You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2008.
Gather round, children, and let us tell you a story.
Long, long ago…
Annoying Kid at Storytime: How long ago?
Um, a really long time ago.
AKAS: But how long ago was it?
It was April, okay? Back in April.
AKAS: Woooooaaahh. That's a long time ago.
Shush. We've been busy. So, a long, long time ago, in a blog far, far away…
AKAS: What blog?
What?
AKAS: What blog? And how far away was it?
This blog. It was this blog.
AKAS: Well, that doesn't make any sense. Why would you say "a blog" when you mean "this blog"? Besides, this blog isn't far, far away. It's right here.
Kid, you are going to need to sit down and shush. Okay?
AKAS: But…
Shush.
AKAS: Humph.
Where were we?
AKAS: You were…
SHUSH!
Okay, now, long, long ago in a blog far, far away, we promised to tell you about the office.
When we originally were thinking out the layout of the house, we planned for the little room at the top of the stairs to become the office. But it turned out that the universe had other plans for the room at the top of the stairs and those plans took priority.
But we still needed an office space.
AKAS: Why?
Because we have office-y things to do.
AKAS: Like what?
Like…things that need an office. Didn't we tell you to shush?
Anyway, we still needed an office space. So we turned our sights to the guest room. The bed that we have in there isn't a real bed, but is actually (much to the chagrin of our guests, we're sure) a futon. If we actually folded it up once in a while, then we would have room for the desk in there.
AKAS: What desk?
This desk.
AKAS: That's not a desk. That's a bunch of boards.
It does appear that way, yes. But this is actually a desk. You see, several years ago, Cherie found a funny little book called Nomadic Furniture that she gave Michael as a gift. Written in the 70s, it is full of furniture designs made of cheap materials that can be taken apart easily. Because in the 70s, people were freewheelin' and didn't wanted to be weighed down by antique hutches and heavy dining room tables. They needed furniture that they could throw in the back of the VW van and take to 'Frisco.
AKAS: What?
Just play along, kid. One of the pieces in that book was this desk. Made from a sheet of plywood, it used to sit in the den at our old house. Since we moved it's been in a pile behind the guest room door.
AKAS: That's not really a desk.
Oh really?
AKAS: It doesn't look like a desk…
Just wait.
AKAS:….
Yeah. That's what we thought.
Unfortunately, as you may or may not be able to tell from that photo, this desk is way too large to exist in that room along with a bookcase and a futon/bed.
But the good thing about furniture that's made of plywood and that has no screws, glue, or other kind of fastener is that if it's too large, you can just take it apart, saw it down to size, and put it back together again.
And then you'll have an office.
AKAS: Pretty.
We think so.
AKAS: Aren't you forgetting something?
What?
AKAS: You didn't say, "The End."
Oh, right.
The End.
AKAS: Thank you.
No problem.
This weekend turned into a bit of a motivational crisis for us when a forecast of rain turned into a beautiful, sunny weekend just perfect for shingling. Unfortunately we were only mentally prepared to park ourselves on the couch and watch the Olympics. What to do, what to do?
We are proud to say we sucked it up, strapped on our toolbelts, and shingled, but we did need to make ourselves feel better by coming up with the:
Top Ten Reasons Why Shingling Is Better Than Watching the Olympics
1) Shingling doesn't make Cherie feel like she wasted her entire youth.
2) Even with our excessive use of the chalk line, we use a lot less chalk than the gymnasts.
3) Finding the right shingle for a specific spot can be frustrating, but not as frustrating as trying to figure out the rules for handball.
4) Leaving the baby to entertain herself in a playpen under a tree while we are shingling somehow feels less neglectful than leaving the baby to entertain herself on the living room floor while we watch water polo.
5) When we are shingling, we get to concentrate on one thing for a good amount of time as opposed to watching the jumpy Olympics coverage which frequently results in one of us yelling at the television, "Could we just watch an entire event for once?"
6) No one cares about possible doping scandals in shingling.
7) Our shingling speed isn't clocked down to thousandths of a second.
8) Shingling is better for Annabel's self-esteem because we don't keep telling her things like, "You know, you'll never be an Olympic volleyball player if you don't learn to crawl."
9) As great as he is, Michael Phelps and all his gold medals won't help cut our heating bill next winter.
10) In shingling, bad sportmanship is allowed.
Hello?
Hello?
Anyone out there?
Wait…we are the ones who have been missing, haven't we?
Yes, yes we have been.
We have a few very good excuses for why we haven't been updating. You can pick your favorite or, if you are feeling particularly saucy, make any combination of the below:
1) All of the projects we've been working on have been rather small, rather scattered, and not all that exciting.
2) Our camera died and a houseblog without pictures is…dull. To say the least. (Though perhaps not as dull as a houseblog that is never updated.)
3) We've been just plain old busy.
4) We've been spending far too much time engaged in summer-y type activities, including drinking margaritas, going to barbecues, and visiting the local swimming hole.
There you have it: our pitiful excuses for being absent so long. But we would like to publicly declare that we are turning over a new leaf. Looking through our photos we have found all sorts of projects that we completed but haven't written about. Some of them are even interesting. So over the next few weeks we'll go back and fill you in.
As soon as we can pry Annabel away from that swimming hole, that is.
