It's been a busy week

I haven't posted much of substance lately, as I haven't felt like I had two consecutive minutes to do it with. Probably not true, but we've been busy lately.

Last week we painted two walls. One bright blue monstrosity in the Mizz's bathroom. He was very excited, since "blue" is one of his stronger words. Franny was excited too, since it meant she could get rid of the Hawaii shower curtain and replace it with the fish one and then get out all the other new decorative and functional fish stuff that Target forced on her. I personally liked the old shower curtain better, but it definitely doesn't go with the blue.

The other wall was in the living room and was a far more extensive project. Not the painting specifically, but the picking of the color. And the wall. We'd been tossing color ideas around for a while, but we finally settled on a tan/taupe/sand/dirt color that seemed to go well with the trim and with the black tree sculpture over the fireplace. So, while I was gone in Bend, I got a call, "Guess what the Mizz and I just did. There's paint on the wall." When I got home, I found that this meant two swaths of paint beside one of the posters we have. It wasn't a very representative idea of what it would really look like, so the poster came down and it widened into a three foot square. Needless to say, after much wrangling, we decided that it really wasn't the color we were after. Or the right wall. So there's now a patch of not-quite-the-right white that will eventually have to be dealt with. But in the end, we decided on a sage color and a whole different and much larger wall. I spent three nights painting and edging and 2nd coating and such, but in the end, it came out great.

I got to remember again that I hate edging. It's not that I'm terrible at it. I usually end up with a better job than lots of others I've seen. The problem is that I am a perfectionist about stuff like that, and I don't have the skill to do it as well as I think it should be done. This is mainly only a problem while I am doing it; after the fact it usually seems fine. But it makes for a very irritating experience.

I also found that I'm very impressed with Sherwin-Williams paints. Their Duration line of paint (top of the line) was on sale, and now I know that I will probably buy it again even if I have to pay full price. It went on very smoothly with almost no splattering, was very easy to clean up, and has a much better than normal container with a handle and pour-spout. They also did a great job of matching the color we had chosen from the Home Depot paint chips.

I also clipped the Mizz's hair one evening. I say clipped since cut would imply a thorough job. Mostly, I cut off the curls/rat tail from the back and over his ears, although I though the latter was going to get me divorced. I left a little more over the ears to placate the wife, but I had to get some of it off so he didn't look like a Kewpie Doll. Between the Mizz's distress and the Mama's distress, I did the most complete job I could in two minutes with maybe 8 or 10 cuts. I think he came out okay though.

Saturday, I finished the garden digging that I started a couple weeks ago. We also planted a bunch of flowers and a couple tomato plants. So far the only thing coming out of the garden has been sprouts from the squash seeds in the composter. A couple years ago, we tossed in a few decorative gourds that we no longer wanted. From what I hear, everybody knows you don't put squash seeds in the composter. That wasn't true then, but it sure is now. Small composters rarely get hot enough to destroy those tough little suckers. Anyway, those are the only real sprouts that seem to be doing very well. I'm ripping them out and hoping the other tiny little things I'm seeing are flowers and not weeds.

Also on Saturday, we invited some friends over for a Memorial Day weekend cookout/potluck. Unlike my usual burger and dog thing, I made Lemon-Rosemary Chicken Skewers from a recipe Franny found. I followed the preparation/marinating directions, but I grilled instead of baked. And since we cooked after everyone was there, we skipped the dipping sauce part. By all accounts, they were excellent. Franny also found some cool flat skewers. They are thin strips of bamboo maybe 1/4" wide with one pointed end. I'm not sure whether it made much difference for the chicken since that sticks pretty quickly, but it was awesome for grilling the vegetable slices. No more rolling around and only cooking one side. Everything turns just like you want. Good find, Franny.

Sunday, Franny and I got to go out. Without the Mizz. We left him with a sitter to go to a friend's sushi party. Lucky for me, there was stir-fry beef too. It was actually a surprise birthday party for her too, and we took a couple cakes that I made. Nothing fancy, just from the box, although I did mix Bailey's into the frosting on one of them. Mmmm. I wasn't impressed with my rushed decorating, but nobody else seemed to mind. The only reason I got to make the cakes was that Gina is the baker and her boyfriend was having trouble finding any of her friends that knew how to make a cake. Since I can follow directions, that apparently makes me the most capable. Kinda sad.

Monday was much more relaxed, what with all the Mango-tinis at the party. We did make it out to visit some friend and the other little Mizz. I don't get to see my Mizz interacting with other kids all that often, and it's fun to see them play together even if neither one of them quite understands what the other is trying to do all the time. It was especially cute watching our Mizz push the other one around in a wagon. Each of them seemed pretty happy with his part of the deal.

Back to work has actually seemed like kind of a break, although with a bit of driving. For the last three days, I've been travelling up and down the Columbia Gorge working at an aluminum plant, a couple wastewater plants, a water plant, a brewery (smelled great), and a couple other labs. It's been a beautiful couple days for that trip. The aluminum plant is actually kind of interesting, as it's the only one left in the Northwest that's doing much. They are actually only melting down scrap aluminum and recycling it, but at least that's something. There used to be something like 20 aluminum plants in the Northwest mainly due to the cheap hydropower we used to have. However with the power crunch a few years ago (thanks again, Enron), the days of cheap electricity are gone, and so too the aluminum industry in this country. We can no longer compete with developing countries with little or no environmental and labor regulations.

Sorry. Not trying to start a rant there. Not in the mood today. You see, I got an unplanned massage this evening. Franny had one scheduled, but ended up with plans that were going to end too late. So, rather than deal with a cancellation, I took advantage of it. After driving 600 miles in the last three days, it was welcome, and now I feel great. Thanks again, Franny.