My Hero

It's a bird; it's a plane; no, it's Jeff to the rescue!

I had just picked up Schrodinger from the vet following his neutering surgery. Since animals have to go under anesthesia on an empty stomach, he hadn't eaten for over twenty-four hours. Our little guy was pretty ravenous and devoured dinner. He still wanted more, so we gave him a little extra dry food and went back to cooking our own dinner. That's when we heard the strange, high pitched wheezing noise. We ran back in to see Dinger apparently choking on a piece of kibble. Jeff gave him several firm compressions around the ribcage and abdomen, and finally out flew the offending morsel. Heidi quickly gobbled it up, so poor Dinger lost his testicles and his tidbit all in the same day!

I was pretty proud of Jeff! Who knew the Heimlich maneuver worked on felines? Now, Jeff wanted it made clear that he did not give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a cat. All that was required was some quick wit and some manly squeezes!

Wet Feet

Not cold feet, as in backing out of something, but wet feet, as in changing horses mid stream!

After spending hours planning around the one inch mosaic tile I selected for the shower surround (and I mean hours!), we have scrapped that plan. Not because it wouldn't work eventually, but because inspiration struck while in the Lowes tile aisle!

To give you an idea of the magnitude of this change, I had better back up. To minimize tile cuts, we had measured and plotted every inch of the shower layout to perfection with the original tile I purchased in mind. We designed and built the shampoo niche to within an eighth of an inch specification so the tile patterns would fall just right. And then I had to go and fall in love with a different tile just one day before install!

I've mentioned some of the issues we had with the first tile. But we were moving forward pretty well and had everything on hand to start the job. I only ran to Lowes to pick up the flooring before the holidays. I will be forever grateful that the staff was stocking the tile department and had boxes and pallets all over the aisles. I grabbed what I needed, but had to detour down another aisle just to get out. And that's when I saw it! Lovely mosaic tile on clearance. Only $2.99 a square foot, in a 1x2 mini brick pattern, with mixed glass and travertine, picking up my bathroom colors AND the flooring tile I had just grabbed.

I stopped. I stared. I wavered, desperately sure that changing tile now would mess everything up. Why, we had just spent hours building the shower around a different size tile and mosaic sheet dimension! We couldn't change now, could we? Even though the new tile was cheaper? And prettier? And matched the flooring perfectly? What would Jeff say?!

I won't say it was a sign, but the store had exactly the right number of boxes I needed; no more, no less. And all in the same dye lot! I knew I could always bring the tile back, so I loaded those puppies up. All the way home, I wondered what Jeff would think. But I needn't have worried. When I got home and explained why I had 80 square feet of shower tile in the car when I went out for 50 square feet of flooring, he calmly listened to all the pros and cons, helped me carry in some samples of each tile to compare, and weighed in with his decision that...
He, too, liked the new option better!

So, the layout might not be perfect. There will be more cutting and fewer factory finished edges, since we didn't build with this tile in mind. But I will look at that shower and always know that sometimes, just sometimes, spontaneity and impulsiveness work together for an inspired design!

Our practice piece, after experimenting how to cut all those staggered edges!

Driving in Style

Meet Jeff's new love:



This is Cooper, the desire of Jeff's heart. You have to understand that Jeff really loves driving. I only see it as a means to an end, but driving is relaxing and enjoyable for Jeff.  He has never been one to lust after any material possession, but given his pleasure in driving, it's understandable that Jeff really likes convertibles.

So when his old commuter car started having major mechanical problems last year, we talked about replacing it with a convertible. It was a luxury, not a necessity, but since he took his old, bare bones 2000 Dodge Neon from cradle to grave (bought it new and put all 230,000+ miles on it), we felt it wasn't unreasonable.

We spent quite a lot of time this summer researching and test driving used convertibles, trying to find one that was reliable, gas efficient, and at the right price point. The Miata was too small, the Sebring too big, the BMW too expensive, the Honda hard to find, the Bug too "girly", the Mustang too much a gas-guzzler.  We drove hours each way to little used auto dealers to look and talk and haggle and ultimately walk away for one reason or another.

College started back, and Jeff had basically given up and decided to limp the old car through when he checked the local used auto websites again and saw this Mini Cooper! It was our "Goldilocks" moment. It's adorable, but still sporty and retro enough to be manly; has good gas mileage, but the 6 speed transmission and supercharger make it fun to drive; roomy enough for the nieces or other small guests to ride in the back seat on occasion; relatively spacious with the fold-down backseats and exterior luggage compartment; and packed with upgrades like electric seat warmers that will make those chilly days that much more comfortable when Jeff still wants the top down ;-).

Plus it's blue, which really brings out Jeff's eyes (okay, that last part factored not a bit, but it's still a bonus)!

The gift that keeps on giving!

As I type, Jeff is still pounding away on that infuriating fireplace! Little did I know when I asked for the wall and firebox to be opened that someone had WAY over-engineered the closure of the thing. Was there a simple piece of plywood or drywall over the hole? No. Was there a single stack of bricks closing up the opening? No. Were there thin mortar lines of hastily laid patching? No.

In fact, this firebox was basically a solid block of bricks and concrete mortar, built up layer by layer and cemented together into an integral mass. What was someone thinking? To make matters messier, the bricks are coated in soot; so, by default, is Jeff at this point.

I guess we should have suspected something like this. The last feature we tried to uncover, the heart pine floors in the dining room and kitchen, were buried under layers of linoleum and plywood nailed in columns and rows EVERY FOUR INCHES across the entire floor (remember this post?). Perhaps it speaks to the well-built construction of the house in general, but I could do with a little less brick-and-mortar and little more hole-in-the-wall!

Almost there:

Success!

There is still plenty to be done! We'll have to tidy up the plaster, patch some brick, cut back the baseboards to exactly the right width, lug the very heavy mantel in, position and attach it, reinstall the mirror, etc., etc., etc. But we'll enjoy our hole for the moment and try not to think about that yet.

Oh, and I think we may build a firepit outside with the extra brick, so add that to the list, too!

Everything a Girl Could Ask For...

For our twelfth anniversary, I asked Jeff for a hole in the wall. A literal one, not a reference to a dive or some smoky joint!

It's been twelve wonderful, exciting, adventurous, fulfilling years of matrimony on July 8th. We talked about a trip to the shore or some other vacation destination, but in the end, we preferred a quiet holiday at home. We are blessed with so many opportunities to travel and see and do that sometimes being in our cozy home is the best treat. We did do dinner (fabulous, fabulous restaurant!) and dancing last week, so we can count that as our romantic outing. And I finally got the present I've been really hoping for: a masonry chisel and a hole in the wall!

Before:

(You can see the strange peach colored hearth plate on the floor, and if you look hard, you can just make out the patched plaster.)

(Who knew the plaster would be well over an inch thick in places?!)

I've had two lovely, antique mantels waiting in the shop for over two years. I bought them even before we officially purchased the farmhouse, that's how long I've been hoping to do this project.

The study and the downstairs guest bedroom both have old fireplaces that have been long ago bricked up and plastered over. It's been my dream to open them back up and install the mantels, and Jeff took the first steps toward that! First with an exploratory hole, then with a fair amount of pounding and plaster dust, Jeff was wholly (ha, ha ;-) on board with my scheme. No better way to say "I love you" than a little house wrecking!

What I Did on Spring Break

As a stay-at-home wife right now, there isn't really a difference to my job based on Federal holidays and vacations. The cooking and baking still need to be done, the laundry continues to pile up, the animals require tending, the weeds keep growing, etc. But it's fun when Jeff has a break because then we can do those things together!

I'm only partially kidding. Poor Jeff feels like he's had a vacation when he can stay home and do my work with me. That'll teach me to whine and moan about how hard my tasks are sometimes!

We didn't go anywhere special, but we did enjoy Jeff's week off for Spring Break. We hosted a formal dinner party, built a portable pen for the ducklings, installed a new (rain-proof!) mailbox, cleaned and organized the shop, worked on the lawn, and watched several basketball tournament games. Jeff even tried his hand at some baking one afternoon when I wasn't feeling well. With supervision (and just a little hands-on help), he made flatbread and butterhorns! Here's a bit of our week in pictures.

New duckling pen:


Bat discovery while cleaning the shop:


Jeff's baking foray:


Dressing the dining room:

San Antonio

Jeff had a professional conference in San Antonio earlier this month, so I tagged along. It was beautiful weather and a gorgeous setting right down on the Riverwalk, so I entertained myself during the days and we had fun together in the evenings.

If you've never been to San Antonio, there is so much to do! I went up in the Tour of the Americas (built for the World's Fair) for a bird's eye view of the city. Then down through the parks and walking trails around the Riverwalk. One day I took the bus out of downtown and toured the Japanese Tea Garden and the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.











We, of course, saw the Alamo. It was a very special few weeks for the museum and shrine, as the historic letter written by Commander Travis requesting volunteers and stating their intent to fight (and die, if necessary) was on display inside the church. It had not been on the premises since it was written and sent 177 years ago! It was a very big deal, and there were lines up to five hours long to get in to see it. We toured the plaza, barracks, and other Alamo sites and made plans to come back to see the church and the letter another day. It turned out we saw the letter on the morning of March 6th, the same day the Alamo fell to Santa Anna all those decades ago. What interesting timing!







Since the Spurs were in town, Jeff hoped to see a pro NBA game. Several of his colleagues from the conference were interested, too, so Jeff arranged tickets for all of us to the Wednesday night game against the Chicago Bulls. It was aired on ESPN, so you might have seen us!







Dinners, a riverboat tour, and other enjoyable activities rounded out the week. All in all, a very fulfilling and fun time in Texas.

On Edge

Remodeling is stressful at the best  of times, but we had a very different edgy moment last night.

By posting this blog entry and photos, I will have to admit to a weakness for chocolate. And not even good quality chocolate; usually, any chocolate will do. So last night, while fretting over yet another bathroom decision gone wrong, I opened a package of peanut butter chocolate wafer bars and split one with Jeff. It was suppose to console me, but it ended up distracting Jeff!

We finished our treat and I went to wipe the butcherblock island counter of crumbs when Jeff interrupted me. I thought he was perturbed by a bug of some sort, but he was pointing and exclaiming about an inanimate object on the counter. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a piece of chocolate. No big deal; I was still worrying over the bathroom. But Jeff started admiring the chocolate from all sides and whipping out the iPhone for documentation. So I got closer. And this is what I saw.

Look at the little dark spot in the middle of the photo. Doesn't look like much, right?

Look a little closer. It's a tiny diamond of chocolate (a shard from the wafer bar) standing on edge. All by itself.

It's just standing there. We stared at it from all angles. It stayed put. We took photos. It stayed put. I was rather blase about it all at first, but Jeff was more excited than I usually see him. It's a piece of chocolate! On its corner! All by itself! You have to understand that Jeff has a small habit of setting things on edge. Nothing big or fragile, just little things he'll turn on a corner or an edge and balance there absentmindedly. It's a cute little quirk, but it explains why he was so excited about the chocolate. His excitement was infectious, so I guess chocolate got me through another stressful moment, though not in the usual way!

In the end, we left the chocolate diamond on the counter overnight. This morning when we found it laying down, we tried to set it up on a corner again. And failed repeatedly. It was apparently a once in a lifetime occurrence. Although I think we need to eat many more peanut butter chocolate wafer bars now in an attempt to replicate the event!

Coop de Jour

Our little "rag top coop" has a new top! (Sorry for the puns; we've been having a lot of fun at the chicken coop's expense.)

One of our last projects before Jeff is back teaching classes full time was updating the coop. It was built badly, un-plumb, out of square, etc. by the previous tenant, but the posts were set in concrete and it had sides and a door. We had fixed the wire mesh several months ago when the chicks needed an outside home, but it still had no roof. We had tarped it for a little protection from the strong winds, sun, and rain, but that was a very temporary fix at best. So using (almost exclusively) scrap materials laying around the farm, Jeff designed and constructed a proper metal roof.

Just a little shot of the joists and roof underside

After all the effort he put in, I'll be reminding the girls daily that it's time they repay him in eggs!

Digging Deeper

I hope if any of you have success stories with in-ground pet fences and your dogs, you will share them. Because we just spent an entire day yesterday in the hot sun digging the trench for DaVinci's new electronic barrier and I'm really hoping it works!

We can't install a physical fence for a number of reasons (blocking the drive, the neighbors still need onto our property to get to their barn, too expensive to attractively fence an entire acre, etc.). So we've been planning on this method for a while now. I bought an great system on Craiglist quite a while ago, but we've been too busy to get it in the ground.

The situation was also complicated by the fact that the people who board their horses behind us pulled up the survey stakes and we can't tell where the property lines are anymore. But with the help of a measuring wheel, Jeff's iPhone compass, and our deed description, we marked the corners and plotted a path. Then Jeff spent about five or six hours with an inadequate gas-powered edger trudging through our hardpacked clay soil, blackberry brambles, poison ivy, and overgrown grass. He had to navigate fences, posts, gates, horses, donkey, chickens, cars, and more to accomplish the task. But he set one foot in front of the other and made it happen (in spite of the fact that the rented edger broke down and we had to take it in for servicing).

The next step is crawling around on hands and knees installing 1000 feet of wire. Then planting flags. Then hooking it all up. Then training the dog. Then hoping he doesn't run away in spite of it all.

Designing Dinner

Jeff has wanted to have a get-together with a few of his graduate students for quite some time now, but schedules, house projects, and unexpected events kept getting in the way. We finally just set a date and went for it. We started small, with just four of his most active research group members, but it was nice size dinner party.

It was a casual gathering with a pleasant, outdoor setting. Incorporating vegetarian and gluten-free dietary needs into the meal planning was a bit of a challenge. But with homemade barbecue sauce, grilled chicken and veggie burgers, various types of buns, vegetarian baked beans, and several ingredients served as optional side items to the potato salad, it worked out. Dessert had me stressed for a moment, until I found an old recipe for flourless chocolate torte served with whipped cream and fresh berries. I'm just glad no one was vegan or lactose intolerant!

In the spring...

...a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Or so the Tennyson poem says. I think it holds true for us, as Jeff proposed on May 6th, 2001, exactly 11 years ago today. It was a lovely spring morning and he orchestrated the whole thing so well. We've talked of planning a visit back up to New England to see some of our old friends and stomping grounds, and to check in on the peaceful park where he proposed by the pond in poem over a decade ago.

Saving for a Rainy Day

Jeff came with me to make a rain barrel yesterday. I've been planning to take one of the classes the Extension Service offers on rain barrels, but so far most have been offered in other counties. This one came up a few weeks ago, and since Jeff would be done teaching classes, he offered to accompany me.

It was a simple hour lecture and demo, and then we were set free to pick our barrels and use the available tools. It's quite simple, but I'm glad we attended the class, because we had access to much nicer barrels than I could have found on Craigslist or something. These are 60 gallon terracotta-colored olive barrels from Greece with threaded lids, which makes adding the debris screen on top much easier. Jeff likes the Greek emblem and lettering on the side, and even enjoys the odor of Mediterranean food evoked by the empty barrels. We each made one rain barrel, but we got the contact info in case we decide we would like more matching barrels.

Waiting my turn for the pipe-threading tap

Hurray for Dr. Jeffy!

A big congratulations to my smart and successful husband! He was honored yesterday at the E Week banquet (it is National Engineers Week, for those of you not familiar with the hoopla, pomp and circumstance, and general festivities that accompany this geek week)!

I was able to attend the dinner and award presentation as his guest. While enjoying our Beef Wellington, I had the opportunity to meet several of his coworkers and students. After dinner, we heard Dr. Michael Griffin, former (and perhaps best) NASA administrator, give an address. Awards were then presented, with Jeff receiving the Outstanding Junior Faculty award for the College of Engineering! I'm so proud of him.

The Dean presenting Jeff's award

In good company: awardees for outstanding senior
faculty and lifetime achievement were also given

He left for work this morning with the plaque in a plastic grocery bag and the comment that he really needs to take a hammer and some nails to the office so he can hang all these awards. That is a nice problem to have, Darling!

Picture Perfect

I'm so excited! We finally had professional portraits done after all these years. It's been over a decade (the last time was at our wedding)! We decided it was about time, and no use waiting for children. Adults don't change as much, but that's no reason not to capture the moment.

We did an outdoor shoot at a small farm in a historic town just up the road. Our first appointment several days previous was canceled 15 minutes before the meeting time because of rain. But our second try was pleasant and dry.

It was a lot of fun. Our photographer was very efficient and knew just what she wanted. I hope another ten years don't have to pass before we do this again!