The Scroungers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.