Fred and Valerie

It’s been a crazy week for celebrity deaths…

• Ed McMahon: March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009
• Farrah Fawcett: February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009
• Michael Jackson: August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009
• Gale Storm: April 5, 1922 – June 27, 2009
• Billy Mays: July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009
• Fred Travalena: October 6, 1942 – June 28, 2009

Backyard Gardens

Unfortunately, the backyard gardens have been put on the backburner for a little while. It’s been tough to find time on the weekends to actually do the remaining work and, honestly, it’s starting to get really hot. For now, the gardens will remain on the backburner at least until the painting is done.

Indoor Painting

The color is a “go” and we’re well on our way to starting the painting. Most of the great room and all of the foyer is taped off for the trim. Once the rest of the great room is taped off, we’ll buy the paint and start the actual painting. We’re hoping to be able to start that this weekend or very soon afterwards.

Photo Hanging

This project goes hand-in-hand with the Indoor Painting project. Besides just painting the walls, we’re also working on hanging up a lot of the photos from our trips together. Our current focus is the great room, foyer, hallway, and guest bathroom, though we have done the planning for all the other rooms so that we already know what size frames to buy.

The great room will have three 24 x 36-inch photos, one 22 x 28, a 16 x 20, and two 8 x 10 photos added to the walls with our 16 x 20 wedding photo and the 24 x 36 honeymoon collage. So far, only one of the new 24 x 36 frames has a photo in it. We used Silent Fort for that frame. The others are either on their way or are waiting for mats.

The foyer got two 8 x 10 frames and already have the photos and mats and are done. The photos we used are Courtyard Staircase and Memorial de la Deportation.

The hallway will have a 16 x 20 and an 8 x 10 added to the many photos of us already hanging on the wall.

The guest bathroom is complete with an 8 x 10 (Fishing Nets), and two 11 x 17 frames (Monte Carlo, Monaco and Docked Boats in Split, Croatia).

I received The Best American Sports Writing (2006) as a birthday gift and kept putting off reading it for no particular reason. Finally, I’ve read the book and enjoyed it quite a bit. From beginning to end, the stories in this book are a metaphor for the world around the sports world described.

There are stories of social commentary in the form of stories about a girl boxer, a gay rodeo, and a lesbian high school girl’s basketball coach. And there are stories about the decline of basketball, the rise of hockey, and the afterlife of football players.

This was a great sports read and I would recommend it to any sports enthusiast. I can’t help but think that guest editor Michael Lewis (of Moneyball and The Blind Side fame) had a lot to do with the enjoyment of this book and I only wish I had gotten around to reading it sooner.

Next Up: Gordon Ramsay: The Biography