Friday evening I drove to meet 1/2 of Jen’s family in Columbia for dinner after work. We hung out and shot the breeze for a while, then reconvened at a nearby Coldstone for ice cream. YUM. As usual my eyes were bigger than my stomach, so I had to pack up half of what I’d bought and bring it home. The evening was capped off with a moonlight drive home in the Scout, which was actually quite pleasant after the sun had gone down. One thing that’s nagging me is the absence of license plate lights in back–I have the plate zip-tied to the swing arm in front of the mount. Last thing I want right now is a moving violation ticket.
I spent much of Saturday laid up with the girl on the couch, watching Nick Jr. and coughing up my lungs while Jen worked on a photo shoot in the dining room. At this point I’m about done with the Fresh Beat Band, though in their defense they appear to be the happiest four people walking the earth. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before a sex and heroin soaked “Behind The Music” is produced exposing the seamier side of life as a Rock Star. We regretfully opted out of a barbecue with the Hoerrs that afternoon; the heat was too much and I for one would not have been in top form.
Sunday was much the same; mostly relaxation and low-key activities. We rose too late to get ready for church, but the presence of two Trane service trucks in the parking lot spoke volumes: my guess is that they haven’t got air conditioning in the summer wing fixed yet. We did rally by noontime to go out and see Brave in a blast-chilled theater down by the airport. Finn seemed to like the movie, though I think she had a hard time following plot threads. Being a Pixar movie there were more than just a few simple themes to grasp, so we did our best to fill her in as the movie progressed. As an adult, I liked it a lot; while it’s not their best movie, it deserves more credit than it’s getting by the critics. Jen and I talked about it briefly over dinner–the rap on Pixar is that all their movies are about boys with daddy issues; this is a girl with mommy issues. What I think the critics forget, though, is that these are all, at heart, kids’ movies. As a kid, the biggest source of conflict is usually with one’s parents. So mommy/daddy issues are the bread and butter of a real kids’ movie. This is generally why Pixar movies work better than, say, Shrek, which is an adult’s movie masquerading as a kid’s fairy tale (and stuffed full of stale adult pop-culture references).
Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I think Finn did too. She crashed out on the way home, right around the time I realized I’d left my phone in the theater. I activated the Find My Phone service through iCloud, which told me it was sitting at the lost & found waiting for me to pick it up. Well done, Apple.
Finn and I slept about half the night on the guest bed after she woke from a nightmare. Waking this morning was made more difficult by the timechange and the fact that I’d stayed up reading the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. My two-second review: Not as good as the first one. This one had to do some catching up and then settled into a second act of boy A-vs-boy B angst. I stopped at the beginning of the third act, which is setting up for some ass-kicking. Bring on the ass-kicking.
Update: Sheesh. Not what I was hoping for. The main character goes from a motivated protagonist to an ineffectual, reactive observer. This book moved things along and set up the third book, but not in a logical, emotional, Empire Strikes Back way. Maybe the third book will wrap things up with more skill.
The weekend was filled with the completion of long-deferred home maintenance projects. Jen and I made a list and I knocked a bunch of them out after a trip to the Lowe’s and a minimal outlay of cash. Saturday evening we watched the original Let The Right One In, which was equal parts creepy and plodding.
Sunday we walked across the street to take in mass, and then continued working around the house. In the early afternoon I cut some access holes out of the TV mount and then pulled the top off the Scout for a ride over to look at a house with the in-laws. The verdict there was that it showed much better in the pictures than it did in person, and suffered from a lot of homeowner butchering. After some dinner and drinks we put the girl to bed and I transferred my latest batch of Chinook IPA into the secondary fermenter. The Dead Ringer keg is almost kicked, so there should be plenty of room to move it when it’s finished (another 3-4 weeks). The next beer in line is a saison, which is a pale French summer ale.
Well, another Christmas is mostly in the books. We’ve still got the second half to go, but the heavy lifting is done—presents are bought, tree is up, Santa has come and gone. I had a week off from work between the two holidays, and I swear to god I have no idea where the time went.
Christmas itself was lots of fun; we gathered at the Lockard compound to wait out the fat man and eat lots of food, and he was very generous to us all. I got some boots that needed to be returned—Dr. Martens in a size too big—and some pants that don’t double as catamaran sails, as well as a new beer kit. Finn made out really well, with musical instruments, a digital camera, and a toy piano among other things. Jen’s composter is on super-backorder but should arrive sometime in the next week or so.
We bought Jen’s dad a dishwasher to replace his ancient model, and I spent the better part of Monday pulling the old unit and installing the new one. After some confusion about hoses and connections, I got everything sorted out, leaks tightened up, and a test load running before we left.
The roof and gutters on the Estate are finally done, and I wrote a Very Big Check to pay for the whole thing on Tuesday. My apprehension at seeing my bank account dwindle was mitigated when it started raining 1/2 hour after the roofers left, and we could see actual water emptying out of the downspouts, as opposed to pouring out of the middle of the gutter on the back of the house. I added some extensions to the downspouts and adjusted a few things, and hopefully that will move more water away from the house quicker. Tuesday was also PJ day for the three of us, and we took great relish in sitting around and doing absolutely nothing for the whole day. Mama and I finally caught up with the final Harry Potter movie after Finn went to bed, and we enjoyed it, but we’re sad to see the series come to a close.
Wednesday I crawled back into the coal cellar and finished installing studs, then insulated the entire outside wall. It feels warmer at the edges of the room upstairs to a pair of stockinged feet (and Tuesday evening’s sub-artic temperature was the real test). I’m glad to have that done—and my back is, too.
Thursday and Friday were spent cleaning the house in preparation for the Unbirthday Party, which was a qualified success. Jen specified Afghan food for the meal, and everyone stepped up to the plate to provide very tasty food. After dinner, we sat in the living room around the fire, drank, laughed, and had a great time with everyone. Saturday was another day of rest after the party, and we stayed in our PJs as long as we could.
Sunday I went back to Chestertown to continue working on the Scout bumper, which is documented in detail here. I also tacked our flat-panel mount together and dropped it off for final welding while I was out there. It’s a 1.5″ length of box steel that stretches from floor to ceiling, and two feet at the top and bottom will provide mounting points. I’m going to cut a hole in the back and at the bottom to feed cabling inside so that it will be out of view.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.