News of the Stupid

This is the latest stupid news I heard on the radio. It really makes you doubt human intelligence....



Father, son ticketed for speeding within minutes of each other

(Original publication: July 29, 2007)

Talk about keeping it in the family.

A state police trooper patrolling Interstate 684 issued two speeding tickets yesterday in the span of nine minutes - one to a father and the other to the man's son.

The first stop happened at 2:03 p.m. on 684 in the town of Southeast in Putnam County. Trooper Thomas Coubertier pulled over Teodoro Diaz, 43, of New Britain, Conn., for driving 84 miles per hour in a 65 zone. After ticketing Diaz in his 2003 Subaru, Coubertier headed south on 684 to continue speed enforcement, police said.

At 2:12 p.m., on 684 in the Westchester County town of North Salem, Coubertier clocked another driver speeding, this time at 88 miles per hour. The driver was Luis Diaz, 23, also of New Britain, also behind the wheel of a 2003 Subaru. He was also issued a speeding ticket.

Yes, police confirmed, the son had taken over driving duties from the father after the first ticket.

(the journalnews.com)

Joe and I need this....

I will fill mine with Coke....

The End

Joe and I spent this past weekend in Montauk, Long Island. Beautiful weather and no agenda made for an amazing weekend. The surf was awesome and we spent most of the weekend boogie boarding. We definitely wrecked a few times...the ocean tried to take my arm away, but I did not let it. As a result, I got leash rash on my arm which not only looks worse in real life, but stings like a bee. It's better by today, but itches, and my brain can't comprehend that I should not scratch it because when I do, it HURTS. Stupid brain.



We went out to see the Montauk lighthouse, but only from afar since it's a working lighthouse and you have to pay for tours. These binocular things were on the parking lot and I always think they are really cool looking. Too bad most people skip right to looking THROUGH them, and don't take the time to look AT them.



Here's the lighthouse.



We took a path near the lighthouse down to the water and on the way we saw a bunny! He was super cute and let me get really close.



Here's the lighthouse again, this time from beach level.



The rocks on the shore.



These were the rocks on the small beach. There's a treasure camouflaged in the center!



On Saturday night, Joe and I went to Gin Beach to watch the sunset. Here are a few of my favorites from the 652 million pictures I took.










What a perfect weekend!

Many thanks to Miss Annie for making it possible.

Uncle Tom's Wedding

Joe's uncle Tom got married this past weekend. As a surprise, his brother and sister-in-law rewrote the words to pinball wizard to tell the (fictional) story of Tom's search for love.

A bunch of us got dolled up in funny sunglasses and hats that looked like fish.

Joe rocked the ukulele, and away we went...

Supervisor Boxer Shorts

Supervisor Boxer Shorts couldn't cut it.

(This is where you picture me grinning like an idiot.)

According to our manager, Supervisor Boxer Shorts' first love is being a bench jeweler, so the company accommodated him.

I call b*llsh*t. So does everyone else. First of all, he was completely under-prepared to supervise a dozen jewelers and was overwhelmed by his own shadow. Secondly, the "company" doesn't tend to "accommodate" anyone. So he resigned as supervisor and took a bench.

Good for me.

And just so you know, he has replaced his tiny little boxer shorts with super long basketball/soccer shorts. They go past his knees. And he tucks his polo shirts into them.

Have I mentioned that he's in his mid sixties?

What a sad, strange little man.

We finally got to open all of those boxes...

The cabinets were finally freed from the boxes, and let loose from the dining room they had called home since November.

I don't have any pictures of them actually being hung, but here are the results...

The two cabinets to the far left of this photo were the first ones we hung.

And then rehung, since we mildly screwed up the filler that we put between the cabinets and the wall. :) Once we got that situated, we did the entire wall to the right. By the time we finished that night, nothing was quite straight or flush, so the next night was dedicated to minor adjustments ensuring all of the faces of the cabinets shared the same plane, and all were plumb and level. See that four foot level waaay above the fridge??? It got a LOT of use. The old busted fridge that came with the house looks so tiny and pathetic in the space allotted for the new fridge!



This is the view as you walk into the kitchen from the dining room. That cabinet you see all the way on the bottom left is a mixer stand cabinet. That means my kitchenaid mixer gets to live in that cabinet, and will stay plugged into an outlet built into the wall behind it. When the cabinet is open, the shelf the mixer is on swings out and up and locks into place. Woo hoo! This is my favorite cabinet in the whole kitchen! I can't wait to use my mixer!



This is the view as you walk into the kitchen from the foyer. (Again, to the bottom left is the mixer stand cabinet.) Those giant spaces on the bottom are where our oven and dishwasher will be. That's right, I said dishwasher. Since Joe and I have lived together, he has been the dishwasher. I promised him a long time ago that when we bought a house, I would buy him a brand new shiny dishwasher. I kept my word, and the dishwasher is in the dining room, waiting to be installed. Joe, say goodbye to dish pan hands!



Here's Joe, standing by our sink cabinet. The top of the front should have a little door that opens out with trays inside to hold sponges and stuff. Unfortunately, the screws holding it on weren't doing their jobs and we had to take that piece off so we can fix the holes that screws have to fit into.



I wish those loose screws were our biggest setback...

What you should see to Joe's left, I have cleverly cropped out. That's because there are no cabinets there. There was a measuring snafu between us and Home Depot and the cabinets we had for that space did not fit. Long story short, we have to reframe, re-sheetrock, re-prime, and re-paint the wall around the door that leads to the basement so it will add 3 inches to the wall that somehow became too short for the cabinets we already have.

Sigh. The adventures you face when remodeling your own house.

Setbacks and snafus aside, the kitchen is finally coming together. There is still molding to be installed, not to mention many shiny handles. Then we have to get the countertop installed. We have ordered a sparkly blue Silestone countertop and included in the price is installation. A break for us. :)

Somewhere in there we also have to tile the floor and purchase new appliances.

But we'll get there. And I'll post pictures!

Into every life a little paint must splatter.

Before you paint you must prime. And we did, like good little house painters. We are old hat at this, since before we moved in, we primed and painted every room in the house, barring those slated for remodeling.

We primed the entire kitchen.



When it came to painting, we very carefully cut in and painted edges and areas that would remain exposed after cabinet installation.



Where cabinets were to be installed, we did not paint.



The color is called rolling hills, and looks very different in person.



Joe and I are happy with the color...it looks good with the colors in the adjoining rooms, and the contrast between the white ceiling and green walls is very crisp.



Now we were ready to install the cabinets....

and TAPE! and MUD! and TAPE!

For those of you who have ever hung sheetrock, you know that, while hanging it can be a pain in the ass, taping it and slathering the walls with mud is an even less desirable task.

First, you tape and mud the seams. (By "mud" by the way, I mean joint compound, and enough of it to build a very small fort.

Joe tackled one wall, not looking very excited.



My dad started on the ceiling.



I think the smell of the compound went to Joe's head... ;)



My mom tackled everything she could reach. I'm not quite sure why she was upside down...



I actually spent that day hanging strips of sheetrock to cover the bottom most six inches of all the walls, since sheetrock comes in 4'x8' sheets, and our ceilings are 8 1/2' high. I also spent much time applying tape and mud, though, being the photographer, there is no evidence of this.



Every seam and every screw hole had to be taped. Or covered in joint compound. Or both.



That's EVERY seam, and EVERY screw hole. There were a lot.



What you see here in one post, actually took abut two weeks in real time. That's because when the mud is dry, you have to go around and sand all of those previously mentioned seams and screw holes to a very smooth finish. Not so bad. Except then you have to apply a wider, smoother, second coat of mud, and again, wait for it to dry. Then, yup...you guessed it, sand it to a very smooth finish. Finally, (and do you see a pattern here?) you have to go around and apply a third, watered-down coat very nicely and super smoothly and wait some more for it to dry. Then, one last round of sanding to what kind of finish? Class? Super smooth! Yes!

This, by the way, makes a giant mess. The result mimics what you would expect to see if you decided to dump a container of baby powder in front of a very high powered fan.

We were covered in sheet rock dust just about every night for a week and a half. Joe did most of the ceiling, working mostly right over his head, and this was the result.



When working, always wear safety goggles, so you, too, can take a picture just like this!



I was working on the walls, and therefore managed to stay a little cleaner than Joe.



My feet got the brunt of it. My sheetrock version of a Teva tan.



This got us ready to prime and paint the whole kitchen.

You guessed it...that's for another post.

Sheetrock is not my friend.

Sheetrock is heavy.

Ceilings are high.

This is not a good combination. Luckily, my folks came up several weekends in a row to help out. We started doing the sheetrock while I still had my kidney stone, so I am heavily medicated and, now, thoroughly surprised it all came out all right. :)

The people we bought the house from had made braces for hanging sheetrock on the ceiling. Unfortunately, they made them a length appropriate for the LOWERED ceiling they were installing. Anyway, we used them and they sort of working.



Joe and I my dad did most of the heavy lifting, while I screwed in the sheets.





It worked ok until Joe knocked our 18V drill off of the top of the ladder down onto my back as I was kneeling on the floor getting the rotozip out of the bag. I won't mention that it landed right above my stone-laden kidney and flopped over directly ONTO said kidney. Nor will I mention how, as I was crying on the floor, my dad nicely told me I was ok, and my mom said that that was one way to knock the kidney stone loose. Ahh, the support group I have. Needless to say, I did not help out the rest of the day.

That day my dad and Joe finished the ceiling.



Over the next week, Joe and I worked every night to get the walls covered.



Including all of the odd angles...



...and tricky corners. Also notice in this picture our Little Giant Ladder and CordPro, extension cord keeper.

These are possibly two of the best inventions, EVER.



Eventually the whole room was done.



Then came taping. But that's another post.

She's ALIIIIVE!!!

I am indeed alive, though you wouldn't know it by the existence of recent posts.

Since I had my lithotripsy, I am like a new person. I'm back to playing volleyball, and Joe and I have been working like CRAZY on the kitchen. Since so much has happened in the last month, I'll make a few different posts to catch you up...

Have fun with all of the new pics!

Die Hardly Working

An AWESOME movie.
It's called "Die Hardly Working", by Zach Lipovsky.