Good cookin'

Well, I'm not sure I even come close to that, but I did enjoy my first time cooking in our renovated kitchen this afternoon/evening! I still need to take some good photos of the kitchen, which will come someday. Right now the kitchen has blue painter's tape on it and is still in need of a good backsplash, which will not be installed for awhile. Our goal is to have it completely done by the time mom/dad come visit for Mother's Day. So anyway, on to the meal. I made oven-fried chicken with oven-roasted vegetables, and capped it off with a banana pudding dessert. It turned out to be delicious, if I must say so myself (and I must, because Heather doesn't really post anything on here). So, although I don't use au natural goat milk or pluck the vegetables right from my deck porch like some people (you know who you are), I do still have within me some culinary skillz- but we'll use that term loosely:) Love to you all!

A Professorial Assessment

A historian's account of our present situation (http://mises.org/story/3354). The gentleman author, Paul A. Cleveland, happens to be a professor from Birmingham-Southern.

Kidisms

Andrea relayed this one to me this morning in a voicemail:

Timnah: Elias! You need to share.

Elias: I don't want to share.

Timnah: God said you should share. And God said, "Let there be light." And, Elias, he said you should share.

Woe Kitchen-

Below are a few pictures of what we've been up to. The first shot is a look at a half finished kitchen. The base cabinets are all installed and the countertops have been measured and will be put in this Friday. This week my contractor should have the remaining top cabinets installed. We have run into a few problems, and I've documented those for you as well. Enjoy!


Half & Half


The Infamous Slant Route: The ceilings are...surprise!...not level across. There is more of a slow decline from one side to the other, resulting in a large gap between the cabinets, ceiling and molding. We have decided to put on a kind of "extension" to the cabinet with some filler materials- that way, it will be mostly covered by the molding but should not show any gaping holes/gaps. A good, but complex fix. You can see a small piece above the cabinet here. Note: in this example, the molding will cover the whole thing, so we didn't have to use filler material. The problem is in the top cabinets over the dishwasher.


Hit me in the box! This wonderfully placed electrical box is, surprise!...in the way. So, we're going to have to move it down...more problems...I smell them.



A Kinder Cinder? No. To remove said electrical box down, we (I mean, the contractor) have to use a hammer-drill to chip it out and then place a second box underneath it and pigtail from the one above it. This little side project should all hopefully be done by tomorrow. We'll see. Have a great day- we're hoping and praying for a snow day! We're looking at anywhere from 5 to 9 inches. Yay! Thanks for the pics Mom/Dad and Les!

Obama's es"State of the Union"

Any thoughts on his speech Tuesday night?

I at least agree with one or two things that he said: now is the time to tackle all of these big challenges. I mean, everything's in the crapper, so why not do all the crazy stuff now, right?

Although he didn't say it, there continue to be rumors of banks being nationalized, which just gives me the heebie-jeebies...and of all the Presidents to tackle social security reform (or its complete phase out!), Obama and his socialist tendencies is the last person I would have wanted to do that.

Sad though, that I do kinda agree with him that we "wasted" our many years of surplus. However, I believe it is turning out that the supposed surplus wasn't so much a surplus as much as it was a wave of strong GDP based on underlying and accumulating household debt.

Separately, if Obama does open up his energy policy to include more nuclear plant developments, I might be finding myself a job at the NRC. We'll just have to see:)

Happy Birthday Andrea

To celebrate Andrea's birthday, I bought a half-dozen "gourmet" cup-cakes. The only thing missing was a good round of putt-putt.

Giggles: Must love dogs!

We got our first giggles and squeals from Geena this weekend, and they all started when the dog began barking. So cute!

Long awaited pics of the "G" (hint: not gatorade)

Geena growing up! Going to her first baby shower with mommy!


Smiley little Geena happy about the Steelers winning the SuperBowl!
(more likely she's smiling at her awesome mommy)


Geena psyched about the Steelers in the SuperBowl!
(and Daddy knocked his head on the towel rack in the bathroom:)


Geena going snow skiing


Geena enjoying a 'different' view of the Christmas lights

Way to go Mom and Dad

Pre-race

Just before the finish line! They faked it to look like they were running.

Post-race in front of Boutwell Auditorium

Mom and Dad successfully completed the BE&K 5K which is a part of the Mercedes Marathon Weekend. They did a great job, especially for Dad. It's his first race ever! Let's all put on our Christmas list to buy him some running/walking pants. The hunters orange hat made it easy to spot him though. Way to go Mom and Dad!

Nahum is mobile

This morning, I saw Nahum actually crawl for the first time (Andrea said she had seen her do it earlier, but this will be the first documented sighting). She had been threatening to stick with the stop-and-go army crawl method that Timnah employed as an infant. But, alas, she was using hands and knees and everything.