Tuesday, September 25, 2007

So cool!

I found out yesterday afternoon that I came in 3rd place in fundraising for my team for the Race for the Cure! I get a restaurant gift card and some other prizes...the DJ wasn't sure what was in the packet, but it's coming in the mail this week.

I raised $355 for my team with 11 donations from friends and family. Thanks so much to those who donated - you know who you are! :)

Today is the deadline for the Stand Up and Scrap Week 1 Challenge. I'm so relieved I got mine in on Friday, I'm not panicking to get a layout in before the deadline! We'll see if I make the top 10 this week....

Saturday, September 22, 2007

I know I'm boring, but no one ever comments... :)

Today was a busy day! We started off going to the car wash - one of our vehicles needed a serious bath and cleaning/vacuuming. After that, we headed to the Oregon Convention Center for the Race for the Cure Health Expo to pick up our shirts and pins.

Once we got back home, I loaded up the scrap tote and headed over to a friend's for some paper scrapping. I'm entering the Quickutz contest at CKC Bellevue (er, for those non-scrapping folks, I'm entering a layout contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, WA), and I need time to whip up a paper layout. I figured out the page design/layout, chose the papers, and did some photo mats with inking. Now I need to take the pictures, print them out, and do some cool embellishing touches. Then scan it and print it out to take with me to the convention (no original layouts allowed - they'll ask for them if you win).

Fortunately, the CK and SS layout contests allow digital entries, so that will be much easier to do.

I'm in the Stand Up and Scrap contest as an advanced scrapper and just posted my Week 1 entry yesterday. To my shock, it has over 15 comments - and here I was thinking I belonged in the Intermediate section! :) I wish I could post it here, but we are posting anonymously and can only post in one gallery. Not even a link in this blog is allowed....just wait six weeks and you'll see them all!



This is a picture I took last weekend at the Oktoberfest in Mt Angel. I punched up the photo using Andie Smith's "Savannah" Lightroom preset. It just makes the clouds look so threatening and ominous...

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I don't know if I mentioned that I've been going through physical therapy for my back. I just finished my 4th visit out of 6 visits. I'm steadily improving, and they are also giving me exercises (mat and resistance ball) to improve my core muscles. That seems to be the reason why I get out of alignment (or what I call "locking my sacroiliac joint") on a fairly regular basis.

Funny - the core area (abs, back, etcetera) is also where I carry most of my extra weight. Think there's a correlation? :) I do know that I've started losing weight since doing physical therapy, because I'm also doing Weight Watchers Online as well. I lost 1.5 lbs this week!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Twice in one day! :)

But I found a video of the opening act for Keith Urban, "The Wreckers":

We saw Keith Urban in concert last night. I didn't bring my camera (it's a Nikon D100) because I couldn't confirm the camera policy, and usually they give me grief on my "professional" level camera, so I was stuck using my cel phone camera.

I didn't get much that was good, but I touched them up in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make them look "artistic"...I used Andie Smith's "Munich" preset on the photos.

:)





Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Woohoo!

The insulation, drywall, and texture is done. The drywall guys showed up at 8:50 (10 minutes early) and started to prep for installing (figuring out which drywall pieces to use, cutting them to size) while waiting for the insulation guys to show...they showed at 9:15 and did probably the quickest job of their day. It took them all of 5 minutes to install the minimal amount of insulation and then they were off to the next job.

The drywall guys were done at 10:15 and I was at work by 10:35 - don't worry, I didn't break any land speed records on the way to work, that's actually longer than it normally takes me to get to work (I have a 15 minute commute).

The next step? The painter guys! :)

They are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, and we have not decided which one of us gets the pleasure of telling their boss they'll be in late that day. Good thing it's slow at work right now.

Once it's done, I'll post pics of the original issue and a picture of the soon to look like nothing happened wall. :)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Okay, okay...forgive me, I've been meaning to post, really I have... :)

We've had quite the interesting last three weeks.

On Thursday, August 23rd, I came home from work and started putting the recycling and trash out for Friday pickup. I noticed a puddle of water on the rear patio. Hmmm....that shouldn't be there. So, once my husband gets home (5 minutes behind me), we go check out potential sources. It's not the washer (which is directly up the wall from where the water was coming out), so we go to check out the garage.

WOW!

It turns out that when the concrete was poured for the rear patio (after the siding was removed), someone (ie, a contractor) broke off the A/C condensate pipe that was coming out the garage wall. And it didn't just break, it broke off INSIDE the garage wall.

YEP!

You guessed it! We've had A/C on since May, and the A/C condensate pipe was draining INTO the exterior garage wall all that time.

Kudos to Centex Warranty, who promptly sent out an HVAC vendor (Dow Columbia) to fix the issue. They removed drywall, scraped off mold/mildew, sprayed the area with anti-microbial stuff (Microban), and set up a serious industrial strength fan to blow on the area for 4 days.

The warranty guy set up appointments for drywall repair, texturing, and paint. Yes, one of the reasons we did not notice mold or wet spots on the garage wall is because we had the garage drywall "textured and painted" - which apparently is not standard, but I hate the "unfinished" look of plain old taped drywall.

Today's update:

The drywall company was supposed to show up at 9 a.m. this morning, so my husband took the morning off (I've done all the previous appointments, it was *his* turn). 9:15 a.m. arrives and he calls me because they aren't there. I call the warranty guy, and he in turn calls the drywall company.

Guess what?

The drywall company "substitute scheduler" insists (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that our appointment was for tomorrow morning. Turns out the regular scheduler is out of the office today, and things always get screwed up when she's gone. The warranty guy got so upset talking with the "sub" that he hung up on her, after telling her to call me and straighten things out. She called me and STILL insisted the appointment was for tomorrow...but I told her they dang well better be ON TIME, early is even better, and they better have everything they need (the work order also says they need to bring insulation since some of that was ripped out when the drywall was removed).

If you like, I'll post a couple of photos of what it looked like.... :)