With my roof work completed, my painting work nearly completed, and my hallway painting done, I've been thinking about all the other shit I'd like to get done this summer. What will probably actually happen is that I'll do a couple of these things then this JoeHomeowner side of my personality will get tired and leave.

1. Paint foyer. I've already got the paint and the primer, I just need to get off my ass and do it.

2. Landscaping. This will be a huge job if I end up doing what I'm envisioning now.

3. Foyer and Kitchen floors. This is kind of on hold because I need to check out some walls to see if they're load-bearing or not.

4. Kitchen/Dining room paint. I've got to get that hideous wallpaper and paneling down and I need to do it whether number #3 above gets done or not.

5. Replace carpet. This will not get done as I've blown the carpeting budget on important things like my new 65" television.

6. Driveway repair and extension. I've got an estimate of $2300 for getting this done. I haven't decided yet.

7. Bathroom merger. I'd really like to merge two adjacent bathrooms into a single large room, but this project will also involve knocking out a wall and I'm pretty paranoid about that. It would also cost a lot to get new fixtures and shit.

8. Garage work area. All this stuff I've done in the garage lately, along with all the new tools I've bought, has got me to thinking about extending the workbench into a full-fledged woodshop. At least that I could do with cheap materials, a little at a time.

9. More painting. My living room, bedroom, guest room, and the entire basement are currently the worst and/or most boring colors ever put to roller. I need to do something about it, but I don't know what just yet.

10. My guest bathroom. The world's worst wallpaper adorns this small room. I must do something about it, but I've been putting it off because I'd also like to have the toilet moved and put in a shower. Once this is done I can seriously think about item #7 above.

11. More kitchen shit. The cabinets and especially the countertops shout 1980s. The look of the kitchen and dining area needs to be updated. An expensive proposition though.

12. Stonework repairs. I've tried several times to get somebody to the house to give me an estimate on repairing some loose stones. I think I'll have to figure it out for myself.

13. Do something about the deck. My old deck is really clashing with the newly-patined house. I need to clean it then either paint or stain it. There are also some boards that could use replacement.

14. Replace skylight trim that I tore out when I painted the openings.

15. Do something about the leaning basketball goal.

16. Tear down the playhouse. Or maybe just get somebody to come and take it away.

17. Massive cleanup. I have enough empty boxes to build a hobo jungle. Instead I should rent a dumpster and get rid of them along with the broken appliances and the world's ugliest loveseat that I've been keeping around for some stupid reason.

18. Replace the ugly lighting. Each ceiling fixture in my house is competing with all the other fixtures for the title of Ugliest Thing in the Universe. So far the monstrousity in the dining room is the odds-on favorite, but the beast in the foyer isn't far behind, and the flowered shade in the bedroom can't be ignored just because it's out of the public eye.

19. Fix the gutters. Some of them don't slope enough, and there are some seams that are leaking.

20. Move the outside heat pump. This is too close to the house. In the winter dripping water (see #19 above) causes ice to build up and jam the unit's fan.

21. Fix or cover up the demolition work I did in the basement when I got my pool table.

22. A very long-term project. I'd like to put a nice bar area in the basement.

23. A front porch would be nice as long as I'm thinking big.

I'm sure there's more, but this list is already long enough to keep me busy for the next 273 years.

After a week of cussing, pounding, cutting, and lifting I've finally finished my siding project.

Special thanks go to my sister Dina's fiance Kenny and to my old friend Eric. I couldn't have done it without you guys.

Once my friend Dan "Holy Shit" Kruer and his crew prime and paint the new trim I don't think it will look too bad.

Kind of a boring weekend at Rich O's. There were no LaptopGirl sightings, and most of the other people I know there were also missing.

On Friday I just had a couple of the Upland Winter Warmers. This weird guy kept bugging me with inane questions, plus there was a dead old lady sitting across from me. I left after just the two beers.

On Saturday things started out a little more interesting. MisunderstoodGirl actually sat with me at the bar and actually initiated a conversation. Perhaps I was just being paranoid about her being pissed at me for some unknown reason. A more likely scenario is that TallLady, who I talked with at last weekend's party, relayed to MisunderstoodGirl that I was detecting some animosity from her.

Anyway, I wasn't really in the mood for anything heavy when I first got to Rich O's. I'd been working on my siding all day and my sunburned skin needed something a little less drying.

What I had was one of those Frenchy Two Brothers beers, then another one. I cannot stress enough how much I like this beer.

After my second Frenchy beer I was feeling a little cooler so I tried a Belhaven Scottish Ale. This came in a can (with one of those foaming widget thingies) and I liked it a lot too. It was a lot creamier than the Scotch Ale I'd had in Omaha last month. The beer had a lot of shit floating in it. Shit that, by the time I got down to the last inch or so of the glass, was starting to creep me out. Instead of getting a spoon for that last inch I pushed it aside and had myself a Winter Warmer.

One other item of note was that CreepyGuy was there with some of his CreepyPosse. CreepyGuy had a black eye and a Band-Aid on his face. He must have creeped someone out to the point of violence. Whatever happened, I'm sure he deserved it.

Just a quick image I made using an interesting terrain file that one of the Terragen gurus posted.

This should probably be in the work category but going to Las Vegas, no matter what the context, is definitely more fun than work as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, I get to spend a week in the Jewel of the Desert in June.

Yippee!!

At a meeting today that I didn't attend because I had too much real work to do I won an award for my help in a recent server upgrade project.

While I was quite happy to win the award, I nearly creamed when I learned that with the award came an extra $250 in my next paycheck.

Hooray! Now I can fill my truck up with gas! Maybe.

Just found out that Randy Johnson pitched a perfect game tonight.

I remember when Randy was pitching for the Mariners in the early '90s and he couldn't decide whether he would be a good pitcher or a shitty one.

I guess he's decided.

Been a little busy the last few days. I'll just post one entry instead of the several that I probably should have posted.

I wasted the last two days of my vacation. There was no painting and no siding work done because of the rain.

Friday night I spent most of the night at Rich O's talking with DooRagGirl's husband. Seems like a pretty cool guy when you consider he's married to a supermodel. LaptopGirl was there but she had one of her interesting friends in tow so she didn't see me.

Saturday night I went to a party at TrainGirl and RealTrainGirl's house. I had fun although I didn't know very many people. I got to meet PrettyHairGirl who filled me with hope by having a geek for a boyfriend.

Sunday I ran into LaptopGirl at a lame beer memorabilia sale. I was in a hurry to leave so I didn't get to meet the loser she was with.

Also on Sunday I started my siding project, and fixed my mailbox door that had been broken for over a year. All it took was a cordless drill and some titanium bits.

Monday and Tuesday the painters started applying primer to the house. I think I'll like the color though it's lighter than I was picturing.

On Monday I found out that my old boss is leaving his job. Kind of weird. This, along with the recent terminations, cannot help but remind me of the sinking ship I stayed with in Seattle until it was nearly too late.

Tuesday night I completed more of the siding but had to stop when I realized that (a) I'm a dumbass that forgot to buy the right nails, and (b) I'm a dumbass that nailed the trim up wrong so it has to be redone.

Over the last few days I've spent about a thousand dollars on various power tools to help with the siding replacement. Hopefully I'll be able to make use of these tools for other projects as well.

The cicadas are getting ridiculous.

Spending my vacation day listening to the rain hit my skylights I just couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to kill some time making a new Terragen image.

I also updated an old image, raising the water level to add a little more detail.

Last night I figured that as long as I was using up my vacation days I'd try to make the most of a bad situation and so I went to Rich O's.

Also, LaptopGirl started her new job today and I wanted to see how that went.

Rich O's was fairly crowded - I'd heard that Wednesdays were popular - but I got a seat at the Island with RealTrainGirl and Matt-Josh-Willy Whatever (turns out one of my guesses is right) and ordered an Upland Winter Warmer. I also had an Alaskan Smoked Porter put on ice for later.

The Upland beer is becoming one of my favorites. This of course means that it wil be going away soon.

After a little while LaptopGirl showed up (HOT!) and she was pretty excited about her new job. I'm hopeful that the stress she felt at her old job is a thing of the past.

RealTrainGirl is having a party this weekend, and I may actually go if I don't have to work Sunday morning. They'll have a keg of NABC Solidarity which is really good, but scary because it's so sneakily strong. I may even take a tent.

MisunderstoodGirl joined us for a while. I'm becoming convinced that I've done something to piss her off - or else maybe she'd just been in a bad mood for a couple of months. What used to be pretty interesting conversations have been reduced to grunts and nods.

Anyway, I drank my Upland beer very quickly and since my Smoked Porter hadn't had a chance to chill I ordered a Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale. I've actually just been calling it "that frenchy beer" rather than butcher the proper pronounciation. I like it, though after the Upland it seemed a little weak.

At one point LaptopGirl noticed her ex at a nearby table so she zipped over there, leaving a little puff of smoke in her wake. I can say that I've come to expect these occurances and I wasn't really bothered.

After RealTrainGirl left Bubbles and MusicalHippyDude joined us at the island. LaptopGirl came back after her ex left and began bad-mouthing him. I can say that I've also come to expect this and I think it's funny.

My Frenchy beer went down pretty quickly and I had the bartender bring out the Alaskan Smoked Porter (Vintage 2003). It hadn't quite cooled down as much as I would have liked but that was my fault for drinking too fast.

The smoked porter is just a very good beer. Like many of my other favorites I wish it had a little less alcohol so I could drink more of it. This ended up being my last beer of the night, though I did have a root beer while LaptopGirl continued to complain about her ex and MusicalHippyDude continued to be more interesting than me.