Sunday, June 22, 2008

Before and After

Fireplace and Mantel




Kitchen Sink and Faucet




Air Conditioner




None of these changes were cheap, of course.

Bank Account Before:


And After:

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Tell-Tale Clink

We've been prodded by grandparents to update our blog; so, here goes:

Last night as soon as we got into bed I heard: clink. It almost sounded like metal on metal. That's not a sound that our house usually makes, so I listened closely, and a few minutes later there was another clink. I mentally went through our house trying to figure out what would make that sound, but could think of nothing.

Finally, after the third clink I got up to investigate. I stood in the kitchen, waiting, and heard it again. It sounded like it might be outside, so I opened the blinds and looked out, but there was nothing except for empty streets and dark houses. By this time it was almost 1am, our house was totally dark, and I was starting to think we may have ghosts, or that people were in our house like the The Strangers previews that are constantly showing on TV.

Then, it clinked again, and I could tell it was coming from our dining room light fixture.


I turned on the light, heard it again, and climbed up on a chair to investigate. My first thought was that it was a bug in the light fixture, but there was no movement, no shadows, and when I unscrewed the light cover there was nothing inside.

Now I was stumped. I waited and waited but there were no more clinks. I decided that it was somehow fixed now that the light cover was off, so I set the cover on the floor, left a note for Wendy so she wouldn't be wondering what the heck was going on in the morning, and went back to bed.

And then, 10 minutes later, it clinked again. And again. And again. And I got up again and went back downstairs. With a bit of patience I was rewarded with another clink, and it was still coming from our light fixture, except now there was nothing but two light bulbs and the base that screwed into the ceiling.


Determined, I got up on the chair and carefully unscrewed the base and pulled it down a few inches -- as far as the wires into the ceiling would let me. From what I could see there was nothing there. Then, I tilted it towards me, and something small and black slid down: it was a bug. A bug in the attic had crawled down into the recessed area of the base, and when it tried to fly around it clinked against the metal. No ghosts. No horror movie characters. Just a bug. I squashed it, screwed the base back into the ceiling, and went to bed. No more clinks.

Here's what else we've been up to in recent months:

* There was another employee book sale at work, and this year we got a buy 1 get 1 free coupon, which meant it was 12.5 cents per book. We got 87 books for $11. Some of our more exciting finds include the following:

The Portable Dorothy Parker
Keturah and Lord Death
Dreaming in Code
Pattern Recognition and The Difference Engine by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Sagas of Icelanders
Howliday Inn

* The process of home improvement continues ever onward. Currently we're in the middle of getting a new mantel and glass doors for our fireplace, looking for a new washer and dryer, and having our front porch and deck washed and re-stained.

* Most everyone already knows, but in March we went to Greece for a week and a half and had a fantastic time. We went to Athens, Turkey, and a few Greek islands. My suitcase never made it there thanks to the opening of the new T5 terminal at Heathrow. After 3 weeks it was declared lost and I got a check for $600 and got reimbursed for all the clothes and toiletries I bought in Greece. It finally showed up on our front porch 4 weeks after it went missing! It worked out well in the end, since I got my suitcase and the money, but was a bit of hassle during the trip. We've emailed pictures to a bunch of people; if you haven't seen them and would like to, send us an email.

* The weather during Memorial Day weekend was fun. On Friday highs were in the 50s, on Saturday the 60s, on Sunday the 70s, on Monday the 80s, and when we went back to work on Tuesday it was back to the 50s.

* Our Wii has been getting a lot of playing time recently. We're both playing a lot of DDR, which is a lot of fun and a lot of exercise, and we just got Guitar Hero 3 and have started rocking out to it. I've also been killing lots of zombies thanks to House of the Dead 2 and 3.