First day of School

Semi-wordless Wednesday post

First day of 7th and 9th grade. I cannot believe we have one in high school already

Daddy is terrified

The neatest thing about school might be Ella's notebook. She printed a sticker of our old dog taking a shit in the yard and put it on the front. This kid's humor - wow

I got a haircut recently, it was the first one in quite a while. Think this was the longest my hair has gotten since college. It looked pretty good but was driving me crazy in my face all the time.

I went to see Beck in concert with Spoon and Cage the Elephant with my swim buddy Tom. Great show!

Finally, I finished building a live edge pine slab table and a hanging daybed for the front porch. These were both great woodworking projects. The porch is finally done, and this is what I had in mind when I wanted to start building it:

Rock on. We made it through another summer. My SAD was pretty rough this year, it was a hot one in NC. But fall is almost here, I'm taking a few weeks off from grad school, we're going to Oregon soon, and I will eventually actually run again.

The Teen Cave

It's like a man-cave, if man-caves were built for teenage girls. We got this couch that forced a piece of furniture upstairs, which forced us to turn the guest room into something else. Enter the teenager. I had to completely remodel the bathroom up there, she called it "working on her suite". She originally picked the orange color when we moved in 8 years ago, now she wanted it purple. We had to replace the carpet, move the furniture up, and hang a huge TV on the wall.

We had a recent family vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN, so I took pictures of the teen-cave to show off to the bigger family that doesn't come visit us in Raleigh. Enjoy the tour and some pictures from the vacation.

These stairs used to have carpet on them. I still need to paint the risers, and the treads could use some refinishing too.

The landing was hardwood under carpet! Such a pleasant surprise.

 

 

 

The remodeled bathroom.

On my woodworking blog, I did a whole category for this bathroom remodel. We found that sink on a clearance sale at Lowe's, same with the engineered flooring ($30 and $40, respectively). I also blew open a closet, made those shelves, flushed up the wall, redid the electrical, added the medicine cabinet and 2 lights, made my own shiplap and did the accent wall back there, hung the rest of the drywall... it was quite a mess. But the finished product is really cool. The tiny bathroom up there came out great!

New carpet, and we moved all of her furniture up there

The double recliner that spurred the whole thing

The big TV mounted with the playstaion and VR

The whole big family on the train at Dollywood

And out on the deck at the cabin we rented

the cabin was really nice

It was a really fun vacation in TN. Morgan made it with his wife, and my parents of course, but Michael had to stay home with a sick kid. I thought the room turned out great, everyone else agreed. This was a great way to setup the holidays.

End of Summer

August didn't suck! I mean, it did, it was still August, but it didn't feel as bad as the last few years. I think the hottest it got was around 105-108*, not the endless days of 116* like last summer.

Swim: 37,677, 11 swims, 1 race
Bike: 35.2 miles, 3 rides
Run: 3 miles, 2 runs
Strength: 1
Yoga: 0

The only race was the ePostal 5k swim in the long course pool. I got in some nice time in the water, no real complaints there. Of course it could be more, 20 practices would be great. But my joints won't hold up for that. Getting some time on the bike was especially nice. I even got to brick a few of those, finishing bike time with a 2 mile treadmill run once, and a single mile on the 'mill another time. Way more activity than the last few months, but still pitiful numbers. and painful.

This joint pain is absurd. It started in my thumbs, then both hands, then wrists, now it's my elbows. Most of August had the left elbow flaring up first, but then in the last week the right elbow really stepped up to champion the cause even sending pain shooting up to the right shoulder after swimming. It gets bad after doing landscaping or construction work, and there was plenty going on there. I've had enough. Chances are, this is the same pain problem that is in my foot and keeping my running shoes dusty. So tomorrow I'm going to see a rheumatologist. The chiropractor, acupuncture (ok that was fantastic but didn't last), orthopedist, and physical therapy did nothing to help. This needs to get fixed. The Arthritis & Rheumatology center treats the group of about 100 chronic conditions known as arthritis, so hopefully they can figure out which one of those I have and give me a treatment. I want hope.

Instead, I've got landscaping! And family fun. And another boat. On to the photos:

added a poorly formed set of stairs

This isn't even stairs. It's a box that's supposed to be a single stair, but isn't. clearly.

Quicksilver! New boat under construction

Quicksilver under fiberglass

Durham Bulls game with the whole family!

This path is starting to shape up. Those hostas need to get moved.

same path from the other direction

Quicksilver comes together and gets some paint

Boatbuilder added a seat in the back half

Quicksilver is a one sheet boat - means that it only took 1 sheet of plywood to build her. It actually took a bit more than that, but the concept of a one sheet is pretty popular. Lots more about her on my woodworking blog.

Landscaping around the deck is progressing slowly but surely. I screwed up the height of those stairs on both sides of the deck, so they have to be redone. The gravel path leading up to the brick & stairs there is about done now. So you get to see the progression.

Path is taking shape, before adding gravel (in the wheelbarrow)

Kelley redid the bed on that side of the tree, adding mulch & plants plus a massive cleanout

Gravel path is down, but loose

watching the eclipse with coworkers

My view of the eclipse through the glasses

Quicksilver finished and ready to water test

It fits inside of the truck bed!

It floats! Leaked pretty bad, but it floats

It even held me out of the water, but barely

sitting a bit low. I'm 20 lbs over the rated capacity for this boat.

Evil Genius decided to grow a beard

then we had to shave it off together

Got to watch the big fight in an incredible outdoor party on a projector

added a little buddha in the new bed

starting to add plants around the path

Got this side of the deck hardscaped and planted. Still need grass seed.

Enticing way to get to the deck. We did add lariope to the right of the path and replace that mulch. It looks finished.

added some hardy banana plants on the road side of the fence

Overall we got a lot done in August! There was some decent athlete work, some pretty good yard work, and some fun family time. The eclipse was cooler than I really expected, we did get to see it very well from Raleigh. The McGregor/Mayweather fight was amazing, we had a blast at the party watching on a 10' outdoor screen while drinking heavily. The baseball game was a blast too, my company gave out some tickets. I built another boat, and I actually applied a topical glue to that gravel to form a solid path. Should have used more of that glue, the path actually broke up a bit so now I have to find another product.

September brings the glory. Football is back, it feels like fall again, hockey will be here soon. As long as it all isn't ruined by a hurricane! Stay away Irma! I'm watching this one.

June Recap

this could be really short with lots of pictures:

Swim: 31,428 yards, 10 swims, 1 race
Bike: 0
Run: 0
Yoga: 0
Strength: 1 time lifting

Wow, that's even less than I was expecting. Haven't seen that many 0's show up since I was swimming 50,000 yards and running 100 miles a month. The one swim race was the Chattanooga Swim Fest, and it was amazing. Got back in the pool a few more times after that, including 1 time getting long course meters in (translated that to yards, hence the odd number). But that really was it.

Currently, from the bottom up, I've got a broken left big toe, my constant right foot tendon pain, a bum left hip, lower back pain, middle back soreness, neck pain, and arthritis pain in both hands and elbows. But that's not to indicate that June was bad, just that I'm getting older and can't do what I could do in my 30's. ha!

June also had (in addition to that wonderful road trip to Chatty) a visit with my parents to see the Lion King, Fathers Day, and a major release of our software at work. Plus the garden is kicking. There was a lot that was accomplished, and it was a great month. Breakdown:

Starting to grow!

Cucumbers getting bigger

Tomatoes are starting to take off

One HUGE moment that I'm very proud of is finishing my first wooden boat! I got the boat wrapped up (and started a woodworking/boatbuilding blog about it) and got it in the water for the first time. The name of this boat is "My Busted Foot", because I decided to pick up this new hobby after it was determined that I couldn't run any more. Super proud of the way this turned out!

You have to test these things on dry land first

It floats! Unreal happy about that.

Ella loved paddling around all over the lake

It was a large lake (Lake Johnson here in Raleigh)

Evil Genius did not enjoy it quite as much

It sits pretty clean in the water, looks pretty sharp I think

Kelley went nuts over these ducks

Aunt Martha got in on the action

At the Lion King to my left

And to my right! All the family

We had a great weekend trip down to Greenville. Mom wanted all of her kids and grandkids to gather for a fun show. All 11 of us don't get together very often, so it was really nice to have that much fun.

The biggest project by far wrapped up the month and is bleeding over half of July as well. The problem was that there are some concrete stairs going to the backyard that started crumbling. We have known for a while that they would have to be replaced with something else. Also there is a pergola in the backyard over a stone patio that has become overgrown and unusable. We enjoyed it for the first year or two, but haven't been able to for quite some time. So a few months ago we started talking about building a deck. There will be a more in depth post about it eventually, but in June it started with taking out a window from the dining room and replacing it with a wider french door. It's a door to nowhere, sure, but the best is yet to come.

Dining room, with window and corner cabinets. Already had the doors off of those when I grabbed the first picture.

Bye bye wall

bye bye window, hello framing

Bloody demolition man!

Cut out a big hole in the house!

Widen it to the framing

Slide in the door!

Framed up and ready for drywall

Now with more mud

I already had the shrubs & ivy down from the pergola

Bye bye pergola, hello backyard!

Demolition on concrete stairs is no joke. Now I've got two doors to nowhere!

Finally, the month of June and all of the stuff I should have blogged about in due time wraps up with two fun times. My sweet Ella had another birthday. She keeps getting older and wiser. and taller! Also Evil Genius actually went to a Durham Bulls game with my company. She loved learning about baseball and really enjoyed following all of the action. It's so cool to see her growing into her own person.

Big birthday girl!

already with the sullen hoodie of a teenager

with EG and Kelley at the game

going over the finer points of the shift

She got to run the bases after the game! somewhere in that line of kids

So I hope you had a great month too. June wasn't bad at all, overall. I could have done with less pain and more running, but I accomplished a lot and had a ton of fun.