Welcome to the   April 2006 BLOG. Didn't see the end of last month?
Click here: March 06 BLOG

April 27, 2006 Thu

The girls heading to work and school this AM. Dang - never got around to painting the edge of the screen door - been up three years, now.

Two pictures Ann shot with her OM-1 a couple days ago, trying to finish the roll. Nice weather, yes. Top down, scooter out.

April 26, 2006 Wed

Upstairs tile is grouted - yay

Ann is putting up the curtain rod holders

Evelyn has made this skirt by herself - from selecting the materials, to cutting out the pattern, to the sewing and ironing. Thanks to Gram for the guidance.

Here's a scary thing - filled up the Saab and broke the forty dollar barrier for the first time. (Phone cam picture) I know, some of you have broken the fifty dollar mark. Whoa! Since I got this fill-up, gas has gone over three dollars, here on the island.

I guess we can thank this guy:
 Thanks to the Mayor

 Thanks to Jarvee

April 25, 2006 Tue

Nice weather is really here - third day in a row near 70.

Now ~~ Here's a boat that isn't going to capsize - two thirds of the hull and most of the weight below the water line.

The new commode for upstairs is sitting in my study -

April 23, 2006 Sun

Ann cut the tile for the upstairs bathroom today. Here she is taking a break from using the tile saw (which sprays large volumes of water on the tile cutter) to have a sip of coffee and throw the ball for Tizzy.

The latest in large trash can liner outerwear/rain gear

Then I glued the tiles in place. Teamwork.

Tizzy has gone into her first season of heat, so she wears this doggy diaper in the house. Oddly enough, she makes no attempt to remove it.

April 22, 2006 Sat

We have been trying to get this upstairs project done!

Ann is cleaning the area prior to trimming the large windows.

Inspecting the finished windows, holding the world's greatest helper dog.

TWO helper dogs caught in the act of helping Ann

Ann has the hang of the nail gun

She put up these shelves in Evie's closet

The 'chop' saw and nail gun/compressor (amongst others) allow us to progress at speeds that would baffle carpenters working before power tools. To cut boards by hand, nail them by hand, counter sink the nails, etc. - would take several times longer.

Painting is about the slowest part of the operation - here is Ann's paint and prep area

She has also done some tile prep work. We hope to get them down tomorrow.

Untrimmed windows -

Trimmed! Now to install the flooring in all the rooms, and see that pile of laminate go away.

April 20, 2006 Thu

Fae sends some of her pictures from Easter
Anna

Cassady and Ann

Cass and Laura

Fae and Evelyn

Thank you Fae!

April 19, 2006 Wed

We've finally updated the Railroaddave picture pages.  Still a ways to go, but there is some improvement. Thanks to all those that have been kind enough to send pictures to post. We added a Train Wreck photo page,  and also an Old Time Trains photo page. 

Say, why not take that camera to work and send along some pictures?

April 17, 2006 Mon

Easter reflections

The Lambie Cake! An Easter tradition. Also the girls; Ann, Ivey, Heidi, Anna, Fae, Evelyn

Barb served 21 folks this day.

It's Niomi and Fae

April 16, 2006 Sun

Happy Easter
Thanks to Bill!

Evelyn and Ann on the church steps

With Fae on the porch

Something you don't see too often (for |)avid)- in church.

April 15, 2006 Sat

We had a swell rainbow this afternoon, as the sun ended a dreary wet spell. The view out Evelyn's east dormer was the best!

A rather interesting digital ones and zeros affect you might apply to photos can be had by going here  Thanks to Robert

Also today ~ a first - Ann buys a power tool! Here she is making the first cut on a piece of hemlock wood that she selected for the top of the stairway:

The flash stopped the saw blade! This will make mitering the moldings a lot easier. I'll have to get you a shot of the 'old' miter box saw. Here it is~~ I can't believe I cut four rooms worth of molding using this tiny hand held tool.

April 14, 2006 Fri

Robert takes a good and supportive view of my halogen light dilemma:

Thanks to Keith W for this link to a fun thing~~ (use your mouse!)
Have Fun with George!

April 13, 2006 Thu

The halogen lights under the cupboards failed, almost two years to the day after installation, which was and always will be a colossal pain. After several attempts to resurrect the old ones - with no success - we went with a new set up; one that didn't require a transformer. The old transformer had been going for some time, meaning that the lights would occasionally work, but one could never predict exactly when? One might walk into the kitchen at 2 AM and find the lights had decided to come on. A replacement transformer was finally procured, and it failed in less than a week. It's hard to match those darn things.

After ripping out the old lights (no small chore in itself) one must refer to the 'Easy to Install' instructions for the new ones:

Following along step by step - the dang things wouldn't go together! And in fact - Step Two was wrong. Yes. Where it says 'base', it should say 'cover'. One tends to try and follow the written instructions, and it took several attempts before it dawned that they were - in fact - WRONG. The part in the illustration is, (I finally realized) the cover, not the base. And if one should try to place the cord into the base, as suggested, the two halves will simply not go together. Parts that simply will not go together when following the instructions word for word tend to make the assembler feel something of an idiot. A frustrated idiot, at that. Frustrated idiots tend to utter expletives.

What seemed a simple enough job certainly ended up requiring a whole gang of tools -

And the support of a good woman. . .

And finally it was The Proud Look - we won't say how many hours went into this wee project, but dinner wasn't until after nine.

Ann thought that this comic was right on.

April 11, 2006 Tue

Some of Evelyn's photo work, from the trip to DC.

Herself, on the plane ~ Now we know what size people those seats are designed to accommodate!

The trim boards have arrived - the worried look - this stuff can't get wet. . .

Morning sunshine from this (east, natch) window

Shines thru this opening (where the glass blocks go) under Evie's 'cubby hole'

Hitting the stairway wall, thusly

Evelyn picked red for closets and cubbys

Track lites are today's project~

April 09, 2006 Sun

From Floyd's daughter Debi:

My Dad died last night. He had a heart attack on a tour bus in Xian, China.
He was given mouth to mouth and CPR on the bus and moved to a hospital as soon as possible, where they did all they could, but he was gone. He was pronounced dead and has a Chinese death certificate.
My Mom is still in China.

Some pictures of Uncle Burt are HERE. 

Another day (Saturday) spent painting and fixing upstairs. All the plugs and switches are wired, and some of the light fixtures. Ann hatted for overhead work.

Progress - note new stairway light in service.

Toiling in the under the eaves/storage area. There are lights in this area, too.

Evelyn surprised me with this souvenir key ring from DC!

Steve sends along this picture of what's going on inside your computer , in case you've ever wondered?

April 07, 2006 Fri

Herself in action ~~ even though still under the weather with a cold.

With the helper dog, Tizzy

It took this device

To get this mess cleared up.

That is to say, a compressor to operate the nail gun to build a rack for the scrap wood. It will also see use doing the floors and trim.

Man, how long have they had these things, and why didn't I get one sooner? Driving nails has never been faster nor easier. A job that would have taken hours was reduced to minutes. It took longer to lug and stack all the scrap wood. . .

Finished storage rack

We did take a cruise around town

April 06, 2006 Thu

Ann stayed home today. Maybe because yesterday she carried all the boxes of flooring, glass bricks and floor tiles upstairs by herself!

She has also painted Evie's bathroom and closets. The bathroom is not red. . .

Here are two guys that it's hard to catch - Cassady and Eric. The occasion was Eric's birthday, on the 15th of last month. Photos by Laura.

At a bit after ten PM MI time on the date shown below, I called my Dad for our daily chat. He was engrossed in a story he was writing. He said that he had just got off the phone with Fran, and my call was good timing. We talked on for about a half hour. It was the last time - he died sometime that night. Have you visited the Robert Smock Memorial page?

The date oddity thing shown here

sure brought a large response when I emailed it around. Most folks pointing out the fact that said oddity will occur on a pretty regular basis every thousand years. The Mayor also noted that it will happen in the afternoon, as well. I've also been informed that we've already done
  06:05:04 03/02/01,  thanks to John.
I would add; all the original email said was that the oddity as mentioned - (at just after one AM on THAT DATE) - would never happen again. Nobody said it wouldn't happen again sometime - on a DIFFERENT date.

April 05, 2006 Wed

While Ann and I are recovering from colds, Evelyn lets us try out her new camera. We ate spicy hot Thai food to make ourselves well again.

A quick ride to get the blood flowing after several days feeling blah.

Evie's camera is awesome!

Dick makes the paper again -

April 04, 2006 Tue

The girls are returned from their class trip to the 'other' Washington.

Ivey and Blair