May 29

Bluebells

[Taken May 21, 2007 | Bluebells | Cox Arboretum, Dayton, OH]

Back again. This time from London. The area where I was - Camden - is really nice... it reminded me a lot of the South Street area of Philiadelphia... lots of punks, neat little shops, really cool buildings, great restaurants, cafes, and a ton of pubs. There is a really nice pub, appropriatly called "The Camden Lock" since the area is right up on a old canal and a very historic lock, that is right next door to the office. (The hotel was right next door to the office as well.) Unfortunately didn't have any time to wander around getting photos - this was a relatively quick trip - but since I am going to be making regular trips over to the Camden office over the next couple of months, I don't think that it will be too difficult to arrange for an extra couple of days over there for sightseeing. After all, airfares are sooo much cheaper if you have a weekend stay-over....

Oh, and my nice, new, and expensive Swiss Army suitcase? Busted. Broken zipper pull. (Oh, the irony.) From the way that the pull is deformed, it looks like someone tried to pick up the entire suitcase by the zipper tab. I am beyond pissed off. And of course I tossed all of the paperwork for it, so I can't even get it replaced if it is under any sort of warrenty. Argh.

Anyway, I got back Friday night, had dinner, and then pretty much fell over due to jet lag. Got up nice and early Saturday morning to drive to Cleveland for a mini-family reunion. "Reunion" because all of my brothers (and their girlfriends) were going to be in town. It was my first time meeting any of them, and they were all really nice. Brian's girlfriend Emily is TINY. Shorter then me, if you can believe it. I honestly don't think that she breaks 5 feet. I felt like a giant around her, which was extraordinarily odd.

It was a good weekend. Nice to go home and see everyone. The mini-reunion barbeque was excellent, did not get rained out (despite threatening weather and less then hopeful weather forecasts), I got to chat with a wide variety of relatives and old family friends, and ate three cheeseburgers and multiple side dishes and desserts. Good times were had by all.

Well, it was a good weekend good other then the fact that I lost horribly at a family game of scrabble and then my parents kicked my ass repeatedly at backgammon. It was not a good weekend for boardgames

May 20

Yellow Iris

[Taken May 12, 2007 | Yellow Iris | Cox Arboretum, Dayton, OH]

Back from St Louis, where I was on business all of last week. Back just long enough to unpack, go to Baron Wars (SCA event), do laundry, and repack for yet another business trip.

I had to buy a new suitcase. The zipper pull broke off of my old one while I was in St Louis, and that was pretty much the last straw as the suitcase was already pretty battered - the cloth covering was ripped in a couple of places, the plastic casing around the wheels was cracked, and the frame was a bit deformed. It needed replacing, and I happily replaced it with a bright red (the easier to spot it coming off of the luggage return) Swiss Army suitcase.

Packing tends to make me neurotic. I am always convinced that I am going to forget some small, yet vital, item, and end up spending the last couple of hours before leaving the house obsessively checking my luggage to make sure that the various bits and bobs are still there and have not vanished since the last time that I checked on them.

I am glad that John is here to tend to the house and the cat and everything else while I am gone.

I miss him when I am gone... I haven't even left yet and I am already looking forward to getting back.

May 13

flowers in Clifton Gorge

[Taken May 12, 2007 | Flowers in Clifton Gorge | Yellow Springs, OH]

It has been a long week. Long and busy.

I am packing to go on a week-long business trip. I am also cleaning the house before I go, even though at the same time I am sort of wondering why I am even bothering.

I am tired and kind of depressed.

Sometimes when I get depressed, I cynically think that the key to managing disappointment is to keep your expectations low… however, this does not always work. There will always be some expectation that is not met, and disappointment and depression will follow.

May 9

spring

[Taken April 30, 2007 | Spring | Dayton, OH]

31 feels the same as 30, which felt the same as 29. Honestly, is any birthday really a landmark once you have passed the magical legal drinking age of 21?

It being the middle of the week, today was (and is) business as usual. Work followed by brief puttering around the house, followed by fencing practice, followed by a beer and a BLT at Tank's.

May 6

new flooring

[Taken April 29, 2007 | Presenting the New Living Room Floor | Dayton, OH]

Last weekend John and I tore the (kind of nasty) off-white carpet out of the living room and replaced it with extremely lovely compressed bamboo flooring.

I have to say, I have seen a wide variety of hardwood flooring types, and I think that the compressed bamboo looks a lot better then most of what I have seen, and I am extremely happy with it. I am looking ofrward to tearing the carpet out of the dining room and library, and putting in the bamboo flooring there as well. Especially now that we have successfully done the "trial" room and know that we can handle the job.

The job took literally all weekend, starting Friday night when John moved all of the furniture out of the room and ripped up the carpet and padding, and ending on Sunday night when we moved all of the furniture back in, made dinner, and collapsed.

It gave us the excuse to buy new tools (air compressor) and rent (pneumatic staple gun) some pretty cool ones.

The installation process was pretty repetive and pretty wearing on certain body parts, particularily knees and backs, what with all of the bending over and kneeling and hammering. The first couple of rows that we did took what seemed like forever to do since we were also trying to figure out what the hell we were doing. (First time installing a hardwood floor for both of us.) Once we got used to it, figured out what we were doing, and got into a groove, it started to go a lot faster. I would lay out the boards and tamp them into place (sometimes with a little help) with the dead-blow hammer while john followed with the pneumatic staple gun.

We managed to get alomost the entire floor done, except for the last four or five rows, on Saturday before we collapsed from exhaustion. Sunday we finished the last couple of rows, waxed/polished the floor, and cut, stained, polished and installed the new trim.

Anyway, there are some photos of the process below. The finished product was well worth the back-breaking labor.

new flooring