State of the Union

Well people, it is official....I Moved!! I know what your thinking, " Are you nuts?" The answer is yes, I am, clearly. 


SuperMoto and I are fine and dandy for those of you who have been wondering. I am just in desperate need of moving forward in my life. Ever since my hand surgeries and therapy I have been stagnating. 


Well, not anymore my friends. I took a giant leap of faith and here I am, on the island with the wonder dog unpacking. Can you believe this? I can hardly believe it myself. 


The one negative is that SuperMoto has a few more years of work to go before he retires so we are going to have to find ways to connect alternatively until then. Shock of shockers we are doing something weird. We will do it though because we can and we are determined. 


Already I have dates for music in the park, some possible work, and a BUNCH of social engagements. My calendar is filling up. YIPES!

Do We Really Want TV? Part 4 WE GOT IT~!

Ok people, in case I forgot to update you, we got tv finally. I don't want to tell you the secret incase direct tv googles themselves, this blog comes up, we are associated, and then the local business that hooked us up and broke all the rules will be exposed. 


Bottom line...WE GOT IT! WAHOO!!

Do We Really Want TV....Part 3

So, we still don't have tv. The dude came Friday, busted ass, left defeated, said he would be back and didn't come back. UUGGHH!

We have to take more trees down or have more topped. Not sure yet which it is as the tv dude and tree dude have to time it right and get back to the house together. Hmmm...

I am getting IRRITATED!

Do We Really Want TV? Part 2

Option #1 Topping the Trees

See those two tall trees in the middle there. Well, they are no more. Now they are missing 15 feet at the top of each. A lovely young man came by this morning, literally hopped up one tree fast as a bunny, hacked off the top of the one that he had climbed, had his buddy/partner person pulley up to him a pole saw, and then hacked off the top of the other tree. Apparently the satellite that is associated with the HD needs to look exactly where the tops of those trees were. So, they are no more. It cost a tad bit less than what I quoted you yesterday but not much. SO, there goes our savings. I suppose the HD for life will pay for the tree topping someday. Someday in the far distant future, when we are old and grey and have forgotten all about this ordeal.

Now we have the trees topped, the 8 foot pole in the ground and tomorrow the dude is coming to install the dish and the dvr etc. SHEESH! I hope we like tv. We better!!

Do We Really Want TV? Part 1

Did I tell you that we were thinking about getting TV this trip. I am not sure about in the tiny town of Friday Harbor, but out here on the West Side (as they call it) we only have satellite options.  We have two options...

Clearly those are both satellite tv options. We have cable in California. Now we need not only satellite but HD satellite. Did you know that instead of hitting one satellite HD has to hit three. Have I mentioned that we are in the middle of a forest and up against a ridge? 

Direct TV was offering such a great deal. Super Duper Discount! YEAH!! FREE HD for a LIFETIME!! YEAH!! $100 off something or other! YEAH!! REBATE this or that. YEAH!!

When the gentleman came out from the little local  wireless/satellite tv store to do the free site evaluation, he said that we were in a super bad spot for satellite tv and that we had one of three options. Option #1 is have one to three trees topped at the cost of $200 per tree top. Hmmmm, there goes our super deal. Option # 2 is put up a 20 foot telephone pole and put the 35lb. HD satellite dish on top of it in the middle of our yard.  Doing that would mean bring in equipment, digging a 5 ft. hole, having the heavy equipment lift the huge telephone pole and put it in the ground, etc. Hmmm, there goes our super deal. 

Option #3 was to not have HD tv ever and hope that the site for the regular tv satellite worked where it was at already. 

So, there we are with our options. #1 $600+ in tree topping, option #2 $1000 in equipment and man power and days to put in the telephone pole or wasted $$ on HD tv's when we can't have hd service. What did we choose? Tune in to see!!

It's Time To Load Up...

The time had come to fill the cabinets. As you can see I still have a mess on my hands. No worries, it will all be put away before I go. 
I am going to have to order more shelves for my cabinets. There are too few shelves for as tall as they are, both in the upper and lower sections. I am having fun placing things in the cabinets and dreaming about all of the different dinners and parties we will have over a lifetime here on the island. 

Organization

All is right with the world my friends. I am starting to organize. Did you know that I have an obsession with drawer organizers? Well, I do. I am not the neatest person in the world but I do love organizational tools! 
Today is the first day of organization here at the new house. The cabinets are all in. The drawers and cupboards are ready to be filled. 


I found these nifty draw organizers at the container store that you cut down to size yourself and that divide out the drawers to your exact specifications. I realize as I am organizing that I had best wait to 'organize' all of the drawers as it would be best to have all drawer items here to get the exact specifications. I am looking forward to cooking in this kitchen. I can just picture it now. I will try to open every beautifully organized drawer needing something from every space in the kitchen. That might be a challenge but I think I can do it. I will attempt to make a meal opening every storage space in the kitchen and using at least one item from each space. 
YEAH RIGHT! 

The Mess & Who Get's To Clean It Up...

After taking SuperMoto to the ferry late last night this is what I awoke too. 


A BIG
FAT
STINKIN'
MESS!




There was no time to put anything away before he left,  so this is what it is. I am the putter awayer. 


I want to sit here and bitch to you about it but really I feel good about it for the most part. I get to see the fruits of our labor while he is out of town. I get to work more on the house. I get to live in this paradise. (minus the nightmare piles)


What more could I ask for?


What's a little clean up now and again? 


I am also pretty sure that if you asked him he would tell you that he would take clean up over what he is doing any day. 

I will methodically put things away and only gently complain as I am lucky to be here.

Splash Away...

Well, not yet really, but close. 


As you can see we have begun to lay the back splash tile. To date, it was the most fun project we have worked on together. SuperMoto and I started out the Sunday morning knowing that he would have to leave that night on the late ferry and be up all night. We had two potential projects, the back splash and the lighting that we were considering attempting. We went for the tile and boy was I glad that we did. 


We had so much fun. He did the corners and all of the cutting and I laid the long rows where I could reach and where no cutting was required. When I got to a spot where we needed a cut I moved on to a different spot and he came in behind me and did that piece. We worked like a well oiled tiling machine.


It went so fast. We got the big wall done and half of the small wall. All told we got about 75% of the tiling done in one morning. I am so happy. 

Now remember, this is tumbled travertine tile so it has to be grouted and then sealed with a seal enhancer. The sealing will take away the chalky white part and leave a right, varied, brown variety. I would say that the photos don't do it great justice but this isn't about you liking everything we are doing, it is about you seeing what we are doing as it really is. :)


These tiles are extremely rustic and uneven and it will give us a varied look to the grout line along with the variations in the stones themselves. We are so please! If I get brave, I might consider finishing the tile but I doubt it. After watching him do all those intricate cutes I have nearly given up on that idea. 

Knobs & An Engineer

DISCLAIMER: Are you an engineer or happen to be married to one or do you know my husband, SuperMoto? 


If you answered yes to any part of that question skip this blog and go on to the next one. PLEASE! I am not intentionally trying to offend anyone. Normal People Read On...


So, as you can see our knobs are on. The thing is that a NORMAL person would have zipped sipped and all 50, count them, ahhh 47, knobs would have been on with no problem. 


If you are an ENGINEER though this is like a life altering process with measurements and markings and adjustments and then measuring and marking and adjusting until you have marked all your fingers, measured to death and adjusted until your personality has been adjusted and then finally, you might drill. Or maybe you scratch your head and hold your chin in your fist and mutter, "hmmmmm," and start all over again. Maybe you will mill over the measurement vs. line intersection process to see which is more accurate. 


Ok, so in the end the knobs are installed perfectly. I think if there was some perfect way of measuring a perfectly straight line, like how the exact time in an atomic clock works, some perfect line measurer would certify my knobs as being in a perfectly straight line. There would be a ticker tape parade in SuperMoto's honor.


I am happy. It looks pretty!