blarg

so if you cant tell by my 5-6 month absence this year, ive either been busy, pre-occupied, or lost interest in this thing... im not entirely sure which is the winner. some morbid manifestation of them all? perhaps.

[cincy.house]
most of you are pretty up to date because one of the main reasons i started this thing was to update my long lost family back home on the status of the house and cincy in general [this was before the name change & relocation obviously] since relocating, i talk to most of you much more often and we discuss these things more often. but i suppose there are perhaps those of you out there that have read this blog from afar or perhaps dont stay in such close contact with me - to you, i do apologize, and will henceforth briefly update you.

the short answer is that nothing has happened. we finally finished reconstruction the last day of september, and we've paid everyone everything we owe them. we put the house back on the market, but had no interest worth mentioning in it since [nearly two months now?]

the crazy girl has popped up over and over and in the last 6 months we were forced to retain legal services and subsequently pay a shit-ton [i think thats metric] of money for essentially nothing. about every two months she pops back up with some nonsense amendment or letter that we have to pay to have our attorney, yet again, squash, disprove and render pointless... and then she disappears for two months.... i guess its about time for more of her nonsense? who knows. who cares. shes certifiable.

other than that, we discussed at great length the option of renting the house and have since gone through all the necessary paperwork and such to hire a property management company to handle things and get it rented out. they have another couple of weeks to find a tenant before the 45 day deadline - that come to think of it, i have absolutely no idea what happens after it expires. they seem certain that they can find a tenant before their time is up, so here's hoping they are correct. if we do manage to successfully rent this thing out it would cancel out the payments we're still making on it and in the end actually service as a modicum of additional income - sweet!

and that my friends, is the house update. such as it is.

[work]
work is good. staying moderately busy working on a handful of things. i still really enjoy my job and the freedom its granted me in addition to the obvious benefits of being gainfully employed. no worries here, i appear to be quite secure in the continued availability of my position as well as the continued happiness of my superiors. time and again i appear to have exceeded their expectations and they continue to assign me more responsibility, more respect, and more inclusion in things than i ever really could have imagined. as far as fellow employees go, i honestly like everyone ive met and have reoccurring contact with. there are certainly a few here or there that tend to have less than ideal personalities, but hey, to coin a common cliche - thats why they invented 32 flavors, eh? i dont mind. if im having a day where someone or someones are becoming an annoyance for whatever reason, i can simply turn up my headphones, shut my door and drown out my surroundings while i work away in the comfort of my office. [well, until i start to cook and have to allow in some ventilation, but those are sufficiently spaced intervals.] in summary, work is good.

[everything else?]
not really sure what to say. i could update you all on my wifes life, but really, shouldnt she be doing that? i dont really have the inclination.

||gadgets||
i did get a new toy for my birthday last weekend - yes, you missed it, and i'll only forgive you in the wake of lavish gifting - a kindle fire. you've probably seen them in the news, theyre supposed to be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season and are expected to be the only realistic rival to the ipad2.

i can say that in the few days ive had this thing it has completely abducted me. i am engulfed in its intricacies and discovering what all it has to offer. the main reason i wanted one was for games, movies, and books to take along on our cruise in a couple of weeks and so far im not disappointed in the offerings.

i havent yet started to purchase books for it, but ive done extensive wish listing on amazon and will soon make some decisions about purchase. the quality i can get in video is more than satisfying although i havent yet figured out how to get movies/tv shows directly to the device instead of streaming from the cloud... [apologies for all the tech-jargon if youre clueless] and lastly the games.

ive never been too terribly into mobile device gaming, but im starting to understand it a little better. other than a few word games that were mostly encouraged by the wifey, i hadnt really found any games that interested me much on them. oh sure, i test drove a few and they were fun for a little while, but after about 5 minutes, i was bored with most of them. not that i really have a ton of time for gaming anyhow, but its certainly part of the device experience these days. well, since acquiring my fire, ive found a few games im really enjoying. one is a pinball game that really took me back to pinball on our old win95. man its been years since i played that, but i rather enjoyed it then, and had a good time tinkering with it on the fire the other day. and then last night i really found some winners. i rediscovered mahjong [again, probably not since win95] and had a good time cussing it as i relearned the game, and even better was a crossword puzzle game. never been huge on crossword puzzles, but this proved to be very enjoyable as karen and i teamed up and spent a solid hour or two trying to solve the puzzles. we dont really play a lot of games together and this was actually a lot of fun for me, so that seems like a winner.

other than that, karen seems to be a bit annoyed with the thing, and im afraid shes starting to regret gifting it. i dont feel like ive really been playing with it to the extent of ignoring her or neglecting my husband-ly duties, but she certainly seems off-put whenever i pick it up. im not sure why really, but im obviously not seeing things from her perspective. honestly, im just really enthralled with figuring out all that it can do and how it does it, and once the newness and the mystery wears off, im sure itll be less enthralling, and hopefully less intrusive. either way, i am enjoying it. =]

||house||
the only other item i really feel inclined to comment on is houses. not the one in cincy though, here in houston. for those of you that dont already know, karen and i have taken a serious look at things and have decided we are ready to buy in houston, and as such, have begun the process. we met with a mortgage adviser at our bank and found out that i have awesome credit and we've been unofficially approved for a more sizable  mortgage than i had ever expected and with a very reasonable interest rate in my perspective.

we've enlisted the help of a close friend/realtor to help us with the search and have started scouring the city for that perfect house. so far we havent found it, but have been able to really start nailing down what things we do want, dont want, areas and neighborhoods we are and arent interested in, things we're willing to compromise on, and the price range we actually want to be in - and what that looks like in terms of potential houses.

its a process and its ongoing. ideally we'd like to close on something before january 1st for financial reasons, but at this point its not looking terribly likely. who knows, perhaps that perfect-for-us house is lurking just around the next corner. in the meantime we have some solid options that we're planning to try and get showing for by the end of this week. we've already done one round of these that was a little disappointing, but thats all part of the process, im not discouraged yet.

hopefully it all turns out.

hmm...
so i guess thats all i have for now. not much of an update, sorry. hope i didnt ramble too much. really hope you all had a happy thanksgiving - please do me a great favor and ignore anything and everything fox news is reporting about the president's non-official thanksgiving you-tube video. actually, if you really want to do me a favor, never watch fox news again - what a bunch of idiots...

okay, thats it.

lone.star.livin'

as i sit here typing, the window next to me depicts the serene images of leisurely life at its utmost. the palms gently swaying in the sea breezes, the small song birds happily chirping and flitting around playing a lively game of tag, the hint of saltwater and sand floating on the air, and of course the rousing chorus of the 3 pugs chasing each other, fighting over the most select toy, and all-the-while attempting to breathe through their genetically deformed air passages... [the latter, perhaps less serene...]

yes thats right y'all, im in texas. and on the texas coast to be more specific. home-again-home-again-jigitty-jig.

its been several months since i last updated the ole' blog, and much has changed. most of you that actually read this are close enough that you're already aware of most of the events of my life, however, supposing there are the rare few out there in the entire world [and beyond...?]that might per-chance stubble upon this and decide its worth a read, follow-along as i briefly wrap up the major events of the recent past and set the scene for future-posts.

[the.job.situation]

when last we spoke [er, wrote?] i was embarking on a little adventure of landscaping with my friend from n'awlins and we had completed a few little jobs with some success. well that lasted about as long as you read.

we never ended up getting another job [i think it was really just the seasons changing] even though we bid on a number of them. after a couple of weeks however, i was desperate for cash-flow again and sought some other income situation.

i still had the itt job at this point and was enjoying my first class [and getting the hang of it a bit more as time went on] however the minuscule salary of a new adjunct teaching one class is not something to sustain one's extravagant lifestyle... ;]

so to shorten the longevity of my verboseness in the instance, i posted an ad on the church website boasting my qualifications, and through a series of serendipitous events, i ended up working for jones the florist [the name in florists in the greater cincinnati area] that ended up being a pretty great experience for a few months. i started out doing candy bouquets[if you dont know what that is, just go to their website...] and as it would turn out was quite the craftsman. i picked this little skill up very quickly and in a few days was pretty much the fastest person on production in the place. so i candied for a couple of months while they got through some big seasonal orders and then when the seasonal time was up i inquired about staying on for a bit longer if theyd have me...

meanwhile - in those months at jones, i had been offered and accepted another classes for the following quarter at itt, took up karate in my "spare" time, and then as i looked into extending my stay at jones, was offered and accepted 2 classes for the upcoming quarter and had a couple of promising interviews.

one of the interviews was with one of the biggest architecture firms in cinicnnati [and while i wont play the dropping names game, they're huge and "worldwide"...] and i was very excited about the prospect. this was the dream job in the cincinnati area and since karen and i had resolved to sticking around there, this was a big deal. in conjunction with that, i started interviewing, via the vast world-wide telecommunications network, for a position in a construction firm in houston. [spoiler alert! if you havent yet read the title of the blog.... um.... dont.]

well jones decided to hire me on as a delivery driver because of my mad-skillz and obvious awesomeness and i enjoyed working for them through december. the interview with the b-i-g arch firm was less than fruitful in the immediate present-tense sense of things - although it was a great feeling knowing they were interested and seriously considering me! - and as it would turn out i was offered and accepted the job in houston. [shocker. i know.]

thus begun a whirlwind of activity revolving this drastically life-altering occurance...

[h-t-x]

so... heres the run-down on h-town.

i interviewed for this position for a bout a span of a month's time and on the friday before karen and i were supposed to leave for our annual christmas voyage to the south to see the family, the construction company emailed me the offer letter.

i thought it over [but not for long - this was an amazing opportunity!] and discussed it with family and friends over the weekend, and then first thing monday morning i accepted and we got the ball rolling.

the next day [tuesday] karen and i flew out to texas for our holiday vacation and i stayed in loose contact with my new boss via email - and while we were in texas anyway and so near our soon-to-be-home, we decided to get started on some of the more menial tasks of setting up bank accounts and starting the apartment hunt...

on the 28th of december we flew back to cinicnnati and at this point it had been decided that my start date would be january 10. for anyone not doing the math, thats about a week and a half that i had to be back in texas and ready to start the job with my truck, and any belongings of mine that i would need in texas, as well as helping karen as much as humanly possibly to pack up our house, get rid of whatever we werent taking and generally begin the moving process...

i needed to embark on the cross-country drive by no later than the 5th to have 2 days for the actual driving part and a couple of days to get settled in and ready to start work on the 10th.

so between dec 28 and jan 5 karen and i worked like crazy people to go through our entire house and get rid of anything and everything we could do-without so that we didnt have to move it cross-country.

we sold off furniture on criagslist, had an extensive garage sale to rid ourselves of smaller items, donated a ton of stuff to the church and local clothes-closets, had contractors come in and do some of the final repairs we just hadnt gotten around to yet on the house and now had no time to do and needed to be done before the move/sale, got the house put on the market and worked with the realtor to figure out the best plan of attack, said goodbye to as many dear friends as i could before i left, and in the end... karen still ended up having to stay in cincinnati another 3 weeks after i left to finish all of the above...

of course that then precludes to the ensuing madness of my driving to texas and staying with josh and cassie for the short-term while i searched for an apartment and a place to move all of our crap, started the new job and got settled in, had miscellaneous issues with the truck that needed to be dealt with [for instance i ended up needing to have all 4 tires replaced after the journey south, or the entire engine maintenance checkup i was 10,000 miles over-due on, etc., etc., etc.... ]...

in the end however. we arrived safely. we got everything moved. we found an apartment. i started my job and have settled pretty well into it. karen has since found a temporary job shes enjoying teaching swimming lessons in houston, while still searching for that perfect career job of her own. and last - but certainly not least - we have had quite the rollercoaster of events surrounding the sale of the cincy-house....

but that my friends... is a story for another time.

and with that - im signing off. hope to post more soon-ish, but with life's many obstacles, who really knows?

god bless texas, and have a good-un y'all. =]

inspiration.

well, i have no excuse. its been something like, idunno, a millennia since my last post, and im sure none of you even keep tabs on this thing anymore. i dont blame you, i dont. lol!

the truth is, after i got laid off, i went through a lot of emotion and got too busy to blog, even if i had wanted to. i was depressed for a long time about the work thing and it really took its toll on me, so i stopped writing. i didnt want to be that guy that just bitches to his blog-o-sphere about how shitty everything is... [please disregard the 3 or 4 blogs that did get published that follow that pattern... whoops...] so i postponed. then i more or less forgot about my blog altogether.

but now im back, at least for right now, and.... we'll see what happens.

so what have you missed? ha! like im going to re-tell 10 months of story-line. you guys would never make it. i used to get complaints from a certain brother-of-mine about the length of my blogs when it was still a weekly update, i cant even imagine 10 months... i will however, hit a few highlights for you guys. [and just a fair warning, its still probably going to be hella-lengthy, you know how i roll...]

[work. well... sorta.]

the fact of the matter is, work has been a constant struggle since getting laid off last year. for a long time i just floated around in the unemployment abyss, desperately searching for any kind of a nibble, but to no avail... eventually i decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and forget the dozens of architecture firms that were straight up ignoring me, and make something happen for myself. well, it didnt exactly happen over night or anything, but eventually i caught a few bites here and there and in january i started doing some freelance consulting and training for Revit. if you dont know what Revit [pronounced rev-like an engine-it] is, then im not going to bore you with all the details, but essentially its a newish software thats being used in the aec [architecture/engineering/construction] industry and i happen to be proficient in it. well, more than many as it would seem. and as it also turns out, im pretty good at evolving with it, so as they continue to update the program and make everything totally screwy, i can still keep up with it.. anyway, enough about Revit... so i did that for a while and made a little bit of money, certainly not a lot. but i did make some good contacts and got lots of positive feedback on my abilities and such. always nice.

meanwhile, when that part of the get-up-and-go phase started to fizzle out, i picked up some work with the census bureau for the 2010 census. if you didnt fill out your census, shame on you. if you have strong opinions about the census, keep em to yourself, i really dont care. so the first 6 weeks of census work went really well. i essentially got paid to sit around in an air-conditioned room and read a book while i waited to assist anyone with a question about the census. yes, i am aware this sounds like a huge waste of taxpayer money, i completely agree with you that it could have been better spent somewhere else, however, thats the way it worked out and i needed the cash, so im not gunna hate on it. that lasted for about 6 weeks as i think i mentioned a second ago, and in that time i read something like 10 books [and im not talking about 100pg short stories, im talking 500 page novels with some girth to em...] that ranged from the new dan brown, to a number of tom clancy's, and then eventually restarting the left-behind series [which i am currently still working through...]

so after the first 6 weeks of census work, the phase i was working on [QACR for anyone interested in the big government acronym...] ended and i was back to being unemployed and feeling somewhat unemployable. haha, only somewhat... anyway, at this point there was a random phone call from the heavens and i was offered an interview for adjunct professor at ITT Tech. for the next 4 or so weeks i continued to tag along to interview after interview and filling out paperwork after paperwork in their extremely lengthy hiring process, until they finally officially offered me the position and i became an adjunct prof, hence checking that little item off my lifetime to-do list.

simultaneously, about 2 weeks after the first census stent, they called me back and offered me another position and i graciously accepted the work [hoping against all odds it would be a similar cake walk and i could get back into reading mode...] well, this time around they had me in a different phase of the census, obviously, [NRFU-RI for anyone still interested in fancy government acronyms...] and well... turned out to not be anywhere as much fun. in fact, it was downright awful. so i trudged along in virtual hell for 3 weeks, i think, doing that and making like no money, because again - worst. job. ever. x infinity. - when i started to take seriously an inner tug id been feeling toward landscaping.

so completely randomly, i was leaving church one fine sunday morning and spotted a truck in the parking lot for a landscaper, quickly jotted down the number and then totally out of the blue called and asked if they were hiring. we set up an interview for a couple days later, and on the spot i got hired on - so now i was officially a landscaper. not on that lifetime to-do list, but hey, we can write it in just to check it off, right? ;] well the best part was that i got to call the census and quit. WHOOP! which made my life a LOT happier at that point. i started landscaping the next day and thus started the exciting world of two-jobs!

yes, thats right, my teaching gig started at the same time as the landscaping so i was working 40hours a week landscaping, plus another 20-24 on the weekend preparing for and teaching my first class ever. im sure you can all do the math on that, it made for not a lot of playtime... luckily, a week after i started landscaping, karen graduated from her architecture grad program [congrats sweeite!] and flitted off to san francisco for the summer again [see posts from summer 2009 for more info on that little gem...] so i didnt really have a whole lot to do in my "spare" time anyway.

alright, so fast forward 5 or 6 weeks... and i get laid off. boom. haha. yeah, thats the way the world works sometimes. luckily, this time around i was in a MUCH better place, and i just took it in stride. at this point, i have to break on work [and we're all the way up to the beginning of july now on the time-line anyway, so youre really pretty caught up] and we have to switch gears a little. dont worry, we'll come back to work in a bit.

[church. yes, i said church. maybe i should say god, or faith, or something else, but you get the idea...]

so as im sure you remember - or after a little re-reading, you might remember - church had always been there in the background of my blogs. karen and i had been going pretty much every single week [minus the rare week we didnt go, or when we were out of town or something...] and we were enjoying the church we'd found up here in cincy. i wouldnt say there was a whole lot else to it at that point, a year ago or whatever, it was just what we did on sunday mornings. i had faith, i believed in god, i was a regular, but i missed my church in denver something awful, and really didnt feel all that at home in this one in cincy. it was nice, but it wasnt my home yet.

so we'd been going for a year and some change, and it was still nice, getting to be more comfortable, but certainly not home and definitely still overwhelming. i dont know if i mentioned it before or not, not that it matters because i doubt youd remember at this point, but the church we go to has a membership of something like 15,000 people. no, thats not a type-o, thats not an extra zero, fifteen thousand... i believe. i could be off by a couple hundred, so sue me. anyway, as you can imagine, that many people makes the place a little daunting when you think about "community," or even just meeting people. obviously theyre freakin everywhere, but i wasnt in the habit of walking up to strangers, even if we did go to the same church, and introducing myself. so... about the same time as the freelancing gig - early-january-ish - karen and i had a conversation. we decided that it was time to actively start making cincinnati feel more like home. we were tired of just owning a house and existing here. we were tired of not really knowing anyone or having many friends... so we came to the decision that we were going to start getting more involved in our church, and specifically - our church community. at first we didnt really know what this was going to look like, but then everything started spiraling out of control, lol. tome calls it the snowball effect, i suppose that works. anyway seemingly simultaneously three big things happened.

1. i was really starting to get a tug on the ol' heart strings that i wanted to get involved with habitat for humanity again and do some volunteer construction. id been feeling this way for a couple weeks when. boom. we go to church and they announce its time for info sessions for go new orleans. go nola is essentially a pretty big campaign at our church that has been happening for 4 years now, where we send a ton of people to new orleans to work with habitat for humanity to help continue the re-building effort post hurricane katrina. i know its hard to believe, but yes, its been 5 years and parts of the place still look like an atomic bomb went off a few weeks ago... its really heart-wrenching... so obviously all the neon lights in my head went off and i was like, yeah im gunna do that.

2. about that same time they announced sign-ups for go cincinnati. if youll recall, karen and i did go cincinnati last year, and its essentially a day where a couple hundred churches all get together and have like 4000 people go out and just love on our city. we do various projects ranging from cleaning, to painting, to landscaping, you name it. if theres a need, we try to fill it. well, karen and i really enjoyed it last year, so we signed up for this year as well. ...to be continued...

3. free. so again, about that same time, our church began its annual "all-church-journey," which this year was focused on the topic of freedom and getting the freedom god wants for your life. well, last year, karen and i were still pretty new to the church and decided to um, skip the journey thing. we didnt really feel it at that point, however, this year we were like, yes, lets get into this. so the journey is a 3 part thing, you get involved in a small group, you work individually on your own personal stuff, and you participate in the main church services each week that supplement the first two. its like a 6 week journey, so theres a lot of time spent digging into the topics and getting your jesus on. well, karen and i were both feeling a nudge this year, to not only do the journey and get involved, but also to open our home up and lead a small group. so it turned out we had an amazing group of folks join our group and we spent the next 6 weeks getting to know these awesome people, share our personal stories, have some social time, and most importantly - get free.

so getting back to the go cincinnati thing. one of our group members, who also happens to be our across the street neighbor, was apparently a higher up in the go cincinnati echelons, and called up randomly about 2 weeks before go-day. there was a need for someone to take the lead on one of the projects, and she felt like after getting to know us better during the journey, that we were the perfect people to take this one. well the project was a mural, and the moment karen heard "mural" she pounced like a lioness on a helpless little gazelle. needless to say, we were in.

it was an arduous process, however we had a blast working on the mural and it really turned out to be an amazing experience for all of us involved. i wont go into the lengthy detail of the experience, many of you know all the ins and outs anyway, but there were a number of obstacles that popped up and we overcame all of them and had a really awesome turn-out.

so all of this to say, this year G.o.d. has really taken a much larger role in my life and we've gotten a lot more involved in the church and i was really looking forward to go nola at the beginning of july. and.... now we can jump back to work/church... well, its a slash, so i dont know if it counts as a jump. anyway, back to the more recent past... if that makes any sense at all... meh, just humor me.

[work/church]

okay, so i just got laid off. again. but me and god are pretty tight these days, so im not really stressin it. also, go nola is next week, so i was going to have to take off from work for that anyhow.. =]

so i went to new orleans. we had a freaking INCREDIBLE time in new orleans. id never been before and i really didnt know what to expect - this was also my first "mission trip" - but it turned out to be SUCH a blessing. i met dozens of awesome people and we worked HARD while we were there and i mean just... i dont have the words really. some pretty amazing things happened in new orleans, and i really felt like i was getting some serious jesus vibe while i was there. a couple of different things were going on in the weeks leading up to and including nola.

1. i was really loving this landscape thing. i had never really paid too much attention to landscaping until we got the house, and then my garden became a bit of an obsession this year - being laid off and all, whats a guy to do but putter around in his garden? ;] - and along with that, i really started beefing up the remodeling work on the exterior of the house [no, not going to get into all that in this post, sorry, maybe later...], and i was really feeling like this was what i wanted to do. id been thinking about it, and talking about it for a couple weeks, but basically i had this really serious desire to get more involved in design/build stuff. now i'll elaborate, i dont mean like a huge design-build firm that does these big commercial projects, etc. if youre familiar with the term design-build, you may understand what im saying here, but thats not what i wanted. i wanted small scale design/build where i actually got to do both. i want it all. i want to design, i want to build, i want to get dirty and work with my hands and hopefully make some money. so thats one of the things that was going through my head while i was in new orleans, and for some reason the whole week i kept hearing him telling me to let go and trust him. and well, i was like okay, thats what ive been doing this entire year with this job situation... and i kind of ignored it. but i knew he was being specific. he was telling me to trust him and specifically to trust him to go and do my own thing, to follow this desire in me, and not worry about working for someone else or where the money will come from... so we'll get back to that in a second...

2. while i was in nola, i dont know what it was, but i was really feeling this twinge, for lack of better syntax, regarding teenagers. now, when i was in denver i worked with the childrens ministry and had a blast doing it, but since we moved here, ive never had the desire to get back into the childrens ministry with our new church. but thats not what this was, this was more specific, this was high-school kids. and ive never really been interested in that before, if anything i was worried theyd annoy the crap out of me. because, well... i didnt like high-school kids when i was in high-school, i cant imagine theyre any better now, lol! anyway, regardless, i was getting this "twinge" or nudge, or calling, or i dont know what it is. and the entire week, all these high-school kids seemed to be gravitating to me. maybe im just imagining it, but i can think of 5 or 6 different teenagers off the top of my head that seemed to always be around chatting me up. and i really enjoyed it, it turns out there actually are some cool teenagers out there and i felt like i wanted to get to know them more and get involved with them. so... as of yet, i havent completely pursued this avenue. when i first got back i inquired about getting involved with the csm - thats the "youth group" at our church - and discovered that its not only a pretty involved process of getting into it, but they also want a 2 year commitment from their volunteers and at this point... im just still thinking/praying about it. i dont know whats going to happen with working and living situations, and whatever else over the next 2 years. my life has been pretty insane the last year, well, the last 2 years really, so i feel like its going to continue being insane, and i dont know how i feel about making a 2 year commitment. what if i end up needing to move? i certainly dont want to have to go back on my word or disappoint a bunch of teenagers who think im going to be around and build relationships with them... so im still pondering that "twinge"... maybe theres another outlet thats going to pop-up that i can serve in, i guess we'll see.

so getting back to the work thing and that trusting thing and the design/build thing...

i just got back from new orleans, last week, and have no prospects for work. not one. ive exhausted my architecture firm quarry, and i dont feel like i want to work in an architecture office right now anyway, ive still got the professor thing, [and they offered me another class for next quarter!] but that well, doesnt pay. anything. really. so... i didnt know what i was going to do for actual money/work, and then my phone rang. and just like that, out of the blue, i got a call from one of the guys i worked with in new orleans and actually spent a good amount of time with in new orleans and he essentially asked me if i wanted to partner with him in his landscaping/remodeling business. just like that. it was pretty obviously a sign, and of course i said yes.

so as of this week, we have partnered up. so far weve already worked and completed 2 different jobs and have a 3rd lined up for tomorrow and it seems like, the projects are just falling in our laps. i know thats not whats really happening, and i know that colin [thats his name if you didnt get that] has done some things in the way of advertising in the past, but nonetheless, weve stayed busy all week and we have a job lined up for tomorrow [friday] and a couple of prospects for the future. so i dont know where all this is going to go, and i dont know how consistent its going to be, but im excited about it and i really feel like this could be a good thing. either way, im going to just keep having faith and trusting that God is going to take care of it all and i know everything is going to work out.

other than that.... um... well, karen is due back from california in less than two weeks now, and im extremely excited to have her back, but otherwise, haha, theres not a whole lot to tell. believe it or not, thats the majority of the highlights for the last 10 months, and im really just waiting to see what interesting events tomorrow - the collective tomorrow - holds.

anybody seen inception yet? if you havent, do so. ab-so-friggin-lutely spectacular film. i might see it again... although, i should probably see despicable me first, want to so bad! any takers? this weekend?

...from all of us here at channel 4, you stay classy... cincinnati ;]

much.the.same

so karen arrived back in town safe and sound last wednesday. her flights were uneventful although being the smarty she was she decided it would be a good idea to go to the airport 10 hours early to try and catch an earlier flight... and didnt. so she spent a LOT of time waiting around in airports for her return to cincy, and after a short time of nearly unbearable hunger, the trip was over and she was back in my arms. since getting her home shes taken in all of the projects and changes and such and she seems quite pleased with the results. the day she got back i took off and our first "to do" on the list was the store and that night my wife decided to cook - and boy did she ever. it seems she was suffering a little in san fran with a kitchen about the size of a postage stamp and about as much space in the shared refrigerator. so when we got home she decided to make 2 different kinds of lentil salad, a carrot salad, pineapple bread, and we also made some home-made slasa that was just awesome. i took some pictures to share with the fam, but they arent very impressive and certainly not worthy of posting.

last weekend karen and i went to cleveland to attend a couple of friends of ours wedding. it was a really nice wedding, although pretty warm, but great times all around. it was a lot of fun getting to enjoy their day with them and see a bunch of our friends along the way. oh and did i mention the food? man i wish i had taken some pictures.... after the ceremony and before the reception there was a pre-reception party back at the brides parents and oh. my. god. they had some AMAZING food... apparently her step-dad owns one of the best restaurants in cleveland and boy did it show. everything was just mouth watering... overall it was a pretty exhausting weekend with the trip up and back and all the festivities and karen was totally jet-lagged most of the time, but we had a lot of fun and my wife looked incredible in her new dress ;]

since returning from cleveland things have gotten pretty well back to normal. ive been going to work and karen has been taking care of school stuff and doing different odds and ends around the house. shes started messing with wall paper and painted some primer here and there, but nothing super exciting as of yet. oh, one fairly significant change, we decided to finally move from the penthouse [aka sauna...] down to the second floor bedroom and things have been oh so much cooler. its about half the size of the upstairs room and theres the ability to close the door and contain the space, so the window air conditioner, while not the most attractive on the front of the house, does a much better job of cooling the space. we had about 3 nights of just absolutely sweaty sleep and had had enough. since then we've been much happier, haha!

umm... hmmm... what else...

well i cant really think of anything else to update you on. its only been a few days and sadly, as the title boasts, things are much the same as always. its definitely spectacular having the wife back [in oh so many ways!] and we're having a blast hanging out again, but life has a way of plateauing... much like working out does. although, my work outs are still gong well. ive skipped a few days with the wife around [and our shear exhaustion from the traveling and such] but ive also really pushed myself hard when i have gone and im feeling great about things.

well anyway, ill let you know when [if] something exciting happens, haha!

love+miss!

post.script: whos seen g.i.joe? how was it? want to soooo bad!

another.recap

so i know i havent been quite as faithful as id hoped and promised id be in the last post, but, eh, you know how it goes...

when i last updated we discussed a number of different things and i suppose the best route here would be to update you on the ones that need updating and then subsequently discuss any additional topics.

well first let me say happy brithday to both jeremy and josh [my brother-in-law and brother-in...blood] who've both turned another year older in the last few days. i dont know how old jeremy is to be honest, but josh is now 24 and well, taking stock of his accomplishments so far in life, id say hes doing very well for himself. hes finished school, gotten a good job that pays well and doesnt seem to be too affected by the economics of the present, just bought his first house with his new wife and theyre getting settled in... over-all pretty amazing for 24 id say. congratulations josh! jeremy is back over seas for the time being. hes working contract work out in iraq or kuwait or something or other and only gets to come home to kimber [sister] every so often. she misses him, but seems to be staying busy and doing alright. i hear rumors she might even be going back to school in the near future. so... i think that about wraps up family.

um... ah, yes. workout routine. well... for any of you that cared last time around and still care for an update, theres only good news to report. ive been disciplined and have managed to keep it up even despite having the "mothers collective" staying with me and distracting me, and other weekend adventures and such. ive been going about 4 days a week consistently, although i try to go more like 5 or 6 when i can, but sometimes i just need a day off to let my muscles repair themselves and well, just for sanity's sake i suppose, haha. for the first couple of months i didnt actually see any change in weight although my appearance was changing noticeably. i was getting much leaner, but it seemed the numbers werent really changing, i was just exchanging the bad weight for good weight. which is fine, whatever, the number is meaningless to me. however i got on the scale again last week because, i just hadnt in a few months and it turns out that somewhere along the way i actually dropped 10lbs, so i guess thats good. if you lose weight and youre working out as much as i am, then you know its only the bad weight youre losing, not the good stuff. =] anyway, the workout routine is going well overall. i have more energy and im making plenty of improvement from week to week in my actual workouts, and then theres always the much better mood after working out. so all in all, its all good.

hm, i guess we cant forget the "mothers collective." well when anne was here by herself she got TONS accomplished, the transformation was really just, unreal. but then my mom got here and as a team they accomplished even more. the yard looks pretty spectacular, honestly. i think i can pretty assuredly say that we now have the nicest yard on the block, well, in my humble opinion anyhow. additionally they got some painting stuff, some wallpaper removal, and a little organizational stuff done inside the house as well. overall id say they seemed to enjoy the trip and the result was definitely an awesome and appreciated one. thanks! =] oh and for anyone that wants to see pictures of all the transformation, theyre up on my photo site here and here.

lets see... what else can i update you on... oh, the competition. well we were able to get everything turned in just fine for the competition and then a few days later there was judging and they had a little banquet for the results. well, i ended up having to work late that night, and then just didnt feel like going, but mike (the partner) popped his head in at the end to see what was going on. apparently they had clearly marked a winner, and it wasnt us. however mike said that in talking to some people our project was definitely one of the judges top picks. according to the competition outline there were supposed to be 3 places in the competition, each with a cash prize but so far we havent heard anything about that. he said the winner was the only one marked and that in his opinion their project wasnt better than ours, they just had a "prettier" presentation. which is fine, i dont know that i expected to outright win this thing, especially considering that i wasnt sure how we were progressing a lot of the time. i emailed the guy running the thing after the banquet and he said that they would soon be posting all the entries online and the placements and whetever else but so far i havent seen or heard anything more about that either. honestly, from the way mike described everything its very likely that we placed in the top 3, possibly even 2nd place, and id really like to see the other entries and find out for sure! so yeah... still trying to be patient, but its been 3 weeks, so... im probably going to email him again today, haha.

hmm... what else.... oh, we celebrated mikes birthday on august first and that was certainly something for the history books, lol! he had was basically amounted to a themed party/bar hopping and most everyone dressed appropriately. and what was that dress you ask? well... hahahaha... well mustaches were part of the theme so most of the guys that could grow one had some kind of terribly tacky mustache, haha. i shaved mine into some pretty awful handlebars and it was all pretty hilarious. imagine a really bad 70's cop movie and youve pretty much got the gist of things. honestly, it was pretty scary for me, i hadnt seen my bare chin in about 6 or 7 years i think, and i wasnt sure what it might look like, lol! thankfully, its all pretty much back to normal now a week and a half later, lol! but we had a lot of fun and partied our butts off to bring in mikes #29.

hmm... what else... well this last weekend i took a trip down to tennessee to see my friend/ex-advisor from a&m, james. it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and i drove down on friday and we basically just hung out all weekend. watched a bunch of horror movies [james is getting a phd in horror cinema or something of the sorts] talked a lot, just had some good fun. also...although im not sure i really want to even add this part...james is now a fairly serious photographer and well, hes been bugging me to let him shoot me for months now [i really cant imagine why, im NOT very photogenic in my opinion...] and so i finally caved and let him. i dont really know how the pictures turned out, ive only seen a couple and im sure nothing will come of it, but yeah, that was part of the weekend too. mostly, it was just nice to get out of the house and our of cincy for a little while, even if it was driving through kentucky and tennessee... [both of which have some of the WORST drivers ive EVER come across... geez...].

so, i guess thats about it. the only other news thats of any significance is that my estranged wife is FINALLY coming home this week. =] shes had a lot of fun out in san francisco, but i think shes starting to get home sick, and hopefully a little husband sick as well ;] at any rate, she flies back on wednesday night/thursday morning and i really cant wait to see her. not to mention, i know shes excited to see all the changes at the house in person! [theres probably one or two that we havent shown her pictures of yet, hehehe]

well, i know its not my usual epic blog post, and i know youre all terribly disappointed about that, but as you can see, the last couple of weeks just havent really had a whole lot to talk about. work is work, its very much the exact same as it has been for months now, nothing to report there. other than that, without karen around its just been working out and hanging out watching movies or tv or something to keep me occupied in my "spare" time... oh, i guess thats one other thing... i did go see the new harry potter movie a couple of weeks ago. honestly, it was a fairly decent movie, but i was pretty disappointed with the ending. and the more i think about it, ive been disappointed with the last 3 endings of those movies i think. they keep building up for the entire movie to this big thing, and then the climax is about 2 minutes long and then it just drops off leaving you feeling very unfulfilled... or me at least. i do want to go see the new g.i. joe movie, but im trying not to get my excitement up too high for that. it looks really cool from the previews, but these things tend to be a bit over-hyped.

alright, well i hope you all have a great rest of the week, i doubt ill be updating again before the weekend. just a thought, but if anyone ever had a suggestion or a request for a blog topic that theyd actually like to hear my opinion or perspective or experience or whatever on, feel free to leave me a comment, id love to entertain the idea.

until next time...

the.prodigal.blogger

so yeah, ive been on hiatus for the last couple of weeks i guess. although to be fair, theres been a lot going on and not much of it was all that interesting. so why dont we play the catch-up game anyway, hm?

well the week after the parents-in-law left, we were pretty exhausted from the visit and didnt do much of anything. we just tried to recuperate and gear up for the upcoming holiday weekend... which holiday weekend you ask? well im glad you did... the 678 holiday of course ;]

for those of you that are totally clueless and are checking your calendars to try and figure out what the hell im talking about, ill try and make this as painless as possible for you. 678 = 06.07.08 = june, 7th 2008 = karen and i's anniversary. caught up yet? so anyway, the upcoming sunday was our anniversary and while we hadnt really planned anything spectacular i did have to play romance and prepare a little bit for the 1year milestone. well at first i had no clue what to get the wifey for our first anniversary so of course, i called the expert on "traditional" wedding/anniversary/other sappy stuff customs and rituals - i.e. mom. well she was excited that id even ask her opinion, but i had to start somewhere right? well she was not much help when it comes to the "traditional" crap because, well, karen and i arent very traditional and we could really care less.. however she did give me a tiny bit of inspiration and well, as moms do, plenty of shoving in the directions she thought was the best. she was just convinced that i needed to do some really sappy crap and was really pushing for it and as usual i ignored her and she has yet to let me forget it [i doubt she ever will] but we'll come back to that later. so after my twinge of inspiration for a gift the rest started falling into place and i quickly planned out all the steps id need to take to make my wife pleased with me. [which to be quite honest, doesnt take much... im loved.] so wednesday after work i went out and got her gift and it really couldnt have been easier. she had class from before i got off work till 9:30 that night and would have no clue what i was up to so secrecy was definitely on my side.

so as the weekend approached i planned a little more and shed been dropping hints about wanting to go on a picnic on our anniversary, so really... i didnt have to try much at all - shes easy to please. saturday night we decided to go out to dinner for our "anniversary dinner out" but really we just didnt feel like cooking and it seemed like a reasonable excuse to go out to dinner. it wasnt anything super spectacular, but we went to a little german/hungarian restaurant in town that we'd never been to and shed wanted to try and we had a nice little dinner complete with chocolate cake.

sunday, the real surprises all happened and it started bright and early in the morning. i woke up and snuck out of bed and went downstairs to get started making her breakfast. well luckily she apparently had no idea id even left, so i was able to get quite a bit of breakfast started and the coffee made before she popped in to ruin her breakfast surprise - waffles. now i dont want to brag here, but i make awesome waffles. thats really all there is to say on the subject, its always been a little something i was good at, and i usually reserve it for special occasions. well, just to connect the dots for you, i had snuck out of bed and made her waffles the first day of our honeymoon so this was just a little allusion to that. whether or not she picked up on that is irrelevant, she was definitely surprised and was still trying to figure out how id gotten out of bed without her noticing and was very pleased to see what id been up to. and, as it turns out, this batch of waffles was one of my best yet ;]

so while she was enjoying her breakfast i snuck upstairs and retrieved her hidden present and then snuck up behind her and presented the gift. well now she was just giggling with delight, she thought the breakfast was her gift, lol! so she opened her present and "oo"ed and "ah"ed at its contents - some new perfume and lotion and a little travel bag with travel sized goodies in it as well all from victoria's secret. well if you dont know my wife, she LOVES perfumes and well, really anything scented. her "scents" as she lovingly refers to them. so she was quite delighted by all her new goodies and a little bonus, the bottle of perfume i happened to get was kind of a throwback and had the old-timey mist pump on it - very karen - and she loved it. =] so i got plenty of hugs and smooches after that.

well, even though it was our anniversary, it was still a typical weekend, so we had already planned to run some errands before our picnic and that was up next on the list of things to do. after relaxing a little and then getting dressed we headed out to run our 3 errands for the day. first, i needed a haircut because i was starting to get a little shaggy, but mostly because brother's wedding was in 2 weeks and i needed to be trimmed and have time to let my hair get to a good length before the festivities. so our first stop was the salon where i got all prettied up and actually had probably the best haircut ive had since leaving my favorite stylist of all time back in denver... [miss you chris!!] anyhoo, so i was looking good and karen was all smiley with my sexy haircut and we made our next stop - the grocery store. if you havent been reading long, or just havent ever paid attention, we go to the grocery store every sunday, its just out little weekly tradition, so we were picking up all our usual groceries, plus a bunch of extra fancy goodies for our special picnic lunch. so we got some really nice bread and fancy cheeses and meats and some fruit, spreads, crackers, etc. all the stuff you have to have on a picnic of course!

well the more we shopped i could tell the wife was getting more excited, it had actually been a while since our last picnic and she loves them [not to mention they're one of our "things" you know? most couples have little couple-y hobbies they really enjoy doing together ranging anywhere from just hanging out watching tivo on a saturday night to date nights to extreme stuff like skydiving, and well picnics have just always been one of ours since we started dating. but i digress...] so after we finished shopping we quickly took care of errand #3 - the weekly gassing up the truck, and then we went home to unload and pack up for the picnic. well karen had only mentioned that she wanted to go on a picnic but hadnt really said where, so the last little bit of my planning was coming up with a fun place for us to go. cincinnati is known for having a few hills, im not sure how many - 8? - and a few of them have little parks on them. well the first picnic we had in cincy was at eden park which is basically on mount adams so continuing in that tradition i decided we were going to go to mt. airy park which is just on the opposite side of northside where we live, so not far at all. we'd discovered that the park was there on accident one night when we went exploring for the fun of it up mt. airy, and we'd been planning to go back at some point - obviously this was the perfect time to do so.

so we headed up to mt. airy and leisurely drove around the park exploring all the different little paths and picnic areas until we found one that was perfect. after quickly unloading and spreading out we started our picnic and enjoyed it for the next few hours. all our snacks were quite delicious and we'd both brought little things to read and relax and of course i had my camera so i took plenty of pictures as we just enjoyed our time together, some light conversation, a little napping, a little sunning, you know... picnic stuff =]

so a few hours later we were both sufficiently picnic-ed and decided to pack it up and make a quick stop at this park treehouse we'd passed on the way in and wanted to check out. as it turns out the treehouse was really cool and we both really liked it and i took plenty more pictures, haha. after the treehouse we decided to drive around the park exploring a little more and found a couple of little lodges tucked hidden away in the trees that were pretty cool and an arboreum that was pretty cool before we decided we were done for the day.

and well, that was about it, haha. i know its not really anything all that exciting but we just hung out together doing things we enjoy doing and it was a really nice time. i dont think it could have been a better first anniversary, it was just very us. =] oh and i forgot to mention, the thing i didnt do that my mother was so insistent about was write karen a love poem. soooo sappy... and after i gave karen her present i mentioned that my mom had wanted me to write her the poem and she agreed... really not her thing. so as it turns out, i know my wife pretty well afterall, haha ;] sorry mom! =P

well since then, on tuesday karen left for the summer. i think ive mentioned before that she was going to san francisco this summer, but just in case i havent let me quickly explain. basically in addition to getting a masters degree in architecture here in cincinnati, karen decided that she also wanted a masters in fine arts and at some point during her researching she found a program from the sanfran art institute [which is apparently a pretty good school for that sort of thing] that lets you get a masters and really works with you on the time thing. basically you only have to be at the school for 2 summers full time and then you can do the rest remotely so shes going to be able to do both degrees simultaneously. anyway, tuesday was her flight out and after a few tears and lots of goodbyes she flew out. she arrived in sanfran at around 11pm western time and has since gotten to her summer apartment and gone to a bunch of orientations and gotten pretty well settled in. so far she seems to love it out there. shes had some little issues with her computer, as it turns out her harddrive decided to completely crash but luckily she had most of her stuff backed up on an external. also, just a crazy coincidence, chance and claire our fellow bloggers and friends from austin [see my links list for their blogs], are vacationing in san francisco right now and apparently karen hooked up with them last night for dinner and to hang out a little, so thats pretty cool. =]

well... i guess thats about it for now. theres really not all that much going on here. just trying to keep myself entertained and busy with work for the most part. i dont have anything planned for this weekend so i dont know what ill end up doing, but im sure it wont be terribly interesting. next weekend however, is josh and cassie's wedding and im sure there will be tons of fun and festivities involved. for those of you i'll get to see at the wedding i cant wait, its been a long time!

alright, thats all ive got. hope youre all having a great week!

post.script: yeah i totally forgot to bring any pictures with me to work today, so i'll have to upload some later for you. sorry!

unanticipated.productivity [one]

so when last we parted, i mentioned that we didnt really have anything planned for the weekend. well, as it turns out, that was partly a lie. unbeknownst to me, my wife had already started quite a list of errands for saturday morning that would in turn breed an entire weekend of activity. 

so lets get to the guts shall we?

[saturday]

so saturday morning we actually got up kind of early, i still dont know why, especially considering id been up past midnight watching battlestar and karen had dozed off somewhere around midnight herself. either way, we were both awake at around 7:50 if memory serves, and while she went down to the office to work on some homework i watched another episode of battlestar, hehe. [ive only got 8 episodes left of the series and im on pins and needles! is there really not going to be a 5th season??? theyre just going to start this new series, caprica, told through the eyes of two cylons?? im in utter disbelief... i must be in for one hell of a series finale...] anyhoo, around 9ish i ventured down to the office to inquire about my wifes ongoings and discovered she was already planning our day out. so we both started getting ready and then somewhere around 10:30 [i think] we were getting on the road to start our list of errands for the morning. 

first up was a stop at the hardware store to return some items from studio that she didnt end up using. after that, a stop at the bank so karen could get some forms notarized for something or other and put them in the mail. after the bank it was around 11:30-ish and we were both decidedly hungry so we popped over to the panera bread next door for an early lunch. i had the egg salad and karen had some chicken panini of some kind - both quite delicious. and on the way out the door, we could help but stop at the "window of guilt and shame" and select a few mouth watering pastry deserts for the road. i dont know about you, but that window should be outlawed, i have no where near the self-control to pass that up, and it would be much better for me [and by me, i mean my wasitline...] if the powers that be stepped in to put a stop to the madness... but i digress.... after lunch the next stops were the library - for karen to return some items shed checked out for studio, the rec center... well, thats obvious, then onward to the depot and the grocery store. actually, come to think of it the bank didnt open till 11 when we went there first and so we decided to do the library and rec first, then the bank and lunch, but i dont suppose the order is terribly significant at this point.

well the first couple of stops going as planned, and we were feeling pretty pleased with our success for the day as we headed on to get more errands done. soon we were pulling into the oh-so-familiar home depot parking lot full of that depot anticipation. [which from my experience is a pretty good mixture of excitement for all the goodies we'll find and dread for the number at the bottom of the receipt...] well the reason we were there was that the "front yard" had become quite overrun with weeds in the last few weeks and after a few weekends of rain they were getting to be quite tall. so we'd about had enough of it and with a good weather weekend in-process we decided we better take advantage of it. so the plan was to get a small lawn mower and possibly some grass seed, and also we were going to look at the possibility of a new door for the second floor shop at the house [see posts on karens studio project vs. my missing door] ao it turns out that the cheapest lawn mowers that they carry are the old wheel blade kind that you push, which is exactly what wed anticipated getting, however even those run for 100 freakin bucks, and theres no way in hell im paying that. so we considered our options and opted instead for a small rechargeable weed whacker. considering that our "front yard" is about 10ftx15ft [if im being generous] i didnt think a small battery powered weed whacker seemed all that unreasonable. especially since it was only a moderate 30-something bucks. so after picking up the weed whacker and explaining to karen why we'd need an extra spool of line even though it said on the box that there was line included... [women...] we headed to the garden center to find us some seedin. well right inside the door they had exactly what i was looking for - scotts turf builder plus with weed killer and advanced hydrating something or other - 15 bucks for 1000sf... haha, ive got 150sf, so that might be a bit overkill, but its the smallest bag they carry, hahaha. so we got that and after having some conversation i convinced the wifey to head over to lumber with me to have a look at some timbers for a planter i want build in the front yard at some point. no commitments, we didnt have to buy anything, just looking... right. ;]

so we looked, and found these really cool rough cut 6x6 timbers for a very reasonable price and the wheels in my mind started turning. as we left the timber section discussing our options and debating the financial practicality of it all we strolled through the door section. at this point they had to pull out the paddles and revive me from the floor as we discovered that the least expensive door they carry with any kind of glass is almost freakin 200 bucks! ha! no thank you... well, after that catastrophe i convinced the wife we should have another gander at the timbers [that project seemed a lot more inexpensive now, haha, these were only 14 bucks each!] and as we debated the possibilities and the design details, we decided we could try out a few timbers and build a small planter and see how it went. so excitedly we got one of the guys to help us pull down 3 timbers [they were on one of the higher stacks and well, they were big.] and as he helped us and i had him check the quality of each timber for cracks and splits and what not, he inquired about our project. well i told him we were going to build a planter and he told us about some other items on the next isle that we might be interested in. so he walked us over to the next isle and pointed out some 1/2 inch rebar landscape spins, and a bunch of giant galvanized nails that would probably be useful. well, i was quite excited to see all of these goodies and quickly re-assessed our design ideas in my mind and decided we would definitely be needing to acquire these items, heh.

well soon enough wed loaded up the items wed need to investigate the planter and found our way to the checkout counter to do our daily damage. i dont remember now how much we spent, but im also not sure i want to. at any rate, i was very excited to get going on the new project and was ready to skip the grocery store altogether. however, my wife being the pragmatist of the moment insisted that it was on the list and was an actual necessity [unlike my pipe dreams] and convinced me it would be getting checked off the list next. so i seceded my opposition and reluctantly drove over to the grocery store to get it off the list. 

well after not too much longer we were pulling up to the house and unloading all the groceries and while karen put some of those away i got started unloading the home depot stuff. well after wed gotten everything unloaded and found all the necessary tools we jumped into constructing the planter and getting some yard work done. the first thing we did was to go through the yard and pull all the tallest weeds that we could and dispose of those. after that i started moving some dirt around to fill the hole in the middle of the yard and try and level out the area that we were planning to build the planter. at this point i cant remember the order anymore but there was some raking, some more weed pulling [as the weed whacker charged and charged and never finished charging on saturday...] and then at some point we made the decision to disassemble the chain link fence in the front as well. we'd discussed doing this a number of times and were both in agreement and now seemed as good a time as any to do it. so we managed to get the chain link down and only the pipe posts remaining and were satisfied as we moved on to the construction of the planter. well since these timbers were 6x6 and rough cut anyway i decided the best way to get them to the size we wanted was with the chainsaw [which worked like a charm! shockingly so in fact.] and then we drilled out holes for the rebar and pre-drilled holes for the nails. before long we had the timbers in place and we were driving the rebar and fastening the thing together. come 4:30 or 5 we were finished for the day and had a small planter constructed and had even relocated a small pile of dirt in the front inside of it. so the yard was really starting to come together and we were quite pleased with ourselves for the day. 

at this point we decided to take showers and get cleaned up and then at 7 we made our way over to one of karen's professor's house for a small studio dinner party. they had a pretty cool house and some amazing views of cincinnati and we had a good time. it was one hell of a dinner party and there were a lot of people to mingle with, im not sure how they pulled off the food, but it was delicious and we had a really nice time. 

so by the time we pulled up to the house around 10:30/11pm we were both pretty exhausted and soon passed out for the night. 

and with that, im going to call it a night myself, and we'll continue the story of sunday for another time. =] night!

the.before

alright, so this isnt actually from this weekend, but if you can imagine a forest of 2ft tall weeds in here, then its close enough. [note the hole in the middle of the yard to the left of the center of the image. its the black spot and its probably about 3 ft in diameter and a ft deep - give or take]

dc[part.two]

[saturday | 5.2.09 | day.two]

so we got up at about 8:30am [although quite stubbornly and with much difficulty given the night before...] and got showered and dressed and then went downstairs to the continental breakfast around 9:30am. it was actually a pretty sweet breakfast, they had just about anything you could want and the best part was the breakfast burrito fixins! i had a burrito and a bagel with some oj and diet coke while karen sampled just about everything there was, lol! i think her eyes were a little bigger than mine, but she tried everything and seemed to enjoy it all.

after breakfast we visited the little brochure kiosk in the lobby and got some free maps and then headed to the room to gather whatever items we'd need for the days excursion and then soon headed out. the short 3 block walk to the metro was nothing this time around and we were feeling much more confident as we purchased our tickets from the machine and routed our trip through various stops and train switches. maybe 15-20 minutes later we were on the escalators at judiciary square and were delivered directly to our first stop, sweet! we knew we'd be close from the map, but theyre a little abstract and difficult to gauge exact location proximity to anything, and we were lucky enough to emerge from the subway directly at the front door of the first museum on our list for the day - the national building museum. well before we went in we took a second to look at our surroundings and it turns out judiciary square is a pretty cool little plaza with some fun landscaping features and statues. at the present time there was some kind of ceremony going on in the center of the plaza but we decided to walk around the extremities in the in the tree-lined paths to check things out for a few minutes as discreetly as possible. well, as much action as was going on center-stage and the fact that the city seems pretty used to tourism, no one paid us any attention as we looked about and snapped a few pictures before heading into the museum.

so when first we entered the museum what struck us both was the grandiose of the main atrium space. this thing was effin huge! it must have been at least 5 stories high with these huge columns that went all the way up to the clerestory [er... little windows near the ceiling, in layman's...] in addition to that there was a pretty huge fountain in the middle and the width and breadth of this thing... lets just say you could have probably but a few of our house's [which is pretty huge to be honest] in this space and still have room to spare without batting an eye.

anyway, we went to the information desk to inquire about tours and whatnot and then decided to just start visiting the exhibits on our own [the next tour didnt start for an hour and a half]. the first exhibit we saw was called detour and it was about all these popular tourist spots in the norway countryside. it basically chronicled 17 or 18 spaces that were designed as lookouts or viewpoints in a video presentation and then after the video there were a series of architectural models and boards of some of the places from the video. the models were freakin sweet. as someone who has built a number of architectural models in my day i had a serious appreciation for how well built these things were and was a little enamoured with the different techniques that were used. it was a really cool first experience for the museum and i was looking forward to what was next at that point.

so the next stop was a photography exhibit by some architectural photographer that was geared towards 9/11 aftermath in the form of a juxtaposition and comparison of interrogation spaces, worship spaces, and government spaces from all the various cultural viewpoints. it was an interesting collection, although after a little while it all started to look the same and the clever ironies started to get less and less clever as you saw more of the work. but maybe i was just distracted by the random gallery attendant who took an interest in my tattoos and decided to ruin my experience by talking to me for most of the duration of my visit while i was TRYING to concentrate on the artwork. at some point i just started nodding while he was telling me stories about his cousin the marine who got in trouble all the time and was kicked out after 6 months, yadda, yadda, yadda. karen totally abandoned me while this guy chewed my ear off for 15 minutes. punk.

anyway the next exhibit we saw was about architectural detailing in different materials - stone, metal, brick, etc. and it was kinda cool, but a little boring. at this point wed already been there a good hour and i was getting antsy to see all the other million stops on our list for the day so we made a quick trip through the gift shop to see if anything jumped at us [nothing did, hah, not for those prices...] and then we made our way to the exit. so the next stop on our list was "the mall" where there are tons of museums, monuments, landmarks, memorials, and what have you. its pretty much the tourist hot spot of d.c. where the smithsonian and all the famous stuff is. well, it was either back on the subway for a couple of stops or just walk the 6 or 7 blocks over, and considering how nice the weather was out [overcast and cool - perfect for site seeing!] we decided to walk. well it was actually a nice walk and we went through some nice garden plazas and government buildings [which make up like 75% of the downtown area from what we saw, lol!] until we got to constitution ave.

at this point we were a little awestruck by the mall. at one end you could see the capital building, directly in front of us was the national art gallery, in the distance the washington monument towered over the treeline and there were a half dozen other museums within eye-shot. it was a cultural enthusiasts dream come true, haha, and being the nerds karen and i are, we were basking in all its glory. we decided to venture towards the capitol building and then around the national art gallery to its entrance to kind of get a full view of the area before going in to the art gallery. it was pretty cool seeing the capitol building, even from the distance we were at, and i was really digging the architecture of the national art gallery as well. by the time we made it around to the front of the gallery we both got distracted by these awesome triangular shards jutting through the adjacent plaza and had to investigate them further.

we took a bunch of pictures and came to find out there was actually a restaurant or something under the plaza that these shards were skylights into so we took the long way into the museum by going underground, through the restaurant to check the shards out from the inside, and then through this really freaking cool l.e.d. installation before actually arriving inside the lower level of the art gallery. and right there in front of us, a serra! awesome! this was really an enjoyable day so far! we floated around the gallery for a little while before deciding we wanted to take the tour of the sculpture garden about an hour later and decided to grab lunch at the garden pavilion before it started. so we walked over there and had a really delicious lunch at the pavilion before trying to find the tourgroup. well as it turned out we asked an official looking woman where the tour started and she was the guide so we were in the right place! and if that wasnt cool enough, it turns out we were the first people shed actually given the tour to in almost a year and we were the only ones that showed up that day, so we got a very one on one personal, and casual tour of the sculpture garden and karen got to ask all kinds of questions for a project she had in her museum studies class. it turned out to be a really fun tour and she was extremely knowledgeable of the sculptures.

by the time we finished the garden we were both starting to feel a bit tired. it was around 2:30pm at this point and we'd been on our feet for hours already, but there was still so much to see! i wanted to try and see the washington monument, the vietnam veterans memorial, and the lincoln memorial while we were in the area that day, so we got started walking - not sure if we'd make it. the first one we saw was the washington monument. it was really freakin huge and everything youd expect - although in a much less immaculate condition than you always see in pictures. up close you could see that there was some history to this thing and it had been around for some time. well, being the nerds we are, we took the opportunity to take a bunch of fun shots of karen with the monument - like you do at the leaning tower of pisa or the like - haha, it was a lot of fun.

knowing how much we still wanted to see we made our stops short for the rest of the day and tried to just get to everything as quickly as possible. so after circling the huge block that the monument was on we came across the wwII memorial and checked it out, then were on our way again towards the vietnam war memorial. eventually we arrived but it was absolutely overrun with tourists, kind of a bummer and pretty typical of the day so far - there were so many people there!, so we tried to take a few pictures before getting out of the people soup and making our way over to the lincoln memorial nearby.

well after seeing the lincoln memorial, which was pretty cool, but again CRAZY crowded, and making a quick pit stop - we were done for the day and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. well, at this point we were pretty far from any of the metro stops so we could either walk to the closest one, or about equa-distant, just walk back to the hotel - so we decided wed just suffer through and walk back. luckily we were in pretty close proximity to the white house at this point so we were going to make sure to go by it on the way to the hotel.

on our way to the white house we actually just happened past the AIA headquarters in d.c. which was kind of a cool random accident and then sure enough we saw the whitehouse. and wow, that was an experience, it was pretty cool.

we also saw an armed guard carrying what must have been a freaking grenade launcher/assault rifle/rocket launcher or something. ive never seen a gun that big in my life, he could have taken out a tank with that thing! we definitely didnt mess with him, haha!

anyway, after the white house it was only another 4 blocks to the hotel and soon we were relaxing and resting our poor feet for a while, and while we were doing that i got in contact with my friend lauren who lives in dc and i havent seen since senior year at a&m and made arrangements to go to dinner with her. well, not long after talking to her we saddled up and trekked back to the metro for another ride on the subway. this time we went down to alexandria virginia to meet up with lauren and ended up having a pretty great time with her. we had this authentic-y spanish meal with these little snack sized portioned meals [the name of them escapes me... tapas?] and a lot of catching up. it was really fun to see her again, but by the time we were done eating we were EXHAUSTED and ready for bed. lauren actually volunteered to give us a ride back to the hotel [only about 5 miles away, the area is pretty dense] and after a couple of wrong turns we eventually got home and crashed for the night.

- end of day two. and again, im out of time, sorry!! -

no.70

so this saturday went pretty much as scheduled.

karen had to go to school at 10 for this personal trainer class shes taking, so while she was in class i went to the grocery store to do our normal shopping and then a little extra for the party. then went home to unload groceries and start doing the final cleaning stuff. i did mostly outside work while she was still in class, just making the place look a little more presentable and moving all the "junk" into a less conspicuous place. then around 2pm i went and picked karen up and we decided we were both pretty hungry and needed to get lunch. so since we didnt want to make anymore messes to clean up at the house we decided to go to currito again. this time i got a bangkok burrito and karen got a mediterranean burrito - both were excellent - although the feta was a little over-powering for my tastes, but karen loved it.

anyway, after lunch we went back to the house and got started cleaning up everything, for the next few hours we just did a lot of that, and probably around 5 we were satisfied and went upstairs to get showered and ready. by 6 we were in the kitchen getting food prepped and then just hanging out in anticipation of who might arrive first.

well a little after 7 amanda, patrick, and caity arrived with treats in hand, and so the party started. not long after they arrived, cae & emil were the second group and we all chatted and snacked for a while as everyone looked around at the various rooms on the first floor. amanda and patrick were the only people who had seen the house other than the family and the neighbors across the street so everyone was very curious to check everything out. well, soon enough another friend of karens arrived and then soon enough the neighbors from across the street did too, so all the boys started working on the kabobs while all the girls chatted.

everything was going pretty great for a while, the kabobs were on the grill and smelling great, and everyone seemed to be having a good time and someone asked how the grillin was going, so we checked em out and uh oh... there was no fire. whoops, must have gone out on us when we werent watching it. so we tried to relight it... and nothing happened... and again, and again... crap, we were out of propane. sooo... the girls decided to let us run and get some more propane while they continued to party without us. and sure enough we ran down the block and got a new tank of propane and were back without much notice from them at all, haha. well, we hooked the new tank up, got the fire going again, and then karen and i decided it was time for the grande tour while we waited on the food to finish. so we started giving the master tour of the house and ushering the mob from room to room, until we got into the attic and patrick and emil remembered the food. so they raced down to save it before it was all black, and we finished up the tour. they apparently were just in the nick of time and once we all got back downstairs everyone grabbed a skewer and chowed down. turns out we didnt do half bad for our first time grilling kabobs. =] they were quite tasty and before we knew it we were totally out and started a second batch while everyone mingled. soon enough the second batch came out and everyone enjoyed those as well.

so i cant tell you for sure how much longer it was, but everyone moved into the dining room after the second round of grilling and started in on the desert that amanda had brought, and i got started cleaning, heh. at some point there was crazy dancing in the kitchen initiated by my wife and joined by a few of the girls and that was definitely fun to watch, haha. but overall it was just a lot of fun to socialize and snack and relax. somewhere around 11pm everyone was saying their goodnights and we were pretty exhausted from the night... well, i was. karen was ready to go out dancing but eventually i convinced her the bed was a better idea and we retired for the night, lol.

on sunday we had a similar morning, karen had to be at personal training again, so i dropped her off at school, and then this time around i decided to go to church, and then get a haircut, and then pick up a few items wed managed not to get on the grocery list the day before. well, while i was at the store i decided to get a bunch of goodies [like this awesome chicken salad that biggs has in their little fresh market area] and pack a picnic lunch to take up to karen when she finished her class. she told me she was going to be working on studio for most of the day after the personal training class, so i thought it would be a nice fun thing for her to have a little picnic at studio.

well soon enough after i got home it was about that time, so i headed up to her school. well... i didnt know her partner was going to be there too, haha, so the picnic basket was a little embarrassing but karen was tickled and we enjoyed a brief lunch before she got back to work.

then for the next few hours i decided to hangout and keep them company and lend a little muscle occasionally when they needed a little extra. by about 7 they were finished for the night and had made a lot of progress on their project.

so we went home and just settled in for a little relaxing and recovering from the weekend in preparation for the week ahead. watched a little tv, had dinner, and eventually turned in for the night.

and now its monday. and well, i dont really want to talk about today. it hasnt been the greatest morning, but im hoping the day gets better. who-knows. at any rate, theres definitely nothing exciting going on and im still pretty tired from the weekend. i think id be content to go home and veg for a little while before crashing early. we'll see how it goes, but i bet thats what happens, haha!

sorry i didnt take any pictures. i always forget to get the camera out at parties. i just get distracted and its the furthest thing from my mind. but we really did have a great time and everyone seemed to like the house, so... cool! =]

have a great week!