Boston

I've had to travel to Boston quite a bit recently for work. On my last flight there last week I have the window seat, a Bostonian woman has the middle seat and a Texas gentleman has the aisle. During the decent into Logan (Boston's Airport) the Bostonian and the Texan start chatting. Their topics were the usual boring where are you headed, what do you do, where will you be staying chit chat that strangers have on an airplane.

At some point during my eavesdropping, she tells the fella (I'm trying to type accents here, so use your imagination) "You gotta go to Haavaaahd squwair. There is this greaat place called Fiya an Yce (Fire and Ice). They have gweat dwink specials an' the menu is auwsome."

The Texan says "Whuut's the naame agaain?"

She replies "Fiya an Yce."

Then he says "Culd you repeat that again?"

Again she says "Fiya an Yce."

Then it clicks for the Texan..."Oh, Fiyer and Iyce."

South meets northeast and the communication barrier is bridged.

the great wind storm of aught eight

We had a wee bit of wind damage from the great wind storm of '08. It was very minor compared to others in our neighborhood who lost entire sections of shingles or others in town who had trees falling on rooftops, garages and cars.

I had to fly out of town for work on monday so our neighbor was nice enough to tack up my fascia/flashing (whatever it's called -- see photo). But I still had to snap back in a piece of siding above the garage door and shimmey up onto our roof and flip a shingle back over. That, let me tell you, is not something I want to do again soon. I was scared out of my mind climbing up there....but all is back together again.

5k

Xander and I ran our first official 5k together today and it was awesome! We've been running together since it's been nice this spring and we have a good time on saturday mornings when we go out.

I ran a pretty good race and finished with 26:10. I ran the first mile in 7 minutes, but then completely fell off the pace when they introduced the hills. My 5k route that I take through our neighborhood twice a week has no hill action what-so-ever. Nothing. So when I get these itty bitty hills, my legs cried revolt!

It was pretty awesome though because the race takes place 15 minutes before our local parade starts and the streets are lined with onlookers. Xander and I were the first parent-kid combo to run along the route and I ran in a wake of "oh, look at the baby", "ohh, how cute", "now that's how I like to run"; as Xander relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. There was even a female onlooker who crooned "whooo-hooo 121!". It's tough to laugh when you are wheezing and gasping for air.

did you hear that?

That was the sound of me falling off of the blogging bandwagon. KerthUMP.

I'll put something up here interesting once I'm not working a crapload of hours.

The cool things to talk about like our front yard that we are trying to landscape or the garden have fallen by the wayside because my weekends have been occupied with work. Thank goodness I haven't had to cut the grass.

I'm timid to admit this but I'm reading one of the wife's chick novels starring Stephanie Plum; it's pretty funny. One for the Money is the title. It's a nice easy mindless read that takes place in New Jersey. Lately I've read books that are based in NJ...each one of them talks about how gross and disgusting it is...and for some reason I still would like to visit. Or at least go to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Redbank, NJ.

weekend wrapup

So did you see in the news that Mr. Sunshine John Edwards had an affair? Dude, I tell you what, I've lost all hope in politicians. They are all buggery turds. Give me another 10 to 15 years and I'm going to figure out what I have to do to run for office. Hopefully once I figure it out I'll follow through and run for office.

We found this ice cream shop down the road that serves Tofts ice cream. Tofts is the best ice cream in the whole world, in case you didn't know it already. It's made in good old Sandusky, Ohio and is another fine Ohio product just like myself. So on weekends we walk a mile down to the ice cream shop and back and it is awesome. The two mile round trip melts the guilt away.

We went over to Ukie's apartment this weekend and saw Cloverfield. Sweet flick! I highly recommend it. I thought it was written very well.

brain fart

So yesterday I'm in my garage talking with neighbor #1, the cop. We are chatting away and neighbor #2, the lawn expert stops by to drop off some books on perennials and landscaping. Neighbor #2 and I are yacking a bit and I feel I should introduce Neighbors #1 and #2.

"Hey, Neighbor #2, do you know.... (insert long awkward pause here were I look Neighbor #1 directly in the eye, stand there with my mouth open waiting for my tongue to kick into action) ...umm. Thank God they finished up the introduction for me because my brain just...stopped...

Now that's an embarrassing brain fart.

It's better than..."this is my wife, umm....what's your name again?" --that's never happened!!

Anne Geddes drugs her models

More flower boxes. One more for the wife, two were supposed to go to the wife's brother and fiancee as a wedding gift, but then I thought about it and thought I should give one to my mother in law since she gave the plans for the boxes to Amanda and I wondered if that had some subtle undertones......so one for the wife, one for the mother in law and one for the brother in law (and I don't think any of them read this so the surprise will be at the delivery).

Anyway, here they are with my underpaid model.



He is underpaid because he can't stay focused on the objects that the photographer wants to take pictures of and instead tries to eat sawdust and paint chips off of the driveway. Tangent: let me tell you what I'd like to do to the previous owner of this house for painting the garage floor....I want to THROTTLE her for it! Ever since the first time we parked in the garage paint chips have been coming up and it really grates on my girdle that I'm constantly sweeping them up.

This pose worked until he realized his rear end was wedged into the flower planter box, which means he can't move and resulted in the last photo down below.




So I'm convinced Anne Geddes drugs her models, because mine is hardly ever cooperative.

Ha, here's the really funny part....to do the legs I took a 1x6 piece of cedar decking (expensive, not something you want to make mistakes with) and ripped it lengthwise (the rip was off center so I could make L shaped legs). I had to do the ripping with a circular saw, which is tough because there is no guide to make sure your cuts are straight. Whereas with a table saw it is a piece of cake.

So I get finished and I'm cleaning up the garage and there is some leftover pegboard that I found in the shed from the previous owner that I used for my man area. I didn't need the rest of it and was giving it to my neighbor and while we chatted I told him how tough it was to rip the legs with a circular saw. He pointed out to me that he has the same saw that comes with an attachment and I should check the box that it came with....."wait, you mean this?"

Neighbor: "Yea, see it slides right in the front there."

Blood and bloody ashes Moraine. All those headaches and I had the tools right there in front of me. Bollocks.