We went up to Syracuse to visit my folks last weekend and check out their new house, which is lovely. It’s the first time we’ve seen them since Finn’s christening. They bought in a 20-year-old development, so everything is modern, well-kept, and easily accessible, both in the house and in the town. The house itself isn’t huge but the floorplan makes it larger than it is. The basement is easily twice the size of ours. They are happy and comfortable, and that’s the best thing that could have ever happened to them.
The weather has finally broken from Seattle-like rainfall and temperatures to a balmy mid-80’s heat, and the Mid-Atlantic humidity is creeping in as I write this. I’ve got a list of summer prep chores to get to over the long weekend–A/C units in the windows, humping summer clothes around the house, setting up an attic fan–and pulling the top off the truck, which I’m looking forward to.
I’m about 300+ pages into The City Of Mirrors, the final book in the Passage trilogy, and I’m enjoying it so far. The first two books were engrossing and written much better than the standard post-apocalyptic/vampire novel, and I savored re-reading them slowly last month to prepare for this book. That’s about all I’ll say without getting spoilery.
I’m beginning to write down syllabus ideas for next semester’s class, and basing the structure on a couple of books: Alina Wheeler’s Brand Identity, David Airey’s Logo Design Love, and Debbie Millman’s Brand Bible. I’ve got a couple of old syllabi from previous classes and a handful of notes and ideas I’ve written down during the last year. This semester is going to involve a lot more workshop-style learning and hands-on work, which seemed to be the thing that made the light bulbs go on.
On Friday, a nice man with a big truck dropped a 20 yard dumpster in our driveway. Ordinarily, this would be cause for celebration, but there was something better to look forward to that evening: an O’s game! Our friend Mr. Scout got us tickets and we met up with them in Section 66, on the third base line, about six rows off the field. The evening was damp and misty, so we hunkered down under plastic and blankets, but the game was good and the company was excellent. Finley had a great time watching the game and eating blue cotton candy, and I think she wants to go back. Plus, she got to meet the Bird!
Saturday morning, the family got to work filling the dumpster with all of the concrete, brush, yard waste, and random debris we’ve had laying around the house since last spring. With three people working we got it all moved in three hours–much quicker than the last pile. We now have our driveway back and it doesn’t look like a Superfund site anymore.
After that got done, we went downtown for some lunch, and then to Second Chance to find some brick and shutters.
Since the hedges all have come down, the front of the house looks more naked than ever and needs softening in the worst way. I started last weekend with some cardboard cutouts to see what would work best in terms of scale, held them in place while Jen looked from below, and we found a size we both agreed upon. My plan was to build something simple from scratch and fasten it to the siding permanently. Seeing me up on the roof, my neighbor brought one of the old shutters from his garage and offered them to us. We took five and used them for sizing, but it turned out they were 5″ too short and in pretty rough shape.
At Second Chance, we got super lucky and found two pair of matching white shutters at the proper size and width. They’re as close to the original louvered windows this house came with as possible, with dogging arms and hinges intact, and sturdy. After some work picking out a matching pair and scavenging a full set of hardware, we walked to the front and paid for our find–and got a discount of $35/each for being there at closing time.
The plan is to borrow our neighbor’s powerwasher and knock the flaking paint off, hit them with a belt sander, repair any cracks, and paint them black. Then I’ve got to either salvage the existing male hinge hangers from the rear of our house and pray they fit these shutters, or buy a new set of eight hinges to hang them correctly.
We were also lucky enough to find good brick to replace the exploded and cracked examples littering the end of the walk from a batch in exactly the right size and shape. When we got home Jen and I walked out front and replaced 20 of the worst ones, and the walk looks like new again.
Sunday was rainy, pretty much all day, so I spent a lot of the day getting stuff ready to toss when the weather lets up. I made all the paint in the basement inert with cat litter, put the shutter hardware into diesel fuel to clean, and organized the basement in preparation for more cleansing. I also posted the Doctor’s old wooden desk on Freecycle, but got no response–so it’s getting tossed.
To catch up on the last few weeks, our refrigerator is fixed. We know a guy who knows a guy who fixes things as a side job, and so we called to have him come out. A huge guy named Dave showed up on the doorstep in a worn biker’s jacket and West Coast Choppers hat, and politely got down to business with the balky fridge. Within minutes he had the icemaker out, the back panel off the freezer, and had identified the culprit as the pusher fan which moves cold air from the freezer down to the fridge. The ball bearings had frozen up so it wasn’t doing its job. He neatly stacked the extra parts back in the freezer, made some calls, and had a new unit installed the next afternoon.
The furnace is fixed as well. There was another bad part that needed to be replaced, and the guys who came out to work on it had it diagnosed in minutes. I do have to call them back to have it adjusted, though, because it’s filling the basement with the smell of gas. The second guy gave me a bit of good advice about the tile in the basement, too–apparently if you measure floor tiles there’s a good chance you can tell if they’re made with asbestos by their size. And yes, ours have asbestos. Yay!
Jen took me for my birthday dinner to Woodberry Kitchen in Hampden, and we got to pretend we were adults for an evening. The food was excellent, the cocktails were delicious, and my company was beautiful. Brown liquor isn’t my best friend, but after a Manhattan, an Old Fashioned, and two vodka cocktails with names I can’t recall, I had a minor hangover on Saturday. We hit Eggspectations for brunch and spent the afternoon shopping in preparation for Easter dinner at the house next weekend with Rob and Karis and Barrett flying in from St. Louis on Friday.
We’re hunkered down under about 20″ of snow here in the ‘Ville, and it looks like it’s finally stopped falling. The roads outside are quiet, and there are 3’ icicles hanging from the fancy new LED streetlamps.
Finn and I spent the morning in front of a DVD of Mythbusters building her Christmas LEGOs, warm and cozy in the den. After a late lunch we got curious, bundled ourselves like eskimos and crawled over the drifts outside to make it to the road. I borrowed my neighbor’s snowblower and cut a path on the front sidewalk. By the time I was done the first stuff I shoveled was under 3″ of new snow.
We came back inside and made some dinner, then watched it in front of Hotel Transylvania 2 while the wind and snow howled outside. It finished at about 11 or so, but the wind is still shaking the trees and lifting the eaves. I’ll be out tomorrow shoveling but I doubt anything is happening on Monday.
Renie is in town this week, and it so happens her hotel is a brief two stops away on the Metro from my office. It took all of about 10 minutes to meet her in the lobby of her hotel, where we sat at the bar and caught up. She’s doing really well, and filled me in on the details of Mom & Dad’s move, their new car, how they’re settling into the house, and her boyfriend. Heading back to Union Station, I had the same lucky timing and caught the last train north for home.
Thanksgiving weekend was equal parts busy and relaxing. Thanksgiving Day itself was about as chill as could be; we stayed in our Pjs, watched the parade from the couch, and ordered take-out Pho. I’d gotten a bunch of movies from the library I figured Finn would like, and we settled in to screen a bunch of them until it was bedtime.
Saturday morning was the Festival of Trees up in Timonium, a charity event where organizations and people decorate trees and gingerbread houses that then get sold off to benefit a local hospital. They cram games, rides, live animals, sales booths, trains, costumed mascots, food, and Santa into the Fairgrounds building, which brings every family with a 3 to 8 year old child in a 200 mile radius. We took Finn last year and had a reasonably good time, but were overwhelmed with the people and the stuff; it’s a bit like being assaulted by Santa during a special holiday Running of the Bulls.
This year we had early-entrance tickets (Finn is eligible because of her stay at Johns Hopkins) so there were few people, short lines, and more sanity. We met up with our neighbors and toured the buildings, saw Santa, rode a pony, and watched a Tae Kwon Do exhibition before bailing for lunch. Later, we took advantage of the warm weather to watch a screening of Elf in the neighbors’ backyard.
Sunday afternoon I hauled my brewing equipment over to the neighbors’ and he and I brewed up a batch of beer each; I’ve got another session IPA in the fermenter for the middle of January, and he and I are talking about another brew day in two weeks. I’m thinking about a porter or something heavier than an ale, but I don’t know what it’ll be yet.
As of this weekend, it’s official: My parents have moved from an idyllic 18th-century farmhouse on the shores of Cayuga Lake to a quiet house closer to the city of Syracuse and my sister. The new house is all the things the old one was not: It’s new(er) construction, so it’s got modern heat, windows, appliances, and air conditioning. It’s one story (with unfinished basement) so there are no more creaky stairs to navigate. It’s built on a flat piece of land, so there’s no need to brave a steep icy driveway to get the mail. It’s heated with natural gas, so there are no more astronomical oil bills. It comes with an HOA, so the lawn, plowing, and outdoor maintenance are all covered.
I’m thrilled for them, because as quirky and wonderful as that old house was, it was also sucking them dry. The new house should be much easier and inexpensive to live with, which is everything they need right now.
As a result of the move, Thanksgiving is on hold for 2015. Which, given the year we’ve had, isn’t such a bad thing. The opportunity to have four empty days with my girls is what my little family needs right now. We’re going to order Pho from a local restaurant, hole up under some blankets in our PJs, and watch lots of movies together.
Meanwhile, I’m installed in a new office at work, where we’re deep in the middle of a renovation project. Eventually, I’ll be in an open-plan office setup, with low, modern walls and lots of natural light, but I’ve got two more moves ahead of me–another temporary space, and then to my final location. For everyone else, this is relatively easy, depending on how many books they’ve collected over the years. For me, it’s a lot more complicated, as I’ve got an entire filing cabinet full of camera gear, as well as two photo suitcases and four tripods that I’m responsible for. My graphic designer needed two crates to move his office; I used twelve.
I’m going to miss having my own office; I did have the chance to request one with the move (management has its advantages) but decided I’d rather be out on the floor with my colleagues than trapped in a box, where I tend to hibernate. This way I’ll stay on my feet and keep moving, which is what I should be doing.
As is our family tradition, we drove to Leonardtown this morning to take in the St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival. The festival hasn’t changed much in the 15 years we’ve been going, and that’s exactly why we like it. The beer is cold, the oysters are raw or fried, the funnel cakes are hot, and there’s St. Mary’s County ham available.
They’ve added baked oysters, steamed oysters, various deep-fried desserts, and pit beef. It feels, actually, like it’s gotten bigger over the last five years or so, which is a great thing.
This year, instead of the sketchy carny rides they normally have, there were three huge bouncy rides for the kids, and a zipline. Finn went right for the bouncy rides, got her courage up, and asked to ride the zipline. Who am I to say no?
As she waited at the base of the stairs for her turn, the older girl in front of her froze at the edge, unable to jump by herself. After about three minutes of waffling, she walked back down the stairs. Finn marched up to the top, listened to the guy who hooked her up, and then looked down at the grass. She closed her eyes for a moment, bent her knees, and then she jumped!
She liked it so much, she asked to do it again.
This young man is Gus, who is a shucker working in the main shed. I tipped him a dollar, asked his name, and talked to him briefly about how long he was shucking for before asking if I could take his picture. I was nervous about asking him, because he’s the first stranger I’ve ever shot. I’m going to do a lot more of this.
The oysters were excellent as usual, and Mama had her fill.
Finley even had three herself! We’ll make a gastronome out of her yet.