avablog

Now I know why it’s called that.  My cursed desk job is harder on my arse than it is my hands, but a weekend chock full of manual labor is a great reminder of how easy it is to thrash your digits.

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I don’t have a picture yet, but the new stove is now at the house.  It’s cool, all black and bad-looking.  I unboxed it last night when I stopped by the house to walk through and make sure everything was OK.  It was. I have lots to do this weekend.  Ava and Leah are gone […]

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A couple recent pictures of the new house: There are many more pictures of the house, including some from before the renovation, in this flickr set.

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The “floor guys” started yesterday and made a lot of headway getting the stair treads and second floor sanded. It looks very cool, and it’ll look even cooler once the poly is applied. After work last evening, my brother and I ran an errand out to Lowe’s and then headed back to the new place […]

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I mowed the lawn at our new house for the first time today.  It was interesting.  Mowing one’s lawn is a pretty intimate experience, or at least can be.  More than just a means for getting the yard presentable, it’s a process of discovery. I’ve been in the new house now dozens of times since […]

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That’s what I finally ended up with for an LCD TV. Office Depot was (still is, until 6/2) selling these units for $699, which is a nice deal. So I ran over and picked one up. It looks good so far, even with a standard def feed. Of course Leah walks in, looks at it […]

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Anyone who’s talked to Leah since we made the decision to move to a new house (and even before then) knows that this has been a very emotional time for her.  She’s very attached to our old house, particularly because she was close to the woman who lived there for 70 years. Well, this morning, […]

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If all goes according to plan, we should be the owners of a new home tomorrow in about 11 hours.  Leah’s walking around with a $170,000 check in her purse; it even survived a trip to Domby, which is a miracle.  We haven’t used a realtor for this transaction, so we’ve learned a lot about […]

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Leah and I are trying to keep an eye on Ava for signs of stress or discomfort during our relocation. She seems to be doing pretty well, but we do get the sense that she’s off just a bit. So we’re trying to do fun things and get plenty of ice cream and read lots […]

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It’s the weekend that wasn’t. At least if your idea of a weekend is taking it easy, kicking around downtown with a coffee and maybe taking a long stroll through the park. No. This wasn’t one of those.

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One of my favorite movies EVER is Alien. I love everything about it. I’m also a moderate fan of most of the sequels, but there’s a scene in the first sequel, Aliens, in which they introduce the power loader. When I first saw this machine, I told myself that I must live long enough to […]

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They’ll always remind me of this little house on College Street, I think. The place where we first moved in together–where we celebrated our wedding and brought Ava to life. The place where we yelled and cried and laughed together. It has a big old maple tree in the front yard that fills our living […]

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Aren’t they all misc. items? Anyway…. My mom’s presently wending her way up the Mississippi on a five-week bike trip from NOLA to Lake Itasca. It’s her second time riding the length of the river, only this time she’s going uphill. God love ‘er. The upshot is that Leah and I get to stay at […]

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It’s going to be quite a weekend.  Leah’s whole family is in town to watch Ava while Leah and I pack. I’m cooking three chickens tomorrow for dinner.  I’ll smoke two with apple wood and throw the third one on the grill with some “five star” bbq sauce I picked up last week.  Rachel has […]

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It’s like things are picking up steam, and I know it, but I’m not willing to confront it.  I have this silly idea that somehow, some way, everything is going to get done with the move and the new house on time and on budget.  Go ahead.  Laugh if you want.  On the Internet, no […]

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I keep saying that to myself, over and over, but the number doesn’t sound any smaller. EDIT:We chose the Blindsgalore double cell cellular shades, cordless.  There was a promotion on until yesterday that got us 20% off an order of $400 or more, and we ended up saving about $450 on the 20 shades we […]

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Every spring for the last couple years, we’ve gotten sweet eating ants in our kitchen.  They invade for a couple weeks and then, after getting a bellyfull of the Terro I put down everywhere, disappear.  Whether they actually die or just start doing something else away from our kitchen, I don’t know. I was looking […]

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Leah and I stopped by a local joint called The Blind Factory at noon today to look at window shades for the new house.  Leah spends a lot of time walking around in the buff, so shades are a top priority for her.  I’m a bit more modest, so I don’t see the matter as […]

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I’m closing up my old position at work in preparation for starting my new job second week in April. Also, I took a half day of vacation today to get the car into the shop and to meet a plumber and an electrician over at the new house for bids. We also had an appraiser […]

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I’m ordinarily pretty good at handling stress, but these last couple weeks have started getting to me.  The impending move and all of its details are mostly to blame, but there have been other things going on that have contributed to my befrazzlement. One milestone that I was glad to get out of the way […]

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