Bumper crop

Car's in the shop today for maintenance and power steering pump. Rental truck! I'm absolutely loving this truck. It's big, it's wasteful, it's a handful. An abomination. But I had a blast driving it. Feeling all burly and manly today. Being a jerk on the road, speeding along in a giant truck. Tailgated a Mini this morning. Cut off one of those Toyota Prius hybrid zits this afternoon. Parallel parked, wound through parking lots and back alleys in reverse. Felt like Claudio, our tour bus driver in Italy winding through the mountain roads up the Almafi coast. Pretty soon, I'm going to get a giant belt buckle, cowboy boots, and a ten gallon hat. I love being an ass.


The first tomato of the season.
Not quite ripe, but there's a reason.
Better pick now before the squirrels
Go nuts and steal and eat and hurl.

Barney Rubble

Crossing the threshold. I'm way beyond the point of pissed off. That line has been crossed months ago.


Concrete planter taken out. Opens up the back quite a bit. A bit discouraging to see that there's still this much destruction. How much longer...


Door locks finally being installed. I hope this means I get use of the backdoor soon. I've had to walk the long way around just to get to the back. The glass doors just taunt me with the backyard. But they don't open yet.


New toys. I need some clamps. If I hide these, maybe they'll forget about them.


Happy Daisy, grateful for her tummy rub.


Plywood on the cabinets mean the counter tops will be installed soon. How soon? Well, if past performance is any indication, "Soon" = "Three Weeks." We'll see. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.


Rubble Rubble.
Toil and Trouble.

Dragon on

Flame skimmer dragonfly, perched quietly, brooding.
They eat mosquitos, many mosquitos, no fooling.
Drunken flight, swirling up down, zig-zagging.
Bugs are fun, but house not done, I must start nagging.

Sinking in

Sink is in, as is faucet
Spare and clean, unlike the closet
German fixtures, pocket so poor
Same model sink, at Apple Store


Shiny happy new wall paint
Fumes make me want to faint
Fast and easy, no it ain't
I have patience of a saint


Plastic gone, floors uncovered
Worried the dust, will have smothered
From these fumes, nearly recovered
Same pix as before, why have I bothered?

Color me badd

Too much of a good thing. Orange looks great. Grey looks great. Blue looks great. Yellow... doh... one too many colors. I will paint the office yellow instead.


And now the staircase stands out. Hopefully it will be safer when ascending while inebriated.


Shiny new toy. Built in soap dish. Thermostatic control, remembers my favorite temperature setting and maintains it, no fiddling with knobs anymore. 4 different spray patterns with massage feature for when I'm feeling amourous with myself. No-kink hose so I don't strangle myself with strange yoga poses while using the massage feature. Adjustable height for when I grow another 3 inches in height.

Tina Yothers

It's not a good sign when the plumber claims not to have seen one of these shower valves. They're everywhere in Asia and Europe, and don't require opening up the wall and destroying tile to service. We lard assed Americans don't seem to value innovation in plumbing.


There was a lot of swearing by Mike the plumber over the weekend to get this thing working. Still no bathroom sink yet, but at least I can wash my hands in the bathtub now.


This has got to be the prettiest under sink area ever. I have no idea why I need two sets of water pipes.


Work on connecting the tub drain and relocating the recessed lights. Pristine newly painted ceiling no more. The whole thing about two steps backwards.

Max headroom

Look, bathroom is cool grey. Can't you tell?


Ceiling painted. Can't you tell?


Ye Olde Trellis structure demolished. Starting to get unsafe. Might as well do this now while I've got access to a dumpster. With a side effect bonus of letting more light onto the chili peppers and tomatos. Because ultimately, I'm all about eating yummy things.

Enlightened

Yes, a recessed reading light over the toilet. This is what happens when testosterone is unchecked when making decisions on shelter issues. There's going to be a new reality show soon. Bachelor Remodels Gone Bad.


Bathroom fan, removing all traces of stinky boy.


Color names like, Cheers, Marigold Blossums, Saratoga Springs, and Canvas Cloth. Or in real people language, yellow, orange, blue, and grey. These paint color names are kind of girly. Understandably so, since most of the color decisions are made by women. But I can't help but wonder if there's a market for BachelorPaint(tm). With manly color names like, Broken Toe, Tennis Ball, Gear Oil, Anti-freeze, and Rug Burn.


If I worked at home today, I'd have to wear a clear shower cap to match the living room.

Extra blue

Agapanthus intensly blue this year. Must be all the mulch.


Ooo.... like birthdays, wrapped things mean goodies to come. I think they're going to paint soon. They better, this has been a very depressing week at the office, and I could use some good news.


My beautiful floors are gone. I wonder if this paper is recyclable? There's enough paper down to cover the entire first floor. A lot of trees have died in the process of renovating this house. A moment of silence...

Peeping toms

Glass display case protecting precious jewels. This will be the only day that the glass is clean.


Bronze tinted screens have arrived. Much better no? I told you so.


Rejected, dejected screens a weeping.
But tears of joy jumps, high kick leaping.
Because new ones better, those I keeping.
Been so long now, I best be sleeping.


Giant chocolate bar now installed. I just calculated my caloric intake today. Slightly over 3300 calories today. If it wasn't so close to bed time, I'd calculate how many calories are in a 12ft long hershey's bar. Too sleepy to be much of a nerd right now. It's a wonder why I don't weigh over 200 pounds.


Daisy, impatiently waiting for her daily "frictions of belly."

A snail's pace

A snail's pace at the house. Literally. One has to wonder if there is something very wrong if I'm thrilled when groups of strangers invade my house and touch things. And I get sad when I realize nobody has invaded my privacy while I was at work. The world is all wonky. I live in my own personal Twilight Zone.


I was wrong. It wasn't a battering ram that Santa brought me last week. It was a fifteen foot long chocolate bar. The giant cardboard wrapper will become mulch next weekend.


Wood trim hiding the old ceiling height. We gained two inches of head room in this area of the house. I'm hoping to grow another two inches myself to compensate.


Window trim upstairs. Getting there. Slowly. Slowly. Cue Twilight Zone music now...


One of the tomato plants is full of tiny little marble sized tomatos. There's got to be thirty little ones developing on this vine. And it's not even done growing. I think I overdid the tomatos. I'm not going to be able to eat all of the tomatos from this single plant, let alone eight others. I will have to invent a word for tomato overdose. Moremato? Toe-more-toe? I can't imagine how many tomatos the seven feet tall vines will produce by years end. With all this lycopene, I better not be getting prostate cancer in 30 years.


Baby plants. I have completely forgotten what I planted. My memory is bad. Wasn't smart enough to label them, but I'm hoping I'm smart enough to figure it out once they've grown. And yes, one of these plants will grow up to be another tomato. I seem to have a track record of taking new interests to the point of obsession. I'd like to think that I'm just passionate about my interests.

Bah, ram, ewe

Somebody got me a gift of a battering ram.