Day 39

We can still live here! The building inspector made the final inspection. We traded the building permit for the occupancy permit. Deep sigh. Relieved look.

There's a small problem with the shower door. Seems the door is defective and a new one will be sent. Don't know how long it will take to get a new one.

The dumpster and the port-o-potty need to be removed. I bet the Leaf Lady will be sorry to see those go.

Day 38

While waiting to hear what the schedule for this week will be to finish off a few small items and the final walk through and inspection, I did some organizing.

Since the plumbing inspection has been done and no one needs to work under the sink or take a look at it, I organized my cleaning supplies and kitty litter supplies under the sink. I also put down shelf liner in the vacuum garage (so the vacuum doesn't scratch the finihs) and put the vacuum, mops and stuff in there. Ta da!

I'm trying to make the space as efficient as possible. Putting things that are used most low where I can reach them. Pretty much everything has been put away in a new home. I'm so pleased with how clean and organized the room is. Now to tackle the rest of the house and declutter and organize.

Seven

I know the graphic looks like a circle or a recycle symbol, but it's a Roundtuit. A roundtuit. Those things you should do, but somehow don't get around to it. Seven things I'd do if someone gave me a Roundtuit.

1. Clean my bedroom. My room seems to be the catch-all room for junk especially if company comes over.

2. I've looked at the classic literature book display in Barnes and Noble and thought, Nah, boring! Talk about judging a book by the cover.

3. Plant a beautiful garden. Wish I liked getting my hands dirty digging in the dirt. Then I'd have to add weeding to the the roundtuit list.

4. Get a turn table that plays at 78 and 45rpm so I can listen to some of the 78s and 45s I have moldering in the basement.

5. Wash all the china and knick knacks in the china hutch and curio cabinet. How they can get so dusty behind closed doors is a mystery.

6. Go through the cedar closet and get rid of the suits and skirts I used to wear to work when I was a computer programmer some 23 years ago. I'm most likely not going to get down to a size 10 again and my girls probably don't want jackets with football size shoulder pads in them.

7. Clean the coils behind the refrigerator. Funny how what you don't see you don't seem to mind.

What are some of the things you'd do if someone gave you a roundtuit?

Day 37

Shower doors were installed. These are trackless, bi-fold doors. They open from the center making them convenient for Southpaws and the other handers. The doors are leightweight, but sturdy. Will be so nice to get rid of the icky shower curtain and not have puddles on the floor where people don't pull the curtain to the edges.

Still a few small things to take care of and the final inspection.

Day 36

The shower doors were delivered. They arrived too late in the day to be installed. Ink is enjoying poking around the large box.

Day 35

The plumbing inspector arrived this morning. He looked under the sink, flushed the toilet, and ran the water in the sink and shower. He used a thermometer to measure the hot water temp. 125o F. Perfect. Right in the middle of the allowable code.

As he was signing off on the building permit, I noticed he was wearing a pair of Crocs, the rubber shoes my girls call fugly. We discussed how wonderful and comfortable the rubber shoes are even if others think they aren't very attractive.

So two major inspections done. One left to go. The building inspector will have to sign off on the entire project. I imagine that will be happening in the next day or two.

Crocus

Seems the entire world has been talking about warmer temps and flowers and birds coming back to the gardens.

Outside my window, it's still cold and brown. I did see two robins on the first day of Spring, but haven't seen any since. Guess the ground is still pretty frozen and they can't get at the juicy worms.

Yesterday while getting out of the car after the school shuttle run, I spotted some crocus poking their noses up through the grass. I heard some Tow-hees too. Robins, crocus, tow-hees, Spring has arrived. Now if the temps would just get warmer so I can move into the sunroom.

Day 33, 34

The electrical inspector signed off on the project. I was a little nervous because just before he arrived, the electricity went out! Pretty hard to do an electrical inspection in the dark. Not to worry power was restored within a half an hour.

Plumbing inspection and then the final inspection by the building inspector left to go. Shower doors should be arriving any day now and the cabinet door with the ding has been refinished and is drying.

Three Things

Taken from Frauee's Facebook page:

3 Things
I am curious about you..Share

THREE NAMES I GO BY
1. CJ
2. Ceej
3. Mom

THREE JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE
1. Calligrapher
2. Computer Programmer
3. Lab Clerk

THREE PLACES I HAVE LIVED
1. Sutton, MA
2. Marlboro, MA
3. Natick, MA

THREE TV SHOWS THAT I WATCH
1. The Mentalist
2. Law and Order
3. News

THREE PLACES I HAVE BEEN
1. Germany
2. Bermuda
3. Bahamas

THREE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1. chocolate
2. Linguini a la Vongola (Linguine with clams)
3. Swordfish

THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO
1. Frauee visiting Boston
2. Spring cleaning
3. a new venture

THREE PETS THAT YOU HAVE OWNED
1. Ink, kitty
2. Mitty, kitty
3. Sidney, a turtle

THREE FRIENDS WHO WILL REPLY
1. hmmm
2. not
3. sure

THREE FAVORITE BANDS/ ARTISTS
1. BSO
2. Rolling Stones
3. Bob Seager

THREE FAVORITE TEAMS TO WATCH (Only if I have to)
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Boston Celtics
3. Boston Bruins

THREE FAVORITE DRINKS
1. Pepsi
2. Ice Tea
3. White Zinfandel

Now you play and don't forget to let me know. Nothing like enabling the nosy

Seven

I finally got around to trying out the Bluetooth headset that came with my phone. Seven things about Bluetooth.

1. The device has to be paired to the phone and given a name. Mine is called Nipper

2. The directions from the phone manual were not clear.

3. I had to make a trip to the phone store to get directions. Talk to me like I'm four.

4. I had to download a manual from the device site. Slapping forehead.

5. The manual states the indicator lights flashes red, blue, steady blue and purple, but if it's tucked behind your ear, how do you know what color it is?

6. Directions were hold for two seconds, hold for eight seconds. As in one missisippi two mississipi?

7. When I finally got the device to work, I felt like Lt. Uhura. Hailing on all frequencies, Captain.

Day 32

The hallway was painted today and a new coat of polyurethane put on the bathroom door. Also shiny new oil burner emergency switch and a new door knob. The picture doesn't do justice to the job the painter did. Unfortunately, he did such a good job, the rest of the walls in the house look sh...cr...fugly. The plan is to Spring clean and paint from top to bottom.

Day 31

After Himself dropped the Young One off at school, he went to the hardware store. No, it wasn't a horses' patoot run. He bought a shiny, new, oil burner emergency switch. He also bought me a step stool so I can now reach all the buttons on the dryer. Yup, he's too good to me.

The electrician put in double something on the circuit breaker. He told me what he was going to do. I nodded in all the right places as if I really understood what he was talking about and smiled politely. All the electrical work is now completed.

The first load of towels went happily tumbling through the washer and dryer. The laundry quarters are a little tight like doing laundry in a submarine except the bathroom floor is heated. I'm betting the submarine deck is not and my head is prettier

All that's left to be done is painting the hall, installing the shower door, and one of the cabinet doors that had a ding.

Day 30

After much shifting, grunting, and dismantling, the washer and dryer are now in their new home, and the bathroom is 99% complete. The shower doors should arrive sometime next week. A new step stool will be an addition to the bathroom, as I can't quite reach the upper buttons on the dryer. It's either get a step stool or all loads are dried on heavy duty as that's about the only button I can reach.

Day 28, 29

I asked for a reprieve as I forgot on Mon. I had to take my folks to a doctor appointment. We also needed time to clear out the garage so the washer/dryer can be moved into their new home.

Day 27

The electrician arrived this morning, Yes, on a Saturday morning. He connected lights, the fan, switches, outlets and the thermostat to the floor. And then we had lights! And warm floor tiles! Ink has discovered a new hangout.

There are still some details to complete. A few items on my push list to attend to. The washer and dryer need to be brought upstairs and the electrician needs to splice wires and change the dryer plug from a three prong to a four. The ceiling and hall will be painted on Tuesday. Shower doors are on order. I can't wait to get rid of the shower curtain.

The contractor had set today as the target day to have the bathroom completed. I had told him I was hoping to have everything ready as the family would be over to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday. The contractor had everyone jumping through hoops to grant The Little Princess' wish. And everyone worked over and above to get the bathroom company ready. It is so beautiful.

Seven

Today, is Pi Day. You remember pi, 3.14... the number that is the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle? Yeah, you remember. Today, March 14 celebrates that constant. So seven things about Pi and Pi Day

1. The best part is you get to eat pie. On today's menu will be chicken pot pie and for dessert, I'm leaning towards a blueberry yogurt pie.

2. Pi has been around as long as dirt. It's been known for almost 4,000 years.

3. Pi Day also coincides with Albert Einstein's birthday. He would have been 130 years old today. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Herr Professor!

4. This holiday isn't a Hallmark holiday. You're not guilted into sending cards or gifts! You can just enjoy the day.

5. The symbol for pi, Π, was first used in 1706 by William Jones

6. Pi was first calculated by Archimedes

7. Pi Day was first celebrated in 1987 by Larry Shaw at the Exploratorium in San Francisco

So there you have it, Pi Day. Go celebrate. Walk around a circle, and eat some pie.

Day 26

Another very busy day for the carpenter. He installed the new threshold. Did a lot of work that can't be seen. The dryer vent and the fan light vent were both vented properly to the outside. He re-did the attic access door and trimmed it with clamshell.

The doors to the vanity were hung up.

Ink does an inspection.

Tomorrow, we get electricity.

Roughs

My friend, Erica, an author and I have had several conversations comparing writing a novel to calligraphy and art. The latest conversation had to do with preparation. Many people are under the delusion that it doesn't take much planning to write a book. One just sits down and belts it out. That misconception certainly applies to calligraphy. Nothing to it. Just take your pen out and voilá.

Visit Erica at On the Write Path and read Confessions of a Reformed Writer to see what she does to bring her stories to life.

Planning, plotting, writing, editing, tweaking, fine tuning...writing a novel or creating art, the process is surprisingly similar.

I've received a commission for a tattoo design. So with Frauee's kind permission, I'll go through some of the steps I've gone through with her design.

First, there was a conversation about what she had in mind. She wanted "hope". I told her the traditional symbol for hope was an anchor and the color is green. Nope, didn't care for that concept. Frauee did a search and came up with "hope" found at Zibu Angelic Symbol It's a nice design and would lend itself to a flourish and the artist, Debbie Z. Almstedt graciously allows people to use her designs.

Next, how big? She thought 1" x 2" would be a good size.

Then Frauee decided since German is such a large part of her life, "hope" should be in German. Ok, what's the word? "Hoffnung" Yup, nice short word to fit into a 1" x 2" space. (-; She thought maybe there was an abbreviation for the word, but there wasn't one. Keine probleme. No problem.

I began thinking about the flourish and some things I could do with it. I sketched out some ideas and the Young One gave me some other symbols of hope: a candle, a shooting star, a butterfly, and an acorn. Thank you, Young One for bouncing ideas around. Your concepts were clever and amazing. I made a list of the things we talked about so I wouldn't forget.

Today, I worked on layout and design. Did a bunch of roughs to size. First, doing pencil sketches and then inking over. I added color to a couple of them just for an idea though color will be up to Frauee and the tattoo artist.

Some people view what I do as "just playing" meaning not real work. Though I sometimes refer to what I do as play because I enjoy my work, it's still work, and it takes time, a very valuable commodity. So far, I've spent a total of 6 hours on the project, and I don't have a finished piece yet. (Seven hours if you count blogging about it (-; )

I'm painfully out of practice with my Blackletter, but other than that, I'm pleased with the results. I love my job especially when working on an interesting project and working for a delightful patron.

Frauee, watch your snail mail for a hard copy of the designs. Let me know what you decide and then I'll work up a finished piece to bring to the tattoo artist.

Day 25

The bathroom is 75% finished. I can't believe how beautiful it looks. Today, the carpenter reversed the door so it won't bang into the washer.

He put up the mermaid and King Neptune towel hooks.

And the toilet paper roll holder. A no brainer as to how to put the toilet roll on the holder. Though The Young One pointed out, they most likely won't replace a roll out of sheer laziness.

The contractor is working hard to have the bathroom pretty much ready for my dad's 90th birthday party on Sunday. The plumber will connect the sink tomorrow and the electrician will do his magic on Saturday!

Having the sink in the bathroom connected will be convenient. Otherwise, there's a pump of Purel on the vanity or guests can wash their hands in the kitchen sink. Having the electricity connected will be a nicety though at this point not necessary. The party will be in the afternoon so there will be plenty of light. We've been using my battery powered Ott Lite at night which has worked out quite nicely.

A working toilet and a functioning toilet paper roll holder make the room company ready. Looks like I might be taking a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond tomorrow night to get a couple of fancy hand towels.

Wings

The other ATC theme for this month is wings.

A paper butterfly floats on a blue wash with sparkle powder which didn't show up in the photo. I think the paper is by Strathmore. Ziller Winter White, Nikko G nib.

The ATC cards came precut in a goodie bag I received. Funny how the close-up makes the antennae look like match sticks! LOL They came from a tiny cluster of silk flowers.

Day 24

Almost there. The tiling is finished. Will be grouted tomorrow. Plumber and electrician to finish up their end on Thurs or Fri. Word for the day is slick.

Erasers

I like to use kneadable erasers to erase pencil lines. The Young One likes to sculpt my kneadable erasers. Makes me smile to see what she leaves for me. My erasers have been transformed into penguins, dragons, turtles, dolphins...Today's creation a mermaid and a bird on the wing.

Day 23

Around the horn. Tiling continues. Holes for the wall sconce boxes were cut.

I look at the mural and the tile and think white sandy beaches in the full moon light. The Young One remarked with all the white, it looked like artic mermaids. The current view from the bathroom window doesn't help.

As Butch Cassidy said: I have vision. The rest of the world wears bifocals.

Celebrity Birthday

Happy 77 to Robert Dowdell who played Mr. Morton on Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Can't resist the blond guys especially when in uniform.

Day 22, Continued

Things moved a lot faster than I expected. The carpenter and helper arrived to start the tile work. I thought the tile would be delivered and would need to acclimate before it could be installed. Nope, doesn't need to.

The tile store didn't open until mid-morning so they had to wait for the field tile. The carpenter laid out and installed the mermaid mural over the sink and neatly mitred the corners of the rope tile for a frame. Gorgeous.

The assistant production manager brought the field tile. Though I teased him the whole lot had to go back because the tiles weren't white enough.

The carpenter had compared tiles and the snow white ones were obviously cream colored. Even he admitted that. I got to say told ya so. Lol

The carpenter and I unwrapped the decorative tiles and discussed how they would be placed.

When he left, part of one wall was tiled. It's starting to look like a real bathroom.

Day 21, 22

The quiet before the round up begins. Tile arrives today and then the work begins. The time line sounds ambitious with the bulk of the work finishing up by the end of the week.





I was hoping to be able to host my dad's 90th birthday on Sunday. Hopefully, the majority of the work will be finished enough so I can take my computer and junk off the dining room table, clean and organize the living room and dining room, put a guest towel on the mermaid towel hook and a roll of toilet paper on the new holder.

Looks like a trip to Target to check out hand towels.

Seven

Last week, I had gone to bed very early and found myself wide awake at 2am. This inspired seven things to do when you can't sleep.

1. Put a load of towels in to wash.

2. Fold clothes.

3. Pack the Eldest's clothes for her return to college

4. Read E-mail

5. Download items from Yahoo Briefcase before the service closes at the end of March

6. Go through files on computer deleting items no longer needed

7. Blog

What do you do when you can't sleep?

Red Letter Day

This is what I did with one of the sheets of paste paper I made the other day. It's a card for Lambie in her favorite color. I'm pretty sure Lambie doesn't read my blog. If you are reading, Lambie, it's your own &%&%#^ fault for picking today to come take a peek and spoiling your surprise!

I love making books and cards that can be done from one sheet of paper. Found the idea for this book at Making Books with Children

The card opens up like a plus sign with lots of space to write on the flaps inside and out.

Paste paper, Ziller's Glossy Black, Nikko G nib, stickers

Day 21

Another day on hold.

When you don't know what to blog about, take a quiz.

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Day 20

It will be quiet here for several days while we wait for the tile to come in. Time to get some other projects done or not.

Paste Paper

Yesterday, I thought I would start a project I've been composting for some time now. The first part of the project began with paste paper.

For those that don't know what paste paper is, simply put it is decorating paper with a mixture of flour paste and some sort of pigment. Or finger painting for grown ups. Paste paper usually begins with cooking the flour and water paste in the same way you would make gravy. Stirring, stirring and straining until you have no lumps. Many people have their favorite paste recipe: cake flour, rice flour and all sorts of other flours.

I've used cake flour with good success, but I'm a graduate of the Jane Jetson School of Culinary Arts. Punch a few buttons on a microwave. Ding! Dinner. So when I came across Elmer's Art Paste (formerly Ross' Art Paste), I had to give it a try.

Directions were blissfully simple. Mix the powder in a gallon of cold water and stir for 2 minutes. Wait 15 minutes and stir again. Then store the mixture in an air tight container. Btw, the ingredient in the paste is methyl cellulose. Very non-toxic. It's used as a thickener in stuff like ice cream.

I had fun making a few sheets of paper for my project. I was working in reds for my project. And then did a few more sheets to use up the paste and to have decorative paper around just in case. And then was taken by surprise.

The piece pictured is pink! So not my color, but I created it so it must be me. I like the pattern and the overall effect.

Has that ever happened to you? You created something outside your comfort zone or box?

Paste paper: Arches Text Wove, Elmer's Art Paste, Gel Medium, Liquitex Crimson and Cadmium Red Deep, Twinrocker Gold Sparkle and Pearlescent Sparkle powders.

Day 19

Frauee, you might want to stop here. This post will be a spoiler for you.

Ink inspects the new cabinets that were delivered this morning. They look beautiful. The carpenter is busy measuring and moving so they can be installed.

There was a lot of sawing, hammering, drilling but I never heard a Horse's Patoot! uttered or a quick trip to the hardware store.

And when the carpenter was finished for the day, we were left with a room that looks like a real bathroom! Here is the wall of cabinets.

And the vacuum garage and linen cabinet.

Day 18

Ok, I know I was whining the other day about finding the perfect shade of white, but I didn't want a foot of it dumped on the front lawn. Is it Summer, yet?

Why Summer and not Spring? Well, our Spring weather tends to be cold and wet. A lot like Winter without the shovel.

Books

I found this on Erica's blog

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ()

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ( )

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling ( )

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee () I've seen the movie a million times, does that count?

6 The Bible - ()

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ( )

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (X)

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( )

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ( )

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( )

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ( X )

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X )

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger(X ) Twice!

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ( )

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ( X )

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X)

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens (X )

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ( )

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ( )

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X )

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ()

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ( X )

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( X )

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ()

34 Emma - Jane Austen ( )

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ( )

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis ()

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - ( )

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x)

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ( X )

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X )

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving ()

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (X)

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery ( )

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood ( )

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding ()

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ( )

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ( )

52 Dune - Frank Herbert (X )

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ()

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ( )

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ( )

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ( )

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ( )

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ( )

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ( )

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( X) Three times!

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (X)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ( )

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ( )

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ()

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (X ) Most boring book ever written. Watch the movie with Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart instead.

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (X )

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (X )

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )

75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( X) Second most boring book ever written

76 The Inferno - Dante (X )

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ( )

78 Germinal - Emile Zola ( )

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )

80 Possession - AS Byatt ( )

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (x)

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ( )

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ( )

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White ( X )

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (X )

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( X )

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (X )

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X )

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (X )

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( )

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ( )

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ( X)

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare ( X )

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X )

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ( )

I've read 35. Which may not be an impressive number for an English major. I think the list is lacking and should include Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Gawaine and the Grene Knight by the Pearl Poet, Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott and Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. Some works of Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne should be included also.

What about you? How many have you read? What other books/authors do you think should be included?