Back In the Good Old Days

That is . . . when we still had power . . . This is almost like a "Way Back Wednesday," but it's only going back one week. Of course, the rate this week is passing it feels like a month.

I got a little behind on my blog stories last week. Jessica was visiting and, as usual, we are busy doing fun stuff. I just don't know where the times goes, but it seems to travel quicker when she's around. Unless of course, the power is out, in which case times seems to stand still. But anyway, last week we had a few days in a row of fun events. To recap, it looked something like this:


We went to see the Legends in Concert at Foxwoods on Thursday night. Once again, the show did not disappoint. This time the acts included: Donna Summer, Carrie Underwood, the Beatles, Celine Dion, and my favorite . . . Frank Sinatra. All of the acts were fantastic and we had a great time. Seeing the Sinatra impersonator was even better than seeing Old Blue Eyes himself. Granted, I saw him on his last tour and he was running out of steam in those days. The impersonator was a young Frank and he definitely played the part to a T. And speaking of T, when Frank was signing "The Summer Wind" I was just lost in my own world . . . singing along with a big smile on my face. Karlo looked at me and probably wondered what memory I was lost in. He might get a giggle knowing that it was Tina I was thinking about.

Jess posing with Old Blue Eyes

After the show we cruised around the casino playing tourist. I teased Jessica for taking so many silly tourist pictures, but she pointed out that she is a tourist - not even from this country. OK, she has a point. She's allowed.

Friday was our annual company picnic and the weather certainly cooperated. We spent the afternoon hanging around, drinking beer, and playing yard games. The best part was the endless amounts of yummy food which meant no cooking at home. Always a plus.


Unfortunately the weather didn't stay very nice. Saturday was all about storm prep and it didn't make for a very nice day of outdoor activities. But that was OK, we had all our fun during the evening hours. We had some friends over for dinner and it was the best dinner party we ever hosted . . . because Jessica did all the cooking! Oh wait, I got into the kitchen for 2 minutes to help and managed to hurt myself. When will I learn to stay away? I should have taken lessons from Tim who knows to keep his distance and just observe.

Roughing It and Not Liking It

At first, the thought of a big storm was exciting. I mean who doesn't like to watch wild weather? Or is it just me? I was always a bit of a weather geek. Maybe I missed my calling and should have been a meteorologist. Anyway, I was thrilled with watching the weather reports and hearing all the pre-storm chatter. Then it got a little less thrilling when we had to prepare the house. It seemed a bit pre-mature to disassemble the gazebo tent that I've grown to love so much. I knew this was it for the year. There was no point it putting it all back up for another month of use. Sniff, sniff, goodbye gazebo tent. I'm gonna miss you.

From there we continued to remove every single thing from the back deck. Just when I got used to looking at everything being so pretty, it's all gone and we are back to a huge barren wasteland of wooden planks. We even had to go through the screened-in porch to remove all the furnishings and now that's blah and uninviting too. I suppose Winter may as well just come at this point.


Thankfully we survived the so-called hurricane with no real problems. We lost a lot of trees, and thankfully all but one were in the thick of the woods. Our trails were almost unrecognizable with the amount of leaves and branches covering them. I can see a whole lot of trail maintenance in our future, but we really can't complain about that. The only tree that fell in the yard was considerate enough to fall into the woods, rather than on the lawn and for that we are grateful.

We are also extremely grateful that no trees fell on the house, the newly fixed-up shed, nor the gallery. Phew. I think we both decided that we have way too many trees, way to close to the house after that ordeal.

So Sunday was kind of fun. We woke up to the winds whipping through the house, doors slamming, and blinds chattering. It didn't take more than 20 minutes of high winds before we lost power, but that was OK. It just added to the whole 'riding out a storm' atmosphere. Karlo, Jess, and I put on our raincoats and sat on the side porch watching the trees perform all sorts of interesting dances and yoga bends.


When that got old we came inside and played cards, read magazines, and drew pictures . . . It was the ultimate rainy day experience. We really didn't miss the power all that much because we had the generator that we could start at anytime to give us running water, flushing toilets and a stove to cook on. And that's just what we did. We only started it for our three meals, and extended it into the nighttime hours so we could watch a movie. It was manageable.

But suddenly the party was over. The novelty had officially worn off on Monday. Having no power is one thing, but having no cable TV (which means no TV period), no internet, and no land line (and almost zero cell phone reception) was just not cutting it. It is amazing how much we take for granted . . . like running water and plumbing for instance. When we had the generator going we were dwelling on not being able to surf and watch TV. Then suddenly our trusty generator crapped out and bit the dust. That left us with nothing. No running water, no flushing toilets, no nothing. Funny how having nor computer and TV didn't seem like that such big of a deal anymore.

This morning I came to the office to take a cold shower and yet I was still grateful for it. At least water came out of the shower head! This is a drag and I'm so ready for it to be over. But my constant checks of the CT power outage webpage is not giving me a good feeling. One Monday Eastford was 98% out. This morning it was 94% out (oh boy, progress), and right now it's up to 99% out. WT . . . ? We are going in the wrong direction! sigh. The new generator isn't scheduled to arrive until Friday. With any luck we won't need it by then.

One of the Coolest Kitchen Gadgets Ever

OK, so maybe I shouldn't be an authority on rating or reviewing kitchen gadgets. And perhaps the whole world already knows these things exist and it's just me in my sheltered little non-cooking, kitchen-hating life that didn't know about them . . . but just in case you never heard of a pineapple slicer, check this out.

About a week ago (yes, I know I'm behind with my blog stories. It's Jessica's fault) we had some friends come over for a visit. As usual, Karlo and I had very little food in the house and certainly nothing to entertain with. We had to resort to cutting up a pineapple and serving that, and it turned out to be the best decision ever. You see, our friend Jean . . . when seeing Karlo's pineapple cutting hack job, asked us if we ever used a pineapple slicer. Of course our answer was "What is a pineapple slicer?" and that led to a phone call the very next morning. Jean called me up to tell me that she had a slicer (and a fresh pineapple) for me and wanted to stop by to drop it off and demo it. Like this happens every day . . . a friend calls and says they want to bring you over a gift. I was thrilled.

But with the impending thunderstorm threats I felt bad to let her and her husband drive 45 minutes (each way) on a motorcycle to inevitably get caught in the rain. The better plan was to meet up half way. We picked a parking lot in Woodstock and Karlo and I packed not only our rain gear, but also a knife and a Tupperware. Jean couldn't believe that we came prepared to slice, dice, and eat the fruit. Here's the scene. I wonder what the passer-byers thought of this on the side of the road:


This gadget not only removes the core of the pineapple, but it slices the fruit into perfect rings as it travels down.


You are left with a perfect stack of pineapple rings and shell filled with pineapple juice. The very best part is drinking the juice straight from the shell. OMG yum.


We all gobbled down the entire pineapple and jumped on our bikes to head for shelter. Luckily everybody got home before the storms and it was the most fun little afternoon pineapple rendezvous. Jean, thank you so much for the slicer! We used it this past weekend and, of course, made a big deal about demoing the product to our friends. I let our friend Sue drink the juice from the shell and now she's sold and must have one too. I wish I could tell you where to buy one. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have a friend just give you one :-) but if not I'm sure you can google pineapple slicer. Don't delay. Order one now. Operators standing by . . .

Watch Your Wedding Rings

I learned an interesting lesson last week. I learned that chickens like shiny things. I marvel at the irony that Karlo calls me a chicken and how I too love shiny things. And how did I learn this lesson? I nearly lost a few diamonds out of my wedding ring . . .

I went out to the barn at lunch time one beautifully sunny afternoon to visit with the chickens.

I found it curious how some chickens ran away as I approached, while other chickens seemed curious to investigate me. I crouched down to snap a few pics and one chicken in particular started to make her way toward me.


I stayed very still and waited to see what she would do when she got to me. Well, that was stupid. She came right up to me and tried to eat my ring. She just zeroed right into the shimmer of the diamonds and pecked hard at my ring. Yikes. I better go have the diamonds checked to make sure they are not loose. Some nearby coworkers laughed that I would be having chicken soup for dinner had any diamonds really gone missing. Funny how quickly I would have gone from loving the chickens as pets to ripping one open to get my precious rocks back.

Strange how they weren't interested at all in fresh basil . . .

Lesson learned - either stay away from the chickens or remove shiny objects when visiting them.

What Makes a Photographer a Photographer?

I find it funny how I sometimes call myself "a photographer," while other times I insist that "I'm not a real photographer." I guess I feel conflicted. While in Seattle I was shopping at a Fossil store where I was just about to buy a cute camera charm. The sales girl asked if I was a photographer and I said, "why yes I am" without thinking twice about it. After all, my company was spending a lot of money to send me across the country to take pictures and shoot video. I must be a real photographer. But inside I know I'm not. I guess it was easy to tell a complete stranger that I was.

And that leads me to wonder when a real photographer makes the decision to call themselves one. I mean what constitutes a person being a real photographer? For sure it's not simply owning a nice camera. Any shmoe can go out and buy a nice camera without having any talent whatsoever. Karlo used to challenge me when I either called myself, or someone else, 'a biker.' He would pose the same question. What makes a biker a biker? I figure if somebody is riding an expensive fancy bike and is decked out in all the proper gear, they must be a biker. But I think that goes against my photographer theory. Anybody can waste a lot of money on a fancy bike without being in shape or have the passion for biking in their hearts.

So what makes a photographer a photographer? Do they all have degrees from photography schools in frames on their wall? I doubt it. Do they call themselves photographers as soon as somebody pays them for their photography? This is also an interesting question for me because it took me a dozen years before I called myself a 'graphic designer.' I was making a (good) living doing the work for many years, but because I didn't have a degree in graphic design I just never could officially label myself as one. Silly, I know. One day I just woke up and decided that not only do I 'do' graphic design for a living, but I'm good at what I do. I therefore MUST be a graphic designer. I changed the title on my nameplate and that was that. Also interesting that I have my instructor certification to teach yoga, I've taught a class for 2 years, but I still can't call myself a 'real' yoga instructor. What is wrong with me?

Now here I am trying to convince people that I am NOT a photographer. I occasionally get contacted by distant friends and acquaintances on Facebook, asking me if I would photograph their kids, or head shots for their resumes. This week alone I got three different paying offers for my work. A friend asked me to shoot her son's wedding (gulp), a PR professional asked me to shoot pictures for a magazine article on location, and my manager asked me to shoot some product shots for packaging (a side business for him). Each of them having seen my work and each of them willing to pay me for it. My answer to all of them was, "You know I'm not a real photographer, right?" But now I'm sitting here thinking . . . if people are willing to pay me to take pictures, what more do I need to call myself a photographer? Maybe it's time I wake up and decide to call myself one.

Week 33 in Photos

#226

The first pineapple I ever bought. Good thing Karlo was around to cut it open.

#227
The sun finally came out after days of rain. To celebrate I went to see the sunflowers at work.

#228
Four hours of my day was spent looking at this machine today. Good times!

#229
I got a kick out of this sign at the beauty salon. I was proud to answer, "My husband."

#230
The only pictures I took today were for my manager. I agreed to shoot some product packaging shots for him.

#231
So Karlo and I were bored one day and went to test drive a trike . . . OK, just kidding. We didn't buy one . . . but we want to.

#232
I can't believe how much I love this snapshot taken with the cheapest camera I own. I used my underwater video camera to snap this still and I didn't wipe the water off the lens. The result is a cool watercolor effect. Click on it for a bigger version to see what I mean.

Inspired Week

That may be a misleading title because I wasn't very inspired all week. It wasn't a particularly good week because I suffered with a lot of pain and stress. However, I signed up for another silly online class that sends daily inspirations to 'create.' Unfortunately, I wasn't in the creating mood and didn't take any specific photos for the class. The class kick-off included the photo above with some hints on things to do to make some relaxing 'me' time and I have to say, without even trying I did an amazing job at accomplishing most of them this week. Here's a run down:

The first one was to 'sleep more.' They suggested that you go to bed a little early or catch a nap. Due to my current pain situation, I came home from work most days and went straight to the couch. One afternoon I fell asleep for over an hour. Plus, there's the fact that I was sleeping alone all week and therefore got much more sleep.

The second one was to 'make your bed,' something Karlo and I do every single day. I say "Karlo and I" but it's really Karlo. He's a stickler for putting all the fancy pillows back into place and making it all look nice. If it were up to me, I would barely make the bed at all. But while he was away I put the effort into making the whole bed up every morning.

The third prompt was to 'dance' and although I thought I would excel at this one, I sadly did no dancing. And to think I have all those Wii dancing games. What a waste. Stupid neck.

The next one was called 'Juicy Fruit' and as luck would have it I just happened to buy a pineapple at the grocery store last weekend. I never buy pineapples and I'm not quite sure what came over me. So I guess I lied. I did take one photo of the pineapple as Karlo was cutting it. Yum, it was delicious. I should buy them more often.

I didn't get around to making any 'savory sips' because it just so happens that I had some Newman's Own lemonade in the fridge and that was a whole lot easier.

The next one was to make a grateful list, which I forgot to do, but there's no time like the present. Here's my list:

• I am grateful that my neck isn't actually broken.
• I am grateful for a few days of peace and quiet and no requests to crash the Jeep.
• I am grateful that nobody stole my lunch from work this week, and nobody stole my Skinny Cows from home.
• I am grateful that it hasn't rained on my clean car yet.
• I am grateful that the chicken didn't actually suck any diamonds out of my ring (that story to come later).
• I am grateful that my father hasn't caused me to have a complete nervous breakdown (yet).
• I am grateful to have Karlo back home (even though I enjoyed my HGTV marathons and cereal for dinners).

The next prompt was 'bath time' and although I would never have gotten around to taking a real bath, Karlo and I did get into the hot tub on Monday night, and with any luck we'll be back in it tonight.

Next was 'movie night' and that is just about every night at our house (well, except for when Karlo is away - then it's all HGTV). I can't even tell you the last show we watched on a network. It's all Netflix all the time so that prompt was pretty easy.

And lastly, the final prompt was to 'just sit.' This one came quite easily this week. I did a lot of just sitting, and brooding over my pain. But technically I just sat there so check another one off my list.

Strange Man

I married such a strange man. After years of me making and Karlo eating tuna fish he suddenly decides that he doesn't like it. For the several months he just flat out refused to eat it. But this afternoon we were hurting for food. We literally had no other choices and it was either a tuna sandwich or plain bread. Karlo reluctantly agreed, but insisted that I don't prepare it. He just wanted it straight out of the can. I explained that he might like it more if it actually tasted good. What was wrong with me mixing it? Is it the mayo that he's opposed to? Whatever.

So I happily made my own yummy tuna sandwich. I even had some slices of fresh tomato from the garden. It was truly delicious. It was then that I noticed Karlo was eating a mayo sandwich, while shoveling out the nasty plain tuna and eating if off a fork. Oh and he had a pile of cut tomatoes at his side too. So he doesn't like tuna sandwiches, but yet he eats all the ingredients separately with no problem. Does this make ANY sense? Any? I think he has a serious screw loose somewhere. I better go find a screw driver . . .

The Project from Hell That Will Not End

I think I mentioned the "shed project" a couple of times and it's been a thorn in my side for weeks now. Of course, I complain while it's Karlo doing all the work. If it sucks for me, it has to suck x100 for him. Of all the incredible jobs I've witnessed him perform: putting an addition on and finishing the basement in our old house, building the gallery, remodeling our bathroom, moving a hot tub . . . the list goes on . . . nothing was ever as big of a job, or as bad as this last project. And it really snuck up on me because I had no idea as to the magnitude of it all. Had I known what was involved I would have single-handedly torched the shed to save him all the effort and the potential of hurting his back again.

So what did the project entail exactly? Well, unlike all the other projects that we got some terrific benefit out of, this stinkin' project was just to rebuild what we already had. You see, our 35' steel shed (the shed the previous owner used to store his boat in and we now store our firewood in) nearly collapsed under the weight of the 2+ feet of snow we got during one snow storm in January. We did everything we could to salvage it during the winter and Karlo knew that he would have to do some major repairs this summer. The roof was bowing down and all the trusses that holding it up buckled under all the weight. And so began the project from Hell.

First Karlo removed all the buckled trusses. Then he ordered the 35' wooden beam and got busy cutting down trees in our backyard. Rather than buying the vertical posts, he decided to make them by hand (but of course). This required not only cutting down the straightest trees he could find, but pulling them out of the woods and precisely sawing both ends of each tree (by hand) to the correct size.

I didn't fully appreciate how difficult this job was until I was on hand to watch him try to move one. It required driving the ATV under the tree until it was pitched at such an angle that Karlo could muscle it straight up. Then he had to use the hot tub trick of placing pieces of wood on the ground to move it, only this time he had to spin the tree in circles to get it to move . . . all the while stopping it from falling over. When I witnessed the amount of strength this took I immediately tensed up. I just HATE to watch him man-handling trees for fear of another accident.

I missed an entire week of this production so I can't really recount all the things he had to do, but I did get to witness the main center beam getting raised. He had to build two wooden 'rails' for the 35' beam to slide up into, wach supported by a brand new pad of concrete. Oh yes, there were days of him digging holes and pouring concrete too. That was during the parts I missed.

I'm not exactly sure how he got this ridiculously heavy beam all the way up to the ceiling, but what I do know is that it was me that raised it the final foot into place. The roof was sagging down by one foot and Karlo set up a hydraulic jack and all the rigging to force the roof back to straight. This had to simultaneously occur as Karlo held the center support post into place. So picture this . . . Karlo holding a several hundred pound tree in place as I muscled the jack to push the roof up. At one point I was literally sitting on the jack handle, feet dangling in the air, and it wouldn't budge. Karlo said I needed more weight, but where was I going to get that from? I somehow managed to squeak out some extra force and, I'll be dammed, the roof started to creak as it bent back into place. Now here's the tricky part, as I pushed the roof up, the tree that was on top of the jack (the one used to actually push the roof) had to get loose in order for the center support tree that Karlo was holding to take the weight. Karlo had to instantly line up the center support tree and get it into place while CATCHING the other tree from falling over. The two trees were about 4 feet apart and we had no idea which way the tree on the jack was going to fall. No stress there!

This picture shows the center support post and the main beam in place.

Beam is finally up and the center support post is holding it. Amen. But no, it's not good enough for Karlo. He insists the beam needs to move 3 inches further back toward the back wall. Unreal. So we resort to trying to build a wooden rig and use the Jeep to push it. That doesn't work. So Karlo climbs up the ladder with an enormous sledge hammer and literally bangs it into place. Uuuugh.

Karlo finishes up the header over one of the support posts.

A few more days go by and Karlo finishes placing all the other support post trees on their respective concrete pads. I can taste that the end is near. Little did I know that the freakin' FOUNDATION needs to be moved. What the???? I can't even begin to explain this one, but this was the part that sealed the deal at this being the worst project ever. I was involved with very little of this project so when Karlo said he needed my help, I (of course) wanted to do everything I could to help him. But when he ever asked me to purposefully CRASH the Jeep into the contraption he made to physically move the concrete foundation pilings I thought he lost his mind.

But being the obedient assistant that I am, I did it. And I didn't do it once, but 8 times! That was like 8 small car wrecks that I endured with my horrific neck condition. Do I even need to say what that did to me? I can't even bring myself to say what that did to my condition . . . .

Here's the top view of how much the concrete piling got moved. I am guessing it will be an extra week of pain per inch it moved.

I'm pretty sure this tree is holding the foundation in place at this point.

So far it's been two more days of non-stop welding as Karlo fabricates the new trusses that will hold up the now straight roof. As far as I am concerned I never want to step foot, nor even LOOK at that damned shed again.

One side is now complete with the new metal trusses.

I had a one hour massage tonight to try to relieve some of my nerve pain. On the way out I asked the therapist what I should do to try to reduce the pain while at home and she said, "Stay away from your husband!" Luckily for me, Karlo is out of town this week so with any luck I'll be feeling better when he gets home.

Week 32 in Photos

#219

Almost grounds for a divorce! I left Karlo home last week with my sacred Skinny Cow ice creams and he PROMISED not to eat them. I got home to a house with zero Skinny Cows. Needless to say, it was an emergency getting to the grocery store today.

#220
This is a long story that I will explain in a future blog post, but Karlo is in the process of lifting this 35' beam . . . all by himself.

#221
My God did I need a drink this night. This was immediately following the most stressful visit to my father in the hospital. I think I was still shaking by the time we got to dinner.

#222
All we need is a match and some marshmallows.

#223
A lunch time play date with the chickens.

#224
We finally invited some friends over and had a much needed bonfire. Got rid of the wood and all the weeds in the fire pit.

#225
The very exhausted welder. Karlo has been working non-stop on his shed project. His trusty Cooper dog never leave his side.

Adjusting Back to the East Coast

It's been a hard and long week of trying to adjust back to my regular life. Seems everything about my life right now is challenging. I blame my neck nerves for all my pain. I blame jet lag for the fact that I'm constantly exhausted. I blame my father for my constant downer mood. Uuuugh. I need to snap out of this.

To switch to a brighter note, my last day in Seattle was a non-working day. At first I was fuming at the fact that Delta airlines was going to charge me over $750 in addition to the original $600 plane ticket to switch my flight to a day earlier. That was just highway robbery and it really ticked me off. Our work plans changed so that we were no longer needed on Saturday and I desperately wanted to come home a day early. But with that high price tag, my manager (Ben) and I decided to suck up and and make the best out of being stuck in Seattle.


The day turned out to be gorgeous and sunny and we headed into downtown. After listening to some very good advice from the locals, we decided to take the train from SeaTac to downtown. I was so impressed with how clean, easy, and pleasant the whole experience was. We got off right in the heart of the action and our first stop was Pikes Market (the very famous open market that you see in lots of movies). As usual the place was packed and we only spent a little while browsing the very unusual 'hippie' shops. I call them that, not only because they sell many hippie things, but they all smell like patchouli - yuck. Since this was my third visit to the market I was less captivated than Ben and luckily his desire for food was greater than his desire for strange memorabilia.

We headed outside and found the first nice restaurant that had seating. The place was neat and directly across the street from the market. We had views of the ocean, as well as the bustling street below.


After much deliberations Ben and I decided that we each should pick the one cool Seattle thing that we wanted to do and we both agreed to do whatever the other picked. Neither of us was happy when I wanted to go on a DUCK tour and he wanted to go to the Science Fiction Museum, but we made a deal.

So off to the Science Fiction Museum we went. I figured I would endure it and try not to be too embarrassed to be labeled a 'geek.' Well who knew I would like it more than Ben? There was an Avatar exhibit that had me on cloud 9. From the second I sat in the movie theater to see the film I've been dying to know how it was made. From a computer graphics standpoint it was the end all be all. I was in Heaven.


Next it was my turn to torture Ben. I was so excited about the DUCK tour I was giddy. And it didn't disappoint. It was GREAT. 90 minutes of fun as we drove through the streets of Seattle, learning about some history in the most humorous way.


Then it was time for the DUCK to take a dip in Lake Union (which was beautiful). We went for a little cruise as the tour guide pointed out the house where Sleepless in Seattle was filmed and all sorts of other amazing places and stories.


I didn't want the tour to end and I can not wait to do this again in Boston. As it turned out both Ben and I truly enjoyed every minute of both activities. The day was just perfect and in the end I was happy that we didn't switch our flights.