7 Kids, 2 grandkids, 1 on-the-way, 2 cats, Mom, and Dad

Hold on tight! or Then, believe it or not, Sunday came!

Sunday was somewhat dreary in this area and though I had stuff I wanted to do in the yard, I wasn't up for the mess involved so I blew it off. We did go to Youngest Daughter's soccer game. She has games on every weekend until Mid-October and they are on Saturday and Sunday at around 2pm.

They won, 2-1, and she scored one of the goals again! This team typically wins the championship each year and was undefeated up until yesterday too.

I got home from the game and decided to go for my 1.5 mile run/jog and then lifted weights before dinner was served. Beautiful Wife and Youngest Daughter made an apple pie and a blueberry pie for dessert. My Mom joined us for dessert and we all had a great time.

And then Saturday came or As if I hadn't had too much fun already!

I cleared the brush and grass from in front of the stone wall and then raked it too. I went out there with a trash bag expecting that I'd have to pick up a ton of trash first but there was only a few cans and some cigarette packs and that was it. We lived on a more major road before and people constantly threw trash out of their windows so this was a nice change.

It was raining before I went out and drizzled off and on as I went through the process. I ended up so splattered with grass, dirt, and bits of leaves that I had to shower again before going to Youngest Daughter's soccer game. A woman on her bike rode by and said that it looked wonderful so I'm making progress.

I didn't expect to see such large spiders when I cleared things out. A couple of times movement caught my eye and I expected it to be a mouse but it was a spider. One resident appreciated my efforts, the "chickmunks" (Youngest Daughter's cute way of saying that word). They scurried behind me like so many acorn groupies and chattered about the rediscovered holes and nut caches that I uncovered for them.

Youngest Daughter's team won 7-1 and she scored a goal.

We went to the Outlaw's house later in the day for lobster and fresh corn.

What a weekend or I live life on the edge!

I had an off and on busy weekend. I had black belt candidate class on Friday night. We started the class by skipping (I kid you not) forwards and then backwards across the floor. Think this is easy? Give it a try. After skipping for a while we then switched to skipping by bringing our knees up high on each skip...very tiring. We then did all of our katas full powered flowing from the end of one to the beginning of the next.

We also worked some self defense. Son and I had a group of three with the third person being someone who's going for his 3rd degree black belt. This guy has multiple medical problems so it is amazing he's still with karate. The down side is that he's really not all that good and we can do more than him. The idea is that he's given his belt based on doing the best that he's capable of doing.

After that we had a short physical fitness test...one minute of pushups and one minute of situps. The situps are done by having sit/hold down your feet. You start in the up position and go about half way down before coming back up again. I almost never feel it in my abs, it is more of a workout of the hip flexors.

Casual Dinner or We scored an invite to Chez David's Bistro!

Good Friends had us over for great food, tasty wine, and impecable company last night. Eating over there has definitely broadened my menu choices and gotten me to try things I typically would not eat (mushrooms and artichokes being the two biggies).

Walked the property or Man, we have a lot of cool land!

I haven't had time to walk the boundary of our property yet. I know it is in the shape of a rectangle and is 200' wide and 405' long. I also know that the corners are supposed to be marked by metal stakes. I found the two stakes on the back side of the property yesterday with Youngest Daughter. We have some really big trees, a stone wall within the stone wall that surrounds our property, and even some grapes growing in the trees that border the meadow behind our property.

Our house sits in the front-left of our property as you face it. You can tell to the right that at one time it was kept fairly clear but that the previous owners let it go. I know this is true now because I found a white hydrangea in the middle of the woods just like the ones that are planted on the corner of our house near the deck. It is a fairly tall bush so it is evident that it has been around for a while. I think I'll dig it up and plant it closer to the house.

Reading other blogs or You learn the darndest things.

I was reading the blog over at Mama's Musings and found out that her personality is like Helen Hunt's.

I took the test and found out that I'm like Kevin Costner..."Sensitive without being insecure, reserved without being distant..."

Suspect nabbed or It is safe to sleep with your doors unlocked.

Durham, NH made it to the public spotlight when the story about Jack the Snipper made it to Headline News this morning. A man has been under surveillance for a month and was arrested yesterday.

The plus side of the whole story is that they showed footage of downtown Durham and it looked really good.

One girl was briefly interviewed and said that she would probably still keep locking her door even though the guy has been caught...All together now....DUH!

Kinda strange or How sweet can you be?

Is it just me or does it sound kind of gay when a man says, "I sweet talked the shipping guys."

This Irritating Co-Worker also says "Super!" when someone asks how he's doing. All I can think of when he says that is that he should finish with "thanksth for asthking!"

Getting Ready or How to drive me nuts in the morning.

Only me and Youngest Daughter have an appreciation for being on time and an understanding about what it takes to be on time. She'll ask me when we have to be somewhere, and then ask when we have to leave the house, and then decide what she has to do to meet that deadline.

For everyone else in this house being on time is optional. They all assume the best case scenario (nobody else in the shower for example) so then it isn't their fault if they are late. The alarms goes off at 6am. They all stay in bed until 6:10-6:15 and then all try to get in the shower (I called it...I was there first) at the same time. Instead of picking clothes, packing their stuff, eating breakfast, they go back to bed because they're waiting for the shower. They get ready in a serial mode when they seriously need to do some parallel processing.

The real pain is when they have to drive so that they can go to work, pick up siblings after school, go to practice. etc. They wander the house saying let's go, like they are actually ready to go.

Oldest Daughter: "Let's go!" (wander into kitchen to cook a bagle).

Middle Daughter: "I'm going to be late!" (wanders off in search of lip gloss)

Son: "Let's get out in the car!" (goes off in search of a book)

In their minds every single one of them thinks they're on time because they said "let's go" at some point in the morning.

My feet hit the floor when the alarm goes off and I get up even though I'm the absolute last one who has to leave the house. I'm all but ready to pull my hair out with the insanity of it all...Maybe they should get a mild sedative prescribed for daddy...

Good Friends and Wine or It is great to have company at our new home.

Good Friends came over Friday night after a hard day at work, and torrential rain during the commute. They even had to find the house in the dark after never being here before.

We had a great time with them over. We drank a bottle of Bogle Chardonnay, a bottle of Louis Bernard Cotes du Rhone , and a half-bottle of Four Vines Zinfandel Port while they were over and had fun just hanging out.

They also brought us several nice housewarming gifts, including the Exploring Wine book signed by one of the authors, Michael Weiss. I can't wait to start reading it while sipping a glass of wine.

Double blind or Who's got the palette now.

When you do a blind taste test of wine all the information that may bias your judgement (varietal, producer, appellation, and vintage) are hidden from the tester so that they don't pick a Bordeaux as best over something from California, just because it is a Boardeaux.

Testers can also tell a lot by the color, clarity and hue of a wine that they're tasting.

A manufacturer of fine wine stemware, Reidel, has come up with the Blind Blind tasting glass. I'd love to get one just because they're so cool looking. However, at $59 per stem I don't think I'll be buying enough of them to outfit an 8 person dinner party.

And I'm tired or Work, storm door, karate..oh my!

I worked all day and then started the installation of the storm door which required me to build the frame that it would use. I worked on that for a few hours until I had to grab my stuff and go to karate class with Son. I got home from class at around 9:30 and finished as much as I was going to do on the door by around 12:40am. The alarm goes off at 6am so I'm kind of dragging today.

Oh, and for my black belt candidate class tonight I have to have a paper done regarding why I want to be a certified black belt. I whipped off a one pager and figure that's going to have to be good enough.

Got the storm door in or almost only counts in this too.

I have to install the top and bottom closers in order to complete the installation of our new storm door. I think it is a cool door. It has a top to bottom screen and then two windows that slide up and down like windows in your home. It is easy to clean since the windows tilt out.

It is amazing how long it takes to do something like this when you're not sure about what you're doing. I'm very glad they had a template for helping to drill the holes for the handle and lock. It required a total of 5 holes on each side of the door and they had to be perfectly lined up so the door would work correctly.

There's an adapter kit or I have to learn to ask my questions before I start a project!

So I'm in Home Depot last night getting some wood so that I can modify the opening for my door to enable me to install the storm door I purchased. I mentioned something to one of the workers about my house having 6 inch walls and he said, "Oh, there's an adapter kit for that."

I could take out the door and use the kit or let it stay the way it is, which works perfectly fine. I think I'll leave well enough alone. I'm sure that even if I had the kit I'd still have to do some work in order for the storm door to fit correctly.

Cutting down trees or Note to self.

One thing you notice when you cut down trees by hand is that you've cut down a tree and need to do something with it. Son and I would cut down a tree or a limb and then drag it off to the brush pile.

When you start cutting things down with a chainsaw you cut, and then move on to cut something else. Suddenly, you realize you've left a swath of destruction behind you and that you need to hit the off switch for another reason besides adding more gas and oil.

When I bought the saw the sign said it was supposed to include and extra chain. It didn't. I went back to Home Depot after I damaged the one chain I have because I didn't adjust the tension correctly. They gave me the extra chain and replaced the damaged chain because it was less than 30 days. I was very impressed and very glad since they are $17 each.

Pre-Hung Entry door or It ain't as easy as it sounds.

The entry and storm doors to this house we bought had seen better days. Part of the problem is the drip from the roof (which will be another project) and part is the fact that they bought doors with poor quality.

Anyway, the directions seem very straightforward: take out the old door, and slide the new one in. You have to make sure it is level and plumb but essentially it is a two hour job (according to Home Depot) even for a novice.

This house used to have electric heat. Because of that the walls are deeper than your normal walls in a house. That means that the door didn't easily fit in where the other one used to be and that I'm going to be doing some speciality finishing so that I have a stable surface to use for the storm door.

The plus side is that the door is installed and that I installed the handle and deadbolt too. Now I just have to put the trim back on inside and then get busy outside. Part of the outside work will include putting a drip edge above the door to try and avoid the type of damage that happened in the past. Then I'll have to do something with the roof but my mind won't let me think of that just now.

A walk down memory lane or When I was a little lumberjack.

We moved to NH when I was 10 from the heart of North Philadelphia. We stayed with my uncle (a real lumberjack originally from Canada) and aunt who lived in Rye. Uncle Richard learned to speak English in lumberjack camps so he made liberal use of the "F" word. He would drink his coffee in one big gulp as soon as the waitress poured it for him. He also believed his helpers should be amply supplied with ring dings, soda, chips, and anything else they desired.

Uncle Richard would drive to a job with us kids in the back of his pickup truck in a manner which wasn't very safe, but we loved him. He also paid us for our help which was a step above the slave labor I performed for my parents.

Anyway, that is where my dad got his start and nothing would do but for us to start burning wood once we moved into our house in Hampton.

Some simple rules for working with my father while cutting wood:

-Stay out of the way of the saw unless he needs something. Then respond immediately and make sure you don't get cut because we don't have time for a doctor's visit.

-The quickest way to move wood is to toss it. You must be aware of where he is when you toss and never hit him. If he is tossing you must be aware of that fact and avoid being hit because he can't do everything.

-If a tree might fall on the house you must tie a rope in the top of it and pull it in the direction you want it to fall. If you can get the rope high enough by tossing it and hooking it over a branch, great. If you can't, then the kid must climb the tree and do it instead. The kid must be able to do this faster than an Olympic class squirrel. When the tree is being cut you pull until it starts falling in your direction and then you must drop the rope and run like hell. You can't drop it too soon because it might change directions. It isn't ok to have the tree fall on the house but it is ok to put the kid in danger. The kid musn't get hit by the tree because it would require a trip to the hospital and there isn't time.

-After all the cutting is done the kid must stack, split, and do any cleanup work that needs to be done in the yard. The dad must go inside and shower to get ready for a dinner out with his friends. When friends come over dad must show the neat wood piles and brag about them without mentioning that all he did to form the piles was contribute sperm so that his son could be born.

All the work never killed me and it was a great physical workout. I just look back in amazement of what I did and wonder how I didn't end up maimed for the rest of my life.

Timber or I got me a chain saw!

I bought a 16-inch chainsaw last night. I used one a bit as a teenager when my parents heated almost exclusively with wood. My dad's claim-to-fame is that he got through the winter on one tank of fuel oil. He never mentioned that the equation was balanced by me cutting, stacking, splitting, stacking, tossing into the basement, and stacking all the wood that made it possible. I remember the year he was thrilled that he could have all the wood delivered in tree lenghts because I was old enough to do the extra work. Kids these days...they don't know how lucky they are!

I still haven't opened the box yet. I feel like I need to find a flannel shirt and get ready to do some manly grunting and I've got too much work to do that requires me to not be in Neanderthal mode.

More clearing or Getting a great workout too.

I spent 1.5 hours last night trimming more branches and cutting down some more small trees. By small I mean no bigger than around 6 inches in diameter. My attention was focused on the side yard and along the stone wall. I'm trying to get it so there's more sun on the deck throughout the day and so that you can see the stone wall after I tidy up the area.

On the side that I cleared I'm going to cut the trunks to the ground and also cut the blackberry bushes completely back. I'm hoping that they'll come back better next year if I do. I'm also going to rake the area and have it cleared for the spring. I want to plant wild flowers over there and have them and the blackberries rather than more lawn.

Sticky windows or Let the sun and breeze come in!

I've been making use of a large can of silicone spray. It seems that the prior homeowners never opened the windows. My walk by neighbors mentioned that the blinds were always pulled and they never saw a window open in the house.

The spray is used to lubricate the channels for the windows because they're all but frozen shut.

I noticed that around every other window was missing a screen. I've found them in the attic, garage, and bedroom closets. We get such a nice breeze and the crickets and birds sound so nice, why wouldn't someone want the windows open?

More yard work and a gas-powered trimmer!

I was working out in the yard a lot this weekend. We live in a very friendly neighborhood. People smile and wave as they drive by and walkers stop at the end of the driveway to chat.

I've been told that we've done more in a week than anyone saw the previous owners do over the span of years. We have a beautiful rock wall that lines the front of our property. It needs to have the weeds trimmed, old leaves raked, trash picked up, and small trees removed in order to look nice. I did the section immediatly in front of the house but still have another section about the same size to go.

Get me a pruning saw or TIMBER!!!!

Son and I have been cutting branches off the trees in our front yard. They're actually to the size where they should be cut down completely but that costs a bit and cash is short after the big move. A pruning saw was $20 and I got a $95 stepladder too.

The front yard has really opened up now and cutting off the branches has accomplished two things. The first is that you can actually see that we have a two-story Colonial. The second is that sunlight actually reaches the ground so I'm hoping we can do grass next year instead of the moss that dominates now.

Finally! or Chateau Leoville Barton is in the house!

The other bottle of wine that Real Estate Broker gave us was the 1996 Chateau Leoville Barton. I had tried to purchase the 2000 a couple of months ago and wasn't able to get a bottle though I was fourth in line at the store when they went on sale.

This is the review for this wine:

Wine Advocate #122 (Apr 1999) Robert Parker 92 points Drink 2007-2030
This impressive wine is a classic. Although backward, it exhibits a dense ruby/purple color in addition to abundant black currant fruit intertwined with spicy oak and truffle-like scents. The wine is brilliantly made, full-bodied, and tightly-structured with plenty of muscle and outstanding concentration and purity. It should turn out to be a long-lived Leoville Barton, and somewhat of a sleeper. However, patience will be required. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030.

When we closed or Real Estate Broker bearing gifts.

When we closed the Mortgage Guy handed Beautiful Wife a gift bag with a nice candle and a brass stand for it too. Our Real Estate Broker, who doubles as Youngest Daughter's Soccer Coach, gave us an iron-framed basket with two bottles in it.

The first bottle was meant for now. It was a great bottle of sparkling wine even though we drank it out of plastic cups. I will buy it again and see how it goes in our crystal champagne flutes. Nothing will be as sweet as having it in our new home.

White and then pink or I got me some hydrangeas in my yard!

Yep, after going to the Cape with Good Friend and admiring the beauitful ones there it turns out I have some in my own yard. They were white when we moved in but have started to turn pink as the nights have gotten a bit cooler.

Beautiful Wife picked a vase/bowl full of them and they're sitting on the dining room table.

Our New Home or There's no place like home!

Well, we're in the process of finally settling into our new home. We closed on Friday and I honestly can't believe how easy it was based on the horror stories I've heard. The whole process of hunting for a home, getting the financing, and even the moving were far easier than I thought was possible.

We're still unpacking but we are out of the old place. It is cleaned, the keys are turned in, and here's hoping we get back our security deposit since they've had it for the last 13.5 years.

I'm writing this from my office...yep...my very own place to work and just hang out in our new home.

We've been busy, and still have lots to do...but it is different when working on OUR house instead of a rental.