• Finally

    Our contractor put the last touches on our guest bathroom renovation project last night. After eight weeks, we finally kicked the girls down the hall and have a bathroom to ourselves. Two toothbrushes! A clear countertop! No piles of ponytail holders scattered all over the place! Now if we can just keep them from ruining the new bathroom… We had…

  • Busy From the Beginning

    The first full week of school is now underway. the girls were a little grumpier the last two mornings than they were on Thursday and Friday. I admit so was I. I’d love to get into some kind of daytime routine, but we also started a bathroom remodel yesterday. It should be pretty quick – knock on wood – but…

  • When DIY Goes Wrong

    Another addition to the list of stories I share so you can make fun of me. Ya’ll know I’m not the most handy guy in the world. I can do some basic, minor repairs around the house. But when it comes to things behind, below, or under walls that involve electricity or plumbing, I recognize my limits and am happy…

  • Critters

    Long-time readers of this site will recall, likely with great pleasure, my periodic updates on the wildlife around our home from years past. We’re in a bit of a boon in that area, so lets revisit that genre of post. One night last week I was walking through the living room right at dusk and noticed movement between our deck…

  • Time Keeps On Slippin’, Slippin’, Slippin’

    Crazy few weeks here en La Casa del Blogger. I believe I’ve mentioned that we’ve been doing some renovations over the past two months. Well, I took my first shower in our completely remodeled bathroom Tuesday morning. We’re still waiting on some lighting and a mirror, but we’re almost done. But we’ve had contractors in the house for the better…

  • Wasting Time

    I’d like to preface this post by reminding you all that I’m nearly 37 years old, am married, have 2.5 kids, and have a Master’s degree. Last night, I spent about 45 minutes shooting a water gun at the mother raccoon that lives under our deck each time she peaked her head out to see if the coast was clear…

  • Good Grief

    I’m working on some new content, don’t worry. Last week was a busy one in and around the house. I power washed and then re-stained/sealed the deck. Worked in the yard. We reorganized the garage, including adding some new storage devices. Had some car repairs taken care of. And did some reorganization inside as well. This week, it’s me and…

  • The Lost Art (A Rant Of Sorts)

    Lost arts: The bounce pass. The stolen base. Good customer service. As we were working on our various projects around the house this winter and spring, I kept a mental list of customer service issues we had with the various contractors and businesses we worked with. There were a lot of unreturned phone calls, which are always annoying. To be…

  • Good Weekend

    Many things happened this weekend. For those of you who missed it, I made a surprise (to some) visit back to KC for the annual Sinatra Party. I dusted off the suit, made some cursory efforts to get the liver in shape, and although I didn’t do nearly as much damage to the scotch supply as I have done in…

  • Satisfaction of A Job Well Done

    Our top-notch plumbing team finally removed all their equipment from our property this morning. What should have been a one-day project spilled over parts of three days. In the process, a neighbor’s irrigation line was cut, the phone line was severed, the plumber’s tractor broke down in our neighbor’s driveway (and sat motionless for roughly 24 hours – luckily the…