Yes, I’m behind - way behind. I really didn’t want to post anything till we got that stupid driveway finished. Then I got busy in other projects and never got around to dumping the camera. But here we are, a post to conclude the concrete project!

The weather had been pretty wet all week, with the weekend looking like it was going to be pretty bad too. But the concrete had been scheduled, and we weren’t going to get it done, and since the weather looked pretty bad everyone was canceling their appointments for concrete. Is that a bad sign or what?

But let’s recap a little, a few weeks ago I had gotten it framed in. There were a few issues, but we worked it out. Then we had the gravel delivered and I set about smoothing it out. It also happened to be like one of the hottest days of the year (not last Saturday, but the one before) and I just about fell over in a gooey pile of nastiness. But I recovered and got it all fixed up.

Posted in Do It Yourself, Family, House and Garden, Saturday Recap 2 Comments »

It’s Saturday again (well as I sit and write this it’s past Saturday), and what did we find ourselves doing? That’s right, if you’re any sort of regular here - you know it’s just another work day (I’ll fight liking it till I die I think).

This Satuday, I was tasked with framing in the cement pad - no biggie, I’ve done it before (and I would have linked to a post about it, if I hadn’t lost everything earlier this year).

My father in law dropped off some 2×4s and metal stakes to set it up. So I started getting everything in place by measuring 20ft from the sidewalk - marking it and then measured from the drive way 8ft.

Posted in Do It Yourself, Family, House and Garden, Saturday Recap 2 Comments »

As some may remember, last Saturday we started digging out a pad for a second driveway, we also were working on our fence.

Well this Saturday we worked on them some more!

My father in law brought over his little tractor and finished digging it out, compared to last week (digging by hand), this was WAY better. We only had to dig it once - by that I mean he dug it up and dumped it in his truck and we went and emptied it, instead of digging it up and then dumping it out (digging it twice).

Then we finished up the gate, got an extra 2×4 on the edge of one of the doors (did I mention we somehow ended up with some extra space?). My father in law also helped design a door stop for the left side door. It was just a tube driven in the ground, a piece of rebar held to the door so you basically pull it up and the door will swing open. Pretty neat. We also got the hardware back on the door too.

Posted in Family, House and Garden 2 Comments »

I was getting into bed last night and thought I’d turn on the TV to finish the night off. I was flipping around, when I caught a glimpse of a boy running around in the dark and banging his head on the wall.

It was a spooky to come into without any context, and I had to turn the channel.

But let me roll back the clock. I want to go back to when I was younger, probably in 8th or 9th grade maybe. I lived in Northern Virginia in a suburb of DC. Somehow (I’m sure my mom knows) I ended up doing some volunteer work at the local rec center.

It involved handicap children and swimming, my exact ward was a young boy with autism. I remember clearly, his tense body and jerky movements, like a flexed muscle of steel at all times. What amazed me then, and what I knew Don King was going to say when I went back to the channel and caught him and his son Beau swimming in the ocean, was that in water he was relaxed.

Posted in Family 2 Comments »

It’s Saturday again, and we all know what that means around my house - well what it means when the weather is nice.

It’s project time!

We started out knowing we needed to goto Lowes (trip 1) for some supplies. We got some fertilizer for the lawn, some paint brushes, various other little things. We also decided that since our ~7 year old craftsman screw gun has failed (I suspect the batteries) we better get a new - enter Karma (round 1).

There just happened to be a sign by the power tools that read something to the effect “Power Tool and Pneumatic combos 20% off”. My wife and I figured this would be great to help get us into a new one. So we grabbed one of these off the shelf. A WH12DAF2 12V Cordless Impact Driver. Which I thought was the right tool for the job.

Posted in Family, General 4 Comments »

The other day we were out tearing down our old gate so we could rebuild it and get it to actually open and close without too much trouble.

Some how after I got the bolts out holding the gate up, I got tasked with watching the little girl (Sydney), but she wanted to ride on her little trike, so I went about rummaging through the garage to see what my parents had left when they moved. They dumped gave a lot of stuff to us so they could lighten their load during the move.

Well as I was going through, I found an old helmet that had always been a favorite of mine as a kid. It’s a middle eastern type (I only know this because it has some Arabic writing on it). It has a large spike on top and what looks like two feather holders one on each side. It also has some chain mail to protect the sides and back of the wearer’s neck.

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On Saturday, we had the opportunity to watch The Messiah. Yep, Handel’s Messiah. I had never been to a production of it and really had no idea what it was about.

Was I in for a treat!

Let me give a slight bit of background and context. This was a matinée, it was suppose to be shorter. It turned out that there was a lot of younger visitors. So because of that, one of the conductor’s sons sang the base part - he also happens to be my oldest son’s art teacher (the other brother is in our church). Also, the conductor dressed up as Handel (no one seemed to know he was going to do that). We also were treated to a spanish translation along with, and I think this was the best part, a performance for the hearing impaired.

Posted in Family, Music 2 Comments »

For the past few years we’ve been going to the zoo at least once. This we added something a little extra to the day. We thought we’d take a bit of tie and check out the free tour at Mrs. Cavanough’s chocolate factory and see what’s it’s all about.

We were scheduled for a 10 am tour of the factory and actually made it to SLC with about 10 minutes to spare. We got in and they took us upstairs where a couple of pieces of chocolate were waiting for us (SWEET! and I mean that both ways). They had us watch a movie about the history of the Cavanoughs and chocolate (Montezuma would drink 50 cups of bitter chocolate drink!). As a treat, anyone that thinks we’re loosing touch with our Constitution and our government is overgrown it’s role will love the end of the movie.

Posted in Family, General, Photography 3 Comments »

I remember when I was a kid coming across art work that my mom had done and was really impressed with her work. As I got older I did my own thing, but as I moved out of high school and in to young adult hood I started giving up my artistic pastime. I’m made some strides to get back into it, but it’s more through photography and design then actual sit down and draw something art. I still from time to time draw (according to my wife and kids) fantastic sketches on Sydney’s Barbie magna doodle.

But more recently, we’ve been sending our boys to a local artist for classes. They both love to draw, and have been doing stuff for years and my wife thought it would be good for them to actually learn proper techniques and how to do things and whatnot.

Posted in Family 4 Comments »

So I’ve been going through all kinds of stuff getting my blog back up and running. I spent a bunch of time today doing just that, though I did manage to get off to Village Inn for some breakfast and time with my parents. Yeah I got something greasy and nasty (Boulder Sausage Bratwurst Skillet). But it was a good time.

From there I wasted too much time tracking down some two stroke oil - I was really looking for something pre-mixed, but of course there isn’t any, so I settled for a super cool guy at Checker who explained how to mix it, and even let me know (since they didn’t have any) that Lowes carries it. So I made it over there and picked up some oil and a gas tank (1 gallon for easy mixing). This was all for the snowblower I’ve had for a few years but due to our little garage it’s been spending it’s time over at my father in laws house. Of course by this time, I probably won’t need it anymore (we’ve already had a few big storms). Oh well, I got it into some sort of running condition - I am really bad with this mixing thing!

Posted in Family 2 Comments »