Saturday, 29 November 2014

The Pantry

We worked our asses off this weekend. It's not completely done yet (the doors still need to be painted and attached), but we went from here:

to here:
It involved moving the entire contents of the pantry, painting the pantry, painting the old kitchen wall cabinets, installing them, building some shelves to fit the corner (out of the old shelves) and moving everything back in. We'll have to live with it for a while and fine tune the placement of everything, but I think we gained significant storage space.

It looks great in there. It's the same color green as the kitchen (amazingly difficult to photograph; it looks completely different in different lights). As an amusing side note, we found a date stamped on the back of one of the cabinets: January 13th, 1981. We installed these cabinets in their new location 27 years to the day after they were built.

Friday, 28 November 2014

Santa Barbara, Nexus of Delight

It's heartbreaking. Every time I've been there, it has been idyllic. The bar is raised to impossible heights, but each visit to Santa Barbara is ludicrously pleasant. This time had some perversely nice twists. First, I was simply accompanying my wife on her business trip, so the expenses were considerably less than if we had simply gone there of our own volition. Next, the weather was flawless. Not just "Oh, Gee, it's nice, considering it's January," but nice enough to compare with anywhere, any time of year. Lindz attended a multi-day business conference replete with presentations and lectures; I wandered around. I took pictures, drank beer, wrote in my journal and plowed through The DaVinci Code. During our stay in Santa Barbara, my harshest dose of reality was the need to purchase band-aids for my blisters (I had been walking in sandals all day, each day). Hellish. Absolutely hellish. For starters, here's the view from our hotel room that greeted me at sunrise our first day (I would have missed it were it not for the three hour time difference):

And I wandered.


Pelicans on Stearns Wharf are unafraid of humans; I was able to get close:

A slice of sky from underneath the 101 overpass at State Street:

A sidewalk in the afternoon:

I don't know the exact age of this edifice, and the picture does not quite do justice to the fine stonework. Perhaps my brother will drive up there and photograph it properly:

Fulfilling my duty as a spouse, I attended each evening's social events with Lindz, and we chatted with political/commerce-minded folk from around the country. That was pretty much my only requirement during the trip, which served to prevent me from wandering too far or getting too drunk. All things considered, I'm quite the lucky son of a bitch.
Lindz's conference concluded, and we headed into the hills for some wine tasting. We pulled off from route 154:


Here are some backlit cows grazing near Sanford Winery, of Sideways fame:
Incidentally, this place is my favorite. The wine is superlative. They make a lovely, seductively complex Sauvignon Blanc, and their Pinot Noirs are of peerless stature. We brought back a bottle of the Pinot Noir 2001 La Rinconada Vineyard. It's the shit. Rich, deeply extracted fruit with licorice, mineral and spice notes. Probably the best pinot I've had the luck to drink, and I've had some good Pinot. It's a bigger wine than many Cabernets. The place is unassuming and quaint:

We started south for Los Angeles (we got a hotel room near LAX because our flight departed early the next morning). The sun disappeared behind one of the Channel Islands, and Lindz snapped a picture while we were driving:

We were in a daze; the drive had been so beautiful. We drove through fine Santa Barbara County scenery during photographers' fabled "Magic Hour."
After that, via Ventura and Thousand Oaks, we gradually descended into the ordeal of traffic that is the hallmark of that hateful tumor of a city, Los Angeles. What potent mixture of drugs allow Angelinos to maintain the will to live? I'd likely put a shotgun in my mouth if I lived in that Disneyland Trashcan. Lindz was kind enough to put up with me as I swore at the traffic. What can I say? It was an infuriating and confusing undertaking just to fill up on gas on Sunset Boulevard, and two hours earlier, we were sipping great wine in Buelton.

Like photography, life is meaningless without contrast.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

A Bit More

marrying age

More and more, we are approaching the age where most of our peers are getting married. Hubby and i got in the game quite early, at age 26, but that was after being together for 9 years, so its hardly a surprise nor is it unexpected. A lot of our friends are still unmarried at the moment, but in a year we do attend around 3-4 weddings already, so I guess that's a sign. I've also been part of the entourage a couple of times, the bridesmaid gifts also come as nice surprises in the wedding.
Seriously, I'm glad we got married at the time we did. Yeah, we may be the first in our own respective barkadas, but why wait, when we are both in it for the long term anyway. Now we don't have to worry about getting the things we want. Because we can work for it together.

Monday, 24 November 2014

Investing in homes

A colleague and friend of mine is moving into their new townhouse this weekend. Funny how as we get older, we meet a lot people with quite the same priorities as we do. Liezel, for instance, is older than me and has 3 kids already, but its never too late to invest anyways. To cut the long story short, she must have gotten a moving company, like the New York Moving Company to help her haul her stuff in. Although, come to think of it, I think I remember she said she bought a lot of new stuff for her new home. Well, that's what you get when you have the money. Shopping!!!! I didn't have that luxury then, what with all the stuff we already have, and the stuff we'll be getting that was left by the owners. But hey, not a moment's regret for me, I'm sure if I have the resources, its so much easier to buy the things I want anyway.

Meat & Potatoes

Grilled ribeye steak
Grilled red bell peppers
Gnocchi with garlic oil, spinach, walnuts and parmiggiano reggiano

Sunday, 23 November 2014

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Friday, 21 November 2014

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Cynical Observation from the Office

"Can-do attitude" is a phrase only used by people who don't have to "do," i.e., management. It seems to only be used in situations when the "do" is about to get bigger, such as a task becoming more complicated purely for reasons of reporting and documentation (a purely hypothetical example, wink wink).

Misshapen Pizza


Friday night, I made this misshapen pizza with a crust of 75/25 bread flour/whole wheat flour. It's topped with sauteed mushrooms with garlic, arugula, feta, parmiggiano and mozzarella. Lindz and I drank a tasty Australian shiraz from Costco with it.

Monday, 17 November 2014

The Saga Continues

Just look at this stylish, not-quite-level, not-quite-tall-enough vanity:

Yes, that's brown formica with granite inexpertly glued over it:

Here's most of the vanity (I deduced that, from the "Lot #18" scrawled on the underside of the top, it was original to the 1981 construction of the house), in the trash:

I enjoyed slicing it up with my electric saw. Part of it was mushy from rot.
Here is what remains. I need to replace some of the subflooring:

This whole project has been more of an archaeological dig than a home improvement project. I'm penetrating through layers of stupidity and laziness. Why was the vanity not tall enough? The granite floor is glued over at least one layer of something else. The vanity stood there while shitty flooring was built up around it.

Friday, 14 November 2014

Ravioli

I made ravioli with a stuffing of ricotta, parmiggiano, sage, mint, parsley and cinnamon basil. The sauce is a simple tomato sauce with the addition of orange zest and juice.

Thursday, 13 November 2014

My sewing projects

Yey!!! I had a really fun, productive day today. Well, not too fun as I was still constantly reminding myself that I needed to get a job already. But at least the hours thinking about it have been drastically reduced by my sewing projects which I enjoyed doing. And looking back and taking pics, I realize I was able to do a lot! Oh and by the way, I went to Taytay yesterday where they sell fabric leftovers - aka retaso - and I was able to find some. I won't say they are great ones but I then it can get me a long way with the projects I want to do for now. And the retaso is much much cheaper than having to buy per yard which is usually too much for some of the small projects I want to do. So for now, they will do. 

First though, I want to show off my sewing nook at home, actually I have in a room that only I use and it has with it a bigger table and the heat press for our soon to be tshirt biz.  But here is the special nook for my sewing machine. Its a bit hot in this room, but hey, its summer!


Ok, one of the sites I saw (sorry, have to look for that link again) had this cute pattern holder, but I prefer to call it a reminder nook instead. Its made of wood inside, which I lined first with duct take (don't ask me why, its just something I wanted to do to avoid splinters), and then with the black printed cloth which instead of gluing which I saw in the website, I stapled with a staple gun. I then placed the clothespins in cute designs (something I bought in Divi last Christmas) by glue gun. I placed it above the whiteboard because there's no other place for it the room, and it would be hard to put holes in the wood walls.


Here's a closer look with the clothespin designs:

Next I was able to make 2 throw pillow cases of the cloth I bought yesterday. They are matching black and white. I'm thinking of making other throw pillow casings the same way but I'll need to buy more cloth first. This will do for the meantime.:-)


Finally, I was able to make a new stroller cover for Baby Alive. I made some changes because of availability of materials and because I wanted a reinforced one, and i think it was really good.


Here's the original one.

And here's my finished product.

Nice eh? I still have a number of projects I want to do, and hopefully I'll get a good many things done before I get tired and stop. My biggest project and one I hope to actualize is the cover of the sofa, but that's a pretty big challenge so I won't post it till its done! 

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Bathroom Floor

My inlaws gave me an extra heapin' helpin' of construction aid this weekend. Lindz had chiseled out the granite on the floor, but concrete board remained under that. Her parents unleashed the full fury of a couple who enjoy home projects and were recently rejuvenated by an Alaskan cruise. They busted out the old concrete board like a couple of game show contestants who have been put in a room with money nailed to the floor.

Next, we removed the toilet (always enjoyable). The flooring under and behind it had been rotted by a water leak that had occurred long ago. It had been fixed the old fashioned way: covered up with more boards and crap. We ripped out the offending boards:

We got a big piece of 3/4" plywood and made some cuts for the toilet and shower drain. The floor is now stronger than it has been in decades:

At this point in the project, we reached the turning point from demolition to construction. Everything old and undesirable is gone, and we have begun adding new material.

Monday, 10 November 2014

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Sunday, 9 November 2014

Rain, Plants, Demolition and Health

Here in North Raleigh, we've gotten at least nine inches of rain in the last week and a half. That's in the neighborhood of what my former home of San Diego gets in a whole year. There was some flooding (a nearby mall's parking deck still has expanses of mud in it), and I think a record was set. It's summertime, too, so it's a humid, hellish sauna. The plants in our yard love it. Life is exploding everywhere (including insect life), and my herbs have been flourishing. Even my sluggish parsley is starting to pick up the pace. My wife is in charge of the plants that look nice, and she has turned the back yard into a lush garden (it used to be a vast, copperhead-harboring expanse of English ivy). Her parents helped us quite a bit this last weekend. They pulled weeds, bought me an extension ladder (I don't know how I've been a homeowner this long without one) and her father helped me with a bathroom demolition project.

It should be clarified that this is the first real work my father-in-law has done in six months. He had been feeling like shit for a year or so. Fast-forward two family doctors, an endocrinologist, a parathyroidectomy and a laparoscopic kidney procedure, and I can't keep up with him. He pulled weeds, cut down a tree, cleaned gutters and ripped out a third of the heretofore indestructible bathroom tile standing in the way of a remodel. The dust and noise created by a diamond circular saw blade is incredible. You could say I'm spoiled rotten, but I tried to do some of the work myself. I really did. But he just kept going. He's a home improvement machine, you see. Kind of like a great white shark is an eating machine. It's just what he does. Millions of years of evolution have given rise to his unique species, and men who pay to have things fixed are forgotten. I hope he gets some use out of the industrial strength grill brush I made for him for Father's Day. It's actually a brass pizza oven brush from the restaurant supply store with a handle attached. We got him Travel Scrabble, too. He's tough to shop for; he's one of those rare people who aren't particularly materialistic and has everything he needs. At least he likes the way I cook skirt steak.

Here are some pearls of wisdom from this past weekend:
1)North Carolina is not a desert.
2)Properly installed bathroom tile does not want to move.
3)Pay close attention to the elevation above sea level of the house you buy. We got lucky, and ours did not float away.
4)Pay the extra money for quality in-laws when you're at the dealership. It's worth it.

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Wine Tasting

On my new blog, I posted a couple of pictures from a winery Lindz and I visited yesterday.

Some of these wines might be a bit scarce in Michigan and Germany. Sorry.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Chipotles al Borracho Naranjo

I got some red and green jalapenos and some poblanos, I seeded them, and I put SmokeDroid to work:
They're arranged on a mesh pizza screen which I purchased at the restaurant supply store for precisely this purpose.
I drank Franziskaner Hefeweisse on the deck while I smoked them for two hours. We listened to Beck, Moby, Beastie Boys and the Doors while this was happening. I then chopped them up and pureed them with some vinegar, salt and honey. It's a very hot, smoky salsa:
I mixed some of it with mayonnaise, which we put on our Half-Pound Burgers o' Death. I must say, that was some goodass crap.

Keeping tab of memories

I've been considering getting a camcorder for us. That way we can take videos of all the important memories of the family. Some we already have on pics, but the future ones, it would be nice to record them and get to watch them a few years from now. Its going to be a while still, I have so many priorities at the moment, but even so, its one of the things on my I-want-to-buy list. Hope in 2 years time, at least before Jessica goes to school, we can have one already. Hmmmm. I still do have a lot to buy in my wishlist though. hahaha.

Monday, 3 November 2014

Second Wedding Anniversary in Raleigh

 
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 Posted by Picasa
Lindz got the desserts are from a bakery; we didn't make them. They went famously with the bubbly.

Patek watches

To show off your money, you can dress up in the most elegant attire and wear the best designer names there is, or you can go low profile and own a nice gold swiss watch, such as a Patek Phillipe watch. The watches are of the best quality and exudes such fine elegance that probably, only swiss watches can match. And it never goes out of style. If in the next ten years you find you don't want to wear your watch anymore, you can resell it, or better, give it as an heirloom to your family to keep for many, many years.