Journal

More organizing stuff

Another thing we accomplished over the Labor Day long weekend was some furniture moving. I had originally thought we’d get rid of the bar in the dining room, but we realized that we could swap it out for a gray mid-century modern storage cabinet from our bedroom and have a much better use of space. You can read this article to learn more about storage solutions and plans. The gray cabinet is not as wide, so it would fit neatly in the dining room and contain tablecloths and larger serving trays, and we could set our pachinko machine on it so people can play it.

Gray storage cabinet

Gray storage cabinet

Pachinko Machine

Pachinko Machine

So we managed, between the two of us to bring the gray cabinet downstairs and the bar upstairs, where the bar now is the home for our upstairs stereo, and we can fold sheets and blankets and put them neatly on the shelves underneath. And in all of the furniture relocation, we decided we wanted the china cabinet on a different wall in the dining room so we weren’t rattling the dishes when we walked past. You can check this 12 Tips for Creating the Ideal Office Workstation if you wish to create an inspiring an creative work space.
So everything is neatly in place, many items are now stowed in new homes and much clutter has disappeared. We still have a long way to go, but it’s getting better. Our next step is going to be spending some time sorting through Christmas items. We both have Christmas decorations that we don’t care about that could find a new place to live, but because we only look at them once a year, at the busiest time of year, and because it’s usually ever-loving frickin’ cold by that point, we don’t sort through stuff and slog it to Goodwill. I thought if we can go through it now when it’s warm and we’re not running off our feet, we could make more space in the basement.

After that – organizing tools in the basement. Even thinking about it leaves me overwhelmed, because there’s a lot to do. We receive lots of tools from Stephanie’s dad as gifts, and I need to come up with a real storage plan, because right now stuff is kind of half-ass.

Continue ReadingMore organizing stuff

old golf balls

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Anecdotes

When I was a kid living in Ankeny, Iowa, living on Belmont Street, my dad had a yellow-ish plastic bucket of old golf balls in the garage. Get More Info about the best garage insulation services by reading this post. He kept them for golf practice, I guess – although I don’t know how good they were for that, given that they had gouges out of them and dings from being used. I think my dad must have collected them from the water hazards at whatever golf course he went to, because he also had a golf-ball retriever scoop on a pole. (Did you know there are people who run entire businesses scuba-diving for golf balls in water hazards? I did not.) Incidentally, my dad still retrieves golf balls, only now he lives on an exclusive golf course in the mountains in Arizona, and has trained the dog to pick them up while out on walks.

Paul and I and Todd used to try to steal one or two of the balls from the bucket and cut them open, because we’d been taught by the Schmidt kids (we were taught a lot of shit by those neighbor kids – all good stories for another day) that inside, nested in a tightly coiled bundle of rubber band-like threading, there was a rubber ball we could use as a superball – one of the small bouncy balls that came out of gumball/prize machines that we always unsuccessfully lobbied my mom for at the supermarket entrance. After you used someone’s pocket knife to cut through the white outer shell (or scraped the ball against the ground until you wore through the shell when you weren’t allowed to use a knife) you could cut the rubber bands and they would start to unravel, the bundle bouncing around until it had all come undone. And inside was a rubber ball. It did work – although we were also told by the Schmidt kids that in some balls, the center was a toxic gel that would burn your skin instead of a rubber ball. That may be true, (apparently, some do have gel, but not toxic) but I don’t recall ever running across a ball like that. To keep us from messing around, my dad put the bucket up on a shelf in the top of the garage.

When the tornado hit on 1974, and the swing set slammed into the back of the garage, (at least that’s how I recall it happening; I was six, I think, so my recollection is a bit dim and often I need to consult with my mom on these sorts of things) and the garage tilted over at half-keel, the bucket of golf balls fell off the shelf and spilled out over the garage floor and onto the driveway, mixed in with yellow fiberglass debris and wooden fragments from the roof of the Hy-Vee grocery store behind our house. That was one of the more helpful hints that made me realize that our garage was strong! I have a picture in my mind of that, but that may be informed or reinforced by photos taken of the storm damage on the day after, which I would have viewed much later on.

The other day, I was helping my mom retrieve for disposal some of the junk that had accumulated over the years in the attic above her garage, and I found that yellow bucket of battered, beat-up golf balls. Let me spell out why that was odd – it means that bucket traveled from Belmont Street to SE Fourth Street in Ankeny, where it resided several years, and then got packed up and traveled with the whole family to Canton, Ohio for a couple years, too. Then it got packed up once again and made its way to Noblesville, where my family moved in the early eighties, and its been in the attic for probably all of that time since. Why on earth did we pack a bucket of golf balls and cart it over the country? Maybe my dad and mom used them all that time and I just don’t remember it, but it seems odd. As soon as I saw them, though, I had the impulse to scrape one of them against the sidewalk to peel off the white shell and see the rubber bands underneath. Nevermind that I have a couple golf balls laying around the house that the dog plays with that I could do that to – it’s something about the familiarity of this particular bucket that made remember this long string of associations I’d forgotten.

Continue Readingold golf balls

Weekend Update 2010-08-23

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Journal

We spent a good chunk of Saturday at my mom’s helping her clean out her garage and get rid of stuff that needed to go to heavy trash. I’m pretty happy at what we were able to accomplish there. It seems much easier to help other people organize their stuff for some reason than it does for the stuff at our house.

Sunday we went to the last day of the Indiana State Fair and rode rides on the midway, then attended the Demolition Derby. I haven’t seen a crash-em up derby since I was a kid; I think we went to one near my grandparents house in Iowa. That was pretty entertaining although not exactly environmentally sound. The crowd was definitely red-state – there wasn’t any overtly political talk from the hosts “onstage” but there was long and heart-felt salute to the troops and extended discussion of the wonders of Wal-Mart.

I’ll have to see how my photos of the event came out; I missed the huge flaming fireball when one of the cars caught fire, but I think I have decent photos of the firemen putting it out. I took some fun photos of the food booths, but skipped the fried balls of death therein.

Deep Fried

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2010-08-23

More stairs repair

More stairs repair

This time we’re having a stair in the main staircase repaired; it tilted forward and caused guest to slip and fall on the stairs. We were used to it, but it was a problem when we had people over. To fix the stair, Carl had to pull out out pull it out and build up the space under it.

Continue ReadingMore stairs repair

Broken basement stairs fixed – Carl Lenk

We had air conditioner repairman in today to work on our condenser unit – he replaced the fan motor and did some cleaning so the central air runs better. Since I was going to be home anyway for that, I scheduled a carpenter named Carl Lenk to come and rebuild the top two basement stairs for us – they were both soft and in danger of breaking, and it always made us a bit nervous going up and down the stairs. Stephanie’s dad has been nagging us to get them repaired for months.

Carl did a wonderful job, and pictures of the work will be forthcoming soon.
As he was working on the stairs, I was reading Neal Taflinger’s blog about Homespun – the new store in Irvington that features work by local artists and crafts folks. The Taflingers are the folks who created INDIEhandicraft Exchange that we’ve attended several times – lots of great local artists making cool stuff.

So I’m reading a recent post on Neal’s blog about an artist they worked with to create the painted logo above the register in their shop, and it turns out that it was Carl Lenk – the very same dude who was rebuilding our basement stairs. Turns out that in addition to being a handy handyman, he’s a mural artist and sculptor doing work around town – very gorgeous stuff. Cool. We know a popular local artist and stuff.

Basement Stair Repair- Before

Basement Stair Repair - After

Continue ReadingBroken basement stairs fixed – Carl Lenk

Organizing, etc.

I know – still no photos from the great organizing adventure – but it’s continuing. We now have our new china cabinet, and the boxes of china and various other breakable items made their way into it. All of the packing materials for those went into the recycling bin. I also cleaned out the pantry closet (packed with old shopping and plastic bags that also went into the recycling bin) and put the tools we use regularly with it. I hung a clock in the dining room and a print that Stephanie had. My next steps – taking the remaining tools to the basement, taking an old wire shelving unit to it’s new home, and purging the tox-drop items and aluminum can collections this weekend.

I also need to go through my closet and assess my hanging clothes. Lots of them could find a new place to live. I also have some board games that I collected but will actually never play (as opposed to the ones we will) that will find a new home soon, too.

Continue ReadingOrganizing, etc.

26 Things

Back in 1999, people on the internet were trading the meme called “100 Things” where you wrote 100 things that people might not know about you, and you posted them on your site. I started my list but never got beyond 26 items, so I never put it on my site. In cleaning out some of my old writing today, I found the list, and chuckled at some of the now out-of-date items. You might get a kick out of them, too.

  1. I daydreamed my way through elementary school. I would have done better on the tests, except that I was reading ahead in the book and not doing the exercises, because the story was really fascinating.
  2. Salman Rushdie is one of my favorite authors. So is Jane Austen. I’m not always sure I understand Rushdie, so I have to read the criticism and analysis. I do understand Austen.
  3. As a kid, I took piano lessons and clarinet lessons. The only thing I can play now is the right-hand introductory part of “The Sting.”
  4. I grew up Catholic. I quit going to church in college. I started going back a few years ago, semi-secretly, because I didn’t want my friends & sister to make fun of me. I quit again when the priest scandal hit last year. I’m officially a secular humanist now.
    Unitarian Universalist. Although we never go to church, because we’re not awake that early on Sundays.
  5. I only keep in touch with one friend from high school – Cate. Most of the rest of my friends I met in college or recently at work.
    This is no longer true due to the wonders of Facebook.
  6. I didn’t really understand everything about sex until I was 16. I knew the “tab A, slot B” part, but I didn’t know the “arousal, orgasm” part. I thought that people had sex solely for the purpose of makin’ babies. I found out the truth from my friend Linda Griggy on a sleep-over.
  7. In high school, I joined the drama club not because I wanted to be an actor, but because I had a crush on a girl that was joining and she talked me into it. She ended up being my first real kiss.
  8. The only boy I ever kissed was Doug Knox, a kid from Junior High. I kissed him in Linda Griggy’s basement. This was before she explained the crucial details of sex to me, and I finally understood that it was girls that turn me on.
  9. Years ago, I was in a wet t-shirt contest at The Ten, the lesbian bar in Indianapolis. I was dating Peg at the time. I was very drunk. I didn’t win.
  10. I’ve been single for quite a long time. It feels normal to me. I don’t know if that’s good or not.
    So not true now.
  11. My favorite board game is Clue. Because of the house. I love houses. Also, I love board games.
    Different house, same love of the game.
  12. I am a fan of Amy Grant. Because she’s HOT.
  13. I lived in Canton, Ohio for two years; eight grade and my freshman year of high school. It was hell and the kids at school were evil. Although we lived next to Hershbergers, who were really cool. Mike Hershberger was a retired major league ball player, and a really cool guy.
  14. I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I’m only getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. I don’t know why.
    Wow, that’s stil true, but I didn’t realize how far back the insomnia problem went.
  15. Places I’ve been on vacation: New York City. Tucson, Arizona. Las Vegas, Nevada. Atlanta, Georgia. Madison, Wisconsin. A roadtrip around the mid-west. Washington, D. C. Munster, Germany.
    Cambridge, England; London; Toronto, Canada; Mexico, Route 66, California, Phoenix, Arizona; Durham, North Carolina; Luray, West Virginia…
  16. Places I’ve never been: California. Florida.
  17. I’ve worked for the same company for almost 8 16 years.
  18. I’m not a fan of Mexican food. It tends to make me ill.
  19. I’ve forgotten how to cook. I used to be able to make things, but now I eat right out of the refrigerator and heat everything up. This is ironic because people use my recipes every day, and send me new ones.
    I Still hate cooking.
  20. I’m mostly German, but also Irish, Polish, and native American. I’d like to find out more about my native American ancestors.
  21. I like to collect things. Many of my recent collections are influenced by my friend Doug.
  22. Jobs I’ve had: Baby sitting. Reshelving books at the public library. McDonalds. Chicken restaurant. English Tutor. College food service. Pizza Delivery Driver. Factory worker at Maxon Corporation. Assembly line worker at Vita-Chlor. Ticket sales at a movie theatre. Graphic artist at Laser Graphics. Graphic artist at Western Newpaper Publishing. Graphic Artist at Macmillan Publishing (now Pearson Education). Document conversion at Pearson Education. Web design at Pearson Education.
  23. I “came out” in 1987 in college. I’ve been honest about being gay for 15 23 years.
  24. My favorite movies are the Wizard of Oz, Auntie Mame, and Fight Club. I don’t know what that says about me, but it can’t be good.
  25. I think a great deal of psychology is complete bull.
  26. When I was in high school, I sprained my ankle really badly and had to undergo cryotherapy and walk around on crutches. This was my worst injury.
    Wimp. Nothing compares to having your chest cracked open.
Continue Reading26 Things