home improvement/life

Put in my BBQ pit platform last night. Pretty proud of how it turned out.
Now I just have to get the pit back from Nathan.

Started out with a 6'x3'x6" frame, dug out enough of the yard to get it to sit level on the left side (pretty much all six inches), and started filling it in with sand. Lots and lots of sand. Seven hundred pounds of sand. Thank goodness for the neighbor's wheelbarrow.
After the sand was in and level, I started carting the bricks up from the back backyard and tried to figure out how to lay them out. Fortunately they tiled pretty nicely; I now have a 6x3 pattern of interlocking blocks of three bricks. I really need a picture. Now I just need to get one more bag of sand to finish filling everything in and I can call it complete.
This is actually the first project that's taken about as long as I estimated. Once I got everything together, just about three hours. That's installation time only, shopping, frame assembly, etc. took a lot longer. Hooray good estimates.

I found these pretty entertaining/link

craigslist: best of

And some just a little too frank.

Be careful.../link

Don't become a statistic

It's been a long day.../life

And it's barely 10:00 a.m.

Started with Bear still getting used to spending the night in his crate. Had to let him out for a break about 4:30 a.m. That's still better than the night before, where he woke up at 2:30, 5:30, and 6:30.

The noise and responsibility are starting to get to Mary Alice a little...she's wondering if we made the right decision. I think he's got a little more settling in to do, and things will go much more smoothly. I plan on taking the time to tell.
Got to work just in time to get a phone call...Mary Alice had a flat tire on her car. Thanks to the guys at Texan Auto Sales on 290 in Oak Hill for putting the spare on before I got there. Of course, the spare donut was flat as well, so we had to run back to the house for my air compressor. Managed to break the hose off of it putting it in the trunk, but was able to jury rig it enough to fill the tire to a safe pressure to get to the gas station and finish the job.

Miscommunicated on the gas station we were meeting at, so I had to make a U-turn and come back around. Got all the tires filled up (all were about 10 lbs low) and sent Mary Alice on her way. Of course, we learned about three minutes later that her hazard flashers were broken, so she was unable to take the highway to work.

Missed Firestone my first time around, so made another U-turn and finally got the tire dropped off. At least I'll be able to pick that up on the way home and get one thing resolved today.

Time to buckle down at work...

Rainy days and dogs/life

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fay started blowing through about 3 a.m. last night...glad my wife knew better than to believe I'd wake up when it started raining. She decided to bring in the dog (Bear) before we went to bed.

This is Bear on his trip to the house with us:

He's been great so far, even when we decided to give him a bath last night. He wasn't real excited about the project, but he never really tried to escape.
Hopefully the rain will continue through the weekend as they predict...we can really use it. I know Bear may go a little stir crazy, but he'll also love all the attention, as well as being dry.

Lyle Lovett and Bonnie Raitt/music

put on a great show last night at the Backyard.

Lyle is still recovering from his broken leg, but sounded incredible as usual. He had his Large Band in attendance, which meant most of the stage was occupied by performers.

He played several songs I've never heard live, starting with "San Antonio Girl". He also played one about a girl in a Volkswagen that was pretty good. His last two songs were performed with Bonnie Raitt; "North Dakota" and "You've Been So Good Up To Now". It was a great way to intro her set.

I'm not as familiar with Bonnie's music, but she put on a good show. I just can't understand people that go to a concert and talk continuously through it, though. The girls up on the skydeck just needed to shut up during "I Can't Make You Love Me".

Another great part of the show was being able to tour the backstage area beforehand. Tim (the Backyard's owner) has a great setup for the artists to be able to come in and relax. Cedar cabins, oak trees, and a private entrance help them get away from their tour buses for a while. Many thanks to Mary Alice for making me a part of that.

lots of walking/dreams

Started off on a tree-lined street with gothic looking homes. Ended up in a field where two kids pointed at the house on the boundary and warned me not to go near. I went, of course.

Once inside the house, we found there wasn't much to be afraid of. We only had to cook a complete cajun meal before we would be allowed to continue travelling. Fortunately the "gatekeeper" had lots of cookbooks, illustrated and everything.

The only other images that made it through to morning are a ten foot long rubberband powered disc launcher at a toy store, and ironing shirts for elves. Can't remember how I fell in with the elves but it had something to do with American Idol.