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It was finally time to shave Oscar. He managed to get through the ordeal with not too much stress and we are going to be hair free for a couple of weeks.
I got out in the yard today and did a little clean up. Nothing major, just arranging some leaf bags, and breaking out the leaf blower.
I also pulled out the drone that Susan gave me for Christmas. I think I'm getting the hang of it but it's hard to tell. It is very sensitive to wind so I have been fighting that. The battery life is only about ten minutes so I have been trying to get the feeling for it in short burst.
I have a long way to go before I'm proficient.
Finally, Gonzaga made it to the Elite Eight and they will be going home as number eight. They lost to Texas Tech. It was a close game the whole way and the Zags had a lot of turnovers that contributed to their demise.
They had a great season but everyone thought this was going to be their year. Not to be. Play sad music as the camera pans away from the scene of the setting sun.
I drove in to work early today and the one good thing about it was that I beat the sunrise, at least for the first part of the drive.
The sun has been in my face for the past couple of weeks as I drive eastward to work. Today, the sun rose over Mica Peak when I hit Spalding Auto wrecking adjacent to the freeway.
That's just small minutia about me and apropos of nothing.
I tried searching through this blog to find out the last time I had a plumber come to the house to Rooter out the main sewer line. I think it has been about three years but was unable to find anything. I made sure that the title of today's' blog reflected a note about the Plumber coming.
I'm also going to place a label on the pipe with today's date and the cost...which will be about $300.00.
That, after spending nearly $500 yesterday to have a new alternator installed, plus $100 for a new battery.
Later: The Plumber ended up costing $417.00. I have to do a better job of adding a root killer to the sewer every once in a while. I have it flagged in my calendar now.
If you look back only a week and a half ago, to my post on March 13th, you'll see a very different scene from the picture I took today.
Since just before the arrival of my pal Vernal, the snow has been rapidly melting. Every day I am surprised to see how much snow disappears.
I would love to go skiing one more time this year but I don't know if I'm going to be able to swing it.
We should have worked on the TV Room today but instead, we went to the Big Horn Sportsman's Show. You know how we love to go out in the wilderness and camp and fish and kill things...well, this show was geared to that.
We didn't buy anything because we can't afford to. We have a house to remodel.
We are almost through the first week of March Madness and my brackets are in tact. Not perfect...but hanging in there. I think Susan is doing better than me.
Our local favorite, Gonzaga has advanced to the Sweet 16 and will be playing Florida State, who knocked them out last year in the third round. Revenge will be sweet.
The one thing that did get accomplished today was that Susan took down her snow flakes on the french doors.
It's really official now. Vernal is here!
I was determined to finish up my little dry wall faux pas (Pronounced: fox pass) so I could feel guilt free about going to watch the Zags play at 4:00 today.
I wasted a bunch of time going to Home Depot and Lowe's to get some dry wall scraps because I had the right size here. And more than enough to finish the job.
It took me a loooooooooong time because of my inability to measure properly. I had to lay each piece in in 48 inch lengths...because that's what I had.
But I would measure, cut, try to fit the piece in place, take it outside and shave off a little bit, shave it again after it didn't fit, shave it again after it didn't fit, shave it again...you get the idea.
But I was finally victorious. I got it in. And now, it's off to the game. Go Zags!
We are in the midst of the En See Double Aa's Basketball tournament and a couple days into to the visit from my pal Vernal. Vernal comes for a visit and I want to start doing stuff again.
I started this evening by inaugurating Barbecue season.
It grilled up some asparagus and a nice juicy steak. So we know I got stinky pee in my future.
Susan is working the first game of the Hockey Playoffs so I'm on my own tonight and intent on being productive.
After such a great meal, I'm ready to take on a project.
This is the project and it is Susan's fault. I can say that because she's working and not here to read it. The other reason I can say it is because IT'S TRUE!
When we were gutting the room and taking down all the lath and plaster, Susan said to leave this baseboard chunk of plaster alone and we'll put baseboard over it. Well, it is not flush with the wall, jutting out past the dry wall by an eighth of an inch.
So she said it needs to come out.
To my shame, I knew it should not have been left and my penalty for not making a stand to remove it in the first place is having to fix it.
Fortunately, it came out pretty easily. The hardest part of the project was cleaning up. Next I need to russle up some dry wall.
In honor of St Patrick's Day and the impending arrival of my old pal Vernal, We have returned to work on the TV Room. I'll have to look back but we haven't done any work in there since before Halloween.
Here's what we did.
There is the Northeast corner.
That's the Northwest corner.
If you chose the Southwest corner, you're hittin' on all eight.
And of course, the Southeast corner.
If you can't tell, we mudded in a corner strip all the way around the ceiling. Next we have to lay in a corner strip...in all the corners!
But that's for another day.
We are trying to get this done so we could walk over to the Hub and watch the Selection Sunday Extravaganza as we hope Gonzaga will be a Number One Seed in the West.
It's unbelievable and hard and amazing to say it, but the Zags lost last night. They had a great season and were undefeated in West Coast League games. Last night they played for the WCC Championship and lost to the dreaded St Mary's NancyBoys.
It remains to be seen what happens to their Number One ranking.
This morning I woke up to about 2 inches of snow. I fired up the snow blower at 6AM and gave the neighborhood a blow job. Imagine the horrible taste in my mouth to discover it was totally unnecessary.
This is how it looks out front now.
The street is completely melted like it was before this snowfall. I should have realized that a March snow storm isn't any big deal.
I'm out of peanuts and the squirrels are not happy about it. I have to get over to the peanut store but it's not going to happen tonight.
It is just after 8 and we had a long nights sleep. It is another sunny day and the temperature is around 15ish.
We head back to reality today but not before visiting some of the best Wallace Antique Malls. Oh Boy!
I forgot to take my camera skiing yesterday and my phone battery went dead. So we managed to get a few pictures with Susan's phone but they haven't been developed yet.
When next I write, we will be back in Spokaloo.
The Zags won. I don't recall the score but it was a 20 point margin. The first half was very close and St Mary's led for a time. They were almost tied at halftime.
We wanted to go to the 1313 Club, a bar in the heart of downtown Wallace. We procured a parking spot right out front, but there was no good seat for watching the game. The place was packed.
So we drove to the City Limits Brew Pub and got a good seat there in front of their giant projection screen TV.
We had a couple of micro brews, watched the game and enjoyed a fabulous dinner. Like usual, I ate too much.
Then we returned to our room and fell asleep in front of Saturday Night Live. A good first day of our Three Day Vacation.
As for today, the skies are blue, the air is cold and we are ready to ski.
I am sitting here with my very hot travel mug of coffee and Bailey's. I have surveyed the Lookout Web Site to discover bright blue skies, lots of snow and not very much in the way of temperature. It's 2 degrees. Here's a picture from the website.
We will be having breakfast at the Red Light Garage. The people that own the restaurant also own the Hercules Inn, where we are staying.
If I'm not too tired at the end of the day, I'll relay some details and some pictures.
4:30PM: We have returned from a great, if not chilly day of skiing. I think the highest the temperature got was 15 degrees. That was according to the mini thermometer on my ski suit.
It was a gorgeous day but cold. I had to stop a lot just to get rid of the ice cream headache I developed as I skied.
We're going to nap for a couple of hours and then go tear up the town of Wallace on a Sunday night.
7:26PM: We are back in our home away from home. We just got out of the hot tub. It is tremendously cold going to and from the tub. I had to wonder if it was really worth it.
Now we are going to settle for the night and watch some telly.
11:35AM: We are leaving this afternoon for beautiful, scenic, historic Wallace, Idaho. We plan to annihilate our bodies on the slopes of Lookout Pass and then mend ourselves in the soothing hot tub waters of the Hercules Inn.
We are going up for a couple of days. A quick but relaxing three day weekend.
We are planning on pulling out around 2:00PM and having a leisurely drive through North Idaho with a couple of bar stops along the way.
I shall keep you apprised.
1:30PM: There is no way we are going to make it out of here by 2. That's okay. We're on VACATION!
5:36PM: We have made it to the Hercules. We left the house about 2:45 and immediately stopped at the Hub for a start of trip Road Beer.
Our next scheduled stop was the Snake Pit, a little rustic bar and restaurant in Enaville...right off I-90 on the way to Wallace. We had a beer, perused the menu, and decided to have lunch there on Monday when we head back to Spokane.
We are heading to dinner soon and the big event of the night is to watch Nationally Number One Ranked Gonzaga play their last regular season game. If they win, they will be 16-0 in conference play. Their overall record will be 29-2.
