We’re expecting a baby!
We haven’t told too many people, but Cynthia and I are expecting our first child this month (only 3 weeks away). We’ve had a friend, Betsy Suckarieh, paint the baby’s room, purchased all the baby furniture, bought a super cow sucking machine, and even had a baby shower. We are expecting a girl and have already named her Abriana Isabel. I will be posting photos soon of the baby shower that Cynthia’s sister hosted in Laredo last month.
Home Improvement Update
Several months have passed, and we’ve finally seen a lot of progress on the house. I was able to finish the kitchen and utility room flooring with a great deal of help from Jeremy Carter. We installed about 550 sq. ft. of ceramic tile. Installing tile is extremely difficult and to put it simply; it sucks! I have no idea how people can do it for a living. Only a good friend would help with something so unpleasant. I’ve also included some before, during, and after pictures of the utility room as well.
Our cabinetry has been installed, we still have some trim work and hardware left to install, but it’s looking pretty good. The granite counter top and back splash, and all kitchen appliances are in. The sink has been installed and all the plumbing is done. After 2 years without, we finally have a fully functioning kitchen!
We decided to go with Kraft Maid cabinetry as I have a lot of pride in the town and people in which Kraft Maid is located.
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Along the way, our hot water heater gave out and we replaced it with a tankless water heater. It takes a little longer for the hot water to reach the faucet, but once it does, the water remains hot for as long as you want it. |
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This is Cynthia cooking the very first meal in the new kitchen. Notice the big smile on her face – no more hot plates. Also, you can see the French doors in the background. We replaced the large window that was there with glass French doors and placed a bar (left) where the old door was. |
Vacation, December 2005
Cynthia and I spent a week at Holly Lake just reading, sitting in front of the fireplace, and drinking wine. I read two books from the Wess’har Wars series by Karen Traviss and Cynthia made Christmas cards. We played some board games, air hockey, and tried our luck at archery. It was a very relaxing week; perfect to unwind and prepare for our trip to Las Vegas the following week.
The following week we went to Las Vegas. First we stayed with our friends Jeremy & Lisa, and then we checked into the Bellagio . While in Vegas Cynthia and I got massages, ate at fine restaurants, had plenty of room service, and saw a couple shows. We saw Jubilee at Bally’s and Cirque du Soleil’s Ka at the MGM Grand. Jubilee is the traditional Vegas show featuring show girls with the big feathers. Ka is another amazing Cirque du Soleil show of acrobatics, art, music, and technology combined to deliver a sensational evening of entertainment. If you ever make it to Vegas, or ever have an opportunity to catch any Cirque du Soleil shows, I highly suggest it. Last time we were in Vegas we saw Mystere, that too was equally amazing.
Just checking in
It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. I’ve completed all my obligations for the day and since I will be working from home tomorrow, I don’t have enough time to start a weekend project. So, I’m taking this opportunity to catch everyone up with my life.
Our house renovation is coming along. Cynthia and I just ordered our new tile for the kitchen and utility room floors, new French door for the kitchen, GE appliances, and cabinetry for both our kitchen and our office. I will be installing everything with help from friends Jeremy & Lisa Carter (I hope 
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I noticed that I haven’t posted any photos of the fireplace since I’ve installed the mantle and the trim; I’ll try to get around to posting those photos soon.
Another change; we ditched our Visco-elastic (memory foam) mattress and purchased an ultra-soft latex mattress. I’ll write a more detailed post on it later, until then I thought I would just say a couple things about it. The latex mattress is a thousand times superior to the memory foam mattress. I am sleeping a lot better now, and I am very happy with it. Simply put; memory foam bad… latex good.
Most of my friends already know, but for those of you that don’t, I’ve been working for The Capital Group for the past couple months. I am currently a contract employee representing TEK Systems. If you are in the IT industry, I’m sure you’ve heard of them.
Progress on the fireplace
This past weekend my wife and I finally tiled our fireplace surround. It took 7 hours straight on Saturday to tile it and about the same on Sunday to grout it. My entire body is still aching from this back-breaking labor, and I still cannot clean the black grout stain off my skin and under my nails. Anyway, we used 1×2 mosaics for the top and bottom, and I cut 12×12 tiles down to 3×3 and 3×6 inch pieces to do the platform. For anyone interested, the platform was done in a “windmill” pattern and top and bottom would be considered an “alternating” pattern. We still have to give it one more good cleaning with a light acid wash and then seal it with a stone sealer.
We ordered the mantle cap on Monday, so hopefully we get it a couple weeks before Christmas. Once that is installed, we are going to prime it and the walls, paint, and put up the trim.
Halloween 2005
This Halloween was a big much-ado about nothing. It rained early in the day and a little in the late afternoon, but it dried up in time for the trick-or-treaters. I was surprised to see how small the turnout was. Cynthia still hung to our tradition of running out to the local pumpkin patch and picking out two pumpkins for us to carve.
Sealy TrueForm
My wife and I recently purchased a new bed. We have been looking at the TempurPedic mattress for a long time and were convinced it was what we needed. After doing a lot of research and trying out many competitors to the “Swedish Sleep System,” we decided to buy the Sealy Posturepedic Trueform. Sealy’s version of the visco elastic (memory foam) bed is an inch thicker, a little softer, has better constructed box frames, a cashmere velour cover, and is about $400 less expensive than TempurPedic.
We’ve been sleeping on our new bed for about 2 – 3 weeks now, but I still haven’t seen the magic that is promised when sleeping on a memory foam mattress. I still toss and turn, I still can’t get comfortable, the mattress does sleep a little warm, and it feels hard. The foam is supposed to soften with body heat, but it doesn’t feel like it wants to give.
I’m gonna give it another couple weeks or so, then maybe I’ll grow use to it, or I’ll replace it for a good traditional bed. I really did get a good night sleep when I stayed at the Cleveland Airport Sheraton last year. Maybe I should see what mattresses they use in their rooms.
Anyway, like everything else, I’ve posted pictures of our new bed.
Did I say third time is the charm?
I meant to say the fourth time is the charm. Yes, I have just received my fourth Treo 600. I am going through one phone every 3 – 4 months. I wanted to just upgrade to the new 650 or the new 700 that will be coming out pretty soon, but because it is under warranty, they won’t let me exchange the phones and pay the difference. So, here I am on my third refurbished phone.
- My first phone I bought new, and lasted about ten months before the speaker stopped working.
- The second phone I received was a replacement for my first phone, and it was refurbished. I turned it off when I took a plane from Cleveland to San Antonio. When I arrived home and attempted to turn it back on, it stayed in the boot-up mode and would not turn on, and I couldn’t turn it off either. I had this phone for about 3 ˝ months.
- The third refurbished phone had two orange pixels one morning. Within two weeks the orange pixels grew like a cancer on my screen consuming more and more pixels until the two cancer segments were about to join in the middle. I had this phone for about 3 months.
So, here I am with my fourth Treo 600. Again, wish me luck.
Spy Gekko
Here I am sitting at my desk trying to get a few thing done when I noticed someone watching me through the window. Those bastards don’t think I know what they are up to!
Hardwood Complete
The hardwood flooring is complete. We just need to put the base boards on and all the rooms will be done. All that’s left now is completing the fireplace (I picked up the Indian Rajah Slate today for the fireplace base and the kitchen flooring and backsplash), kitchen, all bathrooms starting with the guest bathroom, garage, landscaping, and furniture. So, I guess we still have a long list of things to do.
Where has James been?
Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time. I have not been getting home to close till 8pm because of my recent attempt at physical fitness. This does not leave me much time to update my site. Believe it or not, blogging is a lot of work. So, tonight I’ve added three new posts, not including this one. They pretty much summarize what I’ve been up to over the past month or so. As far as my wild workout routine, you can follow my weight loss success by clicking on the “weight loss” link to the left of the page.
Lapacho/Brazilian Walnut flooring
The moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived. The new hardwood flooring is finally being installed in the rest of the house. We picked this wood up from Lumber Liquidators just like the bamboo. I just love the variation in colors this exotic hardwood flooring offers. So far, the installers have been working for two days. These photos show you the progress that has been made to this point in time.
Fireplace Calamity
We were preparing to get our Brazilian Walnut flooring installed, so we had our usual contractor get a mason to build us a stacked stone fireplace surround to replace the one that I demolished over a year ago. This way the flooring guy can work around it as apposed to trying to build a fireplace surround inside a void left by the flooring guy. Anyway, I wanted it to be stacked stone with no visible grout, coming straight out about a foot then curve around to the other side, and not to extend more than two feet from the fireplace. Well, this is where it was after the first night.
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You can see that this thing is a mammoth. It extends almost three full feet from the fireplace and is almost a perfect semi circle. Not to mention that it is not stacked stone; it is cut and set. The problem with cutting and setting the stone is:
- Saw blade cut marks are visible in the front of the stone
- The color and appeal of the stone was cut off
- Half inch to three-quarter inch grout lines are obvious
As you probably guessed, I had it torn down and gave my contractor a design to complete himself. Here is where it’s at. Big improvement isn’t it?
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I’ll post more pictures once the project is complete.
End of summer 2005
We had a small family gathering to usher out the summer and welcome the fall. Cynthia’s entire family was in attendance. We barbecued and took advantage of our redneck swimming pool.
Anyone want to buy a redneck swimming pool?
The beds have arrived
Our new beds finally arrived after about five months of waiting. My wife and I rushed to Direct Buy at noon today to pick them up out of pure excitement and a little anxiety about Direct Buy’s new policy to charge $10 per day per item for a storage fee after the first five days. This is all items, whether it’s the size of a 12 drawer dresser or a pack of chewing gum.
The beds came in two boxes each for a total of four boxes. I unpacked one and assembled it and stored the other one in the garage. The other one is for the master bedroom, but the flooring has not yet been installed, so we will wait a little longer that bed. The bed went together pretty easy; all the holes lined up. So just after a brisk two and a half hours and breaking my back, we have a bed.
We still want to bring a nice leather chair or something into the room for a place to sit. Once that is done, then the room is finished. At that time I’ll post a photo if I can remember. For now, you can see the manufacturers pictures of the bed at my Direct Buy Savings section. The one I assembled is the one shown on the left.
It’s workout time!
I’m getting pretty big for my britches, so I finally broke down and joined a gym this week. I’ve had gym memberships in the past. About 6 years ago I lost a lot of weight by working out 6 days a week. Since I’ve moved to the other side of town, there really hasn’t been any real convenient place to work out. I had a membership at the Spectrum club at Rogers Ranch, but it was inconvenient, expensive, and always extremely over crowded.
I looked into Bally’s Total Fitness since there is one fairly close to me, but their hard sales techniques and the fact that their membership is really just a three year note to borrow money made me decided to look elsewhere. A good friend of mine suggest Gold’s Gym, so I checked it out.
I always thought Gold’s Gym was for the big steroid types, but I was pleasantly surprised to see many people just like me there. It’s less than five miles from my house and less than three miles from work, but the deciding factor was their swimming pool. I used to swim two miles a day, and I am excited to have an opportunity to swim again.
At this point I’ve been to the gym three times this week and swam one of those days. I am going to keep track of my progress on a page that can be found on the left in the future when I have time. Wish me luck!
GD AIS Company Picnic 2005
This past weekend I attended the General Dynamics AIS company summer picnic. It was held at Blanco State Park in Blanco, Texas, about 45-50 miles North of 1604 on 281. It’s a pretty nice place to camp and swim, but it comes with a steep price of $3.00 per person to enter. What happened to the old days when it was $3.00 per vehicle to enter the state parks? Anyway, I’m posting the photos I took during the company picnic for your enjoyment. Also, you can download all the photos here in a zipped file.
Lazy Sunday Afternoon
What a lazy weekend this has been. I hate going through a weekend without really accomplishing anything. Well, I guess I did get a few things done, but nothing I really wanted. So here I sit today, staring out the window while ripping our entire collection of CDs. I’m watching a downpour. So far it has rained three times today, and it cleared up and was beautiful after the first two times.
So far I’ve ripped about 2GB of music. I just noticed that they are being ripped to .wma files, not .mp3. I was a little disappointed when I saw that, but it’s a little too late now. Another thing I noticed; my Original Broadway Cast Recordings are not in stereo.
Ripping your music collection is like looking through your high school yearbook. I find myself perusing all the albums listening to song after song while memories come flooding back. Some songs bring back great memories while others are just down right embarrassing.
Well, the sky is clearing, the sun is coming out, and the rain is slowing.
Ohio Trip July 2005
Cynthia and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Ohio visiting my family. We stayed in the Manor at Punderson State Park. While there, I got a round of golf in with my dad and two brothers. I grew up about Ľ mile from Grandview Golf Course, but oddly enough, this was only my second time I’ve ever golfed. I spent many summer nights when I was a kid fishing golf balls out of the ponds on that golf course. We would clean the golf balls, load them into egg cartons, and sell them to anyone that was interested.
I also enjoyed a nice dinner at The Rain Tree in downtown Chagrin Falls with my sister Patti. Afterwards, Patti, Cynthia, and I went to the local movie theater to watch War of the Worlds. It was a good movie. All in all, it was a real nice day.
Cynthia and I really just relaxed more than anything. We got a chance to get away for a couple days and visit family. We wrapped up the weekend with a 4th of July barbeque at my brother Mike’s house. My brother Richard made his nationally famous barbeque ribs.
I’ve posted all the photos that I was able to take while I was there. Have a gander and meet some of my family.
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