Door Nameplates Finished!

Well, I finished the nameplates I've been making, now they're hanging on the door.  As promised, here's pictures:

Weathering the Storms

Sorry I haven't posted a blog in a while, it's just not been in my "line of sight" to do so.  But gentle prodding by my #1 reader has gotten me to put out a new post.

We seem to have survived the Colorado flood storms relatively unscathed other than getting stir crazy.  But it will extend the timeline for moving the "travel missile" (our luggage holder) into the basement.  I had it in the back yard ready to move into the basement when the almost-tornado hit a month ago that destroyed part of the velodrome under development in Erie and had us sheltering in the basement for an hour or so.  It got blown into our "circle of doom" (where previous residents dug out a spot to put a trampoline and where we eventually hope to build a gazebo) that was filled with water at the time.  So, I waited to get it out rather than trek into the clay-mud to pull it out.  Then, out of sight, out of mind, I forgot about it until the other day and had planned to bring it in this past weekend.  Then the flood rains came mid-week and that didn't happen.  Now the circle of doom is a small pond, and I'll again be waiting for it to dry out enough to retrieve it (and likely rinse it out inside and out) and bring it inside.

Halloween season is upon us soon.  We didn't get the hearse built (again), but I hope to start making small bits of progress on it slowly over the next year.  It would be easier if there were a little more space for it and my car in the garage at the same time, but I have a few ideas about how to do work on it in the mean-time.  I'll probably put the cemetary fencing up about 2-3 weeks out, and the rest of it up the week of Halloween (which I'm taking off work).

We're starting the process of having our awful windows replaced.  We couldn't afford to do them all at once, so we chose the biggest needed ones first.  We're doing 8 windows.  3 are difficult to see through because of shoddy construction/installation, and the others are in our bedroom to hopefully keep the temperatures bearable in the summer months (it currently gets above 80 most days in our bedroom despite the A/C running non-stop).  The new windows are triple paned, and have technology built-in that is at an angle to reflect heat away when the sun is at a high angle (summer months) and allow it in when it is at a low angle (winter months and evenings), which should save tremendously on energy costs.  When the car is paid off, we'll get the rest of them done.  We are also waiting to finish painting Megi's room until they replace the big window in her room.

I haven't been doing very good about writing, and I think a big part of it is I'm not following the advice I give Candice all the time:  just make time everyday and do it.  So, I plan to try and write for a minimum of 30 minutes each day, even if it's crap.  Maybe she can take some of that same time to do some clay work, etc. and we can both be productive.  I've had plenty of ideas coming (many of which I've also not followed my own advice on and haven't written them down), but none of the "meat" of the ideas has been there yet.  Maybe if I start writing on the ideas, even if I know it's not what I intend, the "meat" will reveal itself to me and I can then write in earnest on each project.

I really need some ideas on how to make Gabe CARE about doing his schoolwork.  Even the promise of getting to go play, etc. doesn't entice him enough to want to do anything when he is at home towards doing a few minutes of homework (which as a result, turns into hours of homework).  So, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I have done some work on a few of my woodwork projects.  I've cut out the kid's names for door plates.  I need to decide how thick a back to put them on and how I want to mount them to the doors.  I also made some box shelves, which we hung in an asymmetrical manner in Donna's room for books, etc.  I'll probably build some more for Megi's room, too, and maybe a couple for Gabe's room (though figring out where to put them in his room might prove the only obstacle there...

That's all I have for this post (I probably had more, but had to completely re-type it from scratch when my browser crapped out on me), thanks for reading.

Preparations

We leave on Thursday for a much needed vacation.  We're going to South Carolina for two weeks, then driving north to Rochester, New York so Candice can attend a glass art convention.  I'll have the kids in a hotel by myself for several days.  Hopefully, in the week before, Gabe and/or Donna will learn to swim enough that we can go to the hotel pool one of those days for some fun.  We'll probably take Candice to her convention one day, too, so that I can take the kids out somewhere too (Yeah, I'm a glutton, etc)

But aside from the adventure upcoming, we have a list of more than 30 things we need to do before we leave, and we've only done about 5 of them.  Granted, some of them can easily wait until we get back as they aren't "vacation critical" and will probably join an ongiong To Do list for projects that Candice and I need to do.  I need to go back a few blog posts and pull out the project list and add that to the list too.

We started the savings account, and taking away the minimum amount needed to keep the account going, we're about 15% of the way towards the office desk, so Yay!  We also moved a temporary desk into the office (formerly our dining room) and I moved our computers in there.  Now Candice and I are forced to occasionally look at each other!  ;-)

We've also since the last posting discovered that it might have been Ginger bad dog, not Bailey bad dog (though it likely could be both) that has been digging up the sprinkler heads. Mark and Ginny have agreed to help us by watching the dogs while we're gone.  They're getting $100 and some homemade jelly for their kindness.  We're also taking all the dog food and treats the dogs should need while we're gone.  Thanks, Mark and Ginny!

I think we came to the conclusion that we're going to sell the Mercury and when we are ready to actually focus on the car restoration project, we'll but another classic car that is running but still fits the bill for fixing it up the way we want it.  It'll likely be a hearse we fix up, which will also serve double duty for our being Halloween House.

I've sprayed an entire huge pump sprayer cansiter of Round Up in the vegetable garden to kill the thistles, but they are still living.  Granted they are starting to show signs of dying, but most are still alive.  Is there anything stronger out there?

That's about all for this post.  Thanks for reading!  (I expect another one a week from today to get posted also.)

Mish-Mash

Ginger dog went in for tail removal surgery this past Thursday because she's so excitable that she bangs it against anything and everything and as a result, she damaged her tail.  So, now she has a bloody nub for a tail.  She's having to stay in her kennel except for a few daily walks we're taking her on to allow her bathroom breaks and a little exercise that isn't too strenuous. 

Bailey dog has really missed playing with Ginger dog, and vice versa.  And after seeing how much pain Ginger was in, I don't see how anyone can do that for purely asthetic purposes.

On an almost related note, we looked into the cost to kennel Bailey and Ginger while we're gone in July, and it is outrageously expensive (Like $60 a day for both, which would amount to over $1250), so that isn't an option.  We're hoping to get a neighbor (or combination of neighbors) to let the dogs out each morning, make sure they have food and water out there with them, and let them back in each night, since grandma won't be able to do it.  We probably only need them to do it on weekdays since Jeanette should be here on the weekends to help grandma out.

We cleaned the carpets in the toy room, and as a side result, decided to turn the formal dining room into an office since we've only used it twice since moving in nearly three years ago.  We're moving the formal dining stuff elsewhere in the house (and repurposing the table to be our puzzle table in our bedroom and saving up for a partners peninsula desk.

We are also kicking around the idea of selling the '53 Mercury and buying a working (or at least assembled) classic car for our car restoration project.  If we decide to stick with the '53 Mercury restoration project, it's likely to cost well over two to three times the high end book sale price for that car which is about $9400.  If we do decide to go with a different car, we'll likely try to sell the body and frame for the Mercury soon and put that money towards the new car and/or furniture we need/want.  The issue comes down to whether the emotional attachment to that specific car is high enough to stick with it, or if the spirit of the idea of hot rodding a car in Candice's dad's memory will work instead.  It's totally Candice's decision to make.

We also have prioritized the various furniture items we plan to buy over the next few years.  I think I'm going to start a savings account at our brick and mortar local bank and set up an allotment of pay to go there that we will not touch except for the items in the prioritized list (which may include the classic car mentioned above).

I installed a sprinkler system in Candice's main flower garden that will operate most nights.  In the next few weeks, I hope to also have the other flower garden on the sprinkler system.  On a related note, I now have to re-bury a portion of the sprinkler system in the back yard, since Bailey bad dog dug it up.  Grrrrrr.  >:-(
We've also decided it will be easier to spray weed killer over our vegetable garden to catch up with the massive numbers of thistles that have overtaken it.  We can't keep up right now, and if we can just kill it all off this year, maybe we can resume an actual garden next year.  We might plant some of the plants (like the watermellon, etc) elsewhere for this year (like possibly behind the pine tree) since we do have it anyway.

We still haven't made any more headway on Megi's room in the past few months, but maybe now that we have a plan for most of the rooms, we'll get going on that again soon, too.  We've changed the disign concept of several of our rooms.  the kitchen, which was going to have a Coca Cola motif, will now have a blue motif.  The formal dining room was originally going to have the blue motif, but will now be a Coca Cola designs office space.  The toy room will now be a southwestern decorated parlor/play room (until the kids get older when it'll become just a parlor/formal living room), and the foyer which was going to be southwestern, will house grandma's Chicken collection/designs.  We're still leaning towards the red and green colors of the living room/den, and the sports designs for the loft.
Anyway, that's all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading!

Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

I bought the wood yesterday to complete Candice's ventilation fan and to build some square shelves to hang on the walls of Donna's bedroom.  Once I get the fan assembled, I then need to but the rest of the ducting to connect from her desk to where the fan will sit.  As for the shelves, I guess I'll be learning to use my router one of the next few weekends.

Also on my agenda is raising Gabe's curtain rod.  The current one was placed in-line with where the old one was shabbily put up and the compound to fill the spot didn't hold up too well and it wants to fall off.  So I need to move it higher.  And re-patch the holes.  And paint over the patching.

We also need to get off our arse and tape and paint Megi's room.  I finished the ceilings there over a month ago and taped around the trim, but we haven't done anything since.  We need to finish taping it and then paint the walls.  We've also decided to do the trim in green rather than white, so her room will be purple, teal, and green.

We bought an invisible fence with two collars for stubborn dogs.  I'm not sure if I need that much persuasion, but it's adjustable up to a higher level than most in case I need it.  Hopefully Bailey doesn't completely disregard it.  I plan to put it up on a nice weekend, but I also have to dig in the yard to bury part of it.  but once i get this done, I can start leveling the yard for the swimming pool and start clearing out the garden for this year's crops.

Also on the agenda is to connect some more hose to the sprinkler system to included the flower garden (and garden better than last year).

We bought some nylon screen to replace the metal one in the screen door that we replaced last year.  Not that we necessarily think it'll hold up better, but it'll be less dangerous for kids if it does get holes in it.  We also plan to "sew" some of it onto the trampoline netting where the dogs caused a large hole and we have to sit in front of it to ensure Megi doesn't fall out of it.  The other two are so far smart enough to not run up against it.

I'm sure there are about 6 or 7 other projects I have to do, but I haven't been my usual self and made out a list of them, so they're likely going to be forgotten for a long time.

Anyway, that's all for this week's blog.  Thanks for reading.

Pareidolia

First, let’s learn something.  The word of the day is pareidolia.  That's the phenomenon of seeing an "image of significance" in another object.  Like seeing the image of Jesus in burnt toast, Lincoln's silhouette in a sock on the floor, a Dorito that looks like Xenu, the Virgin Mary’s image appearing in a piece of paper chewed by a dog, seeing “666” or the devil’s face in fire damage on the side of a building, or even seeing images such as bunnies in clouds.  It’s part of the human condition to try and find significance where there almost certainly is none, because if there isn’t more meaning to the world, then we’re doomed, I say!  Doomed!  Okay, enough hyperbole.  Let’s get on with the blog.

As you saw from the previous blog post, we finished Donna’s room enough to move her into it.  Well, now we’ve started on Megi’s room.  The ceiling is now painted and the trim is tapped off.  I just need to tape the accent wall away from the other three so we can get started on them.

Candice and I started a discussion the other day on whether we still want to restore the ’53 Mercury.  She noted that we’ll always have higher priority financial projects.  I’m good either way, but want her to be sure that she won’t have any regrets before we make the final decision if we don’t do it.  The plus side of doing it would be that we’d have one sweet ride.  The plus side of not doing it would be reclaiming garage space and having extra money (presumably) for Candice’s business and/or a snow blower (and a place to put it).

Megi’s at that awkward size where size 18 month clothes make her look like a superhero wearing tights and 24 month clothes make her look like she was shrunk by a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” ray, but her clothes didn’t shrink.

We just replenished Gabe’s pants wardrobe again for the fourth time in a little over 12 months.  He now wears size 14 pants.  He turns 8 in a few weeks, ughh.  Fortunately, his upper body growth isn’t as pronounced and he can usually wear shirts slightly longer, but he’ll need the next size shirts within the next few weeks, too (size 12s I think).

Donna doesn’t have much going on.  Amazingly, since she moved into her new room, she’s been pretty good about putting her dirty clothes away in the hamper.

Candice broke a finger on her right hand, and has been out of commission for her business and will be for a few more weeks.  Also, her oxygen concentrator has started to malfunction, which is fortunate timing that they are at the same time and not consecutive (though she needs to get back in touch with the company to make sure it’s still under warranty and get it fixed soon to keep them from being consecutively timed events).

My sister-in-law Jan came out to Denver for a work related conference and got to come visit with us one evening.  It’s too bad she didn’t have more time to visit.  We’re also sending out a couple of books to her that she informed us that hadn’t read (Pillars of the Earth and World Without End).  Hopefully, she can make some time to read them as both are excellent books by Ken Follett.

That’s all for this post.  Thanks for reading!

The Ghastly Photos

Here's a few pictures of Halloween House in progress:

The neighbors are also letting us use one side of their yard...

C'est Fini

So, I've finished the playground set.  I cut a new piece of wood and fixed the broken picnic table bench section, I finished digging the hole, putting the monkey bars on, and re-filling the hole.  I still have some other things to do, such as pick up the cardboard boxes that it cam in for disposal/recycling, removing the rocks underneath it for safety purposes, and anchoring the swing side better.  But essentially, it is done and the kids are enjoying playing on it.

(No, Ginger was in the process of sitting down when this picture was snapped, not the other act it looks like she's about to do...)

The next big long-term project for outside is to start leveling out a place to put the pool for next summer, and for the trampoline to occupy until we build the gazebo.  The next big project for outside, however is to become Halloween House.  But that has to wait a couple of weeks as we're driving across country to Peoria, IL for Candice's sister's wedding.

The next big projects inside are painting the girls' rooms, and the kids' bathrooms and to set up the art studio in the basement for Candice's glasswork.  The latter requires me to cut holes into the back side of the house and put in ventilation and hoses  for the short-term fix, and to build her some workbenches and a tank cover box for the long-term fix.  This will have the added benefit of letting me re-organize the workbench side of the garage so I can park in it (I think) since the '53 Mercury is taking up my parking spot.  The hardest part of doing that will be placement of the radial arm saw so that it is still useable with long pieces of wood wherever I put it.

Wednesday, I have to go to Buckley AFB, so I plan to take that opportunity to try to fix some stuff with Gabe and Megi in my official Military/VA paperwork.  Gabe, since I officially adopted him fully several years back, has been showing up sporadically with various different last names, depending on which system is referencing it.  Hopefully, I can get that straightened out.  Megi is still not showing up on my VA Disability pay, which isn't really a big deal except that means she's not on there for Survivor Benefit Plan purposes.  And since I've been trying to call the Disabled Veterans for over six months without a single answer (and they don't have voicemail), this is my one opportunity to make sure that wheel is turning without taking a day off work just for that.

They should be getting my serum in for allergy shots in the upcoming week or so, which means I'll be getting shots on Mondays and Thursdays for a while to come, and carrying around an epi-pen.

That's all for this log entry.  Thanks for reading!