My Life as a House

Valenday's Tine

2012-02-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

I looked back for the last two years to see what I posted on Valentine's Day. There was nothing last year and only a brief mention in 2010.

So I thought I had better make an entry of note for this year. That's because we have had a wonderful day of Looooove!

It has been a rainy and snowy day. I sent Susan a batch of flowers and a card I made detailing the 50 reasons I love her. She got me a bottle of wine and some chocolates. She also bought the ingredients for a fabulous Valentine dinner. Tri-tip and asparagus with a nice Caesar Salad. I barbecued the meat and the asparagus and it came out pretty good. We opened a bottle of Zinfandel wine from Vineheart winery.

After dinner, we enjoyed a nice soak in the hot tub. Now the evening is winding down as we watch a little TV and finish the zin.

Hopefully, I left enough information here to be able to remember it next year. We have no idea what we did on Val Day last year.

Trim Work Winging

2012-02-12T20:54:00.017-08:00

I spent a good portion of the weekend working on my dining room doorway while Susan continues the seemingly endless task of plastering and sanding, plastering and sanding, plastering and...one gets the point.

I shall begin with the work space.

This is the Dining Room Entry I am working on. Here you see a view from the kitchen and a view from the hall.

I have stripped all the paint off the wood. Now I have to fix the mortise that used to hold a hinge. There was once a door here but it is long gone, at least it was gone before we took ownership.

So I took a field trip to Windsor Plywood for some advice and they suggested I just use a piece of 2x4 and create a little wafer of wood for the patch.

Well, that seemed like a good idea and so that is what I did.

Here is an old 2x4 I recovered from the garage.

It took several tries but I then began trying to cut a thin wafer of wood from this board with my chop saw.

After a few shots at it, I cut a piece I was happy with.

I trimmed it to size and then, as is often my habit, I marked it with a little information for future treasure hunters.

I then slathered it with wood glue and fit it into place.

I of course copied the above methods for the hinge mortise on the bottom of the door jam.

I let it dry over night and returned on Sunday to sand the Fu...heck outta it.

The sanding went smoothly and quickly with the help of my new orbital palm sander. That is really a great tool.

Finally , I brought out the three pieces of trim that go around the door to see how they will fit. Because Susan had skim coated the ceiling, the the cross piece of trim buts right up against the aforementioned ceiling, the side pieces would not fit. I am going to have to trim them a bit. Probably no more than the saw blade width...perhaps a touch more. Maybe a whole lot more. Who the hell knows...certainly not me.

I winging it here!

Full Moon Febberrary

2012-02-07T21:58:00.012-08:00

The moon is full tonight and we decided to get out and enjoy a nice hot tub under the warm moon glow.

Afterwards, I went out to see if I could capture some good moon pictures of the house. I should have grabbed my tripod. It's difficult to hold the camera steady enough under low light conditions. Nonetheless, I'm satisfied with the photos I got...at least for the purposes of this blog.

Here is my best shot.

Not the greatest shot, but I think it captures the feeling of a cold winter evening...when the werewolves are out.

XLVI

2012-02-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

It is another beautiful day in the Inland Northwest. It is also Superbowl Sunday, which has meaning to people who are fans of the New York Giants or the New England Patriots. Neither Susan or I care.

We have a couple of parties to attend today. but first, we have some stuff to do around the homestead. I'm going to try and finish the stripping I was doing yesterday. And then there is just general housekeeping, which has once again gotten away from us.

9:45PM: The Superbowl is history and the Giants have won, 21 to 17. It was a good game this year. It really came down to the last few minutes. Actually, it came down to the last play. Has Tom Brady been able to connect his pass, the Patriots would have won. But there were about 47 guys down in that end zone son there was not a big chance of threading the needle.

We ate a lot of great food. Especially at Party Two, where pork was smoked. Man, it was tasty.

Now it's time to prepare for another week of drudgery and another day closer to death.

We ended up losing around 20 bucks on the various bettings going on.

Spring in Febber Arie

2012-02-04T16:35:00.001-08:00

It is February 4th and it might as well be the eighth of May. What a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I have to spend it inside stripping trim. It's just as well. After last night's drinking fest, it's probably best that I stay inside and move very slowly.

Susan is progressing with her mudding and sanding while I am stripping. Here are some pictures to fill the space.

The paint was laid down pretty thick. There was at least two layers and I'm betting more. I have serious doubts about the remodeling credentials of someone who wood paint over stained would.

Friday Night

2012-02-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

We have begun the weekend by drinking heavily!

I am planted in front of the TV with the Blues Music Channel on and Susan is napping in the other room. I had an appointment with my Cardiologist today which left my afternoon wide open. I met Susan and her boss, Bill at the Illinois Avenue Tavern and we has lunch. I had an appointment after that at Fast Eddie's and Susan joined me for the Dollar Beer Hour. After that, we moved on to the Hub, the local tavern only a few blocks away.

It appears to have been a full night and it is only 8:45PM. We are light weights.

For news on my Cardiologist appointment, visit my health blog at www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com. I try to keep a semi-complete record of my health issues at that blog. It's just me complaining about my health so there is really no need to bother. Really! Don't go there! I'm not kidding! Stop it!

We are at the start of Superbowl Weekend so we are not expecting a lot of progress out of us. We'll do some work on the house tomorrow but that will be about it. Whatever we get done before 5:00 will be the extent of it for the weekend.

We have some tickets to a concert tomorrow night and we are clearly not going to accomplish anything tonight.

Great to talk to you. Geez I feel like shit!

I'm a Weirdo!

2012-02-01T07:51:00.001-08:00

The snow that fell a couple of weeks ago is just about gone. It certainly no longer poses a threat to driving or getting around. Most sidewalks are clear although there is the danger of ice in some places as the snow melts and then freezes across an area of pavement.

I don't know why I'm bringing this up other than to update the Ethernet on this sitch. (That's hip InterWeb slang for "Situation")

Here's another useless bit of information I feel compelled to impart. No...not useless information...more like a stupid observation.

I spelled the word "cauterize" today. I used it in an e-mail. I have used it in conversation lots and lots. In fact, I can remember the first time I ever heard the word.

It was on "The Six Million Dollar Man" when Steve Austin was marooned on an island and administered first aid to an injured guy by cauterizing his wound with his bionic finger.

I believe this is the first time in my 54 years that I have spelled the word.

The reason I bring this up is because I think it is interesting (and weird) that this has any significance at all in my memory. I'm a weirdo.

Oh wow! I just found my header.

After the Storm

2012-01-23T19:32:00.001-08:00

Today was a pretty nice day. The sun was out intermittently and the temperature was above the freezing mark.

It appears we had about 8 to 10 inches hit the ground over the last two days. This mornings paper said it was a record snowfall for January 19th...tying the six inches that fell on the same date in 1950.

At present, the TV weather persons are predicting another storm as early as tomorrow night.

I did some work on sprucing up the sidewalks and driveway. Susan worked on the hallway and then got a call to work the Hockey game tonight.

My big project of the day was to get up on the roof and get the heat wire plugged in to prevent damage to the roof and the dining room. You can get the back story by looking at my entries back on November 30th, 2010 and a couple entries beyond that.

Anyway, the icicle was back and I had to get it down and get the heat cord plugged in before the aforementioned damage occurred in the dining room.

Here are a bunch of pictures showing the roof area I had to navigate and the great view I had once the navigation was over.

I forgot to take a picture of the icicle before I knocked it down but I did manage to snap a picture of its lifeless body as it died in the snow.

I put my glove next to it for some perspective. I hope this graphic depiction was not too graphically depicted for the more squeamish.

I am pleased that we have made it through this first snow storm of the season and I find that at my advanced age of 54, I am hoping it's the last snow storm of the season.

To Snow or Not to Snow

2012-01-18T07:45:00.061-08:00

There has been major media hype going on in the media from which the hype has been coming the last few days, anticipating a snow storm of gigantic, nay, epic proportions. At least, gigantic, nay, epic in relation to all the other snow storms we have had this season, which has been none.

I find it amazing that the National Weather Service says nine inches of snow has fallen this season. That can't possibly be right. It seems as if there hasn't been any snowfall this year.

As I said, the TV weather people have had their panties all in a bunch since Sunday telling us of the prodigous winter weather that is soon to be coming to our doorstep...well, it's coming to a doorstep...at the very least, it's coming to a doorstep in our neighborhood, perhaps the city...or the state.....oh Hell! We don't know!

It is snowing as I write this. It started on my way to work this morning. It now remains to be seen how much we will get. I've heard five to eight inches. Now that the storm is here, they are scaling that back. It's not coming down very hard but I am reminded of the old Indian saying which I have repeated here many time.

Big Snow, Little Snow. Little Snow, Big Snow.

11:02 AM: It's still snowing. It's sticking and the wind is blowing about. Looks like this could be the big one.

2:27 PM: It continues to snow and it is piling up. Little Snow, Big Snow is proving itself true. Small snow flakes indicate a lot of snow to fall.

I went out during lunch and while it is still easy to get around, that does not take into account the stupid drivers who proliferate the roadways. Here is something I would like. If you're driving down the road in the left lane, and you notice that someone is behind you...perhaps even riding your ass, why don't you move over. Huh?
WHY DON'T YOU MOVE THE HELL OVER!

Okay, I got that out of my system.

4:08 PM: The snowfall has passed for now. I would estimate we got three or four inches. It's hard to tell because it's blowing around a lot. I'll get an accurate measurement when I get home.

8:29 PM: It is official. We have had a snowfall. I know this because I used the snow blower tonight. I did my normal routine of blowing off the driveway, the alley and the sidewalks up and down the block.

So...as of january18th, Winter has arrived.

Back to Work

2012-01-15T15:32:00.001-08:00

We have decided that enough lolly-gagging has gone on and it is time to return to work on the house.

The current project that we have been ignoring is the downstairs hallway. We are into the last section. We started at the entryway. Then we moved on down to the section next to the stairs. Next we did the alcove area by the kitchen. And now we are working on the last section, by the bathroom and leading into the TV room.

Our first task today was to put up a piece of drywall on the ceiling.

That seemed much easier than messing with all the holes and cracks that are there now. The space to fill measures 66.25" x 36.625". I have plenty of drywall out in the carriage house but I have horrible access to it. I have stacked a bunch of stuff in front of it. In the course of removing a sheet, I broke it.

Fortunately, it broke in such a way as to effect only a small corner of what I needed. Above shows my cut piece of drywall with a little missing corner.

We hauled it in and after working out the logistics, got it up...only to discover it was a little tight. A quick quarter inch shave prove just the right fix and it went into place nicely.

Next came the screwing of drywall screws to affix it board to the ceiling. Generally, putting a piece of drywall up on the ceiling is precarious work due to the effects of gravity. But, this all went fairly smoothly.

I'm not terribly happy with the unprofessional irregular pattern of screws but the thing is up and it's not going anywhere.

That was all for me for the day as I have other things to attend to, (like Blogging) so Susan went to work with the sander.

That will probably be all the progress we make today but, to quote a famous Chinese proverb, "the journey of a thousand remodels begins with a single hole in the wall."

Annual Cat Health Care Day

2012-01-14T10:22:00.003-08:00

We rose early today to prepare for our yearly excursion to the vet. We take all four cats at the same time as it saves a small amount of money. Not much because after the whole affair was over, we were $265.00 lighter. Well, Susan was lighter. I have to pay her back.

When it came time to load the cats up, the two most reluctant kitties were already hiding under the bed. Somehow, they knew something was up and whatever that something was, they were not going to like it.

We got Oscar and Scout boxed up and then had to chase down T.J. and Willie. They weren't quite as bad but it is generally an ungraceful ballet to place large flailing cat in small box.

Then there is the ride to the Vet's office which is loud with angry, upset cat noises.

Susan and I went together so it was a little easier to manage them but not by much. We have to get them weighed which is an ordeal in itself. The only good part of it is now they don't mind going back in the box. Below are Willie, Oscar, Scout and T.J. waiting for the Doc.

They were not that excited to come out of the boxes once we were in the examining room. They got a rabies booster and a bunch of other pokes and prods and probes.

T.J. is going to have to go back on Friday for some dental work. Other than that, they are good for another year.

We have determined they are all about 12 to13 years old. The Doctor thought that was impressive for cats who go outside. I guess we live in a cat friendly neighborhood.

They were much quieter on the trip home. I guess they knew the worst was behind them.

So now we have a lazy Saturday to while the time away. I do enjoy that but I think I need to find another part time job again. I don't seem to have any money. It's a bummer when you have time to while away but no beer to while with.

Fortunately, I know how to manage my beer so I can always find something.

Back to the Grind

2012-01-02T19:45:00.048-08:00

It's the final day of what seems like a never ending vacation. Susan went back to work for two days and I did half a day on Friday but it still seems like we have not been involved in the creation of productive pursuits for a while. And in fact, it has been two weeks.

We drove out to the Little Spokane River today and did a very short paddle. It turns out that we are not in shape for a long paddle. Whew! It was brutal. It's a good thing we had beer with us.

We have been doing a bunch of straightening up around the house and removing Christmas decoration...which is a chore unto itself. So it was nice to go out to the river and commune with nature. We also communed with 17 turkeys that were walking around out there.

They were a rather vocal bunch. They did not seem interested in our chocolate chips that we brought for the peacocks.

New Years Eve was uneventful as we went to a friends house for a little while and then made it back home by eleven. We opened a bottle of champagne and listened to the fireworks going off all around us from the front porch.

I did some wine work yesterday. I racked the tempernillo into a clean carbouy and then added some medium toast oak wood chips to add a medium toast oaky woodeness to the wine. The sour after taste that we have experienced is fading.

So now it is time to continue ion with life and make something of ourselves. Carpe Diem!

Another New Year on This Side of the Dirt

2012-01-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

I had to get a post in today to start the year off properly. And so, here it is.

You're welcome!

Last Chance for Meaning

2011-12-31T19:27:00.012-08:00

Well, here is my last chance to get a post in and say something meaningful before the end of the year. It's my opportunity to bring some deep seeded insight into the realm of this discourse of a Bloggery Fashion. Never again will I have this forum to talk about the things that really matter. And instead, I waste it with all this useless gibberish.

I shall dedicate today's Blog of useless gibberish to my friend and former High School classmate, Doug Richardson. Doug died today after a major heart attack. He is se7en days older than me, although you might think se7en years to look at him. He hasn't treated himself very well in the last few years and it finally caught up with him.

So I guess I have se7en days to get my affairs in order. Good thing I don't have many affairs.

Later: This is kind of cheating but the clock has just ticked over to 2012. I am hearing a ton of fireworks going of all around us. So the old year is past and we soldier on to new adventures in Twenty Twelve.

The Last 200 Miles

2011-12-29T18:11:00.001-08:00

We have arrived home.

The weather slowly started to turn to crap on us shortly after we pulled out of Bozeman.

We stopped there for an hour to hang out, have a bite and top off the tank. Unleaded Regular is $3.03 in Bozeman. I haven't looked since we got back but I think gas in Spokane is at about $3.50-something.

It was raining. It rained off and on until Missoula and then it really broke open for the drive through the passes. It was really coming down. It was very dark and I thought it would turn to snow by the time we topped Lookout Pass. But it was raining hard which was tough when you hit one of the ruts in the highway.

Susan wasn't thrilled with my decision to drive on. But I think we were glad to get through it and make it home.

I've been milling about the house doing a few chores while Susan went off to work. I drained the hot tub and then over filled it. It's draining again now. I hope I won't have to refill.

Buffalo, Wyoming

2011-12-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our first travel day for the return trip. We made it to Buffalo, Wyoming. That's where we are right now. I am writing this on the new Mac Susan got for Christmas.

Yesterday we drove 11 and a half hours.

Shortly after leaving, we got a text from Margaret saying she found an unfamiliar suit bag in the closet. I had forgotten my jacket and shirts along with my good shoes. Dumb Ass!

Margaret said she would send them along.

We made a stop in Sturgis for gas and dinner. While gassing up, Susan came walking out of the store and saw a red pick up over on the next island. She said there was something leaking out of the guy's truck. I looked over and saw gas spilling out all over the pavement. I ran over and turned off the nozzle. It had stuck and the driver sitting in the truck hadn't noticed. It gushed a lot of gas onto the ground. I knocked on his door and he came out.

I stepped into a big puddle of gas as I shut off the nozzle and it got all over my shoes.

We went to this giant bar called the Knuckle. I'll bet it's a fun place during the rally but it was empty when we pulled in. The drive over was difficult as the car filled with gas fumes. I dug out my slippers and put my shoes into a plastic bag the bartender gave us. Unfortunately, I didn't have my extra shoes.

The Day After Christmas

2011-12-26T18:23:00.003-08:00

Christmas has come and gone and all is right with the world. We are coming to the end of our visit here in Des Moines and will be hitting the road for home tomorrow.

We both got lots of great presents and we gave some good ones too.

The weather continues to be sunny and warm. That bodes well for driving ahead but I have no idea how far the good weather extends. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

We will probably spend a good portion of the day trying to get the car ready to go. I would like to leave as early as possible in order to get as far as we can. I'm thinking maybe as far a Billings, Mt. That's a good 15 hours away.

In the meantime, we shall enjoy our last day here with whatever we end up doing. This laying about with nothing to do is quite attractive to me.

Twas the Day before

2011-12-24T18:29:00.001-08:00

We woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover, or as Susan likes to refer to it, "feeling Small".

We went out to a local music pub called the Gas Lamp to listen to the band that Susan's nephew Neil plays in. They didn't go on until 10:30 so we had to listen to a horrible band that was on before them. Very young and loud. Thankfully, Phil had earplugs for us.

Anyway, it is a bright sunny day in Des Moines and there is no chance it will be snowy anytime soon. Bad for Christmas but good for our return trip.

On Thursday, we went to Amana, Iowa. It's about a 90 minute trip near Iowa City. The Amanas are known for their hand crafted crafts. It's not Amish, but very close.

One of the best things about the visit was lunch. We ate at this restaurant called the Ox Yoke (I think) and they serve food "Family Style". I guess that means that you eat a lot of food cuz that was definitely what we did. Fabulous mashed potatoes and even more fabulous gravy...and plenty of it.

During the trip we passed a wrecking yard for combines. I've never seen that before or even conceived of it. But of course, there has to be a wrecking yard for combines. They get old. They wear out. They get into high speed collisions during harvest.

I ordered Susan a laptop on line for Christmas. I was getting very tense because it was very difficult to communicate with the shipper about sending it to Iowa while all my billing information was in Spokane. Fortunately, it arrived yesterday and it looks to be a nice computer. I'll find out more about it once Susan opens it.

We are decorating cookies today so I guess I had better get prepared for that holiday fun.

Our Christmas Trip

2011-12-21T06:55:00.004-08:00

I haven't written recently because we have been away from home on a trip to Iowa to spend the holiday with Susan's sister, Margaret and her family, husband Phil and son Neil. It did not seem prudent to announce the emptiness of our house here and allow the scumbags of the InterWeb to come and rip us off. But then again, that assumes that there are people reading this and you and I both know the truth there.

Anyway, I decided to start a post and get some of the Holiday fun reported before it all slips away from my feeble mind, but not publish it until we return.

We left town bright and early last Saturday and left pretty close to the time we planned on...7:30AM instead of 7:00. We took it easy this trip and didn't do the marathon drive through the night to get here. We made it as far as Gillette, Wyoming the first day. That was twelve hours and 776 miles. We drove another 761 miles the next day and arrived in Des Moines about 9:45PM.

The drive was uneventful and easy as the weather favored us the whole way, except for some slight fogginess for the first 100 miles.

Now we are here and enjoying festive Holiday festiveness with family and friends. We have enjoyed many traditional activities that Susan and Margaret have planned like touring the Salisbury House, seeing the Jolly Holiday Lights, going to the Art Center to see art and things that are called art but really aren't, and drinking beer.

Today, we are traveling to the Amana's and Amish Land to see how they build refrigerators. I'll have a more detailed report later.

While it is cold here in Des Moines, we have no snow. In fact, we saw very little evidence of snow the whole way here. There was a huge snow storm a couple days ago that spread from New Mexico to Kansas. It shut down freeways and stranded travelers. The storm stopped short of effecting Iowa or any of our return travel route. I am hoping for clear sailing when we return home but I would also enjoy a white Christmas.

2011 Carriage Ride

2011-12-12T07:18:00.001-08:00

Last night was the Annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride. We invited a couple over we know from church and had a lovely evening. It was chilly and there was no snow on the ground. Somehow, I think that added to the small turn out.

I didn't get many pictures and the ones I got shall win no prizes.

And so, another tradition of our Christmas Season has come and gone. Onward!

Fabulous Saturday

2011-12-11T09:08:00.001-08:00

I could easily get used to these Saturdays where there is no pressure to do ANYthing...except for the things you want to do.

For example, Susan chose to spend the day in her kitchen making Christmas treats to delight and enchant. I had some Christmas recon to perform and that is all I have to say about that.

I spent a portion of my reconning downtown, which was very busy. If the economy is suffering, it's not apparent downtown...or anywhere out there today. While downtown I came across what is fast becoming a major pet peeve of mine.

People who can't park!

Look at this picture.

There are three cars in three parking spaces and not one of them is even close to being within the boundaries of the space. I see this all the time. It seems as though they are unable to properly place their vehicle into the space clearly delineated by lines...OR...they just don't care.

Either way, I don't want those people out there. But they are out there. They are everywhere! Mr. I don't use signals or Mrs. I don't scrap my windows or Ms. I have to text.

It comes down to this, which I have said many times.
EVERYONE OUT THERE IS IN MY WAY!

It was a full moon last night and I tried to get some stunning house pictures with moon in fullness. But it was to no avail. The position of the moon did not complement the position of the house and so all I got were shots like these.

I like that last one just for the starkness of the trees. I suppose I could Photoshop the moon a bit lower. I may have to give that a try.

In the meantime, it is time for us to make merry and go to a Christmas Party.

Moonlight Photo Session

2011-12-07T09:46:00.002-08:00

I attempted to take some more pictures of the house last night with the moon up above. Unfortunately, the moon appears to have a mind of its own and was not cooperating as far as positioning itself in a reasonable area. I got some early shots but wanted to wait until it was more overhead. I didn't realize it would go so high overhead.

I may have to wait until later in the night. Or I could get home earlier. My research tells me the waxing Gibbous moon will be fully replete this Saturday. Also, I believe the little star down and to the right of the moon is Venus. I am planning another photo session for Saturday.

I'll have to work this out with the clouds too.

A Perfect Day

2011-12-04T17:12:00.001-08:00

We skipped church today and had a luxurious morning lounging about. Susan is now out shopping and I have promised to clean the upstairs bathroom, which is starting to grow micro-stuff.

It's a nice day but cold, currently 31 degrees. A good day to be indoors cleaning grout.

And since I don't really have much else to say about today, let's look at some pictures from the past few days.

Here is another snowman picture from Skywalkarama. I don't think I showed this one in any previous posts so here it is now.

Here is a good shot of T.J. napping. I've never caught him with his had hanging through the hole there so this one is unique and perhaps historic.

Even more historic is the annual re-creation of the village. I don't even take part in this ritual because it is steeped in tradition and a rich story line for every building in the town of Winter Park Village. I will admit that the name of the town is my one contribution.

And finally, a lovely picture of the house dressed up in Holiday Style. And what is that up above? Could it be the Star of Bethlehem that those wise guys followed all those many years ago?

I'm going to try and get more pictures of the star in days to come as it waxes to full brightness.

A Day of Calm

2011-12-03T14:13:00.000-08:00

It is a rare day for us to have a day where the day is ours to do the day as we see the day to be fitted into the days activities of the day. Today is such a day.

We are both going about our business of doing a variety of things with no sense of urgency or panic. It is quite pleasant and I could find myself getting used to days such as this. But then again, a day where one experiences no stress is often referred to as one's funeral. And we are not ready for that yet.

I have some lights to install out front but I have not yet found a suitable replacement for our outside tree that goes on the balcony. We have decided the old tree is toast and it is time to start from scratch.

But, there is still tomorrow.

Another thing I have to get on is finishing our Christmas Card. The design duty falls to me this year and of course, I keep pushing it off. But there is still tomorrow.

It is Finished!

2011-12-02T07:00:00.025-08:00

Our long Christmas Nightmare is over. We have completed all the sky walks we had set up to paint. We did a total of of se7en sky walks and five office buildings. And it is only december second.
We could probably do more but we are happy with what we have gotten and very happy that the shadow of the skywalks hanging over us has lifted.

Last night was another snowman theme. I tried to come up with snow persons of every gender in new and inteeresting situations.

So I have Lazyboy Snowman, an Artist Snowman, A Sea Captain Snowman, Volley Ball Snowmen, and a CycleSnowman.

But my favorite was my depiction of Snomeo and Juliet.

And here is Susan painting the last snow flake of the sky walk painting season.

Yea!

Another Night at Work

2011-11-30T07:38:00.016-08:00

We painted again last night and Lil Hit was very docile. Helpful even. We are starting to warm up to him.

It took us three hours and 20 minutes to get through the job. This sky walk is one of the largest. We each painted 15 windows. My theme for the night was snowmen. I had them water skiing, surfing, sledding, fishing and the one pictured above is a Nar-Do-Well Snowmen leaning against a lamp post while sucking on a Candy Cane.

We have two more sky walks to do and then we are finished. And another healthy addition to the House Remodeling Fund.

The Home of Little Hitler

2011-11-29T07:12:00.024-08:00

We painted last night at the Bank of America skywalk across Sprague Avenue. We have to call in advance so the Security Detail will know we are allowed to be there.

Last Spring when we were painting skywalks for Coaches vs. Cancer, we came across this guy at the Security Desk who was just a little tyrant. In the two or three minutes that we were in his sphere, he barked orders at three different people...me included. Apparently he didn't like the way I leaned my ladder against his guard station.

Susan and I immediately christened him "Little Hitler".

"Lil Hit" was again on duty last night. Not quite so bad as I remember. He's definitely a cop wannabe taking charge of his little kingdom.

Anyway, we painted for three hours and got that one finished up. I painted a bunch of figures doing Winter-Like activity. Susan painted Snow Flakes.

I'm trying to decide if I had some gas syphoned from my car. I noticed I was almost empty last night and I was 100 miles short of my normal range. I get about 300 miles out of a tank and I was at 200.

So I filled up this morning and my mileage is definitely off. I'm down about 4 miles a gallon from my typical mileage. I shall be keeping an eye on this and start looking to purchase a locking gas cap...which I should have had all along.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

2011-11-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

We decided to make some home made Kahlua. With Mark over last night for second Thanksgiving, we thought it would be a fun thing to do. I really should have read the recipe completely. The recipe calls for 5 pounds of sugar, two cups of brown sugar, and a 7 ounce container of Taster's Choice Freeze Dried Coffee. You mix that together in a gallon and a half of water and let it boil or 3 to 4 HOURS. Then, once it is cool, you add a bottle of Everclear and some vanilla.

The timing simply didn't work out. The mixture has cooled now and we can add the Everclear and vanilla and try to get it into some bottles before we head out to paint tonight.

The whole house smells like burned coffee. The mixture splattered all over the stove while it boiled and made a horrible sticky mess. The next time I do this, I will be outside on the portable propane burner...waaaaay out of reach of anything I don't want to get stained.

Sky walk Painting will continue tonight and through Thursday unless we get any other sky walks added.

Thanksgiving Sunday and No Defense!

2011-11-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Since we didn't have Thanksgiving here at home, we miss out on turkey and all the leftovers. Well, we can't have that. So today we will prepare a Thanksgiving meal that couldn't be beat. Plus, we have sky walks to paint so it will be a very busy day. B'Bye!

11:17PM: Okay, the day is over and it was a good one. We invited our friend Mark over to share dinner and it was fabulous. The turkey came out perfect, the mashed potatoes were creamy, the white trash casserole was the thing that dreams are made of and the gravy was simply Gravylicious.

We finished one more sky walk today although we had a little trouble getting access. Since it's part of the Mall and sky walk system, I figured it would be open. But alas, it was not. I managed to flag down a custodian who got me to the right people to approve us being in there.

I guess I should go back to yesterday. We got downtown about ten and got to work on a sky walk that crosses Howard avenue between the Chase Bank Building, which used to be the Washington Mutual Bank Building and the old Crescent Department Store Building, now called Crescent Court.

I had a disaster that has never happened to me before. I was moving my ladder a couple of inches, well aware of my paint jar on the top, and watched in slow motion as it tumbled off and onto the carpet in the sky walk.

Susan reacts very well to these sorts of emergencies. She screams, "Holy Mother of God!" at the top of her lungs and goes into manic panic mode. I spilled a lot of paint and it took close to half an hour before we could return to work. We got it up though and you would never know unless we pointed it out.

I have never had that happen to me in 30 plus years of painting windows. It happened to me again today. Honest to God! I just couldn't believe it. I was cleaning some lines off an image and I had placed the paint on the railing along the sky walk. It's not very wide railing and I either didn't place it squarely on the rail or some movement I made bumped it off. Not sure! Doesn't really matter.

Susan responded with "Holy Mother of God!" which translates into, "You Stupid MoFo, you did it AGAIN?!"

It wasn't as much paint this time but it was still stressful and unbelievably stupid. I have no defense!

Black Friday

2011-11-25T23:55:00.026-08:00

Today we painted for two and a half hours and completed three jobs. They were all outside jobs and we are now done with them. The rest of our painting will be indoors.

It was sunny today but much colder than yesterday. My fingers were pretty chilled by the time we finished.

My other accomplishment of the day was to get some Christmas lights out. I got it done but I lost three strings of lights over the summer. I know they worked when I put them away but that was not the case when I pulled them out tonight. Two worked for half the string and one was a complete burn out. I am tempted to spend the time to find the bad light and get them working again, but that takes forever and I would be letting down the throw away society we have developed here. Easier to buy a set of lights.

I have to get the new LED lights. They are a cleaner looking light and I think they will last longer although I think I have made it three Christmases with these lights.

The Annual Thanksgiving Day Blog-A-Thon

2011-11-25T09:21:00.001-08:00

8:38AM: We have just gotten up and here I am at the Computer typing away. I got up earlier to shoot up T.J. and I sat down here to review what we did last year on Thanksgiving. It turns out I did the same Blogathon as I am doing here and I found the information I left very helpful in planning my day today. I also found a bunch of misspelled words which I will have to go back and fix.

We have some window painting to do today and according to last years blog, It took us about two and a half hours to do it. We didn't get started until 11:30. Hell, we stayed in bed until ten.

The other interesting thing that I probably would not have remembered is that there was snow on the ground (I kind of remember that) and it was really chilly.

Today, it's approaching 40 degrees outside and it's sunny.

So, we are off to tackle Turkeyday. Here we go!

2:29PM: We have returned from our painting duties for the day. The day started sunny but was cloudy by the time we started painting. In contrast to years past, it was warm. These first few windows that we paint are all outside painting jobs so having a fairly warm day is a nice bonus.

Now we are preparing to go to my sister's house for a fabulous Thanksgiving Meal that couldn't be beat. In the meantime, here are a bunch of pictures from our painting efforts today.

The possibility exists that someone might be happy that we put up Santa and a reindeer. I don't care. I don't get to paint Santa much so I think this was an appropriate sight. This is the entryway to the Holy Family Medical Building. You would think they would be okay with a Christmas theme...even if it doesn't depict the Holy Family.

3:27PM: We are getting ready to leave. I don't have time to be sitting here typing this. I've got to finish making myself presentable.

8:48PM: We have returned home from a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner that couldn't be beat with shovels and rakes and implements of...wait...I've lost focus.

Dinner was great and the potential drama that threatened to unfold never did...and that is as far as I'm going with that. Oh...my niece did get very very drunk.

Rain for Noah

2011-11-22T07:22:00.000-08:00

We endured a long night of skywalk painting last night. We painted until eleven. When we got home, we were beat. I look forward to a couple of nights off.

It rained the whole evening...I'll bet it rained seven hundred and ninety-six inches while we were painting. I bring this up only because it totally negates my last post where I was complaining about the insubstantial snowfall. It is all gone and I am ready for a fresh volume of sturdy snow of the substantial variety.

Things I say

2011-11-21T07:11:00.043-08:00

It is Monday morning after a pleasant but busy weekend. No work was accomplished on house projects as we have moved into the busy Holiday Window Painting Season. It started a week earlier than usual due to a series of windows that needed to be up by this Friday.

I have always refused to paint before Thanksgiving. The Christmas season comes earlier and earlier every year and I don't like it. This year, I can't complain about it because I am part of the problem.

So, it's like I always say, "If you can't be a part of the solution, be a part of the problem!"

Here are other things I always say.

"It's another day on this side of the dirt."
"Well, What are ya gunna do?!"
"Turn off your turn signal, you dumb old feeb!"
"And get OUT OF MY LANE!"
"Can I get this in plaid?"
"Just put more ketchup on it."
"That's wedged in there pretty tight!"

The snowfall over the weekend was quite frustrating to an Anal Retentive Snow Shoveler such as myself.

It never snowed enough to break out the snow blower. It just snowed lightly and then kind of melted and then froze, creating a nice rugged frost over the surface of the walk and driveway.

Then it snowed lightly s'more and kind of melted and added to the rugged ice.

So, the walks and driveway are not cleared very well and my snow blower am awaiting a snowfall with some gusto.

Anticipating the Worst and not getting it.

2011-11-18T07:16:00.015-08:00

I have just arrived at work. I came in early because I didn't know what the commute mixed with weather would bring.

It brought nothing! Well....nothing of consequence!

I woke up around three and got up to check the conditions. It was snowing pretty hard but it looked wet. I shall write again the sage Indian Adage I learned many years ago from a Montana Man who is not an Indian.

Big Snow - Little Snow
Little Snow - Big Snow

This morning it was big snow falling from the sky so I expect little accumulation. However, persistence doesn't really come in to play with this adage so if there are lots of Big Snows, that could accumulate into a large snow fall.

It looks as though it is going to snow off and on all day. So maybe we'll get something. All I can tell you is that I am ready at Snow Blower Central. My baby is tuned up, gassed up, looking good and ready to blow.

Okay...Really...Here Come Da Snow

2011-11-17T23:14:00.000-08:00

We are all really excited and nervous now about the coming snow. Many inches are expected by morning. Whether they land here or elsewhere is still in dispute. Focus Groups are meeting to discuss the possibility that maybe the snow will fall in areas around here. Papers are being written and Blogs are being bloggered.

Let's see what happens in the morning.

Here Come Da Snow

2011-11-16T21:41:00.023-08:00

The area forecasters are all a-twitter about the impending snow we are about to get. They can't help themselves even though I expect nothing will come of it.

To their credit, it is snowing right now and it is beginning to stick. Also to their credit, they predict it will turn to rain which is why I think nothing will come of it.

It all remains to be seen but it doesn't prevent me from going on a rant about drivers in this area...and perhaps they are the same everywhere...especially everywhere there is snow.

The first snow of the year is the worst because nobody seems to have a clue what to do. Painted lanes no longer matter because they are covered in snow, so you can just wander around the boulevard and make your own lane. Following distances decrease because everyone is going slower so it is best to get right up on the person in front of you to encourage them to get the hell out of your way. It doesn't work by the way. You'll only barrel up on the next person going slow who is going slow because of the person in front of him et cetera et cetera et you know!

So the first couple of drives after a snowfall are frustrating for someone like me who drives perfectly and is inconvenienced by every other driver including YOU!

We haven't done much stuff on the house since the weekend as it has been a busy week of doing other stuff. There have been lots of meetings to attend for groups and organizations we are members of but now discover we would rather not...be members of.

So here comes my wisdom for the day: It's much easier to be an island!

Staining, Scraping, Steaming, and Drinking

2011-11-13T18:58:00.030-08:00

Susan continued removing wall paper today.

I did some stuff too. I don't see that it's any of your business though.

Okay, that was pretty harsh. Sorry! I have a bit of an attitude going and I guess I should explain.

I would like to know what the reasoning would be behind painting over stained wood with latex paint. And not just one coat...several coats. I do not understand that kind of thinking in a house such as this. The style of the house is Craftsman, after all. A Craftsman is a Craftsman because if the woodwork. A Craftsman become a Paintman when you add latex. Or in this case, lead based paint infused with asbestos. Asbestoman?

I understand orange shag carpet. It was the 70's and everyone was stoned! Fortunately, we came down from the high.

And now, we are getting over the latex. But it is not easy. I'm getting high breathing the fumes. It takes quite a bit of paint remover to get this crap up.

My biggest problem is that I'm not patient enough to let the stuff work for 15 or 20 minutes. I'm trying to develop my patience more better-er.

Historically Historic History of a Historical Nature

2011-11-12T17:14:00.008-08:00

We awoke this morning to a light dusting of whiteness throughout the neighborhood. Now while you might think I am referring to the racial make up of our neighborhood, you would be wrong. well...you would be right but that 's not what I'm referring to here.

It snowed a little. It was all gone by nine but it was another indicator to me that it's time to put away the deck furniture.

I did that plus a bunch of other stuff around the yard.

Susan continued work on our hallway and started removing wallpaper in the next and final section to complete. We came across a very cool piece of history.

Upon removing the full length mirror in the hallway next to the bathroom and we found history written on the wall.

We were ecstatic. The Markwoods (former owners)left us a message. I know it doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things. But we have left similar messages around the house in the course of our remodeling so it's exciting when we come across one ourselves. It feels like it was left for us.

The plan was to wallpaper that whole area but this discovery changed all that. Now we will wallpaper around that space, add our own message and replace the mirror.

I also spent a good portion of the day sanding trim for the hallway. I hope to get one set of trim stained tomorrow and get it back in place.

We had a little snowfall during the day but it came after I finished raking leaves. Now I have a bunch of wet leaves to haul to the dump. I love paying to dump water.

In unrelated news, Norman continues to survive. We thought he was dying a couple of months back but he's much better now. Except for being blind and having fish palsy.

Return to Standard Time

2011-11-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

I love weekends that include accomplishment and beer. That describes our weekend perfectly.

Susan and I stayed up late (almost to midnight) on Friday and got caught up on some TV shows we DVR'd.

Saturday was a day we had all to ourselves. We didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. Susan wallpapered and I worked in the yard with a brief diversion at Susan's car.

Her door handle had come loose and I have fixed it once so I knew better this time what I was doing. I ended up attaching the door handle to the thingy that came loose with JB Weld, a remarkable adhesive that every home owner should have. I hope it holds this time.

After the car, I starting bagging leaves. I bought some super heavy duty garbage bags and I can really pack the leaves in. I'm going to load a few bags into the car and try to stop at the dump every morning this week. I have noticed that the trees did not produce a lot of chestnuts this year. Either that, or the squirrels have been very good at cleaning them up. Finally, they are good for something.

I flew the ghost one last time on Saturday night and we experimented with some glow sticks. The problem is the glow sticks get killed by cold temperatures so they really don't work that well.

I tore the whole thing down on Sunday and stowed it in the garage. The biggest problem I had was with one of the post holders that I pounded into the ground. The two that had 24 inch spikes pulled right out. The one that had the 36 inch spike totally wore me out. I finally got it but not before sweaqting through my clothes and dislocating my back. Next year, 24's all around.

Halloween Wrap Up

2011-11-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the last blog, we were beat after a long night of servicing trick or treaters...and scaring them as well. Everything went well and the Axworthy Flying Ghost performed perfectly all night long.

There was one issue with it and I know how to solve it for next year. I plugged one of the fog machines into the same cord that the Flying Ghosts were on. The ghosts would occassionally slow down and sometimes stop. I think power was drawn off when the fog machine engaged. I'll just dedicate an extension cord to the ghosts next year.

I had a mishap earlier in the day during set up. I decided to try and tighten up the line on the Ghosts before setting it up for the evening. I knotted up a new, shorter spacer and while trying to attach it, the line broke. Actually, one of the spinner clips broke. The tight line pulled one of the rings on the spinner clip right out.

So as I was trying to replace the line, I got tangled in it. I must have looked pretty retarded stumbling around the yard, waving my arms at nothing. I ended up with a wad of fishing line that looked like Christmas lights that had been rode hard and put away wet. I think I'm starting to mix my metaphors.

In the course of re-stringing the whole thing, I put a nice sharp knife blade half way through the tip of my pinky.

So blood was not a problem for Halloween.

Anyway, we've spent the last couple of nights stowing all the Halloween stuff. We are almost done. I have to get up on the balcony and get that stuff down.

We had a good time up on the balcony last night. We put four pumpkins up there and our way of bringing them down is to park a garbage can on the sidewalk and try to hit it. I did well with mine but Susan totally missed. What a mess!

I was also using my leaf blower last night to clear off the leaves that have accumulated over the last couple of weeks. In the course of blowing, I uncovered some sort of little electronic unit. At first I thought it was a sport radio or something like that. It turns out that it is a Radar Detector. I stuck batteries in it and tried it out on my way to work this morning. I appears to work. So...SCORE!

We are now estimating that we had over 1,200 kids come through the candy bowl. My neighbors who use a clicker to count the number of kids ended up with 1,135 and they quit at 8:30. We went until almost nine and I'm pretty sure we had at least 65 come by in that time. The number is not really important. I have never seen a mass of Halloween Revelers like the group that annually shows up in our neighborhood.

Here are some pictures from the night. They are not great pics cuz I'm not a great pic taker. And I was busy with stuff. Nevertheless, here they are.

I'm starting to think I'll be needing to add a Technical Supervisor position in years to come. You have to keep the scary CD going, check the ghosts, keep the fog machines filled and scare the kids.

In closing, we would like to thank our many friends who showed up to help with crowd control and candy distribution.

1183

2011-10-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

One Thousand One Hundred and Eighty-Three! It looks impressive when it's written out. It is also impressive looking when it walks up your walk way and yells, "Trick or treat!"

That is now what I am confirming as the official number of Halloweeners who came to our Haunted Yard this evening. The first arrived at 4:45 and we shut everything down just before nine with the last candy bar.

I'll have more details to come. Right now, we are tired!

One Day to Halloween 2011

2011-10-30T22:19:00.001-07:00

We have had a very busy weekend preparing for the scary festivities to come tomorrow evening. Since it was the weekend before Halloween, there were lots of parties to attend as well as preparations to attend to.

Friday night was our Punkin Carving Party which had a much smaller attendance this year but still accomplished our goal of getting a bunch of our punkins carved.

A few pictures:

I completed the fence around the flying ghosts so now there will be little doubt that one should keep the EFF OUT!

Saturday night we went to a couple of nearby Taverns to hang out. Nothing big, just a brief night out. You know they keep beer there!

I dressed as a Pimp Vampire

Susan's cat outfit was so effective she attracted another cat.

Another party we attended last night was the annual Corbin Park Neighbor Party. Susan was a firecracker and I was a Lighter.

This is always a great party where we get together with neighbors whilst eating and drinking.

I'm working a half day tomorrow and Susan will be home early as well. We have a lot of gravestones to get into place and pumpkins to arrange.

And then of course, there is the candy.

Closing in on All Hallows Eve

2011-10-28T07:25:00.014-07:00

I got home from work last night and got right to work on the ghosts. I had to re-string the whole thing, which I planned to do anyway this weekend. The line broke the night before which forced me to re-string early.

But it is done and up and running and ready for tonights Pumpkin Carving Party

The video appears much darker on the blog than in my camera. Nonetheless, the effect is tres bitchin'!

I know that pride comes before the fall, but I am very pleased with myself right now.

Giant Punkins

2011-10-26T22:39:00.003-07:00

We have friends who have friends who grow large pumpkins for the pure joy of growing large pumpkins. At the end of the season, he has no use for them and so our friends take them. They spread them in the woods near their home for the deer but this year, they brought them to us.

Now we have large pumpkins and we are ready to use them. We will be carving them up on Friday and preparing them for our display of many punkins.

Conditions must be just right today because I returned home to find nary a leaf in a tree in the front yard. The work I did the other day to clear the sidewalk and walkway is history.

It's pretty amazing how deep the leaves are. I need to break out the snow blower. There is a sidewalk out there.

Finally, if you picked October 26th (my sister's Birthday) for the day we turn on the furnace, you win! Congratulations! Send in your winning ticket and we'll send you the ten thou...no twenty thous...ten million dollar winning prize money.

This is a record, breaking the previous milestone by eight days. I'm so happy about the money we've saved that I'm going to crank up the thermostat and go nuts for the next twenty minutes.

Heat in the privacy of your own home. What a country!

Artificial Punkin Retrieval

2011-10-25T21:52:00.033-07:00

We broke out the pre-fabricated custom carved pumpkins that we stow away every year in a very secret place. I think there are 21 or 22 of them there on the couch.

They look pretty good on the stairs too.

Halloween is days away now. I had a minor catastrophic failure with the flying ghosts last night. I tightened the line that the ghosts hang from but my knot failed. I think I'm going to re-string the whole thing on Saturday.

We continue to live without the furnace. It was below freezing last night and it will be again tonight. And yet, we are doing okay just using space heaters.

But the time has come to fire up the boiler. I only need to place a couple small pieces of trim and then I can replace the radiator, fill the system and fire it up.

I'll try tomorrow!

One Week until Halloween

2011-10-23T22:59:00.004-07:00

Opening night is such a C.F. Here's a video from today. I find that three ghosts makes all the difference.

I got a little yard work done but it won't last long. I expect this clean and semi-orderly setting will be gone by tomorrow.

I woke up this morning and thought a smelled a slight essence of wine. When we got into the kitchen this morning, we found this sight.

The little yeasty beasties have really been active. You can see lots of churning and bubbling going on in the bucket. The gravity reading has already dropped several points making this a 7% alcohol fluid at this point. It still has a ways to go.

The top of the bucket is a mesh bag containing all the grape skins, a few vines, and probably the remains of several spiders. The bottom is all juice. It still tastes very sweet which brings me back to my previous statement...it still has a ways to go.

Presenting the Debut of the Burke Version of the Axworthy Flying Ghost

2011-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

The Boiler Game

2011-10-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

We have begun the decorating for Halloween this week. Susan has been all over the inside of the house and I have been getting stuff outside. Here's a nice shot of the porch.

And below is a shot of the overall house as depicted in height. One can sort of see the skeleton hanging from the peak of the roof if one look carefully.

I will be starting to put up the Flying Ghost set up this weekend. It will be interesting to see if I can make it work from three posts.

In the meantime, we are still going through our day to day lives without any heat. The boiler remains off and it is getting chilly. We are using are space heaters in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom so we really aren't suffering too badly...yet. But it's coming. Turning the boiler back on will be one o my other priorities this weekend.

Anniversary Number Se7en

2011-10-16T18:53:00.008-07:00

Thursday night we bottled a batch of wine from grapes we bought last fall. It's a zinfandel and we got 29 7/8 bottles out of it. We have tasted it and are very pleased. I don't know how much it will mellow in the bottle, but if it mellows not an stitch, I will not be disappointed. It is very good as is.

It was an urgent item on our agenda to get this wine bottled as we wanted to take one with us this weekend as we ventured back to Prosser for another 100 pounds of grapes.

This year, we are making a Temparnillo. It's red, it's fruity, and I'm looking forward to making it and then drinking it.

Susan and I left town Friday morning and drove three hours to Prosser, Washington. It right there in the same fertile valley as Grandview, Sunnyside and Yakima. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Sunnyside and really enjoyed it. We didn't feel like we were in somebody's house, the breakfast was great both mornings, and we watched two movies we haven't seen. Plus, we had a giant bathtub in our bathroom.

Again,we bought a LOT more wine than we planned on but this time, we didn't drink as much. It is very easy to get a buzz when you are going from tasting room to tasting room. We managed to avoid that this year.

We made a 20 mile journey to Columbia Crest Winery which is a giant winery in t6he style of what you might find in Sanoma or Napa Valley.

I got a bunch of pictures of trucks delivering grapes

We ended up buying a case of wine there because they were having a big case sale and it only cost us $30.00.

We picked up our grapes on Sunday at Vineheart, the same winery we purchased from last year. We gave Patricia a bottle of our Zin and we opened our 7/8 bottle to have her try it. She said she was impressed.

I don't think she was just blowing smoke. I know one thing. Susan and I both really like our Zin. That's all that matters to us.

We made it back into town by two, which allowed us to attend a company party at the Caterer Susan works for. Fabulous food and drink...a great way to end a road trip.

We got home and immediately set about the task of getting ready for Halloween.

It's just one thing after another.

Title Goes Here

2011-10-12T07:38:00.009-07:00

The Countdown continues and we are harried, but it's nice to have something to do.

I discovered I have to be careful when writing the word "countdown" as I have a tendency to drop the "o" in a critical spot.

We successfully completed the skywalk job and did it in two days. We did two skywalks on Sunday, working until 9:30 or something. We got the third one finished on Monday night, and even made it home in time to watch "The Good Wife", which we DVR'd on Sunday...so it didn't really matter what time we got home and now I've wasted valuable vowels on a superfluous sentence.

Susan has not yet finished her wall papering in the Hall Alcove so I haven't returned the radiator to service so we still have yet to fire up the boiler. Mark October 2011 as a record setting year cuz I don't see the heat coming on before next week. I'm pretty sure that beats the previous record but I guess I ought to research that before making some outlandish claim.

A Mess o' Countdowns

2011-10-06T20:06:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to remember to write something here but life in the real world has gotten in the way. That's why I will not be getting involved in any social networking on line. I spend too much time in front of a computer as it is.

Autumn has finally arrived in the form of drizzily wetness. It has gone from gentle misting to a good driving rain. It's been pretty constant. Today was the first day I wore a coat as I went off to work this morning.

We have two countdown clocks going right now and a third more urgent countdown clock was just added.

The first clock is the Countdown to the Heater. I will look back but I believe Oct 8th is the record.

We have added a complication to this years Countdown to the Heater as the boiler is not ready to be fired up. I have a radiator off line and do not want to hook it up and fill the system until Susan finishes her wall papering in the hallway.

The approach of Halloween is also counting down and soon I will be working on the ghost in the front yard.

The new monkey in the Countdown is a skywalk window painting project that was thrown at us yesterday. It is for an event on October 22nd, which is just over two weeks away. We really didn't feel we have the time to do this but we also don't want to turn it down and have someone else waltz in and get their paint stained feet in the door.

So we are going to do it starting Sunday and are scurrying around to get some projects done before we loose the three days.

Flying Ghost Project Progress Report

2011-09-30T07:55:00.001-07:00

A Video is worth 57 words!

And yet, I'm going to use some more words.

The two critical components to this flying ghost thing working is tension on the wire, and a light weight ghost. We have jettisoned the idea of the styrofoam skull head as it is just too heavy. So now we have a balloon draped with a light gauzy material. It think the stuff I bought is used for wedding veils.

It seems to be working and I don't have to build an elaborate pulley system to keep the cable from falling off.

In short, K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stan!

I would like to say that I have a whole new respect for the manufacturers of chairlifts.

Major Halloween Project Progress Report #1

2011-09-26T07:14:00.035-07:00

What a productive weekend! A hearty pat on the back to Susan and to myself for our diligence and hard work. Wow! We are amazing!

With the pep talk out of the way, let's have a few details to end the self congratulations and let the facts do the writing.

Saturday was hot hot hot. I think we broke a record for the high temperature. It was into the 90's. That's nearly unheard of in Spokane in late September when Fall has just arrived. Activities were packed with me selling coffee at the Farmers Market and then helping my friend Gale with her organizational issues. That pretty much took me all day. Susan had to prepare food for the church potluck the next day and then had to work her catering job until almost tomorrow.

After church on Sunday is when we really went into gear. Susan was mudding, sanding and removing wall paper. I was outside with the Major Halloween Project. While the previous day had been record hot, yesterday was gale-force winds and dust in every crevasse. Plus a little bit o rain. But, I made good progress and solved a couple of problems I was having.

Okay, let's just get into it.

If one was to "Google" Axworthy Flying Ghost, one would come upon the Major Halloween Project to which I am currently undertaking. It is quite an elaborate display involving the basic chair lift concept. You hang a very light weight ghost form the chair lift cable and it flies around your yard. That is the hope anyway. I still have some tweaking to do.

Here is a short video to show where we are at.

Don't make fun of my ghosts. One is a styrofoam skull head that hopefully will become a more elaborate ghost. The other is a napkin. A test ghost. You're looking at a prototype that is still in its infancy.

So there you go! Halloween is 35 days away and I still have a lot of work to do.

Satellite Guy

2011-09-22T16:07:00.012-07:00

DirecTV is smart. I was all prepared to really lay into the technician when he showed up today to fix the satellite. I have numerous problems with the way they schedule and their subsequent follow up.

But they were smart. They sent out the friendliest looking guy I have ever seen. I could hardly take out my frustrations on him. He was just so friendly, as friendly as he looked.

It took him a while to trace down the problem and he was very thorough...which means I'm happy. But instead of showing up at 2:00 as promised, he arrived at almost 4:00. He had left me a message on my home phone but not my cell, which is the phone I requested they use to contact me. Unfortunately, that directive never made it to Mr. Friendly.

The nice thing was that with all the extra time on my hands, I was able to get a good start on my Major Halloween Project.

More details will follow in posts to come.

Satellite Technology

2011-09-20T22:26:00.033-07:00

Two years ago on the Fourth of July, we became viewers of Satellite Television. It has been a satisfactory relationship with nary a problem.

Then, at the end of August, we got the new big screen HiDef Telly and things have gone awry.

We lost satellite signal last Friday night. Up until then it had been working fine since it's installation. I was working on installing a new light switch in the hallway and threw a few circuit breakers to isolate the right circuit. In the course of tripping the breaker, I seemed to have blown out the satellite.

A guy came on Saturday (pretty damn quick response) and got us up and running again but when I came home tonight, it was not getting a signal again.

So I call in and let them know that it is not working and they tell me a Technician can come on Thursday between non and four. Then I hear myself say, "Do you mean to tell me that I will be without TV for two days?!" As if not having a television in the house is a matter of life or death.

Oh my God! Do you mean that my wife and I may have to actually talk to each other?

After bitching and moaning for a while, it occurred to me to mess with the Digital converter Box that Susan's boss gave to us. I had tried to set it earlier on one of our old TV's without any luck. I decided to try again and the difference this time would be that I would read the instructions.

Wow! That works...reading the instructions. We have over-the-air digital TV. I am still having a problem which I hope to rectify by calling their help line tomorrow. I cannot get channel four, which I know is there and available. I have to find out why the antenna is not finding it when it scans channels.

Channel Four is the local ABC affiliate and if I don't get it, we will be missing the premier of the best comedy on TV right now, Modern Family. That will be disastrous as Susan and I will have to talk...to each other!

Wine Champions

2011-09-12T11:07:00.002-07:00

I did a bunch of yard work on Saturday and I'm pretty satisfied with what I got done. Not so much what I got done, but the amount that I got done. There was raking, killing mushrooms, weeding, mowing, cleaning, watering...a whole host of outyard activities.

Susan got herself some new glasses, which took her a good portion of the day. Glasses are expensive. It's as if they consider vision important.

Saturday evening, we went to a birthday party at the home of my former neighbors, Jim and Michelle. Michelle turned 50. It was nice to be back in the old neighborhood and to see my old house. Todd, who bought it, is doing some great stuff with it.

Sunday was the Fourth Annual SpokeFest. I tried looking through the paper this morning to get a report on the number of people that participated. They were expecting 2,000. It looked about 2,000ish. I'm surprised there wasn't a brief article reporting on it.

It was overshadowed by the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attachs on the World Trade Center. You might have heard of it.

There were lots of stories about 9-11 commemorations that took place, both locally and nationally. That took the brunt of the news coverage. There was even a tribute at the start of SpokeFest. A short speech by someone, followed by the longest, drawn out version of the National Anthem in four part harmony I have ever heard.

Anyway, we have now participated in all four years of the SpokeFest. Unfortunately, we are not bike people. We did the 9 mile course and even that took it's toll on us. My nether regions went numb by mile 8 and that is not a good feeling.

After a good bike ride, the thing to do is go to the Spokane Interstate Fair. Nothing better than walking around aimlessly for several hours on legs that are already not happy with you.

It took forever but we finally got over to the wine exhibit to see how we did in the judging. We did well!

The Blueberry Wine we made got Reserve Grand Champion. I think that's a runner up. I'm amazed as I do not feel the blueberry is all that good of a wine. It might be good for blueberry, but perhaps, this is why good wine comes from the grape vine and not the blueberry bush.

We also got a blue ribbon for the Pinot Gris as well as awards for the labels for both wines. Our friend Ellen got a Grand Champion award for her wine label, which was designed by Susan.

So...all in all, we are happy with the Better than Fare Fair results.

Labrador Weekend

2011-09-05T21:53:00.134-07:00

The unofficial end of Summer has arrived and moved on but nobody told the sun. The forecast for the next week calls for hot, Hot HOT! I am not complaining. I have no problems with summer hanging around for another month if it so desires. So my musings over not using my air conditioner in the last post are all but null and void.

In the meantime, let's get to my Weekend Roundup, a complete breakdown of the events for Susan and I over the Labor Day THREE-DAY weekend.

We rode our bikes downtown on Friday night to attend "Pigout in the Park. It's Spokane's annual food festival with lots of food and bands and music and food. We ate our fill and made it back home shortly after 9ish.

This was the view from my Coffee Booth at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. I've been working this event for my friend Brian since the start of the summer. I'm there from 8:00 to 1:00. Saturday was not a great day for coffee sales. Even the Iced Coffee was slow.

Fortunately, one o'clock comes eventually and then I'm free for the day. I went home immediately because the DirecTV guy was there installing out Hi-Def system for the new TV. He hit a few snags during the install but was finally able to get everything running to our liking. I still haven't got the VCR integrated into the new system but people are telling me that is old technology. Nonetheless, I plan to hang on to it because it is the last piece of television hardware that I am familiar with.

I returned Brian's van and then I hit the Home Depot to cobble together some things I needed for some planned Sunday projects.

I'm trying to remember what we did on Saturday night but it is not coming to me. I guess we went into a Hi-Def watching overload that completely blanked out my mental receptors.

On Sunday we went to church and then returned home to begin our respective projects. Susan had to be at work for the catering company at 2:00 so her time was limited.

Her current project is to complete the stenciling in the entryway.

She completed two of four sides. I think it looks fabulous and it really draws your eyes up to the stenciling on the ceiling.

My project for the day was, get through it. I actually had three projects. The easiest one was to anchor the outlet in the entryway and get a nice faceplate on it. Well, I had found a lovely faceplate at the Depot and so I was able to accomplish the easy one in a short span of a profanity laced time period.

Then it was on to the back hall. It is very dark back there and would be ameliorated by an absence of darkness created by a light.

I wanted to place a light similar to this one shown above. We bought that one at the Depot a few years back so I was confident I would be able to get another.

HA!

I finally found one that I thought would work at Lowe's so I was ready to begin the project.

This is the wall in question where the light will go to eliminate the dark.

As one can clearly see, there is already a hole there where a former switch had been. Conveniently, one will also note that the hole has a fish tape line in it ready to pull new wire.

I was very concerned about running the wire and if I would be able to do it by myself. It turns out that running the wire was the easiest part of this install.

After cutting an access hole in the ceiling of the basement room below the hallway, I easily found the old knob and tube wire and fed the new wire in to place.

Then it was just a matter of cutting a hole of the fixture and dropping the wire through the short length to the switch.

All in all, I was happy with the result.

Unfortunately, Susan was not. She doesn't like the light fixture. It looks very similar to the one I was trying to match but that is not the opinion held by the only person who really matters.

A quick note about Norman the fish. I am sure I have referenced him in these pages before. Norman is our goldfish. Susan gave him to me a looooong time ago. He was just a little minnow back then. He has grown over the years and we have had to keep putting him in larger and larger tanks.

Norman has always been a bit neurotic. He is now approaching the end of his life and he is pretty beat up.

We should have flushed him two weeks ago but we just can't bring ourselves to pull the trigger. He is blind as he has had some serious eye issues, He kind of has a curved spine. And he has been beating himself on the rocks at the bottom of the tank which has left him with many open sores. He is not a pretty fish.

He started spending much of his time upside down. That's when the flushing conversations began.

He's still hanging there as of Labor Day and is spending much less time on his back.

Monday was a lazy day around the house. I had to go back to the Depot to focus my needs a bit since my original plan on my next project was not working out.

My next project was to fix the power outlets on the front porch. To make it short, it finally all came together and the power is functioning and available for the front yard.

The Labor Day weekend traditionally ends with the Spokane Symphony Concert at Comstock Park. We gather with family and friends for a picnic and then some great music.

The concert was cancelled last year due to a lack of funding. So we were all very pleased to hear that a local Savings and Loan, Sterling Savings ponied up the money for the next three years.

Here are a couple of shots from the concert. It is a melancholy time for me as it signals the end of summer. Also, I ate some melons and I saw a collie.

Now it is onward towards Autumn.

September is Here

2011-09-02T07:55:00.004-07:00

You can tell it's September as the sun is gone by eight and I haven't had the air conditioner going at night for the last two evenings. In fact, we had our first significant rainfall in over a month on Wednesday night. That gave me a night off from watering, which
I have been doing a particularly crappy job of.

Now we are coming into the Labrador Weekend, which means lots of activities and projects. It is in fact, the start of our Fall Home Remodeling Season Marathon. Nothing in particular is planned. It's just nice to give it a name. Makes it seem like we have a plan.

I'm not going to go into now. I'll report after the fact.

Have a GREAT Labor Day!

The Scroungers

2011-08-29T07:44:00.077-07:00

When we were looking to buy our house, we knew the dish washer was sub-standard. It was missing wheels on the racks, which made rolling it in and out difficult to do. Once we used it a couple of times, we realized it is below sub-standard. It is an electric plate wetting device...nothing more.

Well, it has been almost se7en years now and we finally got around to replacing the dishwasher. We have a beautiful new stainless steel Whirlpool...well, new to us.

The only reason we got around to replacing it now was because we came across one that was free.

Susan's hairdresser recently remodeled her kitchen and her boyfriend insisted she replace her perfectly good dishwasher with a new one. So she had a perfectly good dishwasher to get rid of and we had a need for a perfectly good dishwasher. It happened to come up in conversation the last time Susan had her hair done.

Here is a picture of the piece of shit Plate Wetter.

Susan is a semi-professional scrounger. She would like to go Pro but that does require an element of time to devote to the profession that neither of us currently has. But she knows a good scrounge when she finds it and she jumped on this one. Her hairdresser didn't want anything for it other than for us to haul it away. We happily obliged but included a few bottles of wine prior to the haul off.

Here is a picture of the dishwasher hole.

I had a couple of issues installing the new dish washer. Thankfully, our house painter, Ronnie was there to save me before I started drilling holes and cutting into floors. All in all, the re-installation went well and there appears to be no leaks or problems.

Here is a picture of our new, fully operating, mostly free dishwasher.

Now I have a P.O.S. Dishwasher that needs a ride to the dump. I don't even want to burden someone with this useless pile.

In other scrounging news, check out the new television with stand and DVD and stuff. This came to us through my Mom's friend, who is moving to Seattle and did not need this anymore. We were happy to pay her but she refused. Wine is in her future as well.

Getting this all set up was a major nightmare. It still isn't quite right. And really, a 42 inch screen is a bit large when you only sit four feet away from it. Nonetheless, one doesn't pass up a major scrounge whwn you comes upon it, does one!?

I might normally be reluctant to talk about all this new expensive stuff that has come to us. With the InterWebs and the proliferation of people that could read this and decide to liberate this equipment from us, it does not appear to be the smartest move to talk about your stuff, show it off and even offer a road map to how to get to it.

However, we have invested heavily in a pretty good alarm system with a very reputable Security Company and we are very good and setting the alarm when we leave.

Also, please note the picture below.

We both know how to use it and I for one, do not have any qualms about pointing it and (if need be) firing it in the direction of an uninvited, soon to be former scumbag.

So it was a very busy couple of days with lots accomplished in the area of Home Entertainment and Kitchen Convenience. We ended the weekend with a lovely pork roast on the spit over the Que. I just love that rotisserie and it is the best way to cook...ANYTHING.

You really must try my Kraft Mac n'Cheese on a skewer.

The End of a Se7en Year Struggle

2011-08-26T07:53:00.030-07:00

Shortly after we moved in to this house almost se7en years ago, I started attending the monthly Neighborhood Council meetings. Every neighborhood has a council that reports to Neighborhood Services that reports to the City Council. It's a nice way to keep in the know about what is going on the neighborhood and the city.

The problem is that I got sucked in to management. I was the Vice-Chair for a couple of years, the Chairman for a year and now I am in my second year as Secretary.

I am giving this background in order to explain this amazing thing that has taken place in the park.

Back when I first started going to these meetings, we were dealing with the issue of lights in Corbin Park. The east end of the park was very dark due to a lack of lightness in that region. The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council had money to disperse for various projects and we had allocated $37,000.00 to put lights in the park. This was 2004 when we first allocated the money.

This is now 2011 and there finally be lights in Corbin Park. It took nearly 7 years and A LOT of red tape to skim through, but the lights are in. They were installed on Wednesday and last night (Thursday) they were lite up.

Yea, Us!

The next hurdle will be to replace the existing lights in the park with this beauty of a retro light pole, which we had enough in the budget to buy. Getting the Park Dept. to install them is the hurdle.

Assorted Items

2011-08-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

I have been busy this week helping my friend Gale with her hoarding issues while Susan has been fussing over a small section of ceiling in the hallway. She also did a little touch up painting on the stair walls. Tonight, Susan is out with "Da Girlz" and I have the evening to myself. It is long past time to mow the lawn so that will be my main focus of attention. I'll do a couple of other little items and I am thinking of purchasing a small portion of cow meat to alite unto the grill.

We have made no further progress in the hallway project since before Margaret arrived so we will soon be needing to return our attention to that.

We have been wanting to start getting some pictures up on the stairway wall but I am afraid to start punching picture hook holes in the wall. We worked so long and diligently on that surface. The thought of filling it with holes, even though they be covered by pictures, does not sit well with me.

Weekend of Toil

2011-08-15T07:34:00.012-07:00

We finished our sky walk painting project last night. We meant to do it Saturday after the bike ride but it was Saturday after the bike ride and neither of us was in any shape to do anything but not paint in a sky walk.

It only took us two and a half hours. Things were complicated by a slightly narrower window pane than the other sky walks so we had to re-adjust our stencils to accommodate the width. That added a little time but other than being a minor headache, was really not an issue. I don't even know why I brought it up.

Anyway, now we can return to working on the house.

Or not!

The Gritty-Town Traveling Bicycle Show

2011-08-13T18:52:00.004-07:00

We have been wanting to get out and enjoy some of our surrounding nature and do some things we haven't done before.

Today we joined nine members from church for a bike ride on the first portion of the
"Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's"

We started in Plummer, Idaho and rode 15 and a half miles to Harrison on Lake Coeur d'Alene. We had lunch and then rode the same trail 27 and a half miles back to the cars. At least it seemed like it was that long.

The trail is an old rail bed that has been paved over and made into a biking walking trail. The first five miles after you leave Plummer are downhill so the ride starts off very easy as you glide through the forest.

At the bottom of the grade, Lake Chatculet appears and you ride along that for a ways. Then you cross this old railroad bridge and you are riding next to Coeur a'Alene lake for the rest of the journey to Harrison.

At Harrison, we enjoyed lunch. Susan and I decided to buy something when we got to Harrison. We found a nice place for a burger and then joined everyone back in the park. It took about an hour and a half to get to Harrison and we stayed there until 1:30. Now was the time to really pay the piper and return to the cars.

Again, an enjoyable trip but by now, my loins were starting to rebel. I had to get off the bike occasionally and walk around to get the blood flowing in that region again.

Remember the first five miles? It was down hill. That means that the last five miles are the opposite of that. It was a gentle grade so it was no big deal except for the fact that I had 25 miles under my belt and now the loins were on fire with soreness and numbness.

I stopped for rest every mile. To make it worse, I was out of water. The picture below accurately depicts my disposition at that point.

All in all, it was a great trip and now that I am in recovery mode, I'm glad I did it. But, I have a lot of getting in shape to do before I am ready to do anything that long again.

Susan and I got home and headed for the showers and then a cold beer induced nap.

One the most impressive features of the trail is this sculpture at the trail head in Plummer. I could not find the name of the artist on it but I know it is the work of David Govedare, a local artist who has done many similar sculptures including the Bloomsday sculpture downtown in the park.

It is really a wonderful piece of work. It has great detail and many subtle features you don't see right away. It's a pretty crappy picture that does not do justice to the sculpture.

The Painters are Back

2011-08-12T21:43:00.002-07:00

We've been working in the sky walks for the last week putting up logos for the Coaches Vs. Cancer campaign which is revving up in a week or so. It is going well now but it didn't start out that way. we got the order of the logos wrong and had to re-paint one sky walk. Then we almost did it again on the second sky walk but caught before too much paint had gone up. Still, it set us back a good hour.

Tonight and last night, we were in and out in just over two hours. This pleases us! here are some pictures of the project.

If you think this is kind of hard to see, you could be right. It really depends on the time of the day. Direct sunlight helps.

Glacier Park

2011-08-11T07:18:00.044-07:00

We went on a quick trip to Glacier National Park when Margaret was here. It was fun but waaaaay too short. I could spend a month at Glacier and not get enough.

We left on Thursday, July 28th and took our time driving over. We stopped in Wallace and explored the Jameson Hotel while enjoying a beer. We stopped at the $50,000 Silver Bar, a tourist trap 15 miles into Montana. We traipsed our way up the Flathead Valley and arrived at our lodging around se7en.

The next morning, we made our way into the park spent the day traveling on the "Going to the Sun Highway". It took the better part of the day to go up, hike around and return.

That night, we went to dinner at McDonald Lodge. We checked out a little musical program in their auditorium and then dined in the restaurant.

Before heading back to Spokane on Saturday, we returned to the lodge for an 11AM boat cruise around Lake McDonald.

Afterwards, we drove to Whitefish to have lunch and wander around town.

We made it back to Spokaloo around 8pm. We covered 750 miles in those three days. Way too much driving!

Here are a few more pictures of the trip.

The Magic of Miss Margaret

2011-08-05T07:37:00.031-07:00

We were visited last week by Susan's sister, Margaret. She was with us for a week from Des Moines...the one in Iowa, not Washington. The sisters had a wonderful time cavorting around the Antique Shops of Spokane as well as dining in the various dining spots Susan scoped out.

We took a quick trip to Montana and played around Glacier National Park. I will have notable pictures from that trip coming up. But first, I must comment on the improvements Margaret made to our home.

Susan says that Margaret is the Stencil Queen and I have to agree. She gave us a good lesson in stenciling as well as giving us a good head start on our various stenciling projects we have planned.

Here are the photos.

WOW! What a difference! Our plain ol' ceiling looks suddenly classy. And that means that we look classy. It will only take people talking to us to discover we are not classy at all. But we will try not to let that happen.

The design is patterned off the tile mosaic on the floor. Susan plans another stencil to go around the walls just about the trim line. That same pattern will follow the railing up the stairs. It will make us even classier. It may require a classiness test just to read this blog. But I would have to compile the test and correct them as they come in and that would make me angry and non-classy appearing.

Thank you, Margaret! Being as classy as we appear is a lot more work than I thought.

The Fireworks Concert 2011

2011-07-31T23:50:00.013-07:00

Susan's sister Margaret has been visiting us from Des Moines for the past week. It has been a whirl wind of activities and they will be chronicled here.

But first, let's talk about the last Sunday in July, which is the Fireworks Concert in the Park. We had a wonderful time in the park as usual and the concert and fireworks were fabulous.

The best thing about this concert which starts about 9:00, is getting down to the park around six and enjoying the convivial comradeship that takes place. It is a fabulous time and we have a great group that comes down to enjoy the festivities. We eat, drink and generally be merry.

Here are the pictures.

We all agreed that this was one of the best shows they've done in recent memory. The timing of the fireworks, whether planned or not, seemed to really match up with the music.

Bike Day

2011-07-18T07:24:00.018-07:00

I rode my bike to work today. It's a gorgy day and I have to ride and get more exercise. It's really a nice way to start my morning. I get my blood flowing, I enjoy an easy, mostly flat ride downtown, I ride through the park where the river is still flowing at an impressive rate, and I and my bicycle catch the bus to Liberty Lake. I can read the paper on the way out and then roll into work well ahead of my start time, which allows me to do things like...Blog.

I stopped at Starbuck's once I got off the bus and spilled a good deal of coffee on my half mile ride from the coffee salon to the work dungeon.

All in all, it's another day on this side of the dirt and life is good.

The QVC Anti-Hoarder Help Line...Me

2011-07-17T23:00:00.031-07:00

It is the end of a long weekend. We got a lot of stuff done but not much of it was house related.

There is this woman I know. I grew up with her. Our Dad's were Frat Brothers so it seems we have known each other all our lives. Our families spent time at the lake in the summer and skiing in the winter. For the sake of this narrative, let's call her Marimba.

I don't want to say that Marimba is a hoarder. But she is very close. The fact that she knows she is on the verge of hoarding status is a point in her favor toward overcoming the hoarding.

However, to save time and cut to the point, she's a hoarder. Even worse, she is a hoarder with access to QVC. I don't even want to tell you how many unopened QVC boxes from we came across.

She has asked me to help her move stuff out of her house to a large barn she has on her property. I got started on Saturday. I moved the extraneous contents of her garage into the barn.

Before any moving could take place, there was some cleaning up of the barn to do. It has been sitting vacant for some time and the insulation in the roof was coming down due to a massive infestation of mouses. The mouses have been having quite a time in this barn and the result is mouse turd Armageddon.

With the help of my trusty Phil, we pulled down the insulation and got it packed off to the dump. Here are some pictures.

Mirimba would probably kill me if she knew I had these pictures on the InterWeb. She's very cautious about her privacy. Overly cautious, one might say.

But, you have no idea where this is. Hell, I barely remember!

The rest of the day was spent in relative non-productive lazy time. I ran a few errands and bopped around a bit but I had the truck and didn't feel like driving around in it a lot. It is a pig on gas and it drives like a truck.

Gutter Test

2011-07-13T07:11:00.001-07:00

The new gutters I put up on the front of the house are getting their first test in actual rainy weather conditions today. So far, they appear to be working admirably. One side of the gutter system is more admirable than the other. The water is really pouring out the downspout on the east side. The west side has some trickle going but not much more than that.

The big test of course will be this winter when the rain turns to heavy ice and puts a lot of pressure on my homemade braces.

But for now I'm happy to see the raindrops not falling on my head when I use the front steps.

Where's George?

2011-07-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

For a couple of years now, I have been actively participating in a passive sort of way with a website called Where's George. Every now and then I come across a dollar bill that has the name of the website stamped on the bill. The idea is to go to the website, enter the serial number of the bill and see where it has been and how many people have entered it. I thought it's a fun idea.

Almost every time I have entered a bill, I am the second person to have made an entry. Maybe once or twice I was third but never more than that. I have never come across a bill with a substantial history of any kind.

I bring this up today because I have a bill to enter.

I will bet big money that I am again, the second guy on the list for this bill. Here I go. Stand by.

Typing - Accessing - Entering - Collating -

I win! Second guy. It started in Hayden Lake 32 days ago. Enough of this B.S. It's time to work.

I have some priming to do on the deck. It's a nice day to be out painting so I am going to get to it. Holy Shit! It's One O'clock already.

It is now approaching 5:30 and I have been priming pieces of wood and Susan has been sanding and plastering. She's a dusty disaster area.

I noticed something while I was outside today.

I planted this raspberry stalk last year and it is going to produce some berries this year.

In fact, it has one ready to go and I'm going to let Susan have it since it is her birthday month.

We had a brief visit from my pal Mike who was on his way up to Priest Lake for their yearly family gathering. He spent last night with us and will be back for another night later this week.

We had a nice discussion on the front porch last night that covered a lot of ground and lasted for about two bottles of wine.

A Tale of Two Hops

2011-07-07T07:41:00.050-07:00

It has been pretty hot the last few days and it is taking a toll on the lawn. Even worse, one of my hops plants appears to be withering on the vine. Or, the vine is withering. In any event, it is not doing well. I might almost say that it is doing the opposite of well.
Below is a picture of the Sterling Hops Vine. It has been growing fine, with great speed and a fair amount of verve. It doesn't look so vervy right now.

The next picture is the Hallertau Hops Vine. It is lush and really verviful.

The only thing I can think of that I might have done to contribute to this was a couple weeks back when both plants were covered with aphids. I sprayed some soapy water on both plants and that seemed to help get rid of the bugs.

If it is the soapy water that caused the problem, it's strange that it hurt one and not the other. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on it.

A couple of weeks back, I planted some grass seed around the front yard in some bad patches of lawn. I was about to give up on it when I noticed it finally starting to germinate and grow last night. So far, I only have seed growing in a couple of the patches. Two out of eight is not good odds but perhaps the others are lagging behind.

I'll be keeping an eye on that as well.

What a Weekend

2011-07-05T07:30:00.026-07:00

It is the "Monday Morning" after the three day weekend and I am preparing for work and reflecting on the past three days.

We done good!

We accomplished a lot and we had lots of activity. Floating the river was great. We got some sun, had a little picnic and enjoyed the copious amounts of nature that seemed to be everywhere around us.

I had a brain fart when we got out there because I had forgotten the gate code to get into the property. I'm getting old and showing it daily.

Here's photographic evidence.

The last picture is that Deer Skeleton I discovered and wrote about back in May. I didn't have my camera back in May so I had to get this picture.

We did ride our bikes downtown to watch the fireworks but I have no photographic evidence to relay. I couldn't find the camera as we were heading down.

But if you've seen fireworks before, you have a pretty good idea of what we watched.

The great part, as always, was getting home. riding our bikes through the throngs of cars and people was a breeze and again, home in ten minutes.

What a Country!

Stand Back While I Celebrate Freedom

2011-07-04T10:08:00.001-07:00

It is the third day of the weekend and today's plan is to float the Little Spokane River. The weather is again fabulously summerish so it will be great float.

Mom's birthday party up at Arbor Crest last night was fun even though Mom didn't attend. She called me in the afternoon and said she had a bit of a summer cold and wasn't feeling all that great. So we invited some other people to fill out our reserved table and had a nice evening.

This is a shot looking to the east from right at the cliff.

Later, Susan and I will be riding our bikes downtown to watch the fireworks in the park. I'm not sure who will be joining us there but fun will be had and freedom will be celebrated.

Mystery of the Burned Lumber

2011-07-03T10:20:00.015-07:00

I don't know exactly what happened last night but when I went out into the backyard this morning, This was the scene I stumbled upon. I have no idea what happened to the pile of wood that was there only last night.

It is quite a puzzle to solve...or not!

We have little things to do around the house today. We are trying to stay off a schedule of any kind. Scheduling that kind of schedule is quite a puzzle to solve.

Susan is trying to clean up a persistant rust spot on her car. I am goofing around the yard and sitting here on the computer.

Later, we're going up to Arbor Crest for a picnic and some wine. Friday was Mom's birthday and we have invited her up along with some other folks to enjoy the evening, listen to some swing music and drink the grape.

I hope we can stick to the schedule of not scheduling anything.

The List - Revisited

2011-07-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

It is the first day of the Independence Day Holiday Trilogy Three Day Weekend-A-Ganza. My accomplishments on this first day were few but loaded with audacity.

If you remember "The List" you will also recall that today is its two month anniversary. Of the se7en items to be completed on "The List", two are complete, four are in various stages of completeness but not completely completed and one I can no longer do because there are no tulips to smell.

So I completed number se7en today. Put a rain gutter on the front of the house. I am one part short of being absolutely done with this but I am calling it good. I thought it might take three or four hours...it took all day.

Here is the house as I began the project.

Here is the freshly installed rain gutter. Again, nothing too complicated, it took me se7en hours.

I also installed one of the air conditioners in the bedroom since the weather, and today's weather in particular, has been fabulously summer like.

I did some other stuff but specifics escape me.

I plan to light me up a Stump Fire this evening. The Stump Fire has gone from being a slow but inexpensive way to remove a tree stump to an outright blatant disregard for the laws of man and nature.
Note to Prosecutor: This Blog is not about my real life. I have to make this stuff up in order to experience the life I wish I had. No actual Stump Fires have ever taken place. Ever! Anywhere!

I have quite a pile out there to send to Stump Heaven.

It will be Glorious! If it were to happen, that is.

More Toil

2011-06-30T08:52:00.002-07:00

I continue to toil in the dirt.

Below is the front of the house depicting my work area for the day. I've been trying to clean up the flower beds in the front yard. We haven't done anything to these so the ground is hard and loaded with roots. I'm developing quite a pile for a stump fire .

My main goal for the evening was to define the border of the flower garden and dig up a poorly placed shrubbery. I also am going to dig up the Arbor Vitae shown behind the shovel in the picture below and move it to where you see the edger over by the fence line. But not today.

The shrubbery turned to be easier than I thought as well as more difficult than I thought.

I have said this before and I will say it now and then again at another time, there is not a square foot of ground in that front yard that I can put a shovel to and not hit a root. And usually it's a BIG root. Getting into the dirt to get beneath the shrub was an effort in itself.

Once I got to the shrub, it practically walked out of the hole. Then
I had some roots to dispose of and a hole to fill .

In the end, I was pleased with what I got done. It looks a little bit better but I still have a long way to go.

Susan is still removing wall paper, just little bits each night, and is making good progress.

I did a little wood putty work on the entry way trim last night. I'm using an awful lot of putty. But I think it will look good in the end.

Stress Management

2011-06-27T23:22:00.001-07:00

I have never been one to enjoy gardening or anything to do with General Outdoor Home Maintenance. I water, I mow. I kill dandelions. I occasionally plant something. Beyond that, no thanks.

But now, at fifty-fishanmoosh, I find I kind of enjoy working in the yard after a day of toil on the job. I toiled this evening.

I got a start on cleaning one of the front yard flower beds. They are atrocious and there is barely a square foot of ground I can touch without hitting a root. If any of the many many many roots that I pulled up, cut, yanked or disemboweled this evening where important, there will be some large dead vegetation in the yard soon.

I also discovered a miracle of nature...a birth, if you will...and I think you will.

This is a picture of a web colony I removed from the front porch railing and placed on the arbor vitae. There are easily hundreds and perhaps thousands of young spider puppies on that web. All the little brown things you see are spider kittens.

Do me a favor and don't mention this to Susan. Not a fan of the spider.

Glacial Computers

2011-06-26T21:24:00.010-07:00

We are winding up the first full weekend of Summer and it was very much like a summer weekend. The weather was warm and sunny and it was great to be out in it.

I did some yard work and I drained and refilled the hottub. Susan removed wall paper. After our long day of toil, we walked up to our favorite local eating establishment and had dinner. The walk there and the walk back was needed for my fatness and stamina.

We are just kicking back now and preparing for our workweek...which means we are drinking wine.

I am going to have to do something with this computer. It is running at a Glacial pace and it sounds like the hard drive is always running. I can leave the computer completely and return in an hour and hear the hard drive still processing. What it is processing is beyond me. It seems I have lots of un-needed crap turned on. I have no idea what to turn off or where to turn it off at.

I'm quite sure I have some instant messangers stuff going as well as other social media shit that I do not use. I hope to figure it out one of these days.

First Full Day

2011-06-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's the first full day of Summer and it was truely Summer-like. The upstairs is pretty warm and it seems like it is time to install the air conditioners in the windows.

We have had an issue in the neighborhood this week that took me a bit by surprise. I've known for sometime that Post Street, a busy arterial a block away, was about to undergo a face lift. They are resurfacing it from Maxwell Street to the south of us to Cleveland Street just behind us.

I wasn't prepared for the amount of traffic that is being devirted past our house. It's pretty busy here in the morning and around five o'clock. Our quiet little unknown neighborhood is getting a nice dosage of traffic.

I've been feeling pretty lifeless lately so I figured it is time to get some exercising in. I've been walking. It's not much but it's a start. Here's a nice view of the city from Monday's walk.

It's nice to have Summer in the neighborhood again.

Solstice Party Report

2011-06-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Solstice Party has come and gone and we are calling it a success. I'm so beat from preparing for this that I have done nothing today. Susan is trying to be productive. She is working on wall paper removal right now.

Here is the party in pictures.

This is layout of food.

Cheesy Crustinis. Yum!

Barbecued chicken on a stick. Double Yum and on a stick.

Pot Stickers and Soy Juice.

Veggie plate

Breaded Salmon Bites. De-Lish

Cheese

The Refreshment Center

The smokers had a good time.

We tried to figure out the total number of people that showed and we have it somewhere around 45. It seemed like more because everyone was inside.

Wetness Level

2011-06-18T16:29:00.021-07:00

We have selected a crap day for a Solstice Party. It has been raining since about 11:00 AM and has continued steadily at a moderate pace of wetness.

We are progressing as one might expect and we will be ready to Solstice when the Se7en o'clock Solstice Hour arrives.

It doesn't look like we'll be having any Stump Fires tonight. Even if it clears, the wood will be mighty damp.

So I am expecting a huge crowd since nobody went to the lake, and we'll be crowded around the insides like sardines.

Yum!

Twenty-Two and Half Hours To Go

2011-06-17T21:28:00.002-07:00

We both had the day off today and we put it to good use, starting with sleeping until almost ten. Very decadent.

Among the things I did today was to observe and record nature.

Perhaps I have a future with Wild Kingdom.

Here is another shot of the entryway with the mirror and the clock. This has nothing to do with anything other than content for me.

Okay, it is onward toward the Solstice. I hope to have pictures to share when I write again.

Two Days to Solstice Party

2011-06-16T22:41:00.012-07:00

We seem to be on track to Solstice 2011. It's ahrd t tell from my perspective because I just do what I am told...with the occasional side track to whatever may catch my eye.

We shopped tonight and have acquired most of the food items we need. I have mopped the wood floors tonight and I have prepared the beer for the keggong of the beer. Last night I spent a good deal of time cleaning the Aquarial home of Norman the Large Fish. Norman is a constant and perpetual shitter. If he's not shitting he is eating which is futureshit. So, you can imagine how much fun that was.

We have Friday off so we are in good shape and I do not feel that Susan is experiencing a lot of swirling emotions known as Swirling Emotions.

The Whole Week Wrap Up

2011-06-12T23:04:00.001-07:00

It seems incomprehensible to me that I haven't made any entries here all week until I remembered what kind of week it has been. In the last entry, I mentioned the Hoopfest skywalk challenge we faced. Well, I am now on the other side of that challenge and we finished it today. Wow! What a week. What a looooooong miserable effing week.

I went downtown on Tuesday and got the first skywalk lined out while Susan worked a Catering gig.

I had a neighborhood meeting to attend on Wednesday, so Susan went down to get started and I joined her after the meeting. We managed to finish half the skywalk before calling it a night.

On Thursday, we got downtown about 6:30 and finished up on the first skywalk. I even got a start on the next skywalk by getting everything lined out.

Friday night we worked until we finished the second skywalk.

Susan had another Catering gig on Saturday that took all day. I had my Farmers Market thing but that only lasted until one. That day, my buddy Ron worked the Market so I was able to get some crap to the dump.

I went downtown about 3:00 and got the third and final skywalk lined out.

All we had to do was wake up this morning at a reasonable hour and get down to complete the painting. We had to be finished by three because we had volunteered to take pledge calls at KSPS, the local PBS affiliate.

We did not rise at a reasonable time. It was reasonable once, when I was 15, to get up at 11:00AM. But it seems ridiculous to me now. All I can say is we needed and we enjoyed the sleep. Did I mention it has been a hell of a week.

We got down there at noon and we finished the job at 2:50. We were both very pleased. We did not want to have to come back.

Here are the fruits of our labor.

Now the battle begins to clean the house in preparation of the Solstice Event. Susan is going to go into Manic Cleaning Mode at any moment. I just hope it doesn't kick in at 2:57AM in the morning.

In other highlights of the week, we managed to do a little work on Monday night while we were awaiting the approval of our skywalk design.

We hung the mirror and clock in the entry way. This was a very big deal because it involved putting a hole through wall paper. It had to be right the first time. Fortunately, it was and above is a lovely photo of the mirror AND the clock.

The house painting has been progressing during this time and Ronnie got all of the upper portion of the west side of the house completed. The lower portion will get done when she returns from whatever job has taken her from us.

We are very pleased with the results and very happy that this will soon be one less project to worry about.

There is other stuff to talk about concerning the events of the week but I have to go now. Susan wants me to clean something.

Crunch Time

2011-06-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

We are down to crunch time with the Solstice Party Preparations and as usual, an Monkey Wrench has been thrown into the preparations.

I got the word yesterday from the Hoopfest people that they want three skywalks painted up for Hoopfest as soon as possible. That means we are in for a rough week of work, work and more work. And then we'll paint.

I'm not sure yet how we are going to do it. I'm hoping to get started by Tuesday night, although Susan has to work that night. I can get started on one by myself.

Then we will have to just slug it out through the week. I have a meeting on Wednesday night and Susan has some stuff going on...we'll just slug on. Or is that slogg on?

In any event, I'll detail it here.

Solstice Prep

2011-06-05T20:57:00.013-07:00

I have finally gotten the invitation to our Solstice Party completed. I am printing invites as I write this. I should have had them out a week ago. It always seems to come down to the last second with me.

We've had a nice productive weekend and Ronnie is cruising on the house painting. If the weather holds out, she could be done this week.

The chances of the weather holding out are slim...and none. The whole week looks crappy.

Here are some pictures of how she is progressing.

Garage Cleaning Frydee

2011-06-03T20:56:00.001-07:00

The forecast indicated that today would be a decent day as far as the weather goes and I was pretty caught up at work so I opted for a day off to do a project that was looooooooong overdue...cleaning the Garage.

I started the morning with a pot of coffee and added a little Bailey's Irish Cream to help accent the flavor. Here is what the garage looked like at 9AM.

And this is what it looked like three weeks later. That's a joke. I actually completed the task on the same day and here it is now.

I can put my car in thee now but just barely. It' a very tight fit.

One of the major space saving things i did was remove a drafting table that I bought last fall. It has been in the garage all this time and I have been worried about it. So I moved it upstairs to the back bedroom.

Unfortunately, Susan does not like it. She says it is waaaaaay too big and dwarfs everything else. It's only a temporary move I guess. Although I do not want to tell what was involved to get it up there.

I am well versed at dismantling it so I have that on my side.

Cloud Burst

2011-06-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's June First and one of the things I'm trying to remember to do is zero out the AccuStan Weather Station 5000. I'm old and unfocused so remembering to do things is tough. Remembering to do things on a schedule is next to impossible.

And yet, I remembered my duty this morning. And it's a good thing because I can now report with accuracy about the major effing cloud burst we had at about 7:30 PM this evening in the night.

In a ten minute period, we got a half inch of rainfall. Well, it included hail which might skew the data but check out the pile of hail we got on the deck.

There was just about every kind of weather going on. There was thunder. There was lightning. There was torrential rain. There was hail the size of canned hams. The only weather we didn't have was tornadoes or earthquakes.

The steps on the deck were completed today so I can officially call that project complete.

Major Historical Unearthment

2011-05-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to report on my most interesting historical discovery that I historically discovered in an interesting way yesterday.

I was removing the trim around the doorway from the hall into the dining room. As I pulled the piece off the north side of the door, I found this business card behind the trim.

We have lots of questions and only a few answers. The main question is why was this card placed behind the trim?

The writing on the back is the most intriguing to me. I assume the number on the top line is the model number of a corset and the price. The next line is a phone number. The last line is the biggest question because we have found no record of a Tracy family owning the house.

Did Mrs. Byrd Tracy drop by for tea one day and stow this card behind the trim, hoping to retrieve it later? Is a 23TR-38 Corset a good one? Does Dr. Armmori make house calls?

These and other questions will likely go unanswered. But I'm glad to have asked them.

Okay, here is a brief update. I found this on-line, dated Feb. 11, 1933. I'll have to check out the microfilm at the library of the Spokesman-Review from around that time and see if I can find any ads for Bartlett's Corset Shop.

Memorial Weekend Roundup

2011-05-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Memorial Day Weekend Wrap Up. It is the traditional start of Summer, the end of rain and of course, it rained!

We did a bunch of stuff this weekend and none of it was in honor of those who died to bring us Liberty. For that, we are ashamed and we clearly do not deserve the freedoms we so cavalierly enjoy.

So now I will talk about how we used our freedom.

Saturday I started a new job which will last me for the summer. I am working a booth at the Farmers Market for my friend Brian. He is in the coffee game and wants a presence at this market. I will work from 7 to 1 and hopefully make around $75.00 to $100.00 a day.

We will see how that goes.

I returned home to find Phil hard at work on the deck. It is mostly done at this point with just some minor items to complete.

Susan had to work on Saturday night so our interaction together was very limited. I tried to do some stuff with the trim around the stairs but screwed up all the wood I bought. I'm having a very difficult time making this all come together properly.

On Sunday we did some yard work, concentrating on the Arbor Vitae. They needed some serious tending to. I'm going to have to call my trimming guy and have him give them a clip.

We ended the day with our first trip of the year to Arbor Crest Winery for some music and wine and picnicking. Our friend Mark joined us. It was a mostly nice evening but got cold when the sun went down. Below is a picture of the rebuilt Riblet Mansion on the grounds of the Winery.

After we had our fill of Arbor Crest, we returned home and enjoyed a lovely Stump Fire. The stump is of course long gone but I managed to pile a lot of debris onto the stump fire area and we had a wonderful time.

Susan finally had to excuse herself about 10:30 and stagger to bed. Mark and I remained out for another hour or so and then squelched the fire and called it a night. We did a very good job of consuming the debris pile.

Today we got up and I went out to buy three more boards for the new decking. We were just short of having enough to finish the stairs.

Susan then did some work upstairs on the new bookshelf while I removed trim on the main floor in the start of the next phase in the continuing saga of completing the entryway.

I shall now conclude with a note saying that the Volley Ballers have returned. We have not approached them yet.

Neighborhood Problems

2011-05-26T07:29:00.025-07:00

A group of neighbors got together last night to discuss a problem in the park. I will preface this discussion by saying that it will be easy to conclude that this is a bunch of complaining white people. I'll give you that. It does not diminish our right to complain.

The problem is this. There is a group of people who have been coming to the park nightly. I think they are essentially one family with it's various offshoots. They are from the Marshall Islands.

When the weather is nice, they start to arrive about 5:30 and they go to the same spot. They set up a Volleyball Net and they have a great time until about 8:30 when they shut it all down.

None of this is a problem. They certainly have every right to be there and enjoy the park like anyone.

The problem is that they are there every night. They are not very good at cleaning up after themselves. They leave small amounts of random garbage and scattered chicken bones. They are slightly loud. They sometimes tie their net to freshly planted trees. They often drape clothing over the freshly planted trees. Their shear number and repetitiveness is starting to show on the lawn.

As neighbors, we decided we are going to approach them and politely ask that they rotate their location. The neighbors who are most affected by this group, Erez and Diane cannot sit on their front porch and enjoy a peaceful evening. They don't want them to leave, they just don't want them in that spot every night.

All we can do is ask.

We all realize that we have not much ground to stand on. We live on a public park. People, any people, can come to the park. Frankly, we welcome them. It is really wonderful to watch what a good time this family has.

Anyone of the items listed above is not a problem...except the litter. Together, they are a concern and the meeting last night was a group of neighbors from all around the park who wanted to address it before it gets out of hand.

Anyway, a group of us will approach them at the next opportunity we have. Considering the weather and the forecast, that could be a while.

I checked my little weather station this morning and a quarter of an inch of rain fell over the night. It is raining pretty good right now. More is coming. It will be a FABulous Memorial Day Weekend.

I shall end this White Devil diatribe with what a fellow blogger I know calls a Cyber Tree.

This is a Dogwood Tree located at the east end of the park. It will only be in bloom like this for a couple days more. It stands out like a giant pink sore blooming thumb among the greenery around it. It is really quite stunning!

Deck Work and the Rain

2011-05-24T07:41:00.051-07:00

Thankfully the rain has returned. We went almost TWO DAYS without any and we were all becoming concerned. If it had not rained, we surely would have had to sacrifice a virgin or something.

The rain has been especially good if you are a fan of the Spokane River. The falls are unbelievable right now.

This picture is from the lower footbridge in Riverfront Park. The rapids are so strong that they are spraying up onto the bridge.

This picture shows the view of the river from the bridge. The power of the water is quite impressive.

Let us return now to what this blog is supposed to be about...the house.

I arrived home from work today to find my Yard Monkey, Phil busy at work on the deck. He had been working for quite some time trying to get everything lined out and lined up before starting to screw anything into place. That took him a couple of hours. He has had to do far more prep work on the frame of the deck than I had anticipated. I hoped it would be a pretty simple matter of removing the old decking and putting down the new stuff. But that kind of luck has never been the case with anything we do here.

One of the things we discovered was that part of the deck had joists that were 2x4's. That might have worked in the olden days but not in these modern times. We used some 2x8's I had here and then I purchased a couple of 2x6's yesterday to complete the joisting.

We got an indication of how old the original deck is because those 2x4's actually measured two by four...what a concept!

Here is a nice before and start of the after picture of the decking going down. I know it is going to look fan-effing-tastic and it is clear that the cats like it.

Do the Hustle

2011-05-23T07:33:00.020-07:00

One of my true strengths is accomplishing tasks after the fact. In that regard, I rode my bike to work today. Sure, "Ride your Bike to Work Week" ended on Friday but that did not dissuade me in riding my bike today.

I almost didn't make it this morning but decided to go for it. I over slept and knew that I really had to hustle if I was going to make the bus. I really made an effort to get downtown as fast as I could and I am still feeling a little shaky in my well honed legs. Well honed for sitting that is.

The one factor that really persuaded me to ride was the weather forecast. It does not look promising for the rest of the week and I really need to ride the bike more...perhaps turning the mythology of my well honed legs into somewhat of a factology.

I made it to the Bus Plaza with minutes to spare so now I know I can sleep as late as 6:10 and still make the bus at 6:42, but there will be "hustle" involved. That is not a word commonly associated with Stan.

A Grand Sunday

2011-05-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Susan was determined to complete her wall papering today and she won. I helped her but all I did was what I was told to do. The picture below shows the wall paper on the angled ceiling below the staircase. She did that in three pieces. There is one full width piece in the middle that runs to the top of the arch. The pieces on either side run from the top of the angled ceiling all the way to the floor.

Before Susan got started on the paper hanging, we took a trip to Windsor Plywood and purchased our decking. We have decided on a synthetic material called Rhino Deck. We spent just over a grand and it will be delivered on Monday or Tuesday.

I was able to pull up two large pieces of plywood that were secured securely to the framing. The rest of the plywood shown in the picture will come up easily because they are long thin strips. I already popped out a couple but decided to leave them until later in the week.

I am hoping that by weeks end, there will be new decking to show off.

My Armageddon Tired

2011-05-21T17:06:00.059-07:00

You're reading this and I'm writing it so we are both still here. What does the dumb ass Ass Wipe Preacher Harold Camping have to say for himself now?

It has been an exciting day of much activity and accomplishment. So much so that we are going to celebrate and drink semi-heavily.

The day started with a bit of rain. But it was only a threat to remind everyone of the coming apocalypse.

We had our neighborhood Garbage dump day over at a nearby church with a huge parking lot. We filled 7 eight yard dumpsters before the scheduled time ran out. We had one dumpster filled by 8:45 and we weren't scheduled to start until nine.

We all thought it was very successful and we were amazed at the turn out. When you think about it though, OF COURSE it was successful. Free dumping right in your neighborhood. It would only get better if we gave away beer...and we'll think about that for next year.

It was great for Susan and I because I cleaned up a lot of crap that was starting to build up around the house. Now I can start all over again.

After the dump party, I hauled some stuff to the Habitat store and then borrowed an edger to...well, do some edging duh!

While all this was going on, the Wall Paper Master spun her web of paste and completed two very difficult paper installations, one of them (probably the most difficult) by herself.

Pretty impressive, if you ask me. And even if you're not asking, I'm telling you.

We ended the day with a jaunt downtown to enjoy the Lilac Parade. We were joined by friends Ron, Kelly and Mark.

What I find most enjoyable about the parade is that you can walk right into the Olive Garden without having to wait. They seated us right next to a window were we could look out and see what was going on.

After dinner, we went out and actually watched the parade from the sidewalk. I figure we are now good for a couple of years. Susan doesn't seem to figure the same as I.

Finally, I would like to extol the virtues of a good pair of work boots. The boots pictured below have been with me for over 30 years. I first bought them at a store called the Two Swabbies when I got a summer job working at a lumber mill in Coeur d'Alene.

I wore them everyday of that summer while I suffered through that miserable job. Miserable because it was hard work, and at 21, that was not something I was interested in. The mill is now a business mall, hotel and apartments.

Anyway, I have somehow managed to keep these boots with me through all that time and they still fit and feel great. They are not even close to wearing out.

That fact that I have worn them about 30 times over those 30 years is not really relevant.