Home Repair a la Steve

Problem: Cannot close door to utility room off of den, furnace needs air circulation. This means that I have to sit there in my TV-watchin' chair and stare at the furnace, and when we use it for guests, they have to have that door open. Nice view. Not.

Option 1: Buy new door, remove old door, attempt to line up new door with jamb, attempt to put hinges on door jamb and door, take Rolaids, install door, remove door, cut door to correct size and or shape, install door, remove door, plane door because nothing in this house is squared, take Maalox, plane door again, repeat until door is hanging properly, prime door, paint door, have a stiff drink, repaint door.

Option 2: Buy 3' x 3' residential HVAC system return duct grill. Remove door. Cut hole in door. Bolt grill to door. Reinstall door. Move on.

I think y'all can guess this in one.

Here's a little before & after


















S & J

What Is That? (Weather Update)

Large burny orb in sky. Making eyes hurt. Fear, surprise, terror -- what is it??

Ohhhh, so that's what the sun looks like... Wow. I'd forgotten.

12 inches of rain at National Airport in the past few days. We consider ourselves lucky that the worst we've had is a little seepage or sweating on the below-grade brick wall in the back of the basement. Oh well, we were planning to replace that carpet anyway... There are people with flooded basements and exploding sewers and just a whole lot of other really nasty consequences.

S & J

Weather and Bat Report

As many have heard, we've had a bit of rain in Washington. Streets flooded, highways closed, some people even got a day off -- notably the IRS, Commerce Department and others -- when their buildings either flooded or lost power. Not us, of course. No, the State Department and the Foreign Service Institute weathered the storm well.

Drat.

Oh well. We needed the rain; apparently the region got anywhere from five to ten inches in one day, completely making up the entire year's rain deficit in one night. Maybe would have been better a little spread out instead of all in one night, but...

The good news is that we have (knock on wood and keep praying) seen no/no leaks in the roof and the gutters seem to be running clean and clear. So all that fretting over the new roof appears to have paid off.

We also seem to have some unexpected tenants. Apparently a significant number of bats have taken up residence behind our faux shutters. In the tradeoff between the prodigious amounts of bat poo being deposited on our garage trestle and eating the mosquitos, we're going with eating the mosquitos. Besides, we found out that bat families are protected and one is encouraged not to harm or displace them, as long as they're not rabid or harmful to people. We debated whether to add pictures to this post, but there's really not much to show except some shutters and lots of bat poo. We figured you could do without that.

We even had one fall out of the shutters last week, early in the morning. Jenny found a baby bat, barely an inch from head to tail, laying on the trestle of the garage, crying for help. It was up to Steve to shuffle the poor fellow into a box for the day and tuck it away securely out of direct sunlight and the clutches of predators (squirrels, cats, etc.). Later that evening, Jenny slid the baby back onto the trestle, and within quite literally seconds after Jenny stepped aside, the mother swooped down, grabbed the baby bat, and hustled back behind the shutters. We felt all warm and tingly and sentimental.

S & J

The City of Brotherly Love...and Cheese Steaks

Well, you can guess by the title.

We went to Philadelphia this weekend for the wedding of Jenny's college roommate, Anne Marie, and her beau-now-husband, Wayne. A lovely wedding, tres classy. The Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul made a lovely setting. Dang nice organ, too.



The reception, excellent.



Didn't get to do much sightseeing, but some. We did get a much-welcomed chance to stroll about a bit Friday evening, saw Rittenhouse Square and Logan Circle. And a VERY much welcomed chance to spend some quality time with good friends Willie and Pam, commiserating about life and salving our wounded psyches with pizza and authentic sandwich-shop cheese steaks.
Jake's, on the corner of Broad and Race Streets. Not fancy, but goooooood. The hotel desk clerk referred us to a fancy pub. We got Jake's from one of the bellhops. I got a stern cultural lesson from the chef, who made a point of noting that in Central Philly they use slices of American cheese, not Cheez Whiz. Strictly South Philly, that. My mouth was far too full of tasty sandwich to quibble.


We did stop in at Independence Square on the way out on Sunday, where Steve indulged his childlike awe at thinking that he might be standing on a very same pavingstone where Thomas Jefferson or John Adams stood and argued about the Declaration of Independence -- or at least where Ben Franklin propositioned a comely wench twenty years his junior.

Also saw the Liberty Bell. The new Visitor's Center and Liberty Bell Pavillion is rather well done and very professional. They didn't stint on the design, architecture or construction (hey, it's the birth of our country, I've got no problem with the idea of spending more than a buck fifty to make it look nice). That said (and at the risk of breaking our promise to keep politics off this website), we could not help but feel a twinge of irony. The first display you see when you enter the Liberty Bell pavillion talks about the Bell as a symbol of liberties achieved and liberties denied, just after you've passed through a metal quonset hut where they make you remove even your belts and shoes to get x-rayed, scanned and inspected.

Anyway. Traffic up was a bit of a bear. Four and a half hours. Ugh. The ride home was far easier. Two hours fifteen, despite pouring rain half the time.

It was a lovely wedding and a very nice trip. And good cheesesteaks.

Have to go back for the Franklin Institute...next time!

Cheers,
S & J

Wow, It's Really Quiet...

For the first time since, like, February someone isn't hammering, drilling, wrenching, smashing or breaking something in the house... We almost don't know what to do.

We had a visit last week from Jenny's parents, Will, Chloe and Dan. Saw the movie "Cars" and enjoyed it, had fun trying to guess who was doing the voices. Steve's Mom, Ruth, came down for a short visit to look around and consider moving from New York to the D.C. area. It was "kinda maybe" until he took her through IKEA and Potomac Mills and she realized there was a serious opportunity here to get new furniture... Then the prospect got a lot more attractive, LOL.

Jenny has settled into new offices in the renovated old wing of the State Department, working with the new U.S. Foreign Assistance Office. The new office is very nice. State closed down one wing of the building about three years ago, the oldest wing, to completely renovate it. Jenny's new offices are in that wing, recently reopened. It was the older, historic part of the building, so they had to keep and refurbish a lot of the old architectural flourishes. The new building that surrounds it basic 1950s Federal Office Prison...I mean, Office Building. Right out of the kit, if ya' know what I mean. This part is a lot classier. And she has a really great view...of the interior courtyard where they put the new airconditioning chillers. The world can be greatly reassured that Jenny is keeping a close eye on the glycol return conduits.

Steve is in the four hundredth week of Arabic...or what feels like four hundred weeks...a little burned out but plugging along. Not a language for the weak of will, and probably worthy of a warning label: "Attempting to learn Arabic when your brain is encroaching on forty may be hazardous to your health."

That's about it for now. More news maybe next week...

S & J

Second Anniversary

Ah, the romance, the adventure, the exotic mystery of ... Kansas?

We came close to spending our second anniversary in Kansas -- well, Fort Leavenworth to be precise -- when we went to visit Jenny's brother's family (Ryan and Angel) at the end of May. A very nice visit, indeed, a lot of fun with our nephews, Dan and Will, and our niece, Chloe.





There's some good air under that skateboard...

Also a chance to try out our new digital camera, the new Kodak Easy Share Z650. 6.1 megapixels, but more importantly, a 10x optical zoom. This thing is doing REALLY good, lots of close up capability, very stable even for pictures of things in motion and on tight zoom. We're impressed.

We started in Kansas City, Missouri, with a little wandering around at the Crown Center and the Spanish Plaza, plus a really nice couples massage in the Woodmont area. Very bohemian area, kinda like Soho in New York or Adams Morgan here in D.C. Then, Jenny surprised Steve with her big find -- a very different and interesting place called the Chateau Avalon in Kansas City, Kansas. It's a bed and breakfast with a twist. Every room has a different theme. There's the Presidential Suite, the Tuscany Room, the Monte Cristo, the Polynesian Jungle, etc. etc., and ours -- the Camelot Room. It was a lot of fun. Location is a little odd, you're within shouting distance of the Kansas Motor Speedway. But the place is marvelous and quaint and comfortable and fun.







There was a guest log in the room -- one in each room, we assume -- and we read through it. There were a number of entries that really touched us, namely those from military couples who were taking a weekend of relief from the war in Iraq. Several people were either on brief vacations, celebrating someone's homecoming, or grabbing one last moment alone before shipping out. We actually looked up some of the names later and as far as we can tell, they made it home.

We came home the day before our actual anniversary -- May 23 -- so we spent that here in D.C., sleeping late, enjoying the day, and ending with a really nice dinner at the Colvin Run Tavern in Vienna. Tres chic, and really good food.

Two years. Steve's come to the thought that the first anniversary is important because, well, it's the first, and the second is important because it feels like you're now off probation. You've outlasted the average Hollywood marriage, you're in real marriage world, now. LOL.

S & J

My Secret Vice

I admit it. I am hooked on Hollywood gossip.
Link: Ted Casablanca at E! Online
S only (J disavows ALL interest in this one) :-)

Oh, The Joys of Home Improvement

You have to imagine Johnny Carson doing the voice of Art Fern to get the right tone.

OK, so we've been doing a little work on the house.

Took out all the carpeting (bye bye, dust mites)...

...and here's a before and after on the stairs.















Now, the flooring was a bit of a bear. The installer said it would take three days. Steve figured four, maybe five. It took, uh, eighteen. We were...fatigued, to say the least. Still, it looked nice once they finally got done (and after they came back a month later to fix some mistakes).




Next it was time to turn to the roof. We got rid of these nasty, busted-up, dried out, twenty-year-old cedar shakes and went for architectural shingles. In fact, they just finished about an hour ago. Here's before...









...during...







...and after.








We're taking a breather. We've had enough of living in a construction zone for a while.

S & J

Change of Plans!

OK, so here's the news. We are NOT going to Tunisia in the summer of 2006. We ARE going to Abu Dhabi on schedule in the summer of 2007.

The Department didn't want Jenny to leave while it is in the middle of reorganizing the foreign assistance organization. We agreed to stay another year so that Jenny could help with the reorganization. Steve will do his second year of Arabic language here in Arlington, not in Tunisia as previously planned. In summer 2007 (month TBD) we will go to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where Steve will be the Public Affairs Officer in the Embassy and Jenny...eh, we're still trying to figure that out...

Anyway, short version is that we're going to be around Washington for one more year. We are definitely sorry to miss Tunis -- a year with nothing to do but learn Arabic and watch the Mediterranean Sea slosh back and forth was not exactly unwelcome. But, c'est la vie, y'know? So...summer's here, grill's gassed up, and we got burgers. Yee-hah.

S & J

Launch

Hello, All!



We've created this blog to give us a place to post our latest adventures. No politics, no controversy, just pictures of where we go and occasional updates. Email us if you want to join the group that gets notified each time we post. We think we can do that. We're kinda new at this, so we're not entirely sure... ha ha ha

S & J