Veggies and Pressure Cooking

A couple weekends ago went to an extension office class on how to use a pressure cooker. I have always been a bit wary about these, thinking they were going to explode all over my kitchen sending carrots, beans or tomatoes to my ceiling... and taking my eye out. I thought I would get the how-to from the professionals.
The end results : I took home two jars of carrots, and the desire for a pressure cooker. I have a ceramic top stove, so need to get a stainless steel one. Supposedly you cannot can or pressure cook on a flat top stove. HA. You can do it all, although I do freak a bit about the weight I am putting on it. I also bought this stove last year with one 'superhot' element (my terminology, not the stove manufacturers marketing) that should be fiery enough to get the pressure up on the cooker.
Wondering what the nuclear rain that is falling in our state will do to the planting this year, but really, what option do we have?
Bought some seeds from a new company...Comstock, Ferre and Co., that I got a gorgeous catalog from at the Kitsap Small Farm Expo. I also decided I would buy for interesting names this year. First seeds : Lazy Wife beans. Next in line : Pink Girl, Black Sea Man, Shiny Boy. I will just like seeing the names at the end of the rows...
Couldn't find any Grumpy Lady Peas or Feisty Woman Peppers. Maybe next year.

Financial Peace according to Dave Ramsey

When I first started this blog (or more accurately, when Rose signed me up for a blog) I had no idea there was this whole bloggy world out there. In the beginning I spent a lot of time searching other blogs to see what was going on,what is this blogging. I think Rose mostly signed me up so she would not have to listen to all my stories.

There is a funny midwest gal - www.coalcreekfarm.com - that I found when following the links from a house restoration blog. On her site she had a corner about managing finances, how they were doing it. She talked of going to this financial peace university with her husband, and called the guy that did it Damn Ramsey. There is no Damn Ramsey when you google, but there is a Dave Ramsey. I visited the website, and got a couple cd's off of ebay of him talking. This month I signed up for one of his local classes (he is not there, they are usually facilitated by churches.)It is only the cost of the books for the class. I bought mine off ebay for 40, you can get them through the church or website for around $100. You go watch a video for an hour, then discuss for an hour. These classes are all over. It is a great thing for couples, and would have been helpful for Dennis and I at any point in our marriage. Budgets, retirement, debt, basic how to manage money presented in an empowering easy to digest entertaining manner. The energy is high, the people are kind, and boy, do people get in financial hot water. I am lucky that at this point we have no debt other than the house I am sitting in, but that was not always the case. I am taking the class so I don't ever live in debt again, especially since my income is going to take such a hit when the divorce papers are signed. Rose and I were talking about a Toyota Highlander commercial that she likes, and I do not. It is a young kid telling his ma, and his carpool ma, what a cool car the Highlander is, and how it fits him since he is cool. And their old minivan is not cool. It makes wanting something for how it looks legit in a kids eyes. I am trying to teach the kids want vs. need. It is a challenge.

Woodpecker alarm clock

There must be a load of insects on the north side of my house. About once a week I wake up to a woodpecker pounding his little head on my house right outside my window. It is really loud, and wakes me right up. Better than my alarm clock since I can't womp that bird on the head to turn it off for ten minutes. I have been working on getting Amanda dog to chase away woodpeckers, but I don't think she knows what I am saying. Being that she is not a typical dog and befriends fowl, felines and foes.

What I did on a Saturday night

Ready for it? I sat here and got a trojan virus off my laptop. Oh yeah, I know how to have a good time.
If you go on the internet at all you should have a malware search and destroy program loaded up on your system. I use the donation or free Spybot by Safer Networking, but Malwarebytes or any of the other free or low cost one will do. Just make sure it is an approved malware killer and not actual malware you are loading.
I have been scanning this week and notice every other time a keytracker trojan virus pops up. I delete it (quarantine) and then scan again. When I do it is no longer there. Until next time, and it pops up again. Obviously, that virus was sitting somewhere on my computer.
A cnet.com forum had a similar question... the answer they received was to run the F-Secure Online Scanner to find and clean that puppy out. Another freebie. I downloaded and ran it from
www.support.f-secure.com. It only works on Internet Explorer only. You have to load ActiveX, which I personally hate. Or I hated on my old computer. Then do a full system scan which can take hours, and clean the results.
After running that, I have been checking spybot for something wicked to pop-up and nope. All clean. (At least for now.)

Gushy Post on TDAmeritrade

Part of my visit to the financial advisor Irene was that she did a step-by-step blow by blow detailed account of how to proceed with my sloppy retirement accounts.
The first step was to open ROTH IRA's through Vanguard, TDAmeritrade, or wherever.
I liked Vanguards website, but she highly recommended TDA so I thought I would start with them and if I didn't like them, just switch out.
My first instruction from Irene was to open a non-deductible IRA account. That was #1 on the list "Open an IRA" .
I set up an account and funded it and then was sitting on some sort of stock buying page. Huh? Went back and saw that I had opened an individual investment account. I messed up my first instruction, the very first thing the website asks you is: what type of account do you want to open? My choices : individual, joint, or IRA. My instructions :open a damn IRA. My fingers and brain : opened an individual.
Dangit. So talked to automated TDA fellow Tom who told me to open another account and just transfer the funds. I did not want a fee assessed, so called the 800 number for a person to confirm since I seem to be a little "following instructions challenged" this evening.
A pleasant fellow answered the phone who gave his first and last name. He walked me through all sorts of things on the website, and we chatted of security password software, his wife, Trader Joe's, family and medical research. He clarified what I needed to do, and in what order. He is sending me something to sign, as I send him off other signatures.
This was the most amazing introduction into sending your money off into the internet ether. He was helpful, patient, and answered all of my repetitive sloth-like questions about what the heck I was doing.
If I just had someone calm and knowledgeable like that all the time about everything...
"OK, now I opened the leaking generator and fuel is shooting across the yard, what do I do now?"
"I just hit my truck with my minivan, is it better to pay out of pocket or tell insurance about this and file a claim?"
and it would all be taken care of with a signature and a pleasant conversation. My life would be so much easier. Who can I talk to about this?

PT or Port Townsend Fort Worden

We took a trip up to Fort Worden for a game of nerf wars. It was a moment of dry skies. Someone who is taking drivers education got to get behind the wheel for a bit while the boys climbed. Normally she drives with her eyes open and hands on the steering wheel.

Staying the course in chickenworld

This will be the first spring we bring no new chicks to the place. My girls are laying great guns, their fence and roof are both bad, so need to focus on that rather that cute little peepers. It will be so hard walking by the chicks at the feed store... especially if they get in russian orloffs or lakenwelders. I will be strong.
Pics: Five chicken butts are enough for me. 1 buff orpington (favorite breed to date, round, happy, friendly, quiet, crazy egg layer), 3 golden laced wyandottes (round, busy, friendly but not overly so, cautious, good flyers) and 1 welsummer (loud, slimmer more dainty chicken figure, narrates all your movements with a wary tone and warning-- as if saying "I don't know about that, I don't know if you should be doing that, Be careful there", humorous, good flyer)

Thinking of far off things

I have been in shock with the devastation of Japan. I actually watched the footage of the tsunami destruction and felt awful, and powerless, as nature has the ability to do to us wee humans. I did not watch the planes of 9/11, Haiti destruction, Indonesia tsunami, or bombings humans have done globally. That does not mean I did not read about it, or know about it, it means I don't want to get used to bearing witness to that violence. I want to maintain my horror that there are things that can go terribly wrong, and feel that horror. I don't want to sit in front of a monitor and watch this sort of thing unfold like I am watching an exciting movie. To me, it feels like I am knitting and watching the guillotine during the French Revolution. It is not entertainment. I know we have a grisly gene in us... the same one that causes us to slow at car crashes and look. I wish I could go back and not watch this. Somehow to me it is so wrong to be present and above watching that tsunami flow fast and deep over the coastal communities, knowing there were people in those cars that were trying to turn around in front of the oncoming water, and they did not know which way to go. But we, sitting at our computers, could see which road was clear and which way to go. And them making the wrong choice, or sitting while the water engulfed them. I imagine the helicopter pilots are in a world of mental crap seeing people, houses, animals, lives being engulfed while they float above with engine running, narrating. Or cursing, praying.
My temperament is to want to go in and fix things. That is not possible. My thoughts and prayers are being sent across the Pacific to Japan. I see why the ancient civilizations around the world all had a God of the Sea... that wall of water was otherworldly when rising off the ocean to tower over ground level. If we didn't have seismographs and underwater geology to explain what happened I would think this was one of those crazy gods really pissed off. Thank you, everyone, for science.
And I fully realize I am not the norm in terms of viewing our culture. It is just my skewed opinion... don't get your pants in a bunch if you watch all sorts of stuff that I can't stand. It is not a judgement, although when I reread it sounds like one. I am just trying to let go some of the wild sadness I have over this.
Image: Nasa Terra Satellite image of the east coast of Japan, with tsunami damage visible. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

Dream - House insect damage

When I was a kid I would tell my mom my dreams and she would tell me what they might mean. The one I had last night was worthy of pondering.
...I was outside and noticed a whole section of my house siding was chewed by insects. I was all indignant ("hey, I thought they didn't eat cedar", "hey, why a whole section on one side of the house", "hey, how could they do that in one night") and then I noticed there were large patches of chewed wood in several places on the house.
The interpretation dictionary off of dreammoods.com says : To see insects in your dream signify minor obstacles that you must overcome. There are small problems and annoyances that need to be dealt with. You feel that you are under attack.

I left off the insects as divine messenger part of the interpretation, since that just didn't ring true. In realtime...my siding above my bedroom window has failed, I have been worrying about termites I found outside in the yard last summer wondering if they think the house looks delicious, and I have one monster to-do list nowadays. So yes, something is bugging me.
I hate things threatening my house. Weather, bugs, age, earthquake, fire, unruly children, dustbunnies. Good to know those concerns just go right into my subconscious to make me some weird dreams.

Documenting Frogs

Just a note that the frogs started up their evening singing tonight.
Only for about an hour, only a few. Within a week it should be a festival of frog noise out there until summer...
They are later than last year, probably due to the snow. In 2010 they began February 14th.

Boys and girls

Sometimes I wonder how I would view having children if I would have had a boy first. Having Rose first led me down this path of girl behaviors which I did not know they were specifically girl behaviors until Wilder was born. I (crazily) thought all kids were like Rose and her friends. I am an only child, so I realize my view of the world is a bit skewed.... or very skewed.
Right now I am sitting in my bedroom which is under my sons room. He had a good buddy spend the night and this morning my house is literally vibrating from them wrestling and tussling from one end of the house to the other. I had no idea a house could make so much noise and still be standing.

This is our generator. If not the first thing I bought after buying the house, it was in the first 4 months. My house power grid controls the shared well, so it seemed considerate to keep the neighbors in water. After sitting idle for two years, a big power outage this winter brought it out from the corner of the garage. The ladder next to it is my creative weather protection. Generators are not supposed to be exposed to the weather, and I didn't have anything that wouldn't catch fire other than this. So it is my rather sketchy and haphazard attempt at weather protection. Notice all the melted snow? There were some metal parts that would glow red when it was running. Dang hot.
I had issues starting it up. As in, the battery was not hooked up. And I had no idea until my neighbor pointed it out. Well, when I parked it in the garage after its reliable service when the power went out, I didn't turn off something and after six weeks gas was leaking over the garage.
Arggh. Called my mechanical neighbor, who told me how to check if I had gas in my piston. I do. Told me we need to suck it all out. DANGitall. I get tired of walking around this new life where I am completely inept at a whole scad of things. I am not a good inept person. Maybe for one of two things, but geez. I realize in a couple of years I have acquired many new skills, but enough already. Maybe I can learn one new skill a year? This year is already my tiling/bathroom remodeling/horsefencing/house siding year. I don't think small engine repair fits in all that.

Christianity

I am a NW woman. I was born and raised here, went to college and got my first fulltime job with benefits here, got married and had children here.We did live in Florida for one and a half years, which was culture shock in several ways.
1. People/neighbors can be super nice. Super super genuinely nice. I attribute it to a strong influence of midwest values, since no one I met was born in Florida. They were all from somewhere else.
2. Correct spelling is an option on public signage.
3. Recycling is a bad word, and it is okay to throw garbage out your car window. If you are a smoker, go ahead and dump your car ashtray out the window at stop lights.
4. Christianity was not the grace in the background of your life that kept things together. It was to be used as a tool to confront.
Florida was the first time I ran into the type of Christianity I had read about in books or seen on feisty tv.
I worked with a gal who one day was ripping into homosexuality while sitting at her desk. I think it is ridiculous to hate who another individual loves when it is not your flipping life. I also have the deep seated suspicion that men and women that are rabid anger spitters about the sins of being gay are themselves drawn to same sex love. But obviously not comfortable with themselves or that lifestyle so vilify others. Anyway........I told this gal I thought it ridiculous. She said gays were pedophiles. I told her it is primarily heterosexuals that are pedophiles. Our conversation rolled into extreme (what I will call) bible thumping. This was my first foray into the bible being used as a tool of hate. There is alot of crap in the bible that we no longer use. There is alot of guidance in the bible, also. Here is my NW sensibility coming in. We think about things. And we are supposed to let things slide off our backs... live and let live type of mentality. I have argued about Faith. As in, I have been told having faith means you don't question. It just is. But see, that faith is based on a human interpretation at any given time. And humans are notoriously fallable. And we intrepret with the knowledge and background and fears and strengths at that point in our lives, within the framework of our societal times.
Why spend more time trying to control another individuals thought process and belief system rather than focus on your own beliefs and how that works in a larger global framework. Building community, faith, support and christianity are not bad words. My co-worker and her ilk were making them so.
Oh, and she also spread the rumor that I was gay throughout the office, which was considered a big insult and a bad mark on my name. I laughed. She needed to get out more, see things, and not look for Satan in the Proctor and Gamble logo (that was our other argument on another day.) Grace and faith are not determined by a book with gold edges held above the heads of others and used as a weapon. Stop that crap.

Dreamin'

Being in the divorce mentality I had a dream last night.
In it, I was remarrying my soon-to-be ex. The traumatic part was that about an hour before the ceremony I realized I had gotten all the food ready, and guest list, and place etc etc but I had no wedding dress.
So pulled out my original wedding dress from 1994. It was a teeny bit tighter. Ha. All the people who have been included in my life the last 30 years were there. It was a potluck. I love potlucks. It was about 30 minutes before the wedding, and I thought "HOLY CRAP, what am I doing?" I can't do this again. I deserve much better than this when I venture back into a relationship.
And called off the wedding. Although, before my alarm went off to wake up, I remember telling everyone that we could still have the food potluck party, since there was some amazing dishes....
I think I was hungry.
This came out of another bloggers query about getting married. As in, how did you do it, how did your husband ask, etc etc. and I began thinking about all of that.

Seattle

Mid pic: Tacoma bridge fee booth traffic. Not really a Seattle pic, but clooooose.

Top pic: The curved portion of the Seattle viaduct with its patchwork of metal plates holding it together. This is the weak link in the whole thing. Nothing really underneath this supporting, since the waterfront was filled a kajillion years ago (okay, about 100) and the worms have eaten through the wood. This bridge is not made of wood,obviously, the stuff under-under the pavement is.

Bottom: Back to SoDo. When I was a youngster, Seattle's Interstate 5 freeway had oodles of bridges that went to nowhere. They just ended in mid-air....(they were blocked off... so no risk of taking an airborne ride.) Great planning on someones part, since the infrastructure was created before the cars came. Interesting, since that is not usually what happens in our wishy-washy can't make a decision without three years worth of public meetings where the dog chases its tail over and over and over. This is one of the former overpasses that 'went to nowhere' now going somewhere. And you can drive on it. Risk free.

Old Industrial Seattle - SODO

These were taken before I quit my job, when I was still scurrying to and fro around Seattle. I am driving through road construction in the SoDo district of Seattle. (See below for SoDo description)
This industrial part of Seattle used to be fraught with danger by large work trucks. Literally, you would be in the extreme minority when driving through here during the week in a car with only 4 tires. Seattle has changed, the heavy labor industries, grit filled industries are all disappearing, and the old cedar beam constructed workshops and buildings are being converted or torn down. The one on the bottom is my favorite. That building has been sinking or twisting or leaning more and more with each passing year. When you walk in it, the woodwork is amazing. Not that it is fine woodwork in the carpenter sense, but it has timbers so large all I can think of is "we don't even have trees like that anymore anywhere in this state." And we are the Evergreen State. The trees cut down for these buildings were local. The wood is amazing. Sometimes I see it go by on Craigslist, someone has a beam and is parting it out for big bucks. Things change. I know. I also know I am in the minority when I look at a tilting building and get all nostalgic. Looking at an old building to me is like reading a book, or people watching. Look at it closely top to bottom, left to right, and you can see remnants of all it has been through. Cedar gutters? Loft accessible from the outside? Old staircases? Blocked off doors or windows? A prohibition era speakeasy in the basement? Look long enough and it will all appear.
SODO: This neighborhood is competely sitting on fill added to the mudflats of Seattle during the last turn of the century. Another hot spot in Seattle you don't want to be when the earthquake hits.... this area will liquefy, which means shake like jello in a bowl and turn to sloppy sinking sand. I am actually pretty sure that geologists have a better definition for liquefaction, but mine is more food friendly.
The newly named ("newly" means within my old lifetime) SoDo (meaning, cutely, SOuth of DOwntown) ( I don't even want to know how much the acronym folks got paid for that one)
centers around the old Sears building, now the Starbucks headquarters. Another clever acronym in Seattle is the S.L.U.T. (South Lake Union Trolley/Transit) T-shirts were quickly printed up with "Ride the SLUT." That one was quickly changed to SLUS... 'streetcar' instead of 'trolley.' I can't tell you how many times I made our poor transportation historian define trolley vs. streetcar vs. tram vs. train vs. elevated train on and on. Plus add in historic timeline. I can just tell you my former volunteers were amazingly patient.

Images: Top, always construction going on in Seattle dangit... gotta tear something down! Mid: Blue building example of Seattle heavy industry that used to abound in SoDo.

Bottom: Sad sad red building across the street from the Sears building. Trust me, it is cool on the inside. Well, okay. Cool if you are into old tilting things.

Financial Advice and Divorce

I went to a financial advisor yesterday. Looked up one that is a member of NAPFA, since they are fee-based only, and their advice is not affected by any commissions they may receive. The downside is since they do not receive those commissions, they charge a fairly high hourly rate. BUT, the advice is invaluable.

She rolled into talk of money markets, EFT, stocks, bonds, short term, long term on and on and on and my brain glazed over. My eyes were appropriately making eye contact and head nodding at the opportune moment, but my brain went far far away. I figure by the end of all this I will completely understand these concepts, but yesterday I was listening to a language I don't speak.

Then to throw in the upcoming divorce, and how to divide monies and responsibilities and bank accounts and ...

again, on and on and on.

Image: Totally unrelated empty MalWart interior. My financial advisor works out of a very nice waterfront home. Not Walmart.

Bathroom Door Stripped

Top to bottom: (re)finished door hardware and painted door

mid: Door coming back from the furniture stripper store

bottom : door hardware before clean-up.

The door is back on the bathroom. We have been living with a curtain nailed to the door frame for bathroom shower privacy. A door works much better. Obviously. I began stripping this at home, but with the weather not warm enough for me to do it outside, I was worried I would asphyxiate my family. It was offgassing something fierce, and there was lead paint on it etc etc. So off it went to the furniture stripper/restorer in Bremerton. Once they took off the 9 layers of paint, they repaired it with glue and dowels where it had cracked half way down the door to the knob assembly. The one thing I wanted to document was the colors. Light pink was the first coat. There was a seafoam green, a grungy green, bright blue, layers of versions of white. I saw a brand new version of this door (four panel, inverted cross) at my local Ace Hardware for $140. Yeah, I coulda put a new door on here, but what would be the story material in that? This door, in all it's uneven glory, has stood with the house through all sorts of livin.' When I uncover the bright colors in this house, I want THAT story. There is someone who lived here who was either embracing the hippie era vibrant colors, or someone was trying to make Victorian era decor in a very plain farmhouse. Eventually, I will figure that one out when I track all the previous owners. There was the time the house was locked and barricaded closed from the outside, so it must have been vacant at one point.

Stripping the door hardware was finicky, being that the materials used originally were not high end. That is steel with a finish over it. And black glass door knobs. My fave way of stripping paint off of metal is boiling water, but I read online that if you do this to steel, it will rust up in no time. I am here to document that if you strip it and treat the surface it will do fine. I used bronze metal spray paint, and/or clear lacquer.

Phone messages

For some reason our son is in the other room playing all the phone messages. I don't know why I have not deleted these, other than there is the plumber apologizing for disappearing... my kids in various places checking in... friends singing me happy birthday and one of my mom saying "Hi, I hope you are having fun... I hope you are not lifting heavy things like trees or toilets!"

Gotta love that. Could that be why I am going to the physical therapist next week for my back? Huh.

Movie ratings are screwed up in our country

There is something completely hooey in our rating system. Case in point : went to the Green Hornet two weeks ago. Rated PG-13. Went to the King's Speech tonight. Rated R.
Walked out of the Green Hornet thinking there was a WHOLE lotta violence in smooshed human carnage. No blood splatters, but you see people get smashed and killed. It is somewhat presented as a kids movie, and I saw it with our son and a friend of his. I actually covered their eyes at a part. (they were nonplussed about the whole thing, and humored me)
The King's Speech R rating? Well I imagine it was because he says the word fuck and shit when overcoming his speech impediment. That was it. No skin, no violence other than raised voices.
PG-13? Multiple deaths. Shooting. Sex (implied, not shown). Scantily clad babes moving to the beat and drinkin' alcohol. Drug selling. Hitting. Guns. A gang attacking a woman.
Here is where I get all crazy talkin'.
Why is it okay for our children to become immune or at least comfortable with watching violent acts -- something that they may not ever see or be a part of in their "real life" -- but sexual material and language are taboo? Sex which is vital for our species, and bad language which pretty much everyone will be exposed to in their lifetime...
WTF? Makes me really cranky. I read somewhere that our movies become more violent in times of war. To keep our adrenaline up? To keep us on the aggressive?
As an aside. I loved both movies. The GreenHornet was tapping into my old crazy love of cars. The car is genius. Had a bit of chitty chitty bang bang coupled with the batmobile.
Rose went with me to the Kings Speech. Boy, did she ever NOT want to go. But she was surprised, and loved it. Mr. Firth rocks.

Divorce Prep

I don't know how people do this. Besides a low level of anxiety I am having over everything under the sun... getting together the budgets, the savings, the house info, how to split things, who gets the tax write off on the kids, when the kids are at who's house when, and then formalizing it all with the State of Washington is daunting. Especially when I feel like it is all on my plate.
Since Dennis' family health insurance rocks bigtime, I have been doing all the things I procrastinated on before the separation. Some were unavoidable... such as the surgery I was supposed to be having for the last 5 years, or the glasses I can no longer put off getting (my great eyesight has turned into blurry distant mush.) It should be noted that at yesterdays general checkup, for the first time in the history of me getting my blood drawn, I have too much iron in my blood. This has never happened and let me tell ya, it is night and day difference for living.

Have went to a financial advisor to assist with cost of living issues (budget!), looking at schools for Wilder, getting Rose through driver's ed, dealing with her (and my) fluctuating mood rollercoasters, and standard stuff of getting them to dentist appts, playdates, piano class, all the while keeping those doors open for communication about all the crappy, mundane and joyful things they have to deal with at their age.
Michael and I both did budgets. In his, there is no cost associated with the kids. It is all his life costs only. He has no problem paying for all the things they participate in, or need for school, he just doesn't reflect that in what he considers his budget. When I was talking with our financial advisor and telling her about how we are going about the divorce process (amicably)... she asked ... "Why on earth are you getting a divorce??" It did not strike her that we battled enough for this. From the outside, most people think Michael and I get along too well for divorce. We don't throw things, we don't badmouth each other in front of the kids, he funds anything and everything that I want to do with and for the kids. They are also not realizing that at this point I am a "kept woman." Without Michael's income, I would not be living the life I am. Kept women generally have to be cordial. I worry when I get a divorce I will then turn nasty. How long can you keep anger going? I will let you know.

These posts

Every time I read one of these blogs after I have posted it I find all sorts of errors. (Case in point: it is not everytime I read one of these blogs, I am reading the posts on this blog.)
So the correct sentence : Every time I read one of these blog posts after I hit the "publish post" button, I find all sorts of errors. CRAP. How about : There are errors in every flippin' one of my blog posts that I only see after I have sent it out into the great wide world of webhood.
Sigh.
And if I read it on a different day of the week, I wonder what was in my breakfast cereal that morning.
Suffice it to say. This is a blog. Not a reporters notebook. It is a slice of life at a moment, but not the whole pie. I am by nature a storyteller. Sometimes they translate to text on here, but mostly my poor friends and family have to endure all the cagey little nuances of my speech patterns. And sometimes I try to translate them to text, and they don't read the way they came out of my brain and went through my fingers tapping on the keyboard.
Or my brain is very cryptic, has a hard time staying focused on one short story and grammatically inept. I like to think it is the 'short story' part of the venture that trips it up. If I could ramble on and on and on and on.... well then, I would have all the time I need to go down all the little side tangents involved in any one story. I won't do that to you, however.

Kitsap County WA Part 1

When I was looking for a house with property to buy outside of Seattle... I drove throughout the surrounding towns and counties circling Seattle. I was looking for a community that WAS a community. Something that the developers did not decide the lay of the land, since for some reason greed wins out over "community" unless there are guidelines for density and requirements for infrastructure. In the last 20 years that seems to have been hucked out of the window of King County.
How I ended up in Kitsap is that it still has retained alot of it's rural nature. It has clear guidelines for density in city limits and outside. It was all written down which areas were slated for development, and they were near the city limits. Rather than checker-boarded allover the county. Which does not make happy rural property owners or development owners... since the reason people buy in a development may be so they don't have to look over a manure pile or have cows mooing next door. Ditto for rural residents. They may want the privacy so they can park as many derelict and dead cars as they want in their front yard and not worry about the neighbors complaining. Or raise pigs.
Over on the Seattle side of the water, former farmland areas to the north, east and south have been and are being filled with endless rows of quickly constructed developments with granite counters, spacious entry ways, walk-in closets and less expensive materials holding it all up.
I did research on rural density designations and development for all the counties I looked at. (and school data, crime data and community demographics) In Kitsap, we attended a meeting on zoning changes. The thing that struck me was the people in charge seem to be fresh outta school. I am all for school, but I think it takes a bit of life wisdom to take what you have learned in school all starry-eyed and dew-cheeked and roll it through the machine of real life, so it can get a semblance of what gritty reality is. Take your theories, actually live and work in the community, listen to the residents and business owners, imagine your county's role in a larger world....and then put something down on paper.
There is a bunch of development issues I have been watching with a keen eye. And it reminds me of the difficulty of the public process. More later....

Bears and kids

A long time ago I worked for the gift concessionaire at a zoo. When I saw this I both laughed my head off and was very happy for safety glass.

The subterranean bear/river otter house at the zoo where I worked was created with giant underwater glass walls...so you could see the animals when they were swimming. It was genius. It was also the one place I never wanted to be when the purported giant earthquake hit Seattle and broke that glass. Those bears are flippin' huge and put it all in perspective what a puny & defenseless species we are. Albeit with big brains, so we can design enclosures that keep us safe and separate from captured wild animals that wish to eat our head off.

Image courtesy Reddit, via http://www.theoatmeal.com/

Thursday Weather

It was a foggy day today. The mountain view is what I get to see on my way home. The clouds are hanging low over Hood Canal (toward the bottom of the pic), part of Puget Sound. I would not want to be a boater in that heavy goo. I could hear the fog horns. Nuclear subs go through those waters, too.

Ma at the Michigan Auto Show

My mom said she and friends took a field trip to the auto show. They had to jump in the air while the 3D camera took their pic. This is the lady who has two new hips. I forecast she will be playing center in basketball in no time with this jump. (Hi Ma)

Parenting - Letting Go

Rose had a sleepover before the school dance last weekend. She and her friend came bounding down the stairs...all chipper and happy. They were going to dye Rose's friends hair, could they dye Rose's too?
This has been simmering a long time. The kids "nowadays" (love saying that, makes me feel like such an old codger) change their hair color with the cycles of the moon. Rose has been asking me to color her hair. I know I have a non-neutral eye, but her hair color has always been lovely to me so I always deferred.
But I knew something like this was coming. And, after repeatedly giving her all the dire warnings, and then letting her hear it in a phone call with gal pal professional hair colorist extraordinaire, she chose to dye her hair. The goal was blond top, black underneath. And friend's hair was black top, blond underneath. I was cringing inside. But you know what? This sort of stuff has to happen. We can rant and ramble and lecture and 'model' behavior, but there are just some things that kids need to figure out on their own. It is not always the same thing... my daughter happened to have hair coloring as her venture out of the safety net this time.
I did not say no. I told her possible consequences, and that I would kill them both if they got dye on my new bathroom floor... and then let 'em go.
The color turned out orange in spots, bleach bottle blond in a circle on the top and uneven. She was a bit traumatized. But not in a bad way.
When her friend had fallen asleep under her own black-purple new hair, Rose came back downstairs. "Why weren't you a strict mom and absolutely forbid me from doing this if you knew it was going to be turn out orange and splotchy?" We talked about learning things for yourself vs. hearing something over and over again and it not making sense. We talked about choices. It is hard for me to let them figure stuff out on their own, when there are unpleasant consequences. This was a very very gentle consequence, one that was traumatic (for a dramatic teen), but not permanent nor dangerous.
The next day we got a brown hair dye. That night, they went to the dance and had a great time.

Driver's Education

We went to drivers education orientation for Rose. Last night, I had a dream she was driving a jumbo jet cross-country. With instructions on how to fly from the air traffic control tower. Coincidence? I think not.

Shamelessly stolen from another blogger

I am shamelessly forwarding this on from another blogger... www.rechelleunplugged.com
I have to also say that when I forget her blog address it is without fail that I type 'rechelleunleashed' rather than 'unplugged' because she accomplishes much unleashing on this blog. Some of her posts seem very reactionary to her environment -- probably the reason I Will Never Live in Smalltown Midwest. Rose pointed out this comedian was the wacky husband fellow from Arrested Development.

Have I told you about my frog?

For about 4 months I have had a frog in my house. It lives in the space between my bay window and bedroom door, somewhere around the floor. I hear him/her croaking. I thought it was trapped and going to have a slow death, but this many months later it still sporadically croaks. And just this morning, it had a frog-ly answer back.
Great, I am breeding frogs in my house. At least they are cute and very small. (although they sound gargantua by their croak)

This man is my doppleganger

Except I have hair, no muscles, no building skills and am female. Other than that, we are twins. At least in what we say. I found him when cruising for home improvement/building/restoration shows online. He has a show "Holmes on Homes."
The whole beginning part of the show when he is demolishing, or figuring out what he is fixing... he is complaining about the workmanship, skillset or lack there-of of the previous project workers.
"This isn't even attached to anything... They drilled right through the cable line.... here is an unsupported header.....they punched holes through here and you can already see the beginning of black mold.... this wiring is not attached to anything.... this light can is hanging by one wire....these stairs are supported by a 2" x 3"" You get the picture. Many times when I am figuring out house stuff, I have similar conversations. Mostly internally, but sometimes out loud.
Image courtesy : www.holmesmagazine.com

Budgeting a bathroom

The original bathroom for our farmhouse is 101" by 81". It was the only bathroom for 70-90 years, depending on when they built indoor plumbing and when exactly they added another bathroom upstairs (looks like 90's construction)
We changed the configuration, took out a bath and added a shower, moved the vanity and window. Tore out all the layers of linoleum both on the floor and wall. (sigh)
I was loathe to take out one of the few built-in storage units in the house, but did it since that is where the vanity now stands. Plus, found out that it was built over a heat outlet. So now we have heat in the room.
My original budget was $6000. Actuals are below:
Electrical contractor : $1300
Plumber: $1600
Flooring: $240
Toilet: $200
Tile: $45
Vanity: $60 (floor model sale - a scorchin' deal)
Fixtures :$110 + $60 (craiglist, restoration hardware and kohler)
Shower unit; $800 (craigslist, kohler)
Drywall, ceiling repair and window move : $450
Floor prep :$133
New window : $140

Craigslist saved my rump on this one. The fixtures and shower unit would have been totally out of my price range (who really pays $499 for a shower control ONLY) That total savings was $4700. The shower unit, kohler faucet, restoration hardware bath fixtures --boxes and boxes of them --(mirror, lights, towel rack, etc) were all new, unused in their original packaging. The only difficult thing was the finish. It is a brushed bronze, not really what I would have picked, but the price was right! It looks a little fancy in my bare bones house... but it is fantastic to have a bathroom downstairs again. And a toilet that can flush what a kid can produce without clogging. That right there is worth the money.

Portlandia

If you ever wanna know what it is like living in Seattle or Portland... here you go.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/205428/portlandia-i-dream-of-the-90s#s-p1-sr-i1

Gotta love it, this place can be over the top. I think my favorite part is when they go to the Portland restaurant and get the personal bio of the chicken they want to have for dinner. The "free-range on four wooded acres chicken" with attached photograph and name (Colin? something ridiculous... because lord knows we name our chickens well... Goldie for the gold colored one etc.) And then they get in their old Volvo wagon and go see where the chicken was raised to make sure it is all okay with them. Omigod. The funny part is that this is not a pie-in-the-sky scenario. It rings true for the NW. Wacky. Love it. (It should be noted we do also have normal people who shop at Safeway and just buy the damn plucked bird in the plastic bag without knowing the name...)
Image courtesy : http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/

Being Married, being divorced

When I can step back mentally from my life, I see it is a giant continuum. When I am in it day-to-day, staring the grindstone right in the nose and not able to get a wider perspective, all I see is a long to-do list. Because of my inability to prioritize (or lack of desire to) divorce is just another item to cross of that big to-do list. Unfortunately, it also has much emotional crap tied up in it which makes it a bigger item to cross off. Unlike, say, putting up the bathroom mirror, which has very little emotion connected with it, other than if I smash my thumb flat with the hammer. Then there would be emotion.
Other folks around me also give perspective. I happen to have individuals who are all in various stages of partnerdom. And that lends mental assistance to what I am doing with Michael. This marriage thing is not an easy path, and when I hear tales of new marriage, of old marriage, of no marriage, there are struggles. Take two people, raised differently, plop them in the same relationship, and it can be dicey, cranky and insanely fun. How we handle it, how we cope, is a great guide (or not) on how I can navigate through these strange waters. I am just hoping I don't have a heart attack from the crazy anxiety. Fear sucks. Especially since I don't normally operate from a fear-based existence. I try to look at it as a Big Adventure that will soon be over.
Photo: The second of three big piles that were thrown out the bathroom window during the remodel. It seemed appropriate.

Weather, work and life

Two days ago: snow, 20`.
Today : Sun and wind, 50`.
Tomorrow : ?.
At least when it is freezing my window doesn't leak --always thinkin' of the good side of things......
Have been getting calls from my ol' job and the things they are doing. It is hard and difficult to turn off the 'director' button when you no longer work someplace. So alot of times I am very quiet. Which, as anyone who knows me will tell you -- is not my usual state. I suppose it is good for me to learn to be quiet.

Husband and I are finalizing our divorce. It has been drawn out, slow, and amicable. The sticky point is the kids, as I think it should be in all divorces that have 'em involved. We are doing our best with them, since we both love them to high heaven. I am very thankful husband puts them first, also. This divorce thing is a very eye-opening experience. Brings out all your core operating systems as a being. As in what makes you operate and hold yourself together in times of tough. I am fairly sure I will survive this whole thing, but it seems very appealing at times to bury my head in a hole in the ground like an ostrich. But I slog on.
On a house note: I took my first shower today. Probably the first shower that has occured in this house in 25 years. Not including water leaks that shower water into the basement....

The bathroom ceiling

What is this you ask? Our bathroom ceiling, in one corner. Originally, we were not going to take out all the drywall, just what the plumber and electrician needed access to. Once Javier came on board the project, however, he said it would be near impossible to match the new drywall to the old and make it look good. Plus, who knew what was hiding behind that drywall? We found one live electrical wire, nestled tightly in a tiny channel carved from the drywall, and going nowhere, with no cap on the end, and covered by the (1970's) metal medicine cabinet... and this. Ya know what this is? It is where they put a vent through the roof and DID NOT SEAL it in any way, shape or form. This is the absolute rot that occurred over what must have been many seasons. And that rot extended to two main cross beams. Javier told me the white stuff was a root system from when our roof was cedar. As in, the roof was so far gone in this area, there were plants/trees extending their roots from the bathroom ceiling. I am sure said previous owner was shocked to note this condition, and so.... what did they do??? To make it all better, they fixed the unsealed roof leak, probably cut down their way trendy roof garden, and slapped a coat of paint over all this rot. I will have to remember that fix. Have rot anywhere? Smooth it out with some goo, and paint it.

As usual, we fixed it. This was a very tight area, so we ended up sistering a ceiling support and tearing out all the rot. We were also able to see and laugh heartily at the octopus system that is the upstairs bathroom drain plumbing. Who knew houses were soooo funny. I really am having fun, regardless of my tone in this post. The plumber comes back to finish Wednesday. Yay!

Night Visitor

The kids were both off at overnights in Seattle. When I drove up to the house on my return from the city, there were two yellow glowing eyes waaaay bigger than my cats... illuminated in the headlights.

It was so big I was thinking it was a mighty small bear, but when I saw the ungainly lumpy walk and its relative fearlessness knew it was a raccoon. It was not terribly scared of me, and halfheartedly tried to move it's big hiney up the holly tree. It seemed like a very difficult task and Amanda wanted to go play with the slow creature. I grabbed the dog and cat and threw them in the house. I grabbed the flashlight to go count chickens. They were all in and accounted for. The dog and cat pestered me to go outside for an hour. When I finally let them out to go pee I told them to leave the raccoon alone. They came back in the house intact, so all is well. Now I get to figure out how to get rid of the raccoon before it figures out how to get into my unlocked and unsecured coop. Dangitall.

Public Domain Image Courtesy : morguefile.com

End of the Year

It has been a long dry spell for me for posting, or for that matter, email.
Our "new" laptop had a file sitting on it that went viral. It then went to the trusty trusted computer doctor to get cleaned up. He played a bit of bejeweled, watched a game, and fixed our computer. Yay computer doctor! Yay friend who married such a talented man! Yay me for knowing this couple!
Otherwise, I would not be online right now.
Xmas was fine. We are supposed to be having snow again tonight. The horses are in their blankets. Their fields and stalls are mud. My dog was groomed for Christmas, and then ungroomed herself outside. The kids, as usual, were spoiled by Santa and family.
MY Bathroom is Almost Done! But that will be another post.

Private schools

When our daughter was in elementary school she lost her voice. Not literally, but the power that she had all along up to that point disappeared. I first noticed it when she freaked out about giving a speech in 5th grade. This girl had not had a problem before, all of a sudden the pressure of being in front of boys, of public speaking, of being the focus made her hate school.
I had read about this stuff where girls become invisible, but did not think my spirited daughter would succumb.
She did.
Fortuitously, family helped us send her to a girls middle school focused on science and math. The school was amazing -- repeatedly told her (and all the gals) that they could lead the world, whatever that meant to them. There was never a question about if the girls could do it, the educators were dedicated and positive. Within a year she was presenting projects in front of doctors, surgeons and business leaders. She went back to public high school with alot of self-esteem regarding her ability to learn.
Our son is in his first year of middle school. His school is big, the teachers mostly don't even know who he is, I feel like he is a cog in a big wheel, and is being pushed through whether he learns or not. He always loved math, but hates it now due to how it is taught. Our finances are quite different, but I took Wilder to look at a local private school (I should be accurate, they call themselves Independent schools) to see if he could have the same benefit Ruby had access to.
When we were walking away his comment was " How come all the adults and teachers talked to me?" He said that was so unusual.
It made me sad to tell him that was what educators do-- they are interested in their students (or prospective students) and their learning.

Snow Pics - to remind us of crazy driving

Top to bottom: This is the type of snow that cripples our area. In our defense, there is a bit-o-ice under there....
Okay here is the story.
1. We are all driving along a whopping 3-11 miles an hour, if that fast. More like a fast walking pace. The car in front of me, in the middle pic is a rear wheel drive lexus(?) acura(?) type thing. The rear wheel drive was killing this car, it went up this little hill somewhat sideways, with very little traction. Had it had to stop, it would have been stuck. And me and the 30 cars behind me would have been stuck, too.
Note in middle picture the truck that is in the same lane as us. You know what that dweebie toyota truck was doing? Passing. Passing to nowhere. It is not like there was one slow car holding everyone up. There was hundreds of cars, all being slow. So this guy pulled into the downhill lane that the poor acura was barely making it up... to pass the car in front. He did not have enough room, so when he gunned it and turned his steering wheel to go back into his own lane, his car continued on it's slow and straight motion trajectory of impact with the acura. Since we were all on ice.... his 4WD vehicle cannot drive on ice any better than the rest of us. It was all so slow, that I could just sit and take pics, almost comedic driving. At the last minute, his tires must have gripped the center line where the snow was not smooshed into ice, and his truck swerved back into his own lane. the bottom pic is the acura putting on her/his brakes and cursing him out. The funny thing was, that the toyota driver was going to get all up in the acura's face... but he couldn't stop.

Dingbat.

Snow "storm" pictures

Pics courtesy Blue Shoe Farm: ~ Miss Amanda blending in with the white stuff. Good thing she has a brown nose and eyes.
~The chickens were unfazed by the snow.
~The horses looking around and asking me: Hey lady, where are our blankets??

If you don't know this already, us folks up here in the northwest are considered snow wimps. Can't drive in it -- all of western WA slips to a standstill, buses are sideways, people abandoning their cars on the side or IN the middle of the freeways when they get stuck, countless fender benders. When we get 2" of snow.

To our defense... we do have hills, and don't use salt due to our salmon habitat and whatever other reason. Oh yeah, it only snows 2" every third or fourth year here. This was the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Ready for a new week of dust

I have been strangely silent on my house stuff going on.
That is because I was eternally pissed of the sideways progress made, then it snowed, the power went out for three days, then we had thanksgiving, then other stuff happened, and here I am, a much wiser calmer homeowner.
Tomorrow I have the plumber coming to finish up his work.
Please pray for me to be gracious, kind, and not tower over him with my cranky but sweet NW passive aggresiveness. Actually, it may be better to pray for him.
I will be shoveling horse manure tomorrow from stall to compost pile. It should do me a world of good.

This is how I know I am getting old....

This is how I know I am getting old. To me, this is wrong, on so many levels. From when our kidlets were this age... when the babes have that alert tenseness about their body, it means they are very stimulated... and mine only got that way with people, or their dog. Why am I old? I don't think a kid needs to be in front of a 2d screen that flashes images every one to three seconds. And I know we are becoming more and more digitally oriented.
(The following is exerpted from kidshealth.org)
"The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development."
I will bet you cold hard cash this wee baby will have a learning disorder or ADD/ADHD when older. If indeed they pop in a video every time the kid is in the car and this is just not a pic for advertising purposes.

When we carpooled with a group of kids, when we visit relatives, when we drive to somewhere, yeah, I get to hear bickering... but I also get to hear all sorts of other stuff. When they were this age in the car? They would fall asleep, or look at their favorite board book, or chew on something and drool.
Easy is not always better. This would be one of my cranky and feisty posts.

Thanksgivin' and readin'

Totally unrelated topic titles:
Thanksgiving was great. We were glad to have power back in the house in time to cook the bird. We have been without for three days. It is one of the hazards of living in an evergreen tree'ed community. When the wind whips it up a bit, they fall on the power lines. And houses, across roads, basically where they want to. Note to newbies who move to the NW. This is not open license to chop them all down. Go live in the desert if you feel that need for open spaces and not having things taller than you. It does not mean you cannot chop trees down, but don't be rash. I digress.
It was a great opportunity to find out that our monster generator does run well, does power the house, does keep our furnace running.
Gave me time to read a book I picked up at the library. "Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer" written by Novella Carpenter. I pick up books nowadays on fixing houses, farming, raising kids, house framing, roofing, rural politics... I am a reader. If I don't know something, I get a book.
Loved her name. The book was interesting. She is a bit 'hard-core' to me, but those are always the people that get things done, that start things going in new directions. She gardened on a vacant lot. Raised rabbits, chickens, ducks. She raised pigs in the city. Big, sloppy, aromatic pigs. That is quite a story. And how to slaughter. Which is still daunting to me. I remember that so much as a child... seeing the skinning rabbits, killing pigs, chopping off chicken heads. Someday, maybe I will feel the need to control another creatures life and death within our food chain. But not now. I don't need to do it to feed the family, and I don't honestly have the time. Have you ever seen how long it takes to prep a turkey? Even a chicken?

Bathroom Page 2

I am waiting on the plumber. They said they would be here at 8am, it is 9:21. The contractor came as promised at 8 on the dot. To meet the plumber. Who is not here.
I am paying him an hourly wage, but he is doing work, I hear hammering.
He has raised my bathroom floor 1" so far, to even it out. That worries me a bit, but not so much that I am biting my nails. I am not a nail biter. This process of hiring and bringing in a series of worker type dudes through the house is strenuous. It has taught me I am a worrier.
Javier who came last week and accomplished my big list in a previous post, was a dream. I did not worry about him.
OKAY maybe a little, because I am a detail oriented type of person, and since I don't know how to do this stuff, rely on books to show me. And baby, much of my house stuff is not in any book I have ever seen. So when people do repairs that are not in any book I get worried. NOT wanting to add to this house any of the half-assed work that we are seeing.
BTW, I am ever thankful for the bloggers and website folk who give detailed accounts of how to do something. That will never happen here, I just don't seem to have my thinking cap on at the same time I have my camera with me. And need other people around me to do the linear thinking. I am a bit global sometimes.
Curt the contractor said it best when I was going global about we needed to do this and this and this and this and this....
and he said "let's start with this one project bathroom, here."
I actually called the kids dad and told him I needed some linear thinking done, could he help.
I blame this on my aging. I used to be a very settled straight thinker.

Thanksgiving from Don

I have a friend who is a big sender of forwarded emails. He did not have a link to where this came from... but I got a kick out of it.

Greetings All,
>
> For those of you who are coming to my place for Thanksgiving dinner,
> Martha Stewart ain't gonna be here! I'm telling you in advance, so don't
> act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small
> changes:
>
> Our sidewalk will NOT be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After
> a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of
> flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
>
> Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated
> with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
> Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in decorating by having them track
> in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.
>
> The dining table will NOT be covered with expensive linens, fancy
> china,or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and
> everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain
> from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last
> Christmas.
>
> Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I
> promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration
> hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The children assure me
> it is a turkey.
>
> We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while
> you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I
> have made regarding Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and the turkey hot line.
> Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon
> discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
>
> As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of
> tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a
> recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously
> like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.
>
> We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the
> start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method.
> We'll just holler, "come and eat."
>
> We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke
> alarm sounds (remember - Robin is doing most of the cooking), please gather around the table and sit where you like. In
> the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate
> table. .....in a separate room......next door.
>
> Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in
> front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at
> our dinner.
>
> For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I
> stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the
> kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check
> on my progress. I have an electric knife.
>
> The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win.
> When I do, we will eat. I would like to take this opportunity to remind
> my young diners that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is
> it a request to bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread.
>
>
> Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice
> between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the
> traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small
> fingerprints. You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.
>
> Martha Stewart will NOT be dining with us this year. Next year is not
> looking good either.
HAPPY [EARLY] THANKSGIVING

Quick done list

I have been busy. Or, I have been keeping other people busy. I lost my linkup for my cam, so pics will be later.
1. Put a new screen door on. I did it! With Dennis helping lift it up while I screwed it in.
Two minor details. a) I was soooo careful putting the z-bar on. But moved the door at the last minute, so mounted the z-bar on the other side of the door. So my door opens on the other side from what I wanted. I am embracing it. b) I found a lottery ticket shoved in the old broken screen door we took down used as a shim. If anyone needs lucky numbers from 1994, give me a holler.

2. Put the marble backsplash behind my kitchen sink. The marble came !free! from Craigslist. Thank you Capitol Hill person who was giving it away. This is the backsplash that was wood. Ah yes. Wood. One inch behind the sink, where water sits. It was the second thing I pulled out of this house. It was rotting.

3. Fixed the barn. Again. Dang horses that try to shove their large bodies in one stall together. And then try to get out the door at the same time.

4. Replaced the living room window. Added new window molding, interior and out. While doing this, found an newspaper clipping from 1964 when the Queen of Norway visited Poulsbo. It is from the Kitsap Sun.

5. Had the roof cleaned off and treated. There was a whole lotta moss on this thing in one year. That is why northwesterners are sometimes called "mossbacks", we inhabit a wet clime. The two young men who scraped and brushed the roof... rappelled on our steep roof. It was rainy and windy. I felt so bad they were doing it in this weather so we made them cookies and hot chocolate.

6. Laid new carpet in the living room. Note: Sawzalls cut carpet REALLY quickly, but it will disturb your dog. If you have one.

7. Painted the living room trim.

8. Hired the plumber.

9. Picked out the marmoleum for the bathroom floor. I am getting screwed on the cost -- $560 for a (7 'x 8') floor. But there are not many people over here in Kitsap that know how to install (or want to install) marmoleum. It is pretty grueling.

10. Covered the bay window "bottom." I have no idea why it was uncovered, exposed, open to the elements, but it was. And now it is not.

11. Replaced the rotten garage door. Person size, not car size.

12. Replaced half the chicken coop roof. Am slowly doing the rest.

Still gotta do:
--Move dirt out of the basement (there is a pile of dirt in our basement, no clue why) It is where the plumber will be working.
--Replace crappy horse fence.
--Replace upstairs bathtub. Have the tub, need to move it in and build a frame for it.
--Move and replace house interior lighting. Not all, just a few.....

Interior door - concussion weapon

A bit more than a week ago my bathroom door that was removed from the hinges fell over and tried to knock me out. Luckily, I have a hard head, but did not feel too well for a couple days. First injury of the remodel has happened. I also got a completely lame blister raking leaves.
That door was going to cost me $150 to dip strip it in a methylene chloride based bath. My professional woodworking neighbor said my antique door could fall apart if I dunked it in a wet bath... the dunk can make the joints all fall apart. I heeded his advice and went to the paint store and for a can of paint remover instead. Took off the black glass door knobs and plates. Hauled it outside to the garage.
Already I see the door has been through several color changes. It is damaged, dented and needs some lovin'. That's what I am here for. I shall take care of you sad little door.
Pics to follow.

Bathroom - Downstairs Part 1 1//2

Curt sat me down. (Curt is my contractor) Sometimes he gets rather quiet when we are discussing, which can be disconcerting. I am sure it is because I am confidentally waffling on something, and he seems a rather straight-forward person.
He told me what we do first, and I dutifully wrote down the checklist of how we are doing the bathroom. Then called plumbers for quotes. The range for the work was $1300 - 2800. That is craziness in numbers. The problem is I liked the most expensive guy, and Curt told me to hire the least expensive because he knows the company.
Tomorrow is my day to quiz the plumbers. I will ask the most expensive : What the heck am I paying for and why are you charging more? And the least expensive: What aren't you doing? But in my usual friendly sort of way.
All the quotes seemed pricey for what I am doing. It seems like about a two hour job. (But then, really, am I a plumber? Nope.)
As an example of my negotiating skills (not really negotiating, just friendifying) I called the oil company to get a delivery for our furnace.
I asked Paul of my company what the rate was per gallon. He told me $3.24. I was quiet a while, and said wow it has gone up... he then said, let me get my price sheet and see if I can do any better. After a couple seconds he said how about $3.14. I said okay, but that would save me a whoppin' $8.00. He laughed, and kinda clomped around on his calculator and said, yeah, I guess that's not much. How about $3.10? I started laughing and told him I was a baker. How negotiable was this oil?
Too bad we can't do this at the gas pump.