Walking with the Ducks

Here are a couple photos from the tail end of the Thanksgiving weekend after we got back to Louisiana. Haven't had a chance to edit out the "keepers" from the trip up north. That will come later in the week in case you are interested.

Jozy loves it when my wife's parents come into town - she gets multiple walks every day. These are from the Sunday trip to Girard park.


Surprisingly enough, getting Jozy to sit still as 30 some odd ducks swim around her was not that hard!

Fantasy Crack

I'm convinced that Fantasy Football is the mental sport equivalent of crack cocaine. Need evidence? Check out this photo taken at Pete's (local sports bar here in town). Yes that is a laptop on the table, streaming fantasy football scores while 30 TVs around the bar inundate you with replays. In the meantime, my wife is whipping out the iPhone and checking out her scores as well.

Happy Holidays!

We had the opportunity to spend the last 4-5 days with my family in Massachusetts and we had a great time. The entire group tries to make a point of getting together once a year and it is always a blast when we manage to pull it off. Here is the group at dinner on Saturday night.

The Great Remodel Pool: Kickoff

Hard to believe it but I think our kitchen project is almost done. I'm calling 19 days from today. Interested gamblers can enter the betting pool with a number of days and a $2 entry fee. Entries are accepted via email, blog comments or the Twitter.

The definition of "done": All installs done in the kitchen and family room. Scope creep into other rooms does not count as unfinished work.

Here's a random found photo from Arizona of my wife scientifically measuring a light for our dining room. This photo makes me laugh.

Mabel Monster!

My niece and my brother found a friend in the airport. In this photo you can see two things:

1. Why the owl hat was of particular interest to me - it would have matched Mabel's!

2. How cute Mabel looked all weekend all bundled up for the cold weather in Massachusetts.

Garden Buddy

Photo of me and Jozy from our local garden last weekend. Headed home to see my wife's parents (who generously offered to dog and house sit) and our dog today!

Owl Hat

White Hut - Then and Now

Couple more photos just because.

White Hut

Went to White Hut in West Springfield, Massachusetts for some damn good burgers. Been open since 1939.

Me and the Wolf

Our friends Jeremy and Emily were out of town this past weekend so my wife and I got a chance to go take their dogs Shoba and Sophie for a walk. Sophie is an old friend of ours. Shoba is a relatively new addition so we are just getting to know him. I believe he is something like 50% wolf. Can you tell?

Wired

We are wired for surround sound as of this afternoon. I'm gonna butcher this explanation but here is the setup we are going with. As of right now, we are all wired but the hardware won't appear until all the painting is done.

1. Basic in ceiling surround sound speakers.

2. Wall mounted TV. Here is the hole in the fireplace brick:

3. An Onkyo receiver tucked into this corner computer cabinet. I think the sub-woofer is going to tuck in at the base of this guy:

4. Our Mac is gonna be routed through this receiver, streaming video and sound to the TV. Pretty excited about this. I am hoping it gives me all the features like Pandora, NetFlix, etc. right to the TV through our network. Plus, I think we could just use the TV as a general screen to browse the web on. Hope this part works...

5. Outdoor speakers which can be on a different zone than the indoor sound. These are already up on the back porch, just not hooked up yet.

6. Speaker wire has been run to every room of the house. No speakers in those rooms yet though. While the wire can run, the money cannot. So those speakers will be coming later.

Advice needed if you have it: Our tray ceiling is causing a challenge with the surround sound placement so we are gonna need to make a decision related to if we should put the front speakers in the wall. Anyone ever seen that before? Look ok?

The First Coat

The first coat of paint went up on the walls today. It looks awesome. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous about what this would look like so to see it up is a big relief. Check it out!


The trained eye will notice that the tile has grout at this point as well. Lots of little details are starting to fall into place these days. Subsequent post will cover some of those.

Thirty-Five

Today I turn 35. Wow! I definitely feel a lot younger than 35 and have a hard time believing that number is real. Even played a full 90 minutes and feel remarkably good today.

Update: Forgot to mention that today is Jozy's birthday as well - since we don't know when she was born, we decided to pick 11/11 as her birthday since we got her as a birthday gift. So she turns 3 today!

So what should you know about 35? Well, among other things:

• 35 is a greeting often used in Croatia. It is used the same way as a word "respect" in some cultures. Pronounced tri'spet.
• In Ancient Rome, the age of a man in his prime, at which he was eligible to become a consul.
• The minimum age (in years) of candidates for election to the position of President of the United States, President of Ireland and President of Poland
• The passing grade in many Indian Colleges (out of 100). Scoring a 35 is known to many students as getting a "Stamp"

The photo above is from our trip to Phoenix last weekend where I was surprised by an early birthday cake from my brother, his wife and my new niece. Thanks guys! And thanks to all of my friends and family (immediate and extended) for your birthday wishes. And last but not least, thanks to my wife for putting up with this cranky old man! Your friendship, support and wisdom is a constant inspiration.

Finally, thanks to all the readers of BOB who check back in every once in a while. This has been a great place for me to share memories, music and random thoughts. Hopefully you get a similar enjoyment from reading that I get from sharing. Here's a quote that I thought sums up that sentiment and is a good way to close out my "Happy Birthday to me and Jozy" post.

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.

Thieving Irons (ex-Pela Guitarist Nate Martinez)

Streaming a bunch of tunes from a band called Thieving Irons tonight who is on tour with Josh Ritter these days. The band is the first solo effort of ex-Pela guitarist Nate Martinez. Here's a video and a couple links if you are interested.

Go stream a slew of songs from the Thieving Irons at Sound Cloud.
Official web site

Sweet Baby Breesus

Sunday morning brunch at The French Press in Lafayette - caught this great local tribute to the Saints.

Sweet Baby Breesus: Boudin and bacon sliders on homemade biscuits with cheddar grits.

Who Dat.

MGMT Kids Variations (PS22 and Chiddy Bang)

One of the favorite songs around our house is MGMT's Kids. Over the past month, two related songs that either cover the song or sample it have become big hits as well. I think it is pretty cool how these various interpretations of a song make me enjoy it even more. All three pieces are awesome.

Here is the original, although not the official video since I find the monsters in the original a little too creepy.

Here is a chorus from PS22 in Staten Island performing the song. Totally worth watching. You gotta love their passion as they perform this song.

And here is the song being sampled by Chiddy Bang from Philadelphia in his song Opposite of Adults.

Inside the Island

Totally excited about the cabinets going up today. So here's another photo taken from inside the kitchen that shows the peninsula. In the background you can see the two corner cabinets and at this point the crown molding is up around the cabinets as well (look in the upper right). I can see light at the end of the tunnel!

Peninsula

The kitchen island, or rather, the peninsula has officially appeared. Can't begin to explain how awesome it is to finally see this in place.

The Decemberists - Down By The Water

Cool new song by The Decemberists. For some reason, their last album didn't do much for me but this song is really good. Pretty excited about it. The new album is called The King Is Dead and will be available on January 18th, 2011.

Life Imitating Art

Here's a couple of fun photos from our visit to see our good friend Karen out in Tucson. We stopped by her art studio and one of the artists there had a small exhibit that we thought was pretty cool. Thus, the only thing that made sense to do after admiring it was to participate.

Bruck Bolero

Picking out pendant lights has been a bit of a challenge. There are just so many cool choices that you become paralyzed. Finally settled on one today though. It is made by Bruck and is called Bolero. Above is an image from their website, and you can read about it here in case you are interested in the specs. There will be two of these hanging over the bar area.

Cabinets, Pre-Installation

Our cabinets arrived today! They have yet to be installed (this will happen tomorrow) so they are strewn all around the house in different places. However, that doesn't mean I can't be excited by how they look. Here are some photos.

One of two corner cabinets:

This is the top to a desk that we had built.

Drawers and doors:

Jozy has given them the seal of approval.

Advertising for Air

Check out this billboard that is on the border between US and Canada near Vancouver, BC - sponsored by the federal government, it advertises clean air. I never knew I would consider a billboard a tourist site but I would put this on my list for any trip to this area.

via Co.Design