Flip Video + iMovie + cute dog = fun

Dog Detective
Originally uploaded by wittyandsmart

We do presentations for our work holiday party every year and this year I did one of the dog. Our t.v. at work was stolen earlier this year so that is the case I'm referencing in the video. Susan gave me this great flip video camera I hadn't had too much opportunity to play with yet so this was a nice excuse to play with the video camera. I might be late to the flip party, but I'm already a big fan. Also I've never created an entire movie in iMovie, so that was a good experience as well. I was telling my colleagues that I might become one of those people that records strangers then invites friends over to watch home movies. I'm guessing after awhile they will be busy whenever I call.

Home Surprise!

I love being a homeowner. It is seriously kick ass to sit around my house and think that I can do laundry whenever I want, clean the house whenever I want and when I invest money in the house there is a good chance I will get it back in the long run (ok, not until the housing market picks up - but someday!) The only problem is, I'm not as fearless with my own house. I want it to look perfect! I avoid projects because the ability to achieve perfection is difficult (ok, impossible) and I don't want my house to look stupid. However, I have been trying to get over myself. I am making myself do projects around the house even when I may have no idea how to start. I do give myself some leeway. I can read up on a project on the INTERNET. I can check out a book from the library. I can start random conversations with other customers at hardware stores or find another salesperson at Home Depot when the one I'm asking questions of looks at me like I'm an idiot. I can ask a lot of really stupid questions without prefacing it with "this might be a stupid question but..."

This has allowed me to finish painting the garage (without too many threatening letters from the city and the lovely help of my awesome friends). To put in a new screendoor (yes, I still need to add the handle, but I either need to rent a drill, borrow a drill or find a 9/16 bit that will fit my current drill). To install a new toilet.

Each of these projects has come with its own surprise. The garage siding was also the garage wall and you can't just replace a splintered board because they haven't made that tongue and groove siding for years so you copy the previous owner who affixed a piece of aluminum siding over the old board and then paint over it. Not perfect, but good enough. Since I used a heat gun to get off the paint the garage looks lovely. Should it start to look like crap in the next few years I will put up non paintable siding over the top of the old stuff because using a heat gun to scrape the garage again will kill me dead.

The back screen door installation pointed out that the edging around the door might just be plastic or lightweight aluminum but it looks just fine from far away, so I'm not worrying about it. It also made me realize that I am reluctant to ask others for help and thankful for my neighbor across the alley who offered it anyway. Amazing how quickly a door goes on the hinges when there are two people hoisting it up there.

The toilet was another interesting project. I've hated the old toilet since I moved in and was super excited to put the new one in. Of course this couldn't just be simple. I had to discover the old toilet was bolted to the wall and that behind the toilet was exposed lathe - no plaster or tile there. Just lathe. Also, the screws were attached to the floor, so I had to saw off the secondary screws just to put the new toilet on. Add to that what looks like a ceramic soil pipe that is starting to crumble and my future bathroom renovation just increased in price. Awesome. Since I do plan to renovate the bathroom in the next year or two, I'm putting bead board over the hole and adding shims where needed to make sure it's balanced and running well. And so far nothing has exploded or leaked.

I think the most important part I've learned by jumping in and trying to do home repair is that I try my best to do it right, but still enjoy the final product even if it's not perfect. I also realize that the longer the project, I start to re-evaluate just how perfect it needs to be and finally settle for "good enough." I don't want to be paralyzed by perfection. I want to be creative and inquisitive and learn how to do it myself.

That one time when I lit my best friend's brand new house on fire

I was very excited to visit Beth a couple of weeks ago in Colorado and see her brand new house. It's a great house in an up and coming neighborhood that is both safe and offers delicious breakfast burritos for $4 and interesting carts full of mango covered with chili (I will definitely be sampling this when I am there for her wedding). The house looks great - the last owner improved it greatly before selling it. Unfortunately one thing he didn't improve was the circuit breaker box. The inspector had told them they would want to replace the circuit breaker box because the company that made it went out of business due to all the lawsuits when the circuit didn't break when it's supposed to. They had planned to replace it as soon as they got the tax rebate, but that changed after the house fire.

Imagine Saturday morning at 4:30 am. Lily wakes up and barfs on the rug (I do like to leave a path of destruction) and wakes me up. Once I'm awake I have to go to the bathroom, so stumble into the bathroom and turn the light on. The light turns on, but there is also this scary buzzing noise. So I turned the light off. Except the buzzing noise didn't stop and then there is a popping noise and then a small fireball comes out of the outlet. This is the outlet next to the medicine chest containing flammable liquids. Also fire! If that doesn't wake you up at 4:30 in the morning, I don't know what will.

The thing is, you also act on instinct at 4:30 in the morning so I just tried to blow the fire out and in two big puffs I had it extinguished. My first thought was that my asthma had improved. My second is that adrenaline might make one huff and puff a lot more than I typically would have.

I yelled for Beth and she and Kris came running to see the fire and make sure the circuits were off, though we were all still slightly convinced that we might burn alive so there wasn't much sleeping the rest of the morning. Thankfully Kris' cousin is an electrician and came over the make sure we wouldn't burn alive before the circuit box was fixed. The box has now been fixed and the wiring checked to make sure it wouldn't start a fire. I was going to jokingly get them a fire extinguisher for their wedding present, but Kris beat me too it. Now I don't get to write "some fires should be squelched" in their card. Dammit.

As I was leaving I told them I was sorry I had started their house on fire, but they just responded that they were glad I'd put it out so quickly. But hopefully I won't have to do it again. Ever.

Good Intentions

So that wall I was totally going to get painted on the 4th of July weekend? Yeah, that didn't happen and still hasn't. First, it rained on Saturday that weekend. I halfheartedly shook my fist at the rain and then happily went and ran errands. I was going to paint last weekend and then replacing boards (or at least attempting it) involved caulk which needs to dry and then I spent Sunday morning sewing items for a baby shower that afternoon. So I didn't get it done last weekend either.

I think I'm sick of the garage. It's the never ending project I have spent too much money buying tools for. I did replace all the wood I could - though I did discover that I have tongue and groove siding that is also the wall. Removing any of the siding shows daylight when the garage door is open. I still need to spray the wasp nests under the eaves so I can scrape the paint near that area. I also need to figure out how to make the ladder even taller so I can actually reach the top boards. Heavens it will be nice to finish this project.

All I Want for my Birthday is a Painted Garage

It turns out I suck at this scraping the garage business. I rocked the main part of the garage, but the high places using a ladder are slowly killing me. I can really only get an hour and a half in before my knees and back are voicing their displeasure. The biggest issue is that the city of Minneapolis would like me to finish this painting business soon or I'm going to get fined...again. I had called the inspector after the first letter and he said that if I had made an effort I wouldn't be fined, but apparently he thought my effort was lacking because I received another letter last Friday saying I was going to be fined $100. I did call and leave him a message and if I don't hear by this Thursday I'll start stalking, er calling every department I can find until the fine is either reduced or removed. I started the project the last month of summer last year thinking it wouldn't take that long, but I really want to get either all the paint off or really smooth it down so I don't have to paint again for a very long time. I spent the month scraping and by the time the snow was flying, this is what my garage looked like:



I've spent the month of June using a heat gun (let me tell you how wonderfully satisfying it is to use a heat gun and peal the paint off. I've written very bad poetry about the heat gun that I only share with others when I can't keep it to myself because I'm in the throes of removing paint, or I've had too much to drink) and now one wall of the garage looks like this:



I have been happily listening to podcasts, playlists and books and working my way slowly through this paint removal business. I'm hoping at the end of the 4th of July holiday I will at least have this wall sanded and primed. Because seriously, it shouldn't take that long, right?

So I was complaining about this with some friends and they said they would totally help. It is really hard for me to ask for help but I thought I might be able to organize it around a celebration...like my birthday at the end of this month. If people came and went all day and helped, then I have a snowballs chance in hell of not getting another letter from the city. Maybe two people at a time can be on ladders and then be spelled by other people so nobody's back hurts. I borrowed a heat gun and have one of my own and I'm guessing I probably don't want to add another one because it might blow a fuse. I have a couple paint scrapers, a couple putty knives (which I actually prefer with the heat gun), an electric sander, one ladder and a paint sprayer. Then that evening I would have a big potluck bbq - anyone who didn't want to work on the garage could bring a dish to share and I will grill loads of food for people. My mom will bring ice cream cake for everyone.

So it may not be as fun as the chef's table at Cafe Levain last year, but I just don't know how long it's going to take me. Plus, I do have fabulously helpful friends. Maybe one of you will have a really useful tip that takes 4.2 seconds and will remain beautiful for years without additional peeling paint. So far my mom has been helping me work on it, but I'm hoping that on August 1st, there will be plenty of friends who want to hang out and peel some paint off the garage. The end.

What?

I have a blog? So weird.

Dear Vacation, let's make out

Yay vacation! Though I am pretty tired of flying all over this country (ok, mostly to the southern states) I can't wait to get to DC. I really love that city. So much information available for free. It's really quite exciting. I do in fact plan to be a huge geek in DC. In addition to spending the day at the Library of Congress researching slave narratives, I'm going to tour museums until I pass out. Add a few hockey games for the frozen four tournaments and it will be golden.

The only thing that bums me out is the weather. I think it might be nicer here than it will be in DC, though there is going to be more green there. I'm hoping that by the time I return there will be some budding going on in Minneapolis. It's April, for god's sake and at some point I would like the outside to match my conceptual model of what April is supposed to look like.

I purchased a fancy pants new camera for myself (fancy = new, not an SLR). It's amazing how much cameras have changed since I bought the first digital camera 6 years ago. I have all kinds of megapixels and zoom and I think it might wash dishes. I'm not totally sure yet.

I'm not bringing my computer because the last two vacations I took I've done a lot of work while vacationing. I always figure if I have my computer and it's the only time people can meet, then that's fine. But that also means I spend time traveling back to where I'm staying during the day and missing the opportunity to see more stuff. It's really my fault because I say yes. This time I'm making it impossible to say yes. I will attempt not to check or at least not answer emails on my phone, but this is also difficult. At least I can do that on the go. I am looking forward to the time off and lots and lots of walking and reading and geeking out. I can't wait to hang out DC!