After Work Gigs

The last two weeks I have been working on three different after work gigs. 

My sister emailed me and said her old boss wanted me to see if I could make his computer work faster.  I am open right now for after work gigs, happy to make extra money and he brought it over with two bottles of homemade wine.  Extra bonus for me and we cracked one of the bottles open that weekend.  Darn good stuff.

Turned out he needs a new hard drive so after spending all weekend copying his files I ordered the hard drive and turned my attention to the next computer which belongs to the parents of one of Rach’s friends.

They got the nasty Spyware 2009 malware which seems to be prolific right now.  It seems to come from web sites that have the code for this maleware injected into them.  One second you’re be bopping around the net, the next you have a popup telling you that you have an infection. I’ve removed it on several computers but it seems with this one the best way is a wipe and reload because it’s a morpher.  By the time they called me, that was the only option they had left.  But they didn’t have their disks.

Fortunately the other computer did and it was the same version of windows and I wasn’t working on it as I was waiting for the hard drive to come in.  Turned out to be an easy wipe and reload that took one evening.  I’m good with that.

The third job is a set of kitchen cabinet doors that we are commissioned to do.  These are my drawings which were approved last night.

 

It is a six panel piece.  They wanted a mountain scene with aspens and a water feature.  This is the first panel.

This panel will be changed.  They wanted their lab in the design somewhere.  She had to be put down last week and a simple reminder is a good thing.  I have figured out, I think, how it needs to be done.

 
Panel three.  On the right is the beginning of a pond.  I stretched the pond out to the fourth panel to create flow.

 
Panel four.

Panel five.  This is the only one with two trees.

And the last panel.  I bordered the two end pieces so the picture has a beginning and an end. 

I worked from one sheet to the other and did not actually see them all put together till Wednesday night.  When I saw them put together, I was very happy with the design.  I am happier still that it was approved and I can begin the process of redrawing the design on the glass and cutting. 

Happy Weekend!

Feels like...

Feels like forever since I've posted anything that meant anything....

Feels like forever since I've posted anything period....

Feels like soft simple summer days and sexy summer nights...

Feels like sleeping on top of the sheets and under the stars...

Feels like lemonade and vodka or margaritas by the fire...

Feels like friends and laughter...

Feels like life worth living.

Sometimes….

 

Its nice to take a break from projects that seem never ending… the siding for example, and do something that you can be fairly confident you can finish in an afternoon.  So yesterday, because it was way too windy to work on a ladder we decided to rebuild the picnic table. 

We’d been talking about redoing it since we moved here.  It came with the house and the top of the table was made out of part of the kitchen floor where they cut to put a cellar door.  It was so warped that anything you set down on it immediately rolled to the middle of the table.  Setting a drink down on the table was something of an art.  You had to find a spot that the glass could balance and not tip over or lean it against one of the plants.

We ended up with splinters whenever we spent much time at the table too.  Yesterday was the day. 

And here is the table.  Dan spray painted the frame and we sanded the seat benches since they were still usable.  We braced the entire thing to hopefully avoid warping any time soon.  We stained it the same color as the fence and the gazebo that it goes under.

 

And here it is in it’s home.  I think we can enjoy dinner or breakfast or coffee or dominos here. Next weekend we can start working on the trim on the house.  It was sure nice to see a project through to completion.

Happy Sunday.

Spring spring

Rain is a beautiful thing here.  It’s been raining for the last few weeks it seems and even though after a while it tends to dampen my spirits, I’m glad to have it and the gardens are loving it.

Iris are always beautiful.  My mother’s next door neighbor collects them and has every color I can think of.  Her face lights up and she gets a far away look in her eyes when she talks about them.  Too funny.  Ours are common lavender color variety but I still think they are gorgeous.

 

 

There were a couple of roses when we moved here.  I’ve never tried to grow roses before but I think they are doing ok.  This one is so pretty right now.

Saturday night we tried out the kettle drum fire pit that Dan sunk last fall when he built the patio.  It worked great.  I was worried about the flowers next to it but they didn’t get hot at all.

And this is what we have been doing to the house.  Dan and I started in March, but it’s been either raining or snowing every weekend since.  We finally finished putting the siding up last weekend and can start on the trim this weekend. 

Never a dull moment around here.

It’ll Go Fast….

  

I’m sitting outside this beautiful Friday night wondering where the last week went.  I had this last week off and I had big plans for it.  Not the pack it up and go somewhere type of plan because really, my idea of a vacation is staying home and experiencing where I love to be but don’t get to very often.  I enjoy actually being home for Rach during the day and I enjoy everything that comes with it.  It feels better than any week at a tourist attraction that I can think of.

Dan took the time off with me.  We were going to work on the house but it rained the first five days so we cooked a lot and played a bit of golf and watched movies.  I made shrimp, he made tacos.  I made stuffed pork chops and breakfast burrito stuffing, he rolled up all of the burritos so we could have them the next morning too.  Tonight I made manicotti and tomorrow plan on making green chili.  We’ve eaten well that’s for sure.

The sun came out a couple of days ago and we finally got to go outside.  I was so happy.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

 

Rach and I stained the fence.  I love the color.  It took longer than I imagined it would and my thighs are sore but I am pleased with the end result.

The pond is looking really nice this early in the year.  Of course all of the rain didn’t hurt.  The plants are loving it and a lot of them are blooming already.

 

Every morning I look out of the kitchen window to see this.  I think it’s going to be one of the prettiest petunia pots we have this summer.

 

 
Dan took this picture of a pot of purple petunias.  I love their color.

 

The frog was out eating some fish food this afternoon.  Dan got a good shot of him.

 

And Dan was up at his folks house this morning and caught a lizard to let loose in the pond area. 

 

Since no post is complete without an Eddie picture lately, here’s Strechin Eddie. 

Happy Friday.

Alternate Activities

Yesterday, because it was Saturday and because we wanted to work outside, it was raining.  The rain was great, don’t get me wrong.  It rained most of the day and quite a bit of the night. I left the house in the middle of the first rain because I decided if it was going to rain I was going to do my second favorite thing… cook.  And when I left 9th street was flooding. 

When I turned on to 9th, I saw a small car driving through a long deep puddle at a fast speed making a wave to the side.  When I arrived where they were, I was in the middle of the street where it was not so deep.  I looked over to the side of the road to see two very wet boys standing there waving at me to drive in the puddle so they could get soaked again.  Too funny.

Anyway, when I lived in Gunnison I used to get to eat a dish at the restaurant where my ex worked.  It was called Cajun BBQ Popcorn Shrimp.  For some reason I’ve had a yen for that spicy shrimp lately but haven’t had any luck finding a recipe for it on the internet.

Yesterday I think I found it.  It is called Louisiana BBQ Shrimp and oh my is that stuff wonderful.  It needs to be served with french bread to dip in the sauce.  It is incredibly spicy and just flat out wonderful.

I thought I would share the recipe in case anyone likes cajun food and is hankering for a little spice in their lives.

Louisiana BBQ Shrimp

1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/3 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 beer, room temperature
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt to taste

In a small bowl, stir together the garlic powder, onion powder, basil thyme, rosemary, cayenne pepper and paprika.  Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic, cook and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes.  Season with the spice mixture and continue to cook and stir for a few minutes.  Pour in the beer and Worcestershire sauce, simmer until shrimp is cooked through, about 1 more minute.  Taste and season with salt before serving.

 

Happy cooking!

Sleep and Chocolate

I've been involved in a project at work that has required some after hours work. I expected a late Friday night but did not expect a late night last night. It was ok though because I'm looking forward to time off next week. It isn't an endless tunnel that I'm looking down although I am very very tired this morning.

I cannot attribute very tired all to work even though my main thought when I got home last night was to just collapse and sleep in my chair till it was time to go to bed. Last week sleep was elusive and I felt as though I was awake with my eyes closed.

This week my body is more than happy to sleep, providing me with odd dreams and heavy eyes that threaten to close at the drop of a hat, or an unoccupied second.

However, the dogs have other ideas. I make sure that they both go out before bed but it's been hot and Biscuit has been very thirsty so she's drinking a lot of water. So it really wasn't a surprise when she woke me up at 11:51 p.m. wanting out. I ignored it for a few minutes but a beagle baying in a house with no carpet gets pretty loud at midnight so I got up and let her out. 15 minutes later I got up and let her in. 15 minutes later Dan called and let me know he has next week off too. And somewhere around 4:00 a.m. Eddie decided he needed to go out. I had no intention of letting him back in before I got up for the day.

I swear there is more action around my house in the middle of the night.....

As far as chocolate goes, the big boss leaves chocolate on my desk which is a beautiful thing to find and Dan brought home some chocolate creamer which is a beautiful thing in my coffee in the morning. Both of these are keeping me going this week when other methods don't seem to be working as well.

Happy Thursday to you. Life is good.