Category: Personal

Saturday Night Out (and Sweden wins 2012 Eurovision)

~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

It is a rare weekend night that I am home and the boys aren’t here.  Even rarer now to have that and Susanna not working.  Last night was one of those rare nights.  In addition Loreen from Sweden won the 2012 Eurovision contest.  I think they hadn’t won it since 1918 or something like that. Sorry, not 1918, I’m thinking of something else; Sweden hadn’t won Eurovision since 1999.  Understandably, Susanna was pretty excited.  Also, understandably, as hard as I may try, I’m just not as excited as Susanna about it.

Anyway to celebrate the Eurovision win (for Susanna) and to celebrate a night we can actually go out (for me), we dressed up and went to Foxwoods Casino for dinner and drinks.  We enjoyed mexican (food and drinks), and I actually won $20 on the slots (yeah, slots, like lottery, tax on people bad at statistics – but it is fun sometimes just to put in $20 and see what happens – and going to a movie would cost just as much).

We came home to enjoy the humid evening on the patio.  We even dug out some of the sky lanterns we had left from last summer and lit two of them – watching them drift away into the night sky.  I think we will save the remainder until the boys are back (and for when Susanna’s sisters visit this summer).

Speaking of visits, it looks like both of Susanna’s sisters may be here at the same time.  That will be a change, from a household that has more males than females in it to just the opposite.  If anyone wants to find me that week, I’ll be locked in my workshop.   I have beer and water in there.  I just need to find a urinal and install it – I’ll be all set for a couple of days at least.

Enough random musings for this morning.  Time to drink my coffee and get moving on my day.

Up in Smoke

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Picture of 27 Harris Fuller Road Fire by CoreyWaterford (The Day)

Last night a house down the street went up in flames.  It was one of the other old houses on the street.  According to the  the neighbors at the fire, the house was in foreclosure and there was rumors that someone (possibly the owner) was seen leaving the scene just before the fire.

No one was in the house, but apparently the rats that infested the house are now homeless.  I’ll have to leave the dogs and cats outside to make sure the rats stay off of our property.

Will woke up for the fire (he tried to wake Ben up, but Ben can sleep through anything) – but was too nervous to walk down to the fire trucks and see the fire.  But when the house was going, the flames were above the trees, so he got a good view from our back yard.

It didn’t make the paper today (but did make the internet).  I forgot to take my camera, so had to take pictures from the local newspaper.

… And a good finish (or a fun afternoon with a hike to the Hellcat wreckage)

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The boys behind the remains of the Hellcat wreckage

The weather was nearly perfect today.  Maybe a bit windy.  But a nice sunny day makes correcting a rough morning much easier.

This afternoon, after soccer camp and piano lessons were complete, the boys invited their friends over to play.  I was also able to make some progress on the garden while they played.

I had finished cleaning out the raised beds yesterday (with Will, Ben and Justin’s help) – thanks to a load of horse manure compost from the Sawyer Family Farm.   I’ll see if I can grow more than just weeds in the raised beds this year.  The first bed will be a mix of flowers and vegetables.  The second bed has 27 strawberry plants (plus some random perennial flower that Ben or Will picked last year and didn’t die) – I started radishes in the last 3 feet of the bed that is still free of strawberry plants.  The third bed I planted with a cover crop of buckwheat yesterday.

Late this afternoon, after all the boys’ friends had arrived, we decided to hike into the woods to find the Hellcat wreckage site.  This is the third time that Susanna and I have been to the site (and the second for Will and Ben) – but we have yet to find the wreckage site for the other aircraft.  Maybe we will search for it one of these weekends when it is just Will and Ben with us.

I have been getting some smaller projects completed in the workshop.  It has been a week of making cutting boards – pictures will be posted later when I actually take some.  I’m also making progress on framing in the new set of stairs to the second floor of the barn (and I need to remember to return the come-along to the Sawyers the next time I visit their farm – and to think I was just there yesterday – maybe I’ll remember to bring them to work on Monday – of course I’ll plan on riding in on Monday, so won’t put the equipment in the car).

Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful day – a chance to get lots done around the house.  And yes, I’m passing on going to church (sorry Susanna) – but I do admit to going with Susanna to church on Easter Sunday (I know, I’m not sure what was wrong with me last weekend…)

Pictures from the house

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Will doing homework on the patio while Targa keepswatch (earlier in the year). I had to cut myself out of the picture - I had way too goofy of a look on my face to publish it.

I finally downloaded pictures from the camera.  Last week wasn’t nice enough to do homework outside.  But the week before was.

I am making progress on the workshop – I posted about that over the weekend. It is also time to start working on the yard.  I ordered strawberry plants a couple of months ago – they arrived today.  Tonight I picked up some hay and planted 2/3 of the new plants.  I’ll pick up some more compost this week and plant the rest.  Hopefully I’ll do better with the raised beds than I did last year.  It is easy to plan too big of a garden and let the weeds take over.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the projects in progress:

Corner of the workshop - reorganized. Just don't look at the rest of the shop.
The raised beds. The middle bed will have the strawberries. Not 100% sure about the other two.

A weekend of small projects

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Ben getting ready to pick up a crab at science night at PVMS

We started the weekend off with a Friday night event at the boys’ school.  It was science night.  There were lots of activities for the boys to do, and lots of exhibits to see.  Of course, the most popular event of the night was the soda rockets (drop a couple of Mentos in a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke… and watch the mess – and yes it was done outside).

The weather Saturday was not very nice.  Cold and rainy.  But with a little coaxing (and some help), the boys cleaned their rooms.  And no surprise, the neighbor, Justin, came over to play for most of the afternoon (after rooms were cleaned).  Surprisingly there wasn’t too much conflict…

We also fixed Will’s bicycle on Saturday.  He had gotten the derailleur wrapped up in the rear wheel a week or so ago, and the new one arrived in the mail on Thursday.  It only took one trip to the bike store (we messed up the cable when we were trying to install the new derailleur) – but now seems to be working.  I’m sure it will need adjusting after a day of riding or so.

Today I had hoped to spend time and try to straighten out the barn.  I have borrowed a come-along and chains from a friend – but the weather threatened rain all day – so I didn’t feel like I should start that big of a project (which requires some outside work – I think – though now I mention it, maybe I can get it to work from the inside…. nah.. probably not).

I tried to get the tractor mower started (maybe get some mowing done before the rain).  Nope… battery dead.  So put it on the charger (note to self – take off charger before bedtime – it should be charged).  Couldn’t get the push mower running either.  So changed the spark plug, still didn’t work – next will try draining the gas and refilling.   I’m pretty sure it was a good plan to not try a big project today.  I was a bit frustrated by lunch time by the lawn equipment.   So instead of being frustrated about not working on the barn,  I focused on smaller projects (the never-ending joy of owning an old house).

I did successfully vent the dryer outside (the old vent had gone out the same window the new furnace power vent now occupies).  That project went pretty smoothly.  I replaced a pane of glass in one of the other basement windows with a piece of plywood (with a 4″ hole for the vent).  I even painted the plywood to match the house.

Earlier this week I was going to replace the concrete pad for the front post of the barn.  I got the concrete and post support earlier this week.  Then I started digging to try to dig out the concrete pad.  It is apparently a pretty big pad, and I didn’t feel like digging it out (nor did I have enough concrete to replace it once I dug it out).  So today, I added a 5th slab to support another post for the barn.  This one is pretty close to the front of the barn.  I think the ground is relatively soft near the front of the barn, and the posts have been sinking over time – so I’ll share the weight on an additional post.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on the workshop.  It is getting closer.   I move some shelves and cleaned out the corner that the new stairs will occupy.  Now to try to straighten the barn.   Maybe that will wait until next weekend.

 

Quotes from Will and Ben

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From their blogs:

  • Will: “Last night strange things happened. Water got on the stairs and no one did it. I locked my self in the bathroom and didn’t remember doing it (my dad told me but I don’t believe him)….” (25 March)
  • Ben: “We forgot are dog’s name so we called are dog Thomas Jefferson we have a boat when my dog was on the ramp I pushed him off the ramp and he said I am flying he said then Boom! He hit his head OW! That hurt he Said.” (24 March)
  • Will: “I finished a fort(that is made into….) (….a bush on…)…(…on a hill) and named it Fort de namesha. I so want to relax.” (23 March)
  • Ben: “my brother and i made up a new fort called fort de namesha we have two secret exits and my brother and i made are secret exit that has thorns so if they follow my brother and i  they’ll get stuck because my bother and i are small so my brother and i can slip right past the thorns.” (24 March)

It is pretty funny to go back and read over what they write.

Enjoying the early spring weather

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Ben building the hidingspot in the bushes

We have had a couple of very nice days here. The weather has been perfect – even warm enough in the evening to eat dinner on the patio (note to self – pay attention when grilling the veggie burgers – Will doesn’t like his burger blackened – I was hoping to hide it under the cheese – there is no fooling Ben with his non-cheese burger).

Will and Ben spent the good part of the afternoon/evening yesterday building a fort/hiding spot in one of the bushes in the side yard. They started trimming back the bush so they could easily get in. Not quite a professional landscaping crew, but hey… they are free… who cares if the bushes have carved paths underneath them.

They aren’t quite the best hiding places yet. But it should be pretty good once the leaves come in (and the thorn bushes start growing back).

I spent this afternoon building shelves for the workshop. The sides are built – now I need to pick up a couple of pieces of plywood to finish the shelves. Will spent the afternoon taking apart and reassembling a toy tank. According to his blog post, “It had a pain lot of screws….” Speaking of blog posts – both boys are keeping up on their postings – and it is pretty interesting to read about the day from their veiw.

Tomorrow is another day off of work. I have a long list of chores to finish before guests come over for dinner…. hopefully I’ll actually finish some of them.

Will working on the fort (picture by Ben Curtis)

 

The first ride of the season

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Today was the first bike ride into work for the season.  It was a bit chilly this morning – but perfect for the ride home.  It isn’t too bad of a ride, only 8 miles each way.  My goal is to ride in 50 times this year… so 49 left to go.

New web server

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I signed up for an upgraded server for the website. I have been running this blog on a virtual private server (VPS) with several other sites for some time now. The VPS was getting a bit full and resource limited. So now the server has more room to grow. Just excuse the down-time as I shift web servers.

London (day 3)

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We are starting today off a little slower than yesterday. I was up at 7:30 and went up the street for a coffee and muffin (and free Internet). Susanna sleept in – so we passed on the family breakfast in the hotel.

After breakfast we all met up at the cafe and then headed our own ways. The girls (Susanna, her mom, sister and cousin) headed to Piccadilly Circus for shopping.

Susanna’s dad, Dan, and I headed out to visit the museums. The first stop was the British Museum. There we saw the Rosetta stone and other artifacts of ancient Egyptian civilization. We also visited the Greek and European exhibits. The museum
Was followed by a beer and snack at a local pub.

We took the underground to the Imperial War Museum and spent the afternoon there. It was a perfect sized museum. Not too big. The British Museum is way too big to take in at once. It was a good assortment of items from the military, plus a very sobering section on the Holocaust.

After that another bite to eat and a beer at a different pub.

Now back to the room for a bit and then out to a show this evening. Pictures to follow later.