I am ole' cowhand...

I went to a costume party last night.

A Tour of the Downstairs--from a visitor's point of view

livingroom from dinningroom

Foyer from livingroom 

livingroom from foyer 

livingroom 

Working in the Yard

Inspecting a vine that, while lovely, was suspect in the slow murder of our even lovelier tree. (Mark wanted to keep it, but he finally gave in and let me cut it down.)

Mark and his vine 

Planting bulbs for next Spring. 

Broke the record again

I broke the record in sales at work again. It was kind of a long week (though smoother than I expected). Now I'm home sick on Friday night with a fever. Bummer.

My Clipping of the Family Geranium...

has arrived and has been settled into my favorite red pot.

 

Rainy Day

After dinner at our favorite Tuesday night place. Dinner: Half price black bean burritos and quesadillas, iced tea, apple pie ala mode, coffee. (It was (and still is) raining and cold outside, but so warm and cozy inside.)

 

Blogger.com

is tripping out again...

How incredibly annoying: I was trying to tell a picture story (we're fastening moulding to the side panels of our cabinets to make them more interesting. As plain panels they didn't take too well to the "antiquing."

However, in the middle of my picture posts, Blogger all of the sudden decides to stop excepting my posts from Hello because it could be a virus or something. Grrr.

And yesterday when I was trying to edit posts, blogger just couldn't complete a publishing...I'm starting to get a little irritated.

I used Liquid Nails to glue the pieces of molding to the panelling. 

 

After the "glue" we added a few finishing nails to keep the pieces from sliding while they dried and to keep them flush against the panel. Mark helped--he seems to think it takes me too many swings of the hammer to get each nail in. 

This is one finished. It will just need to be painted and antiqued like the fronts of the cabinets. 

The finished cabinets and drawers. 

Swinging Doors

When is it (at what point in the time sequence) that the obligation to stretch and hold a swinging door expires?

Too Soon: Ranging anywhere from the sudden smack of the just-released door on the out-stretched "safety" palm of a proximate pedestrian, to the less heinous (but still less than amicable) casual dropping of the door that delivers the weight of the door's momentum as an undue burden for the second person to manuever in his or her passage.

(Almost) Too Late: When holding the door for someone still walking at a distance creates a pressure for that person to break into a courteous jog to close the gap.

(Definitely) Too Late: when the instantaneous equation of distance combined with rate to determine the probable time of arrival is poorly executed and consequently incorrect--when the next passer-through is impeded by some obstacle or load and despite his or her best efforts is unable to close the gap in a timely manner (I fear an image of insensitivity to let the door fall closed now on this poor, slow soul)

Why, you might ask, should I spend an entire post on this question? A good 30 to 40 percent of my workday consists of riding elevators, walking down corridors, and inevitably passing through doorway after doorway. Probably three-quarters of that time is marked with a significant sense of urgency and time-constraint, and I am always pushing a cart: the time really does add up. Yet, clad in my "orange serbert" baby-tee polo shirt (uniforms were designed via a majority vote by the primarily female staff--not to worry, men wear a larger maroon polo), and a clearly labelled apron, I am recognized instantly as an employee of the company I work for: I am constantly called upon to represent our store, not to mention my own division--the catering department--the success of which is directly connected to my own monetary benefit. Therefore, I find myself continuously testing this issue to find the most efficient, productive, and positively viewed door-holding policy. However, each and every experience is slightly different, and I wonder if I am not tending toward a less and less effective policy. I am puzzled, confused, and exhausted from holding doors.

Last Weekend

Mark's parents (Ed and Bonnie) came to visit us last weekend. We did get to relax and dine out a little, but mostly we put them to work :) (You, too, can come and join the fun: Visitors Beware). Anyway, I am having a difficult time with Blogger.com, so I apologize for any typo's, grammatical errors and general unedited mistakes in the following posts.

Mark's father is a prominent expert in the construction industry, namely electrical construction. He and Mark had a great time planning out the projects that we would work on during their stay. The main project that was completed was the renovation of Mark's workshop.

Mark's workshop is in the shortest end of the basement. It started out as a filthy little room with very poor lighting.

The existing "ceiling" in the workshop was a bunch of falling insulation which was not only unsafe, but unattractive, and it detracted from the vertical sense of space.

Mark designed a slatted "ceiling" to create the illusion of more head room in the small workshop. 

 

Bonnie helped Mark insert the slats to pin up the falling insulation. 

Mark and his dad added a breaker switch to the main board and ran electrical wire into the little room in order to create new light sources and plenty of outlets for the power tools Mark will use down there.