january moon

The moon was in my front yard tonight.

(click on the photo to enlarge)

before and after

The old homestead here at Camp Cactus turns 100 this year, and to honor the occasion, we're making an effort to get the old gal looking a little less like a rundown boarding house and a little more like a well preserved gem. Looking back over old photos, I realized we've actually tackled some pretty big jobs over the years.

The little bathroom off the kitchen is one project I'm really glad we did.

the bathroom before

It was funky. A little 4 foot by 4 foot space on an open back porch. You had to go out the back door from the kitchen to get to it. There was no sink, the walls were open to the studs, and the floor was covered with cheap, stick on vinyl tiles that were peeling up at the edges. The tiny room was heated by a giant 220 volt electric heater next to the toilet that would have heated a space four times the size. Despite its obvious shortcomings, we were grateful for the extra toilet in a one-bathroom house. A year or two after we moved in, however, we discovered the floor had a severe case of dry rot, and we had to pull out the floor and the toilet before someone sat down and went through the rotten floor with their pants down.

We kind of lost our momentum after that, and went about two years with a gaping hole where the floor had been before we acknowledged that the job was now more than we could handle ourselves, and were able to afford to hire someone to finish the job. He closed in the back porch, eliminating the back door and stairs, leveled the sloping floor, and lovingly stripped all the paint off the funky old narrow fir door and frame. Then we ran out of money, and decided to finish it ourselves. We insulated and drywalled it, textured the walls, repaired the original old double hung window, installed a new toilet and tiny corner sink we found after an exhaustive search for one small enough to fit in the space.

the bathroom after

I papered the ceiling with pages from an old atlas. But the best part? We replaced the humongous old heater with a smaller, more efficient one.

Now it's the toastiest seat in the house.

who says it's a jobless recovery?

Sounds exciting!

let's just get on with 2010, shall we?

My assistants are helping me take down the Christmas tree today...

though I'm not sold on their method for testing the lights.

thematic photographic: white

Carmi over at Written Inc. is again hosting Thematic Photographic,

and the theme for this week is "white."

After looking through my photo library of countless snow pictures, I was reminded of this one after visiting Bossy's place this morning. Thanks for the inspiration, Bossy!

is the universe trying to tell me something?

Some random historical facts about January 12th:

* 1528, BI *

Gustav I crowned king of Sweden

(BI= Before Ikea)

* 1915 *

The U.S. House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.

(Even way back then they were idiots)

* 1966 *

Batman premiered on ABC

(Biff! Pow! Holy Crap, Batman!)

* 1971 *

All in the Family premiered on CBS

(the show that made Meathead famous)

* 1981 *

Dynasty premiered on ABC

(it was the 80s...what can I say?)

* 1991 *

Beginning of the first Gulf War

(will we never learn?)

* 2010 *

The Christmas tree is still up at Camp Cactus

(it's a tradition, if not a fire hazard)

January 12th Birthdays:

Howard Stern

(photo borrowed from these guys)

Rush Limbaugh

(photo borrowed from these guys)

Kirstie Alley

(photo borrowed from this site)

...and yours truly.

Who do you share your birthday with?

good enough for government work?

Yesterday I read an article in the paper about the 2010 Census, and how the country is gearing up for another official head count in the next few months. I thought it might be a good employment opportunity, so I set up an appointment to take the test for Field Employee positions this morning. Last night I took the practice test provided online to familiarize myself with the kinds of questions that would be asked.

They're about what you'd expect from a government document. Here's a sample:

(The instructions tell you to refer to a provided outline of a chapter from a census procedures manual in order to answer this question.)

23. Which section of the manual tells how supplies such as pencils, erasers, and paper clips should be stored?

A 2.D2

B 2.D3

C 2.D5

D 2.H2

The correct answer is 2.D3, the section on "Storing small items".

Yup. It's government work all right.

No detail escapes attention.

There are even Official 2010 Census Government Pencils (No. 2 1/2) to use on the test.

Clearly, being a Census Enumerator is a Very Important Job.

I scored a 95 this morning...I'll let you know if that's good enough for government work.

rose bowl 2010

Go Penguins Ducks!!!