Chicken in the Yard!

It's Halloween!

Ok, I know I haven't been there for you lately and there's no excuse other than that life happens. But now it's Halloween time and I really can't let this special occasion go by without writing about it. I mean, it's my favorite time of the year! The leaves are falling, the skeletons are roaming, the tombstones are rising. And around here things get down right spooky.

I have a little tradition of decking out our house in all sorts of Halloween glory both inside and out. The same stuff gets dragged out every year but I usually try to touch things up or add new items. I'm deeming this year the "Jason and the Argonauts" year. This is mostly due to the large amount of skeletons we have roaming out front. We still have the big scarecrow too of course, which Belle has been calling "The Great Pumpkin" because she's seen that movie too many time to count. Which gets me thinking of doing a Charlie Brown theme out front one year... that would kind of rock.

Anyways, indoors we have most of the same decor except for a few items. First off my kick-ass Aunt made me a giant Jack Skellington stain glassed window that I'm proudly displaying on the fireplace mantel this year. She made me a smaller one before which I loved so she decided to super-size it this time and it's pretty impressive.

Belle and I also made some creepy spider egg sacks to hang from the ceiling. They are truly gross and awesome. I mean, once you say "spider" and "egg sack" in the same sentence you get creeped out, but seeing these in person is just plain freaky.

Speaking of spiders Belle and I went to the Spider exhibit at the Natural History Museum and let me tell you: GAAAAAAAH! You MUST see this if you have nerves of steel because it's amazing. They basically take the butterfly exhibit and then fill it with giant scary jungle spiders which then CONSUME the butterflies. Yes, they eat them... all of them. When you enter the enclosure you don't really notice them, but once you start spotting them you realize they are watching you. It's awesome! But at some point Belle got freaked out and we left. I won't lie, I was wigging a little too.

So, hope you all have a Happy Halloween! And since I can't guarantee I'll be writing again soon I'll just wish you all a Happy Halloween for next year too.

 

And I was so proud of myself

Last weekend was one of the most productive weekends we've had in awhile. Katie had tons of work to do so she worked from home while Belle and I got stuff done around the house. Usually this is a recipe for disaster because all Belle will want to do is crawl all over Katie's face, but not this weekend. This time she quite enjoyed playing and helping me outside.

The majority of our accomplishments involved the garage. For starters I got the Firebird running, which is a feat in itself, and pulled it out of the garage to give it a wash. Belle helped me by soaping up everything within her midget arm's reach and then moved on to wash her own car. She then proceeded to rinse off my car, her car, the garage, the trees, our house, and the entire front half of my body. Thankfully it was hot out so I didn't mind so much.

We also pulled out Katie's old desk from the garage and put it in Belle's room. We've been shipping baby furniture and stuff to Trish and Michael in preparation for their wee one so this left plenty of room for the desk plus other stuff. It was mostly the desk that was cramping the garage though. And since the garage is such a slippery slope area of the house once the desk was moved I had to clean and move the shelving unit, and then the tool cabinet, and also my toolboxes, and the random paint buckets, etc. It was a good sized project, but it is now done and the garage isn't as much of a danger zone.

And that brings us to the dreaded cabinet. Back in the day when we renovated the kitchen we yanked the old cabinets out and trashed most of them since they weren't salvageable. But there was one cabinet that we kept in the garage where it gathered dust and spiders. I swore one day I would install it on the wall to gain huge amounts of storage space. That day had come. And with Katie's help hefting it up there it was installed perfectly. Or was it? Well, I thought it was, until later that night I decided to close the garage so my newly washed car didn't get dirty. Thankfully I walked outside before pushing the garage door button because as the door came down it slammed right into the edge of the cabinet. Obviously someone didn't measure the clearance like they should have.

So, I took everything off the shelves again, removed all the screws including the two that were stripped which require the use of calipers, and with Katie's help we shoved it over a few inches. This time we tested the garage door and it cleared. A few more screws later the job was done, capping off a weekend of accomplishment. The car is clean, the garage has more storage space, Belle has a new desk, and Katie got lots of work done. A good productive family weekend.

No this isn't an abandoned blog, I swear

Ok, I'll admit repainting the dining room while trying to decorate for a giant Halloween party at the same time might not have been the best idea. Especially considering how I'm just starting to feel like I have things under control around here again. BUT, I will say that the room looks amazing and the party went off without a hitch. In fact, now that so much time has elapsed since my last update all the decorations are back in the garage already. It's like a whole month went by since you last heard from me! Well, that's because it has.

You may be wondering what you missed during that time... well, lots. Let me catch you up a bit. For starters we kicked around a few Halloween costume ideas for Belle this year. Katie really wanted her to be a princess this year so we gave Belle the Snow White option. Denied. Then I thought to be hip with a "Go-Green" costume aka "The Trader Joe's Bag Monster." She enjoyed wearing it around the house... other than that, DENIED. In the end Goofy won. Goofy always wins.

While trying to get all this stuff done and having Belle at home with me all the time I had to come up with some creating projects to keep her busy. And what better projects than Halloween projects right? So for starters we worked on some Witch Hats made out of construction paper and felt. They turned out wonderfully and added to the overall spookiness of the house come Halloween. Then we tackled some Spoon Mummies. These are mummies made out of plastic spoons, popsicle sticks, and toilet paper. Who knew toilet paper made good mummies? Me. And lastly she put together some awesome decorations at Preschool including a paper plate spider and a bat made out of hand prints. Both of which she insisted I "hang from the ceiling so they drop down and scare people." So I had to hang them from the lights in the kitchen. Many a person was frightened by them as predicted.

And speaking of Preschool, and since you all have been so patient with me, I shall unveil Isabelle's very first school picture. That's right people, our daughter had her first picture day... it still brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. The best part is she even sort of smiled for it. Which is a feat in itself.

Stay tuned for regular updates. I'm back! I promise.

Halloween approaches

As you may know I kind of like Halloween. It's like a hobby for me. Throughout the year I collect things that could be good Halloween decorations, like old bottles, a box, some metal container. It's all trash really. But when looked at from a Halloween lover's eye you see treasure. Spooky treasure.

So, since Halloween is rapidly approaching you may imagine I've been a bit busy lately. Partly decorating the house, partly making more decorations, and mostly painting our dining room. You didn't know we had a dining room did you... well, we do. At least that's what I'm now calling it. It's the back room that we have our dining table in. Before the table was there I called it the solarium... not exactly sure why. Anyways, I've been painting. Lots and lots of painting. I am currently taking a break it though to write this update so you are now aware of all the good work I've been doing. So there.

Of course painting a room and decorating the house is a lot of work to cram in before my favorite holiday of the year. But I'm making due. Half of the room is painted and that leaves the final half to get started. Also, half the house is decorated so I've made good progress on that too. So with a few weeks to go I think I'm in pretty good shape. I sure am tired of painting though. The decorating I could have more of.

Oh, you may wonder where Isabelle has been during all of this painting business. Watching movies. Lots and lots of movies. Oh the horror! I'm sure her little brain will not suffer permanent damage from all the mindless moving colors on screen. But once that room is done the movie marathon will have to end. Until then I'm gonna keep popping her some popcorn.

Whose bright idea was it to plant pumpkins anyways?

Mine, sadly. Though thank goodness I had the foresight to plant them in a box and not in the ground. Since we're big fans of Halloween around here I bought Belle a little kids pumpkin seed pack and cup and started it growing in the windowsill. Well after it grew out of it's little cup we then planted it in the boxes lining our wall. And now... AAAAAAH!

I took this picture a few days ago, it's grown substantially since with no signs of slowing. I think it may go down our driveway to the front yard and create a pumpkin carriage for Belle to ride to the Royal Ball in. Which would suit her just fine, but I mean whoa, this thing is a beast. I had to cut it back since it threatened to suffocate all other plants nearby. I don't exactly know how or when a pumpkin will start growing but I hope it's soon so I can cut it back even more and let the vine attached to the pumpkin get all the nutrients. At least that's my grand plan. Who knows if it'll work.

I just thought it would be so cool to have home grown pumpkins for Halloween. I mean, imagine a pumpkin patch in your own backyard! At this rate it may be the backyard, front yard, side yard, and neighbor's yard. If vines start growing on my blog you'll know to send help because it will have taken over our house.

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday Belle helped me put together Katie's Mother's Day present and this morning we all got to sit outside and eat breakfast in style. We've never had a nice comfortable set of patio furniture but I really think it transformed our backyard into a much more welcoming space. Now we're ready to deal with those hot summer nights to come. All I need is to mount an all-weather plasma TV to the back wall. Hmm, maybe a good Father's Day present?

Happy Mother's Day Katie!

Spring comes early

I know it's not officially spring for another few days but I just couldn't wait. I mean, it's been spring here for months now considering we never really get a winter. Lately it's been sunny and warm, the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming. Plus we've been gardening in the backyard for the past few weeks. All this equals spring to me. So bring it on spring, we're ready!

I really used to play in that stuff when I was a kid?

I don't know if you guys ever get the random Hispanic guys driving around with a truckload of fertilizer seeing if anyone wants them to treat their grass, but we do. They came by last spring and like clockwork showed up again yesterday. Last year I didn't do it, but I probably should have since our grass needed a little boost. Of course what I should have done was get off my butt and do it myself, but that's a whole different issue. So when they came around this year I gave it a go.

They were quick, thorough, and now my house smells like a sewer. Literally, a putrid cesspool. Like if I was blind I'd know I was on our street because my nostrils would be on fire. As you can imagine we don't open the windows much. I'm hoping the smell subsides as the days go by and eventually we'll not have to hold our noses as we step outside. Whenever we leave Belle holds her little nose and says: "Daddy, you have to clean up that poo-poo." Little does she know that I paid some illegal immigrants to poop all over our lawn but that would lead into an hour's worth of "why's" that I just don't want to get into. I mean, first I'd have to explain that poop is good for the lawn, but not dog poop, and that our borders are turnstiles, and then she'd ask "what's a border?" and I'd say "that's a good question, something our country could use a few of," of course I'm the one waving the carrot luring them over... you get the picture.

The bottom line is that our lawn stinks. If you come over, be warned. And yes, I did play in manure piles as a kid, though none of them smelled this bad, or if they did we made sure not to play on that one. I guess I'll have to write about that sometime.

The beast on our roof

For the past three nights we've had our sleep disturbed by a beast on our roof. It happens sometime between 3 and 5 am. First you hear a scratching, then a scraping, then some more scratching, right above our room. It sounds like a cat or raccoon clawing at the roof. This goes on for 5 to 10 minutes and then it sounds like the beast settles and eventually falls asleep or goes away. We don't know what it is or what it's doing up there but we've pretty much had enough of it.

Tonight we set a trap. Well, not really a trap, more of a deterrent. I'm going to clip up some lights shining down on that portion of the roof, that way if it's a creature that likes the dark it won't choose to sleep above our room. I'll also have a ladder set up near the garage, far enough away from the area in question in case the beast decides to scratch and scrape anyway. I can then climb the ladder and look over to see what the lights illuminate without scaring it away. I may also use ammonia to spray up in that area, but not sure yet. For damn sure I'll have the hose at the ready to give the beast a rude awakening. Either way, we're done having mystery beast disturbing our slumber. Tonight, it ends.

By the way, if you don't hear from me in a few days please assume the beast was waiting for me to come check on it and I am now trapped. Send help.

Rooftastic

Well, we are finally down to the last few items on our home improvement to-do list and this one's a doozy. We always knew we'd have to replace the roof eventually since it had a thousand layers on it and wood shingle underneath it all, but now that the day has come it makes me realize it's a ton of work. Work I'm not doing at all mind you, but work we are paying for. As you can see when you have wood shingle on your house, the original wood shingle from the 1940's, they have to tear it all down to the beams. This is noisy, dirty, disrupting work that all started at 6:45 this morning. It's been a long day. But I really can't complain because, again, I'm not the one doing the work.

The pros of stripping your roof down to the beams include replacement of termite eaten beams threatening to crumble if you look at them, the installation of a high-tech space age material known as plywood, something that apparently didn't exist in the 40's, and new composite shingles that shouldn't need to be replaced for the next 30 years or so. In our case it's mostly the replacement of termite eaten beams. Apparently our house hosted the entire dry-wood termite population of Southern California because they have been replacing a ton of wood up there. All of which is adding up to bags of money. Like the ones robbers carry while running out of a bank. I guess we already knew this since we just had to fumigate our house but it still stuns me to see the damage first hand. We are talking whole sections of the roof with hollow wood that you can crumble just by poking it with your pinky finger. Oh well, just add it to our tab I guess because it has to be done. All I know is that the next owner of this house better appreciate all the money we've poured into this place. In fact, they will probably end up paying for it themselves in the purchase price. So, in essence, we are getting this new roof for free. Sweet.