They say that good fences make good neighbors.  Apparently, there must be some other stuff that goes into that equation as well, because the fence between my house and my neighbors’ is leaning and sickly in spots.  We’ve tried to shore it up and secure the posts, but the occasional windstorm and some questionable construction by whoever built or repaired the thing in the past has our fence leaning.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t have good neighbors.  Not at all. A few months shy of five years ago, I met J & D for the first time.  We pretty quickly became friends, and I’m really grateful for that.  I’ve moved enough times in life to have had a lot of neighbors, but none as good as these. I still remember the day that J tentatively told me that he had unexpectedly stumbled onto my blog.  We hadn’t talked much [...]

O.k., I said I wasn’t going to talk about the bathroom project anymore.  But I was playing with Microsoft’s new toy, Photosynth, and put a synth together of the new bathroom.  I took 42 pictures, loaded them up, and now you can see a 360 peek into last week’s work.  To view this, you’ll need to download Photosynth, but it’s pretty easy.  Once you’ve done that, you can click here to view my bathroom.  Of course, on the main page of Photosynth, you can also check out the Taj Mahal, which is infinitely more interesting.  But I put my little synth together in about 15 minutes, including the time taking the photos.

Well, yesterday was my first day back after “vacationing” in the master bathroom of our home.  As I mentioned, I was doing an overhaul of the bathroom, prompted in part by the presence of dry rot in the subfloor – conveniently covered by carpet, and prompted in part by the absolute ugliness (both of which are pictured in my previous post). I still have a few small things to finish up – baseboards, towel rods, sealing grout – but it’s pretty much done.  Here’s what we did: gutted the whole room with the exception of the tub and shower tile, replaced rotted subfloor, installed new tile, toilet, vanity, sink top, faucet, light fixture, switches, and put two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling.  Not bad for a total amateur. Once again, the old version: And, the new version: The natural sunlight makes the walls look more yellow than [...]

The blog’s been dark for a few days here.  Just thought I’d let both of you that read it exactly why . . . First, I had a couple of days worth of annual staff meetings at the denomination.  Here in the Northwest, we’re in the middle of a major organizational restructuring.  There are parts of it that I really like, and well, some other parts that I’ll not whine about.  Won’t do any good. Second, I’m in the middle of changing this: into this: Things have already progressed since that last picture.  But it’s gonna be a few days.  I’ll try to update the blog as I’m able, but if there’s nothing new when you pay me a visit here, you can just use whatever time you had allotted for reading to pray for my back!

This morning, an appliance repair man came to fix our oven, which has been limping along for the past few months.  Since he was on the spot anyway, I had him look at our microwave oven, which went on the fritz while I was away for three weeks. Oven repair?  No problem. Microwave oven?  Apparently, this piece of equipment, which was manufactured less than four years ago (according to the serial number info on the back), will cost around $120 to repair.  Why?  Because the part that needs to be replaced costs $85.  I remember purchasing this microwave when we moved to Seattle – we paid $60 or $70 for it.  How is it possible to sell a new microwave for less than the cost of the parts? Any normal American would say, “Well, I guess I’ll just throw the old one away and buy a new one – it’s [...]

1. Claims to have been a missionary in Latin America with a faith healer ministry. 2. Pays rent via Swiss bank account wire transfer. 3. Can’t pay rent on time, but drives new BMW, and children each have plasma TVs. 4. Pleads guilty to investment fraud after stealing 6 million dollars, and faces up to 20 years in federal prison.   All of these and more are signs that you made the right call on not renewing the lease when it came to term.  Oh, and by “you,” I do mean “we.”