Category Archives: Home Improvement

when it rains, it pours

01.26.10

The obligatory baby in the hospital photo:

Now then…

Yesterday, when I stopped at home, I had noticed that the fan on our freezer in the kitchen was running. I looked inside and found that the food was starting to thaw out, so I assumed that Rhiannon had opened the freezer and failed to make sure the door was shut tight before she left.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to my wife for my incorrect assumption.

I’m sorry. What I should have noticed when I was home yesterday is that the fan was running but the compressor was not. Our fridge at home decided to stop working when we weren’t at home to notice. I have no idea what we have done to neglect it, but it seems kind of spiteful to me.

I moved all of the food in the freezer downstairs to our chest freezer and all of the food in the fridge that wasn’t past its expiration date got moved into the mini fridges. Yes, plural mini fridges. We have multiple leftover pint size refrigerators that we have said we need to get rid of because we don’t use them enough to justify the electricity they consume.

Well, they are both post-Thanksgiving dinner level stuffed right now, so I think that the expense has just been justified.

And not to scare anyone away from visiting us, but I did find some food that had expiration dates in the middle of 2008. And with he recent year change to 2010, I think we were this close to having one of the first refrigerator towns colonized by the life that sprang up from the out-of-date leftovers lurking in the dark corners.

Maybe it’s not so much that the fridge stopped working but that this was more of a protest of the working conditions. Picket lines and unions and protesters galore. One of us is heading back home tomorrow to see if anything has changed, and if there is a rally with bullhorns, tagboard signs, and kitchen appliances marching around in circles on our driveway, I’m calling the authorities.

Or at least one of those places with the offers for free appliance haul away.

Anybody want a disgruntled food processor?

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is it too early?

11.07.09

Last year, we almost didn’t do anything for Christmas outside of put lights on the house. Kind of at the last moment, we put our fake, pre-lit tree without any decorations on it.

This year, we have a baby to take pictures of by the decorations, so we’re getting on it just a little bit earlier. I figure if all the stores can be in full decoration mode, so can we. We just put light strands on the back deck this evening as it was getting dark. It was a nice day (rather than two feet of snow), so we figured we better get to it while we could.

I guess nobody really waits for Santa at the end of the Macy’s parade anymore to ring in the season, do they?

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finishing touches

09.05.09

We had come cushions and curtains made for Brooklynn’s room with fabric that we picked out. At one point, we had fabric selected in the store and just didn’t feel the need to buy it. We went back later to look for the reams and changed three of the four fabrics (some because we couldn’t find what we wanted and some because we liked it better).

It’s the same thing that happened when we had the paint colors for her room picked out and changed them all when we went to the store to get paint. I’m starting to think that we really need to visit the store at least twice for all home improvement projects from now on. Either that, or never go back again after the first time because we seem destined to find something better.

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a whole new solar system

06.10.09

Since we seem to be focusing a lot on the basement (which needs some focus), we’ve been falling behind were we want to be in the nursery. Beta is moving closer to release candidate all the time, so tonight we dedicated a little time to some of the finishing touches.

All I can say is I hope she likes colors.

We have a little painting circles and canvases and a bookshelf to move back in, but other than that, we’re pretty happy with where things are. And yes, I guess if she decides to visit early, we could feel like were ready. The cozy corner is waiting.

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how does your garden grow

06.03.09

I don’t know that I would call it a full-fledged throwback victory garden, but we are doing the best we can in suburbia without actually ripping up any of our already limited yard. Considering we just endured about 48 hours of rain, which is a monsoon in Colorado, I’d say our raised bed garden is draining well and staying green.

Both Rhiannon and I grew up out of town with decent sized gardens, so it isn’t something completely foreign to us, but I admit that I am very uneducated when it comes to actually producing edible food in my own backyard. Rhiannon has dubbed the garden my project, and I have been quite happy to see most of the plants coming up right on schedule. It’s almost like having many small green children before Beta gets here. (Don’t get used to the attention plants; you’ll be bumped down on the priority list before too long.)

Ok, I don’t know much, but I do know that the strawberries and peppers are not quite ready yet. They still need to incubate a little longer, kind of like Beta.

We are attempting to produce strawberries, green and red bell peppers, banana peppers, zucchini, sugar snap peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes (4 kinds), basil, cilantro, and cantaloupe. The garden is divided into approximate 1 foot square plots just to help me keep it organized and the tomatoes and herbs are in their own separate large container pot. I have no idea how it will go, but I’ll keep you posted as long as the birth of a small child doesn’t completely fry my brain and reduce me to scavenging my next meal off the back deck.

And if the garden is my project, Rhiannon has a few flowers of her own to tend to. Judging by how well we now care for plants, I’d say we’re about as ready for a kid as we’re going to get.