Laminate Floor!

As Monica has mentioned, this weekend we undertook the big project of laying wood laminate in the living room.

Going in, we were thinking that it would take the whole weekend: and we were certainly right.

Day 1 began after work on Friday. Monica and I cleared the room - took up the carpet - and discovered two alarming things.

1. The carpet pad was glued to the floor. This was huge. It meant that instead of just taking out some staples or something like that - we were left scraping gluey carpet pad off of cement. This may not sound too bad... and in several places: it really was fine. In other places though, it was terrible. We were never able to get it ALL off and after 6 hours had it "good enough" to allow the laminate to lay "pretty darn flat" over the top of it.

The stuff around the outside is the glued pad on the floor

2. There was a sewer access point under our carpet. This sucker stood up a good inch+ over the floor and was NOT going to make laying a laminate floor over the top very simple. There was definitely going to have to be some fancy stepping to make this work.

Not good

Day 2 began with my parents coming over to start helping out. Actually, that's only partly true: Day 2 actually started with my Dad playing a 3 set tennis match in the 95 degree heat!

Anyway, it was decided that the PVC pipe in the middle of the room wasn't going to work - we removed the cap - stuffed a rag down there (to stop any odors, although it didn't smell) and started filing/cutting/wishing that thing down to as level with the floor as possible. After some serious work on the thing - it was down to a very acceptable level. Actually, in the end it was the builders cement work around the pipe that was more trouble than the pipe itself.

My parents brought over some serious firepower - and we used a lot of it. Saws used included: jig, hand, skill, miter, and who could forget my Dad's favorite: table. You should have seen the display my Dad put on with that table saw - making some cuts that I would never try for fear of messing up the board - and then many others that I wouldn't make for fear of losing some fingers. He's quite the pro with that thing at one point showing off by twirling a hoolahoop on one foot while making cuts. Ok, maybe not that far: but it was quite the display.

The process of putting in each flight ends up being quite labor intensive. That is - you have to attach all of the boards in your flight end-to-end. After that is completed, you hook the entire flight into the one before it. The trick there is that you can't put in half a flight at once... so, we basically NEEDED to have at least 4 people to get the thing in.

Day 3 began with the majority of the room finished but the toughest cuts right ahead of us. Following another incredible display on the table saw - we had our boards ready to fit around the stairs.

After those were in we boarded up the top of our PVC pipe (not even worth a picture it was so easy at that point!) and were on to the trim. The trim did get interesting as we found out the channel between the floor and the ceramic tile was too interesting. Here Dad took his table saw display over to the skill saw and widened it out just right.

We are SO happy with the end result. It all looks great and best of all: it's done! You'll all have to come check it out in person soon!

More pics here

Cincinnati and DC

This is a pretty late report but better late than never, right?

In the most recent installment of baseball trips, (Tom) Geer and I took a 3 day jaunt to see the new stadium in Cincinnati + the new team in Washington DC (formerly the Montreal Expos).

The trip got off to a rocky start when a pretty nice day in Cincy turned gloomy. A pretty good downpour delayed the game for a couple hours but eventually they did get it started.



Maybe it would have been better as a rainout though as the Brewers blew yet another late lead and went down to the Reds.

The stadium was less than impressive. Tom and I had seen Cincy's old stadium years ago and it was an old hunk of cement. The new stadium is... a new hunk of cement. Not a terrible place to see a game by any means - and the ticket prices were awesome - but for a brand new stadium... it was lacking.

We were then off for a drive through the night to pick up an afternoon game in the nations capital. We arrived in time to take a 2 hour walking tour of the National Malls highlights before heading over to RFK stadium to see the Nationals take on the Cubs. This one had a better result than the night before as the Nationals took the Cubs down.



This stadium was also lacking but it has an excuse... it's a football field. Construction will start soon on a baseball stadium that should put this one to shame.

and there are a few more photos out here - including their version of the brat race (featuring former presidents)...

Anyway, another great trip. Next up: St Louis for the final series of the year against the Crew!

Holy Cow!

It isn't new but I just saw it for the first time - the Daily Page published an article June 13th regarding the blog attention that Madison's Cow Parade has received.

It comes through with A LOT of links, none more notable of course than:

"...Monnie Halberg documented the cows in downtown Sun Prairie, which are dominated by a Georgia O'Keefe theme, who once made the town her home."

Congrats Monnie on making the list!

Of course, since the article was posted 6/19 - the Daily Page/Isthmus hasn't had a chance to notice the incredible amount of coverage Monica has since given the non-Sun Prairie based cows. Keep following along!

WOW

720 IN GAME dunk

Deuces Wild II

Back in March, I had posted about an "electronic baseball league" (I can't think of a better 3 words to describe it) called Deuces Wild. If you want to recall the rules you can check out the other post but assuming you just want the synopsis: 15 guys get 2 teams each: add the total wins of your 2 teams and whoever has the most wins. Pretty simple really.

Anyway, in the original draft I had the Red Sox and the Tigers which I was quite happy with. As it turned out: I should have been. Both teams are in first in very tough divisions and I've got a pretty healthy lead in our competition.

So, the other day we had our mid-point draft. Last year we learned that in something like this you really need to re-draft at the halfway point. Otherwise, someone can get two terrible teams and have an entire season of no fun. This way everyone at least has a chance to get back into it.

First, let's go back to what I said after the first one:

The worst picks in my mind were the Mets (3), Cubs (13), and Giants (15). The Mets clearly taking the cake as the consensus "what the heck was that?" pick of the draft. Best picks, I have to like Bos (9) as the biggest steal. Twins (19) is also a pretty good one, I think.

It seems that I was mostly right... The Cubs and Giants were too high. Boston was the almost the biggest steal - luckily for me the Tigers (BY FAR) were the biggest steal of the draft... the Twins were a pretty good one as well. Where I really missed the boat was rating the Mets as the worst pick of the draft. They came into the midway point with the 4th best record in baseball - better than the #1 pick Yankees.

Now on to the midseason results:

My picks in green

Well, this time the draft went like this:
1 Chicago White Sox
2 New York Mets
3 Boston Red Sox
4 Detroit Tigers
5 Houston Astros
6 New York Yankees
7 Toronto Blue Jays
8 St. Louis Cardinals
9 Los Angeles Dodgers
10Minnesota Twins
11 Cincinnati Reds
12 Milwaukee Brewers
13 Oakland A's
14 Texas Rangers
15 San Diego Padres
16 Los Angeles Angels
17 Colorado Rockies
18 San Francisco Giants
19 Philadelphia Phillies
20 Seattle Mariners
21 Cleveland Indians
22 Arizona Diamondbacks
23 Atlanta Braves
24 Florida Marlins
25 Washington Nationals
26 Baltimore Orioles
27 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
28 Chicago Cubs
29 Pittsburgh Pirates
30 Kansas City Royals

Again, I am very happy with my picks. The Cardinals at #8 is better than I was hoping for. The Braves at #23 is a pick I really like too. To me they're a team with a lot of upside and a chance to really have a great second half. They won't be looking to trade any of their big names and are really only a couple of young relievers stepping it up away from making a nice run. Of course, they could really stink it up too, but when you're picking a team this low... you're not going to get a sure thing.

My best/worst picks this time?

I think this draft went pretty well along the lines that I am thinking on. There are a bunch that I'm not a huge fan of but aren't way off either: Mets (again) at #2, Tigers at #4, Reds at #11, and the Rockies (even at #17). After looking at the list a bit more though, I have to say the one I disagree most with though is (sorry Geer): the Astros at #5. Other than my man-crush on Lance Berkman, I really don't think they have what it takes to be #5.

The best picks? Of course mine are always the ones that are perfect, but other than myself I 'll go with the Twins at #10, Mariners #20, and the Orioles (Geer redeems himself) at #26. As for the steal of this draft... this really pains me to say... The Cubs at #28. I'm certainly not predicting great things for the Cubs but they _will_ be #20 or better in the second half.

Villaneuva for TJ Ford

For those who are NBA fans and read this (yes, both of you). Here are Bill Simmons thoughts on the recent trade that will bring Villaneuva to Milwaukee in exchange for Ford (from this post):

"Disregard Ford's scary spinal cord problems, that he can't shoot to save his life, that he's a free agent two years earlier than Villanueva, even that he lost crunch-time minutes to Charlie Bell last season. Again, I want you to disregard everything in that sentence. From a pure basketball standpoint, since when is a young point guard worth as much as a young power forward who can rebound and shoot 3s? When has that EVER been the case? How fast did the Bucks' front office say yes to this trade? 0.79 seconds? 1.2 seconds? Did they say, "Hold on, we'll discuss this and call you back in a few hours," then hang up and start pouring champagne on one another? If somebody made this deal in my fantasy league, I would have protested it." - Bill Simmons

Local H

Another great show from Local H last night (some samples will play if you visit their site). This time at the High Noon Saloon. and how can you go wrong with a $10 ticket.

Local H is a two man operation that produces an incredible amount of sound. There's no way that you would guess that it's two guys listening to one of their CDs.

The drummer (Brian St.Clair) is really fun to watch. When he's not playing he seems to not even be paying attention. He'll turn around and get a drink of water and just generally seem oblivious to what's going on. Then, suddenly, he'll spin around and play the drums absolutely ferociously - incredibly animated and committed.

The rest of the sound comes from Scott Lucas. Scott simultaneously plays lead, bass, and vocals - incredible that he can balance all that out and still move around the stage (when he's not jumping off into the crowd).

Family Reunion

There are a few posts already up and I'll be staying tuned for more, but I'm sure all will come to the same conclusion: what a great trip.

Seeing all the family (115+) was wonderful. About every 5 years someone puts in the incredible amount of preparation and work to get the group together for the meetup. This time we were hosted by Lake Okanagan Resort. Several pools, tennis courts, a beach, condos/villas, restaurants, low key golf course, and great company made the place perfect for the event. Kelowna was gorgeous and who knew that the lake was some 90 miles long!

While waiting for our luggage in Seattle I bumped into a guy that I play ultimate frisbee with... crazy! Monnie and I then went down to check out Pike's Market where we bumped (unplanned) into a friend who now lives in Seattle (crazier still!). I enjoyed Pike's Market but man... I didn't think I was going to get Monnie out of there!

Tim and Fran had already made their exit to Kelowna but were kind enough to let us stay at their place. The view from their 2nd floor is gorgeous.

The entire trip was incredibly scenic but nowhere moreso than the trip to Kelowna from Seattle. We took a very scenic path taking us on a pass through the North Cascades. It added quite a bit of the time to the trip but was well worth it. I would definitely take that drive again.

Kelowna and the resort were gorgeous as well. Tons of fun and family. Lots to do (not the least of which was relax). The resort had tons for all ages and with the group we have, there's never any pressure: just have fun.

Pictures!

Ok, so it's been a looong time since I uploaded to Flickr. Monica has been doing most of our photo management of late - she's a big Picassa fan, so you can catch a lot of our stuff out there. So... some of these will be repeats but some are new... anyway, here goes.

St.Germain Add another to the list of great trips to St.Germain. The highlights of this one included 30 degrees in June, Rusty getting his first taste (with us) of the water, and some fun lawn games. Good times and some great Rusty pics.

Mike's Graduation Mike's MCW graduation was tons of fun. We got to see lots of people that we hadn't seen in a long time, play some football, have some good food, and just enjoy a great day.

5-21-06 Monica, Melodie, and I did some quality eating. We hit the new taco place (Texas Tubbs) followed by the new ice cream place (Ben and Jerry's).

Mallards Game Monica, Emily, Emily's father, Dion, and I went to check out the 2nd game of the Mallards season. They came up short but the Mallards keep things really fun with plenty of between-innings games and a mix of both on and off field fun.

Grillin Out Monica and I grilled up some zuccini to go with our chicken fingers. Good stuff.

Brat Fest Monica, Tivoli, Michael, and I went to check out the world's largest brat cookout at the Aliant Energy Center. As always it was a great time and the prices are awesome. The picture is the grill for the event - it's a semi-trailer that opens (on hinges - it's modeled on a real grill :) ). We even got to pick up a bratfest Christmas ornament for the tree!

Mother's Day . Claire brought her family to join the Sun Prairie crew for a fun Mother's Day. Mom got a shiny new iPod nano! Of course, the wikipedia Chocolate Truffle picture (featuring Monica's creations) came out of the event as well!

Farmer's Market Monica, Mom, and I went to the farmer's market on the square in downtown Madison. As always we picked up some cheesy bread and other goodies that are always a hit!

Gas Prices Sadly, this picture is no longer even impressive but at the time... it was A LOT!

Disc Golf. Monica, Rusty, and I went out to Token Creek to get in some disc golf. We really need to get back out there. It's a lot of fun and Rusty is actually surprisingly well behaved (doesn't retrieve the disc for you if you make it clear that isn't what you want).

Awesome Songs

The Hungry Roo's latest post inspired me to look up everyones favorite State Street Artist - Art Paul Schlosser.

Say what you may about Art Paul, but you will never catch someone within 30 feet that isn't smiling. Besides, this guy has to be top 10 well known people in Madison (as would be voted by Madison residents and students).

It ends up being the perfect follow up to my recent Awesome Videos post... So, without further hesitation, I bring you: Awesome Songs.