I went to the ISU Surplus Sale on Wednesday with Vest, Frank and Jesse. When we walked in the door I saw a song that I badly wanted. PHOTO LOST Unfortunately the sign was not for sale and the machine it was attached to was $3000. A bit more than… Read More »A Sign I Want
On March 19, I got a simple 3 word text message from Shannon in Florida: “I got it.” The “it” that she “got” was a Horiuchi Memorial Award for being an outstanding State Program Manager for the Iowa Jaycees. PHOTO LOST Contributed Photo AKA I wasn’t in Florida Although admittedly… Read More »Another One for the Awards Wall
Mark’s February newsletter. The Taiwan Times By Mark Wolfram Reporting on God’s mission in Taiwan February 2009 Christian Support Here at Concordia Middle School, I teach Bible class for 7th and 8th graders, and like any classroom it has both rewarding and challenging aspects. On one hand, it is a… Read More »Taiwan Times – February 2009 Issue
It would be best for all of us if you read this like I posted it on March 15. Happy Birthday Carla! Sadly, it is something like 50 years since this picture was taken and Carla still steadfastly holds to the mantra put forth by her t-shirt. Also. Sadly. My… Read More »Happy Birthday
I have one loyal subscriber that incessantly complains whenever I post too many posts without pictures. He often sends me an email that in essence “boos” me. I usually tell him that he is a big boy now and that he needs to use his words. But I’m quite certain… Read More »Saturday the 14th
In my quest to catch up, I’m going to just copy and paste an email about a recent experience I had a new local pizzeria. So if you were the one who received this email, you might want to skip reading this and go back to your normal job duties.… Read More »Black Plague Pizza
It would be best for all parties involved, if you read this like it was published on March 11. Happy Birthday Jason Baier! A photo of Jason Baier from our now famous Tenderloin Road Trip Perhaps you can’t get enough Jason Baier. Head over to the Snapshots Gallery to see… Read More »Happy Birthday Jason Baier
The room that has proven to be the most work by far has been the kitchen. The walls took 6-7 coats of paint. Cranberry Punch I originally was considering a color called Raspberry Couli, but I had a lengthy conversation one day with Sara about red paint. She painted her… Read More »The Kitchen
I actually struggled quite extensively with picking out colors for the living/dining room. I wanted to do the accent wall thing and I didn’t want to match any of the colors in any of the other rooms. Red, blue, gray, yellow and green were all taken. I was heading towards… Read More »The Great Room
The guest bedroom. I view it as my library, but most people view as the cowboy room. When I got around to picking the color for this room, I had already picked blue for my bedroom, red for the kitchen, gray for the office and green for the bathroom. I… Read More »October Leaves
There are no pictures from moving day, but I would like to thank the people that gave some effort to make moving day work out. The Friday before moving day had spectacular weather. The Saturday of moving day was not scheduled to have spectacular weather. I returned to work on… Read More »Moving Day
The very first color I decided on was for the bedroom. I was kind of partial to Dutch Boy paint because an old high school chum used to wear a Dutch Boy hat around. Plus, I like the plastic paint jug with a pour spout. Plus, I picked up paint… Read More »The Master Bedroom
On Monday Shannon and Jesse came over to help paint the kitchen. This concludes all the pictures I have of people helping with the new house. It took 6-7 coats of paint to paint the kitchen. That is lots and lots of paint.
Although Carla and Alexis did a wonderful job of taking pictures, one of the downsides of not having taken any pictures myself is that I didn’t get pictures of everybody that helped. So thanks to my incredible painting crew on Primary Painting Day: Jason Stensland Carla Stensland Alexis Stensland Jason… Read More »Primary Painting Day
More pictures from paint prep night. I got those green chairs from my Aunt Linda to with a sweet white table she was throwing away. Those chairs are surprisingly popular. That is also Shannon showing off her taping skills. Carla painting the bathroom. Life Lesson: When working on a ceiling… Read More »Friday Night Paint Prep Club – Part B
Day 3 of home ownership consisted of paint prep and lots of it. Her are some pictures in no particular order from that night. Teresa eating. Shannon would want me to point out one thing in this picture. Well maybe two things. One she is a master taper. Two she… Read More »Friday Night Paint Prep Club – Part A
Day 2 at the house involved a ton of work on the cabinets. Carla put a coat of paint on the bathroom walls. The carpet removal team started their work. I don’t remember the actual name of this color, so we will call it green. I respect Carla and her… Read More »Day 2 – Things Start to Look Different
I have not touched any of my cameras since I left the resort in Arizona. Luckily for me Carla and Alexis did a fair amount of documentary photography on the work that was done on the house. Day 1 consisted mostly of swapping out light fixtures and starting the nightmare… Read More »More Day 1 Fun
On Wednesday, February 25, 2009, I officially became a homeowner. I arrived at the office of my Mortgage Broker and signed papers with a lawyer for about 30 minutes. I fully intended to count how many times I signed my name and put my initials on the bottom of other… Read More »The Adventure of Home Ownership Begins
Day 7 in Arizona was the final day of work. I spent most of the morning talking to a Native American Flute Artist by the name of Travis Terry. He both made and played flutes. I asked him how he learned to make flutes, expecting a story about his grandpa… Read More »Arizona Day 7
Day 6 in Arizona was more work. At the conclusion of the work day, we were bused out into the “middle of the desert” for a “western roundup” party. If you could get away from the cheeseball band that was lip syncing and playing to backing tracks, it was a… Read More »Arizona Day 6