Raincharm’s Weblog

Yesterday I managed to get a blog covering a week or more out into space.
Today’s will cover just two days.

Yesterday had two parties, and some baking. And shopping for sinks.

Sinks were first on the docket.
There were two showrooms we had penciled in. We started at the closer of the two, in Greenwood. What we did not count on was it being Greenwood Days.  Greenwood Days features cars. About 25 blocks of cars. While we were in the sink store we commented on a friend of ours that would likely participate in this type of event.

On to the second store. We knew much more about sinks by this time, and did not need to spend a lot of time. We did, however, score a brochure or two.

Then it was off to party #1. The holder of the party is a friend from baseball things (imagine that). But one of the main events at the party was comparing film reviews from the Seattle International Film Festival, which had ended a week or so ago. Some of these folks went to over 100 films during the festival. We went to 0. But it was still fun – and the house was amazingly full of all sorts of ephemera. Puts our house to shame (or not perhaps).

Flamingo Tree

Flamingos are almost passe. Many people collect them. I have one or two myself.
But this collector has some unique collections as well.

Not your standard garden gnome

Herd of Hydrants

1898 Hydrant from the Fremont Foundry

After too short a time to take it all in, I dropped Carl and Dennis at the Mariners game.

Oh yeah. We have a house guest. Or rather an apartment guest. For a few days it is tenable. So come on out everybody.

While they were enjoying the Mariner game (which the Cubs won), I was doing laundry and baking.
This is a recipe Ashlan provided.

Raspberry Crumble

We have raspberries all over right now, so instead of raspberry jam I mashed fresh raspberries and put them on the top.

This party was to celebrate Carl’s birthday.
Really, just a reason to get together and watch old films that have something to do with baseball. There were several documentary types this year. Dennis, our resident film archivist, supplies the films, projector and screen. Kevin & Sue provided the yard, chairs, food and a chocolate cake (based on another Ashlan recipe).

Today was focused on the house.
The day started with a garbage run. That is I packed the Prius full of garbage from the house, and made a run to the dump. When asked by the transfer station attendant what I was bringing, I replied, “household debris”. That satisfied him without further questions. [I also found out that I can fit a full size trash can in a back seat. Two full cans, a car seat, some broken bins, etc, etc, etc.

Next up was paint. Or rather getting paint ready for disposal.
The paint that was up for disposal was dated 2000, 1998 and by the previous owner (so pre-1992).
It may have seemed more efficient to take care of the paint prior to the dump run.
However, the contractors were working in the garage and basement, so it was time to clear things out as much as possible.

To make the garage cleaner I moved some rakes and shovels into the great outdoors. I did put most of the yard care equipment into a trash can, so it would be protected from the element. Of course to get into the corner that I had designated for temporary storage, I had to do some pruning of branches, and removing blackberry vines that were extending from a neighbor’s yard.

Finally got focused on the paint.
First step – getting the g*&$-d%#$@ lids off of the cans.
Second step – stirring in some paint hardener. These little packets of powder should shorten the drying time by weeks.
Lucky for me I was able to play with paint in the basement. It was in the high 80’s outside, so the cool was welcome.
Hopefully we will be able to dispose of these cans in the regular garbage over the next few weeks.

Paint drying – Is this boring?

Next on the home improvement was more asbestos work.
This time it was encapsulation rather than removal. In short …

Duct asbestos laden

Duct taped!

It is a bit hard to see in the picture, because it is black and blends into the darkness.
This was my first introduction to Gorilla Tape.
I had described this tape as Duct Tape on steroids, based on the contractor’s description.

Wow – can you say sticky? I had to pull off the amount for the use, then unstick the fingers that had been pulling the tape of the roll. Then get fingers of both hands into position. Then tape.

Enough for one day, except that I think I am expected to choose the sink tonight.

Oh – and our friend that we thought would be at the Greenwood Days, it turns out that his car was at the very corner we were. Either he had a different car on display than we expected, or we are blind. Could be either.

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