Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler How was your weekend?

I started to post this in another thread, but I figured it could use its own topic.

I was kinda hoping to get to taking pictures of my Axiom gifts and to getting the QS8s on the wall, but this weekend went differently. On Friday night, my wife requested one kid-free weekend day, so Saturday was daddy day. I took them and the dog hiking along the Potomac at a nearby park. We found some sticks on the shore and the dog had a great time swimming and cooling off. My 2.5 year-old is already a great hiker and can tough out even some moderate inclines (up and down).

After that I dropped the dog off at home instead of subjecting her to the back of a hot car for the remainder of the day. Then the kids and I ran some errands.

To make up for the mommy-free day, Sunday was a family day. We went blueberry picking at a local farm and harvested 4.5 pounds of yumminess. Kids had a blast and probably ate about a half pound along the way, so we paid for 5 pounds. (The farm actually has a self-serve payment table with a scale and a cash box. The honor system seems to work for them.)

On the way back from that, we saw that there was a brewery festival taking place just outside of town. Tickets were $25 a head, so we decided to skip it and just buy the equivalent amount of beer -- we were fresh out, after all.

Next, my wife took my son to a birthday party and I went shopping for the beer with my daughter. We went to Cost Plus and ended up with more than I planned on getting. Two six packs, three bottles of wine -- I love the selection at Cost Plus -- some cookies, and hazelnut Torani syrup for coffee.

Ice cream was sounding good right about then so we went to Wegmans next. I decided to pick up ingredients for dinner in addition to the ice cream. Chicken thighs, plain yogurt, mango salsa, shallots, corn, and asparagus.

When we got home, I poured the mango salsa, some yogurt, and chopped shallots into a bag and tossed the thighs in there to marinade. When it was time to cook, I grilled them along with the corn (using my in the husk with olive oil, salt, and chipotle recipe). We steamed the asparagus and tossed it with salt, pepper, butter, and lemon juice. We all loved it. The chicken was good, but next time I'll add a bit of lime juice to the marinade and salt and pepper it while it's on the grill. Dessert was fresh blueberries with vanilla yogurt.

That's about all I have to report. If you're still here, I commend you.

Sound like an exellent weekend. Mine was just a hang-around-the-apartment and tidy kinda weekend. Boring but restful.

Great weekend you had Peter!

Good timing for this thread because I had a nice weekend, too. On Saturday, my best friend and I took his boat down to Oceanside and we got in some calico bass fishing. What a way to beat the heat. It was well over a hundred degrees, but being out on the water was a treat. Nice cool breeze blowing all afternoon. We even went swimming. Nothing like jumping in the ocean a mile or so off shore to get your heart pumping. Of course we moved away from the kelp beds before we jumped in. Too much wildlife around the kelp for me. My friend said him and his dad were fishing near the same spot we were on Father's Day weekend and his dad hooked into a 120lb. thresher shark.

Yeah, that kept going through my head as I was treading water. Well, make that frantically paddling back toward the boat. It's tough work conquering your fears.

Anyway, we grilled up some fish tacos later that evening and enjoyed a few beers. A very nice day.

I had a great Saturday. I had set a goal this year to be able to ride 160 KM in less than 6 hours on my road bike. I was able to do it in 5 hrs 34 mins (0545 - 1130). I was so happy I almost bought some audiobytes. The weather was beautiful in the morning. I had wanted to go on a four hour ride on Sunday but we had rain. Stayed home and became a vegetable.
Mel N.

Like most weekends - Five days too short.

This one was good, though. Spent Friday doing tricks with with liquid nitrogen for the closing ceremony of VBS at our church (they had a chemistry theme this year called Power Lab). Saturday was landscaping. Sunday after church I helped drive the youth group to a local minor league ball game - made it on the jumbo-tron doing the chicken dance!

Scott

Any cell phone camera footage of that?

So you hit 10,000 and then start posting messages with multiple paragraphs of content?

Bren R.

oooOOOooo ...

tough crowd!

*pulls neckline of shirt

Well, Peter's one of a few I don't have to worry about offending with my humour... at least I don't think I do.

Bren R.

Nah, we've got you figured out pretty well. You were the topic of my last Grand Rounds, so everybody's up to speed.

No worries!

We drove by the brewery festival on our way to the Linganore Winery Jazz Festival in Maryland. I suggested my wife changing plans but she insisted on going to the wine festival. It was good, the music was surprisingly good.

Thanks for understanding me, Medic8r.

... and for not mentioning the 4 month fling I had with SpeakerGrrl... though when I finally met her, she wasn't all that attractive.

Bren R.

Just watch it. Now that I know your preferred stance and that you can only hit a stationary target after some serious prep, you're in for a world of pain.

Geez. What is this now, message thread #4 in the watercooler that will turn into some long discussion... What, you think that Axiom is going to give you even more good toys when you hit 20,000 posts by the end of the summer? Geez....

</end sarcasm>

All I ask is that when I show up for work one morning they don't turn me away.

We had a pretty good one.

My wife and I took our new car on it's first weekend getaway. We drove up to Chicago for the weekend. The car worked surprisingly well for having about zero trunk space.



Our primary reason was to go to Ravinia and see Dave Brubeck & Ramsey Lewis in concert. Did the whole picnic on the lawn thing. Had a great time. Really fun to see a couple of living legends (in the Jazz world) in concert. The sound was excellent but it reminded me just how good my Axioms are at home. Seriously, there were times when I thought that it sounded better at home via Axioms & SACD's than it did live.



Then on Sunday we did some shopping and eating but mainly just tooled around the Loop. Greatly enjoying being in civilization for a few hours before heading back to the cornfields.

It was a lovely day in the Windy City. Especially from a little two-seat convertible.

Very nice! Naturally, it sounds better at home. The sound isn't being refracted by many thousands of heads before it reaches your ears.

Peter B., your weekend sounds about perfect. But now a new week has begun and it is back to work... on mounting those speakers and posting some pics!

Peter C., that looks like a really fun car to drive. A sporty yellow convertable, the opposite of boring in every way.

Wow, a nice convertible, picnic and Dave Brubeck live... good times indeed!
I still enjoy going to jazz concerts. I don't care anymore going to rock concerts; much rather watch them at home. Jazz is another story; improvisational players feeds from the audience energy/moods, it's quite magical. There's some of that at rock concerts but it has lost its magic for me :-)

ah, and enjoy that convertible!

OOOOOOOO Wegman's. I fell in love with Wegman's when I was in upstate New York visiting Ray (forum member Ray3). A truly great grocery store. They have a chocolate cake that is too decadent to be eaten with clothes on. YUMMY!

Had a routine, quiet weekend. Nothing worth reporting.

We're getting a Wegman's in Fredericksburg next year. I'm watching the construction with glee.

My practice partner laughs at me and my wife for getting excited over a grocery store. "It's just groceries!" he exclaims.

He is a single man. He understands not of which he speaks.

I'm sure he also laughed at the article in last Sunday's paper about Wegman's coming to the area.

Well, I waited a day or two for the blackmail letters to show up and nothing so far, so I guess not...

Sounds like awesome weekends all round. Must have been the moon phase, ours was great as well.

Saturday, we had a bunch of family 'from away' over for a lobster boil. Lots of laughs, great food and the weather was incredible, despite an ominous forecast. Had some out of town family stay the night and we sat in our screened in room overlooking a starry view of the bay until very late. I used visit these folks every summer and it was wonderful to catch up and provide the hospitality for a change.

Sunday we had a lazy morning, including eating leisurely breakfast on the deck of a little cafe/bakery overlooking Hunter River.

The family headed for the bridge after that and we returned home to relax after all the excitement of getting ready to host 30 some people Saturday. It turned into the hottest day yet so most of my afternoon was spent on a lounger on the deck reading a book. Pretty much only moving to get back into the shade or go grab a left over beer from Saturday's cooler.

Sunday evening, it cooled off a bit but was still muggy. We kayaked over to Robisnson's Island so we could say we were not totally lazy all day. I took a swim on the side facing into the bay. The Ocean side is still too cold. Normally, I'd be swimming by now but this was the first hot couple of days all spring.

Glad we all had such a great weekend. Next weekend is the Festival of lights with three nights of concerts. Not nearly as leisurely but will be a blast. Glad I start vacation that weekend.

Not everyone had a relaxing weekend, I started the repainting of the mainfloor in our house. My wife said it had to be done as the refinished cabinets didn't go with the color we had previously.

Although we did go over to the neighbors for a wonderful steak dinner on Saturday night.

I went down the same road Jason, beware!

I repainted the entire upstairs including the kitchen because the cabinets were refinished. This led to replacing the floors and now the countertops. The nice new countertops will need to be lit with under cabinet lighting. Next up for replacing will be the appliances and lights. I just hope this trail ends before I am re-siding the outside of the house to go with the new kitchen cabinets.

For us it was new appliances, the kitchen needed to be updated to match the stainless and black. The floor came next and now we are onto the walls, countertops will be soon and then new carpeting for the upstairs. Remember that movie "The Money Pit"......

Yes, loved that wondrously orchestrated scene of misfortune. I haven't watched it in a while. I probably should re-visit it as it is most likely funnier after doing many projects of my own.

Thankfully, none of your houses are falling apart...or was that another movie?

You got the right one, but the money output is about the same.

I forget what thread I mentioned it in, but someone asked for pictures so I'll post them here (after relaying the story).

A few months ago, our HOA asked us to fix our rear gate. It was missing a slat and was sagging (sorry, no before pictures), so I decided to replace it completely. This is the first gate I've ever built and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I did some googling to get the basic idea for making a gate and then modified one of the designs to suit me.

I made the frame from pressure treated 2x4s held together with 4" screws from the top and bottom. (I drilled pilot holes and countersink holes so they'd have enough bite.) After squaring the box, I attached L plates to the right top and bottom and then measured and cut the diagonal brace. I attached it with a couple 4" screws from the left bottom and a couple from the right top.



Then I attached the hinges to the frame, propped the frame at the proper height, and attached it to the post after measuring it for plumb.



After that, it was just a matter of attaching the 6' lengths of 1x4 to the frame. I was lucky that exactly 11 of them fit with ~1/8" gap in between.



What I didn't anticipate was having to hack out a chunk of the fencepost on the right so the gravity latch (you learn all sorts of new terms when shopping for gate hardware!) would be positioned so the front of the gate was flush with the existing fence.



I got that squared away (is that a pun?) and then drilled a hole for the pull string. Ta da! Brand new gate!

After the wood settles in, I'll square off the top and bottom. The slats have already shrunken (or swelled due to rain?) slightly since I first assembled the gate, as you can probably see in the first and third pic.

Nicely done, Peter! There is an immense satisfaction in getting projects done by yourself--especially when building things.

By the way, it was the Shout Box where the gate came up.

No kidding. I look at it every day and it makes me stick my chest out a little bit.

Wow! It's been awhile since I've logged in. First of all, thanks to those who send me an IM concerned about the flooding here. Thankfully, I was not personally affected by it. I hope everyone else around here was safe from it as well!

Anyway, on the weekend of the 27th & 28th, I attended my 20th high school class reunion. What a blast! I recommend everyone go to their class reunions if they can because you end up talking to a lot of people that you never even talked to while in school. I wish I had gotten to know many of them a long time ago. Of course, most people have changed since then, but some didn't...

Here's one of the highlights of the event. For some reason, I decided to go up to this girl whom I thought was the biggest b*tch in school and tell her all about it! Of course, she didn't even remember my name, and I don't think it registered even *after* I told her. Anyway, the look on her face was priceless...a mixture of confusion and shock. I tried to ease her discomfort by saying, "yeah, but it was 20 years ago...", but boy, I couldn't help but enjoy every minute of it! She changed the subject right away then immediately started talking to someone else, and couldn't wait to get away from me.

The next night, it made a story. As I was telling people about it, apparently, she was too. Obviously, she forgot my name again because people were like, "oh, it was YOU?" I started feeling guilty about it by that time, so I asked everyone if I just imagined she was so mean. Nope...everyone agreed except for her own snotty friends. I'm terrible, aren't I? I guess it was MY turn to be a b*tch!

The only thing I regret is drinking too much the first night because I forgot what I had asked everyone...or if I remembered what I'd asked, I couldn't remember the answers! So, Saturday night, with a clearer head, I apologized to people for having to ask the same questions again. What's funny is that most of them were equally hammered and didn't remember anything either!

Here's a couple of pictures. The first one is with my two best friends from school whom I still keep in contact with. I could tell you stories upon stories about the three of us! We were some wild and crazy gals! The next picture was taken right after I talked to the mean girl...who is the tall one standing next to me.

Anyway, we aren't so bad looking for some 38 yr. olds, are we? People kept telling me I look exactly like I did in high school. I hated hearing that, but I guess it was meant as a compliment.

Mary, good to hear from you again and that you weren't harmed by the flooding, but yes, shame on you for saying that to that bitch!

38! Sigh

Good to hear from you, Mary. So glad to find you weren't affected by the flooding.

Gotta agree that reunions are very special.

Good to see you again, Mary, or should I say Zoe:



Feel free to Muppetize your avatar like the rest of us have done!

I had my 20th HS reunion 2 years ago, but I wasn't as brave as you. The guys that were jerks then are still jerks now.

Thanks for the pictures!

Hey, welcome back, Mary!

Now you've got me thinking about high school. I haven't kept in contact with anyone. Skipped right over the 10th reunion. Still a few years away from the 20th, but now, after reading about yours, it seems like a fun idea to attend.

Also, glad to hear the flooding didn't affect you! That's good news.

Nice to see you back Mary and good to hear the floods didn't affect you. I never did go to any reunions, your post kind of makes me wish I did.

I missed my 10-year reunion, but perhaps by my 20th, I'll be successful enough to arrive in a Ferrari.