ineptitude.

do you ever feel like youre simply spinning your wheels? like youre seeking some grander purpose thats just beyond your grasp? ever contemplate if you actually do anything of merit with the time god has allotted you? or like youre just drone-ing along, a worker bee in a cosmic hive, fulfilling your day-to-day responsibility, a cog in the proverbial machine... do you ever walk away at the end of the day questioning if you've actually done anything of real worth?

im having one of those days.

dont get me wrong. im not unhappy, im not sad or depressed, im just feeling a little... well, inept. i chose that word for a reason. its about as perfect as it gets for my current state of mind.

ive been thinking about design more and more recently. partly because im actually being afforded the opportunity to do some in limited degrees, partly because im not really doing it. partly because im starting to yearn for it again... that friend ive lost touch with over the last 3 or 4 years... stupid economy...

and the more i contemplate... the more i experience...

the more focused my vision gets on the areas in which i truly want to design...

i wish id finished my second masters - urban design. i really do enjoy it [or wish i enjoyed more of it to be more accurate... sigh...] i was so close, i could almost touch it... seriously, 9 credits... thats just... nothing. thats a light [please note the formatting irony, haha! i kill myself...] semester in grad school. i could have done it with half my brain turned off... and yet... life tends to take us on a path inevitably not the one we set out on. im not bitter, not by any means... but ive been thinking a lot about urban & landscape design. along with my typical musings of architectural, graphic, and web design of course. and well, im a designer. there's no escaping it [granted, i didnt add any adjectives to that term. ill be the last to ever admit anything ive designed is "good" but design itself, alas... you are my curse...] my mind is incessantly toiling over some idea or another... im also a doer, ive certainly discovered that. i have a passion for getting my hands in the actual work. ive gotten hooked on the high that comes with accomplishing something you can touch, see, something with resolution. to whatever degree that may be... and i miss design... ...did i ever truly have it?

i digress...

[substance]

i know i havent update anything on the house recently, and well... thats because things have stalled out for the moment. as far as updates go, i can happily report that the roof is finished. whoop! [for all those fellow ags out there] they finished the roof about a week and a half ago and have since been getting the interior of the house thoroughly cleaned and prepped for interior re-construction. and then theyve had some rain delays [will it ever stop raining in cincy?] and so they should be getting to actual work very soon. in the meantime we've been working with the flooring guy to pick out flooring and we've done that successfully as well. we're going with a light-mid-tone neutral carpet throughout the majority of the house and then in a few key places we have a medium-dark hardwood laminate that will replace vct, tile, etc. as needed.

we received some discs in the mail yesterday from rainbow with pictures of the carnage and devastation that has become our house being gutted, and then some pictures of the roof going back on - my first actual glimpses at the roof of our house! [3 years too late?] the roof looks fine enough to me, im satisfied. but the interior... it hurts going through those pictures... knowing how much we put into that house, and seeing what its been going through... i may post a handful later, we'll see...

at work things are slowing down a little, but at the same time, gearing up. i feel kind of in limbo between projects right now. one is winding down and my services are limited on it, another is starting up and my services arent needed yet. and in the in between, ive been working on revising our standards, templates, documents, etc. to stay current with the better ways we've discovered to do things [as well as overhaul the copious grammatical and spelling errors of my predecessor.... heh. hes a really nice guy, but he certainly was not an English major. to that fact, nor am i. however, i do have a knack for seeing blatant errors at times.] as well as a new pet-project on the side that is filling some of my time - but i wont get into that here. truth is, its an internal thing, any information i could potentially divulge is more or less restricted, so im pretty well unable to say much on the subject anyhow.

outside of work.. karen and i finally joined a gym. we'd been talking about it for a good 2 or 3 months, and then 3 weeks ago i just, did it. i can be impetuous like that at times. just, stop the talking and do it already. at any rate, since joining and then getting back on a better diet and a supplement regime, im feeling much better physically, but im frustrated with the overall state of my physical self. 4 months outside of a gym took its toll on me. im fighting just to get back to where i was before i left cincy. which is troublesome, because when i was in cincy, i was fighting to get back to where i was in denver. needless to say, the road ahead is long and arduous, and im impatient. ive worked too long and too hard in the past to get to where i was, and now to have lost it all and feel like im starting over... its a mental obstacle to say the least.... luckily, i have all the drive and discipline in the world when it comes to working out [plus ill admit... i can be a bit of a workout junky at times. it is an addiction, although i wouldnt say a negative one, haha!] so i should have no problem sticking with it. i just hate the waiting and the time it takes to actually see results.

and other than work, and working-out. well... there's not time for much else.

saw the fam for easter and had a great time. took the mutt to the beach and he had a blast.

things are generally fine, although some things are frustrating and trying on my patience [do not even attempt to broach the subject of finances with me. seriously.] finding a church in houston is proving even more difficult than id imagined [and i have a pretty wild imagination], and i regret to say, im getting disheartened with the search. ill never find what i had in denver again, i know that. but its so difficult in texas. finding any church that isnt plastered with a denominational marker is difficult enough, finding one that actually fits... harder still. finding the perfect one, well... i wont say impossible, but i think you get the gist. i love texas, i do, but dammit... i do not like closed minded people. and sadly, we have more than our fair share.......

all in all. its just one of those days. ineptitude. yep, that does it...

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 ;]

spring.cleaning

so obviously by the title of this post, youve already discovered that we went on a swimming expedition with sharks this last weekend. ;]

no, not really, im just pulling your leg. well, figuratively anyway. no this weekend we kept ourselves quite busy actually and it all started on friday...

[cue the harp as we flashback]

[friday]

well friday during the day was just a normal day, but friday night was the fun stuff. at some point earlier [i honestly cant remember when, could have been that week or the week before, beats me] my wife had caught wind of a party at the cincinnati art museum based on one of their current exhibits - surrealism. well, being the party animal that she is and having the affinity for surrealist are that she does, she was quite intrigued by the prospect of an art museum surrealist party, and once she looked for more information and discovered there was also to be dancing, drinks and catering from one of our favorite restaurants - the teak [http://www.teakthaicuisine.com/] - and a fashion show on top of all that... well. she was going, with or without me. so eventually she talked me into it [which didnt take too much, i could see how she was glowing with excitement, and im not one to kill her little dreams] and so we planned on going.

well, friday night was the party. it was supposed to start at 8pm which was fine with us, i usually get off work around 5:30pm, so that should give us plenty of time to do whatever we needed before then. well things got a little more complicated when on wednesday or thursday our favorite friend, amanda [manda], invited us out to the fore-mentioned-on-occasion wine tasting at whole foods. well, we were quite torn, we havent been able to go in a few weeks now, maybe more than a month. so we really wanted to go, but they start at 6 and we had a party to get to at 8 and then there was traffic to consider... so we were going to play it by ear.

as it turns out, when friday afternoon came, i didnt end up getting off work till nearly 5:45 so we decided it would be best to not go to wine tasting [sorry manda! we still love you!] and instead went home and got spiffed up for the party. well, it didnt take us too long [more for karen because it takes her a little while to squeeze into her extra-tight-sexy-jeans sometimes, heh, love you sweetie!] and by 6:30ish we were ready and decided to do a little dinner date pre-party. well we discussed it and decided it had been a while since either of us had been to deweys [http://www.deweyspizza.com/] and we love their salads [and well, obviously the pizza] so we decided that would be a nice little date spot for the evening.

deweys was delicious as always, we decided to share a big greek salad [the wife's fav!] and then split a build your own calzone with pepperoni, canadian bacon, black olives, and the various cheeses and sauces that come loaded inside. well, dinner was quite satisfying for me, karen felt it was cold, but i tasted her half and it was hot to me, i think shes having temperature issues or something... after dinner it was about 7:30ish so we decided to get on over to the party a little early and beat some of the crowd [if there was any.] soon enough we were parked and heading to the door where we discovered a short line had already started, so we got in line and started in on the nights festivities.

we stood in line till the started letting people in at about 5 till 8 and it moved pretty quickly for us [we were maybe 15 people back] and before we knew it we were in. well my first judgements of the party were a guy singing opera in the lobby quite loudly as we waited [im sorry, did i say loudly or obnoxiously?], some acid-trippy lights they had playing on the ceiling in the lobby [lame-o] and from what we could see down the corridor there were spraypainted styrofoam and hanger centerpieces on a few small tables [gag me...] so i wasnt really in the best mood to start out. call me judgemental, but i wasnt enthused so much at this point. well, after we got our drink ticked and the caterer met us at the door with a huge tray of chicken screwers, i decided things might not be so bad, haha. in the main hall there was a dj playing some much better music than the dude singing and it drowned him out completely, not to mention there was a full bar waiting for us, and the chiken scewer was awesome... so i was in better spirits soon enough. =]

well we got a drink and wandered out to the courtyard where a lot of people were gathering to enjoy the weather, drinks and more catering that was floating around. we stayed there for a little while and tried some spring rolls that had something in them i couldnt quite place but were quite delicious and some beef skewers that were a little sweet for my tastes, but quite perfectly cooked.

after finishing our drinks we decided to hit the gallery and see the acclaimed exhibit. it was pretty okay i guess, there were definitely highs and lows [as i guess could be expected with most any art exhibit] and we actually saw a few quite famous pieces which was pretty cool. on the low side though, i hate going to an art gallery and having to look at a bunch of paintings that look like kindergardener work that is claiming to be fine art. i understand that some people think that painting in this manor is a valid way of expressing something or other, but in my opinion it just looks like crap and i dont go to an art gallery to see that. not to mention we were in a surrealist exhibit which is a rough genre in the first place. theres an extremely fine line between surreal and well, just plain bad art... and since when is jackson pollock surrealist? just thought id throw that in there... not sure what his work was doing in this show... at any rate, we viewed the entire exhibit and enjoyed ourselves, but noticed that the number of people was steadily increasing as time went on and soon it was getting a bit stifling from all the body heat. so we finished up and decided it was time for another drink and some fresh air.

after standing in line for at least a half an hour in the mass of writhing party attenders we finally had our drinks and had also been visited by the beef scewer and sushi fairy while we waited. [the sushi was actually quite subpar based on our past experiences with teak's sushi. its usually excellent and this was very, very disappointing...] so we ended up back outside where it was nice and cool out and enjoyed our drinks for a while before checking our watches and realizing it was almost time for the fashion show. 10:30 already?! wow, the night flew by. so we went back inside and waded through the sea of people and tried to go up to the second level to find a good viewing place for the show. well we found a pretty decent spot on the stair landing and were just waiting around until we were kicked out of our spot by a currator because some dancers were goingt to need the space, blah blah blah. uh, bummer... so we moved away and looked for another spot, found one, then were kicked out of it. grr... look around, find another, yet again! kicked out of our spot! well, at this point, i was flippin hot, i wanted to just get the ef out of there and ditch the whole stupid thing, but karen begged my to stay and calm myself down so we found another space amidst the chaos in the middle of the main floor where i was sure wed see nothing. and waited. and waited some more. and then eventually they started playing some music and a girl in the middle of the room started dancing - quite obviously something choreographed. so all eyes were on her and as the music hit a certain timing, a bunch of people in the crowd around joined into the dance... okay, i get it, i guess thats kind of cool, but lets not get carried away, theres a ton of people standing around and this chick almost kicked me in the face just now.... but no, they didnt stop, every so many beats more people joined in, and more, and more, and we all kept getting smuched further and further back into the walls and had more and more near misses with elbows, feet, head, you name it, to the face... at this point i was very annoyed... but karen was enjoying herself, so i sucked it up and watched. well after that song finally ended 20 minutes later [okay, i might be exaggerating, but you wouldnt want to have peoples appendages flying round inches from your face either...] there was some other dance/skit thing [terrible. absolutely.] and then finally they brought out a makeshift stage for the fashion show. so at this point we were ont he front row of the fashion show which was cool i guess, but it was presented by students from the fashion department at karens school... and well... out of the 15-20 ensembles presented there were maybe 3 that were cute. most of them were just awful. these kids need to have their fashion priveledges revoked and subsequently all of their work and probably their own wardrobes set ablaze.

anyway, after the "fashion" show we called it quits for the night. karen had had a great tie and was beaming smiles, so i was in a better mood as we made fun of all the tacky clothes and the models/students who were alittle too exhibitionist for their own good. all in all it was a pretty good night, we had some fun, and then went home and crashed.

[saturday]

well saturday was rough when the alarm sounded at 6am... we'd gotten to bed somewhere around midnight and 6am was cruel to say nothing of torturous. why 6am you ask? well ill tell you [because thats obviously what this is all about, eh? yeah... i totally have conversations with myself whilest blogging, its weird i know, but youre still reading so obviously entertaining to some degree as well...] karen and i had volunteered on saturday morning to participate in a community service project. basically our church was participating, along with a dozen others in cincinnati, in an annual event called "go cincinnati." for those of you from a&m, think big event lead by the churches and youre spot on. for those of you not from a&m, essentially they got together as many volunteers as they could and then we all were to go out to homes, shelters, underfunded churches and programs, and just help out in whatever way they needed. mostly this tends to involve landscaping or painting or cleaning of some kind, but as it turns out you got to sign up for your preference and there was a little area called "artistic painting" and since my wife was the one that actually signed us up online after i told her i wanted to participate... guess which type of work she put us down for? haha... yeah. well apparently one of the underfunded churches or daycares or something or other needed murals done, so we were in the group that painted "murals". now i put that in quotations because they were muralist in that they were quite large paintings and were designed to be this gaint piece that told the tory of creation, however they were on 7 different large canvas panels and well... that really not a mural in my mind. anyhow, so karen and i spent the day painting. we got day 5 of creation which has something to do with the fish and the birds and we had a lot of fun. i discovered that i am quite terrible at painting [although this is nothing new to me, just a reinforcing of earlier knowledge. im much better at the arts that have ore control and less... lets call it expressiveness, lol.] but karen was a pro and cleaned up all my messes and in the end we had a pretty nice panel. 

[karen's cell phone photography is quite impressive i think.]

so when we were finished it was around 12:45 [we finished a little early because the event ended at 1]. well, after the working part they had set up a giant lunch for all the 6500 volunteers, the homeless, and whoever else decided to show up at one of the big parks in downtown. there was going to be over 1000 #'s of pulled pork, and sides to go with it and if that wasnt enough it was being prepaired free of charge by 10 or 12 [i cant remember which now] of the top chefs in cincinnati. so that was really cool... however, logistically it was going to be a nightmare. we know the park in question and there is no parking around it, only street parking which would fill up in about 2 minutes, not to mention 6500 people in one park waiting in line and such... well... karen and i arent really big crowd people [if you hadnt caught on to that by now...] so we decided to obstain but instead get bbq on our own because it sounded really good.

we headed over to city bbq [http://cityqbbq.com/], our bbq spot in cincy, and had a very nice lunch. even more nice because instead of 6500+ people crammed into a small space it was just us and like 2 other couples enjoying our lunch in their giant restaurant. =]

well at this point the day gets a bit less interesting. after lunch i got a haircut a few doors down, then we got some coffee at starbucks a few doors down again [because we were out and needed a few more bags of the stuff] then went home and exhausted from the day so far and lack of a good night sleep the night before we passed out for a nice long nap. around 4ish we got up from the nap and then my wife decided it was time for spring cleaning and we spent the rest of the day and night cleaning the house from top to bottom. eventually, around 9ish i think, we stopped and had dinner and watched a little west wing season 5 [yeah baby!] before going to bed.

now ill be honest with you, it wasnt just spring cleaning we were doing - although it was definitely that time again - but also my in-laws called us up last week or the week before and informed us that they were planning an improptu visit to cincinnati over the memorial day holiday weekend so we were also preparing for their stay. the house had somehow, although im still mystified as to the how in question, managed to get in a nice disaster and was definitely not in parent approval shape. im still searching for the evil culprit[s] that destroyed our beautiful home and caused us so much pain in cleaning it, so if you hear anything make sure to call me and let me know where theyre hiding. ;]

well, at this point, my lunch break is over, so we'll have to do sunday and monday at another time. although, theyre less about spring cleaning...

hope you all had a great weekend and are having a nice week as well. if you havent done so yet you need to go check out my brothers blog and pictures, his house is damn near finished now and i think they started it like last week or something? its getting built CRAZY fast!

adios!

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!

ju-ju-just.dance.dance.

wow... so its been almost 2 weeks. my bad. so much for blogging more often...

okay, lets get to the recent events. well, as recent as the time table is from your perspective anyway.

[last.week]

not a whole lot happened to report about during the remainder of the week but there is a little.

im foggy on what day it was, but nearer the end of the week than the beginning, karen found a couch on craigslist that she just fell in love with. so far we've had kind of a love/hate relationship with the 3 piece set we got off craigslist some months ago - in that we love having furniture, but its huge, bulky, heavy, and not really in line with our style or the style we're going for in our rooms... at all. but it is comfortable, and it was affordable, and well, its furnishing - so the rooms arent exactly empty anymore. however, theyre a lot closer to overstuffed with these monstrous pieces... but i digress. so karen found this couch that she just fell in love with. it was waaay more in line [okay, ill say it, perfectly in line.] with our style and the feel we were going for in the parlor, and it was listed for super cheap, so karen talked me in to going and picking it up after work one day. well lucky for us no one grabbed it first and she struck a deal with the woman selling it [who was quite friendly by the way, we liked her.] and actually got it for 5 bucks cheaper than she was listing it. anyway, we got there to get this thing and it was even more perfect in person - its gorgeous. so anyway, we brought it home [so much lighter than the other ones!!!!!] and got it into the parlor and instantly, we loved it. it just works with the room. its kind of an orangey-salmon color and dont ask me why, but it really ties the colors in the room together a lot better than the cream [or dingy brown slip cover] color of the couch we have now.

so tied to that, i insisted that if she got a new couch she had to get rid of the old one - theres just not enough room for them to live in harmony. she agreed and posted it on craigslist. since then weve had a couple of people come by and look at it, but so far we still have it... the weather hasnt been helpful, i'll say that much. its been raining a lot lately and no one wants to move a couch in the rain [myself included.] but tomorrow [saturday] is supposed to be a beautiful day out and saturdays are the best day for craigslist, so hopefully we can get rid of it this weekend.

other than that... theres nothing too noteworthy about last week that i can remember.

[last.weekend]

well i believe ive posted at some point in the past that we had a few problems with our electrical when it came time to do the inspection. it wasnt that we did stuff wrong, just that there were more code requirements than we knew about that we were going to have to meet, and there was more wrong that the inspector discovered during his inspection. anyway, when it was all said and done we had a nice list of things we still needed to do and the more major of those things being that we needed to replace our main service line and meter - of which i am no where near qualified to take on with my fairly limited "expertise" [ha!]. so the bottom line was that we were going to have to hire an electrician for at least part of what we still had left to do and i was dreading having to do that.

from my limited understanding of the profession, electricians are expensive. and as i started to make phone calls to get estimates or quotes or someone to even come out to look at it, i found this limited understanding to be quite true indeed. i was getting numbers anywhere from 1000 to 2000 bucks to do the work, a lot of them didnt bother going out to look - they could handle it whatever it ended up being and if it was more than what i described on the phone they could give me a price once they were working on it [ha, right!] - or charged a fee to come out and look at stuff before theyd even give you a quote... all of these things were not making me very happy, or to be more honest were frastrating the hell out of me.

so last week i started asking around the office [after failing on my own accord] if anyone knew a good electrician or even a fair one that was affordable. luckily, i hit the jackpot. one of the architects at my office has a good friend thats an electrician and passed on my information to him. soon enough he called me and arranged to go out and have a look [for free, woohoo!] at the situation while karen was at home. he did so and she discussed with him to some degree the problem and the list of other things we had to do, and he went on his merry way. well we didnt hear anything back immediately, but on friday of last week the architect told me that the guy had lost my number and so i gave it to her and he called me pretty shortly after. so we discussed what he saw, and cleared up exactly what i wanted him to do, and he gave me a quote for the work... and it was WAY cheaper than any of the other idiots id talked to! well it turned out hed had a cancellation saturday morning and so we scheduled for that time - problem solved!

so saturday morning came and he arrived right on time and got to work. before hed gotten there i had been working away myself for almost an hour. the stove[range] line that was in the house when we bought it was actually service cable, and during the inspection the inspector decided it was oversized and needed to be replaced with a smaller and different kind of wire but also informed me that the one there would be sufficient to replace the service line outside. so kind of bittersweet in that it would have to be replaced, but awesome that we already had the materials for the electrician. [which helped save me some money!] so anwyay, before they got there i was busy unhooking the line from the circuit breaker, the stove, and starting to pull it out of the floor joists. luckily when dad was here we'd disconnected the stove line that was going to the second floor [part of the old multi-family situation] and the wire going to that one was the right kind and there was enough of it to run as the replacement line. so anyway, the electrian and one of his guys got there while i was in the middle of pulling the service wire out of the joists and took over for me while i got started running the replacement line for the stove.

i wasnt entirely sure what all they did for the first couple of hours while i was busy down in the basment doing my own thing, but around noon i started checking up on things with them and theyd made huge progress! theyd already installed a new meter base and were prepping the replacement service line to go in. and well, before i knew it they were doing those things as well. at about 1:15 they were completely finished installing the new service line and we had power up and running with no problems!

and if that all wasnt enough, the guy was really nice and walked me through the entire list from the inspector and talked me through the ohio code stuff that my dad and i didnt know before, and showed me how i needed to complete everything to get approved in the final inspection. he gave me all kinds of tips and said that if i ever had any problems or questions or anything to feel free to give him a call and hed be glad to help. so yeah, thats a great contact if i ever have more electrical stuff going on, and in the end it only cost us $400! thats pretty drastically different from $2000 in my book! [checkbook that is...]

anyway, the rest of the day saturday we spent going to homedepot to get the supplies i was going to need to work on some of the other electrical stuff and then i actually did some of that as well. karen worked on school stuff trying to get ready for classes to start up on monday and grilled hamburgers for dinner. [yeah, they were the frozen kind this time so we had much less difficulty, haha, they tasted awesome though!]

sunday we went to church, the grocery store, and the gas station as usual and then it started raining again and the day got very grey and dreary and gross and... we basically said screw it, got in warm-comfies and snuggled up infront of the tv. =]

[this.week]

well nothing too exciting has gone on during the week. karen has been going to all her classes and started her new job on campus so shes getting adjusted to all of those. and then wednesday night i took off the door to the balcony on the second floor and replaced it with a sheet of plywood because karen needed the door for her studio project this semester and it was a piece of crap anyway. [and again, heavy!] we took that up to her studio along with a nice load of supplies and such.

ummm.... lets see... what else.....

haha, alright ive tortured amanda enough i guess. ;]

well over the weekend our dear friend amanda [whom ive mentioned on a few occasions past] moved back to cincinnati after being awol for the last few months. [well, really shed just moved to cleveland temporarily for an internship, but you say potato...] and on mondy night she decided to have people over to celebrate being back home in the nati - and we were invited. so after work we went to amandas and had a long night of friends, food, lots of laughter and stories and lively conversations about various topics. we had a great time, and a little wine, and by the time we ended up leaving it was damn near midnight, lol! [oh and did i mention there was a puppy? haha, that alone was tons of entertainment throughout the night! it was amanda's roommate - who is also very cool - caity's new puppy, a cocker spaniel mix - mom youd have loved it! - and it was pretty stinkin cute. "pay-trick" and i played with it for probably the first solid hour, haha!] anyway, we had a total blast [thanks manda!] and a rough morning the next day after not nearly enough beauty sleep ;]

and while we're on the subject of amanda, we're also going out with her and a group tonight for wine tasting again! i know i mentioned this sometime past, the wine tasting at whole-foods. anyway, its starting up again for the spring and tonight is the first night, so karen and i are pretty excited about that. im sure itll be as much fun as it was last time around. =]

alright... so... with that, i think youre pretty caught up on the past. as for the near future... ummm...

[this.weekend]

well as i said its going to be gorgeous outside tomorrow so im sure we'll try and get some house work done if we can.

i know karen has lots of homework to work on this weekend and shes planning on doing a lot of that, so it might throw a wrench in our house stuff.

i am definitely hoping we get rid of that stupid couch this weekend.

theres still bookshelf stuff left to be completed, so i might work on that some.

the electrical is still around, so i might work on that some more.

we need to replace the door out to the balcony at some point, we might attempt that this weekend.

church on sunday and the normal sunday routine.

oh, and a new development -

yesterday i got a flyer [flier?] at work about an architecture competition in cincinnati through the usgbc [http://www.usgbc.org]. well, actually its national, but starts at a local level and cincinnati is one of the locations. anwyay, after reading all the information about this competition i started to think it was pretty cool and i might actually want to do it. i talked to karen about it, but she is too busy with school stuff to work on it at all... but its a pretty big competition project and i kind of wanted to team up with someone. so i emailed my buddy mike from grad school who just happens to live here in cincy as well [see the post about the new years eve wedding for more on mike...] to see if he was interested. well as it turns out, he got pretty excited about the competition and thought we could come up with a pretty cool entry so we decided to do it! so yeah, thats pretty cool. that will definitely take up some of my spare time over the next 14 weeks [the deadline] but hopefully we'll have a cool entry to show for it. [i know we'll have fun, haha!] so anwyay, this weekend at some point we're planning to meet about that and start brainstorming, visit the site, etc. so... eventually i may have another update on that, stay tuned.

um, i think thats about it that i know of. hope youve all been well and have plans of your own for the upcoming weekend! miss and love you all!

when.the.circus.comes.to.town [the.conclusion+]

well first off i'll say that i completely forgot to take pictures last night for you all [y'all]. the reason for that, well... we'll get to it later on i suppose. =]

[wednesday]

so wednesday morning we got ready for work as usual and said our goodbyes and i love yous to mom and dad. i forgot to mention in the last post, but only mom and dad stayed the extra day, kimber had to get back for school or something, so mom had taken her to the airport for her original flight on tuesday while dad and i kept working on the electrical. well, when the night came and we finally quit for bedtime we'd gotten damn near everything finished. there were only a few things left to do: a few light fixtures to put back together, a few outlets and switches to put back in the wall, our two lovely 3 ways that had been wired wrong were still in need of a little tlc, and there were still two wires we hadnt hooked back up to the panel yet, but that was about it. pretty light relative to the previous days work. 

[1]so while karen and i were at work, mom and dad got those last little things finished up, mom did laundry and dishes again i think, and even took some time to make us cookies, lol! but by the time they left the house was in great shape and we'd gotten so much accomplished it was pretty extraordinary. thanks everyone for all the help and hard work, karen and i cant even express how appreciative we are!

[2]well, our contractor also made a little visit on wednesday while the 'rents were finishing up, and they got a ton of work done too. they were able to cut out and replace the bad wood in both of the other two joists, cut holes and dig out for the footings, and put in place all 3 columns before the day was up - awesome work! and fast! 

so when wednesday evening finally came upon us we were exhausted, haha. but we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate all we'd gotten done, and also to celebrate karen's new job! i think i mentioned before that she was going to try to find some part time work while she was taking classes next quarter and well, she had an interview that dfay and had gotten the job! basically shes going to be doing general office work 12+ hours a week, and shes getting paid the same thing shes making now, so its really a dream come true! she even has the option of working more hours if she feels like she can handle it, theyre extremely flexible, and even more great news, the office shes working in is in the same building as all of her classes, so she doesnt even have to walk across campus to go to work! =]

[thursday]

well thursday was a pretty normal day, and i wouldnt even bring it up, except to say that the contractors were back again and poured all three of our footings and finished putting some steel in the joists as well. so at they point they were pretty much finished with the basement minus a little clean-up and letting the concrete cure for a few days. thursday night we did nothing but hang out and relax - finally!

[friday]

nada on projects. we were supposed to meet some of our friends for dinner and drinks, but something came up and they had to take a raincheck, so we just did it on our own. we had a nice night out and went to bed pretty early =]

[saturday]

saturday i wanted to do nothing, and thats exactly what i did, hehe. i needed an entire day off with nothing but rest and relaxation, and thats what i got. i stayed in bed half the day and basically just watched tv and movies all day, it was awesome! karen bummed around with me for a lot of the day, but she was restless and wanted to get stuff done, so in the afternoon she went to run some errands and then in the evening went to a "all girls craft party" at a friend of hers and had a good time. im still not entirely sure what all happens at a party of this sort, but i know she made some sort of crafty thing that she didnt bring home, lol, so whatever. 

[sunday]

well, sunday was a pretty busy day - considering we got nothing done on saturday of any real substance, lol. we went to church in the morning and then made the rounds to a few stores. first was target because my sweetie needed some new clothes for school [its like august 2000 again, lol!]. then we had lunch and it was delicious. then we went to michaels where we got some thread and yarn and possibly some other things, i cant remember now. 

then it was next door to bigg's for the weekly grocery store trip. by the time we were finished with all that it was about 5pm and we unloaded groceries and cleaned out the fridge while we decided what to do next. 

well, given the newly renovated rooms we decided we needed to get some new furniture, haha. so we went to ikea and spent a couple of hours browsing through the store and trying to decide what we really needed and of that what we actually wanted to buy and well, we ended up getting some great deals! for the office we got 4 shelves - 2 wall mountable shelves that are essentially a bookshelf turned sideways, so we can not only store stuff inside the shelf, we can also put stuff on top of it, so with 2 of them, we're actually getting 4 - not bad at all, and they were a pretty good deal. the other shelves stand on their own and they have 4 shelves each, so we got a ton of storage for the price. =]

also, we got karen a desk chair for her new desk that was on sale for pretty cheap and shes really excited about it. and lastly we got 4 dining room chairs that are the right height for our real dining room table. i know i mentioned before the vintage dining room table we have now with the legs i had to fix, but the plan is that that table is going to end up in the kitchen as a little nook type table, and then our other "real" dining room table can finally take its rightful place. its a pub-height table we got as a wedding gift and its really beautiful, but the problem was that we didnt have any pub-height chairs so that we could actually use it. so at ikea we found some chairs that arent the optimum solution, but they were very reasonably priced and they'll do the trick in a pinch, so to speak, so that we can actually use our fancy table, heh. 

so when we got home from ikea we had dinner and then i spent the rest of the night putting together the new dining room chairs - which proved to be a serious pain in the ass, lol. they were probably some of the hardest to assemble furniture ive ever gotten from ikea, but i finally got them all put together and they look good!

[monday|yesterday]

well, if you hadnt guessed it yet, the reason i didnt get around to taking pictures last night, is because i got distracted with putting together our new ikea shelves, lol! i love putting together furniture, so i just get caught up in it and thats all she wrote. anyway, we got 3 of the 4 shelves put together last night and karens new desk chair with pretty much no problems at all =] other than that the day was pretty normal, work was trying, make dinner, and watch heroes!

actually, s long as we're talking about tv shows ill say a few things.

[1] the new season of heroes is bugging me a little. im still enjoying it, but does anyone else feel like its really just dragging along very slowly? i guess last season just had so much going on so fast that i kinda got used to that momentum, and now we spend half the show watching the characters having conversations and not really doing a whole lot. but maybe thats just me. 

[2] does anyone else watch fringe? can i just say i love this show? i dont know what it is, but it really just grabs the nerd in me and gets me so into everything going on that i cant help it. and honestly, i cant believe im saying it, but i really like joshua jackson's character. i mean, given his dawsons creek make-me-wunna-puke background, i was expecting to be annoyed with him very quickly, but im not! so kudos there. also, the italian guy from the black donnely's whos name i cant remember, really like his character on this show - i just wish theyd give him more of a primary role! 

[3] so ive started watching fox's two new prime time shows as well this season. lie to me i really enjoy, i find it hilarious and it keeps me very entertained. dollhouse on the other hand... im not sure yet. the advertisements for the show made it look really cool, and i thought it was more of like an assassin type thing, but now i find out its more like super-escort service? hmm... i think theyre trying to develop the backstory and really get to the good stuff, but its taking a little while and im just not sure how i feel about it all just yet. its got potential, especially if they do take the espionage|assassin route - not to mention you really cant go wrong with eliza dushku! so we'll see how those two play out, haha, in my one night a week internet tv veg-outs, lol!

[4] how i met your mother is still awesome. thats really all i gotta say about that. virtual high-five!

anyone else watching something good i should pay attention to? anyone seen any good movies lately? ive got a short list of summer blockbusters i want to see [star trek!!!!!] and theres a few coming out in march i know of that look interesting, but i really havent been keeping up lately. 

well guys and dolls, i think thats it for now. i really should be working, but its been a really... really... slow morning so far, and i honestly dont have anything to do. guess i'll go dig something up! have a great day!

little.victories

1.30.09|friday

well when last we spoke of current events it was friday afternoon and if memory serves, we were discussing the new windows, the inspections|permits situation, and my parents had just informed us of their impending visit. for those of you who actively read the comments as well, you already know that i mentioned in one that amanda was coming to town friday night, that was the basis of our evening's activities.

so after work karen and i called up amanda and we arranged our schedules for the evening and planned what we were going to do. amanda had some meeting to attend when she first arrived in cincy and we werent going to meet|eat till after 8pm, so karen and i decided to make our first stop dinner [seeing as we were famished post-travieller] and after a short debate on what sounded good we ended up at deweys for a nice big salad and a nice big pizza. it was delish as always and after dinner we headed home for a little hard work. 

we got back at the house around 6:30 and the place was a disaster so we spent the next hour and 45 minutes cleaning any and every-thing from one room to the next. just general tidying up, straightening, putting things away, organizing, and where necessary some good old fashioned cleaning of floors, surfaces, etc. at 8 amanda notified us that she and pay-trick [thats patrick in "amanda speak" - her boy... well, im really not sure what they are technically...] were at hideaway [another local northside restaurant that has some pretty delicious food and a funky-eclectic atmosphere that karen and i find pleasing and humorous. they also have the most awesome appetizer called creamer potatoes with special hideaway sauce - if you ever venture to hideaway you HAVE to try them... mm-mmm, delectable!] and were ready for our arrival. so we finished what we were doing, bundled up for the cold [high teens to low twenties i believe] and drove the 4 blocks to meet them, lol! [it was cooold!] soon after we arrived a few more of amanda's friends from cincy joined us as well and the 6 of us waited for a table and had a few laughs. eventually we were seated and had more robust conversation and some of the fore-mentioned creamer-potatoes, and eventually main courses [i was still full from deweys so i abstained from a main course, haha]. we had a good time hanging out and having dinner and eventually it was time to hit the road so we said our goodbyes and then amanda and pay-trick followed us over to the house so that they could be the first of our friends to see the new place! how exciting!

well for the next couple of hours we gave them the tour and then enjoyed more conversation and laughs [not to mention a little wine and some of my mother-in-law's AWESOME fudge! which we all thoroughly enjoyed! thanks mom!] before they ultimately said their goodbyes and headed home for the night. it was a ton of fun getting to have a social life for a night and we loved being able to finally entertain at the house - even if it was only for a short while and the place was a disaster, lol!

1.31.09|saturday

saturday morning we slept in a little, but eventually were pulled from our warm cozy bedding by our desire for sustenance. i was the first down and got coffe started and then decided to make some of my famous breakfast burrito concoction that i can only refer to as "breakfast mix-up." i wont divulge my secret recipe, but i will say its always a pleasing meal for karen and i and will surely fill you up! for us it made a quite satisfying brunch [as it was nearly noon by the time we finished] after which we decided to relax on the dining room sofa for a while and watch some west wing. [i LOVE west wing!]

i honestly cant say how long we vegged out, but at some point we decided it was time to get something accomplished for the day and the first thing we did was unpack and put away a bunch of boxes that were still in the dining room. satisfied with that project and ready for the next, we decided to move all the furniture away from the walls and get started prepping the dining room for painting. it was the next room in line and we were anxious to get the ghastly sponge-painted catastrophy that was our dining room out of sight and out of mind. so for the next few hours we cleaned, taped, and plastered the walls on 2/3rds of the room. [we've decided that the only way we can really do these rooms and live in the house at the same time is to do half a room at a time until completion and move all the furniture from one side to the other, but still have it in somewhat of a useable arrangement. such was the case with the dining room as well.]

eventually karen decided to call it a night [without telling me, lol, i thought she'd just gone upstairs to use the restroom or something] and i did a second run-through of plastering before assisting a neighbor in freeing her car from the snow and then eventually a nice-hot-shower and bed. [karen had passed out pretty quickly, so she didnt even notice my absence until i made my way upstairs and woke her, lol!]

2.1.09|super-bowl.sunday

haha, super-bowl sunday indeed... 

karen and i had decided the night before that we were going to get up early sunday morning and get one coat of paint on the dining room before church so that by the time we returned it would be ready for the second coat. well as arranged, we got up early and did some painting and were really excited about the new color. its kind of a sagey-olive-green [although it reminds me more of what i consider to be army green than anything else] and after the first coat we were quite pleased as we headed upstairs to get ready for church. the paint went on very well and thr room looked a trillion times better after one-wet-coat. [that sponge paint was horrific!!]

well, as it often seems to happen, we finished getting ready for church at about 10:05. church usually starts at 10am [although this weekend for super-bowl sunday they were starting at 10:15am. regardless...] it was obvious we werent going to make it to the 10am service, so we resigned ourselves to doing a once over of all the shopping lists before treating ourselves to a breakfast at ihop before attempting the later service. 

well i dont mind telling you we were very pleased to discover that ihop had all you could eat pancakes! hahaha! i enjoyed the hell out of some pancakes and was quite proud of myself for putting away 3 plates of them =] however, in light of the all-you-can-eat situation, the plates they brought you were about 2/3rds the norm. at any rate, we were nicely filled to the gills by the time we waddled out of ihop, however it was only 11:30 and the next service wasnt starting for another 45 minutes. at this point we decided to make the quickest shopping trip on our list, a quick run to walmart for some lightbulbs and license plate covers [we finally got our license plates for the new truck last week!]

well... haha... things never quite go as planned. we got to walmart after 15 minutes of traffic [which was pathetic because it was only across the freakin bridge from ihop! where did all these people come from?? and where were they going??] but were sure we could get our few items and still make it on time. so we went in and found the lightbulb section just where we'd left it the last time we'd been there, however this is where we ran into a slight problem. we were getting lightbulbs because we had some cupons from our energy company that were going to expire soon and we wanted to take advantage of them before that happened. however the cupons were very specific about which lightbulbs [all cfl's of course! woohoo!] each cupon was for. well you wouldnt think that would be too much of a problem except that the specific packaging was shown on the cupon and the packaging of the lightbulbs in the store had changed since the things were issued. i wasnt sure if it was going to be a problem or not, but looked for the ones pictured for a while. 

to make matters worse, haha, while i was being anal retentive, karen got distracted by the adjacent fabric section and wandered off. it was an awesome find though, all the walmarts in denver, and im pretty sure texas as well, have stopped selling fabric and i assumed that it was a nationwide thing. recently karen and i have been looking for fabric to redo the new couches and chairs with, and joanns was a disappointment to say the least... whooo-expensive!

well we found all kinds of cool fabric and eventually i even found a sales associate [who was totally clueless about the lightbulbs anyway, so i just said screw it...] and got the closest thing i could find - oh and we also found some license plate covers, haha. anyway, by the time we checked out we looked at the clock and it was 12:30pm... so much for church. meh, they were doing some super-bowl sunday special thing anyway, and i was hardly interested in what that would turn out to be. i didnt mind missing it and we got to continue our sunday shopping anyway. 

after walmart we went next door to the depot [february had finally arrived!] to get a few things on our list - it was actually quite short considering how long it had been, 4 or 5 items total i think? followed by a quick trip to home emporium to pick up one specific item [more to come on that at a later date however], then next door to lowes for an additional supporting item to the one at home emporium, then finally next door again to bigg's to do our grocery shopping for the week. [whew!] after all of that we finally got home just before 4pm and were pretty tired, lol! well after unloading and putting away everything we decided to get to work, and jumped right in to the second coat of paint. it went on very smooth and we were really loving the color - it had only gotten better as it had greated us when we got home - fully dried and to its real color!

well after that coat of paint we were hungry again [although i dont know how!] and had a snack|supper and watched some more west wing [yeah!] and just relaxed for a while. however, around 6:30pm i was motivated again and we decided to tackle another project - re-covering the dining room sofa. 

well, after discussing our approach and testing some fabric and batting options, we searched the house for karens staple gun only to discover that it was pretty dinky and was NOT going to get the job done. we were both pretty revved up at this point so we made the decision to make a trip back to the depot to get a real staple gun and various staples and brads and such, and then continue the project. it was a very quick trip - we stayed focused: get in. get out. get home. - and before long we were stretching fabric and experimenting with the sofa. im not sure how long we played with that but we got half the sofa re-covered and so far we're really happy with it! i dont have pictures yet, im going to wait till we're finished with the transformation, but im really hoping it turns out well! =] after that i talked to my mom and brother for a little bit before bed and then karen and i passed out exhausted from our weekend.

yeah, we totally forgot about the super-bowl in the midst of all the projects, but then again neither of us were all that interested in it anyway - i didnt even know who was playing - nor did we have tv to watch anyhow. oh-well. 

2.2.09|monday

well, thats today. and youd think that it being only lunch time i wouldnt have much to report, however i do have two victories to add to this update! this morning on the way in to work we stopped off at the city building & inspections office and officially obtained our permit for the wall! woohoo!! so now that we have all our permits in order, i just need to schedule a couple of inspections and hopefully we can get the certificate of occupancy soon !

secondly, about 2 hours ago i got a phone call, and i was shocked to find that it was the window people calling. theyd already ordered the correct sized remaining window, it was being fabricated this week, and would be ready for installation this weekend! so we're getting the last window installed saturday morning! woohoo again!!!

i love little victories! =]

this week is starting off pretty good so far, but now, ive got to get back to work. hope you all have a great week too! ill try to keep you updated on any more progress we make on the house this week - although i certainly cant promise anything, lol!

cheers! [and go... steelers?? where my cowboys at??]