Friday, June 27, 2008

Homework: End of Week 3

Well... it looks like we'll also have a new roof thanks to the 2 hail storms earlier this month. Not only that, but we found out that it's best not to have a window a/c unit sitting in our new windows. It could be done, but the windows aren't made for a/c and it will void the warranty on the window. So maybe as soon as a week from now we'll have central air. What next? (what's left!? dare I ask?)

As for the "original" project, about all that's left is to finish the back porch, some electrical work (note the wires below), and install the gutters. All but the gutters should be finished next week.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Funnies

First the duck jokes (courtesy of Tom Morton and his fans):

When do ducks wake up? At the quack of dawn.

(adapted for American audiences)
A duck walks in the pharmacy and asks what they have for chapped lips. He's given the best they offer and told it'll be $4.50. To which the duck replies "just put it on my bill".

Listen again for the next seven days for more duck jokes and good music.


Now for the video (thanks, Craig, for the lead):

Lamppost in Time



















The title picture shows the lamp in the sideyard and on top of the lamp is this commemorative decoration.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Progress

Big strides were made today. Our back porch is gone. It only took them about 45 minutes to rip it off. They've also scraped and primed the north and west sides of the house. It already looks much better! While digging up the porch, they found an old Pabst Blue Ribbon can, old enough that it didn't have a pull tab. How far back did you have to use a tool to open a can of beer?

Before:
After:



Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Cooking Videos

The mini-minimalist makes chocolate ganache....




To see the original

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Homework: Week 2

No gutters, new doors and windows, scraped paint, and a deconstructed porch.

Camp Mahoney

In-between storms (see post below), we returned Saturday night from the Williams family campout at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. The plan was to stay until Sunday morning, but with thunderstorms in the forecast we decided to head home early. Packing in the rain and unpacking wet tents & luggage was not appealing. With three "siren calls" in a week we'd had enough. There weren't any tornadoes Sunday morning, but there was a lot of rain so it was a good call to pack up early.

Cool nights, warm days, and lots of sun - perfect.
















Life is good...















Got it!
















Gimme s'more!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Storm Info


K-State has a great site on tornado information.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Yet Another Storm

Third severe storm in a week so I just wanted to let everyone know that we're fine. A tornado did go through Manhattan last night and it was quite terrifying. Our house & neighborhood just had a lot of heavy rain. Around town there are about 30 houses and some businesses destroyed and KSU has a lot of damage. The best source for news is KMAN. We've been staying at my parents' house because of the work being done on ours and they don't have a basement. We spent about an hour with the boys asleep in the bathtub and us hovering over them, all of us under a crib mattress. I think I can safely say that it was the most terrifying hour I've ever experienced and I will never live in a house without a basement!

After the storm passed we got a pic of the boys sleeping in the tub, but we don't have the equipment to put it online so we'll post it later along with links to news pics. Apparently some people were more desperate than us to see the action. In the follow up news on KMAN after the storm, the repeated theme was "GO HOME!!!!". The emergency vehicles were having a hard time getting through because of everybody who came out to look at the damage. And there was some looting. I'm so proud of my fellow citizens.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Thinking about food

Here are two good articles from the NYTimes about putting food on your plate. Definitely planning on expanding the garden in a few months.

Gardening

Cooking

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I'm so lucky

So last week Rhonna calls me to ask whether I'd be interested in a 21 videocassettes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. I hesitated for maybe 3 seconds. If you look closely you can see them above the computer (behind Joe's hanging arwork) in the picture in the post below. Something to watch when I have a few moments to myself! (When?)

Homework update

Day 0 became day -8. One very bad hail storm last Monday morning - we were lucky with hail only slightly larger than golf balls. Sounded like we were surrounded by people using our house as practice for kickboxing. Two or three inches of rain that day. Then last Thursday night I had supper in the basement while we waited out more hail and funnel clouds. Rhonna enjoyed the time at the library basement since the sirens sounded 15 minutes before her shift ended. About three inches of rain in an hour and we couldn't see our street nor the curbs when it was all over. Needless to say the contractor for our house is well behind with his other projects and he hadn't even started with ours.



Rhonna and I spent Monday night (not the whole night, just until midnight) creating easy access to all the windows.



This much work and we're not even moving, although it feels like it. So today we now have a new front door and a few new windows with the remainder to be completed by week's end. The fun begins....

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Homework: Day 0















Starting with some pre-(re)construction photos. Imagine new windows, gutters, back porch and fresh paint. When finished, the house will look like the photo of the front porch. Until then, flowers can help only so much to distract the eye from the horrid gutters and sagging porches. The screened back porch will be replaced with an open and, if the roof is salvageable, covered porch.

(now if only I can I fit the word "porch" into the first sentence....)

What's blooming now



I think I actually purchased the painted daisy (top right) and possibly the coreopsis (top left), but the evening primrose (bottom) was acquired through a plant exchange and I now have enough of it to give away if anyone's interested.