Movie!

I don't usually recommend movies but I saw one this weekend that was really really amazing. "Lars and the Real Girl" is a great movie - in Tacoma it's only playing at the Grand (which if you haven't been to you should go anyway)

It's about a guy who has some social problems and orders an "anatomically correct" doll as a girlfriend - it's actually way more than that - really funny, and surprisingly sad in parts, but really really good.

Go see it

Jb

4-day weekend - housework and homework...

Thanksgiving weekend is a time to get caught up on fun stuff and not so fun stuff...

After the wind storm a few weeks ago I realized replacing the east side of my fence in the back yard has moved up to priority number one for projects around the house. With all the fun I've had with the neighbors lately I decided to extend the fence along the side of the house all the way to the front of the house (used to just cover the back yard). This will also give me a built-in kennel for Asia which is nice.

Before any of that can happen I have to get rid of a holly tree in the front yard. I've been talking about getting rid of it for a while, I noticed recently it's been creeping into the neighbors yard and it's really just a pain to mow around.




I borrowed a chainsaw from dad and had it all cleaned up in about an hour - you can see I went for the really manly saw, a true instrument of death for any yard pest. It actually was really nice for dealing with the "tree" - someone has chopped down the holly tree a long time ago but never killed the stump so I was really dealing with a bunch of different little trees all woven together into one mess.

All this and I'm not even half way through the weekend! One project down, a million still to go...

Finally - a door

Well the day has finally come - after several months of being incredibly busy with work/school/life I finally had some time to work on the house. Of course anyone who knows me of late knows the #1 most requested remodeling project - a door on the bathroom.

Let's all take a minute to recognize the Ikea queen size top sheet that served me so well since August. We saw a lot together - bucket parties (and their aftermath), the stomach flu, pumpkin carving.

Needless to say Leslye is lots happier - but of course it's not quite done yet. I still have to trim around the door so you can't see through on both sides - I'll get to that next weekend...

Pots...

When did I get to the age where big blue pots for the house make things exciting??? Tacoma Boys had their 2 for 1 sale last weekend so I picked up these two, I've been eyeballing them for a while. They will go on the front porch on either side of the stairs.



They threw the dog in for free =)

New posts...

I've been traveling for work the last week and a half and I've been in lots of all day meetings which means time to blog! Unfortunately I don't usually have access to the web then so you get them now...

What drives you?

I was talking to LW today and we were both discussing how we are so busy, and complain about being busy, but always find something else to do in order to keep that little bit of stress in our lives... There’s work, school, spending time with LW, working on the house, hiking, family, search and rescue, church… the list goes on. Things haven’t changes but I think my priorities have a little.

I’ve always considered myself a driven person – I want to be successful, and be good at what I do, and I’m lucky to be able to have a job I really like. BUT – sitting at the airport on a Monday night after spending all last week on the road, and watching the workaholics around me try to fit one more call in before their flight, makes me really rethink my priorities. I’ve always thought I’d like to “work to live” instead of “living just to work” but have I really? Maybe it’s the veil of new love but I really don’t know if this work/school/busy all the time thing is really the best way to go… Or at least being so busy that you can’t fit in spontaneous fun…

I already work from home half time but maybe that’s not enough – I can work less than 40 hours a week if I want, but that starts to cut into the finances… I’m blessed with a flexible schedule – and a job I can do from anywhere, at any pace I select – I guess I just need to decide what I want to do.

It’s too damn hot…

Working in Florida this week which sucks – who wants to live someplace that always smells like it’s rotting? Mississippi, Lousiana, and Atlanata are all the same… Anyplace that causes my deodorant to melt in the car in October is not an acceptable place to live.

Unless my feet are in the sand, a beer is in my hand, and there’s water to swim in leave me out…

Too busy…

I think I could probably write a blog about this on a daily basis… There’s something about me that makes me constantly fill my plate with more stuff to do when my plate is already full. I’ve heard this called eustress before, or positive stress – this is the good kind of stress that makes me wait until the last minute to start on an assignment. I seem the thrive on this and the problem is this usually works out well and I can pull off really good quality work in a short time-frame which reinforces this “bad” habit.

The problem now is I’m so busy I don’t ever seem to have time to have any fun or be spontaneous – I’d like to be able to say yes if people want to go out and grab a beer on a Wednesday night or go camping on the weekend.

I keep telling myself I’ll get better at managing my time and do more but it never seems to happen. The reality of the situation is until school is done in a year I guess I’m just going to be too busy – what will I find to keep me busy then???

View from the roof

One of the fond memories I have from my childhood is getting up on the roof to help dad clean gutters or put up Christmas lights. For some reason it makes me feel slightly superior to all the minions wandering around at ground-level, like I have some omnipotent power they don't.

If nothing else it gives you a different perspective on your neighborhood and your neighbors - ever wonder what's behind the fence in your neighbors back yard? Now you can know!

I was on the roof today to install a vent for the bathroom fan (the small black square in the bottom right of the photo). I've got a month off grad school so the remodeling party continues!

I hate engagement ring adds

Have you ever noticed how many freaking stores there are on the radio for engagement ring companies like the Shane co. and EE Robins??? WTF? I think this is something I'm hyper-sensitive to considering the past few months... And maybe I need to find new radio stations with different demographics.