Artwork in the Living Room

This past week Er!c finished the large avocado painting for the living room (5' x 2.5'), and also finally mounted and framed the mandolin painting in a larger & nicer frame. We also recently got a little square paper lantern from IKEA to put on the entertainment cabinet.

Then & Now

Now that we've redone our front yard we thought we'd remind you what it use to look like. The first photo was taken when we bought the house, and the second photo is what it currently looks like.

Early March, 2006 ------- Late July, 2007 .

For more comparison photos
check out Jane11's photo blog

The New Front Yard!

This past weekend we decided to finally tackle the one project that we've kept putting off -- the front yard.

We rented a Bobcat for the weekend and dug up all the gravel from half of our driveway loop, and added it to the remaining side, making the main driveway thicker, and widening it in spots. To accomplish this we had to relocate our street lamp to the edge of our yard and raise the height of the water meter manhole cover.

Then we had to order a dump truck load of topsoil to fill in where the gravel driveway use to be. Although we had a Bobcat, we were unable to spread all of the dirt with it because rain showers earlier in the day had made the ground quite wet and muddy. So we ended up spreading the remaining 10-15 wheel barrel loads of topsoil by hand... exhausting!

Once the topsoil was in place we scattered grass seed and shredded bails of hay to protect the seeds.

And now we wait for grass... :)

Attack of The Towhee

This stupid bird has been faithfully attacking our house daily for at least 15 months now (as long as we've been living here). He shows up bright and early every morning to start his relentless barrage of pecking and scratching at the windows of our sun room -- perhaps he sees his reflection in the glass? Who knows. This pecking usually continues throughout the day and into the evenings (weather permitting). Video

We've tried various ways to discourage this behavior, but nothing seems to work. This is such a regular occurrence that Tofu even ignores him, however she does occasionally try to attack him through the glass (probably because she's so annoyed at the relentless rapping & tapping on her chamber window). . :)

I did a little research and discovered that the Eastern Towhee can live 4-6 years. . . *sigh*

Friday Night Sunset

Wow, we just witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets (this photo doesn't even come close to doing it justice). We jumped up and ran outside with the camera, and by the time I popped off 4 or 5 pictures it was gone!

As I type this, the evening sounds of crickets & cicadas, accompanying the quiet music we are listening to, wafts through the screen door, followed by a cool night breeze. It's nice to enjoy a nice peaceful evening at home.

I Can Has Tofuburger?

Here are some silly photos of Tofu being goofy with her favorite shoe... These photos are directly inspired by the hilarious cat photos at icanhascheezeburger.com. Enjoy. :)

4th of July, 2007

Wednesday morning Todd called and invited us to join him on a 2 hour forestry flight. We quickly finished our breakfast and headed over to the Collegedale Airport where we piled into the new Cessna 172. After leaving Collegedale we circled an aerial photography site while Jane11 got blasted by 100 mph wind from the open window. We then continued North almost to Kentucky, then turned around and headed back home. The trip was fairly uneventful - no forest fires.


After touching back down on dear ol' Terra Firma we swung by to check up on Grandma and her garden and deliver her a new hose and faucet. The garden is doing great! She's had to trim back her tomatoes because they were getting too big. She's been enjoying the green beans and cucumbers, and will soon have a crop of lima beans.


Then after eating lunch at Fazoli's we drove the short trip across town to visit Er!c's family. Trudi & Daniel were hosting a 4th of July pool party for their church at their house so there were LOTS of people there. Er!c's parents were also there. Gideon is now swimming very confidently in the pool, diving to the bottom and even jumping off the diving board. Galena let her uncle Er!c push her around in the little plastic car... :)

Oh yeah, this is the flag that our neighbor put up for us...

Photoshop Contest

This week Er!c decided to join the ongoing Photoshop contest at Worth1000.com. The topic was Dr. Seuss -- we were to illustrate one of the Dr. Seuss stories. Er!c chose the story Horton Hatches The Egg, and when the competition was over and all the votes were tallied Er!c had the first place prize (100 points).

• See all of the Dr. Seuss entries at Worth1000.com
• See more of Er!c's Recent Photoshop projects
• Watch Horton Hatches The Egg (video)
  

...And This Is Where I Work

Here are a couple photos of Jane11's office. Check out her personal blog for more details... :)

And here are a few photos of where Todd works... :)

Where I Work

Last week I took these photos of my office. For those of you who don't know, I (Er!c) work at a large, privately owned company doing video production & editing. I've been working here for 2 years now and thought I'd finally show you all where I spend most of my time. Unfortunately my office has no windows to the outside, but at least I can see out into the hall. Occasionally people walk past... I also have a lava lamp, and a 30" plasma monitor. . :)

Most of the work we do is for internal purposes only but sometimes we get an "outside" project. Several months ago we shot a 10-part series for Mark Finley.The recording studio is directly across the hall from my office (shown in the pictures above).