Happy Anniversary, Dear!

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

--Shakespeare, Sonnet XXIX

The Treasures of Haus Burkholder

I have previously compared parts of our house, namely the garage, to a sort of perpetual garage sale, a room-sized Bag of Holding (for you D&D geeks out there), a Mary Poppins's carpetbag, and even a non-jewel-encrusted Cave of Wonders. Maybe a Cave of Mundanes. Anyway, if you simply ignore the room for long enough, it will accumulate anything and everything for which a human being could possibly think up a use. When I first moved in, the garage had been properly disregarded for an appropriate amount of time, and every time I mentioned to John, "I don't really want to spend money on it, but I sure would like a new (noun)," he'd say, "I'm sure we have one in the garage. Let's go look." Sure enough, said item would almost always be there, usually in mint condition. (NRFB!!! ^{^}) This was one of the many reasons it didn't make sense to register for everything under the sun when we got married, we had a toaster oven in the garage already.

Now I discover, apparently our house is also a sort of memorabilia magnet. I should have been able to track the transformation of this other magical room, because I've seen it empty. Over the years, people have moved in, people have moved out, and the last time someone moved out, it became a storage room. I thought, "We'll just store the Christmas stuff in here until we can clean out a closet." Falser words have never been spoken, because it wasn't long before the boxes started breeding, like rabbits on fertility medication. And where there weren't boxes, there were piles. Boxes of wedding memorabilia, piles of tools, shelf after shelf of books (double- and triple-stacked), three chests of drawers full of summer clothes (so that's where those shorts went!), empty boxes we can't bring ourselves to throw away, and finally, the best treasure of all: pictures and video!

The video is 8mm, so I have nothing here that can deal with that. It will have to wait for a professional transfer, but I've been scanning pictures for days, and I still can't catch up. But, I am uploading them as I scan them, and I'll be posting the links as they go up. Some albums will be updated as I sort pictures into appropriate categories, but feel free to peruse and download what you want. If you know anything about a particular picture, like who's in it, or where/when it was taken, make a comment on it or shoot me an email!


A box of Flossie Burkholder's pictures ^{(^)}

More from Flossie's house - shots of Haus Burkholder being built ^{(^)}

A box from the Keeney house ^{(^)}

Frank & Dorothy's Wedding (11-29-1969) ^{(^)}

Branson-Carmichael Wedding ^{(^)}

Branson family photos ^{(^)}

Edit 07-18-2010: I've added more links as I've been able to scan more albums. Keep checking back, I'll keep adding more pictures until I'm out!

Charles Branson, 1928-2010

My Grandpa Charlie passed on Friday.

PSA 2: How Media and Fundies Distort Science

I was surfing the net this morning, catching up on the news that happened whilst I dreamt of electric sheep, and I ran across this article:

http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/06/nasa-study-shows-sun-responsible-for-planet-warming/

"...more evidence that any warming occurring on planet earth is coming from natural sources and is cyclic in nature–NOT from the evil capitalism that Al Gore, the UN politicians at the IPCC and other socialists love to blame."

Hrm, that's interesting, and 100% contrary to most peer-reviewed studies so far. And NASA released this study? So I did a little poking around.

http://www.dakotavoice.com/about/

Dakota Voice brings news and commentary of interest to conservatives and Christians. While most news sites see events through a secular worldview, Dakota Voice strives to maintain a biblical, Christian worldview. Whether the topic is religious or political, we seek to bring you information and insight without the taint of liberal bias which dominates most of the information market today.

Now, science is really the closest thing I have to a religion, so I'm immediately suspicious that someone is cooking the books, so to speak. If NASA did a study that found the Sun responsible for the changes we've noticed since the Industrial Revolution, surely the news of it would turn up somewhere other than a news source that seeks to maintain a Christian worldview. So I clicked the source link and read that article too:

http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+Study+Acknowledges+Solar+Cycle+Not+Man+Responsible+for+Past+Warming/article15310.htm


'"Thomas Woods, solar scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder concludes, "The fluctuations in the solar cycle impacts Earth's global temperature by about 0.1 degree Celsius, slightly hotter during solar maximum and cooler during solar minimum. The sun is currently at its minimum, and the next solar maximum is expected in 2012."'

0.1 degree Celsius, huh? That's like, a fifth of a degree Fahrenheit. That's some serious global warming there. I'd better kick up the A/C. But just for the sake of argument, let's just say good old Tommy might have been misquoted, and go to this article's source link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080512120523.htm

"The fluctuations in the solar cycle impacts Earth's global temperature by about 0.1 degree Celsius, slightly hotter during solar maximum and cooler during solar minimum," said Thomas Woods, solar scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "The sun is currently at its minimum, and the next solar maximum is expected in 2012."

Hrm, no, not misquoted. Oh but wait there's more:

Over the past century, Earth's average temperature has increased by approximately 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit). Solar heating accounts for about 0.15 C, or 25 percent, of this change, according to computer modeling results published by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies researcher David Rind in 2004. Earth's climate depends on the delicate balance between incoming solar radiation, outgoing thermal radiation and the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Even small changes in these parameters can affect climate. Around 30 percent of the solar energy that strikes Earth is reflected back into space. Clouds, atmospheric aerosols, snow, ice, sand, ocean surface and even rooftops play a role in deflecting the incoming rays. The remaining 70 percent of solar energy is absorbed by land, ocean, and atmosphere.

"Greenhouse gases block about 40 percent of outgoing thermal radiation that emanates from Earth," Woods said. The resulting imbalance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing thermal radiation will likely cause Earth to heat up over the next century, accelerating the melting polar ice caps, causing sea levels to rise and increasing the probability of more violent global weather patterns.

Emphasis mine. Witness the transformation in time-lapse typography:

From the original source article we go from the wordy-but-accurate:

The earth is warming, the Sun contributes heat, but we wouldn't keep it if it weren't for greenhouse gases. We're currently 33% above the highest levels we've ever been able to measure and we have a fairly good understanding of the correlation between amount of GH gases in the atmosphere and temperature.

To the media-generated fake debate:

There's some debate about whether it's the Sun or greenhouse gases that's causing global warming

To nutjob:

Look how these evil scientists lie to the American public.

Oh I looked, DakotaVoice.com, you betcha I did. And guess who is lying to the public?

Latest Project: Saving the Blueprints for Haus von Burkholder

We have the original blueprints for the house, and sadly, they look their age. I thought it might be nice if they survived a few years more, so I got some self-stick bookbinding tape and set to work. Scroll down for a slideshow of the progress I've made!

Happy News from the Folks

Dad wrote with some good news:

I am happy to announce that on March 14, 2009 my wife (Pat) took possession of her first Harley. We purchased her a 2009 Dyna Low Rider from Ozark H-D in Lebanon, MO. It is black & chrome with a windshield and some rockin’ Vance & Hines staggered Dual exhaust.

It is going to cost us a fortune in dental expense to keep the bugs cleaned off her teeth because we can’t get the grin off her face.

Let me bore you with a little history. I first met Pat in 1974 during her high school graduation. At the time I owned a 1972 Sporster all chopped & chromed out for a show bike. I’m not sure who she took the initial shine to me or the bike, but who cares. As it turned out whatever her original intentions she has journeyed on a 34-year love affair with me and my Harley’s that I wouldn’t have planned any other way if I had it to do all over again.

So join me in congratulating my partner and say a little prayer that she will have years of safe riding and fun with all our Harley friends.

So to the Love of my life I always say paint & chrome I can replace or live without… just bring you home safe to me.

Larry R. Branson
LadyHawke Kennels
Centertown, MO

I'd also like to add that I grew up hearing, "I would have driven Larry's Sportster, but his Low Rider is just too big for me." Looks like she finally grew up. Congratulations, Mom!

Update: Pictures! All links open in a new window.
Left
Right
Vroom!
They see me rollin

In Memoriam

Buzz, Kelly, Pops, Paw-Paw
Louis Edward Callais had many names.
But it didn't matter what he went by,
there was always something to learn from him:

up and down with the sun
breakfast is oatmeal
don't bid on a horse if the auctioneer is a sucker for puppy-eyed girls
always check to see exactly how many cats are in the sack
don't leave a tethered calf unattended
cows will come if you're bringing hay
hay don't rake and bale itself
tractors don't drive straight on their own
a nap never hurt anything
pigs' tails need grabbing at slop-time
two and two equal four
witches can fly through a keyhole
Three-Toes lives in the woods
always keep a candy poke nearby

I'll miss you, Grandpa.

Louis Edward Callais
May 26, 1921 - January 31, 2009

New Year, New Blog Post

I figured it's about time for a new post, just a little update so y'all don't think we died. :) I just started school again on Tuesday, after a *cough* brief hiatus. So far, my biggest obstacle has been the weather, not parking. I get there early enough there's plenty of spaces left in the back 40, but it's so early the temperature hasn't had time to get up to reasonable numbers. (I'm looking at you, negative wind chill. Stop it.) Sooner or later I'll be working from home, as well. (Keep your fingers crossed for me, red tape is a pain in the behind.)

I don't have much news, so I'll leave you with a video that, if you have 17 minutes and 25 seconds, will blow your mind.



I highly recommend www.ted.com. There's something for everyone there, and all of it will amaze you.

You Have New Mailbox!

We got an official looking PS Form 4056 from our friendly letter carrier informing us our mailbox was too short. This came as no surprise, but it matched the neighbor's, so we felt no real hurry to replace it. It had been in service for many years, even customized with a wooden pull out drawer Frank made. But it swiveled on its post, and the flag wouldn't stay up, and our mail carrier threatened to stop delivering the mail. (Wait, is it really a threat to say you won't bring my bills to me? Let me think this over.) So we made a run to our neighborhood Lowe's and found one that suited our needs and a nice cedar post that might not rot before someone knocks it over when they misjudge the ice, or the curve, or both. It was probably our easiest home project to date, though at times I was concerned about my proximity to a powered saw blade. Everyone came out intact, and even the mail lady seemed happy Saturday, even though she had to come up the driveway to make her delivery, because we were in the middle of the job.

On a completely different subject, every house has an oddity or seven. John and I have noticed a strange phenomenon in ours: one particular section of The Longest Hallway in the World® seems to magically produce shards of safety glass. It's been doing this for several months now. The pieces are rarely larger than a fingernail, dull, and always found on the south side of the hallway, usually in the crevice where the carpet meets the wall. It's very strange. I think it must be a wormhole, a tunnel through space to a safety glass factory. I've decided to keep track of them to see just how many appear. So you'll see a new list on the left: Glass Shards the Wormhole has Produced. I'll add to it whenever we find a new one.

Exciting New Siding!

We finally did the dirty deed and bought new siding. There's still some little things to be done, a couple of fixtures that need to go back up, and the house numbers, that sort of thing, but for the most part, it's done, and it's gorgeous! They covered the soffits and fascia, and all the window trim, and installed new garage doors. We took the opportunity to make some room in the garage for cars too. Take a clicky look:

Pretty! (pops)
More pretty! (pops)
Detail work (pops)
More detail work (pops)

Our next plans are to win the lottery. ;)

Edit: We forced ourselves to clean out the garage by getting new garage doors. I wish I had before pictures so you could be suitably impressed. Well, just imagine a full Tetris grid, then make it three-dimensional. That pretty much covers it. We managed to get enough of it cleared out that we can actually park two cars there now!

Bay One, awaiting docking procedures.
Bay Two, docking complete.

I can't wait till the garage door openers are installed and I can roll up to the garage after work and say, "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

Happy Anniversary to Us!

It's been one year to the day since we got married! We celebrated by going to the last day of the Renaissance Festival out in Bonner Springs with Cliff and Sara, who celebrated 8 years together this past week. It rained like the dickens Saturday nearly all day, so the fairgrounds were soggy in places, but not a complete slop pit. We managed to keep the mud below our knees, and nobody fell in it, despite the number of beergarden pitstops. All in all, the day was absolutely beautiful, around 75, mostly sunny with a nice soft breeze.

We finished up Sara's Halloween costume (pirate, it will be awesome) with accessories from the various vendors there, learned a bit of history, and met Captains Jack Sparrow and Barbossa. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush had walked right off the set into the festival, these guys were that convincing. I wish I had gotten a picture of them, but I didn't get my camera out fast enough.

I tried on a barbarian hat, which as you can see, was not large enough for my massive cranium. Clearly I am far more evolved than a barbarian. RenFest is a very dog-friendly place, and we ran into a four month old Weimaraner named Sammy with one blue eye and one brown eye, so I had to snap a picture. Here he is, posing very patiently while he waits for his treat.

Sara and I took a break at a wine tasting, and had a fantastic time at that. One couple had been sitting there for some time, and by then they were very social. We passed around our cameras and camera phones for everyone to see snapshots of our pets and ate cheese and crackers and grapes, and of course, the vino. Two Musketeers came through on patrol, ensuring general order, and were kind enough to pose for this shot. On our way out, we found a Henry VIII cutout and John braved the splintery, tetanus-enhanced stairs behind it to pose for this one.

And now, my friends, it is time to follow through with our last ceremonial duty as newlyweds: eating the top of our wedding cake. Mom wrapped it up nice and tight for us last year, and we kept it in the freezer, and have been thawing it all week in the fridge. We unwrapped it last night, and snapped a picture. Not bad for a year old, eh?

I'll let you know if we survive it. ;)

Cave Springs

We visited Cave Springs today, in Kansas City. It was an interesting place, with several old chimneys left over from whatever houses used to stand in the area. We walked a good portion of the trails and managed to work up quite an appetite! I took the camera along and got a few neat pictures, click here to check out the photos. I also found a toad on the porch later that afternoon that sat so still for me, I guess he was ready for his close-up.

Danger, Will Robinson!

I got this email today, and I wanted to share it with y'all. My spam filter is pretty good, but this one got through. This is what is known as "phishing," the art of convincing someone to reveal their most important information, such as passwords, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, you name it. This one is pretty slick, but with a bit of careful examination, we can see how the magician makes the rabbit appear from an empty hat. Have a look-see, my comments are in red.

---------- Message Text Follows ----------
From: Bank of America [noreply-mail@google.com] Here is our first clue. BoA would be sending email from username@bankofamerica.com
Date: Sep 12, 2007 6:07 PM
Subject: Unauthorized Activity
To: Nothing to see here, move along. Oh wait, no, this is blank. Ask yourself why.

Dear Bank of America client,

Bank of America client? You mean they don't know my name? Huh, that's weird. Even weirder, I don't have a BoA account.

You have received this email because you or someone had used your account from different locations. For security purpose, we are required to open an investigation into this matter.

This is the hook they use to scare you into reading further. Good, isn't it? Also, note the bad grammar. Without getting too technical, that whole first sentence is wonky. And "for security purpose" is a classic native Chinese speaker's mistake, though the writer is clearly familiar with English business phrases. (For the record, China has a problem with online fraudsters that they're not really trying to fix.) What BoA exec is going to let a form letter out of their mail servers looking like that? But our intrepid black hats are hoping you're too alarmed to proofread.

In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details. Red Flag #3: No self-respecting financial institution will EVER ask you for this information via email. Email is notoriously lacking security, and why would they need that info? They already have it.

The help speeed up to this process (Say what?), please access the following link so we ca (???) complete the verification of your Bank of America Online Banking Account registration information. If you use online banking, you're already registered and verified. You will not have to do this a second time.

DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LINK, BUT LOOK AT IT CAREFULLY.

http://211.72.75.244/icons/www.bankofamerica.com/sslencrypt218bit/online_banking/

It has some of the right words in it, bankofamerica.com, sslencrypt (by the way, there's no such thing as 218-bit encryption, computer numbers are always evenly divisible by 8), but the important thing is the beginning of the address. You're looking for the text between the second and third slashes. That string of numbers is an internet address that is in no way shape or form associated with Bankofamerica.com. In fact, it's owned by a company called Asian Pacific Network Information Centre with a post office box in Australia. Doesn't sound much like BoA, does it?

If we do no (no? No what?) receive the appropriate account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this Bank of America account is fraudulent and ("it" belongs here) will be suspended.

More scare tactics, bad grammar and and stupid spelling mistakes.

The purpose of this verification is to ensure that your bank account has not been fraudulently used Bullhockey! and to combat the fraud from our community. Bullhockey and more bad grammar!

We appreciate your support and understanding and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Not bullhockey. Because if you do what they ask, they will have all the information they need to ruin your life.

This is actually where the email ended. Had this been a real email from a real bank with whom I really had an account,it most likely would have included names, email addresses, perhaps even telephone numbers of bank personnel with whom I could speak should I have any questions or concerns.

Hot Summer

I figured it was time to poke my head up and say we're still here! Not much happening around here, it's been a hot few weeks. I'm getting a couple of tomatoes now and then, but they're not doing as well as I'd hoped. The few I'm getting sure are tasty, though. A lady brought in a few sacks of beefsteak maters to work last week, so we're getting by. ;)

I did manage to get a few pictures of a couple of cacti that are putting on a show right now. They bloom at night, so the pictures don't really do them justice. I'm not a photographer. :P

This one is my favorite It's about 5 inches across, and before it opens, it sticks the long green pistil in the center out like a tongue, retracts it, then opens up. It's like it has to taste the air to make sure it's right to open.

This one is of the same bloom earlier that night as it opened. It's not in perfect focus because I couldn't hold the camera still enough for the low light conditions, but the colors are much truer than the other picture.

To check out the whole album, click here, and here.

Here's another pair of blooms from the cactus we call the Maneater. I grew up with this cactus most of my life, and Mom finally gave it to me a few years ago. These blooms are about 3-4 inches across, and covered with ugly gray hair on the outside. I'm expecting an especially good show out of the Maneater here in a few days, there are 7 (yes, seven!) blooms getting ready to go, all at once.

Well, that's it for now. Stay out of the heat!

Quickie

Hi there, folks, just a quick post to let you know I've made some changes to the blog. To the left there you'll see a list titled "Extended Family." Those are links to other blogs that some of our family members have set up. The Glezens are Chad and Shannon (John's cousin and her husband) and their three children. The Epema Family is my cousin Stacey, her husband John, and their new daughter Lucie. The Wolfes are Bryan and Dana (John's cousin and his wife), and their new son. Stop by and say hi! (If I've left anyone out here, just drop me a line and let me know, I'll get it updated right away!)

Also, I noticed that comments moderation had been turned on, so that I would have to manually approve all comments. That has now been fixed, and you can type expletives and libel all you want, and there's nothing I can do about it. (Well, not entirely true, but I'm a big fan of the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, so there you have it.)

Glass House

Ok, so I finally got around to those pictures of the house I've been promising. It was a beautiful day today, with the knee-high grass blowing in the spring breeze.... Okay okay! Our lawn man's most basic tool was in the shop this week. He'll be by soon, I promise!

As you can see from the south side, it is a house of windows. And windows. And more windows. There are even (as you will see below) windows inside the house. I think the architect owned stock in Windex. The short-wide windows near the top are what we call the clear story windows, and they provide the bulk of our daytime light throughout the house. Starting on the left side of the house, the first set of windows (behind the weeds lush tomato garden) is the master bedroom, the next three (behind the green barrel composter) are the office, and the three beside that is a storage room that used to be a bedroom. The six tall windows that look black are the sunroom windows (if you squint you can see some plants). Just to the right of the sunroom, you can see the corner windows of the kitchen, and then farther over is the last room of the house, another bedroom. Currently it's storage, but eventually it will be a game room.

This next picture is from the northwest corner, off the back of the master bedroom. It shows the curve of the house, and the flat garage roof on the left. Not much to see here.

Here is a shot of the longest hallway in the world. This is the most dramatic view of the house's curve. The clear story windows on the roof above the sunroom are on the wall on the right, above the ones you can see on the left, which let light into the rooms behind that left wall. Here's a better shot. (Hey! You! Stop zooming in to look at the cobwebs!) The exterior clear story windows are higher than their interior pals so as to not be blinding all the time: there's plenty of indirect light to go around. Some of the interior windows are paned, some are open--in this case, that's a bathroom window, and it's open to let the steam out. The master bedroom is behind the camera, and we're facing toward the game room at the end of the hallway.

If you'll walk with me down this hallway, to your right you will see our living room, which is between the sunroom and the hallway. I had to include a picture so y'all wouldn't think I cheated on putting the kitchen back together. ;) Yeah, the fridge is still in there, but that is only until we get the grout in the kitchen sealed, because John put his foot down on moving the fridge more than once.

Well, that's our house! Um... the clean parts anyway. Maybe I'll clean the other rooms and take more pictures. Hah!

PS: Does anyone know anything about this? It's hanging in the hallway, and it's such a curiosity, but neither John nor I know anything about it. There's another one in similar colors and matching frame, but it is of a donkey instead. Drop us a line or leave a comment!

Awww, Look, It's A Kitty!

John's Pinky: the Update

Also, for those of you dying to know more about John's finger: He is now back at work and doing well! There's still some swelling, as you can tell from these pictures, but he's able to curl it up just like a regular (but short) finger. It will be sensitive for a long time (months at least), and the skin is still baby soft from the gallons of antibiotic ointment he's used, but it works, and looks mostly like a finger.

The Kitchen Floor

Well, the cat is sort of out of the bag anyway, so I guess it's time for the big reveal on Extreme Makeover: Burkholder home edition--that is to say, not so extreme, we just did the kitchen floor. It was much tougher than simply allowing ABC to buy us a two week vacation while leveling the house and starting from scratch. Though if Ty Pennington ever stops by, I'm chaining him in the garage until my house is perfect.

But first (keeping true to the format of the show), teasers:

Step 1: Completely destroy the current floor. Oh, say hello to Simon, the new kitty. Where did the stuff that belongs in the kitchen go, you ask? Why, the next room over, of course!

Step 2: Rock chalk, Jayhawk! Ok, not really, it was more of a chalk powder on a string, but that's beside the point. Chalk lines! Woot!

Step 3, 4, and 5: Slowly, carefully, lay your uncut tiles. Or better yet, pay someone to do it for you.

Step 6: Don't forget, kitties like to help!

Step 7: Plan your tile cuts carefully, then...

Step 8: Conquer!

Step 9: Grout, grout, and more grout! Oh yeah, and more grout!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, where Ty talks a lot more than he needs to, and then, we'll be back after these commercial messages... the big reveal!

Step 10: (I'm seriously simplifying things here.) Mop it, and put it all back. The island has carpet glued to the bottom of it, so it slides around to where you need it most today. Kinda nifty!

I couldn't stand not having a kitchen for more than two weeks, so I made the executive decision not to paint the walls until summer vacation, when hopefully I'll have more time, and possibly sanity, but we all know that's asking a bit much. ;)

Extreme Makeover: Your Home Edition is brought to you by the makers of Prozac and other fine pharmaceuticals, get yours today!

New Widget!

I've got a new widget that sends out an email every time I update my blog. Click here to get on the list!

Slings and Arrows

John was about to wrap up his shift at work Monday night when he got the tip of his right pinky finger caught between the edge of a wooden barrel and a conveyor belt, causing what the nice ladies in the ER characterized as "near amputation." Of course, being that the cutting surfaces he employed were not recently honed by a professional nor designed for cutting in the first place, it was a bit of a mash-up, and the surgeon made the decision to simply finish the job John had started. The end result was that John lost all of the last bone in the finger and a small part of the next. The doctors said it would heal faster than if they'd tried to save it, which may not have succeeded anyway. He should be back to normal in a couple of months

Never fear, however, John is not allowing his new handicap to slow him down. He will take only two days (Edit: hah! more like two months!) off from work, during which he will undergo intense physical rehabilitation using a high tech computer program known as "Counter-Strike."

Here's our hero now, in good spirits, thanks to Walgreen's Pharmacy. Click on the picture for a larger version!

Our One of a Kind House

I thought I'd post a little info and a few pictures for those of you who haven't been able to come see our house in person. It is a fantastic and strange design, that's for sure. I don't have the whole story, but what I do know is that it was commissioned by John's parents sometime in the early 80s. It is, as far as I know, one of a kind. They poured the foundation in 1985, according to the date beneath John and Lucy's handprints on the edge of the porch.

The design is definitely unique. It's a single story earth contact that takes advantage of passive solar design aspects. For instance, it faces south and features a row of what we call "clear story" windows along the top central wall in the house to let in lots of light. Nearly every room in the house is well-lit for most of the day. Another remarkable aspect is the curve. Take a block of clay, and pull the two ends of it toward one side, into a rainbow shape, and you'll start to get the idea for our house. In fact, here's a picture of our house from space, courtesy of Google Maps. I outlined our property (as best as I can figure without going to the effort of hiring a surveyor) in red. North is up, etc.



It's not very clear about the details, but you can definitely see the curve the house is defined by. The front (southern) face of the house is mostly windows, and is shaped in profile in a style that always remind me of chicken coops for some reason. Here's a view from the west, facing east. The rat's nest of weeds on the right is my tomato garden. Click on the link, cuz this file is huge.

clicky

If you'll notice the roof is sectioned into sort of upside-down checkmarks. Behind the "foot" of each checkmark (on the wall beneath the overhang) is a horizontal row of windows. Those are the clear story windows I was talking about earlier, and they run darn near the entire length of the house. It's 2am, and I can't find all of the pictures Mom and I took a while back, so you'll have to bear with me until the sun comes up again and I can get outside with my camera. The nearest checkmarked roof section is the master bedroom, and the tallest section of checkmarked roof covers the hallway that runs the length of the house. There's a door that opens from the master bedroom onto the porch, which, with the retaining wall that keeps the tomato garden from eating my porch, makes for a cozy little nook.

One more before I go, here's a picture of the sunroom from the outside. It's the small gray rectangle on the south side of the house in the first picture. (The large gray square on the northeast side of the house that looks almost like a--very large--afterthought is the garage.) One of the clear story windows can be seen in the far upper left corner of the picture. Place another 14 or 15 in a straight line to the left, and you'll get a fair idea of what they look like.

Another clicky
for the big image file.

Oh, and if you want to leave a comment (which will always be welcome--I love to hear from you!), there's a nice little link to click right below that says "# Comments." Come on, try it, you'll like it. Everyone's doing it. It's cool. First one's free!

Leaky Roof of Doom

Well, some of you know we recently suffered a leak in our roof. I woke up one morning to find water pouring down an interior window between the kitchen and the sunroom, both sides of course, where it wasn't possible to apply the time honored leaky roof solution: an old cooking pot. After many amusing antics and some odd but sound advice from friends, we called a roofer, who came out a couple of days later to give us an estimate. While we were waiting for them to mail us said estimate, we found another leak, this one in the garage. Thankfully, it was nowhere near a window, or even anything that could possibly mold later, and we were able to use the time honored solution.

Time passed, as it is wont to do, and we woke yesterday morning to the unpleasant-but-necessary sound of elephants on the roof. Figuring they had done the job (yet wondering why they had been walking over the master bedroom--on the opposite end of the house from the two leaks), I called them this morning to finalize the bill only to be greeted with unpleasant news: the whole roof was shot. The culprit was hail damage, probably from one of the big storms that blew through this past fall. Considering that, it's rather lucky we didn't have problems sooner.

As a homeowner challenge, I think this won't be as big a deal as the hot water heater was a few months ago. (Cold showers are a big checkmark in the "NO" column for me, anyway.) Barring any blizzards or monsoons in the next month or so--you never know, it is Missouri, after all--we should be able to get the roof replaced without too much fuss, if the very confident gentleman at the roofing business is to be believed.

However, there is still the matter of the kitchen floor, which is a laminated wood flooring, and not looking so good after stewing in roof juice. Sara's husband Cliff is wrapping up a floor tile/painting/trimming project in their own kitchen--or he will be if Sara ever stops adding things to the project--so we'll probably appropriate him for our slave skilled labor. He did a fantastic job on his very first tile job: our main bathroom, and with all the practice he's gotten in their kitchen, well, I think all we need to do is settle on some tile.

As soon as we're ready to start work, I'll post some pictures.

Wish us luck!

Hello World!

Yes, folks, we have finally gotten our very own blog! We'll update this from time to time to let everyone know what's going on. As most of you know, we recently got married, and I'm hoping to post a few pictures on this site in the near future. In the meantime, here's a picture of the (disputed) queen of the house.