I was asked to write up something so Jefe would not have to look at himself when he visited the site. This confused me because I’ve become so reliant on Google reader that I almost never visit a site unless i know there’s an update. I think my mocking of him may have forced him to set one up. Plus the reader now (as of today) has a search feature! Now if only I remember what I was looking for…
Anywho, I’ve posted anything lately because I’ve been extremely busy with a new baby, new job (that I try not slack off at), updating a website, redoing our back yard (pictures later) and generally keeping busy. And for this reason, my post will be short. Remember there will be beer tasting soon! Lambic Lunch, or, more accurately, Brunch.
Yes, that is pretty bad. Anyway, the basement floor is completely done (minus putting down a threshold, which will be one day soon). The work was done over Friday night and Saturday, as I went over to my dad’s place on Sunday and helped him put in a new walkway. I’m hoping next weekend will be more relaxing… and it probably will be as the only plans we have are to drink beer. Here are a few pictures.
Jefe Helping (bribed with beer and pizza)
The Edge
The Last Carpet Tile
Check out all the pictures here.
P.S. The cats or a cat has already pissed on our new carpet. After becoming incredible pissed off, I’m just just depressed. Those cats just shat on (er… pissed on) all our hard work. WTF. If you know of any way to keep cats from peeing on carpet, please let me know. The tiles do make it much easier to clean though, you can actual get the smell out of them!
So we’ve finished tearing up the smelly carpet in our basement and putting down the subflooring. We ended up going with something called Dricore, which seems to work really well. The finished portion of the basement is much warmer, the entire house smells better, and it wasn’t that hard. My back and knees were/are a bit worse for the wear and we had to dodge thunderstorms to get the edge pieces cut but all and all not bad. Thanks to by dad for helping out, it definitely made things go by quicker. Here are some pictures…
Stacks of material
Taking up carpet and watch the Tour
Finishing up the first row (sacrilegious)
All done… well now we’re just waiting for carpet tiles.
Check out all the pictures.
Our window is still broken, and pieces of glass are slowly starting to fall onto our deck. It was supposed to be replaced sometime last week but the window from the manufacturer had a big scratch in it (it would have been nice to receive a call portland glass). Anyway, hopefully that will get replaced soon.
On Sunday, Goof, jefe, addie, the scientist and I all piled into the car and drove to Pittsfield for a BBQ/Beer tasting. I had never been to Pittsfield so it’s nice to be able to say I been someplace else, though I’d probably never go back accept for the fact that people I know live there. The beer this time was a lot more summery (i.e. light and/or fruity) which was a nice change from the very dark beers that we had last time. There were some pretty interesting beers there, here are some highlights (there were 13 total… I’ve only got 9 here and 8 named. If you remember let me know and I’ll update the list.):
- Fraoch Heather Ale - it is different. It reminded me of drinking a field.
- Chipotle Ale - Tastes a lot like smoked beer but milder.
- Ommegang Witte - A white beer that I brought. Very mild.
- Summer Lightning - Tastes very british to me but it was not warm so I liked it. (The scientist beer choice)
- Dave brought a porter that was really good but I can’t seem to remember what it was called. I was drink, shoot me.
- Sam Smith’s India Ale - This is the only Sam Smith’s beer that I’ve ever really liked and it wasn’t half bad. Though as jefe put it, “how can you mess up an IPA?”
- UFO - too fruity.
- Festina Peche - still too fruity (and I brought it).
- Elephant Malt - Okay for a malt, but I’m not a big malt fan.
I think fun was had by all (even Addie and Jess who did not drink due to age and pregnancy) though I had a small tummy ache this morning. Blah…
Woo… yesterday our back window randomly (?) broke. There are no rocks under it and the Scientist did not see anything on the deck after it happened so who knows…
Anyway, here’s a picture. Someone is coming out today (nowish) to give a complete estimate and order the glass replacement. It should be a couple hundred bucks so less than our deductables. Woo.
This last week was slightly eventful. I went back to work, leaving the Scientist home with someone who does not know how to talk. At least she is cute. Last weekend I somehow got myself out of the house a ran the Redhook 5K. Jeff did not come because he was tired.
On Thursday, three eventful things happened. First off (around 6:45am), delivery guys showed up to delivery our new washer and dryer. They take up less room, use less energy and make our clothing feel nicer. At 9:30 was Addie’s first doctor’s visit. She is in perfect health and weighed in at 8 lbs 4 ounces. The third eventful thing was me developing some crappy stomach bug, which kept me out of work (for most of the Thursday… thanks Jeff). I have since given this illness to Addie who has been gasy and cranky, and given us little sleep.
Finally, baby feet are very small (mine are size 9).
P.S. Jeff, I hope you end up getting a job around so that I get another shot of dragging you out to the Redhook Race. 
P.P.S. Addie says, “Hrrrr…mphth.”
So I took a test today. And I learned the following:
Now, this raises a few questions in my brain: (1) do I really want to know this? (2) what if I am unable to answer these questions truthfully? (3) Will the R’s have succeeded in their scheme to destroy social security? (4) Will I be able to live above the poverty line once I retire? (5) Am I only interested in this because we are about to have a kid?
Hopefully, the money we are putting away now will allow us to retire comfortably in 45 years or so. We did just open up an ING Direct Orange Savings account, the 4.5% interest rate they offer is a little better than the 0.2% our bank offers. Heck that’s even better than the inflation rate (~3%)!
P.S. Less than a month to go on the baby front. I expect our blogs will become like Xumbi’s shortly, so if you don’t like babies… too bad. Speaking of Xumbi, there should be a beer tasting thing again soon… maybe a “babies and beer” party?
I had a better weekend than normal. We did a lot of the normal stuff: going to the coffee shop, going to the bookstore, watching the Bruins lose, reading, sleep, playing video games (finally beat Zelda), e&c. But this weekend there was the adding benefit of clearing off the pond near our home and going skating. I’m really excited that it is now cold enough to go skating over there. Having to drive to a rink and then pay money is not nearly as fun. Plus, on Sunday, five of us got together for some pond hockey. We were out there for about 3 hours with little or no water… I think I’m still recovering from the dehydration. Dave took some photos and a movie, which I will post if I ever get them.
Plus the refs made a bad call last week against the Patriots. You don’t say…
Two weeks ago I was feeling a bit down… not really sure if I remember why or if I knew why at the time. The Scientist tried to make me feel better by going and getting a Christmas Tree. I’m not sure if it worked at the time but it does make the living room smell nice. According to History.com “… as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.” I also find some amusement pointing out hypocrisies. Anyway, here is our tree:
On another note, when we moved into our new place we inherited a Flag. This is nice, I suppose, but it is in poor condition and I don’t want the flag police to write me up (in a newspaper article). All I can say is it is a good thing those crazy senators didn’t pass that flag burning desecration amendment, because, according to the Flag Keeper’s website, “The U.S. Flag Code states, ‘The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning’.” Now I’m sure the legislation was intended to stop people from destroying our flags (with malicious intent) but it might have interfered with people trying to destroy our flags (with a patriotic intent). Can you really have different punishments for the same action, where the only difference is intent? Our Flag:
It looks like Boby is coming to town! Yeah! And just in time to celebrate half way (20 weeks to go)! The Scientist wants me to throw a party but I don’t really know how to do that. So instead we’ll get some pizza, like we do most Fridays, and then have some virgin mixed drinks someplace (probably at home).
I’ve finished up my class this semester and now I have a lot more free time in the evenings. I’m going to layout the potential built-in bookcase this week sometime…
I scored a goal last night. It was a good one. Most of the goals I’ve scored since I’ve started playing hockey have been less than pretty. There have been a few wide open nets, a few hacks, a couple of ricochets, some tricklers and one that I really don’t know how got it… the goal claimed it went through the side of the net. Anyway, this goal was not like that. It started with a bad pass that I picked off at the blue line, I then stepped around the pass’s intended recipient, between two D and then put the puck in the net high stick side. I felt like I actually earned the goal and didn’t just get lucky. It’s a nice feeling. Oh, and we won the game 4-3. Which was also nice.
Still no Wii. Though I think Sunday maybe the day I get up really early and stand (sit) in line. This thing tells me when stores are expecting shipments of Wiis, which is nice because the people who work at the stores tend to be clueless.
Lastly, I have been drinking too much coffee lately. Not because I tired and need a pick-me-up, but because it is fucking cold at my work. Any job I get better heat the place to something higher than 66 degrees.
Interjection
