleting it from this post.  The second issue is still valid.

2.  If your skyrim.esm file disappears, you will get this error message

This has been set up so that the only way you can close this application is to open the task manager and force the the application to close.

Regarding the specifics of that error message, the file syntax describing where the file is supposed to be is not correct.  Both of the reasons given in that error message  for that master file disappearing are false.  There are also problems with grammar.

In addition, NMM then sometimes deletes the contents of a file in your appdata/skyrim folder called plugins.txt.  There is no easy way to undo that damage to your computer.  I did get a response from another user that reinstalling NMM fixed this for her.

Edit:  I tested this several times before discontinuing as a beta tester for this.  The issue with plugins.txt occurs, but not 100% of the time.  It still needs to be fixed.


IN CONCLUSION

Nexus Mod Manager is not safe to use.  The second issue I reported in this blog post is one that the creators of that manager introduced themselves and is an intentional design on their part rather than an actual bug.

May 10, 2012.  DarkOne posted on a thread on the official forums that this issue was addressed in the last update. He did not say how this was addressed.

May 20, 2012  Since I'm seeing that there are still complaints about the contents of plugins.txt disappearing, I have to assume that that issue has not been addressed and I am going back to my opinion that this tool is not safe to use.

Self Draping Shawl

I added some length and a ruffle to the one pictured above.  It looks much nicer than it did before in the picture below.

After I get the cast on and increases finished I will be adding the Feza Premier Alp. I am using Caron Simply Soft Paints for the first part of this shawl.  I am using size 9 needles now, the picture was with size 7 and it is just too tight a knit. 

I did start with the Feza and it just didn’t look right at the beginning. I had the Caron in my stash.

I’m working up a pattern that I plan to publish. I have made several of these, but this is the only one I currently have a picture of.

Since I’m ambidextrous, I need to make changes where one handed and ambidextrous knitting differ.

sl (ambidextrous) = put yarn behind needles, sl as if to knit, bring yarn back in front of needles

sl (one handed) = put yarn in front of needles, sl as if to purl, bring yarn back in back of needles

k = knit
p = purl
pm = place marker
m 1 = however you want, if I want a mitered look I will use kfb (knit front and back). If I want it invisible I will do a make one by using my needle to grab the post from the previous row and knitting that instead of grabbing the line between the stitches. Greengirl has an excellent video on how to do this stitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zdl76RbncM&feature=yo...

SET UP (This is a garter tab with a 5 stitch border. For a video on how to do these see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p300ODqDWjA )
cast on 5 stitches (provisional).

Left and Right Handed instructions

Knit one row, Purl one row- 8 to 10 

Knit 8 to 10 rows. one handed (garter st.)
row 1 Knit 5, pick up 4 st. on side and 5 on other end.
row 2 . - P4, sl 1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, p1, pm, sl 1, p4

(you should have a marker on each side of the 4 stitches you picked up on the side) you should have 14 st. on the needles

PATTERN

R 1 Knit
R 2 p4, sl 1, k to last 5 st, sl 1, p 4
R 3 (Increase Row)
R 4 p 4, sl 1, p to last 5 st, sl 1, p 4

For this shawl it will be a 4 row repeat with the increases on R 3.

Increase 1 each section 1 st, 4 per row (repeat this increase row 2x in the 4 row pattern) after inc 1 = 18 st on needles (k1, m1), 2 = 22 (k1, m1, k1), 3 = 26 (k1, m1, k2) there will be 4 sts in each of 4 sections.

Increase 2 each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 80 st. after last increase (4 sections)

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 8 sections

Increase 3: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 160 st. after last increase

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 16 sections

Increase 4: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 320 st. after last increase

One Handed (Either Right or Left handed knitting.

Knit 8 to 10 rows. one handed (garter st.)
row 1 Knit 5, pick up 4 st. on side and 5 on other end.
row 2 - k4, sl 1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, k1, pm, sl1, k4 

(you should have a marker on each side of the 4 stitches you picked up on the side) you should have 14 st. on the needles

PATTERN

R 1 Knit
R 2 k4, s 1, p to last 5 st, sl 1, k 4 one handed
R 3 (Increase Row)
R 4 k 4, sl 1, k to last 4 st, sl 1, p 4 one handed

For this shawl it will be a 4 row repeat with the increases on R 3.

Increase 1 each section 1 st, 4 per row (repeat this increase row 2x in the 4 row pattern) after inc 1 = 18 st on needles (k1, m1), 2 = 22 (k1, m1, k1), 3 = 26 (k1, m1, k2) there will be 4 sts in each of 4 sections.

Increase 2 each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 80 st. after last increase (4 sections)

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 8 sections

Increase 3: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 160 st. after last increase

next row make sure there is a marker every 10 st.

now you have 16 sections

Increase 4: each section 2 st. 1 after first st, and 1 before last st. of each section until 20 st. in each section. you will have 320 st. after last increase

At this point you have enough sts. for a scarf. Unless you are using fingering weight or smaller yarn, you don’t need any other increases. Just keep adding rows until you have the length of shawl you want.

I have never stopped at this point.  This next one I am making will be a feather and fan pattern after I have finished the increases.  I will add the chart as soon as I know that it works.

@ Cathleen Bang Anderson 2012

Marengo sweater

I finished this sweater for my daughter in May. The pattern is by Berroco. I rewrote the pattern to suit my own knitting style and while I was doing it found numerous issues with the pattern that I had to edit so that the sweater would turn out.

Berroco's response when I contacted them, "We are sorry you did not understand the pattern." I expect that patterns I purchase with money to be perfect with no errors. This book has several patterns and each and every one of them has problems. I won't be purchasing any more patterns from Berroco.

Gluten Intolerance

I just confirmed that I have this by process of elimination. I have labs schedule in August and they will also do the blood work to test for Celiac Disease.

Latest hat.

I just finished this hat up today. It is shorter than the previous ones that I have made.

A dream

I would love to see a building that has a warm water therapy pool on one end, a drop in center/coffee shop/ general store with wi fi in the middle, and a rollerskating rink/ martial arts practice area on the other end.

The pool would be the same size as the one at the Courage Center in Stillwater, Minnesota and would also have the features of the pool at Impact Physical Medicine in St. Paul, Minnesota added into it.

There would be a see through, sound proof wall between the roller skating rink and the rest of the building.