Fixing Stuff

There was some disbelief about whether or not I fixed my bicycle, and whether or not it worked, so I took some pictures today!



But that's not the only thing I fixed! My washer had been broken for a couple of weeks now. The first technician came out and said it had a broken timer. A week later, a second technician came out ... and said it had a broken timer. He didn't have the part, but he said he'd have one shipped to me in time for my next service appointment, which was supposed to be today. My part arrived just fine, but no technician showed up. When I called to ask why, they said I was supposed to call to tell them I got the part.

So now I had two choices: 1. replace the timer myself, or 2. go out and buy underwear. I chose to replace the timer myself. Here is a picture of the first load of laundry washing with the new timer (that's the old timer sitting on the dryer)!


That's about it for fixing stuff the last two days, so onto some sunset pictures from tonight!


Longs Peak (on the right) casting a shadow:


Indian Peaks:



I took this on my way home:

Clouds and other stuff

Winter arrived last week with a couple of small snowstorms. It was good timing for the opening of Louisville's outdoor skating rink:


The last few days have gotten into the 60s, though, so I'm not sure how the rink is doing now.

I was able to clean up some of my leaves out back before they got wet:



Huh, judging by how much work I put into moving leaves, I thought the difference would be more striking...

Yesterday, Rebecca called down the hall to tell me about the amazing sunset. My office faces east, so I went outside to investigate. The view to the southeast:


Then I looked to the north:


I went around the corner to see more:


Then I went to the west side of the building:


I'm glad I went outside!

Today, we had some high, icy clouds which made nice prisms:

Various Pictures

Today I finally amassed enough pictures since my last post to post again!

Last Thursday morning, I took a closer picture of my honeysuckle bush (this one's for you, Mom!):


As I was leaving work last Thursday evening, the sunset gave everything a warm, orange-yellow tint, which complemented the warm late evening wind.



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This morning at the bus stop, I noticed yellow leaves on the tree across the street. Fall is right around the corner!


Then tonight, as I was leaving work and heading toward the bus stop, two deer crossed my path:



Once they crossed the drive in front of me, they met up with the rest of their herd.


Here they are again, with some neat looking clouds from nearby thunderstorms:


These neat looking clouds made for another interesting sunset. Once I was off the bus, I took this picture,


which looks like the remains of a picture Rich took of the same sunset.

Spider

I finally got a better picture of the spider living in my garage.

I'm still not sure what kind it is, though.

Census

I've never gotten one of these before!

Biopsy

I have had this little splotchy, bumpy area on my face for over a year. If you look close, you can see it about half-way between the corner of my mouth and the left edge of the picture.



I went to the doctor this morning, and he performed a biopsy. I'll know the results in about two weeks. I had to walk around all day with this gigantic bandage on the side of my face.



I have to keep Vaseline on it for the time being so it doesn't dry out. At worst, it looks like it will be basal cell carcinoma, which generally only poses a problem if left untreated for years and years.

In other news, I also refinanced my townhouse today, and played tennis (for the first time this year) after work with Carsten and Ken.

Childhood Art

Among the stuff my parents gave me once I moved into my new place was this drawing I made of the Delta Upsilon fraternity house in Potsdam. I don't remember the exact date, but I think I drew it around 1982 or 1983, when I was in third or fourth grade. I also printed and framed a photograph of the actual house, circa 1978 (there are a few minor differences). Unfortunately, the Google street view car hasn't made it to Potsdam yet, but here is the satellite image of the house. I sat in the park across the street with a few other students.


Here are close-ups of the drawing and photograph:

My first meal in two days!

I had food poisoning (or some such thing) Thursday night, and ended up sleeping most of Friday and much of Saturday. So even though I wasn't very hungry, I decided I should eat something. Fortunately, Roya offered to make me some Persian rice, and I took her up on her offer (I'm still too tired to do much, especially cook!). So here was my first meal in two days:



It was delicious! I had to hold myself to two bowls (I got full very easily). Thanks Roya! Thanks also to Sara, who made that hot pad for me.

Windy!

One thing that always amazes me about Colorado is how windy it can get. Here's some wind data from the NCAR lab in northeast Boulder:


There are about 2.2 mph per m/s, so the gusts got above 60 mph throughout the night. In fact, the wind woke me up 5 am and kept me up for half an hour. This morning, I noticed this big branch had blown onto my deck:

Pet sitting

I'm pet sitting Sara's cat Karli this week while Sara is off at a conference. Sara's roommate's ex-wife's current-cat paid a surprise visit this week, and apparently the two didn't get along. So instead of leaving Karli to fend for herself, I took her in this week.



Karli's been a breeze to care for. Then again, most cats are. I'm frequently reminded of what it was like living with Batman.

Home Improvements II

I bought two new light switch plates at Home Depot this evening. I replaced the cheap, white plastic ones


with ones that I guessed would look good, and which turned out to be almost perfect!


It's like having camouflage light switch plates!

Home Improvements

With the help of my Mom and Terri, the living room looks a lot different than before.



Terri also picked out the new curtain-y things above the door to the deck and in the guest bedroom, and my Dad and I replaced the dining room light.





Due to unforeseen complications, my Dad and I weren't able to replace the kitchen light. Fortunately, Sara helped me install it today:



Now I'm almost ready to invite people over!

Living Room

With the arrival of a load of furniture from Washington State, my living room finally looks like a living room! Thanks to my parents for the piano, and Terri for her couch:

Deck, part 3

Here's the final result:


And a reminder of what it looked like before I started the project:


Not a huge difference, but it should at least make it through the winter!

Deck, part 2

After two weeks, during which I applied paint remover and scraped off paint four times, somehow injured my hamstring while squatting, kneeling, and/or bending over for hours, sanded it twice, and cleaned it twice, I finally decided enough was enough and stained my deck this morning. Here's a picture of it right before I did that:



Later at work I saw this brown praying mantis outside our building. Too bad my camera decided to focus on the window ledge instead of the insect!



Then after work I saw this car. At least they have a sense of humor about their job:



UPDATE: By popular demand, the snake picture! Sara (who took the picture) and Paola had a snake crawling around the hallway outside their office. After one person tried to use a dustpan and a broom to scoop it up, the foot-long snake was riled up and struck at anything that got near it. After letting it calm down a little, I was able to slide a newspaper folded into a giant scoop-like shape underneath the snake, carry it outside, and deposit it near a big bush about thirty feet from the building.



This incident reminded me of another snake-at-work story from a few years ago when Chuck discovered a tiny one hiding in the cord of his telephone!

Deck, part 1

Since my deck needed refinishing, I decided to get rid of the ugly brown latex completely. This is what it looked like before:



I then spent a week paint removing, scraping, and sanding. On Thursday, a cold front moved in (finally!) and it's been raining on and off for days now, so now my deck project is on hiatus:



I'm sure I'll have more news on my deck later on this week (or next!).