The Word Rules

Let's stop talking about linguistically interesting dog names for a minute and discuss words.

(Because that's FAR more interesting to folks looking to this blog for home repair tips...)

I crave words. I discuss words incessantly. My pastor told Rachael and I that we were the most semantic couple he knew. I like reading the thesaurus. I ask for books on etymology for Christmas.

(Of course my Dad always answers those requests by giving me books on Old Testament Aramaic Etymology even though I'm not, nor ever have been, a seminary student or shown any aptitude for living foreign languages, much less dead foreign languages.)

Anyways, if you knew me at all, it should not be at all surprising that I would have categorized my favorite words. I have three characteristics which define my favorites:

1. Multi-syllabic
2. Beginning with "PL"
3. Ending with the suffix "-age", meaning act of, state of, or collection of, generally added to a French root word.

So I was very excited to find this link to Word Count which chronicles the 86,800 most commonly used words in the English language in a graphically beautiful format...
My favorite word, and thus far the only one I've found which fits all three of my categories comes in at rank #15,192: "Plumage"

When I pointed out the list to Rach, she immediately entered a few names and was surprised by the fact that "David" was ranked#619. I was not surprised because I'm awesome.

Makai Glamour Shots

For those of you interested in what he looks like now...

Makai Dry:

Makai Wet:

Our dog may have a lazy eye... I can't tell. Your thoughts?

A Panglossian* View for a Crepuscular Makai

Crepuscular.

Its the word that's getting me through this day.

After getting up three times last night to take Makai out for a bathroom break in the drizzling rain, I'm a wee bit tired. It doesn't help that when I was in bed I couldn't sleep because I was worried that we weren't going to be able to care for him well enough. (I'm anxiety prone.) So I got about 3 hours of sleep last night I think. Thank goodness he's just a puppy and not a child or I'd never be able to relax.

Not a picture of me, but how I feel.

Anyways, crepuscular refers to animals that are active during daybreak and twilight hours, in this case, dogs. We'll get him there, I hope...

Highlights of the first night:

1. We almost renamed him at the last minute from "Makai" to "Crackleberry" after passing a barn with that title on Route 30 on our way to get him. Do you think we made the right choice after all?

2. Makai puked a softball sized ball of kibble into my hand on the way home. He's twice as big as when we saw him last, but still, who knew his stomach was that big?

3. He liked his crate but we couldn't fit it through the door into our room the first night, so we'll have to get him a smaller one that's more mobile tonight. Or take our door off the hinges.

4. He's already learning his commands, including "Do Your Business". Although I'd like to find something a little more unique to use for that situation, like "Squeeze It Out" or "Craptastic".

5. So far the best book I've seen for this process is "Before and After Getting Your Puppy" by Dr. Ian Dunbar. We'll let you know whether its the gospel of puppydom or apocryphal after a few days...
*Panglossian means hopeful in the face of hard times or adversity.

One more day...

Also, in other exciting news, our puppy arrives tomorrow...
Here's what he looks like in case you forgot. And we'll let you know which of the two names we're going with as soon as we get him.

Way To Normal: An Early Review

Ben Folds put his whole album, Way to Normal, up on Myspace yesterday... here's a track by track breakdown as I see it...


Hiroshima: **** stars
A good opener to the album, although I wish a "studio" version was recorded, although I get the point of the live feel. I'm still singing Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh every morning in the shower, which the neighbors must love.

Dr. Yang: **** stars
Bfolds reiterates that this album is just going to be a piano stool throwing good time with this track. The piano solo in the middle is the stuff that makes me think music students will be studying him in 20 years.

The Frown Song: ** stars
There's something unfortunate about this song, perhaps either the disconnect between the melodies of the verse and chorus. Or perhaps its the squealing synth.

You Don't Know Me:*** stars
As good as when it first aired. Which is mighty good... Still think Hiroshima wouldv'e been a more exciting single.

Before Cologne/Cologne:*** stars
I appreciate the studio version for its refocus on instrumentation and melody. But the DVD/fake version (still available on the myspace page further down on the player) that was leaked early is more fun for its "over the top" miasma of melodrama.

Errant Dog:** stars
I think this is the album's first mis-step. Seems more like a Ben Folds Five lost cut from an early album.

Free Coffee:* star
The definite nadir of the album hits at the exact center of this song. Well, 1 minutes and 24 seconds in. Then things begin to move forward and upward again. At least the experimental song is audibly a little more appealing after that, even if not a good style fit for BFolds.

Bitch Went Nutz:** stars
Again, the leaked version (still available on the myspace page further down on the player) was frankly more fun and comic. This is pretty good though.

Brainwascht:*** stars
Picking back up in quality, Bfolds produces a classic melody. This one is definitely better than the leaked version (further down.)

Effington:**** stars
I think this is still an experimental song, pushing the boundaries of where Bfolds has been, but with exciting results. Its not an "anthem" like the other 4 star songs, but it pushes the energetic desperation vibe beautifully.

Kylie from Connecticut:**** stars
Another solid tragic story told by Bfolds. I'm going to group this with Mr. Jones and Carrying Cathy in the list of songs that make me wish Ben was a painter too.

Ultimately, I had hoped this would be as good as Rocking the Suburbs which I still contend is a religious experience. But I think it exceeds Songs for Silverman which is still high praise. I hope I can get my hands on the fake tracks...

Update: The Myspace player has been rearranged but the list above is the actual album order. Not that anyone really cares about this post.

Screw U*

Check out "The Hardware Aisle" on Thisoldhouse.com...

They've got a lot of great product reviews, home improvement tips, and educational guides...

One of my favorites thus far has been Screw University* where the poster goes over all the permutations of available screw types, including shaft, head, and metalurgy.


Very helpful for designers, craftsmen, and homeowners indeed...

Although they did not cover some of the more obscure hardware types that we often discuss in my office. For example, I recently came across the term "Clevis Pin" in some structural drawings for a roof canopy and was stymied. I asked my boss what that was and he said, "I don't know but it doesn't sound nearly as interesting as finding 'Sex Nuts' all over your design." Too true, sir, too true...

Thank goodness for Wikipedia and Google clearing things up. Otherwise I'm sure I'd could be in a lot of trouble for typing "Sex Head Wood Tapping Shaft Screw Nutdriver."

Footnotes:

*This whole post also reminds me of a conversation I had with my ol' roommate Jeff once. We conjectured that there is a universal right of passage for a young boy (or girl, not to be sexist, although I think this is particular to boyhood.) There comes a time in a young boy's life, where he is working with his dad on something around the house, and Dad asks for the "male" end of a piece of hardware, extension cord, etc. The young boy is confused. Which is the "male" end? He takes a guess and then watches as his father plugs it into the "female" end of the hardware, extension cord, etc. The light of understanding goes on for the young boy and the urge to snicker at this terminology and simultaneous sex ed lesson is before him. If he can supress the urge and proceed as if this was the most natural thing in the world, he has matured and is certainly ready for a more advanced sex ed talk.**

**Or sex ed "demonstration" involving dog breeding as I was subjected to. Disturbing, I know.

Rods and Cones

I know, the title sounds dirty. But no, this time I’m talking about the bio-structures in the back of your retina which process and understand color. Apparently, they’re called rods and cones, and apparently women have more of them then men. Thusly the scientific reasoning behind women making distinctions between colors better than men. By extension, this is the argument behind women knowing how to dress better, making better interior design choices, and being more racist than men.

Oh, calm down, clearly I’m kidding. (Or am I?)

Anyways, back to the point, I cry sexist bull&*^%. At least between Rach and I, I think I have the better color acuity. I think Rach has higher olfactory and tactile and taste sensitivity. And I think we’re both as deaf as doorknobs. So this is not another one of those common occurrences where I think I’m awesome at everything.

But I see colors better. I just know I do.

So I was very excited to find the following practical test online which is completed by arranging the subtle hues along a spectrum to determine how much your eye can differentiate between colors.

I challenge everyone to a color-off… I got a 0/100 which is perfection. But then I forgot to hit print screen to verify my awesomeness and the best I've been able to do since is a 4. So, I'll stick with that. Apparantly I struggle a little bit with the blue range of colors. Which isn't going to help my argument of what shade of blue we should paint the kitchen, but overall I still rock.

Suck it losers.

Report your score below.

Xrite Color Test Here

Aargh

HOLY CRAPATHON! I forgot.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is TODAY, Sept 19th!

AARGH.

For anyone in Philly, I know there's an event at the Rum Bar off of Rittenhouse to celebrate happy hour of ITLPD.

And I just checked the TLAPD website and found all these other great events too:

Philadelphia - The Pirate Guys themselves travel to the City of Brotherly Love for a special Talk Like A Pirate Day appearance at The Franklin, as part of the museum's events surrounding the Real Pirates traveling exhibition from National Geographic. Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket will be in Philadelphia Sept. 17-21, with a Talk Like A Pirate Day reading/performance at the museum from 6-8 p.m. on Sept. 19, and makin' stops at other pirate gatherings around town as time permits. Keep a weather eye out!

Philadelphia - "As a history teacher I am taking my students to the Franklin Institute in Philaldelphia Pa to see the exhibit about the WHYDAH. A pirate ship found off of Cape Cod. I am going decked out with eye patch and head gear. After work its yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, then its on to the wench to shiver me timbers. Ahoy and may you never find your self in Davy Jones locker"

Philadelphia - Independence Seaport Museum celebrates Talk Like A Pirate Day with the closing film in its summer Starlight Cinema series, the classic Bob Hope pirate parody "The Pirate and the Princess." In honor of the date, everyone dressed like a pirate gets in free; there'll be a best-dressed pirate contest, free pirate snacks and tattoos (temporary, we think), and heaps o' pirate fun.

Philadelphia - And in still more Philadelphia pirate news, the crew of the tall ship Gazela, moored at Penn's Landing, will be in full pirate regalia for TLAPD. After storming the Independence Seaport Museum (see above), they'll have the ship open until 11 p.m. for late-night pirate ship tours.

The World Wide Intrawebernetter

A virus destroyed my work computer on Tuesday night. It was like something out of an early 90’s techno suspense thriller, “The Net” or “Fear.com” or "Untraceable". Yes, I know, "Untraceable" was put out last year, but it feels like an early 90's techno thriller, especially when Diane Lane, the FBI agent says, "He got inside my wireless network!" or "He hacked into my car!"

Anyways, I was surfing the web looking for home improvement blogs. I usually surf without fear because my office has anti-virus programs and spyware controls and firewalls and pop-up blockers and a whole host of other things I don’t understand completely in the slightest but in which I still put my faith.

I don’t know which site it came from, but suddenly an advertisement for buying authentic reproduction samurai swords pops up. Unphased, I clicked the “Close Window” button. Instantly, my screen goes white, and an alert on my desktop appears saying “Your computer is infected with the following spyware programs: Yousmelllikepoop.exe* and Dontforgettobrushyourteeth.exe*. Please install Antispyware XP 2008** immediately.

Now I’m phased. This was clearly bad news, but I didn’t believe the message on my screen. I smelled a scam. I tried to cancel through the Task Manager. I watched as the Task Manager fell apart before my eyes.I tried to Google research the scam. I watched as all the google hits were rerouted to erroneous websites. I pulled out the network cable to contain the infection. I tried to use Add/Remove Programs and watched as the virus tore me a new one.

Finally I called the tech support office employed by our office. The informed me that this virus is some new thing and it is NASTY. Apparantly Antispyware XP 2008 and all its associated programs have no cure and no virus protection program yet exists to block them. We could spend hours trying to rebuild things and would probably destroy windows in the process, or we could just wipe the computer clean and go back to factory settings.

Which I did. I spent Wednesday morning rebuilding. Fortunately all my actual files were on the server and unaffected. I just had to reload all my software and settings and plugins and lisp files and other things ad nauseum.

But it was really kind of freaky to be “attacked” that way and for it to look so much like a cheesy techno thriller where the geeky hero cries out “The hacker is calling from INSIDE the Server! They've breached the firewall. Get out of the server, get out of the server!!!!” I’m sure someone who knows anything about computer science is reading this and snorting their Red Bull with laughter. That’s kind of the point. I don’t know anything about this stuff and for all I know some villain could be overtaking my DVD player, my toaster, and my Electric Nose Hair Trimmer as we speak. Laugh if you will, but I’m unplugging them all before I go to bed.

*I don't remember the real virus names, but wouldn't those be disarmingly frightening names, like when an innocent looking kid comes up to you and says something childlike and simultaneously creepy? Like that one time Rach and I stayed at this bed and breakfast and the innkeepers little girl comes and talks to us at breakfast. Rach asks her, "Do you like having people stay at your house?" And she replies, "I can hear them up there". And Rach says, "You mean you can hear them walking around upstairs?" And the little girl says "No, I mean, I talk to the shadow people on the ceiling." with this wide eyed vacant stare and a smile. (shiver)

**But the Antispyware XP 2008 thing was a real name. Look out for that. I've talked to two other folks since then who got the same bug.

Come Hither Salsa

In my bachelor days, I didn't have much going for me with the ladies. I mean, I was funny, of course, and remarkably good looking obviously, and there was my abundance of emotional, spiritual, and sexual maturity. But other than that, all I had was salsa...

Yes, I made a KICKASS salsa; Giant overflowing bowls of salsa that I would bring over to Rach's house on the ghetto-ish Girard Ave. and the girls would swoon.

"This is so *&^%ing good I want to quit my job teaching underprivileged children and sit around the apartment all day eating this with a spoon!", her roommate Becky would say.

"I don't care whether my sister and you are good for eachother, just marry her already so I can have more of this salsa!", her roommate/sister Kim would say.

"Mmm, mmm, mmm. Yo, white boys aint my thing, but you look sexy carrying that bowl of salsa", the old lady on the corner would say as I got off the bus.

"Hey there.", my then-girlfriend/future-wife Rachael would say. (She's very understated, but trust me, volumes were implied.)

Anyways, I'm confident that my salsa is the primary reason Rach stuck with me. And now that we're married, I don't need to cling so tightly to the secret, but can spread it around to those less fortunate.

The real secret is that there is no recipe. One can only taste your way through the salsa making experience allowing room for much adjustment as the individual ingredients vary through the season and from the source. It's a zen meditation thing, one best accomplished with a little "Morcheeba" playing in the background, especially "Big Calm" and "Fragments of Freedom".

But after repeated nudging, I went to Sue's Produce, sat down this weekend, and codified the recipe as best as I could.

Come Hither Salsa
3 15 oz. Cans Black Beans (Goya Brand Preferred)
6 Large Slightly Under-ripe Jersey Tomatoes, Diced
1 Large Yellow Onion, Diced
3 Jalapeños, Minced.
3/4 Cup Cilantro, Minced
2 1/2 TBS or 4 Cloves Garlic, Minced.

1/2 cup Lemon Juice (Fresh Preferred)
2 TBS Red Wine Vinegar
2 TBS Corn or Olive Oil
1 1/2 TBS Kosher or Sea Salt

Drain and rinse black beans with cold water in colander. In Large mixing bowl (3-5 quart), mash one half of the beans into a mushy pulp. Preferably, use your bare hands. Add remaining unmashed beans, diced tomatoes, diced onion, minced jalapeños, minced cilantro, and minced garlic. (I've added links above for the best means of cutting/dicing/mincing for the less experienced.) Combine Ingredients.

Now comes the Zen Part. Get your best trip-hop on. Add lemon, vinegar, oil, and salt as needed. I've listed approximate quantities above but you may want to start with half of those and build up to the quantities listed as you taste.

Disclaimers:
1. This salsa is always made in big batches so I cannot vouch for what will happen if you try to do a fraction of it.

2. Be very careful of making this salsa if you are not intending to find a spouse. Even if you plan to sit at home and watch the evening news alone while eating the salsa, unintended spousal side effects may occur.

3. Like I said, there is no recipe. Except for the one that my sister taught me from Martha Stewart that started this whole thing, but I think mine has evolved enough to rename and claim.

4. Do not add corn unless you have been explicitly instructed to by the intended object of your affection. Suprisingly, my experience has been that corn is very divisive and could potentially undo the entire salsa wooing process. Fortunatley for me, Rach is very forgiving.

Finishing Up...

Among the list of things to wrap up in the dining room is refinishing this sideboard/buffet piece... It was the first of many thrift store purchases that Rach and I made. We got it at the Second Mile in West Philly before we moved into our tiny house in Grad Hospital. It has modern Danish detailing, with concealed hinges and stainless pulls on the doors and drawers.

I've gotten a few books out of the library on refinishing, but am still stymied as to how to handle the detailing on the front panel doors and drawers. Multiple layers of different species veneer make sanding and staining problematic.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Schoolhouse Rock

Schoolhouse Rock: Great blog on public education reform debates from Slate. I've most appreciated what Paul Tough has to say in his newest post, called "The Divide":

"To those in the Broader [,Bolder Approach to Education] camp: Let's admit that our public schools could be serving poor kids much, much better than they are today, and that in order to do that, they need a radical overhaul right away."

"To those in the Education Equality camp: Let's admit that alone, even the best charter schools can't fix the crisis in the nation's worst urban neighborhoods."

I always love when someone sees through the crap and characterizations and demonization of two opposing idealogies and proposes a compromise that just might work.

I also love what Michelle Rhee, the DC Superintendant of Schools is proposing. Its a split contract, one that gives teachers the option of compensation and tenure the way they've had it for a while OR one that limits tenure and enacts performance based standards but with much higher potential for raises and bonuses. (Kind of like the rest of the world functions...)

The reaction from older generation teaching union leaders is illustrative of the problem. We can debate the kind of change needed, but entrenched refusal to change is looking worse and worse on them...

I'm curious what readers who have taught or are teaching in public/private/charter schools think...

Big Wally's Plaster Magic Review

Somebody out there has to be the guinea pig... so when I saw this review on This Old House for Big Wally's Plaster Magic, I thought I'd give it a go. Its a product for basically "gluing" your delaminating cracked plaster back to the wooden lathe behind the wall. Which is necessary if you want to keep those cracks from just reappearing through the layers of joint compound/plaster/primer/paint that you may try to cover them with.

My first goal was to call the company and try and get a free sample. I tried every trick I had in the book, including pulling out the Architect cred, citing my houseblog, etc. I'm not sure how these other housebloggers get free stuff, but I'd think between the blog and the constant specification of materials for my projects, I'd get a little love. Not so much. But everybody's got to make a buck, so I decided to bite the bullet and just buy some... I got the "Two Pack" size kit . (Not to be confused with the Tupac sized kit, which is largely overrated and is likely to induce gang warfare.) It was $63 bucks, which I hoped was worth it as it was only listed as being for 6 linear feet of crack, though I generally believe those numbers are stretchable.

Instructions and photos below are from Big Wally himself. Parenthetical references below indicate my experiential musings which relate, albeit loosely.

Step #1:
Find a crack.
(Check. I had several.)






Step #2:
Using a 3/16" bit drill holes along length of crack, 6-8" O.C. min., being careful to go only through the plaster and not into the lathe.
(Not a problem. Marked my bit with a piece of electrical tape once I had established the proper depth.)




Step #3:
Vaccum out any loose debris.
(Not inlcuded on the printed directions, only on the website. But no biggie. Due to my lack of a shopvac I did use our regular carpet vaccum. Shhh... don't tell.)




Step #4:
Spray one squeeze of proprietary conditioner in each hole, wait 10 minutes for curing.
(It did seem that for $63, they could have invented a more unique tool/fitting for getting the spray into the hole. Some sort of specialized nozzle or adaptor. But it worked, so not really much of a complaint.)


Step #5:
Inject proprietary adhesive into conditioned holes. Use about 1/2 to one squeeze of caulk gun per hole.
(This is where things got interesting.

a. I think 1/2 of a squeeze is more than enough, unless your plaster is visibly falling off the wall and the gap between the plaster and the lathe is substantial. See Notes 2 and 3.

b. One time, I was at the zoo with a friend. We went to see the big cats (lions and tigers and bobcats oh my) have their daily feeding in the cat house. It was very cool to watch them pace along the front of the cage and growl as zookeepers dropped a Porterhouse of Unimaginable Size into their cage. As we left, one of the excited and now very territorial cats exited through his "kitty door" to a small outdoor cage by the entrance. A young boy, maybe 8 or 9 years, approached the cage to watch the cat pace and growl. The cat responded to this little boy's encroachment by turning 180 degrees, lifting his tail, and marking his territory in a horizontal trajectory "Old Faithful" sized plume of urine, pheremones, and whatever other bodily fluids are part of your standard Puma olfactory graffiti tagging. The boy was saturated. He turned and began to cry. My friend and I laughed and walked away toward the monkey house to see if we could get a live re-enactment of that video of the monkey scratching its butt.

c. In many ways, the adhesive injection process was kind of like that. The first couple of times that adhesive came shooting backwards at me, I assumed that either I had over-injected or that I had misaligned the nozzle with the hole. But upon further experiments, I discovered that the adhesive was often shooting out of other holes or out of the crack itself. This led me to believe that in conditions where the lathe and plaster where just barely delaminated or not delaminated at all, (which you can't predict for each individual application hole), the adhesive was traveling behind the plaster and there was not enough cavity volume to accept the injection. Either that or the wall was marking IT's territory. Or the wall was very pleased to see me. Either way, the moral of the story here is definitely wear eye protection and clothes you don't care about losing. On to Step #6!...)

Step #6:
Wipe off excess adhesive.
(Again, not listed in the printed directions, but relatively obvious. If I were to revise the printed directions, I would probably include a note that one should wipe adhesive from the wall and then go take a shower due to previous incidents in Step #5.)



Step #7:
Clamp the wall or ceiling temporarily with screws and 2” plastic washers—bring the plaster gently back to its original plane. Allow to cure for 24 to 48 hours.
(Anyone who's ever tried to nail into a lathed surface behind a plaster wall is familiar with that bouncing sensation that means your hammer is flexing the individual lathe and your nail not finding purchase. That was a minor issue here.)


Step# 7.2
None listed.

(What? No 7.2? In addition to this being the requisite beer/cigar break time, the printed directions should probably also mention that after clamping, additional adhesive will slowly seep from the holes. And while the directions say that dried adhesive can be removed with a putty knife, I can tell you that said scraping can do quite a bit of damage, pulling little chunks of plaster away with it. Another cleaning after the clamps sit for a few minutes, or the length of the aforementioned cigar/beer, would minimize this impact.)


Step #8:
Carefully remove clamps and fill holes with joint compound.
(Again, as I said above, get the glue off the wall first. It does not sand down well. Additionally, you may want to save those clamps for future use. More on that later.)




Step #9:
Sand, prep, and paint.
(Check. Check. And Check.)






The end verdict is basically positive. Big Wally really secured all of the cracks quite well. If you get up close to the wall, one can see some divits from the glue application holes which would have been minimized by a more thorough cleaning instruction, but not too shabby from a few feet back. (There was a crack running from the top of the door lintel on the right down to the inside corner at bottom left, just above the chair rail.)


The price seemed high, although I think I could have stretched it if not for the spontaneous adhesive eruptions. Although, Wally, you should really consider selling the adhesive tubes alone, since I now have a bevy of clamps and conditioner for future projects but the adhesive went fast. As a result, I'll probably give some standard construction adhesive a shot before ordering another Tupac kit.

Wall Mounted Office

Rach and I have one office in our house. (Until we notify you otherwise, it will remain an office. Yeah, we're talking to you, Moms and Dad and other families of mass procreation...)

Its a nice office: Morning Sun. Calm blue walls. View of the trees. A working DSL connection (Finally. Verizon you suck.)

But it simply isn't really big enough for the two of us. We can't really have two desks in there, or, possibly we could, but then the qualities of a good workspace would be lost.

So, Rach, who has far more freelance and home office needs than I, gets to claim that space, and I am sent to the Breakfast Bar. Which is quite all right with me, because I like to doodle or google whilst I cook the noodles and strudels.

The problem is that my laptop, Ipod, camera, phone, etc. are all on display for the world, including last minute houseguests and people walking up our back alley who can look into our house through the patio doors. We're trying to think of alternative corners in which I may reclude* myself but each pulls me out of the action so much that I would be unlikely to go there and I'd never get anything done, and you, loyal reader wouldn't have this mindblowingly popular and hilarious blog to read. Tragic!

That's why I spat out my coffee all over the screen at work this morning, when I found this post from House in Progress, entitled Mystery Cabinet.

Basically, I will design a variation on the ENook...


I can design something a little nicer myself that doesn't look quite so much like "When Ikea met Haworth" and they got down and dirty... My design wheels are turning. Now all I need to do is buy a table saw.

*Reclude: To make a recluse of one's self.

I Know What You Did Last Summer...

For those of you who may not remember, our Dining Room used to look a little something like this...

What you can see: Blinding Orange Color of Death, assuming you still have retinas at this point.

What you can't see: Wallpaper on every frickin' surface with cracked plaster behind.


We did a buttload of work for such a small room and no reconfiguration... it's really put us off taking the wallpaper off the two remaining rooms in the house. We figure, "We bought it with wallpaper on the wall, so will the next guy..." Suckas.

It took us far longer than such a simple project should have. A cumulative 5 months, off and on. The final deadline was for a wedding shower being thrown at our house in July. So, thankful for my summer hours at work that let me take quite a few Fridays off, I holed up for the weekend(s), buckled down and got 'er done. I also finished up with just enough time to DJ the wedding.

Anyways, even with the massive time investment, we're very happy with the results...


The final paint selections were from Benjamin Moore per usual...

"Sherwood Tan" for the walls in Eggshell.
"Standard White" for trim in Semigloss.
"Standard White" for the ceiling in Flat.

I'm really digging the discounted prices for Architects and account holders.

We'll be bringing you a review of "Wally's Plaster Magic" shortly, with comedic/helpful additional instructions. And we're currently trying to figure out how to add some color to the room in the form of aquas and blues, probably with painted chairs and some new curtains by Mom K.

A few side things:



A piece of driftwood we brought back from Lake George... not sure how we're going to use it yet... but I'm thinking I'd like to slice it in half, stand it on end and make a cool sculpture.

We're also still figuring out what to do for curtains and interior storm windows. More on that later...








Rach cleaned up the sconces real nice... They need some new shades, which are surprisingly hard to find unless you're okay with ridiculous baroque looking things like these...






The print of Picasso's "Lobster and the Cat" has been in storage too long. Glad to put it back in its rightful place.


Especially proud of my work rebuilding the outside corners around the bay window. I screwed furring strips to the edge so I could push joint compound into an "inside" corner. Waited for it to dry, moved the furring strip to the opposing side and compunded again. Another day of drying, pull of the strip, and sand away. The corners were actually too precise and looked funny so I beveled them a bit with the sander so they wouldn't stand out so much.

Cologne

Also, just because I'm so excited about the simultaneous album release and my learned ability to embed*, here's Ben's Official video for Cologne...



It's the video every melodramatic pop song should aspire to:
Weird Euro-Variety Show Mockumentary**.

*I know I'm dumb. Thanks.

**Also, aside from the obvious cat lady, my favorite part is the two random children. I think it may actually be my niece Mitchie and my nephew Jimmy.

Ben Folds at the Mann

Quick review...

Not put off by Hurricane "Heeanah", Tim, Carolyn, Rach, and I went to see Ben Folds play with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra on Saturday at the Mann... To be honest, the show was a little short for my liking, but C made the good point that we were paying an entire orchestra for the same price as a normal concert ticket, so you really can't complain about that. I guess.

Otherwise, completely awesome.

He opened with "Zak and Sarah"... here's a similar clip*** from when he played with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra...




Our sound** was not quite as good as the above clip, (understatement) but the view was great and we knew the songs by heart anyways. Except for a few new ones which are definitely going to rock when "Way To Normal" comes out on Sept. 30th.

And he encore'd with "The Luckiest" which was Rach and I's wedding first dance song thingy*. Not many people get to hear their song in a situation like that... Here's another clip***:



*If anyone is considering that for their first dance, let me just warn you ITS REALLY FRICKIN' LONG. Pretty and meaningful and blah, blah, blah, sure, but tell your DJ to cut that off at like 2 minutes 30 seconds. And that's not just me talking, Rach was bored to tears. I mean, she says that she was crying because it was our wedding day, but let's be honest, I was the giant blubbering idiot all day long, so I'm not buying it...

**Also, Dear Mann Center, seriously, fire the interns you've gotten from Larry's Sound Technician Day School for Troubled Youth and hire a professional please. This is the second time we've been burned by you. You DO NOT want me to put you with The Electric Factory in the category of places I will never again spend my concert budgetary allowance.

***Look Ma!, I embedded video!

Failed Attempts No More

Exciting news!

1. Congrats T/C... After one failed attempt, Tim and Carolyn got a dog from the same litter!

(Although to clarify, they failed once to get a dog. Not failed once to get a dog from the same litter. That'd be a funny story though, if they accidentally picked out a dog from a litter and thought they were getting a Poobrador but ended up with a Chiuamaraner* .

2. Congrats A/K... After two failed attempts, Andy and Kim finally settled on their house!

(Although to clarify, that means they purchased one house, not failed to decide which one to buy. That wouldn't be as exciting and would actually be rather common. Its difficult to pick between house styles, especially on North 29th.)

3. Congrats D/and kind of R... After three failed attempts, I successfully determined a way to wear my dress socks pulled up with sneakers and shorts and a button down gay-cowboy-looking-shirt** that Rach picked out for me and in all honesty I kind of like.

(To clarify, three failed attempts to find a way in which it was cool. I tried left up, right down... right up, left down... and both halfway, and finally settled on both up. If I had failed thricely to pull my dress socks up, that would be embarrassing. Instead, I look awesome and my wife is very proud and will probably want to jump me right after I get off the blog.)


*That'd be a chiuaua and weimaraner mix.

**Someday I'll post a pic and you can decide if its a gay-cowboy-looking-shirt, a gay-looking-cowboy-shirt, a cowboy-shirt, or possibly just a gay-shirt. Either way, I'm fabulous... er... awesome. Damn shirt.

Updates and Ice Cream Sodas

Buckle up...

We've narrowed our dog names down to two, neither of which are on the poll above, but we're not going to reveal the pick until a few days before the puppy is brought home so that the vetting process (get it? vetting?) can be complete and we don't accidentally pick a name that means "I hate people with special needs" in Swahili or something which would be highly unfortunate because we've spent a lot of time debating various names with family and friends which of course has lead to many a discussion of children's names which we're simultaneously not ready for and also have picked out much to the chagrin of people who kept trying to recommend names for our dog that we've already pre-reserved for our hypothetically dreaded children (and please don't get all huffy, a lot of married people fear children because kids are like a nylon leash which yes, comes in a multitude of exciting primary colors, but ultimately restricts your movement) WHICH brings us back to dogs and the naming conversation which reminds me that whenever we talked about a dog name starting with "J", I of course had to nix it because of my speech impediment which would invariably bring about my sister's response of "I wanted to name a daughter Hannah, but then I married a guy from Rochester, who pronounces it "Heeanah" so that was out the window and we named our daughter Blair" which frankly I thought was kind of awkward given that Blair was sitting right there and is certainly going to have an identity complex now, but as a result, I'm definitely imagining it'd be a good weekend to be a fly on the wall at their house because Hurricane "Heeana" is currently bearing down on the east coast, which if we weren't going away tonight and going to an awesome Ben Folds with Full Orchestra concert tomorrow (make sure to listen to the Hiroshima clip, you'll be singing "OH-OH-OH-OHHHH" for the rest of your life), would mean that we would sit around watching our last disc of Scrubs Season 3 and doing Dr. Cox impersonations (which is what this rambling run-on post is supposed to sound like, or at least should sound like in your head there, Katrina (see what I did there? since Cox calls JD by girls' names) while drinking Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Sodas, which surprisingly few people know about, but trust me, they're awesome.

Ma Barker's Ice Cream Sodas:

BIG glass
3 Tbs. Choc. Syrup
3 Tbs. 1/2 and 1/2
Vanilla Ice Cream
Seltzer Water

In the bottom of your BIG glass, mix together chocolate syrup, 1/2 and 1/2, and a splash of seltzer water, making sure to get all those chocolatey bits off the bottom. Add several scoops of ice cream until you're just 1/2" inch below the top of the glass. Fill with Seltzer water, giver her a good stir, top off with a hair more seltzer and maybe a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top.

Enjoy.