New Countdown clock

Karmen suggested a website that has countdown clocks for all occasions, so here is a countdown clock to our vacation:

MySpace Countdown Clocks

Thanks for the help Karmen! Check out her brand-new blog. I wanted to put the countdown on the sidebar but it was too big, so I'll have to work on figuring out how to resize it. I am such a novice at blogging, the last time I tried to put an HTML gadget on my page, I couldn't get it to work, but Allison helped me. Many thanks for her help, and hooray that she and her husband should be back in the states soon.

Countdown

I can't wait for my vacation! We leave in just over a month to go to NYC. Its the first time for both of us. Rare, because we've been to nearly opposite places so usually when we go somewhere I've been or he's been, so its fun to pick out a place that is new to both of us, and NYC seemed like the perfect place. I have been reading about the city and what to see and do, and just can't wait! and, pictures from fellow bloggers' recent trip to NYC make me want to go even more. So, I decided to try to find a countdown gadget to add to our blog, but couldn't find one :( I did find that Blogger doesn't know how to count since I was viewing: 1 – 25 of 17 matches for the word "countdown", how I can view 25 when there are only 17 matches?

So, old school countdown: 32 days (21 work days) until we leave!

In my searching I did find a Lost countdown, so that is now added to our blog. I love that show, it is so complex that I know I'll never understand it all and time travel starts to hurt my head after a while, but we love to disect it and try to figure out what will happen, and what is this island! I also love silly shows, much to Kevin's dismay and now that we have AT&T uverse I can see more of them because we can record/view FOUR at a time, no more TWO that comcast limited us too (bad during football season).

Kitchen Unveiling

Our kitchen hardware project is complete!

In the photo collage, the top left picture is the original kitchen with the ugly formica countertops. We got new countertops and a backsplash in November 2007, and then we completed it with our new black fridge and hardware this year.

We worked on it during the week and finished the last two today. Getting two holes exactly 3” apart so that the drawer handles could line up was harder than I expected, but it went much more smoothly once Kevin started doing the measuring. By the 5^th one (out of a total of 10) we had finally perfected how to do it: drill one hole, verify the measurements again with the handle, adjust as needed, drill the second hole. If it still doesn’t line up, we would redrill at a slight angle so that the screw would come out and exactly line up in the hole. The 5^th one was *perfect*, I could’ve done a little jig I was so happy.

We did have one Homer Simpson (doh!) moment when we put the 5^th drawer back on and moved to #6, and when I pulled the #6 drawer out to unscrew the drawer cover it didn’t open all the way. Since those two drawers are at the corner, having a handle on #5 prevents #6 from opening. So, we ended up having to swap the drawer fronts and leave one drawer (our original perfect #5) handleless. It looks kind of strange, but better than being able to open a drawer only halfway. In addition to our original supplies, we used a protractor I have from my college days to make sure the measurements were made so that the drawer handles were level. Who knew I’d ever use that item again?

Now, once we have our table our kitchen will be complete. We ordered a table at the end of December, that’s right – December – from Ashley Furniture. We were originally told we’d get the furniture by January 6, but on and on we were told that it would be on the next shipment, and it never was. In early March we decided to give it one more week and then if we didn’t have it, we’d cancel. So, on St. Patty’s day I cancelled the order. On the phone that day they were still telling me it should be on the next week’s shipment, but I’d heard that too many times before and nearly THREE months is too long to wait for it, so we wanted out. We’ll go to one of the other stores in town and find something just as good and have it long before we’d ever get that furniture. It is so frustrating. We aren’t the only ones; my father-in-law saw the store on the news that very night. The BBB has gotten a lot of complaints and they have SIX MILLION dollars worth of backlogged merchandise (people have paid for the furniture and not gotten it). So, do not shop at Ashley Furniture! The local stores were franchised by Finger’s Furniture, but aren’t anymore – and the manager alluded to that the last time I spoke to him, before complaints were rerouted to customer service.

Kitchen Hardware

As predicted, this weekend was cold and rainy. We needed the rain, so I was glad to see it, and it was a good weekend to stay inside - good since Kevin was sick with a cold much of the weekend. Since we were going to be inside, we decided to tackle a project we’ve been wanting to do for a while – put hardware on our kitchen cabinets and drawers. I was a bit hesitant to do this project because we always seem to have issues with our projects and I do not want to have holes in the doors and drawers from where we messed up.

We bought the hardware a few weeks ago (ordered from Home Depot), and we also have a drill, screwdrivers, pencils, papers and everything else we thought we might need. We started with the knobs for the cabinet doors. We used the doors on the island (low and not as visible) as our test cases (brilliant idea, thanks Kevin!) and were able to figure out exactly how we needed to measure it to have the knob pretty well centered. The first one was too far out, the second one too far in, but then we got the hang of it (after I screwed up the measurements on the 3rd one), and knew exactly what measurements to use for the rest of them. We made a template on a piece of paper, and were able to do all 19 of them! Kevin would drill the holes while I’d hold the cabinet, then I would screw in the screw and attach the knob. Already the kitchen looks different!

I was surprised when we were getting ready to order the hardware how many cabinets and drawers we have: 19 cabinet doors and 10 drawers, wow…and I still wish I had more space?

Next up were the drawers, we plan to do them later in the week but wanted to see if we could figure out how to do it. These are harder because they each have two holes so it has to be exact. Thank goodness we swapped our original plan of using these 2-hole handles on the cabinets – 19 of them would probably kill me!

It took us quite a bit of work to do ONE, but we finally determined how to do these handles. We will have to take the wood face off the drawer, and drill through it to attach the handle how we want it. We’ll also need to drill a different size hole so that the head of the screw is in the wood and it can be reattached, flush with the front of the drawer. Reattaching the front to the drawer was no easy task, and I wanted to stop several times, thank goodness Kevin kept me going. I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter, but when I want to be done with something and its nearly time for my show, I get cranky and don’t want to keep going. But we finally got that one reattached and have only 9 more (and the know how) to do it.

Once we finish, I’ll post pictures, and hopefully a before/after combo.

Spring came and went

It has been so nice to be at home this week and to be in my office every day. I need to remember that I like being in my office for those weeks when I'm going crazy with reports and other work. So: note to self, you were ecstatic to get to be in your office every day this week! Soon I'll be sharing my office suite with construction crews, so here's hoping that goes smoothly and quickly.

Next week is Spring Break for the students and faculty. I can already tell its coming up, the parking lot hasn't been as full and neither have my email and voicemail inboxes. I know that I'm cursing myself by writing that, as soon as I say that something always comes up, oh well. and, contrary to what people always think, I actually DO work the week of spring break. Since I've worked at two universities, I've gotten asked more times then I can count: what are you doing for spring break? Answer: working

But we get a couple of days off, which was a nice surprise when I started here. No big party plans, but I plan to get some errands run, and get together with friends.

We've started working on the flowerbeds for the spring - we planted some new plants and mulched the backyard. We were going to work on the front yard this weekend, but will have to postpone until it isn't so cold and rainy. its been so long since it rained, it has been nice to see the rain....though I wish people would learn to drive in it, hoping too much I know.

Happy friday the 13th!