Saturday was a working-in-the-yard-and-getting-ready-for-*gasp* winter day. When we bought our house we were happy that it had a fireplace. It is a good old wood burning fireplace. It is in a room we don’t spend a lot of time in, so we didn’t use it at all last year. But I wanted to be able to use it in case we needed to, like if the power went out or something in the cold, cold, winter. But I was also afraid to start a fire in there having no idea what shape the chimney was in. I had no idea if anyone had ever used the chimney, or ever cleaned the chimney, so I was afraid we would start a fire and fill our house with smoke. I didn’t know if there were birds living in the chimney or what. So I decided we were going to have to sweep it before we had our first fire. Not a big deal, since I have swept a chimney or two in my day (Ok, just two, but that isn’t too bad) and my Dad had the stuff at his house.
So we borrowed the chimney brush and made our way onto the roof. We did notice that we have a really nice view from the roof. We need to get ourselves an observation deck up there :-) We also discovered that the chimney had a nice cover on it. That was good because it meant it was less likely that there were any creatures living in there. We took the top off and ran the brush down. I have never in my life seen or even imagined a cleaner chimney. They must have never used it! There was a very small amount of soot on the cover, and a little tiny bit of ash fell down when we swept it out. But other than that – it was super clean! Now we have to have a fire!
While we were on the roof we decided to check out the rain gutters, since BJ had informed me that the water was running out everywhere but down the drain. And yep, the front gutter was still filled to the brim with water from the rain earlier that week. My very wonderful and brave husband walked over to the edge of the roof and stuck his hand in the disgusting water to see what the problem was. The problem was a racquetball that was acting as a very nice plug for the drain. He pulled that out (along with a bunch of muddy leaves) and the water began flowing. Ahhhh – the joys of home ownership!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Fall-ing down
Fall came in like a ton of bricks this past week. Last Tuesday it was 85 degrees, then on Wednesday it was 50 and rainy. Yesterday it snowed and hailed. Today it was around freezing when I drove into work and the ground was covered in frost. Yep, fall is officially here, and it wasn’t shy about its introduction.
Unfortunately, along with the fall, I caught a really bad cold. Everyone at my office has been sick with one illness or another. I was lucky enough to catch this one. It began last week as a runny nose and stuffy head, but took its time and gradually turned into a full blown cold with coughing and headaches and all.
Happily it was also General Conference Weekend. This means that I got to stay home and watch church on TV on Saturday and Sunday. Nice to not have to get all dressed up to go anywhere for a couple days. Matt made me cookies and picked up orange juice and flowers from the store for me.
My brother BJ had invited some of his buddies over to the house for a party after conference. Since I am not much of a video game player, and because I am sure BJ’s friends didn’t need his older sister crashing their party, I asked Matt to take me out. We decided to take in a movie (because the movie theater wanted to catch my cold – sorry people) and we thought we would see “The Invention of Lying”. The commercials looked funny, and I like the funny guy in it (can’t remember his name though). So we went.
Yeah, it was not a good movie. It started out funny, but then they got stuck and the movie got slow and the funny stopped. Matt leaned over to comment to me that it was dragging, and I agreed, but we held out to the end. A few more really lame jokes and it was over. I was sad because it started with such potential – then they ruined it. The movie turned into a sort of religion bashing movie, but they didn’t even do that well. I wouldn’t recommend the movie.
Now it is Tuesday, I am mostly over my cold and ready to get back to the real world. Hopefully that will be the only cold of the season (HAHA). Good health to everyone!
Unfortunately, along with the fall, I caught a really bad cold. Everyone at my office has been sick with one illness or another. I was lucky enough to catch this one. It began last week as a runny nose and stuffy head, but took its time and gradually turned into a full blown cold with coughing and headaches and all.
Happily it was also General Conference Weekend. This means that I got to stay home and watch church on TV on Saturday and Sunday. Nice to not have to get all dressed up to go anywhere for a couple days. Matt made me cookies and picked up orange juice and flowers from the store for me.
My brother BJ had invited some of his buddies over to the house for a party after conference. Since I am not much of a video game player, and because I am sure BJ’s friends didn’t need his older sister crashing their party, I asked Matt to take me out. We decided to take in a movie (because the movie theater wanted to catch my cold – sorry people) and we thought we would see “The Invention of Lying”. The commercials looked funny, and I like the funny guy in it (can’t remember his name though). So we went.
Yeah, it was not a good movie. It started out funny, but then they got stuck and the movie got slow and the funny stopped. Matt leaned over to comment to me that it was dragging, and I agreed, but we held out to the end. A few more really lame jokes and it was over. I was sad because it started with such potential – then they ruined it. The movie turned into a sort of religion bashing movie, but they didn’t even do that well. I wouldn’t recommend the movie.
Now it is Tuesday, I am mostly over my cold and ready to get back to the real world. Hopefully that will be the only cold of the season (HAHA). Good health to everyone!
Killers!
My sisters and I went to the Killers concert at the E Center. We have been wanting to have a “girls night” for a while, and we all wanted to go to this concert, so it worked out well.
We were slow on getting our tickets, which resulted in us having really awesome seats. We were going to get general admission seats and be on the floor – since we are tall and can see, but those were sold out by the time we got around to getting the tickets. We were able, however, to get front row of the upper bowl facing the stage. Awesome (thanks Val!)
Since we had assigned seats we took our time getting to the concert since we didn’t know the opening band. I am glad we did because the opening band was a mariachi band. Yep, you heard me right, a MARIACHI band. They were good, but it was still mariachi. It made me really want some chips and salsa. And the lead singer in the band had an attitude. I guess one of the fans that arrived WAY early and had a place right next to the stage was getting a little tired of the opening band and said something. The lead singer came back with “it takes a lot of guts to come up here and perform mariachi music for you guys.” True, but that doesn’t mean we want you to keep going.
Anyway – they were finally done and the crew began setting the stage up for the Killers. This always takes forever also. I was glad we had our seats at this point, because I would have been frustrated standing in the crowd of people this long (does that make me old?) So finally FINALLY the Killers come out on stage. We are excited and turn around to make sure people are standing up so we can and…nope. Not a single person is standing. So we sit and dance though the first song. We are trying to decide how we make our move and stand up without getting yelled at by the boring people behind us when the Killers stop, announce that they have to get off the stage, and run away. WHAT? Another 10 minutes and we have no idea what is going on. We watched a guy climb up onto the scaffolding above the stage and he was probably fixing something, then he came back down, and soon the show started again.
We were hoping that everyone would be so excited that they were back that they would jump up onto their feet and dance. Wrong again. We stayed sitting for a while, until the Killers began one of Val’s favorite songs and she was up, followed shortly by the two of us. This caused the people behind and around us to squirm in their seats so they could see around us. Sad. We were up and down the entire concert. There was one moment when they busted out one of their older and more popular songs that a lot of the crowd around us got up, but it was followed by a slower number, which put everyone back in their seats.
But it was a great concert. I read in reviews after that it got bad reviews, I guess the sound system wasn’t very good. We were lucky in our seats and things sounded good to me!
We were slow on getting our tickets, which resulted in us having really awesome seats. We were going to get general admission seats and be on the floor – since we are tall and can see, but those were sold out by the time we got around to getting the tickets. We were able, however, to get front row of the upper bowl facing the stage. Awesome (thanks Val!)
Since we had assigned seats we took our time getting to the concert since we didn’t know the opening band. I am glad we did because the opening band was a mariachi band. Yep, you heard me right, a MARIACHI band. They were good, but it was still mariachi. It made me really want some chips and salsa. And the lead singer in the band had an attitude. I guess one of the fans that arrived WAY early and had a place right next to the stage was getting a little tired of the opening band and said something. The lead singer came back with “it takes a lot of guts to come up here and perform mariachi music for you guys.” True, but that doesn’t mean we want you to keep going.
Anyway – they were finally done and the crew began setting the stage up for the Killers. This always takes forever also. I was glad we had our seats at this point, because I would have been frustrated standing in the crowd of people this long (does that make me old?) So finally FINALLY the Killers come out on stage. We are excited and turn around to make sure people are standing up so we can and…nope. Not a single person is standing. So we sit and dance though the first song. We are trying to decide how we make our move and stand up without getting yelled at by the boring people behind us when the Killers stop, announce that they have to get off the stage, and run away. WHAT? Another 10 minutes and we have no idea what is going on. We watched a guy climb up onto the scaffolding above the stage and he was probably fixing something, then he came back down, and soon the show started again.
We were hoping that everyone would be so excited that they were back that they would jump up onto their feet and dance. Wrong again. We stayed sitting for a while, until the Killers began one of Val’s favorite songs and she was up, followed shortly by the two of us. This caused the people behind and around us to squirm in their seats so they could see around us. Sad. We were up and down the entire concert. There was one moment when they busted out one of their older and more popular songs that a lot of the crowd around us got up, but it was followed by a slower number, which put everyone back in their seats.
But it was a great concert. I read in reviews after that it got bad reviews, I guess the sound system wasn’t very good. We were lucky in our seats and things sounded good to me!
Circus People
Each fall the TV fills with adds announcing that the Circus is in town. I love the circus, though I haven’t been in years. I used to go with my Dad and girl friends every year in high school (as our pity party when we didn’t get asked to Homecoming dance). I haven’t been back since then. Somehow every year since we met there have been reasons we couldn’t make it, until this year!
I got home from work and Matt and I headed to downtown Salt Lake. We decided it would be fun to go a little early to buy tickets, then just mosey around the city for a while. I must say our timing was perfect, because we had the BEST parking spot imaginable! We were right out on the street at a meter, almost the closest you can be to the ESA. Very nice – and free! Yep, we were parked closer than people that paid $8.00.
The circus was fun. It is a bit more of a production than I remember it. More singing and dancing and less actual circus stuff. We had the cheap-cheap seats, so we did have an obstructive view of the tightrope, but everything else was great. I have to admit I really like the little trick dogs, and the lions! Matt came home and tried to get our cats to do some lion tricks – it didn’t work. Hopefully he keeps working at it.
I got home from work and Matt and I headed to downtown Salt Lake. We decided it would be fun to go a little early to buy tickets, then just mosey around the city for a while. I must say our timing was perfect, because we had the BEST parking spot imaginable! We were right out on the street at a meter, almost the closest you can be to the ESA. Very nice – and free! Yep, we were parked closer than people that paid $8.00.
The circus was fun. It is a bit more of a production than I remember it. More singing and dancing and less actual circus stuff. We had the cheap-cheap seats, so we did have an obstructive view of the tightrope, but everything else was great. I have to admit I really like the little trick dogs, and the lions! Matt came home and tried to get our cats to do some lion tricks – it didn’t work. Hopefully he keeps working at it.
Meet me at the Fair
A few weeks ago (sorry I am so slow on blogging) Matt and I decided to go to the State Fair. We went on a Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful warm day – perfect fair weather. We got there and walked over and looked at all the art and photography and such. I think it is interesting to see what people get pictures of and what wins awards. We also made sure to stop and see the Butter Cow – always a personal favorite. I mean really, who isn’t excited to see a cow sculpted out of butter. And this year they went above and beyond, with a couple of cows sculpted of butter – and dancing. Yes – dancing butter cows. That alone was worth the admission.
Then we stopped to get a drink. Matt always loves the fresh squeezed lemonade that they sell at the Weber County fair, so we were happy to get one at the State fair too. We stood in a short line and ordered. Then Matt took a sip and the look that came across his face was not happy. I took a test sip myself and yep, sugar water. It was just sugar water. Someone forgot the lemon in our lemonade! Matt went back to the cart and asked for a new one – which was provided. This one tasted more like lemon, but still was not the “fresh squeezed” lemonade that he had been looking forward too. Sad really.
About this time we were ready to find a place to sit. They didn’t really have benches, so we wandered into the stadium where they were just beginning the tractor pull. I had never seen a tractor pull before. It was fun, we watched the little tractors and the little trucks. We left before the big stuff came out, but we needed to get some pictures while the light was good. So we went back out to the fair and wandered some more. (we also stopped to look at the sharks).
I took some pictures, and really wished I had brought the tripod, because it is hard to take pictures of lights without bouncing. But we did a good job and had fun at the fair!
Then we stopped to get a drink. Matt always loves the fresh squeezed lemonade that they sell at the Weber County fair, so we were happy to get one at the State fair too. We stood in a short line and ordered. Then Matt took a sip and the look that came across his face was not happy. I took a test sip myself and yep, sugar water. It was just sugar water. Someone forgot the lemon in our lemonade! Matt went back to the cart and asked for a new one – which was provided. This one tasted more like lemon, but still was not the “fresh squeezed” lemonade that he had been looking forward too. Sad really.
About this time we were ready to find a place to sit. They didn’t really have benches, so we wandered into the stadium where they were just beginning the tractor pull. I had never seen a tractor pull before. It was fun, we watched the little tractors and the little trucks. We left before the big stuff came out, but we needed to get some pictures while the light was good. So we went back out to the fair and wandered some more. (we also stopped to look at the sharks).
I took some pictures, and really wished I had brought the tripod, because it is hard to take pictures of lights without bouncing. But we did a good job and had fun at the fair!
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