Since I was able to install the mortise lock with the wood chisel, I realized that I also had all the tools necessary to install one of the two surface mount deadbolt locks we bought onto the front door. Yes!
Unfortunately, while I was doing it, the plexiglass window on our front door fell out. Apparently, it was too big, and needed to be trimmed a bit. So I chiseled the end off of it, and attached it with some caulk. In the long run, I think the window should be made of glass instead of plastic, but it will have to do for now.
My next challenge is convincing Erin that the flagpole should be mounted on the outside of the second story of the house.
Today I:
- replaced the valve and flapper inside of a toilet, making it finally flush properly.
- Installed a new mortise lock on the front door.
- Installed a water filter for the kitchen sink.
- Replaced a steel or aluminum screen that had many rips with a fiberglass screen.
Now we can use the restroom without thinking about it, lock the front door knowing that at least the key is different than it was before, drink pure water any time we want it, and open all the windows on the patio without worrying about insects entering the house.
Today is also the first day I used a wood chisel and a pry bar.
I married Erin. Erin has a dog. Therefore I have a dog. But, if you ask me, or if you ask the dog, the dog belongs to Erin. I think it’s because the dog, whose name is Kelsey, has bonded with her a lot more than he was willing to do with me. Also, when I met him, I was openly hostile toward dogs, even to the point of kicking them out of bed and chuckling at the sack-of-potatoes sound they made when they hit the floor. It was a multisyllabic sound.
Anyway, for some reason I am the one who ends up bathing Kelsey most frequently. I don’t know why I do it. I think it’s because I believe dogs to be unclean animals, and I would rather live with a clean dog than with a dirty dog. (more…)
So, what’s the first thing you do when you move?
Unpack! Settle in!
And go through all the crap you just moved and throw out the stuff you don’t need!
That’s exactly what I started to do today in the spare room that has the pile of clothing. It’s the last room on this page of Erin’s tour of our house that she recently posted. (more…)
I’ve been working all day with a hammer, a cat’s paw, a wrench, and a lot of lumber. Meanwhile, Erin got my camera, and took some photos of the house’s status after about a week of living in it. Go check out Erin’s photo tour of our new house.
And if you’re wondering why everything is in boxes, it’s because we just moved. Cut us some slack, OK? 
The tour is already out-of-date, by the way. I moved the fence. Now I am going to start with some unpacking.
The last few days at work have kept me away from home, when all of the light lifting and cleaning took place. So I missed out on helping to evacuate the old apartment, and also on some other chores.
Erin and Jim have been happily working away through the heat.
So, imagine my shame at running out of gas (more…)
Many thanks today to the people that helped us move in. Erin and I could not have done it without you.
Most of our stuff is out of the apartment, and now we have only a few more carloads of stuff there. Meanwhile, we now have a ton of stuff on our enclosed front porch, and we’re being really organized about how we move it in.
One of the people that helped us move mowed our lawn, even. She didn’t mind - she lives only about 12 houses away, and the lawn only took a few minutes to mow, because it is so small.
I did not expect to have internet access, because the cable company says they can’t connect us until the previous occupant stops paying. So it looks like I am getting Internet for free. If I were less mature, I’d order pay-per-view. But even if I were 10 years younger, I would probably still be so exhausted that I would just go to sleep.
Here’s how the first day went:
(I’m not counting the real first day, when there was no electricity in the house).
I think I’ve got what it takes to be a typical husband in a house. Already in my first day, I’ve done the following:
- fixed a broken doorbell using only my teeth to strip copper wire and fold it around itself.
- reverse-engineered the existing motion detector setup at the side door, and figured out how to make it turn the outdoor light on when the car pulls up.
- pushed on a second-story screen window to see if it was hinged, and watched it fall to the ground, where a storm window had also apparently fallen
- introduced Erin to our new gas fireplace. She was thrilled.
Like I said, I think I got it.
If you need to buy something patriotic, such as a blue star service banner, I highly recommend American Legion Flag and Emblem, the official catalog of the American Legion.
I am recommending them because they don’t charge an arm and a leg for the service banner, and because my senator recommended them.
Here is a strange phenomenon: I admire Tony Blair today more than I did yesterday. I haven’t though about him this much since early 2002.
I am hoping that Great Britain will not reward the terrorists by backing out of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Y’know, sometimes I wonder how hard it is to get the terrorists. I mean, wouldn’t it be a simple thing to hire Americans that speak Arabic and maybe are even from the middle east to place terrorist want ads in foreign media outlets. And when terrorists show up to answer the ad, they can be surrounded.
Maybe we can make a fake training camp and advertise it with 4-color brochures. “Learn to make and conceal explosives to destroy the infidels,” it could read. And then when the seminar is scheduled to begin, the instructor turns on a videotape and says “Watch this while I go to the bathroom.” And then we airstrike the place.
Haven’t they already thought of this? Couldn’t we use the bloodlust of the terrorists to trick them into situations where they couldn’t defend themselves from attack?