out.of.touch

so yeah, i have been. for a while now, and i am sorry about that. i guess the last time i blogged was probably over a month ago now... life has been hectic.

no, im not going to go back and retell all the stories of everything thats been going on in full vivid color, as i so often have the habit of doing. instead you guys will just have to settle for a brief overview synopsis of current events and a promise that i will try harder from now on.

so what have you missed?

well, on june 20th my brother got married back in texas and that was a whirlwind of travel and festivities for one weekend. CONGRATULATIONS JOSH AND CASSIE! i have a new sister =] the wedding was quite beautiful and a ton of fun. i even met some of joshs friends andthey were all really fun people! karen had already been in san francisco for about a week and a half, so it was good to get to see her at the wedding, but it was over far too soon and then we were back on our separate sides of the continent - with the 3 hour time difference, ugh.

after karen left i really really stepped up my workout and diet routine. not really a big event, but its helped to fill the hours with constructive activities instead of just lying around in a lump on the couch. im actually quite proud to say that after about a month-month and a half of consistent routine, ive gotten into better shape [at least i think so anyway] than i was a year ago when i got married. ive still got my goals set high and hope to see even more improvement and also i hope that this time around i can keep my routine up through the dreadful cold seasons... we'll see how that goes huh? [yeah josh, im skinnier than you again =P]

over the july 4th holiday i went to visit karen out in san francisco for a long weekend. all in all i was there for 5 days and we had a great time. we saw all kinds of cool stuff and i got to see her school and her apartment out there and all the stuff shes working on. not to mention, san francisco is a really amazing city to visit. the public transportation system was just awesome and it was so easy to explore the city and see everything it had to offer. its a very different life-style out there [one i could probably become accustomed to, haha] much more laid back than my seemingly overfilled to-do-list of a life here in cincy. anyway, it was a great 'holiday' and karen's parents even came to visit for a couple of days near the end of the trip so i got to see them as well. on top of all that, i got to see one of favorite people of all time, vena, who i hadnt actually seen since senior year at a&m and it was really fun to get to hang out with her again. shes such a fun person and it was nice to see an old friend again. =]

pictures from the san francisco trip are up on the picture site if youre interested.

the trip back from san francisco wasnt quite as enjoyable as the holiday spent there, it turns out i got food poisoning on my last day in town and had probably the most horrible red-eye flight across country in the history of mankind. [well... at least in my lifetime, it certainly seemed like it could have been the worst ever... yuck.] i definitely wont go into all the gore here, but suffice to say it was not a fun trip and i hope you all never have to experience anything like it.

since getting back in cincy its gotten down to the end of the line with the competition i mentioned sometime back. i hadnt talked about it much between then and now because honestly, i couldnt decide how things really were going as far as progress and i wasnt sure we were going to stick out to the end. however, after a LOT of work in my "spare time" over the last couple of weeks, and a lot of late nights the last two weekends, mike[my partner] and i have successfully finished our design and mike is taking over the final project later this afternoon for submittal. we made it. and it was quite an adventure... i'll post our boards as soon as he sends me the final drafts of them, which should be some time later this afternoon. it was definitely a trying, but learning experience, however im not sure id be willing to jump into it again. it just very very difficult to juggle everything going on in life and still have time to work on a competition project. we're happy with how it turned out and even if we dont win, or even place in the actual competition, i think the outcome was a good one. =]

and if all that wasnt enough, on tuesday of last week, my mother-in-law arrived in town for a visit. she decided that this summer she was going to come to cincy and embark in some landscaping projects that karen and i have yet to tackle, as well as to install all those beautiful stained glass windows i posted pictures of in previous blog posts. in addition to all those, there were also a few surprise stained glass windows and really they are all just gorgeous. since she arrived shes installed all of them in the various locations she designed them for and the house just feels more alive. and if that alone wasnt enough, she has been kick serious ass in the landscaping arena and the yard looks amazing. i dont know where she gets the energy, but shes worked everyday all day on the yard and the transformation has been surreal. i have a handful of before and after pictures ill post when i finish blogging here, but we'll have to make sure to get more as the visit continues. and speaking of the visit continuing, my mother flies in tonight to join the party. yep, thats right, me and two mothers at my house for the rest of this week... exciting? or scary? you be the judge of that one, im keeping my mouth shut. ;]

so when mom gets here they plan to keep working on the yard and then i guess theyre going to team up on some projects inside the house as well. i dont really have all the details, but im sure whatever they decide to do will be greatly appreciated.

and with that, all the big stuff has been summarized for you, and thats where we are at the moment. karen will be getting back from san francisco in a few weeks, august 12th i believe, and it'll be fantastic to have my wife back. then i know we have a wedding in cleveland on the 15th for our friends cae & emil [who i may or may not have mentioned before] and who knows what all other excitement is in store over the coming weeks and months.

stay tuned, and im sure you'll find out =]

the.prodigal.blogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

i.need.a.holiday...[part.three]

[monday | day.three]

so monday morning i was a bit groggy as i awoke to the sound of the sander going... i looked at the time and it was only 7:50, so its not like i slept in, but obviously the folks had to be leaving for the airport early and were ready to get to work. so i quickly got dressed and staggered downstairs to review the situation. karen was working on sanding the trim we'd gotten finished on the shelves the day before while allan was getting read to start cutting more trim and anne was already working on more crown touchup. maybe i had overslept...

anyway, i jumped into the action and soon allan and i had gotten back into our routine for measuring, cutting, and attaching the shelf trim. by this time we were getting pretty comfortable working side by side, holding boards for each other to hammer or screw in, anticipating what the other would need next... [this will come back into play later in the story... thanks for that mom.] well the day seemed to go by pretty fast in general. i dont know how long we were working on the shelves but it certainly seemed to fly by and before we knew it we'd finsihed the remaining trim and decided to get started on the doors. the more important being the backdoor in the shop. so we got all of our materials and tools together and made our way up to the shop to get started. first we had to remove the plywood covering the opening and then the much more difficult task of removing all the existing trim and door surround that was starting to rot in some places and was going to have to come out either way if we were going to fit the new pre-hung door into the opening. well after double checking we discovered that the masonry opening was only an 1/8 of an inch larger than the new door assembly so we took a sigh of relief and got started on the demo.

first we attempted to remove the door frame on either side of the door, but were having some difficulty getting it out. soon we realized the threshold was locking it in place, so we removed it first. the threshold came up with no effort at all - im still not entirely sure how it was even attached, i think we found one nail in the whole thing... after getting it out of the way we were able to pry the frame out on either side much more easily, however we were still running into some issues with the frame header locking them in place at the top. after trying a few different approaches we were able to pry them out on either side however we started running into some snags. as we pulled the door frame away from the masonry opening, the brick and mortar behind it was starting to just crumble away. apparently the door frame wasnt the only part of that opening that had gotten some damage over time...well there wasnt too much we could do, but we attempted to minimize the amount of brick we were loosing from the wall as best we could. by the time we got the frame out on either side we'd started a nice little pile of rubble, but the majority of the opening was still intact. however, at this point a new problem had arisen... how exactly were we going to mount the new door in this opening?? im still not entirely sure how the existing frame was attached on either side, again i saw no nails to speak of as we were prying it off, its almost as if the whole thing was just wedged in place. how secure... anyway, there were a few places in the opening where we found that there were blocks of wood set into the brick and mortar but they were randomly placed and pretty limited in size, not to mention about 3-4 inches inset from the edge of the opening as it were. those blocks of wood were our only real option as far as we could tell for mounting this thing, so we'd just have to figure out how to make it work later. at the moment though, we still had the header of the frame to remove and it wa being a royal pain in the ass.

it turns out after we started looking at this thing from the outside that this was definitely not the original door. in-fact, we could now clearly see that the original lintel for the door was much higher than where the frame stopped... someone had "shrunk" the opening at some point along the line and the actual opening was 8ft tall! we could have bought the cheaper/taller door at home emporium after all! grr... well we debated the option of returning the one for the other at this point, but decided that time had past, and we needed to get this door in place as fast as we could. well soon the girls emerged from whatever it was they were doing downstairs and announced that they were going to home depot to return the vent cover [it hadnt quite fit the opening once we got it up there] and asked if we needed anything. by this time after a lot of effort and some creative circular saw tricks by allan, we'd managed to tear out most of the header mess of the door and were getting the girls input on whether or not to remove another piece of wood that was creating the old doors actual structural header. after a little discussion we decided to remove it and told the girls we didnt need anything and they were off on their way. well, as they started downstairs i second guessed myself and remeasured the masonry opening - and its a good thing i did! we were now at about a half an inch wider than the new door assembly after removing the old frame and we were going to need something to shim the gap. well we had some door shims, but even a shim on either side of the door was going to leave a lot of empty space so i raced downstairs and caught them just as they were leaving. i asked if theyd get us some 1/4" hardboard to put on either side of the opening to shim it up and also give us a much cleaner surface to work with and gave them all the measurements for the cuts id need them to get. they agreed and were on their way as i returned up stairs and allan and i started to remove the remaining member and cut the lathe and plaster on the interior of the wall that was covering the top of the opening.

after a couple of attempts we got that done well enough, and had a fairly clean masonry opening to work with. so after collecting our thoughts and assessing the situation with the wood blocking we decided our best option was going to be cutting down some 2x4's to fit and then shimming them with whatever plywood we had available so that they would fill the depth and be flush with the opening edge. well.. after a couple of tries we found a method that seemed to work well enough and got 2 of the new blockings in place... and this is where things went a little awry... the 2x4's we were using were basically crap scrap that was laying around and they were very knotty and rough. also we were using both scrap 1x3 and some 3/4"mdf scrap that we had lying around the shop to fill the gap. well we'd figured out a method of pre-drilling so as not to split the 1x3's and then i had some 3.5" galvanized deck screws we were securing each layer of blocking back to the wall with. well on multiple occasions this assembly method had been giving us some problems... as i said the wood was knotty and crap and the screws didnt want to go in nicely... we had to force them. well, as we were working on the 3rd board allan was holding this time round while i was trying to drive the screw and for either the screw being obstinate or us hitting a knot, the stupid drill jumped on me and went smack onto my father-in-laws finger.... ef. it got him right in the cuticle between the nail and the flesh, so im sure it hurt like hell, but he didnt make much of a fuss other than obviously wincing when it happened... so anyway, he went to clean the wound while i dug out our band aids and ointments and then he dressed his wound. it didnt look too bad, but im sure it didnt feel great [hence my mother-in-laws comment about the finger splint in post No. 1... i sure hope its nothing serious!]. either way, we quickly got back to work, hoping to finish up the blocking before the girls got back. and as it turned out we did. but only a couple of minutes passed before they showed up with our hardboard and we got right back to work.

about 5 minutes went by and we got the first piece of hardboard screwed in place when the girls came and stole my drill to screw in the new vent cover. so allan and i relaxed for a few minutes and then a few more and decided to see what was taking so long. well, they were having some issues so i stepped in to help them finish up and get us back to work. a couple of minutes later we had the vent in and allan and i started screwing the other piece of hardboard in. soon after that we were ready to try putting the door in place and moved it into position and started removing all the packaging. now id like to say that the door went in with no problems at all, but if youve been following this story, im sure you know thats never the case... well we were able to fit the door in the opening, but the hardboard on both sides was wedging it and it wasnt going to open like that. so we quickly removed the hardboard from one side and tried again. well it wasnt wedging anymore, but there was still a sizable gap and the door was quite wiggly. soon the girls showed up to investigate - having finished whatever it was they were busying themselves with - and to make us aware of the time. it was getting dangerously close to time for them to be getting ready to leave so we better hurry it up. well with their assistance [possibly a few too many hands?] we eventually got the door into a "good enough" place and put a couple of screws into it. after a lot more messing with the thing and the shims and what have you, we managed to get it securely in place and opening smoothly. its still a little skewed, but its in better shape than i would have expected [better than our other doors, haha!] and while we will have to drill out the lock holes in the frame a tiny bit, its in pretty damn great shape! =]

satisfied with the door situation they were leaving us in, the in-laws quickly got themselves ready and gathered their things and before i knew it we were hugging and goodbye-ing. at this point i also discovered what else the girls had been up to that day. they had finished all the molding and then had moved on to the shelves as well. they had sanded, filled, and even painted all the face trim and they were just drying now - and looking pretty awesome! outside, theyd also picked up a bag of mulch at the depot and had prettied up the bottom tier of the planter with the flowers as well... ah those girls. ;]

well everything looked great, and while the in-laws seemed to think we didnt get as much done as we should have over the weekend, karen and i saw that 3 and a half huge projects on our list had been finished and we were greatly enthused and very thankful! [not to mention run ragged at this point as well...] so as we waved goodbye to the car we discussed how we were going to finish the door - which neither of us wanted to do right then. we were "too pooped to poop" as my mother says, and really didnt want to do anything the rest of the day. however there was still a gaping hole above the new door and tons of open space around the frame as well so we were going to have to address it in some way before the day was over... but not necessarily right away. i was pretty hungry and it was definitely lunch time, so we had lunch and watched a movie while we relaxed a little and got recharged to finish the door in some way.

after the movie we trudged back upstairs to assess the situation and soon after we arrived it started lightly raining... okay, its definitely time to do something. karen was really anxious to play with the special window & door expanding foam the girls had bought so she started filling the cracks while i thought about the big hole at the top where the transom will eventually go. after karen got to play with the foam for a while i decided it looked like fun and i needed a turn so she shared and i got to fill some cracks as well - and i think we both got enough of it on our hands to discover that this crap doesnt come off for anything... [it actually did come off two days later in the shower after the oils in my skin finally did their thing and loosened it up enough to scrape it off...] after foaming sufficiently and watching it grow the rain was starting to come down a little harder and i decided to just cut some mdf to cover the gap in the door and then screw in some plywood to cover the opening. well it didnt go exactly as planned - but close enough, and we covered up all the remaining gaps with some plastic and painters tape to try and seal it all up as best we could. after that we were definitely done with project-time and were ready to do as much relaxing as we could for the rest of the night in preparation for the week ahead. so we watched some tv, snacked a little, and passed out early.

--fini--

and thats the story!

hope you enjoyed it, and i hope you enjoy the pictures im posting on the album site as well!

click here to see them.

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!

unanticipated.productivity[two]

as promised...

[sunday]

so sunday morning i didnt get up quite as early, not sure when karen got up, but i know it was before i did. after all the day before's activities i was pretty tired and slept like a rock. so around 9 i drug myself out of bed and stumbled down to the office to see what the wife was up to. again she was busy studying and doing homework and we discussed the days agenda. well she was planning to go to studio a little later in the after noon and the weatherman had threatened rain in the afternoon earlier in the week, so it sounded like we had a few hours in the morning to get stuff done before we did our own thing for the evening. well, after thinking about what we'd gotten accomplished on saturday and how easily the planter had been going together i decided i wanted to go ahead and finish it sunday morning while karen was around to help and we had the good weather and then she could go to school after and i was planning to go see the new star trek which karen was a little iffy about anyway - so it worked out pretty well really. =]

so after deciding on our shopping list we both got dressed and filled our coffee cups and got ready to go. well, while karen was finishing getting her things together i wandered outside to review our progress and started tinkering with the fence posts that were still remaining. they were these two lone pole awkwardly standing in the "front yard" and were bugging the heck out of me so i started to mess with them until the first one actually started to come loose. well more encouraged i fought with it a little more and then it just slid right out, perfect! well now even more encouraged i started messing with the second one in the same way and before long it too gave way, although not quite as cleanly. instead i managed to tear it out leaving a small portion behind, but low enough that it was sufficiently submerged... eh, good enough. well not long after id placed the two poles on the side of the house karen was wandering out the door in search of me and was pleased to discover id gotten the poles out. so far, this was already starting to be a successful day.

so we piled into the truck and headed back to home depot to get the remaining supplies for the planter. we needed a few more timbers, more of the giant nails, and we also decided we'd better get some weatherproofing to put on this thing or we were just going to have rotted wood next year. well the wood and nails went easy enough. we got 3 times as much this go around, so it took a bit longer to load up the cart with, but we managed on our own without bugging the lumber guys that were no where in sight anyway. after getting all our lumber supplies we went down to the paint department to find some weatherproofing and soon enough i found exactly what i was looking for - thompsons waterseal advanced. id used it once before and knew that it worked well and had an easy application, so i was satisfied with using it again. anyway, now that we'd bought everything we went to the check out and made another nice dent in our checking account... oh-well, its just money, right? heh...

well after we checked out we made the drive back home and had a quick early lunch on the porch before getting started unloading. well, as we were lunching some woman pulled up behind my truck and made my life a little more difficult but still manageable between the two vehicles for unloading. anyway, i was hoping shed move it soon, so i decided to go ahead and get the weed whacker out [finally charged] and tackle the yard before getting to the construction. well it worked well enough in my opinion, although it had been some time since id swung one, all those muscles that had been well trained in the past snapped right back into action and i quickly and easily had the whole "yard" trimmed. so while i was doing that, karen had the broom out and was sweeping up the mess i was making and then we raked the yard and shoveled up all the mess. well at this point i was ready to get started on the real work and the woman was no where in sight and didnt seem to be leaving anytime soon, so i just sucked it up and started carefully unloading over her car [which to be honest was pretty beat to hell anyway...]. well im pretty good and never had an issue with her car or the truck, although it did take a few acrobatics with these huge timbers from time to time, but whatever. anyway, as i got started measuring and plotting everything out karen got to work applying the waterseal to what was already put together on the ground. before long i had drilled all the pilot holes i needed and cut to size all the members for the next level and karen insisted i let her coat the bottoms of the timbers before i installed them. well believe it or not, this was the point when i decided we'd better get the camera out and document a little of this, so its not quite the end of day 1's progress, but its close enough, so heres the first progress picture [see yesterday's post for the "before" shot].

[progress.one]

so you should be able to make out pretty clearly where the fence posts used to be, and this is the first layer of planter after its weatherseal coat and you can even see one of the bottoms she was working on standing vertically on the porch. at any rate, moving on.

so we started to assemble the pieces of the next tier as karen finished applying her waterseal coat to the bottom and after a little elbow grease we soon had that tier finished and were ready to start the next. ill tell you though, this time around i got some longer nails to drive through two tiers worth and after they made it through the 4inches or so of pre-drilled hole they were a uh... bugger and a half to drive the rest of the way. and given the number of them i was using to tie everything together it took a little time and a lot of tiring muscle to get the stupid things in there. however after they were secure the end result was a pretty damn rigid construction that was well worth the effort. as far as i can tell, this thing aint goin anywhere. =]

so soon enough i got started measuring, marking, cutting, and drilling on the next two tiers [with occasional assistance from my beautiful sidekick who is quite the pro at holding for me] and we were getting those put together as well. well... i had kind of promised the wife that she could leave at 1, and when 1 came we'd only just finished the second tier and she was getting a bit perturbed with me - not to mention sick and tired of applying weather seal. so i asked if she could give it just another half hour and she agreed, so i started measuring on the final tier. well, this time around half the assembly was strategically already cut when getting the others cut to size, so the cutting was actually quite minimal. all we needed to do was notch the tops a little so it would fit under the porch ledge and then drill the holes for all the fasteners. well... notching was a little easier said than done, especially with the chainsaw and the members definitely wanted to move around a little. but we got it one and no one lost any limbs [or even came close really] but by the time we got that finished karen had had enough and was ready to be taken to studio, she had other things to accomplish that day. so frustrated, we cleaned up all the tools and i took her to school only to return home and get them all back out so that i could finish this project once and for all. and at this point we took another progress picture before i took karen to school, so heres that little update.

[progress.two]

so you can see how all the tiers are stacking and going together now and its pretty obvious the color difference between where the weatherseal had been applied at this point.

well, by the time i got home it took me about 5 minutes to drill the rest of the holes and assemble the remaining parts and that was it! construction phase complete! so i cleaned up all the tools and then got started applying the weatherseal to all the remaining wood. it was pretty interesting to see the reactions we got from the neighborhood as they passed by, i must say. we live on a pretty main street and almost everyone that passed by as we were putting this thing together had questions or comments of some kind for us. it was pretty entertaining, haha. well as i put on the final touches of weatherseal i was pretty pleased with myself, but starting to feel the sun... i was definitely getting a little more sun that usual. but i was so close to being finished! so after completing the planter i got out the new seeding and started spreading it throughout the freshly cut "yard" and not long after i was sweeping up and finished with the entire project.

so at this point i took a few more shots, and heres your final progress shot for the day.

[progress.final]

so now all we need is some soil to fill it up the rest of the way and then we can start planting some flowers or grasses or whatever we end up putting in this thing. the problem is that the front of our house is north facing, so im afraid we might end up having to get mostly shade plants, but thats an issue for a future time.

well after getting cleaned up and showered and what not it was getting close to movie time so i called mom to tell her happy mothers day and around 4:30 i left to go drop the truck off with karen at school. well... things didnt exactly go as planned at this point. i should have timed it a little better, but by the time i got to school and helped karen load up some stuff it was pretty much 5 and the movie was supposed to start at 4:45. damnit. well there was no way i was going to miss the beginning, so i decided id just go to the showing at 7:30 instead and after rethinking her schedule karen decided shed come along after all and we spent another hour or so at her school while she finished up some studio stuff, then went home for dinner and then at about 7:10 we were at the theater and i was excitedly waiting for the new star trek to start!

well i loved the movie, it was absolutely incredible. no not a huge trekky by any measure, but i have seen all the original movies and was excited to see the prequel. well it was definitely a great movie and had everything i hoped for and more. theyve even managed [as hollywood always does] to open themselves the opportunity to start a whole new franchise of star trek movies with the new cast if this one does well [which it totally will!]. so im pretty excited about that. this was probably my favorite star trek yet, although thereve definitely been some really good ones in the past as well. i think this one is just more generationally appealing to me and i can really relate to the production value a little better than the late 70's versions, although they were definitely awesome for their time. =]

anyway, after the movie we headed home for the night and i got some laundry going and then sat down to blog. my mind was racing from the weekend and for some reason i had plenty of energy so it seemed appropriate to blog while i waited for the laundry to be finished. anyway, by about midnight i was finished blogging, karen had passed out a half hour to an hour earlier and the laundry was done so i turned in for the night.

and well, that was our weekend!

hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures, and feel free to check out a few more shots of the construction on my web albums if you feel so inclined.

hope you all had a great weekend and a happy mothers day, and have a great week!

unanticipated.productivity [one]

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

so lets get to the guts shall we?

[saturday]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the.before

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

dc[part.thrice]

[sunday | 5.2.09 | day.three]

sunday morning was another groggy morning, but we managed to get up at a similar hour to the day before. after showering and getting ourselves ready we headed down to breakfast again. as with saturday we werent disappointed, although i think we both had a little less breakfast overall this time around. they didnt have the burritos, but there were scrambled eggs and sausage and most everything else from the day before.

after breakfast we quickly grabbed our stuff for the day, plotted out our stops and were on our way. well, no sooner did we hit the lobby door than we realized today was going to be a little different. it was lightly drizzling out and we didnt have an umbrella or ponchos or anything else to protect ourselves with. so after exchanging glances we pressed forward and made our way to the metro stop. luckily, the rain wasnt heavy and the temperate outside was moderate enough that we werent getting soaked and frozen, but we were getting damp and chilled a little, oh-well.

soon enough we were on the train and headed to our first stop, federal center s.

as we got on the escalators and slowly rose out of the depths we were a little disheartened to find that the rain hadnt magically ceased during our 15 minute subterranean reprieve. so after glancing at our maps and trying to find our bearings karen grabbed a free newsprint of some kind from a nearby dispenser and we set out in what i thought was the right direction. as i mentioned before the subway maps vs. street maps are a little difficult to rectify from scale and abstraction, so it turns out we were heading a little off course at first. soon enough though we realized my mistake, corrected and before long we were across the street from our first museum of the day - the national museum of the american indian.

id seen pictures of it at some point before so i knew what the building looked like, but it was definitely cooler in person. from what i remember the idea behind the design was a symbolic representation of the cave cities in the southwest so its got some really fun geometry. inside is a huge domed atrium space with an oculus and there are various different exhibits and gift shops on all the levels. we visited a couple of the exhibits which were pretty interesting to see, and then did a little research on my native american heritage. im some very small part potawatomi and am officially registered with the tribal rolls, and was curious to see what the national museum had on my tribe. well, sadly, they didnt have a whole lot. it took quite a bit of digging but we did find a few pages in one book in one of the bookstores that gave a brief synopsis of the tribes origins and then in one of the displays there was an actual artifact about beading, but other than that, ziltch. but i thought my parents would get a kick out what we did find, so theres a few images in the albums. thats alright though, the main center for the potawatomi is in oklahoma now and while i havent made it to see what theyve got yet, i plan to someday and im sure its much more in depth. anyway, we spent quite some time at the american indian museum - hoping it would stop raining, however, by the time we were ready to go... it hadnt.

so we headed back out into the rain and soon found a vendor with umbrellas so we bought a small one - probably should have gotten a larger one in retrospect - and huddled together as we made our way to our next stop a few blocks away, the smithsonian museum of natural history. i was really looking forward to this one because wed seen some posters of an imax film about dinosaurs that looked pretty cool and also something about a giant squid on display. so after getting ourselves thoroughly dampened and our feet thoroughly soaked after sloshing our way over, we made it inside and found ourselves in the midst of hundreds of people, a large majority of which were children who were having a good time but were definitely a little obnoxious. anyway the first thing i wanted to check on was the imax times and prices and as it turns out they were charging like 10 bucks per person and we really werent prepared to pay that price. so we decided to just see most of the exhibits instead and made our way through the museum. the first area we went through was the ocean stuff and got to see all kind of cool artifacts. they had huge lifelike models of different marine life, and a ton of real skeletons and stuff that were preserved for study. we really enjoyed ourselves and took a ton of pictures.

after the marine stuff we went on to the dinosaurs section and looked through all the fossils and skeletons of the dinosaurs they had on display - again a lot of pictures.

after the dinosaurs we went through the space exhibit and then the geological formations and saw all kinds of crazy rocks and gems and stuff. they even had rocks with hair! it was pretty crazy. the last stop we made was to see the hope diamond which was currently on display - karen REALLY liked it... hah, she wishes! after another trip through the ridiculously-over-priced gift shop we were getting hungry and had seen just about all we wanted to that day, and with the rain and all... we decided to call it a day and go find some food.

so we found the nearest subway station and headed back to the hotel to see if we could find a dining guide of some kind and figure out lunch. well... after consulting the internet and our brochures we found that not much was open on sunday in the area we were in and settled on a little deli/bakery - au bon pain - just down the block from our hotel and had a nice little lunch. they had some really great macaroni and cheese that we shared as a side and all kinds of little pastry goodies for dessert. after lunch we were both pretty exhausted and since it was already about 3pm and still raining we decided to head back to the room for a little relaxing, some tv, and a nap. well... the nap ended up being a little longer that we expected i think, and around 8 we woke up and decided to have a quick order-in dinner before calling it a night. we had a very very early morning on monday and it was going to be a loooong day, so we decided it was better get our rest. after confirming our shuttle pick up to the airport [because really who wants to change trains a dozen times at 3 in the morning?] we drifted off to sleep before getting up again at 2am and making the trip home.

as for the trip home, it went just as planned, was very uneventful, and after napping on the plane and landing back in cincy we got the truck from parking and were on our way straight to work and school. and thus, our trip [and the story] is complete. its actually been a pretty short week by comparison to our "vacation" but im looking forward to the weekend. we dont have any real plans yet for whats going to happen this weekend, but if we do anything fun or exciting ill be sure to fill you in next week.

hope you all have a fantastic weekend and a happy mother's day!

dc[part.two]

[saturday | 5.2.09 | day.two]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

dc[part.one]

so when last i left you all, dear readers, we were about to embark on a little adventure. well it was quite the adventure indeed! we had a blast on our excursion but damn did it ever wear us out.

[friday | 5.1.09]

so the trip started promptly at 5 o-clock when my beautiful wife picked me up from work with the car fully loaded and anxious to get the weekend started. well the first stops we had planned were to the bank to deposit my paycheck and then to dinner somewhere for a quick bite before heading to the airport. well we decided on buffalo wild wings for dinner and i had a pretty decent blackened chicken salad. it was no where near the best ive ever had, but its definitely a wing place, and they do have good wings, so i can cut em some slack on not having the best salads ever. it satisfied my hunger and that was enough for the time being. after dinner we got on the road and 15-20 minutes later we arrived at the airport and found the long term parking lot. luckily, there was a shuttle just waiting for people when we parked, so we got right on and were at the terminal only minutes later. after a quick stop at the automated ticketing kiosk and an uneventful trip through security, we were boarding the tram to the concourse and then before we knew it we were waiting at the gate. it seems everything went pretty quickly on the way there, so we actually had to wait around for about a half an hour before we were boarding the plane and then the customary half an hour sitting on the plane before we finally took off right on time around 8:20pm.

the flight to dc was actually really short, only an hour and a half, and we arrived at the baltimore airport after some moderate turbulence but all in all an enjoyable flight. [personally, i love the turbulence, but i dont think im in the majority there...] well, when we got off the plane the fun really started. karen had gotten some very limited instructions on transportation from her cousin who lives in dc which basically said to take the shuttle to the marc station and theres a train every half an hour. well we didnt know where the shuttle was, or what marc was, lol, but soon enough we found where the shuttle was picking up and 3 or 4 stops later we were at the train station. however, the marc trains [apparently the cheaper brand] were not running every half an hour as we were expecting. in fact there werent any for the rest of the night according to the board, so we had to suck up the extra cost and got tickets for the soonest amtrack into downtown [about twice as much as the marc from what we can tell]. well by this time it was already 10:30pm after all our traveling so far, and we were pretty anxious to get to the hotel and pass out for the night. well the journey wasnt over yet. about 15 minutes later the amtrack arrived and we boarded the train, both having flashbacks of our time in europe - it had been some time since id been on a train and it brought back all kinds of memories. well we sat pretty quietly on the train and eventually we arrived at union station in downtown dc, but at this point we really had no idea what we were going to do next. it was probably 11:15pm by this time and we ventured out to the street to see what the situation was with taxis - a line about a mile long of people waiting - and then back inside to investigate a metro sign that karen thought shed seen and a trip to the atm in case we ended up having to take a taxi after all. well after doing a few circles inside the station we finally found the correct route to the metro, which until this point i had thought was a bus situation like every other metro i was accustomed to. well as we got on the escalators going down to the station i soon realized it was actually a subway system, awesome! i love subways! i dont know why, but i just really love them! anyway, we had no clue how to decipher any of the maps or ticketing machines, but luckily the guy manning the info station wasnt too busy and was able to walk us through the process and help us find the stop nearest to our hotel [only about 3 blocks away] and get us going in the right direction.

so we went down another escalator and found some benches as we waited for the next train to arrive. at this point we were both feeling much better about the rest of our journey to the hotel, however we were both sweating like pigs! it was supposed to be cool from the weather reports wed checked, but it had to have been in the 70's and we were lugging around all our luggage, so we were pretty hot and gross at this point. well anyway, i took a moment to break out the camera for the first time on the trip while we waited for the train and took some pictures of the tunnel - i was enamored with the subway, haha.

before long the train arrived, and after a quick switch at the metro central station and a few stops later we were at our destination and after a short walk were at our hotel! finally! so after checking in and trudging our exhausted bodies up to the room we finally arrived in our room, and it was only 12:30am, lol! well the room itself was awesome. this was probably the nicest hotel ive ever stayed in. it was a studio style room and had all the amenities of a really nice studio apartment - with stove, refrigerator, and dishes supplied! anyway, at this point we were both ready to pass out, but i was disgusting so i took a quick shower before getting in bed, and then before long we both drifted off in preparation for a long weekend yet to come.

and with that. um, day 1. haha, we havent even started the "vacation" part yet, hahaha! but im out of time, lunch is over and ive gotta get back to work. so... for now i'll have to leave you hanging on the story, but feel free to check out all the pictures from the trip at my web albums.

hope youre all having a great week, ill try and update more soon!