Brian thought Jake might like this movie (you know, because it had a lot of guns and stuff), so we gave it a watch last weekend. Despite the movie being popular when I was a teenager, I’d never seen it before (mostly because I wasn’t a teenage boy). It was ok, but Brian and Jake really liked it. I hear they’re doing a remake of it. Despite the fact that the remake stars Chris Hemsworth, I don’t think I’ll be watching it.
sail
This wasn’t bad for one of those co-authored James Patterson novels. It was a quick read (as are most Patterson novels) and sure, it had some ridiculous things going on in the plot, but I guess everything can’t be a literary masterpiece.
the end
I started removing stuff from the garden today, so this officially marks the beginning of the end of summer. And, quite a bit earlier than usual, at that. This was a weird gardening season–the spring was so warm and the summer started off so hot, but now the weather is getting cooler (at night, anyway) and the plants are dying. That said, it was a pretty good year. I’m pretty happy with my vegetable yields this year. Sure, there are always things that could go better, but overall, it was pretty good. I picked quite a few tomatoes this evening, and they will be getting canned in one form or another this weekend. And I have a lot more out there, so I’m hoping to do a few batches of sauce and maybe even some straight-up canned tomatoes.
I already have some plants growing for this year’s fall gardening experiment. And, I’m going to put in a mini hoop house and plant even more stuff once I clear out the raised beds. My hope is to be harvesting veggies into November. We’ll see…
bathroom project: done
As promised, here’s the photo of the completed tub surround. Unfortunately, I do not have a ‘before’ shot, but everything was tiled previously and the window ledge ran the whole way to the right wall of the shower.
The biggest challenge of this project was the window ledge. While they do sell window ledge kits for showers, none would fit in this one because it was too deep. So, the guy at Home Depot suggested using plastic lumber. It seems to have worked out pretty well. We used the same type of molding for around the edges of the surround.
This project has inspired me to schedule the 3rd and final bathroom remodel of our house. Well, that, and the fact that it’s awfully crowded in our tiny bathroom when everyone’s getting ready in the morning.
On the top floor of our house, we have a powder room. The room is pretty large for just a powder room so I think we can squeeze in a shower up there. One issue is that we will have to hire a plumber to rough in all of the plumbing since stuff will need to be moved and added. We shall do a feasibility study on this soon (i.e. get an estimate). Another issue is that we have a slanted ceiling up there so we’re going to have to get a custom shower door made. The rest of the work we can do ourselves, though.
the queen of bedlam
This was the second book in Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series. And, much like the first book, this one was excellent. Also, like the first book, this one took me a couple of hundred pages before I was committed, but once I got into it, there was no stopping me.
The best thing about this series is that there are at least two more books in it. (I’m not sure if he’s writing a 5th, but I sure hope so.)
Highly recommended.