Yesterday, while I was waiting for Jillian's bus, it looked like this.
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wow, that lawn grew in fast
Mentioned this during yesterday's epic post. On September 24, our newly seeded lawn looked like this.
Yesterday, while I was waiting for Jillian's bus, it looked like this.
Yesterday, while I was waiting for Jillian's bus, it looked like this.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Things that cost around $4,500
Hailun 125. This would probably the first (new) piano I would try out, if I were in the market.
1,300 shares of AIG.*
* - Which, as recently as this time last year, would have cost you around $100k.
Kawai K-2. Almost certainly the next (new) piano on the list.
Some random Yamaha Clavinova (their line of high-end digital pianos). Yamaha is notoriously opaque when it comes to Clavinova pricing. The cynic in me says this is their attempt to align Clavinovas with the rest of the piano world, which is equally secretive about pricing. I am sure there is one somewhere in the lineup that costs mid $4k.
A new wine cellar. Nothing fancy, of course.
(Bonus points for anyone who can identify the gentleman in that picture. Hint: it's not me.)
A cruise for 2 to St. John's. *
* - I'm guessing here. It's been a few years since Sue and I have made this trip.
"A year's worth of babysitting. So I could run errands." - Thanks, Sue, for the contribution. Way to dream big there.
1.25 acres of grass seed and straw. *
* - It's more than that, of course. There's the two days it took the gentleman and his tractor to clear what had been there before (for many, many years before, in fact). There's the labor for the army of gentlemen who distributed said grass seed and straw throughout our yard. And some odds and ends here and there, to complete the package. For now.
I think we made the right call. In fact, if you look really closely at that last pic, you can see that, as of day five, we already have little spits of grass coming up. And while there are many frivolous yet exciting things in the world, you'd be surprised to find out how happy this makes me.
1,300 shares of AIG.*
* - Which, as recently as this time last year, would have cost you around $100k.
Kawai K-2. Almost certainly the next (new) piano on the list.
Some random Yamaha Clavinova (their line of high-end digital pianos). Yamaha is notoriously opaque when it comes to Clavinova pricing. The cynic in me says this is their attempt to align Clavinovas with the rest of the piano world, which is equally secretive about pricing. I am sure there is one somewhere in the lineup that costs mid $4k.
A new wine cellar. Nothing fancy, of course.
(Bonus points for anyone who can identify the gentleman in that picture. Hint: it's not me.)
A cruise for 2 to St. John's. *
* - I'm guessing here. It's been a few years since Sue and I have made this trip.
"A year's worth of babysitting. So I could run errands." - Thanks, Sue, for the contribution. Way to dream big there.
1.25 acres of grass seed and straw. *
* - It's more than that, of course. There's the two days it took the gentleman and his tractor to clear what had been there before (for many, many years before, in fact). There's the labor for the army of gentlemen who distributed said grass seed and straw throughout our yard. And some odds and ends here and there, to complete the package. For now.
I think we made the right call. In fact, if you look really closely at that last pic, you can see that, as of day five, we already have little spits of grass coming up. And while there are many frivolous yet exciting things in the world, you'd be surprised to find out how happy this makes me.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Rainiest Day Eveh
Don't know if you heard about this, but we've had some rain the Chicago area lately. In fact, Saturday, it turns out, was the rainiest day in Chicago (recorded) history, as around 7 inches fell at O'Hare. 9 inches closer to us. Thankfully, the new house kept dry while raging torrents evacuated water from the neighborhood. To my untrained eye, whoever designed this neighborhood did very well, from a hydrological perspective.
Papa's house* (you know, the one visited by the funny looking dog with deer ears, a wallaby's rump, and Eeyore's tail) was less fortunate. It, like every other house in the neighborhood, had water in the basement. One day after the downstairs carpet was cleaned. (Insert head banging on wall icon here, as Papa surely would if he had a blog.)
* - Papa = Sue's dad, just in case you hadn't heard that. Of course, Grandma lives there too, but for some reason, it's always been Papa's house.
We spent most of Saturday there, ostensibly to help with the cleanup / dryout. As it turned out, there was little we could do, except watch Papa cleverly engineer a shop vac / hose contraption. This was briefly fascinating, but it wore quickly on both the audience and the performer, who preferred to be left alone. And since all the toys have already moved to the new house, this left few options on the rainiest day eveh... except... (Wait for it...)
Play the piano! (Piano-free posts didn't last long, did they? Did you expect them to?)
Yes, Ole Bessie hasn't made (and won't make ) the move to the new house, but remains firmly, stubbornly, where she's always been, at Papa's house. Jillian and Jason went pretty much straight to her, and picked up right where they left off. They didn't miss beat (sorry about inflicting that one on you, but it was screaming at me). Since, as you'll recall, Jillian promoted Jason from the Schaum Green Book, they began work on the Red Book, which Jillian herself hasn't yet completed. I'd guess, in all, they spent about 90 minutes between the two of them, catching up on lost ground. I was impressed with their progress, but equally impressed, if not moreso, with their interest.
Later in the afternoon, with cupfuls of water continuing to trickle out of the basement, I took my turn. You wouldn't believe it. I didn't. I had actually improved on things I hadn't been practicing, if that makes any sense. I can now do a slow, halting, hands-together version of Stella del Mattino. Go figure. I couldn't even do the RH part of it by itself before. And I did quite a bit of work on the two other Einaudi pieces I'd been working on, Limbo and Ombre. I was so happy with Limbo, I was sorry I didn't post a new clip of it for you. Next chance I get. And with Ombre, I can do those tricky triplet measures correctly about 3 times out of 4. For some reason, the triplets themselves don't bother me; it's the getting back to common time in the next measure that trips me up.
On the way home, I mentioned to Jillian that I had played so much, the backs of my hands were sore. "Wow, daddy, that happened to me, too. Our hands must miss playing piano."
And finally, on that note, an anonymous benefactor (let's call her "Grandma MA") has come forward to play the role of September Santa. More updates on this exciting turn of events as events warrant.
Papa's house* (you know, the one visited by the funny looking dog with deer ears, a wallaby's rump, and Eeyore's tail) was less fortunate. It, like every other house in the neighborhood, had water in the basement. One day after the downstairs carpet was cleaned. (Insert head banging on wall icon here, as Papa surely would if he had a blog.)
* - Papa = Sue's dad, just in case you hadn't heard that. Of course, Grandma lives there too, but for some reason, it's always been Papa's house.
We spent most of Saturday there, ostensibly to help with the cleanup / dryout. As it turned out, there was little we could do, except watch Papa cleverly engineer a shop vac / hose contraption. This was briefly fascinating, but it wore quickly on both the audience and the performer, who preferred to be left alone. And since all the toys have already moved to the new house, this left few options on the rainiest day eveh... except... (Wait for it...)
Play the piano! (Piano-free posts didn't last long, did they? Did you expect them to?)
Yes, Ole Bessie hasn't made (and won't make ) the move to the new house, but remains firmly, stubbornly, where she's always been, at Papa's house. Jillian and Jason went pretty much straight to her, and picked up right where they left off. They didn't miss beat (sorry about inflicting that one on you, but it was screaming at me). Since, as you'll recall, Jillian promoted Jason from the Schaum Green Book, they began work on the Red Book, which Jillian herself hasn't yet completed. I'd guess, in all, they spent about 90 minutes between the two of them, catching up on lost ground. I was impressed with their progress, but equally impressed, if not moreso, with their interest.
Later in the afternoon, with cupfuls of water continuing to trickle out of the basement, I took my turn. You wouldn't believe it. I didn't. I had actually improved on things I hadn't been practicing, if that makes any sense. I can now do a slow, halting, hands-together version of Stella del Mattino. Go figure. I couldn't even do the RH part of it by itself before. And I did quite a bit of work on the two other Einaudi pieces I'd been working on, Limbo and Ombre. I was so happy with Limbo, I was sorry I didn't post a new clip of it for you. Next chance I get. And with Ombre, I can do those tricky triplet measures correctly about 3 times out of 4. For some reason, the triplets themselves don't bother me; it's the getting back to common time in the next measure that trips me up.
On the way home, I mentioned to Jillian that I had played so much, the backs of my hands were sore. "Wow, daddy, that happened to me, too. Our hands must miss playing piano."
And finally, on that note, an anonymous benefactor (let's call her "Grandma MA") has come forward to play the role of September Santa. More updates on this exciting turn of events as events warrant.
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