Author: doug

We had an insulation contractor come today and button up a few areas of our house that needed it.  My picture today was going to be of that process … insulation-blowing tubes running all over the place, guys carrying bats of insulation, etc. 

But they also managed to knock into the pipe that feeds water into our house and cause it to spring a leak!  Totally not their fault — it had been “temporarily” repaired previously and was ready to go at any minute.  Fortunately the town came out and was able to do another temporary fix (for free!).  This was really more excitement than I really needed today.

At some point — could be next year, could be 10 years from now — we will need to have the front lawn ripped up and the whole pipe replaced.  But for now I say — thanks Newton Public Works!

I spent the entire day inside doing uninteresting stuff (on purpose; it was marvelous) and so today’s picture is simply a boggle at the concept of accumulating snow in mid-October.

After helping Greg & Jen paint, I went to the BeerAdvocate Belgian beer fest in Boston today with a bunch of people (I feel like they could have come up with a “b” word for “fest”).  It was fun, though I felt it was too crowded & loud to really have a conversation with the brewers, or to get to know any of the beers well.  Still, there were a couple of standouts that will be making an appearance in my beer fridge soon.

Winnie was being very friendly & adorable this evening.

Sorry for the blurry — she wouldn’t hold still.

It’s good to know that The Highlander has found honest work again — in Newton no less.

With the approach of dark in the evenings, it was time to do something about lighting automation in the new house.  The paddle on the left controls the outside porch light, and is controllable by the computer for use on a timer.  The keypad in the middle consolidates a lot of controls into one place, but is primarily of use to control 3 floors’ stairway lights from here (and from 2 other similar keypads on the other two floors).

Running for mayor in Quincy is a man …

… who may or may not win, but would get my vote for “most likely to be a corrupt politician on an animated sitcom.”

It may not look like much now, but tomorrow these ingredients will be yummy flatbread dough.  Thanks, bread machine!

Our guest room now looks like someplace someone could sleep in peace.  As opposed to the mustard-colored monstrosity it was before, sure to provoke dreams of hot dogs.  Lis really needed to get this done, though I was not convinced how bad is was until after we were done.

Marc & Michaela, we promise the bed will be made by the time you arrive.

This morning, there was a small tree in this space.  This tree, though small by tree standards, was much too big for the space it was in, crowding the house & porch leading to moisture problems.

Now, the tree is in those barrels (well, plus the pile of branches) ready to be hauled off.  And we have a space for our trash cans.