I can haz blinds [s]

Impressed: My blinds came in yesterday - a pretty quick turnaround from whenever it was that I ordered them.

Impressed: But there was no time, as James and I were off to Lei Lounge for celebrations. Word is they do a good happy hour every Tuesday.

Disappointed: I ordered a Singapore Sling because, you know, the late Raoul Duke would drink them. But there's two things that can befoul a drink in my eyes: excess sugar or excess gin. This had both.

Impressed: We watched the cgi Ninja Turtles movie after Lei. It provided the nostalgia and familiar references I was expecting, but offered a few unexpected highlights. The lack of a clearcut antagonist was refreshing. Raph's alter ego is an enjoyable homage the another great comic/movie. And most surprising was the outcome of the Raph-Leo spar, being a departure from the highly formulaic plotlines of the franchise.

Impressed:





Horizontals are all there.

Time lapse blogography [s]

So the ol' 1.6 Athlon setup finally choked. Hard to say what it was, I've failed to diagnose the problem hardware having independently swapped everything out. I'll revisit when I'm setting the box up as a terminal in the garage.

The new stuff:

• ASUS M3N78 Pro mobo. $100. Supports all the nice things, particularly sli and 1066 ram.
  
• AMD Phenom X3 2.3. $110. Three core, their second tier.
  
• PNY GeForce 9800GT. $160. Listed for a whole lot more. The gig of video memory should help with photo editing.
  

Of course, Fry's gave me the X3 2.1 and I didn't realize it until they'd closed. I had to stop by the following day and recover the 200,000,000 hz they owed me.

The near-term purchases include a sata disk, another two cheap gigs of ram, and maybe a new display.

And, well, I'm borrowing Curt's monitor, the power supply is sitting on the case, and there are boards sprawled about my desk area. But at least everything is functional.

The hiatus is explained, now rewind.



Thanksgiving was good. The new house accommodates well.



I snagged Madden '09 for entertainment purposes. My dad picked it right up and Jon wouldn't be separated from the game, save for by real football. There's not much to say about it - being an EA franchise - except it's generally enjoyable, graphically unimpressive, and Cris Collinsworth follows Madden's act very closely.



Taboo was a riot, particularly the last round where Mom, Connie, and I netted several points from Mark, Jon, and Erik.





The hallway floor went in fine. 'How did you overcome the itis?', you might ask. Well I peered in the fridge and made a glorious connection:

1. Red Bull
2. Orange juice

Iced and stirred together, pure genius. It's like Sunny D with stimulants.



The stairs are the only remaing hardwood to be done. You've come a long way, baby. The constructon tiredom led to my second genius (derived re-)invention: post-Thanksgiving pizza.

1. A fresh pizza from Round Table: the canvas.
   
2. Leftover turkey piled on top.
   
3. Mashed potatoes piled on top.
   

Delightful.

Thanksgiving weekend also saw d'Chris's d'Brickapult claw its way from the grave to a winning record and fourth seed in the Medieval Gridiron playoffs. Similarly, Santos surmounted the impossible and overcame a large point differential to knock James out of contention. It's been a white knuckle end to a unimpressive season.

This weekend I'm up against Potats' team, which is predicted to beat mine by 25 points even after his tight end netted zero on Thursday.

Sunday also featured the long-awaited return to the water. It was pretty good-sized, but rides were characterized by straight drop-bottom turn-close, so not exactly elegant. It's phenomenal how life on land maintains absolutely zero of the muscles required for paddling.

A few quotables:

• Schooled three little college guys. They seemed not happy to lose to a girl.
  
• Go Raiders! ... We're horrible. Marty! Marty! Marty!
• I heard you put Rob and Dave against the glass.
• I am ridiculously addicted to yr blog. Will you please update it more often?

Epilogue:
I'm a firm believer in giving the people what they want, so I'll break you off one more piece of culinary revelation.

1. Sirloin burger with ample Dorchestershire sauce. You probably don't have that, so you can substitute Worchestershire sauce instead.
2. Leftover turkey.
3. Fried onions.
4. Sourdough.
   

Furnishments [s]

I furnished the media room with some proper couches. They're just one palette up at the moment, but it's great for running audio wiring.


That displaced the futon which is now furnishing the kitchen area.


And I furnished the living room with a sofa. Pretty good Vets' day deals, especially on this one.


And I furnished Jon an xr400. Much thanks to Ted for the leg work, and Christine for the bow.

And Jon furnished me a fantasy football victory.

Making space [s]

I threw up a surf rack and a hanging device for the neoprene. The garage is slowly becoming more spacious.



On the clipboard right now is an order form for window coverings. I'm leaning toward wood blinds or cellular shades. Should I go with the former, I'll have to decide between stained wood to match the floors or bright white to match the window trim and baseboards. I created another mindblowingly photorealistic mockup of what either might look like.

Please chime in if you have an opinion.



I ordered a chandelier for the entryway or above the stairs. The criteria was low-key, no faux candles or faux crystals, and no single pieces that are bent more than a few degrees.



One subject of contemplation is door choice for the upstairs bathroom. It used to have a pocket door, great for space but I always found them difficult. Chances are I'll put a regular door in, but I'm considering a slider with some translucent material inset in a wood frame.



So the rest of the bathroom is empty. Cement board, tile, vanity, shower door...



I picked up a Panasonic bathroom fan from Dixieline. It's quiet* and all, but the main perk is that it's not crazy ugly. Most are. They're all plastic, some are huge, others drop several inches down from the ceiling. The worst offense of all is having the ugly yellow, plastic light. The last fan tucked under the joist, no such luck here. I had to relocate it a couple inches so there's a bit of ceiling repair to do.

It wasn't too tough to install, though I had to extend the electrical and fuss about getting the pipe through the wall.

* Maybe too quiet.



It has been noted that I haven't posted photos of the shower with fixtures. Now I have. Bronze finish is looking good for some, if not all of the house. In fact, Jon installed door handles on Saturday.

The end is nigh [i]

Floors are in for the dining room, living room, and entryway. Now to find me a bearskin rug and moose head.



The floors went together pretty quickly and easily. The most significant time was spent aligning the first row of boards, as they would determine the orientation of the entire floor. Then it was a matter of tapping and nailing them together.

It went pretty fast yesterday with me picking and setting the planks, then Jon nailing them and sinking the finishing screws. Then today Curt helped out and we got the rest done.

Entryway floor [s]

Turning the corner gracefully on the hallway floor proved challenging. So we knocked off the entryway area pretty quick (two or three hours). It went well with Jon on the nail gun, Curt on precision sawing, and Connie and Krista picking planks. The ledge into the living room is being obstacular, the remaining gap is just larger than the width of the nosing.



But yeah, it's nice.

Floors [s]

The flooring has begun. I don't have any shots other than the following:



However, rest assured Jon and Dave have it down to a science. The hallway leading to the master bedroom is done. We'll probably cover a lot of ground tomorrow, so to speak.

Bobby mowed down the remaining junipers, I sealed and tested the shower, and everyone plus Connie finished the fireplace.



And we managed to squeeze in some cards/Chop Stix/boba...



... and a little pool shenanigans.

Last of the painting, start of the flooring [s]

The hallway, stairway, and unnamed area adjacent to the kitchen is ready to be primed. And that will be the last of it.

I bought the flooring for the entryway, living room, dining room, and hallway. Installation will probably be this weekend, as the trim pieces make their way down from Oregon.