Marc and Morgan’s spot on the web

Memorial Day, a day off work, so I think I can squeeze out an update.  Finally.  We’re supposed to be in mid-BBQ by now, but had a few cancellations so Morgan, kids, and Maggie are out back and I’m computing.  Photo update later, for now just the words.  On the plus side, the house is nice and tidy.

I feel like I’ve been productive in what little free time I have – we splurged on a new laptop with our tax refund, so I sold our old one on ebay, as well as our old digital camera with the half-wonky screen; made and hung a swing on the tree out front last weekend, made a raised-bed garden out back which is showing initial signs of success with tomatoes and an assortment of other sprouts coming up.  My hops are coming back this year, let’s hope for success on them.

I’ve got a keg of hefeweizen sitting in the closet, waiting a few more weeks for Brian and Sonya’s wedding, plus 3 bottles of Mirror Mirror in the garage fridge to enjoy sometime in the distant future.  As Brian put it yesterday, we’re living in times of some of the best beer availability.  It’s an obsession, tracking new special releases, what might be available in Reno or not, tasting sessions with friends, stowing ultra precious bottles away to age or wait for the right occasion.  I love it.

My other favorite thing besides beer (coffee) also has developments to report – Grandpa Dave sent us a big drip coffee and espresso machine recently that we just put into service.  It’ll take a few pots to figure out just the right grind, amount, and setting for the perfect cup, but the iced espresso I had earlier put me into this weird “tired from antihistamines but feeling heart palpitations from the caffeine” state that I didn’t like very much.  I’m reaching equilibrium now, both substances wearing off a bit.

On other fronts, we seem to be battling sickness on a regular basis.  We thought Lola’s ear infection had passed, but more recently she had such a bad cough that it kept us all up most of the night, so we took her in.  She was diagnosed with asthma and put on a daily steroid mist treatment that’s not much fun.  And her ear was still infected, plus a hold in her eardrum.  She seems well enough, but we’re to see an ear-nose-throat specialist next week and get this all figured out.  Sid’s mostly well, except for some mystery diarrhea the last couple days that we have no clue about.  Me, just allergies kicking my butt with everything in bloom this time of year, thus the aforementioned antihistamines.

EcoReno continues to keep us busy, although we could certainly use more business.  We’ve more or less decided our biggest impediment to raging success right now (besides the generally poor climate for business everywhere) is location.  We get virtually no drop-in serendipitous walk-in traffic, so we might be looking at moving at some point.  We’ll see.  The people who do shop with us really do love our store and our merchandise, we just need more of them.  No big news otherwise, we just keep chugging along, looking for ways to grow and succeed.

My work continues to plod forward in a dismal situation – the library’s budget cut 36% means doing more work with a lot less.  No layoffs for now, but lots of vacancies that means everyone’s working harder.  Our hours are being cut at the end of next month, and my schedule will change, so the child care situation will need to change as well.  And then again in a few months when Sid’s sitter goes to nursing school.

Well, I guess I’ve been a computer hermit long enough.  Time to open a cold one and relax on the deck I hosed off earlier today.  Days off are good.

It was actually this article that prompted me to post this morning.  It’s fascinating to me that there are still pockets of human beings in the world who don’t know a thing about electricity, running water, cell phones, and the Internet.  Hard to believe that’s still possible in this day and age.

Aside from that, not a lot of news.  Kitty is adapting pretty well to her new surroundings, as are we to her.  We’re all over our bouts with some evil stomach virus (except, perhaps, for visiting Nana who may or may not have it now), and I’ve got a three day weekend with apparently beautiful weather in store.  Hopefully I can finally get the grass cut now that our stretch of rain is over and our garden is booming, including some great progress with my hop plants.

…on track, to work, to Reno, etc. The trip home was slightly eventful, Sidney vomited his way across the US, in Denver airport both in a restaurant, then on me. Then on Morgan in flight. Poor guy had a pretty upset stomach for about 24 hours, seems OK now. I’ll spare you the rest of the details.

In reviewing Michigan photos, I realized how long it’s been since I updated any albums around here. So while the bulk what I loaded is an album of Michigan trip photos, there are also a very few new ones in Sid’s album, Lola’s album, and the Miscellany album (of Morgan’s birthday cake and camping, I think is all). I’ve got a couple Sid videos to post as well, just out of time for now.  Not much else to say expect how much I dislike returning from vacation: to piles of laundry and mail, to an empty fridge, to work, to the usual routine grind.

With that, I’ll leave you with something fun; the artifact in the photo below was in the front yard of a house two doors down from Grandpa in Adrian. It stands about 4 feet tall. He told us what it was, so I know now. Do you? Guesses in the comments. Perhaps a prize for the right answer and/or most creative. I hope this isn’t easy. I sure had no idea. Click for full size.

It seems that Robin Bird may have been evicted from her nest or has moved out. We did find one cracked robin egg on the railing of the deck. There has been no sign of her. A new family has been seen brining in more debris to add to her old nest. They look like Mr and Mrs George Bird, but we are not sure it is them. There has been no activity around their nest. We hope that Robin has maybe just moved her eggs? Nature is an interesting thing.

When we moved into our lovely new home, one of the small selling points for me was a bird’s nest nestled in the eaves of the back deck. This spring, we all watched as Robin Bird attempted to build another nest in another nook of the deck. It didn’t go well for a while. We were left with large clumps of stuff scattered around. We weren’t sure if she knew what she was doing either. She tried in two or three different areas, never succeeding. About a week and half ago, she finally got her nest built. It happened rather quickly. Maybe she got some advice from a fellow bird. Anyway, I believe she has laid her eggs as she spends a lot of time laying in there watching the back door very cautiously.

In the old nest, Mr and Mrs George Bird have moved in. They have made some modifications and I even caught them stealing from Robin Bird’s nest! Their property looks a bit unkempt and really, well, ugly. No idea if they have laid their eggs yet. Maybe they feel that they need to add more?

Here are a few pictures:

Just a few minutes to catch up before heading to work, seems like lots to talk about here.

First, off it’s sort of spring birthday season around here.  Happy birthday to Lola’s Nana today, and last Friday to Morgan.  Had a nice little gathering Friday night here, followed by dinner out at Lulou’s on Saturday night.  Quite delicious, quite expensive.  I celebrated Morgan’s birthday by paying a visit to Reno’s first microbrewery, then picked up ingredients for a honey wheat beer I’m planning to brew and rhizomes to plant some hops out back.

Also speaking of birthdays, I just heard from an old friend (Bret for you out there who might remember him), announcing the birth of his daughter Evalina on Saturday night.  Congrats to Bret and his wife, welcome to Evalina.

In a recent spate of eco-activity around here, partially Earth Day inspired, partially coincidental, we’ve been purging some plastics around here to avoid bisphenol-A, and I’ve been ballparking solar systems.  Sort of dismayed to realize that just to offset about half of our electric consumption with solar, we’re looking at probably close to $20,000 up front, even after generous rebates.  So I dunno if that’s going to happen.  Might start with solar water heating.

Two final brief blurbs and then I’m out:

Sidney has two new teeth coming in.  Yay for teeth, but boo on the accompanying crankiness and how bad it makes him feel. 

Recent movies seen: No Country for Old Men – excellent, violent, tense, really enjoyed.  Juno – Excellent in all respects, story, characters, music, dialogue.  Totally loved it.

Seems like more and more posts around here are just dumping of “what’s on my mind” lately. Here’s another one. Just too much bobbing around in my head not to post some stuff, but too crazybusy to wax poetic about anything much.

• Heard a blurb on NPR this morning following the recent Starbucks annual shareholders’ meeting. Not particularly interested in the business/finance angles, but for coffee buffs like me, sounds like some interesting things ahead. This press release gives a pretty good rundown, but I’m particularly interested in the Clover brewing system. The quote from the CEO on the radio was along the lines of “I was in this (non Starbucks) coffee shop and they’re serving coffee for $7 a cup. And there’s a line. I’m not happy.” So he bought them out.
• In the finance department, we just wrapped up our refinance of the house. Bottom line: by my estimates, we’ll save $150,000 by refinancing to a 20-year 4.75% loan. And it’ll only cost us $9 more each month. I’m also going to open a 529 account for each of the kids, and Lola signed up for preschool today, so come FY2008-2009, I’ll have them start taking out some pre-tax dollars from my paycheck for that. Savings all around!
• I need to start brewing more. It’s a hobby I have a passion for, I can save money by brewing my own beer, and, well, it’s good beer. But dang, hops are getting expensive. Tina and Bart’s baby shower is this weekend, and I’ll be serving a homebrewed pale ale.
• March madness is here, so that, of course, means the annual library pool is on. Wish me luck!

Well, I guess that actually wasn’t much to say. Just felt like I had a lot on my mind. Happy birthday Pop!

P.S. This is funny.

OK, as promised, additional photos…click on them for larger versions.

Birds at our birdfeeder 

And a few from our afternoon BBQ at Ian and Sharon’s house, featuring dear Lola of course…

Well, I was going to just post a quick blurb that I put up a few new Sidney pics in his album and Lola pics in hers.  Then I was going to wait until later today to include a few pictures of birds at our birdfeeder and one of our new house in the margin.  Then Morgan convinced me to go ahead and toss something out right now…we leave for brunch in 45 minutes.

Around the house this weekend: Living room painted fabulously by Morgan in a nice shade of blue and one wall in chocolate brown (or mahogany as Home Depot calls it) , more painting to come tomorrow we hope; went to dinner at sister Sarah’s house in Truckee last night, BBQ at the Campbells’ house today; need to fill up the birdfeeder; selling some stuff on ebay; miscellaneous errands and such.  Nice to have three whole days.

So that’s it for this quick post, hopefully I’ll get back on with some other photos later today.

I am sitting in our driveway right now, while we are holding a garage sale. Here are the things that have ran through my mind this morning (and the last few minutes):

• Novelly house was much more convenient to have a sale. The driveway and yard held a lot more stuff and did not have a slant to deal with. Location there was much better than here. We are off the radar a bit. But we have a nice shady area to sit right inside the garage!
• With a newborn, you will need the extra help. I can’t put out much stuff while trying to feed a baby.
• It is hard to sell toys of the child who keeps running around taking them back into the house.
• Nobody should EVER give us pennies when buying something. Okay, maybe if you are five – but not a fifty cent item from an adult woman. They went right into Lola’s piggy bank.
• NO!!! The baby is not for sale – quit asking!
• I still think my stuff worth a bit more than Marc will let me mark it. This is an awful thing – I am the worst at bitching about people who mark their stuff too high.
• Get out of your car. It is a short walk to the driveway. Can you really see everything anyway? (I am guilty of this maneuver.)
• Nothing in the garage is for sale. After you ask, you can quit checking out stuff out. Makes me nervous.
• Lola is a great help in selling. I think people are just taken with her, “Good Morning!”
• I have had way too much coffee this morning.
• I should have countered $7 on the baker’s rack that I just sold.
• I was hoping that our neighbors would come out and meet us. This was part of my intention in having a garage sale after we moved.

I think I better go….my body is telling me that Sidney will want to eat soon. If you are reading this on Sat morning, get your arse over here and buy some of our stuff!