As soon as I can get my ass out of work today I'm walking down to the lake and dropping line in. It's amazing how 90° can feel refreshing after a few days of 105°.
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Just got some powerblock dumbbells. It's leg/posterior chain day and then I get to drink beer! Looking forward to my Munich Dunkel on tap. I'll post a pic of the beer when I finally pour it!
Here's the pic:
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I got lucky. I've been trolling DC area Craigslist for 3 months to find a good deal and someone happened to be selling at a price I was good with and I hopped on it.
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Changing the light fixtures, towel racks, faucets, drawer and cabinet pulls, as well as grouting around the door jams, in the master bath. If that goes well I may get around to replacing some rotting deck steps. Either way will drink a bit, hopefully around a late night fire at a fellow hokie's pool.
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No chow chow. This round of pickles had cucumbers, okra, squash, and zucchini. I wish I had had some jalapeños to throw in. But, no such luck.
These are two parts water, one part vinegar, salt, Garlic, cayenne, dill, and a bit of crushed red pepper.
I tried my first round of sour pickles last year. They were ok, but not great.
Biggest key to success I've found is making sure everything is submerged in brine. If it's not, you're going to have mushy pickles.
Also, there are pickling type cucumbers. Slicing cucumbers have higher water content; depending on type of pickle you're doing, that can make a difference.
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Thanks for the input. I can watch 1000 videos, but I feel like I get more out of asking folks how they do it then develop my own take on it. I got okra, banana peppers, squash, jalepenos, and zucchini I'm thinking of working with soon.
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Yard work before it got too hot. Walking down to the lake to drink beers and do a small bit of fishing. Maybe take a nap if the wife doesn't fall asleep in the hammock first down there. Possibly take the horses for a ride depending on how many folks are around the lake today.
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Finishing up 9 days of camping at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Currently at Mispillion River Brewing. Beach later this afternoon. Headed home to NJ tomorrow.
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You were able to get the fitted sheet on etc at 7? Our girls even the 5 year old can make their bed after they wake up but none of them can "make" the bed after bedding is washed. They can't lift up the mattress to put the fitted sheet on or tuck in the top sheet and blankets.
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Got the app on the phone to drink at the lake. I fell asleep on Thursday. Just can't hang for all night races anymore. I'm sure you'll be watching the Kansas action too.
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I couldn't make it through the one Thursday night. It's hard to watch a whole race after an entire day of work outside in the 100° heat. And I'm not immune to the monotony of it on TV sometimes; east to pass out.
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Buy a quality pipe. Peterson's makes good ones. Probably run you 50 bucks or more, but they smoke better and last longer. If you'll be using it a lot, buy two and rotate them. If you can find a tobacconist locally, just ask and someone on staff should be able to get you set up.
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Purchase a corncob pipe from Missouri Meerchaum. Corncob pipes are inexpensive (that way if you end up not sticking with it, you haven't invested too much), easy to smoke, and they don't ghost easily. Even guys who've been smoking for decades have a corncob pipe in their rotation.
Purchase the best selling pipe tobacco: Lane Limited 1-Q. It's a fairly easy tobacco to smoke, it's mild, and a good one to learn on. I have some favorite tobaccos if you ever get to a place where you want some recommendations, but that's where I'd begin.
Lastly, stick with it. It takes a while to learn how to pack your pipe, how to light the tobacco, and how to keep it burning. It's an art.
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Mama Crocketts and Brugh Coffee for breakfast in Cburg. Drove to Claytor. Too crowded to feel like staying would be a responsible decision. Drove all the way back to Craig Creek at a little spot we like to take the kids. Due to drought, wasn't much water, but enough for two hours of catching crawdads and wading around. Kids enjoyed it I think. Now just relaxing and trying to decide if I should drink a few beers or not.
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Ended up teaching my son the art of grilling steaks, while I alternated between regular lattes and apple lattes most of the evening. Girls were gone, so me and the boy enjoyed a rare (so very rare) quiet evening at the house.
I should pay the girls to go out more often. Well worth it.
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Took the top and the doors off the Jeep and went out to the lake for a bit. Fun times. Got home just in time before a monster thunderstorm set in which would have sucked to get caught driving in. Going to just chill and switch back between playing EVE and Final Fantasy VII Remake for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow is going to look a whole lot like grouting the kitchen tile with the girlfriend. Also our new dishwasher is supposed to arrive this weekend. This kitchen renovation is so, so close to being finished.
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I wish you better luck with the dishwasher than I had with mine recently. We moved in last summer and taking out the old dishwasher was quite the task because the kitchen had been remodeled after it was installed. Part of that remodeling included adding a tile floor, and the tile is about 1/2 inch thick, so there was zero clearance to get the old dishwasher out. I had to take a hacksaw to the feet, and then disassemble every possible piece. There was no way to salvage that dishwasher for any possible future use.
Of course this also meant that we had zero wiggle room for the new dishwasher to go in, so we had to get a bit creative to get it in place without damage. As it is, due to the tile buildup, I wasn't able to attach the piece at the bottom that's supposed to cover the feet and other hanging parts.
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So. At least you HAVE a dishwasher. Ours never arrived on Saturday and while I certainly understand that stuff happens and needs to be rescheduled, no one ever bothered to call us to let us know. Now I'm waiting out the 24 hours that Lowe's customer care said it would take for someone at the store level to call me back. It's been 23.5 hours so I'm guessing I'll be calling AGAIN. At this point, I don't even want to have it delivered, I'll go pick it up that the store, I just need to know which local store was supposed to be delivering it.
Edit to add:
Your kitchen sounds a lot like ours before we tore everything down to the studs. So much sketchy wiring. We're talking someone spliced dollar store extension cords with electrical tape and stuck them down in the wall in what we suspect was an poor man's attempt at under cabinet wiring. All of the sketchy stuff has been torn out and properly terminated but if I met one of the previous owners on the street and knew who there were, I might attempt bodily harm.
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i gave up on lowes during our covid renovation after they sent us a flatbed truck containing a single 4x4 and no indication of when the rest of our items would arrive, 2 weeks after our order. They also charged us an additional $500 dollars for no good reason
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Similar experience here. Their online system said they had the lights we wanted on aisle x, bin, y with 6 in stock. Got there, and they were not there. Asked an employee, they looked on their system ,told me look in Aisle x, bin y. I said I looked there and could not find it. The acted all irritated and went to show me, could not find them either, and said "I guess we don't have it" and walked away. Then I ordered a replacement spigot core when the outside faucet would not turn off, 4 hours later they sent an email saying to pick it up in store, and then when got there said it was out of stock. Two weeks later Lowes started leaving voicemails saying I could pick it up. Also ordered some faucets for the recent bathroom remodel (see above), and they delayed and delayed and then cancelled, so instead of the plumber doing it when here for the shower, we ordered from somewhere else, got in 3 days, and I had to install. Neighbor ordered some wood delivered to replace deck boards, gave a six hour window to deliver, and never came or called. Three days later they came home from work and it was blocking their driveway, and so badly warped a quarter of it had to be returned in store, which required borrowing a trailer. Not shopping there anymore. If ACE doesn't have it I'll drive 20 minutes to Home Depot.
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For me the issue isn't so much that it's been delayed, although I am annoyed by that as well, it's the lack of communication. I've placed some pretty significant online orders with Lowe's and Home Depot throughout this renovation process and Home Depot has them beat in every aspect. They fill my orders in a timely manner and they communicate with me if there is an issue. The delivery guys with HD even called me when they had my order of drywall to ask where I wanted them to leave it and rain was in the forecast that day and they left it wrapped in a plastic sheet so none of it was ruined by the time I got home. Now that I'm thinking about it, every single order I've placed online with Lowe's has had some sort of issue with it 🤦♀️
Shocker, but I never received a phone call this morning from the store, so I guess now I get to spend my lunch break on hold waiting for someone to pick up the damn phone to give me some explanation as to what is going on. 15 minutes and counting right now. Am I going to have to become a Karen to get my dishwasher? I hate to do that because I work in a service industry myself, but I'm beginning to get fed up and being polite isn't getting me anywhere.
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Pro tip: Tweet on their page blasting them. Gets their attention pretty quickly. Well, I say quickly...it's quicker than "normal" for them. They delivered a dented washer to us a few months ago. Twitter got me a response in an hour.
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I'm not saying Lowes didn't fuck up because they did, but maybe cut them a little slack? My dad works for Lowes as a retirement gig (partly to keep busy and partly b/c my mom screwed him over and he can't not work). He's 70 and has COPD. Lowe's knew he was at risk of catching Covid and said if a doctor would sign off, he could have 1 month paid Covid time off. They have extended that to 3 months! My brothers and I were so thankful because he needed the money, but was also at a high risk.
TL;DR: Just like every other retailer, Lowe's has their share of fuckups, but they are actually a decent company that treats their employees well.
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Like I said, my complaint is that there has been zero communication throughout this that I didn't initiate myself. If they had called on Saturday and said hey, our deliveries are backed up because of COVID, that would have been fine and I would have been gracious and understanding about it. But instead it's been empty promises or outright being hung up on after I was on hold for an hour, gave the employee my order number and then nothing. Plus, they've charged my card at this point. So while I'm grateful for your dad's sake that he is getting taken care of by his company, all I'm asking for is a little bit of communication from them.
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Summer cleaning, feeling nice to declutter the house. Took two bed loads to goodwill today. Got thai food on the way and going to kick the kids asses in a water gun fight after dinner
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- Watched woodturning and epoxy resin on YouTube. Edit: Forgot that I also watched antique restoration by talented YouTubers.
- Washed the truck since it was dirty from driving in the yard, pollen, and hauling three load of free leaves giveaway courtesy of the Town of Christiansburg
Tomorrow, TBD.
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Filmed church (uploading now), had some social distant beers outside with people for the first time in what seems like years and prepping for virtual board game night.
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Getting things prepped for going to OBX for Aug 1 through 8. Trying to find out which restaurants have outdoor seating and how things are working down there this year. We plan to make sandwiches on the beach every day (I am smoking chicken and beef for sandwich meat and cutting thin on the meat slicer). Other than that we will be ordering take out most likely. Going to try to go out for dinner for LancerHokie's and my anniversary but this is going to be a play things by ear vacation this year.
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We are being boring and cleaning and such before we go to the beach next week (Halle-fricking-lujah I need to get out of the house/need some salt air). Hubby is smoking some ribs to go with the mac and cheese I made. And HOPEFULLY our deck is one step closer to being finished tomorrow. Getting the deck redone was completely necessary and it will be awesome when it gets done. But I swear, this project is slower than downloading something on dial-up.....
In addition to the house stuff, I will most likely read at least part (if not the whole thing) of my 7th book of the month.... I may or may not be a nerd....
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Any pictures? That is one of the NPs I have not been to that I really want to go see. My favorite is Grand Teton. So many good ones though. Yellowstone, Rainier, Shenandoah, Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Arcadia, Japser in Canada, and Banff in Canada all real good. Would like to get back to Rocky Mountain and Gates of the Arctic too as I only saw a tiny bit of them.
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It was a perfect day and the lake was awesome. I'd probably wouldn't go back since it is pretty small and you can do it all in one day.
I'm incredibly jealous of the all parks you've gone too. Gates of the Artic is an absolute bucket list dream. This was only my third park. I've done Crater, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. Of that small sample, Teton is my favorite too. Jenny lake was next level gorgeous. Any other ones you recommend hitting up next?
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That's absolutely gorgeous. just so awesome and such a clear clear day.
Acadia and Mt Rainer are both incredible in their own ways.
My brother and I have a week in WY to do Grand Teton and Yellowstone next month -- can't friggn wait. When we did Mt Hood in 2017, it was during the time when the wildfires were in the area and everything was ashy and smoky and we could barely see the mountain, let alone breathe easily.
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Sweet! The lower hike around Jenny Lake plus the spur route up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point is my #1 favorite hike anywhere. Had to think about it and I've been to 15 that I remember. As mentioned, Grand Teton is my favorite. Yellowstone might be second. Of the ones you have not been to, I'd suggest Glacier, Jasper (Canada), and Acadia. But they are all good in their own way. Brief synopsis of my thoughts below. You may have totally different interests, but I like scenery with green and mountains with snow. Wildlife is secondary. Not a huge fan of dry areas.
Acadia - Really pretty scenes of the ocean, good hiking, especially Cadillac Mountain, lots of blueberries in season. Small and can do easily in a weekend. Badlands - One of my least favorite. Was pretty and majestic, but hot and dry landscape.
Banff (Canada) - Only saw a tiny bit of it. Wife grew up in Western Canada and she said Jasper is much better as Banff is more crowded and commercial.
Denali - Was good. Could not see the McKinley/Denali as it was clouded over (which it usually is). A lot of tundra and quite stark. Only had a day there, so did not get to explore in detail.
Gates of the Arctic - Stark and open tundra. Minimal vegetation. Did start to see the caribou around here. Really fun going up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. Tons of wildlife along the way. Caribou, moose, musk ox, arctic fox ... not all of in in the park, but on the trip from Fairbanks up to Prudhoe Bay. Glacier - Was told by multiple people this is better than Grand Teton. Unfortunately, there were a lot of fires when I was there and a big chunk of the park was closed. Did enjoy the hiking and the scenery. Want to go back to see more of it.
Grand Canyon - certainly is spectacular, but the dry climate and lack of green makes it lower on my list than for most. Of course, you may feel totally differently, so don't let my personal bias detract from it.
Grand Teton - My #1 park, but you have already been there. Best scenery anywhere with the mountains and the lake. Not too much wildlife, though did get my first bear there (walking on the trail right in front of us). Jasper (Canada) - My wife's #1. Great scenery with mountains, lakes and rivers. Good hiking, some wildlife, just all around beautiful. Kenai Fjords - my favorite of the 3 in Alaska. Glaciers, bears, eagles, good hiking, greenery.
Mount Rainier - Good hiking, wonderful food at the one lodge we ate at. Not too crowded. Pretty scenery, though others are more majestic. Really solid all around and worth a trip.
North Cascades - Not much in the way a views. Very quiet. One of the least visited parks, so good to get away from people on long hikes and backpacking. Dense forest is nice.
Rocky Mountain - Did not spend much time here, so hard to say much. Was good and would like to go back and spend more time.
Shenandoah - Not as spectacular/majestic as the places out west, but very pretty. Lots of good hikes and good views, but can be crowded at times. Personal link as we spent part of our honeymoon there and will always have the memories. Lots of birds and seen several bears.
Yellowstone - One of my favorite and my wife's #1 US park, but you have been there. Tons of wildlife, all the geothermal features, good scenery and good hiking. Cam be crowded.
Honorable mentions that are not National Parks:
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern MN is awesome. More for canoe and kayak trips.
The trip from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay with Northern Alaska Tour Company (we are not tour group people, but it is a real hassle to go up the Dalton Highway on your own).
Delaware Water Gap in NJ/PA. As a kid I thought it was the prettiest place I had ever seen.
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I did one of the land/sea cruises last summer in Alaska and it was phenomenal. If you want to hit some of those parks in Alaska its a great way to go (provided there's no global pandemic occurring).
We were very fortunate that the last day we were at Denali we woke up that morning and the mountain was visible for the first time. I remember seeing all the mountains around and thinking "that must be it". And then the morning we saw the mountain, it was so much bigger than all the surrounding mountains, I was absolutely just blown away.
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Glacier...for real is tops. Not so good this year as the east side will probably be closed the entire season which means the western half will be packed. I'm planning a trip in August for Yellowstone and glacier (since I live in Arizona I'm doing this for my own sanity as it's just way too hot during the summer).
Anyone been to both Olympic and Acadia? I don't rate Acadia in the same league as Olympic as Acadia is small, crowded and generally too touristy...whilst Olympic is wild, huge and incredibly diverse...interested in others' opinions on these two parks.
Certainly jealous of those that have been to the parks in AK, that's a dream road trip for me.
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Super fluid right now as I'm still on the east coast and flying back to AZ on Friday. Need to do research on campsites in the park but it looks like something may be available mid-late next week in the canyon area (l plan on camping). There is NOTHING available in glacier. My buddy and I may still chance it anyway as it's "only" a two day drive. We plan on doing some proper hikes like electric peak and specimen ridge? If you are there it would be epic to meet in person as we've interacted on the EPL and UCL threads. Let me know!
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You are welcome Cinci Hokie. Hopefully you can get to many of them. Several others have mentioned Olympic, and I've heard good things about it, but never been there myself so cannot say. Same with Yosemite.
You mentioned Gates of the Arctic was a bucket list item, and I'd have to say it is worth it just to be able to say that you actually went there. Years ago on the NPS site for it, they had these little blurbs describing the park in spring, summer, fall and winter and what to expect. Had paragraphs for 3 of the seasons. The description for winter was a single, 3 word, sentence:
"Winters are extreme."
Said nothing else about it. Cracked me up reading that.
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I love Acadia. Growing up it was one of the closest parks I could get too.
If there, make sure you pack your passport and go over to Roosevelt Island and Campabello. The Franklin Roosevelt home has been turned into a International Park (as it was kind of complicated having a US park in Canada).
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So I'm here to tell you that you probably don't need to do all that much to put your house on the market with the way things are in the triangle right now. I've processed so many mortgage pre-approvals in the past 6-9 months and have only gotten a contract back from maybe one of them because the rest just can't get under contract for anything because it's so competitive right now. I hope you're already under contract for the next house, assuming you're staying in the area, because that's just about the only way to do it right now.
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Same here is southern NJ. Any house that stays on the market for more than a week or so is way over-priced or has some problems. We put a bid on a house that was on the market for (I think) 2 days. Offered $5,000 more than they listed it for. Were outbid.
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Same for me in Dallas, I am closing on my new house this weekend and i was lucky to get the contract done end of June. Houses are on the market here for like 3-4 days. 3% and lower rates will do that.
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I think it depends largely on your price range, but around here, if you're looking between $200k - $400k, unless you are willing to move way out into the sticks and wait for a new construction to be finished in 6-9 months, you better be coming to the table with a cash offer. It's nuts. And of course everyone and their mother is coming in to refinance right now and our underwriting department keeps whining to us about how overwhelmed they are. Guess how much sympathy branch employees have for underwriting considering we literally underwrite the files before we submit them. They are just checking them for completion before sending them on. We do all that in addition to the fact that our branch lobbies are open to the public and we risk exposure to COVID with every person that comes in the door, but please do go on about how busy you are in your isolated back office 🤬
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Roof needs to be replaced (literal hole in it where we can see shingles through the plywood), so there is definitely a little work we need to do. Also need to empty it out a bit to make it effectively look staged while we are living there as well as doing some cheap odds and ends outside to clean it up to maximize value.
But yeah current plan is to get our house in order, that'll probably take a week. And then wait to find the right house, and once we have an offer accepted, put ours on the market. Already met with a realtor and it's unlikely ours stays on the market for longer than a weekend, even at the top of the comparables range.
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No doubt. We decantered it and everything but perhaps we should've waited longer for it to mellow out before drinking. I've had CDP before in wine tastings and they've always been excellent, but not this time around.
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I've never heard of needing to breathe a few hours in a decanter. But to answer your original question no we didn't let it breathe too much in the decanter before we started drinking it. We probably drank it over the course of 30-45 minutes FWIW, so I assume that's decent amount of time in the decanter to breathe.
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I once gave an internal seminar at work about how much adverse event reporting sucked. Used MD 20/20 as a prop for it. By the way, there are some hilarious descriptions of MD 20/20 and other terrible vintages at a website called Bum Wines. Took a swig of it right before the "as majestic as the cascading waters of a drainpipe" image, which I incorporated into the presentation. Link below.
The vast majority of red wines benefit from 3-10+ years of aging in the bottle. Decanting an hour (I recommend several hours if you have the time) beforehand will open up and soften the wine, letting the tannins to subside a bit and the fruit to come out. Next time, try a sip right after opening, then decant for at least an hour. There will be a demonstrable difference in the wine, and for the better.
Sorry, I'm a big wine guy, and have been collecting, hosting wine tasting dinners, and of course drinking for many, many years. It's more of a passion than a hobby. I even owned a very small piece of a winery out in Lodi while they were in the developmental stage.
And, as per the remark below, I had my share of Mad Dog, Boone's Farm, and Richard's Wild Irish Rose in high school. I even used to keep a bottle of Andre Cold Duck in my dorm fridge at Miles back in the mid-late 70's. Somehow I survived that period and began learning and collecting in the late 80's.
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Decanting an hour (I recommend several hours if you have the time) beforehand will open up and soften the wine, letting the tannins to subside a bit and the fruit to come out.
Don't disagree with this. I was questioning letting wine breathe for several hours in a decanter. The whole point of a decanter is the larger surface area will speed up the oxidization process thereby not needing to decanter for an hour (or several hours). I can see hour / several hours required if you kept the wine in the bottle itself.
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It's definitely an inexact science, and also a matter of individual taste. I generally go for the longer decant as I prefer more mature wines, and in all my time have had only 1-2 go 'flat' because of that. I had a 20-year old Brunello last week that was absolutely singing after 3 hours in the decanter.
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Yeah I was a bit scared to leave a $70 bottle in a decanter for more than 20 minutes as I feel that it might just make the bottle flat and be a waste of time, but maybe i'll work my way to that with some cheap bordeaux and find what the right point is.
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You will be absolutely fine leaving any bottle in the decanter for more than 20 minutes. Yesterday, I opened a 2016 Beaucastel Cotes-du-Rhone in the morning before work, then decanted half of it when I got home while I played some golf. A couple of hours later, it was great. Still a little young, and will be even better in a few years. A great $20 bottle if you can find it.
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I generally like Rhones as i feel they can be (relatively) easily drunk right out of the bottle. Usually I get whatever $15 dollar French I can find at Total wine.
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Awesome. I drink Italians probably 75% of the time, the Sangiovese grape is so food-friendly and the QPR is so much better than just about anything coming out of CA.
Ya drink what ya like. As long as you're drinking. Cheers!
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Where on the Cape are you? I just wrapped up a week in Harwich Port visiting my uncle and it's been hot (by Cape standards)...I visit most years but this shit is ridiculous! Great place to live year-round, I'm sure...been coming here since the mid 80s.
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Harwich Port is nice! I live in Sandwich, still work in Hyannis. I've lived up here since 1996, although I still consider myself a Virginia boy.
Yes, it's been unusually hot the past few weeks, but I'll take it. I assume that when you're up here you are tied up with family, but if you want to meet up for a beer or a round of golf let me know.
I see you're in Tucson now? My two oldest kids from my first marriage (to a Hokie girl) pretty much grew up there, and went to Sabino High. My daughter, who is visiting tomorrow with my grandson & her fiance, is up in Tempe now.
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I live a couple of miles from Sabino...small world. Driving back to NOVA today and flying back on Friday so that's the Cape for me this year. I'll keep you in mind for future trips, thanks for the offer.
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Cut down a tree in the yard that I still have no clue how it got there. It wasnt there when we bought the house. I was kind of there last year if I remember, but this year it was 2 stories tall and right up against the house.
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Cutting out and replacing sealant in showers. Fix leaky hose bib. Install doorbell and transformer. Replace shower drain. And use the Sous Vide that my parents gave me that they never used.
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18 yesterday, 18 today, 18 tomorrow. A great outdoor cook-out at a friend's house tonight. Beach & lobster rolls tomorrow afternoon after golf. Weather is great here right now.
Enjoy life...
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My pandemic weekends have largely consisted of movies and beer (this is normal), and European soccer. So this one so far has been much of the same. I've been golfing as well, but I often play 9 in the afternoons on weekdays as it's much cheaper and you usually don't need a tee time where I'm at. My parents live on the lake so I have spent some long days wakesurfing as well but not sure that will be on the agenda this weekend.
Weird times but I've been trying to make the most of it.
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Saturday: Chopping up the last piece of firewood yesterday. Turned the compost heap a bit. Laundry. Read the first hundred pages or so of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. Yoga class.
Sunday: Might try to wash a solid wood bedroom set and get it up on craigslist. Might paint some trim I need to get installed. Waiting for my Briggs and Stratton repair manual. Read maybe another third of Lord Jim
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Update!
Saturday was a 100% success. All of those things happened!
Sunday was an ADDay! 0% complete! I washed no furniture! I painted no trim! I am still waiting for my repair manual!
On the plus side, I did laundry and went grocery shopping!
My niece's birthday gift arrived at her house!
I went to HomeGoods and I put together a bunch of things in the master bathroom that I had been slacking on so now that room is done!
I went to Home Depot and bought an air compressor with nailguns in preparation for all that trim I have to install! New toy for me!
I went to the park and worked out!
I read more of Lord Jim
I showered!
Banner day anyway!
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Had to work yesterday (Saturday) from 7-4 to play catchup with a couple of subcontractors. Today is a little bit of Halo 3,then headed to the hangar to clean the plane, and then dinner with some friends.
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Did the Route 21 100 mile yard sale from wytheville, va to sparta, nc friday, then drove to nashville to help our daughter move in to her downtown apt. She moved from Scottsdale, az with a new job. Our son helped her drive over, so nice to have dinner and brunch in some killer nashville restaurants with both if them. Its still hot here in middle Tennessee.
Love this thread, awesome stuff.
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Been building our outdoor kitchen. We are in the home stretch now after framing it up, cutting out spots for appliances, installing cement board, forming then pouring the concrete countertops. Adding the stone veneer this weekend and working on a few utilities. This was an enormous project, but I got one estimate back that was insanely high so we DIY'd it. It's turning out great though. Pics to come.
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Sink, fridge, a camp chef griddle converted to a built in, then a Big Joe KJ. Got enough of the kitchen done to finally cook on the big Joe last night too.
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Update to the weekend plans...... Still planning to get some cleaning and crap done. Still planning on reading my latest Kindle Unlimited find. Also considering heavy drinking and having a holy royal hissy fit (not that having a fit will do anything but it might make me feel better) because the people didn't come again today to work on the bleeping drainage system for the bleeping deck---at this point I wonder if it will be finished before the warranty on the Treks expires--- supposedly they are going to be here at 8 in the morning. And now there is a tropical disturbance in the Atlantic that is threatening our beach vacation next week. Insert your choice of expletives here_____
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Wait, what? At least with our deck the issues have come from the fact that we had to completely demo the deck right around the time the pandemic hit full stride and materials have been a pain. Some it is due to the fact that the contractor has not managed the schedule very well. The contractor we used is a local husband and wife contractor company who are local so I know the money is going back into the local area.
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I know, that was my reaction as well as I was helping do the demo work, which was a PIA, and my shoulder. The deck is almost finished, we just need to assemble aluminum porch roof kit and install it and coat the deck boards with UV protections.
Pro-tip to everyone: do not buy lumbers from Lowe's. They suck.
I know what you mean, I didn't realize how much in demand lumbers were until we started our deck project. Never experienced anything like that before.
We had a friend who helped us with the deck as he knows his stuff, but we have pretty much soured on contractors.
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Right now, I'm grilling a ribeye steak with hand rubbed used coffee ground and seasoned with Grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourbon. The scent of used coffee ground assaulted my nostrils as soon as I slapped that baby on the grill.
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Salt won't exactly soften the steak either if it's applied right less than an hour before you cook it. In this case it's more to balance the flavoring of the coffee and sugar, plus it tastes good. For steak you should salt only either at least an hour before you cook or right before you cook. If not, the salt will pull all the moisture out of your meat and there won't be enough time for it to reabsorb. This makes a tough rubbery steak.
If you are ever cooking a large thick steak or rib roast you should try salting it 2-3 days before and leaving it in the fridge not covered on a cooling rack. If only on a sheet pan, flip it once or twice a day. This will let the salt work it's way deeper into the steak and let it bring all the moisture back internally while drying out the surface to make a great crust on the steak.
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It's not just for drinking either. Instant espresso is great to add depth of flavor to all sorts of food, especially chocolate deserts without imparting the coffee flavor on it.
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On Thursday I put my wife on a plane to Chicago to see her best friend for her birthday present, drove my daughter to her grandfather's house in Pearisburg and told my boss I'm working from home until Thursday.
I've been living the best wife-free, kid-free life since Friday. I've been binging old music and concert docs and Ray Evernham's Glory Road, grilling meats, playing drums for hours on end, drinking bourbon, and today I slept in until 11. It was glorious.
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Got married, it was hot as hell in a black suit in new Kent but it was a good time.
Celebrated today with lots of goodies headache powder, Gatorade, and smoked a bunch of ribs for 6 hours.
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Got married around this time a couple years ago, and was DYING in my suit during the (as I remember it) 15 hours of photos before the reception. Congrats!!
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Thanks everyone! My wife was nice enough to hold on the photos until the sunset so I didnt have a heat stroke, much to my enjoyment but even at the later hour it was still just as potent or maybe that was all the alcohol taking a toll, I'm not quite sure anymore.
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Went and saw the sights in colonial Williamsburg on Saturday. Went kayaking off of 64th st in va Beach on Sunday. Got in just before the weather turned. It was a good weekend.
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Got up at 5-something AM on Saturday to help make ~400 hoagies for the Knights of Columbus hoagie sale. Wife and I got into a big argument Saturday afternoon and we didn't really speak to each other much since. Church and a long walk Sunday as well as an early AM Monday bike ride before starting work (is that still the weekend). Still irked with my wife. Sigh.
Did make some chocolate chip cookies from scratch as well as my favorite Indian dish - balti mixed vegetables with naan bread. Don't know how to make naans, so those were store bought, but still great with the balti MV.
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Looks like it's out of plumb.
But phone camera lenses do weird things. Look at the left side of the house...and you know it's not like that in reality. They pick up and focus on certain things, then depth-out everything else even though it's not that deep.
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And in Christiansburg now you would have had to get a professional engineer to prepare drawings and seal that wall for your construction permit. Christiansburg made all walls over 2' require a PE seal.
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Yeah, I was a little bit flabbergasted at needing a permit when I needed to replace my 3' high railroad tie retaining wall with a versa lock wall. The stone walls are designed for between 10-20 feet depending on installation method by the manufacturer.
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Sounds like there was some Handy Johnny running around town installing crappy walls. And this was a way to put a stop to him continuing to affect resident's property value and investments. Not always the perfect solution, but usually gets Handy Johnny to stop build crap. Or at least holding him accountable when it doesn't match the drawings.
So, did you seal your own permit drawings?
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I'm in the same boat, I've got a small workshop to build but dont want to go through the permitting process since I;m going to be building this myself slowly as I have the funds but since I'm running power and water to it I'm debating filing for a permit or not.
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Anything over 4' is required per residential building code. Unless the locality has modified it. No matter what, that wall should have been engineered prior to permitting. Unless those aren't 8" blocks.
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The three of us, plus Fernley, should start a code arguing, debate, and complaining thread. It would probably only be us 4, but it might be an entertaining side show for the Corona shit show...
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Programmed a Raspberry Pi to use as a baby monitor with room temperature overlay. Was a pain in the butt to get the temperature to refresh for the overlay, but I am really happy with the end result. 3D Printing a case for the camera and temp mount.
First time using a Raspberry Pi for anything, was way easier than I thought it would be to get the camera and sensor to work independently (1 hour max), but still took 10 - 12 hours of work to get the integration right for my purpose.
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Three day backpack into the Wind River Range, saw a grizzly and got into some decent size rainbows hitting dry flies. Then out to a new rock climbing area and dropped some bolts into some steep, pocketed granite. My boss put us all on a 4 day week this summer and I am loving it.
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So baby #2 decided to come a couple weeks early and at 2 AM, now that I am barely caught up on sleep, checking in to TKP to see what I missed. The coconut clash did not disappoint.
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Comments
Sleep😎
As soon as I can get my ass out of work today I'm walking down to the lake and dropping line in. It's amazing how 90° can feel refreshing after a few days of 105°.
Went to Hersheypark last weekend and am going to the beach next weekend. So this weekend is absolutely nothing.
Just got some powerblock dumbbells. It's leg/posterior chain day and then I get to drink beer! Looking forward to my Munich Dunkel on tap. I'll post a pic of the beer when I finally pour it!
Here's the pic:
Where did you find them? I've been looking since pre-pandemic and can't find any for a reasonable price.
I got lucky. I've been trolling DC area Craigslist for 3 months to find a good deal and someone happened to be selling at a price I was good with and I hopped on it.
Get your chores done before you start free time!
Changing the light fixtures, towel racks, faucets, drawer and cabinet pulls, as well as grouting around the door jams, in the master bath. If that goes well I may get around to replacing some rotting deck steps. Either way will drink a bit, hopefully around a late night fire at a fellow hokie's pool.
Playing my first gig since before Covid tonight.
Made 17 quarts of pickles this morning.
Hoping to do as little as possible tomorrow.
Do you also do chow chow or pickling okra or other veggies? Tried a little last year unprepared and wondering how others do it to improve.
No chow chow. This round of pickles had cucumbers, okra, squash, and zucchini. I wish I had had some jalapeños to throw in. But, no such luck.
These are two parts water, one part vinegar, salt, Garlic, cayenne, dill, and a bit of crushed red pepper.
I tried my first round of sour pickles last year. They were ok, but not great.
Biggest key to success I've found is making sure everything is submerged in brine. If it's not, you're going to have mushy pickles.
Also, there are pickling type cucumbers. Slicing cucumbers have higher water content; depending on type of pickle you're doing, that can make a difference.
Thanks for the input. I can watch 1000 videos, but I feel like I get more out of asking folks how they do it then develop my own take on it. I got okra, banana peppers, squash, jalepenos, and zucchini I'm thinking of working with soon.
Yard work before it got too hot. Walking down to the lake to drink beers and do a small bit of fishing. Maybe take a nap if the wife doesn't fall asleep in the hammock first down there. Possibly take the horses for a ride depending on how many folks are around the lake today.
Finishing up 9 days of camping at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Currently at Mispillion River Brewing. Beach later this afternoon. Headed home to NJ tomorrow.
Our pool finally opened 🏊♂️🏊🏾♂️👙🥽🩲
Just got some ribs, so we are grilling tomorrow ♨️ 🥩
Update: ribs were good, pool was good
Beer
Wife is on call this weekend so it was daddy chore weekend.
🧺 ✅
Mowed the grass
Fed kids 🍴
Washing the bedding
Making the beds
I feel as if the kids could be doing at least 50% of these.
I agree. I mean, delegating chores is like 83% of why I had kids...
3, 5, 7 and 9 year old girls they help lunch but I don't trust them to do the rest.
Trust but verify.
By 7 I was a pro at making my bed. If it wasn't made every day I didn't get Jello pudding in my lunch box or quarters for the ice cream truck.
You were able to get the fitted sheet on etc at 7? Our girls even the 5 year old can make their bed after they wake up but none of them can "make" the bed after bedding is washed. They can't lift up the mattress to put the fitted sheet on or tuck in the top sheet and blankets.
I'm drinking PBR-limes by the kiddie pool. Very relaxing day.
What about NASCAR?
Got the app on the phone to drink at the lake. I fell asleep on Thursday. Just can't hang for all night races anymore. I'm sure you'll be watching the Kansas action too.
I couldn't make it through the one Thursday night. It's hard to watch a whole race after an entire day of work outside in the 100° heat. And I'm not immune to the monotony of it on TV sometimes; east to pass out.
I'm strongly considering getting a kiddie pool for the backyard. I do not have children.
Mine come with the pool.
Tomorrow evening...
I really want to get into pipe smoking. Got a friendly advice for a rookie?
Buy a quality pipe. Peterson's makes good ones. Probably run you 50 bucks or more, but they smoke better and last longer. If you'll be using it a lot, buy two and rotate them. If you can find a tobacconist locally, just ask and someone on staff should be able to get you set up.
My dad actually wrote a book about pipe smoking.
Pipe Smoking 101: A Guide for the New Pipe Smoker by Walter Wade Elliott
Watch MuttnChop Piper on YouTube:
Purchase a corncob pipe from Missouri Meerchaum. Corncob pipes are inexpensive (that way if you end up not sticking with it, you haven't invested too much), easy to smoke, and they don't ghost easily. Even guys who've been smoking for decades have a corncob pipe in their rotation.
Purchase the best selling pipe tobacco: Lane Limited 1-Q. It's a fairly easy tobacco to smoke, it's mild, and a good one to learn on. I have some favorite tobaccos if you ever get to a place where you want some recommendations, but that's where I'd begin.
Lastly, stick with it. It takes a while to learn how to pack your pipe, how to light the tobacco, and how to keep it burning. It's an art.
Careful! As I understand pot is 100x more potent than the 70s!😂
Fixed the fence, cut the grass, tending to a sick kid, playing Ghost of Tsushima, and living vicariously through whoever is doing cool shit here.
Mama Crocketts and Brugh Coffee for breakfast in Cburg. Drove to Claytor. Too crowded to feel like staying would be a responsible decision. Drove all the way back to Craig Creek at a little spot we like to take the kids. Due to drought, wasn't much water, but enough for two hours of catching crawdads and wading around. Kids enjoyed it I think. Now just relaxing and trying to decide if I should drink a few beers or not.
Ended up teaching my son the art of grilling steaks, while I alternated between regular lattes and apple lattes most of the evening. Girls were gone, so me and the boy enjoyed a rare (so very rare) quiet evening at the house.
I should pay the girls to go out more often. Well worth it.
Took the top and the doors off the Jeep and went out to the lake for a bit. Fun times. Got home just in time before a monster thunderstorm set in which would have sucked to get caught driving in. Going to just chill and switch back between playing EVE and Final Fantasy VII Remake for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow is going to look a whole lot like grouting the kitchen tile with the girlfriend. Also our new dishwasher is supposed to arrive this weekend. This kitchen renovation is so, so close to being finished.
I wish you better luck with the dishwasher than I had with mine recently. We moved in last summer and taking out the old dishwasher was quite the task because the kitchen had been remodeled after it was installed. Part of that remodeling included adding a tile floor, and the tile is about 1/2 inch thick, so there was zero clearance to get the old dishwasher out. I had to take a hacksaw to the feet, and then disassemble every possible piece. There was no way to salvage that dishwasher for any possible future use.
Of course this also meant that we had zero wiggle room for the new dishwasher to go in, so we had to get a bit creative to get it in place without damage. As it is, due to the tile buildup, I wasn't able to attach the piece at the bottom that's supposed to cover the feet and other hanging parts.
What a horseshit way to renovate. I'm sorry you had to deal with the previous occupants' idiocy.
So. At least you HAVE a dishwasher. Ours never arrived on Saturday and while I certainly understand that stuff happens and needs to be rescheduled, no one ever bothered to call us to let us know. Now I'm waiting out the 24 hours that Lowe's customer care said it would take for someone at the store level to call me back. It's been 23.5 hours so I'm guessing I'll be calling AGAIN. At this point, I don't even want to have it delivered, I'll go pick it up that the store, I just need to know which local store was supposed to be delivering it.
Edit to add:
Your kitchen sounds a lot like ours before we tore everything down to the studs. So much sketchy wiring. We're talking someone spliced dollar store extension cords with electrical tape and stuck them down in the wall in what we suspect was an poor man's attempt at under cabinet wiring. All of the sketchy stuff has been torn out and properly terminated but if I met one of the previous owners on the street and knew who there were, I might attempt bodily harm.
i gave up on lowes during our covid renovation after they sent us a flatbed truck containing a single 4x4 and no indication of when the rest of our items would arrive, 2 weeks after our order. They also charged us an additional $500 dollars for no good reason
Similar experience here. Their online system said they had the lights we wanted on aisle x, bin, y with 6 in stock. Got there, and they were not there. Asked an employee, they looked on their system ,told me look in Aisle x, bin y. I said I looked there and could not find it. The acted all irritated and went to show me, could not find them either, and said "I guess we don't have it" and walked away. Then I ordered a replacement spigot core when the outside faucet would not turn off, 4 hours later they sent an email saying to pick it up in store, and then when got there said it was out of stock. Two weeks later Lowes started leaving voicemails saying I could pick it up. Also ordered some faucets for the recent bathroom remodel (see above), and they delayed and delayed and then cancelled, so instead of the plumber doing it when here for the shower, we ordered from somewhere else, got in 3 days, and I had to install. Neighbor ordered some wood delivered to replace deck boards, gave a six hour window to deliver, and never came or called. Three days later they came home from work and it was blocking their driveway, and so badly warped a quarter of it had to be returned in store, which required borrowing a trailer. Not shopping there anymore. If ACE doesn't have it I'll drive 20 minutes to Home Depot.
For me the issue isn't so much that it's been delayed, although I am annoyed by that as well, it's the lack of communication. I've placed some pretty significant online orders with Lowe's and Home Depot throughout this renovation process and Home Depot has them beat in every aspect. They fill my orders in a timely manner and they communicate with me if there is an issue. The delivery guys with HD even called me when they had my order of drywall to ask where I wanted them to leave it and rain was in the forecast that day and they left it wrapped in a plastic sheet so none of it was ruined by the time I got home. Now that I'm thinking about it, every single order I've placed online with Lowe's has had some sort of issue with it 🤦♀️
Shocker, but I never received a phone call this morning from the store, so I guess now I get to spend my lunch break on hold waiting for someone to pick up the damn phone to give me some explanation as to what is going on. 15 minutes and counting right now. Am I going to have to become a Karen to get my dishwasher? I hate to do that because I work in a service industry myself, but I'm beginning to get fed up and being polite isn't getting me anywhere.
Pro tip: Tweet on their page blasting them. Gets their attention pretty quickly. Well, I say quickly...it's quicker than "normal" for them. They delivered a dented washer to us a few months ago. Twitter got me a response in an hour.
Any luck finding out anything about why your dishwasher is MIA and what they might do about it?
I'm not saying Lowes didn't fuck up because they did, but maybe cut them a little slack? My dad works for Lowes as a retirement gig (partly to keep busy and partly b/c my mom screwed him over and he can't not work). He's 70 and has COPD. Lowe's knew he was at risk of catching Covid and said if a doctor would sign off, he could have 1 month paid Covid time off. They have extended that to 3 months! My brothers and I were so thankful because he needed the money, but was also at a high risk.
TL;DR: Just like every other retailer, Lowe's has their share of fuckups, but they are actually a decent company that treats their employees well.
Like I said, my complaint is that there has been zero communication throughout this that I didn't initiate myself. If they had called on Saturday and said hey, our deliveries are backed up because of COVID, that would have been fine and I would have been gracious and understanding about it. But instead it's been empty promises or outright being hung up on after I was on hold for an hour, gave the employee my order number and then nothing. Plus, they've charged my card at this point. So while I'm grateful for your dad's sake that he is getting taken care of by his company, all I'm asking for is a little bit of communication from them.
Totally agree. Communication should be easy to get right.
Summer cleaning, feeling nice to declutter the house. Took two bed loads to goodwill today. Got thai food on the way and going to kick the kids asses in a water gun fight after dinner
heading to OBX for the week
Profile name checks out. JK, have a blast.
I loled
- Watched woodturning and epoxy resin on YouTube. Edit: Forgot that I also watched antique restoration by talented YouTubers.
- Washed the truck since it was dirty from driving in the yard, pollen, and hauling three load of free leaves giveaway courtesy of the Town of Christiansburg
Tomorrow, TBD.
Ran through Old Town Winchester this morning, then run up Reddish Knob tomorrow morning.
You from Winchester?
I love Reddish Knob area. Beautiful part of the state.
Yeah sure am. Do you live here? Never been to Reddish Knob so excited to check it out.
I don't now but I'm from there. I graduated from a local hs, up on the hill, in 2002.
You'll love Reddish Knob. I want a cabin in Bath, Highland, Augusta, or Rockbridge, when I'm able to retire. Enjoy it!
Lots of turns in the road, but it's one continuous uphill climb. Bring a lot of water and a good camera.
(Source: Running camp, late 90's)
Still swampy weather in NJ... Helping some friends move today, whole lotta nothin' tomorrow
Filmed church (uploading now), had some social distant beers outside with people for the first time in what seems like years and prepping for virtual board game night.
Yard work, good cold beer, and watching my boss play some music at a winery later.
Getting things prepped for going to OBX for Aug 1 through 8. Trying to find out which restaurants have outdoor seating and how things are working down there this year. We plan to make sandwiches on the beach every day (I am smoking chicken and beef for sandwich meat and cutting thin on the meat slicer). Other than that we will be ordering take out most likely. Going to try to go out for dinner for LancerHokie's and my anniversary but this is going to be a play things by ear vacation this year.
We are being boring and cleaning and such before we go to the beach next week (Halle-fricking-lujah I need to get out of the house/need some salt air). Hubby is smoking some ribs to go with the mac and cheese I made. And HOPEFULLY our deck is one step closer to being finished tomorrow. Getting the deck redone was completely necessary and it will be awesome when it gets done. But I swear, this project is slower than downloading something on dial-up.....
In addition to the house stuff, I will most likely read at least part (if not the whole thing) of my 7th book of the month.... I may or may not be a nerd....
Crater Lake National Park! Got some good hiking in this morning and going to see Mt. Hood tomorrow.
Any pictures? That is one of the NPs I have not been to that I really want to go see. My favorite is Grand Teton. So many good ones though. Yellowstone, Rainier, Shenandoah, Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Arcadia, Japser in Canada, and Banff in Canada all real good. Would like to get back to Rocky Mountain and Gates of the Arctic too as I only saw a tiny bit of them.
It was a perfect day and the lake was awesome. I'd probably wouldn't go back since it is pretty small and you can do it all in one day.
I'm incredibly jealous of the all parks you've gone too. Gates of the Artic is an absolute bucket list dream. This was only my third park. I've done Crater, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. Of that small sample, Teton is my favorite too. Jenny lake was next level gorgeous. Any other ones you recommend hitting up next?
That's absolutely gorgeous. just so awesome and such a clear clear day.
Acadia and Mt Rainer are both incredible in their own ways.
My brother and I have a week in WY to do Grand Teton and Yellowstone next month -- can't friggn wait. When we did Mt Hood in 2017, it was during the time when the wildfires were in the area and everything was ashy and smoky and we could barely see the mountain, let alone breathe easily.
Sweet! The lower hike around Jenny Lake plus the spur route up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point is my #1 favorite hike anywhere. Had to think about it and I've been to 15 that I remember. As mentioned, Grand Teton is my favorite. Yellowstone might be second. Of the ones you have not been to, I'd suggest Glacier, Jasper (Canada), and Acadia. But they are all good in their own way. Brief synopsis of my thoughts below. You may have totally different interests, but I like scenery with green and mountains with snow. Wildlife is secondary. Not a huge fan of dry areas.
Acadia - Really pretty scenes of the ocean, good hiking, especially Cadillac Mountain, lots of blueberries in season. Small and can do easily in a weekend.
Badlands - One of my least favorite. Was pretty and majestic, but hot and dry landscape.
Banff (Canada) - Only saw a tiny bit of it. Wife grew up in Western Canada and she said Jasper is much better as Banff is more crowded and commercial.
Denali - Was good. Could not see the McKinley/Denali as it was clouded over (which it usually is). A lot of tundra and quite stark. Only had a day there, so did not get to explore in detail.
Gates of the Arctic - Stark and open tundra. Minimal vegetation. Did start to see the caribou around here. Really fun going up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. Tons of wildlife along the way. Caribou, moose, musk ox, arctic fox ... not all of in in the park, but on the trip from Fairbanks up to Prudhoe Bay.
Glacier - Was told by multiple people this is better than Grand Teton. Unfortunately, there were a lot of fires when I was there and a big chunk of the park was closed. Did enjoy the hiking and the scenery. Want to go back to see more of it.
Grand Canyon - certainly is spectacular, but the dry climate and lack of green makes it lower on my list than for most. Of course, you may feel totally differently, so don't let my personal bias detract from it.
Grand Teton - My #1 park, but you have already been there. Best scenery anywhere with the mountains and the lake. Not too much wildlife, though did get my first bear there (walking on the trail right in front of us).
Jasper (Canada) - My wife's #1. Great scenery with mountains, lakes and rivers. Good hiking, some wildlife, just all around beautiful.
Kenai Fjords - my favorite of the 3 in Alaska. Glaciers, bears, eagles, good hiking, greenery.
Mount Rainier - Good hiking, wonderful food at the one lodge we ate at. Not too crowded. Pretty scenery, though others are more majestic. Really solid all around and worth a trip.
North Cascades - Not much in the way a views. Very quiet. One of the least visited parks, so good to get away from people on long hikes and backpacking. Dense forest is nice.
Rocky Mountain - Did not spend much time here, so hard to say much. Was good and would like to go back and spend more time.
Shenandoah - Not as spectacular/majestic as the places out west, but very pretty. Lots of good hikes and good views, but can be crowded at times. Personal link as we spent part of our honeymoon there and will always have the memories. Lots of birds and seen several bears.
Yellowstone - One of my favorite and my wife's #1 US park, but you have been there. Tons of wildlife, all the geothermal features, good scenery and good hiking. Cam be crowded.
Honorable mentions that are not National Parks:
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern MN is awesome. More for canoe and kayak trips.
The trip from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay with Northern Alaska Tour Company (we are not tour group people, but it is a real hassle to go up the Dalton Highway on your own).
Delaware Water Gap in NJ/PA. As a kid I thought it was the prettiest place I had ever seen.
I did one of the land/sea cruises last summer in Alaska and it was phenomenal. If you want to hit some of those parks in Alaska its a great way to go (provided there's no global pandemic occurring).
We were very fortunate that the last day we were at Denali we woke up that morning and the mountain was visible for the first time. I remember seeing all the mountains around and thinking "that must be it". And then the morning we saw the mountain, it was so much bigger than all the surrounding mountains, I was absolutely just blown away.
This is a hell of a compilation and I can't thank you enough for sharing your experiences. I'll prioritize Glacier and Acadia. You da best.
Glacier...for real is tops. Not so good this year as the east side will probably be closed the entire season which means the western half will be packed. I'm planning a trip in August for Yellowstone and glacier (since I live in Arizona I'm doing this for my own sanity as it's just way too hot during the summer).
Anyone been to both Olympic and Acadia? I don't rate Acadia in the same league as Olympic as Acadia is small, crowded and generally too touristy...whilst Olympic is wild, huge and incredibly diverse...interested in others' opinions on these two parks.
Certainly jealous of those that have been to the parks in AK, that's a dream road trip for me.
When will you be in Yellowstone?
Super fluid right now as I'm still on the east coast and flying back to AZ on Friday. Need to do research on campsites in the park but it looks like something may be available mid-late next week in the canyon area (l plan on camping). There is NOTHING available in glacier. My buddy and I may still chance it anyway as it's "only" a two day drive. We plan on doing some proper hikes like electric peak and specimen ridge? If you are there it would be epic to meet in person as we've interacted on the EPL and UCL threads. Let me know!
We'll be towards the end of Aug
My Banff, Olympic, Mt Rainier trip was cancelled due to COVID this summer. (it is a long drive from Blacksburg)
I am most disappointed in not making it to Olympic, the variety of ecosystems that are each extreme will draw me to make the trip another time.
Sorry to hear. Hopefully you can make it out there soon.
Glacier 100%
You are welcome Cinci Hokie. Hopefully you can get to many of them. Several others have mentioned Olympic, and I've heard good things about it, but never been there myself so cannot say. Same with Yosemite.
You mentioned Gates of the Arctic was a bucket list item, and I'd have to say it is worth it just to be able to say that you actually went there. Years ago on the NPS site for it, they had these little blurbs describing the park in spring, summer, fall and winter and what to expect. Had paragraphs for 3 of the seasons. The description for winter was a single, 3 word, sentence:
"Winters are extreme."
Said nothing else about it. Cracked me up reading that.
I love Acadia. Growing up it was one of the closest parks I could get too.
If there, make sure you pack your passport and go over to Roosevelt Island and Campabello. The Franklin Roosevelt home has been turned into a International Park (as it was kind of complicated having a US park in Canada).
Amazing photos Cinci Hokie.
Hadn't signed on in a while, but i just wanted to sign on and say that..everyone in this thread has inspired me...
Finally getting started painting some of my miniatures on backlog.
Beach with the family at my parents house. First time my 2yo has seen her cousin in over a year and they're already having a blast.
Luckily, this place doesn't generally see huge crowds so even at it's busiest, there's a good 30-50 feet between setups at the water.
Nice calm before the storm of getting a house ready to sell when we get back.
So I'm here to tell you that you probably don't need to do all that much to put your house on the market with the way things are in the triangle right now. I've processed so many mortgage pre-approvals in the past 6-9 months and have only gotten a contract back from maybe one of them because the rest just can't get under contract for anything because it's so competitive right now. I hope you're already under contract for the next house, assuming you're staying in the area, because that's just about the only way to do it right now.
Same here is southern NJ. Any house that stays on the market for more than a week or so is way over-priced or has some problems. We put a bid on a house that was on the market for (I think) 2 days. Offered $5,000 more than they listed it for. Were outbid.
Same for me in Dallas, I am closing on my new house this weekend and i was lucky to get the contract done end of June. Houses are on the market here for like 3-4 days. 3% and lower rates will do that.
I think it depends largely on your price range, but around here, if you're looking between $200k - $400k, unless you are willing to move way out into the sticks and wait for a new construction to be finished in 6-9 months, you better be coming to the table with a cash offer. It's nuts. And of course everyone and their mother is coming in to refinance right now and our underwriting department keeps whining to us about how overwhelmed they are. Guess how much sympathy branch employees have for underwriting considering we literally underwrite the files before we submit them. They are just checking them for completion before sending them on. We do all that in addition to the fact that our branch lobbies are open to the public and we risk exposure to COVID with every person that comes in the door, but please do go on about how busy you are in your isolated back office 🤬
I hear you. I am a 20 year mortgage vet myself but on the Capital Markets side. I run my company's trading group.
Roof needs to be replaced (literal hole in it where we can see shingles through the plywood), so there is definitely a little work we need to do. Also need to empty it out a bit to make it effectively look staged while we are living there as well as doing some cheap odds and ends outside to clean it up to maximize value.
But yeah current plan is to get our house in order, that'll probably take a week. And then wait to find the right house, and once we have an offer accepted, put ours on the market. Already met with a realtor and it's unlikely ours stays on the market for longer than a weekend, even at the top of the comparables range.
My wife and I indulged and got a 2017 chateaunuf du Pape. Not bad but not worth $70
I highly recommend sourcing that locally. The stuff I have had in the US doesn't match what I had over there.
No doubt. We decantered it and everything but perhaps we should've waited longer for it to mellow out before drinking. I've had CDP before in wine tastings and they've always been excellent, but not this time around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gu25suuZnc
That's really, really young for a CDP. Did you let it breathe for a few hours?
I've never heard of needing to breathe a few hours in a decanter. But to answer your original question no we didn't let it breathe too much in the decanter before we started drinking it. We probably drank it over the course of 30-45 minutes FWIW, so I assume that's decent amount of time in the decanter to breathe.
Speaking of wine, this one warned us of the 2020 shitshow many years ago
I once gave an internal seminar at work about how much adverse event reporting sucked. Used MD 20/20 as a prop for it. By the way, there are some hilarious descriptions of MD 20/20 and other terrible vintages at a website called Bum Wines. Took a swig of it right before the "as majestic as the cascading waters of a drainpipe" image, which I incorporated into the presentation. Link below.
http://www.bumwine.com/
The vast majority of red wines benefit from 3-10+ years of aging in the bottle. Decanting an hour (I recommend several hours if you have the time) beforehand will open up and soften the wine, letting the tannins to subside a bit and the fruit to come out. Next time, try a sip right after opening, then decant for at least an hour. There will be a demonstrable difference in the wine, and for the better.
Sorry, I'm a big wine guy, and have been collecting, hosting wine tasting dinners, and of course drinking for many, many years. It's more of a passion than a hobby. I even owned a very small piece of a winery out in Lodi while they were in the developmental stage.
And, as per the remark below, I had my share of Mad Dog, Boone's Farm, and Richard's Wild Irish Rose in high school. I even used to keep a bottle of Andre Cold Duck in my dorm fridge at Miles back in the mid-late 70's. Somehow I survived that period and began learning and collecting in the late 80's.
Don't disagree with this. I was questioning letting wine breathe for several hours in a decanter. The whole point of a decanter is the larger surface area will speed up the oxidization process thereby not needing to decanter for an hour (or several hours). I can see hour / several hours required if you kept the wine in the bottle itself.
It's definitely an inexact science, and also a matter of individual taste. I generally go for the longer decant as I prefer more mature wines, and in all my time have had only 1-2 go 'flat' because of that. I had a 20-year old Brunello last week that was absolutely singing after 3 hours in the decanter.
Yeah I was a bit scared to leave a $70 bottle in a decanter for more than 20 minutes as I feel that it might just make the bottle flat and be a waste of time, but maybe i'll work my way to that with some cheap bordeaux and find what the right point is.
You will be absolutely fine leaving any bottle in the decanter for more than 20 minutes. Yesterday, I opened a 2016 Beaucastel Cotes-du-Rhone in the morning before work, then decanted half of it when I got home while I played some golf. A couple of hours later, it was great. Still a little young, and will be even better in a few years. A great $20 bottle if you can find it.
I generally like Rhones as i feel they can be (relatively) easily drunk right out of the bottle. Usually I get whatever $15 dollar French I can find at Total wine.
Awesome. I drink Italians probably 75% of the time, the Sangiovese grape is so food-friendly and the QPR is so much better than just about anything coming out of CA.
Ya drink what ya like. As long as you're drinking. Cheers!
Where on the Cape are you? I just wrapped up a week in Harwich Port visiting my uncle and it's been hot (by Cape standards)...I visit most years but this shit is ridiculous! Great place to live year-round, I'm sure...been coming here since the mid 80s.
Harwich Port is nice! I live in Sandwich, still work in Hyannis. I've lived up here since 1996, although I still consider myself a Virginia boy.
Yes, it's been unusually hot the past few weeks, but I'll take it. I assume that when you're up here you are tied up with family, but if you want to meet up for a beer or a round of golf let me know.
I see you're in Tucson now? My two oldest kids from my first marriage (to a Hokie girl) pretty much grew up there, and went to Sabino High. My daughter, who is visiting tomorrow with my grandson & her fiance, is up in Tempe now.
I live a couple of miles from Sabino...small world. Driving back to NOVA today and flying back on Friday so that's the Cape for me this year. I'll keep you in mind for future trips, thanks for the offer.
Took our corgi pup out to a brewery in VB and met up with some friends. One of em brought his 6 month old St Bernard, who is already 75 pounds.
Tomorrow will be cleaning, followed by day drinking and Premier League, followed by cocktails and Rock Band with a few friends before they move.
Cut down a tree in the yard that I still have no clue how it got there. It wasnt there when we bought the house. I was kind of there last year if I remember, but this year it was 2 stories tall and right up against the house.
Cutting out and replacing sealant in showers. Fix leaky hose bib. Install doorbell and transformer. Replace shower drain. And use the Sous Vide that my parents gave me that they never used.
18 yesterday, 18 today, 18 tomorrow. A great outdoor cook-out at a friend's house tonight. Beach & lobster rolls tomorrow afternoon after golf. Weather is great here right now.
Enjoy life...
My pandemic weekends have largely consisted of movies and beer (this is normal), and European soccer. So this one so far has been much of the same. I've been golfing as well, but I often play 9 in the afternoons on weekdays as it's much cheaper and you usually don't need a tee time where I'm at. My parents live on the lake so I have spent some long days wakesurfing as well but not sure that will be on the agenda this weekend.
Weird times but I've been trying to make the most of it.
Saturday: Chopping up the last piece of firewood yesterday. Turned the compost heap a bit. Laundry. Read the first hundred pages or so of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. Yoga class.
Sunday: Might try to wash a solid wood bedroom set and get it up on craigslist. Might paint some trim I need to get installed. Waiting for my Briggs and Stratton repair manual. Read maybe another third of Lord Jim
Update!
Saturday was a 100% success. All of those things happened!
Sunday was an ADDay! 0% complete! I washed no furniture! I painted no trim! I am still waiting for my repair manual!
On the plus side, I did laundry and went grocery shopping!
My niece's birthday gift arrived at her house!
I went to HomeGoods and I put together a bunch of things in the master bathroom that I had been slacking on so now that room is done!
I went to Home Depot and bought an air compressor with nailguns in preparation for all that trim I have to install! New toy for me!
I went to the park and worked out!
I read more of Lord Jim
I showered!
Banner day anyway!
Horse, how the devil did you chop firewood with hooves?
I got two engineering degrees! Naturally, a treadmill was involved!
I am stupidly impressed you could find a gif that specific.
I think someone else found it a long time ago round these parts, so I gotta thank the forgotten TKPer that showed me this existed.
Also I take no small pleasure in looking for horse related gifs entirely because of this username on this website.
Had to work yesterday (Saturday) from 7-4 to play catchup with a couple of subcontractors. Today is a little bit of Halo 3,then headed to the hangar to clean the plane, and then dinner with some friends.
Did the Route 21 100 mile yard sale from wytheville, va to sparta, nc friday, then drove to nashville to help our daughter move in to her downtown apt. She moved from Scottsdale, az with a new job. Our son helped her drive over, so nice to have dinner and brunch in some killer nashville restaurants with both if them. Its still hot here in middle Tennessee.
Love this thread, awesome stuff.
Been building our outdoor kitchen. We are in the home stretch now after framing it up, cutting out spots for appliances, installing cement board, forming then pouring the concrete countertops. Adding the stone veneer this weekend and working on a few utilities. This was an enormous project, but I got one estimate back that was insanely high so we DIY'd it. It's turning out great though. Pics to come.
What appliances and cooking surfaces are you using?
Sink, fridge, a camp chef griddle converted to a built in, then a Big Joe KJ. Got enough of the kitchen done to finally cook on the big Joe last night too.
I'd love to see some pictures of it completed and any progress pics if you took them.
Update to the weekend plans...... Still planning to get some cleaning and crap done. Still planning on reading my latest Kindle Unlimited find. Also considering heavy drinking and having a holy royal hissy fit (not that having a fit will do anything but it might make me feel better) because the people didn't come again today to work on the bleeping drainage system for the bleeping deck---at this point I wonder if it will be finished before the warranty on the Treks expires--- supposedly they are going to be here at 8 in the morning. And now there is a tropical disturbance in the Atlantic that is threatening our beach vacation next week. Insert your choice of expletives here_____
I had my deck redone a month ago and the wife laid down roofing underlayment to redirect water. It worked like a miracle.
The previous or original occupiers stupidly laid down blue tarp between decking and composite boards. I kid you not.
Wait, what? At least with our deck the issues have come from the fact that we had to completely demo the deck right around the time the pandemic hit full stride and materials have been a pain. Some it is due to the fact that the contractor has not managed the schedule very well. The contractor we used is a local husband and wife contractor company who are local so I know the money is going back into the local area.
I know, that was my reaction as well as I was helping do the demo work, which was a PIA, and my shoulder. The deck is almost finished, we just need to assemble aluminum porch roof kit and install it and coat the deck boards with UV protections.
Pro-tip to everyone: do not buy lumbers from Lowe's. They suck.
I know what you mean, I didn't realize how much in demand lumbers were until we started our deck project. Never experienced anything like that before.
We had a friend who helped us with the deck as he knows his stuff, but we have pretty much soured on contractors.
I just completed the 6 hour Virginia boater safety course. Dad finally thinks i'm responsible enough to drive the boat. I'm 40.
You're a man!
Right now, I'm grilling a ribeye steak with hand rubbed used coffee ground and seasoned with Grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourbon. The scent of used coffee ground assaulted my nostrils as soon as I slapped that baby on the grill.
How did it taste? That's an intriguing seasoning mix.
Tasted great!
Self-critique: add salt to soften the steak next time, rookie mistake. Go easy with coffee ground.
Yup I do a equal part salt, ground coffee, brown sugar rub usually on a flat iron steak though. I like to keep my ribeyes strictly to salt and pepper.
I have to try that next time. Good stuff.
Salt won't exactly soften the steak either if it's applied right less than an hour before you cook it. In this case it's more to balance the flavoring of the coffee and sugar, plus it tastes good. For steak you should salt only either at least an hour before you cook or right before you cook. If not, the salt will pull all the moisture out of your meat and there won't be enough time for it to reabsorb. This makes a tough rubbery steak.
If you are ever cooking a large thick steak or rib roast you should try salting it 2-3 days before and leaving it in the fridge not covered on a cooling rack. If only on a sheet pan, flip it once or twice a day. This will let the salt work it's way deeper into the steak and let it bring all the moisture back internally while drying out the surface to make a great crust on the steak.
I have to try that. Seems like the coffee would give it a nice rich taste.
Why would you do that to a perfectly innocent steak. Coffee is horrible in any form.
what about if you add coconut to it
WTF did you say dot gif.
I feel sorry for you if you hate coffee. That's up there with French hating cheese.
It's not just for drinking either. Instant espresso is great to add depth of flavor to all sorts of food, especially chocolate deserts without imparting the coffee flavor on it.
Got the boat out and went wakeboarding
I'm just beginning the removal of this slightly out of date sub panel in my garage and replacing it with a 100 Amp Main Panel. Nice relic though.
On Thursday I put my wife on a plane to Chicago to see her best friend for her birthday present, drove my daughter to her grandfather's house in Pearisburg and told my boss I'm working from home until Thursday.
I've been living the best wife-free, kid-free life since Friday. I've been binging old music and concert docs and Ray Evernham's Glory Road, grilling meats, playing drums for hours on end, drinking bourbon, and today I slept in until 11. It was glorious.
Man nothing beats an empty house and my drumset. What are you playing on?
DDrum Ash Pocket Series in Red/Orange Burst. 20x20 bass drum, 12" rack tom, 14x14 and 16x16 floor toms. 13x8 maple snare drum.
Got married, it was hot as hell in a black suit in new Kent but it was a good time.
Celebrated today with lots of goodies headache powder, Gatorade, and smoked a bunch of ribs for 6 hours.
FAM!!! Congrats!
Gratz!
Congrats!
Got married around this time a couple years ago, and was DYING in my suit during the (as I remember it) 15 hours of photos before the reception. Congrats!!
Thanks everyone! My wife was nice enough to hold on the photos until the sunset so I didnt have a heat stroke, much to my enjoyment but even at the later hour it was still just as potent or maybe that was all the alcohol taking a toll, I'm not quite sure anymore.
Congrats on the sex!
Congrats!!
Damn, what a banging celebration. Congrats to you both.
Went and saw the sights in colonial Williamsburg on Saturday. Went kayaking off of 64th st in va Beach on Sunday. Got in just before the weather turned. It was a good weekend.
Got up at 5-something AM on Saturday to help make ~400 hoagies for the Knights of Columbus hoagie sale. Wife and I got into a big argument Saturday afternoon and we didn't really speak to each other much since. Church and a long walk Sunday as well as an early AM Monday bike ride before starting work (is that still the weekend). Still irked with my wife. Sigh.
Did make some chocolate chip cookies from scratch as well as my favorite Indian dish - balti mixed vegetables with naan bread. Don't know how to make naans, so those were store bought, but still great with the balti MV.
Worked on my two retaining walls some more. It is so damn hot right now doing this work all day.
Is your deck support post bowed?
Looks like it's out of plumb.
But phone camera lenses do weird things. Look at the left side of the house...and you know it's not like that in reality. They pick up and focus on certain things, then depth-out everything else even though it's not that deep.
Yes, the right one did bow after it was installed. I hate new treated lumber.
And in Christiansburg now you would have had to get a professional engineer to prepare drawings and seal that wall for your construction permit. Christiansburg made all walls over 2' require a PE seal.
That's a little extreme...but appreciate the looking out for fellow PE's.
Yeah, I was a little bit flabbergasted at needing a permit when I needed to replace my 3' high railroad tie retaining wall with a versa lock wall. The stone walls are designed for between 10-20 feet depending on installation method by the manufacturer.
Sounds like there was some Handy Johnny running around town installing crappy walls. And this was a way to put a stop to him continuing to affect resident's property value and investments. Not always the perfect solution, but usually gets Handy Johnny to stop build crap. Or at least holding him accountable when it doesn't match the drawings.
So, did you seal your own permit drawings?
Yes.
hopefully you charged yourself a decent rate.
I'm in the same boat, I've got a small workshop to build but dont want to go through the permitting process since I;m going to be building this myself slowly as I have the funds but since I'm running power and water to it I'm debating filing for a permit or not.
I have my Redneck Engineering degree so its all good. /s
Geogrid, drain pipe, stone, and filter cloth are all being installed along with compaction of soil in proper lifts.
Anything over 4' is required per residential building code. Unless the locality has modified it. No matter what, that wall should have been engineered prior to permitting. Unless those aren't 8" blocks.
And every state has adopted that portion of the building code without amendment?
Edit. Missed "unless the locality..."
The three of us, plus Fernley, should start a code arguing, debate, and complaining thread. It would probably only be us 4, but it might be an entertaining side show for the Corona shit show...
3ft in Fairfax County... but there are ways around that
Programmed a Raspberry Pi to use as a baby monitor with room temperature overlay. Was a pain in the butt to get the temperature to refresh for the overlay, but I am really happy with the end result. 3D Printing a case for the camera and temp mount.
First time using a Raspberry Pi for anything, was way easier than I thought it would be to get the camera and sensor to work independently (1 hour max), but still took 10 - 12 hours of work to get the integration right for my purpose.
Three day backpack into the Wind River Range, saw a grizzly and got into some decent size rainbows hitting dry flies. Then out to a new rock climbing area and dropped some bolts into some steep, pocketed granite. My boss put us all on a 4 day week this summer and I am loving it.
So baby #2 decided to come a couple weeks early and at 2 AM, now that I am barely caught up on sleep, checking in to TKP to see what I missed. The coconut clash did not disappoint.
Congrats!
Congrats on the sex.
Congrats! I hope mom and baby are healthy!
Big news, congrats! Hope everyone is doing well.