New Years Eve.

The one drawback to being a parent is New years Eve. When you're single, or don't have kids it doesn't matter that you have no plans for New Years. Just get out and find a bar or nightclub, or go to a late dinner. Or if you have more adult plans that are for 2 (or 3 if you're lucky) you can stay in and celebrate the New Year by yourselves.

This is not the case if you have kids, for me at least. We used to hang out with another couple with kids, but we're not as close as we used to be. and I don't want to get a sitter for the kids again. So I try to call friends and think of something to do, but it seems that many of them were far more on top of it than I was(am) and they've already got plans.

I guess I make a few more calls. If nothing else, we can stay up playing on the Wii and sleep through New Years. I'm NOT watching Dick Clark, or Ryan Seacrest and screw their "rocking eve".

The Bistro

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or here

The Up and Down

Morgan's Room, The Saga Continues...

Morgan is in the closet, is that wrong?

Morgan's room is finished (finally) and I really like how it came out. Some of our plans changed as we were working on it, and Shannon had some advice when she got home.

It was Shannon's idea to paint the trim red. I wanted to do one of the walls red, but I think this came out better.

These red skulls were Shannon's idea too. Some of the skulls on the wall are glow in the dark (that was a compromise between us) I think they look cool.

Taylor took this picture of me touching up the stencils.

This was last weekend, after Morgan got home from Great America. He was tired and not much help, but I'm not complaining. he helped a lot today.

Even the dogs are worn out. I think I'll take some time off before the next project. Wait, we don't have anything else planned do we?

The Saga of Morgans Room...

This project was supposed to be a surprise but, lots of craptastic things happened and well it didn't exactly go as planned.I started of sanding the lower half of Morgans room, so I could re-stain it. Morgan and I thought we could do a very cool fade, dark at the top light at the bottom. What a pain in the ass. Screw it! I just sanded it down and put a clear coat on,it gave it kind of a col rustic look.

Then we got some 1/4" Sheetrock and put it on top and finished it off with trim at the bottom (like chair rail).

I made this stencil

Painted the upper half a light grey, and the stencil a slightly darker shade (you can barely see it).

Morgan and I put all the stuff back even though it's not quite finished. it needs crown molding and I want Shannon's input on a couple of things.


These last 2 photos my friend Phil took when he was in Ireland. He saw this shop and thought of Shannon.I thought the other knitters and spinners would appreciate them too.

Shannon comes home tomorrow night, crap I think I need to clean a mirror.

New Stuff

This is Taylor's new bed. I put it together the other night.

She really likes it, she's waiting for her mom to come home and sew some curtains for it.

These are my new boots, they are 'New rock Boots' made in Spain.

I got these on EBAY for $100, that is a steal. https://www.newrockstore.com/zona1/catalog/ Check out the link and see how much I saved. Man that mirror is dirty.

The Current Project

These walls were green when we moved in, some people really like it. Shannon and I think it looks like baby poop.

So I patched up all the holes, moved everything around. and slept in Morgans room for a week

I painted one wall a dark teal.

The rest were a light teal. Daisey and Izzy had to be moved around.
And a Celtic border in a shade between the two.
Here is a close-up of the border.

Keeping Busy

I have been trying to keep busy while Shannon is away, and no I'm not constantly on EBAY. I painted the downstairs bathroom, but I forgot to take a before picture. So these are just the finished pics.

See, very nice. But I think we need new towels now. Funny how you do a project and then all your stuff looks like crap.

Like the stripes?

I think it just gives you a little more to look at when you're....thinking.

Taylor and Daisey resting, don't they look exhausted.

And I needed another coffee mug like I needed a hole in the head, but I couldn't help it. I'll post my other project next time.

Wine, Kilts, and Cougars

Last weekend my friends (Peter, Chris, Steve, and Dave) and I went to a fundraiser for Pancreatic Cancer research. It was held at Rombauer Vineyards in St Helena. During the planning for this 'Man trip' someone (not me) suggested we wear kilts.

Now only Chris and I own Utilikilts, well Steve owns my first kilt because it never quite fit me right and it fit him perfectly. So Dave and Peter borrow some kilts and we plan on meeting at Peter's house on Saturday morning.

When I show up at Peter's, Dave is already there and he's starting to rethink this idea. He's worried that we look a little 'Brokeback', not because of the kilts but because it looks like we tried to coordinate our outfits.

Steve and Chris show up, we take some pictures (none posted) and we make like a baby and head out. We drive up to the valet parking and the Valet gives us a funny smile, but the women start waving and calling us over to them. They ask if we're a soccer team? "No, just hooligans" I reply. They send us on to the caves where the wine is stored. We taste wine answer question about the kilts, I haven't had this much attention since High School.

We finish the 'cave tour' and head up to where the food is and we get ambushed buy one of the owners. She wants pictures for the newsletter. Other women are coming to get a closer look, they ask the question. "what's under the kilt?" our reply..."Boots and socks." It's always fun to be the unintentional entertainment, and it was all for a good cause.

Cat Attack

Now if you look real close at these blurry pics, you can see the vicious mouse that is attacking Spike.

It was hard to get good photos, as the fight was fast paced and it was really dark outside. I'm sure this was a struggle of epic proportions.

In the end Spike won the battle. He ate the small beast, and threw it up the next day. Good boy, mighty hunter.

Parties and crap...

So one day last month I get this call from Chris. He and I work together (sort of) so we call each other throughout the day to complain about (aboot for you Canadians) traffic, our boss, customers, our boss...you get the idea. "Guess what just arrived?" he says "Our (special edition) Utilikilts for entering the mock-u-mercial contest." He's as giddy as a school girl. "But they didn't send just kilts, you won't believe what the sent."

So I'm sitting in my car, outside an account, and he goes over everything they sent. The kilt, a special edition hoodie, and a check for $150.00 in-store credit. "Holy crap" I said, "how come?" Well, it turns out the kilts didn't turn out the way they had planned. The silk screen doesn't adhere to denim very well so it just flakes off. The black denim bleeds into the white denim (on the pockets) and the thing ways about 5 pounds, maybe more (should I break that down into metric for our friends and family up north?).

Oh yeah, here is Taylor's golden snitch cake before I forget. The wings took Morgan and I about an hour to do and it's filled with chocolate fudge swirl ice cream. I also made cupcakes (because we knew that this would not be nearly enough cake) with an H, S, G,and R on them. The initials of the 4 houses. She had quite the haul this year.

So anyway back to the free stuff. Screen print, schmeen print... who cares it looks better when its all scratched up and faded anyway. And if I just keep picking at it, it will all be gone soon anyway. The hoodie is hella cool (that's right, I said hella, I'm from Northern California. Screw you) the stitching is all on the outside, so its super soft, and the hood is extra huge to fit my fat head. The in-store credit went to a new black workman kilt, now I have one for every day of the week. I just need a new job so I can wear it to work.

Welcome to my garden

This post is like an episode of 'Cribs'. Just pretend I'm famous or something, and you care about what kind of crap I have in my house/yard.

Step inside, Morgan and I made this path. Taylor and I planted 2 rows of carrots on the left and a row of radishes on the right.

On the left, I've planted some crookneck squash, dill, cucumber, cilantro, basil,and 4 tomatoes.

At the end of the path, I planted 2 red bell peppers, and an Anaheim pepper.

On the right, I planted pumpkins, zucchini, summer squash, yellow zucchini, and another crookneck, because Shannon likes them.

I just like this picture 'cause it looks like a face...or boobs depending on how much beer you've had.

Taylor planted peas at the fence posts, and flowers along the fence line. That's pretty much the whole thing except for the hops, which are coming along nicely now after the initial shock of being moved. I'll take some pictures of those when they are a bit taller.

This years garden

This year I'm trying to get an early start on the garden. Most of the time I'm trying to plant it at the last minute. This year my friend Phil and I pulled out 3 stumps. Well 1 stump and 2 bushes, but we pulled them out the roots. Hopefully they won't come back.

Usually I just plant my garden in this small strip, but this year I want to move the hops over here.

This year I used Phil's rototiller and did this larger section. I amended the soil with horse manure from Elayne (she's got lots of it).

Just look at that dirt, now I need to figure out what to plant.