Primordial Nothing

We're Recycling a House! I Win!

The old two bedroom house that we've lived in while the new house was being built, is being lifted off its foundation, in preparation for moving to a new location.  A gentleman who has retired from New York will be living in it, soon.  If I get an interesting picture, I'll post it.

A Good Day

Today, on my sixty first birthday, we closed on the new house.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

A Brief History of the Internet

History of the Internet

A Borderline Fool

Woke up this morning with this song in my head.

"I cross over that border every chance I get."

K T Oslin

Changing the Way We Think

Here are two videos of talks that occurred at the  TED Conference.    

The first video is a talk given by Mike Rowe.  A guy that has done some interesting things and wants to share some of the insight he has gained in his gig as the Dirty Jobs guy.

The next is a talk given by Aimee Mullins, a double amputee, who has also accomplished some astounding things.

Mike Rowe

Aimee Mullins

The House is Almost Finished

As forecast, it was raining this morning as we got out of bed. Not a great day to install carpet, considering the red mud surrounding the house, but , it arrived, all the way from Dallas, at 8:45 AM, so it was going to happen today. The guys did a good job of keeping the mud out of the house and I think they were proud of the job they did. We were very pleased with how everything came out.

When you buy a house that's already been built, you know exactly what you're getting. When you buy a house that you've only seen as a drawing, it gets a lot more "theoretical."

I've had butterflies in my stomach more than once about how one feature or another would look and feel. We took a house plan that the builder had built many times and proceeded to make several changes to it. The builder didn't really know how to handle some of our requests, so we have had to work some things out as it was being built.

The "Western Room" turned out great. That's the room with all the windows, looking out toward the back of our property (and the sunset). Everyone who sees it loves it.

The fireplace had me worried. Was it out of proportion? Was the brick as pretty in person as the samples? Today, after the carpet was in, I knew it was alright. It really looks good.

We have electricity and usable bathrooms now. We got to try out the heating today since the temperature was in the 40's. Wow! In less than 5 minutes, the house got cozy.

Next week, we will get a driveway and a yard put in. The yard will just be dirt until I figure out whether to seed it or sod it. I'm thinking maybe hydroseeding.

As you can see from the photo's below the cut, it's very muddy when it rains. All the foundation work and contractors trucks have left the yard a complete mess, exposing the red clay to anything that touches it. If you try to walk through it, it just keeps building up on your footwear so that after a few steps, you're lifting pounds of mud with each step.

Although this is a "turnkey" deal, there have been several situations that I've had to throw money at it to make things the way we want them. My cash flow is not the best right now. Crossing my fingers, hoping that not too many things pop up that I'll have to tap the bank accounts again.

You may notice blue tape marking little defects that the touch up crew will clean up.

Elevenses (and Tenses)

The English have an old custom of taking a snack break at around 11:00AM.  They call it Elevenses.  When we lived there, we seemed to notice there was a strong tendency for the workers to take a less formal break at 10:00AM.  Thus, C and I made up the word "Tenses".  That seems a more reasonable time to bridge the gap between Breakfast and Lunch. 

We still enjoy our Tenses at the little donut shop in Van.  The Donut Palace is technically a chain, but no two are alike.  It's run by a Korean couple that have perfected these little heart stoppers.  I'd put their plain glazed donuts up against anything Krispy Kreme can produce.

A Little More Roy Orbison

OMG, My Life is Complete!

We went to an Italian Restaurant tonight for Valentines. My son came down from Dallas, and we got our act together in time to make the thirty minute drive to this new place that only opened a month ago.

What makes it special is that it's hard to come by really good restaurants here. Not that the food is not good, it usually is.  It just runs toward "Down Home Cookin" or TexMex.  The food at this place is as good as any Italian place I've been to here in the States, and better than some places I've been to in Italy. Of coarse, it can't top Orsini's or Gorgotz's, but those places are off the charts. Nice atmosphere, nice decor, and nicely appointed tables.

It's BYOB, but that's not their fault. This is the Bible Belt. It's the buckle of the Bible Belt. We're lucky we don't get arrested for transporting alcohol to a restaurant!

When we got there, the parking lot was full, so we parked at the doctors office next door. There was a line waiting for tables.  We were pleasantly surprised to see my brother and his wife already waiting in the line, so they changed their request to a table for five.  We still waited for about twenty minutes.

The food was excellent.  My brother had the Lemon Sea Bass, son had the Zuppa di Pesh, C had Nick's Chicken, Sis in Law had Shrimp Scampi, and I had the Pasta Sampler.  Everyone loved it.

And I'm happy that we now have a special "Date Night" place to go.  Hard to believe, but, up until now, the best dinner restaurant we had nearby used rolls of paper towels for your napkins.

Sunset from Back Porch

The sunset just went on and on. When I thought it was over, I looked up and saw this. Had to run for my camera, again.