The holidays

I personally am glad the holidays are over. What it means to me is that I can begin saving money again. Since about 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving till yesterday, we have been hemorrhaging money. The lofty goals of future savings and debt reduction, complete with charts and graphs that hang on my bedroom wall, are filling out with a curve opposite of what I had intended. Obviously this grates on me as a man, because a man ought to be able to keep his fiscal house in order. In my mind, a man cannot be a proper man unless he can surplus his pay. So in this instance, I make me sad.

Now, although my money is gone, do not think that it has just gone to sports memorabilia and dual can sippy hats. In fact, I think it was well spent! We took part in a family reunion that occurs every two years in southern Utah. I think there were 46 people there, all siblings or immediate family of siblings.

We figured it was reasonable to go, me having just returned from deployment and all. Below are some pictures of us (some of us) crawling around rocks which Silas was sure was the back of a dragon. He wanted to wake it up so he could ride it or fight it or some such stuff that little boys think they want.

The picture of Janet was my fault. When I snap shots of her, it is usually immediately after a yawn or a sneeze, so she looks all weird. She says I will pay it back .

When we returned, we sank our money into enough tile to rid ourselves of that baby buns armegeddon laminate that has been the curse of our nasty kitchen. Over the course of a Saturday and Sunday, Janet and I rented the kids out to some local salt miners and threw ourselves into getting rid of the baby buns floor. We include the picture of the old floor in the kitchen for compare and contrast purposes.

Certainly that put a major dent into our efforts to make this house and property not look like a hobo's mouth skin any more. There was a remaining portion of cabinet hanging from a soffet where the coke and sugar bender chimpanzees had put it right in the middle of the kitchen. I stared at this interior design lunacy for two weeks solid, imagining the very best way to correct it and modernize it. I knew when to do, but I had only one me. For all of Janet's wonderful gifts that she brings to the table, sometimes carpentry and cabinet hanging are not among them. How to fix the problem and not have the kids begin humming "Skip a Rope," I did not know. But then came our dues ex machina! From seemingly nowhere, Tyson and Cat Martin and family arrived en route to Atlanta from New Hampshire. They just decided to stop in and we forced our hospitality (such as it is) on them. The Martin's are waging their own efforts in remodeling and admittedly doing better than we are. As Tyson and I were walking through the place surveying what I call "improvements," we came upon the chimpanzee cabinets. The dialogue went like this:

Jake: I will be taking these down sometime soon, moving them to THAT wall.

Tyson: When

Jake: Today?

Tyson: Let's get started.

And like that, out came hammers, screws, drills, a sledge hammer, and manly brawn and those cabinets did not stand a chance. Our women folk stood by admiringly, at times losing their breath and fainting into each others arms at our skills so cunning and sharp. Unfortunately, the ceiling became collateral damage and as such, we needed to guy-buy some more drywall. Me, being soft of mind occasionally, did not recall that ceiling drywall is 5/8" while wall gypsum board is 1/2" . I went ahead and had us purchase the latter, which was wrong.

That was alright because while passing the door section, we observed this gem for just $50. The Lowe's door associate said it was a display door, but was usually a $900 door. I do not think I believe him, but still, the door is beautiful and will add to the curb appeal. The current front door has rust on it and looks like it is growing warts under the paint. What's more, when we got home and finally placed it in the door frame (for practice sake), it fit perfectly. No need to reframe or trim, notwithstanding the house is nearly 30 years old. All hail square door frames!

Not to digress, but we went back and purchased more drywall (the proper 5/8" dimension), and still made it home for supper (which was flava-flav hamburgers made with Hollandaise sauce mixed in, served up on golden toasted french bread buns bought right out of the oven of my neighborhood Wal-mart and with my signature garlic pickles!). We came home, put the drywall into the ceiling, gorged ourselves like victors, and still had the wherewithal to watch Cat Martin's personal suggesting of BBC's "Sherlock (which I cannot recommend enough).

All in all, the holidays are not so bad, I guess. I just wish they were cheaper.

-JakeF