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Tue - April 5, 2005

First bike commute today

Today was the first day that I commuted by bike this season. I missed a lot of last season since we had a puppy who needed to be fed at lunch time. It was great to be back in the saddle again. I hope to ride through Thanksgiving this year. Some people ride year around here even on the -24 (yes minus 24) degree days.

Posted at 04:30 PM     Read More  

Tue - March 29, 2005

It almost feels like Spring

We have had several of days of nice "almost" Spring weather - highs in the upper 60s and nearly 70 yesterday. There is still a lot snow on the ground and the air doesn't smell like damp earth yet but you can feel it coming. Yesterday, I opened all of the windows and let the house air out. It is amazing how wonderful it feels when you realize it is time to run around and open all the windows.

We planted some blueberry bushes next to the house on Sunday. Gardening again! What a nice feeling. This is our year for big gardening / landscape jobs. Seems like we are on an every-other-year cycle. House Remodel - Big Yard Renovations - House Remodel - Big Yard Renovations. This year we will redo our driveway and sidewalks. We will also redo our back patio by the house. The driveway is asphalt and it has reached the "time to go" point. The sidewalk from the drive to house is in terrible shape. Our back patio has sunken next to the house so it funnels all of the rain water up to the foundation (no. bad. wrong.).

On the fun side, I hope to put in some flag stone paths and a flag stone patio out under one of our big trees. Maybe I'll talk Ena into letting me put in a pond too!

Also, there is more fencing to be done and planting and weeding.

I'm just happy that I get to work in the yard again. Spring! Aaaahhhhhhh.....

Posted at 08:31 PM     Read More  

Wed - October 6, 2004

The remodel is finished - yipee!

We are finally finished with the remodeling project. It is great to be done and to enjoy the space. There are pictures below. Before (http://homepage.mac.com/jimphelps/PhotoAlbum40.html ) and after (http://homepage.mac.com/jimphelps/PhotoAlbum39.html ) in higher resolution are posted on my photo web site. I've put some in-line below. Click on read more to see the pictures.

Posted at 07:28 PM     Read More  

Mon - August 23, 2004

Remodeling - Part 2

The work is moving forward slowly. After some delays (plumber didn't order parts when I said he could), we are finally in the thick of it. The bath has been gutted and the tile is starting to go in. I've started to strip wall-paper. I was really lucky on the wall-paper stripping. We have three layers of wall-paper in the bedroom. I was just poling around and playing to see how much work it would be to strip. I grabbed the top layer and pulled. The top and second layer came off really easily (no wetting, steaming, soaking, spraying, scraping) in huge sheets. Whole sections would just pull right off. Now to see about the next layer down.

Read more to see pictures.

Posted at 08:55 PM     Read More  

Mon - August 16, 2004

Remodelling Begins again.

We are starting to remodel our Master Bath and Bedroom. Having a puppy underfoot and doing a remodeling job is either the dumbest thing we done or it is brilliant. I need to be home a lot to talk to the various contractors. This aligns well with being home a lot to take care of a 9 week old puppy. On the other hand, Lola is perpetually underfoot and I really can't get much of anything else done when she is around. The days are spent with, "what are you chewing, where are you, do you need to go outside, don't chew! don't bite! No!" and "go for a walk?".

Posted at 10:01 PM     Read More  

Thu - July 8, 2004

Mosquito Magnet Liberty Plus - Thumbs Up from Me

We had 10.8 inches of rain in May. Three times the normal rain fall for May. We had another 1.78 inches the other day. We have had a very wet Spring. One thing that really likes the rain - mosquitos. We had mosquitos like you wouldn't believe. We had mosquitos in numbers the likes of which I have only seen hiking in high Uinta Mountains or in the Cascads when a hatch is on. They are thick and the peak of the mosquito season hasn't really started yet. So we bought a Mosquito Magnet Liberty Plus . It was a chunk of change but it has given us our backyard back.

Posted at 10:23 PM     Read More  

Mon - June 28, 2004

Mini Vacation - Door County the Prequel

Our first mini vacation of the year was supposed to be a longer vacation but there was lots of rain. We ended taking a short trip up to Door County in late May. Door County sits on a peninsula between Lake Michigan and Green Bay - the bay that Green Bay is named for. It is known for cherry orchards, art galleries, fish boils, boating and tourism. It is a hot tourist destination. Fortunately, we came the week before things heated up and we had a lot of the peninsula to ourselves.

Posted at 10:09 PM     Read More  

Sun - June 27, 2004

Mini Vacations - great little trips

Ena and I just got back from another mini vacation (I'll write up the previous one soon). We drove from Madison to New Glarus, WI which is about an hour away. New Glarus is called "Little Switzerland". It was settled by Swiss emigrants in 1845 and has never really given up the swiss theme. We went from Switzerland to Cornwall and on all within a 150 miles.

Posted at 10:17 PM     Read More  

Thu - June 24, 2004

YIKES! Tornados Part 2

More news on the tornado front. One of the tornados went through one of our friend's backyard. It took out three large oaks, her fence, flattened her garden and knocked a tree down onto her roof. Neighbors lost a garage and porch. Driving North up Segoe road was pretty shocking. Huge oaks are snapped off clean at the ground. There a lots of trees down and garages that are gone or smashed. Lots of people were walking on their roofs checking out the damage. Our friend said that the winds had blown hard enough through the screen in her bathroom to fill her tub with dirt. Her bedroom was covered with leaves and debris. Her house is fine though the tornado went through her backyard.

Posted at 10:25 PM     Read More  

YIKES! Tornados!!

We were coming back from dinner last night when I heard the tornado sirens go off. As good citizens, we headed home and turned on the TV to the local channel. Suddenly, the local station sounded worried then the station went out. We headed to the basement.

Posted at 08:49 AM     Read More  

Fri - June 11, 2004

They're back and they're BITING!

May was a very wet month in Madison. We set a record for rainfall in May this year. We received 10.84 inches of rain. There was one 48 hour period where 4.5" of rain fell. Our normal for the month is 3.1 inches of rain. Lots of rain means one thing in this land (especially lots of Spring rain): Mosquitos - buy the ton. Boy do have we suddenly have lots and lots of mosquitos and they are hungry and looking for blood. I ran out back last night to take the hammock down which takes me three minutes tops. I stopped by the hammock and I could see a swarm of mosquitos. I killed a half a dozen in 10 seconds.

Posted at 05:34 PM     Read More  

Wed - May 12, 2004

I love Doppler radar

I'm back to commuting on my bike which is great. I like feeling the different weather and watching Spring happen along the bike path. I love the smell after a rain when the air turns warm and rich with wildflowers. I love Springs ever changing weather. Because of the ever changing weather and the bike commuting, I love Doppler Radar. Yep. Doppler Radar!

Posted at 04:56 PM     Read More  

Mon - May 3, 2004

Surreal Saturday

If I had woken up and realized that Saturday was all a dream, I would have rolled over and said, "I had the weirdest dream". It was one of those days.

It started with a garage sale. I've never had a garage sale before. I never go to garage sales. We decided that we would join our neighbor and have a "multi-family garage sale". We didn't have a lot of stuff since we have moved twice in 18 months... twice across the country in 18 months... but that is another story. We had a few things from our remodeling - a ceiling fan and a chandelier - and a few small items but not a lot of stuff.

Posted at 04:56 PM     Read More  

Mon - November 3, 2003

Cold and Rainy -- Dark days of Fall

I'm home with a cold today. We are having the cold, rainy part of Fall - it is 37 degrees and dark gloomy outside.

Posted at 04:56 PM     Read More  

Wed - October 22, 2003

Remodelling - Week 3 - a step forward and a step back

The roof is done. The chimney is repaired. The finish carpenter has done his work. We have painted the ceiling and walls. It was coming to a close when...

Posted at 04:56 PM     Read More