The Family

An earth friendly house you might find interesting.

Anyone think Hobbits?

It is funny… usually when we have company I am ready for them to go home after a short while. When they go it feels good to get back in my usual routine. But this morning shortly after I woke I became aware that i felt lonesome. I am sure it is partly because Trip was here for so long that she became part of my daily routine, but it is partly because she is pleasant to have around and she “fits”…. and maybe partly because we were working which gave us something to do and took away the “company” feeling.

I am sure that Bruce misses her. They took a particular liking to each other the first day. Bruce also liked that she went outside to smoke often. I think he found it interesting that she went outside every couple of hours and just sat, ready to pet him and be companionable.

Come to think of it, Carrie showed a marked preference for Bruce too. She enjoyed playing with him. Bruce responds well to her favorite kind of cat play.

The big push to pain the house inside is over. We did not get as much done as i wanted or would have expected for the length of time we worked on it, but i always underestimate how long something like this is going to take. There was more prep work than i expected, partly because Trip did things to the ceiling that i would not have known to do and partly because we kept finding new problems that needed to be dealt with before we could paint.

We finished the living room, finished the ceiling and walls but not the trim in the foyer and dining room and back bathroom, finished the ceiling in the laundry room and hall, and primed the ceiling in the kitchen. The new texture on the ceiling in all these rooms made the ceiling a bigger deal than it would normally be. Some of the rooms had to be textured twice because we did not like the way they did it the first time. Those rooms were particularly hard to do. They do, i suppose look a little heavier textured, though i don’t think it is obvious enough that one would notice unless one was looking for it, but when it comes to putting that first coat, the primer, on, it makes a huge difference.

My goal today, my bare minimum goal, is to move the paint and tools which are now in the dining room to another place so i can vacuum the room. I need to paint the baseboard so i need to pay particular attention to the edges. Then i would like to get the baseboards done. If i have to wait till tomorrow for the window and door trim that will be ok because i can do those later. If the baseboard is done i can more the furniture back and replace the plastic, paint, and tools. They will be living in there for a while longer.

It is going to be slow going but hopefully i will make a little progress each day.

A newish report that I’m sure most everyone has already heard about but I decided to post here just in case it missed someone.  There was some research done on how people reacted to working in spaces with different ceiling heights.   Their findings are, essentially, that working in a lower ceiling area results in higher detail-oriented thinking and working in a higher ceiling area results in higher creative thinking.  Maybe I should say ‘results’ instead of ‘thinking’, as they could only judge based on the solutions to problems instead of watching thoughts.

This makes me wonder about where I work.  The ceilings are /high/.  Our building used to be a mechanic shop; they didn’t put in a drop ceiling, wanting to use all the vertical space for overhead engine hoists and such.  The companies that followed left the roof alone too, so we have a 20+foot high roof.  Does this mean that we come up with creative solutions more often?  Does coming up with creative solutions mean we spend more time thinking about something than we do actually producing code?  I’m not sure, but it is interesting to think about.

Summer driving in Austin is a joy compared to the rest of the year.  People are taking vacations, which helps.  The bigger factor is the college population from tu is gone.  (you know, that *other* college in town.)

I really enjoy being able to leave the house and get to work ten minutes early.  During other parts of the year, traffic and stop lights can mean I get to work five minutes before or after my usual starting time.

So, any particular times of year ya’ll like driving around town?

Well … finally found a new chiropractor.

It was a mixed experience. He did x-rays, always fun to look at those, but he also does the ‘relaxing’ electrical stimulation that feels like I’m being gnawed at by thousands of tiny ants.

I’m leaving for a whirlwind of work travel in just a few days, and so the chiropractor tells me he wants to see me every day this week. Is that just because I’m leaving town or something else?

Most of our first visit was spent on the pitch, that chiropractic is a safe and effective medical treatment. The pitch about spinal adjustments. The pitch about spinal alignment and pinched nerves. The pitch about nerves supporting muscle and organ function. The pitch about … about everything. I watched a 10 minute video pitch. He sent me home with another CD containing another pitch.

But on the other hand … my previous chiropractor could not adjust one side of my neck. At all. It just kept getting stiffer and stiffer, and .. and nothing. I liked him, he did great back work, but my neck was too stubborn for him. This guy? WHAM. I think the man adjusted my skull. It’s an hour later, and I still feel kind of sick. Which is a good thing. (which I know from experience, not because of the pitch)

So … do I assume that the annoying intro is past? Am I through all the pitches? Do I simply agree that, yes, after 6 months of no treatment and facing a month of travel, I need to have daily visits for the next 3 days? Does the fact that he gave a really great first adjustment trump the fact that he hooks me up to relax-you’re-being-eaten-by-ants electrodes?

The original post is so long ago I thought a reply to it would go unnoticed. But this is really a reply to that post, and not a post in its own right.

I logged into ebay, and there was new information there about their feedback policies. I don’t know how ‘new’ it is, but it is new to me (I don’t e-bay often, though I’m bidding on something now 🙂 ).

Don’t know if it’s real or not. But it seems that we’re not alone in thinking their feedback and contact us services have been inadequate .. and they might be trying to fix it.

The new house is great and we’re loving it.  We have painted a few walls, moved in almost all our stuff, and now we are thinking about the next steps.

On the “would be nice” list:

• large fishtank (~100 gallon, plus supporting equipment)
• bookcases/shelves in our room to hold our growing library
• bed frame/headboard/footboard and matching drawers.  We have seen two that we really like, but we are holding off because we don’t want the bed so high up that Aleah would hurt herself trying to get off the bed.
•  shelves in the garage
• paint the walls in the garage

On the “will do someday”

• replace linoulium floors with tile
• replace carpet with wood

What I’m really interested in talking about is the last two items here.

Personally, I’m thinking these projects are a few years out.  Partially because the existing flooring is doing a decent job, partially so we can save up money for these projects.  Christina and I would prefer to do the tile before the wood, as the carpet will go with tile better than wood would go with the linoulium.  The tile is a cheaper project too.

But, I have a few questions ya’ll might be able to answer/ponder with me.

Would it be worth it to buy a nice vaccum now, knowing we want to get rid of the carpet in 3-5 years?  It would keep the carpet in better shape, we’ll always have cat trees we can vaccum, and I’d love to get one that doesn’t need bags.

Would it be better to build shelves into the walls or would stand alone bookshelves be better?

Would you do tile’n’wood or would you just rip everything out, then paint and wax the cement?

Everybody, sing!

“Happy Birthday to Chris, Happy Birthday to Chris, Happy Birthday Dear Christopher, Happy Birthday to Chris”

We have been saying the job is in Midland, but it is actually in Odessa. Midland is the larger town, so maybe he was told the job was in the Midland area. When were growing up, we called the 2 towns Midland/Odessa, much the same as we say Richmond/Rosenberg or Dallas/ Ft Worth. It happens when towns are close together.

Anyway, Luke is flying out Thursday and interviewing Friday. He found out about this job from a friend who recently went to work there. He called this friend recently and learned that his application had been moved thru the system much faster than usual. Seems they have been looking for someone with his qualifications and experience and haven’t found anyone. Luke looks good to them.

So, at this time, it is looking pretty probable.

They sent him a package yesterday with pertinent information about retirement, insurance and such. If we move, we learned, they will pay for the move; actually they pay moving expenses very well, i think. They will move 2 vehicles, pay for a trailer to pull behind your car if you have things you do not want to trust to a moving company, pay special expenses for pets… (Of course, here is where i have to say that it seems vastly unfair that the people who make enough to pay their own moving expenses are the ones the company pays to move while the minimum wage worker isn’t helped with anything.)

So… at this time i am… not sending out negative thoughts… not all excited and hoping he gets the job, but trying not to jinx it either.