Category Archives: house

House Projects, Friends and Food, and Birthday Planning

So, we’ve finally settled into some kind of normalcy around the house, for some value of normal 🙂

The big push last weekend was to finish off the last of the house projects: Hanging various art around the house, installing the blackout shades in the master bedroom, and installing the undercabinet lighting in the kitchen.

The art was easy enough, though since I’m an engineer it involved a lot of calculations, levels, and weight measurements (to gauge the proper mounting hook). I’m pleased to say that it looks great!

I installed the first blackout shade last week, and it’s a very tight fit. The instructions are not well-written, unfortunately, and we found a couple of things that would have made the finished product look a bit nicer. Anyway, takaza (who had been running a fever and feeling lousy most of the week) took the initiative on Friday and installed the shades on the other two windows, aided by what we learned from the first window. They look great and are very effective, though for maximum effect I’m going to need to caulk all four sides of each window.

The undercabinet lighting was…yeah. Dan did a great job installing the track for the lights. I demonstrated that I am a chemical engineer and not an electrical engineer when I used the wrong kind of connector and wound up shorting across the two 12 V leads of the transformer for about 10 seconds, effectively frying it. One transformer later, I’m pleased to report that the lighting looks fantastic and really completes the look of the kitchen.

On Sunday we welcomed roho, genet, linnaeus, steviemaxwell, and magicpaw over for dinner, the online Midwest FurFest staff meeting, and to watch the season premiere of The Amazing Race. Dan and I made chipotle-marinated pork tenderloin (exceptionally spicy, but tasty) and butternut squash risotto, and Dan made an angel food cake from scratch. Continuing our fun with 10 Cane Rum, Dan showed off a new concoction that included watermelon puree, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, lime juice, 10 Cane Rum, and club soda. It was yummy, and it packed a punch!

We need to do a little more work around the house, but then we’ll be ready to welcome baja_hyena and fordshepherd this weekend to celebrate Ford’s birthday. Dan has cooked up quite an itinerary, and I think it’s going to be a very memorable birthday for him! 🙂

Oh yeah, and have you sent your RSVP for Too Much Light in yet?

Swedish Goodness, Beer and Cheese, and Fun With Social Media

One more weekend down. Not too much going on, really. On Saturday, following a late start, takaza and I ran some errands, with stops at Target, Binny’s Beverage Depot, the MFF PO box, the MFF storage locker, and finally Ikea. Three hours later, we left Ikea with quite a load of stuff. We picked up a new Billy bookcase for glassware and cookbooks in the breakfast area and a new headboard for the guest bedroom.

Sunday was the Midwest FurFest staff meeting at the Westin. It was a good meeting, relatively short, and included a couple of exciting announcements. Afterward, we came home and enjoyed a pleasant evening with linnaeus, roho, and genet, back from camping in the wilds of Wisconsin. They brought the spoils of their trip with them: beer and cheese! Dan grilled up some hamburgers and we enjoyed some of the beer, then watched the season premiere of Glee, which was quite amusing.

Today has been so-so. Last night’s didn’t sit well and my stomach is still not very happy. Life goes on, though. More work on the house to be done tonight and all this week – finish assembling the book cases, get the guest bedroom into shape, and put the finishing touches on everything. With luck, we could have the whole place in good shape by the end of next weekend.

Some of you might have noticed that I’ve stopped crossposting my Twitter posts over to LiveJournal. They were here for one reason only prior to that – so my family could read them. I made sure that they were behind a cut and were as unobtrusive as possible. I discovered something, though – the automated posting made me lazy and less likely to actually update this journal. Once I determined that my family knew to check my Twitter page directly (and thus see the tweets less than 24 hours later), there wasn’t much reason to continue them.

I do respectfully disagree with woodychitwn‘s thesis that Twitter is not an LiveJournal replacement. After giving it careful thought, I came to the conclusion that how social media is used is up to the user themselves. There is no right way or wrong way to use it, particularly since most social media is opt-in. In fact, I think it is somewhat presumptuous to instruct someone how they should be using one form of media or another (and I am guilty of this myself in the past, though I will endeavor not to do so in the future). If you disagree with how someone is using a particular media, no one is forcing you to continue to read it. If you worry that by defriending/unsubscribing you will cause issues, then you are going to have to judge whether that social cost is worth the annoyance the usage is causing you. And at that point, that is a problem for you as a reader to resolve, not the user of the social media.

OK, off to a short meeting. I need to post more this week about upcoming plans, parties, and other fun things like that!

Moving Complete!

Oh my goodness, that was crazy.

As most of you already know, this past weekend was Moving Weekend for us. We have moved all of five miles to the west to the lovely village of Volo, Illinois. Here’s how it went down…

On Friday takaza and I took care of some last-minute packing after work then relaxed a bit until fordshepherd showed up shortly after midnight.

Saturday morning the alarm went off all-too-early at 7 AM. We dropped Dan off to pick up the rental truck, then Ford and I dropped off the TV at the new place, picked up some doughnuts at Lovin’ Oven, and sandwich fixings at Garden Fresh. By the time we got back, the truck was already half-loaded! The next few hours were a blur, but I am amazed and gratified to report that the following wonderful and amazing people helped move everything out from the old place and into the new place: brianblackberry, Ford, fuzzbear, genet, grabstein_69, Ian, linnaeus, posicat, quickcasey, roho. shy_matsi, silverwind, Takaza’s Mother, Takaza’s Sister, tozier_wah, wolfbrotherjoe. We couldn’t have done it without any of you. Thanks, everyone!

We wrapped up the move at about 5 PM. After everyone had rested a bit (and regrettably several folks had to take their leave), pizza arrived from Giordano’s. aureth and jenwolf joined us after a long day of drywalling at their place, as well. There followed a memorable evening of friends, boozahol (who knew dirty martinis with pickled okra could be so good?), and much laughter. Highlights included Roho laughing until he couldn’t breathe over a certain story involving skidmarks, Ford macking on Dan’s mom (and getting shot down spectacularly), and a several things that probably shouldn’t be committed to a public posting 🙂

Sunday morning started slowly (for some reason…). Poor Ford didn’t get much sleep the night before so I made sure he got at least enough sleep to function (though not quite enough, evidently). Once he was up and about we went out and had a nice lunch at a local Mexican joint, then did a bit of fake fur shopping at Jo Ann Fabrics. We stopped by the house to find Roho and Genet had come over with their Samoyed, Briana. We hung out there for a bit then Ford and I went over to the old place to pick up a few things that had been left behind; looking around the place and comparing it to what we’re moving in to, I’m left with the indelible impression that our old place was, um, a bit of dump 🙂

Ford hit the road from there, and I came back to the house and spent the afternoon putting up blinds in the living room. Unfortunately, as I was stepping around hanging the brackets, I stepped on one of the sectional sofa pieces wrong and it broke 🙁 In talking with the guy who sold it to us, it’ll be cheaper to replace it then repair it (and the quality will be better), so I ordered the replacement today. Ouch. Anyway, two of the blinds are up and I picked up the third at Home Depot during lunch; I’ll be putting that up tonight.

We’re awash in boxes, the garage is so full of stuff that we can’t even park one car in there let alone two, only half the windows are covered, and there’s no art on the walls. But you know what? It’s ours. We have a home again.

Oh yes, and what usually follows moving? That’s right, a housewarming party! September and October are a bit busy for us, but it looks like the best time for a housewarming party is going to be Saturday, October 24th. Look for more information as the time gets closer!