21/12/2012

Happy Winter Solstice & end of the 13th B'ak'tun


Gotta go. It's going to be snowing in the mountains today and we have to get over the pass.

Put a log on the fire.  Time to celebrate the end of the 13th b'ak'tun and...


Happy Winter Solstice!

20/12/2012

Michigan H. Frog & paper floor update

Even as the days grow colder, Michigan H. Frog, aka Henry, is still alive outside my window croaking. I'm amazed. God, I wish I could find the poor fellow and bring him in. He'd have to live in a terrarium but I'd make it comfy and he'd be warm.

We will be spending a couple of weeks in Oregon with the family. Thea Bella, being three years-old now and quite expert on her balance bike, gets a real bike this year. Amazon already delivered it but M. Lee will put it together when we get there. Mr. Leo, being two, is still working on his balance bike so we have some other new toys and warm duds for him and we have some stylish new threads for Baby Frank. As for the floor, the bedroom is done and looks great. We won't put the room back together until we get back. Then on to another section of the house. This is M. Lee's winter project. In the end, the front room will be an art studio which we will share. It's definitely worth the mess and wait.

Paper floor update. The first room is done and looks great.

Oh, and happy last day of the 13th b'ak'tun.


15/12/2012

Bathtub Bass, the rest of the story and paper floor update


Thea and G'pa's flute and bass jam

Remember that bass in my bathtub? It's finally gone. We sold it when we were in Portland this fall. With all that was going on with my granddaughter, I forgot to mention it  She's doing better now, btw. She's living at her mom's, has a new boyfriend and a job so we are keeping a good thought from here in the background. Growing up is hard and, I didn't realize it then but, oh man, the 20s suck!

Thea examining bass before sale

So, back to the bass. We sold it to a guy named Pete in Portland, Pete of Pete's Upright Bass Shop on S.E. Boise Street. Pete was the perfect guy to buy bass. We couldn't be happier. He's a musician in the full sense of the word. Music, and in particular the bass, is his love and way of life. So this is the end of long journey for the bass. M. Lee's dad bought it in Portland. We inherited it when he bought a smaller one and, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer, it lived in our bathtub for a number of years. Finally, and to our great relief, it's time in the desert has come to an end.


Testing testing testing


As for Project Paper Floor. It's going just fine, punctuated by occasional moments of, how do I say, great uncertainty. After all, he's not just slapping down tile or rolling out linoleum. Doing a paper floor is more like doing a life-size art installation. There is only so much anyone can read and trust me, M. Lee has read it all, before one has to take the inevitable leap off the cliff. Of course, he did a lot of tests first on plywood scraps to figure a few things out, proportions, which color paper to use, methods for applying the glue, whether or not to crumple the paper before dipping it in glue or just dip it. He pre-crumples.

The test case was our bathroom. It's the smallest room in the house but turned out to be the hardest due to all the angles. But it's done, including the 12 coats of polyurethane. It looks fantastic. Now he's working on the rest of the bathroom, bedroom and closet. So far so good. It's papered but not without some redoing to break up a couple of seams that developed due to laying paper on two separate days. That took some juggling but he fixed it. Today he'll polyurethane that, beginning with the closet where he'll experiment with using the roller. Applying 12 coats of urethane throughout the entire house with a paint bursh is just not something one does unless one has to. But hey. No matter what, the fucking carpet is gone! Okay. Gotta go. I'm mired in a solstice/xmas card project that I made waaaaaaaaay too complicated. I'm even making the envelopes. Madness! But they must go out today.


First room done and beautiful

12/12/2012

12.12.12 paper floor report

Mayan calendar

Happy 12.12.12.

The inter-tubes are strangely quiet these days about the upcoming End of the Mayan Calendar a.k.a. End of the World, Friday December 21, 2012. I guess people are a bit burnt out after all the uproar last year when May 21, 2011, otherwise known as Judgement Day, came and went. It was a huge letdown for the evangelical community who assured the world that the "Bible Guarantees It" . We saw the billboards all through Texas advertising it. Anyway, today being the only day this century that gets to be triple 12s, I had to post something so here's what's happening in my neck of the desert.

We are currently in an uproar here. M. Lee is in the process of tearing up all the carpet and all the linoleum in the house and replacing it with paper. Yes. Paper. As in découpage, papier-mâché aka paper mache. Mon Dieu! Paper? How is that possible?! No problemo. It will be under 12 coats of polyurethane.

Ingredients.

Quail taxi

10/12/2012

Henry update

I heard from a couple more scientists regarding Henry the frog but without a photo and a recording of his peculiar croaking no one is convinced he's a member of the endangered Rana sierrae and, even if he were, I don't know what they'd do besides add him to the footnotes. One guy from UCSB Life Sciences was pretty dismissive about the whole thing. Why write me at all? I don't think it's good science but that's his problem. Anyway, I heard Henry again today and sadly it seems he's growing weak. I went out again determined, again, to find him but I could not. I would give him a home indoors out of the cold but it looks like it's not to be.

04/12/2012

Sad story of my life these days

I haven't taken up Instagram yet but I photograph everything. It's bad.


03/12/2012

Henry the frog and the gangster cats


At this point, 95% of the Rana sierrae have died off.

To their credit, a couple of the scientists I contacted the other night about Henry the frog immediately wrote back. Of course, both asked for a photo but I don't have one so, for now anyway, that's that. I did see him once last spring. He looked just like the Rana sierrae in the photo and he sure sounds like one. But if he is, he's a ways from home. The Rana sierrae generally live in mountain ponds above 6000 feet but Henry is down here in the valley at 5000 ft. in my desert dirt back yard. And thanks for asking, Roy. If Henry resurfaces, you'll be among the first to know.

The gangster cats have left the building

But I do have some really GREAT NEWS. The gangster cats, scourge of the Bird Park, those furry assholes who ate baby quail like they were popcorn...are GONE. Their family finally finally loaded their crap up and moved away. A repair crew has been over there for the last week gutting and repairing the place. If the broken blinds in the front window and the perpetual mess they had in the front yard and on the porch are any indication, they must have left the house a wreck.