Christmas

2007's Tree. Used the big, non-blinking "Grampa" style lights this year.

For the first time since I started my "new" job at CollabNet 10 months ago I had some real time off. The company closed for the last week of December and reopened January 2nd. This was fortunate timing as my whole family descends on our little corner of NH for Christmas and some serious cleaning needed to be done to get ready for them.

The Dinner table at my in-laws side of the compound.

I only recently moved into my new office and my old office off the bedroom had turned from a once neat, if small workspace, into a Superfund site. It alone took a day to clean. Seriously, a 7'x4' nook took 10 hours to clean. I should have just rented a flamethrower. The Brides office/dumping ground was in an even worse state.

Mary, Lenny, Suzy, and Mom apparently about to get down to some serious drinking.

But eventually everything got cleaned to the Bride's satisfaction. I was particularly excited this year because my brother and I were planning to take my nephews skiing the day after Christmas. Unfortunately T was sick as a dog when he arrived the afternoon of the 25th and it was clear that he wasn't likely to rebound sufficiently to ski the next day.

How could this child get so dirty indoors while the evening is still young? I've seen cleaner sanitation engineers getting off a double shift. It doesn't matter. Look at that face. You just ain't going to get mad at him.

T did have enough energy to open gifts of course and we performed our usual gift exchange. I got the boys Star Wars Fatheads, Darth Vader and Yoda, which they loved...oh wait, they didn't. Because Fathead ships via DHL, which must stand for Delays in Handling Likely. I paid extra to have the Fatheads arrive the day before Christmas, but they shipped one to the wrong distribution center and the other was listed as "with courier for delivery" for the entire week. I'll stop before I enter rant mode, but DHL is a joke. How they stay in business is a mystery on par with the origin of life, how to beat the Patriots, and a proof for the Riemann Hypothesis.

These demonic elves have sat on this poor deer's head for Holiday the past 30 years (as if being shot and eaten was indignity enough). The Bride used to have bad dreams about them.


Over at our side of the house for the gift exhange.

This years meal was downright traditional compared with the Bride's normally adventurous menu. Her Dad had bagged two deer this year, so despite the Bride's normal prohibitions against terrestrial meat, a venison roast was served. Bruny, who essentially eats only meat from what I can tell, approved so much he dispensed with any utensils before ripping in. When told to use a fork, he said, "T-Rex doesn't use a fork!"

The Bride gives her new pan some love.


T musters the strength to hold his sickness at bay long enough to bellow, "Behold my magnificent Mars Mission Lego set. Bow down to its superior piece count and inappropriate age rating. Who among you is worthy enough to build it for me?"

The Bear falls asleep on his Dad after a very long day.

With skiing cancelled we did some sledding the the 26th and also broke out the Bride's almost 30 year old Yamaha Bravo snowmobile. This thing is a classic, a single cylinder 250cc air-cooled two-stroke it comes from the time before global warming. I never tire of blasting around the yard with it.

Boony works it to stay in the track.

T is just too heavy for me to pull up the hill any more. So he must climb on his own...

...and then call it a day after all that work.

Hey, that thing isn't a bench!

That's more like it.

The Bear does not turn down snowmobile rides. Ever.

Minime and me. It may not look it since I'm a bearded freak in this pic, but my nephew looks just like me. Handsome kid. He'll do well with the ladies ;-)

Dana shows off the latest in sledding haute couture.

Of course no Christmas would be complete without a driveway duel between Yoda and Darth Maul. If you are at least 30% geek (or 20% nerd) and don't yet own one of these, then shame on you.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully going to get back to posting more regularly. Part II of the Expansion is loooong overdue, Jabba wants Halloween pics, and I know the public is just clamoring for my shim method how-to for quieting Avid Juicy Seven squeal!

ptb

Spring

Spring comes to the Monadnock region not slowly and gently, but more like a bowling ball dropped on a foot. Suddenly it is just irrevocably upon us.

Hmmmm, if I hadn't lost my wildflower book I could tell you what these are...probably some non-native, invasive species. They are pretty though.

My new job, while fabulous in most ways, has been wearing me out a bit lately. Add to that a business trip to CA a few weeks back, the Bride's upcoming opening and its attendant stresses, and the expansion of the house, and, well, Spring *really* snuck up on me this time.

I should really know what this flower is. I don't however.

So one day, after noticing that the tree all had leaves, that I was covered with black fly bites, and that for some reason it was 97 degrees in my office, I decided to stop and smell the flowers. The ones without bees in them anyway.

Bumbling

Ferns coming up by the cabin

The sledding hill. Sans snow.

I think most people consider this a weed and buy stuff to kill it. Our lawn is full of them. I just mow them along with the grass when they get too tall. A chemical solution seems excessive.

Cute rodent. Less cute when he lives in your attic.

Crab Apple blossoms.

The Bride ambles down our busy road. Sadly, the few drivers that do come blasting down it clearly should stay home and wait for DiRT to be released.

No clue what these are either.

The Really Old School. This is 'downtown' in my town. Seriously.

Not much else to say this post. 1 pic == 1k words and all.

Hope your spring is as nice as ours. Unless you live in the Southern hemisphere. Then you are SOL. And if you are in one of those places that has no seasons (San Francisco) then I pity you :-P

ptb

Expansion: Part 1

Since 2001 Carol and I have been living in an approximately 700 square foot apartment attached to her parent's house. Our kitchen is the size of a closet and my office, well readers of this blog already know about my "office".

Starting point, this old house.

Not to complain, our place is, dare I say, cozy, and it certainly keeps the snow off us. But the time has come to expand, adding a real office, an actual kitchen, and enough room to have more than four people for dinner.

Prying out the old walkway bricks? That's low skill labor that even a mouse clicking desk jockey like me can handle!

It all starts with some minor grunt work. Taking up the old walkway so we can reuse the bricks in the new entrance. An old Yankee never wastes a brick. Nor crushed stone, as I'm tasked with raking up the crushed stone outside our door.

Cannon emplacement for fighting off bear attacks.

Al hires a fellow to cut two holes in the foundation, one in the existing basement and one on the side of the house facing the new basement. In between is the slab that our apartment sits on. In a special appearance, Jabba Joe is present when we finally finish digging out the sand between the two holes. So far everything has gone smoothly.

Oooooo...conduit, how arty. Be really nice if it was in focus genius.


Digging up the gravel entryway and sifting out the dirt with and old seedling basket? That's low skill too. Call the programmer. Yes it's night. Beats watching TV after a day of hacking. The black flies aren't out yet either, so it was quite pleasant.

We are extremely fortunate that Carol's dad Albert is a licensed electrician and more importantly for this job, a former finish carpenter and house builder. No better choice for the de facto general contractor than a man building a house for "his little girl". Even if she's 36.

Leslie starts the real skilled work. Honestly, he can turn the pages of a book with that backhoe. I'm not allowed anywhere near any machinery.

There's not much else we can do without the pros and their heavy equipment. Al starts calling in his various cronies. Leslie Fox is first up with his backhoe.

Keep digging, what could go wrong???

Apparently plenty...the old crack in the foundation decides to expand its horizons.

Now the slab on which our apartment sits has always had a crack in it. We knew there was some risk in digging out the hill next to the house that there could be "problems". But we were more concerned with torrential rains hitting before the new foundation could be poured.

Fortunately the rain held off. Unfortunately the crack didn't. Strange noises started echoing throughout the house. A new and alarming crack started to grow near the baseboards of my living room and soon I had a nice view of the outdoors through my floor. The slab wall starts spewing sand and bulging ominously as our living room is slowly pulled apart. The sound of nails slowly being pulled out of wood is not pleasant.

After some discussion Al and George Willard, who is overseeing the foundation work, decide to tear down the wall and develop plan B.

With the wall sagging dangerously, there's nothing in it but to tear it down.


Going...

Going...

Gone!

George and Al consult while forms man Dana looks on and thinks, "I'm not too keen on working under *that*!"

Well this is certainly off to an exciting start. I choose to say "exciting" rather than "disastrous" because I'm an optimistic guy. Anyway, that's enough for this installment. Tune in (uh 'blog in' ?) next time for the continuing saga of this old house. In our next episode we answer such pressing questions as:

* Will Moby attempt to squeeze out of the crack in the floor in search of sweet succulent freedom?

* Will Scorpion2 fall into the 8' deep hole when she comes to visit and attempts to knock at our door?

* Can you code while there is a non-zero chance your house might collapse?

* And most importantly, just *what* is Plan B?

ptb

Flood

As my last post mentioned we got some late season snow here in Southwestern NH. I thought that was the last of it, but we got hit again shortly after that. And then on April 16th it started to rain. Hard. For almost two days.

We live relatively high on a mountain slope. Being so close to the source of the various nameless(?) streams in our area, we never see really high water. Well, almost never.

Hill Road washes away...

The ground was already saturated from melting snow and some warm days had melted and packed the snow hard on the ground. When the rain came, the ground couldn't absorb anything and impromptu brooks formed in new places, existing brooks upgraded to creeks, and existing creeks temporarily swelled to raging rivers.

In many places drainage pipes under the roads became overwhelmed and streams started flowing right over the top of the road. The road we live on is dirt and just washed away.

The cabin eventually had water in it, but it didn't float away and no real harm was done.

Fortunately our house sits high on a hill and was unaffected by the floods, but the dam in the back yard the creates our pond almost didn't make it. A spillway diverts high water around the dam so the water doesn't flow over it and wash away the earthen portions of the dam. But the spillway reached it's limit and the damn was only spared by a slackening in the rain. Being so close to the source, once the rain stops the water drops almost immediately (unlike those down river).

The spillway does its thing and the dam holds.

In the end the damage locally was limited mostly to roads. I don't know anyone personally who suffered severe property damage, though certainly there must be some, and many a basement was badly flooded. Rt 101 in Wilton, a major East West route in these parts remains closed as I write this. Rt 45 was also out for a week, a new bridge put in place last summer was destroyed there. Our own road was bulldozed back into passable shape, and while it still awaits a final grading, is useable again.

ptb