Our Time Capsule

The last thing to do with our hallway project is to create a Time Capsule. We have a little open space at the top of the main floor bathroom door and we are placing a few things in the space. Including a copy of this Blog posting. 

We put in a medallion from Expo 74 that I got from my parents. There is a swatch of the wall paper Susan just applied in the entry. There are a couple of pins, some of the invitations we've made for our parties, one of our Christmas cards and a few wine labels from wine we have made. Additionally, there is a thank you we got from a friend of my Mom's concerning the Mother's Day event we hosted this year. There is also a blue ribbon from the Spokane Interstate Fair for the Piesporter we made in 2009. 

We closed it up on this date.

The End of Heat

It is June First and in my world, that means it is time to shut down the furnace. I turned off the heat on the thermostat and closed the gas valve on the furnace. I suppose I could let the pilot light burn all Summer but that seems terribly wasteful. With it turned off, I still get charged about six bucks a month. I'm not sure why...providing access to gas?


Anyway, the furnace is off and it is now time to enjoy some Summer.


I say that as I sit on the front porch writing this entry at 11:35 PM and notice that it is just starting to rain. I guess I should go turn off the sprinkler that I set earlier.


I can hear activity out in the park. Some kids are out there doing what kids do. Lots of liberal use of the "F" word.


Susan has just arrived home from working at the arena. She was working a concert. It was some happening rap fellows named "LMFAO". To show how unhip I am, I will tell you I have no idea what that stands for.


And yet, life goes on.

The End of a Project

It is 2:09 in the after the noon and I am finished with my project. I am mostly happy with the results although I have one piece that I am going to replace.


I made one huge error today on my very first cut. What an idiot!

I had to add the upper piece to this corner and I had one length of wood that was plenty long enough to complete the corner. I measured it out and when I cut it, I missed my mark. It resulted in this piece being about a quarter of an inch short. I had no other wood. I had to use what I had.

So, I cut a little quarter inch piece and glued it into place. You can hardly tell. The problem is I can tell.

Well, here are some pictures of the whole hallway and the completed project. Another one in the "Finished" column.

Now I have to clean up and put everything away. The job isn't really complete until the clean up is finished.


I think I need to amend that statement. The job isn't really complete until I'm dead and it has finished me!

Day Three of Hell Vacation

I should have been posting all along this week but I have been busy. I need to go back to work in order to get break.


This job has entailed several phases. It's hard to even consider which was the first phase. Was it buying the wood for the trim or was it milling that wood into the shape and size I needed. What phase was staining. And what about the sub-phases to the staining process.


Surprisingly, I am pretty close to being on schedule with this project. I have one more day and only two final phases to get through.


I have to put up thirteen corner guards and then finish off with the quarter round.


Here are some pictures of the project in progress.

I jokingly implied to Susan that Phil had come over to do all the work while I just sat around all day eating bon bons. She said that would be a hard story to sell considering the quality of the craftsmanship. 


She is sooooo mean to me!

No Really, A Day Of Earnest Toil, for sure

9:26 AM: Okay so we are rolling out of bed a little late. But we are going to to do so much that we deserve the rest. 


Welcome to Justication Corner. 


A little shower, a little breakfast, and then...toil!


10:06 AM: Here is what I did yesterday.

I placed these "Dutchman" patches on three places on the door jam. There had previously been a couple of hinges and a strike plate. Today I have a bunch of sanding to do. I best get to it!


3:55 PM: It is time for a break. We are going to the Hub for a beer. We will return and work s'mo!


7:33 PM: I forgot to come back and describe the end of the day. Well, we did a little more work when we got home but called it a night just a while ago in order to watch an episode of "Downton Abbey". Tomorrow begins my three days of personal toil.

A Day Of Earnest Toil

8:48 AM: Okay! We're up! Jeez, it's a Holiday Weekend. Let us sleep in a little. We are getting ready for church and then we have a big busy day in front of us with lots to be done!


11:43 AM: We have returned from church and now it is time to get busy. I have to go out and buy some gas for the yard equipment and some charcoal for tonight's dinner. Then I will be getting to work on the hallway.


6:00 PM: I feel like I have accomplished nothing today. I told Susan, and she agreed, That I am going to need every one of the following four days to complete the front entryway.


I got my gas and stuff but then I stopped at the Hub for a quick schooner and some pop corn. Perhaps that laps in due diligence is why I feel like I wasted the day. 


If nothing else, I have a clearer picture of how much I have to do. It's all touch up and set up. I think once I can start putting up trim and baseboards, it will go fast.


Famous Last Words!

Memorial Weekend 2012

It's the first day of the Memorial Weekend and we start it off feeling a little small. Perhaps too many inebriates were consumed last evening. I don't like to judge.


While we have great plans of working on the house over this three day break, none of it was to happen today. We planned a canoe trip with friends. The weather wasn't completely cooperative but neither was it a rain out. It was actually quite comfortable except for the wind, and that wasn't a constant.


Here are a few pictures.

Fun was had by all during our three hour adventure, and that included stopping for a picnic lunch along the way.


Now we have a few hours to kick back before going to see a play at the Civic Theater. "Annie"! I'll tell you about it "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'll tell ya, tomorrow. It's only a day away."

Lawn Mower Man

Here's a quick run down of the week for anyone who may be interested. And if you are interested, you really need to assess your priorities in life because trust me, what you are about to read is not interesting.


I screwed up the lawn mower last weekend and had to take it in for repair. A brace in the front undercarriage got bent and hit the blade and then it really got bent and screwed up the whole lawn mowing system. 


So I hauled it over to my local Lawn Mower Repair Facility and for $70.00, he fixed the brace, tuned the engine and sharpened the blade.


I think the blade sharpening was a mistake because the mower works really quite well now. It's only been a week since I mowed and it seems like I was emptying the bag every three or four passes around the yard. The bag holds 2 bushels and I am sure I harvested about 30 bushels of lawn. That's a lot for a 60 gallon garbage can to contain. I hardly have any room for garbage.

I rode my bike to work three out of five days this past week. You can see from the picture I had great weather on my side. I like to keep track of the river flow as the year progresses. This is already down from just a couple of weeks ago. It was running as high as 35,000 c.f.s. This picture shows it at about 21,000 c.f.s.


I take back my earlier statement. That last paragraph was really interesting.


And now, here's something for the bird lovers in my readership

The baby robins at my Mom's seem to be doing well. The Mom Robin is no longer freaked out by us sitting on the patio and she flies right in to feed. The three chicks seem to be eating and getting larger but they are still quite helpless.

We went down to see the Lilac Parade last night. I am of the opinion that if you have seen one parade you have seen them all and too many at that. However, we do like the parade for the fact that it is the one night of the year that you can walk right in to the Olive Garden and get a table.


Pictured above are photographs of our dinners which brings me back to my original assertion. 


This is not interesting!

Mutha's Day

Another hurdle has been successfully conquered by us with the passing of Mother's Day. Susan prepared a fantastic meal that we carted over to Mom's this afternoon and enjoyed with a party of se7en. 


It turned out to be a beautiful day. I would have liked to have had the time for being around the house, but I was okay with making the mother's Day thing happen.


We went to church and then finished the Historic Home Tour sponsored by the museum. We saw 4 houses today situated on the South Hill in the Rockwood Blvd area. We saw some really nice homes.


We then returned home and got to work on our catering job. Susan had most of it under control and I just followed directions.


We got over to Mom's just before four and got to work getting everything set. Once at Mom's, I had to fire up the grill to cook a couple of flank steaks for the main course.


While there, we discovered a good example of a bad mother. Well, perhaps that is too harsh. Let's say a mother who did not plan well or think ahead very far.

Above is a picture of the back patio light at Mom's. You can see she has lost a battle with a persistent Robin. While we were all out there on the patio enjoying the weather, we discovered that eggs had hatched and there were hungry chicks in need of nourishment.

The pinkish feathery shapes in the picture above are the three freshly birthed chicks. At least, I think they just hatched. While we were on the patio, Mama Robin was having a fit trying to figure out how to approach the nest and feed. We finally went inside to give her a break.

The whole Mother's Day thing went well and we went home where Susan passed out from exhaust...I mean, exhaustion.

Bloomsday 2012

The alarm went off at 7. That's too early on a Sunday. But, it's Bloomsday and that means getting downtown to get in line to run the 10K's. Or the seven and a half...which ever you prefer.


Susan is running as well as our friend Mark. They have both been training but not seriously. Just enough to not doe on the course.


My running daze are over and while I think I could walk it, I prefer not to. So I drive them down and find a place to park. Then I unload the bicycle that seems to be attached to the bike rack and ride around and check out the Bloomsday sights. Lots of people hate Bloomsday because of the massive crowds but that is the exact reason I love it. It's a great energy and it's fun to see all the fun stuff going on in the park.


Here's an assortment of pictures.

The river is running waaaaaay high right now. It's great to have so many people from out of town here and able to see the falls at their best. I like that picture above because of the Powerhouse building in the background. It still says Washington Water Power. They changed their name a few year back in order to represent a more global, non-descript identity. Avista. Boy, does that suck!

We went to the salvation Army yesterday in order for Susan and Mark to purchase cast off clothes. It's a win-win for Goodwill and the Salvation Army. They sell them one day and then get them right back. You're not buying the cast off clothes. You're renting them.


It's about 3:30 right now and I'm sitting on the front porch making this entry while Susan is blissfully napping upstairs. I did a short little bike ride earlier with a major hill climb and now I'm thinking of going over to the Hub for a beer. But then again, I could have a beer here. That sounds more appealing.


I really have no desire to leave the front porch. It's nice out here right now.

In fact, here's a picture.


Okay, now I have a beer...I'm happy!


One last thing for today. As long as I'm showing pictures, I might as well get the hops progress cataloged here. So here they are.

That is the Sterling Hops up above there and below is the Hallertau.

I suspect they will reach the top of the rail by next weekend.

The Day After Star Wars Day

Some would prefer that I acknowledge Cinqo de Mayo but it is not a holiday I endorse or participate in. Instead, it is the day before Bloomsday and that means CARBO-LOADING!


The whole carbo-loading deal is a myth perpetuated by the Italian Restaurant Association. For it to be effective, you have do eat specific carbs during the week leading up to a race...not the night before. Also, gorging yourself is probably not the best idea.


Anyway, we went out to enjoy some carbs with some people from church. We had a great time and played some game I can't remember with a machine that gives you words or phrases that you give clues to in order to make your team guess the word or phrase.


It was an early night home cuz Susan and Mark are running tomorrow.

Star Wars Day

It's the Fourth of May. You probably already know that today is Star Wars Day. I think my favorite line from one of those movies is, "Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a Bricklayer!"


It is also the end of a perfectly retched week. The weather has been rainy and cold. Work has been hectic and busy. And I got a Dear John letter in relation to my attempt to get a part time job at the ballpark. The Dear John letter did come with a couple of vouchers for box seats to any up coming game...so it's not a total loss.


So now it is time to move into the weekend. It looks to be a busy one but with good weather. God is looking out for us working stiffs, making it rain during the week and cleaning it all up for the weekend.


That is why God is great!


May the Fourth be with you!

May Day

This is not the first picture taken with the new camera but it should have been. Let's just lie to ourselves and say it is. 


So we have a camera and we have a mini deck.


Life is good!

Photo-Rific Opporbilities

After her initial disgust with me, Susan agreed that we cannot be without a camera. So she looked through the sales material in today's paper and found a $100.00 Canon that will get us by.


Here is the first picture I took with it.

So we are back in the visual realm of the Interweb.


I bought my first digital camera about twelve years ago. It was a Canon with a 1 Mega pixel resolution. It cost about $550.00 and that was with an employee discount through the store where I had a friend by it.


Today's camera cost $89.99 plus $12.00 for a 4 Meg SD card. It's resolution is 16 Mega pixels and it takes video.


There was a faux pas in the transaction. I had to take the camera back to the store because I could not get it to take any pictures. The lens did not appear to be connected to the view screen. They ended up giving us the demo model and $10.00 back.

Good News, Bad news

The Good News is that we had a very busy morning of accomplishing stuff followed by an afternoon of not so much.


I was up bright and early to take part in our Annual Neighborhood Dump Day. The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Committee, of which I am a part, does a Clean Up Day every Spring. The City provides these giant dumpsters and people show up and get to unload their crap for free. Our committee pays for it through grants we get through the city for dump passes and Spring Clean Up days. 


As usual, it was a busy day and we filled eight dumpsters. I think each dumpster is 30 yards, which doesn't sound like much. But these things are bigger than a dump truck...maybe bigger than two dump trucks...and we filled eight of them.


The Bad News is that I have no pictures to show of the event. At some point during the day, I lost my camera. I was up on top of a dumpster, jumping up and down to compress the load of yard waste and I'm pretty sure that is where I lost it. 


I realized it pretty quick because I was taking a lot of pictures. I climbed back up on the load and looked around but it was gone.


DAMMIT!


I think I paid about $180.00 for that camera and now I will need to get another. I cannot go on without a camera. That is like...um...me without a camera!


DAMMIT!


I would also like to announce the finish of our new mini sub-deck around the hot tub. Now we have reduced substantially the risk of falling in the hole around the hottub by removing the hole and putting in its place a new mini sub-deck. Aren't you paying attention?


DAMMIT!

Dear Scumbag,

I walked out of the house this morning and saw that you had visited us over the night.

You left the car door of Susan's Honda open when you were finished with your ransacking, which I find most discourteous. It was good that the battery didn't get drained from having the dome light on all night.

I hope you were able to find what you were after. The two pairs of prescription sunglasses you took will serve you well, providing they match your prescription, which I doubt.

I commend you on your attention to detail. You managed to take the items that would screw Susan over the most. She'll have to spend about three hundred dollars to replace those glasses.

You are a parasite of the worst order. You have no value to society and you are the reason I support the death penalty. Preferably, a slow, cruel painful death penalty.

I am using all my will power to keep from unleashing a hail of obscenity laced insults upon your worthless waste of skin self. But that would require your ability to read from the computer you stole for it to be effective.

So go forth and have a good life. My only solace is the knowledge that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, you cowardly low-life fuck-wad piece of shit.

Oops! Somehow the obscenity got out!

The First Weekend of Summer

Wow! What a weekend!!!

I'm not sure where to start other than to say that we are at the tail end of a fabulous weekend.

The weather was great. It was warm yesterday (Saturday) but today was stellar. My little weather station says it got up to 104 degrees today. I would say it was more like 80ish. Officially, it was 79. In any event, it was a fabulous day. And we did fabulous things with beautiful people in interesting places.

I guess let's start at Friday. There was supposed to be a little gathering at the Hub Tavern on Friday but the food portion of the gathering never materialized. Fortunately, the beer portion of the event was working fine.

I must make a comment concerning the hops. On Saturday, I marked a spot on a post to measure the growth of this one particular shoot on the Sterling plant. When I measured it again on Sunday, it had grown four and a half inches. That was at noon. I measured it again at 6, and it had grown another inch and a half. I really think you can just sit out there and watch it grow.

That one shoot is well over ten inches from where it was Saturday. There are about se7en other shoots coming out of this one root and they are all doing fine.
The Hallertau is doing great as well. I snipped off over 20 small shoots on it on Sunday to allow the five or six big ones the room and resources to grow baby grow.

Susan has officially finished the wall papering of the entryway. I think I can make a case that this has been going on for two years.

The above pictures show her placing the final historic piece of wall paper.

Now we have to begin cleaning the house. It has been a while since we have really really cleaned the house. We've just been making too much of a mess. Now, the mess making is over for a while and it is time to clean.

Does anybody know where the vacuum is?

The Suck of Social Networking

There is soooooo much life going on, who has time to Blog?! I have avoided all Social Networking platforms like the plague but find myself slowly getting sucked in to it. I now have a presence on Facebook but there's not much there. I think I'll add a link about this Blog and that will be my conduit into the world of Soshing.

In the meantime, I have a few projects to do today and I shall bring this post along for the ride.

12 Noon: It is twelve noon and we have just arrived home from church. Susan has some wall papering to do. She is hoping to finish the hall project today. I am waaaaay behind in what I'm doing in the hall. Partly because I'm a slacker and partly because new little things pop up. The latest thing to pop is a small seam around the doors where I am replacing trim.

I have paint to remove that I just didn't think about. So I am going to stop typing and get downstairs and get to work. Pictures to follow.

1:00PM Update: This is the one o'clock update. Unfortunately it is 1:19 and that's about how I expect this to go.

Here are some pictures.

The most exciting news to report is the discovery of a major find. After cleaning all the coats out of the hall closet, I stumbled across a winter parka I forgot I had. In it, I found my alternate car keys that I lost about two years ago. I knew I had left them in a winter jacket of some type. At least, I had that inkling of a thought.

 As soon as I saw the coat, I started rummaging through the pockets and felt the keys almost immediately. I'm such a dumbass! But now I'm a happy dumbass.

The important thing is that my remote door lock has pretty much had it. It had gone through the ringer and then some. The one on my alternate keychain is as pristine as the day the car was purchased.

3:00PM Report: This is the 3:26 report. Here am some mo' pichurs.

These pictures are of Susan working, who never gets enough credit here in the ol'Blog for here tasks. The last picture shows the last wall to be papered in this project. It doesn't feel like it, but that's a landmark. Well, it's not a landmark yet because she hasn't finished it. It's no major blow if she doesn't finish. Other than to her ego.

My closet door project is coming along. I'm putting down a final stain tomorrow after the wood putty has had a good chance to dry.

In the meantime, I am scraping the kitchen door frame. We're getting close to calling it a day. We have a nice roast to put on the barbeque rotisserie tonight. I am looking forward to that.

5:00 PM Edition: This is Stan checking in for the 5:00 Edition at 11:18PM. What can I tell you. I got involved in stuff.


I'm not even going to get caught up. I'm just going to hit publish and continue with life. Cuz there's a lot of it going on...almost everywhere you look.