Home Improvement 30 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Memos to self: “Colorado Cascade” and “Mile Hi Services”

“Colorado Cascade” not only doesn’t finish the job in fixing your sprinklers (which is why the valve was stuck on when you came back from vacation), but they don’t clean…

“Colorado Cascade” not only doesn’t finish the job in fixing your sprinklers (which is why the valve was stuck on when you came back from vacation), but they don’t clean up after themselves very well (like leaving both your gates “down,” leading to one of them lying on a bunch of plants). And they charge you for return visits on the same zone. Get someone else to repair and blow your sprinklers.

“Residential Services” (a/k/a “Mile Hi Services” — never trust anyone who ez-spells “High,” “Light” or “Easy”) are those people with the annoying automated sales call about lawn aeration, etc. Even if your lawn is drying up and blowing away, do not use them. If you are not there, cash on hand, when they do the work (which they don’t mention at the time they confirm the appointment), then they will start calling you with an automated dunning message within a few days, twice a day, every day (UPDATE: Including Saturday Mornings), until someone in their accounting department notices that, hey, maybe they did actually send a check. They are rude and offer no unique service, so find someone else to do such things.

ET, Phone Home

Qwest managed to fix our phone line, huzzah. They came while Margie was out of the house on an errand, natch, and stuck the little notification on the garage door….

Qwest managed to fix our phone line, huzzah. They came while Margie was out of the house on an errand, natch, and stuck the little notification on the garage door. (Which is dumb, since it means that when she gets back, she has to open the door, pull into the garage to park, get out, close the door, go around to the front of the house, and pull it off. Dumb.)

No indication of what the problem was, which makes me think it was a Qwest problem, not a sprinkler problem.

Anyway, all’s relatively right with the world on that front, and stuff is going much better this afternoon at the office than it was this morning, so that front is shoring up, too.

Back in the saddle again

The wheels of our normal lives are slowly turning back up to speed, as our return from Faerie dwindles into memory. Katherine was very fussy last night, probably because she…

The wheels of our normal lives are slowly turning back up to speed, as our return from Faerie dwindles into memory.

Katherine was very fussy last night, probably because she was extremely tired. She was up early, didn’t nap much, and wasn’t thrilled to be put down early. Plus I’m sure she’s suffering from grandparent-withdrawal.

Watched Charlie’s Angels last night. Good fun. Actually, it would probably make a good 9-11 movie to watch, for a variety of reasons.

Supposed to be in the 70s today, huzzah. It was dark and cool when I awoke this morning. Very nice.

Huge stack of mail at the office to sift through. Considering going from coffee to tea. Tore my shirt pocket. Office key still worked.

Just another day in paradise.

Glub, glub, glub

The trip home was relatively uneventful. Lots of folks crowding the terminal in LAX, even at 5:30ish a.m. And on the Denver end, long, long lines to the Concourse A…

The trip home was relatively uneventful. Lots of folks crowding the terminal in LAX, even at 5:30ish a.m. And on the Denver end, long, long lines to the Concourse A security, and to the main security as well. Odd.

The flight itself was uneventful, too. Kitten, having been awakened Way Too Early, stayed awake the whole trip, and nearly all the way home.

Sometime over the last week, though, one of our sprinkler zones turned on — and wouldn’t turn off. Result? Big swampy mess in its area of control, lots of dry yard in all other areas.

It also doesn’t look like the utility folks came out and mapped where the utilities come through the yard. Hrm.

And our main phone line is awfully staticky, which may be because of the drenching in that zone, or may be some other reason.

Stay tuned.

Boom

I’m building a fence at the house (pushing the fence line out substantially toward the front of the house), and I know that one edge of that fence is in…

I’m building a fence at the house (pushing the fence line out substantially toward the front of the house), and I know that one edge of that fence is in the utilities right-of-way along the property. So, being a good citizen, I called the Colorado number to have utilities identify where lines run.

All went very smooth (though, for some reason, the water company is not part of that clearing house org), but I was a bit disturbed when, after I described that I was building a fence, one of the questions I was asked was, “Will you be using explosives?”

Tempting … but, no.

Monday, Monday

It’s the Monday Mission 1. Have you had to repair anything lately? Did you do it yourself or have someone else do it? I tend to be not very ept…

It’s the Monday Mission

1. Have you had to repair anything lately? Did you do it yourself or have someone else do it?

I tend to be not very ept when it comes to fixing things. Of course, I’m also not very good about calling repairfolk, so that means that things remain broken around the house for a while.

The most recent successful repair would seem to be some broken sprinkler lines at the house, fixed last weekend. I usually end up doing this at least a couple of time a year.

On the other hand, one of the zones in the system isn’t working, and I just don’t touch that stuff. So I have to call the sprinkler people to do that (call them back, that is, since my first message to “Come whenever you want except tomorrow, just let us know, there will be someone at the house” prompted a return message to call them. The idiots.)

2. Do you work out or exercise? Or is there anything you do each day for your health?

I kiss my wife, which gives me a good cardio-vascular work-out right there.

I also walk to and from lunch, whenever I can. It’s not far, but it gets me off my fat ass.

3. Are you a modest person? That is, would you be embarrassed for someone (an acquaintance, a friend, a stranger) to see you nude?

Judging from the dreams I have, yes.

And, yes, I am embarrassed by it — though usually more out of fear of offending others than any sense of self-shame. I think.

4. Some smells that I just can not stand are bags of grass clippings that have sat in the hot sun for a few days, burned hair and vomit (although, thankfully, I have not had to smell them all at the same time). What are some odors that you just can not stand to smell?

Well I would have said bananas a year or two back, but I’ve gotten grudgingly used to them.

I cannot stand the smell of spoiled food. It makes me automatically gag. Margie finds my fastidiousness in this amusing (and annoying).

5. Are there any social situations that make you uncomfortable?

All of them?

6. Has a friend or an employer ever asked you to do something you felt was unethical or? What was it and what happened?

I try to be respectful of copyright (the spirit if not the letter), and there have been times when some folks have asked me, essentially, not to be. It’s made me uncomfortable, but my own reaction has been mixed (depending on whether I was more uncomfortable doing it, or more uncomfortable confronting it).

7. (continued) Well, we are not yet at our destination, though the way you described it, it sounds simply amazing. What is the first thing we should do once we get there?

First thing to do in New York? Hmmmm. Visit the Statue of Liberty? One of the zillion museums? Empire State Building? Time Square?

I don’t know — New York City is such an incredible icon in the media, so huge, full of so many things, I don’t know what would be the first thing to do. Grab the AAA guide, I suppose!

BONUS: In this whole world, what is fair?

My true love.

Ars gratia artis

The Fourth of July weekend is also the weekend when the Cherry Creek Arts Festival is held. This event turns several blocks of Cherry Creek (a very ritzy shopping area…

Wild Peonies, by Diana Stetson The Fourth of July weekend is also the weekend when the Cherry Creek Arts Festival is held. This event turns several blocks of Cherry Creek (a very ritzy shopping area in the southeast of Denver) into a big outdoor art show.

There’s a lot of expensive art (in fact, it’s all expensive), some of which is quite good, some of which is — well, “there’s no accounting for tastes,” mine or anyone else’s, and ’nuff said.

There are also lots of food and drink kiosks (also expensive), many of which are hosted by local restaurants.

We try to get down there each year, and make it about 2/3 of the time. Usually, it’s just to look around — like I said, it’s all pretty expensive.

Usually, as well, it’s beastly hot — just like a RennFest, but with lots of asphalt and cement to kick the heat back up at you. This year we lucked out, since just as we piled into the van, a huge thunderstorm ripped through Denver, dumping a lot of rain which washed the heat right out of the air, and kept things overcast the rest of the afternoon.

So, we wandered about, oohing, aahing, and trying to herd Kitten through the maze of legs (and away from the art glass).

I knew, when I saw Margie go into the booth, that we were in trouble. Because I liked the stuff there, and I knew she would, too. And she did.

We narrowed it down to three pieces we both liked and were not going to impoverish us too badly, then we went off to have something to eat.

And then we came back and walked away with a framed collograph by Diana Stetson of some colorful peonies, with a Ryokan Zen haiku at the bottom:

Wild Peonies now at their peak in glorious full bloom — too precious to pick, too precious not to.

And it’s hanging three feet from me on our breakfast room, and the lousy JPEG of it here doesn’t do it justice by any means. Its colors are so intense, it dominates the wall despite being only 16×20.

My wife has good taste. And I say that in as non-self-serving a way as possible.

And I don’t even like peonies. But I like this.

Virtuous hard work

Rather than continue to excavate a great underground set of caves beneath my house, I decided to Fix the Sprinklers. Grand Total: One (1) half-inch line with multiple splits over…

Rather than continue to excavate a great underground set of caves beneath my house, I decided to Fix the Sprinklers.

Grand Total:

One (1) half-inch line with multiple splits over a foot replaced.

One (1) split line under the lilac replaced.

One (1) jammed sprinkler head replaced.

Six (6) crooked sprinkler heads uncrooked, now covering the areas they ought to.

Hopefully this will help at least some of the parched areas of grass to unparch, drought notwithstanding.

It also gives me an excuse to lounge about, popping Advil, and feeling virtuous.

Long day, good day

Well, it started pretty early, around 5:15a, when Kitten decided that she was tired of being asleep and, Daddy’s attempts to fall asleep on her pillow (only half-joking) notwithstanding (pat-pat-pat on the head or shoulder. “Daddy. Daddy. Daddy ….”), further sleep was not to be had.

So we hung out downstairs. I made some raspberry coffee from a small tin my folks had brought on their visit. Katherine ate Cheerios, which she calls “Qs”. We watched Playhouse Disney.

Around 8:30 or 9, I got a call on my cell phone. “If Kitten would like to come and wake up Mommy, we could all take a shower together.” My wife is cute.

We went up, my urging Kitten to maintain a little mouse voice so as to “surprise” Mommy. She did use such a voice, assuming the little mouse were of elephantine size.

It was an odd Saturday, devoid of any social engagements or needed things to do. Margie offered to cook breakfast for me, which is unusual for either of us to do on a Saturday. I offended her heritage by turning down Swedish pancakes, so she retaliated by making up a fritata recipe. It was wildly successful, and the three of us wolfed it down.

That was the cue, by then, for Kitten’s nap, and I took her upstairs under protest. Which protest lasted about long enough for me to make it back down the stairs again. That gave me a chance to do some more blogging (including pulling my CSS out of all my files and simply referring to it, not to mention creating a “U.S. Bank sucks!” section on my Archives page). Then it was To Work.

Margie pulled the van out of the half of the garage not currently occupied by (a) boxes of detritus from the basement, destined for refugees or Good Will, (b) various items from the basement which were damaged by the sewer line backup a year ago, and are awaiting possible inspection by Insurance Inspectors, (c) an extra refrigerator, (d) left-over cooking apparatus and boxes of supplies from Margie’s Alpha cooking stint, and (e) various items which have taken advantage of the chaos which is My Side of the Garage to flee from their appointed locations and position themselves hither and thither amongst (a-d).

Margie’s goal was building an easel for Katherine, with a whiteboard on one side and a board for painting on the other. She’s had most of the supplies for this for some time, but no time. Today was the day.

While she worked on that, and in-between lending a hand cutting things on the table saw and/or with the SkillSaw (Dave demonstrating that he was paying attention while his father-in-law did all the work on previous visits), I was busy moving (d) into the Dining Room for Margie’s later attentions, putting away (e), cataloging (a) for tax purposes, and organizing (a-c), thus leaving us with a side of the garage that can actually be moved around in, kinda.

I really want to be able to park my car back in the garage. It spent all winter, spring, and headed into summer outside, and it’s a pain in the patootie getting in and out of it on our sloped driveway, dealing with the birdshit on the windshield, and dealing with snow/rain/burning sun, not to mention gloom of night. Bleah.

We only need to get the insurance thing taken care of, the donations donated, and the fridge removed, and I’m in like Flynn.

Being done with that, I tackled The Last Juniper.

When we moved into this house, there were junipers everywhere in the yard. It was a big landscaping thing twenty years ago, which was when the house was landscaped, and they had all grown to gargantuan size. Worse, most of them had several feet of decorative rock underneath them, glued together by two decades of debris and dirt into something resembling concrete.

I hate junipers. This comes, no doubt, from many, many years being responsible for, first, picking up juniper clippings after my Dad trimmed ours, and then, eventually, becoming both trimmer and picker-upper. Nasty, horrid things. Bleah.

The summer after we moved in, we got rid of half the ones in the front beds, turning those beds into rock-free drought-tolerant plantings. Lovely. The next summer saw the rest of those go. A couple of years ago, Margie let me buy a chain saw, which spelled the end of the other big ones along the side of the house, plus the three freestanding ones, Short-and-ugly, Tall-and-ugly, and Fat-and-ugly. The Ugly Triplets space became a huge garden. The ones on the side of the house were replaced with lilacs.

The Last Juniper was a low, creeping variety. Not at all obnoxious, but slowly encroaching on everything. Plus it’s in a space in the front yard where we want to put a footpath from the driveway into what-will-eventually-not-be-lawn. So it had to go.

The Good: It was a single plant, spread over about twenty square feet. I was able to chop it back to a stump in about half an hour.

The Bad: It was over 90 degrees this afternoon (but it’s a dry heat!), and even though I was in the shade, it was pretty uncomfortable.

The Ugly: Three to four inches of decorative rock, glued together by dirt. That’s the next task, breaking it up and removing it (and extending a sprinkler through it and building a path and a little retaining wall and …).

Then another quick shower, and off to dinner in air conditioned comfort. Margie had a coupon to a Chinese place a few miles away, so we piled into the van and drove off there. Good food, fabulous service (including special attention to Kitten), all for $20. Not too shabby.

Katherine’s first fortune cookie: Do not mistake temptation for opportunity. Perfect for a two-year-old.

Long day. But good day.

Mr. Mom

Margie went off to the office, as she’d been planning to do in the afternoon, so that left Kitten and me to do the Errand Thang. Stop 0: Had to…

Margie went off to the office, as she’d been planning to do in the afternoon, so that left Kitten and me to do the Errand Thang.

Stop 0: Had to look up info at the church about the Bishops Golf Scramble that was in the bulletin last Sunday. Looks like fun, but also looks like they want parish-based teams. More info, the bulletin on the bulletin board promises, this Sunday. Katherine charms the few people there, as usual.

Stop 1: Lowe’s. Do they have shower door kits? Yes, they do. But the ones I like are a 21-day special order, and the ones in stock are pretty chintzy-looking. Did find some adhesive stuff to try over the dying grout in the main tub. Kitten had fun banging all the toilet seats on display.

Stop 2: Garts. Saw an ad indicating golf bags on sale. Some good ones, too. Margie’s looking to that as a Father’s Day gift, and who am I to say her nay. I found a hat to garden in. Kitten found many things to play with, including a collapsable kid’s camp chair with Pooh on it. Marked down to $5. Ah, well …

Stop 3: Toys ‘R’ Us. Sometimes the whimsy of the child works in my favor, as she decided in the parking lot that she wanted to ride in the cart, which is definitely how you want to have your kid inside of TRU. Alas, they were out of potty seats of the type we wanted, so I didn’t get the Powerpuff Girls bubble bath I’d grabbed for Kitten, either. We slowly strolled through the aisles until she saw the little trikes, at which point I bee-lined out of there.

Stop 4: Great Indoors. First pop into the Starbucks in the lobby for a Venti Mocha Coconut Frappacino for Daddy (first Starbucks I’ve been in where they didn’t goodnaturedly complain about that particular drink) and a Big Pink Cookie for Kitten. Then over to the shower section. Good selection, and I think they have what we want in stock. File it under post-Church errands for Sunday.

Kitten’s fragments of cookie made quite a mess on her hands, face, and my t-shirt. Worse, a clerk (who had been strangely absent when I had questions about prices and availability) magically appeared and expressed concern that Kitten was climbing onto the display toilets, which were not secured to the floor. I hadn’t seen it, but I was (per recent posts) duly abashed.

Stop 5: Home Depot. Again with the cart. Huzzah. They had just what I wanted, except that the glass was clear, and the box was an open return. Oh, well. Kitten enjoyed looking at the big orange rental truck.

Stop 6: Babies ‘R’ Us. They have the potty seat. They also have yet another incredibly cute toilet training book, also with the little sound chip that makes flushing noises (except it adds giggles to the mix). Katherine decides she must have it. I am powerless to resist. I do resist the very cute Bear in the Big Blue House, Bob the Builder and Wiggles videos, however.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. “Super-Tired Girl,” almost asleep in the back seat, turns into “Thumping on the Floor Lass” after she’s down in her bed and the door’s closed.

Ah, well.

So what have you got in your Dayplanner?

Friday Off to work. Nope. Up to 1:30a last night, er, this morning, writing scope docs. Change that to “Sleep in until 8, then read e-mail from office giving me…

Friday

~~Off to work.~~ Nope. Up to 1:30a last night, er, this morning, writing scope docs. Change that to “Sleep in until 8, then read e-mail from office giving me major kudos for the fine job I did.”

~~Work on my Saturday game this afternoon.~~ Nope. Make that “Run errands with Kitten this morning someplace where it’s air conditioned, then take her back to the doctor’s this afternoon because the antibiotic is not zapping her ear infection.”

~~Star Wars game! Enjoy a nice evening at Doyce’s running the new level of my 2nd Edition character, chat about AotC like I couldn’t last time, and stay up way too late.~~ Nope. Doyce cancelled, so I’ll probably work on my game stuff tonight (and probably not stay up way too late, unless I drink many caffeinated liquids). Which work is probably a good idea, since I wasn’t able to do it last night …

You know, it’s pretty sad when all your plans change before you can even write them down.

Saturday

Justice Squad!

Go to bed early. Maybe watch a movie first (just got my Harry Potter DVD).

Sunday

Churchy stuff.

Maybe some Pulp stuff, if D-man needs the help. Otherwise, install shower doors on guest/Kitten tub, so she stops insisting on using ours.

See Saturday night.

New! Improved!

It’s the fresh, vibrant, new, improved Friday Five! 1. What shampoo do you use? Whatever’s on sale that doesn’t cause Margie to break out in a rash. That means it’s…

It’s the fresh, vibrant, new, improved Friday Five!

1. What shampoo do you use?

Whatever’s on sale that doesn’t cause Margie to break out in a rash. That means it’s likely to be bulk, it’s likely to be lightly, if at all, scented, it’s likely to last us for a while, and it’s likely to be something different next time.

2. Do you use conditioner? What kind?

Yes, I do, though my hair is not exactly unmanageable at this point. As to what kind, see #1.

3. When was the last time you got your hair cut?

Probably four or five weeks ago, at Margie’s hands. I need to do it this weekend, since my folks are coming to visit next.

4. What styling products do you use?

Um … shampoo, conditioner, and hair cuts? Not much left to style after that … which is one reason I have it cut this short.

5. What’s your worst hair-related experience?

Its long, gradual, thinning-out on top?

Having to chop off my pony tail when I got married (Margie had some silly but irrefutable reasoning about “photographs” and “timeless appeal” and “you really don’t want folks laughing at our wedding snapshots in years to come)?

My hair has never been terribly easy to manage, and it’s not something I’ve been willing to dedicate my life to keeping under control, so back when I wore it longer it was prone to looking pretty shaggy. I do have a recollection of having to get a picture taken (driver’s license?) after it had been through a minor wind storm and was looking like I belonged down at the Mission …

6. BONUS UNSOLICITED QUESTION: What are you doing this weekend?

Friday:

Long work day for me, to make up hours to take next Friday off.

Comic book store and other errands on the way home, possibly including a trip to another KP clinic to look at their glasses selection.

Put the sprinklers on a 24-hour rain delay.

Star Wars RPG tonight, with my character up a level and adding a new class.

Poking my fingers in my ears and singing “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!” loudly whenever people start talking about AotC.

Saturday:

It’s supposed to be my weekend to sleep in, but I think I’ll let Margie do the honors since she’s been Majorly Frazzled for a few weeks.

Plant plants from the plant sale last weekend.

Last “Hungry Flock” dinner for the season, this one down at the church instead of at someone’s house. We have to bring a dessert, which I’ve been thinking about making myself (Dave’s Famous Carrot Cake … yum!).

Sunday:

Church.

Church Picnic, including farewells to our pastor who’s going off on a four month sabbatical (and a richly deserved one, I’ll add).

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Dinner, including much chatting about one of the above bullet items (guess which one).

“I’m not dead yet …”

Well, the violent expulsion of things I’d eaten for the past week or two died out sometime Sunday (after a veeeeerrry long Sunday night), but I’ve been achy/feverish/just-full-o’-malaise since then….

Extra-super-mondo-kudos to Margie, who was already kind of frazzled going into the weekend, and got very little rest during it, due to someone’s rather inconvenient illness. She’s the greatest, without a doubt, and I owe her big time, both for what she did for me and for what she had to handle solo (e.g., discovering Monday morning that Kitten had cleverly stripped naked during the night in her bedroom and then and then done what provides the reason for putting diapers on babies all over the the place. *Sigh*)

Not much else to talk about ’round here. Margie potted a bunch of flowers we picked up at the church plant sale. We’ve actually given up the little redwood planters on the back rail that have the mystical power to suck water out of the soil and the plants contained therein, and gone with tasteful plastic terra-cotta colored planters with little water reservoirs which will not doubt have some similar problem with them.

We’re refinancing our mortgage, given the historically low rates, etc., and the appraiser is coming by this afternoon. Which means I have to get off my butt and do at least a modicum of tidying. Not that it should affect the appraisal, but it will affect my embarrassment level. Also there’s the loan packet to finish, which I’ll try to do a bit of today.

Not expecting much else bloggy today, but who knows?

Wasn’t Friday the least productive day?

Got up early with Kitten, while Margie went off to the office. Got the two maple trees planted, with Kitten’s enthusiastic if rather scattered help. Took some pics of the…

Got up early with Kitten, while Margie went off to the office. Got the two maple trees planted, with Kitten’s enthusiastic if rather scattered help. Took some pics of the end result, came in for lunch — and realized I’m pooped.

I’ve got some Work-work I need to do before I go to bed Sunday — and that’s probably about when it’s going to get done. For the moment, though, sloth is the order of the day.

Dotting the landscape

Colorado is most closely identified with the aspen tree, which is probably why it’s a favorite among developers down here on the flats. Unfortunately, aspens don’t generally grow well at…

Colorado is most closely identified with the aspen tree, which is probably why it’s a favorite among developers down here on the flats. Unfortunately, aspens don’t generally grow well at lower altitudes (of which Denver’s mile high qualifies). Further, aspens are pretty much junk trees, growing where they can get moisture, sending roots out in all directions to clone, etc. And they have an individual life span of about twenty-odd years.

Which would explain why nearly all of the aspens in our front yard are dead or dying, and have been passing away steadily for the last few years.

So on Sunday I went out and bought three maple trees. Acer rubrum. Lovely red foliage in the fall, fast growers, and, if we believe Sunset rather than the little tags on the trees, a bit bigger than our old aspents, but not too big.

And sometime over the next week (some night after I return home from work? on our busy Saturday? on our also-busy Sunday?) I’ll be hard at work planting them.

Just have to figure out where …

Final update

“So, Dave, how was your weekend?” Friday: Getting over this damned cold. More or less over it. Watch the Kitten this morning/afternoon. Kitten is still alive. Make reservations for our…

“So, Dave, how was your weekend?”

Friday:

~~Getting over this damned cold.~~ More or less over it.

~~Watch the Kitten this morning/afternoon.~~ Kitten is still alive.

~~Make reservations for our anniversary dinner on Monday.~~ Le Central, here we come.

~~Bringing a ladder over to the Testermans so they can (at some point in time in the future, not to be suggested by me by any means) paint the living room.~~ Ladder was picked up Saturday by Doyce and Jackie, being used to clean gutters.

~~Playing Star Wars tonight.~~ Fun had by all. Dag got some, but he’s not sure what to do with it.

Saturday:

~~Finishing cleaning up the back yard on Saturday.~~ Done.

~~Activating the sprinklers.~~ Done. One zone isn’t working. Fortunately, it’s the least critical zone.

~~Prepping for my Sunday game.~~ Did it. More or less. And it only took me until 6 a.m. Sunday morning (Daylight Time).

~~Go over to Doyce’s around 4 for a quickie “testing the new combat system” for my game on Sunday.~~ Went well. Hit things. Got the juices flowing, carrying me through to 6 a.m. Sunday morning (Daylight Time).

While lawn is wet from running the sprinklers through a cycle, do a weed-feed on it, since the dandelions are already popping up … Oops.

Sunday:

Go to church. Pray about my game. Went to bed at 6 a.m. Got up at 9 a.m. Game at 12:30 p.m. You do the math. Margie took Katherine in the morning — I’m on Katherine duty for the week.

~~Run the second issue of my game, Justice Squad, Vol. 4.~~ Went remarkably well for getting only three hours of sleep. And, at that, I made it to bed only a half hour after Rick and Amanda, and a few hours after Doyce and Jackie and Randy. Good friends, good fun, good game, good grief.

Go to bed early …

Schedule update

“So, Dave, how’s your weekend going?” Friday: Getting over this damned cold. More or less over it. Watch the Kitten this morning/afternoon. Kitten is still alive. Make reservations for our…

“So, Dave, how’s your weekend going?”

Friday:

~~Getting over this damned cold.~~ More or less over it.

~~Watch the Kitten this morning/afternoon.~~ Kitten is still alive.

~~Make reservations for our anniversary dinner on Monday.~~ Le Central, here we come.

~~Playing Star Wars tonight.~~ Fun had by all. Dag got some, but he’s not sure what to do with it.

Saturday:

~~Finishing cleaning up the back yard on Saturday.~~ Done.

~~Activating the sprinklers.~~ Done. One zone isn’t working. Fortunately, it’s the least critical zone.

Prepping for my Sunday game. AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

Go over to Doyce’s around 4 for a quickie “testing the new combat system” for my game on Sunday.

While lawn is wet from running the sprinklers through a cycle, do a weed-n-feed on it, since the dandelions are already popping up …

Sunday:

Go to church. Pray about my game.

Run the second issue of my game, Justice Squad, Vol. 4. Which is why you won’t see much blogging activity for the next 48 hours or so …

Spring cleaning

Today was the day to Jump-Start the Yard. Bulbs have been popping up for weeks now — crocuses, miniature Dutch irises, and daffodils straining to bloom — and it was…

Today was the day to Jump-Start the Yard. Bulbs have been popping up for weeks now — crocuses, miniature Dutch irises, and daffodils straining to bloom — and it was just plain ol’ time to get out there and chop down the dried grasses and rake out the old leaves and prune the roses and just generally speaking get things Ready.

This is going to be (in theory, at least) a busy year in the garden.

Most prominently, most of the remaining aspen trees have either died or are on their last gasps, so they need to be replaced. We’re looking at some different varieties of maple — nothing too much bigger than the aspens have gotten, but hopefully hardier.

The other major thing to do is work on our fence. The west side of the house needs a real fence and gate put up in front of the new area I cleared out last fall. And on the east side we want to move the fence forward quite a ways toward the front of the house, to turn that into usable play space for Kitten (and more garden beds). And by getting a gate put back up, it’ll be more secure for Kitten and for Jake/Dizzy, and quite a bit more attractive than it currently is.

If we can get that much done (and get it approved by the Yard Police, and rope Doyce into the fence-building thang), I’ll be extremely happy, come the fall.

Everything else — expanding garden beds, putting in some paving stones, do more planning and plotting for terracing in the back and steps in the front — would be icing on that cake.

If David will not go to Faerie, then …

Over the Holidays I mentioned how visiting the relatives in California was like going off to Faerie, a timeless place of good food and revelry, in which normal life seems…

Over the Holidays I mentioned how visiting the relatives in California was like going off to Faerie, a timeless place of good food and revelry, in which normal life seems suspended until, poof, you wake up in the Catskill Mountains with a long white beard.

Well, having the relatives visit here is much the same. In this case, Margie’s folks, a pair of wonderful people. And nothing is the same when they’re here.

Little to no TV. Little to no time on the computer. Meals out, or different sorts of meals in. Katherine largely taken care of, but a whirlwind of projects.

So, as Margie drives them back to the airport, I’m sort of blinking and trying to figure out what I’ve let lapse for the past several days, and remember what things got put away in a welter of rearrangement and tidying and which might never be seen again for weeks or months or years.

Speaking of things not see for years, the big project this time out turned out to be our basement. We moved into this house in January 1996, just over six years ago. In that time, the basement has served as The Place Where Things Go. It’s been overflow pantry and a place where things are stored and retrieved and stored again. But it’s also been a place where things go, Never To Be Seen Again. And, of course, over time it’s grown progressively more difficult to navigate in.

This was exacerbated last fall when we had a sewer backup, which required the removal of everything from the furnace room. Some of that everything ended up getting thrown away (or will be, once our insurance claim is processed), but for the most part it meant pushing the saturation point of the other rooms to the supersaturation point, where odd things started precipitating around the edges.

Well a few months back, Jackie and Doyce helped us get started cleaning and reorganizing. The last four days of activity as Casa de Hill und Kleerup, though, actually finished the job.

We have a basement! Really! No, really!

The trash man is going to plotz when he swings by Thursday morning, but, damn, we have a basement. We could sleep people down there. I can run games down there. I can get back to working on my ever-growing comic book collection.

And we can find stuff! Stuff we’d forgotten we had! Stuff we remembered we had, but had consigned to the maw of the Dark Basement Gods.

Yee-haw!

Oh, yeah — Katherine graduated to a “big girl’s bed,” a bunk bed we put together for her, relegating the crib to the (heh) basement. But now there’s a place for stuff like that.

Oh, yeah. Yee-haw!

Tomorrow it’s back to work, a few frenzied days before the weekend, catching up on blogging as well as my Real Job. Then over the weekend — well, likely things will be dark here, as I’ll be up in the mountains on a retreat, and when I get back Sunday I immediately hop on a plane (United Airlines Mechanics Willing) and fly off to Oak Ridge, Tenn., arriving there Late, Late, Late.

So if you visit here, and don’t see anything new … well, I haven’t died, and I won’t be off in Faerie again until June, but I’ll be in and out for the next week-n-change.

All the news that’s fit to be printed

Busy times at Casa de Hill. Margie’s folks are visiting, which limits my computer time and usually fills up my other time. The project of the trip seems to be…

Busy times at Casa de Hill. Margie’s folks are visiting, which limits my computer time and usually fills up my other time. The project of the trip seems to be working on the basement (a never-ending saga here). We’re putting up more Gorilla Racks, this time in the furnace room which needed to be cleaned out after our little sewer problem. We’ve already thrown out all sorts of stuff, and earmarked other stuff for Good Will (or whomever is willing to drive by with a truck).

Went out to dinner at Pappadeaux’s, which is a Houston chain that specializes in Cajun. Very popular — get their early, or late, or be ready to wait. Good food, good service.

Life is dull and domestic — and that’s not a bad thing.