It's a monster

So, we have started to clean and organize the basement. It has been a huge mess due to all of the ongoing projects that we have been cranking on (with minimal cleaning time).

I picked up a pair of overalls and this giant monster fell out and ran away at about 58.7 mph. I screamed like a little girl...

Once my crying subsided, I grabbed a can of the most caustic chemical I own: gasket remover. This stuff is crazy.. you can see it bubbling on the cement.

I kid you not... this spider was ~3.5 inches in diameter (legs included) and it was fast.



I triple-dog-dare you to click on the above image.

(I can't shake the feeling that something is crawling up my back... I am going to have nightmares tonight.)

G Theif just sent a new photo... This one is boring.
Come on G-Theif, show me a photo of my Gnome speeding down the autobahn at 220km/h. Give me something interesting.


(P.S. does anyone recognize these shelves?)

G-Thief

So.. we just got another photo from G-Thief. I don't actually see our little guy in the photo.

The message read:

"we love our new friend!"

This is an enhanced photo of the reflection in the bar stool:

Gnomenapping!!

Recently one of our family has gone missing. Here is his photo:

I suspect this is a kidnapping as I have recently received this photo from gnome.snatcher586@gmail.com

Seems like he has been out boozing it up with his captors.

don't worry little garden warrior.... I'm gonna solve this mystery and bring you home!

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UPDATE: I just found the first photo that was sent by gnome.snatcher586@gmail.com a few weeks back:

Living room... it's done.

It's been so busy, I have been behind on my blog updates. The big news is that we have our living room all finished (including furniture and wall hangings). And, I have to say.. the living is easy.

Here are a few "before" images:

And, the finished product:

Here is our new leather chair. We bought it off some dude on CL. Seems to be new; he had some phony-bologna story about how his friends furniture store was going out of business blah blah.. we know it's stolen.. will you take 250$ for it?

Anyone who can incorporate a wrote-iron pipe into a wall hanging is super artsy (yes, that was left over from the stove install). The pic on the right I took in a royal palace in Germany (Perseus holding Medusa's head, a fountain of water pours from her severed jugulars), The pic in the middle is a sunset at Starvation Ridge (complete with reflection of our lamp), and on the right we have an all female hip-hop group tearing it up in San Jose (took this picture while down visiting Matt and Tonja.. see Matt's blog in the links to the left).

2 rescues.. one weekend.

We just got back from a quick Sunday trip out to Lake Union for some swimming and sun... We came upon a poor lone sailor that had flipped his HobeCat. With some clever rigging and an able-bodied deck hands (Adam, Tina, Kaci, and Katie) we were able to rig a tag line over the skyward side of this boat. With a hard tug from the bow cleat of MV Miss Behaven we were able to right his boat before his mast/sale were completely submerged.

It was actually a pretty adrenaline pumped situation as he was right in the middle of a high traffic area, we were working against the clock, and the water was pretty rough. But, we were able to "right" his situation like the salty dogs that we are.

Chalk up one more point for our boating kharma (since we didn't get any tequila for this one kharma will have to do).

Water skiing and a random rescue

Friday night we were invited to a water skiing run with some fellow Ballardites. They had recently installed a new outboard on there 60's Larson effectively doubling their horsepower. And, the best way to test a boats horsepower is to try and get a fat man up on a single plank. Apparently I am that man.

Here you can see the amount of water I displace as I try to get up. Luckily the transom held together. My body didn't fare as well... my back will take a few days to recover.

I did get up and rode for a few mintues until my legs gave up:

After a bunch of skiing we motored in for some refreshments at Ivar's Salmon house. Here the two fiberglassics are glowing with pride (MV Firecracker on the left and MV Miss Behaven on the right).

The crew:

We took our fish and chips out onto South Lake Union to enjoy the city skyline at night. It was amazing. Here is the best pic I could get on our rocking boat. But, after a beer or seven.. it basically looks like this anyway:

At about midnight we decided that it was time to head home. On our commute back through the Freemont channel a smallish Boston Whaler blasted by us, on plane, at about 25 knots. The speed limit in the channel is 7 knots. So, we cursed them as they flew by us.

Well.. low and behold, about 10 minutes later we get signalled (via flashlight) by a small boat in distress... turns out, it was the Boston Whaler and they had run out of fuel. So, we gave them a tow back to the yacht where they lived.

For our trouble we were given one bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold (complete with a round of shots on their yacht). It was cool to tour their big boat... just another adventure on the water. Also, we got to meet their salty sea cat, whose name we can't remember.

The living room project begins: masking tape is for sissies.

Last week we started the living room refinish. We are going to do it in a very similar fashion as the other rooms, but with a slightly different color. Here are some before pictures:

We decided on a greenish grey for the living room. The dining room is a blueish grey and we wanted something that would be complementary. Although these earth tones can seem a bit dark at times, they have great contrast with the trim, and will look even better once we have art hanging from the picture molding.

Here is a picture after many hours operating the brush and roller:

Next we start to hang trim. We have it all primed and ready to go.

One thing I learned during this painting session is that truly talented painters avoid masking tape at all cost. A co-worker of mine worked as a professional painter and showed me some brush handling techniques that allow the painter amazing control of the paint "bead".

First, he convinces me to buy the most expensive/best paint brush I can find. It is a tool after all and if you take care of it, it will last forever. And as we know, an artisan is only as good as his/her tools. Once you start utilizing more advanced brush control, a good brush is a must!

Basically, to get a good clean edge, you fan the brush out on an arching motion into the edge and then closely watch your paint bead and adjust the brush angle as you go.. I worked amazingly well... No bleed through that you always get with masking tape.

So, we used almost no masking tape on this room (only on the baseboard trim to hold the ground cloth in place). Most of my edges came out damn near perfect.

This edge was done with no tape:

Golf + Dirtbikes = Crazy Delicious

Had a great weekend. Shot my all-time best golf game (101) and hit Taneum from some epic dirt biking.

Nile Golf course:



Yes, she is T-ing off from the women's T-Box.


Riding at Taneum


A great viewpoint up at Taneum:


Motocross lunch:

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. Sent most of the weekend on MV Miss Behaven enjoying the spectacular weather. Boating in an urban environment can be really fun. There were tons of boats anchored in Lake Union (one of the only days a year that anchoring is allowed). There were some amazing boats and lots of excitement. We stayed in the lake from around 2pm-12am. It was a blast.

Here are a few photos:











I was killing myself trying to figure out a quick and easy way to get some music going on the boat. I looked at installing a stereo, but that would be pretty expensive and time consuming to install. If only someone made a modern day boom-box that was powered by massive li-ion batteries I would be set. Turns out, the tool company Milwaukee makes exactly that. This thing is worth every penny of it's cost. It is powered by a 18v Li-Ion drill batteries. We were able to blast MP3s for ~7 hours on one battery! It sounded amazing too. Great great little product.


A couple on the boat next to us had a wedding.



Now, I know you are wondering how the heck we stayed out on the boat for all that time without using a bathroom.. well, we had access to the worlds largest toilet. Here is a video of Adam using it:

MV Miss Behaven

This weekend marked our first urban boating excursion of the season. Tina's dad let us take out his 1964 Sabrecraft "Impella" 17' runabout. The boat is almost 100% original and gets tons of attention on the water. Here is a picture from last year:


The first time on the water after winter is always a little nerve-racking as you never know if the ol' motor (40hp Johnson Seahorse) is going to be happy after 6 months of sitting (although we go through a very thorough winterizing process).


After checking the spark plugs and changing the lower unit oil, we got the boat in the water at the Ballard launch. Now was the moment of truth (there were more than a few people watching). I set the choke and turned the key... RAHWRRRR.. she roars to life and kicks off the new season with an epic smoke cloud. This is due to the fogging oil we used in the motor when we winterized her.

We had an amazing day out on the water... but, unfortunately I forgot my damn camera. So, all I have to show is this cellphone pic of MV Miss Behaven parked at the Ivar's dock during our happy hour pit stop:

Finished!

Well, the last brush stroke has been layed upon the dining room. We are VERY happy to be done.

Monday Update

Well, we had to take a small break from the dining room to do a bit of yard work. Our goal is to fill up the yard waste bin every week, as the mystical yard is overgrown. So, one of our huge bushes got a hair cut:





We did manage to get two walls caulked today though!

We use masking tape to insure that the caulk lines are nice and straight:


Here is with no caulk:



Here is with caulk:


Notice how well it hides gaps etc... these old walls are so wavy, gaps are plentiful. Thank you caulk.