Calvin and Hobbes

This blog isn't about work. I haven't yet and probably won't ever talk about it here. However I have told some people at work about this blog, 4 now, actually. Mostly they were curious about the house. Now, I just wanted to share a cute video with 'K.' I tried to send it to her over the weekend, but she was unable to receive it. So now here it is for the world, or my little corner of it, anyway. It's short, funny and I hope you enjoy.

Btw, yes, the lawn got mowed today.

No lawn mowing today...

Well, the lawn isn't getting mowed today. It was last mowed exactly 2 weeks ago. It needs it, but not that urgently. Instead I ran errands this morning and we spent all afternoon on my wife's BFF's boat. Early on we parked and grilled brats and corn in a cove I've only heard referred to as the 'party cove'. It's a nice place to put the anchor down and fire up the grill.

After eating we just cruised across the lake, soaking up the sun. This shot is of Union Terrace, downtown on the isthmus:

I'm sure you know enough to click on the pic for the large version. Our camera is several years old, and these pictures show that its not the best, but at least I'm taking more pictures now!

My Week ...and the cat

Hello, sorry I haven't posted all week. Things haven't been terribly busy, just haven't found the time and/or amibition to write much. There's always some sort of project that I should be doing instead.

We finally have a handle on our trash. The little old lady who lived here before us had 35 gallon (city provided) containers for trash (weekly) and recycleables (bi-weekly). So I had to get a hold of the city to upsize to the 65 gallon containers. I finally got to use the hose for the first time to clean out the old ones. The city actually showed up within a day to get them, and it took them about 10 days to finally pick up the carpet we ripped out a couple weeks ago, so I was happy.

I stopped at Farm and Fleet thursday and got ladder stand-offs so now I guess I'll have to do the gutters soon as well. Installed it on the ladder this morning and it works really well. I need to do a little work on the gutters too, so I didn't want the ladder resting on them. While I was in the garage I put up alot of nails to hang stuff. The garage really seems to have filled up fast lately, but organization helps alot.

I made another trip to F&F this morning to get some wood and c-clamps. The cat did not take moving the catbox downstairs very well. I'll leave it at that. So I built kind of a steps shelf and clamped it down.




I think it will work well, it keeps the catbox out of the way of the door and we can still walk down beside it. My idea is to move it down a step a week or so, until the stupid cat gets the idea. We'll see, I guess.

Have a good weekend!

Edit: Actually, I went to F&F on friday, not thursday. And this morning it was Menards I shopped at instead. I don't know where my head was.

Hippy Music

Happy Monday! Yeah, well, okay.
Not much to talk about today. I've been making my to-do list for house and yard. Although there is alot to be done, none of it is terribly major. For several projects I need to buy something to do it properly, though, so things WILL get prioritized somewhat. That may be a future blogpost.

In the meantime, I rediscovered this recently. I don't know who the band is or what the name of the song is, it just had the filename hippy_music. It's really kind of a neat video. Take a few moments and see what you think.

A Bloggers Book

I have been reading Tom Reynolds' blog for several years now, it's one of the first blogs I followed. He is an ambulance driver in London, and has just released his second book. I haven't read it yet myself, but I have read the first and enjoyed it as much as the blog. In fact most of it came from his blog. This one I expect to be newer material and just as well told. I recommend, but to each their own.

Full screen is best anyway, click on it. (I don't know how to center it below.)

And check out Random Reality in my links on the right.

Tree trimming

Monday we had the tree trimmed. I hated to do it, but as the homeowners we are responsible for the tree and all that falls from it. Besides the branch that was hanging out over my neighbors roof, there were some broken branches and dead limbs to get rid of.

Before:



After:


It is a Silver Maple that I would guess is about 5o feet high or so. I have more pics but its not that exciting, actually.

My wife seems to be enjoying her time off. She has been doing things daily, but no rush, no worries. She deserves it. I wish I could take a week off, as well, but I'll survive.

Flowers are blooming..

My beautiful wife picked some of our lovely flowers today.



And I caught a quiet moment of her reading on our front stoop.



Mrs. Scoakat has the week off to settle us into the house. Most of which is already done, so this should be a nice relaxing time for her. I have tried to get her to post here as well, but she's content to leave it to me.

I worked only a half day today because the tree trimmers were here this afternoon to chop at our big old Silver Maple in the back yard. I got alot of pics, before and after, that I will post soon. Today is flowers and beauty...

Cat Settling In? Maybe a little...

The rarely seen cat! No matter if you've been to our place once or a hundred times, you have probably never met this cat. That's because she's nuts and hides most of the time.

The cat is slowly just starting to settle a little bit, maybe. We have been able to move the litter box from the living room, to just inside the kitchen, and now next to the stairs. Farther and farther away from her preferred safe spot, under the bed. She still doesn't come out too much and when she is out will sometimes walk right past you calmly or spook at the slightest thing. Almost like normal, for her, gdam wacko cat. And no, she is not jumpy because of any past abuse or trauma, she's just naturally a paranoid schizophrenic feline. That's my theory, anyway.

My wife just told me she saw the cat on the landing (down 3 steps from the kitchen, then downstairs to the right). Earlier today we pinned up sheets on either side of the stairs in the basement to hopefully make her feel more secure in going down there. The goal is to get that litter box to the bottom of the stairs. Sooner than later would be nice.

Street Skeleton

I've had this for quite a while. I liked it.

Happy Memorial Day

Thankfully, there is one day left in this weekend. Happy Memorial Day!

This morning we cleaned out the old apartment, there was almost a full load still to bring back to the house. We had just enough room left to stop at our familiar grocery chain store (sounds like Mopp's) to get meat and some odds and ends. Yesterday afternoon we tried the closest grocery store (sounds like 'Woodlands'), one of those warehouse type places, and we hated it. We pretty much stuck to our staples list, and when it got down to a few items we said to heck with it. We did find the meat department, but there was little there. I suspect they may have 2 or 3 meat departments, just judging by the size of the store and the meat department we did see. I think, as much as I can complain about the store chain that we are used to shopping at, we may stick with them and drive the little bit extra.

Yesterday morning we did some needed shopping. Some storage shelves for the basement, trash cans, and smaller things. I really like the shelves we got for the basement. I was able to make one into quite the little workbench area, mostly for the household needs. The place is quite a bit more organized than the photos I posted the other day. Not much more of that forthcoming, you'll have to come see it for yourself. Hell, if you're reading this, you know how to contact me - comment!

Yesterday, just after lunch, the guys delivered our washer and dryer. Idiots, both, though one tried to please. They should come better equipped and I let them know it.

Tonight we relaxed a bit and grilled out brats. I noticed that the need to relax has been a common theme in my recent posts. That may continue until we get our gdam psycho cat to chill with the new place. You do know that cats usually get their "crazies" in the evening and at night. Even all night somtimes, I'm finding out. Trying to get her to use the litterbox in the basement is a big issue now as well. I wish she was a normal cat, not this paranoid schizophrenic longhair pain in the rump.

Enough for now. Sorry for the back and forth timeline of this post, I typed as I remembered. Put it this way, today is the middle day of a three day weekend and I slept in until only 6:00am. I am still tired, my legs still ache, and I still have a shortlist a mile long. Tonight it is time to stop, though, and enjoy a few JD and pepsi's and ... relax....

Edit: Oh, and I mowed my first lawn today in over 20 years, I believe.