The Pantry Game

No picture on this one. Sorry

Last week Homie got industrious and completed several small projects that needed doing around the house. One of them was installing a motion sensing light switch in the pantry. He did this because usually it gets turned on in the morning and burns all day until Homey gets home. He turns it off, and then turns it off several more times before we shut down the kitchen for the night. Now we have a neat-o apparatus that turns the light on when it senses someone walk in the pantry, and then automatically shuts off 5 minutes later. It is very helpful. I'm sure that our next electricity bill will reflect a substantial decrease. The other benefit to this little switch is that it has provided hours of entertainment for the children. They have a quest to get into and out of the pantry with something in hand without the light coming on. I have to admit that I have even tried it -- but not to the extreme lengths that the kids go to. So far no one has made it. They are still testing out the parameters of the motion sensor. Maddo almost made it by slithering along the floor and moving very slowly, but then once she had something in her hand she retreated too quickly and zing!

The switch came in a 2 pack from Costco. We have been discussing where to put the other one. Homie is threatening to put it in the kids' bathroom. He's hoping it would have an effect on their 20 minute showers.

Where's Waldo (AKA Kaybee)

Here is a picture of "Husky Band Day" in Seattle. The University of Washington (Huskies) has a day where they invite many of the high school bands from the area get together and have workshops, practice a couple songs all together, and then they all do the half-time show at the football game that evening. It is a lot of fun for all the high school kids, and provides the small, inexperienced bands with a great vision of what "band life" could be like at college. Kaybee went, and had a great time. Here is a picture of part of it. See if you can find her. She's pretty easy to pick out. (Clue: they are in purple) She has made many friends who are good kids. She says, "People in band are a little nerdy and smart, but not too weird. They are friendly and fun and don't think they are better than everyone else." I think that is a good place for her. A few days ago when we were talking about what colleges she wanted to apply to, she said, I want to choose ones with big bands. Which colleges have good marching bands?

The band director is brand new -- right out of college (Huskies) and is so excited about it all. He has opened up band to the 5th & 6th graders, plus taken on the 7th & 8th grade band at the middle school. Kaybee's enthusiasm has spread to the rest of the family. So now, Brother has a new trumpet, and is going to the middle school every morning for 45 minutes for band class. Tomorrow Peachy will start going too with her new (used) clarinet. She only goes 3 days a week. She really wanted to play the saxophone, as we already have one in my closet -- leftover from my high school band days. However, the elementary school kids have to start on one of 4 "beginner" instruments, and sax isn't one of them. As soon as she hits 7th grade, she'll be ready to switch over though.

They have all been honking around all week on their new toys. Oh wow! What a noise. I can't wait until they learn some real music, and improve in their abilities!

Food Storage

Here is Homie in the garage after we filled 30 buckets with various food substances. It was a sort-of-fun project. We hope we never have to move it!

A Fun Beach Trip

While Homie's brother and his Family were here, we made a trip to Laraby State Park at super-low tide. We were able to walk among the rocks and tide pools and see various sea creatures. The purple and orange star fish were among the favorites.

Painting The Deck

Homie took off work last week and worked to get the deck and trim on the house painted. After spending the greater part of the first day using a hand tool to sand the dirt and old paint off each railing column on just one section, he was very dejected and tired of the whole project. We made a previously contemplated - impulse decision to buy a power washer. Oh! It is so cool! Why haven't we had one of these things our whole life? Besides making a really cool "industrial" noise that impresses the neighboors, it has an awesome projectile spray. It is quite powerful, and made really quick work of cleaning everything off. Homie was even able to get the cracks between the flooring cleared. The sidewalk that had always been gray is now a lovely concrete-white color. The possibilities are endless! I think we will do our pond next. I offered to give the kids thier evening bath in the yard with it, but they didn't think that was funny. Homie worked hard with it all day, but I think he was having a lot more fun than he did the day before.

Next he began painiting. Some of us helped him a bit, but it was mostly his project. The difference was amazing. We took a before and after picture of the two sets of stairs in order to remember the contrast. Brother is sitting on the finished part. Over the weekend Homie was up on the roof doing the trim around the windows. That was scary. He's not done yet, but it already looks a lot better. Hopefully he'll be able to finish before it starts raining every day.

He still isn't sure about what to do with the side of the house that is 3 stories high. I keep encouraging him to have a professional come and do it. However 2 neighboors mentioned that they need to do something about the super high places on thier house as well. There was talk about renting one of those man lift things and passing it around the neighboorhood. Yikes!

We have a new pet!

On Monday we found this spider in our pantry. It is the third one we found in our house in the past couple of weeks. (More about the other 2 in a minute.) When we looked it up on the internet, we were positive it was a brown recluse, but just to be sure I called the county extension agent. She said to put it in the freezer and bring it in on Wed when there was a spider expert there to help us. Do you know how awful it was to open the freezer and see that thing lurking there!? Ug! Shivers! Creepy! It's not really our pet. I just put that title for shock value. Thankfully it died in the freezer!

The first one we found was in my water glass that I had left on the counter in the kitchen overnight. It was drowned, but I'm really, really, really glad I didn't come downstairs in the night and get a drink in the dark! (Which I have done before!) The second one was in KayBee's room. It was on the lamp shade right by her bed. She thought it was a fake one her brother had put there and started to pick it up. As her hand got close, it moved. After screaming and freaking out for a bit, she spent the rest of the night in her sisters' room. None of us slept well that night.

Anyway, the spider expert lady was very helpful. She picked it up and showed us various parts of it that helped to identify it. We got to look at it under the microscope too! It really was amazing to see how intricate and detailed it was. It is called a Giant European House Spider. Curses on the European who brought the dang things to America! When we asked her if it was poisonous, and what would happen if it bit us, she cheerfully assured us that all spiders are poisonous, but their venom has various degrees of reactions in humans. This spider's spit is not like a black widow, or brown recluse, but it will produce a reaction. (Which I believe I have experienced -- but that is another story.)

Hopefully this weekend Homie will be able to spray human-made venom around the perimeters of the house, which will produce a reaction in all the remaining spiders who are contemplating coming inside!