Best-smelling

More springtime color

Dome in bloom...

On-line poll

Well, there has been a lot of polling going on here in Indiana with the primary coming up, so to that end...thought we'd get into the spirit with a poll @ a tree.

The pine tree has been nominated for removal, with an oriental maple slated to go in there instead...

Made in the shade...

The fence move created a perfect new spot for a hammock, since before the two trees were separated by the fence. Hopefully this will be a nice shady spot when it gets warmer out...

Ta...da...the incredible floating bed

Well, that cleaned up ok.

Dateline:Project Bedmake

Decided that a headboard was in order, and that I'd make my own design/measurements**. So I got a piece of birch cut at Lowes, stained it-just one layer seemed to be fine since I didn't really want to deal with cleaning another brush, and it took to the wood well enough to keep going.

Used the clamps I originally bought for the pedals on the racing game seat to lock the "frame" into place with glue and then screw in at the corners after sanding everything in sight down. Note brilliant use of blanket to catch said sanding debris. Also note that blankets were not used in previous sanding efforts.





**look for future blog posts about "head board problems//head board falling off"

Update:Bed

There has been a lot of feedback here for Clearydome Management, with folks feeling anxious, not knowing how things are progressing with the bed project. So two updates to follow...

First...Stained and ready to go... (spent a lot of time trying to decide what to get-the recommended water based stain and then polyurethane, but ended up getting two-in-one stain/poly combo. spent what felt like fifteen minutes staring at rows of paint, thinking about the huge implications of this decision. and after dealing with turpentine to clean my non-water-based stain, know that i made the wrong decision...)

Anyway, two layers of stain, but only where the mattress wasn't going to be...

The Clearydome would like to welcome Mr. Beaux, who will for the next week or so be responsible for possum control, kitchen floor spill clean up, and the occasional security detail**. Not to mention a variety of pitiful "is that all you are going to feed me?" looks.


Thankfully the new back yard fence, yet to be covered here, now has "hooks" to "keep the door closed" so we don't have the problems from his last visit...welcome to the dome, Beaux!

**Just kidding. He won't bark.

Bedmaking

Well, adding to the list of "I can do that," or it might be more accurate to at least say I'm adding to the list of "...I've tried to do that...once..." Set off to upgrade the downstairs bedroom/office, with the thought of a nice hotel room in mind. Stole the paint color for the room from yet another home improvement show. But we'll get to that later.

For now, here are the fist steps in my bed-building debut; thanks for the how to and inspiration from Todd Oldham's book "Home Made Modern," a recent library borrow...


Started with just some plywood and some plumbing parts for the legs (base to screw in the 8'legs, which were fresh enough from the plumbing supply store to make my hands all black when screwing them in), and got my first experience with "counter sinking" for drilling, once I learned what that was...

Up next...stain fun...

Turning Japanese

Going through some photos, came across this great shot from the late fall. Wish it could be this color all year round

FInal contender

There has been a lot of feedback regarding what the ultimate selection was in the coffee maker category, so without further ado...the winner in the programmable coffee maker is...

Big decisions

The coffee maker apparently lost its job description, and stopped doing what it was meant to. I called the manufacturer, and had to laugh when she asked if I had a receipt for it (it was a gift from Thor, further making the receipt concept so preposterous).

So I needed a new coffeemaker...

Since I use it every day, I felt comfortable going large and getting a top-notch maker...so I went, 20% off coupon in hand, over to Bed Bath and Beyond and scored what appeared to be the updated version of my old one, only with the added benefit of a built-in grinder...

Turns out, it just didn't keep the coffee warm enough for long enough, and you had to push a button every time you WEREN'T going to use the grinder...so back I went...


I went down market with try number, two, but made the mistake of keeping with the "carafe" set up (versus plain old glass...").

SO That one,too, had to be returned...SO I ended up getting the same exact one I started off with, just without the seemingly ubiquitous stainless steel. You'll have to trust me for now...no photos yet.

Side note-In my photography class, we were showing pictures to the class that we'd taken during the week. I'd documented the various coffee maker visits, and ended up showing them to the class. It was clear that people wondered why I had photos of my household appliances.

Home warranty company children heard crying

"I'm not sure exactly how I feel," said Cleary. "I mean, that this home warranty has saved my skin so many times, that it's been an MVP around here no question. But when I found out that the family vacation for the home warranty company president was canceled directly because of the latest Clearydome adventure-the water heater donating it's innards to the outside world, well, my heart, and my deductible, go out to them."

There are several experiences you want to avoid as a homeowner. Too many to list, in fact. But one sure one is the "hopping down the stairs to the basement and wondering, 'whats that sound of water dropping onto water? that can't be good."

Sure made using rubbermaid stuff for basement storage seem like a really good idea...

So it was, another element to the list of things that the warranty co. has had to replace around here (furnace, A/C, a toilet...). Thank goodness for those guys!

That other dome....

Technically, yes, unrelated to the dome...

More from the library...

Also, across the street is a church that they are converting to condos.

Fancy readin'

Some shots from a December visit to the newly-opened Indianapolis library, which (in vaguely similar fashion to Copenhagen's Black Diamond) added a full new structure to the old one but kept them connected.

Sure is shiny!

Snow Shots

A couple of pics from the snow fall...note wreath, which was only holiday decoration after X-mas lights suspiciously went missing until early February...

Radical new layout wows Clearydome guests

Both of them!

A little less TV-centric....

We'll leave a light on for you...

Well, Indianapolis "made it." Not selected to host (or even play in...) the Super Bowl, or as the site for the Winter Olympics ("every event will be cross country skiing and curling this year..."), but it was picked as a place for Google "Street View," which gives an on-the-ground look at an address.

It appears as though the shot was taken this summer, based on the construction progress down the street...It also looks as though I left the light on....

www.maps.google.com

RIP Sunflower Market...2007-2008

There was a close-by (all of .3 of mile...and right off the Monon Trail...) Supermarket called Sunflower Markets that has abruptly shut down. The store, affectionately called the "Hippie Grocery store" had all kinds of organic-sourced food and produce not to mention a ton of great microwave (Thai shrimp and noodles in 4 minutes) and fresh-made dinners to go.

Of course the store, which also had wi-fi and a little coffee lounge, not to mention tons of unusual beer selections and affordable wine on hand, was owned by an evil corporate overlord (www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/) that apparently decided that the place wasn't turning a profit quickly enough. The good news, if any, was that there was a massive-first 25% then 50% off everything-sale. Alas, if felt each time as the shelves became more and more bare, a lot like picking through a ghost town...

Hopefully something good takes the space....

Desk space grows, to go with work load...

Thanks to an old friend for this desk donation...the big one is the new one--technically the same exact Ikea desk as I have already, just comfortably larger, and I promise to set about cluttering it up as soon as I get it set up...

Which I did the first thing after getting home from Vermont/Florida/Vermont/etc, jamming it up the stairs to set up in the loft. I'd take a picture of it all set up, but there's a lot on there right now...

As exciting as...

A quick shot from before the snow came...the grass that was planted in the "new yard" section (post to follow...) has actually started to poke through! I am sure I'll be doing more of this come spring time, but at least some of it got started off well...

Anger mis-management

I had a little Office Space moment with the old HP 2230. It has served me well for nearly five years now, although I never got the software to work with my mac, so it was only three for four on the advertised fax/copier/scanner-not so much/printer capabilities. In the end, though, it was a problem with the printing, taking 45 minutes to print something 20 pages long, with paper jams, and one of its favorite tricks-just feeding paper through wiht out printing anything on it. It liked to do that six or seven times for each thing being asked to print. Also, it wouldn't print .pdf's.

I will admit that I was surprised that hitting the cover broke the glass; It was just unfortunate that there was no commensurate satisfying crash to be heard.

I'll admit, when this happened I already had another printer/everything waiting in the wings here in the Dome. But don't worry, all is not lost--the printer-Johnny Infuriating-is still turning out some great printed photographs, and you better believe I will get the last drop of ink out of the stupid HP cartridges...