Brief Update

So, the weekend is over.  Russ and the fellas have finished with the basement.  Several humungous piles of junk are now littering the yard, waiting to be hauled away.  The rest went back down to the basement and was "organized."  Let's check the results:

Remember my surprise at realizing the basement had a floor?  Well, it's safely hidden from view again.

In other news, I realized that in photographing the dining room decorations, I neglected to document the chandelier:

And the final note for now is that amidst all the other stuff, Russ finished the lanai's lightpost and even hung a hook on the side...

...to hold the wind-chimes that Mom Edna got for us a couple of years ago!  Now, if they don't drive the neighbors insane, we'll leave them there and enjoy the music.

That's all for now!

Mid-October Round Up

It's been a few days since the last post, so let's see if we can get caught up on a few events.

First, Garry got around to decorating for Halloween.  He didn't get quite as extravagant as he did last year, but the dining room is in the theme:

The Dining Room Table, Being Set for Breakfast

A Boquet of Dead Roses.  10th Year of Use!

Side Table

Cabinet 

The Fireplace Mantle

Meanwhile, Russell has Anthony and a friend cleaning out the basement.  Ah...the basement.  Every scrap of wood, bit of twisted metal, dried up flakes of paint...anything that Russ could chuck into the basement with even a shred of a thought of "I can probably use this some day" got chucked down there....then forgotten.  So now that the lanai is done and before he starts on the kitchen cabinets and the hottub extension, he's got to clean out the basement.

Notice, I used the words clean out, but he has undoubtedly heard quotation marks around it:  "clean out"  which in Russell land is going to mean: shift things around so he can keep everything that's there and possibly manage to cram more junk down there.

Part of the Basement -- Only about 1/5 -- Prior to Operations

Another Small Quandrant

About 1/3 cleaned out.  It has a Floor!  Not sure what the white spots are..
..perhaps ghosts of displaced junk...

All the stuff removed--so far--has been hauled to the lanai.  My lanai!  Now to get Rick to come haul it away.  Russ says he's going to "sort through it" and only keep "the stuff he needs."  We may have a blowout about that idea.  I'm like mom in Beetlejuice:  "Everything goes."

Close Up

Long View

So we'll see how that turns out.  The outside of the place certainly qualifies for a haunted house look.  Or at least abandoned. 

And finally, here's a couple more shots of Russ using that iPad that he can't seem to justify any one purchasing ever.

I think he's onto the notion that I'm onto him.

On the plus side, one morning while he was checking the things he checks when he's iPadding in the car, he suddenly said, "Um..baby...Hawaiian Air is having a special.  $130 tickets from Seattle to Hawaii.  Should I book us a trip?"

HELL YA, YOU SHOULD!

So before we got to work, we had a Hawaiian get-away scheduled for January!

And that's all for this go-round.  Next up will likely be a Halloween post!

Cory's Birthday

Sunday the 10th is Cory's birthday.  He and Jill had planned on going to the RenFest, and invited The Three of We along.  So...off we go again!

Cory and Jill.  Happy Birthday, Cory!

 

Garry had ordered some costume items to go with his leafy green mask.  He put most of it on (don't get me started) and looked good.
 

Garry in his Green Man outfit.  Nice tights!

Most of the stuff Damian ordered did not arrive, so he took a credit card and bought some stuff at Moresca.  It was expensive but did help to replace all the costumes that Mathew "inherited" when he left home. 

Damian and his "Bard of Wine" outfit.  (Too fat!)

We also took Russ's new protege, Anthony.  Anthony is the pseudo-adopted son of Toni.  She and Russ want to try to get him better situated in life and he seems to want to try to improve himself, so he spends a lot of time here at the house.  He's helped Russ with the lanai (and Russ makes Anthony negotiate hourly pay, collect on the debt, etc.,)  Meanwhile, Russ teaches him basic construction, basic educational improvements, teaching him to drive, get his "personhood paperwork" together, etc.  Anthony has done well and has had numerous instances where his view of the world was expanded in ways that he thought he wouldn't enjoy, but turns out he does.  For instance...the RenFest.  He initially blanched at the thought of walking around...in the woods...without his rap music...amidst lots of wackos in tights, soft-boots, and bells.  No TV or computer games, but instead sitting on benches and watching live low-tech performances?  Who could possibly enjoy such a thing?

Turns out...Anthony can!

Oops!  You're having a good time!

Anyway...the drive to the RenFest was horrific!  Apparently, everyone decided to go there today!  Traffic was essentially at a standstill for the last 10 miles or so and it took about two-and-a-half hours to get from there to parking.  The park was packed, shows were packed, shoppes were packed.  The lines for food, drink, privies were so long that Damian didn't eat or drink or priv (?) until much later in the afternoon.

Anthony found the rock-climbing wall and decided to give that a try:

 

Neither Jill nor Cory nor Anthony had seen Johnny Fox's show so we tried to get to that show, but we missed the one show he did for the day.  But we did get seats for Puke and Snot which was a show I had not seen before.  It was clever, very quick, and pretty much a "thinker" show of puns and bad setups.

Puke and Snot

As is always there case, there's a cluelss or two to point out.  This fellow sitting in front of us, for instance.  He's cute enough and seems nice.  But as the show was underway he look around, saw some friends of his standing behind the back row and decided that instead of excusing himself and walking back to chat with them, instead stood up and began shouting a conversation with them!  While the show was going on?

Really?

After Puke and Snot, the gang was getting tired, so we decided to check out Johnny Fox's new show.  Besides being a Sword Swallower, Johnny is also a magician and he's debutin a new act called Jadoo.   It was a bit rough, but good.  His lovely assistant was a belly-dancer who danced, vanished in a sword-basket, and walked on glass and up a ladder-of-swords!  Not too shabby!

After that we left and headed back home. Jill and Cory come to the house and we lit up the firepit, ordered pizza, poured some drinks, cranked up the music, and had a good time.

After the fire burned down we went inside to play some games.  Damian won at Guillotine, Cory won at Flux, and Garry won at Mario Party on the Wii.

After that, it was late.  Jill and Cory headed home.  We closed shop and dropped into bed.

Misc Stuff

The lanai is pretty well finished.  Russ ordered some palm trees and they came in a couple of days ago.  We're slightly disappointed.  While perhaps not out-right false advertising, we expected something more from our "$100 for a 5' palm tree" than what we ended up receiving.

(Really?  That's a 5-foot palm tree?)

(Nonetheless, Russ plants it!)

And he put in the fountain.  I gave him guidelines as to how the fountain should look and he more-or-less completely refused to pay attention to those guidelines.  Instead he got bought (on sale, naturally) a "plant" themed thing that lights up.  Then put it on a wooden box.  <sigh>  It's nearly winter and I'll let it ride for now....but come spring, that thing is going to be replaced.

(LED lights make it look like flame.  Still...hate the base..)



On another note, I bought an iPad 3G when it was released.  Russ rolled his eyes in a very exaggerated manner and let me know in no small degree how silly he thought the idea was.  "Who would possibly use a toy?"

Well, since I got the thing he has used it almost non-stop.  When we were on our trip to the Nevada desert, he used it.  When we got to work in the morning...he lights it up almost before his tushy has landed in the car seat.  When we come home, he's got it on and has his nose in it.  When we go to work on his PhD project....he sits in the hallway and uses the iPad.  We go to dinner...and he's got it up-and-running..



"I see no use for such a thing,"    --MY ASS!