my newest love . . .

so this morning after a short night of sleep we were awakened by the delivery guys bringing our new range. isn't she pretty? i know, i know. only a total nerd would be excited at 730 in the morning when someone brings a new range. we've been debating about getting a new one since we moved into the new house. there was a new one there but we didn't like it. it was huge and just not *us*. so when it turned out that mac's house needed a new range, we decided to get ourselves the one we wanted and take the one in the new house over to her place. worked out nicely given that we finally sold our wolf cooktop and wall oven we'd bought at christmas. they were beautiful and our *dream* appliances. we found a slamming deal on 'em on craigslist and took a gamble and just bought 'em. turns out there was no way to configure the new kitchen to accommodate them so we had to sell 'em. got our $$ back out of 'em and spent 1/3 on the new range. it's so pretty. this to go along with the new dishwasher we got at best buy the other day.

in other news, my house seems to be getting a good amount of traffic. we'll see what happens. we had an open house last weekend and will have another sunday the 22nd. mac's house is minutes away from being done. the renters move in on thursday . . . yes, *this* thursday. it's really coming together. we're looking forward to being able to focus on our place and start to get settled in here soon. it's been very nice to be able to enjoy doing all these projects together. we just laugh at all we've accomplished and still managed to have fun while setting a kitchen sink at 3 in the morning!

so today i'm thankful for . . . a beautiful house to share with a beautiful woman

change is afoot . . .

so to continue the theme of change of the last year, i'm about to make another huge change in my life. i have accepted a new job. next week i'll be leaving the world of software to go back to being a project manager at an ad agency. my background is in the agency world and it's time for me to go back to my roots. i'll be sad to leave the great group of incredibly talented people i've worked with for the last 2+ yrs but i feel as if it's the right time and the right opportunity. i'll only be going about 4 blks away so i hope to stay in touch with many of these folks and continue to meet up for happy hours and such. i'm excited to start a new chapter in my career and look forward to the challenges ahead of me. of course, the timing is impeccable as life is super busy right now!

the kitchen remodel i've been considering since i moved in last april is starting to get going. the planning has begun and i'm working on the financing for it. am hoping for it to be complete by the time i leave for my europe adventure at the end of march. it's exciting to think about the possibilities and i'm glad i held off on doing the remodel until i'd lived there for a few months. i definitely have a better idea of what i want now that i've worked in the kitchen for awhile. mac is doing the design and has the contractor lined up. i'm excited for us to work together on this project and i have a feeling there will be many more like it in our future together.

life's also been super busy because lacrosse season is gearing up. once again, i'm the league commissioner for the girls high school lacrosse league. this basically means i'm in charge of scheduling all the games for the state. luckily, i've completed the varsity schedule but this saturday i'll need to finish up the jv schedule. should be a good season as we keep adding more and more programs across the state. i'm still debating how much i'll actually get to officiate any games given my travel and new job. am hoping to at least do a few games ... it's pretty fun to don the stripes!

so today i'm thankful for . . . new opportunities and new challenges

continued minimal sleep . . .

so i had an amazing weekend . . . thursday after work a group of folks from work got together to celebrate a coworker's upcoming nuptuals. we had a great time at saucebox and then z and i hung out in the backyard for one more beer before he headed home. mac called later that evening and we had another great conversation. friday brought another after-work drinking engagement with the *ladies*. we are a crew of 8 that used to work together (some of us still do) and we try to get together regularly to catch back up. i managed to down 4 ginger martinis at silk before heading off to meet sweets, dk, and z for a design competition called cut & paste at the wonder ballroom. the design was amazing ... essentially, it was 15 minute rounds where the designers were working on machines that were being projected up on big screens so everyone in the venue could see their every move. was a very cool event. after some late night snacks at toro bravo, z & dk dropped me off around midnight.

saturday i had coffee plans with a friend (after 4 hrs of sleep) and then helped a friend move into her new place. after watching the dawgs win in overtime, i picked mac up at around 945p to go out. we met up with some friends of hers at a club then headed to holocene for double down. star was still there so i got to have one good last dance with her before she left. was fun. mac and i danced a bit and then sat and watched the crowd for a bit. had a nice time and headed home around 2a.

sunday i had coffee with star and got to say good-bye (she left on monday am). ended up helping my friend move more stuff and then spent a few hours in my studio drawing the plans for the revised outdoor cabinet. am starting to doubt that i'll be able to finish this thing before the rains come but i'm going to keep plugging away. problem is that i keep getting distracted from the task at hand.

so today i'm thankful for . . . new adventures and where they might take us

outdoor kitchen - stage 2

so i spent the long weekend basically working on the outdoor kitchen. while i didn't get as much done as i would have liked, i did get quite a bit accomplished. as you can see the base and 3 walls of the cabinet are up. while wrapping up and sitting in the backyard with a beer looking at my work, i realized i had a major design flaw that would need to be addressed before i could move forward. see if i build the cabinet as originally designed, it will end up with a counter height of 42". see, i'm short so that would put the sink at about shoulder height for me so i'll have to go to plan b.

plan b involves doing a two-level counter top. the corner closest to the house will stay at it's planned height to account for the height of the kegerator, but i'll drop the remainder of the cabinet down to be an overall height of approximately 32" (which is fairly standard for a counter). will mean a bit more modification and will likely mean that the cabinet won't be done by the time my folks are here but you live and learn, right? right. i could have avoided some of this had i sunk the concrete pad to the grade of the patio but it didn't seem necessary at the time so i'll have to adjust with the actual cabinet. i think it'll still look good but will be a bit more tedious to assemble. so hopefully i can get more done this weekend but i won't kill myself trying to finish before the fam gets here. they'll just have to deal with pictures when it's done. i think cleaning the house for their arrival is a more appropriate use of my limited time until then.

i'm beat ... gonna go take a soak and fall into bed.

so today i'm thankful for . . . my hot tub

mission accomplished . . .

well, part 1 anyway. my goal for the weekend was to pour the concrete slab upon which my outdoor kitchen will be built (hopefully next weekend!) before my mother comes for a visit in mid-september.

yesterday morning i headed off to lowe's to buy the supplies. i wasn't particularly motivated since i'd closed the florida room with anunce after being out most of the evening. we went to the opening of a great new store called olio united of all organic and sustainable clothing and housewares - anunce knew the owners. (shameless plug here – go support these guys. the clothes & housewares were awesome and they were really cool folks) of course i had to do some shopping! then headed off to kelly's olympian for a benefit concert for a co-worker of anunce and mfp's. show was decent ... i just have horrible memories of the only other time i've been in that bar. we dropped greg and mfp at home but decided we weren't done drinking so we headed of the florida room (never mind we'd *started* the evening there). at around 230a, i took anunce home and headed home to pour myself into bed.

so back to lowe's...i was fortunate enough to be helped by a lovely gay man named larry (at least my gaydar says he was ...it's been known to be wrong before) ... he walked me through what i'd need, suggested cheaper alternatives since i didn't need *professional* grade stuff, and even through in a few pointers. i had the 10 bags of 80lb quikrete loaded in the back of the wagon with a couple of 2x4s and the rest of the gear and headed home to start clearing the site. didn't realize until i got home how loaded down the car was ... the back tirewells were, at most, 2" above the tires. yikes! needless to say, i left the concrete in the car overnight!

i started working around noon and was able to clear the site and set the forms. i was pretty impressed by how much i got done. i called a neighbor and asked to borrow her wheelbarrow and set about doing other household chores (i've been very neglectful for the last few weeks given how much i've had going on).

so this morning, after another late night ... this time out dancing (more on that in another post later) ... i got back to work. unloaded 8 bags of quikrete and started mixing. man, they're not kidding when they call it 80lb grade ... it was heavy as all get out. seriously got my workout today!

but the end result is so worth it! i'm very pleased with it given that it's the first time i've ever done anything like this on my own. it looks great - not perfect but will definitely be workable. since it'll be under the eventual cabinet, i wasn't too worried about *perfection*.

am off to take a shower and then a cat nap. am having friends over to grill and get in the hot tub tonight. i've never been so happy to be a hot tub owner in my whole life ... well, except after i did the floors. hmm ... am sensing a theme.

anyways ... today i'm thankful for ... cooler weather and sunshine to help the concrete cure. oh yeah, and my hot tub!