Update

Still waiting for the arrival our baby girl. Any day now.

I'm not good with frequent updates to this thing. Not much else to talk about. The baby's room is all ready to go.... Not much else happening.

Joke

What do you call a person from Portugal?

A Portu-goose!!

Eeek!!! My Tooth!

I chipped a tooth this weekend. Not like a little chip, but like the back part of my tooth came off. It was totally my fault, I guess. I was playing with a JollyRancher in my mouth. Letting it stick to my teeth and then pulling it off. You can probably guess what happened next...

This totally bummed out my weekend. I thought to myself (and others told me, too) that there is nothing I can do about it and I should go on. But, it did put a bummer on the weekend. This happened on Saturday, hours before Halloween evening. I went to the dentist today, and he doesn't think it is that bad. He wants to try putting a filling material on it to replace what came off, so that doesn't sound so bad. My tongue is really sore from rubbing it.

I really don't think I'll ever eat JollyRancher hard candy (they make Jelly Beans :) ). I'll never crunch ice, again. I'll have to be careful with popcorn; I like it and usually I have good luck not biting down on kernels.

Halloween. We didn't do much. I was really unprepared for it this year. I spent all of Halloween night carving my pumpkin. I think I did a really good job this year, you'll have to check out the pictures. We ran out of candy again this year.

Balloon Party

We had a great time at Balloon Fiesta today. It was much better than the last time we went. We went for an evening glow-deo. Today, we got up at the crack of dawn and saw all the special shape balloons launch. Then the normal looking balloons came in for a competition. There had to be hundreds of balloons, like right infront of us. It was really cool. I could only get 350 pictures, though. This was so cool, we may do it again next year. The plan was kinda to get this done while we are more mobile, but it was pretty easy getting, staying, and leaving... So for next year, who knows!

Baby's Room

Finally got the baby's room complete a few weeks ago. The painting was really easy, once we found a tick to paint a straight line. We have bullnose corners in the house and couldn't decide where to end the paint near the window. We decided to leave the window sill white and paint the flat surface of the wall, ending it where the bull nose curve started. To get the perfectly straight line, we masked painters tape on the bull nose curve. Then we painted the tape edge where we wanted the final color to be with the same white paint that window sill was. This way, the white paint oozed under the tape, filling the tape to wall gaps. So, when we painted our wall color, there was no where for the wall color to go between tape and wall, so it stayed out. Then when we removed the tape, perfectly straight line. Too bad we didn't do this for the baseboard. I had to go back over that with one of my plastic model paint brushes, razor blades, etc.

We put in a chair rail. Not too bad cutting and installing with my trusty table saw. Caulking it was a chore. I finally figured out how to do it quickly, neatly, and with minimal caulk. The secret is water-based/soluble caulk. This stuff rinses off, as opposed the permanent silicon stuff. For doing stuff in the house, on textured walls with baseboards, etc, nothing beats old-fashioned water soluble caulk. Now that it has been 3-5 weeks I'm fuzzy on what I did. I put down caulk with the tip of the tube. Then I may have used my finger to push the caulk in the crack and simultaneously wipe excess. Then I used a damp sponge, pressing into the crack hard, wiping along the seam. Do about 3-5 ft at a time, then rinse your sponge. I learned the sponge thing from watching a plumber, it is really the ONLY to apply caulk. I am totally against silicon. I don't care how much better it is against cracking, shrinking, and mold. All of that is useless to me if I can't apply it neatly. Unless I have a fish tank, with glass on glass seams, silicon is junk. For anything textured I need to have my sponge.

Of course all of this is the construction details. For the prettiness and proof of final result, I refer you to the pictures.

Sod FINALLY complete

I've been too busy to sit down and blog lately. But after week #8, the backyard was finally ready for sod. Sod was delivered Tuesday Sept 22nd. I spend from 2:30pm until 10 pm laying 2.5 pallets of sod. Most of the the sod laying went fast. I probably did 80 sq ft in 10 min. So, in two hours I had most of it done. But it seems like the last 1/3, near the patio, took half of the time. I had to specially cut most of those pieces to fit. Perhaps my back was getting tired at that point, too. But the sod has be in for almost two weeks. It has started rooting and I'm getting ready to cut back on watering. I will cut it for the first time today.

I have a reel mower (no motor, like the old-fashioned blades of fury) because I started with 168 sq feet of grass. Coming from Oklahoma, I thought scissors or a weed-eater is plenty to cut that amount of grass. So the reel seemed like a great option. It cuts grass more evenly than scissors or weed-eater. No oil/gas mix. No changing oil. No gas can of old gas lying around. And I can hang it on the wall, so it doesn't take up much space in the garage.

Now that I have 1000 sq ft, (being from Oklahoma) I still think that a power mower is overkill for this little piece of grass. We'll see if I still say this a year from now. But the cheap price of the reel, with low-maintenance, and small footprint will make me think 8 times before getting a power mower. Plus with the rock landscaping around here, rocks get into grass, and the mower could suck up the rock and spit it out at someone or something - dangerous.

On the #8 weekend (approx two weeks before laying sod, I think), I hired some help to remove the front yard dead grass. It all had died last winter from lack of watering (being from Oklahoma, not used to watering grass in winter, but now I know that if it looks dead, water it anyways). We put in 3 shrubs and a catcus. Are these plants approved by the homeowner's association? No. We took the list to the local Nursery (not home depot, etc.) and asked for some help to pick plants. The gardner took a short look at the list and said, "80% of this stuff won't grow in this climate." He went on to say that the rest of the choices are ugly. (We had looked up several of the plant on the internet, and almost everyone of them were ugly. We couldn't match the plants that are in our front yard to the 'list'. And some of the ones we looked up, like the century yucca, don't grow in the high desert. They are Phoenix desert plants (and they have palms, we can't grow them here)). So we believed him, and he helped up pick some nice xeric native plants. One is bright blue flowers all summer, another is soft with purple flowers, and we got a cherry sage (it's got red flowers most of the year). The cactus is called 'Cow's Tongue', it is similar to a prickly pear in how it grows and blooms. But it is a different color. The spikes on it are really nasty, so I may have to pull them when it gets established.

Sprinkler: Week #6

Still working on sprinkler. The box took an entire day. I filled in the trenches, sorted my rocks, so the backyard is looking much more normal and sod-ready. But, no sod yet. I decided today, that I'd like another weekend to tune the sprinkler system. (and install the controller) I gotta replace one head and adjust a few others. I gotta order sod and rock and buy 3 plants, too. But it was soo goood to see the whole system sprinkling. It has finally started to feel as if I'm going to pull this thing off.

The baby's room has really come along in just a week. From a bare room, we started on it last weekend (sunday, I think), and finished the second coat of paint on Tuesday night. Friday morning we got the furniture. And today I finished touching up the paint. We still need to install the chair rail. My wife is getting anxious about getting the room together - we have the crib boxed and decorations waiting to get on the walls. But without the chair rail in place, we shouldn't add to the furniture in the way of getting the chair rail on, and put things on the wall. A friend may help us install it; he offered to help with his miter saw and pneumatic nail gun that will make the job go much quicker. I haven't got a miter saw yet, (hint possible Christmas idea). Eventually, I want to get one, along with a table router.... But I probably won't get them until I get my 3-car garage with a workshop area. I think by next weekend most of the furniture and decorations will be placed in the baby's room.

Still working on a name... I think we've agreed on a boy's name, so I guess that is some progress?

I got a new bow this week. It is a 35#er. Very light. I should be able to shoot this all day long, if I want. I tried pulling my 50#er this past week - whoa it is strong. I haven't shot it since about March, I think... I really don't have the muscles for it. That is why I got the 35#, with infrequently as I get to shoot, I can't build and maintain bow muscles. The other reason I got the 35# bow is to correct an error I made about a year ago by getting the 50# bow. It is too much weight for me to pull while I learn technique. I need something lighter to learn with. I've seen other guys shoot bows that have good technique, and they can shoot about any weight. So when I have good technique, I think I could make a few shots with the 50# with good accuracy. But, if I don't go hunting for deer or elk (which I don't think I could field-dress an animal and carry out 1200 pounds of elk (this is the guy whose new phrase is "Well, it can't be any more difficult than installing a sprinkler system")) then I probably don't need a 50# bow at all. I've thought about hunting rabbits or squirrel - but really I just like going out and shooting targets. So maybe I should try to sell it- I don't know yet. I haven't shot this 35# bow yet, and I'm itching to shoot it. I want to get a new string for it and have someone help me set the nock.

I'm also itching to do some fishing. Either catch-and-release at Tingley beach or one of the reservations. The reservations have stocked trout ponds you pay a fee to fish. Either location would be a short drive. If I drove ~3 hours, I could fish in the San Juan - but I don't know how to fly fish, yet.

Sprinkler Install: Week 5

It is now week #5 of the big fat sprinkler install. Just 4 more heads, 3 line connections to the atmo breakers, and leak testing. I would think this would take ~2 hours. From experience during week 1-4, it will take all weekend.

I think I can get around to painting the baby's room this weekend. That will be exciting to have that room start looking like a nursery. (Actually, at this point, it would be good if ANY room in our house was not white. I was going to do my office blue, orange, or yellow, I still haven't decided. So you can see where our priorities are since my office is still white.)

I felt the baby kick for the first time last night. It was really cool. My wife has been saying she can feel the baby for several weeks. But last night, you could really feel a jolt!! I was like, whoa, there is a baby in there!

Still working on a name. Though, don't think that I'm going to release that information before the baby is born - that information is top secret.

Tomorrow is my day off. Going to help a friend move in the afternoon. I have to work in the morning, though. BUT, I am only going to work 2 hours, then unless they hold me down or set a fire (figuratively, of course).....

Ugh: Part 2

Still working on the backyard. This is weekend 4. I got 4 more heads to place out of 18 total. Still need to connect the sprinkler lines to valve box mains. Will need to dig the valve box and place it. Will need to wire the controller (should be the EASIEST part of the job). Will need to leak check the whole smash. Will need to flush the thing. Will need to fill the trenches. Will need to place and position nozzles.

THEN, that should finish the sprinkler system. Next is re-regrading the yard. :)

THEN I can lay SOD!!!!!!!!!!!

Next projects: remove front yard grass, laminate floor, pantry shelves, baby room painting.

Repair jobs: car belt, doorbell, and garage door.

Houses are a lot of work.....

Ugh!!!

Installing the Sprinkler System - Weekend 2
Yes, last weekend was trenching. I had a friend help me, and I was really grateful for his help. This weekend I rebuilt the manifold twice, from scratch. And I repaired it once. I had to rebuild the atmospheric breakers... which may leak... (that's another challenge, most likely for next weekend. Still so much work to do....

I bought a canopy.... Best idea this month!!! I shaded the valve box with it while I worked so I dind't bake in the heat.

Too tired right now to continue....

Ouch

Last weekend really hurt. I hurt myself within 1 hour of starting yard work Saturday morning. I pulled up some steel edging, which I thought was fairly easy. After shoveling faster that I probably should have been, by back started hurting me. Not my lower back, as is common doing car work, but mid-back between the shoulder blades. I took an hour break, could hardly move my back, sometime could hardly breathe. But, I felt I had to get back to work to get the backyard done. Surprisingly it did not hurt my back to use the tiller, but I was dreading loading it in the truck by myself. I worked through the pain, and got the back yard done. I took Monday night off, and finished it Tuesday night. I've been really stiff and sore since Saturday, but today I felt a lot better. I know this because I started fast-walking again. For the past few days I've been slowly hobbling around. Today, I feel stronger than usual. I'm really getting tanned. I used sunscreen all weekend, so I didn't burn, and I didn't.

Next step, design the irrigation system and install. I got two designs going, one uses bigger throw sprinklers, 20', and the other uses 8'~10' sprinklers. I'm not convinced that the 20' plan allows for adequate overlap and I'm concerned that it will leave brown spots, then I'd have to dig up the entire yard to put in more sprinklers. I think the other plan give plenty of overlap, but I'm concerned that it is not using big enough sprinklers for the large area and it is a lot of sprinklers. I am going to use multistream heads because they water slower and use less water. Something about using a stream rather than spray lessens the amount of water that is lost to evaporation. Also, the slower watering allows the ground time to absorb the water rather than it mini-flash flood off the lawn. I am also going to use a - I won't say un-popular because it has a bad conatation, but it is not popular- type of grass called Reveille. It is supposed to use a lot less water than kentucky blue grass and tolerate heat better. It was developed by TAMU. One local shop has said that once established, in my town, it only needs to be watered once per week! Hopefully between the mulitstream heads and the Reveille grass, my lawn won't be such a big water-hog. I had fescue in the front lawn and to keep it green, mow once per week, it doubled by water usage in the summer. It would be a substantial water per sq foot savings to only triple my usage in the summer over winter usage with the new lawn, since it is so much bigger. Time will tell....

Another week later

Took last weekend off from doing yard work. Had some fun instead. We went up to "the Crest" as the locals call it. It is Sandia Peak, 10000 something feet. I had fun driving up. I crawled the grand prix up the mountain at a leisurely 20-25 mph. Everyone passed me, but I enjoyed the cool, fresh air. The view is really cool up there. I think it would be fun next time to hike from the peak to the High Finance Restaurant, have something to eat/drink, then ride the tram back down. Kinda impossible, but sounds like a good idea. You really don't want to hike ~1 mile after eating a meal at 10000 ft.

Before that, on Saturday, we went to Balloon Fiesta Park for the 4th of July fireworks with Pauline and her family. It was a lot of fun. The fireworks lasted 30 minutes, and I didn't have to swat bugs off my face that hit me when I was sprinting from a lighted fuse! It rained on us! But, it's ABQ rain, so it's more like a sprinkle, so it didn't cancel the fireworks and it was fun. I tried cherries for the first time ever, or in a really long time. I really liked them. They are like little red peaches. They are fleshy and they have a little pit, like a peach, but smooth. I got a big bag of them in fridge right now. I like them. I waited 40 minutes in line for some kettle corn, it was crazy. Still have some, it is good.

This weekend we are back to the backyard work. Will be tilling again to loosen the clay, and it should make edging go faster. After that, it is trenching for the sprinkler - may or may not get to it this weekend. I think Lowe's has the sprinkler equipment I need, but I'll check JustSprinklers to see what they have. I would like some smaller throw (six feet) multistream heads, and I would like to see if there is commerical-grade heads that will work for me. I'll also check online to see what's available. I got all next week to find something. If I do get it trenched, I can spend time laying pipe and building the valve box.

Update

It is hard for me find time to update this thing. My wife is pregnant. I am landscaping the front and back yard. And there is so much going on at work, I could work as much overtime as I want. Luckily, it isn't necessary, yet. But the pace could pick up. I suppose it is not a bad thing because I could bank the overtime to get more days off later, which would help when the baby comes.

She is due Dec 30th. I hope the baby comes on time, but it'll come when it comes. Hopefully, we'll know the sex at the 20 week ultrasound. I am anxious to know. We have started to talk about names. No clear winners yet. We'll work harder at it when we know the sex.

For the landscaping, at this point we got the patio poured, yard tilled, composted mulch in, HOA approvals.... Next step is to grade the yard, install edging, install sprinkler system. Then it will be digup front yard, order gravel, order sod. I did reconsider changing the plan to use a mulch raised area around the perimeter of the yard for shrubs or tall rose bushes. Don't know now if I'll mulch or rock. I hate to put rock in, when I would take it out later to do mulch. I could still plant shrubs in the rocks, like I had planned. I am concerned the mulch may be more an ant attractant than the rocks, but I've seen these ants nest in the rocks, too..... The nice thing about a house is you can do whatever you want, the trick is knowing what is the best thing to do. I wouldn't want to be re-doing landscaping every year or repainting the walls every week or year.

Star Trek Movie

I can see how Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman were thinking about how to justify changes they wanted to make to the Star Trek universe, and came up with the idea that time travel from the 24th Century back to the 23rd century that changed everything could give them just what they needed to make a whole new series of adventures. Without it, they would have to be locked into repeating the orginal series episodes and stories.

HOWEVER, what they did with this storyline is completely erase Roddenberry/Berman Star Trek history as we knew it!! That, I don't like. I would rather them continue going their own way, doing their own storylines, without linking it to the Roddenberry/Berman Star Trek history as we know it.

To their credit, they did an amazing job presenting a world that is futuristic. Since the original Star Trek aired in the 60s, it does not look futuristic by today's technology - we have met or surpassed much of the technology presented (maybe because people got their ideas from Star Trek, and found a way to make it happen). Berman and Braga struggled with this in Enterprise series - they had to make Enterprise seem futuristic, but not more so than TOS. They did a good job over the series 'migrating' the technology towards TOS.

They changed many many things - and I think that helps break this franchise away from Roddenberry/Berman franchise. I really don't like how they erased Roddenberry/Berman Star Trek from history. However, something tells me that this is a message to fans, 'This is a whole new Star Trek, forget the Star Trek you knew, it is gone forever.'

I would have rather had them ignore Roddenberry/Berman history, than erase it. It remains to be seen if I am a fan of Abrams/Orci/Kurtzman Star Trek.

P.S. This is the writing team that is cranking out Transformers movies. They clearly know how to make a PG-13 action movie. Star Trek was never really about action, though the last seasons of DS9 say otherwise. And there was only one Star Trek movie (of 10) that got a PG-13 - the rest were PG.

haVE YoU SEeen tHIs?!?!

Have you seen Google Earth lately? You can now go under water (actually that feature sucks). And you can see 3D buildings! Check out Las Vegas, give it a few minutes, it is really cool. It is like you are hovering above the strip!!!

New Phone

I got a new phone. One of those prepaid jobs. I think it will save me a lot of money. I'll only use less than 100 min/month. At 10 cents per minute, that's only $10 per month -- Much Cheaper. It turns out that the catch is in the refill - or rather the customer service. To make a long story short, it turns out to fill minutes at the high level that I wanted to, the carrier needed additional verification, and after a week of keeping a hold on my credit card (which we got lifted by forcing the wireless carrier to lift it) I still didn't have any new minutes. I bought a refill card at walmart for less than face value, brought it home, called the number on the back, and VOILA!! within 2 minutes I had my minutes available for use on my phone. From now on, (which will probably be a year from now), I will buy the refill cards to get more minutes.