DIY’d

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Frog

Early Saturday evening the better-half asked if I wanted to go to Lowe’s to buy a new shower door. Um yeah, let me put on some shoes.

We have had a problem with the shower door since we’ve lived in the house. It leaks and as you’ll see in one of the pictures below, the wood trim is ruined. Fixing the trim is a project for another day. Soon. Just like installing a new tub and kicking the always-broken-very-disgusting-jetted-tub-that-wasn’t-installed-correctly-to-begin-with-and-is-really-just-a-breeding-ground-for-creatures-from-the-black-lagoon-when-the-jets-run to the curb. I digress, but that tub sucks and I know you’ve heard it before, but I really hate that tub. It is useless.

While at Lowe’s we discovered we could install a by-pass door instead of the craptastic and quite useless hinged door model. Wow. What a concept. The by-pass door is designed to NOT leak. We purchased a Kohler and it has some sort of coating on the inside of the glass so it doesn’t get funky. I’m thinking of buying a shower squeegee so we can wipe it down frequently.

I will say that Kohler designed their shower door kit wisely. The parts were laid out well. They were all marked and we didn’t have to sort the thousands of screws, bolts and thingys. Their installation instructions were clear and written in English with accurate drawings. Nicely done. And, you know what I mean about written in English, right? Not written in some other language and translated by machine into what turns into some hackneyed version of English. Which is generally amusing, but not really something I have time for when we’re trying to install something so it doesn’t leak.

Before:

It is very hard to take pictures in our bathroom. The room is long but narrow and the above is about as good of a shot as I could get of the door.

Mid-point:

You can see that we’re in the midst of cleaning the other caulk off the horrible shower surround. Next house: tile in the shower, not plastic. I’ve complained for years that I could never get the shower clean because the dimwits who spruced the house up before we bought it caulked over mold and mildew. We chipped out all the old caulk and I cleaned as well as I could. Even though it isn’t perfect at least there aren’t huge ribbons of black funk.

Finished door:

That little tag on the outside of the shower base? Should have been removed when it was installed. We were finally able to get it off of there. Mineral spirits not only breaks down old caulk, it also makes tags very easy to remove.

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In Praise of the Bar

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Frog

While we were in Florida last weekend, we spent some time in bars. This sounds like it could be the opening of a bad joke, but it’s not. It’s not even the opening to a sordid story. Bars are simply beautiful places. My musical boyfriend agrees:

I’ve talked before about how much I love a pint glass. The pint glass is engineered to feel great in your hand and it doesn’t matter if there’s water or beer in the glass. Of course, it’s best with a hoppy beer in it, but to each his own. I think I’ve also mentioned that one of our favorite restaurants is owned by a woman who used to bar-tend at several places in town. When we first went to the favorite restaurant, the three of us (owner, better-half and I) tried to figure out how we knew each other. It came down to one of the best bars in town. When we eat at that favorite restaurant, we almost always sit at the bar. If the owner isn’t there, then we tend to choose a table. But if she’s there, we sit at the bar so we can talk with her.

I’m not much on talking to people I don’t know. (Although, as an aside, yesterday I had a pretty good conversation with some random woman at the grocery store cheese counter–stinky cheese brings people together.) Put me on a bar stool and I’m chatty. It’s not just the hoppy beer that does that to me. Although, it sure helps. There’s something about people who choose to sit at the bar. You are automatically more attuned to what’s going on in the bar because bartenders tend to treat those on bar stools like they are members of the club. You can usually ignore the television because you are too close to it to comfortably watch it and you get to check everyone else out in the mirror behind the bar. I also believe you get food faster if you are at the bar. Club membership has its privileges.

I once worked with a woman who was a recovering (recovered!) alcoholic. She and I frequented a bar at lunch just so we could eat their delicious quiche and salad special. We sat at the bar every time. And you know why? The bar stool is the perfect equalizer. It’s a great spot to sit if you are introverted and like to people watch AND it’s the perfect spot if you are an extrovert and love to chat everyone up. To top it off, you always get served iced tea in a pint glass. See? Nirvana.

While in Florida, we hung out in bars. Sometimes it was way too early in the day, but it’s five o’clock somewhere, right? The bars we went to ranged from the family-style neighborhood restaurant with the expansive patio and a tremendous amount of memorabilia hanging off every surface (not that fake AppleTuesday’s crap) to the slick modern bar down near the intracoastal. Hanging out in a bar whether it’s too early or too late in the day isn’t about getting lit. It’s about the way a bar makes you feel–comfortable, cozy, happy and a member of a much bigger family. So you see, the bar is a beautiful place.

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Another Musical Obsession

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Frog

I’m completely digging this song and as it turns out I really dig the video:

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Random Pictures

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Frog

Not very exciting, perhaps, but shots from my sister’s backyard.

A huge tree provides most of the shade in the backyard:

Close up of the Bougainvillea:

They have a neat wind chime off the canvas roof of their deck:

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Orange you glad we got away?

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Frog

orange blossom

This is a picture of the orange tree in my sister’s backyard. We grilled steaks last night and I snapped some pictures.

The tree produces pretty well, but the fruit is a blend of sweet and tart. My sister made up a vodka martini recipe that includes the juice from her oranges. I have to say the drink is quite tasty–orangey but not overly sweet.

We decided to break up our trip and stayed the night in Savannah. We walked through the tourist area and saw every sort of touristy doodad and an assortment of freaks. Dinner at the Sapphire Grill.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment

Porky Breakfast Goodness

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Frog

Yesterday we went to a green market down by the water. We ended up with some amazingly good Cafe Con Leche from a Cuban coffee place and then we shared this for breakfast:

That’s shredded pork, an onion salad, black beans and rice and more rice. I concentrated on the pork and black beans and rice. So nice!

Then we walked around admiring all the vendors and everyone’s dogs (lots of small dogs and a few regular sized ones). We walked past a woman who looked like she was eating her dog because he was on the table where the plate should have been. Really.

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Occupied

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Frog

We were standing in a high-end wine store across the sidewalk from an Occupy camp site. The mayor had been nice about the Occupiers by handing them keys to public restrooms, but today was the day they had to leave the site.

As we were standing there, a woman walked in and started talking to the clerk. She claimed the Occupiers weren’t sure what they wanted and it was the same as when she’d been in Spain last year…no direction.

Seems to me when you are standing in an expensive wine store just down the street from multi-million dollar homes and yachts that you may not be qualified to be judgey on the 99%. Of course it does allow me to be that way on her (wink).

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Get out of my dreams, get into my car

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Frog

Every road trip should begin with provisions:

You’ll notice that’s a container of 60 pieces of gum because good lord the breath from the provisions! It should be noted that in the cooler we have several bottles of water and a 10lb ham. Porky goodness is hard to come by where we’re headed and the folks we’re going to see have requested some good old Virginia ham.

Other photos may follow depending on how well I can make the phone’s various apps work.

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AAAAACHHHOOOO!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Frog

Last Friday it was very warm and very windy. I opened the windows because it was so gosh, darn nice. Since then my head has been stuffed with the snot. Brilliant. It isn’t even March yet and I’m suffering from a major allergy problem. The trees have decided it is time to pollinate and if there is one thing that I’m allergic to, it’s trees. Every single kind on this planet.

I’ve started my prescription nasal spray early and I’ve been stuffing the decongestants down my throat. It’s much better today and I think I can say it has not moved into a cold no matter how much my cough sounds like a big guard dog on a short leash. At least I’m not in an office where they frown on napping in the middle of the work day. Yesterday I gave up pretending that I needed to get things done because breathing shouldn’t be so hard. But it was and it exhausted me. So I took a nap with Lucy on the couch and felt much better two hours later. Two hours. You know I’m practically dead when I take a two hour nap.

Today I had to run an errand in the middle of nap time and it hasn’t bothered me so that’s another indication that I’m finally getting my allergy response system back online. It is hard to refuse Lucy’s plea to come lay with her in the sun:

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

Beans for Lunch

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Frog

There’s a restaurant in town that has the best Tuscan White Bean Salad. It is one of those things that’s always on their menu and I almost always order it when we go there. The better-half has an aunt who lives in Northern Virginia, but when she’s in town and can make it to that restaurant she orders the salad too. She and I have talked about that salad outside of eating at the restaurant. That’s how good the salad is.

Today, since it is in the 60s and I was feeling particularly healthy-minded, I made a version of the bean salad. We had some leftover canned tomatoes in the refrigerator so I drained those and added them to a can of drained cannellini beans. Then I chopped up some parsley and half of a shallot and added those to the bowl. I zested half a lemon and added the juice. A good dose of olive oil and salt and pepper rounded out the salad. I served it over a bed of baby greens. So good. So lucky too because I have enough for tomorrow’s lunch.

In completely unrelated news, I’m going to attempt to trap the last female cat today. The horde got a skimpy breakfast so I’m hoping this afternoon I’ll be able to convince her to wander into the trap. If she doesn’t go in, then I’ll have to hope for the lone male. My fingers are crossed.
Update: I was successful in catching Jim in one of the traps. He went wild with fright–claws flying, flips in the small enclosure, nuts like his mother. Then I walked out and asked him if he wanted out. He meowed quietly and then out he went. He hadn’t been around for over 24 hours so I never anticipated that he’d be remotely tempted to scam on the food scraps in the cage. After a few minutes of cleaning to show all the other cats that he meant to get caught in the trap, he came in and had a regular meal.

The SCPA has changed the way they do Trap and Release so we can’t try again until the end of March. I have a feeling we might have kittens by then. Damn.

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