Here’s the before photo (which is after we removed a bunch of stuff from that side of the room):
Kitchen Progress
This is the before-and-after, the reeeeally early version.
Category: Haightlife
General news and thinking about living in the Alderete-McCune household.
New Cocktail for 2005
Rochelle and I are, shall we say, fond of cocktails. We’ve been known to drink a few, and even make a few for friends and guests. And, we’re always on the lookout for new ones, especially things that are easy to make and serve. This year’s find: Trader Joe’s Organic Strawberry Lemonade.
Rochelle and I are, shall we say, fond of cocktails. We’ve been known to drink a few, and even make a few for friends and guests. And, we’re always on the lookout for new ones, especially things that are easy to make and serve.
The mixer for 2005 is definitely Trader Joe’s Organic Strawberry Lemonade, $3.99, located in the refrigerated juice section in Trader Joe’s. It’s great by itself, but it begs to be mixed with your distilled spirit of choice.
Anti-virus for Mozilla Thunderbird?
For many years, Rochelle used Netscape Communicator for her email. A little over a year ago, I switched her to Mozilla Thunderbird, which is the code and user-interface successor to Communicator. For the most part it works very well, but it has one astonishing omission: its anti-virus capabilities are terrible.
For many years, Rochelle used Netscape Communicator for her email. About a year and a half ago, I switched her to Mozilla Thunderbird, which is the code and user-interface successor to Communicator. For the most part it works very well, but it has one astonishing omission: its anti-virus capabilities are terrible.
This is all the more remarkable given their tagline (“Reclaim Your Inbox”), and the second sentence of their Why Use Thunderbird blurb: “We designed Thunderbird to prevent viruses and to stop junk mail so you can get back to reading your mail.” Thunderbird is positioned as the more user-centric, safer alternative to Microsoft Outlook.
The Tragic Consequences of Reasonable Decisions
There is no doubt that I should have seen this coming. Should have been ready, mentally, financially, for this to get really complicated, really fast. But it really did seem simple to me, back when we first started.
I am writing, of course, of our apparent decision to rip the kitchen out to the studs.
There is no doubt that I should have seen this coming. Should have been ready, mentally and financially, for this to get really complicated, really fast. But it truly did seem simple to me, back when we first started.
I am writing, of course, of our apparent decision to rip the kitchen out to the studs.
Continue reading “The Tragic Consequences of Reasonable Decisions”
The Joy of BAC
This story of portable breathalyzer abuse passed my “laugh out loud” test.
This passed the “laugh out loud” test with me:
I used to think that Red Bull was the most destructive invention of the past 50 years. I was wrong. Red Bull has been usurped by the portable alcohol breathalyzer. The same device that cops have been using for 10 years to conduct field sobriety tests is now offered by the Sharper Image for $99. Though not as accurate as a blood test, they are accurate to within .01, which is good enough for my purposes. I was living in Boca Raton, Florida, when I bought one to take out with me on a Saturday night. This is the story.
Hat tip to the Pretty Evil Edith…
NYE Open House and Freecycle Party
On New Year’s Eve we had a daytime open house and “freecycle” party. I thought I’d post the invite here, since people told us it was pretty amusing…
I wrote previously about our New Year’s Eve open house and “freecycle” party. I thought I’d post the invite here, since people told us it was pretty amusing…
What’s Black, Weighs 650 Pounds, and Will Soon Be Crashing Through My Front Door?
You know that “oh shit” moment at the top of a roller coaster, when you’ve just finished the slow climb up, and haven’t really started the first drop. The point where you’d really like to take just a couple seconds to summon your courage, but it’s too late, out of your hands, and carrying you away whether you’re ready or not?
That’s what buying our new stove was like tonight.
You know that “oh shit” moment at the top of a roller coaster, when you’ve just finished the slow climb up, and haven’t really started the first drop. The point where you’d really like to take just a couple seconds to summon your courage, but it’s too late, out of your hands, and carrying you away whether you’re ready or not?
That’s what buying our new stove was like tonight.
Rochelle found a terrific deal on craigslist.org for a used Viking 48″ stove. Six burners and a griddle, two ovens, black finish. Huge is not the word. (Though, actually, it’s only 8″ wider than our existing stove.) It’s a $6,000 stove when new, and not something we even had dreamed of getting, it was so out of our budget range. We went and looked at it Wednesday night, and wrote a check on the spot. Gulp.
Rochelle’s going to see about finding someone to help us with transport and delivery to our house (hopefully it will fit through the front door!). And we’ve got a lot to do in the dining room and kitchen to get ready for it. But things are in motion now, and we’re too committed to stop until it’s done…
“Look out Michael, here comes the kitchen remodel!”
Out with the Old…
On New Year’s Eve, Rochelle and I had a “Freecycle party,” where we put all the things we were getting rid of in our dining room, invited people over, gave them plenty of alcohol, and then told them they could take anything in the pile that they wanted.
On New Year’s Eve, Rochelle and I had a “Freecycle party,” where we put all the things we were getting rid of in our dining room, invited people over, gave them plenty of alcohol, and told them they could take anything they wanted from the pile. The idea being, people would go home with new treasures, we would get rid of a bunch of crap, and whatever didn’t go, we would take to Goodwill the following Sunday.
Except, it was raining Sunday, and for a couple of weeks afterwards. We couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to drag bags and boxes to the car, multiple times, in the rain. So we skipped it.
This weekend we finally took the second car load of stuff to Goodwill, and can at last rearrange the dining room back to a semblance of its normal state. Still one more load to go, but that will definitely happen this week, and then our dining room will be back to normal.
For a couple of days, until we start dragging the entire kitchen in there, to start work on that project…
Get Back to Work!
OK, the new version of WordPress is going to get me into trouble. I need to get back to work, instead of continuing to fuss.
OK, the new version of WordPress is going to get me into trouble. I’m having entirely too much fun playing with the new features, and finishing out the last few things that hadn’t made the transition. (I think on the public side, I’m 100% done. Still a couple of tweaks on the admin side, to make writing posts a little easier by bumping up the font size and so on for the editing form.)
At any rate, I need to get back to work, instead of continuing to fuss. Bye!
90% Upgraded
I found myself unable to resist the draw of the cool. I had to go and upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
I found myself unable to resist the draw of the cool. I had to go and upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
Took me a little over an hour to do the majority of the work. I think most things work now, even if it’s not exactly completely the same as the 1.2 version. I still have a few plug-ins to add and test, and then add to the templates, to get everything back to where it should be. But all the hard stuff is behind me.
Let me know if anything seems wrong…
The Abstinence Kitty
Luigi has this alternately amusing, endearing, and irritating desire to sleep in between Rochelle and I. He likes to be the meat in the sandwich. Given that he sleeps on top of the covers, and weighs 18 pounds, it means he essentially separates us into separate compartments of the bed. Almost like a chaperone.
Luigi has this alternately amusing, endearing, and irritating desire to sleep in between Rochelle and I. He likes to be the meat in the sandwich. Given that he sleeps on top of the covers, and weighs 18 pounds, it means he essentially separates us into separate compartments of the bed.
Almost like a chaperone. We’ve taken to calling him the abstinence kitty.
Like I said, alternately endearing, amusing…and irritating. ;-)
Must. Not. Remodel.
It started innocently enough. Rochelle’s mother very generously offered to buy us a new stove, after we complained about our current oven during Thanksgiving. And, if we could have just done that, it would have been a great kitchen improvement that would have cost us almost nothing.
It started innocently enough. Rochelle’s mother very generously offered to buy us a new range, after we complained about our current oven during Thanksgiving. And, if we could have just done that, it would have been a great kitchen improvement that would have cost us almost nothing.
But, we started looking into options, researching in Consumer Reports and in cooking and food resources. Rochelle eventually found this article, A Range of Options, by David Rosengarten, which blew away both the Consumer Reports mantra of low cost, high value appliances, and our gift budget.
But, once you commit to getting a centerpiece-style range, is it even possible to just do that? Not if you’re Rochelle or me.
The next obvious requirement is to get a new stove hood, because we currently have no ventilation in the kitchen, except opening the back door and window. And, well, looking at the wall it would be mounted on, it’s actually a fake wall, built (by the previous owner) to hide the brick chimney behind it. Let’s take that out!
And, when we measure the chimney in the basement, it’s clear we’ll be getting a lot of space back. And when you combine that with the need to conceal the ventilation pipe, you come to the inevitable conclusion that we need new floor-to-ceiling cabinets in that corner.
After doing all of this, is there any doubt that we’ll need to paint the entire room afterwards? Especially since we’ve been planning to take the over-sink cabinets off the wall for over a year? And that horrible fake tile siding that lines the lower half of most of the room?
And these are the plans we haven’t quashed. Because taking the cabinets off the wall is really the first of many things that should happen to that side of the room.
But, since we’re not really remodeling, those will have to wait. Hopefully…