Hoptasktic
I was looking at the hops today and realized that they have gone from a pretty decent first year height to something completely gnarly.

As you can see they Tettnag veriatel has surpassed the string that was attached to the garage roof. As I did not expect any of them to get that high in the first year the twine up the side of the garage was going to work just fine. The hops that we planted at the DiGennero's place last year barely made it up 3 feet and most of them died. So to have five bines all going rather successfully is quite unexpected.

I am already thinking about what to do next year. The one bine that survived at the DiGennero's is completely out of control this year. This website has some ideas. This guy has a different approach but it seems that he only has them 3m tall. Most of the books I have read indicate that they will easily go 6 to 8m after the first year...and based on mine in the first year that should not be a problem. Maybe this is the way to go.

What does the blog-tet think?  ¶ 19:23 5 comments

  Banging it Out I just busted Kzoo Jason on not posting in the last 9 days and then realized that I too have not posted in the last 9 days. So in order to avoid blogger hipocrisy I must post.

Since last you read I had to return to daily beatings (also called work). I was unpleasently suprised to find out last Monday that I would be traveling to Parsippany, NJ the following Monday (yesterday). I simply have no desire to be out of town right now. I don't know if it the summer or the coming baby, or the fact that over the past two years I have not had to do nearly as much traveling as I had in the past but I have very little desire to do it anymore. In addition, it seems that wherever I go recently I do not have final responsibility or say so I have very little control over what happens. I just try my best to do my thing the best that I can and hope that everyone else is doing the same (they rarely are.)

So here I sit in a warehouse in Parsippany, NJ with an unexpected wireless conection so that I can blog...and get company emails.

These guys from the Eastern Field Office are known for really "banging it out." Bang it out must be east coast for working at a very moderate pace and not trying to get off site quickly. This customer is a little strange in that they only have the building open from 7am to 4:45pm (which is less than that 10hrs that we typically work). I figured we are trying to get this thing done this week so we want to maximize our time. They rolled in about 8:20am today. That is banging it out. I was here at a little after 7. BTW: all of my stuff already works so I am waiting on them.

My mother visited last weekend and we had a pretty good time. She came up Friday afternoon and after unloading some hand-me-down baby stuff (from my sister) we went out to eat at Pietros. It was nice, but neither Kate nor I realized how little my mom likes Italian food. For Kate and I it is easy to order there, but my mom had trouble finding something that appealed to her. In the end she got the lasanga and she liked it. I had their Fettucini Michael which is OK, but I really do prefer their Shrimp Risotto.

Saturday we went to the beach in NM. We were there from about 1 to 4. We used the new spray on lotion with some mixed results. While the lotion does work and does not leave me with lotion on every hair on my arms legs and chest it does have a "greasy" feel and look to it. Plus, I managed to miss about 2 square inches on the front of my right shoulder. It is quite burned, but there is next to zero contact with anything with that part of my body so I have not really noticed.

Later that night we went out for a sail with Kate's cousin Frank. We probably got on the water about 8pm sailed for about 3 hours. Mom loved it and we all had a good time.

Sunday was a quiet day at home before she took off for Ohio.

Then Kate, Beth, and I went out to register for the baby showers. Mostly I did not care, but there were somethings that I had a particular opinion on that I wanted to make sure did not simply get the full girl opinion. That took forever though. I think we started at 3:30 and we go kicked out of Babies R Us at 7pm. Way too much time dealing with girls trying to make decisions.  ¶ 13:05 6 comments

  Salzburg redux I was looking at Anne's pictures of Europe and was suddenly hit with a case of daja ju. I didn't know which cities in Europe that Anne and Karl had gone to but the moment I saw two of their pictures I knew that I had been there before.

Kate and I took these pictures of Salzburg during our European Vacation 2004.





Now these are probably two of the most touristy photos that can be taken in Salzburg...but in this case I would like to think that great minds...take the same touristy pictures.

Plus, she is also living the vida Mac(a).  ¶ 12:11 0 comments

  It is always nice to have a roof over your head As some know we have been finishing the basement for nearly a year now. Things started off real quick. We started the last week of June last year and by the beginning of August we had the drywall installed and ready to paint.

Then came fall and winter and spring. We did get carpet installed, a new couch, cut the TV in half and moved it downstairs, put in insulation, and generally enjoyed the livable-ness of it.

In the last 5 weeks we have finally re-motivated and have moved the project to the 98% done stage.

Here are some photos of the recent progress:
Kate stained and polyurathaned all of the doors. Here are the French (are we still doing the Freedom thing?) doors. They look super.

You can also see all of the trim work around the doors and the floorboards that Kate did.










The workout room with installed ceiling tiles and trim around the doors.











Here I am enjoying the fruit of my work. As you can see the ceiling tiles have also been installed in here.










The remaining items:

1. Replace shower clean-out so that it is above the as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tile.
2. Rework one outlet/j-box so that it fits under the as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tile.
3. Rework the vents in both room so that the vent fits on as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tiles.
4. Install all of the suspended ceiling in the Anthony Micheal Hall.
5. Get memorial plaque for the AMH.
   

  ¶ 19:52 3 comments

  Check out my....Hops Recently (or not so) Kzoo Jason asked how the hops were doing.

Here is visual proof that I have yet to kill them. In fact the Tettnang vine is now taller than I am.




















A pulled back view of the Tettnang vines.























A look at the Hallertau vines.  ¶ 19:41 1 comments

  Wednesday Already The worst thing about having an extended vacation is how quickly it seems to run away from you.

Here it is Wednesday already and what do I have to show for my first 4 days of vacation? I went down to Indianapolis for the 7th running of the USGP, went to Lowe's and picked up all of the materials to finish finishing the basement (all of the suspended ceiling bits), and had one heck of a nice 4th of July with Kate's family out of Muskegon Lake (plus a little sunburn...but not as much as Kate.)

I suppose with 5 days still to go things are not going all that bad.

I don't think that I will have another vacation until the baby arrives and that may not be all that much of a vacation so I need to relax and enjoy every moment of this one. (that does not sound very relaxing)  ¶ 08:23 1 comments

  time for another post Previously I blamed a virus that Kzoo Jason infected me with for my general slowdown in posting.

Now I am ready to let him off the hook and blame summer. With the nice weather and outside projects it is so hard to find the time to sit here and try and entertain you.

Maybe that is not it either, maybe I can blame it on work. I was out of town for the past two weeks in CA (ELay as Roland's law school friend would say). It is funny that some people want to live in the desert...without casinos.

I suppose that the real blame lies with me and a general lack of something interesting to post.  ¶ 12:17 0 comments