Wow. Another year gone. It seems fitting to be doing a post on New Year's Eve because last year at this time was my first real post. It's funny to re-read it now. I was so unsure about this whole blogging thing a year ago. Now it seems so second nature to just type whatever I'm thinking or about whatever I'm doing. It's interesting that starting next month I'm going to be doing a blog for the professional organization I'm a part of. Go figure. Not so surprising I guess. I've always liked to hear myself talk, and to me blogging is just another form of talking to myself. It's a safe way to have opinions. Of course my personal blogs are anonymous, except to friends and family who may be reading them. My blog for the professional group won't be anonymous. It'll be interesting to see if I find that very different, besides the whole content thing. Hai, hai. The professional one can't be quite so egocentric as this one is.
Anyway I'm going to try to always do a post on New Year's Eve, so here goes.
It's been a good year. Busy, but good. And I enjoy the things I do that have made this such a busy year. This year again I have a huge number of things to be thankful for. I still have a job I love doing. I have good friends. I have my health. I'm financially sound, my retirement and investments back to what they were before the bad losses in late 2008-early 2009. That last is certainly through no effort on my part. I know less than nothing about investments. That's why I have a financial adviser. He's done well for me this year.
So let's see, how introspective should I get? I have a meeting with my boss in early January to discuss my goals and objectives for the next year. Goals, huh? Hmmmmmm. I plan to stay very active in my professional associations. I should write a paper if I can, now that the book chapters are done. I wrote 5 book chapters last year, and managed to get them all in mostly on time. I just received a copy of the first book last week that has two of the chapters in it. Two more chapters I returned the proofed galleys for two weeks ago. And the last chapter went in in October. I wonder if I should make learning to say 'no' one of my goals. Nah. I managed to get them all in. A couple of my goals for next year probably won't make my boss too happy with because they're going to involve fighting City Hall, so to speak. I want some equipment and some personnel that Administration doesn't seem to think I need. So when they show up on my goals, it will be interesting to see what my boss says. Hmmmmm. I guess I need to have a good development plan to present to her to justify what I want, and a good way of explaining why they're part of my goals. Another goal I have for next year is to train someone else to do some of the things I do. We're lacking a little depth at work since I'm the only one currently that does some things, but we've been short staffed at the county hospital too, so it's been hard to catch up on things like training since I'm covering more than usual over there.
Other goals for this next year? Personally, I should probably try to get a little exercise into my routine since I've gotten particularly bad about that. I currently have pretty good health, but some exercise would only improve it. I would say improve my diet, but that's not very realistic. I eat predominately stuff I can nuke or stuff that's fast and easy. I'm not a big fan of sweets, and that includes fruit. The only fruit I usually have in the house are grapefruit. And although I like most vegetables, I don't keep fresh vegetables nor fix them for meals. Most of my vegetables come from my mid-day meal at the hospital. So basically, a pretty bad diet. I suspect that's not going to change much because it's just too much trouble and effort to do real cooking for just myself and then have the cleanup too. I have better/other things to do.
When I consider it, for all my imperfections and flaws, I'm still an incredibly lucky person. Sometimes it's hard to know where to start being grateful. If you believe in karma, then I must have been a saint in my last life, or murdered horribly, to have stored up so much good energy for this life. It's totally believable that I have guardian deities watching over me, or watching out for me. Yeah, so if you guys are listening, you have my gratitude, and take the night off. I'm home. What trouble can I get into?
*laughing* That should be a serious jinx, except they never leave me completely alone. And anyone who doesn't know me is now backing slowly away from this blog. It's okay. You can chalk it up to the alcohol if you like. Of course I'm having a glass of wine on New Year's Eve. Really, it's okay. It's not necessary for you to believe in my guardians, as long as I do. They'll still take care of me whether other people believe in them or not.
Hmmmmmm. Let's get deeply philosophical here for a few minutes. I believe that part of what seems to be my "luck" is that I believe things will go my way and then they do. Do they really happen in my favor because I believe they will? Am I bending reality to suit me or favor me? *laughing* Yeah. Right. Put that way it sounds ridiculous. So why DO things happen in my favor? I don't really know, but I'm gonna keep believing they will. And keep being grateful to whatever agency is responsible.
Okay end of 'philosophical-this-person-is-drunk-or-nuts' talk. I'll try going back to things that are a little more normal.
Yesterday I went with my friend to see Avatar in 3D. O.O Waaaaay cool. What it lacked in original plot it more than made up in visual effects and the creation of a unique world with an alien race. It was awesome. I actually had some trouble with motion sickness though. That surprised me because I have a private pilot's certificate, and I've also never had trouble on boats. Just a bad day maybe. Or maybe I should get my eyes checked. They do seem to be increasingly light sensitive. Whatever, the movie was still awesome.
Well this post has been really scattered, but at least I got one more post in in 2009. Happy New Year and may you have a wonderful 2010.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Dekita!
It's done!!!!! I have all new flooring in my house. And on top of that I have pretty much everything moved back in from the garage that's coming back in. As expected, some of that stuff will take up permanent residence in the garage. However, my garage is once more a place for parking my car and 
storing odds and ends. I'm really happy about that. I like parking my car inside, not having to clean the windshield on the rare mornings we get ice, not having to warm it up or use gloves because the steering wheel's so cold. The garage isn't heated really, but it stays warm enough for frost-averse plants in the winter. It does become an oven in the summer of course.
storing odds and ends. I'm really happy about that. I like parking my car inside, not having to clean the windshield on the rare mornings we get ice, not having to warm it up or use gloves because the steering wheel's so cold. The garage isn't heated really, but it stays warm enough for frost-averse plants in the winter. It does become an oven in the summer of course.
So, back to the carpet and tile. I love the new carpet. The carpet guys were incredibly efficient and professional. They were done much faster than I expected . . . about 6 hours total from arrival to departure. The carpet looks great. The color looks great. Overall I'm quite pleased with everything.
I do have some issues with the tilers, but I'll hold those for now.
I wanted to do a few 'before' and 'after' pictures. So all the pictures on the left in this blog are 'after' pictures of the new carpet and tile, and on the right are the 'before' pictures of the old carpet and tile. The first set of pictures above is the entryway, left is the new entry with it's new tile up against the new carpet. By contrast, on the right above is the old tile and carpet in the entry. The color changes aren't as noticeable in the pictures as they are in person, plus as I mentioned in an earlier post, except for the blue bathroom floors, I didn't make drastic color changes.
The second set of pictures are the back door area and since the 
extension of the tile to the fireplace is one of the reasons for the new tile, I was pleased with the way this came out. On the left you can see the tile extended to the fireplace there by the back door, and get a better feel for the color of the new carpet. On the right is the old carpet up to the back door and you can also see how ragged and stained 
it was there in front of the door. I really like stepping into the house from the outside onto tile rather than directly onto carpet. Plus the cats can't destroy the carpet there when they're trying to dig out the back door. Your basic win-win. These pictures also show how much darker the new carpet is than the old was. The new carpet isn't a dark color, but the old carpet was really pale.
extension of the tile to the fireplace is one of the reasons for the new tile, I was pleased with the way this came out. On the left you can see the tile extended to the fireplace there by the back door, and get a better feel for the color of the new carpet. On the right is the old carpet up to the back door and you can also see how ragged and stained 
it was there in front of the door. I really like stepping into the house from the outside onto tile rather than directly onto carpet. Plus the cats can't destroy the carpet there when they're trying to dig out the back door. Your basic win-win. These pictures also show how much darker the new carpet is than the old was. The new carpet isn't a dark color, but the old carpet was really pale.With the last set of pictures I tried to capture the change in the bathroom tiles. Both bathrooms were this blue-grey swirled tile you can see on the right, up against the old 
pale carpet. Again on the left is the new bathroom tiles and the new carpet. The picture doesn't do justice to the tiles. They're white with a light brown and a pale blue-grey swirl through them. 
The brown is pulled out up against the carpet and eventually I'll re-paint the bathrooms, probably a pale blue. Currently this master bath is still a bright fluorescent yellow, which don't match anything, but then they never really have.
pale carpet. Again on the left is the new bathroom tiles and the new carpet. The picture doesn't do justice to the tiles. They're white with a light brown and a pale blue-grey swirl through them. 
The brown is pulled out up against the carpet and eventually I'll re-paint the bathrooms, probably a pale blue. Currently this master bath is still a bright fluorescent yellow, which don't match anything, but then they never really have.So that's the state of my house now. New flooring is in place and I've essentially moved the interior house contents twice in the last month. My plan now is to take a break for awhile and pay of some of this, then go for new furniture and some painting. Kitchen counters will probably be last, at some pint in the future. Slowly but surely I'll get to everything.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
New Carpet!
It's finally started, the thing I said I was going to have done immediately when I moved in ... 8 1/2 years ago. My new carpet is being installed! Very cool.
I managed to get everything moved off the carpeted areas of my
house except my sofa/sleeper, my TV and my bed. Literally the contents of my whole house are in my garage and kitchen. If you compare this pic with the one in the last post, you can see I've added a bunch more to stuff to the garage. A lot of that stuff I wasn't sure I could move until I tried. It certainly would have been easier with help, but I'm really bad about admitting I can't do something myself.
The two installers had those last three items moved about 5 minutes after they arrived, removed the old carpet and pad and swept the slab in about 20 - 30 minutes, and are now laying down the new pad. They also had me come out and verify that they had they right carpet with them before they started anything this morning. I'd be willing to bet they've run into that problem before where they don't have the right carpet, or people say it's not what they ordered once they start installing. They have my carpet though so all's proceeding.
It's interesting because when I first looked at the carpet I thought that the color was too light. I'm so used to thinking that this new carpet is darker than the old, that I was sort of expecting a dark carpet. It's not dark. It's a nice light tan. It's just darker than my old carpet.
We had a little trauma this morning when the installers got here because the cats had no where in the house to hide. I had hoped they'd run for the garage or under their favorite chair which is in the kitchen, but Zoe freaked out BIG time and just kept scurrying back and forth looking for somewhere to go. Poor baby. I tried to get her to the garage, but she wasn't exactly behaving rationally. Trying to lift and carry 22 pounds of fighting, razor-clawed, freaked out cat is not something I'd recommend. I think I pulled all the muscles in my back and neck. She got away from me and I believe she's somewhere hidden amongst my household items in the garage. I didn't see where she went since I was trying to pick myself up, but she's not in the house, so the garage is probably a safe assumption. I'll look for her once we've both had time to recover our equilibriums. Damn, she's fast for a big cat. Hopefully she'll forget and forgive me for traumatizing her. I'm very glad that it's cool enough that I'm wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt though. No lacerations.
My floor is currently blue. The new carpet pad I'm having installed has a 'moisture-proof' side,
so it's a nice bright blue. It doesn't quite match my red walls, as you can see from this pic, but it's a lot cleaner than my old carpet was. I have to say that this whole process of new tile and new carpet is interesting. I had no idea how they go about doing this stuff, so it's been interesting to watch it happen. They're currently pasting down the seams in the pad, or anyway that's what it looks like they're doing.
I looked for the cats but they're hiding, and given the vast number of hiding places there are in all my stuff in the garage, they won't be found until either they're ready to come out or I empty all the stuff out of the garage. Hopefully they'll be ready to come out long before I get around to moving all that stuff back into the house.
The carpet's going in now. These two guys are hard workers. They're just moving right along.
I managed to get everything moved off the carpeted areas of my
house except my sofa/sleeper, my TV and my bed. Literally the contents of my whole house are in my garage and kitchen. If you compare this pic with the one in the last post, you can see I've added a bunch more to stuff to the garage. A lot of that stuff I wasn't sure I could move until I tried. It certainly would have been easier with help, but I'm really bad about admitting I can't do something myself.The two installers had those last three items moved about 5 minutes after they arrived, removed the old carpet and pad and swept the slab in about 20 - 30 minutes, and are now laying down the new pad. They also had me come out and verify that they had they right carpet with them before they started anything this morning. I'd be willing to bet they've run into that problem before where they don't have the right carpet, or people say it's not what they ordered once they start installing. They have my carpet though so all's proceeding.
It's interesting because when I first looked at the carpet I thought that the color was too light. I'm so used to thinking that this new carpet is darker than the old, that I was sort of expecting a dark carpet. It's not dark. It's a nice light tan. It's just darker than my old carpet.
We had a little trauma this morning when the installers got here because the cats had no where in the house to hide. I had hoped they'd run for the garage or under their favorite chair which is in the kitchen, but Zoe freaked out BIG time and just kept scurrying back and forth looking for somewhere to go. Poor baby. I tried to get her to the garage, but she wasn't exactly behaving rationally. Trying to lift and carry 22 pounds of fighting, razor-clawed, freaked out cat is not something I'd recommend. I think I pulled all the muscles in my back and neck. She got away from me and I believe she's somewhere hidden amongst my household items in the garage. I didn't see where she went since I was trying to pick myself up, but she's not in the house, so the garage is probably a safe assumption. I'll look for her once we've both had time to recover our equilibriums. Damn, she's fast for a big cat. Hopefully she'll forget and forgive me for traumatizing her. I'm very glad that it's cool enough that I'm wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt though. No lacerations.
My floor is currently blue. The new carpet pad I'm having installed has a 'moisture-proof' side,
so it's a nice bright blue. It doesn't quite match my red walls, as you can see from this pic, but it's a lot cleaner than my old carpet was. I have to say that this whole process of new tile and new carpet is interesting. I had no idea how they go about doing this stuff, so it's been interesting to watch it happen. They're currently pasting down the seams in the pad, or anyway that's what it looks like they're doing.I looked for the cats but they're hiding, and given the vast number of hiding places there are in all my stuff in the garage, they won't be found until either they're ready to come out or I empty all the stuff out of the garage. Hopefully they'll be ready to come out long before I get around to moving all that stuff back into the house.
The carpet's going in now. These two guys are hard workers. They're just moving right along.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tsukareta!!
Which translates as: I'm TIRED! I've spent almost the whole weekend moving my house into my garage.
To back up a bit: They finished my tile, and it did take them three days. Partly because of all of the mess-ups the first day and partly because they were not very consistent in who was working. The first day there were three of them. The second day there was only one guy for the first 3-ish hours and then two others came and worked on it. And partly the delay was my fault as I had to give that lecture on Wednesday morning. They didn't start working until about noon on Wednesday. I shouldn't complain though. The good news is that I have new tile and I'm happy with it.
The other good news is that my carpet has arrived at the flooring place 
(so in this case I can safely assume they'll bring it with them). They called me on the last day the tilers were here to tell me the carpet is in, and we scheduled the install for this coming Wednesday. Which means I've had this weekend to get all my stuff into my garage or my kitchen. Which is why I'm seriously tired right now. But everything's in the garage except things I can't move myself (couch, beds, TV) and my electronics which I'll disassemble and move on Tuesday evening. This pic is some of my stuff in my garage. I have FIVE of those 6' tall bookshelves, thank you. I'm betting I'll be finding some new bruises after this weekend, but I haven't broken anything yet (myself OR my stuff), and only have one fairly decent ding in a wall from a curio cabinet that tried to get away from me.
(so in this case I can safely assume they'll bring it with them). They called me on the last day the tilers were here to tell me the carpet is in, and we scheduled the install for this coming Wednesday. Which means I've had this weekend to get all my stuff into my garage or my kitchen. Which is why I'm seriously tired right now. But everything's in the garage except things I can't move myself (couch, beds, TV) and my electronics which I'll disassemble and move on Tuesday evening. This pic is some of my stuff in my garage. I have FIVE of those 6' tall bookshelves, thank you. I'm betting I'll be finding some new bruises after this weekend, but I haven't broken anything yet (myself OR my stuff), and only have one fairly decent ding in a wall from a curio cabinet that tried to get away from me. In the process of all this packing and moving I discovered that 'dust bunny' doesn't come close to 
describing the monster creatures living under some of my furniture after 8+ years. Yeow! Nasty! I've probably spent as much time cleaning as moving, especially since I'm still de-dusting everything from the tile install. This picture is my kitchen area with curio cabinets and other stuff finding a temporary home there (Yes, that is new tile on the floor). The cabinet on the right is the one that tried to escape me.
describing the monster creatures living under some of my furniture after 8+ years. Yeow! Nasty! I've probably spent as much time cleaning as moving, especially since I'm still de-dusting everything from the tile install. This picture is my kitchen area with curio cabinets and other stuff finding a temporary home there (Yes, that is new tile on the floor). The cabinet on the right is the one that tried to escape me.I'm sort of considering just leaving everything in the kitchen and garage after the carpet goes in. It's too much trouble to move it all back. At least I won't have any time constraints about getting things back where they belong. I don't need for the house to be in order for Christmas guests since I'm heading to my parents for Christmas. I can take my time and unpack slowly and finish cleaning as I go. Sounds perfect. Actually, anything that doesn't involve me getting up for awhile sound perfect right now.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
I love construction . . . NOT!
You know that scary "what if the tile is not right feeling" I was talking about yesterday? I should sooooo listen to my intuition. They got the right tile patterns, but the store gave them two dye lots of my kitchen tile. That's the same tile, but two different batches. They don't match. Of course. So they have to take out some and go switch lot numbers at the store. This job will be taking longer than expected.
I wonder why construction in general is such an error prone field? It's a sad fact that no one expects a construction job to come in on time, or within budget, but why is that? I can understand someone like me, or any do-it-yourself-er, would need multiple trips to the store and lots of tries because we don't know what tools or supplies we're going to need until we start doing it. But people who do construction for a living? Why wouldn't the store or the tilers confirm how the tile was going to make it to my house? Why wouldn't someone confirm either that different batches of tile matched or that an order contained all one batch? Why does it seem all construction jobs are "get there and see if we have anything we need"?
My place of work is having construction done and it works exactly the same. "We're here to put the walls up so we can put in the UPS." Uhm, no one told us, we need to move the stuff from that area. "Not our problem. We need to do it today." Then they put up a temporary wall that blocked half of the major entry into the lab. When you opened the door into the lab, half the entry was a wall. Which of course couldn't stay that way, so they had to take it down and put it up again differently so people could get in. Probably construction time over-runs occur because so often they have to do things multiple times to get it right. But why is that?
My sister acted as general contractor for a shop she and her husband had built, and discovered that there are two constants in the construction industry. One, you will never have the material you need when the people are ready for it. Two, no one in construction, and no construction job, is ever on time. Being somewhat anal retentive like I am, my poor sister was a nearly a total, hairless (from pulling it out), basket case by the time the shop was built. I will keep her travails firmly in my mind while this house stuff is being done, so I can see how smoothly it's really going. They were dreaming when they told me two days, though. And maybe that's part of the problem. Two days in an ideal perfect world where things work like you would want them to, three to five days in the real world. I'm hoping for somewhere in between perfection and real. I have some things going on at work that I have to be there for. Like a lecture at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. I guess we'll see what kind of creative scheduling the tilers and I can do.
Thanks to lot numbers of tile, and having to take out non-matching tiles, the tilers didn't get very far laying the new tile yesterday. I'm hoping they get farther today. Here's a picture of the piles of old tile fragments before they carted it away and then a picture of the start of the new tile. This is as far as they got, what with having to replace pieces that they had put in. I think I'll be living with my refrigerator in my living room for a few days more.
Yes, this new tile is a very similar color to the tile I had taken out. I didn't
change to kitchen tile color much. I changed the color of the carpet quite a bit from my current carpet, and the bathroom tiles will no longer be blue. I liked the color of the tile I had in the kitchen, but I wanted to extend it to the back door and re-grout the whole kitchen. It was easier to replace it all then find a matching tile to extend it. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a rationalization doesn't it? Maybe I just wanted to replace the flooring in my whole house. That reminds me. I need to remind the tilers to extend the tile to the back door. They'll have to take out some carpet there.
I wonder why construction in general is such an error prone field? It's a sad fact that no one expects a construction job to come in on time, or within budget, but why is that? I can understand someone like me, or any do-it-yourself-er, would need multiple trips to the store and lots of tries because we don't know what tools or supplies we're going to need until we start doing it. But people who do construction for a living? Why wouldn't the store or the tilers confirm how the tile was going to make it to my house? Why wouldn't someone confirm either that different batches of tile matched or that an order contained all one batch? Why does it seem all construction jobs are "get there and see if we have anything we need"?
My place of work is having construction done and it works exactly the same. "We're here to put the walls up so we can put in the UPS." Uhm, no one told us, we need to move the stuff from that area. "Not our problem. We need to do it today." Then they put up a temporary wall that blocked half of the major entry into the lab. When you opened the door into the lab, half the entry was a wall. Which of course couldn't stay that way, so they had to take it down and put it up again differently so people could get in. Probably construction time over-runs occur because so often they have to do things multiple times to get it right. But why is that?
My sister acted as general contractor for a shop she and her husband had built, and discovered that there are two constants in the construction industry. One, you will never have the material you need when the people are ready for it. Two, no one in construction, and no construction job, is ever on time. Being somewhat anal retentive like I am, my poor sister was a nearly a total, hairless (from pulling it out), basket case by the time the shop was built. I will keep her travails firmly in my mind while this house stuff is being done, so I can see how smoothly it's really going. They were dreaming when they told me two days, though. And maybe that's part of the problem. Two days in an ideal perfect world where things work like you would want them to, three to five days in the real world. I'm hoping for somewhere in between perfection and real. I have some things going on at work that I have to be there for. Like a lecture at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. I guess we'll see what kind of creative scheduling the tilers and I can do.
Thanks to lot numbers of tile, and having to take out non-matching tiles, the tilers didn't get very far laying the new tile yesterday. I'm hoping they get farther today. Here's a picture of the piles of old tile fragments before they carted it away and then a picture of the start of the new tile. This is as far as they got, what with having to replace pieces that they had put in. I think I'll be living with my refrigerator in my living room for a few days more.
Yes, this new tile is a very similar color to the tile I had taken out. I didn't
change to kitchen tile color much. I changed the color of the carpet quite a bit from my current carpet, and the bathroom tiles will no longer be blue. I liked the color of the tile I had in the kitchen, but I wanted to extend it to the back door and re-grout the whole kitchen. It was easier to replace it all then find a matching tile to extend it. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a rationalization doesn't it? Maybe I just wanted to replace the flooring in my whole house. That reminds me. I need to remind the tilers to extend the tile to the back door. They'll have to take out some carpet there. The cat-kids spent the day yesterday under my bed, but came out to investigate almost as soon as the door closed behind the tilers yesterday. They seemed mostly fine and very curious about all the goings on once it was just them and me again. I imagine today will be like that too, although they should be less freaked because the noise level will be less. The sound of cutting tiles will be most of the loud noises and the tilers are doing that outside. They will have to break out the old tiles around the toilet in the master bathroom. They left that yesterday so we'd have a working toilet until they replace the tiles and the toilet in the guest bathroom.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the progress today.Monday, December 7, 2009
And so it begins!
Today's the day. New flooring in my house begins today. Maybe I'll do a running commentary, depending on how it goes.
I'm tired! I've been working harder around my house lately than I have since I moved in. Considering that I'm having the flooring replaced in my entire house, I'm essentially moving everything out and then back in, so I suppose it makes sense that I would be working harder than just moving in. The battle is progressing. They're supposed to be here today to begin the areas that are getting re-tiled. I spent the weekend preparing (pulling,hauling, packing, moving), so everything should be ready (famous last words).
My poor cats are truly freaked out, with everything in the house displaced and in a transitory state of flux. They really don't do well with changes in their world-view, so this is all kind of hard on them. I imagine they'll be fairly shell-shocked after the tilers spend time today breaking up and removing the old ceramic tile so they can replace it.
The good news is that I got all of my Christmas shopping done and everything is wrapped. Things that need to be shipped out of state are packaged up and ready to go. And all the wrapping paper, etc is put back away. That's a few less random items to worry about when the big carpet move comes along. Of course that also means I probably won't do any Christmas decorations this year. I know, I know. I really did start looking at carpet in October. I was just not very decisive. And then I picked a carpet that had to be ordered. I suspect my house will be in this state of flux through the Holidays and they won't lay the carpet until after the New Year. Maa. Shikatanai <-- can't be helped.
The tile guys are here ... breaking up tile. It's so
weird to watch them break up all the old ceramic tile. In fact it's so weird that I'm not watching them. I did take a bunch of "before" pictures this morning though, so I can show off what it all looked like before I started with what it will look like afterward. And of course I'll be doing the 'in process' pictures. The first one is here. This is what my kitchen area currently looks like.
The cats are under my bed, probably for the duration. This part of the process is NOISY. And DUSTY.
I also called the store this morning and asked them to check on my carpet order. They said it shows as shipping today! At least I won't have to go back a choose the color over, even if I do have to wait until after the Holidays to get it installed. When I chose that style and color, the store salesman told me there was a slight chance that the manufacturer wouldn't have it in stock when they ordered it and I would have to start from scratch with the color and style selection. Of course it wouldn't have been entirely from scratch. I would have had to match it to the three colors of ceramic tile I've chosen for the kitchen, entry and the two bathrooms. So I'm really glad to know that the carpet I chose is on it's way.
First snag (this is construction after all): The flooring guys expected the new tile to be delivered and already be here. The store expected it to be picked up. So it's at the store. Looks like they decided the flooring guys will have to come and get it. One went and two are still destructing my house. Weird. I expected trouble with the carpet, not the tile.
These guys are hard-working though. They've been here about 2 hours and have all the tile broken up and mostly removed from the kitchen, the entry and one bathroom. I wish guy number three would come back with my new tile, so I wouldn't have the scary feeling of 'what if they don't have the right tile'.
He's back. I'm gonna go confirm tile.
I'm tired! I've been working harder around my house lately than I have since I moved in. Considering that I'm having the flooring replaced in my entire house, I'm essentially moving everything out and then back in, so I suppose it makes sense that I would be working harder than just moving in. The battle is progressing. They're supposed to be here today to begin the areas that are getting re-tiled. I spent the weekend preparing (pulling,hauling, packing, moving), so everything should be ready (famous last words).
My poor cats are truly freaked out, with everything in the house displaced and in a transitory state of flux. They really don't do well with changes in their world-view, so this is all kind of hard on them. I imagine they'll be fairly shell-shocked after the tilers spend time today breaking up and removing the old ceramic tile so they can replace it.
The good news is that I got all of my Christmas shopping done and everything is wrapped. Things that need to be shipped out of state are packaged up and ready to go. And all the wrapping paper, etc is put back away. That's a few less random items to worry about when the big carpet move comes along. Of course that also means I probably won't do any Christmas decorations this year. I know, I know. I really did start looking at carpet in October. I was just not very decisive. And then I picked a carpet that had to be ordered. I suspect my house will be in this state of flux through the Holidays and they won't lay the carpet until after the New Year. Maa. Shikatanai <-- can't be helped.
The tile guys are here ... breaking up tile. It's so
weird to watch them break up all the old ceramic tile. In fact it's so weird that I'm not watching them. I did take a bunch of "before" pictures this morning though, so I can show off what it all looked like before I started with what it will look like afterward. And of course I'll be doing the 'in process' pictures. The first one is here. This is what my kitchen area currently looks like. The cats are under my bed, probably for the duration. This part of the process is NOISY. And DUSTY.
I also called the store this morning and asked them to check on my carpet order. They said it shows as shipping today! At least I won't have to go back a choose the color over, even if I do have to wait until after the Holidays to get it installed. When I chose that style and color, the store salesman told me there was a slight chance that the manufacturer wouldn't have it in stock when they ordered it and I would have to start from scratch with the color and style selection. Of course it wouldn't have been entirely from scratch. I would have had to match it to the three colors of ceramic tile I've chosen for the kitchen, entry and the two bathrooms. So I'm really glad to know that the carpet I chose is on it's way.
First snag (this is construction after all): The flooring guys expected the new tile to be delivered and already be here. The store expected it to be picked up. So it's at the store. Looks like they decided the flooring guys will have to come and get it. One went and two are still destructing my house. Weird. I expected trouble with the carpet, not the tile.
These guys are hard-working though. They've been here about 2 hours and have all the tile broken up and mostly removed from the kitchen, the entry and one bathroom. I wish guy number three would come back with my new tile, so I wouldn't have the scary feeling of 'what if they don't have the right tile'.
He's back. I'm gonna go confirm tile.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Did it!
Done! I actually managed to get my garage completely cleaned out. Now I just have to put the remaining bags of trash out on the curb tomorrow for the trash collectors and I'll be officially done. I'm still amazed by all the junk I had in there.
I've started letting the cats come and go in there. I've always kept them out because of all the chemicals, like fertilizer, fire ant killers, rose sprays, etc, etc, etc. Now I've got those all cleaned up and the ones I'm keeping are put away on high shelves. Addy and Zoe have both checked out everything that's easily investigated. I want them to get used to the garage before I have to leave them in there while work is done on the house.
The house stuff is also progressing, so I should probably be starting to pack my life away in preparation for moving it all into the garage. The house has been measured and on Tuesday I meet with the folks at the store to confirm the specific carpet and tile and mortgage my soul.. ahem.. I mean find out how much and for how long this is going to put me in debt. And hopefully also find out some dates that it's going to occur. In the mean time I will start packing everything and moving smaller pieces of furniture into the garage. That should keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable future.
It's gorgeous and sunny this morning and cool, but everything is very wet from the rain for the last couple of days. Probably I won't be able to mow today so I'll do it next weekend over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Also next weekend I'm going to do something I haven't done before. I have an appointment at Glamour Shots. I've been needing professional pictures for some time now. I could go to a professional photographer I suppose, but these guys should be able to not only get the photos for me, but also make me look fairly good. They asked me when the last time was that I had pictures made, and the answer to that is probably that I've never had professional photos made. I guess it's time. I need the photos because I plan to run for an office in my professional association and need a current picture to go with the bio. Also, I need one because I was selected as a Mentor of the Month by a group. Plus I'll be doing a professional blog starting in January and will need one for that. So my wanting to have a professional picture that looks decent has gone from just my own desire to a pretty serious need in the near future. I decided to go for it.
That will be on Saturday. Thursday and Friday I'll be in east Texas eating myself sick at my folks place. I love Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Luckily for me, my parents are willing to cook every year, so I'm seriously looking forward to spending some fat and happy time with them. I imagine this year it will just be me and the folks and my sister and brother-in-law who live out there near them. At Christmas time we may all be out there except maybe the Colorado gang. I have a married brother and he and his wife have four grown kids (one married). I also have three sisters, one in this area with a grown son, the one in east Texas with her husband, and the one in Colorado with her husband. Her son, his wife and their daughter are my relatives in Denver whose pictures you've seen in this blog.
Now that I've listed the family, you can see how long my Christmas shopping list is. I'm almost half way through it though. On-line shopping is great.
Guess I'd better get to my Sunday housework and turn robo vac loose.
I've started letting the cats come and go in there. I've always kept them out because of all the chemicals, like fertilizer, fire ant killers, rose sprays, etc, etc, etc. Now I've got those all cleaned up and the ones I'm keeping are put away on high shelves. Addy and Zoe have both checked out everything that's easily investigated. I want them to get used to the garage before I have to leave them in there while work is done on the house.
The house stuff is also progressing, so I should probably be starting to pack my life away in preparation for moving it all into the garage. The house has been measured and on Tuesday I meet with the folks at the store to confirm the specific carpet and tile and mortgage my soul.. ahem.. I mean find out how much and for how long this is going to put me in debt. And hopefully also find out some dates that it's going to occur. In the mean time I will start packing everything and moving smaller pieces of furniture into the garage. That should keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable future.
It's gorgeous and sunny this morning and cool, but everything is very wet from the rain for the last couple of days. Probably I won't be able to mow today so I'll do it next weekend over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Also next weekend I'm going to do something I haven't done before. I have an appointment at Glamour Shots. I've been needing professional pictures for some time now. I could go to a professional photographer I suppose, but these guys should be able to not only get the photos for me, but also make me look fairly good. They asked me when the last time was that I had pictures made, and the answer to that is probably that I've never had professional photos made. I guess it's time. I need the photos because I plan to run for an office in my professional association and need a current picture to go with the bio. Also, I need one because I was selected as a Mentor of the Month by a group. Plus I'll be doing a professional blog starting in January and will need one for that. So my wanting to have a professional picture that looks decent has gone from just my own desire to a pretty serious need in the near future. I decided to go for it.
That will be on Saturday. Thursday and Friday I'll be in east Texas eating myself sick at my folks place. I love Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Luckily for me, my parents are willing to cook every year, so I'm seriously looking forward to spending some fat and happy time with them. I imagine this year it will just be me and the folks and my sister and brother-in-law who live out there near them. At Christmas time we may all be out there except maybe the Colorado gang. I have a married brother and he and his wife have four grown kids (one married). I also have three sisters, one in this area with a grown son, the one in east Texas with her husband, and the one in Colorado with her husband. Her son, his wife and their daughter are my relatives in Denver whose pictures you've seen in this blog.
Now that I've listed the family, you can see how long my Christmas shopping list is. I'm almost half way through it though. On-line shopping is great.
Guess I'd better get to my Sunday housework and turn robo vac loose.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Home again
My last post was pretty short, but I got side-tracked and then busy with some short trips.
I'm so glad to be home from my traveling. As much as I like to travel, it's always nice to be back. I've had two meeting trips in the last two weeks, the first to New Orleans and the second to Salt Lake City. Both meetings were really good, and the travel gods were looking out for me. No delays, cancellations, or other travel-related issues. In fact, I caught an earlier flight coming back from Salt Lake City on Friday night and got in earlier than I expected to. So all in all, routine travels with excellent, worthwhile meetings.
I'm glad not to be traveling for awhile for a couple of reasons, though. Besides just being glad to be home for awhile, I've been really pushing it to keep up with work and travel too, so it's nice to have only work facing me now. I have some deadlines to make, although I've managed to make a couple of them while traveling.
Besides work right now, I need to remember that Christmas is soon, and Christmas shopping shouldn't be put off. Especially because a lot of gifts will need to be shipped this year. I'll be going to east Texas rather than Colorado, so I need to get shopping done and stuff mailed to Colorado in time to arrive there during the holidays. Which makes the time between now and Christmas entirely too short.
Up-date on the house stuff: I chose a carpet color. Believe it or not. Someone is going to call me and arrange to come out and measure the house. And ever since I got home from the store, I've been looking at all my stuff that I will need to pack up and move. Can you say "despair"? It's going to take me months just to pack all this stuff and put it in the garage for the duration. I suppose I should start now, but I'm not going to start until I have a date that the work will start. Plus I didn't choose a counter top, and I'm told I should have those done before the floor. Plus I do need to finish cleaning out space in the garage. I worked on that yesterday again. Two more bags of trash. It really is getting close to being done, but I've got one serious area that I have to tackle. And I'll need to get used to parking outside so all my stuff and cats can have the garage. It's all becoming more real now that I've actually chosen a carpet color.
The color is darker than my current carpet, but not a dark color. My current carpet is some off-white shade, or was when the house was new. Now it's mostly 'stained and dingy', if I had to give it a color name. The new color is more of a light taupe. I did my best to see how it looks with a little carpet square in the house. Hopefully I'll like it when it's installed. *laughing* No. I WILL like it when it's installed. I would tell the name of the color but I've forgotten. They have too many colors with too many names.
I bought a robot vacuum cleaner about a month ago. A Roomba iRobot. It's the most amazing thing. The little thing just wanders around the house, and cleans like crazy. It seems to clean better than my big upright vacuum, plus it goes under the bed. Of course, my cats are less than thrilled, especially about the fact that it goes under the beds. Addy stalked it all over the house the first couple of times I used it, while Zoe ran from it hissing and spitting as it seemed to follow her around the house. Now days, Addy stays up on the furniture and ignores it, and Zoe sits in the kitchen until it's done. The cat-kids are not exactly good about making adjustments to their routine. I got them one of those fountains that's always running because Addy especially likes to drink from running water. It took them about a week to come into the master bath again (where I'd put it), and about three weeks for both of them to drink from it. They like it now though. They just don't deal with changes well.
So why'd I buy the robot vacuum? No reason. It seemed like fun, and besides laughing at the cats, it's been really nice to just turn it on and go do whatever I was doing. My house is staying a lot more vacuumed, I can tell you. Now if they'd just invent a robot duster, I'd be set.
I'm so glad to be home from my traveling. As much as I like to travel, it's always nice to be back. I've had two meeting trips in the last two weeks, the first to New Orleans and the second to Salt Lake City. Both meetings were really good, and the travel gods were looking out for me. No delays, cancellations, or other travel-related issues. In fact, I caught an earlier flight coming back from Salt Lake City on Friday night and got in earlier than I expected to. So all in all, routine travels with excellent, worthwhile meetings.
I'm glad not to be traveling for awhile for a couple of reasons, though. Besides just being glad to be home for awhile, I've been really pushing it to keep up with work and travel too, so it's nice to have only work facing me now. I have some deadlines to make, although I've managed to make a couple of them while traveling.
Besides work right now, I need to remember that Christmas is soon, and Christmas shopping shouldn't be put off. Especially because a lot of gifts will need to be shipped this year. I'll be going to east Texas rather than Colorado, so I need to get shopping done and stuff mailed to Colorado in time to arrive there during the holidays. Which makes the time between now and Christmas entirely too short.
Up-date on the house stuff: I chose a carpet color. Believe it or not. Someone is going to call me and arrange to come out and measure the house. And ever since I got home from the store, I've been looking at all my stuff that I will need to pack up and move. Can you say "despair"? It's going to take me months just to pack all this stuff and put it in the garage for the duration. I suppose I should start now, but I'm not going to start until I have a date that the work will start. Plus I didn't choose a counter top, and I'm told I should have those done before the floor. Plus I do need to finish cleaning out space in the garage. I worked on that yesterday again. Two more bags of trash. It really is getting close to being done, but I've got one serious area that I have to tackle. And I'll need to get used to parking outside so all my stuff and cats can have the garage. It's all becoming more real now that I've actually chosen a carpet color.
The color is darker than my current carpet, but not a dark color. My current carpet is some off-white shade, or was when the house was new. Now it's mostly 'stained and dingy', if I had to give it a color name. The new color is more of a light taupe. I did my best to see how it looks with a little carpet square in the house. Hopefully I'll like it when it's installed. *laughing* No. I WILL like it when it's installed. I would tell the name of the color but I've forgotten. They have too many colors with too many names.
I bought a robot vacuum cleaner about a month ago. A Roomba iRobot. It's the most amazing thing. The little thing just wanders around the house, and cleans like crazy. It seems to clean better than my big upright vacuum, plus it goes under the bed. Of course, my cats are less than thrilled, especially about the fact that it goes under the beds. Addy stalked it all over the house the first couple of times I used it, while Zoe ran from it hissing and spitting as it seemed to follow her around the house. Now days, Addy stays up on the furniture and ignores it, and Zoe sits in the kitchen until it's done. The cat-kids are not exactly good about making adjustments to their routine. I got them one of those fountains that's always running because Addy especially likes to drink from running water. It took them about a week to come into the master bath again (where I'd put it), and about three weeks for both of them to drink from it. They like it now though. They just don't deal with changes well.
So why'd I buy the robot vacuum? No reason. It seemed like fun, and besides laughing at the cats, it's been really nice to just turn it on and go do whatever I was doing. My house is staying a lot more vacuumed, I can tell you. Now if they'd just invent a robot duster, I'd be set.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Repairs and Fall cleaning
I wrote this almost two weeks ago, but forgot to post it, so it's a little out-dated. Maa. I'll post it anyway.
This has been a fairly productive week. After last week's leak repair, I did manage to call someone about my foundation this week. And to my delight, I have a "remarkably level house". I don't need any foundation work! I wanted to get that checked because I have some cracks in my interior walls, but he said just to watch them. They're not caused by foundation problems. So I dodged that bullet. Now I feel comfortable spending money on making the house better without worrying about whether I'll need that money for repairs.
Then Saturday I took my car in for basic maintenance, oil and filter change, and did not dodge a bullet there. Around $800.00 worth of un-dodged bullet. Besides the oil and filter and tire rotation, I needed two drive belts and front brakes as well as basic maintenance that was due around 40,000 miles. I don't mind spending money on my car actually. I depend heavily on it and need it to be running perfectly. It's been making a random whistling sound. Really random. So much so that I can't pin it down to any specific driving or outside conditions. So maybe all that work they did Saturday will have fixed whatever was making the noise. [Apparently it did. I haven't heard it since they worked on the car.]
I went back to Lowe's on Saturday also and spent more time looking at carpet and tile. I brought more carpet pieces home, but I think I found the ceramic tile I want, both for the kitchen and the bathrooms. And I started looking at counter tops for the kitchen. And I think I want to paint the master bathroom. Slowly but surely I'm getting ready to have this work done on this house. I also worked some more on cleaning out the garage again. Three more bags of trash and I'm getting there. It won't be too much longer and I'll have it looking good.
So all in all a fairly productive week and it's also been a beautiful weekend. So I'm in a pretty good mood. It's sunny! Finally! I thought it would never stop raining, but we've had a almost a week of sun.
This has been a fairly productive week. After last week's leak repair, I did manage to call someone about my foundation this week. And to my delight, I have a "remarkably level house". I don't need any foundation work! I wanted to get that checked because I have some cracks in my interior walls, but he said just to watch them. They're not caused by foundation problems. So I dodged that bullet. Now I feel comfortable spending money on making the house better without worrying about whether I'll need that money for repairs.
Then Saturday I took my car in for basic maintenance, oil and filter change, and did not dodge a bullet there. Around $800.00 worth of un-dodged bullet. Besides the oil and filter and tire rotation, I needed two drive belts and front brakes as well as basic maintenance that was due around 40,000 miles. I don't mind spending money on my car actually. I depend heavily on it and need it to be running perfectly. It's been making a random whistling sound. Really random. So much so that I can't pin it down to any specific driving or outside conditions. So maybe all that work they did Saturday will have fixed whatever was making the noise. [Apparently it did. I haven't heard it since they worked on the car.]
I went back to Lowe's on Saturday also and spent more time looking at carpet and tile. I brought more carpet pieces home, but I think I found the ceramic tile I want, both for the kitchen and the bathrooms. And I started looking at counter tops for the kitchen. And I think I want to paint the master bathroom. Slowly but surely I'm getting ready to have this work done on this house. I also worked some more on cleaning out the garage again. Three more bags of trash and I'm getting there. It won't be too much longer and I'll have it looking good.
So all in all a fairly productive week and it's also been a beautiful weekend. So I'm in a pretty good mood. It's sunny! Finally! I thought it would never stop raining, but we've had a almost a week of sun.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Fall is here
Although I'm a warm weather type of person, even I get tired of the Texas heat eventually. Days like yesterday and this morning are a beautiful, welcome change. Yesterday started out about 50, with a high around 75, gorgeous and sunny. Just a nearly perfect day. This morning it's about 60 and absolutely cloudless with the sun just beginning to come up. It's supposed to cloud up and rain again later, but we'll see. This is Texas after all. The ability of people to predict the weather drops pretty low out beyond about half a day.
One of the reasons I'm so delighted to see the sun is that it's been raining here. Day after day after day of rain, for weeks. We've had an occasional day of sunshine in about the last month and clouds and/or rain the rest of the time. I'm seriously over all that gloom and wet. And yes, we've been drought-like for a while so it's needed and good for us, etc, etc. I'm just really tired of it. I like Texas because of the sun. If I wanted unending rain I'd move to Seattle.
The trees have finally begun to change color. My peach tree has dropped about a third of it's leaves, but most of them are still green, probably because we haven't had any cool weather until recently. Yesterday was probably our lowest temp so far, around 50. Luckily the grass has slowed down so I won't be mowing much more this year.
Last week I broke down and called a plumber. I've had a swampy spot in my front yard near my foundation for a couple of months, and I've been spending some time in denial, convincing myself that it was due to all the rain we've had. But it was getting increasingly swampy and this month's water bill arrived. The usage was higher than in August when I was watering to keep the grass alive. So I called the plumber. I was really afraid that this was related to a foundation problem, because I've noticed some cracks that I've been keeping an eye on. So I was worried that they'd have to dig through my foundation to find the leak, and maybe repair the foundation. Luckily, they found a leak after only digging up under the shrubbery in front of my house. They replaced the leaking pipe/valve and left me with only a muddy patch in my front lawn where the swampy area was. I felt sorry for them because there was so much ground water there from the leak that they were digging though soupy mud and having to pump water out of the hole occasionally. Now I'm waiting for that area to dry up from all that water. Continuous rain isn't helping it dry up. I guess I'll be totally convinced that the problem is fixed when that area dries up. Who, me, a skeptic? Well maybe.
Yesterday I was at Lowe's for some stuff and ended up talking to a guy about new carpet and ceramic tile for my house. I've been wanting to do that since I moved in, but there's always something else that needs to be done first. And that's still true. I need to have the foundation checked before I have work done on the house. But since I broke down and called the plumber, maybe I can get into a groove and call someone about the foundation. Plus, I figure that if I have plans to replace carpet and tile, it'll force me to do the foundation first. So I started planning yesterday. The only question I have right now is: WHY ARE THERE SO DAMN MANY COLORS OF CARPET AND TILE?! Oatbran? Hacienda Tan? Goldwash? You're kidding, right?
This is going to take some time, figuring out what colors I want. Plus I want to replace the counter tops in the kitchen first, which means more color decisions. But if I don't start somewhere, I'll never start. So yesterday I started learning about carpet and tile. I figure if I can pick those colors it might help me decide on the counter tops. And given my lack of decisiveness for this type of thing, I'll have plenty of time to get the foundation checked and finish cleaning out the garage before any of the work will start.
The garage has to be cleaned out because I'll need it as a place for the cats to stay while the house is being worked on. I've been working on the garage slowly over weekends when I have time. So far I've taken 10 large bags of trash out of there, and I'm still working on it. Who knew I had so much junk in there? A convenient dropping place for stuff I guess. But it needs to be clean enough that the cats won't pull anything over on themselves or poison themselves with stuff that's in there.
Wow. They were right about the clouds. Even though it was completely clear at dawn this morning, it's now completely overcast. Too bad. I was hoping for another day of sunshine. I suppose I'll have to wait a while.
Anyway, that's all for today. I'll keep you posted on the renovations and repairs as they go.
One of the reasons I'm so delighted to see the sun is that it's been raining here. Day after day after day of rain, for weeks. We've had an occasional day of sunshine in about the last month and clouds and/or rain the rest of the time. I'm seriously over all that gloom and wet. And yes, we've been drought-like for a while so it's needed and good for us, etc, etc. I'm just really tired of it. I like Texas because of the sun. If I wanted unending rain I'd move to Seattle.
The trees have finally begun to change color. My peach tree has dropped about a third of it's leaves, but most of them are still green, probably because we haven't had any cool weather until recently. Yesterday was probably our lowest temp so far, around 50. Luckily the grass has slowed down so I won't be mowing much more this year.
Last week I broke down and called a plumber. I've had a swampy spot in my front yard near my foundation for a couple of months, and I've been spending some time in denial, convincing myself that it was due to all the rain we've had. But it was getting increasingly swampy and this month's water bill arrived. The usage was higher than in August when I was watering to keep the grass alive. So I called the plumber. I was really afraid that this was related to a foundation problem, because I've noticed some cracks that I've been keeping an eye on. So I was worried that they'd have to dig through my foundation to find the leak, and maybe repair the foundation. Luckily, they found a leak after only digging up under the shrubbery in front of my house. They replaced the leaking pipe/valve and left me with only a muddy patch in my front lawn where the swampy area was. I felt sorry for them because there was so much ground water there from the leak that they were digging though soupy mud and having to pump water out of the hole occasionally. Now I'm waiting for that area to dry up from all that water. Continuous rain isn't helping it dry up. I guess I'll be totally convinced that the problem is fixed when that area dries up. Who, me, a skeptic? Well maybe.
Yesterday I was at Lowe's for some stuff and ended up talking to a guy about new carpet and ceramic tile for my house. I've been wanting to do that since I moved in, but there's always something else that needs to be done first. And that's still true. I need to have the foundation checked before I have work done on the house. But since I broke down and called the plumber, maybe I can get into a groove and call someone about the foundation. Plus, I figure that if I have plans to replace carpet and tile, it'll force me to do the foundation first. So I started planning yesterday. The only question I have right now is: WHY ARE THERE SO DAMN MANY COLORS OF CARPET AND TILE?! Oatbran? Hacienda Tan? Goldwash? You're kidding, right?
This is going to take some time, figuring out what colors I want. Plus I want to replace the counter tops in the kitchen first, which means more color decisions. But if I don't start somewhere, I'll never start. So yesterday I started learning about carpet and tile. I figure if I can pick those colors it might help me decide on the counter tops. And given my lack of decisiveness for this type of thing, I'll have plenty of time to get the foundation checked and finish cleaning out the garage before any of the work will start.
The garage has to be cleaned out because I'll need it as a place for the cats to stay while the house is being worked on. I've been working on the garage slowly over weekends when I have time. So far I've taken 10 large bags of trash out of there, and I'm still working on it. Who knew I had so much junk in there? A convenient dropping place for stuff I guess. But it needs to be clean enough that the cats won't pull anything over on themselves or poison themselves with stuff that's in there.
Wow. They were right about the clouds. Even though it was completely clear at dawn this morning, it's now completely overcast. Too bad. I was hoping for another day of sunshine. I suppose I'll have to wait a while.
Anyway, that's all for today. I'll keep you posted on the renovations and repairs as they go.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The critters
So the week I started back to work from vacation I caught the flu, and was out pretty sick with it. 
Luckily, my immune system was up to the challenge, so except for some difficulty getting a voice back, I'm well again. I'd like to know here I picked it up, though. I knew I shouldn't have done that last round of mall shopping.
Luckily, my immune system was up to the challenge, so except for some difficulty getting a voice back, I'm well again. I'd like to know here I picked it up, though. I knew I shouldn't have done that last round of mall shopping.I did say that I would post pictures of some of the small animals I saw on my vacation, not just bird pictures. This post is for that . . . to post a few pictures which are mostly of squirrels.
This first picture is of one of the small rock squirrels that were up on the top of Angel's Landing. Usually there are LOTS of tiny chipmunks up here, but this year they were not around, just the small rock squirrels.
Small animals are not much better at holding still than birds or small children, but I seem to have a
little better luck with them. Or maybe I just try more pictures of animals, so I have a better chance of getting a few decent ones. Most of the animal pictures I have this year turned out to be of squirrels and lizards. We didn't really see any of the big animals this year except the ever-present mule deer and their fawns. No bighorn sheep, although I always keep an eye out for them. We did see a really pretty red fox alongside the road at Wolf Creek Pass, and I saw the coyote and roadrunner, but I didn't get pictures of those encounters. 
Small animals are not much better at holding still than birds or small children, but I seem to have a
little better luck with them. Or maybe I just try more pictures of animals, so I have a better chance of getting a few decent ones. Most of the animal pictures I have this year turned out to be of squirrels and lizards. We didn't really see any of the big animals this year except the ever-present mule deer and their fawns. No bighorn sheep, although I always keep an eye out for them. We did see a really pretty red fox alongside the road at Wolf Creek Pass, and I saw the coyote and roadrunner, but I didn't get pictures of those encounters. 
The rock squirrels around the campground in Zion were generally larger than the ones up on Angel's Landing. This picture on the left above is a really fat one that was hanging around the campsite, and the picture to the right is a young one. They're kind of pretty with their spotted fur which shows up best on the little guy.
The other type of squirrel I took pictures of on this trip were the black 
Abert's squirrel. People also call them Ebert's squirrels, or tassel-eared squirrels. They come in different colors, but the one's around my sister's place are solid black. As can be seen by this picture on the left below, they like sugar water! This one was drinking from this hummingbird feeder about 30 minutes after we got it refilled and rehung one afternoon. 
They have long tails and tasseled ears and spend as much time around the bird feeders and drinking from the birdbath as the birds do. I was surprised to see them drinking from the hummingbird feeder, though.
Abert's squirrel. People also call them Ebert's squirrels, or tassel-eared squirrels. They come in different colors, but the one's around my sister's place are solid black. As can be seen by this picture on the left below, they like sugar water! This one was drinking from this hummingbird feeder about 30 minutes after we got it refilled and rehung one afternoon. 
They have long tails and tasseled ears and spend as much time around the bird feeders and drinking from the birdbath as the birds do. I was surprised to see them drinking from the hummingbird feeder, though.The last picture is of a whiptail lizard. These things were all over the Zion campground area this year, especially a whole slew of little tiny ones everywhere. They have long blue tails and are all female. They reproduce by parthenogenesis. They're also very fast, so pictures are tough, but this little one liked this small patch of grassy sunlight enough that she hung out long enough for a shot. Of course this is taken from a considerable distance, but you can see her pretty well. 
Monday, September 7, 2009
Vacation birds
This post is a little bit in honor of my bird-fanatic friend. I've only relatively recently started taking (attempting to take) pictures of birds, and I blame her. Birds are really hard to take pictures of with 
a digital camera. Kind of like my grand-niece now that she's walking. You get the perfect shot and by the time the camera takes it, she's across the room. Birds are like that ...no concept of 'hold still for the camera, please'. I do have a few pictures of the birds I saw this year on vacation, so I thought I'd post them.
The first picture is looking down off the side of the trail at Angel's Landing at a pair of peregrine falcons. This picture was actually taken in 2003 when we were out there, but I saw the falcons this year too. I just didn't get close enough to take a picture this year. It's cool that they nest around Angel's Landing. Pretty much the only year we haven't seen them was last year when we saw the condors.
Two birds that were kind enough to hold still for the camera were this green-tailed towhee from the
campsite at Bryce and this young western bluebird in the campsite at Zion. Both birds were foraging around the campsites so I had time to take pictures. I will say that I have 'several' pictures of both birds, and these are the ones that came out best. Neither bird really wanted to pose for me in full sunlight so the pictures are darker than I would like, but I think you can see them. The towhee has a red crest and green back and tail, and the little bluebird has a red breast with blue wing and tail feathers. This young one still had some speckling on the head and down into the back and breast.
The rest of my bird pictures are from my sister's place in Colorado.
She has bird feeders and 
birdbaths which attract a fairly nice variety of birds, including this downy woodpecker on the right and this white-breasted nuthatch on the left. The woodpecker was interesting. It kept flying back and forth from the bird feeder to the tree. I've never seen a woodpecker interested in seeds in a bird feeder, but this little guy kept going back and forth and back and forth. I actually have a picture of him flying between the two, and multiple pictures of him on the tree trunk, but this bird feeder picture came out the best.
My sister also hangs out thistle sacks so she has quite a crowd of finches that aggregate.
They jockey for position on the thistle sacks and then 
visit the birdbath, where they have a nice bobbing and drinking session. These four little guys looked like they were doing an alternating dance routine since their bobbing was nicely timed.
Anyway this is it for my bird post. I'll try to post some critter pictures next.
a digital camera. Kind of like my grand-niece now that she's walking. You get the perfect shot and by the time the camera takes it, she's across the room. Birds are like that ...no concept of 'hold still for the camera, please'. I do have a few pictures of the birds I saw this year on vacation, so I thought I'd post them.The first picture is looking down off the side of the trail at Angel's Landing at a pair of peregrine falcons. This picture was actually taken in 2003 when we were out there, but I saw the falcons this year too. I just didn't get close enough to take a picture this year. It's cool that they nest around Angel's Landing. Pretty much the only year we haven't seen them was last year when we saw the condors.
Two birds that were kind enough to hold still for the camera were this green-tailed towhee from the
campsite at Bryce and this young western bluebird in the campsite at Zion. Both birds were foraging around the campsites so I had time to take pictures. I will say that I have 'several' pictures of both birds, and these are the ones that came out best. Neither bird really wanted to pose for me in full sunlight so the pictures are darker than I would like, but I think you can see them. The towhee has a red crest and green back and tail, and the little bluebird has a red breast with blue wing and tail feathers. This young one still had some speckling on the head and down into the back and breast. The rest of my bird pictures are from my sister's place in Colorado.
She has bird feeders and 
birdbaths which attract a fairly nice variety of birds, including this downy woodpecker on the right and this white-breasted nuthatch on the left. The woodpecker was interesting. It kept flying back and forth from the bird feeder to the tree. I've never seen a woodpecker interested in seeds in a bird feeder, but this little guy kept going back and forth and back and forth. I actually have a picture of him flying between the two, and multiple pictures of him on the tree trunk, but this bird feeder picture came out the best. My sister also hangs out thistle sacks so she has quite a crowd of finches that aggregate.
They jockey for position on the thistle sacks and then 
visit the birdbath, where they have a nice bobbing and drinking session. These four little guys looked like they were doing an alternating dance routine since their bobbing was nicely timed. Anyway this is it for my bird post. I'll try to post some critter pictures next.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Vacation .... end *sigh*
Hard to imagine that this vacation is almost over. Three weeks goes so fast when you're playing. I'm incredibly glad to be able to take three weeks at a time, though. I really have time to decompress from work. I wish I could say I don't think about work at all, but I still randomly check and clear emails from work. At 20-50 emails a day there, three weeks worth would take me days to wade through if I didn't clear them at least a few times while I'm away. 
It has been a great vacation. This is us at the top of Angel's Landing. The picture was taken with my camera perched on the ground, the timer set and us at the cliff edge a little lower down. The timer gives you 12 seconds to get into place. My sister was a tad nervous about me running for the cliff edge after pushing the button, so she's got a hand out to stop me if necessary. *laughing* The image of her actually trying to prevent me from going over is a little scary though. It was cool, windy and gorgeous up there.
We didn't do quite as much hiking as usual this year, but we were also a little more laid back than usual. We actually didn't get up before dawn every day. That's pretty much unheard of for me. I'm usually dragging everyone out to get our hikes started early or to break camp and move to the next place early. The weather was cool this year though. In past years it's been necessary to start hikes that early or we bake during the day. Temps in Zion and Arches can be brutal. This time though, instead of 103-107 degrees, the temps in Zion peaked out at about 86! Nice. We had a small amount of rain in both Zion and Bryce, but we have a canopy that works great as protection from both rain and sun.
Of course, since it was cooler in Zion, it was also cooler in Bryce, so I was COLD. Usually I am a little cold in Bryce anyway because it's always significantly cooler than Zion due to it's elevation. 
This year, especially coming from the Texas heat, I was cold. This picture is me bundled in more layers than I usually am at Bryce. It didn't hit freezing at night, but the night temps were in the high 30s, low 40s, which is colder than I like it. So we slept in until after daybreak (snug, warm sleeping bags!) and hiked later than usual. The Bryce hike is down into the canyon, so of course coming out you have to climb back out of the canyon. It's often brutally hot on the climb out, steep with little shade. Even starting later this year, the climb out wasn't bad. It was still steep of course, but the lack of shade didn't cause us to feel like we'd have heat stroke before we made the top. It's amazing how much difference that temperature can make.
This year, especially coming from the Texas heat, I was cold. This picture is me bundled in more layers than I usually am at Bryce. It didn't hit freezing at night, but the night temps were in the high 30s, low 40s, which is colder than I like it. So we slept in until after daybreak (snug, warm sleeping bags!) and hiked later than usual. The Bryce hike is down into the canyon, so of course coming out you have to climb back out of the canyon. It's often brutally hot on the climb out, steep with little shade. Even starting later this year, the climb out wasn't bad. It was still steep of course, but the lack of shade didn't cause us to feel like we'd have heat stroke before we made the top. It's amazing how much difference that temperature can make. I continued to see lots of wildlife on the trip. We didn't see condors this
year in Zion like we did last year, but we saw the peregrine falcons that nest around Angel's Landing. This picture is a small rock squirrel that was hanging around the top of the trail at Angel's. Many large relatives of his were hanging out around our campsite. We also had the usual assortment of lizards, including a whole bunch of small whiptails and a large collared lizard hanging out on the trees around the campsite.
year in Zion like we did last year, but we saw the peregrine falcons that nest around Angel's Landing. This picture is a small rock squirrel that was hanging around the top of the trail at Angel's. Many large relatives of his were hanging out around our campsite. We also had the usual assortment of lizards, including a whole bunch of small whiptails and a large collared lizard hanging out on the trees around the campsite. Due to time constraints, we only hiked the Delicate Arch trail in Arches, and we skipped Capital Reef park this year. Both parks are totally awesome (well, all four are awesome, actually), but we just had to decide what we had time to do. We had time do shopping at each place, which is a "must". I am an avowed shopaholic, so it had to fit into the schedule.
At the end of the trip we went back to Denver and took my grand-niece and her parents to the Denver Zoo. It was great fun, as was staying with them in their new house. I'm not sure if I've ever been to the Denver Zoo before, but I must have been small if I have. It's very impressive and really needs a lot of time in order to see everything. We saw quite a bit and most importantly, we got to spend time with my nephew, niece and grand-niece. Waaaaaay fun. Friday, August 21, 2009
Vacation . . . Start!
Yay! I'm in Colorado, chilling at my sister's place. We'll leave for Utah tomorrow, but she's working today so I'm being a slob and simply enjoying not working. I'm also checking all our supplies for the 100 millionth time. Who me? Anal retentive? Obsessive-compulsive? Of course not! I just like to be prepared. Right.
I thought my i-pod had somehow fried on the drive up here and was going to be very sad, but after some back and forth it seems to have managed to revive itself. I wouldn't have been totally music-less because I brought a bunch of CDs. My sister doesn't have an appreciation for my anime music on the i-pod, so I brought 'normal' music for her. I would have been a tiny bit distressed to have to listen to only 'normal' music on this vacation. Luckily, that seems to have been averted, although I'm fairly nervous about plugging the i-pod back into my car system.
I ran into a fair amount of construction on I-25 in Colorado. That's normal though. Summer + Colorado = road construction/repair. It's a given. I did get to take a scenic tour of Walsenburg since they had I-25 closed there and detoured traffic through the city. I had to laugh though. All the "expect delays" signs had me worried. I forgot that this was semi-rural Colorado. Their delays can't hold a candle to big metroplex delays for construction or wrecks. Plus it was mid-afternoon on a weekday. I took a scenic tour, but I wasn't really delayed much.
I've already gotten to see some interesting wildlife on this trip. In the Texas panhandle I saw a roadrunner adult with a young one come across the road. In Colorado in the Wilkerson Pass area a coyote ran across the road in front of my car. And of course here I've seen all sorts of deer with spotted fawns. For a basic city-girl, these are fun wildlife to spot. I'm looking forward to seeing more on the rest of the trip.
My sister's place is an ideal place to chill. It's so beautiful and scenic, and yesterday was one of those perfect days. Gorgeous, without a cloud in the sky, warm enough at this altitude that even I stayed in the shade. Partly that's because I burn easily at this altitude, but also it probably was upper 70's here yesterday. Quite a change from 100+, so of course I had my jacket handy to slip on when the breeze came up later in the afternoon.
I'm finally getting into the swing of being on vacation. By the time we hit Utah it should be real to me, although I'm already thoroughly enjoying being lazy. I'll try to have pictures the next time I post.
I thought my i-pod had somehow fried on the drive up here and was going to be very sad, but after some back and forth it seems to have managed to revive itself. I wouldn't have been totally music-less because I brought a bunch of CDs. My sister doesn't have an appreciation for my anime music on the i-pod, so I brought 'normal' music for her. I would have been a tiny bit distressed to have to listen to only 'normal' music on this vacation. Luckily, that seems to have been averted, although I'm fairly nervous about plugging the i-pod back into my car system.
I ran into a fair amount of construction on I-25 in Colorado. That's normal though. Summer + Colorado = road construction/repair. It's a given. I did get to take a scenic tour of Walsenburg since they had I-25 closed there and detoured traffic through the city. I had to laugh though. All the "expect delays" signs had me worried. I forgot that this was semi-rural Colorado. Their delays can't hold a candle to big metroplex delays for construction or wrecks. Plus it was mid-afternoon on a weekday. I took a scenic tour, but I wasn't really delayed much.
I've already gotten to see some interesting wildlife on this trip. In the Texas panhandle I saw a roadrunner adult with a young one come across the road. In Colorado in the Wilkerson Pass area a coyote ran across the road in front of my car. And of course here I've seen all sorts of deer with spotted fawns. For a basic city-girl, these are fun wildlife to spot. I'm looking forward to seeing more on the rest of the trip.
My sister's place is an ideal place to chill. It's so beautiful and scenic, and yesterday was one of those perfect days. Gorgeous, without a cloud in the sky, warm enough at this altitude that even I stayed in the shade. Partly that's because I burn easily at this altitude, but also it probably was upper 70's here yesterday. Quite a change from 100+, so of course I had my jacket handy to slip on when the breeze came up later in the afternoon.
I'm finally getting into the swing of being on vacation. By the time we hit Utah it should be real to me, although I'm already thoroughly enjoying being lazy. I'll try to have pictures the next time I post.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Pre-Vacation
That's not quite true. I'm actually in my vacation, rather than pre-vacation, but I'm busily running all the errands and doing all the chores necessary before a camping trip so it doesn't feel like vacation yet. I've been so busy that it's a good thing I have a couple of days free before taking off for points north and west. Yesterday I had all the maintenance work done on my car and did massive grocery shopping. I also dragged out all the camping/hiking gear, packed food boxes and just generally amassed all the stuff that needs to go with me. I'm taking more cold-weather clothes this year since word is that Colorado has been cold in the mornings already. Cold for this warm-weather person anyway.
Today I plan on accomplishing three main tasks: 1) doing major yard work. The grass in my yard is LONG, but I've put off mowing until today because it's going to have to go for two weeks now. So I'll be struggling to get it mowed and edged today (temps are still close to 100!) 2) get the topper installed on my car and the car packed except for essentials and ice chests. This will be the first year I've put the topper on by myself so we'll see how that goes. It's not particularly heavy ... just awkwardly bulky. I want to leave early in the morning, so I'll do as much as possible today. and 3) get the cats set. Really good cleaning of the cat boxes and extra attention for the cat kids. Addy started moping as soon as I started pulling camping gear out, and has been sticking to my side like glue. And of course, Zoe's eye started weeping last night. Zoe has periodic allergies in her eyes and one or both will start weeping and get all red and inflamed. Plus her little face is all dirty from the weeping. It usually resolves by itself, occasionally needs eye drops. Naturally it would start this right before I leave. I met with the pet sitter, and she should be fine with the cats. She didn't actually get to meet them because they disappeared while she was over. Not her fault. My cat kids are schtizy anyway, and I also had three door-to-door sales people ring the bell during the time she was here. Of course the cats were nowhere to be found.
So it's 6:00 am and I'm waiting for it to be light enough to start mowing. I had planned to sleep a .JPG)
little later this morning since I'm planning on getting up really early tomorrow, but I was awake at 4:50 am. That's about 20 minutes later than my alarm usually goes off, but I really intended to sleep later than that. It's hard for me to sleep late. I'll probably start mowing around 9:00 am, rather than when it gets light. That'll give all the responsible neighbors time to get up and be gone for work. Damp morning grass isn't a problem because it's been so dry here. Any moisture in my lawn is pretty much due to me watering. I hope we get some rain while I'm gone or my lawn and shrubbery are going to be drought-stressed.
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little later this morning since I'm planning on getting up really early tomorrow, but I was awake at 4:50 am. That's about 20 minutes later than my alarm usually goes off, but I really intended to sleep later than that. It's hard for me to sleep late. I'll probably start mowing around 9:00 am, rather than when it gets light. That'll give all the responsible neighbors time to get up and be gone for work. Damp morning grass isn't a problem because it's been so dry here. Any moisture in my lawn is pretty much due to me watering. I hope we get some rain while I'm gone or my lawn and shrubbery are going to be drought-stressed.This is a picture of part of the trail from the first hike we plan to do, Angels' Landing. It's one of my favorite hikes, partly due to this section of trail. It's almost more of a climb than a hike, what I like to call a scramble. They placed chains strategically to help you with the steep and slick places. It's really fun, but definitely not a hike you want to do it you have issues with heights. We've seen nesting peregrine falcons along this hike and last year we saw condors. I'm hoping to see the condors again this year.
Okay, can't get to reminiscing about past trips. I've still got a fair amount to accomplish before this one, and it's light enough to let the cats out and start some things. I hope to post during the trip, but if not I'll definitely post when I get back.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Yo!
To say that I'm behind in my blogging would be an understatement of epic proportions. This summer has been even worse than I expected, as far as time to blog. It's a week into August already!This picture is my sage out in front of my house. It's been blooming this week because of the soaking rain we got last weekend. It seems to bloom randomly, but usually after a dry spell followed by a good rain. It's gorgeous when it's covered with these purple blossoms, and the honeybees love it. It's usually covered with them as well.
I taught my last biochemistry lecture this last week, so next week is the final exam and then I'm done. I've already even figured out all the grades, minus the final. After this next week I'm on vacation for three weeks and I am soooooo ready. It's been a long and busy summer, and I'm more than ready for a break. I'm headed back to Utah and Colorado. I haven't even started thinking in terms of vacation yet .... what I need to take, what I need to buy, food supplies, camping supplies, etc, etc. I'm not planning on leaving town immediately though. I'll have a couple free days to get my act together. Usually I go to Utah first and then hit my sister's place in Colorado on the way back. This year I'll be going to Colorado first to pick her up. We'll head for Utah for some camping and hiking, then come back and visit my nephew, niece and great-niece in Denver. It should be amazing fun.
I've been searching for a pet sitter. My friends who usually keep an eye on the spoiled cat-kids are both going to be out of town the same time I am. The cat girls are too old and set in their ways and schitzy around strangers for me to board them for an extended time. I have a week left to find someone I'm comfortable with leaving my house and my cat-kids with. Wish me luck.
Anyway, not much of a blog but better than nothing. I'll be working on getting back to this more often.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
4th of July Weekend
Wow! I knew I wouldn't have much time time to blog this summer, but I expected to get around to it more than I have been. Time just gets away from me, and here we are half way through 2009. This feels like the first weekend that I haven't been busy since sometime in May. Although I'm somewhat impressed that I managed not to be busy on July 4th weekend.
Things are pretty slow around here right now though. The temperatures every day the last week or so have been in the 100's, and my water bill is going to be astronomical. It's a tough decision every summer. High water bills or a totally withered and dead lawn. Plus the peach tree needs water.
The peach tree ended up having a fair number of peaches, but they were small and the birds and insects got most of them. I ate a couple but mostly I still spend time every evening picking up half eaten and rotting ones from the ground under the tree. That won't be for much longer though. They're mostly gone from the tree now.
I'm happy to say that in retrospect, I totally enjoyed my trip to Innsbruck. I haven't had time to think about it much, but it was really fun, and everything went smoothly. The whole travel experience, the talk, the congress, sightseeing, shopping, everything. I've got a trip coming up in a couple of weeks to Chicago whch I hope goes as smoothly. Of course that one's a piece of cake in comparison .... a single hop with no connections and a relatively short flight. My only concern will be the weight of my checked luggage since I'll be there almost a week and need clothes for semi-formal functions. I got a nice check-in agent coming back from Innsbruck who let me slide with my luggage weighing almost 24 kilos, which I'm pretty sure is over the 50 lb weight limit.
Anyway, this blog will have no pics today because I'm blogging from a laptop and all my pics are on my other computers. After dragging my really heavy laptop to Austria I decided that if I'm going to be traveling so much in 2009-2010 and I need to have a computer with me, I was going to get a lighter one. So I did. This little one is still a full computer but it's close to the size of those little toys you can get for a few hundred dollars that essentially let you surf the internet and email people. It's nice. Sony of course. I'm partial to Sony electronics, but then I've had really good luck with them, or they're made really well. Whatever the reason, they seem to last.
So here's a short blog, and hopefully I'll get back in the habit of blogging. Later.
Things are pretty slow around here right now though. The temperatures every day the last week or so have been in the 100's, and my water bill is going to be astronomical. It's a tough decision every summer. High water bills or a totally withered and dead lawn. Plus the peach tree needs water.
The peach tree ended up having a fair number of peaches, but they were small and the birds and insects got most of them. I ate a couple but mostly I still spend time every evening picking up half eaten and rotting ones from the ground under the tree. That won't be for much longer though. They're mostly gone from the tree now.
I'm happy to say that in retrospect, I totally enjoyed my trip to Innsbruck. I haven't had time to think about it much, but it was really fun, and everything went smoothly. The whole travel experience, the talk, the congress, sightseeing, shopping, everything. I've got a trip coming up in a couple of weeks to Chicago whch I hope goes as smoothly. Of course that one's a piece of cake in comparison .... a single hop with no connections and a relatively short flight. My only concern will be the weight of my checked luggage since I'll be there almost a week and need clothes for semi-formal functions. I got a nice check-in agent coming back from Innsbruck who let me slide with my luggage weighing almost 24 kilos, which I'm pretty sure is over the 50 lb weight limit.
Anyway, this blog will have no pics today because I'm blogging from a laptop and all my pics are on my other computers. After dragging my really heavy laptop to Austria I decided that if I'm going to be traveling so much in 2009-2010 and I need to have a computer with me, I was going to get a lighter one. So I did. This little one is still a full computer but it's close to the size of those little toys you can get for a few hundred dollars that essentially let you surf the internet and email people. It's nice. Sony of course. I'm partial to Sony electronics, but then I've had really good luck with them, or they're made really well. Whatever the reason, they seem to last.
So here's a short blog, and hopefully I'll get back in the habit of blogging. Later.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Home from Innsbruck
Home again. Much as I love to travel, it's always nice to be home. I may be doing an occasional random Innsbruck post or two in the future to try to post more pictures of the MANY I took while I was over there. This picture was taken from the Imperial Garden, the Hofgarten, which was basically outside the back door of my hotel. Because it was so close, I got a chance to wander in it several times. The garden was huge, well-kept and gorgeous and contained an immense variety of trees and shrubbery, probably from all over. This massive tree was completely in bloom, and like most of the varieties in the garden, I have no idea what it was. It was beautiful. I have so many pictures from this trip that it's difficult to decide which ones to include in this blog. I have more pictures from the church, but given that I've already posted some from there, I should post other pictures. I have quite a few from this garden also, as well as quite a few that I took when we went up the mountain. None of the pictures really do justice to the scenery, but maybe they give an idea of how beautiful it all was.
One afternoon two of my colleagues and I took off for some sightseeing. We rode the cable cars up to the top of one of the mountains which surround Innsbruck. From there you have a pretty spectacular view of the Alps, as well as a great view down at Innsbruck. The day we went it had rained in the morning, and there were still quite a few clouds between us and Innsbruck. You could get occasional peeks down, and it was cool to see the cable for the cable cars disappear into the clouds and then to travel through them. This picture to the left shows that. The clouds would hide us and then pass by, or we would climb out of them. The trip began at the Congress Center and a tram takes you through four stations to where the cable car starts. The tram rail rises very steeply and so the cars are set up to pretty much stay level. Unlike a train, the tram cars are apparently hooked to the track so that on the steep sections if you're in the first car, you're looking out over the top of the cars behind you since they're lower on the track. At Hungerburg you get off the tram and walk to the cable car station. There are restaurants and houses there ( a small town?) and on the way down we stopped for strudel and drinks. Going up, we just wanted to get to the top. 
There are two cable cars to go to the top. The first one is large and takes you from Hungerburg to Seegrube. There are two cars for this section, one going up while the other one comes down. The next section runs between Seegrube and Hafelekar and has only one cable car running up and back. At the top there is a short hike up to the summit where there is a cross with the words, "Bergsohne Innsbruck 2007" on it . This picture gives you an idea of the hike up to the summit although the picture is probably too small to let you see cross. One of my friends and I hiked up to the summit, took pictures at the cross and looking down to try to get a good shot of Innsbruck through the clouds. 
We never did get a great view of Innsbruck from the top because the clouds kept passing by. We had good views of it from the cable cars once we got below the clouds, but couldn't get good pictures from the cable cars. This shot is through/around the clouds from the top. Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Dom St. Jakob
I wanted to post a few more pictures of the church where the organ concert took place. The internet connection that I have has been less than cooperative, so we'll see if I can manage to do it. This is a picture facing the altar of St. Jakob. The church is very beautiful, but very overly ornate in the Baroque style. It was built between 1717 -1724, heavily damaged in WWII, and restored. The ceiling is completely painted, just like the area over the alter. Although I also have pictures of the ceiling, they'll have to wait. It was all I could do to get these two pictures to post this afternoon.
The whole church is very ornate, with small sculptures and paintings throughout, as well as bigger figures. Most of the decorative pieces that are found in this church, I have no idea what their significance is, like this gold and silver structure which juts out from the wall above the height of a person's head.
And of course, as can be seen from the last post, the organ fits the style of the rest of the church. The pictures don't really do any of this justice, but especially the organ. The biggest pipes are bigger aound than a man's head, and the sound that can be produced by it is terrific. The lowest sounds seem to shake the building and set up an answering vibration in your chest. Today we took the cable cars to the top of the mountain. Waaaaay fun. And of course I have pictures. I'll post them later since every time I try loading a picture it tends to make me lose my internet connection. I seem to be a day behind in my posts.
Time to go meet folks again, so more later.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Organ Concert
This will be quick today because I've gotta meet some people. Just thought you might like to see the organ that the concert last night was performed on. Pretty awesome, huh? It was huge and gorgeous and could create a massive amount of sound. The concert was . . . 'unique'. 'Experimental' would be the best description, I think. It sounded more like 'noise' to me, but quite obviously I'm not an expert. The church was gorgeous though. Dom St. Jakob. I'll post more pictures later.
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