Christmas Day, continued

After presents and breakfast and maybe some snacks (I don't remember actually when the snacks came in) we went outside for some bubble blowing fun courtesy of Mom Pf.

As usual(or as expected), this involved some of us (the know-it-alls) trying to prove that we knew best how to make big bubbles. Nobody really won, but bubbles were made.

Then we went for a wildlife walk on the golf course (closed for the day).

Christmas Day

After much debate over when Christmas would start, it was agreed that it would begin at 8:30AM and that those who chose too would appear in pajamas. Michael promised a special shirt for Dad F. (and I totally knew it was an Obama shirt, I mean, I knew before I saw it). Christmas took a very long time and was punctuated by breakfast. Mom and Dad Pf seemed to enjoy it too. I was introduced to Fluff, who was apparently an integral part of Brian's childhood. He has certainly seen better days, but at least the snot has been washed off of him.

Walks on the beach

It's Christmas and I need shorts. What is up with that?


12/24/08. We went for a walk on the beach. It wasn't perhaps the best beach weather, but the light was really interesting and we examined the seaweed and the wildlife.

Snow, Christmas, more snow, power outages and a PAPER!

First it snowed and there was much freaking out because I was trying to get my paper submitted before everyone went on vacation.

Then, we had Christmas at my mom's house. I couldn't get a good shot of the tree, because there was stuff all over the floor (first presents and then then it looked like a hurricane had struck) and it was too dark, and I forgot about taking pictures until after all the presents were unwrapped anyway, but I did get some good shots of my mom's Christmas mice. I LOVE the Christmas mice. They are my favorite Christmas decorations. I also got some shots of some of the mushroom ornaments. We ate dinner and I ate a lot of beets. I'm not going to go into detail about what happened after THAT, but if you've ever eaten a lot of beets, you probably know. If not, you should try it sometime. Brian got a knife sharpener and I got a pouring shield for my mixer. Plus, we both got some good books and a plate (well, I called it a plate, but my mom insisted it was a dish) and a washer (HINT: it's like the year I got a piece of wood-- a board--a key, and a tiny little mouse). Got it?

Yesterday it snowed some more, my paper was submitted (Oh my god! Passive voice!), we shoveled a lot and the power went out again. It came back on overnight, so unfortunately for Margot, we don't have to go stay with Adam and Christi again.

Snow!

Christmas Presents, Part II

christmas wedding present cake veiw #1
Originally uploaded by Manassas Cakery

If anyone is still looking for a present to give Brian, I have an idea so you should ask me. Meanwhile, this is a picture of a cake!

Ice Storm

If you live in New England, you are surely aware of the gigantic ice storm that affected the area on Friday, December 12. There have been massive, widespread power outages in MA and NH, over 300,000 customers in each state, with more in Vermont and Maine. In Boxborough, our power was out for the better part of three days. We were fortunate that our friends Adam and Christi, who live in Acton (one town over) never lost any services, and they were very gracious in offering us their spare bedroom, since we had no light, heat or water. We actually had a great time all weekend!

We were fortunate not to have much damage (trees or otherwise) around our house. One chunk of one of the pine trees came down on the edge of the yard. We moved some stuff out of the fridge into A+C's fridge, and moved the rest into a container outside, since the high was about 30 on Saturday and 40 on Sunday. To guard against frozen pipes, we chose to drain the boilers on Saturday afternoon, as the temp in the house got down to about 40 during the day, and it was supposed to be 15 overnight. Not sure if this was overkill or not, but we didn't know when the power would be coming back on, and the temp on Sunday morning was 34 inside the woman-cave!

The attached pictures pale in comparison to others I have seen from further west and north, but there they are for documentation purposes. In addition to the ice, we also got a lot of rain, as you can see from the high water level in the pond behind our house. You can sort of make out the old beaver dam -- this is normally a dropoff of about 18 inches.

On the other side of Boxborough (to the west), the town of Harvard *still* has power out as of this morning. I guess it could have been worse!

Wishlists and such

OK people, there has been some demand for wishlists and such around the holidays. I'm not one to refuse a gift, so I've added my Amazon.com wishlist to the sidebar. I admit that it tends to be a somewhat random assortment of things that I was interested in at one time or another, so use your better judgement. I don't seem to be able to add Brian's, but his is a less random assortment of things that he might actually want on a more consistent basis. It turns out that he'll probably be getting most of those things anyway (oops, did I say that?) so if you want to buy him something, I don't know what to tell you.

That is all.

Sure has gotten quiet around here

Not much going on since the big house project reached the penultimate milestone. By the time it was finally done, I was expecting that painting would have to wait until next year, but the project manager insisted that they were still doing painting jobs. As long as it is above 40 degrees (or 35 in a pinch) it is supposed to be OK. So wouldn't you know it, as soon as they work one day and paint two sides of the house, we have about a three week cold snap with periodic intermissions of rain. Finally, today, the painters have returned to continue the job. Today and tomorrow look good, and they might even get to work Thursday, if the forecast improves.

Meanwhile we have lived a quiet and relatively uneventful existence since the last update, at least compared to our friends who have been busy moving and having kids and stuff. I suppose we should be preparing for the holidays now, but mostly I have been playing bridge and Rock Band (not at the same time), while Edith works on her sewing projects. The house work has inspired a couple of other small side projects, like switch wiring and general cleanup/organization, and I have been watching more home improvement TV programming. This too will probably pass, as soon as it becomes clear that I can't build a deck and re-landscape the yard in 22 minutes.

Is it unseasonably warm in here?

Or is our house just warmer? Well, maybe both. It used to be that I could tell how cold it was outside by how cold it is inside, but no more. On the other hand, it has been kind of warm the past couple days.

Not much to report here. As some of you might know, I had an end of October deadline for finishing the data for my paper. Well, we missed that, but I'm pretty close. I've been doing mostly boring data analysis at work. I've made a few bags and a quilt, but I don't have any pictures due to the fact that I've assigned photography to Brian. In the meantime, here is a picture of the view out our back door and another one of my sewing machine.

Victory is ours!

Mostly. Close enough for government work, anyways. The crew is done, they have taken their tools and don't plan to come back. There is still a dumpster in the driveway, which is supposed to be taken away Real Soon Now. All of the work is complete except for the caulking and painting. There is still some question about whether the painting will be done this fall. I am doubtful, but if we get 2 or 3 (or 4?) days of warm weather, they could probably get it in. I have to talk to the project manager. Someone has to come and do some caulking in the seams and at the edges sometime this fall.

We are very pleased with the results so far. Even Primer Beige is a huge improvement. Edith says it's like our house got some new clothes. I added that we did it for less than Sarah Palin.

Brrrr.

It was coooold on Friday morning; it got down to about 25 degrees overnight. It was our first hard freeze of the season, and the crew was not too happy about the conditions. It warmed right up to the 60s that afternoon, though.

Since the last post, they continued to work around the back of the house, and as of today (Monday), they are finally done with it. They finished around the patio area and did the second floor on Friday, and then installed the kitchen window and basement doors in a half day on Saturday. Today they did the kitchen and around my office.

I am a little disappointed in how much frame there is around the kitchen window, and how the new glass is smaller than the old glass, but there isn't much we can do now. I will get used to it. The new doors are great, they close so easily, and the big glass in the front door lets in a lot of light (or as Edith says, gives you a better view of our junk).

We are getting close. Top of the 7th inning maybe, but it looks like there will be a rain delay tomorrow.

Combination post

Day 6 and 7 of work (I've been too busy to post every day). Some of our old windows had some unpleasant properties, like being stuck closed (or at least difficult to open) while also being drafty. Awesome in the summer AND winter. So, we are replacing many of the windows in the main part of the house with new vinyl triple-pane windows. The new ones were installed yesterday. Check out the old wallpaper that was behind the trim! There is still some interior trim work to do on the ones upstairs, and the kitchen sink window to replace, but they are saving those until Saturday or Monday, when it might rain again.

Today they worked around the back on the siding. Looking good.

Barring bad weather or surprises, he thinks he'll be done on Tuesday (not including painting). We'll see.

Sill-y things

Tuesday was Day 5 of actual work and Day 8 overall. The crew finished the side of the apartment and started around the back, and they elected to replace the window sills. It rained yesterday afternoon and there is a chance of showers this morning -- hopefully they can get some more work done this afternoon. Most of the big surprises seem to be over. I will try to stop taking pictures in the dark.

Intermission

No house work yesterday. Jimmy, who is clearly in charge, said The Sidekick was sick. It was also Jimmy's birthday. Birthday boy took the day off because he couldn't do the job alone, but I'm sure he didn't mind having the excuse.

There is a maple tree outside my office window, down by the water, which changes colors in the fall in an unusual way. First the leaf tips will turn red, then the rest of the leaf will turn orange a week later. I like how they become sort of translucent in the late afternoon.

We won't look like losers anymore

... at least not because of our siding. That is what Edith said on Friday night. She is very observant, and quotable.

Friday (Day 4) was an interesting day. The roofers came to take care of the apartment. This roof has a very low slope (about 1:24), and so all of the contractors recommended a rubber roof, like we already have on the other parts of our house that have a low slope. The normal way to install this type of roof is to put down some high-density foam board insulation, screw it into the roof sheathing, and then glue down a rubber membrane. Additional rubber strips go over the edges and seams, and then you are done. It has a lifetime of at least 30 years.

Our problem on Friday was that the existing roof material (several layers of cheap rolled asphalt roofing on top of an ice and water shield layer) was all glued together and glued down to the sheathing. It was practically impossible to get off, and I saw the roofers struggle with it. We decided it would be OK to give up on the removal and just mount the foam board on top of it. There didn't seem to be much harm other than not getting to see the sheathing condition, but we might not have been able to see it under the stuck-on ice/water shield anyways. After jumping around on the roof for a while, the roofer convinced me it would be OK (note: I am very gullible). Unfortunately for the roofers, somebody measured wrong and didn't deliver enough roofing material, so they had to go out during the day for more. This meant they couldn't finish in one day, and had to come back on Saturday for a couple of hours, but I guess it was otherwise uneventful. There is a sort of unfortunate white strip across the roof ridge at the front of the apartment now, but the edge had to be covered with something. Maybe it can be painted black, or maybe we'll get used to it.

Meanwhile, the siding crew was completing the new sheathing on the side of the main house. There was a small surprise when they started taking off the siding on the second floor and found they had a nice view of the attic crawlspace behind Edith's closet. We talked for a while about mounting new plywood inside the crawlspace, putting in insulation, and adding more on the outside, but decided against it because the roof is not insulated there either. There is some insulation on the back of the closet, and also in the floor of the crawlspace to keep the first floor "warm".

After completing the new sheathing, everyone on site (siders, roofers, me) agreed that it looked better already, and maybe we should just leave it like that. We decided to keep going. The crew actually started mounting siding at about 4PM, and did the front of the apartment. They make it look easy, especially if you have a nail gun. Cut to length, nail once to hold in place, adjust with a level, then secure it with more nails (thud thud thud thud thud). It took them an hour to do the front, including making a new box for the new outside lamp and assembling it. There was a misunderstanding about the window trim style (I asked to have an extra piece put under the sill) but I think it will be fixed up on Monday.

Primer Beige is OK, but Edith and I went to the paint store for an hour on Saturday anyways. I think we have settled on a color scheme. I'll keep it a surprise for now, although I know some people have heard rumors.

Om nom nom nom

I assume that is the sound that termites make. I don't know. I haven't actually heard them, and haven't tried very hard to find recordings on the web.

No phone calls yesterday! The hole shown below is now covered up with wood and tyvek. About 2/3 of the sheathing on the side has been replaced. The roofers are here this morning.