Easy and quick to make!

• 2 Tbsp olive oil (or oil of choice) - less oil with ground beef
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped (or red bell pepper or combo of green and red)
• Choose one meat:
  • 2 large skinless chicken breasts, cubed
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 lb. ground turkey
• 8 oz. La Victoria Mild Taco Sauce (or taco sauce of your choice) - Salsa can be substituted but don’t also add onion and bell pepper listed above
• Choose one or more:
  • Tacos: 8 corn tortillas, fried in oil or steamed in microwave
  • Burritos: 8 wheat or flour tortillas, steamed in microwave
  • Nachos: Corn tortilla chips
• Extras:
  • Pinto or black beans (refried or whole), heated
  • Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • Tomatoes, chopped
  • Black olives, sliced
  • Sour cream
  • Lettuce, chopped

In large pan on high heat, saute onion in oil until almost clear. Add bell pepper and meat and mix well. Reduce heat to medium, stir regularly, and cook until meat is 1/2 done. Add taco sauce and reduce heat to simmer. Stir regularly and simmer until meat is cooked and sauce is desired consistency.

Serve as tacos, burritos, and/or nachos with your choice of extras.

About 8 servings.

• Size: Each panel is about 46 inches x 61 inches (excluding tabs)
• Fabric: 100% cotton; variety of brands and colors
• Pattern: 12 blocks are from one of these books: Quilter's Mix and Match Blocks: A Comprehensive Handbook 2004 and 365 Quilt Blocks a Year (Pertetual Calendar) 1999
• Backing: Cut from a set of sheets we replaced recently
• Date: start July 13; finish December 20

Here they are! My Quilt Block Curtains for the craft room! Today I bought a thicker and better quality curtain rod. The rod in the photos is slightly bent from the weight of the curtains and moves when the curtains are opened or closed!

The stained glass look was a pleasant surprise!

The curtains have a backing cut from the set of sheets we replaced recently when I bought new sheets.

A month since my last post! I'm just not feeling bloggy. Here's an update:

My son is married! Greg and Lauren tied the knot in a simple ceremony on August 8. I flew in Thursday evening and flew back Friday evening after a nice lunch for just the 3 of us after the ceremony. They took off for the weekend on a short honeymoon to the wine country about an hour away from where they live. Then, on Monday, Greg started his new job as an attorney working for a mid-sized litigation firm. Whew - big changes!

My new shoes: The brown Ros Rhommerson Cynthia shoes I wore at my son's marriage ceremony are comfortable - as long as I don't walk in them. Ack!

The muscles in my feet, ankles, knees, and lower back just weren't up to walking in 2 1/2 inch heels! Now, the black Hugh Puppies Sara shoes with a 1 1/4 inch heel don't hurt me nearly as much!

I don't think the problem with the brown shoes is the shoes - as I said, they're comfortable. I do think the problem is that I'm so used to wearing fully-padded New Balance walking shoes with basically no heal height, that the muscles needed to walk in 2 1/2 inch heels just aren't up to snuff! Because of that, I haven't yet worn the black shoes with 2 1/2 inch heels!

Our home: We're having 5 of the windows in our house replaced on Tuesday - livingroom, kitchen (front window), craft room, bathroom, and TV room - by American Vision Windows.

After that's done, we're thinking about hiring a painter to finish painting the outside trim (a project started last summer but not finished) and paint the house (we're still not happy with the medium grey colored stucco). I'm now thinking a creamy light yellow which will work fine with the white trim.

Bryan brought a girl for dinner! My stepson brought his latest girlfriend Brit to our house for dinner last night - something neither Bill nor I can remember him ever doing before!

Together, Bill and I have joked that, since Billy got married on 7/7/2007 and Greg got married on 8/8/2008 that Bryan may get married on 9/9/2009.

In fun, we mentioned that to Bryan several weeks ago and he responded that maybe 12/12/2012 would be the date he gets married! Of course, there's no rush for him to get married! I just thought it interesting that he brought Brit over for dinner.

Crocheting: No crocheting in the past 4 weeks or so. Just not into it right now.

Quilting / sewing: I bought storage containers and many more fat quarters at JoAnn Fabrics (I couldn't resist the 99¢ sale!) to add to my fabric collection. The weather has been hot so it's taken some effort to get around to washing and ironing all the new fabric - but I just finished this afternoon.

NASCAR: Kyle Busch won his 18th race of the year last night! As I type this, he's working on his 9th Cup series win! Tony Stewart hasn't (yet!) won a race, but at this moment he's one of the 12 drivers qualifying to be in the Chase for the Cup and he still has a chance to win this year's championship!

Well, let's see, the past 2 weeks have been a bit eventful!

My son is getting married! Yup, I'm gonna have another daughter(-in-law)! Whoop!

Last year, my stepson Billy got married on July 7, 2007 (777 or 7-7-07 or 07-07-07 or 070707) - a popular day to get married last year!

Greg proposed on July 19 in a field while they were picking raspberries and, practical people that they are, they decided to skip a big wedding ceremony (and all that goes with it) and get married right away - on Friday, August 8, 2008 (888 or 8-8-08 or 08-08-08 or 080808). Eight to the Chinese culture is a very lucky number. Neither of them is Chinese, but I'm sure their marriage will by a good one! Lauren and Greg make a great couple!

Greg asked his current boss, a judge, to marry them. The simple ceremony will be at the courthouse.

Parties (more formally known as wedding receptions) will be held at family homes in Oregon and California for family and friends local to those areas. We haven't set a date yet, but at our house, the party will be a small affair with close family and a few close neighbors.

Then, on Monday after the wedding, Greg starts his new job as an attorney for a mid-sized litigation firm. How cool is that?! Married and a new job all in the same 4 days!

On the home front: The new refrigerator fit perfectly! Whoop! We love the clear shelves and drawers - and can now see what's inside the drawers and we can stop forgetting what's in the them!

Bill and I are heading to the lake tomorrow! A whole day off together!

On the crochet front: Two more lap blankets are done (no photos for posting yet) and one more started.

On the quilting front: Yes, I said "quilting"! I began piecing blocks together on July 12 and have finished 4 since then! Also no photos yet.

I opened the refrigerator yesterday morning to get my lunch packed and discovered many of the items were cool, some warm, and a few still cold. Ack! We need a new refrigerator!

Luckily, we use an even older refrigerator in the garage as our "drink fridge". Bill calls it our "beer fridge" It holds water, soda, iced tea, and of course beer - both non-alcoholic and alcoholic versions! The freezer holds chicken, steak, ground turkey, sandwich rolls, bread, and other frozen goods that don't fit in the kitchen fridge.

So, I emptied the garage fridge of drinks and moved all items from the kitchen fridge to the garage fridge. Thank goodness we hadn't done a CostCo trip lately so there was room in the garage freezer for most of the items in the kitchen freezer.

Last night, Bill went to a Sears outlet to find a replacement refrigerator. After a freezer door fell off one refrigerator, he left. Since Bill found our new stove and I'm home from work today (4-day work weeks during the summer!), it was my turn to find a new refrigerator.

The area in which the refrigerator fits is smaller than a majority of the refrigerators manufactured today. The space is 65 1/2 inches high, 35 inches wide, and about 30 inches or so deep. The deeper and/or wider the refrigerator, the more space the door needs to open all the way. The old refrigerator was 65 inches high, 30 inches wide, and 31 inches deep. The door couldn't open all the way without hitting the stove, even with the garbage can out of the way.

I found a Whirlpool refrigerator at Western Appliance that should fit fine. It is 66 1/4 inches high (but the floor model was 65 1/2 inches so we're hoping we can adjust the feet if needed), 32 1/2 inches wide, and 31 1/2 inches deep. The shelves in the door are adjustable so I think they can be situated in such a way that we can open the bottom drawer on the right side without too much trouble.

I mentioned previously that we got a new stove in May. Both the old and new stoves are 40 inches wide, have a small oven and a large oven, and have 4 burners. The difference is that, for years, only the 2 right-hand burners and the large oven worked. In April, the back burner on the right side stopped working.

We've been enjoying 4 working burners since the new stove arrived! Whoop!

As I mentioned previously, I cleaned out my closet Friday. The 3 piles of clothes turned into 8 bags of clothes. The box of hangers will also be donated.

The helpful cat (my girl Cleo!) stays.

Hubby bought himself a new toy Monday night! Today was the first day I could see it since mornings are dark and evenings are dark!

A 2008 Chevrolet Colorado LT Crew Cab in Ruby Red. With the higher gas prices and about 9 miles per gallon, random things going wrong here and there which needed fixing on his 1997 Chevrolet Silverado Z71, and a $200+ registration fee coming due, he wanted a new, more dependable truck with better gas mileage. So, here it is!

Most of the time, his toys are more expensive than mine!

His: New truck, motorcycle, table saw, etc.

Mine: Small digital cameras, sewing machine, fabric, crochet books,… - even the Dell XPS 400 desktop computer I bought in April 2006 was only $2,245.

On Saturday, after troubleshooting a loud grinding/spinning noise coming from my PC, I decided to buy an external hard drive to use as a backup drive for my PC. So, a visit to Amazon.com was in order! After much research on Google, I ordered an external drive - and two wanna-have items!

• Western Digital WDG1T7500N My Book Pro Edition 750 GB USB/Firewire Triple Interface External Hard Drive
• Shrek the Third (Widescreen Edition)
• 50 Sensational Crochet Afghans & Throws

Then on Sunday, I spent about 4 hours online researching digital cameras. I want one I can easily carry around in my purse. I again talked myself out of buying a SLR-type digital camera (the Nikon D300 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)) that I can use with my Nikon lenses - I'm just not sure I would use it enough to justify the price ($1800). And, I'm not even sure the almost 10-year-old Nikon lenses I have are fully compatible with a digital camera. So, I compromised by deciding to buy a second new camera to replace my almost 6-year-old Fujifilm FinePix 2800Zoom 2.0mp 6x optical zoom camera. I'm still happy with my FinePix camera, but the new camera have so many more features I want to play with! So, I ordered:

• The carry around camera: Canon PowerShot A570IS 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom, and Canon PSC-85 Deluxe Soft Case, and Kingston 2GB Secure Digital Memory Card
  
• The replacement camera: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom kit with Transcend 4GB SecureDigital (SDHC) Card + USB 2.0 SecureDigital (SD) Card Reader + (4) AA Rechargeable Batteries with Charger + Digital Camera Case

How exciting! I'll hopefully have the A570IS camera before December 27 when I visit my son!

[NOTE: The following is my opinion about our experience with installing Pergo laminate flooring. I am not an expert. I do not represent Pergo. Your experience may vary. I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter.]

On occasion I see that visitors to this blog are looking for information about Pergo laminate flooring in general or Pergo Global Passages flooring in the Dolce Mahogany color in particular. In September-October 2006, we installed Pergo Dolce Mahogany laminate flooring in our master bedroom as a 16-year Anniversary activity (yes, we're odd like that!), and I wrote 7 entries in this blog during the project.

Recently, I received a message from someone with questions about our experience with our Pergo floor and the installation process. I thought I'd include the questions and answers here as a set of Frequently Asked Questions (with answers!) that may help others with similar questions. It was nice re-visiting our Anniversary project from last year! Leave a comment if you have additional questions.

The links below are helpful:

• The Pergo website has installation info:
  • Installation FAQ
  • Installation Essentials (PDF)
  • Installation Instructions
• Bob Vila video about Pergo installation
• A1 Flooring has lots of Pergo installation materials to look at (search for Pergo)

On to the questions…

Q. How is your floor holding up in the past year since it was installed? Are there any noticeable scratches? Any other issues to be aware of?

A. No scratches to date. The floor is supposed to be pretty resistant to that.

We noticed that our vacuum cleaner left skid marks (rubber(?) plastic(?) wheels) so we don't bring it in there. The skid marks came off easily. I used my fingernails, but a washcloth may also do the job.

We pick up anything that might scratch the floor if we were to step on it (such as clay cat litter that gets carried around the house sometimes in between the cats' toes).

We put thick felt pads (from Orchard Supply Hardware) on the bottom of every piece of furniture in the room, except the wheels of the bed (which are plastic(?) and don't seem to leave skid marks).

Bill (who is a machinist) does not walk in there with his work boots on (metal chips get embedded in the bottom of his boots).

[I started this entry on September 28! I'm just not feeling the bloggy or email love lately... By the way, I had to turn off commenting (for now) on this blog due to receiving about 200 spam comments in a few hours.]

Just after we had new colored stucco applied to our house two weeks ago, our next door neighbor, Dee, stood in front of our screen door and called my name. I walk outside onto the porch and she says "Dude and I have a bet for dinner tonight." She points to the medium-gray-with-a-faint-olive-green-tint stucco recently placed on the walls and gables of our house and says disbelievingly, "Tell me. Is this the color of your house?"

I smile knowingly (I was in disbelief too). "Well, it is the colored stucco - not an undercoat waiting to be painted - but the color is not what we thought it would be based on the one-inch by half-inch color chip. So, you're both right!" Pause. "It is currently the color of our house but it is medium grey - unfinished grey looking - and we're thinking about painting over it in a few weeks after the stucco cures."

To top it off, it rained a few days after the stucco had been applied and it got stained from roof-to-ground dirty water splatter because the gutter downspouts had been removed in preparation for new gutters being installed - see the darker areas that have an olive green-ish tint in the above photos?

So, even if we decide we like the medium grey color of the stucco, we may still decide to paint because of the staining.

Adventures in Finding the Right Color for Our House

The trials and tribulations of choosing a color to paint our house is underway. The first green we tried turned out to be a light mint green color (above) on the test wall of the shed in our backyard. The second green so far is a medium mint green and the third color more grass green than sage - also not what we wanted. I'm bummed a bit by the waste of paint and time and energy of this color-choosing process. However, we're closer now than we were a few days ago to finding something we like.

The Garage Door

Our garage door is cream colored. It needs to be washed with soap, but it'll still be cream. Because of the expense to replace it with a white garage door, we'll probably keep it cream as I don't think the panels will hold paint well.

Trim

The medium and chocolate brown trim colors are slowly being covered with white - three coats of white - after trim areas are sanded and putty applied where needed.

The Side Gates

The side gate on the north side of the house was replaced. Since the side gate on the south side is shorter, Bill wants to replace it with a taller gate. And, since both will need painting/staining, I've decided they'll be the dark red-ish color of the backyard fence.

Prep Work

To prepare for re-stuccoing the back wall of our house, Bill removed the shade cover between the house and the shed and cleaned the area up by moving around the junk - err, stuff, that had been there. It looks much better!

And, all the plants in pots in front of the house, on the porch, and on the plant benches in the backyard needed to be moved. I tried to find shaded areas for those that want shade, and sunny areas for those that need sun. Most of the plants seem to have made it through.

So the gutters could be replaced, Bill trimmed about 4 inches off the side of the shade cover over the backyard deck and potted plant benches. He also needed to replace the brace he had attached to the house to hold up the 4th corner of the plant area shade cover with a fourth post - and cut through the one of the planter benches to fit around the post.

In mid May, we attended a dinner party at the home of a customer of Bill's. The man and his wife have a small home with a large backyard - lovely large backyard - with lots of flowers and plants for me to admire! There was also a large, vine-covered pergola with a bench swing hanging from one end of it... I fell in love with the swing!!

Because Bill is such a loving and thoughtful and can-do kind of husband, he got busy within a week or so of the dinner party building an extension on the shade structure at the back of our backyard where he had earlier this year removed most of a large Bay tree when the neighbors wanted to replace the fence bordering our properties. Anyway...

We had some difficulty finding a swing or bench to hang from the shade structure - even online we didn't have much luck. I wanted a swing wide/long enough that I could lie down on it - so over 5 feet - and comfortable for a short person (me!) to sit in (feet touching the ground when sitting). I looked online, but the closest I found was a bench at Bass Pro Shops which doesn't have a store in California (yet). The swing project was delayed...

...until last weekend when Bill said we should go look at what Lowe's had in swings and benches. We didn't see anything that fulfilled my ideas of a proper swing until we wandered into the patio furniture area - where lo and behold there it was! A cushioned 3-person A-frame swing for $99.00. It is light enough that it can be moved anywhere in the backyard - and, therefore, can be moved as the sun moves (since I'm fair skinned and try to stay out of the sun).

It's wonderful. I've crocheted there, napped there, swung there, relaxed there. I can see my beautiful flowering garden plants, hear the birds, enjoy the Bay Area evening breezes after work while Bill cooks dinner on the BBQ. The swing is a perfect addition to our backyard!

And, the extended shade structure area won't go unused! Bill is using it as additional covered workspace for his 1947 Ford Truck restoration project - the one he's been working on for about 10 years now!

We bit the bullet and bought a new bed a few weeks ago. We (I actually) decided on a Sleep Number since it allows us to individually set the firmness, and I liked the 7000 Series (well, I liked the 9000 Series too but couldn't justify spending that much more when the 7000 was very nice!). Bill didn't want to bed shop and said I should get whatever felt good to me, so I did. He was surprised (shocked actually) at the cost, but I think he's getting used to the bed and is finding it comfortable.

I, on the other hand, am beginning to love the new bed. I no longer wake up with a numb hip and shoulder in the middle of the night. I'm not stiff and sore all over anymore. Last Saturday, I slept in to 9:30am and took a 2-hour nap! My sleep number is 25. Supportive yet cuddly. Bill tried 35, 50, and seems to have settled at 40.

This photo was taken just after the delivery guys setup the bed. Bill is marveling at how much higher it is than our 17-year-old bed! Our old sheets barely fit on the bed. A set of 600-count sage green sheets were included with the new bed - they fit much better. Oh, and I also got a red insulated Sleep Train coffee mug that I now use at work.

Spring fever arrived with the gorgeous weather the Bay Area has been having the past week or so. It culminated today in having to leave work early to enjoy this Friday afternoon! I plan to clean out and re-organize the linen closet when I'm done here.

I've been eyeing ads for gardening tools: flowers, plants, fertilizer, soil... but have so far resisted the impulse to buy until I know I can settle the plants into the ground. You see, buying the supplies and doing the work aren't the same thing! Ah-hem... quilting supplies... knitting supplies...

Just in time for last Sunday's Daytona 500, we had HDTV service and a DVR (digital video recorder) installed last Saturday!

Bill has decided that I am the person who deals with the electronic gadgets (computers, VCRs, stereos, and now HDTV and DVR) so I've been reading the user guide and playing with setting our favorite shows to be recorded. He will eventually have to figure out the basics, however!

Besides having a better picture and sound quality than VCR-taped shows, the best part about watching DVR-recorded shows is the 30-second fast-forward button! Most of the time, I hit it 6 times to get through commercials, so 1-minute fast-forward button would be even better!

And the quality of the HDTV picture is amazing. Facial stubble is very clear (very manly on some men, not so much on others). As is sweat, make-up, scars...

I just wanna say that the very best thing about the new HDTV television set is the ability to change the volume and mute the sound.

It's heaven sent! Truly.

With commercials being so much louder than shows, it was deafening with the other TV set (the remote did not operate the power or the volume!!!).

Guess what came home with us Friday night? Yup, the new HDTV television! We waited until Saturday afternoon to unbox and setup the television and its stand.

The difference in size between the very wide and deep black Mitsubishi television and the wider but very narrow (less than 4 inches) silver Panasonic flat screen television is amazing! The livingroom is so much lighter and spacious now!

The huge older television is now in the closet of the TV Room. A few weeks ago in preparation for this move, Bill cleaned out this (his former) closet, put his hang-up clothes in space I opened up for him in my (now "our") closet, and painted the TV Room closet.

He is looking forward to napping while watching football and other sports on the larger television set (he says napping and watching television can be done at the same time!).

We haven't ordered the HDTV service or receiver from Dish Network yet, but the picture is very nice without it!

Ack! This afternoon I finally received from frys.com an email confirmation of the reversal of the cancellation of our HDTV television order. Remember, however, that last night I cancelled the order with frys.com - and received a confirmation of that cancellation. I thought it was all taken care of.

Not apparently. The email confirmation indicates that the uncancelled order was processed with a different order number.

When I cancelled the order last night, I used the original order number (starts with J), not the new order number (starts with P).

And following that email confirmation of the reversal of the cancellation was another email confirming the shipping of the P order.

I called frys.com customer support again this afternoon, explained I had just received confirmation of the reversal with a new order number (P) and explained that I cancelled our order altogether last night and don't want the P order either.

The customer support woman was very nice and took care to follow the steps of what happened and will call DHL to try to stop the delivery. If it cannot be stopped and DHL shows up, we need to refuse delivery (or a whole other bucket of worms will need to be dealt with).

Ack.

Before dinner, I explained to Bill the cancellation by frys.com of our HDTV order due to the credit card magic number error and the subsequent reversal of the cancellation. He expressed interest in buying the 600U model instead since the 60U has been discontinued, a back-order arrival date wasn't available, and the 600U has updated features.

So I did some more online research about the Panasonic TH-42PX600U 42-inch Plasma HDTV and price shopping. the reviews are great (better even than the 60U) so I called frys.com customer service and cancelled the reversed cancellation of the 60U set.

Amazon's price for the 600U is $1499.99 (same as the 60U), but I discovered that the seller is actually an online retailer called OneCall and, although there's no tax, the shipping charge is $150.00 . Drplasma.com lists it for $1485.99 with free shipping and no tax and seems to be the best deal for the money. The customer reviews about OneCall and Dr. Plasma are OK (not spectacular). But it was the return policies that bothered me. I was OK with ordering a large, big-ticket item from frys.com because there is a Frys store in Fremont (even though the frys.com return policy isn't the same as the on-ground store's). I'm not comfortable, however, with ordering this large television from an online retailer.

So, we decided to buy the 600U set from Video Only, an on-ground retailer in Hayward (website) from which over the years we've bought the small television in the craft room, 2 VCRs, a DVD player/VCR, and probably one or two other items. It costs more at $1699.00 plus tax ($1858.74 total), but we're more comfortable buying this large item from an on-ground store. The item is in stock at their San Francisco store, and will be sent to the Hayward store for us to pick up by the end of this week.

Gotta go! Jack Bauer's on! (24, Day 6, Hours 3 and 4)

Our new HDTV set did not arrive Friday or Saturday as expected. To keep Bill and his co-workers from obsessively scanning the front of the shop looking for the delivery truck, I called customer service Saturday morning to find out when delivery could be expected and was told our order was still being processed and an email verifying shipment would be sent when it has been shipped. I had misunderstood the shipping information on the website - i.e., the free shipping option is not also the same day option (see screenshot; these are 2 separate options: "In stock, same day shipping. Ships Free").

While checking email over an hour ago, I opened a message canceling our HDTV order! I've now talked with frys.com customer support and uncanceled the canceled order (I had provided an incorrect "magic number" for the credit card!). Whew.

However, I was also told that model has been over sold, is back-ordered, and is discontinued (because of a newer model). I confirmed that we want the model we originally ordered and would wait for the back-ordered sets to come in and be shipped to waiting customers. Apparently, the frys.com website hasn't been updated with the information that the item is not in stock (still says it's in stock: see screenshot). Harrumph.

No shipment date information for the back-ordered television was available. We're hoping it's here in time before February 18 so we can watch the NASCAR Daytona 500 in HDTV!

We're entering the world of high definition television!

After several Google searches to learn more about LCD and plasma and HDTV and a bunch of other terms still swimming in my head, we decided on a Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42-inch Plasma HDTV. Lots of excellent online reviews.

Of course, Amazon was my first stop...$1449.99 (raised to $1499.99 when I checked again yesterday). I then hunted around the Web to price compare. Froogle yielded lower prices from unknown-to-me online retailers.

I found the television at Frys for $1249.00 with free shipping - and even including sales tax, the cost was less than the tax-free-and-free-shipping price at Amazon. So we ordered it last night - and expect delivery tomorrow.

How exciting!

Our livingroom is not big enough for a screen much larger. We sit about 8 feet from the screen which is in the recommended range for a 42-inch wide-screen television. Our current tube-based television is, I think, 40-inches diagonally measured - and it is huge and heavy.

So, if we already have a big-screen television, why are we getting another one?

Well, the TV room is calling out for a larger television. And my craft room is calling for a larger television. And my home office doesn't have a television. And we're spoiling ourselves.

The 40-inch monster is moving into the closet in the TV room. The 24-inch (estimate) television currentlyl in the TV room is moving into either the craft room or my home office. If into the craft room, the 13-inch television in there is moving into my office.

Of course, getting an HDTV television isn't all that needs to be done to view high definition television. HDTV programming is needed. And an HDTV receiver to decode the HDTV programming. Our new television has a built-in HDTV tuner which allows us to receive over-the-air HDTV programs (i.e., not cable or satellite programs), but an HDTV receiver is needed to receive HDTV programming from our satellite TV provider. I'm not too pleased by the additional $20 per month cost for HDTV programming (the package must include the SPEED channel, so the Silver level is what we'll get).

In November, we replaced our 60-year-old heater after 19 years in this house, and we had 2 heater vents put into the master bedroom addition (completed around mid-1998). Tonight, we had a heater vent added in each of the other 2 bedrooms. Whoop! No more fr-fr-freezing while working on my computer. No more fr-fr-freezing in the craft room.

Our sons will wish there was heat in those bedrooms when they still lived here!

At least Greg and Lauren won't wake seeing their breath when they're visiting! They're here Friday evening!

We finally did it! We replaced the heater in our house last Tuesday night! The original heater was installed when the house was built in the mid-1940s. Yes, 60 years ago.

The house does (technically, I suppose) have central heating, but vents are only in the livingroom, kitchen, hall, and bathroom (one vent each). None of the 3 bedrooms have a vent.

In late winter last year (i.e., early this year), the heater began making louder-than-usual noises. Like it was going to crap out at any minute. So, we decided we would look into the cost to replace it during the summer...and then, of course, didn't do it.

Skip to October... Here we are at the very beginning of winter without a heater we trusted. Bill talked with his cousin Jim and his friend Doug who had used the same heating contractor to replace their heaters in the past few years. They were pleased with the workmanship and price and had experience no problems. So, Bill contacted Bob and we got an estimate, which we accepted, and now we have a brand new reliable heater - complete with a programmable thermostat!

The installation included installing 2 vents for the heater in our master bedroom. When we added the room onto the house in late 1992, we didn't include heater vents. We were very surprised (but shouldn't have been) when we woke several times during the 1992-1993 winter to actually see our breaths upon waking! Brr. Over the past 13 winters, we've just dealt with the very chilly bedroom air. But no more! The 2 vents won't make the room "warm" (unless we make the rest of the house overly warm), but it will take the chill off and make it more comfortable.

Of course, we didn't have our act together before heater installation day to request a vent be installed in each of the other 2 bedrooms, but we have now and Bob will be back to install those soon. It'll be so nice to sit at my computer or work in the craft room without feeling like I'm getting frostbite.

Why did we wait 19 years after moving into the house and 14 years after adding on the master bedroom to replace the heater? and get vents? The answer (from my point of view) is: Thinking it would cost way more than it actually did.

Da-da-done! We worked on the closet floor a little after work one day early last week, and Bill finished the moulding today. The floor is lovely and we're very happy with it!

[6:00pm Monday, October 9, 2006] Added photos and below commentary.

The first 3 photos are of the crawlspace door in the floor of the closet. I called Pergo to get a recommendation regarding how to handle flooring over the door and was told to install the flooring around the door not on top of it. Well, that would look terrible so we decided to install a removable section of flooring over the door. Since there isn't much room around the edges of the door, we decided to make the door and the area around it removable. The quarter round moulding lays again the wall and is not nailed in.

The last 2 photos are of the post situated around the middle of the closet. This post helps to hold up the bars on which clothes are hung. It is screwed into the plywood floor. The Pergo floor is a "floating" floor so we cannot screw anything into it, so there was no other option other than to install flooring around the post and then add moulding. It involved lots of measuring, but by then Bill had gotten good at that!

Ah, yes, another weekend working on the flooring project! Yesterday, Bill removed the carpet, padding, and carpet tack strips from the floor inside the 14-foot closet in our bedroom, while I removed staples and more staples from the plywood floor.

After we saw that there wasn't enough space around the crawlspace door to properly install flooring, we decided to divide the closet floor into two separate areas (we called them "rooms") and use T moulding between the floors of the two "rooms". The flooring in the small area above the crawlspace door will be removable so we can get into the crawlspace if ever needed (without pulling up all of the flooring in the closet). The remaining, larger area of the closet floor will be installed like the main floor - i.e., not removable.

By yesterday afternoon, we had most of the large area covered with flooring. Today, in spite of watching bits and pieces of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race, we completed the flooring installation in both areas, but didn't have enough T moulding or quarter-round moulding to finish. So, we took a break, stopped at Starbucks for hot coffees, and headed to Lowe's to return 1 box of flooring and buy more moulding.

On the way home, we calculated that we've spent approximately $1,650.00 on materials for this project (23 boxes of flooring, 6 packages of T moulding, and 12? strips of quarter round moulding) - not counting the 2 saws Bill added to his toy tool collection to help trim planks and moulding! That is higher than I had originally estimated ($1,200.00) but the flooring we chose includes the backing that we would have paid for separately with other flooring types so it probably comes out somewhat even. And, we love the color and pattern we choose!

When we got home from Lowe's, we watched the last few laps of the Cup race - and my Tony Stewart won! Of course, we then decided to continue with the moulding installation later - as in not today. Maybe one night this week (I hold the flashlight so Bill can see!) or next weekend!

Earlier this week, Bill picked up 4 additional boxes of flooring, 3 more packages of T moulding, and 3 or 4 more strips of quarter-round moulding. After waiting a few days for the flooring to acclimate, he finished installation of the 3 remaining boards on the main floor.

The closet carpet lives to see another day...or two... Instead of working on the closet, we took a rest from the flooring project yesterday, and today we focused on installing a T track at the doorway entrance and in front of the closet's sliding doors, as well as most of the quarter round moulding. It looks great!

I found our notes taken last weekend... The width of the room is 181 inches (about 15.08 feet) and the length is 301.75 inches (about 25.15 feet) - so, about 380 square feet. The room seems bigger with the flooring than it did with the carpet.

Well, we didn't measure and calculate the length of the room Friday evening after all. Bill made BBQ hamburgers and we watched 3 episodes of The Shield (Season 1, Disk 3).

We started the laminate flooring installation with length measuring and calculating Saturday morning at 8:00am. It was a long day of repeatedly bending and kneeling and standing and lifting and putting down and measuring and calculating. Oh, and lots of debating about the correctness of the other's measuring and calculating.

1:01pm; 2:01pm.

A short time after 1:00pm we had finally reached the point where the remainder of the floor in the room was strictly rectangular. Whew! So, that was about 5 hours less 45 minutes for Quiznos lunch and a Starbucks Mocha Frap for me.

4:46pm.

By 5:15pm, we had reached a point of needing to stop. We were physically worn out and were soon going to be losing good lighting in the room. We were both sore and stiff and took 3 Ibuprophens (and another 2 later on) to ease the pain in our thighs and butt and back. After hot showers, we had our 16th Anniversary dinner at Black Angus in San Lorenzo (we both had the yummy Teriyaki Top Sirloin) and headed home to watch a movie on DVD (The Sentinel).

...

We were so sore and stiff this morning that we took 3 Ibuprophens each, watched the NASCAR Nextel Cup race a bit, and didn't continuing laying flooring until just after 11:30am. At 1:15pm, after a difficult row of planking that we had to re-do 4 times before the joint for the middle set of boards would join correctly, we took a break for a quick Jack-in-the-Box lunch, watched a little more of the Cup race, and went back to work.

3:03pm on September 17.

Around 3:00pm, we reached the last row of the main part of the floor. After 20 boxes of flooring, we are 3 boards short to finish the last row. We also need at least 2 boxes to do the closet. So, we'll get those this week, let them acclimate to the room and finish up the main floor, pull out the carpet (and padding and staples) in the closet, and install flooring in the closet. In addition, we still need to install the thresholds and the quarter-round moulding.

Lots more work ahead.

All in all, it's been a fun project - and the Pergo Dolce Mahogany flooring we chose is beautiful. I couldn't install flooring for a living - or do roofing or quite a number of other labor-intensive jobs. I'm built to be a "sitter"... I'm not a physically active person.

...

The bathroom and the kitchen are my next targets. But, they've been targets for at least 6 years... We'll see. It is difficult to imagine tearing up the tile and plumbing and fixtures in the only bathroom you have. Do you use the neighbor's bathroom (toilet and shower) for a week or so???

Both Wednesday and Thursday evenings after work were spent measuring the width of our bedroom and calculating the number of boards needed and what adjustments will be necessary at the doorway entrance and in front of the closet. And re-measuring and calculating because when we measured and calculated earlier in the week, we got different results. (Measure twice - or thrice or more - cut once.) We've now determined where we want to start placing the laminate flooring planks.

Tonight we're going to measure the length of the room and calculating so we can be sure we won't end up with a short board at the end of any row.

Tomorrow should be the day we start...providing Bill doesn't work all day.

Tomorrow is also our 16th Anniversary!

After thinking about it more, we remembered that the installation instructions for the laminate flooring very clearly indicate that it is a floating floor and that nothing should be nailed into it. So, that means we cannot remove the post that holds up the closet structure, lay the flooring inside the closet, and attach the post on top of the floor. And I don't have to find a place to put all of the stuff in that 14-foot long closet! Whew!

We decided to move forward with the floor installation. Sunday afternoon, we removed the ceramic tiles in front of the sliding glass doors (the tiles I installed all by myself in fall 1992!), sanded down the remaining tile grout, sanded down clumps of wall texture from the plywood underfloor, and vacuumed the entire room - mostly by Bill but I helped by vacuuming away clouds and drifts of grout dust as he sanded! I also made dinner - spaghetti meat sauce, whole wheat penne pasta, and garlic bread.

Yesterday after work at Lowe's, we bought 19 boxes (for 20 total) of Pergo Global Passage laminate flooring in Dolce Mahogany, as well as coordinating 4-way T moulding kits and curved quarter-round molding. I know, I know...it's not Tony's store (Tony Stewart's sponsor is Home Depot), but we found the color and style of flooring we liked at Lowe's. Bill will return the boxes of unwanted flooring to Home Depot probably tomorrow.

The boxes of flooring need to acclimate to the room for 48 hours, so the earliest we can begin installation of the floor is Thursday evening...but Survivor starts so I'm hoping Bill can wait until Saturday!

Pizza's here now - bye!

Our 16th wedding anniversary is next Saturday. Instead of going away for the weekend, I said that I'd pefer to stay home and spend the money on replacing the carpet in the master bedroom with no-glue click-together linoleum flooring that looks like hardwood. We like doing things around the house together so this would be another project.

It's been a lot more work than I anticipated.

Bill started this week by visiting Home Depot to select a few boxes of linoleum planking to check out. After looking at colors that are a close-to-but-exact match to our existing real hardwood floors, we decided to select a color that was different enough that it didn't look like a mistake was made in trying to match colors. He took another trip to Home Depot for a few more boxes in different brands, types, and colors.

Yesterday morning after a lovely breakfast of pancakes and eggs, we (mostly he) pulled up the carpet, padding, and strips of upside-down nails (carpet tack strips) onto which the carpet was attached around the room's edges. I pulled a lot of staples out of the wood underfloor (with a sore right thumb to prove it!).

We then took a trip to Starbucks for Mocha Fraps before heading to Lowe's to checkout their linoleum flooring choices. We bought another 2 boxes (for 6 total now!) to test out at home.

We like both of these last 2 better than the first 4 and will probably go with the mahogany stain instead of the cherry stain. So this morning, we begin measuring... and measuring... and calculating how to best install the flooring considering the rectantular large closet on one portion of a wall that makes the room not fully rectangular.

Carpeting sounds better every time I think about the calculations and cost of making a mistake or two or three.

Oh, and then there's the decision whether to pull out the carpet inside the closet and put flooring down - or whether to leave to the carpet. And if flooring is put down inside the closet, should the entire 14-foot wide closet be emptied and the center support post (which holds the entire clothes-hanging structure together) removed or can the flooring be placed around the post? If emptied, where am I going to put my clothes for the next week or two?

Carpeting anyone? And tell the installers to put the new carpet around the post (so the closet doesn't need to be emptied)?

Bill is getting rid of the old carpet and padding at the dump in San Leandro right now.

[sarcasm] I must remember that it was my idea to do this instead of going away for a weekend... [/sarcasm]

Hardwood floors!

Bill began pulling up the wall-to-wall chocolate brown carpet in our home on Memorial Day last year - yes, folks, May 2005. It was lush and lovely and just a few years new in late 1987 when we moved in, but had become worn out after 18 years of wear and tear from 3 boys, 2 adults, and 3 cats.

Within a few weeks of on-and-off carpet removal, the living room, hallway, Bill's office (a spare bedroom), and most of my office (another spare bedroom) were devoid of carpeting and showing off the hidden hardwood floors. What remained was a rectangular piece of carpet in the storage area (closet) of my office. No more progress was made...

Until today! Yup, we (err, 99% Bill) removed the paper-filled drawers from 2 file cabinets, moved the cabinets off the carpet, stuck thick felt pads under the 4 corners of each to protect the hardwood floors (I did this part!), removed the piece of carpet and the padding, removed the carpet staples from the floor, cleaned the floor, moved the file cabinets back, and put the drawers into the cabinets.

All done! No more chocolate brown carpet.

Our master bedroom has wall-to-wall steel grey carpet. Because we added this room to the house, we know there is only plywood underneath. We have yet to decide what we want to do but we're in no hurry. [teasing sarcasm with a big smile!] Obviously...it's only been about 10 months. [/teasing sarcasm]