6-strings, 12-strings

Just back from a phenomenal guitar concert, listening to a new CD and loving it! Wow.

Little Taste of Germany

The weather has been cool and wet, but when the sun comes it shines on budding and flowering branches! I'm hoping to get a nice clear day soon to get out and do some photographing. In the meantime . . .

We've been busy! And I haven't been very good about taking my camera along with us. Last week we had something almost every night of the week--Sunday we went to a "Picnic in the Park" at church (no, not outside--it's not THAT warm) to celebrate Valentine's Day, and then up into the mountains to find a clear look at the stars . . . friends Sergio and Robert came over on Tuesday for dinner and gaming . . . I enjoyed "Soup, Salad & Sisters" with the ladies from church on Wednesday (I had every intention of going to Youth Group on Thursday and didn't make it after all), Friday we went to dinner at the home of some new friends from church and Saturday went to a hockey game with them! Lots of fun. Sunday we did a (very) little yard work and then had some nice down time together. And today we ate the fruits of a couple days worth of marinading! I've been craving German food for some reason, so it was fun (and yummy) to have some Sauerbraten, spaetzle and red cabbage. Mmmm . . .Tonight is an acoustic guitar concert at church, tomorrow is small group, and then on Wednesday I'm going to start helping the props team in a community production of Annie!

In other news, I'm dying to get some raised beds made in the backyard and start planting, but we're also trying to get on top of issues inside the house. The list is as long as my arm, and while some of it we just need to get moving on, we're still waiting on the insurance so we can get the roof fixed and start figuring out the fixture/drywall/paint issues that come along with the leak. And our dishwasher is making a horrible burning smell as of this weekend. The joys of owning a home, right? :-)

Hope all is well with you and yours. More soon!
(you can also see some pictures and info on our church Facebook page; Dove Creek Bible Church)
oxox
cmr

Painting with Ben & Pei

A quick photo tour of my brief visit with Ben & Pei to help paint their new apartment . . .

This is the living/dining room--you can see where we've taped off one of the accent walls we're going to paint. A little peak into the kitchen
Still the living room--this is the other accent wall
Taping the bathroom was a Big Chore
Both of the bedrooms also had an accent wall
We quickly discovered that 1-inch painter's tape is not wide enough for a job this big! Pei is putting on a second layer of tape in this picture.
Because of the time of day and the light coming in those big, beautiful windows, I had a hard time getting a good picture of the color in the bedroom. It dried to a very pretty purple with a tint of grey to it.
The office has a blue accent wall--a very pretty, dark slate blue when it dried.
Finished office!
The living and dining room accent walls were Chili Pepper Red
Isn't that pretty?

The bathroom was the only room we didn't finish while I was there. I'm anxious to see how the bathroom looks after the second coat was applied and dried, and all the tape was off, etc.!
I was finally able to get Ben and Pei their Christmas box from Susan. They got a wonderful house warming gift, which Ben is trying to explain to Pei in this picture. Ha!
They were SO excited! ;-D
Itchy (a.k.a. Ball of Cat)
Before I left in the morning I helped Ben with his garage project. There were no WALLS in the garage--just slats separating the "private" stalls. He and a friend had started putting up plywood panels, as you can see.
We got some more done and when I talked to him later that day he had finished and was hanging his pegboard and tools! Can't wait to see the finished workshop.
Just outside of their garage is a giant, sprawling jade plant.
I love jade plants and had one in my apartment for years. Mom just got a beautiful one from work, and when I was home I was trying to explain my surprise upon seeing jade plants growing outside in California. There's really no way to describe how much bigger they are than even a large potted jade plant, so when I saw it outside of the garage Ben helped me with this demonstration to try and give some idea.
And finally . . . this is just a pretty shot of a succulent I took out on Ben & Pei's little patio--click to make it larger (I love the delicate reddish edging on the leaves).
That's all, folks! Today and tomorrow are the big moving days, so think of Ben & Pei!!! ;-)

Tidbits

I had big plans to be more consistent with my posting . . . you see how well that's going. :-/

I still plan to sort my pictures from WI and do at least one post before the week is out, but this afternoon I'm heading to South Pasadena to spend the night and tomorrow help paint some walls in Ben & Pei's new apartment!

But before I head off to start a batch of Gammy's fish chowder for dinner and get Erik's lunchbox filled, here are some fun tidbits:

Sporcle.com is a fun site I found while reading the blog of an old college friend. There are some fun word games under "language" and Erik and I have been trying to improve our geography with some of the country and capital quizzes (we've almost got European capitals and African countries down!); next up is the books of the Old Testament under "religion". And I have to catch up to Erik on U.S. Presidents!

Luminosity.com is another cool site, but after a trial run, they take away access to most of the cool games unless you pay to continue. However, you can still play the best game without becoming a member: Word Bubbles!

Mom & Kirsten, here's a picture of the new placemats being used! We love them--I should have gotten more!!
"Winter" in Bakersfield appears to be over. While I know many of you would deny we ever HAD a winter, we did have cold enough weather to have frost in the mornings for much of December & January. Lately it has been wet and overcast and often foggy. Erik tells me that we had more rain in the last month than we did all of last year! Perhaps the years of drought are coming to an end? I do know that it rained enough for the apparently misplaced tiles over our entryway to leak. Boooooo. :-(

In the last couple of weeks we've had a plumber, an electrician and an insurance adjuster all come to the house to look at separate issues. We're still waiting to hear back from the adjuster about the roof, but the electrical mess is mostly fixed (we need to replace a few things that weren't covered) and thankfully the plumbing issue turned out to be a seal issue instead of a plumbing issue (we need to Do It Ourselves, but in the meantime nothing is getting worse). So we've got lots of (unplanned) projects to keep us busy in the near future. To round out the joys of home ownership, we were excited to receive our supplemental tax bill for the house only hours after the electrician left. :-)

But to get back to the weather, the birds are singing like crazy and the nighttime temperatures are in the mid-40s. It's starting to feel like spring!! Wisconsin folks (and others!) starting to feel like winter will never end should plan a visit. ;-D

oxox
cmr