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at a glance
Tribune, Kansas
Robyn:
mom and doctor
currently dreaming about bay windows and paint schemes
Jonathan:
dad, movie guru, book processor, choir accompanist, artist
currently a little overcommitted
Ridley:
almost five
currently reading at a first-grade level
Hania:
two years old!
currently throwing lots of fits
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Shaking Things Up
 Last weekend I got to take a quick trip to Portland, primarily to participate in PULSE again. I'd been at PULSE the first two times and I guess last year they took a break from it. This year when they contacted me about it I decided to apply and was very happy to be accepted as one of the artists again. I love being able to see all the other artists at work, and to have the opportunity to let others watch me at work. Since the proceeds from the art auction go to the Children's Heart Foundation, it's a wonderful feeling being surrounded by a bunch of people making artwork for a common purpose. This year I managed to complete three pieces in roughly eight hours, and you can see them over at RainyBayArt.
This time it was a solo trip for me. Robyn really wanted to make a family trip out of it, but between school for Ridley and the fact that we've done a lot of traveling this year already, she finally decided to stay home with the girls, and I was just there for a long weekend. I did get to visit a few people, go to church at Imago Dei, and play some board games, but there were a lot of friends I didn't get a chance to visit. It's always hard trying to catch up with everyone, particularly this time when it was such a short visit and pretty much all day Saturday was spent at PULSE. If I didn't manage to visit you this time around, bug me about it and hopefully next time it'll be a longer trip, maybe even with the rest of the family.
The weekend before last we were out of town as well--we went to Wichita for a wedding, and the kids missed Halloween again. But considering the amount of candy they accumulated without trick-or-treating, I'm almost glad we weren't around. I did get to carve one pumpkin before we left, so that was fun. Maybe next year I'll be able to do a few more.
And, just to make things interesting: this weekend Robyn's heading to Denver for two days, and then next weekend I'm going out to Great Bend for a Kansas Communities conference. Kansas Communities is an organization that's helping to revitalize small towns across the state. It's one of the big reasons Greeley County has become what it is now and continues to change and make progress. I missed the "community conversation" last week where everyone was invited to talk about what we've done so far and what else we plan to do. But I'm excited about this chance to hear about what other communities in Kansas are doing.
Tomorrow's our next teaming day and (unless we get a bunch of unregistered kids) it looks like we'll have a much more manageable adults-to-kids ratio this time around.
On the house front: still no word from the heating/cooling guy, so I'm afraid I may need to start calling around some other places. Our shingles should be arriving on Tuesday, and hopefully this weekend and early next week we'll be able to get the concrete poured for the garage as well. The weather's getting cold, so unless we get a jump on these next few things, it may be hard to get much else done until the spring, particularly without heat in the house.
jonathan
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tearing Down Walls
 It's been a while since I've posted any photos of our house-in-progress, but largely because it's been a house-in-stasis for a while. Last month we managed to tear out part of the wall between the living room and the kitchen, seen here. (Unfortunately I don't have a "before" photo from the same angle.) We haven't decided if we're going to take it out all the way to the ceiling or leave a little ridge there, and if we're going to knock it out all the way to the exterior wall. Any opinions?
We've made various decisions about the house which we're slowly acting on. We've decided to replace the rest of the windows (not just the basement) and then have EIFS installed on the outside. It's a foam insulation that covers the exterior, and then has a stucco-like finish over it. When we discovered that our exterior walls are actually red clay bricks with no insulation whatsoever, we checked various options and decided this would be the best bet. But the windows have to come first. We're considering converting the front living room window into a bay window if possible, since we've always wanted a window seat, but we'll have to look into how exactly that would work.
 Our contractor got our basement windows replaced, and the past two weeks has been working on the two egress windows. That involved cutting out larger sections of the walls. This week they poured the concrete for the window wells (but I haven't gotten a photo of that yet).
We also have gotten a baby step closer to having a new roof. We've decided to go with Vail metal shingles, which a former installer here in town recommended. They're not quite as attractive as the ones that are designed to look like slate or cedar shingles, but they're substantially cheaper and may actually be a little sturdier. (Either type is much more durable than asphalt shingles.) We just got the measurements figured out this week and have ordered shingles; hopefully our contractor will have time to install them when they arrive.
Finally, we've ordered a garage for the back along the alley, and we just need to get some help pouring the concrete pad and then the company will bring the garage out and install it. It's a carport with enclosed sides, so we'll be able to clear out a bunch of stuff from the basement and store things in the garage for now, so that we're then able to get more work done in the basement.
As for the heating/cooling system, we're wanting to go with a fan coil system. Basically it routes flexible tubing from a central boiler/chiller setup to a coil in each room, and a fan blows over the hot or cold coils to heat and cool the rooms. Each room has its own thermostat, which is more efficient, and as a bonus we won't have to worry about trying to get ductwork run around the house. (Particularly upstairs, which currently has no heating or cooling.) I'm still waiting on the estimates for that, though, so I don't know what happened there.
 And in other news, one of my new responsibilities at the library has been running activities for kids on Teaming Day (kind of like a teacher in-service day). Two months ago I just put up a few posters around saying that we'd play games on Teaming Day, because the kids get out early from school. We had about 35 kids show up in September, mostly younger kids. This past month, I worked with the Recreation Director to put together more of an after-school program, a little more structured and targeted towards elementary school kids. We decided we'd actually feed them lunch, do a crafts project (painting Halloween masks), read stories, and play some outdoor games. Well, we ended up with nearly 80 kids, which included almost the entire elementary school. Here are the kids who rode over to the library on the bus specially provided for that day.
We've been planning for November's Teaming Day, and this time we're hoping we won't be caught off-guard by the number of kids. Eventually, I hope that I actually get to sit down and play some games with the kids, because that was my reason for starting this whole thing in the first place.
And a final note: I was all excited about doing some jack-o'-lanterns this year (after only carving one last year) but it turns out we're heading to Wichita for a wedding, and we'll be in transit on Halloween night. We still might get to carve one at a kids' activity session on Thursday, but no big pumpkin display for us this year. I suppose Ridley still hasn't experienced a "typical" Halloween, which is actually fine with me. At least this year she's not sick again (knock on wood).
jonathan
Friday, September 12, 2008
Race for the Cure
 Since we ran a 5K in May for my birthday, we found another one (also in the Garden of the Gods) to run for Robyn's birthday, too. This one was a Komen Race for the Cure to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, and it was a much bigger event than our last run. There were around 7,000 participants, and the whole atmosphere was a lot more busy and celebratory: there were some live bands positioned throughout the course playing music, lots of people cheering as we went by, and a slew of tents at the end with information, freebies, and activities. Robyn rounded up a local team--the
"Greeley County Gazelles"--and we had a good time participating. Lesa, one of the team members, is already looking up more runs to do to keep us going.
Here's a photo of two more temari that I made recently. The one on top is a "God's Eyes" pattern, and the one below is a sunflower. I'm hoping to make a few more but I had to take a break because I was getting a temari callous on my thumb. In the near future I've also been commissioned to do a few Etch-a-Sketches for the Hamilton County Long Term Care facility, and in November I'm heading back to Portland for a weekend to participate in PULSE again. (That's the benefit for the Children's Heart Foundation where a bunch of artists get together and work on pieces, auction them off and give the proceeds to the foundation.)
jonathan
Friday, August 29, 2008
Ten Years Later... (part two)
So the other thing we did ten years ago besides graduating from college was this:
Robyn and I celebrate our tenth anniversary today! It has definitely been an eventful decade for us, with plenty of changes and adventures, and we're looking forward to the decade to come. (Maybe this one will have fewer moves! Keep your fingers crossed.)
I'll try to get some more photos eventually, but we've been making some more progress on our house. Now we've got most of the plumbing torn out and a big hole in the concrete basement floor in preparation for fixing up the downstairs bathroom. We're still waiting on a lot of different things but I think we're getting closer to a plan for a lot of it.
Yesterday I met with some guys who do spray-in insulation, and then another guy who does radiant floor heat (and some other systems). Well, we decided to punch a little hole in the plasterboard walls to see what sort of insulation was already in there, and ... what do you know, there isn't any. In fact, our exterior walls are made of these big bricks (it's stuccoed on the outside so we didn't know this), with 1-inch firring strips on the inside and then plasterboard over those. So we've got about an inch of space to work with, which is not practical for insulation, but it does explain why our house is structurally sound. So now we're considering some options like building out a stud wall inside and spraying in some foam insulation, which would cost us some space in each room. Another option that was suggested (and which we're researching) is to insulation the outside of the house, which would then preserve the room sizes and also allow the brick to work as a thermal mass to help us retain heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
The downside, of course, is that it looks likely that we'll be in the rental house for another winter, unless things pick up speed significantly in the next couple weeks. Roof, plumbing, electrical work, and heating system, and then clean-up and re-finishing the basement and patching walls. Meanwhile, the Ellises next door have been replacing windows and painting the exterior (it's a lot of paint) by themselves at an impressive rate.
In other news, I've accepted a part-time job at the library. My main responsibility is processing new books, which I've already done some on a volunteer basis. (I figured since so many of the new books coming in were ones that I'd requested, I should help get them ready to be checked out.) I start next week, and the hours will be fairly flexible, so I can work around Ridley's preschool hours and also after library hours when Robyn's home. An exciting bonus is that I'd been talking about having a more community-wide board games day, trying to get some more younger kids involved, etc., and when I'd mentioned this to some people they suggested the library as a good location. Well, the library director mentioned that I might even be able to count that as working hours and get paid to teach kids games! I'm also planning to start a read-aloud program for older kids (say, junior high) to see if we can get some of them more interested in books. A lot of them hang out in the library after school but mostly to play on the computers; I rarely see them sitting down with books. So those are two of my passions that I may actually get to turn into a job. I'm very excited!
jonathan
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Goin' to Kansas City
 Robyn and I spent the weekend in Kansas City. She had a training conference there, and we decided to make a weekend trip of it. We spent most of Thursday in Lawrence, where I bought a new pair of Birkenstocks to replace the old ones that I've had for about nine years now (and they were hand-me-downs then!). I think it's the most I've ever spent on a pair of shoes, and they're sandals at that, but I bet they'll last me a good long time. We also got to eat at Local Burger, which serves food from fresh, local ingredients. I had an elk burger, which was quite tasty.
That evening, we left the kids with Chip and Jan, and headed to Kansas City. First, a word about the InterContinental where we stayed (and where the conference was held). It's on the Country Club Plaza and used to be the Ritz, and they charge you extra for everything. If you wanted an Internet connection it was $12 per day (or the great deal of $60 for a 5-day pass!), and we found out later that they even charged us a dollar (plus tax) for each local phone call we made from the room. Continental breakfast was somewhere around eight bucks so I went out and foraged for breakfast each day. I'm surprised they didn't charge us extra for soap and shampoo.
But, hotel complaints aside, it was a fun trip. Robyn and I decided to have an early tenth-anniversary celebration since we had some time to ourselves. We got to have a leisurely dinner at The Melting Pot (fondue fondue!) and then caught a late showing of "The Dark Knight," which is every bit as good as everyone has been saying it is. The next night we ate at bluestem, the sort of restaurant that is a bit pretentious and has an all-lowercase name but was very very delicious. We got to have some Kansas City BBQ at Gates, and also got to see "Wall-E" (also a wonderful movie).
 During the day, when Robyn was in her conference, I poked around town and revisited old sites. One morning I spent two glorious hours in Barnes & Noble, without interruptions or anywhere to be at a certain time. I checked email at the Apple Store on the Plaza (to avoid paying the aforementioned $12 at the hotel), and took a walk to the Kemper Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum. We hadn't spent much time in Kansas City since we moved, so I hadn't seen the new addition to the Nelson-Atkins, which was pretty interesting and a sharp contrast to the old building. Here's a photo of Henry Moore's "Sheep Piece," one of Robyn's favorites.
I also found a games store and got a couple new games. Unfortunately I didn't really have the foresight to look people up to visit, so I did get to see Chris and Stephanie and meet their kiddos but didn't see anyone else. We did get to visit our old church and drove past a lot of our old stomping grounds.
I think what surprised me the most is how much I must have changed in the intervening years. On the one hand, being there without the kids gave me a sense of deja vu, feeling like I was just out of college and just married (as I was when we last lived there). But I noticed that many of the things that I used to get excited about or things that I used to like just didn't hold much interest any more. I walked around the Plaza but it felt strange, and I'd forgotten how people get dressed up just to go walk around and shop. I realized how little I miss driving everywhere: it took me longer than anticipated to get anywhere, particularly since there were so many roads under construction almost every route I took. I definitely didn't miss going up and down Metcalf!
I do miss our church, being challenged by the sermons every week and studying Scripture with people who ask tough questions and aren't satisfied with pat answers. I miss being able go just go out to a restaurant and having choices in the type of cuisine available. But I don't miss the drives, the enormous sprawling houses with huge lawns, the massive parking lots that you can't find your way out of, the way that shopping becomes your biggest hobby. It was fun to visit, and good to realize that I'm happier living where I live now.
jonathan
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About this site
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Ridley's page
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Rainy Bay Art
