Thompson Manor

Sarah bought the wrong candles for my birthday ice cream with fruit yesterday.  I don’t know why 39 is such a hard number to remember.

November, 2008 was an interesting month.  In that one month I developed Atrial Flutter, an irregular heart beat which is currently being managed with medication.  In addition, on the day before Thanksgiving, I experienced a Grand Mal Seizure.  After six days in the hospital, multiple MRI’s and EEG’s the diagnosis is “Of Unknown Origin.”  I will have to take Dilantin, an anti-siezure medication for a minimum of six months.

Since Mike Holmes never showed up, I had to do a little remodeling myself. The wall and door entering the pantry from the garage have been in sad shape since we bought the house.  The door and the door jamb were destroyed by a hyper active Springer Spaniel.  The wall on either side of the door had gaping holes in it from a hyper active teenager.  In addition, the garage door opener wiring was just hanging down the wall. 

Beginning of job with some sheet rock removed.  Notice the large foam sheet taped to the wall to the left of the door.

All sheet rock removed.

Door removed and new sheet rock being installed.

Finished project with new door installed.  Joint compound and painting will come when my creaking joints feel a little better.

I guess the reason Mike Holmes didn’t show up is that I never asked him. 

The previous owners abandoned a porch/patio glider because they said it was too far gone to save.  We kept it and Jeff and I refinished it in April, 2006.  It looked practically new.

Two years of rain and wet winters took a toll on the finish.  Once I had sanded it down, the wood was too weathered to varnish it again.  I decided to use Rustoleum Outdoor Furniture finish (paint) instead.  I think it came out fairly well.  The next time it needs finishing, I’ll probably replace all the wood with redwood and start over.  The frame is still in excellent shape.

The front garden has come a long way in just one year.  Last year we dug out grass, weeds and a stunted cedar tree to create a flower garden in the front of the house. 

This is a picture of the construction of the garden in July, 2007.

The following are pictures of the front garden from various angles taken today.

This is a twofer.  I got Bonnie a new point and shoot digital camera today.  It is a Kodak 883, 8 megapixel, SD Card memory, 38 - 114mm zoom with facial recognition software and the ability to charge the battery from any USB device.  It was on sale at the Exchange for $90.  While it’s not a Cannon or Nikon, it shoots pretty good pictures for a P&S.   Of course it’s red.

The Lupines are bee and humming bird magnets.  The clematis climbing the rose has flowers almost the size of dinner plates this year. 

All photos in the Blog have been replaced and minor editing of spelling and formatting have been accomplished.  I was able to do it in about 3 hours.  Windows Live Writer saved the day.  I was able to fix everything without having to go to the WordPress Dashboard.

As I ALWAYS chided customers:  Back up everything before attempting a software upgrade.  Do as I say, not as I do.

Mea Culpa.  Mea Culpa.  Mea Maxima Culpa

During an upgrade of WordPress, I did the penultimate stupid thing.  I didn’t back up all appropriate files/folders on the server.  As a result, all my uploaded images were vaporized. 

Bear with me while I reconstruct all the images for the last three years.

SOB!

Yesterday we and Sarah, Jake and Monica (Sarah’s long time friend from Alaska) had brunch at Cafe’ Nola (http://www.cafenola.com/) in Winslow, Bainbridge Island followed by a tour of Bloedel Reserve.  The reserve (http://www.bloedelreserve.org/) was a wealthy family’s “weekend cottage” that has become a beautiful garden with a slice of Pacific Northwest wilderness. 

Even though Cafe’ Nola is an upscale yuppie dive, they had some of the best chicken fried steak I’ve ever had; below Bonnie’s of course.  The swan was sleeping on the path next to a pond and was totally unconcerned with the noisy humans tramping by.

After a lot of years of taking only family photos, I received a Sony A-100 DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera for my birthday.  In addition to the 18-70mm lens that came with the camera, my Minolta Autofocus lenses work just great.  Below is just one sample.  I took the picture on the Seattle-Bremerton ferry leaving Seattle.  It is the Seattle waterfront.  This is a highly compressed copy of the original.  The original is a 10mb file, which would take eons to view.

For the camera nuts in the crowd, the following are the particulars about the shoot.

Camera:  Sony A-100

Lens:  Minolta 28-105mm Zoom

Focal Length:  28mm

f Stop:  f/11

Exposure:  1/250 sec

Color Space:  sRGB

Image format:  JPG