Just In Time

Put this futon together last night in our new guest room.  Nana arrives any minute :-)

Faith - The Next Pele?

Got to watch Faith's soccer this week. Boy is she now into the action. She was kicking and dribbling all over. Amazing what a difference a year makes.

A Whole Lot Of Sod

Today was a busy day. Interior fix-it guy was doing some finishing touches. Big thing was labeling the circuit breaker box for me. That took him about 2 hours. Then the concrete guy was here cleaning up some concrete work from the winter. Siding guy made a quick visit to get the color correct this time for the new shutter. And then this happened...


So yesterday I took a half day at work and rented a tiller at Home Depot. Got home, tore my jeans getting it out of the Sorento, and went to work in the back. I was not making out too well. Ground was rock hard, and I hadn't watered the area. Went at it for about 2 hours, finally starting to break up some earth. I stop for a minute and see Karen and the chief contractor watching me. He then asks what he hell I was doing! Didn't I have something better to do like grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch. I protested a bit telling him sometimes even I get dirty and can break a sweat (oh did I mention it was 99 degrees). To be perfectly honest I would have much preferred the beer on the couch. Meanwhile, he pretty much ignores me and starts talking into his cell phone calling a guy to come over and sod my yard. 'Lo and behold this afternoon a team arrived and were done by 6pm! That tiller rental fee was way worth it!!!

A Home Cooked Meal

A delicious home cooked dinner and blueberry muffins for dessert.  This baked ziti was made in our new advantium oven in 27 minutes on speed cook.  A few hundred more of these zitis and it will make that oven worth its price ;-)

Cabinet Filling

Got the importance stuff put away.  Put together a quick and dirty wine rack... perfect.  But shelf a bit low for a Macallen 10 year and a bottle of gin.  So they are lying in wine rack :-)  not sure if that's ok for the liquor, but gotta do whatya gotta do.

Boys Soccer: Victory 1-0

The boys JCC team is now part of the Annandale league. In pre-school they played in that league and got a weekly clobbering. The kids in that league come out of the womb with a soccer ball. So I was worried! After the first minute of play, my fears subsided. We had some really good players and held our own. Now we probably played one of the weaker teams in the division, but I was still impressed. Reuben owned defense for two quarters before moving to offense for the third quarter where he kept a lot of pressure on the other team's goalie. Jacob played halfback for most of three quarters and kept the ball always in play. He was wiped by the end!

Baseball Catch

This is what makes a dad happy

Back From St. Louis

      With Boeing Defense HQ in St Louis, I'm now on my third trip to St Louis in last couple of months. This time I finally got to see the Arch! Had a couple of hours to kill before my flight and it was only 20 minutes from Boeing. Very cool to see close up. Even bigger than you think. Next up a Cards game; may need to wait until next season...

Almost Feels Like Home Again

Some pictures on the wall. A few more touchups here and there. Putting in the missing cabinet and our pendant lights over the island and we're pretty much done!

COOKING!!!!

Made some delicious scrambled eggs with some fresh tomatoes from our farm share.   Mmmm.  Best eggs ever.
Even ate on a real dish with a metal fork :-)

L'Shana Tova

We had a makeshift rosh hashana dinner as our kitchen is still in limbo.  To make it more crazy all the appliances were delivered and installed today.  Including them cutting the hole in the granite for the range top right at dinner time.  It was deafening.   But we are that much closer to finishing!

Last Days At The Pool

Labor day is almost here. After some more yard work we hit the pool for a little playtime. Hope to go back tomorrow.

Extras From our Long Island Trip

Backyard cleanup

This week we started cleaning the yard in prep for seeding later.  Been paying $5 a kid per wheelbarrow filled with rocks.  I am going broke :-)  Here are the boys now playing in a hole we dug out to remove a 60 lb cement rock.  This is the making of a Lego stage.