Eight animals runnning around on your carpet for about a decade takes its toll. Andrea’s allergies have been acting up for years, likely synchronized with the buildup of dirt and dust deep within the carpet. So this week we are getting hardwoods installed in the entire house.
I have resisted for a while. It’s very costly (hello debt). And my inner environmentalist has been saying “can’t we just make do” (for far longer than reasonable, all things considered). The fact that the hardwood boxes are marked “Made in USA” doesn’t cover my guilt. Such conflict! So… here I am. I carted three vanfuls of carpet, padding, nails and carpet tack to the dump this week. *sigh*
In other vaguely related news, I discovered a beautiful bunch of bunnies – by running over them with my electric mower – none were harmed! – but they scattered like the wind. I pulled them out from the A/C ductwork and pushed them back into their burrow. I was determined to protect them, but… I had called our lawn guy to come mow, and he said to call him back when he was back in town. I feel like I spend half my life following up on things like that, but irony would have it that he was proactive, and came to cut the lawn on his own without a followup… mowing over the bunnies – again none were hurt! But when I heard the news, I was crestfallen and depressed. When I got home from work, I searched the yard and everything seemed okay. By now, the bunnies have grown too big for the burrow, but I’ve spotted them, and mom, around the yard, and hopefully the little guys will lead long happy lives. :>
So, to sum up, I’m not completely satisfied with my environmental efforts lately. Life can be full of hard choices and challenges! But there may be an unbelievably strong light at the end of the tunnel – EGS! I’ve recently become fascinated with the potential of this alternative energy source to solve all. our. problems. Seriously! We’ll see how it plays out, stay tuned!
Category: Production
Reiley’s epic play
Reiley did a great job performing in a 2+ hour epic play at church over the weekend. The play was written by one of the leaders of Reiley’s acting troupe, and spanned the entire history of the Bible, CNN-style. Our friend Keith is another of the leaders and he designed the stage. Creativity flows!
If I ever get any time (ha!) I’ll try to post some video…
Plan 101
How do you organize your life? In the past I’ve entertained the thought that the important tasks rise to the top like cream, and there’s no reason to waste time shuffling todo lists when that time could otherwise be put to productive use – oh the irony! There’s truth to that – you can’t be anal about every possible task you have. But… I HAVE TOO MUCH I WANT TO DO. I don’t want to be the jellyfish caught in the tide of life. I am pretty good at “not catching the ball” when it’s not the right thing to do, but I want a system that helps me be laser-precise in applying my limited resources. It just happens to be the time for that “sequence” in my life – no one is driven like a man in his 40’s. The requirements of the perfect task planning system:
- responsive, intuitive – i.e., FAST task-calendar flip
- quickly offload tasks from memory – i.e., available anywhere
UPDATE: Chandler is the current champ, and I got it working through a proxy, so I’ll give it a good strong thrubbing.
The Ultimate PDA
I bought the kids a moleskin yesterday – the ultimate PDA! Now all their great artwork scribbles will be preserved! The only rule was that they have to share their work. Win-win!
We have liftoff – The Boxcar Kid is released!
My pop’s been working his tail off on his first novel, The Boxcar Kid, for a few years now, and yesterday it hit the stores! It’s on the front page of his publisher’s site right now. This is BIG NEWS, we’re all so excited and proud of ya, pop! :>
There’s full info at the publisher’s page, and I’ve been hosting a website for it for a while now, too. I’ll try to update this as more news rolls in…
UPDATE: Andrea is a librarian at goodreads (my lovely nerdy girl! I’m married to a librarian, how sexy is THAT?! :P). She added the book there, so you can rate and discuss it!
Wren and I get some work done
I’ve been weatherstripping the house after a recent huge electric bill. I couldn’t do a good job on the doors to the roof storage space because they were only held shut by a weak magnet. While Reiley was at her acting troupe practice, Wren and I took the time to do the job right – we added doorknobs! And she helped me with everything. Thanks Wrenny!
Flea Market Wars
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It was like being in Mos Eisley itself! Wren and Reiley and I headed out to the flea market at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh – “The Oldest, the Biggest and the Best” – on a tip that there were Star Wars action figures to be had. It was great fun, lots of all kinds of junk to rummage through. There are a couple large air-conditioned buildings and lots of outdoor stalls to peruse. The outdoor stalls are usually tented and many have large fans blowing. If you split your time between the cool indoors, the tented shops, and the nice shady outdoor rest spots (there are lots of them), you’ll have a great time without breaking a sweat. We picked up a cool smoothie before we got there and it couldn’t have been better. Continue reading “Flea Market Wars”
Pop has a publisher!
This is BIG news! My pop has gotten to the point where he’s pretty happy with the polish he’s applied to his first novel, The Boxcar Kid. He’s been working hard on it for quite some time now, and he has serialized it into three separate books. He’s taken the job of finding a publisher very seriously, researching the “right” way to go about it, attending writer’s conferences to get networked, and even working up an extensive marketing plan.
It’s finally all paid off, as he’s been approached by ArcheBooks Publishing with a serious offer to get published! I really like the look of the publisher – they’re targeted at helping new writers establish long-term careers. They publish only nice hardcover editions, but complement that with ebooks with generous licenses, and have lots of other smart approaches to publishing. Way to go, pop! I’ll update this as more news rolls in. In the meantime, check out the website I set up for an introduction.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Love ya! Hope that free lunch at Iguanamia hit the spot!
UPDATE: Not content to share the spotlight with me mum, my dad decided to smash his car into bumper-to-bumper traffic, causing the three cars in front of him to take damage. Poor guy! Talk about your roller coaster day. He’s recovering now, with a sore chest thanks to hitting the seatbelt and airbag pretty hard. I know you’re on a roll, pop, but slow down and take it easy for a bit! Hope you feel better soon.
Raleigh Chalk-a-thon
Raleigh had a fun event a couple weekends ago, where local artists were assigned sections of downtown roadway and sidewalk, given a theme (urban renaissance), and a bucket of chalk! Every section had a milk jug next to it, and you’d vote with your change for what you liked best. Our neighbor Kim earned a couple bucks from us with her entry, we liked it.
And it wasn’t limited to the artists – anybody could grab chalk and mark up one sidestreet, until it overflowed with creativity. The girls made some nice contributions:
Building Together
We got a kit to build a small brick house using a sandy gluey mortar, and spent a couple summer weekends on the back porch and kitchen table laying bricks. It was great family fun. We were all into it and worked together off and on until it was done. Our final creation!
