Life with Skip and Muffy

Both Susan and I have been trying to work on our respective remodeling projects during the week but it just never works out. Every night we have something that comes up that prevents us from working on project. Also, we lay ZEE!

Last night we were unable to do any work because we attended an Open House at the office of our Financial Advisor. We enjoyed beer and delicious Italian fare and stood around with people we don't know talking about debentures and pork belly futures.

Tonight we attended a Christian Comedy Show with some other folks from church. Verily, I say unto thee, it was chucklesome and rich with jocularity!

Every Day is a New Record.

I am on track for my most intensive year of posting. That coincides with a nomination for the most useless information in a year as well.

I don't know what my previous record was for consecutive posts but I have left it far in the dust.

But again, just because I'm posting doesn't mean I'm writing anything good.

Let's take today for example.








You see!

I will say that we are getting some snow today but it seems to be very wet. I won't know until tonight if the snow blower needs to come out or not

Snow Blow Day

We got some snow last night.

This is the view I had when I got the paper. It doesn't really show the snowy scene outside but you can see that TJ is tentative about going out.

Here's a better illustration of the snow we got. That's about four inches. There's supposed to be more coming.

The main thing is that I got to break out the snow blower and cover the immediate neighborhood.

I'm ready for more!

Luke, I Am Your Grandfah-tha!

Say hello to Lucas Gauge Martens. He was born just after midnight on the 27th. His Mom Jennifer was having some problems and so they induced labor a month early and he appears to be fine.

His father, Rob is my step son from a former relationship. And so while it is not by blood, I'm still claiming him as a grand son.

Consternation in the Congregation

Today is a follow up to last Tuesday's post where I spoke about our church and the big vote by the membership to rent our building to another church.

We had the vote yesterday and it was decided to allow the other church to rent our building. The vote was 24 for, 22 against and 1 abstention. What the hell is up with THAT. You can't feel passionate enough about this to make a decision?! Jeez!

The most amazing thing to me about this vote was that we have 47 members. That's a thriving church!

So now we move forward with a rental agreement. The 22 against are going to be all over that.

Moron Manor

Neither Susan nor I had a good day with home remodeling.

She was working on stenciling and hoping to make good progress. 

She ended up going backwards. The placement of the corner stencil was off a bit...enough to be painfully obvious and not at all acceptable.

And so, it had to go.

She'll have another go at it tomorrow...or the next day.

I went to the lumber store (Lowe's) and bought what I needed for my next storm window frames.

I got everything figured out and cut two pieces too short. About a quarter inch short, which is not at all acceptable. So, I had to go back and get another eight feet. Cost: $7.00 plus gas...and my time (.07).

This time around I'm using 1x2 pieces of poplar rather than the 2x2's I used on the first window. I had some issues fitting my last frame into place. I'm eventually going to have to trim part of the frame to make it work.

This time I'll make sure the frames fit properly before I continue to painting and glazing.

On a positive note, Susan did some touch up work on the fire place tile and it looks pretty good. Above is her repair work of the chipped tile. She has already painted the chipped tile to the left.
 Here is how it looks now. 

The color is slightly off but we are the only ones who will notice.

Storm Window Central

It has been a lazy morning but it is now time to get serious and make a storm window. I'm heading out to my Storm Window Work Shop and getting on it. I'll check back with pictures and diagrams and a paragraph describing the action to be used as evidence against me.

2:57PM: The storm window is complete but not installed. I have been wanting to get the Metal snap clips that hold the window in place but at $3.00 a clip, that seems prohibitively expensive for my budget. So, at least for today, I'm going to buy these cheesy little plastic turnbuckles. 

8:08PM: It's half time for the Gonzaga game so I have a little bit of time to finish up here.

My plan for using Plexiglas in the storm window was a disaster. I was using my jigsaw to cut the sheet to size and because it was a large 8 foot x 4 foot sheet, I did it outside in front of the Carriage House. That was a mistake. Since it was close to freezing, the plex did not cut well at all. 

I was making my first cut and I got about a third of the way through the cut when I realized how badly the blade was cutting. I stopped to see if I had a fresh jigsaw blade and when I returned, I couldn't find my cut.

It was then I realized that the plex had snapped where I had started cutting. Of course it did not snap evening or cleanly and I lost that piece.

After destroying the first piece and nearly losing another, I gave up and called my glass guy and got a piece of 1/8th inch glass for $30.00.

I'm still hoping I can salvage the remaining plexiglas to use for the other storm windows I plan to make.

Obligatory Post

Susan is working tonight and I am making this post just to keep the stretch alive. Just saying that makes me think it's not a valid post...and yet I continue to write.

I'm doing a few things around the house tonight and prepping for tomorrow when I hope to complete my first storm window.

The hype for the Super Bowl is building to ridiculousness. Local TV News is reduced to insipid stories about local Seahawks fans and how they plan to enjoy the game locally. And those are their opening stories. It is loco!

They seriously did an opening story the other night which amounted to a 3 minute commercial for the Washington State Lottery and how someone could win tickets to the game by buying  a special Lottery ticket.

Go Zags!

Gonzaga Basketball has become a really big deal here in Spokane. The team has been very good for the last 15 years when they were the Cinderella team at the NCAA tournament.

Susan and I finally got to go to a game tonight. The Zags played San Diego State and beat them by three points, 59-56, one of their closer games of the year.

It is a totally different feel to the game when you are there as opposed to watching it on the telly. The energy is much higher.

We got complimentary (free) tickets through Donny Daniels. He's one of the Assistant Coaches and became a good friend of my sister Sherry before she died.

We were up pretty high and over in the corner of the building, but there are no bad seats in "the Kennel".

Next time I'll take a radio with me because you miss a lot of the calls. We were wondering what happened with a bunch of plays. Also, you don't have the added advantage of instant replay. It's nice to see a controversial call again along with the analysis.

It was great fun and easy to get in and out. I'm glad we had the chance to go and hopefully, we can do it again.

Keeping the Streak

I stopped on the way home at a clients business to drop off some signs. The client happens to be a Micro Brewery that is opening up this coming week.

I had a beer with the guy and talked brewing. I'm hoping once they open and figure out their schedule that I might be able to get a job bartending for them.

His beer is pretty good as I felt a bit woozy once I got home. Hence, I don't feel like doing much tonight. Hell, I'm only doing this (posting) to keep the streak alive.

God and Storm Windows

We've just returned home from a big church meeting. Big, in that we are facing a decision to allow another church the use of our building. You wouldn't think something like this would cause such consternation, but it is. 

The issue is we are a dying church. Our membership is old and not growing. We've cut the expenses of the church to bare bones and are making things work, but still, we are getting older and not much youth is coming through our doors.

I'm not sure having another church in the building is going to help us, but we do get rent out of them to the tune of $1,500.00 a month.

The big vote on whether to allow this is this Sunday and I guess we'll see how it goes. It could be close.

In the meantime, I have made no progress on storm windows. I'm basically stymied until I get my Plexiglas. I ordered a big sheet through work which will be much less expensive than going to Lowe's or the Depot.

I will have it here in the next couple of days. Then I can get my first window completed and get this storm window show rolling. The next one I'll build is for the upstairs bathroom, where I can feel the draft wafting through the window.

Another Interesting Day? You be the Judge!

Susan is downstairs entertaining her girlfriends as they gather for one of their birthdays. That gives me the opportunity to come upstairs and get in a post before the day gets away from me and I forget. That would be horrible now that I have the stretch up to 20 days.

Unfortunately, it is one of those days when I really don't have anything interesting to say. 

I could talk about getting my first storm window frame primed...but that's not very interesting. 

I could wax philosophic about the Seattle Seahawks and how their passing game is quite inadequate against the bustling defense of the Broncos...but I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I guess it would be best to discuss the fact that the two teams in the Super Bowl this year are from the largest cities in the two states that recently approved Marijuana for recreational use. But I'm not enough of a Stoner to care.

I guess it would be best if I don't write anything. And so I won't!

NFC Title Goes Here

Today will be a very important day in Pacific Northwest history. The Seattle Seahawk's are playing for the NFC Championship against the San Francisco Queer Baits. (I think that's their name)

The winner goes on to the Super Bowl in two weeks. We are of course, planning on watching the game at our friendly local neighborhood bar, the Hub. But that's not until 3:00.

In the meantime, we have church and a bunch of cleaning to do in preparation for Susan hosting "the Girls" here tomorrow.

2:00PM: Okay, we've been cleaning for a couple of hours and are starting to prepare to get ready for making a move towards being at the Hub.

As I write, the Broncos are beating the Patriots 13-3. They are early in the third corner so anything could still happen with that game.

I have to get back to cleaning before Susan realizes I've stopped to write here.

9:30PM: Okay, we made it over to the Hub shortly after 3 and enjoyed the game between the Seahawk's and the Queer Baits. From the start, it did not look promising for the Seahawk's. Seattle lost the ball on the first play of the game and that set the tone for the first half.

They came out stronger in the second half but it remained a tight game right up until there was about a minute remaining. 

The Seahawk's were up by 6 and intercepted a pass in the end zone and that pretty much ended the Queer Bait's chances. And they led for most of the game.

So, in two weeks, Super Bowl XLVIII, also known as the Marijuana Bowl, will be played by the Seattle Seahawk's and the Denver Bronco's.

Title Goes Here

I was quite unsuccessful in my SynthaLog manufacturing last night. Before I got out to the Carriage House to start my work, Mark stopped by and we drank and talked the night away.

So now, I've got even more to do today. I'm heading out on my errands and I'll report back as I progress.

2:11PM: I don't have much time to write as I'm off to a piano lesson at 2:30. Then I have to drop by the ol' Spokane Art Supply and then back here and back to work. 

I did get the wood for my frames and have them milled and cut to length. I'll talk more about it later.

Later!

7:26PM: It's later! I got my frame together and now I have to acquire some 1/8th inch Plexiglass to place in said frame. I priced it out at Lowe's and I think I can get it cheaper through work. So that's what I'm going to do.

In the meantime, I have to put together the Powerpoint presentation for church tomorrow.

Later!

Synth-A-Log Journals

Tonight I intend to do a little work out in the Carriage House and make some SynthaLogsTM for the fireplace. I brought home a bunch of Cardboard cores from work and I have lots of newspapers saved up.

I've been thinking that one possible way to augment the log would be to soak the paper in lighter fluid or some such flammable chemical. I got some kindling for Christmas that lights at the touch of a match. It's clearly been soaked in something because the kindling is kind of sticky. 

Soaking newspaper would probably be costly and I'm not sure the flammable qualities wouldn't eventually evaporate away.

More stuff to think about. Plus, the posting stretch continues.

Draft House

I got home tonight and made a nice little fire. I really love the new fireplace and how it heats up the living room and upstairs.

The odd thing is that it does not appear to be doing anything to lower our heating bill. We spent over $500.00 last month and we weren't even here for 12 days.

I really need to start getting to work on locating all the places cold air is wafting in and buttoning up this house.

That should actually be pretty easy. The procedure will be: Find a window, you've located a draft. Find another window, yup...that one too.

Time Flies

It was five years ago today that Captain Chesley Sullenberger landed his Airbus A320 aircraft in the Hudson River.

I was shocked when I heard this. If you had asked me when it happened, I would have said two years ago.

Man, time flies when you're not paying attention.

Making the Mundane Interesting

Wow! I was very very close to missing making a post today. I suppose I could have let it go since I really don't have anything interesting to say. But I couldn't let my streak end at 13. That just seems unlucky and tempting the fates.

So, while I did not post anything interesting and have essentially wasted a bunch of your valuable "Web Surfing" time, we did get a little peak inside my psyche where we see how I guide my life based on superstition. That in itself is interesting. 

Also, it's your time to waste. 

Indecision, Thy Name is Us

I can't believe I am still successful with daily posts for 2014. I shouldn't get too cocky as it is early in the year and there 352 chances to screw up ahead of me. Whether or not the posts have actually contained useful information is kind of a subjective element that I can't really be sure of.

Today's useful bit of information is that we still don't know where we are going with the tiles on the fireplace. We have decided we prefer eight across the top rather than ten. 

But then we gots to talkin' bout stenciling the existing tiles. We've talked about it before but never really pursued the idea. But now that we are so much more proficient with stenciling, the idea is haunting us again.

And so, indecision reigns.

Ski Day but Not Today

Susan and I were going to go skiing today but we pussied out and stayed in bed.

That allowed us to do a little work around the house. Susan got back to work on stenciling and I varnished the mantle.

Prior to all that work, I did a little clean up in the Carriage House, cleaned out the fireplace, chopped a little wood, and watched some football.

We are narrowing in on doing something with the fireplace tiles. I have probably talked about this in an earlier post so there is going to be repeated information. Here's a picture of the fireplace as it exists now.

Below is a picture of what we want to do to spice things up a bit and add our own creative elements. We have found a place on line where we can essentially design our own custom tiles.

We really like the way this looks but can't decide whether to do 10 tiles across the top or 8. Okay, let's all decide together. Here it is with 10.

At present, the tiles will cost us $28.00 a piece. So we're talking about $300.00 in all.

Seahawk Saturday

The Seattle Seahawks continue their battle towards the Super Bowl with a win over Nawlans. They won ugly in a driving rain. The final score was 24-16. The Saints made a run for it towards the end and it was looking bad for the Hawks but time ran out.

We went to the Hub and watched the game. It was great fun. 

Now we are planning our evening festivities with a comedy show at the Bing featuring Spokane native and personal acquaintance of mine, Tom McTigue. 

I've mentioned Tom's brother Michael here lots o'times as Mike often stays with us when he visits his old hometown. It should be a great show and we are meeting a couple of other couples at the Davenport prior to attending the comedy laugh fest.

I'll be right back in the next paragraph to tell you how it was.

I was right! It was a great show. There were four comedians with Tom the headliner. The first two guys weren't that great. Fortunately, they were only on for a few minutes. The third guy from Portland was pretty funny.

Susan and I saw Tom a couple of years ago and a smaller comedy club here in town and he did a lot of the same stuff tonight that he did then. That is not to say it wasn't funny. His whole routine is great. His timing is spot on and it was really fun. 

Towards the end of his show, there was a problem in the audience with a couple of women that apparently had been talking through the whole show. Everyone around them was pissed and it became a shouting match. But Tom was really funny and very much in control the way he handled it. The talkers finally left and flipped everyone off to the delight of the whole auditorium and the show continued.

All in all, a great night out.

Go Chiefs Go

The bastard representative from CenturyLink shut me down before I could even get started. 

I told him I was expecting a credit to show up on my bill because of a down line the previous month. He said that it takes one to two billing cycles for credits to appear. So I had nowhere to go but wait for another month.

I'm not going to wait for another month because the paper trail will be that much colder. I'm going to call on Monday and talk to the repair people and get a copy of my account sent to me. That will be my starting point.

Right now, I'm off to a Hockey game. 

Goat Cheese!

Century Link can BITE ME

It rained most of yesterday afternoon. That made everything very sloppy. There are lots of puddles, some really big ones over in the park. If we should happen to get a freeze in the next day or so, we could have some nice skating out there.

In a post dated December 11th, I talked briefly about some problem we've been having with the phone. We ended up being phone and interwebless for 8 days. I was told while working with the phone company that I would receive a credit.

Well, the phone bill arrived last week and I could not find any indication of a credit. So I finally got around to calling the phone company.

After a long and aggravating conversation with a guy whose name I should have gotten, I was told we were not eligible for a credit because their records indicated the line had been fixed on December 6th.

I told the guy that was incorrect. He said without any proof to corroborate my story, I would not be getting a credit. So, did he say that I was lying? That's what I think he said.

I'm only talking about $21.00 here. I figure the phone and web line cost $3.00 a day times 7 days. I'm giving them a grace day because the Technician and I were unable to meet up.

I'll be calling tonight to work this out and I am going to record it.

Details to follow.

2014 Blow Job

Today was my first blow job of the year. I have not been able to get the snow blower out this season as it has not snowed significantly. I guess I missed one opportunity to blow when we were in Iowa. Fortunately, most of that snow melted away which made it so much easier to clear out todays' snow deposit.

I always worry about firing up the snow blower at 6 in the morning but I feel I offset that annoyance by performing my good deed and doing the whole block. It gives me a pass.

All went well and it was nice to get back out there mobilizing the machinery and guiding it through its paces.

Above is a nice picture looking down the street with my properly blown sidewalk ready to conduct all the foot traffic safely to the end of the block. Beyond that, they are on their own!

Rare Mid Day Post

I am writing a rare mid day post because I am having such a delightful day at work. Really! There's no sarcasm there.

My work mate, Laura has called in with the flu and so I have the Art Dept. to myself. It's quite nice.

I'm going about my business like I normally would but there are no distractions or noises or persons impeding my procession through the day. I can even sit here and type without questions about what I'm doing or what's that thing on your screen.

Ooh! I just noticed that it's snowing. Cool! I haven't had much of that this season.

Compulsory Post to Keep the Streak Alive

It was back to the normal grind today. The Holidays are behind us and that means we have to go back to work and slog through the work day like everyone else. Life sucks!

On the bright side, we are not in Des Moines anymore, where the temperature right now is minus 6. We are not in Boston or along the eastern seaboard where inches upon inches of snow am falling. And I successfully made it through my piano lesson after having not touched the piano in two weeks.

If this feels like a whole bunch of uninteresting information just to make a post...well, feel it!

Sunny Sunday

We have successfully removed all the Christmas stuff and gotten it stowed away. I have also now successfully posted for five consecutive days. It's like a Christmas Miracle. Unfortunately, we have successfully removed all the Christmas stuff and gotten it stowed away so I don't know what that Christmas Miracle thing is doing out there.

The temperature is in the teens. Even though it was a bright sunny day, it never got very warm. Nonetheless, I did some stuff in the yard and we had a productive day and even got to watch a little football over at the Hub.

The majority of the country is experiencing the deep freeze and that seems to be the big news for now.

Things are winding down now here for the day and we are settling in for the Season Four premier of "Downton Abby". Holy Crap but we are creatures of television programming.

Dad's Birthday Post

Along with having to work at the Hockey Game last night, Susan had to go in to work today. I guess Bill (her boss) got really behind while she was in Iowa, due to some equipment breakdowns and screw ups by vendors. When she is finished, she gets a couple hours of rest before going to hockey tonight.

My plans for the day include rebuilding my stack of fire wood, taking down the Christmas lights, finishing my unpacking from Iowa, drinking a beer, sterilizing the hot tub, and possibly cutting up a few pallets I have stacked up in the backyard.

Before I head out and do all my jobs, I would like to say "Happy Birthday" to my Dad. I think he would have been about 83 or 84.

10:53AM: Wood pile, Done! Fire place, Clean and Stocked and Done! Hot Tub, Chemicaled and smelling of eucalyptus. Christmas Lights, Nope!

12:45AM: I have just returned from the Hub where I met up with Lee prior to his driving to Portland. Long story and you have no need to know.

On my walk over to the Hub, I was commenting to myself on what a nice day it was and how nice it was to be out walking when my feet suddenly went out from under me and I dropped to the sidewalk like a sack of potatoes. I managed to be graceful enough to not hurt myself on the way down but down I went. I was not paying any attention to the sidewalk and I stepped on a small sheet of sidewalk ice.

7:45PM: Okay, most of my chores are complete but my major accomplishment of the day seems to be that I visited the Hub Tavern three times. Hat Trick!

The Christmas Lights are down and the front of the house looks like it's back to normal. 

There's still a lot of Christmas going on inside.

Awesome Introspection

I haven't written down any New Years Resolutions yet although I have been thinking about them.

My problem is that I can't decide how I feel about New Years Resolutions.

On the one hand, they are a good incentive to try and change the things in your life that you want to change.

On the other hand, they never last.

On the third hand, should that be a reason to not make them? I mean, come on. The one thing we have control over in this journey toward death is to try and improve on the perfection we have already created for ourselves.

Why not continue the improvements?!

The main resolution Susan and I have for this year is to win the Lottery. Also, from here on out, my name will be spelled, $t@n.

A Post a Day for 2014?

Having posted two days in a row now, I am well on my way to making a post every day this year.

Unfortunately, that premise presumes that I will have something interesting to say every time I post. Judging from the posts that already exist on this blog, it is readily evident that I rarely have something interesting to post. Just like now!

It was our first day back to work after the long Iowa vacation. I know Susan had a few issues to deal with at work and I know I did as well.

tonight, Susan is spending a night out with the girls. One of the girls, Sharron, was recently diagnosed with Lung Cancer. She has been a life long smoker so I guess it's no surprise. And yet, when it strikes someone you know and care about, it doesn't make it any easier.

We hope the road ahead for Sharron will be an easily traveled and successful one. She is in our prayers and thoughts.

2014 Post

Happy 2014! That will take some getting used to.

We saw "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" last night. It was an okay movie. We went with our friends Randy and Karen and our pal Mark joined us as well.

After the movie, we returned here to the house and taught everyone how to play Baseball. (Please refer to one of the Des Moines posts concerning the card game, Baseball.) That kept us going right up to midnight. We opened a bottle of champagne and went out on the front porch to listen to all the illegal fireworks going off.

Everyone left shortly after that and we were in bed by one.

We slept in appropriately but had to get up to face the first home improvement job of 2014, replacing the cook top.

The old one gave out on us just before we left for Iowa. We purchased as inexpensive a replacement as we could find but I have not yet had a chance to install it. 

I had previously disconnected the power to it and had started trying to remove it. The old one was a JennAire brand that had a mostly ineffectual down draft fan. I had quite a job detaching the duct work from the fan because it was connected with many layers of duct tape. After a while, duct tape adhesive turns dusty and quite unpleasant smelling.

 I finally was able to remove the old cook top. Then I had to figure out how to secure the new one.

I nailed a couple of one inch strips of wood to the side of the hole and used those to screw the securing bolts into.

That turned out to work great. 

Next, it was just a matter of connecting the wires and securing the power cables out of the way so pots and pans can be returned to the cabinet. 

It turns out to be much more roomy under the cabinet without that large fan component of the old cook top.

That went very well and I'm now ready to tackle the next home improvement project...whatever it is.