reconstruction[the.conclusion]

picking up where we last left off...

sunday.

sunday was another fun & exciting day of work, although there wasnt quite as much destruction... for the most part anyway, lol!

we got started fairly early again, meeting the masons out at the house around 8:30-9ish to get them access to whatever they needed and get ourselves started on the day. yes, we missed church on sunday [blasphemous i know, but i doubt god will sweat it much, hes got bigger things to worry about im sure]. so first things, finish up the hanging fixtures for petes sake!

well one of them we decided not to modify, the aqua colored one, we just loved it the way it was so we didnt mess with it. we've got plans to design the room somewhat inspired by the fixture, so while karen was putting finishing touches on the fixtures we were messing with, i got started on installing this thing. 

now to preface this, i had never in my life until this point wired up a hanging lamp [or much of anything else for that matter]. but thanks to some awesome d.i.y. books my amazing mother-in-law sent us, i was confident in my ability to decipher brightly colored step by step graphics [lol, isnt that what i do all day at work anyway?]. so i got out the new ladder [yes it is alu-min-ium-as they say 'down under' - and that did worry me a little], my pliers, screwdrivers, etc. and got started. 

well needless to say, anything new with no real prior knowledge has a learning curve [much like the installation of new door hardware], and this was certainly no exception. after a long series of trial and errors [mostly concerning the damned length of the chain vs. the length of the wires, grrr...], a multitude of redos, and a dash of making the friggin thing fit; not only had i installed the aqua fixture, but i had also wired into it one of the other lamps [that we decided wasnt worth the hassle to disassemble in order to modify] in the same box and they were both functional! score! i hadnt even electrocuted myself! =] and karen was a great helper, i assure you. she was a champ at holding the fixture over her head on the little step latter for endless lengths of time while i cursed at the stupid chain links, wires, caps, plaster, and other uncooperative elements - this lamp had a freaking attitude that would rival some family members of mine, lol! ;]

not to mention during some times when i didnt need her help [while i was on the ground splicing wires or experimenting with some part] she had snuck off upstairs and finished disassembling the last studs in the attic that we'd left the night before - double score!

so in the end, the first lamp[s] took a few hours to get up, but i/we was/were successful and i took a step back admiring with pride this thing that i had accomplished. until i felt a tap on my shoulder. hm? i turned to face my wife whos standing there looking at me like im an idiot and holding the fixture that goes in the entryway, lol! we werent finished, this was no time for taking a break, and she wasnt about to let me forget it, lol! ah, wives... so i clambered up the ladder to inspect my next victim. well the entryway fixture was a slightly different situation. there was no nice little electric box pre-installed with all the trimmings and ready to go. this was two wires hanging out of the ceiling, daring me to mess with them. ah, i see. well that was fine by me, no biggie. a half an hour later with the help of my trusty drill [god, i love that drill!] i had this thing wired up, installed, and ready to test. flip that switch baby! *insert awkward silence and darkness* hmm... well what the hell? i know i wired the damn thing right... 

so i climbed back up, switched the wires, try it again sweetie. nothing. shit. alright what am i doing wrong? i switched the wires back to the way i knew they were right and ventured down to the basement. had i tripped the entryway at some point? well when i got down there all the fuses were in order and nothing was out of place, so i thought id just reset a bunch of them and see if that worked the kink out of the system. so i start flipping the switches back and forth and then i hear karen hollering through the floor above me "its on!" sweet! "but..." shit. "but the lights in the parlor[as we've decided we're going to call it from now on] turned off when this one came on." huh? how is this even possible? i have the fuse switched into the off position and the light in the entry is on, while the lights in the parlor are off like theyre supposed to be. wtf...? so i flipped it back to on, they switched back obviously, and i went back up stairs scratching my head...

well, luckily, two of my cousins are electricians by trade, and this is obviously an electrical problem, so i made a few phone calls and called up cousin wade. after his initial shock of finding out id not only bought a house, but did so in cincinnati, with my wife? wife? lol! where has he been lately? haha. anyway after that he talked me through a few things and we discovered that some idiot had wired a 3-way switch wrong and while its not a real fix, we did figure out how to manipulate the switches in a way that we can turn the entry light on and off at the switch we want to control it. good enough, thanks cousin wade! 

well after i got off the phone with wade, i was perturbed with a light switch that im guessing the same idiot had installed up-side-down, and decided to fix it right quick. heh, up until this point i hadnt shocked myself at all when i was actually handling the wires, but of course on the simple task of removing the face plate and flipping the switch right-side-up, i managed to get myself not only once, but twice, lol! yes, thank you, i appreciate the applause. moving on... 

so after i "fixed" the light switch, we moved onto the dining room fixture. this was another one that karen had finished modifying that morning,and possibly my favorite fixture of them all, i might add. im afraid the pictures of these guys dont do the mod justice, but you'll see eventually when we get some better ones. so anyway, back up the ladder, score, this one was in great shape. an even better box to work with than the first one, and the lamp had tons of chord to work with. this one went up like a breeze, 10-15 minutes tops. the only part that took any time was figuring out the two switches in the dining room to get the thing to turn on and off, lol! its a little redundant to have 2 switches that operate the same light on opposite sides of a 12ft space, but nothing surprises me in this house anymore, lol!

at this point we decided to take a quick run to grab some food and run to the hardware store to get a few s-hooks and a plant hook for the second light in the parlor so we could properly hang all these things where we wanted them. a quick check on the masons [moving on fantastically! we had half a rebuilt wall!] and off we went. lunch was the local taco bell, because neither of us had had it in a while, or felt like cooking, and it was 3 doors down from the local hardware store. lunch was delicious, as usual, and the hardware store was fast, and we were home before we knew it, with everything installed and adjusted to our liking. and now the moment youve all been waiting for!

luckily you can see them all if you get at the right angle, heh. 

well, at this point we decided we better move on to other things on our to do list for the day. we hit the grocery store to re-stock the kitchen cabinets for the week, and by the time we had dropped those off at home it was slowly starting to get dark. we went back to the house to see how things were coming along and then milled-about the house trying to decide what else we wanted to tackle in the near future while we waited for the masons to finish up. not too long after we'd assessed the future rehabbing situation, they were finished and we went about paying them and closing up the house for the day. the wall looked great! see for yourself!

happy with the days work and ready to get on with the rest of the day before it was pitch black out, we left them to finish cleaning-up and went on our way to continue the night. 

we ended up doing laundry [no, not yet with our own washer and dryer, we still need working plumbing for that to happen... soon though, this weekend even!] and went home to quickly put away our clothes, get dressed and primped, and have a very, very, short dinner. ...why you ask??

because we went to a concert! lol! i know, on a work-night too! oh, that crazy wife of mine... so sunday night we went to see girl-talk[definitely not parent, grandparent, or closed minded people appropriate - but killer music if youre into this sorta thing]. one of karens absolute favorite bands! ...well... its really more like a guy, a few turn-tables, and a laptop. its kind of an electronica/dj situation. but we had a total blast! karen got her dance fix for a while and we sweated buckets in the dead center of the throbbing crowd as we danced for hours and had a great time. it was a ton of fun, a great concert, and im pretty sure i saved the life of a crowd-surfing girl who i caught from hitting the ground and tossed back up onto the wave of arms, lol! it was so much fun! however, by the time we left we were soaked to the bone with sweat and it was like 34 outside, lol! needless to say we froze all the way home before a quick shower and then jumping in bed. i think i finally drifted off to sleep a little after midnight, but it was totally worth it. if for no other reason that to see the joy beaming off my wifes face. she had the time of her life and im glad i got to be there to share it with her.  =]

well. i think... yeah, thats it. l0l! youre caught up now. yesterday was a total snore of a normal work day, today is proving to be much the same. the only real beacons of excitement in our week are a friend of karen's birthday dinner tonight and the plumber coming on friday to fix our plumbing!! so stay tuned for more updates, go vote in the lightning round if you still havent yet, and ill touch base with you soon!

concluded!

demolition[a.two.part.series]

not to detract from the previous post - read it if you havent yet! - but life goes on in spite of naming things, lol. 

so anyway, i figured id fill you all in on our weekend. 

saturday.

saturday we woke up and got a nice early start. we met the mason out at the house around 8:30 and they were already setting up and getting started, awesome. after making sure they had everything they needed and getting them underway we decided to leave them be for a while to do their thing while we planned the rest of our day. 

we went and had a short breakfast and discussed the days to do list and figured out our plan of attack. the first thing on our agenda was a trip to the store to get some lightbulbs for the new light fixtures, a ladder, and few other odds and ends. 

well everything didnt go exactly according to plan, lol. we went to walmart to get the ladder and lightbulbs right on schedule, but then when we were leaving walmart we decided to stop at the dollar store. theres all kinds of awesome finds in there for super cheap, and we always forget something, so we thought maybe we'd catch ourselves in time to not have to go back to the store in a few hours. at the dollar store we ended up finding all kinds of cleaning supplies for really cheap and a few other items that we needed - but we probably browsed the entire store in the process, lol. 

after the dollar store we noticed the burlington coat factory right next door and i mentioned id always wondered what was in those things. it says clothes and home decor, etc on the sign, is it like a tj-max or something? well we decided to check it out, why not? haha! well we had fun there, all kinds of goodies! i ended up getting some new socks and some new work shoes [my poor old ones i think ive had since high school, not exactly the epitome of fashion these days! lol!], and theyre pretty snazzy id say. we also toured the home decor section and found some christmas stockings we liked for a bargain so we figured wed go ahead and get em =]

anyway, after way too much time shopping, lol, we decided we were done and wed better get back to the to do list. we dropped off some stuff at the apartment and then went to the used appliance store to see if we could finally get the rest of our appliances! [we still needed a dryer and karen wants a garbage disposal] well we ended up finding a commercial sized dryer that looks nearly new to me for a great deal, so check one off the list!

after picking up the new-to-us dryer we finally made it out to the house for our days labor - granted, it was a little after noon by now, we'd managed to waste a lot of time shopping, lol! when we got back we checked on the demo progress of our masons after unloading the dryer. they were really getting into it and everything looked great, so we went inside and started our work. 

as i already mentioned, we bought new hanging light fixtures for a great deal at the salvation army a little while back, and that day we'd bought some new lightbulbs [energy saving, highly efficient, compact florescents of course!] so obviously those items were on the agenda for the day.

we spent a lot of the afternoon modifying these guys and at one point had to run to the hardware store to restock some modification tools ;] but didnt end up getting around to installing them on friday. as daylight wasn't limitless and they werent completely finished yet, we decided to finish them on sunday and move on to other things. 

the next thing on our list was some demo. we are curious about whats actually behind the plaster in the exterior walls - is there exposed brick? wood lath? wallpaper? mold? something even more dreadful that we cant imagine? haha, so we decided to tear up a corner of the stair wall that was already in need of patching anyway to find out. well it appears there is in fact brick behind a layer of some kind of cement/plaster combination - which is in pretty bad shape and crumbles easily if you mess with it - but the brick looks great from what i can tell. good to know! moving on. 

next we want to rip the carpet up off the stairs because its just hideous and totally out of place - so we started ripping, lol! turns out there are really nice wood stairs under the carpet and padding, however some idiot painted them an obnoxious red-orange color at some point... so we're going to have to figure out what we want to do with those. after uncovering one tread and rise we decided we knew what we were in for there, on to the next item.

so heres where the fun really starts. for those of you who havent seen the pictures of the house, you can do so by following the link on the left sidebar. but for those of you that have, you may remember that the stairs to the finished attic were enclosed in this really ugly surround that appeared to be a bead board of some kind with a door. also, in the attic there was a dividing wall that someone put up at some point [and very, very, poorly i might add...] that was just terribly ugly and we wanted to pull out. i like the idea of coming up into the attic in a nice open space with that skylight flooding the whole thing in light. so we decided to start demo on these little elements. =]

well this was a fun project to say the very least. at first we were trying to be really careful and we took the door off its hinges and tried to deconstruct the door frame, but soon found that in this little surround there were no nails or screws to be found... weird... we searched very carefully to find hardware we could remove and disassemble this thing piece by piece, but there was nothing in sight. 

after climbing up to the attic and inspecting the railing/top of enclosure we were still having no luck and trying to pry anything off wasnt working either, this thing was pretty solid - should have been my first clue it wasnt just a bead board, lol! well after tinkering with it for a while i got impatient [anyone noticing a pattern here?] and sat on the ground in front of the railing, reared back, and kicked with full force, haha! oh-yeah, it buckled, hehehe! but it worked, and very easily. so i kept kicking and popped a nice piece of it off at which point we discovered this thing was quality even if it was ugly. 3/4" tongue & groove with some pretty odd square nails hidden in the joints [which is why i couldnt find them...] so we've pretty much decided this thing was original to the house or at least pretty old - definitely not the shotty construction of all the other additions that some owner had put in along the way. well it was definitely sturdy and after seeing my success karen sat down too and the two of us pretty quickly knocked the rest of this thing out and then slowly and carefully [heh] dismantled the parts and made a nice pile at the base of the stairs. after pulling some nails and cleaning up the area where the surround used to be, we were pretty satisfied and decided to move on to the wall. 

at this point it was starting to get dark out and the masons were leaving so i went out to survey the days demolition work and see what was left to do. 

obviously theyd made some awesome progress - both chimneys down and the holes temporarily patched and the entire section of the wall down too - theyd even begun some re-bricking!

so they left and we got started on the rest of our fun for the evening. we started carefully removing some screws and trying to disassemble the dividing wall's elements but i gave up with that fairly soon as well. the screws that were holding the drywall to the studs had been painted over pretty well and were impossible to find, so eventually i just started popping the drywall off and trying to do it as carefully as possible to salvage the drywall if we could. karen took my handy drill and came behind me unscrewing studs and after maybe half an hour to 45 minutes we had the thing pretty well down. it was awesome! we were so excited with the space even though there were still a few studs left up! additionally karen pulled up the carpet in a corner of the attic and we discovered that we had some really nice 3/4" t&g hardwood floors in the attic as well! score! theyre definitely in need of some tlc from the corner we looked at, but after a little refinishing wed have a seriously gorgeous hardwood floor up there! [which also leads us to believe that the other places weve seen a little wood under the carpeting is probably the same stuff!!! awesome!!!] 

well by this time it was definitely dark, and around 6:30pm, so we decided to call it a day and go home to have some dinner and watch a little tv. after a pretty long day it was nice to relax in preparation for sunday's adventures, and we were really satisfied with all we'd accomplished!

well... i hate to leave you hangin, but lunch is over so we'll have to continue this saga next time! stay tuned, theres awesome weekend results yet to come!

[and if you havent already, go vote on yesterdays blog!]

...to be continued...

the.name.game[lightning.round!]

okay folks, so this is getting serious.

after getting little response to the first round of the game [thanks to those of you that did respond though!] we've decided to kick it up a notch. we're now starting the "name that firm" campaign and we really need your support. its going to be a tough time for our players, and we'll all be anxiously awaiting the results, but the time has come for you to step up to the challenge!

the rules of the game.

1. choose from the list of choices given and do one of three possible options:

a. pick a favorite and only a favorite

b. rank your choices in order numerically [1 being favorite, 2 second favorite, and so on]

c. add a choice of your own to the list and then do either option a. or b.

2. votes cast will only be accepted in the form of a comment on this post for ease of tracking. 

[you can cast your vote via blog even if you are not a follower of the blog or dont have a blogger account! just click comment and follow the directions on the pop-up screen. its easy, its fun, you CAN do it!]

3. you MUST vote! we dont care how you come to your conclusion, include a narrative along with your vote if you like [again, only in comment form! no floods of email please!], we would love to read it!

4. vote soon! theres no guarantee of how long we'll wait for you to cast your vote, time is of the essence, so vote now!

the list of possibilities we've come up with, jokingly or not, lol!

[in no particular order]

678

by.design

q.i.d.

luminate

intelligent.design

archi.morphic

arch.enemy

again, feel free to add options if you have something awesome and creative to share!

and remember to check the comments before voting, any name presented in the form of a comment as a "write in candidate" is fair game!

thanks and happy voting!!

ipod.101

so my friend claire is having issues with her computer dying. =[

[something ive gone through a LOT in my days for those of you that know the whole story] and along with that shes lost all her music - major bummer! luckily ive always had my music backed up to my external harddrive, but for those of you that just have it on your ipod and dont know how to get it off, theres hope, and im here to help. i was inspired by her and a friend of her's dilema so i thought id lay it out pretty detailed for you guys - in hopes that you have some basic knowledge of your os.

so for those of you with pc's, heres how it works. [im afraid i dont have a mac, sadly, so im no help there, but maybe someday] theres a program you can download online, usually just from download.com and for pc users its called igadget. [or irobot, ipod transfer, etc. - they all do about the same thing]

1.download the free trial version and install it. now, theres a catch. they want you to actually use the software but with the trial versions they only let you transfer 1-3 songs at a time. ha, right! ive got 30 gigs on my ipod! so the trick is that it also installs a fix to your os for the ipod to let your computer recognize it as an external harddrive.  

2.open windows explorer and under your folder option youll need to turn on viewing hidden files, [for vista users click organize in your windows explorer, then folder options, then turn on viewing of hidden files - they moved this option after xp and i know it took me forever to find it in vista] and then open your ipod as a harddrive in windows explorer. 

3. now youll have to dig through the folders until you find the actual mp3's on the ipod. for my ipod the folder strings are as follows: ipod-control> music>[and then a number of folders numbered f00 - f50] now all of your song files are named bizarre stuff like FTH3 but they'll still have the .mp3 suffix, so you might not recognize them at first, but its the same mp3 i promise[my computer actually still displays all the artist info, etc in the folder, try turning on the details view in vista]. 

4.now then, grab all of these folders of mp3's [they may be broken up into a few dozen folders depending on how your ipod is organized and how much music you have] and copy/transfer all of those to your computer - i recommend putting them all in one folder on the desktop for easy finding.

5.now open itunes and go to: edit>options>advanced [if youre using the latest version of itunes anyway] then tell itunes to have it copy music into your itunes library folder and keep it organized. now save those preferences and clean out your library in itunes if there is one. 

6.then go to: file>add folder to library> and browse to find the location of all the oddly named files you just copied [to your desktop if you followed my advice]. now using the data embedded in the mp3, itunes will reload your library with fresh song info, album covers, you name it.  

7.when itunes is done copying everything over close it and you can now delete the original folder/folders [still on the desktop] with all the funky ipod named files and you SHOULD [i cant guarantee anything, technology is weird sometimes] retain all of the fresh copies in your itunes library. now open itunes and youre good to go!  

i know this all sounds a little complicated, but ive done it a couple of times and its worked perfectly for me. hopefully thats enough of a step by step instruction to get it done, but email me if you need more thorough info.

note:

i should warn you, that to do this the way ive described you will need to have at least twice the harddrive space as you have total gigs of music on your harddrive. i assume thats a given, but some people dont think about it before hand. if you dont have enough space then when itunes is adding to your library itll tell you youre out of room and screw the whole process up.

a fix for this is to actually place all the copied randomly named music directly into your itunes library in windows explorer [after cleaning it out first!] if youre doing it this way, DONT tell itunes to copy all the music into your itunes folder, but DO tell it to keep your music organized and then follow the same process for telling itunes where the music is [in your itunes library]. itunes SHOULD rename everything automatically and organize your library, but if the exess folders bug you, youll have to go delete them from the itunes folder in windows explorer.

well... i hope this helps you guys out. i dont claim to be any kind of ipod or computer guru, but i figured this out and thought it might help you guys if youre lost in despair and hopelessness over this conundrum.

good luck!

reflection.election

it seems ive created quite a quandary for you loyal readers, i assure you it was unintentional. but your little imaginations are going wild try to figure out the 'why' of my last post [ahem! instead of focusing on the problem assigned to you! ahem!], so in order to satiate your curiosities, ill finally [although briefly] sit down and catch you all up on the goings on of our recent history. 

last week.

when i last left you all hanging, we had just mutilated our newly procured appliances, and had made a feeble attempt at restoring the rightful function of our doors. 

post last post... weve gotten a few things accomplished. 

monday after work we went to the mens wearhouse where i was fitted for my tux for kimberly's [sister kimberly, not colorado kimberly] wedding. some recent news on that, i was upgraded from lowly usher to full-fledged groomsmen not long ago, so now i actually get the pleasure of walking my own bride down the processional isle. how exciting. 

tuesday karen had class as usual and i spent the time waiting for her to be done with school updating the photos on the entire blog [you may or may not have noticed this update], watching robocop2 on netflix online, and preparing a delicious meal for us to share when she returned to me. and when we were both finally ready for dinner, oh how delicious it was. turkey tacos - YUM!

wednesday after work we went to this cocktail party/informational gala for a charity event that karen's firm is participating in over the next several months. its a competition called CANstruction [which id never heard of] and its actually a really great cause. any aec firm in cincy [actually this thing is global, but im only speaking locally - oh and for those of you not in "the biz," aec = architecture, engineering, & construction, but i digress...] is eligible to participate if they choose and the task is quite simple, although extremely complex. they procure as many canned food items as they deem necessary and design a sculpture using only said canned foods, a little tape [no glue!], and a lot of physics manipulation that even sir issac is baffled by. they decide a winner and theres some festivities, but in the end all the canned food goes to free-stores for people who cant afford food and thats the real glory. if youre interested in more information check out the official website.

thursday after work, while karen was in class i watched the rest of robocop2 - man i love sci-fi movies that are ahead of their time, lol! - and umm... oh yeah.. i did paperwork for my student loans for hours upon hours... yay for the ability to go to college.... ::shudder:: and never get out of debt afterwards...

friday was really just a break for both of us. right after work we went to the depot and got a few more items for the weekends work excursions then headed home where we had a nice dinner, opened some wine, and watched tv all night. 

now then, i dont remember the exact time frames on everything house related, but heres the house specific update:

i do know that on wednesday i met both a furnace guy and the new plumber out at the house [at different times though, lol] where we got the furnace serviced and repaired and all that business - our furnace is good to go! the plumber came by, took a look at everything, and said hed get back to us with an estimate later that night.

at some point we got the official email estimate from the newest mason and boy it was a beaut, makes me smile just thinking about it. 

i finally contacted a roofer who said hed go have a look at the house and call me. 

and now for the latest:

we officially hired the new mason and have him scheduled to come out this weekend, so by sunday night we'll have us a new wall!

we officially hired the plumber and we're still scheduling when he'll do his thing, but hopefully soon. 

we havent heard back from the roofer... freakin roofers. i blame ike. its all his fault. theyve all got dozens of jobs replacing whole roofs after ikes little mayhem in ohio and no one will return my calls!

last weekend.

saturday we had a successful day. we got kind of a late start to the day. we slept in a little then had breakfast, then karen experimented with making some home-made orange marmalade [yeah... i'll let you know how that one goes in two weeks when its done, lol!] then we had to run errands to the bank and the post office and such. then it was time for a quick lunch before heading out to see about some new prospects from craigslist. this time around we were pursuing a dryer and a dishwasher, however while we were getting cash at the atm we got a call from the dryer guy and it was gone. one down - bummer. but! we did end up driving out into the super-suburbs [and i mean wow! crazy man, the little gated community was actually called the polo-fields if that tells you anything, lol!] and got a dishwasher! and, on the way to get the dishwasher we made a short stop at the local salvation army store and picked up 4 awesome hanging light fixtures for 25 bucks!!! pictures to come later, i promise. [and yes, oh yes, we're up to some modification mischief as usual, hehe]

after picking up the dishwasher we headed to the house where we unloaded and spent the rest of the daylight hours [which wasnt much at this point 3.5 maybe?] installing the rest of the new door hardware, and with the right tools this time around! and boy-howdy! it went so much more smoothly! ;]

sunday we did our usual church + shopping routine, although this week we hit the meijer [its like a walmart and its pronounced meyer, like oscar meyer, and yeah id never heard of it either before i moved here] and the target for some groceries and a few other essentials. after lunch we headed to the house and installed new weather-stripping to the doors and i repaired the window in the front door. by the time daylight was starting to fade we headed home for a lot more fun. we ended up doing our laundry [+ sheets & towels!], had dinner, and then cleaned the entire apartment. ugh, it was a long day. but overall a successful weekend! :]

and now, haha, the reason you guys are all still reading this, lol! [yeah, im probably guilty of stringing you along a little, heh. hey! its my prerogative! im the author! hehehe]

so at some point last week my brother calls me up - hes decided recently that he was going to buy a house, obviously im a great role model, and has been looking at stuff back home in the tx - and has decided he wants to build a house. and... drumrole, he wants me to design it! haha, so since then hes given me all kinds of specifics on the different things he wants and likes and whatnot and karen and i have been brainstorming. so if you havent already guessed, thats the prime reason we're feeling the crunch on deciding the name of this firm and seeing about getting our small business started. ive looked into llc's a little, the next step is definitely the name, lol! especially if we're going to issue drawings for anything, its kind of a must. 

so yeah, now you guys are pretty caught up, lol! its tuesday now and the only real news i have to report for this week is that we voted this morning. it was quite and experience, but it felt great! we got up at 5:15, were at the polling center by 6:15 and we're with the first 50 or so people though the door. it was a much more satisfying experience than my first vote - 2004, sigh... - and being that we're now in ohio, one of those highly publicized "swing states" its cool to know that your vote really counts. unlike in a state like say... the tx, where its already been called who will win the state before you even consider your options. 

alright, thats all ive got. its time for the wife and i to watch some election coverage before hitting the sack to try and recover a little of the sleep we didnt get last night, lol! 

happy election day!

the.name.game

so for a while now karen and i have talked quite seriously about starting our own... firm, for lack of a better term. this "firm" would cater to all of our little projects on a professional stage and be our public persona if you will. projects that weve discussed have ranged from karens art, my furniture, a gallery to exhibit the forementioned, an architectural practice, among a few other random ideas. now more than ever this idea is playing on us [for reasons ive yet to share, but i promise i will soon!], but we've hit a small snag. neither of us can come up with a name for said firm. we've been thinking about it for months and we've yet to come up with something we both really like, so i figure in an effort to spark some idea, ill ask you - my loyal readers - for your help! so far the only real suggestion we've had is "by design" which is a fun little double entendre, however im not completely sold just yet. so heres YOUR chance. give us some ideas! leave a comment and share your genius! who knows, we might like one enough to use it ;]

im all ears.

alive.and.well

i know ive been quiet for almost a week now, definitely an oddity as of late. i just wanted to quickly let you all know that karen and i are both "alive and well" to quote my mother-in-law, but that things have just been a little hectic lately and its wearing on us both. i just havent had a chance to sit down and regurgitate all of our adventures just yet. im sure youre all anxiously awaiting my thoughts and embellishments, sitting on pins and needles no doubt, but youll have to wait a little longer im afraid. 

as a final thought i'll only say this:

go vote! for the love of all that is holy, i dont care who you vote for or what you vote for, just go and vote! its one fo the few rights we still have left, its our duty as citizens, and damnit its an oppurtunity! 

and please. please, please, oh please, TRY to be informed when you do so... actually, ill amend my previous statements - go vote, if and only if, youre informed. god knows we dont need a billion more idiots out there voting for something when they have no idea why. blind and ignorant following of any cause or man [and i do mean ANY!] is simply intollerable - please do not let yourself be a victim of it. if you dont know why youre doing something, its better not to do it. 

[these are just for fun, not to push one side or the other! oprah '08?!]

"alive and well"

the.populist

post.script: whats your political philosophy? comment and share! 

[click the link/title for each issue to find out more about it and figure out where you stand]