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All posts for the month October, 2011

Harley Davidson Joins the Family

Posted by James on October 22, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , , , . 7 Comments

Today is the one year anniversary of Harley Coming home with us.

About a year ago we started searching for a dog. And not just any dog would do, but one with plenty of personality. A dog that just fit “us”.

After countless internet searches, and a fruitless afternoon with the North Texas Doberman Rescue….I found a post for a Female Doberman, Harley Davidson, that needed a home. Right away, her name struck a chord with me….But female? Never even considered a female… I poked my head in Jamies office, where he was typing away, and asked…”Would you consider a girl dog?”

“I don’t care….I just want a dog”….was the reply.

So I sent an email asking if she was still available to meet. But we weren’t the only ones interested in her. Apparently, she had about 6 other people ahead of us wanting to adopt her. Sara, the coordinator for North Texas Animal Rescue, asked me to send a longer email explaining a little bit about who we were and our experience with Dobermans….

Here is that email,

 

Hi Sara,Thanks for responding so quickly,

I had a Doberman for almost 11 years. Faust was a Warlock who grew to almost 130 intimidating pounds, but never knew that he wasn’t a lap dog. People would cross to the other side of the street at the sight of him when we were walking, but he would climb into bed with me and cry during thunderstorms. I got him from a breeder when he was just 8 weeks old, so we were together almost his entire life, and a quarter of mine. He was intelligent, protective, and loved everyone he met with the same sloppy gentle enthusiasm. Faust died last year after a battle with stomach cancer. He was, without a doubt, the best friend I ever had……

My partner and I are both mature (read: in our 40’s), have stable careers, and have been together about 4 years. We bought a new house 7 months ago and have been waiting until we were settled to find a dog to complete our family. Jamie, my partner, works from home and is here all day long.

I know that Dobermans can be large breeds, and have a large amount of energy. Having raised and trained a puppy, I can understand that they might be a bit much for some people to handle. We want to open our home to a Doberman that needs one. We would love to meet Harley and see if she is the right fit for our family. This is a big decision, and not one that I would ever rush into. Jamie doesn’t care what kind of dog we get; we both have big hearts and plenty of love to share with any new addition………..

But there will always be a special place in my heart for big loving Dobermans.

We both look forward to an opportunity to meet her,

Sincerely,

James Angus

After that email…Sara said that we went to the top of the list…

2 days later we went to “just meet” her ……The minute we saw her, with one floppy ear and one that sticks straight up, we knew that she was the perfect dog for us.

Our Entryway

Posted by James on October 12, 2011
Posted in: New Home. 1 Comment

First impressions are crucial.

The first impression walking into this house was a little dreary. There were odd little pony walls separating the entry from the dining area (We use it as a living room). And for some-odd reason the floor was the weird green-gold broken marble mosaic…Very 1973. Did I mention the sad little plastic lamp hanging from the yellow ceiling? And just what was up with a closet that was only 22 inches wide?

These things had to be solved, and solved fast.

Jamie thought I was kidding when I picked up a sledge-hammer and crow-bar at the Home Depot……He didn’t want to change a thing…But I was determined to take those weird little walls down.

It was Jamie who took the first swing with the sledge-hammer…While I was at work..I came home to find one wall missing.  Then we went at the other one . A few sheets of drywall later..Another box of (almost the same color) parquet……The plastic light fixture was replaced with 2 new recessed cans. Oh, and a couple of rolls of cork that I found on Amazon..The kind that teachers use in classrooms.

And our entry looks more like this…..

Yeppers!!!!! Way More Much Better……

Before We Lived Here

Posted by James on October 9, 2011
Posted in: Before We Lived Here, New Home. Tagged: . 1 Comment

We first saw this house on Trulia about a week before we saw it in person. We were pretty interested right away…and quickly added it to the 40 houses we planned on seeing the first day out. (Yeah, Right…like that was gunna happen all in one day) We loved the size of the open kitchen/living room, the large backyard with 2 car garage in the back of the house, and the “described-as” chef’s kitchen.  I think this was the 10th house we saw that Saturday in February…….and we went back later that day to see it again. We Knew…we just knew. Anyhoo…here are the original pictures from that Trulia listing…..

Guest Bathroom

Notice how there are no pictures of the master bathroom, for obvious reasons. We’ve come a long way since these photos were taken about a year and a half ago.

An Open Letter to a Thief……

Posted by James on October 8, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Leave a comment

Dear Sir, or even possibly Madam(although I don’t think a woman could lift it alone),

Maybe you are going through hard times, and the only way that you can feed your family is stealing.  It must be incredibly difficult to come home every night (after a long day of  standing on a street corner) and face your hungry family with only $3.00 in your pocket. I would imagine that your days start at about 5 am so that you can hit the recycling bins looking for cans that you can sell,  or be one of the first in the social services line for food stamps or rent assistance. Maybe your are about to lose your home because you are so behind in you mortgage, you haven’t had a job in over 16 months,  and you’re not sure where your family will live. Your sister and her kids have already taken in your cousin’s family, and wheelchair-bound father……and she only has 2 bedrooms. It must be incredibly difficult  imagining your family homeless, and living under an overpass on the highway. I can only empathize your  frustration, as you drive through middle-class neighborhoods looking for discarded metals that you can resell, and you see how fancy other people live .

” These people have everything so easy,” you think to yourself…..”with thier 15 year-old unairconditioned trucks, color televisions, and windows with intact, undamaged mini blinds”.

” There is no way that these people would ever have to save any of their hard-earned money for frivolous appliances,” you grumble to yourself.

 “I’ll bet they just go to a fancy-shamcy store like Home Depot and buy a $150 air compressor on a whim…hardly any thought to it all.”

“It is their own fault for taunting me with the alley-aimed  garage door open at 3 in the afternoon…and that shinney, year-old air compressor just beckoning to me from the very back of that jam-packed , yet still very well-organized, garage.” You imagine the tear-soaked faces of your starving children….and you go for it…

“Those Bourgeoisie Bastards will never miss it ! They have everything so easy”, “Just look at that lawn mower that propels itself”. You explode with emotion, because they have so much…and you , so little.

“I can pawn this for $30 , and we can all eat at McDonald’s for the whole week”, you shake with excitement,  imagining filling your children’s little bellies with cheeseburgers.

“I know that my Lord will forgive me on judgement day”, you think;  it’s not that you wanted to take our air-compressor……but you HAD to.

Maybe, just maybe, this is how it all played out……..or maybe you’re just a piece of crap who steals from other people………

Texas State Fair 2011

Posted by James on October 5, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

The last week of September is the start the State Fair of Texas, and I haven’t missed going to one for the past 15 years now. After we have spent all day gorging ourselves on deep-fried PB&Js, jalapeno-cheese corny dogs, roasted corn, and warmish beer…. we head to the very back of the midway to ride the Crazy Mouse. It’s a rickety, colorful small-ish roller coaster that has been in the same place for as long as I can remember. When I was a teen, I had the energy to try all the swirly mechanical amusements, but now that I’m older, this is the only one that I can stomach. It’s also the only one at the fair where they take a digital picture just as the car drops. I ALWAYS buy this picture……I love the sheer joy that we undoubtedly seem to have on our faces just as we fall 4 stories…..and how we look sick and excited at the same time.

Usually it is near dusk by the time we have headed to the Crazy Mouse and the early October sunset streaks the sky with orange and pink behind us. Other times it is at night and the colors seem unnaturally bright from the carnival lights all around. This picture is right in between both of those moments…..

When you come in the front door of our house, the wall immediately on the left is covered in photos (vacations, old family pictures……and several of these roller coaster images……)

I can hear the laughter every time I look at them.

The Ceramic Doberman

Posted by James on October 5, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

Occasionally I see something in a junk shop that I have to have…even though I have no place/need for it . ( see compulsive organized-hoarder ) This guy was one of those things.

I know!! Isn’t he just crazy cool? Not really sure why I would need a 3 foot tall ceramic Doberman when we have the real thing constantly demanding our attention already….but I just did.

Dig these crazy demon eyes …that I am hoping someone customized him with…..

All those little chips make him pretty spooky as well. Unfortunately, he has a small hole in his belly right next to his male genitalia.

No worries, pretty sure that is why he was so cheap. I just hot-glued a piece of cardboard behind the hole and then filled it in with spackle from a squeeze tube. A quick sand, and he was ready to go. It was actually the same process as patching a hole in the wall…..and I have done quite a few of those in the past year.

I always keep black spray paint in the house for emergency black spray paint situations….and TA DA!!!

Something about the matt black and those pointy ears that reminds me of Batman. Not quite sure what we will do with him….except tie a bow tie around his neck……for fancy occasions.

Autumn Wreath

Posted by James on October 3, 2011
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , . 5 Comments

For some reason, I thought that I could go to a craft store and just buy a simple, some-what modern looking  wreath for our front door. It’s never that simple…….Everything they were selling was plastic and round. I wanted a thick, chunky square with natural looking leaves. So I just had to make my own…..

I couldn’t find a square wreath form, only round. So I picked up a solid block of styrafoam….it was 15 by 12 , and about 2 inches thick.

Pretty easy to cut it into approximate 3 inch by 12 inch pieces…..I used a bread knife. Then a hot glue gun to attach them in a perfect square.

After a 3 store search, I found freeze-dried autumn leaves. Not silk or plastic. At one time these were actually growing on trees. I can’t say that these colors are natural, but the leaves are soft enough to bend and mold. I wanted mostly orange…and could only find mostly red. This actually worked out great because the orange would have disappeared against the orange front door. At 3 bucks a package , I bought 5.

I snipped the branch off the end, and twisted floral wire around the middle of each branch. Then wrapped the wire around the wreath form. The trick is to make sure the leaves are all going  in the same direction….This helps keep the square shape…..

Because I wanted to see mostly orange, I started with the red and layered the orange over them.  After I used all the big branches, I hot glued all the extra single leaves in the spaces where I could see the green foam. Pretty simple to do …..

In about 30 minutes, and with about 25 bucks, I had exactly what I wanted. The whole thing weighs about 3 ounces and is hanging on a freaking thumb tack.

Somebody should sell these things online…………………

Disappearing Outlet

Posted by James on October 3, 2011
Posted in: New Home. 1 Comment

For some reason there is an outlet in the middle of the wall on the right of the fireplace where the previous owner had his TV. Our television is on the other side of the room, so I can watch it while I’m in the kitchen cooking. I have intended on having our electrician move it lower on the wall, because it is the perfect place to plug-in the vacum….Unfornatutely, it sits right above the water connection for the washing machine in the garage on the other side of the wall. Pretty sure that an electrical outlet underneath a water source is a not so good idea. If I can’t move it or re-move it …. What can I do? I’ll tell ya…Make it disappear. With paint

 

and now you don't !!!!!!

Now you see it........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So other than the slightly wet paint….making it a little off-color, it looks way so much more better.