what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[Khan]

Thursday I managed to drop a pot of chicken soup to the kitchen floor; slip cleaning up stuff. Need someone to help move the fridge.

 

[W2R]

Dress: $30. (Ross Dress For Less. For you guys, apparently this amount of money for a clothing article is considered to be stupendously cheap. Go figure.)

Cheap? That was cheap fifty years ago. Nords, that is awesome!

The prom itself was anti-climactic. A wonderful time was had by everyone, and she was home by 11:15.

Again, how terrific! That way nobody had to worry about her.

Thank goodness the prom drama & angst is behind us for good. Now all that's left is three AP exams and a graduation party. And after that we're all done with the parenting stuff, right?

Yeah right? WRONG I have to admit that when my daughter married her true love (and Intel geek) last October, I stopped worrying about her health and welfare quite so much.

I can relate to all the single parent, or temporarily single parent stuff since my ex went to sea a lot. I remember attending football games in the snow to watch her play in the band. My ex would have enjoyed being there so much (had he not been at sea) and I didn't understand football at all, so I was just the wrong parent for that. But I wanted my daughter to know that her parents were proud of her band accomplishments.

 

[RonBoyd]

On a bike ride, I passed a girl on a bicycle, and saw that she was texting.

You are cruising the wrong neighborhood:

 

[Leonidas]

Great story. Made me appreciate my sons even more.

Then there's the whole issue of whether to shower or shave-- surely there's not enough pre-prom time to be expected to do both.

Thank the Lord that the youngest one has discovered showering as a pre-date ritual. It took some of what his mother calls well-meaning advice. Which means she usually has to apologize after saying it.

"You're going out with X tonight?"

"Yep"

"You know, you've been played basketball for 2 hours, and sparred for another couple of hours, and you haven't showered. You were dripping sweat earlier."

"It's okay, I'm dry now."

"But there's some residual issues to deal with"

- blank stare in return -

"Son, you smell like burned Fritos. You need to take a shower. And I mean that in a mommy-loves-you kind of way."

 

[Dawg52]

You are cruising the wrong neighborhood:

View attachment 8841

That looks like Dave Ramsey on the bike. He must have used his scissors on something other than credit cards in this pic.

 

[Nords]

Great story. Made me appreciate my sons even more.

Thank you, I enjoy [-]occupational therapy[/-] writing them.

I think daughters are God's little karmic punishment to fathers for our teenage behavior...

"Smells like burned Fritos". I'm gonna get some use out of that!

 

[Moemg]

The senior prom.

OK, OK, I wasn't actually at the senior prom, but I didn't really have a choice whether or not I'd share in all the vicarious thrills & chills.

Spouse, an experienced emergency-planning and disaster-recovery officer who can read a calendar and is no fool, somehow chose the prom weekend to be the middle of her shipmate's shopping vacation.
"911 "

Your wife is having a margarita and saying thank god I passed the prom drama with a capital D to Nords !

 

[freebird5825]

Packed, watered house plants, mowed the lawn, ate tortilla chips with melted cheese as a late lunch.
Spring flower and garden report...
I enjoyed the first opening of the tulips in my raised flower garden bed. Grape hyacinths (pic below) in a smaller bed in the back yard have finally spread out and were just gorgeous. A row of mature lilac trees of several varieties have tiny little flower buds just starting to form.
I checked my mini-vineyard and am happy to report that ALL 3 cold hardy seedless grapes I put in last year have survived their first winter and have lots of leaf buds developing. Strawberry plants are developing leaves and have spread out beautifully. Blackberry bushes have new leaves and look very healthy. Garlic bulbs that I missed harvesting last year have sprouted and will be divided and replanted when they get a little bigger.
I will be very busy with tending my little green friends in a few weeks.

 

[Fireup2020]

Nords - Wow, your daughter got off cheap for the prom! Kudos to her! Oh, the big drama of gearing up for a black tie event (prom, per se) does get a little easier - next time she'll schedule the pedicure that includes the massage! All the rest sucks! (shopping, makeup, hair, bleah!) Good on ya!

 

[Meadbh]

Great story Nords....you will miss DD when she goes to college!

 

[Ronstar]

Nords - great story on your daughter's prom prep. I suspected that it was like you described, but I wasn't sure. DW still goes through similar regimens for weddings, etc. I'm thankful I'm a guy and do not have to go through such agony.

 

[Goonie]

I've been working on building a new raised-bed garden for my tomato plants for the last couple of days....only a few hours each day. Hopefully I'll get it finished today or tomorrow.....no hurry. I took up what little grass was in that area, cut and laid down some 5/4 vinyl deck planking to keep the 3" x 8" redwood timber from being in direct contact with the soil below. Then cut and stacked the 3" x 8" redwood timbers two high, bored a few 1/2" holes around the perimeter, and drove 3' lengths of 1/2" rebar down through it into the ground to hold everything square and level.

Today, I need to drill and bend a few pieces of strap steel to reinforce the ends to the sides. Then lay several layers of old newspaper on the ground to prevent any possible stray grass roots that I may have missed, from poking up. After that I'll fill it up using a combination of Fertilome Potting Mix, mushroom compost, and vermiculite. Probably next week I'll take the tomato plants out of the greenhouse, and plant 'em in there new home!!!

I salvaged the 3" x 8" redwood timbers and rebar from a demolition project several years ago before I retired. The vinyl 5/4 was scavenged of the scrap pile at our local lumber yard. So all that I had to purchase was the potting mix, compost, and vermiculite....and I got all of that for very reasonable prices from the local feed & seed store.

 

[M Paquette]

STILL working on the Great Family Room refit of 2010.

Carpeting goes in today, for the family room. master bedroom, walk-in closet, stairs and landing. (Tract home... Rebuilding the stairs with proper oak treads was not in the budget, so we're recarpeting the plywood. ) No, I hired a local business to to this. I'm not completely crazy.

Cabinets and lighting are all in. Sound system wiring is done. A couple of items of furniture will arrive shortly. Almost done!

 

[Nords]

... so we're recarpeting the plywood. ) No, I hired a local business to to this. I'm not completely crazy.

Some home-improvement tasks will never be DIY. When we were getting rid of our old carpet, the prospect of doing the steps looked ugly from the minute we tore out the padding. When the pro did the installation, I was sure that he was underpaid.

At least carpet is less maintenance than the wood finish on treads. Or were you planning on diamondeck with non-skid?

 

[bbbamI]

Had to go to the mall. Saw a duckling on the sidewalk and thought, 'man..gonna have to take this little fella to the animal shelter.' Then I heard a guy make quaking noises. Apparently he was taking his duck on a walk.

Well, there was a Petco nearby....

 

[M Paquette]

At least carpet is less maintenance than the wood finish on treads. Or were you planning on diamondeck with non-skid?

Well, I thought about that, but I couldn't find anyone to weld a set of stairs with a 70 degree slope.

 

[Nords]

Well, I thought about that, but I couldn't find anyone to weld a set of stairs with a 70 degree slope.

Did you really need a photo of that in your family album?!?

On that vessel, I'm surprised photographers weren't shot on sight...

 

[19kilo]

Started a consulting job today. Got a call last week from an area city mgr about problems on a city street project. Met with all parties this morning and I'll be looking after the next concrete pavement pour to help work out problems. Oh well, a little spending money for whiskey and cigars.

 

[aaronc879]

Started a consulting job today. Got a call last week from an area city mgr about problems on a city street project. Met with all parties this morning and I'll be looking after the next concrete pavement pour to help work out problems. Oh well, a little spending money for whiskey and cigars.

That's a good ER strategy. If you shorten your lifespan then you don't have to save as much. Those last 10 years aren't very good anyway

 

[M Paquette]

Did you really need a photo of that in your family album?!?

On that vessel, I'm surprised photographers weren't shot on sight...

I borrowed from another person's album. On the Parche photographers WERE shot on sight. That made being the assistant ship's photographer hazardous...

Meanwhile, the carpeting crew finished up, and I reassembled the master bedroom. Oh, they SAY they'll move all the furniture, but they didn't reckon on my waterbed.

"One... Two... Three... LIFT!", and the next sound is the popping of discs...

I was a nice person, and drained and dismantled the softside mattress, and detached the massive solid wood headboard and footboard. They helped me re-spot all the hardware, and I got the whole thing reassembled and ready for use in a couple of hours.

Back in the family room, the only item installed is my elliptical trainer, ready for daily [-]torture[/-] exercise. I have a couple of items to assemble, and the Killer Sofa From Heck arrives Thursday. Three reclining sections, separated by wedge-shaped pieces with storage and cupholders.

Hey, this is the first major piece of furniture I've bought in 20 years, as part of the first interior workover I've done in 23 years. (I've still got a waterbed, fercryinoutloud...) Don't tell DW, but that family room is starting to look a lot like a home theater.

 

[Moemg]

Some home-improvement tasks will never be DIY. When we were getting rid of our old carpet, the prospect of doing the steps looked ugly from the minute we tore out the padding. When the pro did the installation, I was sure that he was underpaid.

At least carpet is less maintenance than the wood finish on treads. Or were you planning on diamondeck with non-skid?

Thanks guys , You've given me a great idea . I hate my present stairs . They are oak but ugly and scratched plus they have tile on part of them . That is the world's ugliest tile . I was thinking about having the tile torn out and redoing the staitway but instead I am going to carpet them and have the bannister reppainted . I'm doing a few remodeling jobs . Right now I am travelling but when I return . I am getting into the great den redo and follwed by the bedroom redo . In a year or so I am planning on selling so I figure I might as well get these things done now . Actually I do the planning and picking out the colors and materials and Gary carries the projects out .

 

[davemartin88]

Spent yesterday at the new house site, builder was using a crane to lift the beams and rafters for the roof. All went like clockwork with a lot of coordination. Starting to look like a house now.

 

[REWahoo]

Dave, thanks for posting this, I enjoy watching the progress you're making in building your house.

BTW, what's the concrete structure in the foreground - your [-]fallout shelter[/-] s[-]urvival bunker[/-] garage?

 

[utrecht]

People still have waterbeds?

 

[Nords]

Spent yesterday at the new house site, builder was using a crane to lift the beams and rafters for the roof. All went like clockwork with a lot of coordination. Starting to look like a house now.

Thank goodness everything's going well. Maybe it's all the home-improvement shows I watch, but when I read the first sentence of your post I thought it was going to switch to "And then..."