project notes

when we had that 24 hours of rain last week - right after Matt completed the excavation part of the project - I found myself thinking that maybe god doesn't want me to have a patio, or maybe satan wanted to thwart my plans as part of the overarching battle between good and evil. Either way, I was pretty bummed.

However, I realised today that what was actually happening was that god was reminding me that I needed to install the conduit for the future electric line out to the carport, and I wanted to do that before all the gravel, sand and bricks go down. so that's what I did this weekend. yesterday, I dug a 20-foot trench that was 18inches deep. Today, I assembled and brought in the pvc pipe. one thing to keep in mind when assembling pipes with more than one 90-degree angle is that you have to be sure to keep your angles lined up while working. otherwise, you'll end up with pipes like this.

Despite recent evidence to the contrary

…I am not actually on some big feminist rant these days. However, this article, along with my friend Heather’s clever response, are totally blog-worthy. Thanks to Starratt for the original link.

 

Men Happier Than Women

 

Heather wrote:

 

Yep.  OK ladies, be thinandprettyforyourmansuccessfulfashionablesociallyconsciouspoliticallyconsciousspiritualintellectualgoodcookwithacleanhouseandsmartwelladjustedathleticchildren.  And...GO!

Is anyone else exhausted just thinking about everything we’re supposed to be and do??

 

Why I prefer to walk in the dark

While Magnus and I were out for our evening stroll (minding our own business, I might add), I heard this electronically magnified voice boom out “DAMN that ASS is FAT as F-CK!” Actually, the guy really emphasized his words, so it sounded more like “DAAAAMMMMN, that AAAASSSSSS is FFFFAAAAAT as FFFF-----CK!”

 

3 guys. Blue pickup truck. Megaphone. I wish I had a way to find them. I may have a fat ass, but I’m also full of rage and I fight dirty.

 

The thing is, I am fully aware that my ass is wide, and, for that matter, saggy. I mean, I have a mirror and a television, so I know what I look like and what I’m expected to look like. I also know that I don’t have the fattest ass in the world, because they do make pants in bigger sizes than mine. What I don’t know is why anyone would feel the need to yell something like that at me when I’m just walking down the street, minding my own business. I would like to pretend like this doesn’t bother me, or like it says more about what kind of jerks those guys are than it says about me, but honestly, I’ve had kind of a crappy day and this really didn’t help me feel better about myself.

 

Also, all I want to do now is go eat a dozen donuts and never walk in the daylight again, so…way to go, effers. Oh, and this is the kind of thing that used to happen to me all the time when I was growing up in Urbana, so if you ever find yourself wondering why I have so many “man issues” when I have a good relationship with Joe D, well, this is why.

 

happy birthday to me!

something happened 2 my last msg with this pic so i won't type as much this time, but i'm getting one of my birthday wishes today. this is the bobcat i rented for matt (minifarm hand) to do all the excavating i need around here. so yeah. this pretty much rocks.

whiteboard success

this is my test patch, which explains the drips and peeled paint. the whiteboard paint worked! it's also still magnetic, although i will probably search for some of those rare-earth superstrong magnets to use on this board. next comes the frame...

Internet Wishes

I'm sure this seems random, but it's really not. I need to find Hannah Montana tickets for the 12/13 show at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati. I was trying to help CNKelly get these this morning but they sold out in a minute. Really, one minute. I didn't even know this could happen. I'm pretty good with the Internets in general, but things like this stress me out a little. And now I'm sad, because neither of us was able to get any tickets for the show. So, if anyone reading this has access to tickets or knows how to get them at reasonable prices (i.e. NOT $200 a seat), I think it would be great if you could help us out. By the way, I'm all for the free-market concept in general. If Hannah Montana commands $200 a seat for her performances, great. But it does irk me that the so-called "free market" doesn't happen until after the ticket scalpers have bought all the seats and then hold them for ransom. Something about that just seems uncool to me.

In other news, in case you missed this on the blogger login page, they have released this spot, which is a photostream of the public images that get uploaded to blogger, as they are uploaded. Pretty cool and random, which equals fun.

Stuart is my hero

I don’t know how long these links will last, but oh, how I loooove Stuart. Also, because I’m insanely OCD, these are in roughly chronological order.

 

Stuart Gets Lost

Stuart Plays T-Ball

Stuart and the Balloon Man

Stuart’s Swimsuit

Stuart’s Thanksgiving Trip

Stuart’s Piano Lesson

Stuart’s Grandparents’ Pool

Stuart gets Rescued from the Wishing Well

Stuart gets his Picture Taken

Stuart gets kidnapped

Stuart goes to the Zoo

Stuart at the Therapist

Stuart with the Babysitter

Stuart goes to work with Mommy

Stuart’s Birthday Party

Stuart in a Wedding

Stuart with the new Baby

Stuart at the Pet Shop

Stuart goes to the Chinese Restaurant

Stuart at the Doctor’s Office

Stuart: Next Door

Stuart at the Candy Store

 

 

 

 

 

 

heidi will NOT approve

of this side-project. especially since i'm already running 2 concurrent projects. however, i couldn't do work on either of them tonight for various reasons, so i thought i'd slap this thing together and get it to the "good enough" point. this is a whiteboard in the hallway leading to the ARMY boyz' place. if you are astute, you're probably thinkin it looks more like a blackboard, and you're right. the black paint is to make the surface magnetic. so the ultimate outcome - hopefully - will be a manetic whiteboard that can't be knocked off the wall. i'll add cork tiles on the left side, wall molding to frame it and if i get around to it, a pottery-barn-style-3-section mail slot on the right side so they can organize the mail. also, after lengthy consideration about whether to paint this stairwell brown or blue, i've decided to do both - blue on top, brown on the bottom. i think the end
result will be great.

alternate view

if you go back and forth, that is. otherwise, i think the word is "alternative," but that sounds like i'm trying to be cool.

this is the view you can see from the dining room into the kitchen. although i do think this is going to open up the space, i'm also not excited like i was when i thought i'd get a window. c'est la vie, i guess.

the reason for all the posts is that i have had a few beers and some extra free time tonight while waiting for paint to dry. more on that in the next post.

i'd like 2 pickets to...ah nevermind.

ok, so a guy goes to the airline counter and there's a beautiful buxom lady behind the counter and the guy says "i'd like 2 Pickets to tittsburg, please". and the guy behind him says "wow, that's a helluva Freudian slip" and the first guy says "tell me about it. the other night, i started to ask my wife to pass the butter and instead I said 'b-tch, you've ruined my life'".

yeah, it's crass. but unfortunately, it's stuck in my head whenever i hear/read/use the word "picket". and i've been doing that a lot lately. just look at all those beauties in the pic. hand primed by yours truly. i have to prime the other face and one side of each picket, and then it's on to painting. then nailing the pickets to the rails, then setting the posts and screwing the rails with pickets to the posts.
by the way, did you know that my dixie wrecked? ha. WRT jokes that are embedded in my brain, that's one Pat shared with me when we were teenagers and I still think of it whenever i see the word 'dixie'.

weekend progress pics

this is the current view from the kitchen into the dining room. i'm stuck again bc im afraid i might hit all the lectric wires with the recip saw and bc i don't know what to do with them if i don't cut them (in terms of how to re-route them).

yeee-aaah!

do you even need any words for this?

Good Read

While I was up in Urbana this week, I ot to spend a good amount of time with Cathy, and as many of my conversations do, a few of ours came around to discussions of the mini farm (black squirrels, the Blackford name, what kind of work Manus will do on the farm - those kinds of things). And during these conversations, Cathy would giggle and say that she could hardly wait to give me my birthday present. And then at one point, she just jumped up from the sofa and said, "I'm just going to give it to you now", and came back with this gem - Storey's _Barnyard in your Backyard_, which I am now very excited to read. I think one of the very best things about my mini-farm is that my friends and family are so supportive and interested in my dream. It's going to be so great.

happiness is...

hiring someone else to do some of the work.one of my army boys is strapped for cash so i made him an offer to work off this month's rent by doing a bunch of different tasks around the house.he was going to help with the post holes (and he still may), but he hurt his foot and couldn't dig anything this week, so i had him work on the abandoned kitchen demo.i'm hopin he'll help me move a few heavy things before he leaves for the weekend so i can do the demo work on the dining room side.and the opening in the wall showed that my waste stacks might need to be replaced because they are both cracked.ah, home improvement. i'm hoping this guy will want to continue our arrangement in future months because i'd love to put in the patio and refinish the floors this fall, too.

Funny stuff

I actually think I know this poster on www.passiveaggressivenotes.com:

I know I’ve been to someone’s house where one of those signs was hanging. Heh.

dogpen 07

project update: ive procured the materials and lined up some help. unfortunately, my subflows aren't lined up right so the project is already on hold. i forgot to factor in dryin time for my wood, and my digger hurt his foot and can't do any digging for the next few weeks. so, i'll be digging the post holes myself once i get the wood dried. the good news is that this all means that i can work on some more kitchen stuff, and my digger is going to finish up the demo work there since he won't need to use his foot to tear those walls down.

now i just have to sit and watch this wood dry.