The Carpenter without a Square

In my current position at Pfizer, I carry a company issued laptop. I have no real office to speak of, so I take my laptop home just about every night. On some rare (usually sleepless) occasions, I forget my laptop and have to come home to get it. VERY frustrating.. and with my blackberry in hand, I can sometimes manage without it. I believe this is what happened to the carpenter that built Connor's room. Only he left his square at home. It's a nice room, but I swear that the walls were installed by a carpenter without a square. This morning after a visit to the flamingo place, Ryan and I started to install the hardwoods in Connor's room. I was going to build off the doorway, because I didn't want the entryway to not match with the flooring in the room. Then I found that I was up against the craziest doorway there ever was. The transition strip was cut funky and then when I investigated more... I found the wall was out of square. So I went to the far side and found out that was the same (thank the saints for Lasers... or I would have found out the painful way.) Anyway.. After snapping lines, measuring... snapping more lines and then realizing that the closet was built just as wacky... I got to work

Ick. It took me most of the morning to get the first run in. I also determined that they were going to run the heat through some hole in the floor that they never used or capped... Closing them up, left the room about 5 degrees warmer and made me happy that I was producing some positive change in my manic drive to install the floors. I know we all make mistakes, but JEEZ, who the hell was this guy and what drugs was he on? Anyway all this reminded me of something my brother in law says: "Looks like this was installed on a Friday." I wonder what he'd say if he was here today.. Probably that is wasn't as bad as other rooms he's dealt with and oh yeah: "It looks fine to me. As long as I can't see it from my house."

Alas, poor Yoric Yuletide, I knew him well...

It was a pretty warm day and we have been out enjoying it. We had breakfast at the flamingo place and Connor had a half-sponge-bob-robot, half-bunny French toast thing that he gleefully ate, and Ryan, being 4 going on 15 ate his grilled muffin while griping but without incident. I still love sending the boys to the front to pay the bill. Today as to break up the week, we didn't go as superheros. It's fun no matter what happens, but when batman and robin show up to pay the bill, it's a special treat for the entire restaurant.

Like any other day, when we got home, the firemen arrived. :) Seems that dispatch heard the number wrong or assumed that problems with fireplaces on our street should be routed through us... After a little confusion, they left and checked out a CO alarm a few doors down. My neighbor just couldn't stand it anymore and had to call me and see what the heck was going on. I told her one of my girlfriends and Lise were fighting over me again... It's only neighborly to give the folks on the street a good story to whisper about at parties.

When we failed at naps, Lise and I packed the kids off to torture them at IKEA for an hour or two. Off to our second meal out (gotta stop that) and then home for lots of overtired playing (stop touching me, no you're touching me... MOM!!!) while Lise and I cleaned up and took out the Christmas tree. Yuletide and his dancing penguin friends were my first victim of the night, and although I did decapitate him, I still love love him and will revive him and his dancing Arctic friends early in the Christmas season next year. Now it's truly the end of Christmas (day 12) and tomorrow is Epiphany and I wonder what profound thing I can come to tomorrow so I can make a proper celebration of it. :) Who knows, maybe it will come to me when the fire department visits again. We do love it when they pop by.
-Mike

Happy New Year!

Good riddance to 2007.

It wasn't such a bad year, but for us, it was a year of transformation. Our home, jobs, kids, etc etc changed. I like new stuff, but I'm ready for a little stability this year. I wont go into the highs and the lows, but let's just say that I'm ready for a happier year.

Last night was tons of fun and we thought it would be over by 8pm and ended up pulling in the driveway at close to 11PM last night. :) We took our friends to a local Hibachi grill. Connor and Ryan loved it and our friends kids LOVED it. (except the little one, who was afraid of the fire from the volcano) Like every place we go... the boys were dressed like batman, of course. Ryan especially liked it when the cook took out a little squeeze toy filled with water that had "peed" on everyone. I thought he might pee in his pants too. Connor kept clapping every time the cook did anything. Lise and I both had a few drinks and enjoyed the show too. I was the only one to catch a piece of zucchini that he was flipping to each of us ... Ryan came close too. :)

Afterwards, we stopped by a neighbor's house for "just a minute to say Happy New Years". We had too much to drink, met neighbors, and Connor charmed the adults, while Ryan hung out and played "guitar hero" on wii with the teenagers. I think they adopted him quickly... being batman and all. He eventually ditched the outfit, when one of the girls told him he was "cute". He then carried a torch around for her the rest of the night. He is VERY heterosexual. Anyway it was lots of fun and was really needed. We keep meeting cool neighbors and this place is starting to shape up.

As for 2007 projects, Ryan's room is WAY DONE. (Thank the saints!) Now I only have two small rooms to go, and after that I have three bathrooms to rehab. The closet in Ryan's room was a bear. I got out of square as I entered the closet. I am pretty sure it wasn't me, but it was the closet ... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. What a pain... in the end, I had to dry fit the ENTIRE thing and then use the wonder-bar to tighten things up. What a pain in the butt... I would have had the whole closet done in 30 minutes, and it took me almost 2 hours, with the cutting and re-cutting. In the end, it looks OK, but I'm not happy with it. It's not as tight as the other parts of the room, and I notice it. Lise was very happy, and didn't notice it, so I guess that's a plus. :)

Anyway, it's 9am and we're going to go out to the Coffee Break (aka: "the Flamingo Place") and get some breakfast.