Some DIS-assembly required

Sunday we tackled what could have been the most difficult thing we've done yet. Such and undertaking that none of the guys doing the work on the house thought it possible. Nobody thought that just Chris, Greg and I would be all that it took to move our 300 pound vanity up stairs and into place. Luckily Chris ordered one that came in one complete piece. I've always hated assembling things and moving them around with ease. Every piece of furniture we own that came "some assembly required" I've cursed. "Who uses allen key's this much?" "Why couldn't this just come in one piece, I could move it." Well, luckily we were able to get something that needed to go up stairs and turn the corner at the landing. Something that was too heavy to turn because we couldn't get it up over our heads. Something that almost knocked me onto the boxes of crystal and then landed on top of me. Finally, something that didn't require assembly.
This giant vanity actually required DIS-assembly. Dis-assembly of the house, well, really just all the railing and banisters running up the stairs. This could be the first time that the lack of house remodeling worked in our favor because those railings from the late 80's just require a socket wrench and some elbow grease. About a 1/2 hour is all it took, and the railing came off. Then, we pretty much went straight up.....to the landing. 10 total steps, till it was standing on it's side with the 3 of us just staring at it in amazement. That's when I said to Chris "I'd say it's still a 50/50 chance this thing is getting upstairs." There were really 3 options we were faced with, sell it, install it in the living room and just run the plumbing out there so our master bath was on the first floor, or get some towels to protect the wood and just go straight up. Option 3 is what we went with. So Greg and I got on the bottom of it, Chris up top, and we just tilted and slid it up and then swung it over so the whole thing was now upside down balancing on the spot that the banister usually is attached. We quickly ran upstairs, slid it to the floor, and off we went into the bathroom. I don't think that any of could believe that it would actually get up there. It's been over 24 hours and I'm still amazed that nobody died getting it up there. We owe Greg big time, so we volunteered to just go over to his place and move furniture around for fun just to make up for it. In between stages, we managed to get some pictures, I wish we had a 4th person to document it in action.

First railing off, as you can see on the wall, we're a little indecisive about wall paint colors


Second railing coming off


Got it to the landing, this was the point that just stared at it in silent amazement. As you can see Greg has his arm up on the spot that we would eventually drape towels over and slide the entire thing onto


Now we're cooking with gas! This puppy is in, I firmly believe it's jobs like this that spawned Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Those beers tasted so good once this was done!

Who likes house updates?

Here comes the latest on the bathroom. We've gotten most of the major stuff taken care of the tile guy is moving right along. We're already over budget and over the time that we thought that it would take, but oh well. I guess it's really hard to stay within a budget when you only really started with a suggested cost. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever estimated the cost of anything and at the end been able to say "wow, I can't believe we did that for less than we thought!"
I also have learned a new phrase during this process as well. It always seems to happen to me about 6:00 on a weeknight, and it starts the same way,"Soooooo, looks like we're going to need fix ________ before tomorrow." You can insert almost anything into the blank and I've heard it. My favorite so far, having to replace the shutoff valves because they all of the sudden just started leaking....hmmmmm....

Freshly installed valves on a Tuesday night




Shot of where the vanity used to be, tile looks good huh?


Tile in the shower's coming along


Toilets gone, we're taking water conservation to a new level!

Update on the bathroom

Here are some pictures from what's happening with our bathroom. We've gotten everything out, the dumpster in the driveway is full and we're having the drywall guy back tomorrow to spray on the texture to the walls. I'd say it's coming along quickly and looks really good so far. We've only hit one snag, now there's a 12x12 square cut out of our ceiling in the kitchen. Guess I've got some patchwork that I'll be doing. Check 'em out.

New lights, where the mirror and vanity will go


Arch from inside the bathroom, much better than that pocket door!


Where our shower will be


Arch from the bedroom


Sorry about the shadows in the pictures, we've got no light in there yet. Tomorrow it get's sprayed, then the tile starts to go in. Then I take over, I'll be hooking up the plumbing and getting the vanity in. Glad I got the plumbing book, cause I think I'll need it.

Seriously, WTF!!!!?!?!?!?

On Sunday morning when we got home from the 1/2 Marathon, I grabbed a glass of water and picked up my cell phone which I had forgotten. 1 missed call from an 888 number. I immediately recognized the number as the Visa Credit Card charge verification number. So, I called it back. If you haven't been through one of these calls, they basically ask you to verify the last 5 charges and as soon as you say one wasn't you, you're transferred to a Customer Service person who kills the card. We'll guess who disputed the first charge and then the subsequent 4......me. Since I've worked in retail for a while I know the deal, kill the card, call Schwab, go through all the hoops, get your money back. Easy enough, a hassle for sure, but pretty easy. Except, this happened to me 3 months ago. So now I'm out $500 bucks while they review my case, wait for my signed paperwork, a copy of my credit card and everything else I get to do. The most frustrating thing about this is that they stole my card number and then created a fake card and used it in stores. Not even stores, Gas stations in Wyoming and a Wal-mart in Nebraska. What really drives me nuts? Who spends $200 bucks at a Pilot in Evanston Wyoming? I think I've been there before, they must have bought gas for everyone at the station on me. Sweet!
Tomorrow morning I'll be faxing over all my paperwork and Schwab will be crediting me back the money while they dispute the charges with Visa. Hopefully I get it all back, but I can't help but stop with Charles Schwab as a whole. They have been nothing but a problem for me since the beginning. So starting in October, when the Chase takeover of WaMu finalizes, I'm out!

[She] just felt like running.....

After spending all day yesterday destroying the bathroom, Christine and I woke up at 4am and ran the America's Finest City 1/2 Marathon. This was Chris' first 1/2 marathon and mine as well, but this was the furthest she'd ever ran. After watching me train for the full and seeing all the people running the San Diego Marathon, she decided to sign up for this 1/2. I figured, "what the hell?, I'll run it with you." I'm sure am glad I did, it was a much more pleasurable experience. But the real story was Chris. She spent the last 2 months, running at 6 am during the week, going to pilates after work then coming home to run afterwards, all the Saturday's she got up and ran early to beat the heat. Every run that was longer than 5 miles was a personal best. Running 10 miles last weekend was a huge event for her, it was awesome. So today, when her goal was 2:10 and she came blazing over the finish line at 2:02, I couldn't have felt better for her. She was so psyched and relieved to be done, you could see it in her face. Unable to tell me how it was, all I got was "I need water.....now." After getting herself together, she spent the better part of the day talking about how fun it was, how good she felt, and how she can't wait to do it again.
So this post is all hers. Great job Chris, you couldn't have made me, Wilson, and Yeti more proud today.

Demo Days

It has begun, our first major renovation project. We've decided to take the money that Obama gave us for buying the house and put it back into our master bath. If you aren't familiar with exactly what we had going on in there, I've got some pics below for you. We basically had a bathroom straight out of 1986 with all the trimmings. Highlights included to the in medicine cabinet, shower head that was the height of my chest, and carpet! I know what you're thinking, with amenities like these, how could you make changes? We'll, we're making major ones. We found ourselves a contractor, let's call her Chris. She's sub-contracting all the work out to our tile guy, plumber, drywall guy and electrician. Chris is handling all these moving parts and it looks like this will hopefully only take 2 weeks start to finish. We'll see, but we're off to a good start.
So yesterday it began, I headed up stairs with my Sawzall, Sledge hammer, Hammer and Drill. Greg came over to partake in the fun after I got started. So with PBR's cooling in the fridge, we dismantled the entire bathroom in just a few hours. We both came out completely unscathed, just covered in drywall and fiber glass. It was a rough day but I think it came out pretty good. Take a look for yourself!

Before.....








And After.....

Another first

I think that I've traveled something like 250 miles by foot(while running) since January and nothing really major has happened. I've watched road bikers get hit by hybrid's, seen a motorcyclist crash into the center median, watched plenty of surfers dodge cars while crossing PCH, and even found $11 dollars on the ground but this week was a new one. I was finishing a 5 mile run and just rounding the last corner as a woman on her cell phone was coming at me. She was walking her little white west highland terrier and not paying any attention to me. I've run past people on the sidewalk walking their dogs a million times, hell, my parents have one of the most dangerous westy's known to man. But today, the dog decided that I was a hot lunch. This ferocious beast was just lying in wait as I trotted up, I steered a little to the right to avoid any confrontation, but because this woman was on the phone, the leash had a lot of slack in it, perhaps, too much. I was about 6 feet wide of her when the dog launched itself off the curb and went directly for my left foot. Luckily, I was blessed with size 13 feet and my left foot is the wider of two, so it didn't fit inside the dogs mouth. I didn't even slow down, the dog lunging repeatedly at my Nike's. I could only feel my foot connect with the little guys jaw as it ran out of leash slack and couldn't follow me. The woman didn't even turn around to see if I was okay, she continued on with her conversation and probably didn't even break stride.
I'm still pretty surprised that it's taken me this long to have a run in with a 4 legged beast. Maybe it's all the dog karma I've accumulated with Yeti and Wilson....whichever it is, I'll take it.

14 Days and Counting

Only 14 days left on the name changing poll. In case you haven't been keeping score, Chris is losing right now and she even voted for herself. So, if you haven't voted yet, please cast one in favor of which "out"law will take on the great Italian heritage and responsibility that a name last name containing 3 vowels carries with it. Also, if you've already voted, go ahead and vote again, let's make this thing more fun!

What am I going to do with a gun rack?

This weekend we headed off to Chicago for our friends Meghan and Dave's wedding. It was a in a suburb just outside of the city called Naperville. Naperville is an awesome little town with a very happening downtown area full of "dive" bars and Starbucks'. Now, I must say, I've been to Chicago once, not long enough to get much of a feel for the town but it seems really fun! Because of this, my knowledge of the city and it's suburbs comes from two main sources, Wayne's World and Roseanne. I've seen Wayne's World more than any other movie ever and I love Roseanne. So I spent the better part of the weekend throwing out lines from Wayne's World to Chris and hoping that Bohemian Rhapsody would come on the radio just once.

One of my favorites scenes




Unfortunately I never got to hear it. The wedding was really awesome! It was great to see all of our friends some of whom we hadn't seen since our wedding. Meghan looked awesome and you could see how happy both she and Dave were. All around it was a really great time!
I would post some pictures, had I remembered my camera.....oh well, that's what happens when I pack at 11 pm and have to get up at 4:30. But don't worry, we've got a whole bunch of weddings coming up so I'll remember next time.
For everyone who was there, I'd also like to let them know that I'll also remember to bring huge boxes of Wheat Thins to every wedding. I'm pretty sure that there isn't a person in the world who would turn them down when offered at the bar following a wedding. At least I couldn't find one person in Naperville who would.

Perfect 10

On July 24th the 2nd to last day of the US Open of surfing was going down in Huntington Beach. Chris and I got up at 6 and headed up for what was sure to be a good time. There was a huge swell that was predicted to hit Southern California and for the first time since we've moved here, it actually happened. It was a perfect storm if you will of great waves and the worlds best surfers in the water. We got there at about 8:30 and after about a half hour of driving for a parking space, we got the beach just in time for Kelly Slater's heat to kick off. For everyone who doesn't know, the surfers compete in 30 minute heats and the highest scoring two waves count. Highest score moves on.
We knew that we were going to see amazing surfing, but we never expected that the first wave that we would see would be a 20 foot faced barrel ridden by Kelly Slater through the pier pylons onto the north side. The crowd of about 100,000 went absolutely nuts, it was amazing. I wish I had pictures but I was too busy having my mind blown by what I had just witnessed. I do have some pics and a video from a wave down the street known as "The Wedge." Should give you an idea of what we saw.



Here's some pics I got from the day.

Kelly after the 10




Waves were shaking the pier, here's a big one rolling through




Not sure what to say about this one.....he landed this drop, INSANE


Here are a few from the "expression session" This was basically a heat full of world champs getting towed into massive waves and throwing themselves.





Another wave takes Slater through the Pier




If you're ever thinking of coming to visit in the middle of the summer, plan on anytime around the US Open because it is definitely worth seeing. Especially if we get waves like what we saw this year.