Aerial

I've been a Kate Bush fan for years, though "The Red Shoes" wasn't one of my favorites, I'll admit. Recently, though, she released a new CD called "Aerial". I bought it from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and it just showed up on my doorstep yesterday. It is a two CD release, and it's awesome! It has a little bit of jazz in it, but it is distinctively Kate Bush at its core. This one will get a lot of play time in the near and distant future!

Hammock is Fixed

A while back a friend helped me dig a couple of holes so I could put some 6x6's in them to support our hammock. When we moved into the house 4 years ago, one of the first things we noticed was the lack of trees large enough and appropriately spaced to support our hammock.

Well, as it turned out, the holes were just slightly too close together, and when I first sat in the hammock my posterior touched the ground.

I've been thinking for a while on how to fix this. I've had friends suggest elaborate ways of getting the hammock operational for adults (the kids had no problem with it--Madeline even figured out that if you twist the hammock over and over several times then the ropes get more taught and thus the hammock hangs higher off the ground), but I was pretty sure there was an easy (or at least easier) fix.

Here are the pictures of my simple solution, though with only a 7 1/4" blade on the circular saw I couldn't cut all the way--or even half-way--through the 6x6's. I cut one side, then the other, then finished off with a hand saw (which I discovered was either dull or just couldn't handle pressure-treated wood).

And here is a close-up of the cut I had to make. Note that the hook is now on top of the 6x6 instead of on the side. This has two results: the hooks are further apart so the hammock is more taught, and the hooks are higher off the ground so adults can use it now!

New Paint!

No, not me--the house! :-)

We've lived here for the past 4 years (my how time flies!), and the house still had the original paint that the painters put on. And it showed!

We had originally gotten quotes about a year and a half ago, but didn't have the money at the time to get-er-done. Well, I don't care what people say about tax refunds being an interest-free loan to the government, but I was happy to receive one large enough this year to be able to get the house painted!

So we changed the colors a bit. The stucco on the front is now more brown (I would call the old color "pinkish", but Melissa would disagree with me), and it is the same color as the siding on the back. (The siding on the back was sort of a taupe color.)

The front door used to be black, but Melissa saw some paint combinations in the paint store and decided that she liked this "cherry" color. I like it, too, but we both think that at least one more coat is needed.

We had our old house painted once while we were there--I had forgotten just how much newer a house looks with a fresh coat of paint!

New Glasses!

No, not me--Madeline.

Melissa and Madeline had eye appointments on the same day, one after another. The doctor, a friend of ours from church, let them look and see in each other's eyes.

We knew from an appointment earlier in the year that Madeline's vision was getting to the point (already!) where she would need glasses. We decided to wait then, but not this time.

One trip to Costco was all it took pick out a pair--Madeline saw them right away, too. They are light metallic pink (of course!) with little flowers at the edges--you can't really see them too well in this picture.

And already she has come home from school with one of the temples bent at a severe angle. She claimed that she didn't know how it happened. I was able to gently bend them back, though, so they're as good as new again.

I don't think the name calling has started, yet, but four eyes are better than two any day!

Seattle

I think I mentioned a while back that I was going to Redmond (near Seattle for those of you who are geographically impared) for some training. That was about a month and a half ago. The night before I flew back home I managed to get downtown to the Seattle Center--that's where the Space Needle is. I was there with a co-worker, and the plan was that we were going to eat dinner up there. But after looking at the menu (especially the prices) we decided not to. But I took this cool picture:

Emmie's Soccer Trophy

We signed Emmie up for soccer. To put it nicely, that was a mistake. She never really got into it. But I'll spare you the details, other than to say that the only way I could convince her to go to her last soccer game on Saturday was to tell her that this was the day that they were handing out trophies. So she's very excited in this picture! :-)