What do these things grow into?

Every once in a while we think of adding on to our house...after all, come Spring time we'll have 50% more people in the house. It always seems like so much work though. I saw these bulbs at the hardware store the other day and though maybe this might be a nice way to grow some extra space..hard to tell a lot from the picture, but the house looks pretty nice to me..

Big Sound, Small Footprint

If you saw and heard the show, you might have thought the Sharps 'roll heavy'...maybe a van and trailer. But somehow all the musical gear, two adults, a one-year-old and a one-year-old's gear all magically fit into a Prius. So far they've clocked over 7,000 miles, and they're only halfway through the trip. Toyota should be a Cobalt Season sponsor!

It was Good!

If you made it to our place last night, you know what an enchanting evening it was! Music by the Cobalt Season filled with emotion to match the thought provoking video projected on them and behind them. It was music that has been created by Ryan (and Holly) from the depths of their souls, and they bared their souls to us last night as they sang about hurt, anger, love, and hope for the Kingdom. Here is a clip.

Showtime!

The great thing about planning way ahead is that you get to anticipate good things for a long time. We've been looking forward to Ryan and Holly (aka Cobalt Season) playing in our living room for months now...and November 2 has finally arrived! Now we just have hours left to count.

If you are reading this and can get to our house by 8 pm tonight (Boeing now makes planes that will fly you here nonstop from any city in the world), please come...you'll be glad you did!

up for it?

I am not sure if we can do this, I mean everyday? It could be a fun challenge! But since we tend not to be that dedicated to the old blog, I am just not sure. Anna might do it...maybe I will see if I can at least out last her!

And I guess a post is a post, so this is mine for the day.

Enough

With a 'bun in the oven,' it is even easier to wax philosophical, it seems. To what kind of life will we welcome Project Little Luecke (PLL, or just P for short)?

My nephew, who turns 2 in about week, already seems to have a great attitude, at least as implied by his musical preferences. He often asks for, and instantly recognizes, Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life." Even strapped into a car seat, Iggy Pop gets his head bouncing and legs kicking!

I don't know much about Iggy Pop, but I think that Jesus might have hung out with him. After all, Jesus summed up his purpose as coming so that we may have life, and life abundant. I hope that we will welcome P into a family that has a tangible 'lust for life'...and 'life abundant.'

But I worry sometimes that a healthy lust for life can turn into a lust for more. 'More' is just so enticing. If something is good, more of it must be better, right? If things aren't so good now, more of something would certainly make it better, right?

I ran into a poem this morning that had a ring of truth to it. Though the title seems like a downer, somehow in the context of thinking about new beginnings, it seems oddly appropriate:

As Death Approaches
by Susan Deborah King

I can't believe I'm laughing!
I'd have sworn I'd be
shaking or sniveling.
And I sure didn't expect
a limousine.
I've never been in a limousine.
No biggy.
I've had better than fame.
Who needs the pressure?
As for fortune, I'm filthy.
That's why I'm laughing.
I've had so much love:
the giving, the getting.
It's shameful.
It's embarrassing.
And it's too late.
No one can take it away!
And I've had the pain
to help me appreciate it.
Thank God for the pain!
Easy for me to say
now that I'm going!
But no, seriously,
the kicks in the teeth,
the gut, the rugs
pulled out, slammed doors,
setbacks, snubs.
Without them, I'd
never have recognized
Love, bedraggled,
plain eyes shining,
happy to see me.
Do I want more?
Of course I want more!
I always want more
of everything: money, hugs,
lovemaking, art, butter,
woods, flowers, the sea,
M&Ms, chips, tops, bottoms,
trips - I did give up drinking -
time, sure, and yes,
I'd like to see
my grandchildren,
if there are any.
I'd like to see my books
but more has never
been good for me anyway.
Enough - that's what I've
always needed to learn,
and is there a better way?
So this laughter
I had to work up to
through so many tears,
it just keeps coming
like a fountain, a spray.
Let it light on you
refreshment, benediction,
as I'm driven away.

Coming Soon to a Living Room Near You (or at least very near us!)

Project Little Luecke is Underway!

Expected Completion: May 26, 2008.

Project 37

Phase 1 of Project 37 kicked off last Friday at 12:30 PM when the Mrs. whisked me off to an undisclosed location...which turned out to be the Columbian Bed and Breakfast just outside of Lancaster, PA. While we are not necessarily philosophical fans of robber-baron railroad tycoons, staying in the a beautifully-restored house of one was fantastic! We took a trip into Lancaster and had a great German Oktoberfest meal of brats, pork ribs, and pork loin...and some good beer. And it turns out that railroad tycoons have nice big cushy and elegant beds that make for a really good night's sleep. For breakfast we were joined by four other guests who were certainly well under 37. I decided it is good to be older and wiser!

Phase Two of Project 37 was to return to 207 and get ready for 37 relatives (ok, more like 17) to drop by for dinner. That's the Mrs. in the picture to left slaving away in the kitchen while I loafed around taking pictures (I did manage to work up a sweat in the kitchen too!). It was actually a lot of fun to set up for the feast...207 was renovated for exactly occasions such as these. We had to pick up a few extra pieces of tableware and borrow a few chairs, but otherwise we were good to go. Thanks to a Home Depot sale a few days later, we are actually stocked up with chairs now...hm...who else could we invite next time? You can see the window propped open...it was pushing 80 degrees on October 20!


Phase three was to enjoy the roof deck, 4 munchkins, and a beautiful evening...followed by dinner. The whole crew managed to make it down from the roof deck without mishap. After we polished off two chickens, six bottles of wine, and two ovens full of potatoes and roasted vegetables, we went to work on a peach pie and a carrot bithday cake. Following a generous allotment of presents (for me and the Mrs.), the kids finally tuckered out and the party wound down. It was quite the blessing to be joined by so many relatives on one day. Usually we have to wait for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or a funeral for such a great crowd!

Project Progress

Sometimes we get a little overwhelmed here at 207 with PROJECTS! There is constantly something that needs to be done at the house, a new project, an old one that hasn't been finished, a wall that has to be painted over because some crazy old roommate picked a nasty shade of blue. Small projects that mount to lots of time being devoted to our old house. We have made progress, and today as the Mr. is painting the basement and finishing the drywall (more projects) I have been trying to clean and do laundry. But I was struck by the progress....

There is new bedding in the newly painted room. I finally found exactly what I was looking for!

The new 'dresser' is in use. Mr. worked so diligently on this piece of furniture only to find that the baskets scraped the wood when we pulled them out. I lined the bottom with brown felt and the insides with a nice floral pattern for a little extra protection for the clothes.

And we also got a headboard. Our bedroom is coming together! (we also got a bed skirt)

This is for those days when I feel like the projects will never end....some have ended and they have turned out well..so far!

No Dirt, No Problem!

As mentioned in a previous post, much to my chagrin, the writer of the Mrs.'s last exam chose to exclude all the questions about dirt and, instead, to include a bunch of other questions from areas outside the test's intended scope. Since just about all of my architectural knowledge seems to involve dirt, I certainly would have failed the exam. But not the Mrs....she passed!

How one passes an exam on material not covered in a study guide is a mystery to me. But if you need somebody to take an exam for you, and it doesn't happen to have any dirt questions, the Mrs. is your woman!

comfoot

Since the Gazelle's mom has decided crocs are the shoes for her...

We have all found comfort for our feet!!

to remember

It was just one year ago.

No Dirt?!?

The Mrs. has been taking her licensing exams for a while now...I can't believe how many of them there are! Up until the last one, I figured it was the better part of valor to let her study on her own. After all, I would only get in the way (and confused) when it came to drawing and construction documents.

But this last test seemed like it would be pretty interesting. It was supposed to be about excavation, soil types, drainage, zoning, and other pre-design stuff that I kinda like (I still like to play in the dirt). So I got her to let me go through some flash cards with her. In the process, I got pretty invested. I was quite proud of myself for learning some technical architect stuff like angles of repose, soil particle sizes, terms for shoring material, letters of zoning codes, and even a little bit about project budgeting (including inflation estimation!).

When the Mrs. finished her exam, I was, of course, very interesting in how she felt about it. But I also wanted to know how "I" did on the exam..."tell me all the dirt questions!"

Shockingly, there were no dirt questions. In fact most of the stuff the three study guides said would be on the test wasn't on the test at all...and a bunch of stuff that wasn't supposed to be on the test was. I feel vicariously cheated and mislead! How am I going to get credit for knowing that clay has a particle size of .002 mm or less? And that wet clay has an angle of repose of 30%? The Mrs. would have nailed all those questions, and way more, but they couldn't be bothered to even ask. The nerve!

The Mrs. Can Drive!

The Mrs. picked me up on her way home today. We took our usual route...most of the way. When traffic got a little backed up, the Mrs. took a favorite short cut down T Street, right near North Capitol.

Now I like T Street. I was at the northwest corner of T and North Capitol for church most Sunday nights for a couple of years. And Mr. D and Termite used to live right there, so I 'd get there during the week pretty often too. I was nearly arrested there for suspicion of drug purchasing and possession one time (turns out possession of a Veggie Tales video tape with intent to distribute isn't a crime so I was let go), but otherwise, that block has good memories for me.

But this afternoon it wasn't a good place to be. When we had driven about 3/4 of the way down the street (to a spot right across from the boys' old house), we heard "crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack." Time kind of stopped then. How long ago was Fourth of July? Who's around? Where's the noise coming from?

The Mrs. noticed more than I did. I saw a guy on the northwest corner of T and North Capitol. I somehow figured he was the shooter. She saw him too...and noticed a car ahead of us and another guy in red walking toward the guy on the corner. I didn't actually see the gun...the Mrs. saw a long rifle with a black strap hanging down.

Then time started again and we were barreling down the alley between T and Seaton. I've driven down that alley before, and I always go pretty slow since it is so narrow. The Mrs. took it at about 30 miles an hour!...and still managed not to run down a group of kids running at about 25 miles an hour in the same direction. It felt like a cop show or something...but Cagney's got nothing on the Mrs.!

Somewhere between T and Seaton I reached the nice folks at 911 and yelled "shots fired!" After describing what we saw, we took a slightly longer route home. We stopped at one point to talk through the window with a policeman in a car...he mentioned he'd heard something happened. But there were no sirens...not then or five minutes later or ten minutes later. We saw an ambulance go by later, but it didn't stop and appeared to be on the way to somewhere else. We're guessing nobody was injured.

The curious (and stupid) part of me wanted to go look for shell casings and find out what kind of gun it was. The guy was probably long gone, right? The Mrs., in addition to being a great driver, has more common sense than I do...we went home.


(Please note, the Mrs. used my account for the previous post...honest!)

accessories

The Mr. has been very busy the last few weeks...something about the economy...so he found a way to save time...less shaving!



He looks pretty cute- but I am a little biased!

Mr. D Turns 13!

For the past five years or so, Mr. D was very aware that he was not yet 13. Actually, he was very aware that he was 12 or under.

The typical conversation would go as follows:
Me: "Hey, D. Good to see you...hop in!"
Mr. D: "Can I sit in the front seat."
Me: "No. And why not?"
Mr. D: "Because the airbag will pop my head off..."

Well, according to visor in the car, Mr. D is now safe since he is no longer 12 or under. He's finally 13!

And from here on out, thing speed up. It took five years to sit in the front seat. In less than 3 years, he'll be able to sit in the driver's seat...yikes!

While Mr. D and I were driving to see the Simpson Movie, the Mrs. took a little break from her exam prep and whipped up a fantastic chocolate oreo cake. And the Mrs. is a way better cook than Marge!

Passing

Passing is a such a great thing to do. Think about it...you're stuck behind a slow-moving car. What do you do? You pass. Or somebody offers you a venison casserole made from meat their step-brother shot last season...you pass. Or you eat the casserole and feel terrible...well, you get the point. Passing is good. And my wife, The Mrs, can pass with the best of them. Exams, I mean. She blew through her most recent licensing exam like a bad casserole. Go Mrs.! She is so smart!

Now just 7 more to go.

Kaizen

This last weekend was a nice 207 weekend. We managed to make progress on a number of fronts. Not the least of which where two long-simmering projects.

The basket dresser that was started two (or more) months ago got its final coat of poly Saturday and went into service:


And the back bedroom, which was painted dark blue by former housemate Whitey while I was out of town, got a new coat of paint chosen by my favorite interior designer:

Risk

We humans are an odd lot when it comes to taking risks. Economists love to study this. For instance, what do people do if they are offered a chioice between A) flipping a coin and either winning nothing or $10,000, or B) getting $5,000 with certainty. Statistically they are equivalent and thus you should be indifferent. What would you do? Some people opt immediately for the coin flipping, others for the certain payoff. People seem to have very different levels of risk aversion, as economists call it (for the math geeks, people who love risk have negative risk aversion).

What is harder to understand is how some people seem to have different levels of risk aversion for different areas of their own life. Take, for example, the following two pictures:

In the first case, we were willing to pay $50 (Dad actually paid...thanks Dad!) to take a 1 in 125,000 chance of dying while white water rafting. How risky was this? It was 182 times as risky as taking a plane flight.

In the second picture (an external hard drive in a fire-proof, water-proof box), we spent about $150 to mitigate the risk that we would lose our digital pictures. The pictures of our previous risky behavior are now safe just in case our Mac hard drive dies, our house burns down, and water from the fire department floods the charred remains.

Hm. So in one case we paid to take a risk with our lives. In another we paid even more to protect pictures of our lives. What does this say?