pool party

6.11.2011
recent pool partying has been with these kids. it's a good crowd.

this cat has no lenses in his glasses. anyone who wears costume props in public on days other than halloween is a friend in my book. thanks for keeping me in stitches rueben.

there aren't many restaurants open at midnight. thankfully baby a's was nearby.

christina rocking the hungry pirate. alexis rocking the 21.

crystal demonstrates my actual level of focus that night.

this is how uncle ray feels about chips and salsa.

not pictured is crystal's man patrick.

i'm nearly recovered. it's 3pm sunday. my training is on schedule.

petco saturday

6.11.2011
spent some time at the student petco this weekend. inga needed a haircut. summer's just too hot for her.
we ran to home depot after where she got a lot of attention for the lion cut. and cookies. good dog.

there were boxed specials on kitties. this box looked like a particularly good blend.

what a face.

social rebound

6.8.11
botg #1. i remember when it was 200 people on the arboretum lawn. this was 4 to 5 thousand at zilker with an acl-size stage

hauling beer and blanket to botg. rubio is my partner in crime tonight.


6.4.11
karaoke party with work peeps

cuong and frels duet, endless love. frels in falsetto.

gutter prize

riding home from deep eddy today
my regression is in full swing. loving it.

bday gal from last night. hbd mere'.

happy hour

4.1.2011
dave in typical form.

old married couple. frels vs. frost

young corporate whore.

'sandy' blushing with a cosmo

par-tay

we survived. barely.

the only pic i've downloaded from the rapture party. i'll get around to finding the rest. there were several cameras and lots of bad pics (worse than this one).

out of frame are the costume bits. angel wings, devil tail, scythe, cross necklace. elizabeth has horns. the wings got mileage on at least 3 people.

phone dump

3.10.2011 boobs

3.1.2011 the wool taking (more) bad health news in stride

2.4.2011 space heater makes kitties happy. 20 degrees outside, 55 inside the schoolhouse.

12.3.2010 trippy corporate xmas party pics

elizabeth's mealyblue debut

movie

four friends (1981). best fight scene ever.

ever.

the one in the bar. toward the end of the movie.

phone dump

11.4.2010 tree cutters taking calculated risks. these guys climbed all in my oaks 2-3 stories off the ground fearlessly wielding sharp objects.

9.15.2010 foreign and domestic with penguin. food looks like squid ink

9.8.2010 ribbon magnet says 'support my balls'

7.21.2010 pH the old fashion way

6.14.2010 very sick inga. very sad dogmom. spent most of the night and next 72 hrs in e-care.


6.6.2010 bubbles with c.

6.6.2010 house shopping east side around chestnut

phone dump

3.5.2010 bday flowers from mum and c. skinnycat included for scale

2.10.2010 i try not to think of campanella white

1.2.2010 learning to biscuit



12.30.2009 quirk inspects cheap broken house

12.27.2009 the grey menace

best clippers ever

for those of you who have coveted my nail clippers

unstuck

#1 buyer came unstuck 4/9. with a fairly lame excuse about location too far from her work. i don't think you put a house under contract without thinking location through.

being the sucker that i am, i had waived earnest money. she was clearly strapped for cash, single mom. as a courtesy i did, hoping the great score keeper in the ether would return good karma to me.

so i lost a weekend of showings with it 'pending' on her whim. and got paid $150.

option periods are a bad idea. it puts the seller at the mercy of flaky lookers. they don't have to commit. they can tie up multiple properties and take 7 - 10 days to walk away without consequence. maybe they lose their earnest and option monies.

when i bought the schoolhouse, i optioned for 4 days, only because a weekend was involved. and added "or sooner" to the contract. all i needed was the inspection to come back saying it wasn't falling down. i was committed from the minute i made the offer.

wish we had canada's laws. they don't let buyers play house like this.

poker

house listed 3/29 near midnight. 2 offers came in back to back. personally i preferred #1, financially i preferred #2.

#2 fell through. #1 signed 4/5. i don't like poker. here's hoping it sticks.

for sale

http://www.toursmith.com/Property.asp?id=2478&f=4163

monthly special

hand injury club

reviewed

schoolhouse reviewed , lauren tells me at home depot last weekend

tour

virtual tour while it lasts

bell house

blasted plumbing

schoolhouse bathroom is a hack job. escutcheons missing, loose, not caulked. spigot piped through the overflow opening. no overflow. shower diverter seized from calcium deposits. stuck in shower mode. single knob mixer doesn't control volume, just full on. pressure is enough to peel skin off and splash water to the 11 foot ceiling.

then something changed. pressure went to a drip. time to excavate.
cartridge valve check. bad gasket check.
put back together. next try to unsieze diverter.

cookie sheets, pot lid come in handy to shield work area. wet towel might help.

get it hot and smack it around, brace the unsecured copper pipe.

ta-da. bathtime.

project for another day. the aqua tile is gorgeous. iridescent. broken bits make me sad. pinwheel tile on the floor is in great shape. needs a zep treatment to bring back the white grout.

this was all a temporary fix just to use the shower. the surround is cracked, offset, separating. not salvagable.

shower surround will be gutted, galvanized pipe replaced with copper, overflow installed, and proper hardware installed. keeping the tub, floor tile, and the tile wainscot in the rest of the room. have to somehow cut a clean stopping point in the wainscot and match the mud set depth. we'll see.