Still infusing...

One of the nice things about a wife with better taste(s) than me is she can imagine things I can't. She really rounds me out, with her cooking she literally rounds me out and with her tastes she mentally and inspirationally rounds me out. I won't say she is my muse but she is a great source of ideas! So we had 1/2 bottle of not so nice Grappa, or Crappa as I think of it, that needed something done with it. I don't drink much anymore but I enjoy infusing liquor. I was thinking of turning it into something akin to a citrus-cello hoping that the zests would mask the smoke of the Crappa. Yes I said smoke. It was aged in an old whiskey barrel. No I don't know why. My bride however thought of infusing it with pear. Now I did not grow up eating pear and I am not a huge fan of it. I will eat it now and even enjoy it if it is a nice one, but if there is a choice between a nice pear or a nice apple well call me Johnny Appleseed. Anyway I took her suggestion and we grabbed some pears that she suggested while out shopping and it has been infusing for about a month now. The smell about a week into the process was fantastic and I started a vodka/pear infusion. I am thinking that a pear liqueur would be nice but I guess time will tell!! This has become a fun little hobby as it lets me create fun things to sip on special occasions and it takes so little of my brain to employ. That is where my sweetie comes into play! If I need a fresh perspective she is there to BAFF me on back of the head and go "Try this!", because husbands need BAFFED from time to time!

Fine art, or the mess we made!

So the walls have been painted and pictures are slowly going back up. The thing is we had a big naked spot over the stairs that needed filling in. I tried to put my Captain America Shield up there but was vetoed when Christmas passed. So The Boss and I discussed colors and it and decided some abstract painting would be the best thing. Red as the major color with the other house colors added too. Yeah it had to be abstract. So my baby, my rock, the wind beneath my wings said that I should paint it. I just started painting and am not any good at it but even I can do something abstract right?! Kinda. So I found a cheap canvas (relatively speaking that is...) and bought some more paints and got to work. It sucked!! Thankfully I have a wife I don't mind going to and saying things like "Wanna see it? It really sucks!". I don't mind saying things like this because I know that there is usually an 85-91% chance that she can fix it! So she made some noises and grabbed a pallet knife and got to work. The result is much better than it was before and is as good as any other abstract stuff I have seen. However I am no art critic (if you are an art critic and are looking at this do not reply unless it is an offer to buy it for a boat load of money) but I like it!!!!!! It is unique and it is OURS! WE made it!! So we get the shared credit and blame! Years from now we will look at it and go "Awwwwww" or "What were we thinking?" or something else but we will be looking at it together.

Yard work aka shared misery...

So last weekend my baby had a swim meet she was working, and I had too much coffee. So I put the dogs in their kennel and let the kids out of theirs. By that I mean I made them come out of their rooms! I was met in the back yard by suspicious looks and glares, as you would expect from teenagers, and informed them of the plan to work on the back yard today. The enthusiasm level was less than I had imagined, and I imagined none. Despite the start everyone was active and, dare I say, more than a bit happy with the results. We picked up dog poo as a group so everyone was miserable together. We paired up to rake and shovel. The boys restacked the rock wall and leveled out the holes (horrible creatures dogs from Crete) and did a nice job with it! The youngest picked up sticks and I raked the yard, then we swapped out. Then A and I took the piles of leaves were put in the back 40 to try and level it out a bit back there, composting takes a while but it works! Then the oldest and youngest broke and gathered the old tree limbs I had cut from the trellis for the hothouse and stacked them for chipping later. Then the spare kennel pipes were stored by the shed. The boys also stacked the pallets we are using for the gardens beds by the hothouse in preparations for that project. Over all it looks pretty good back there now, considering we have dogs of course who love to tear up rock walls and dig when they get bored. The best part of all this was that when we were done all the kids were sitting in the same room, talking, laughing, and having a good time. It is amazing how shared "misery" can be such a bonding event!

The back deck and flower beds...

Now in case my gentle reader thinks that my bride is one of those ladies who sits around and eats bon bons and watches soap operas all day let me inform you of her ongoing projects! While dealing with the attic she has been working as head coach of her swim team, which has started this trend of breaking all of its old records. She has also taken up a board position on the youngest child's roller derby team and working her butt off with various projects including finding a new head coach for the team. She also found time to power wash our back porch so that she and the kids can paint it this summer. This turned into her power washing the front porch, the drive way, cleaning gutters, cleaning out the driveway drain, and cleaning out the garage. All while dealing with Laurel and Hardy who are trying to fall through our ceiling! Meanwhile we had a sunny day so she cleared the yard of the dandelions that snuck into the yard. Lest I forget she spent three days (two with sunshine one without) where she dug up the flower bed in front of the house. This involved moving two plants that weighed about 50 lbs each and relocated them to the back yard. The flower bed was replanted, fertilized, leveled, recovered and mulch added. The final day she had a big obstacle because I was added to the mix! Because of a lack of coordination and oversized initiative I nearly squished every flower she had planted. We all have our crosses to bear, I am hers! Despite that she is already planning the same thing for a planter bed that is about 2-3 times the size of the first one. My baby is the best and it looks FANTASTIC too!!!!

What's been going on...

So it has been a while since I really updated things here which is due to me being a complete slacker! So let's catch up on things a bit. After some troubles with the attic everything is now clean and sealed. This took more than a little work on the part of my wonderful wife who was a Herculean help in keeping everything sane! You see the only company that does this kind of work, where we are, sent Laurel and Hardy to work on our attic. When they disappeared it seems that Jerry Lewis was sent to finish the work, with the help of the manager. We were still waiting on the repairs when my bride gets a call asking when we were going to send in our portion of the money for said "work". Needless to say the poor lady on the phone got an earful. Arrangements were made to first get a bill for the work (we got an e-mail with the breakdown of charges after we asked for it but no bill), next find out when the damages from L&H would be repaired. So while we are waiting for the repair date we get the bill and against my better judgment I pay the bill. What I was thinking I have no idea! So last week my office light began to flicker and I began thinking the worst! I went up into the attic and took a look around to see if L&H may have messed up the wiring while shoveling out insulation. It seems that the work was not completely done. In fact the clean up was garbage! So and after more than a little complaining and sending angry e-mails and phone calls to the company the manager came out and completed the work himself. The one upside was that my angry e-mail arrived before the check did and the company had enough professionalism to not cash the check which saved me the trouble of cancelling the check until the work was complete. Well it is done now and my wonderful wife crawled around the attic and inspected the work with a fine toothed comb. So in the midst of all of this I took on a long overdue project, building the hothouse for starter plants and herbs! We have a nice little herb garden that we started last year and it has put out some really nice herbs to make dinner a nicer event. Don't misread me, my wife is an excellent cook and can make a fantastic dinner using dirt, milk, a half eaten pork chop and a garlic clove! However if you add fresh herbs she is a wizard, and I am almost decent, in the kitchen! We have been discussing that with the cooler weather here a hothouse/greenhouse would add to the productivity and growing time for the herbs and small veg we grow. So about a year...maybe two years ago my bride found some free fiberglass panels for the project. They have done an excellent job of sitting for that time. Finally I got off of my butt and fashioned up the hothouse on the frame of an old trellis. It isn't the most attractive thing I have made but it is pretty OK. The best part is that it works and it is unlikely to fall apart anytime soon! The herbs and starter flowers we have put in there have absolutely loved the warmer temperatures! Success!!!! I even had enough time to weed the herb garden a bit, which thankfully my wife finished properly by cutting back the dead growth on the plants. Now that little herb garden is doing very nicely again and we are going to have yummy fresh herbs again this year!